cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Prolactin stimulates food intake in a dose-dependent manner

Lactation in the rat is marked by pronounced hyperphagia and suppression of brown fat (BAT) thermogenic capacity. We previously examined the possibility that elevated prolactin levels mediate these changes. The present study evaluated the effect of varying prolactin levels on food intake, BAT mitochondrial GDP binding, and carcass adiposity. Female rats were injected daily for 10 days with ovine prolactin at one of three doses: high = 3.0, medium = 1.0, or low = 0.3 micrograms/g body wt. Controls were injected with 0.9% NaCl. A group of uninjected rats served as an additional control. Cumulative food intake was significantly elevated in a dose-dependent manner in the prolactin-treated animals relative to the saline-injected and uninjected controls. Compared with the saline controls, the mean cumulative food intake was greatest at the high dose (20% increase), intermediate at the medium dose (17%), and smallest at the low dose (12%). Prolactin-treated rats gained significantly more weight during the experiment than did controls. Despite the hyperphagia in the prolactin-treated rats, no significant differences in BAT mitochondrial GDP binding were observed among the five groups. These data indicate that elevated prolactin levels stimulate food intake in a dose-dependent manner and that this hyperphagia is not accompanied by an increase in BAT mitochondrial GDP binding.
Epidemiological Analysis of Hand,Foot and Mouth Disease in Sujiatun District of Shenyang City in 2009

[Objective]To grasp the tendency of the epidemic situation about hand,foot and mouth disease(HFMD) in Sujiatun District of Shenyang City,and provide accurate basis for developing the prevention program.[Methods]The methods of epidemiology was adopted to analyze HFMD data in this district.[Results]The average incidence was 91.63/100 000 in 2009;the male annual incidence was 114.59/100 000;the female incidence was 67.95/100 000(P0.01);the male to female sex ratio was 1.74∶1;most of the cases occurred in summer and autumn,especially in summer;the proportion of scattered children and kindergarten children was 53.61% and 39.42%,respectively,with obvious peak.Patients aged 2-4 years accounted for 68.99%,showing the typical peak incidence among children.[Conclusion]To strengthen the health propaganda and health education,to enhance the infectious diseases management in the nurseries,to improve disinfection and case isolation,and strengthen the report of infectious disease are the effective measures for HFMD control in this district.
Iron Deficiency—Facts and Fallacies

Iron deficiency occurs in all strata of society, is primarily a result of postnatal feeding practices and not due to congenital deficiencies of iron, can be prevented by appropriate dietary guidance, and, when present, produces important nonhematologic manifestations.
Goiter in adolescents.

Thyroid disease is the most common endocrine disorder during adolescence. Approximately one third of adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus develop autoimmune thyroid disease. Goiter or thyromegaly are synonymous terms used to describe an enlargement of the thyroid gland. This article discusses many aspects of goiter in adolescents, indicating that prognosis of thyroid disease in adolescents is usually excellent.
The First Law

That mechanical work generated heat energy was empirically known to the cave-man who rubbed rough dry kindling against each other to produce fire. Yet an understanding of what constituted heat energy did not come for aeons.
Selecting appropriate gastroenteric contrast media for diagnostic fluoroscopic imaging in infants and children: a practical approach

In our experience, questions about the appropriate use of enteric contrast media for pediatric fluoroscopic studies are common. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of enteric contrast media used for pediatric fluoroscopy, highlighting the routine use of these media at a large tertiary care pediatric teaching hospital.
Picturing a Classroom Community: Student Drawings as a Pedagogical Tool to Assess Features of Community in the Classroom

ABSTRACTCommunity in the classroom remains critical for a successful classroom climate. However, assessing classroom community features can be challenging, and P-12 students’ voices are often left out of the discussion. One way to examine student perceptions of classroom community is through the use of student drawings. In this Pedagogical Implications article, the authors provide (1) a discussion of research on classroom community and the use of P-12 student drawings, (2) a framework teachers and teacher educators can use to investigate community features in their classrooms with student drawings, (3) the Picturing Impressions of Classroom Community Tool to interpret student drawings, and (4) a framework to use student drawings to create change within the classroom. The authors aim to demonstrate how student drawings can act as a pedagogical tool, providing insight into student perspectives on classroom community. The authors provide examples of elementary student drawings collected to illustrate how tea...
Placental Nutrient Transport in Gestational Diabetic Pregnancies

