cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Tyrosine Phosphorylation of Cbl upon Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) Stimulation and Its Association with EGF Receptor and Downstream Signaling Proteins

We and others have shown that Cbl, the protein product of the c-cbl proto-oncogene, is an early target of tyrosine phosphorylation upon stimulation through the immune cell surface receptors, which signal through noncovalently associated cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases. Using human mammary epithelial cells that express a natural epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and require EGF as an essential growth factor, we demonstrate here that Cbl is a prominent target of tyrosine phosphorylation upon stimulation through the EGF receptor tyrosine kinase. Phosphorylation of Cbl was EGF dose-dependent, rapid (detectable as early as 5 s and maximal by 2 min), and relatively sustained (detectable even after 1 h). Co-immunoprecipitation studies demonstrated that Cbl became associated with the EGF receptor in an EGF-dependent manner. Cbl was basally associated with the adaptor protein growth factor receptor-binding protein 2 (Grb2), and this interaction was further enhanced by EGF stimulation; however, the interaction was entirely mediated via the Grb2 Src homology 3 (SH3) domains, suggesting that binding of Grb2 SH2 domain to EGF receptor provides one mechanism of Cbl's association with the EGF receptor. EGF stimulation also induced the association of Cbl with Src homology and collagen (Shc) protein, p85 subunit of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and Crk proteins, in particular with the CrkL isoform. Interactions of Cbl with the EGF receptor and multiple downstream signaling proteins suggest a role for this proto-oncogene product in mitogenic signaling through growth factor receptor kinases.
Reduction of sacral pressure ulcers in the intensive care unit using a silicone border foam dressing.

Purpose We sought to determine if a silicone border foam dressing could decrease the incidence of sacral pressure ulcers in an intensive care unit. Subjects and setting The study setting was an intensive care unit located in a 303-bed hospital with a designation of level 2 trauma. The unit specializes in the care of critically ill medical and postoperative adults. Two hundred seventy-three patients participated in the study; their mean age was 65 years (range, 18-105 years). Methods Baseline sacral hospital-acquired pressure ulcer (HAPU) incidence was determined during a period of 35 months; skin care representatives examined all patients in our critical care unit for HAPUs on a monthly basis. Based on this baseline incidence, we studied the effect of application of a silicone-bordered foam dressing applied to the sacrum. The observation period for our study intervention was 6 months; the sacral area was examined twice daily during this period. Results The average baseline sacral HAPU prevalence during the 35-month observation was 13.6% as compared to an incidence of 1.8% during a 6-month prospective study. Three of the 5 patients developed suspected deep tissue injuries and subsequently expired. The remaining 2 subjects developed stage 2 pressure ulcers, one of whom also expired. Conclusion Following application of a silicone-bordered foam dressing, we were able to achieve a HAPU of 1.8%.
Behavior-based tactical navigational and mobility control of tandem ground robotic vehicles

In this paper, we have addressed some of technical challenges associated with tactical behaviors modeling of a group of Tandem Mobile Robotic Vehicles (TMRV) in unstructured environment. We have discussed intelligent schemes for robust maneuverability control of the TMRV under a Supervisory Mobility Controller. We have considered four tasks of TMRV including: Terrain Navigation, Tandem Mobility Control; Tactical Strategic Formation and Communication-based Control. We have developed a supervisory mobility controller environmnet using FMCell software with six functional control loop. In this paper, we present and discuss modular and functional architecture of our supervisory mobility controller, in particular, our strategies for separation of supervisory functions according to their complexity, priority, and intelligence requirements. Some examples demonstrating effectiveness and efficiency of the newly developed techniques are presented. We have also discussed how these behaviors can be applied to tandem unmanned ground vehicle systems.
Use of botulinum toxin in strabismus.

Purpose of reviewThe history, pharmacology, indications, complications, and success rates of botulinum administration are discussed in this review as they relate to strabismus and associated conditions.Recent findingsBotulinum has been used to treat strabismus and a variety of other ocular condition
International Nongovernmental Organizations and Deforestation: Good, Bad, or Irrelevant?*

Objective. This research adds to our understanding of environmental degradation by evaluating the “contested” role international nongovernmental organizations play in managing environmental problems. Methods. I use cross-national data for a sample of up to 70 nations to examine the effect of international nongovernmental organizations on deforestation for the period of 1990 to 2000. The models also include relevant controls for gross national product, economic growth, population growth, democracy, government expenditures, domestic investment, forest stocks, exports, multinational corporations, and structural adjustment. Results. The main findings indicate that nations with higher levels of international nongovernmental organizations presence have lower levels of deforestation. I also examine the effects of international nongovernmental organizations at different levels of democracy by including an interaction term between international nongovernmental organizations and democracy. In doing so, I find that international nongovernmental organizations continue to reduce deforestation. However, they reduce deforestation more at higher rather than at lower levels of democracy. Conclusions. This research illustrates that international nongovernmental organizations reduce deforestation despite claims to the contrary. However, their effectiveness appears to be affected by the level of democracy in a nation.
Milestones to optimal adoption of robotic technology in gynecology.

