cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Neoproterozoic glaciation on a carbonate platform margin in Arctic Alaska and the origin of the North Slope subterrane

The rotation model for the opening of the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean predicts stratigraphic links between the Alaskan North Slope and the Canadian Arctic islands. The Katakturuk Dolomite is a 2080-m-thick Neo protero zoic carbonate succession exposed in the northeastern Brooks Range of Arctic Alaska. These strata have previously been correlated with the pre– 723 Ma Shaler Supergroup of the Amundson Basin. Herein we report new composite δ 13 C profi les and detrital zircon ages that test this connection. We go further and use stratigraphic markers and a compilation of δ 13 C chemostratigraphy from around the world, tied to U-Pb ages, to derive an age model for deposition of the Katakturuk Dolomite. In particular, we report the identifi cation of ca. 760 Ma detrital zircons in strata underlying the Katakturuk Dolomite. Moreover, a diamictite present at the base of the Katakturuk Dolomite is capped by a dark-colored limestone with peculiar roll-up structures. Chemostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy suggest this is an earlyCryogenian glacial diamictite-cap carbonate couplet and that deposition of the Katakturuk Dolomite spanned much of the late Neoproterozoic. Approximately 500 m above the diamictite, a micropeloidal dolomite, with idiosyncratic textures that are characteristic of basal Ediacaran cap carbonates, such as tubestone stromatolites, giant wave ripples, and decameters of pseudo morphosed former aragonite crystal fans, rests on a silicifi ed surface. Chemostratigraphic correlations also indicate a large increase in sedimentation rate in the upper ~1 km of the Katakturuk Dolomite and in the overlying lower Nanook Limestone. We suggest that the accompanying increase in accommodation space, along with the presence of two low-angle unconformities within these strata, are the product of late Ediacaran rifting along the southern margin of the North Slope subterrane. There are no strata present in the Amundson Basin that are potentially correlative with the late Neoproterozoic Katakturuk Dolomite, as the Cambrian Saline River Formation rests on the ca. 723 Ma Natkusiak Formation. Detrital zircon geochronology, chemostratigraphic correlations, and the style of sedimentation are inconsistent with both a Canadian Arctic origin of the North Slope subterrane and a simple rotation model for the origin of the Arctic Ocean. If the rotation model is to be retained, the exotic North Slope subterrane must have accreted to northwest Laurentia in the Early to Middle Devonian.
Polarization properties of transmission and diffraction in BSO—a unified analysis

The evolution of polarization in holographically coupled beams traversing bismuth silicon oxide (BSO) in the E⊥(1¯10) configuration is analyzed. The phenomena of electrical birefringence, optical activity, and holographic diffraction are taken into account in a unified and exact manner. The holographic grating is assumed to be static and to be created uniformly in a prior step. Formulas are derived that readily describe quantitatively the amplitudes, azimuth, and ellipticity of the polarization at any depth in the crystal. This analysis extends the research of others [ J. Opt. Soc. Am. B3, 321 ( 1986);J. Opt. Soc. Am. A4, 325 ( 1987)]. Relevant literature is reviewed. Simple examples of applications are presented, as well as experimental work relating to parameter quantification.
Latency-Minimized Delivery for Multi-Resolution Mesh Geometry

Three-dimensional (3D) meshes are used intensively in distributed graphics applications where model data is transmitted on demand to users’ terminals and rendered for interactive manipulation. This paper presents a transmission system for such applications with an objective of minimizing the latency between the user input and the response. In particular, we represent 3D models by multiple resolutions to allow fast and scalable rendering, and provide them with unequal error protection and/or retransmission when sending the data over a lossy link. The transmission policies are determined adaptive to environment variables and in linear computation time. Simulation results show that the proposed transmission system achieves 20-30% reduction on delivering latency compared to the state-of-the-art approach in the literature.
Adiabatic Dynamics of Local Spin Moments in Itinerant Magnets

Using the adiabatic approximation, we derive the equations of motion for local spin moments which are valid for itinerant as well as tight-binding spins. Material parameters in the equations of motion can be obtained using standard density functional methods, because they depend only on the energy and Berry phase of the constrained ground state of frozen spin configurations. For the calculation of spin waves in a collinear magnet, it is sufficient to know the quadratic forms of total energy and spin component along the symmetry axis as functions of the spin deviations from the ground state configuration. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}
Fluid mechanical valving of air flow in bird lungs