Maternal obesity during pregnancy is rising and is associated with increased risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), defined as glucose intolerance first diagnosed in pregnancy (1). Fetal growth is determined by the maternal nutrient supply and placental nutrient transfer capacity. GDM-complicated pregnancies are more likely to be complicated by fetal overgrowth or excess adipose deposition in utero. Infants born from GDM mothers have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic disorders later in life. Diverse factors, such as ethnicity, age, fetal sex, clinical treatment for glycemic control, gestational weight gain, and body mass index among others, represent a challenge for studying underlying mechanisms in GDM subjects. Determining the individual roles of glucose intolerance, obesity, and other factors on placental function and fetal growth remains a challenge. This review provides an overview of changes in placental macronutrient transport observed in human pregnancies complicated by GDM. Improved knowledge and understanding of the alterations in placenta function that lead to pathological fetal growth will allow for development of new therapeutic interventions and treatments to improve pregnancy outcomes and lifelong health for the mother and her children.
Optical Coherence Tomography Evaluation of the Anterior Segment in Uveitis Patients

In recent years, optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging has revolutionized care in ophthalmology [1, 2]. OCT imaging allows noninvasive, micrometer resolution that is real time, making it a powerful tool in the investigations of subtle morphological or functional changes in biological tissues in a variety of biomedical and clinical applications [2]. This technique is also favorable for the serial observation of disease progression because of its in vivo imaging capability without a need for specimen excision or postmortem histology at different time-points [3]. The eye is an ideal medium for OCT as it allows easy access of the OCT beam to vital intraocular structures, such as retinal layers. Until recently, OCT imaging has focused in large part on the neurosensory retina [2]; however, OCT is becoming a standard diagnostic tool in monitoring disease progression and evaluating response to treatments even in the anterior segment of the eye. The signs of intraocular inflammation in the anterior segment of the eye include scleritis and episcleritis, the infiltration of white blood cells into the anterior chamber, corneal edema, iris vascular dilation, and an increase in the protein concentration in the intraocular fluids that can form an inflammatory membrane on the anterior surface of the iris and across the pupil [4]. OCT imaging can provide objective evaluations of a variety of these ocular inflammation manifestations.
Increasing rates of thrombosis in children with congenital heart disease undergoing cardiac surgery.

Abstract Objective To determine thrombosis incidence, morbidities, and mortality of children with congenital heart disease who develop thrombosis after cardiac surgery. Materials and methods This retrospective study reviewed patients Results Of 91909 CHD patients who underwent surgery, 2655 (2.9%) developed thrombosis within the ensuing 12 months. The rate of thrombosis increased 253% (p Conclusions Thrombosis rates in CHD patients after cardiac surgery is increasing. Thrombosis is associated with longer hospital stay, increased ICU days, and cost. CHD patients with thrombosis also have increased bacteremia and mortality rates. More research is needed to understand contributors to thrombosis which may help develop strategies to mitigate morbidity and mortality.
A new somatic environment: Quasi-quantitative study reveals water training as an effective method to increase dancer kinesthetic awareness

Data from a two-year study suggest that water training has similar effects to a somatic practice. The nature of this study questioned an underlying assumption that dancers understood how to appropriately engage their external rotation. Principal Investigator (PI) hypothesized that working with water as a cross-training method would both strengthen and increase the range of motion of femoral external rotation. Subjects (university dancers) underwent pre- and post-testing measurements (passive and active external rotation and internal rotation). The study consisted of twice a week, 30 to 45-minute water conditioning classes, for six weeks. Programs assisting in angle analysis and determining statistical significance, included: ImageJ , Microsoft Excel, and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS IMB version 24). Qualitative data were processed by an open source Python package, Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) used specifically for text mining. The results reflected that quantitative measurement methods were not effective, indicating no statistical significance in increasing active or passive external rotation. PI observed an increase in perceived awareness of the subject’s external rotation through a qualitative survey. This affirmed PI hypothesis that water training augments kinesthetic awareness in much the same way as a somatic practice. This study encourages the use of water training to develop a dancer’s kinesthetic sensing by creating a positive learning experience that teaches body awareness in a new environment.
Ethical Considerations for Psychologists Providing Treatment to Arab Americans

Given the recent increase in hate crimes against Arab Americans, there are growing concerns over the mental health needs of Arab Americans and a pressing need for psychologists’ competence in treating this group. Although there are several clinical guidelines for other health care professions, there remains a paucity of information on the ethical issues that may arise for psychologists treating this Arab Americans. This article briefly provides background information on Arab Americans, highlights elements of Arab culture that might influence psychological treatment, discusses ethical issues that might arise when psychologists provide services to Arab Americans, and provides recommendations to address these issues.
Radiative heating of large meteoroids during atmospheric entry