Minimally invasive technology, especially robotics, is gaining widespread acceptance and is becoming the standard approach for the treatment of both benign and malignant gynecologic conditions in centers across the country. However, there are challenges on a systems-based level to the implementation
Negative Autoregulation by FAS Mediates Robust Fetal Erythropoiesis

Tissue development is regulated by signaling networks that control developmental rate and determine ultimate tissue mass. Here we present a novel computational algorithm used to identify regulatory feedback and feedforward interactions between progenitors in developing erythroid tissue. The algorithm makes use of dynamic measurements of red cell progenitors between embryonic days 12 and 15 in the mouse. It selects for intercellular interactions that reproduce the erythroid developmental process and endow it with robustness to external perturbations. This analysis predicts that negative autoregulatory interactions arise between early erythroblasts of similar maturation stage. By studying embryos mutant for the death receptor FAS, or for its ligand, FASL, and by measuring the rate of FAS-mediated apoptosis in vivo, we show that FAS and FASL are pivotal negative regulators of fetal erythropoiesis, in the manner predicted by the computational model. We suggest that apoptosis in erythroid development mediates robust homeostasis regulating the number of red blood cells reaching maturity.
Trace ideal criteria for Toeplitz operators

For a complex measure μ on the open unit disk U define an operator Tμ on a Hilbert space H of analytic functions with reproducing kernel k(z, w) by u. For a certain scale of Hilbert spaces Hα, α < 1, which includes the Hardy space H2 and weighted Bergman spaces A2, β, conditions are obtained which imply Tμ belongs to a Schatten ideal Sp. If μ is a positive measure then these conditions are necessary and sufficient. Application to composition operators and restriction operators are indicated.
A simple circulatory bypass system.

SummaryThe use of an homologous lung is at present the simplest and most efficient method of providing extracorporeal oxygenation of blood. A simplified method of using such a lung experimentally has been described. In this experimental study of 12 animals there were 7 survivors, the 5 fatalities being caused by severe bleeding resulting from contaminated equipment.
Stump and Swinburne on Revelation

The paper considers the criticisms that Eleonore Stump has made of Richard Swinburne's account of Christian's revelation, as set out in his book Revelation : from metaphor to analogy. It argues that Stump's criticisms of Swinburne's theory of biblical interpretation are misguided, but that her criticism of his deistic picture of revelation contains a crucial insight. Direct theories of revelation, which see God as communicating propositions directly to believers, are superior to deistic ones, which see God as communicating propositions only to an original group who then hand on the propositions to everyone else. Stump's suggested alternative to a deistic picture is flawed. A better theory would result from incorporating Swinburne's account of the Church into a direct theory, and holding that God communicates propositions directly to believers in the teaching of the Church. This position combines the insights to be found in Stump and Swinburne, while avoiding their mistakes
Dynamic carboniferous climate change, Arrow Canyon, Nevada

The Phanerozoic9s longest-lived and most widespread glaciation, the late Paleozoic ice age, is undergoing a resurgence in interest. Long-held models of the timing, duration, and magnitude of glaciation are being reevaluated due to emerging evidence from former high latitudes, evidence that the late Paleozoic ice age was punctuated by long-lived glacial minima or possibly ice-free times. The history of the late Paleozoic ice age is archived within the biostratigraphically well-constrained, carbonate-dominated succession of Arrow Canyon, Nevada, United States. In this paleo-tropical succession, the distribution of lithofacies, flooding surfaces, and subaerial exposure horizons and their stacking into meter-scale cycles record a detailed climate history. The onset of this phase of glaciation during the middle Mississippian was followed by a dynamic evolution of glacioeustasy through the late Mississippian to late Pennsylvanian. Moderate- to high-amplitude glacioeustasy was likely interrupted by an earliest Pennsylvanian short-lived glacial minimum, but otherwise appears to have persisted through the middle Pennsylvanian. Upper Pennsylvanian strata record low- to moderate-amplitude relative sea-level changes, suggesting a long-lived interval of diminished ice volume. This proposed glacial minimum is coincident with a notable minimum in glaciogenic sedimentation near the former southern pole, aridification across paleo-tropical Pangea, and significant floral and faunal turnover, suggesting a link between tropical environmental change and high-latitude glaciation. These conclusions, however, are at odds with those traditionally inferred from Euramerican cyclothems, i.e., persistent high-amplitude glacioeustasy driven by a single, large ice sheet. Rather, the Arrow Canyon archive of varying depositional facies and cycle stacking patterns records major changes in the magnitude of short-term glacioeustasy. This finding contributes to recent and growing near- and far-field evidence for a more dynamic glaciation history than previously inferred from the classic Euramerican cyclothems.
Kinematic Analysis and Evaluation of Wheelchair Mounted Robotic Arms

