cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Genome Sequencing of Museum Specimens Reveals Rapid Changes in the Genetic Composition of Honey Bees in California.

The western honey bee, Apis mellifera, is an enormously influential pollinator in both natural and managed ecosystems. In North America, this species has been introduced numerous times from a variety of different source populations in Europe and Africa. Since then, feral populations have expanded into many different environments across their broad introduced range. Here, we used whole genome sequencing of historical museum specimens and newly collected modern populations from California (USA) to analyze the impact of demography and selection on introduced populations during the past 105 years. We find that populations from both northern and southern California exhibit pronounced genetic changes, but have changed in different ways. In northern populations, honey bees underwent a substantial shift from western European to eastern European ancestry since the 1960s, whereas southern populations are dominated by the introgression of Africanized genomes during the past two decades. Additionally, we identify an isolated island population that has experienced comparatively little change over a large time span. Fine-scale comparison of different populations and time points also revealed SNPs that differ in frequency, highlighting a number of genes that may be important for recent adaptations in these introduced populations.
Constructivist Theories of Leadership

Since the 1990s, constructivist theories of leadership have emerged to demonstrate new, integrated, interdisciplinary, and innovative approaches to the study of leadership. In the 25 years since the concept was first introduced, the research in the field has both grown and broadened. Research on constructivist theories have been exploratory, comparative, developmental, and global in nature and pushed the understanding of leadership to include totally new methods of evaluating leadership traits as well as behaviors. At the same time, new tools for evaluating leadership performance have been developed and tested in the field. Robust research in these areas has led to the development of new tools for self and peer assessment. Fields such as public administration and public policy have benefited from these new tools in terms of selection of appropriate candidates for positions, job training program development, job satisfaction, meaning-making, and performance evaluation. The evolving fields of public administration and public policy require the frequent examination of the tools and techniques by which leaders are chosen and appraised in order to best meet the needs of the positions in a specific time and place.
Hydrogen Adsorption in a Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework with lta Topology

The adsorption of H2 in ZIF-76, a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) with lta topology, was investigated in a combined experimental and theoretical study. Each Zn2+ ion in the structure of this ZIF is coordinated to imidazolate and 5-chlorobenzimidazolate linkers in a 3:1 ratio. The X-ray crystal structure of ZIF-76 contains a large amount of structural disorder, which makes this a challenging material for modeling. We therefore chose to parametrize and simulate H2 adsorption in two distinct crystal structure configurations of ZIF-76 that differ by only the relative positions of one imidazolate and one 5-chlorobenzimidazolate linker. The simulated H2 adsorption isotherms for both structures are in satisfactory agreement with the newly reported experimental data for the ZIF, especially at low pressures. The experimental initial isosteric heat of adsorption (Qst) value for H2 in ZIF-76 was determined to be 7.7 kJ mol–1, which is comparable to that for other ZIFs and is fairly high for a material that does...
Counseling: Directive and Nondirective

“Nondirectiveness” has long been the preferred approach in genetic counseling in the US, Canada, the UK, and other nations influenced by English/American medical traditions. Genetic counseling, a term coined by the American, Sheldon Reed, in 1947 to replace the earlier “genetic hygiene” or “genetic advice,” began in the shadow of the Eugenics Movement and of World War II (Reed, 1947). Its founders sought to distinguish it from earlier, more directive forms of interaction in order to avoid accusations of possible coercion.
Some Concluding Observations About Actuarial Justice and More

This chapter offers some brief thoughts about what the future may hold for the procedures that figure centrally in the book, and discusses implications beyond the the nuts-and-bolts problem of forecasting criminal behavior. A key topic is actuarial justice and several associated trends. There are also some brief observations about “black-box” forecasting tools, the future of criminal justice research, and something one might call “dark structure.”
Assessing olfactory abilities with the University of Pennsylvania smell identification test: A rasch scaling approach

The strategy of delaying or retarding the progression of Alzheimer's disease requires early diagnosis and treatment. Previous research indicates that measurement of changes in olfaction and cognition will play an important role in the early detection of AD and in the monitoring of therapy effectiveness. Using the data of 177 subjects, our objective was to study the measurement properties of the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) using a Rasch scaling framework. The results indicate that the UPSIT can yield a linear, unbiased, and unidimensional Rasch measure of human smell recognition abilities. As expected, olfactory recognition ability decreased with age, and at the rate of about 0.05 Logits per year. Also, Alzheimer's patients showed a decrease in smell recognition equivalent to that experienced by healthy subjects over the course of 30 years. Hormone replacement therapy was not found to affect healthy women's olfactory recognition ability. Additional diagnostic information can be extracted from the analysis of incorrect responses patterns that is relevant to group membership.
Platelet-rich plasma and the shoulder: clinical indications and outcomes.

