cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of High-Dose Simvastatin on Cerebral Blood Flow and Static Autoregulation in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Statins may promote vasodilation following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and improve the response to blood pressure elevation. We sought to determine whether simvastatin increases cerebral blood flow (CBF) and alters the response to induced hypertension after SAH. Statin-naive patients admitted <72 h after WFNS ≥2 aneurysmal SAH were randomly assigned to 80 mg simvastatin/day or placebo for 21 days. Regional CBF was measured with quantitative 15O PET on SAH day 7–10 before and after raising mean arterial pressure (MAP) 20–25 %. Autoregulatory index (AI) was calculated as the ratio of % change in resistance (MAP/CBF) to % change in MAP. Angiography was performed within 24 h of PET. Results are presented as simvastatin vs. placebo. Thirteen patients received simvastatin and 12 placebo. Clinical characteristics were similar. Moderate or severe angiographic vasospasm occurred in 42 vs. 45 % and delayed cerebral ischemia in 14 vs. 55 % (p = 0.074). During PET studies, MAP (110 ± 10 vs. 111 ± 12), global CBF (41 ± 12 vs. 43 ± 13), and CVR (2.95 ± 1.0 vs. 2.81 ± 1.0) did not differ at baseline. When MAP was raised to 135 ± 7 mm Hg vs. 137 ± 15, global CBF did not change. Global AI did not differ (107 ± 59 vs. 0. 89 ± 52 %, p = 0.68). CBF did not change in regions with low baseline flow or in regions supplied by vessels with angiographic vasospasm in either group. Six-month modified Rankin Scale scores did not differ. Our data indicate that initiation of therapy with high-dose simvastatin does not alter baseline CBF or response to induced hypertension.
Data linkage between the National Birth Defects Prevention Study and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to assess workplace physical activity, sedentary behaviors, and emotional stressors during pregnancy.

Background Knowledge of the prevalence of work-related physical activities, sedentary behaviors, and emotional stressors among pregnant women is limited, and the extent to which these exposures vary by maternal characteristics remains unclear. Methods Data on mothers of 6,817 infants without major birth defects, with estimated delivery during 1997 through 2009 who worked during pregnancy were obtained from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Information on multiple domains of occupational exposures was gathered by linking mother's primary job to the Occupational Information Network Version 9.0. Results The most frequent estimated physical activity associated with jobs during pregnancy was standing. Of 6,337 mothers, 31.0% reported jobs associated with standing for ≥75% of their time. There was significant variability in estimated occupational exposures by maternal age, race/ethnicity, and educational level. Conclusions Our findings augment existing literature on occupational physical activities, sedentary behaviors, emotional stressors, and occupational health disparities during pregnancy. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:137–149, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Learning to Coordinate: Relational and Technical Transformations in Health Care Delivery

Coordination is a challenge in many industries as work becomes more interdependent, geographically distributed and time constrained. When uncertainty is also high due to the nature of the work, as ...
Balancing Accountability and Risk in Program Implementation: The Case of National Fire Policy

J-PART 12(2002):4:493-523 For most of the twentieth century, public land managers in the United States suppressed virtually all wildlandfires. This suppression philosophy contributed to unhealthy ecosystems and allowed a dangerous buildup of burnable vegetation. As a result of generations offire suppression, recent years have seen an increased incidence of catastrophic fires in American wildlands. Following some of the worstfire seasons in American history, representatives
Role of sequential low-tide-period conditions on the thermal physiology of summer and winter laboratory-acclimated fingered limpets, Lottia digitalis

The rocky intertidal zone is among one of the most highly variable environments on Earth, with rapid and unpredictable changes in temperature on a daily basis. Numerous studies have investigated the thermal physiology of intertidal animals; however, few have focused on an organism’s capacity to withstand repeated heat stress during the emersion of low-tide periods and how previous exposures to sublethal increases in temperature may modulate the capacity to withstand severe heat stress. Lottia digitalis, a species of limpet ubiquitous along the Pacific coast of North America, were acclimated under ambient ocean conditions in the laboratory during the summer and winter months. Limpets were aerially exposed with or without preliminary heat exposures of varying magnitudes (15–35 °C for 2 h) the day before being challenged to a lethal temperature increase to investigate how sequential low-tide-period conditions affect upper thermal tolerance and temperature sensitivity. Limpets with a preliminary aerial exposure of 25–35 °C (summer) and 20 °C (winter) had greater upper critical thermal limits of cardiac performance as determined by final breakpoint temperature (~1.5–6 °C increase) and flatline temperature (~1–2 °C increase) than limpets with no previous exposure. The magnitude of temperature increase that conferred significant increases in thermal tolerance differed in summer and winter, reflecting seasonal differences in the thermal environment in nature. Fingered limpets’ upper thermal tolerance is plastic and likely modulated by the previous day’s low-tide exposure, demonstrating the importance of incorporating the repeated nature of stress into thermal physiology research in intertidal organisms.
Rapid identification of a novel small molecule phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10A) tracer.

