cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An exploration of graduate level agricultural leadership course descriptions

Since its introduction into agricultural education programs in the 1970s, agricultural leadership has continued to change due to the needs of students and trends within the field (Cletzer et al., 2020; Jones, 2004; Williams, 2007). A single research question guided the study: What is the nature of graduate agricultural leadership courses offered in the United States? This study utilized a qualitative content analysis to capture the meanings, emphasis, and themes of agricultural leadership graduate course descriptions. The frame for this research was established by consulting the American Association of Agricultural Educators member list. University course catalogs were reviewed, and all graduate coursework offered by the agricultural education departments of the identified institutions that included any of the following terms in the title were noted: (a) lead, (b) leader, and (c) leadership. A total of 62 courses from 11 institutions met the criteria. The findings clustered the courses into 21 categories, further compiled into six themes: (1) individual-level focus, (2) organizational-level focus, (3) societal-level focus, (4) professional focus, (5) methodological focus, (6) developmental focus. The findings and recommendations should be considered by agricultural leadership educators as they evaluate how to most appropriately grow their academic programs and coursework.
High-Efficiency Focusing Double-Etched SiN Grating Coupler for Trapped Ion Qubit Manipulation

A high efficiency and low crosstalk SiN grating coupler was demonstrated for trapped ion qubit manipulation. By optimizing a chirped double-etch grating with inverse design, a diffraction efficiency of 98.0 % was achieved for 729 nm. Additionally, an ellipse-shaped beam resulted in a low crosstalk of -36 dB assuming 7.07 µm neighboring ion spacing.
Networks in life sciences

Graphs and networks have important applications in the life sciences because they can model the characteristics of complex systems and complex patterns of interaction. These models can be used to predict and affect change in such systems. For example, the spread of an infectious disease within a population can be modeled as a network. Social or physical interactions among entities can predict the likely path a disease may take. With a reasonably accurate model, one can then conduct experiments that might otherwise be considered unethical, such as how effective a vaccine might be in halting the spread of a disease if introduced at specific points in the graph. This chapter looks at two areas in life sciences, the spread of disease and the modeling of food webs, and what network models of these systems may tell us. Since these models are directed graphs, it introduces a couple of common path patterns found in directed graphs. It also looks at small, recurring patterns in graphs called motifs.
Food practices, changes, preferences and acculturation of Arab students in US universities

Knowledge of food practices and preferences of various ethnic groups is needed in order to provide effective nutrition education and care to an increasingly diverse population. Scant information on food practices of Arabs in the US is available. This study investigated food practices, changes, preferences and acculturation of some Arab students in US universities. After contacting 248 potential participants by e-mail, a questionnaire was mailed to a convenience sample of the 70 students enrolled in US universities who were born in an Arab country and had agreed to participate. Completed questionnaires were returned by 45 men and women from nine Arab countries and enrolled in five US universities. While living in the US, the number of meals consumed per day decreased (P < 0.01), and food eaten out changed from Arabic to American. Foods consumed most frequently were soft drinks, white bread, hot tea, orange juice, tomato, pita bread, olive oil, American coffee and bananas. Of 109 foods on the questionnaire, consumption frequency increased (P < 0.05) for 15 American foods and decreased (P < 0.05) for 24 Arabic foods, 19 common foods and total vegetable, meat, milk, fats/sweets and Arabic dishes food groups. Food group mean daily consumption frequencies suggest adequate intake of food groups except bread and milk. Most foods were liked (81%; mean 5.5 or higher on a 9-point hedonic scale). Consumption frequency and liking were positively correlated (P < 0.05) for 47 foods and total milk food group. Acculturation (mean 2.5, 1-5 scale) was positively correlated (P < 0.05) with length of US residence and with consumption and liking of some American foods, and was negatively correlated (P < 0.05) with consumption and liking of some Arabic foods. These findings can be used as a guide in future research on food practices of Arab consumers, and in nutrition education and care of an Arab population.
The Nile Flood Cycle and the Collapse of Egyptian Civilization

The frontispiece to Jared Diamond’s book Collapse has a quote from Shelley’s famous poem Ozymandias. The poem evokes the faded glory of New Kingdom Egypt’s great empire, the first extensive empire in world history, and the royal monuments built by its greatest warrior king Ramses II. Oddly enough, Egypt does not feature in Diamonds’ book at all, not even on his map “The World, Prehistoric, Historic and modern societies.” Only a passing reference is made to the pyramids, and that only in a list, again odd, of “prehistoric peoples” use of transported stone. Yet Egyptian history, far from “prehistoric,” provides and excellent laboratory for understanding both state formation and state collapse. The cycles of centralized states in Egypt, and their demise, have often been understood with a framework of “collapse,” not through resource depletion but primarily by environmental shocks. Combining textual record with archaeological, climatic and geologic data shows how complex both state formation and state collapse was in Egypt.
Observation of sequential electron capture to individual highly-charged Th ions