The orthopedic community has seen a rapid rise in the clinical use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in the management of shoulder pathologies over the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature regarding the indications and outcomes of PRP for the surgical and non-surgical management of common shoulder pathologies, including rotator cuff tears. Multiple studies have been published recently regarding the use of PRP for the operative and non-operative treatment of rotator cuff tears. There has been less research published on the use of PRP in the management of other conditions of the shoulder. Despite attempts to standardize and classify PRP formulations, there remains great variation in the inter- and intra-subjection composition, preparation, and administration techniques of PRP, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn regarding the utility and effectiveness of this biologic treatment as reported by Mazzocca et al. (J Bone Joint Surg Am. 94(4):308–16, 2012). Recent literature has shown equivocal to minor benefit of PRP use for shoulder pain, function, and healing. While few complications have been reported and PRP administration appears to carry little risk to the patient, the body of literature is currently inconclusive regarding the clinical benefit and cost-effectiveness of PRP in the treatment of shoulder pathology. As for PRP use specifically as an adjunct to surgical rotator cuff repairs, there is no clear consensus on its effectiveness in either clinical or structural outcomes. To further delineate the efficacy of PRP for shoulder pathology, it is essential that more double-blinded, randomized controlled investigations with large sample sizes and standardized PRP preparations be performed.
Documentary Film as Collaborative Ethnography: Using a Thirdspace Lens to Explore Community and Race

The civil rights movement in the USA offers sites of struggle for access, equality, and power related to racialised spaces. This article discusses documentary film's potential to journey into and assess this significant social movement through a Thirdspace perspective, motivated by the documentary film Tampa Technique: Rise, Demise, and Remembrance of Central Avenue and guided by a collaborative ethnographic process. Central Avenue, a primarily black-owned business district that thrived as a physical space in Tampa, Florida, until 1974, is the impetus to utilise Thirdspace. A redesigned city park, re-opened in 2016, memorialises the community to form a new racialised identity. Connecting past and present, this offers an intervening space of innovative possibility to explore hope and despair, collaboration and contestation, and the lived and imagined realities of the community. Through the documentary film, Central Avenue serves as a space to analyse civil rights locally and emerges as a symbolic b...
“Project Battle” or “Policy War”?: Protest, Advocacy, and the Outcomes of Environmental Contention in China:

Over the past decade, several environmental protests against hazardous projects have been mounted across China. Though extensive scholarship has been devoted to the outcomes of environmental contention, a significant distinction between local government’s one-off decision change regarding the specific project and long-term, locked-in policy change towards better governance has largely been overlooked. Meanwhile, environmental contention in authoritarian China has largely been studied in terms of disparate episodes, making systematic observation and effective comparison difficult. Using crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA), this article investigates the effect of social contention on shaping environmental governance, analysing 20 influential cases of environmental protests in China from 2007 to 2014. It demonstrates that environmental contention efforts often yield different fruits in their “project battles” than in their “policy wars.” Moreover, this study argues that environmental protests necessitate ample effort of public policy from a variety of social agents with multifaceted mechanisms and strategies, highlighting the significance of the protest–advocacy linkage in extracting better governance from local states in authoritarian settings.
Pollen and vegetative secondary chemistry of three pollen-rewarding lupines.

Premise Optimal defense theory predicts that selection should drive plants to disproportionally allocate resources for herbivore defense to tissues with high fitness values. Because pollen's primary role is the transport of gametes, plants may be expected to defend it from herbivory. However, for many animal-pollinated plants, pollen serves a secondary role as a pollinator reward. These dual roles may present a conflict between selection to defend pollen from herbivores and selection to reward pollinators. Here, we investigate whether pollen secondary chemistry in three pollen-rewarding Lupinus species better reflects the need to defend pollen or reward pollinators. Methods Lupinus (Fabaceae) species are nectarless, pollen-rewarding, and produce defensive quinolizidine and/or piperidine alkaloids throughout their tissues. We used gas chromatography to identify and quantitate the alkaloids in four aboveground tissues (pollen, flower, leaf, stem) of three western North American lupines, L. argenteus, L. bakeri, and L. sulphureus, and compared alkaloid concentrations and composition among tissues within individuals. Results In L. argenteus and L. sulphureus, pollen alkaloid concentrations were 11-35% of those found in other tissues. We detected no alkaloids in L. bakeri pollen, though they were present in other tissues. Alkaloid concentrations were not strongly correlated among tissues within individuals. We detected fewer alkaloids in pollen compared to other tissues, and pollen contained no unique alkaloids. Conclusions Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that, in these pollen-rewarding species, pollen secondary chemistry may reflect the need to attract and reward pollinators more than the need to defend pollen from herbivory.
Energy-optimal Speed Trajectories between Stops and Their Parameter Dependence.