A radiolabeled tracer for imaging therapeutic targets in the brain is a valuable tool for lead optimization in CNS drug discovery and for dose selection in clinical development. We report the rapid identification of a novel phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10A) tracer candidate using a LC–MS/MS technology. This structurally distinct PDE10A tracer, AMG-7980 (5), has been shown to have good uptake in the striatum (1.2% ID/g tissue), high specificity (striatum/thalamus ratio of 10), and saturable binding in vivo. The PDE10A affinity (KD) and PDE10A target density (Bmax) were determined to be 0.94 nM and 2.3 pmol/mg protein, respectively, using [3H]5 on rat striatum homogenate. Autoradiography on rat brain sections indicated that the tracer signal was consistent with known PDE10A expression pattern. The specific binding of [3H]5 to rat brain was blocked by another structurally distinct, published PDE10A inhibitor, MP-10. Lastly, our tracer was used to measure in vivo PDE10A target occupancy of a PDE10A inhibitor in ...
Structure of the DNA of bacteriophage ΦX174: V. Purine sequences

Methods are described for the preparation of DNA, specifically labeled with carbon-14 in the purines, from bacteriophage ΦX174. This DNA, mixed with unlabeled calf thymus DNA as a carrier, has been degraded to purine tracts by hydrazinolysis and subsequent alkaline hydrolysis. The purine tracts have been separated according to magnitude by chromatography on a column of DEAE-Sephadex, at 55°C in the presence of 7 M -urea. The proportions of purines from calf thymus DNA, found in tracts of all magnitudes up to twelve, agree well with the previously measured proportions of pyrimidines in corresponding tracts, as would be expected from the complementary DNA structure. The complementarity restriction does not apply to ΦX DNA, and there appear to be purine tracts of greater length than any pyrimidine tract. A significant discrepancy has appeared between the numbers of purine and pyrimidine tracts, particularly between the numbers of solitary adenines and thymines. This may indicate an unsuspected flaw in these methods or an unusual feature in the structure of ΦX DNA.
Randomly distributed interfacial arc cracks within the inclusion-inhomogeneity-matrix system

The theory of eigenstrains is employed to solve the problem of n partial annular cracks along the cemented interface of a pipe or more specifically are oil wellbore casing. This approach provides the possibility to study the interacting effect of two or more arc cracks with different lengths and angles. Partial annular cracks around the casing-cement and/or cement-formation interfaces are considered to experience leaking fluid pressure p, and the matrix is considered to be under the applied stresses $$\sigma_{ij}^{0} , i,j = 1, 2$$ at infinity. Although problems dealing with partial arc cracks are limited to bi-materials (a circular inclusion embedded in a matrix) in the presence of one or two symmetric partial cracks, this work provides an analytical solution for the hollow cylindrical casing-cement sheath-formation rock system with randomly distributed partial annular cracks scattered within the above-mentioned interfaces. The proposed solution can be utilized in different engineering problems like fiber corrosion related problems.
Procedural Politics: GREENING THE MARKET? PROCEDURAL POLITICS AND EU ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The data presented in the previous chapter confirm the key argument of this book: actors engage in everyday politics with respect to rules whenever opportunities and incentives align. They play procedural politics, that is, to the extent that jurisdictional ambiguity makes institutional alternatives available and to the extent that those alternatives differ in the influence they afford the EU Parliament, Commission, Council, or member states. Procedural politics varies systematically and in a theoretically consistent way over time and across actors and issues. It exerts strong and theoretically expected effects on policymaking efficiency and long-run institutional change. The data in Chapter 4, drawn as they are from a dataset of some forty-seven hundred pieces of EU law, are necessarily general, and the tests used suffice to establish associations but may lack the depth to support the causality underlying them. Do procedural political disputes occur for the reasons identified by the theory? When they do occur, what behavioral dynamics characterize them? How do procedural political disputes affect policy and institutional processes and outcomes in concrete cases? How and to what extent do these processes and outcomes differ from those normally posited by students of EU politics and policymaking, to say nothing of institutions more generally? This chapter and the next empirically address these important issues using logics of both intra- and intersectoral comparison. This chapter examines procedural politics in EU environmental policymaking. It begins by summarizing the procedural development of EU environmental policy.
Silencing of VEGFR-2 by RNA interference in an epithelial ovarian cancer cell line reduced LPA-induced invasion

A73 Our previous studies have shown that VEGF could induce epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) invasion and migration in an MMP-dependent manner and that inhibition of VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) by SU1498 could suppress VEGF and LPA-induced EOC invasion and migration. However, the expression profiles of VEGF and VEGFRs in EOC remain unclear. In the present study, we examined the expression of VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, and co-receptors NRP-1 and NRP-2 in established EOC cells lines (DOV13, R182, OVCA429) as well as in an immortalized normal ovarian epithelium (IOSE-29). We also examined the expression of two VEGF isoforms, VEGF121 and VEGF165, in those cell lines and assessed the effect of LPA on VEGF and VEGFR expression. Our results showed that the VEGFR-2 expression correlated with tumor cell invasiveness and LPA, at 10-80 μmol/L (μM), remarkably induced VEGFR-2 expression (P
Existence of a phase transition in the ( φ 4 ) 3 quantum field theory