Abstract A high-fidelity approach for simulating the aerothermodynamic environments of meteor entries was developed, which allows the commonly assumed heat transfer coefficient of 0.1 to be assessed. This model uses chemically reacting computational fluid dynamics (CFD), coupled with radiation transport and surface ablation. Coupled radiation accounts for the impact of radiation on the flowfield energy equations, while coupled ablation explicitly models the injection of ablation products within the flowfield and radiation simulations. For a meteoroid with a velocity of 20 km/s, coupled radiation is shown to reduce the stagnation point radiative heating by over 60%. The impact of coupled ablation (with coupled radiation) is shown to provide at least a 70% reduction in the radiative heating relative to cases with only coupled radiation. This large reduction is partially the result of the low ionization energies of meteoric ablation products relative to air species. The low ionization energies of ablation products, such as Mg and Ca, provide strong photoionization and atomic line absorption in regions of the spectrum that air species do not. MgO and CaO are also shown to provide significant absorption. Turbulence is shown to impact the distribution of ablation products through the shock-layer, which results in up to a 100% increase in the radiative heating downstream of the stagnation point. To create a database of heat transfer coefficients, the developed model was applied to a range of cases. This database considered velocities ranging from 14 to 20 km/s, altitudes ranging from 20 to 50 km, and nose radii ranging from 1 to 100 m. The heat transfer coefficients from these simulations are below 0.045 for the range of cases, for both laminar and turbulent, which is significantly lower than the canonical value of 0.1. When the new heat transfer model is applied to a Tunguska-like 15 Mt entry, the effect of the new model is to lower the height of burst by up to 2 km, depending on assumed entry angle. This, in turn, results in a significantly larger ground damage footprint than when the canonical heating assumption is used.
CHRONIC CONTAMINATION OF LAKES BY PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS: THE SEDIMENTARY RECORD

Abstract Petroleum hydrocarbons enter lake systems by a number of processes, most notably land runoff, rivers, and airborne particles, and can become part of the sedimentary record. Distributions of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons in lake sediments show these two petroleum fractions do not have the same combination of transport processes. Water transports both, but atmospheric inputs are the major pathway for aromatic hydrocarbons. The record preserved in these sediments of lakes in North America and Europe parallels the history of petroleum usage in these regions and the chronic contamination of these lakes. Petroleum hydrocarbons can remain long in lake sediments even though partial degradation of petroleum components occur.
Risk, information, and the decision about response to wrongdoing in an organization

Response to wrongdoing is modeled as a decision process in an organizational context. The model is grounded in theory of risk, ambiguity, and informational influences on decision making. Time pressure, inadequate information and coworker influences are addressed. Along the way, a handful of propositions are provided which emphasize influences on the actual choice between response options.
Design Theory: A Model for Conceptual Design

This paper addresses the problem of “conceptual design” in which the designer begins with some high level of ambiguity in terms of both goals and the means to achieve them. A “dictionary” approach is used in which an object is described by listing its properties, which are in turn described by listing their properties, … This leads to a hierarchical structure of modules which can be described using the methods of partially ordered sets (combinatorial mathematics). The relationship of this approach to knowledge representation is discussed. Examples are included.
Relationship Between Depressive Mood and Maternal Obesity: Implications for Postpartum Depression

Depression in the perinatal period (PND) is common and can have devastating consequences for the mother and child. Obesity and depression have a bidirectional relationship, with each being a causal factor for the other. Here, we review the literature examining the associations between PND, obesity, and postpartum weight retention. The literature is limited but supports a greater incidence of PND among obese women. Universal screening for PND should be part of comprehensive perinatal care, as identification of PND can lead to referral and treatment. Future work should elucidate markers for both obesity and PND to facilitate early identification and intervention.
The Use and Misuse of Statistical Methods in Cytopathology Studies: Review of 6 Journals

Background The misuse of statistical methods in diagnostic accuracy studies has been criticized in many publications. Objective To assess the use and misuse of statistical methods in medical journal articles. Methods We reviewed 141 original articles from 6 cytopathology journals published in 2014. Results In total, 16 articles used no descriptive statistics and 66 articles used no inferential statistics. Also, 82 articles did not report using any tests for diagnostic accuracy. The most commonly adopted statistical measure for diagnostic accuracy was sensitivity, followed by specificity. The most common inferential statistical methods were χ2 testing, the Fisher exact test, and the Cohen kappa coefficient, respectively. Only 78 articles were free of statistical errors. "No statistics were used although statistical methods were required" was the most common type of error, followed by "failure to select proper statistical methods." Conclusion Our assessment of use of statistical methods in this subsection of pathology demonstrated a need for improvement.
Spatial distribution of reservoir fluids in mature kerogen using molecular simulations

Abstract This work analyses the distribution of volatile oil and other reservoir fluids in kerogen belonging to the gas condensate/volatile oil window. The kerogen models representing kerogen Type II-C contain pores in the range of micropores (diameter
Assessing Longitudinal Relationships among Thwarted Belongingness, Perceived Burdensomeness, and Eating Disorder Symptoms.