This paper addresses the problem of energy-optimal vehicle-speed trajectories between stops. The ideal parameter-dependent trajectory is introduced, and it is shown that it reduces transportation energy drastically relative to “typical trajectories” seen in traffic. The resulting trajectories can easily be implemented in self-driving cars and have the potential to significantly reduce transportation energy in networked vehicles and cities. The usage of this energy-optimal speed trajectories between stops can save significant amounts of energy, sometimes in excess of 30% when comparing to conventional traffic flow speed profiles. This paper also addresses the impact that vehicle and segment parameters have on the savings. The role of parameters such as the air drag coefficient, cross-sectional area, vehicle mass, efficiency, segment length, average speed, as well as acceleration capability are investigated. It is shown that optimizing speed trajectories to minimize transportation energy consistently results in energy savings. However, diminishing returns are observed for certain scenarios, such as long, low-speed segments.
Prototype Point of Care Technology to Monitor the Endotracheal Tube Tip Position in Infants

Background: The unintended malposition of an endotracheal tube (ETT) in intubated infants can lead to several complications like atelectasis, pneumothorax, and even unintended extubation. It is thus crucial to detect a malposition in a timely fashion. Although it does not offer continuous monitoring, CXR remains the modality of choice to confirm ETT position. Developing an accurate …
Conclusion: History’s Patterns and Response Obstacles

This chapter presents the conclusions of the analysis of the case studies and reviews the nine themes identified.
Turbo-GTS: A Fast Framework of Optimizing Task Throughput for Large-Scale Mobile Crowdsourcing

In mobile crowdsourcing, workers are financially motivated to perform as many self-selected tasks as possible to maximize their revenue. Unfortunately, the existing task scheduling approaches in mobile crowdsourcing fail to consider task execution duration and do not scale for massive tasks and large geographic areas. In this article, we propose a novel framework, Turbo-GTS, in support of large-scale geo-task scheduling, with the objective of identifying an optimal task assignment for each worker to maximize the total number of tasks that can be completed for an entire worker group, given the geographic locations of each task and each worker. Since the exact solution to the geo-task scheduling problem is computationally intractable, we first propose two sub-optimal approaches (least cost neighbor with particle filtering and non-urgency degree particle filtering with iterative clustering) based on particle filtering and DBSCAN for the single-worker geo-task scheduling problem. We then extend our work to solve the multi-worker geo-task scheduling problem by proposing two space partitioning-based methods (QT-NNH and QT-NUD), which leverage point-region quadtree to ensure workload balancing. The effectiveness and efficiency of the four proposed approximate solutions are verified by our extensive experiments using both real and synthetic data. Compared to state-of-the-art approaches, our proposed solutions are able to return a higher number of completed tasks for the worker group while reducing the computation cost by up to three orders of magnitude when coping with massive tasks distributed in large geographic areas.
Abstract TP173: Reduced Ejection Fraction and Left Atrial Dilatation are Independently Associated With Cardioembolic Stroke

Introduction: The role of heart failure and left atrial dilatation as independent risk factors for ischemic stroke has remained controversial. The goal of this study is to evaluate the association ...
How word comprehension exposures facilitate later spoken production: implications for lexical processing and repetition priming

Both comprehension and production exposures to words facilitate spoken production of the same words in picture-naming tasks performed several minutes later. Three experiments examined the mechanism...
Understanding momentum and reversal

Abstract Stock momentum, long-term reversal, and other past return characteristics that predict future returns also predict future realized betas, suggesting these characteristics capture time-varying risk compensation. We formalize this argument with a conditional factor pricing model. Using instrumented principal components analysis, we estimate latent factors with time-varying factor loadings that depend on observable firm characteristics. We show that factor loadings vary significantly over time, even at short horizons over which the momentum phenomenon operates (one year), and this variation captures reliable conditional risk premia missed by other factor models commonly used in the literature. Our estimates of conditional risk exposure can explain a sizable fraction of momentum and long-term reversal returns and can be used to generate even stronger return predictions.
Osteitis pubis

Osteitis pubis is a painful condition, usually caused by abnormal muscle forces acting on the symphysis pubis. The symptoms of osteitis pubis mimic many other injuries that affect the athlete’s groin. To correctly diagnose this condition, the clinician must maintain a high index of suspicion. Reports suggest this condition is more common in men than women. Confirmatory radiographs, bone scans, and magnetic resonance imaging aid the diagnosis. Once diagnosed, the prognosis for full recovery is good, although lengthy. Typical treatments include physical therapy, involving strengthening the abdominal and hip muscles, and improving range of motion of the hip, particularly the muscles of internal rotation. Corticosteroid injections, wedge resection of the symphysis, curettage, and arthrodesis have all been used with variable success.
Pharmacokinetics of cannabidiolic acid in cattle following oral dosing of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa)