Electron transfer from H2 to Th79+ was studied in a cryogenic Penning trap by non-destructively observing the sequential development with time of the charge state of one or a few stored particles. The ratio of the true double capture cross section to the total capture cross section was found to be 0.21 ± 0.11 at a mean center-of-mass energy near 6 eV.
Design and simulation of an implantable medical drug delivery system using microelectromechanical systems technology

Abstract A unique design of an implantable micropump for medical drug delivery systems was proposed. The peristaltic pumping principle was selected. Three pump chambers are individually actuated by each bulk PZT (lead zirconate titanate) disk in a peristaltic motion. It is this peristaltic motion that propels the fluid. The design of the micropump includes inlet, three pump chambers, three silicon membranes, three normally closed active valves, three bulk PZT actuators, three actuation reservoirs, flow microchannels, and outlet. To prohibit flow when no power is applied, the micropump was designed to be normally closed. The pump features an integral valve/membrane design such that the pump chambers not only pump the liquid, but also function as the inlet and outlet valves. To determine the dimensions of the proposed micropump, analytical modeling of the micropump chamber was conducted. The design tradeoffs between maximizing the pumped volume and reducing the overall size of the proposed micropump were analyzed. An electromechanical coupled field simulation using the FEA method was employed. Based upon the simulation results, 6 and 12 mm diameter silicon membranes with different thickness of 40 and 80 μm were fabricated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The deflection of these silicon membranes was tested. The PZT actuator was manually glued onto the micropump chamber. The testing data agreed well with the FEA simulation of the deflection. The conductive adhesive layer dramatically reduces the deflection. A 12 mm in diameter and 40 μm thick silicon membrane in each pump chamber is needed to meet the micropump design requirements. The fabrication and experiments of these silicon membranes reported in this paper determine the dimensions and fabrication processes for the complete micropump. A 70 mm ×35 mm ×1.0 mm micropump will be fabricated using MEMS fabrication technology. The complete micropump will be characterized to verify our design.
miRNA expression profiling in migrating glioblastoma cells: regulation of cell migration and invasion by miR-23b via targeting of Pyk2.

Background Glioblastoma (GB) is the most common and lethal type of primary brain tumor. Clinical outcome remains poor and is essentially palliative due to the highly invasive nature of the disease. A more thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive glioma invasion is required to limit dispersion of malignant glioma cells.
Herpetofauna of the Egelhoff site (Miocene: Barstovian) of north-central Nebraska

ABSTRACT The herpetofaunas of the Egelhoff site (Miocene: Barstovian) of north-central Nebraska are revised; they include at least two salamanders, 11 anurans, five turtles, five lizards, and 11 snakes. 15.4% of 26 genera in the herpetofauna and 88% of 16 genera in the mammalian fauna are extinct. Among the herptiles, snakes have much the highest generic extinction (40% of 10). The herpetofauna has extralimital eastern, southern, and western forms, perhaps reflecting less continental zonation of rainfall than at present. Extralimital southern forms, such as Geochelone, suggest mainly frost-free winters. The ecological setting appears to have been a quiet pool of water surrounded by marshy grasses, a gallery woodland, and finally a prairie community.
Domestic-International Interactions and Japanese Security Studies

This article highlights the critical structural- and domestic-level variables that will shape Japan's future security policy orientation. I argue that although most analysts recognize that both the internal and external realms are important, very few have analyzed how variables at the two levels are interrelated-a surprising state of affairs given the field's recent emphasis on domestic-international interactions. Analysts who insist on stressing factors at one level to the exclusion of the other, however, are likely to miss the most important dynamics of Japan's future security policies. We need to think more clearly about how to integrate international- and domestic-level factors and to appreciate the importance of interactions between them.
Children's Wishes.

Abstract The three wishes of group-tested school children, individually tested problem children, and individually tested nonproblem children were collected and categorized. Overall, there was considerable similarity in the types of wishes made by children across groups. Clear differences in wishes did occur as a function of sex, age, and socioeconomic level, suggesting the influence of cultural and developmental factors. It was concluded that wishes alone are not a good indicator of psychopathology and that the context within which they are elicited has little bearing on their content.
A unified framework for compressible plasticity

Abstract A framework for compressible elastoplasticity is cultivated to proficiently characterize various loading states of an isotropic solid undergoing a full range of deformation, including both hardening and softening behavior. By employing Legendre's dual transformation, it is shown that Drucker's path independence in the small and the linearity of rate change between stress and strain are characteristics of the additive-decomposition of strain rates. The normality property of the plastic strain rate to a loading function is established on the basis of path independence in the small of the potential functions used in the dual transformation. Work-hardening is a sufficient but not a necessary condition for ensuring stability in the small. Within this framework, a compressible elastoplasticity theory is generalized to cover the behavior of softening and elastoplastic coupling. Analysis results indicate that plastic instability for a void-contained aggregate is independent of the hydrostatic component of a stress tensor.
Atitudes of Suburban High School Students Toward Behaviors Associated With High-Achieving Peers: Development and Validation of the Peer Assessment Scale