We show that a properly renormalized (phi/sup 4/)/sub 3/ field theory undergoes a phase transition from a vacuum with broken symmetry to a vacuum with manifest symmetry as the phi/sup 4/ coupling strength is increased with the mass parameter held fixed. The same behavior is exhibited by the O (N) model with (phi-arrow-right/sup 2/)/sup 2/ coupling in three space-time dimensions. (AIP)
Coupled operational optimization of smart valve system subject to different approach angles of a pipe contraction

In this paper, we focus on interconnected trajectory optimization of two sets of solenoid actuated butterfly valves dynamically coupled in series. The system undergoes different approach angles of a pipe contraction as a typical profile of the so-called "Smart Valves" network containing tens of actuated valves. A high fidelity interconnected mathematical modeling process is derived to reveal the expected complexity of such a multiphysics system dealing with electromagnetics, fluid mechanics, and nonlinear dynamic effects. A coupled operational optimization scheme is formulated in order to seek the most efficient trajectories of the interconnected valves minimizing the energy consumed enforcing stability and physical constraints. We examine various global optimization methods including Particle Swarm, Simulated Annealing, Genetic, and Gradient based algorithms to avoid being trapped in several possible local minima. The effect of the approach angles of the pipeline contraction on the amount of energy saved is discussed in detail. The results indicate that a substantial amount of energy can be saved by an intelligent operation that uses flow torques to augment the closing efforts.
Introduction: Science Teacher Preparation in Language and Content

In the US and around the world, educational reform documents are calling for increased communication skills in science for all students (NRC 2012) as classrooms experience growing numbers of second language learners (Camarota 2007; U.S. Census 2010). The population of English language learners in US public schools has nearly doubled in just one decade between 1994 and 2004 (Peregoy and Boyle 2013). Further, the well documented achievement gap that exists between English language learners and non-English language learners across all content areas (August et al. 2011; Echevarria et al. 2011) makes it clear that more needs to be done to meet the educational needs of English learning students in content-area classes. Therefore, it is necessary for science teacher educators who work with pre-service and in-service teachers to know more about how to meet the needs of second language learners.
Inactivation of Gram-Positive Bacteria by Novel Phenolic Branched-Chain Fatty Acids.

ABSTRACT Novel phenolic branched-chain fatty acids (PBC-FAs) were evaluated for their antimicrobial properties against both gram-positive (Listeria innocua, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecium) and gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Salmonella Typhimurium, and Pseudomonas tolaasii) bacteria. In addition, PBC-FA derivatives, such as PBC-FA methyl ester mixture, methyl-branched fatty acid mixtures, and trimethylsilyl–PBC-FA methyl esters, were synthesized to study the structure activity relationship. Results showed that PBC-FAs were a potent antimicrobial against gram-positive bacteria with MICs of 1.8 to 3.6 μg/ml. The compounds were less effective against gram-negative bacteria. Derivatives of PBC-FAs and an equimolar mixture of oleic acid and phenol all had MICs above 233 μg/ml against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Comparison of antimicrobial activities of the PBC-FAs with those of the derivatives suggests that the carboxylic group in the fatty acid moiety and the hydroxyl group on the...
“Dry ice” CO2 induced frostbites

CO2 is one of the substances used in extinguishing fires. It is stored in metal containers or specially designed systems as compressed dry ice. In case of fire it is decompressed either manually or automatically. On contact with human skin it causes frostbite. The severity of the injury varies with the skin surface involved and the duration of action. The cases presented are all superficial frostbites (first/second degree) and were treated conservatively. The pathophysiology of frostbite is reviewed. The danger for personnel who may be trapped in places where “dry” ice CO2 extinguishing systems are activated is emphasized.
The Coordination and Regulation of Axonemal Dynein

Molecular motor proteins drive the motility behind cellular dynamics. Recent advances in structural biology and single-molecule biophysics have led to a detailed understanding of many motor protein mechanisms. However, two understudied areas include the regulation and the coordination of motor proteins, particularly axonemal dyneins, which are the motors that drive the motility of eukaryotic cilia and flagella. Here we reconstitute motor motility in vitro using purified protein components to study the regulation of axonemal dynein by the biochemistry of the microtubules upon which they act. We find that axonemal dynein's motile properties are regulated differently depending on the source of tubulin in the experiments and the post translational modification of these microtubules. We also apply multi-scale computational methods to dynein microtubule binding domains and show how electrostatic interactions affect multiple aspects of dynein's motility. These effects include how interactions with the highly charged C-terminal tails, the location of many post-translational modifications of microtubules, could regulate motility. Finally, we show how these regulation mechanisms could lead to cooperation amongst teams of axonemal dynein motors and coordination of the eukaryotic ciliary beat.
Clinical grade SNaPshot genetic mutation profiling in multiple myeloma.

