cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Metal-molecule-semiconductor heterostructures for nano-device applications

The key challenge for molecular devices is the nature of the microscopic contacts to the active molecules and the need to develop well-controlled interfaces in order to achieve stable low-resistance contacts. When compared to metals, semiconductor contacts can be engineered more controllably and are more practical for device applications. In addition to the molecular energy levels, the energy bands of the semiconductor contact give us an extra degree of freedom for enhanced device functionality. The focus of the present work is on metal-molecule-semiconductor heterostructures in a Au/molecule/GaAs configuration. To begin with, stable monolayers of alkane-monothiols, alkane-dithiols and aromatic-dithiols on heavily doped p-type GaAs were self-assembled. A chemical etching procedure was used to overcome the oxidation of the GaAs surface during SAM formation. FTIR spectra indicate the formation of uniform and crystalline monolayers. Ellipsometry measurements give layer thicknesses that are consistent with calculations. A low-energy indirect path technique is used to evaporate Au on the molecular layer without damaging or penetrating it. I-V measurements on the Au/molecule/GaAs devices indicate a substantial increase in conductivity due to the presence of the molecular layer, which can be treated as a leaky dielectric. The results are consistent with the presence of molecular dipole moments at the interface.
Theories of Organizations: Form, Process, and Transformation

The article reviews the book “Theories of Organizations: Form, Process, and Transformation,” by Jerald Hage.
Antiviral treatment of calves persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhoea virus.

Background:Animals persistently infected (PI) with bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) are a key source of viral propagation within and among herds. Currently, no specific therapy exists to treat PI animals. The purpose of this research was to initiate evaluation of the pharmacokinetic and safety data of a novel antiviral agent in BVDV-free calves and to assess the antiviral efficacy of the same agent in PI calves.Methods:One BVDV-free calf was treated with 2-(2-benzimidazolyl)-5-[4-(2-imidazolino)phenyl]furan dihydrochloride (DB772) once at a dose of 1.6 mg/kg intravenously and one BVDV-free calf was treated three times a day for 6 days at 9.5 mg/kg intravenously. Subsequently, four PI calves were treated intravenously with 12 mg/kg DB772 three times a day for 6 days and two PI control calves were treated with an equivalent volume of diluent only.Results:Prior to antiviral treatment, the virus isolated from each calf was susceptible to DB772 in vitro. The antiviral treatment effectively inhibited virus f...
Modelling and imaging cardiac repolarization abnormalities

Repolarization abnormalities, including those induced by the congenital or acquired long QT (LQT) syndrome, provide a substrate for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. In this article, we use computational biology to link HERG mutations mechanistically to the resulting abnormalities of the whole-cell action potential. We study how the kinetic properties of I(Ks) (the slow delayed rectifier) that are conferred by molecular subunit interactions, facilitate its role in repolarization and 'repolarization reserve'. A new noninvasive imaging modality (electrocardiographic imaging) is shown to image cardiac repolarization on the epicardial surface, suggesting its possible role in risk stratification, diagnosis and treatment of LQT syndrome.
AN OUTER MEMBRANE PROTEIN OF NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS GROUP B RESPONSIBLE FOR SEROTYPE SPECIFICITY

Meningococcal groups B and C have been subdivided into a series of serotypes based upon the antigenic specificity of protein serotype antigens (STA). The purpose of these studies was to obtain the STA by gentle methods and determine its anatomic location in the meningococcal cell. The STA was extracted from group B meningococcal strains by either 0.2 M LiCl or 0.2 M CaCl2 and isolated from the extracts by gel filtration on Sepharose 6B or by pelleting the STA by centrifugation at 100,000 g. The isolated STA was a lipoprotein-lipopolysaccharide complex with a mol wt of approximately 4 x 106 daltons. Antisera prepared against the type 2 STA were bactericidal only for homologous serotype strains. The STA proved to be a constituent of the outer membrane of the cell envelope. This was shown by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) of the isolated outer membrane and of the purified STA. The type 2 STA complex contains three principal proteins, one of which is predominant with a mol wt of 41,000 daltons. The type 2 STA was dissociated by Triton X-100 and separated by sucrose gradient isodensity centrifugation into two peaks. The denser peak (ρ = 1.26 g/cm3) contained the majority of the 41,000 dalton major outer membrane protein as shown by SDS-PAGE. This peak also contained the type 2 antigenic determinant. Thus the major outer membrane protein, extracted as part of a lipoprotein-lipopolysaccharide complex, contains the type 2 STA determinant.
Variational learning of clusters of undercomplete nonsymmetric independent components

We apply a variational method to automatically determine the number of mixtures of independent components in high-dimensional datasets, in which the sources may be nonsymmetrically distributed. The data are modeled by clusters where each cluster is described as a linear mixture of independent factors. The variational Bayesian method yields an accurate density model for the observed data without overfitting problems. This allows the dimensionality of the data to be identified for each cluster. The new method was successfully applied to a difficult real-world medical dataset for diagnosing glaucoma.
Vertex field verification in the treatment of central nervous system neoplasms.