OBJECTIVE Past work has documented a cross-sectional relationship between eating disorders (ED) and suicidality, but few studies have examined the directionality of this relationship. Informed by the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (IPTS), this study examines the bidirectional, longitudinal relationship between ED symptoms and two determinants of suicide ideation-thwarted belongingness (TB) and perceived burdensomeness (PB). METHOD Ninety-two treatment-seeking individuals with ED (94.5% White, 95.6% female) completed baseline (T1) measures of ED symptoms along with TB and PB. Of those, 75 (81.5%) completed a follow-up assessment eight weeks later (T2). RESULTS Separate linear regression models revealed that T1 ED symptoms did not predict T2 TB (b = .03, p = .42) or T2 PB (b = -.01, p = .68). Similarly, T1 TB did not predict T2 ED symptoms (b = .25, p = .37). T1 PB did significantly predict T2 ED symptoms (b = 0.52, p = .04). Further, among participants with AN/sub-AN, T1 TB and PB predicted T2 ED symptoms (p's ≤ .03). CONCLUSION Our results reveal the need for a nuanced understanding of the relationship between ED and suicidality. This study found that PB predicts greater ED symptoms and, among the AN/sub-AN sample, TB does as well.
Synoptic to Microscale Processes Affecting the Evolution of a Cold-Air Pool in a Northern New England Forested Mountain Valley

AbstractThe formation of katabatic winds and pooling of cold air in mountain valleys impact air quality, precipitation type, and local ecosystem functions. Much is still poorly understood about the...
Know Your Library Users: How Three Generations Use Digital Tech

To better serve their users, libraries and medical librarians need to be aware of the differences among the three main generations of library patrons: Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials. It ha...
Soil characteristics are associated with gradients of big sagebrush canopy structure after disturbance

Reestablishing shrub canopy cover after disturbance in semi‐arid ecosystems, such as sagebrush steppe, is essential to provide wildlife habitat and restore ecosystem functioning. While several studies have explored the effects of landscape and climate factors on the success or failure of sagebrush seeding, the influence of soil properties on gradients of shrub canopy structure in successfully seeded areas remains largely unexplored. In this study, we evaluated associations between soil properties and gradients in sagebrush canopy structure in stands that had successfully reestablished after fire and subsequent seeding treatments. Using a dataset collected across the Great Basin, USA, of sagebrush stands that had burned and reestablished between 1986 and 2013, we tested soil depth and texture, soil surface classification, biological soil crusts plus mean historical precipitation, solar heatload, and fire history as modeling variables to explore gradients in sagebrush canopy structure growth in terms of cover, height, and density. Deeper soils were associated with greater sagebrush canopy structure development in terms of plant density and percent cover, coarser textured soils were associated with greater sagebrush cover and density, and more clayey soils were typically associated with greater height. Biological crust presence was also positively associated with enhanced sagebrush canopy growth, but adding more demographically or morphologically explicit descriptions of biocrust communities did not improve explanatory power. Increasing heatload had a negative effect on sagebrush canopy structure growth, and increased mean annual precipitation was only associated with greater sagebrush height. Given that conservation and restoration of the sagebrush steppe ecosystems has become a priority for land managers, the associations we identify between gradients in post‐fire sagebrush canopy structure growth and field‐identifiable soil characteristics may improve planning of land treatments for sagebrush restoration and the understanding of semi‐arid ecosystem functioning and post‐disturbance dynamics.
Work in Progress: Native Language Consistency Effect on Learners' Introduction to Block-Based Instructional Technologies

This lightning talk discusses how cultural factors such as learners' native language may impact the understanding of CS concepts. We present findings from an evaluation we conducted with adult participants, Native-English speakers and Bilingual-Hispanics with no prior coding experience, performing tasks in a conventional block-based programming platform: Scratch.
Deep neural network based direction of arrival estimation for hearing aid applications using smartphone

Deep neural network (DNN) techniques are gaining popularity due to performance boost in many applications. In this work we propose a DNN-based method for finding the direction of arrival (DOA) of speech source for hearing aid applications using smartphones. We consider the DOA estimation as a classification problem and use the magnitude and phase of speech signal as a feature set for DNN training stage and obtaining appropriate model. The model is trained and derived using real noisy speech data recorded on smartphone in different environments under low SNRs. The DNN-based DOA method, with the pre-trained model, is implemented and run on Android smartphone in real time and evaluated objectively and subjectively. The test results are presented showing the performance of proposed method versus other methods.
Addressing the Inequality Epidemic: Applying a Structural Approach to Social Work Practice with People Affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States

Globally, HIV risk and the health of HIV positive people are linked with structural inequalities, such as poverty, racism, and homophobia. This article summarizes key features of the structural approach to social work practice and applies the perspective to working with people affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States. Structural factors influencing HIV risk and health include housing, an individual-level factor; health care access, a community-level factor; and homophobia, a societal-level factor. Structural inequalities at each level are critical to understanding the context of HIV risk and should be assessed and addressed in social work practice in the field of HIV/AIDS. KEYWORDS: critical theory, HIV/AIDS, inequality, oppression, structural social work
Clinicians Beware, Ewing's Sarcoma After 60 Is Elusive and Rare!