e19571 Background: Whole genome sequencing studies have identified several oncogenic mutations in multiple myeloma (MM). In particular, mutations in BRAF, a potential druggable target, have been identified in 4% of patients. The nature of MM is that it is a chronic, relapsing illness. As MM evolves, there is a role for rapid determination of whether targetable mutations are present to optimize individualized treatment of disease. Methods: Massachusetts General Hospital has developed a CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) high-throughput, genotyping platform to determine the mutation status of a large panel of known cancer genes. The mutation detection protocol, termed SNaPshot, uses a highly sensitive multiplexed PCR-based assay to simultaneously identify 70 genetic loci frequently mutated in 15 cancer genes. This assay has been used at our institution for over 4 years for tumor genotyping and to help guide therapeutic decisions for patients with various malignancies. We performed SNaPshot an...
Work Function Characterization of Potassium-Intercalated, Boron Nitride Doped Graphitic Petals

This paper reports on characterization techniques for electron emission from potassium-intercalated boron nitride modified graphitic petals. Carbon-based materials offer potentially good performance in electron emission applications owing to high thermal stability and a wide range of nanostructures that increase emission current via field enhancement. Furthermore, potassium adsorption and intercalation of carbon-based nanoscale emitters decreases work functions from approximately 4.6 eV to as low as 2.0 eV. In this study, boron nitride modifications of graphitic petals were performed. Hexagonal boron nitride is a planar structure akin to graphene and has demonstrated useful chemical and electrical properties when embedded in graphitic layers. Photoemission induced by simulated solar excitation was employed to characterize the emitter electron energy distributions, and changes in the electron emission characteristics with respect to temperature identified annealing temperature limits. After several heating cycles, a single stable emission peak with work function of 2.8 eV was present for the intercalated graphitic petal sample up to 1000 K. Up to 600 K, the potassium-intercalated boron nitride modified sample exhibited improved retention of potassium in the form of multiple emission peaks (1.8 eV, 2.5 eV, and 3.3 eV) resulting in a large net electron emission relative to the unmodified graphitic sample. However, upon further heating to 1000 K, the unmodified graphitic petal sample demonstrated better stability and higher emission current than the boron nitride modified sample. Both samples deintercalated above 1000 K.
Parental Perceptions and Child Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Autism

Emotional and behavioral difficulties in children with autism often present problems for families seeking appropriate treatment interventions. Using data from the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services, ordinal logistic regression models were used to examine the association between parental perceptions about autism and their reports of child emotional and behavioral problems. Results showed that parents who attributed their child's autism to environmental factors, experienced emotional upset or confusion about autism, or perceived the condition to be pervasive or burdensome, were more likely to reported clinically significant emotional and behavioral difficulties. Findings suggest that support services must consider parent perceptions when developing interventions to assist with children's emotional and behavioral challenges. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Synthetic upcycling of polyacrylates through organocatalyzed post-polymerization modification.

The direct transformation of commercially available commodity polyacrylates into value-added materials was achieved. We demonstrate how 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene, serving as a nucleophilic catalyst, can be used to catalyze acyl substitution reactions of acrylic polymers in the presence of alcohol and amine nucleophiles. Furthermore, we found that organocatalytic transesterification exhibits high selectivity towards sterically unhindered esters, thus providing a new route towards site-selective acyl substitution of macromolecular materials. Combining this methodology with reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) techniques such as reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization allowed for the precise functionalization of sterically-differentiated acrylic copolymers and polymeric chain ends. We envision this approach to expedite functional polymer synthesis and provide access to functional macromolecules prepared from inexpensive, hydrolytically-stable polymeric precursors.
Presenting Symptoms Independently Predict Mortality in Septic Shock: Importance of a Previously Unmeasured Confounder.

Objectives:Presenting symptoms in patients with sepsis may influence rapidity of diagnosis, time-to-antibiotics, and outcome. We tested the hypothesis that vague presenting symptoms are associated with delayed antibiotics and increased mortality. We further characterized individual presenting sympto
Roflumilast : A selective phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor

Roflumilast is a selective phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 inhibitor with a range of anti-inflammatory properties and potential for treatment of inflammatory disease. The therapeutic effects of roflumilast are thought to be mediated via increased levels of cellular 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and include inhibition of microvascular leakage, inhibition of trafficking, release of cytokines and chemokines from inflammatory cells, and bronchodilation. The anti-inflammatory and bronchodilator properties of roflumilast have resulted in clinical studies to investigate the effects of roflumilast in inflammatory airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In asthma, roflumilast taken as a once-daily oral dose of 500 ug has been shown to improve clinical symptoms and airway function, reduce exercise-induced asthma and decrease bronchial airway hyperresponsiveness. In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, roflumilast taken as a once-daily oral dose of 500 ug has been shown to reduce the frequency of exacerbations with small effects on improving lung function. Side effects of roflumilast appear to be mild and short lasting. It is likely that this new class of selective PDE4 inhibitor may provide a therapeutic option for patients with inflammatory airway disease.
Incremental causal reasoning