Abstract Increasing sophistication of computerized brain tumor treatment plans has enabled clinicians to devise increasingly complex field combinations to spare as much normal brain tissue as possible. These treatment plans often call for the use of a vertex field. This report describes a simple, useful technique for the verification of the vertex (or any non-coplanar) field on the treatment machine—a procedure that is impossible with conventional port film techniques.
Monte Carlo determination of the oscillator strength and excited state lifetime for the Li 22S → 22P transition

A recently developed Monte Carlo method is used to compute the 22S → 22P transition dipole moment of Li. This approach employs a guided Metropolis random walk with quantum Monte Carlo “side” walks to sample the required probability distributions. The transition dipole moment is employed to obtain the oscillator strength and excited-state lifetime. Our most accurately converged calculations yield an oscillator strength of 0.742(7) and excited-state lifetime of 27.41(35) ns. These results are in excellent agreement with precise experimental measurements of 0.742(1) and 27.29(4) ns, respectively. In addition, single-state expectation values are computed for both states. Monte Carlo parameters, such as the time step size and the convergence time, are varied in order to study their effect on computed results.
A study of a Troodon egg containing embryonic remains using epifluorescence microscopy and other techniques

Abstract A partial egg containing embryonic skeletal elements represents the first Troodon egg collected from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Judith River Formation of central Montana. The egg fragment contains disarticulated bones, including a vertebral centrum and a single tooth. Histological sections of a limb bone reveal six to eight layers of vascular canals, profuse vascular space, abundant osteocytes, and evidence of initial osteonal development. Histologically, the embryonic skeletal elements represent an earlier ontogenetic stage than similar bones in a Troodon egg from the contemporaneous Two Medicine Formation in Montana. The 1-mm-thick eggshell consists of mammillary, prismatic, and external layers. The external layer fluoresces brightly when viewed by epifluorescence and cathodoluminescence microscopy; however, this color intensity does not extend into the underlying prismatic layer, thus indicating a transition occurs between layers 2 and 3. The presence of three structural layers in Troodon may indicate a deeper origin of an external layer within non-avian theropods. Although commonly used in the study of carbonates, epifluorescence microscopy is rarely employed in the study of fossil eggs. This technique offers several advantages over cathodoluminescence analysis, including minimal sample preparation, lower cost, and greater structural definition of some features. Therefore, epifluorescence could be beneficial to future studies of fossil specimens.
Differences in Our Sensory Worlds Invalid Comparisons With Labeled Scales

People use intensity descriptors to compare sensory differences: “This tastes strong to me; is it strong to you?” These comparisons are deceptive because they assume that intensity descriptors like strong denote the same absolute perceived intensities to everyone. This assumption is false. Visual-analogue and category scales are labeled with intensity descriptors, and whenever there are systematic differences across groups in the absolute perceived intensity denoted by these descriptors, across-group comparisons will be invalid. We have explored this problem using studies of taste perception. When intensity descriptors are falsely assumed to have universal meaning, real differences can be blunted, abolished, or reversed. One solution to this problem is to express sensations of interest relative to an unrelated standard; any variation in this standard will be equivalent across groups, allowing valid group comparisons. The importance of detecting and correcting these measurement errors is not limited to sen...
Subordinate male cichlids retain reproductive competence during social suppression

￻￻ ￻ Subordinate males, which are excluded from reproduction often save energy by reducing their investment in sperm production. However, if their position in a dominance hierarchy changes suddenly they should also rapidly attain fertilization capability. Here, we asked how social suppression and ascension to dominance influences sperm quality, spermatogenesis and reproductive competence in the cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni, where reproduction is tightly coupled to social status. Dominant territorial (T) males are reproductively active while subordinate non-territorial (NT) males are suppressed, but given the opportunity, NT males will perform dominance behaviours within minutes and attain T male testes size within days. Using the thymidine analogue 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) to label germ cell proliferation, we found that the spermatogenic cycle takes approximately 11‐12 days, and social status had no effect on proliferation, suggesting that spermatogenesis continues during reproductive suppression. Although sperm velocity did not differ among social states, NT males had reduced sperm motility. Remarkably, males ascending in status showed sperm motility equivalent to T males within 24 h. Males also successfully reproduced within hours of social opportunity, despite four to five weeks of suppression and reduced testis size. Our data suggest that NT males maintain reproductive potential during suppression possibly as a strategy to rapidly improve reproductive fitness upon social opportunity.
The relationship of insulin response to a glucose stimulus over a wide range of glucose tolerance