Ewing's sarcoma is the second most common malignant bone tumor in children, with the worst outcomes seen in patients over the age of 20. However, the onset of the disease is much less common in people over the age of 30. This case represents the diagnostic dilemma posed by an otherwise "straight forward" case of back pain. Keeping the differential diagnosis sufficiently broad to include bone malignancies, so as not to delay diagnosis and treatment, provides the best chance at a positive outcome.
Green Roofs in Puget Lowland Ecoregions

This chapter presents case studies of five conservation sites and nine green roofs mainly located in the Puget Lowland ecoregions of western Washington state, and foothills of the Cascade Mountains. The landscape is geographically complex with many diverse ecoregions such as coniferous forests, mixed forests, prairie-oak ecosystems, rocky balds, wetlands, and riparian habitats. Precipitation averages 800–950 mm annually in the lowlands near the Seattle and Tacoma metro areas, and over 2540 mm in the western Cascades. Much of the precipitation takes place during the fall, winter, and early spring. Historically, prairies, oak/coniferous savanna and forest vegetation dominated at elevations from sea level to the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Less than 3% of prairie-oak habitat remains and about 5% of the native forested habitat remains intact. Nine ecoregional green roof case studies demonstrate how 60 taxa of plants native to the coastal ecoregions can be employed on green roofs.
Maximum vasoactive-inotropic score and mortality in extremely premature, extremely low birth weight infants

Objective To determine the relationship between maximum vasoactive-inotropic (VISmax) and mortality in extremely premature ( Study design Single center, retrospective, and observational cohort study. Results We identified 436 ELBW, 30 was associated with universal mortality. Multivariable modeling that included gestational age, birth weight, and VISmax revealed significant utility to predict mortality with negative predictive value of 87.0% and positive predictive value of 84.8% [adjusted AUROC: 0.90, (0.86-0.94)] among patients that received vasoactive-inotropic treatment. Conclusion VISmax is an objective measure of hemodynamic/cardiovascular support that was directly associated with mortality in extremely premature ELBW infants. The VISmax represents an important step towards neonatal precision medicine and risk stratification of extremely premature ELBW infants.
A case of dry beriberi from alcohol use disorder and disordered eating.

Thiamin is an essential vitamin that is involved in every organ system in the body. Thiamin deficiency can present as beriberi or Wernicke’s encephalopathy. We seek to educate practitioners in deve...
Balanced polymorphism fuels rapid selection in an invasive crab despite high gene flow and low genetic diversity

Adaptation across environmental gradients has been demonstrated in numerous systems with extensive dispersal, despite high gene flow and consequently low genetic structure. The speed and mechanisms by which such adaptation occurs remain poorly resolved, but are critical to understanding species spread and persistence in a changing world. Here, we investigate these mechanisms in the European green crab Carcinus maenas, a globally distributed invader. We focus on a northwestern Pacific population that spread across >12 degrees of latitude in 10 years from a single source, following its introduction 1500 km, we examine genetic structure using 9376 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We find high connectivity among five locations, with significant structure between these locations and an enclosed lagoon with limited connectivity to the coast. Among the five highly connected locations, the only structure observed was a cline driven by a handful of SNPs strongly associated with latitude and winter temperature. These SNPs are almost exclusively found in a large cluster of genes in strong linkage disequilibrium that was previously identified as a candidate for cold tolerance adaptation in this species. This region may represent a balanced polymorphism that evolved to promote rapid adaptation in variable environments despite high gene flow, and which now contributes to successful invasion and spread in a novel environment. This research suggests an answer to the paradox of genetically depauperate yet successful invaders: populations may be able to adapt via a few variants of large effect despite low overall diversity.
Siting priorities for congestion-reducing projects in Dhaka: a spatiotemporal analysis of traffic congestion, travel times, air pollution, and exposure vulnerability

Traffic congestion increases travel time and is a major source of pollution and health damage in developing-country cities. Data scarcity frequently confines traffic improvement projects to sites w...
Surface Laplacian of interfacial thermochemical potential: its role in solid-liquid pattern formation.

Steady-state solid-liquid interfaces allow both analytic description as sharp-interface profiles, and numerical simulation via phase-field modeling as stationary diffuse-interface microstructures. Profiles for sharp interfaces reveal their exact shapes and allow identification of the thermodynamic origin of all interfacial capillary fields, including distributions of curvature, thermochemical potential, gradients, fluxes, and surface Laplacians. By contrast, simulated diffuse interface images allow thermodynamic evolution and measurement of interfacial temperatures and fluxes. Quantitative results using both approaches verify these capillary fields and their divergent heat flow, to provide insights into interface energy balances, dynamic pattern formation, and novel methods for microstructure control. The microgravity environment of low-Earth orbit was proven useful in past studies of solidification phenomena. We suggest that NASA’s ISS National Lab can uniquely accommodate aspects of experimental research needed to explore these novel topics.
Irrigation Detection by Car: Computer Vision and Sensing for the Detection and Geolocation of Irrigated and Non-irrigated Farmland