Causal reasoning comprises a large portion of the inference performed by automatic planners. In this paper, we consider a class of inference systems that are said to be predictive in that they derive certain causal consequences of a base set of premises corresponding to a set of events and constraints on their occurrence. The inference system is provided with a set of rules, referred to as a causal theory, that specifies, with some limited accuracy, the cause and effect relationships between objects and processes in a given domain. As modifications are made to the base set of premises, the inference system is responsible for accounting for all and only those inferences licensed by the premises and current causal theory. Unfortunately, the general decision problem for nontrivial causal theories involving partially ordered events is NP-complete. As an alternative to a complete but potentially exponential-time inference procedure, we describe a limited-inference polynomial-time algorithm capable of dealing with partially ordered events. This algorithm generates a useful subset ofthose inferences that will be true in all total orders consistent with some specified partial order. The algorithm is incremental and, while it is not complete, it is provably sound.
What’s Wrong with Efficiency and Always Low Prices

In this chapter I challenge the importance that economic efficiency has in an advanced economy. I distinguish my position from other work in the philosophy of economics-especially critics of increasing commodification. I argue that the emphasis on efficiency has transferred transaction costs to consumers, increased unemployment and acerbated inequality. I end by considering and responding to likely objections to my proposals to sometimes sacrifice economic efficiency.
HIV Infections and AIDS

The human immunodeficiency virus1,2 (HIV) was isolated and identified two years after patients were initially diagnosed with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).3 HIV infection results in the eventual development of AIDS.4 HIV infection causes profound suppression of the immune system by depletion of T-lymphocytes, especially of the helper/inducer subset bearing the OK T4 surface marker.5 The sequelae of HIV infection result from primary HIV infection and secondary life-threatening opportunistic infections of the gastrointestinal, pulmonary, and neurologic systems. The T-cell suppression also predisposes to Kaposi’s sarcoma, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.
Positive deviance and behavior change: A research methods approach for understanding fossil fuel divestment

Abstract This article presents research designed to deepen understanding of institutional fossil fuel divestment, as one approach to addressing climate change. Since 2011, a growing global social movement has emerged focused on divestment of fossil fuel company holdings and reinvestment of those resources in clean energy. The study used a qualitative research design, employing a positive deviance approach and the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM), a well-established clinical psychology framework, to explore U.S.-based foundation leaders' readiness to pursue divestment. Investors have conventionally relied on fossil fuel holdings as investment portfolio mainstays. Therefore, leaders' divestment behavior constituted positive deviance: intentionally engaging in non-normative behavior intended to contribute to successful outcomes. The study examined leaders' motivations and actions in pursuing divestment, while simultaneously exercising their fiduciary (legal) duty to steward responsibly institutional assets. Research questions focused on the divestment behavior change process. Data collection and analysis were derived from two datasets: 34 foundation divestment commitment statements and semi-structured interviews with 18 foundation leaders. Findings included that leaders engaging in divestment may experience higher levels of satisfaction, pride, happiness, and engagement with organizational roles. Results yielded insights into organizational leadership, climate action, and utility of positive deviance and the TTM as research methods.
From Stumbling Block to Enabler : The Role of Public Financial Management in Health Service Delivery in Tanzania and Zambia

The way governments manage resources through the budget cycle has important implications for health policy and whether governments achieve societal objectives such as efficiency, equity, quality, and accountability. Studies found a positive association between health service delivery outcomes and good governance of public finance; however, the mechanisms through which public financial management affects service delivery remain underexplored. This article maps the three stages of the budget cycle to common performance criteria used in health service delivery. It applies this approach to experiences in Tanzania and Zambia. The findings point to a number of stumbling blocks, including the lack of flexibility to provide additional resources for unexpected demand for care, misalignment between budgeting and planning, fragmented funding sources, rigid internal controls, insufficient budget provision leading to arrears, and a budget evaluation system that is excessively compliance driven and gives inadequate attention to issues of equity, quality, and efficiency in service delivery.
Töregene, Imperial Widow in the Mongol Empire in the 1240s: Opposing Her Husband’s Will on Behalf of Her Son

Although Chinggis Khan (aka Genghis Khan) is best known for establishing the Mongol Empire through the infamous Mongol conquests, other figures within that empire deserve attention for what they accomplished at often surprising odds. One of these is Toregene, the widow of Chinggis Khan’s son and heir, who rose from a disadvantageous position as a lesser wife married through brutal conquest to become the paramount empress and regent. Then she publicly thwarted her husband’s dying wish in order to put her own candidate on the throne rather than his.
Lipid-targeting pleckstrin homology domain turns its autoinhibitory face toward the TEC kinases.