Oral glucose (75 g) tolerance tests were performed on 189 urbanized Micronesians with an age range of 15 to 70 years. The subjects were divided into 6 groups on the basis of the 2 h plasma glucose and the pattern of insulin response examined. Fasting plasma insulin levels were not significantly different over the entire range of glucose tolerance. The 2 h plasma insulin levels were highest in the group with 2 h plasma glucose value of 140–199 mg/100 ml. There was a progressive fall in 2 h plasma insulin with increasing glucose intolerance, so that in the group with a 2 h plasma glucose ⩾ 400 mg/100 ml, the 2 h plasma insulin level was significantly less than that in all the other groups. Obesity was the most important factor influencing both fasting and 2 h insulin levels and no effect of corresponding plasma glucose level was demonstrated. In maturity-onset diabetes, a wide range of insulin responses may be seen and the earlier controversy regarding patterns of insulin response has arisen from equating groups of diabetic subjects with varying degrees of glucose intolerance.
Production Control in Multistage Systems with Variable Yield Losses

Many manufacturing processes involved in the fabrication and assembly of "high-tech" components have highly variable yields that complicate the planning and control of production. We develop a procedure to determine optimal input quantities at each stage of a serial production system in which process yields at each stage of production may be stochastic. The procedure is applied to an example in the manufacture of a light-emitting diode LED display using actual yield data. We also provide a brief analysis of the quantifiable savings obtained by reducing the variability of the yield at one production stage.
Privatization success and failure: finance theory and regulation in the transitional economies of Albania and the Czech Republic

This paper examines the transition of economies of Albania and the Czech Republic, noting that their relative failure and success could have been predicted by academic literature. Financial intermediation theory predicted the rise of independently created mutual funds in the Czech Republic, while similar intermediation literature related to monitoring (or the lack thereof) predicted the development of the Ponzi schemes of Albania. These privatization success and failure stories highlight the primary importance of regulation, monitoring and enforcement in economies-in-transition. Lessons learned from privatization in developed countries may therefore not be directly applicable to newly emerging economies, as economies-in-transition do not have the regulatory and legal network in place to prohibit malfeasance. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Incidental findings on cardiac imaging.

AJR:191, September 2008 Their findings raise the question: Should we look for, report, and follow up on incidental findings identifiable during cardiac imaging examinations? According to the findings of Northam et al. and others [7–12], it may seem obvious that we should. More health information is better. Patients and their physicians can decide how to proceed with the additional data identified. For now, let us consider five counterarguments proposed by Budoff et al. [14] to the review of full-FOV data: “(a) > 50% of participants may have at least one noncalcified nodule; (b) the increased costs and radiation exposure associated with the resulting followup CT scans; (c) the cost and the morbidity of follow-up, including further testing, as well as biopsy or resection of benign noncalcified nodules (at least 25% of such procedures in several trials); (d) a small but difficult to quantify potential risk of cancer associated with multiple follow-up CT scans; and (e) a potential for increased anxiety of both the patient and the physician about nonsignificant pathology.” Budoff et al. [14] concluded: “We have reviewed all the relevant literature and sought to determine the potential benefits and harms of specifically overreading CTA for noncardiac pathology. The weight of the evidence suggests that it is most prudent to not specifically reconstruct and re-read CTA scans for lung nodules. If a noncardiac abnormality is visualized by the primary interpreter of the cardiac CT, appropriate referral or follow-up is prudent.” Supporting these conclusions, radiation oncologists Smitt and Mehta [15] found that although incidental findings were identified on 20% of 132 radiation-planning CT scans, only three patients had important previously unknown findings, and only one patient with neck adenopathy had potential outcome benefit from discovery. The findings by Northam et al. [13] balance the compelling arguments made by Budoff et Incidental Findings on Cardiac Imaging
Multiple Intensity Differentiation-Based 3-D Surface Reconstruction With Photometric Stereo Compensation

In photometric stereo technique, multiple images are used to construct surface normal vectors and a 3-D shape is constructed thereafter. Although the lighting model is a rather simple Lambertian model in general, the quality of reconstructed 3-D shapes has been improved significantly. Recently, more general varying BRDF-based 3-D reconstruction, including specularity model is reported to be feasible. In this paper, we discuss a possible improvement in multiple intensity differentiation (MID)-based 3-D shape reconstruction using photometric stereo technique by minimizing shape distortion thus achieving better accuracy. The MID is less sensitive to albedo because of the use of reflectance ratio, but it still produces some degree of distortion due to the sharp surface angles. The main objective is to make the previous MID technique less sensitive to surface angles so that it produces a higher quality 3-D shape. Since photometric stereo does not provide depth values, we use the photometric stereo to compensate the previously obtained 3-D depth values by the MID technique. We review the image ratio method briefly followed by the discussion of surface normal calculation and experimental results.
Adaptive Software Speculation for Enhancing the Cost-Efficiency of Behavior-Oriented Parallelization

Recently, software speculation has shown promising results in parallelizing complex sequential programs by exploiting dynamic high-level parallelism. The speculation however is cost-inefficient. Failed speculations may cause unnecessary shared resource contention, power consumption, and interference to co-running applications. In this work, we propose adaptive speculation and design two algorithms to predict the profitability of a speculation and dynamically disable and enable the speculation of a region. Experimental results demonstrate significant improvement of computation efficiency without performance degradation. The adaptive speculation can also enhance the usability of behavior-oriented parallelization by allowing more flexibility in labeling possibly parallel regions.
Theoretical screening of ionic liquid solvents for carbon capture.