There has been significant progress in bringing commercially-viable wheelchair mounted robotic arms (WMRA) into the marketplace in the past 30 years. This paper focuses on kinematic analysis and evaluation of such robotic arms. It addresses the kinematics of the WMRA with respect to its ability to reach common positions while performing activities of daily living (ADL). A procedure is developed for the kinematic analysis and evaluation of a wheelchair mounted robotic arm. In addition to developing the analytical procedure, the manipulator is evaluated, and design recommendations and insights are obtained. Current commercially-available wheelchair mountable robotic manipulators have been designed specifically for use in rehabilitation robotics. In an effort to evaluate two commercial manipulators, the procedure for kinematic analysis is applied to each manipulator. Design recommendations with regard to each device are obtained. This method will benefit the researchers by providing a standardized procedure for kinematic analysis of WMRAs that is capable of evaluating independent designs.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
Death and Euthanasia as Contemporary Topics in Equine Curricula

Few college-level curricula in equine management classes address the topics of death and euthanasia, even though every horse eventually will experience the process. A comprehensive educational approach includes topics on assessing the need for euthanasia, decision making techniques, acceptable euthanasia methods, physiology of dying, and appropriate carcass disposal options, as well as addressing the emotional context of the human-horse bond and the grief process. Suggested projects for students include the development of an equine euthanasia plan or a quality of life assessment. Since death and euthanasia are integral components in the U.S. societal issues concerning the number of unwanted horses, the slaughtering of horses for human consumption, and the development of minimum welfare standards and regulations, education and research in these subjects will help to effectively resolve these situations and enhance the welfare of horses.
Embedding movie into SBART - breeding deformed movies

This paper presents a new feature embedded in SBART to breed a deformed movie and an expanded image from a movie. To realize these functions, two new nonterminals for a GP-style genotype are introduced. Each of them takes one argument of a three-dimensional vector and returns a colour value picked up from the source movie. The boxel method interprets a given vector as coordination in cubic volume constructed by expanding the source movie along the time axis. It transforms three dimensional boxel data into a two-dimensional plane. The other picks up a pixel from a movie frame. By synchronously selecting frames to make a movie, it produces a new movie of deformed frames as a special effect. Recent high-end personal computers have enough computational power to use these functions smoothly.
Thermodynamic Mechanisms Responsible for the Tropospheric Response to SST Anomalies in the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave

Abstract Tropospheric temperature and vorticity budgets for the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (ACW) are diagnosed utilizing the National Centers for Environment Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis datasets from 1983 to 1992, focusing on the eastern Atlantic, Indian, and western and central Pacific sectors of the Southern Ocean where remote forcing from the Tropics has been observed to be weak. There, warm sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies are found in the ACW propagating eastward together with anomalous upward latent heat flux, positive precipitation, low-level convergence, upper-level divergence, midlevel ascent, and poleward surface wind. Diagnosing the anomalous temperature budget finds SST-induced latent heat flux instigating anomalous mid- to upper-level diabatic heating and low-level diabatic cooling in the absence of significant eddy heat flux divergence. This diabatic heating profile is balanced by a combination of vertical and horizontal heat advection, giving rise t...
On the Use of Simple Analytic Mathematical Models of Communicable Diseases

Briscoe J [present address: Ministerio das Obras Publicas, CP 268, Maputo, Mozambique]. On the use of simple analytic mathematical models of communicable diseases. International Journal of Epidemiology 1980, 9: 265—270. Complex simulation models of diseases are becoming widely used by researchers and planners. This paper shows how simple analytic models can explain some otherwise inexplicable aspects of the behaviour of both these complex models and of the diseases in the real world. A system for grouping communicable diseases on the basis of the mathematical representation of the disease aetiology is developed. Complex mathematical models of diseases are becoming widely used. Research epidemiologists use such models as a formal method for organising complex ideas on a disease, and as a tool for testing hypotheses about the epidemiology of the disease. Planners are concerned with the rational allocation of resources and use such models to assess the effects of different intervention strategies. The validity of these models is typically judged by 2 criteria. The 'structural' criterion assesses whether all the known micro characteristics of the disease have been included in the model. For example, in a model of typhoid fever the structure of the model may be examined to see if allowance has been made for the fact that after recovery from the disease a person may remain a temporary carrier. The second, or 'meta', criterion looks not at structure but performance, asking whether the output of the model accords with what is known about the epidemiology of the disease in the real world. For instance, the output of a typhoid fever model will be examined to see whether the epidemic curve is similar to that which has been observed in actual typhoid epidemics. Concern with satisfying either of these 2 criteria inevitably leads to more and more detailed models
Achieving organizational change: findings from case studies of 20 California healthy cities and communities coalitions