The pleckstrin homology (PH) domain is well known for its phospholipid targeting function. The PH-TEC homology (PHTH) domain within the TEC family of tyrosine kinases is also a crucial component of the autoinhibitory apparatus. The autoinhibitory surface on the PHTH domain has been previously defined, and biochemical investigations have shown that PHTH-mediated inhibition is mutually exclusive with phosphatidylinositol binding. Here we use hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and evolutionary sequence comparisons to map where and how the PHTH domain affects the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) domain. The data map a PHTH-binding site on the activation loop face of the kinase C lobe, suggesting that the PHTH domain masks the activation loop and the substrate-docking site. Moreover, localized NMR spectral changes are observed for non–surface-exposed residues in the active site and on the distal side of the kinase domain. These data suggest that the association of PHTH induces allosteric conformational shifts in regions of the kinase domain that are critical for catalysis. Through statistical comparisons of diverse tyrosine kinase sequences, we identify residues unique to BTK that coincide with the experimentally determined PHTH-binding surface on the kinase domain. Our data provide a more complete picture of the autoinhibitory conformation adopted by full-length TEC kinases, creating opportunities to target the regulatory domains to control the function of these kinases in a biological setting.
On maxsum fair cake divisions

We consider the problem of selecting fair divisions of a heterogeneous divisible good among a set of agents. Recent work (Cohler et al., AAAI 2011) focused on designing algorithms for computing maxsum--social welfare maximizing--allocations under the fairness notion of envy-freeness. Maxsum allocations can also be found under alternative notions such as equitability. In this paper, we examine the properties of these allocations. In particular, we provide conditions for when maxsum envy-free or equitable allocations are Pareto optimal and give examples where fairness with Pareto optimality is not possible. We also prove that maxsum envy-free allocations have weakly greater welfare than maxsum equitable allocations when agents have structured valuations, and we derive an approximate version of this inequality for general valuations.
Iron-on carbon nanotube (CNT) thin films for biosensing E-Textile applications

Abstract Conductive carbon nanotube-thermoplastic polyurethane (CNT-TPU) composite thin films are patterned and integrated onto knitted textile substrates to form electronic textile (E-Textile) dry electrodes. Vertically aligned CNT arrays are mechanically drawn into thin CNT sheets and infiltrated with a TPU solution to form the CNT-TPU thin films. The CNT-TPU thin films are then heat laminated onto knitted textile substrates to form dry E-Textile electrodes. To understand the wearability of our CNT-TPU thin films we perform an in-depth analysis of the films’ electromechanical properties, electrical impedance, and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensing performance. The electromechanical coupling between the CNT thin films and knitted textile substrates show a strong anisotropic dependence between the CNT film alignment and textile knit structure. Further analysis into the CNT thin films reveal that larger electrode sizes with a larger number of CNT sheet layers in the film, lead to more favorable impedance behaviors and ECG sensing capabilities. As a wearable demonstration, we fabricate a textile arm sleeve integrated with CNT thin film electrodes to form an ECG sensing E-Textile system. The proposed E-Textile sleeve demonstrates the practicality of our CNT thin films and show promise for other E-Textile and wearable applications.
A SMAF assessment of U.S. tillage and crop management strategies

Abstract The Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF) was developed to collectively assess biological, chemical, and physical soil health changes due to management practices. SMAF scoring curves were designed to be site-specific but were never validated at national scale. Our goal was to verify the national effectiveness of SMAF for detecting changes induced by conservation practices. Data from 456 articles representing the U.S. was compiled as input for a SMAF analysis. Soil organic-C (SOC), microbial biomass-C (MBC), β-glucosidase activity (BG), macroaggregate stability (AS), bulk density (BD), pH, soil-test P and K indices and an overall soil quality index (SQI) were computed. Measured, scored, and SQI values were used to evaluate tillage intensity [conventional (CT), reduced tillage (RT), no-till (NT), and zero disturbance (perennial systems; PER)] and soil cover [annual cropping systems without cover crops (ANCC), annual cropping systems with cover crops (ACC), and year-round soil cover (perennial systems; PER)]. Reducing tillage intensity and increasing soil cover increased topsoil SOC, MBC, BG, and AS values (measured and scored). SMAF scoring curves were sensitive to agronomic practice effects on soil function. The highest SQI values were associated with perennial systems (zero soil disturbance) and year-round living roots. Within annual cropping systems, cover cropping, and NT demonstrated better soil biological and physical functioning. However, SMAF scores underestimated the effects for SOC and BG and overestimated the effects for AS, suggesting the algorithms for those indicators should be reevaluated and improved. Overall, this national assessment confirmed the utility of SMAF and highlighted benefits of conservation practices.
Activity awareness, social presence, and motivation in distributed virtual teams