With global warming established as a critical problem, it is extremely important to cut down on emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. Prior to sequestration, it is necessary to separate the CO2 from its emission source, for example, flue gas in a coal-fired power plant. The few coal plants with commercial CO2 capture capability all use processes based on chemical absorption with a monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent. Unfortunately, MEA is a nonselective solvent prone to degradation and equipment corrosion, and mandates large equipment sizes, thereby increasing costs. Ionic liquids (ILs) constitute an alternative solvent system and offer distinct advantages over traditional solvents such as MEA, some of which include: (1) high chemical stability; (2) low corrosion; (3) almost zero vapor pressure (i.e. , “green”) ; (4) supportable on membranes; and (5) a huge library of anion and cation choices, which can be potentially optimized for CO2 solubility and selectivity. Over the last few years several ILs have been experimentally demonstrated to be efficient solvents for CO2. [3–8] This data provides useful trends that can be used to optimize the choice of ILs for CO2 capture. However, each new experiment costs time and money and is often hindered because a specific IL may not be readily available. Thus, it is highly desirable to have a computational/theoretical tool that can quickly and accurately compute CO2 solubility in any solvent (as a function of pressure and temperature). Atomic-level simulations, either molecular dynamics or binding-energy calculations, can provide useful insights into the interactions of CO2 with the cation and the anion. However, an accurate computation of solubility in such complex fluids faces many challenges, including accurate force-field development, clever Monte Carlo moves, and very long simulation times required for good statistical averaging. For a fast exploration, design, and screening of effective solvents it is highly desirable to adopt a general-purpose thermodynamic approach that computes the chemical potential of a solute (CO2 in this case) in any solvent at an arbitrary dilution. A widely used method is the “conductor-like screening model for real solvents” (COSMO-RS), which uses the statistical distribution (histogram) of the surface charge density of individual molecules, called the s profile, to derive an expression for the ensemble-averaged Gibbs free energy of an interacting system of molecules (solute+ solvent at specified mole fractions) in the condensed (liquid) phase. From this a pseudochemical potential (m) of each species (i.e. , the Gibbs free energy per molecule without the mixing entropy contribution) is obtained. If the pseudo-chemical potential of a solute molecule at a temperature T in a solution containing a mole-fraction x of the solute is msolutionACHTUNGTRENNUNG(x, T), and that in the solute’s own liquid environment is mself(T), then assuming ideal mixing law we have under equilibrium (kB=Boltzmann constant):
Direct Measurement of the Nanoscale Mechanical Properties of NiTi Shape Memory Alloy

The mechanical properties of sputter-deposited NiTi shape memory alloy thin films ranging in thickness from 35 nm to 10 µm were examined using nanoindentation and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Indents made in films as thin as 150 nm showed partial shape recovery upon heating, although film thickness was found to have a marked effect on the results. A modified spherical cavity model is used to describe the findings, which suggest that the substrate tends block the shape memory effect as film thickness decreases below a threshold level which is specific to applied load. This has the net effect of decreasing the indent recovery below the critical film thickness. The fact that the spherical cavity model predicts the critical film thickness at which the shape memory effect is blocked indicates that the increased recovery of nanoscale indentations is due to a suppression of plastic processes rather than an enhancement of shape memory
Development of an Intraocular Retinal Prosthesis to Benefit the Visually Impaired

Neural prostheses have been used as treatment for a variety of neurological disorders, motivating engineers and scientists to pursue prostheses for presently incurable human diseases related to the nervous system. A retinal prosthesis is based on the principle of activating nerve cells using a device implanted on the retina. In an intraocular retinal prosthesis, the stimulation device is placed internal to the eye. Retinal prosthesis potentially targets the restoration of vision in persons affected by outer retinal degenerative diseases. The most common diseases are age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP) (1). RP is a collective name for a number of genetic defects that result in photoreceptor loss. RP affects the rods (used in night vision) first and then the cones (used in ambient daylight levels). AMD results from abnormal aging of the retinal pigment epithelium and retina. Persons with AMD will start to have distorted vision and eventually, lose most of the vision in the central 30°. In both the diseases, the vision is impaired because of the damage to the photoreceptors that convert photons to neural signals. Postmortem evaluations of retina with RP or AMD have shown that a large number of cells remain healthy in the inner retina compared with the outer retina (2,3). The inner retina is made up of horizontal, bipolar, amacrine, and ganglion cells. Further, electrical stimulation of humans with RP and AMD results in the perception of light; so the neural cells can be activated, providing the hope of restoring lost vision in blind persons (4). A chronic implant with 16 electrode sites on the retina in three blind patients has yielded promising results (5). After being implanted with the prosthetic device, the patients were able to detect motion of a white bar (up, down, left, or right), detect a rectangular object, count objects, discriminate the orientation of two white bars in an “L” configuration regarding where the corner of the L was positioned, and discriminate between a dessert plate, a coffee cup, and a plastic knife.
Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy in Children With Medulloblastoma: Use and Effect on Tumor Control