SUMMARY As part of an evaluation of the California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) Program, we assessed the extent to which coalitions implementing the healthy cities and communities model demonstrated capacity to leverage financial resources, expand programs and influence organizational policies. The evaluation design was a multiple case study of 20 participating communities with cross-case analysis. Participating communities spanned the state’s diverse geographic regions and ranged from remote areas within rural counties to neighborhoods within large cities. Data included: semi-structured interviews with coordinators and community leaders, focus groups with coalition members and document review. Many CHCC coalitions were able to leverage significant financial resources across a diverse array of funding sources, including federal, state, county and city governments. In addition, all CHCC coalitions developed at least one new program, most commonly focused on youth development, civic capacity-building or lifelong learning. Changes in policies, reported by 19 of the 20 coalitions, were consistent with healthy cities and communities principles and were implemented in communitybased organizations, county and city governments, and school districts. Typical changes included an increased willingness to collaborate, increased emphasis on engaging diverse parts of the community, greater responsiveness to community needs and more opportunities for resident input into decision-making. Our findings suggest the healthy cities and communities model has the potential to strengthen the organizational infrastructure of communities to promote health.
Transdisciplinary collaborations for sustainability education: Institutional and intragroup challenges and opportunities:

This article takes as its point of departure the many converging crises of sustainability and the responsibility of higher education institutions and faculty members to participate in mitigating th...
Human Group V Phospholipase A2 Induces Group IVA Phospholipase A2-independent Cysteinyl Leukotriene Synthesis in Human Eosinophils *

We previously reported that exogenously added human group V phospholipase A2 (hVPLA2) could elicit leukotriene B4 biosynthesis in human neutrophils through the activation of group IVA phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) (Kim, Y. J., Kim, K. P., Han, S. K., Munoz, N. M., Zhu, X., Sano, H., Leff, A. R., and Cho, W. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 36479-36488). In this study, we determined the functional significance and mechanism of the exogenous hVPLA2-induced arachidonic acid (AA) release and leukotriene C4 (LTC4) synthesis in isolated human peripheral blood eosinophils. As low a concentration as 10 nm exogenous hVPLA2 was able to elicit the significant release of AA and LTC4 from unstimulated eosinophils, which depended on its ability to act on phosphatidylcholine membranes. hVPLA2 also augmented the release of AA and LTC4 from eosinophils activated with formyl-Met-Leu-Phe + cytochalasin B. A cellular fluorescent PLA2 assay showed that hVPLA2 had a lipolytic action first on the outer plasma membrane and then on the perinuclear region. hVPLA2 also caused the translocation of 5-lipoxygenase from the cytosol to the nuclear membrane and a 2-fold increase in 5-lipoxygenase activity. However, hVPLA2 induced neither the increase in intracellular calcium concentration nor cPLA2 phosphorylation; consequently, cPLA2 activity was not affected by hVPLA2. Pharmacological inhibition of cPLA2 and the hVPLA2-induced activation of eosinophils derived from the cPLA2-deficient mouse corroborated that hVPLA2 mediates the release of AA and leukotriene in a cPLA2-independent manner. As such, this study represents a unique example in which a secretory phospholipase induces the eicosanoid formation in inflammatory cells, completely independent of cPLA2 activation.
An Implicit LU Scheme for the Euler Equations Applied to Arbitrary Cascades

An implicit scheme for solving the Euler equations is derived and demonstrated. The alternating-direction implicit (ADI) technique is modified, using two implicit-operator factors corresponding to lower-block-diagonal (L) or upper-block-diagonal (U) algebraic systems which can be easily inverted. The resulting LU scheme is implemented in finite-volume mode and applied to 2D subsonic and transonic cascade flows with differing degrees of geometric complexity. The results are presented graphically and found to be in good agreement with those of other numerical and analytical approaches. The LU method is also 2.0-3.4 times faster than ADI, suggesting its value in calculating 3D problems.
Relation of early socialization experiences to aggression in middle childhood.

Tins report presents one part of a followup study of the 5-year-old children whose early socialization experiences were described in Patterns of Child Rearing (Sears, Maccoby, & Levin, 1957). It attempts to trace the effects of some of those experiences on the children's aggressive behavior 6 years later. During the winter of 1951-52, 379 public school kindergarten children in Newton and Watcrtown, Massachusetts, were selected as subjects for a study of the child rearing antecedents of identificatio n. The design of that research required the measurement of certain aspects of both the children's behavior and the mothers' child rearing practices and attitudes. The measures of identificatio n which seemed appropriate, at that time, related chiefly to the extent of children's adoption of adult role behavior and to the stage of development of guilt feelings and other signs of conscience. Measures of such behavior were obtained from three sessions of doll play, two permissive and one structured (Levin & Scars, 1956; Sears, 1953), and from mother interviews (Sears et al., 1957). These interviews were mainly directed to the measurement of the antecedent (maternal) behavior, however; they were designed to secure information about aspects of the 1 From the Laboratories of Human Development of
The p85 regulatory subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase down-regulates IRS-1 signaling via the formation of a sequestration complex.

Phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinase is required for most insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1–dependent cellular responses. The p85 regulatory subunit of PI 3-kinase is required to mediate the insulin-dependent recruitment of PI 3-kinase to the plasma membrane, yet mice with reduced p85 expression have increased insulin sensitivity. To further understand the role of p85, we examined IGF-1–dependent translocation of p85α by using a green fluorescence protein (GFP)–tagged p85α (EGFP–p85α). In response to IGF-1, but not to PDGF signaling, EGFP–p85α translocates to discrete foci in the cell. These foci contain the insulin receptor substrate (IRS) 1 adaptor molecule, and their formation requires the binding of p85 to IRS-1. Surprisingly, monomeric p85 is preferentially localized to these foci compared with the p85–p110 dimer, and these foci are not sites of phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate production. Ultrastructural analysis reveals that p85–IRS-1 foci are cytosolic protein complexes devoid of membrane. These results suggest a mechanism of signal down-regulation of IRS-1 that is mediated by monomeric p85 through the formation of a sequestration complex between p85 and IRS-1.
Broadband microchamber for electrical detection of live and dead biological cells

A novel broadband microchamber for electrical detection of live and dead biological cells was designed, fabricated and tested. The microchamber was formed between a gold coplanar waveguide fabricated on a quartz slide and the microfluidic channels fabricated in a polydimethylsiloxane cover. The coplanar waveguide allowed broadband impedance matching and efficient cell trapping. The microfluidic channels delivered single cells precisely. Tests on Jurkat cells in both time and frequency domains showed that live cells had lower resistance but higher capacitance than that of dead cells.
Involvement of PI3K/Akt pathway in cell cycle progression, apoptosis, and neoplastic transformation: a target for cancer chemotherapy

The PI3K/Akt signal transduction cascade has been investigated extensively for its roles in oncogenic transformation. Initial studies implicated both PI3K and Akt in prevention of apoptosis. However, more recent evidence has also associated this pathway with regulation of cell cycle progression. Uncovering the signaling network spanning from extracellular environment to the nucleus should illuminate biochemical events contributing to malignant transformation. Here, we discuss PI3K/Akt-mediated signal transduction including its mechanisms of activation, signal transducing molecules, and effects on gene expression that contribute to tumorigenesis. Effects of PI3K/Akt signaling on important proteins controlling cellular proliferation are emphasized. These targets include cyclins, cyclin-dependent kinases, and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. Furthermore, strategies used to inhibit the PI3K/Akt pathway are presented. The potential for cancer treatment with agents inhibiting this pathway is also addressed.
Maximally selected measures of evidence of disease clusters

It is now common to read reports such as ‘city A has a childhood cancer rate 30 per cent higher than the national average’. Because the details about how the data was examined can greatly impact the conclusions, the epidemiologist then wants to know more information, such as ‘over what time period’ and ‘how many other cancer types were examined’. For example, city A might have calculated cancer rates for many age groups within different regions of the city over many time intervals, but reported only the highest cancer rate discovered in a particular group. We will refer to such selective reporting as ‘maximally selecting measures of evidence of disease clustering’, or less formally as ‘fishing for statistical significance’. The objective of this paper is to study the behaviour of maximally selected statistics for measuring the extent of clustering in disease outbreaks. The original data is the time and location of each reported case of the disease. In some cases we are only given aggregates of the original data, such as the number of cases during a time period over a given region. We introduce new and review existing methods for correcting for the effect of making maximal selections in disease cluster detection. We consider three main cases with examples. We demonstrate via simulation and analytical approximations that some types of ‘fishing’ are simple to correct for while others are not. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Effect of Rendering Style on Perception of Sign Language Animations

The goal of the study reported in the paper was to determine whether rendering style (non-photorealistic versus realistic) has an effect on perception of American Sign Language (ASL) finger spelling animations. Sixty-nine (69) subjects participated in the experiment; all subjects were ASL users. The participants were asked to watch forty (40) sign language animation clips representing twenty (20) finger spelled words. Twenty (20) clips were rendered using photorealistic rendering style, whereas the other twenty (20) were rendered in a non-photorealistic rendering style (e.g. cel shading). After viewing each animation, subjects were asked to type the word being finger-spelled and rate its legibility. Findings show that rendering style has an effect on perception of the signed words. Subjects were able to recognize the animated words rendered with cel shading with higher level of accuracy, and the legibility ratings of the cel shaded animations were consistently higher across subjects.
Sensitivity Study on the Influence of Cloud Microphysical Parameters on Mixed-Phase Cloud Thermodynamic Phase Partitioning in CAM5