Abstract Distributed virtual team members are unable to directly observe each other, making it difficult to evaluate each other’s efforts. The results of an experiment are reported in which activity awareness and feelings of social presence had a significant impact on willingness to work, which in turn were associated with higher feelings of loyalty. This suggests that in many working contexts, awareness practices can increase motivation and performance, in contrast with prior virtual team research that found decreased trust and effort. Designers and users of collaboration technology are therefore advised to consider social motivation effects that might occur in virtual teams.
Shapes and Sizes of Voids in the LCDM Universe: Excursion Set Approach

We study the global distribution and morphology of dark matter voids in a LCDM universe using density fields generated by N-body simulations. Voids are defined as isolated regions of the low-density excursion set specified via density thresholds, the density thresholds being quantified by the corresponding filling factors, i.e., the fraction of the total volume in the excursion set. Our work encompasses a systematic investigation of the void volume function, the volume fraction in voids, and the fitting of voids to corresponding ellipsoids and spheres. We emphasize the relevance of the percolation threshold to the void volume statistics of the density field both in the high redshift, Gaussian random field regime, as well as in the present epoch. By using measures such as the Inverse Porosity, we characterize the quality of ellipsoidal fits to voids, finding that such fits are a poor representation of the larger voids that dominate the volume of the void excursion set.
Phase field modeling of diamond-silicon carbide ceramic composites with tertiary grain boundary phases

Phase field simulations are used to study effects of microstructure features on overall strength and ductility of polycrystalline ceramic composites. The material of present interest is a diamond-silicon carbide (SiC) blend with a grain boundary (GB) phase consisting of much smaller SiC grains, graphitic inclusions, and porosity. Homogenized properties—elastic moduli and surface energy—used in the phase field representation of the GB phase are obtained from a novel approach involving bounds from elastic homogenization theory. Extensive parametric calculations on synthetic microstructures with smoothed polyhedral grains are used to deduce trends in structure-property-performance relations. Results suggest that peak strength, for a fixed fraction of GB phase, can be increased by the following prescriptions: increasing bulk diamond content, reducing porosity, reducing graphite content, and distributing any unavoidable defects uniformly rather than randomly. For the assumed constitutive behavior of the GB phase, graphite appears less deleterious than pores of the same average volume fraction, and median defect concentration appears to be more important than randomization of distributions at low volume fractions. More complex interrelations among microstructures, model features, and material responses are also revealed, for example effects of anisotropic fracture, inelastic dilatation associated with crack opening, and twin variant selection in the SiC phase.
The Middle Class of Business: Endurance as a Dependent Variable in Entrepreneurship:

The prediction-control (PC) space offers a theoretical framework for the entrepreneurial method and shows how it can foster the development of a middle class of business, defined as ventures that g...
Close Encounters? Power and Recognition in Terrence Malick's The New World

This paper proposes a criterion of solidarity as guiding our understanding of international political obligation. In particular, it asks what dispositions, attitudes, and perspectives we ought to adopt towards distant others, taking as the starting point of its analysis the juxtaposition of two different scenes: the opening pages of one of David Miller’s works of political theory, which portray him watching international news on TV, and the opening twenty minutes of Terrence Malick’s 2005 film The New World, which depict the early days of the Jamestown colony. From the tensions developed in the reading of these two scenes, the paper argues for a new approach to understanding the relationship between culture and political obligation through critiquing the foundations of liberal nationalist approaches. The paper analyzes the concept of wonder as an important disposition for the way it fosters receptivity to alternatives and puts forward solidarity as a way of organizing the normative requirements on individuals in international politics. Solidarity is developed by way of an analogy to the domestic criterion of reciprocity proposed by John Rawls, but where reciprocity is meant for ideal, self-sufficient societies, solidarity reflects our non-ideal, interdependent world.
Outcome-based Instructional Management: A Sociological Perspective:

During the past decade, a series of related instructional concepts and approaches has been refined and implemented which requires major adjustments in traditional patterns of instructional manageme...
Pelvic celiotomy in the obese patient

We have responded to the challenge of surgery in the overweight patient by promoting it to an area of special interest. These individuals should not be deprived of good medical care although their obesity makes the physician's task more arduous and increases the risk of a poor result. With the use of intensive preoperative preparation, including prophylactic antibiotics and heparinization, a modified operative technique, and an active recovery regimen, a more sanguine view toward the surgical care of obese women can be taken.
Temperature selection by tropical bats roosting in caves

The temperature preferences of the mormoopid and phyllostomid bats Pteronotus quadridens and Erophylla sezekorni, from the West Indies, were determined in the laboratory and compared to field observations. Pteronotus quadridens was invariably found within the deepest and hottest parts of caves, at temperatures between 28°C and 35°C, while E. sezekorni was found at temperatures from 25°C to 28°C. Temperatures selected by each species in a thermopreferendum chamber were similar to their respective roosting temperatures in the caves. These inter-specific differences are statistically significant. Our results support the hypothesis that roost temperature and differences in temperature preferences among species, are important in explaining multispecies associations and the spatial segregation within caves.
On the impossibility of dimension reduction in /spl lscr//sub 1/