PURPOSE: Progress has been made in the treatment of medulloblastoma, the most common childhood malignant brain tumor: However, many long-term survivors will have posttherapy growth hormone insufficiency with resultant linear growth retardation. Growth hormone replacement therapy (GHRT) may significantly improve growth, but there is often reluctance to initiate GHRT because of concerns of an increased likelihood of tumor relapse. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study retrospectively reviewed the use of GHRT for survivors of medulloblastoma in 11 neuro-oncology centers in North America who received initial treatment for disease between 1980 and 1993 to determine its impact on disease control. A Landmark analysis was used to evaluate the relative risk of relapse in surviving patients. RESULTS: Five hundred forty-five consecutive patients less than 15 years of age at diagnosis were identified. Six-year progression-free survival (mean ± SD) was 40% ± 5% in children less than 3 years of age at diagnosis compared wit...
Time-Dependent Reliability Analysis for Bivariate Responses

Time-dependent system reliability is measured by the probability that the responses of a system do not exceed prescribed failure thresholds over a period of time. In this work, an efficient time-dependent reliability analysis method is developed for bivariate responses that are general functions of random variables and stochastic processes. The proposed method is based on single and joint upcrossing rates, which are calculated by the First Order Reliability Method (FORM). The method can efficiently produce accurate upcrossing rates for the systems with two responses. The upcrossing rates can then be used for system reliability predictions with two responses. As the general system reliability may be approximated with the results from reliability analyses for individual responses and bivariate responses, the proposed method can be extended to reliability analysis for general systems with more than two responses. Two examples, including a parallel system and a series system, are presented.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Influence of the Synthesis Method on the Structure and CO2 Adsorption Properties of Ca/Zr Sorbents

The influence of the synthesis method has been investigated on the structure and CO2 adsorption properties of Ca/Zr sorbents. For this purpose, Ca/Zr sorbents are synthesized using co-precipitation, sol–gel, and deposition–precipitation methods and compared to our previously reported Ca/Zr sorbent prepared by the flame spray pyrolysis method. Among the various sorbents, the sorbent synthesized by the sol–gel method exhibits excellent adsorption capacity and remarkable multi-cycle stability compared to the sorbent synthesized by the flame spray pyrolysis synthesis method. This interesting and rather useful behavior was a result of surface properties of the sol–gel-synthesized sorbents. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate that the CaO phase was dominant with respect to the CaZrO3 phase in the case of the Ca/Zr sorbent prepared by the deposition–precipitation method. The opposite trend was observed for the sorbents synthesized by the remaining methods. Temperature-programmed desorption measurements show ...
Characterization of Contact Damping in Elastic-Plastic Contact of Two Nominally Flat Rough Surfaces

Elastic-plastic interaction of a block of rough surface with a rough plane is considered in this paper. The nonlinear normal vibration response of the block is examined when subject to an external compressive load. Free vibration response of the block is studied. The vibration response corresponds to the application of a constant compressive external load and the study yields closed-form equations for the contact damping rate and contact natural frequency. It is shown that vibration decay rate is constant as opposed to the exponential decay rate for the linear vibrating systems. Closed form equations relating contact damping rate and contact natural frequency to the surface parameters are given.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
Variability in paralimbic dopamine signaling correlates with subjective responses to d-amphetamine