Industrial hemp (IH) (Cannabis sativa containing <0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol [THC]) has gained recent traction as a novel agricultural commodity. Hemp plants and byproducts are considered to have nutritional and potentially therapeutic value. The presence of bioactive cannabinoid compounds including cannabidiol (CBD), cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), and 9-tetrahydrocannabolic acid (THCA-A) in hemp may result in drug residues in edible tissues that pose a food safety risk to the consumer. The absence of published data describing the pharmacokinetics of cannabinoids in livestock is a significant impediment to research.
Anti-Refugee Violence and African Politics

Using comparative cases from Guinea, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, this study explains why some refugee-hosting communities launch large-scale attacks on civilian refugees whereas others refrain from such attacks even when encouraged to do so by state officials. Ato Kwamena Onoma argues that such outbreaks only happen when states instigate them because of links between a few refugees and opposition groups. Locals embrace these attacks when refugees are settled in areas that privilege residence over indigeneity in the distribution of rights, ensuring that they live autonomously of local elites. The resulting opacity of their lives leads locals to buy into their demonization by the state. Locals do not buy into state denunciation of refugees in areas that privilege indigeneity over residence in the distribution of rights because refugees in such areas are subjugated to locals who come to know them very well. Onoma reorients the study of refugees back to a focus on the disempowered civilian refugees that constitute the majority of refugees even in cases of severe refugee militarization.
THE BIOGENESIS OF ANTHOCYANINS. X. THE ACTION SPECTRUM FOR ANTHOCYANIN FORMATION IN SPIRODELA OLIGORRHIZA.

Abstract Anthocyanin formation by Spirodela oligorrhiza has been determined as a function of irradiance. The highest yields resulted when the plants were incubated for 40 hours in the dark after irradiation. Saturation was reached in the red at about 20 k.ergs (1.3 × 10 −8 Einsteins) per square millimeter. The irradiance response curve for white fluorescent light, however, did not reach saturation at the highest values applied, namely 600 kiloergs per square millimeter, and possible explanations for this behavior are discussed. Using irradiances within the proportionality range, and calibrated intensities of monochromatic light from a high energy arc in a grating spectrograph, the action spectrum for anthocyanin synthesis was determined. The band widths for each point were less than 4 mμ. The resulting spectrum shows sharp peaks at 705 and (when number of fronds is used as parameter) at 300 mμ. The latter band in the ultraviolet has not yet been reported in other plants. Both blue and green light were relatively ineffective. In spite of many attempts, no evidence for control of anthocyanin formation by a red: far-red reversible system could be obtained.
Development of advanced entry, descent, and landing technologies for future Mars missions

Future Mars missions may need the capability to land much closer to a desired target and/or advanced methods of detecting, avoiding, or tolerating landing hazards. Therefore, technologies that enable "pinpoint landing" (within tens of meters to 1 km of a target site) will be crucial to meet future mission requirements. As part of NASA Research Announcement, NRA 03-OSS-01, NASA solicited proposals for technology development needs of missions to be launched to Mars during or after the 2009 launch opportunity. Six technology areas were identified as of high priority including advanced entry, descent, and landing (EDL) technologies. In May 2004, 11 proposals with PIs from universities, industries, and NASA centers, were awarded in the area of advanced EDL by NASA for further study and development. This paper presents an overview of these developing technologies.
Genetic and intermediate phenotypic susceptibility markers of gastric cancer in Hispanic Americans: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND Hispanics are the largest nonwhite ethnic group in the US population, and they have higher incidence and mortality rates for gastric cancer (GC) than whites and Asians. Studies have identified several genetic susceptibility loci and intermediate phenotypic biomarkers for GC in whites and Asians. No studies have evaluated genetic susceptibility and intermediate phenotypic biomarkers in Hispanics. METHODS In a case-control study of 132 Hispanic patients with GC (cases) and a control group of 125 Hispanics (controls), the authors evaluated the association of 5 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that predispose whites and/or Asians to GC and of 2 intermediate phenotypic markers in peripheral blood leukocytes, ie, telomere length and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number, with the GC risk. RESULTS The variant C allele of the reference SNP rs2294008 in the PSCA gene was associated with a significantly reduced risk of GC (per allele-adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.51; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33-0.77; P = .002). Leukocyte mtDNA copy numbers were significantly lower in GC cases (mean ± standard deviation, 0.91 ± 0.28) than in controls (1.29 ± 0.42; P < .001). When individuals were dichotomized into high and low mtDNA copy number groups based on the median mtDNA copy number value in the controls, those who had a low mtDNA copy number had a significantly increased risk of GC (aOR, 11.00; 95% CI, 4.79-25.23; P < .001) compared with those who had a high mtDNA copy number. Telomere length was not associated significantly with the risk of GC (aOR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.65-2.27; P = .551). CONCLUSIONS Hispanics share certain genetic susceptibility loci and intermediate phenotypic GC biomarkers with whites and Asians and may also have distinct genetic susceptibility factors. Cancer 2014;120:3040–3048. © 2014 American Cancer Society.
Coronary Embolism: Review of the Literature and Report of a Unique Case