The unidirectional flow through the gas-exchanging bronchi of bird lungs is known to be effected by (1) the structure of the major bronchi and (2) a pressure difference between the cranial and caudal air sacs. To study the effects of bronchial structure, simple physical models of bird lungs were constructed. They suggested that, to achieve unidirectional flow, air in the caudal portion of the primary bronchus must be directed towards the orifices of the mediodorsal bronchi. To study the effect of air sac pressures, a controllable pressure difference was produced between the air sac orifices of fixed duck lungs. The cranial orifices had a higher pressure than the caudal ones during inhalation and vice versa during exhalation. There was a set of pressure differences for which the paleopulmo received the same flow rate during inhalation as during exhalation. High pressure differences caused more flow in the paleopulmo during exhalation than during inhalation; low pressure differences had the converse effect.
Transplacental thyroxine and fetal brain development

We all know that thyroid hormone is essential for normal brain development, so it is perhaps not surprising to read the title of the report by Lavado-Autric et al. in this issue of the JCI (1), indicating that thyroid hormone affects brain development in the rat. However, the article addresses two matters that are central to an ongoing debate about important details of thyroid hormone action in the developing brain. Lavado-Autric et al. (1) report that subtle insufficiency of thyroid hormone in the pregnant rat disrupts the migration of neurons in the fetal cortex and hippocampus, leading to the presence of neurons in aberrant locations of the adult offspring’s brain and “blurring” cortical layers. Thus, the two important issues addressed in the design of this work are the timing of thyroid hormone action in the developing brain and the relative sensitivity of the fetal brain to maternal thyroid hormone insufficiency. Considering that maternal hypothyroxinemia may be 150–200 times more prevalent than congenital hypothyroidism (CH), several authors have recently speculated that screening for thyroid function should be routine for women early in their pregnancy (2) or for nonpregnant women of reproductive age.
Automatic online news monitoring and classification for syndromic surveillance

Syndromic surveillance can play an important role in protecting the public's health against infectious diseases. Infectious disease outbreaks can have a devastating effect on society as well as the economy, and global awareness is therefore critical to protecting against major outbreaks. By monitoring online news sources and developing an accurate news classification system for syndromic surveillance, public health personnel can be apprised of outbreaks and potential outbreak situations. In this study, we have developed a framework for automatic online news monitoring and classification for syndromic surveillance. The framework is unique and none of the techniques adopted in this study have been previously used in the context of syndromic surveillance on infectious diseases. In recent classification experiments, we compared the performance of different feature subsets on different machine learning algorithms. The results showed that the combined feature subsets including Bag of Words, Noun Phrases, and Named Entities features outperformed the Bag of Words feature subsets. Furthermore, feature selection improved the performance of feature subsets in online news classification. The highest classification performance was achieved when using SVM upon the selected combination feature subset.
Exploiting Models of Molecular Evolution to Efficiently Direct Protein Engineering

Directed evolution and protein engineering approaches used to generate novel or enhanced biomolecular function often use the evolutionary sequence diversity of protein homologs to rationally guide library design. To fully capture this sequence diversity, however, libraries containing millions of variants are often necessary. Screening libraries of this size is often undesirable due to inaccuracies of high-throughput assays, costs, and time constraints. The ability to effectively cull sequence diversity while still generating the functional diversity within a library thus holds considerable value. This is particularly relevant when high-throughput assays are not amenable to select/screen for certain biomolecular properties. Here, we summarize our recent attempts to develop an evolution-guided approach, Reconstructing Evolutionary Adaptive Paths (REAP), for directed evolution and protein engineering that exploits phylogenetic and sequence analyses to identify amino acid substitutions that are likely to alter or enhance function of a protein. To demonstrate the utility of this technique, we highlight our previous work with DNA polymerases in which a REAP-designed small library was used to identify a DNA polymerase capable of accepting non-standard nucleosides. We anticipate that the REAP approach will be used in the future to facilitate the engineering of biopolymers with expanded functions and will thus have a significant impact on the developing field of ‘evolutionary synthetic biology’.
Multi-deme parallel genetic algorithm in reliability analysis of composite power systems