Subjective responses to psychostimulants vary, the basis of which is poorly understood, especially in relation to possible cortical contributions. Here, we tested for relationships between participants’ positive subjective responses to oral d-amphetamine (dAMPH) versus placebo and variability in striatal and extrastriatal dopamine (DA) receptor availability and release, measured via positron emission tomography (PET) with the radiotracer 18F-fallypride. Analyses focused on 35 healthy adult participants showing positive subjective effects to dAMPH measured via the Drug Effects Questionnaire (DEQ) Feel, Like, High, and Want More subscales (Responders), and were repeated after inclusion of 11 subjects who lacked subjective responses. Associations between peak DEQ subscale ratings and both baseline 18F-fallypride binding potential (BPnd; an index of D2/D3 receptor availability) and the percentage change in BPnd post dAMPH (%ΔBPnd; a measure of DA release) were assessed. Baseline BPnd in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) predicted the peak level of High reported following dAMPH. Furthermore, %ΔBPnd in vmPFC positively correlated with DEQ Want More ratings. DEQ Want More was also positively correlated with %ΔBPnd in right ventral striatum and left insula. This work indicates that characteristics of DA functioning in vmPFC, a cortical area implicated in subjective valuation, are associated with both subjective high and incentive (wanting) responses. The observation that insula %ΔBPnd was associated with drug wanting converges with evidence suggesting its role in drug craving. These findings highlight the importance of variability in DA signaling in specific paralimbic cortical regions in dAMPH’s subjective response, which may confer risk for abusing psychostimulants.
One Core and Multiple Elements: Structure of Governance Agencies in Chinese Urban Communities from the Perspective of Meta-governance

The building of the structure of governance agencies in Chinese urban communities with Chinese characteristics is the key to ensuring the smooth running of community work. Meta-governance theory suggests that within the pluralistic structure,the government is the only major governance agency. The structure in Chinese urban community governance presents the image of"one core and multiple elements". The"one core"refers to the sole leading center of the Communist Party of China,and the "multiple elements"refer to government as the dominant power,community committees as the key basis,community and social organizations as the dynamic force,local enterprises and public organizations as important support,and local residents as solid foundation. This is in line with the meta-governance theory. Based such theory,and under the party's leadership and guidance from the government,it is possible to achieve coordinated governance by various elements and effectively promote the healthy and orderly development of community governance.
Analysis of Aerodynamic Characteristics of Iced Conductor Based on Fluent

To understand the aerodynamic characteristics of an iced conductor under wind load,the air flow field around the iced conductor was simulated with the software Fluent.The lift coefficient,drag coefficient and torsional coefficient under different attack angles were calculated for the iced conductors with different ice thickness.The influences of ice thickness and wind speed on the aerodynamic parameters of iced conductors were obtained.The results show that the ice thickness exerts significant influence on the drag coefficient,lift coefficient and torsional coefficient.The wind velocity exerts great influence on the drag coefficient,but slight influence on lift coefficient and torsional coefficient.The computation results may facilitate the research of conductor galloping.
Negative Urgency Is Associated With Heightened Negative Affect and Urge During Tobacco Abstinence in Regular Smokers.

Objective:Negative urgency—the tendency to act rashly during negative affective states—is a risk factor for regular cigarette smoking. This human laboratory study tested a novel theoretical model of the underlying mechanisms linking negative urgency and smoking motivation, which purports that smokers with high negative urgency are at increased susceptibility to abstinence-induced increases in negative affect, which, in turn, provokes the urge to smoke to suppress negative affect.Method:Smokers (N = 180, >10 cigarettes/day) attended a baseline session at which they completed self-report measures of negative urgency and other co-factors and subsequently attended two counterbalanced within-subject experimental sessions (i.e., 16 hours of smoking abstinence or smoking as usual). At both experimental sessions, self-reported tobacco withdrawal symptoms, affect, and smoking urge were assessed.Results:Negative urgency was associated with larger abstinence-induced increases in tobacco withdrawal symptoms, negative...
The Only Jewish Bus Driver in San Antonio, Texas

Life, love and radical views of a Jewish twenty-eight year old leftist from New York -- the only white bus driver in San Antonio, Texas.
Association between Off-Peak Hour Birth and Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality among Very Low Birth Weight Infants.

Objective To assess the independent association between overnight or "off-peak" hour delivery and 3 neonatal morbidities strongly associated with childhood neurocognitive impairment. Study design Retrospective population based cohort study of all infants with birth weights of 500-1499 g born without severe congenital anomalies in California or Pennsylvania between 2002 and 2009. Off-peak hour delivery was defined as birth between 12:00 a.m. and 6:59 a.m. The study outcomes were death; bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy of prematurity, and severe (grade 3 or 4) intraventricular hemorrhage among survivors; the composite of each morbidity or mortality; and the composite of death or 1 or more of the evaluated morbidities. Results Of 47 617 evaluated infants, 9317 (19.6%) were born during off-peak hours. The frequencies of all study outcomes were higher among infants born during off-peak compared with peak hours. After adjusting for maternal, infant, and hospital characteristics, off-peak hour delivery was associated with increased odds of severe intraventricular hemorrhage among survivors (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.23-1.57) and the composite outcomes of death or severe intraventricular hemorrhage (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.07-1.25) and death or major morbidity (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.02-1.15). There was no evidence of subgroup effects based on delivery mode, birth hospital neonatal intensive care level or annual very low birth weight infant delivery volume, or weekday vs weekend off-peak hour delivery for any study outcome. Conclusions Very low birth weight infants born between midnight and 7:00 a.m. are at increased risk for severe intraventricular hemorrhage and death or major neonatal morbidity.
Bernhard Riemann and His Work