The Johnson-Lindenstrauss Lemma shows that any n points in Euclidean space (with distances measured by the /spl lscr//sub 2/ norm) may be mapped down to O((log n)//spl epsiv//sup 2/) dimensions such that no pairwise distance is distorted by more than a (1+ /spl epsiv/) factor. Determining whether such dimension reduction is possible in /spl lscr//sub 1/ has been an intriguing open question. We show strong lower bounds for general dimension reduction in /spl lscr//sub 1/. We give an explicit family of n points in /spl lscr//sub 1/ such that any embedding with distortion /spl delta/ requires n/sup /spl Omega/(1//spl delta/2)/ dimensions. This proves that there is no analog of the Johnson-Lindenstrauss Lemma for /spl lscr//sub 1/; in fact embedding with any constant distortion requires n/sup /spl Omega/(1)/ dimensions. Further, embedding the points into /spl lscr//sub 1/ with 1 + /spl epsiv/ distortion requires n/sup 1/2 -O(/spl epsiv/log(1//spl epsiv/))/ dimensions. Our proof establishes this lower bound for shortest path metrics of series-parallel graphs. We make extensive use of linear programming and duality in devising our bounds. We expect that the tools and techniques we develop will be useful for future investigations of embeddings into /spl lscr//sub 1/.
Glass surface spall size resulting from interplanetary dust impacts

The size of relatively large dynamic conchoidal fractures, i.e., surface spalls, immediately adjacent to and around interplanetary dust (IDP) hypervelocity impact (HVI) craters or pits in glass substrates is relevant to spacecraft solar cell and science instrument lens performance metrics, as well as glass pane design and safety in manned missions. This paper presents an analysis of the diameter of surface spalls in glass for the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) spacecraft, whose solar arrays and instruments must survive a 7-year mission involving significant dust interaction. Previously published data and regressions for surface spalling obtained from ground-HVI-tested and space-returned glass samples and solar cells are collated for this purpose. Analysis of the collective dataset reveals an unexpected and design-relevant finding: spall diameter, D S , obtained with dust-scale particles (diameter, d P P = 400–3,500 µm) and glass monoliths. The average D S /d P obtained with dust-scale particles and glass in a layered substrate is approximately 1/5th of that obtained with macroparticles and a glass monolith. It is also found that a Ballistic Limit Equation (BLE) developed for glass HVI cratering at relatively low velocities (< 10 km/s) can be modified for spalling and used successfully for bounding design calculations at the higher velocities considered.
The Perceived Effects of Drug Messages on Use Patterns in Adolescents

Following a survey of over 5,000 students in north central Idaho and southeast Washington, an interviewing strategy was implemented with 223 adolescents randomly selected by their principals. The strategy was designed to learn: 1) which sources have utility and credibility with youth in providing drug information; 2) whether different message content and delivery style have differential effects upon that group; and 3) whether widely held perceptions voiced by parents and teachers about their ineffectiveness as information sources were accurate. Double-blind interviews, arranged to protect respondent anonymity, were conducted by trained interviewers from a research methods class. No interview was held when either an interviewer or respondent knew the other. Among the important findings of the study were that: 1) parents and teachers are trusted, credible sources of drug information; 2) doctors, nurses, law officers, and clergy are also credible but not visible to youth; 3) the evil media and celebrity fear...
Histamine Receptor Blockade Does Not Increase Creatine Kinase Concentrations Following Muscle Damaging Exercise

Case studies have documented the use of antihistamines in the hours preceding extensive and unaccustomed exercise that resulted in rhabdomyolysis. Histamine is a known mediator of inflammation caus...
Fracturing Moratoria under the Dormant Commerce Clause: The Need to Shape Rather than Resist the Shale Gale

Opponents of oil and gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing have been advocating bans or moratoria on use of the technology, beginning in Vermont and New York. In the summer of 2013, however, several state legislatures, e.g. California and Illinois, rejected bans. In this short Article, we explore the breakthroughs which account for the rapid expansion of increased oil and gas production in the United States, returning North America to the energy powerhouse it had been in the twentieth century. We briefly survey various anti-fracker explanations for the phenomena, “big oil” advertising, lack of regulation, the Haliburton exemption from SDWA regulation, and model legislation developed by the American Legal Exchange Council. We then explain why “all or nothing” approaches to fracturing such as bans or moratoria may present constitutional difficulties under the Dormant Commerce Clause. Those with genuine concerns over the rapid expansion of oil and gas production should seek to shape rather than oppose the shale gale. A revised and updated version of this paper will appear in the January 2014 issue of Environmental Law Reporter.