AbstractThe influence of six CAM5.1 cloud microphysical parameters on the variance of phase partitioning in mixed-phase clouds is determined by application of a variance-based sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis is based on a generalized linear model that assumes a polynomial relationship between the six parameters and the two-way interactions between them. The parameters, bounded such that they yield realistic cloud phase values, were selected by adopting a quasi–Monte Carlo sampling approach. The sensitivity analysis is applied globally, and to 20°-latitude-wide bands, and over the Southern Ocean at various mixed-phase cloud isotherms and reveals that the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen (WBF) time scale for the growth of ice crystals single-handedly accounts for the vast majority of the variance in cloud phase partitioning in mixed-phase clouds, while its interaction with the WBF time scale for the growth of snowflakes plays a secondary role. The fraction of dust aerosols active as ice nuclei in l...
Is the Federal Reserve Bank Stock Market Bubble-Neutral?

This paper argues that the Fed was not stock market bubble-neutral during the last several years. This nonneutrality implies two options: first, the Fed has used monetary policies to prevent the building of the stock market bubble or, second, the Fed has contributed to its development and subsequent deflation. We supply representative quotes from the FOMC transcripts to establish that the Fed has paid significant attention to the valuation of the stock market. These quotes confirm that the stock market's valuation was an important variable in the Fed's decision-making and its conduct of monetary policy. We also conduct econometric modeling, by extending the Taylor rule and using data for the 1987-2000 period, to argue that the Fed, perhaps unintentionally, has contributed to the stock market's overvaluation and subsequent decline.
Prevalence, associated factors and heritabilities of metabolic syndrome and its individual components in African Americans: the Jackson Heart Study

Objective Both environmental and genetic factors play important roles in the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Studies about its associated factors and genetic contribution in African Americans (AA) are sparse. Our aim was to report the prevalence, associated factors and heritability estimates of MetS and its components in AA men and women. Participants and setting Data of this cross-sectional study come from a large community-based Jackson Heart Study (JHS). We analysed a total of 5227 participants, of whom 1636 from 281 families were part of a family study subset of JHS. Methods Participants were classified as having MetS according to the Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to isolate independently associated factors of MetS (n=5227). Heritability was estimated from the family study subset using variance component methods (n=1636). Results About 27% of men and 40% of women had MetS. For men, associated factors with having MetS were older age, lower physical activity, higher body mass index, and higher homocysteine and adiponectin levels (p Conclusions Stress and low education were associated with having MetS in AA women, but not in men. Higher heritability estimates for lipids and waist circumference support the hypothesis of lipid metabolism playing a central role in the development of MetS and encourage additional efforts to identify the underlying susceptibility genes for this syndrome in AA.
The Foundation of Racial Disparities in the Standardized Testing Era: The Impact of School Segregation and the Assault on Public Education in Virginia

We present a historical outline of racial inequality in Virginia’s kindergarten through 12th grade educational system focusing on de jure school desegregation and subsequent massive resistance foll...
381 ACCEPTIBILITY OF A COMBINATION OF TESTOSTERONE GEL AND DEPOMEDROXYPROGESTERONE ACETATE MALE CONTRACEPTIVE REGIMEN.

Background Testosterone (T) gel, administered transdermally in combination with injections of medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) every 3 months, results in effective suppression of spermatogenesis in 90% of men. There are few data available regarding the acceptability of male hormonal contraceptive regimens, and none to date have examined the use of daily gel for contraception in normal men. Therefore, we questioned subjects enrolled in a combination T-gel plus DMPA male contraceptive trial regarding the acceptability of T-gel for male contraception and the impact of the T-gel/DMPA regimen on sexual function and satisfaction during treatment. Study Design Thirty-eight healthy men, ages 18 to 55, were treated with T-gel (100 mg daily) + DMPA (300 mg/3 months) for 24 weeks. Sexual function was assessed using a validated questionnaire at baseline, after 12 and 24 weeks of treatment, and 12 weeks into recovery. The overall acceptability of the method and attitudes regarding the daily self-administration of T-gel were assessed by a questionnaire 12 weeks into recovery. Results Fifty percent of subjects were either satisfied or very satisfied with the T-gel-based contraceptive regimen, and 45% indicated that they would use the regimen if it were commercially available. The T-gel was found to be easy to use by 76% of men, but a third of subjects felt that T-gel administration interfered with their daily routine. Sexual function was largely preserved during treatment; however, slight decreases in sexual function were observed during recovery. Conclusions The experimental male hormonal contraceptive regimen of T-gel + DMPA is acceptable to approximately half of study volunteers, most of whom would use the method if it were commercially available. Given its appeal to a significant proportion of men, additional studies using T-gel and DMPA for male contraception are warranted.
Implied Condition of Survivorship in Gifts of Future Interests in California