This is a brief review of the literature on coronary embolism and a case report of a very unique type of coronary embolus—a piece of calcium from a calcified aortic valve. Microscopic sections revealed that the calcium plaque was covered by endothelium which had grown out from the vessel wall, thus attaching it to the coronary artery. The patient lived approximately two months after the embolism occurred.
Application of microwave pulse-echo radar imaging to the nondestructive evaluation of buildings

We present a microwave pulse-echo radar imaging technique and its application to nondestructive evaluation of structural configurations of the New York State Capitol building. The survey procedure consists of scanning surface areas of the building with the radar data acquisition system, imaging with the backward-propagation method, and forming an image of the investigated region. This technique not only provides depth and other distance measures, but also provides high-resolution range and azimuthal spatial visualization of the subsurface region. The results demonstrate the capability of the technique for estimating the depth, span, and size of beams, girders, flues, and masonry arches in floors as well as columns in walls. Also, the mechanical stepping and thickness of outer granite facings on the walls, and the presence of wire mesh and reinforcement in concrete, are also discernible.©1993 John Wiley & Sons Inc
Towards a physics-based description of fatigue variability behavior in probabilistic life-prediction

Abstract We describe fatigue lifetime variability as a separation/overlap of a crack growth controlled life-limiting mechanism and a mean-lifetime dominating behavior. We implement this description through a bimodal probability density representing the superposition of the crack growth and the mean-lifetime dominating densities. Using the α + β titanium alloy Ti–6Al–2Sn–4Zr–6Mo, it is shown that microstructure, temperature, and loading variables have different influences on the life-limiting (worst-case) vs. the mean-lifetime behavior. We suggest that this different rates of response may be related to the development of a series of deformation heterogeneity levels in the material at any given loading condition, which appears to present some probability of a predominantly crack growth controlled mechanism controlling the worst-case behavior. Based on the proposed description of fatigue variability, a procedure is presented for predicting the probability of failure from a relatively small number of experiments. This description appears to explain the fatigue variability trends reported in other studies and is shown to be especially relevant for reducing the uncertainty in prediction of useful fatigue lifetime for fracture-critical structures.
Nanoparticles with Raman Spectroscopic Fingerprints for DNA and RNA Detection

Multiplexed detection of oligonucleotide targets has been performed with gold nanoparticle probes labeled with oligonucleotides and Raman-active dyes. The gold nanoparticles facilitate the formation of a silver coating that acts as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering promoter for the dye-labeled particles that have been captured by target molecules and an underlying chip in microarray format. The strategy provides the high-sensitivity and high-selectivity attributes of gray-scale scanometric detection but adds multiplexing and ratioing capabilities because a very large number of probes can be designed based on the concept of using a Raman tag as a narrow-band spectroscopic fingerprint. Six dissimilar DNA targets with six Raman-labeled nanoparticle probes were distinguished, as well as two RNA targets with single nucleotide polymorphisms. The current unoptimized detection limit of this method is 20 femtomolar.
Impaired re-weighting of sensory feedback for maintenance of postural control in children with developmental coordination disorder

Abstract To further the understanding of postural control impairments seen in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and the effect of these impairments on motor performance in these children, 30 children with and without DCD (mean age = 9 years, 7 months ± 1 year, 10 months) were administered the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC), Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence and the Sensory Organization Test™. Analyses of covariance revealed that children with DCD had greater difficulty maintaining postural control when visual and somatosensory feedback were compromised in sensory conflict environments (p = .031). Group differences in postural control were independent of age. Additionally, no correlation was seen between motor performance on the M-ABC and postural control measures for the Sensory Organization Test™. Our results demonstrate that impaired ability to utilize vestibular feedback while re-weighting somatosensory and visual feedback for orientation may be responsible, in part, for the postural control impairments observed in some children with DCD.
Occurrence and possible adaptive significance of β-glucuronidase and arylamidase (“Leucine aminopeptidase”) activity in two species of marine nematodes