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate the acceptance of high school students (Grades 9-12) of the behavioral characteristics associated with high-ability peers. A secondary purpose was to develop an attitude instrument to assess this acceptance, the Peer Assessment Scale (PAS). The procedures used to develop the instrument and the results obtained from the pilot of the instrument in three Connecticut high schools are described. Factor analysis identified the two behavioral characteristics supported in the literature and identified by the judges in the content validity stage: (a) an Academic factor and (b) a Social/Emotional factor. Results indicated that females were significantly more accepting of the behaviors associated with Factors 1 and 2, as were students who reported themselves to be above average in scholastic ability. Although there were no significant differences among females of average and above average ability at each grade level with respect to the social and emotional ...
The power functions of the likelihood ratio tests for a simply ordered trend in normal means

Likelihood ratio tests for the homogeneity of k normal means with the alternative restricted by an increasing trend are considered as well as the likelihood ratio tests of the null hypothesis that the means satisfy the trend. While the work is primarily a survey of results concerning the power functions of these tests, the extensions of some results to the case of not necessarily equal sample sizes are presented. For the case of known or unknown population variances, exact expressions are given for the power functions for k=3,4, and approximations are discussed for larger k. The topics of consistency, bias and monotonicity of the power functions are included. Also, Bartholomew's conjectures concerning minimal and maximal powers are investigated, with results of a new numerical study given.
Comparisons of Higher-Order Thinking Skills among Prospective Freshmen and Upper-Level Preservice Music Education Majors

High school students aspiring to become music educators (N=116) and upper-level music education majors (N=130) took part in this investigation comparing higher-order thinking skills in an observation analysis task. We used certain procedures from previous investigations (Sheldon & DeNardo, 2004; Standley & Madsen, 1991). Upperclassmen demonstrated greater higher-order thinking skills, measured by success in providing descriptive and inferential statements in an observation task, compared to prospective freshmen. This outcome is consistent with those of prior studies (Sheldon & DeNardo, 2004; Standley & Madsen, 1991) and suggests that the continued development of higher-order thinking skills among prospective music educators can be cultivated within an undergraduate music education degree program. When entrance examination variables of prospective freshmen were analyzed for relationships, few strong correlations were found.February 27, 2004December 14, 2004.
Theory of electron-cyclotron-resonance laser accelerators

The cyclotron-resonance laser (CRL) accelerator is a novel concept of accelerating continuous charged-particle beams to moderately or highly relativistic energies. This paper discusses prospects and limitations of this concept. In particular, the nonlinear coupling of an intense traveling electromagnetic wave with an electron beam in a guide magnetic field is studied, and the effects of wave dispersion on particle acceleration are analyzed. For a tenuous beam, it is shown in a single-particle theory that the maximum energy gain and the maximum acceleration distance for the beam electrons in CRL accelerators with optimal magnetic taper exhibit power-law scaling on the degree of wave dispersion (measured by the parameter \ensuremath{\omega}/${\mathit{ck}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\parallel}}}$-1). The maximum energy gain is found to be independent of the wave amplitude, and the accelerating gradient is proportional to the wave amplitude. A self-consistent multiparticle model, which confirms the validity of the scaling laws, is used to study the characteristics of CRL accelerators in moderately high-current, microwave regimes. The parameter regimes of experimental interest are identified. The possibility of building continuous-wave CRL accelerators is discussed. Finally, the results of simulation modeling of a multimegavolt, X-band, electron CRL accelerator are presented.
Relationships Between Attitudes Toward Organizations and Performance Appraisal Systems and Rating Behavior

Data collected in seven separate samples in three countries (the USA, Canada and Israel) were used to examine the relationships between perceptions of one’s organization (climate, commitment), beliefs about appraisal systems (self-efficacy, uses of appraisal) and raters’ orientations to appraisal systems (confidence and comfort) and specific rating behaviors. We obtained good fits for structural models suggesting that attitudes and beliefs accounted for substantial variance in raters’ likelihood of giving high or low ratings, willingness to discriminate good from poor performers, and willingness to discriminate among various aspects of job performance when completing actual performance ratings. Proximal attitudes and beliefs (i.e., those directly related to the performance appraisal system) appear to have stronger links to rating behavior than do more distal attitudes (i.e., attitudes toward the organization in general).
Acupuncture treatment of compression neuropathy of the radial nerve: a single case report of "Saturday Night Palsy".