Irrigation can greatly increase the income of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. By providing information about current irrigation utilization, or lack thereof, we seek to encourage investment in irrigation systems and their supporting infrastructure. In this paper, we describe the design, prototyping, and testing of a novel, cost-effective, and reliable computer vision system that is capable of locating irrigated plots at scale. Our system will be mounted to a vehicle and record the depth of objects in the camera’s view while the vehicle is in motion. The GPS coordinates of objects are computed based on estimated depth, vehicle coordinates, and orientation, available from included sensors. We tested our prototype on objects at various distances from the system and achieved feasible accuracy with acceptable error in the estimated depth. In the future, we hope to deploy the system in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, to detect and geolocate irrigated agricultural plots during the dry season. Then we plan to use that collected data to inform and train machine learning models that use remote sensing and satellite imagery.
Reproductive rates, birth weight, calving ease and 24-h calf survival in a four-breed diallel among Simmental, Limousin, Polled Hereford and Brahman beef cattle.

Calving and weaning rates, birth weight, calving ease, and 24-h calf survival were evaluated in a four-breed diallel of Simmental (S), Limousin (L), Polled Hereford (H) and Brahman (B) beef cattle in five calf crops. Limousin dams tended to have the highest calving and weaning rates because they were able to have heavier calves with less calving difficulty and higher survival rates. Brahman-sired calves were the heaviest at birth (P less than .05) and B dams produced the lightest calves (P less than .001). Lower birth weights tended to be the limiting factor on survival of these calves. A linear comparison among means to evaluate purebred, additive, maternal and specific combining ability effects showed most of the reduction in birth weight from B dams was due to maternal effects. Breed of dam accounted for a higher proportion of variation in calving ease than did sire breed. Simmental sires had significantly heavier calves at birth and S and H dams tended to have more calving difficulty and lower survival rates. Heterosis for these traits was generally not significant. Correlations were generally positive and significant for birth weight and calving ease, but were more variable for birth weight and survival. Linear regressions of calving ease on birth weight both within years and within dam-breed-year subclasses were very similar in that the association of these two traits was reduced as dam age increased.
Functional divergence in protein (family) sequence evolution.

As widely used today to infer ‘function’, the homology search is based on the neutral theory that sites of greatest functional significance are under the strongest selective constraints as well as lowest evolutionary rates, and vice versa. Therefore, site-specific rate changes (or altered selective constraints) are related to functional divergence during protein (family) evolution. In this paper, we review our recent work about this issue. We show a great deal of functional information can be obtained from the evolutionary perspective, which can in turn be used to facilitate high throughput functional assays. The emergence of evolutionary functional genomics is also indicated. The related software DIVERGE can be obtained form http://xgu1.zool.iastate.edu.
Solution structure of a dynein motor domain associated light chain.

Dyneins are molecular motors that translocate towards the minus ends of microtubules. In Chlamydomonas flagellar outer arm dynein, light chain 1 (LC1) associates with the nucleotide binding region within the γ heavy chain motor domain and consists of a central leucine-rich repeat section that folds as a cylindrical right handed spiral formed from six β-β-α motifs. This central cylinder is flanked by terminal helical subdomains. The C-terminal helical domain juts out from the cylinder and is adjacent to a hydrophobic surface within the repeat region that is proposed to interact with the dynein heavy chain. The position of the C-terminal domain on LC1 and the unexpected structural similarity between LC1 and U2A′ from the human spliceosome suggest that this domain interacts with the dynein motor domain.
Electron irradiation of Cu3Au

Abstract Ordered and disordered Cu3Au were irradiated with 1 MeV and 1.5 MeV electrons at low temperature, and subsequent isochronal annealings were obtained at different pulse times from 30°K to 450°K. The initial resistivity increase per incident electron for the ordered specimens was about one-half that for the disordered specimens, suggesting that no significant radiation disordering takes place in the ordered polycrystalline samples. Irradiation with 1 MeV electrons of disordered specimens induces four annealing stages at the approximate temperatures of 90°K, 130°K, 330°K and 410°K. A disordered specimen, following irradiation with 1.5 MeV electrons, exhibits all four of these stages and, in addition, two more at 55°K and 190°K. These latter stages are attributed to the annealing of Au interstitials because 1.5 MeV is a sufficient electron energy to produce them but 1 MeV is not. In contrast, the ordered Cu3Au exhibits only three stages, at 75°K, 240°K and 410°K, for both 1 MeV and 1.5 MeV irradiatio...
Studies on the Electron Transfer System LXV. FORMATION OF MEMBRANES BY PURIFIED CYTOCHROME OXIDASE