Intelligent search based techniques such as genetic algorithm (GA) have been proposed to deal with reliability evaluation of complex power systems recently. In this type of methods, the guided search is carried out on a population scale trying to find all the dominant failure states, based on which different reliability indices can be calculated accordingly. However, the process may be time-consuming when power flow analysis is involved in deciding the status of a system state in complex power systems such as composite systems. To speed up the computing process, parallel implementation of GA is proposed in this study by using multi-deme based search, where multiple subpopulations are distributed in different processors. In this way, simultaneous search is achieved through parallel implementation. An IEEE reliability test system is used for simulation studies. It turns out that the proposed parallel method is effective in increasing the computing efficiency of GA when it is used for reliability evaluation of composite power systems.
Nursing gallery: Effective classroom icebreaker

What do nurses do? What is nonmaleficence? What is care coordination What is King's Goal Attainment? What are nurse's skills? What is fidelity? What is health promotion? What is Peplau's Interpersonal Relations? Where do nurses practice? What is justice? What is consultation? What is Parse's Human Becoming? Who are nurse's patients/ clients? What is veracity? What is evidence-based practice? What is Nightingale's Environment?
Overwintering Mortality of Indianmeal Moth (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in Southern Minnesota

Abstract Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), has been classified as one of the most cold-tolerant pests of stored grain. In this study, the supercooling point (SCP) of field-collected, cold-acclimated fifth instars was determined as an index of cold hardiness. In addition, mortality of laboratory-reared and field-collected, cold-acclimated fifth instars exposed to −10°C was measured to understand the ability of P. interpunctella to survive winter conditions. Finally, the overwintering mortality of this species in southern Minnesota was measured in grain bins filled with shelled corn. The SCP of field-collected, cold-acclimated fifth instars was approximately −24°C before their release in grain bins. Mortality of laboratory-reared fifth instars exposed to −10°C reached 100% after only 12 h, whereas the same percentage was achieved after 312 h for field-collected, cold-acclimated individuals. Overwintering mortality of P. interpunctella under field conditions reached 10...
The Life Satisfaction of Dual-Earner Mothers and Fathers: Does Flexible Scheduling Matter?

Work and family scholarship emphasizes flexible scheduling policies as a key solution to the challenges faced by workers navigating the work–family interface. Despite making life easier for workers, very little research has considered how such policies relate to life satisfaction, especially in terms of how gender comes into play. This study examines how both the availability of flexible scheduling options and the actual use of such policies are differentially related to the life satisfaction of dual-earner mothers and fathers. To address this research question, we use data from the National Study of the Changing Workforce conducted in the United States (N = 211 dual-earner fathers and 284 dual-earner mothers). Results show that flexible scheduling availability is unrelated to the life satisfaction of fathers and mothers. In contrast, flexible scheduling use is significantly and positively related to life satisfaction for dual-earner mothers, but negatively related to the life satisfaction of dual-earner fathers. Explanations for these findings are discussed.
Synthesis of the O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine oximes of selected carbonyl compounds and their determination by liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection.

The aims were to develop a liquid chromatographic (LC) method with ultraviolet detection (UVD) for O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine hydrochloride (PFBHA) O-oximes of common aldehydes and ketones, and to define the steric limits of the synthetic reaction used to make the PFBHA O-oxime standards for gas chromatographic (GC) and LC methods. Ten new O-oximes were synthesized with the new optimized method, and their purities were demonstrated by GC/electron-capture detection (ECD), GC/mass spectrometry (MS), ultraviolet spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and proton and 13 C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Ketones substituted at both β-carbons relative to the carbonyl carbon, like diisobutyl ketone and 2,4-hexanedione, showed lower synthetic yields by wet chemistry methods. A new C 18 reverse-phase LC method with UVD at 200 nm and acetonitrile-water in both the isocratic and gradient-elution modes was then developed to sensitively resolve a mixture of 13 pure PFBHA O-oximes. The detection limit was near 100 ng O-oxime/mL or about 14-50 ng aldehyde/mL and the least quantifiable limits were near 500 ng/mL or about 70-250 ng aldehyde/mL, with lower limits for glyoxal, methylglyoxal, benzaldehyde, and acetophenone. Carbonyl compounds in 500 mL water samples were then determined in distilled water and tap water by gradient elution. Vapors of n-valeraldehyde and acrolein generated in gas bags at concentrations near occupational guidelines were also sampled, desorbed, and then determined by either isocratic or gradient elution at 200 or 254 nm within 30-45 min.
Endoscopic management of choledochocele. A case report and review of the English literature.