Purpose: Evidence that acupuncture is effective for any type of motor nerve injury is limited to case reports and case series but these findings indicate benefit. Observation that the radial nerve has the most rapid recovery of all peripheral nerves suggests that acupuncture might benefit treatment of "Saturday Night Palsy," a syndrome of radial-nerve compression. Treatment: A 41-year-old female with a 1-week history of inability to write or extend the right wrist received 1 acupuncture treatment utilizing the Lung and Large Intestine meridians in the forearm, with the 2 meridians interconnected using the Luo and Yuan points. A cockup wrist splint was then applied. Conclusions: Wrist motion with gravity neutralized returned immediately after treatment. As the day progressed, the patient reported increasing strength in wrist and finger extension. The next day, the patient cancelled the second acupuncture treatment, as her hand had recovered. Examination 4 months later revealed normal wrist and finger exten...
The Development and Correlates of Academic Interests from Childhood through Adolescence.

Study goals were to assess: (a) the development of academic interests from middle childhood through late adolescence; (b) the degree to which junior high and high school transitions, parents' educational expectations, interests, and education were related to changes in academic interests; and (c) the longitudinal links between youths' academic interests and school grades. Participants were mothers, fathers, and 2 siblings from 201 White working-class and middle-class families who were interviewed in their homes on up to 9 annual occasions. Multilevel model analyses revealed overall declines in youths' interests over time, with boys showing more rapid decline than girls. Mothers' educational expectations were positively related to youths' interests, and youths' interests declined less when fathers had more education. The transition to junior high, but not high school, was linked to decline in interests, but this was buffered by mothers' academic interests. Declines in youths' academic interests were linked to declines in school grades
Monte carlo simulation of the ISX pumped limiter

Abstract This paper presents the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the neutral particle transport inside the pumped limiters installed on the ISX Tokamak. An overview is given of both the experiment and the computer code, DEGAS, used for the calculations. Two configurations of the limiters are treated in both the pumped and the unpumped modes. A variety of scrape-off densities and temperatures typical of those observed experimentally are considered. A number of quantities of interest are calculated including the fate of the neutralized particles, the particle confinement time in the chamber, and the recycling at the neutralizer plate as well as the neutral densities, temperatures and pressures. The calculated pressures are found to be somewhat larger than those measured. The discrepancy is most probably due to uncertainty in the current of ions to the neutralizer plate. The calculations are limited by the inability to include the changes in the plasma parameters due to the neutral processes and by the 2D nature of the code compared with the definitely 3D nature of the limiters. The results and their significance in the understanding of the limiter behavior are discussed.
An expert decision-support system for option-based investment strategies

Abstract OTAS is an experimental decision-support system for options trading written in the constraint logic programming language CLP (R) . The management of option-based investment strategies is based on a mixture of complex mathematical models and heuristics and requires both extensive processing of numeric and non-numeric information. Furthermore, fluctuating market conditions and changing investor's profiles which are also key factors in building successful strategies need to be dynamically integrated with other non-volatile information. In this paper, we show how these problems are addressed using the expressive and computational power of constraints in the CLP framework, resulting, in OTAS, in a level of flexibility not found in existing options analysis systems.
On the cause of the variation in tissue-maximum ratio values with source-to-detector distance

While tissue‐maximum ratios (TMR) for 60cobalt treatment units have been shown to be independent of source‐to‐axis distance (SAD), high‐energy photon beams demonstrate variations in their TMR as a function of SAD. Some authors have asserted that the distance dependence of the TMR stems from electron contamination in the beams, while others have suggested low‐energy, scatteredphotons as the cause. Using a magnet to sweep contaminant electrons out of the photon treatment beam eliminates any variation in TMR with distance. Thus, electron contamination accounts for all of the distance dependence, and any low‐energy, scatteredphotons behave indistinguishably like the high‐energy photons.
From heroism to safe design: leveraging technology.

From Heroism to Safe Design: Leveraging Technology Peter Pronovost;George Bo-Linn;Adam Sapirstein; Anesthesiology
How rapidly can maternal behavior affecting primary sex ratio evolve in a reptile with environmental sex determination

Abstract: Theoretical models identify maternal behavior as critical for the maintenance and evolution of sex ratios in organisms with environmental sex determination (ESD). Maternal choice of nest site is generally thought to respond more rapidly to sex ratio selection than environmental sensitivity of offspring sex (threshold temperatures) in reptiles with temperature‐dependent sex determination (TSD, a form of ESD). However, knowledge of the evolutionary potential for either of these traits in a field setting is limited. I developed a simulation model using local climate data and observed levels of phenotypic variation for nest‐site choice and threshold temperatures in painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) with TSD. Both nest‐site choice and threshold temperatures, and hence sex ratios, evolved slowly to simulated climate change scenarios. In contrast to expectations from previous models, nest‐site choice evolved more slowly than threshold temperatures because of large climatic effects on nest temperatures ...
Pressure differential favouring tooth eruption in the dog.