Abstract Purified preparations of cytochrome oxidase solubilized in bile acid exhibit random aggregations of subunit particles of about 50 and 100 A in diameter. When the bile acids are removed, the subunit particles organize into vesicular membranes. Removal of phospholipid from cytochrome oxidase eliminates the capacity of the subunits to organize into vesicles. This capacity is restored by adding back mitochondrial phospholipid to the lipid-depleted particles.
Alkenone Paleotemperature Determinations

The alkenone paleotemperature (‘U k 37 ’) method, which relies on determining the unsaturation index of biomarker compounds produced by one group of closely related haptophyte algae, is now widely used to reconstruct near-surface ocean temperatures on timescales ranging from a few centuries to millions of years. In comparison with other methods of paleotemperature estimation, the alkenone method is rapid and extremely precise and appears to obey a global relationship to sea surface temperature (SST). This does not mean that the ecological and physiological complexities of the alkenone-producing organisms may not intrude in some cases on the application of U k 37 to derive past SST or that the results of alkenone paleotemperature reconstructions agree to the stated uncertainties with other paleotemperature proxies. Nevertheless, the alkenone method has proven remarkably successful at generating regionally consistent, physically plausible pictures of past SST change at all timescales and appears to have a reliable place in the toolkit of paleoclimatologists.
Reduction of Detyrosinated Microtubules and Golgi Fragmentation Are Linked to Tau-Induced Degeneration in Astrocytes

Several human neurodegenerative diseases are associated with abnormal accumulations of aggregated tau proteins and glial degeneration in astrocytes, but the mechanism whereby tau proteins cause astrocytic degeneration is unclear. Here, we analyzed the biological consequences of overexpressing the longest human tau isoform in primary cultures of rat astrocytes using adenoviral-mediated gene transfer. Significantly, we found specific decreases in stable detyrosinated [glutamate (Glu)] microtubules (MTs) with concomitant increases in tubulin biosynthesis and the accumulation of acetylated, tyrosinated, α- and β-tubulin. The consequences of this selective reduction in stable Glu-MTs included contemporaneous decreases in kinesin levels, collapse of the intermediate filament network, progressive disruption of kinesin-dependent trafficking of organelles, fragmentation of the Golgi apparatus that culminated in atrophy, and non-apoptotic death of astrocytes. These results suggest that reduced stable Glu-MTs is a primary consequence of tau accumulation that initiates mechanisms underlying astrocyte dysfunction and death in human neurodegenerative glial tauopathies.
Training Second-Order Recurrent Neural Networks using Hints

We investigate a method for inserting rules into discrete-time second-order recurrent neural networks which are trained to recognize regular languages. The rules defining regular languages can be expressed in the form of transitions in the corresponding deterministic finite-state automaton. Inserting these rules as hints into networks with second-order connections is straightforward. Our simulation results show that even weak hints seem to improve the convergence time by an order of magnitude.
Striving for perfection and falling short: The influence of goals on probability matching.

Probability matching in sequential prediction tasks is argued to occur because participants implicitly adopt the unrealistic goal of perfect prediction of sequences. Biases in the understanding of randomness then lead them to generate mixed rather than pure sequences of predictions in attempting to achieve this goal. In Study 1, N = 350 participants predicted 100 trials of a binary‐outcome event. Two factors were manipulated: probability bias (the outcomes were equiprobable or distributed with a 75 %–25 % bias), and goal type—namely, whether single-trial predictions or the perfect prediction of four‐trial sequences was emphasized and rewarded. As we hypothesized, predicting sequences led to more probability-matching behavior than did predicting single trials, for both the bias and no-bias conditions. In Study 1B, we added a control condition to distinguish the effects of the grouped presentation of trials from the effects of sequence-level perfect-prediction rewards. The results supported goal type rather than presentation format as the cause of the Study 1 differences in matching between the sequence and single-trial conditions. In Study 2, all participants (N = 300) predicted the outcomes for five-trial sequences, but with different goal levels being rewarded: 60 %, 80 %, or 100 % correct predictions. The 100 % goal resulted in the most probability matching, as hypothesized. Paradoxically, using the inferior strategy of probability matching may be triggered by adopting an unrealistic perfect-prediction goal.
Initial Results In Using de Novo Motif Inference to Detect Cis-Regulatory Modules

In this work, we extend GAMI, a de novo motif inference system, to find sets of motifs that may function as part of a cis-regulatory module (CRM). Evidence suggests that most transcription factors in humans are part of a CRM, so this approach is expected to yield stronger candidates for de novo inference of candidate regulatory elements.
Buckets of Ash Track Tephra Flux From Halema'uma'u Crater, Hawai'i