This chapter attempts to give a brief summary of the life and work of Riemann. It tries to address the following issues: the influence of his education and early life on his work, and a summary of his major works and an overview of his work, and the general impact of his work through the concepts and terminology named after him.
Hedge Fund Governance: Evaluating Oversight, Independence, and Conflicts

1. Greg N. Gregoriou 1. is professor of finance at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh, NY, and a lecturer in finance in the Department of Continuing Studies at McGill University in Montreal, QC, Canada. (greg.gregoriou{at}plattsburgh.edu) 1. To order reprints of
RITUAL, RELIGION, AND IDEOLOGY

Critical attention in archaeology towards the terms ritual, religion, and ideology encourages nuanced, in-depth analyses of the form and variability of religious activity in the past. Further, traditionally situated in a few narrow avenues, recent studies have increased the breadth of inquiry to include multiple dimensions of practice in the past. Many archaeologists, recognizing that religion permeates all aspects of human life have extended their historic and prehistoric investigations to include not merely death, burial, cult activity, rock art and ceremonial sites, but also the experience and construction of the landscape and domestic environments, the active role of material culture, as well as gender, and the human body.
Dosage regimen adjustments in renal impairment.

A pharmacokinetic approach based on creatinine clearance has been outlined which permits drug dosage regimen adjustments in patients with renal impairment. The parameters needed for calculating a loading dose and a maintenance regimen are the fraction of a dose excreted unchanged in the urine, the creatinine clearance of the patient, and the half-life of the drug in patients with normal renal function. In varying degrees of renal failure, predicted dosage regimens agree closely with dosage regimens predicted by other methods for a number of drugs.
Planejamento estratégico como ferramenta de gestão no ensino superior: estudo de caso na Faculdade La Salle de Lucas do Rio Verde-MT

The Private Higher Education Institutions are in a growth environment, so wide competition. On the other hand, have significant difference from the other lines of business, as are owners of invested capital to manage the activity, but not in possession of the product that 'market', education. So this study aimed to analyze the Strategic Planning (PE) as a management tool able to support the administration of the School of La Salle Lucas do Rio Verde in decision making. Specifically sought to: a) to discuss the outcome of the implementation of Parliament's year 2012; b) Check the strategies obtained through the four perspectives of the BSC adopted by the management group for the year 2013. For this purpose, study design opted for a qualitative, descriptive and documentary, and the PE subject matter of IES 2012 and 2013. The main results indicate that since the implementation of PE as a management tool the institution grew and strengthened in the market. It was found that the EP has enabled a broad view of its strengths and weaknesses, where it became possible to improve and implement some projects and processes, which provided improvements to the IES.
Tolerance of Seashore Paspalum Cultivars to Preemergence Herbicides

Abstract The efficacy of preemergence herbicides among seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Swartz) cultivars used for summer annual weed control is limited. No differences were found in turfgrass...
The Catechumenate and the Rise of Christianity

Over the past two centuries historians of Christianity have offered various theories concerning why and how the early Christian movement took root and flourished in the Greco-Roman world, which was...
Quasi-Specular Scattering from the Air-Sea Interface

Scattering of electromagnetic energy by an arbitrarily roughened surface comprises a very difficult boundary value problem (Beckmann and Spizzichino, 1963; Bass and Fuch, 1978; Desanto and Brown, 1986). When the surface shape changes with both time and space, this further complicates matters. Even describing the scattering as a random process does not simplify the analysis too much and the use of numerical methods has not proven to be very useful either. This state of affairs leads to a great deal of emphasis on approximate analysis methods to yield both quantitative predictions and physical insight (Bass, et al., 1968; Valenzuela, 1978; Brown, 1985). Chapters 11 and 12 both illustrate approximate scattering methodologies and this chapter comprises yet another, namely the quasi-specular scattering approximation.
Determination of Antibody Specificity by Western Blotting

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the role of Western Blotting in determining antibody specificity. The procedure is illustrated using whole protein extracts obtained from non-cultured human keratinocytes and the bladder TCC cell line RT4. Proteins are separated by two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis blotted to a nitrocellulose membrane, and developed using the HRP color development reagent and/or the ECL procedure. Place the wet nitrocellulose membrane on top of the gel. The operation should be done under the buffer. Rub the membrane from one end to the other to eliminate bubbles. Primary antibodies should be diluted to a volume of 8 ml. The dilution should be optimized in preliminary experiments for the best results in terms of high signal and low background. Cut the appropriate area of the blot with a scalpel using the X-ray film as reference and wet by capillarity in the skimmed milk solution. Incubate with shaking for 1 h at room temperature or overnight in the cold room in the same solution.
New genetic algorithms (GA) to optimize PWR reactors: Part I: Loading pattern and burnable poison placement optimization techniques for PWRs