Abstract In 6 young dogs, a 0.5 mm dia. channel was drilled manually through the enamel and dentine in resorbing deciduous teeth until clear fluid from underlying tissue welled up in the hole. A threaded cannula was screwed into the hole and connected to a pressure transducer to record pressures immediately superior to unerupted permanent teeth. The facial surface of unerupted teeth was surgically exposed and a second cannula placed to measure pressure within the erupting crown. In 13 erupting teeth, average pressure superior to the crown was 10 ± 5 mmHg, and pressure within the crown was 23 ± 6 mmHg. In every case the pressure differential favoured eruptive movement. Average eruptive pressure was 13 ± 4 mmHg. It is concluded that tissue pressure contributes to tooth eruption forces.
Post-industrial redevelopment and the mega-region: New strategies for the sustainable city of the 21st century

Cities throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe are repurposing their abandoned post-industrial districts for the 21st century urban living and the innovation economy. As post-industrial cities redefine themselves, they must consider the consolidation of resources and scale in response to constantly changing economic and demographic variables. This means that, paradoxically, cities may need to physically shrink to create density before they can grow economically. This paper, therefore, presents the post-industrial redevelopment phenomenon that is occurring in North America and Europe and discusses how it is redefining post-industrial cities as sustainable and innovative epicenters. It examines how post-industrial infrastructure is being redeveloped through initiatives in transportation, sustainability, and manufacturing that will promote economic, social, and ecological benefits to the metabolisms of cities and regions especially in the U.S. Midwest.
Comparison of measured and modeled outgoing longwave radiation for clear-sky ocean and land scenes using coincident CERES and AIRS observations

[1] Clear-sky outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) is computed using the Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), Inc., Rapid Radiative Transfer Model (RRTM) for comparison with the observations of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) for both ocean and land scenes. CERES clear-sky OLR is in agreement with RRTM model calculations to 0.2% accuracy using best estimate radiosondes (BE) launched coincident with NASA Aqua overpasses at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains (SGP) site and 0.8% using retrieved profiles of temperature, water vapor, ozone, and surface parameters from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the Aqua platform. A partial flux analysis using AIRS radiances implies an accuracy for the RRTM model in the far infrared of 0.4% (about 0.5 W/m 2 ) for wave numbers less than 650 cm -1 (wavelengths greater than 15.4 μm). CERES minus model biases over clear-sky ocean are similar to previously published results. Ordering the results according to the magnitude of the measured minus model mean bias for nighttime, tropical, ocean gives: +0.57 ± 1.9 W/m 2 (Dessler/Fu-Liou), +0.83 ± 1.5 W/m 2 (Huang/ MODTRAN5), +1.6 ± 1.6 W/m 2 (Moy/RRTM), +3.7 ± 2.1 W/m 2 (Dessler/Chou). Comparison of observed minus modeled OLR over land are included in this study. Excluding nonfrozen ocean, a mean difference over land of +2.0 W/m 2 for nighttime cases and +1.0 W/m 2 for daytime cases is found where the land classes are weighted inversely by their standard error. The nighttime bias is quite consistent across all the land classes. The daytime bias shows less consistency with a tendency toward larger CERES minus AIRS RRTM OLR bias for the land classes with smaller vegetation fraction. Comparison of clear-sky CERES and AIRS RRTM OLR over cold snow-/ice-covered surfaces (mainly in the polar regions) is complicated by the use of the MODIS cloud mask in the identification of the clear CERES footprints used in the comparison. Clear scenes over cold surfaces can be identified more reliably in the daytime, for which the comparison between CERES and AIRS RRTM is better than 1.2 W/m 2 indicating good agreement.
Four new species of yeast isolated from insect frass in bark of Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sargent.

In a study of the yeasts associated with insect frass underneath the bark ofTsuga heterophylla (the Pacific Coast hemlock) four new species of yeast were found. These were described asSporobolomyces singularis, Bullera tsugae, Cryptococcus skinneri andCandida oregonensis. Sporobolomyces singularis is a non-pigmented species, which required an amendment of the genus definition. Ballistospore formation of the new species ofSporobolomyces and ofBullera was absent on malt agar and on potato glucose agar, but positive on corn meal agar. An unusual case of quantitative transgalactosylation by growing cells ofSporobolomyces singularis on lactose has been described. It has been proposed to establish a “Candida parapsilosis Group” of species to whichC. oregonensis was assigned.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRUE AND ESTIMATED POSSIBILISTIC SYSTEMS AND THEIR RECONSTRUCTIONS

This paper is a theoretical contribution to reconstructability analysis of possibilistic systems. A method to estimate a given possibility distribution from the associated observations is derived based on the one-to-one correspondence between possibility distributions and their basic probability assignments. It is shown that in this estimation the possibility value for a state is proportional to the frequency of the state in the observations which are drawn from nested state subsets. The order preservation relationship between a given (true) possibility distribution and its estimation is derived. Based on this preservation property, it is shown that the order in the distance from an original possibilistic overall system of their unbiased reconstructions from two alternative reconstruction hypotheses (structures) is preserved in the estimated systems domain. Particularly, it is proved that systems conceptualized in terms of possibility theory possess an important property: if a possibilistic system is perf...
Effects of an agonist interleukin-2/Fc fusion protein, a mutant antagonist interleukin-15/Fc fusion protein, and sirolimus on cardiac allograft survival in non-human primates