Abstract 1. In the marine nematode Monhystera denticulata β-glucuronidase acts extra- and intracellularly during digestion of bacteria which constitute the bulk of the diet. 2. β-glucuronidase could not be detected in Chromadorina germanica. This nematode is an algal feeder. 3. Production of β-glucuronidase in M. denticulata is interpreted as a specific adaptation to a bacterial diet. 4. Mature females of both species often show arylamidase (“leucine aminopeptidase”) activity in the seminal receptacle. 5. The enzymic activity in the seminal receptacle is believed to reflect digestion and absorption of ageing sperm and is interpreted as an adaptation which increases the amount of protein available to the female for egg production.
Correlates of kindergarten adjustment: Temperament and communicative competence

The kindergarten adjustment of 217 Causasian children (mean age=70 months) was examined in relation to their temperament and communicative competence. Both communicative competence and various dimensions of temperament accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in kindergarten adjustment. Children who were evaluated as normal-to-advanced in their level of competence were found to be significantly more adjusted to kindergarten than were those assessed as delayed. Along with age and gender, the temperament dimensions of attention span-distractibility, rhythmicity, general activity level, and mood were significantly predictive of children's adjustment. An understanding of these factors can help parents and professionals promote a successful initial experience within the educational system.
Observations on the suitability of tritium-labeled cholesterol for the study of cholesterol metabolism.

Abstract Following the feeding of cholesterol doubly labeled with radioactive hydrogen and carbon, the ratio of tritium specific activity to C14 specific activity in the serum cholesterol over a 10-day period was found to correspond to the ratio of tritium specific activity to C14 specific activity in the material fed. These results show that tritium-labeled cholesterol is a suitable tracer compound for biological investigations of many aspects of cholesterol absorption and turnover.
The effect in vivo of alterations in gonadotropins and cyclic nucleotides on oocyte maturation in the hamster

Abstract The temporal relationship of changes in cAMP and cGMP to oocyte maturation was examined in proestrous hamsters (day 4). The first series of experiments showed, in normal cycling hamsters, an increase in cAMP and a decrease in cGMP at 1400 h shortly after the rise in LH with oocyte maturation beginning at 1800 h. When a second group of animals was injected with phenobarbital at 1200 h to block the LH surge, no significant change occurred in either cyclic nucleotide and oocyte maturation was prevented. In the second series of experiments single injections of either saline, hCG (30 IU), LH (10 μg) or FSH (10 μg) were given each to a group of animals at 0900 h on day 4. Animals were killed at five time intervals between 15 min and 3 h following the injection. LH and hCG stimulated a simultaneous increase in cAMP and decline in cGMP. The injection of FSH, however, did not cause an increase in cAMP but still produced a sharp decline in cGMP. Oocyte maturation occurred at 3 h in those animals injected with gonadotropins. Animals injected with saline showed neither cyclic nucleotide changes nor oocyte maturation. When cAMP and cGMP levels were expressed as a ratio (cAMP/cGMP) a significant increase occurred in the normal cycling animals and in those injected at 0900 h with gonadotropins. Phenobarbital and saline injected control animals showed no significant increase in the cAMP/cGMP ratio and no oocyte maturation. The results of these experiments and previous studies by this investigator indicate that cGMP may play an important role in oocyte maturation in the hamster prior to the LH surge. Since, in the presence of gonadotropins, the cAMP/cGMP ratio increases prior to oocyte maturation, it may be that the cyclic nucleotide ratio is also of importance in this process. Previous work by Hubbard and Terranova (1) has shown that guanosine 3′ : 5′ cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) can inhibit spontaneous maturation of hamster oocytes in vitro . This inhibitory action was dose dependent and overcome by LH. The cGMP-mediated inhibition occurred only in cumulus-enclosed oocytes, while adenosine 3′ : 5′ cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) inhibited spontaneous maturation in both cumulus-enclosed and denuded oocytes. The results of this study suggested that cGMP may play a role in inhibiting oocyte maturation prior to the LH surge. LH, the initiator of oocyte maturation, has also been shown in the intact proestrous rat and hamster to cause a decrease in cGMP at the same time that cAMP is rising (2, 3). The effect of these cyclic nucleotide changes on oocyte maturation was not examined. If cGMP is indeed involved in preventing oocyte maturation prior to the LH surge, it is necessary to examine in more detail the relationship of changes in gonadotropins and cyclic nucleotides to oocyte maturation. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the effect of gonadotropins on oocyte maturation and levels of follicular cAMP and cGMP during proestrus in the hamster.
Designing Wearable Haptic Information Displays for People with Vision Impairments

With the ubiquity of wearable computing, an important and emerging challenge is to understand how to design wearable information displays for non-visual, non-auditory interaction. This is particularly relevant to the design of accessible technologies for people with vision impairments. Working towards this aim, we developed a smartwatch prototype that uses variable friction surface haptics to test initial design concepts. Through interviews and iterative prototyping with seven blind users, we identified three key use cases for a haptic smartwatch as well as embodied conceptual models for presenting haptic information. We found that a physical clock face, compass, and numerical keypad are productive representations for presenting information haptically, and these models build on existing tactile and spatial understandings of our target user group.
Modes of labor market incorporation and occupational cost among new immigrants to Israel.