THE FREQUENT FAILURE of beneficiaries in wills to live for the expected length of time has given rise to certain legal problems. A younger person does not always outlive an older one. The weak and sickly individual may outlast the one who is healthy and strong. In an automotive, aeronautic and atomic era there is no reason to anticipate a decrease in the instances of this inverse order of mortality. It is not an uncommon occurrence for a beneficiary in a will, contrary to expectations, to die before the testator. In such a case, the gift is said to fail or lapse, unless the testator has anticipated this possibility and has provided in his will for a substitute beneficiary.' Statutory provision for substitute beneficiaries under certain circumstances is well-nigh universal.2 Even though there is no provision for a substitute beneficiary either in the original will or by any applicable anti-lapse statute, the testator himself sometimes makes such a provision in a later will or codicil executed after his learning of the death of the original beneficiary. Where the gift involves a future interest, however, a different problem arises, namely whether the beneficiary must survive until the time when the future interest becomes possessory. Unlike the case where the beneficiary predeceases the testator, making a later will or codicil after knowledge of the beneficiary's death is very obviously no solution here. The beneficiary has survived the testator but, contrary to the testator's assumptions, has not survived to the time when he was to receive his interest. Here again, the testator should have anticipated the possibility of the beneficiary's earlier death and made express provision in his will as to how the property should go in such a contingency. The fact remains, however, that the instances of neglect to make such provision are of frequent occurrence. These instances, unfortunately, are not restricted to "home-made" wills, drawn without legal advice. No statutory solution, comparable to that effected by the anti-lapse statutes when the beneficiary predeceases the testator, is available. In each case the court must decide whether the testator "intended" to impose survival by the beneficiary to the time of possession as a condition of his gift. The common law rule of construction in favor of early vesting prevails
Geographical Correlates of Abundance vs. Rarity in Some North American Winter Landbirds

En utilisant la methode CBC de denombrement (Christmas Bird Count), on compare la taille des aires de deplacement et l'abondance pour 70 oiseaux terrestres qui hivernent aux Etats-Unis et au Canada
ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE

We present a general approach, called the analysis of variance (ANOVA), for making inferences about the mean values of a variety of random variables. In one-factor ANOVA, the mean of a variable depends on only a single factor, namely, the sample to which it belongs. In two-factor ANOVA, the random variables are thought of as being arrayed in a rectangular arrangement, and the mean of a variable depends on both its row and its column factor. We show how to test the hypothesis that the mean of a random variable does not depend on which row the random variable is in, as well as the analogous hypothesis that the mean does not depend on which column it is in.
Moving the house party to the lab: A call for experimental studies on drinking games.

•More than 50 articles have been published on drinking games.•Most of the drinking game studies are descriptive, self-report, and cross-sectional.•A shift to experimental methods will advance the study of drinking games behavior.
Medical schools in the United States, 2013-2014.

Thefollowingtablescontaindata thatarederivedmainly from the 2013-2014 Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) Annual Medical School Questionnaire Part II. The questionnaire was sent in February 2014 to the deans of the 140 LCME-accredited medical schools with enrolled students.Therewasa 100%response rate.Eachquestionnaire was reviewed and attempts weremade to verify information and obtain missing data. Data for years other than 2013-2014 were obtained from previous LCME Annual Medical School Questionnaires. Author Affiliations:Division of UndergraduateMedical Education, American Medical Association, Chicago, Illinois. Corresponding Author: Barbara Barzansky, PhD, Division of Undergraduate Medical Education, AmericanMedical Association, 330 NWabash Ave, Ste 39300, Chicago, IL 60611 (barbara.barzansky@ama-assn.org). Conflict of Interest Disclosures: The authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and none were reported. Funding/Support: This research was funded solely by the AmericanMedical Association, which employs Dr Barzansky andMs Etzel.
How to Make a Worm Twitch.

Understanding how the nervous system generates behavior is a long-standing goal of neuroscience. The early nervous system develops alongside other tissues and organs in the course of embryogenesis and is crucial for establishing the organism’s early behavioral repertoire, including its ability to perform coordinated movements. The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has long been an important model system for studying developmental processes and offers several powerful features that aid such investigations, including its rapid embryonic development and its known and invariant cell lineage (1).
A Features-Based Assessment of the Evolution of Warm Season Precipitation Forecasts from the HRRR Model over Three Years of Development

AbstractThe High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model has been the National Weather Service’s (NWS) operational rapid update model since 2014. The HRRR has undergone continual development, including updates to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model core, the data assimilation system, and the various physics packages in order to better represent atmospheric processes, with updated operational versions of the model being implemented approximately every spring. Given the model’s intent for use in convective precipitation forecasting, it is of interest to examine how forecasts of warm season precipitation have changed as a result of the continued model upgrades. A features-based assessment is performed on the first 6 h of HRRR quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) from the 2013, 2014, and 2015 versions of the model over the U.S. central plains in an effort to understand how specific aspects of QPF performance have evolved as a result of continued model development. Significant bias changes we...
Montessori Preschool Elevates and Equalizes Child Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study