Background To tilt the immunologic balance toward tolerance and away from rejection, non-human primate recipients of cardiac allografts were treated with interleukin (IL)-2/Fc, mutant (m) antagonist type mIL-15/Fc, and sirolimus. Methods Heterotopic heart transplants were performed on 8 fully mismatched cynomolgus macaques. An untreated control recipient rejected its graft by post-operative Day 6. The remaining 7 animals received oral or intramuscular immunosuppression with sirolimus. A recipient treated with sirolimus alone rejected at the end of 28 days of immunosuppression. The remaining 6 monkeys also received IL-2/Fc and mIL-15/Fc intramuscularly until 28 days after transplant. One animal received a second 28-day course of fusion protein starting at Day 50. In these 6 animals, sirolimus was continued for 28 days ( n = 4) or until protein levels were low ( n = 2). Results In the 4 monkeys treated with a 28-day course of sirolimus and fusion proteins, mean graft survival was 51.5 days (range, 28–76 days). The animal receiving a second course of fusion protein rejected its graft on Day 177, despite detectable levels of the fusion proteins and sirolimus. The central memory, effector memory, and naive CD4 + and CD8 + T-cell populations in the peripheral blood did not change significantly during fusion protein administration. A 2.5-fold expansion in CD4 + CD25 + lymphocytes occurred in recipients treated with fusion proteins and sirolimus that was not observed in the recipient treated with sirolimus alone. Conclusions Although IL-2/Fc, mIL-15/Fc, and sirolimus administered in this manner permitted modest prolongation of graft survival and expansion of CD4 + CD25 + T cells, tolerance was not achieved.
On equivalence of grammars through transformation trees

Abstract One approach to solving the equivalence problem for certain families of context free languages is through the use of ‘transformation trees’. We explore this approach in general. The methods developed provide a clear and complete proof of the decidability of the equivalence problem for ‘simple’ languages. It is shown how to decide the equivalence problem for two deterministic context free languages, one of which is simple.
Politics, Profit, and Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Case Study of Tobacco Use Disorder

The idea of tobacco or nicotine dependence as a specific psychiatric diagnosis appeared in 1980 and has evolved through successive editions of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Not surprisingly, the tobacco industry attempted to challenge this diagnosis through behind-the-scenes influence. But another entity put corporate muscle into supporting the diagnosis—the pharmaceutical industry. Psychiatry’s ongoing professional challenges have left it vulnerable to multiple professional, social, and commercial forces. The example of tobacco use disorder illustrates that mental health concepts used to develop public health goals and policy need to be critically assessed. I review the conflicting commercial, professional, and political aims that helped to construct psychiatric diagnoses relating to smoking. This history suggests that a diagnosis regarding tobacco has as much to do with social and cultural circumstances as it does with science.
Parturition in the rat (Rattus norvegicus): Normative aspects and the temporal patterning of behaviours☆

The purpose of this paper was to present a quantitative analysis of parturition in the laboratory rat. In addition, the effects of parity were also investigated. Gestational length was 22-23 days (day sperm found was Day 1) in 95% of the pregnancies. The average length of parturition was 97.3 min. The mean litter size was 10.84 pups and the average weight of each pup at birth was 6.49g. The effects of parity were limited to changes in two parturitional behaviours: Mount and Lordosis Contraction. These changes may reflect the conditioning of the uterus in response to a prior pregnancy. Pub births and placental expulsions did not occur at equidistant points throughout parturition. Following the birth of the first pup there was a characteristic lull in births. Indeed, almost two-thirds of the births occurred during the second half of parturition. The expulsion of placentas followed a similar time course though displaced to the right, reflecting the fact that placentas are expelled at some point following the birth of a pup. The main thrust of this paper was the temporal sequencing of parturitional behaviours. The 21 behaviours clustered into five phases which were defined in terms of their peak occurrence during parturition. The first phase - the Initiation Phase - was consonant with the birth of the first pup. During parturition, the female spent much of her time licking the first born, grooming her head, and sniffing in response to the novelty of the birth fluids. The second phase - the Contraction Phase - was marked by a lul in the pup births. During this phase the predominant contraction pattern shifted from Lordosis, the type of contraction seen prior to the birth of the first pup, to the transitional type (Intermediate) and finally to the Vertical Contraction. It was the Vertical Contraction which was closely associated with the birth of pups. The third phase - the Birth-Oriented Phase - included the second half of parturition, when the majority of the litter was born. The behaviours exhibited during this phase were intricately involved with pup births per se. The female spent much time grooming and pulling at the anogenital region, eating placentas, and grooming herself to clean the copious quantities of birth fluids. The fourth phase - the Termination Phase - was marked by the birth of the last pup in the litter. Sniff Pup reached its highest levels during this phase. The fifth phase - the Nursing Phase - began after all the pups had been born, cleaned, stimulated, and clustered. The female then became quiescent over the young and nursing was initiated. A sixth cluster of behaviours exhibited low levels of occurrence and the absence of temporal patterning. Thus, parturition in the rat is characterized by an orderly progression of behaviours through the parturitional period. In addition, several naturally occurring behaviours such as Groom Dorsal and Eat-Drink are maintained at very low levels throughout the delivery.
Disruption of Transient Serotonin Accumulation by Non-Serotonin-Producing Neurons Impairs Cortical Map Development