The 2008–2009 eruption at Kīlauea Volcano's summit made news because of its eight small discrete explosive eruptions and noxious volcanic smog (vog) created from outgassing sulfur dioxide. Less appreciated is the ongoing, weak, but continuous output of tephra, primarily ash, from the new open vent in Halema'uma'u Crater. This tephra holds clues to processes causing the eruption and forming the new crater-in-a-crater, and its flux is important to hazard evaluations. The setting of the vent–easily accessible from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)—is unusually favorable for neardaily tracking of tephra mass flux during this small prolonged basaltic eruption. Recognizing this, scientists from HVO are collecting ash and documenting how ejection masses, components, and chemical compositions vary through time.
PREFERENCES FOR STATE TAX AND SPENDING POLICIES: EVIDENCE FROM SURVEY DATA ON THE ROLE OF INCOME

Employing a commonly-used method of creating a continuous income variable from categorical data, we obtain results from a fiscal survey that reveal a strong nonmonotonic effect of income on the willingness to pay additional taxes for state expenditures on education and public aid. The existence of income-demand schedules that are U- or inverted U-shaped casts doubt on the appropriateness of assuming that the median income voter is decisive. After investigating the sensitivity of our results to different income measures, we suggest that fiscal surveys should be designed to provide sufficiently detailed information about respondents’incomes, especially for high-income respondents.
Gut and Adipocyte Peptides

This is the third in a series of articles on presentations at the American Diabetes Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, 10–14 June 2005. Daniel Drucker (Toronto, Canada) reviewed evidence that the incretin effect, the phenomenon of enteral glucose loading increasing the insulin secretory response to an increase in blood glucose, is reduced in type 2 diabetes, and that the incretin glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 may ameliorate this defect. The major limitation to use of GLP-1 in clinical treatment is its rapid clearance by the enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-IV. GLP-1 stimulates insulin secretion, inhibits glucagon secretion, and delays gastric emptying. Loss-of-function studies with a mouse model not expressing the GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R−/−), and with the GLP-1R antagonist exendin-(9-39), show effects of GLP-1 on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the reproductive system, the portal glucose receptor, gastric motility, and a number of other potential targets. GLP-1R−/− mice have normal insulin sensitivity, arguing against an effect of the system on insulin action, but have glucose intolerance, and administration of exendin-(9-39) similarly is associated with glucose intolerance in mice, in primates, and in humans. Drucker noted that there is controversy as to whether the product of DPP-IV degradation may act at a second GLP-1R, perhaps having additional effects on metabolism, but that GLP-1 does not lower glucose levels in GLP-1R−/− mice, arguing against such a receptor. In the model, pancreatic insulin mRNA levels are reduced and somatostatin mRNA levels are increased. The perfused pancreas isolated from GLP-1R−/− animals shows normal insulin response to glucose, although without response to GLP-1. GLP-1R−/− β-cells appear to have increased sensitivity to the incretin glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), perhaps representing an adaptive upregulation of GIP and/or of GIP response, and mice neither expressing the GLP-1 nor the GIP receptor show glucose intolerance with decreased insulin …
Charge transport in polymeric transistors

Polymeric semiconductors have attracted much attention because of their possible use as active materials in printed electronics. Thin-film transistors (TFTs) are a convenient tool for studying charge-transport physics in conjugated polymers. Two families of materials are reviewed here: fluorene copolymers and polythiophenes. Because charge transport is highly anisotropic in molecular conductors, the electrical properties of conjugated polymers are strongly dependent on microstructure. Molecular weight, polydispersity, and regioregularity all affect morphology and charge-transport in these materials. Charge transport models based on microstructure are instrumental in identifying the electrical bottlenecks in these materials.
Was I Entitled or Should I Apologize? Affirmative Action Going Forward

As a U.S. civil rights policy, affirmative action commonly denotes race-conscious and result-oriented efforts by private and public officials to correct the unequal distribution of economic opportunity and education attributed to slavery, segregation, poverty and racism. Opponents argue that affirmative action (1) violates ideals of color-blind public policies, offending moral principles of fairness and constitutional principles of equality and due process; (2) has proven to be socially and politically divisive; (3) has not made things better; (4) mainly benefits middle-class, wealthy and foreign-born blacks; (4) stigmatizes its beneficiaries; and (5) compromises the self-esteem and self-respect of beneficiaries who know that they have been awarded preferential treatment. By way of a thought experiment, imagine that after decades of public policy and experimentation, the United States public finally came to agree: affirmative action is morally and legally wrong. Employing such a thought experiment, this essay by a beneficiary of affirmative action—written in response to James Sterba’s Affirmative Action for the Future (2009)—examines duties of moral repair and the possibility that the past beneficiaries of affirmative action owe apologies, compensation or some other highly personal form of corrective accountability. Beneficiaries of affirmative action have experienced woundedness and moral insecurity. Indeed, the practice of affirmative action comes with a psychology, a set of psychological benefits and burdens whose moral logic those of us who believe in our own fallibility—as much as we believe in the justice of what we have received and conferred on others—should address.