Quality preschool programs that develop the whole child through age-appropriate socioemotional and cognitive skill-building hold promise for significantly improving child outcomes. However, preschool programs tend to either be teacher-led and didactic, or else to lack academic content. One preschool model that involves both child-directed, freely chosen activity and academic content is Montessori. Here we report a longitudinal study that took advantage of randomized lottery-based admission to two public Montessori magnet schools in a high-poverty American city. The final sample included 141 children, 70 in Montessori and 71 in other schools, most of whom were tested 4 times over 3 years, from the first semester to the end of preschool (ages 3 to 6), on a variety of cognitive and socio-emotional measures. Montessori preschool elevated children's outcomes in several ways. Although not different at the first test point, over time the Montessori children fared better on measures of academic achievement, social understanding, and mastery orientation, and they also reported relatively more liking of scholastic tasks. They also scored higher on executive function when they were 4. In addition to elevating overall performance on these measures, Montessori preschool also equalized outcomes among subgroups that typically have unequal outcomes. First, the difference in academic achievement between lower income Montessori and higher income conventionally schooled children was smaller at each time point, and was not (statistically speaking) significantly different at the end of the study. Second, defying the typical finding that executive function predicts academic achievement, in Montessori classrooms children with lower executive function scored as well on academic achievement as those with higher executive function. This suggests that Montessori preschool has potential to elevate and equalize important outcomes, and a larger study of public Montessori preschools is warranted.
Abstract 15990: Cardiac Arrest and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the Mouse Induces Renal Fibrosis: Contribution of Proximal Tubular Endocytosis

Introduction: Cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CA/CPR) causes acute cardiorenal syndrome in the mouse. Recent studies demonstrate that in humans, cardiorenal syndrome may initiate chronic kidney disease (CKD). Clinical studies of cardiorenal acute kidney injury(AKI)-to-CKD transition report higher incidence of CKD than studies of all-cause AKI-to-CKD transition, but no animal model of AKI-CKD transition includes cardiac injury. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that CKD is a potentially preventable, long-term outcome of cardiac arrest. Methods: Male C57Bl/6 mice, and mice with proximal tubule-specific deletion of the proximal tubular (PT) endocytosis receptor, megalin, (PTmegKO and littermate controls) were subjected to CA/CPR (induced with potassium chloride, resuscitated 8 min later with chest compressions and epinephrine). Urine mass spectrometry was performed 24h before and 24h after CA/CPR in PTmegKO and control mice. After 28 days, renal function (glomerular filtration rate, GFR and serum urea nitrogen, sUN) were assessed, and kidney sections stained and quantified for alpha-smooth muscle actin (aSMA) and collagen. Results: Time to return of spontaneous circulation, epinephrine dose, and survival to 28d (66%) were not different. WT CA/CPR-treated mice developed CKD with elevated sUN, reduced GFR and renal fibrosis compared to sham (renal interstitial aSMA burden 14.4±4.5 vs 0.8±0.5%, p Conclusions: AKI to CKD transition occurs after CA/CPR in the mouse. Deletion of PT megalin reveals cardiac protein in the urine following CA/CPR compared to littermates suggesting cardiac protein is taken up by PT cells after CA/CPR. Deletion of PT megalin likely reduced renal fibrosis 1 month after CA/CPR. Investigation of pharmacologic inhibition of megalin to reduce transition to CKD after CA/CPR is warranted.
Privacy in Enterprise Identity Federation

Cross-domain identity management is gaining significant interest in industry. A recent example is the Liberty Alliance’s specifications for single signon of users across a federation of enterprises. These specifications stress that the federation process is voluntary for the users and that privacy is preserved, e.g., by using pseudonyms. We evaluate the privacy of these specifications in detail. We point out ambiguities and propose a concrete privacy policy together with a few changes to the Liberty processing rules. Our analysis demonstrates that identity-management policies are non-trivial even in a limited context. We also discuss how such low-tech proposals from industry relate to high-tech privacy-enhancing proposals from the research community.
Special Treatments Involving Liquid Phases

The discussion up to now has focused on persistent liquid phase sintering. For the classic systems like cemented carbides and heavy alloys, liquid phase sintering is composed of three stages. During the entire sintering period there is a coexisting liquid which provides the total force for densification. Several alternatives exist to this traditional process. The advantages of these alternatives come from the improved rates of densification, and the unique compositions or microstructures possible. In examining these variants to traditional liquid phase sintering, the previously developed fundamentals are applied to describe the special techniques involving liquids during the sintering cycle.