Polymorphisms that alter serotonin transporter SERT expression and functionality increase the risks for autism and psychiatric traits. Here, we investigate how SERT controls serotonin signaling in developing CNS in mice. SERT is transiently expressed in specific sets of glutamatergic neurons and uptakes extrasynaptic serotonin during perinatal CNS development. We show that SERT expression in glutamatergic thalamocortical axons (TCAs) dictates sensory map architecture. Knockout of SERT in TCAs causes lasting alterations in TCA patterning, spatial organizations of cortical neurons, and dendritic arborization in sensory cortex. Pharmacological reduction of serotonin synthesis during the first postnatal week rescues sensory maps in SERTGluΔ mice. Furthermore, knockdown of SERT expression in serotonin-producing neurons does not impair barrel maps. We propose that spatiotemporal SERT expression in non-serotonin-producing neurons represents a determinant in early life genetic programming of cortical circuits. Perturbing this SERT function could be involved in the origin of sensory and cognitive deficits associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Benchmarking approach for designing a mapreduce performance model

In MapReduce environments, many of the programs are reused for processing a regularly incoming new data. A typical user question is how to estimate the completion time of these programs as a function of a new dataset and the cluster resources. In this work1 , we offer a novel performance evaluation framework for answering this question. We observe that the execution of each map (reduce) tasks consists of specific, well-defined data processing phases. Only map and reduce functions are custom and their executions are user-defined for different MapReduce jobs. The executions of the remaining phases are generic and depend on the amount of data processed by the phase and the performance of underlying Hadoop cluster. First, we design a set of parameterizable microbenchmarks to measure generic phases and to derive a platform performance model of a given Hadoop cluster. Then using the job past executions, we summarize job's properties and performance of its custom map/reduce functions in a compact job profile. Finally, by combining the knowledge of the job profile and the derived platform performance model, we offer a MapReduce performance model that estimates the program completion time for processing a new dataset. The evaluation study justifies our approach and the proposed framework: we are able to accurately predict performance of the diverse set of twelve MapReduce applications. The predicted completion times for most experiments are within 10% of the measured ones (with a worst case resulting in 17% of error) on our 66-node Hadoop cluster.
Templates of the cartilage layers of the patellofemoral joint and their use in the assessment of osteoarthritic cartilage damage.

Abstract Objective : To develop a methodology for generating templates that represent the normal human patellofemoral joint (PFJ) topography and cartilage thickness, based on a statistical average of healthy joints. Also, to determine the cartilage thickness in the PFJs of patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and develop a methodology for comparing an individual patient's thickness maps to the normal templates in order to identify regions that are most likely to represent loss of cartilage thickness. Design : The patella and femur surfaces of 14 non-arthritic human knee joints were quantified using either stereophotogrammetry or magnetic resonance imaging. The surfaces were aligned, scaled, and averaged to create articular topography templates. Cartilage thicknesses were measured across the surfaces and averaged to create maps of normal cartilage thickness distribution. In vivo thickness maps of articular layers from 33 joints with OA were also generated, and difference maps were created depicting discrepancies between the patients' cartilage thickness maps and the normative template. Results : In the normative template, the surface-wide mean±SD (maximum) of the cartilage thickness was 2.2±0.4mm (3.7mm) and 3.3±0.6mm (4.6mm) for the femur and patella, respectively. It was demonstrated that difference maps could be used to identify regions of thinner-than-normal cartilage in patients with OA. Patients were shown to have statistically greater regions of thin cartilage over their articular layers than the normal joints. On average, patients showed deficits in cartilage thickness in the lateral facet of the patella, in the anterior medial and lateral condyles, and in the lateral trochlea of the femur. Conclusions : This technique can be useful for in vivo clinical evaluation of cartilage thinning in the osteoarthritic patellofemoral joint.
Taming the elephants: New TCP slow start