Abstract The objective of this study was to develop a unique scientific methodology as well as a practical tool for designing the loading pattern (LP) and burnable poison (BP) pattern for a given Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) core. Because of the large number of possible combinations for the fuel assembly (FA) loading in the core, the design of the core configuration is a complex optimization problem. It requires finding an optimal FA arrangement and corresponding BP placement design that will achieve maximum cycle length while satisfying the safety constraints. To solve this optimization problem, a core reload optimization package, GARCO (Genetic Algorithm Reactor Code Optimization) code is developed. This code is applicable for all types of PWR cores having different geometries and designs with an unlimited number of FA types in the inventory. GARCO has three modes: the user can optimize the core configuration (LP pattern) with or without BPs in the first mode; the second mode is the optimization of BP placement in the core and the last mode is the user can optimize LP and BP placements simultaneously in mode 3. In this study, the first mode finds the optimal LPs using the Haling Power Depletion Method (HPD) for placing BPs in the core. The second mode, which depletes the core accurately, places BPs in the selected optimum LP pattern. This methodology is applied only to the TMI-1 PWR. However, the improved Mode 1 GA option was applied to both the VVER-1000 and the TMI-1 to demonstrate and verify the advantages of the new enhancements in optimizing the LP pattern only. The “Moby-Dick” code is used as reactor physics code for VVER-1000 analysis in this research. The SIMULATE-3 code, which is an advanced two-group nodal code, is used to analyze the TMI-1. The libraries of the BP designs used in SIMULATE-3 in this study were produced by Yilmaz (2005) [Yilmaz, S., 2005. Multilevel optimization of burnable poison utilization for advanced PWR fuel management. Ph.D. Thesis in Nuclear Engineering. the Pennsylvania State University].
Detection of Early Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease is the major health burden worldwide in the 21st century. Health care expenditures are overwhelming our national budget and corporate budgets, predominantly because of the escalating costs of care of advanced disease. Most attempts to identify individuals at risk for cardiovascular morbid events have involved screening for risk factors that are statistically associated with future cardiac and cerebrovascular events. This approach has resulted in several risk factor assessment scales that can identify groups with higher risk. These traditional risk factors do not appear to be useful in stratifying the severity of disease in individual patients. The goal for identifying a marker or markers for early cardiovascular disease that could serve as a surrogate for disease progression and ultimate morbid events is to improve the precision for early detection and treatment. Screening tests to identify early vascular and cardiac functional and structural abnormalities identify a high prevalence of abnormalities in asymptomatic individuals without clear-cut risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Biodiversity, Health Implications of

Biodiversity is vanishing from the Earth at a pace not seen since 65 million years ago, when an asteroid strike killed off 50% of all life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. Rapid biodiversity loss carries extensive consequences for human health. This article surveys key topics that highlight how human health depends on biodiversity including medicines from natural products, ecosystem services, the role of model organisms in biomedical research, and the ecology of infectious disease.
Microbiomic differences at cancer-prone oral mucosa sites with marijuana usage

Marijuana smoke contains cannabinoids, immunosuppressants, and a mixture of potentially-mutagenic chemicals. In addition to systemic disease, it is thought to contribute to oral disease, such as tooth loss, tissue changes in the gums and throat, and possibly oral pharyngeal cancer. We used a cross-sectional study of 20 marijuana users and 19 control non-users, to determine if chronic inhalation-based exposure to marijuana was associated with a distinct oral microbiota at the two most common sites of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the lateral border of the tongue and the oral pharynx. At the tongue site, genera earlier shown to be enriched on HNSCC mucosa, Capnocytophaga, Fusobacterium, and Porphyromonas, were at low levels in marijuana users, while Rothia, which is found at depressed levels on HNSCC mucosa, was high. At the oral pharynx site, differences in bacteria were distinct, with higher levels of Selenomonas and lower levels of Streptococcus which is what is seen in HNSCC. No evidence was seen for a contribution of marijuana product contaminating bacteria to these differences. This study revealed differences in the surface oral mucosal microbiota with frequent smoking of marijuana.
Quasi-Dynamic Domain Modeling of Line-Commutated Converters with the Analytical Approach

Line-commutated converters (LCCs) are significant components of conventional high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems and distributed energy resources. Various simulation methods have been developed to model LCCs under different operational conditions. To alleviate the computational burden and realize real-time simulation, the dynamic phasor model based on generalized averaging method was established for LCCs. However, the complexity of the analytical switching function limits the flexibility of utilizing the model in different situation and there is room for improvement on accuracy. This paper derives a more accurate expression for current switching function and a more extensive expression for voltage switching function for LCC modeling. The model is developed in quasi-dynamic domain and is transformed into an algebraic quadratic companion form. A simple example system is utilized to show the accuracy of the model and a large example system is utilized to demonstrate the performance of the model under transient conditions.