Choledochocele or type III choledochal cyst is a rare lesion of the biliary tree. It may be of acquired or congenital etiology and can assume one of two anatomic variants. Either the common bile duct and the pancreatic duct enter the choledochocele together, or it is formed by the common bile duct alone with the pancreatic duct entering as a separate opening. The most frequent presenting symptoms are abdominal pain, pancreatitis, and jaundice. Traditional therapy has been either marsupialization of the cyst into the duodenum or complete surgical excision. This paper cites the eighth patient reported in the English-language literature whose choledochocele was treated endoscopically. It is the authors' opinion that either an endoscopic papillotomy or an endoscopic fistulotomy with extension of the incision over the cyst is the simpler and perferred method of treatment.
Incremental Frequency Rule for Computing the Q-Factor of a Shielded TE/sub omp/ Dielectic Resonator (Short Papers)

The principle of Wheeler's incremental inductance rule is applied to the TE/sub omp/ cylindrical resonator within a metal enclosure. The procedure permits one to compute the conductor losses solely from the decrease in resonant frequency when the metal walls are receded for one skin depth.
Commentary on “Comparative strength of women’s movements over time: conceptual, empirical, and theoretical innovations”

Scholarship on women’s movements emerged historically from feminist activism. Writing by predominantly white, middle class feminists about women’s movements that were led by the same demographic, g...
A System Dynamics Approach to Improving an Advising System For Business School Undergraduates

A School of Business located in the northeast United States annually administered the AACSB/EBI Undergraduate Business Exit Survey to all its graduating seniors. Students evaluated various aspects of their educational experience, and the School of Business took the results very seriously in its efforts to improve its programs. One area that consistently received low marks was advising. The Associate Dean of the Business School wanted to address the situation and see how to improve the system. Through interviews with the Associate Dean and the advising staff, a consulting team compiled information about the School’s advising program, and analyzed it using systems thinking and system dynamics. Between the survey results shared and the staff interviews done with the team, the information painted a very clear picture of the systemic nature of the problem.
Formation of Exotic Networks of Water Clusters in Helium Droplets Facilitated by the Presence of Neon Atoms

Water clusters are formed in helium droplets via the sequential capture of monomers. One or two neon atoms are added to each droplet prior to the addition of water. The infrared spectrum of the droplet ensemble reveals several signatures of polar, water tetramer clusters having dipole moments between 2D and 3D. Comparison with ab initio computations supports the assignment of the cluster networks to noncyclic “3 + 1” clusters, which are ∼5.3 kcal/mol less stable than the global minimum nonpolar cyclic tetramer. The (H2O)3Ne + H2O ring insertion barrier is sufficiently large, such that evaporative helium cooling is capable of kinetically quenching the nonequilibrium tetramer system prior to its rearrangement to the lower energy cyclic species. To this end, the reported process results in the formation of exotic water cluster networks that are either higher in energy than the most stable gas-phase analogs or not even stable in the gas phase.
FDI of abrupt faults with combined statistical detection and estimation and qualitative fault isolation

Abstract We present a novel approach for model-based FDI of abrupt faults in process components of continuous dynamic systems. Abrupt faults refer to parameter value changes that occur much faster than the nominal process dynamics. and component faults refer to faults that correspond to physical parameters in the bond graph model of a system. These faults cause transients in system behavior. We analyze this transient response by combining statistical detection and estimation with a model-based qualitative fault isolation engine. Detection uses the discrete wavelet transform in combination with a statistical decision function. Fault isolation is based on analysis of fault signatures in a qualitative framework. We demonstrate robust detection for small faults, and robust fault isolation that becomes more precise for larger faults.
An immunosuppressive dendritic cell subset accumulates at secondary sites and promotes metastasis in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) after complete surgical resection is often followed by distant metastatic relapse for reasons that remain unclear. In this study, we investigated how the immune response at secondary sites affects tumor spread in murine models of metastatic PDAC. Early metastases were associated with dense networks of CD11b+CD11c+MHC-II+CD24+CD64lowF4/80low dendritic cells (DC), which developed from monocytes in response to tumor-released GM-CSF. These cells uniquely expressed MGL2 and PD-L2 in the metastatic microenvironment and preferentially induced the expansion of T regulatory cells (Treg) in vitro and in vivo Targeted depletion of this DC population in Mgl2DTR hosts activated cytotoxic lymphocytes, reduced Tregs, and inhibited metastasis development. Moreover, blocking PD-L2 selectively activated CD8 T cells at secondary sites and suppressed metastasis, suggesting that the DCs use this particular pathway to inhibit CD8 T-cell-mediated tumor immunity. Phenotypically similar DCs accumulated at primary and secondary sites in other models and in human PDAC. These studies suggest that a discrete DC subset both expands Tregs and suppresses CD8 T cells to establish an immunosuppressive microenvironment conducive to metastasis formation. Therapeutic strategies to block the accumulation and immunosuppressive activity of such cells may help prevent PDAC progression and metastatic relapse after surgical resection. Cancer Res; 77(15); 4158-70. ©2017 AACR.
Self-interest and public opinion in health policy: smoking behavior and support for tobacco control