Standard slow start does not work well under large bandwidth-delay product (BDP) networks. We find two reasons for this problem in three popular existing operating systems: Linux, FreeBSD and Windows XP. The first reason is that heavy packet losses occur because of the exponential increase of the congestion window during standard slow start. Recovering from heavy packet losses puts extremely high loads on end systems, rendering the end systems completely unresponsive for a long period of time, and results in a long blackout period without transmission. This problem commonly occurs with all three operating systems. The second reason is that some proprietary protocol optimizations applied to slow start happen to slow down the loss recovery followed by slow start. Although improving the system bottleneck by optimizing data structures is valuable especially for addressing the processing overload with heavy packet losses, it is not effective for the prolonged loss recovery caused by proprietary optimizations. In addition, a large number of packet losses are not desirable since they waste network bandwidth and lead TCP into frequent timeouts and loss synchronization which results in under-utilization of the network. We propose a new slow start algorithm, called Hybrid Start (HyStart), that finds a ''safe'' exit point for slow start at which it can terminate and safely advance to the congestion avoidance phase without causing heavy packet loss. HyStart uses ACK trains and RTT delay samples to detect whether (1) the forward path is congested or (2) the current size of the congestion window has reached the available capacity of the forward path. HyStart is a plugin to TCP senders and requires no change on TCP receivers. We implement HyStart for TCP-NewReno and TCP-SACK in Linux and compare its performance with five different slow start schemes on the TCP receivers of the three different operating systems on the Internet and also in lab testbeds. Our results indicate that HyStart works consistently well under diverse network environments, including asymmetric links, wireless networks, and high and low BDP networks. Especially with different operating system receivers (Windows XP and FreeBSD), HyStart improves the start-up throughput of TCP significantly by more than 2 to 3 times and is the default slow start algorithm of CUBIC since Linux 2.6.29.
Tidally driven strike–slip displacement on Europa: Viscoelastic modeling

Abstract The process of tide-driven walking, proposed as a major mechanism for strike–slip displacement on Europa, is modeled using a finite-element numerical simulation of the behavior of viscoelastic material. For material parameters that are plausible for the water ice composing Europa's crust, the simulation confirms earlier analytic results for strike–slip displacement along a crack that penetrates down to the liquid water substrate. The finite element code permits testing other cases as well. Of considerable interest is whether tidal walking can operate if a crack penetrates not to liquid but only as far as warm, relatively viscous ice. In such a case, significant displacement can be driven, but only if the threshold value of the compressive force needed to lock the fault is near the value of the overburden stress at the bottom of the crack. Such special conditions are not needed for displacement if the crack penetrates to the underlying ocean.
Theoretical NMR spectroscopic analysis of the intramolecular proton transfer mechanism in ortho-hydroxyaryl (Un-)substitued Schiff bases.

Both NMR spectroscopic parameters are calculated as a function of the distance d(N−H) of the O···H···N subsystem of (un- or Z-) substituted ortho-hydroxyaryl Schiff bases, with Z = 4-OMe and 5-Cl. Typical patterns for NMR J couplings and magnetic shieldings, σ(N) (or the chemical shift δ(N)), are obtained showing that they are reliable sensors from which one can get a deeper insight on the intramolecular proton transfer mechanism. An inflection point is found by representing each NMR spectroscopic parameter as a function of d(N−H) or when the correlation between both parameters is depicted. The analysis of these (cubic) functions shows whether the proton is bound to the oxygen or to the nitrogen atom or is shared by both atoms. In line with these findings, it is possible to predict the position of the proton in the bridge. These theoretical findings are supported by previous experimental measurements. It is shown that nitrogen chemical shift is quite sensitive to substituent effects though 1J(15NH) is not...
ST2 as a Cardiovascular Risk Biomarker: From the Bench to the Bedside

ST2 is a member of the interleukin (IL)-1 receptor family discovered in a classical translational science fashion, and exists in two forms, a trans-membrane receptor (ST2L) as well as a soluble decoy receptor (sST2). The ligand of ST2 is IL-33, which is involved in reducing fibrosis and hypertrophy in mechanically strained tissues. In in vitro and in vivo models, ST2L transduces the effects of IL-33, while excess sST2 or abnormalities in ST2 signaling leads to cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, and ventricular dysfunction. Clinically, in patients with symptomatic heart failure (HF), elevated concentrations of sST2 are strongly associated with severity of the diagnosis, and powerfully predict increased risk of complications, independent of other established or emerging biomarkers. sST2 testing has also been shown to predict onset of symptomatic HF in patients with acute myocardial infarction, while in community-based subjects, sST2 values independently predict future HF, cardiovascular disease events, and mortality.
Patterns of depo-provera use in a large family planning clinic in the United States.

Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) was approved as an investigational new drug for contraceptive use in the US between 1967 and 1978. Patterns of contraceptive choice and changing methods were determined among 36298 women attending a family planning clinic between 1967 and 1976 in Georgia. This population was the largest concentration of US women who had DMPA available as a contraceptive option. By 1974 women in the age group 35-49 were as likely to choose DMPA as either oral contraception or an intrauterine device. Coincidentally use of the most popular choice oral contraception declined in older women and IUD use dropped sharply in all age groups. On average users of DMPA were more likely to continue their method than were users of IUDs or barrier methods. Among women in the 35-49 age group DMPA users were the least likely to change methods. (authors)