The present study contributes to the literature on international migration by examining social demographic and contextual factors that influence modes of labor market incorporation and occupational cost among new immigrants during their first years after migration. The data for the analysis were obtained from the 1983 Census of Population conducted by Israels Central Bureau of Statistics. The analysis focuses on men who immigrated to Israel between 1979 to 1983....The data reveal that the likelihood of finding employment the mode of labor market incorporation and the size of the occupational cost are significantly affected by geocultural origin occupation in the country of origin and individual-level demographic and human capital resources. The meaning of the differentiated effects are discussed in detail. The findings point toward two central aspects that should be examined in the study of labor market incorporation of new immigrants: employment status and occupational cost. (EXCERPT)
Experiences with Cost and Utility Trade-offs on IaaS Clouds, Grids, and On-Premise Resources

Cloud computing is now a mainstream technology in many application domains and user constituencies. For scientific high-performance applications in academic and research settings however, the trade-offs between cost and elasticity on the one hand, and performance and access on the other, is not always clear. We discuss our experiences with comparing cost and utility for a hemodynamics computational fluid dynamics code on three typical platform-types available to researchers: IaaS clouds, grids, and on-premise local resources. To rank the tested platforms, we introduce a simple utility function describing the value of a completed computational task to the user as a function of the wait time and the cost of the computation. Our results suggest that IaaS clouds can be a convenient choice for the considered class of CFD simulations, providing a valuable trade-off between cost and task completion time.
Simplified postoperative management of hypospadias repair.

Abstract Objective. To assess the effect of simplified postoperative management of hypospadias repair in an outpatient setting. Methods. The records of 162 boys were reviewed who underwent hypospadias repair by the following techniques: meatal-based flap (72), free skin graft (54), two-stage repair (21), and bladder mucosal graft (15). Urinary diversion was provided by open catheter drainage in the latter three groups, and a simple wrap penile dressing was used in all patients. With the exception of the bladder mucosal graft technique, all procedures were performed as outpatients. Results. Complications requiring a second surgical procedure occurred in 28 patients (17%). No patient required rehospitalization during the postoperative period. Conclusions. These results compare favorably to previously reported series utilizing traditional postoperative techniques.
Differential criterion functioning of alcohol use symptomatology in major depressive disorder

Background. Major depressive disorder (MDD) and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders and are frequently co-morbid. However, some component of this co-morbidity may be artifactual and arise from the influence of current mental state on self-reports of AUD. Method. This study examined whether past-year MDD is associated with differential criterion functioning (DCF) in reports of AUD symptomatology in male and female participants in the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NEASRC). Results. Reports of past-year AUD symptomatology were adequately summarized by a single-factor model in which each of the 11 abuse and dependence criteria had high factor loadings (0.71–0.93) and did not vary between men and women after allowing for threshold differences. Co-morbid MDD was associated with higher AUD mean scores. There was some evidence for DCF with past-year MDD being associated with a lower endorsement of use in hazardous situations among men whereas women with MDD were more likely to endorse both social/interpersonal problems and emotional/physical problems. Conclusions. Several items assessing AUD display DCF in the presence of MDD. While these findings highlight the need to consider the possibility that mental state can influence reporting of psychiatric symptoms and potentially inflate estimates of co-morbidity, they suggest that only a negligible component of the co-morbidity between MDD and AUDs can be attributed to over-reporting of alcohol symptomatology conditional on current MDD. Received 5 July 2007 ; Revised 2 August 2007 ; Accepted 7 August 2007; First published online 15 October 2007
Interface crack problems in layered orthotropic materials

Abstract T he primary objective of this paper is to study the influence of the structure and thickness of the interfacial regions on the strain energy release rate in bonded isotropic or orthotropic materials containing collinear interface cracks. The problem is formulated in terms of a system of singular integral equations of the second kind which is solved by using a relatively simple and efficient technique. A number of examples are given for various crack geometries and material combinations. The results show that the effect of the properties and the relative thickness of the interfacial region on the stress intensity factors and the strain energy release rate can be highly significant.
Towards engineering of splayed columnar defects in type-II superconductors

Abstract We discuss strategies for obtaining deliberately splayed columnar defects in type-II superconductors with some degree of control over the distribution of orientation. These ideas are illustrative, and intended to suggest directions for future experiments. Some experimental problems and technological issues are also considered.
Proceedings of the 2nd ACM international workshop on Multimedia databases

These proceedings contain the papers selected for presentation at The Second ACM International Workshop on Multimedia Databases (Arlington, VA, USA, November 13, 2004). Its aim is to bring together university researchers, scientists, industry professionals, software engineers and graduate students who need to become acquainted with new theories and technologies in multimedia databases, and to all those who wish to gain a detailed technical understanding of what multimedia databases involve. We hope these proceedings will serve as a valuable reference for the multimedia database research community. We received thirty-one submissions. Each of them was reviewed by at least three referees. The program committee, which was constituted of researchers and practitioners from the multimedia database research areas, selected twelve papers to be presented at the workshop. The authors were asked to address each and every comment made by the referees to improve the quality of the papers. These papers reflect current trends in the multimedia database research areas with topics such as Content-Based Retrieval for Multimedia Databases, Multimedia Database Query Processing and Retrieval, Multimedia Data Indexing, and Multimedia Data Mining.
The production of lightning‐associated infrasonic acoustic sources in thunderclouds

Electrostatic production of low frequency (about 1 Hz) acoustic pulses associated with electrical discharges in thunderclouds has been theoretically described (e.g., Wilson, 1920; Dessler, 1973) and experimentally observed (e.g., Bohannon et al., 1977; Balachandran, 1983). The measured waveforms differ consistently with the theories in that the observed wave has an initial positive (or condensation) pulse followed by a negative (or rarefaction) pulse; whereas theories predicted only a negative pulse. The electrical heating of the air by positive streamer systems during the discharge is computed in this theoretical paper. This rapid (supersonic) electrical heating, although small (about 10 to the -6th T sub zero), produces a positive pressure perturbation (of about 10 to the -1st Pa), which when added to the negative electrostatic pressure perturbation generates an acoustic wave consistent with measured signals. A positive pulse always precedes the negative pulse in this model, and the positive pulse is always smaller in amplitude than the negative. The durations of the positive and negative pulses are similar. When more realistic models are employed, the observed signal can be related through theory to physical parameters in the thundercloud.
Quantifying tumor-selective radiation dose enhancements using gold nanoparticles: a monte carlo simulation study

Gold nanoparticles can enhance the biological effective dose of radiation delivered to tumors, but few data exist to quantify this effect. The purpose of this project was to build a Monte Carlo simulation model to study the degree of dose enhancement achievable with gold nanoparticles. A Monte Carlo simulation model was first built using Geant4 code. An Ir-192 brachytherapy source in a water phantom was simulated and the calculation model was first validated against previously published data. We then introduced up to 10(13) gold nanospheres per cm(3) into the water phantom and examined their dose enhancement effect. We compared this enhancement against a gold-water mixture model that has been previously used to attempt to quantify nanoparticle dose enhancement. In our benchmark test, dose-rate constant, radial dose function, and two-dimensional anisotropy function calculated with our model were within 2% of those reported previously. Using our simulation model we found that the radiation dose was enhanced up to 60% with 10(13) gold nanospheres per cm(3) (9.6% by weight) in a water phantom selectively around the nanospheres. The comparison study indicated that our model more accurately calculated the dose enhancement effect and that previous methodologies overestimated the dose enhancement up to 16%. Monte Carlo calculations demonstrate that biologically-relevant radiation dose enhancement can be achieved with the use of gold nanospheres. Selective tumor labeling with gold nanospheres may be a strategy for clinically enhancing radiation effects.
Democratic Critiques of the Institutions and Processes of Neoliberal International Economic Integration: An Assessment

Three basic types of democratic critique have been levelled against "neoliberal" economic integration agreements such as the NAFTA and the Single European Act. One type holds that the institutions created to oversee the integration process are deficient on democratic grounds. This paper summarizes and evaluates this type of democratic critique. It is argued that allegations that the European Union suffers from a "democratic deficit" are not very convincing. However, criticisms of the lack of openess and due process in neoliberal dispute resolution processes are more persuasive. Arguments for a treaty ratification process that includes a referendum are also convincing.
INTERFACIAL CHARGE SEPARATION IN PHOTORECEPTOR MEMBRANES

— A rapid change in an interfacial electric potential of isolated bovine rod outer-segment disc membranes occurs upon illumination. This potential change, which has been detected by the use of spin labelled hydrophobic ions, apparently occurs within a low dielectric boundary region of the membrane near the external (cytoplasmic) surface and is positive with respect to the aqueous exterior of the disk. The magnitude of the potential change is pH and temperature dependent and appears with a first-order half-time of approximately 5 ms at 23°C. A simple model in which one positive charge per bleached rhodopsin is translocated from the cytoplasmic aqueous space into the membrane low dielectric boundary region readily accounts for all experimental observations. The similarity of the boundary potential change to the R2 phase of the early receptor potential suggests that the two have the same molecular origin.