This study examines the influence of self-interest on attitudes about public health policy, specifically the influence of smoking on opposition to tobacco control measures. We analyze the relationships between being a current smoker, former smoker, or nonsmoker and support for cigarette taxes and anti-tobacco health education campaigns in order to reveal the extent to which the direct “pocketbook” self-interest of health-related behaviors, versus general sociotropic values, influence public health policy opinions. Using a sample of 442 adult participants in a statewide survey, binary logistic regression and proportional odds models compare respondents’ support for varying amounts and allocation levels of cigarette taxes, as well as anti-tobacco health education campaigns, controlling for smoking status and demographic variables. Results indicate that the connection between being a current smoker and being less supportive of cigarette taxes (a policy that directly affects self-interest) is not mediated when controlling for attitudes about anti-tobacco education campaigns (a policy that does not as directly affect self-interest). However, while former smokers do not support cigarette taxes as much as do nonsmokers, their support for taxes becomes indistinguishable from that of nonsmokers when their attitudes about anti-tobacco education campaigns are considered. We conclude that both direct self-interest and broader social values influence tobacco control policy attitudes. Smokers appear to consider their pocketbooks, but simultaneously both current and former smokers are ideologically motivated to oppose health initiatives. Thus, public health policymakers should highlight the importance of public education and social norms in garnering support for tobacco control policies.
Pornoprecariedad: crisis biopolítica, trabajo y régimen visual en Hermosa juventud (Jaime Rosales, 2014)

ABSTRACTEntendiendo por “pornoprecariedad” el entramado visual que explota y consume como forma de entretenimiento la exhibicion de las nuevas formas de miseria en las que se sostiene y que reproduce el neoliberalismo, en este articulo se analiza como el largometraje de ficcion Hermosa juventud (2014), de Jaime Rosales, cuestiona constructos sobre los que se asienta dicho acercamiento mediatico dominante a la precariedad. Relacionar criticamente precariedad con pornografia hace emerger problematicas relacionadas con la representacion visual, la recepcion de esta y la dimension etica de ambas, planteando interrogantes acerca de la responsabilidad, el mirar o las relaciones de genero y poder. El film de Rosales dialoga con tradiciones artisticas y reflexivas que trabajan con desarrollos socioeconomicos de largo alcance que la crisis biopolitica patente especialmente desde 2008 en la Europa meridional ha sacado a la luz.
Quantum Approximate Optimization with Hard and Soft Constraints

Challenging computational problems arising in the practical world are frequently tackled by heuristic algorithms. Small universal quantum computers will emerge in the next year or two, enabling a substantial broadening of the types of quantum heuristics that can be investigated beyond quantum annealing. The immediate question is: what experiments should we prioritize that will give us insight into quantum heuristics? One leading candidate is the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) metaheuristic. In this work, we provide a framework for designing QAOA circuits for a variety of combinatorial optimization problems with both hard constraints that must be met and soft constraints whose violation we wish to minimize. We work through a number of examples, and discuss design principles.
Sampling the insects of the amber forest

Amber, which is fossilized tree resin, is full of surprises. The tail of a feathered dinosaur was recently recovered from mid-Cretaceous (∼99 Ma) amber from Myanmar (1), and anole lizards in Miocene Dominican amber (2) showed that lizard communities have persisted for at least 16 My. Carnivorous plants of the family Roridulaceae, presently confined to South Africa, have been discovered in Eocene amber from the Baltic (3). The great majority of creatures in amber, however, are insects, and they often preserve the finest 3D details. A fly and a mite were discovered trapped in a spider web in Early Cretaceous amber from Spain (4), and a scale insect in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber is associated with eggs and freshly hatched nymphs, showing that brood care in insects dates back at least 100 My (5). Some amber insects even retain the cellular structure of internal soft tissues, such as muscle (6, 7). However, amber does not trap all of the animals in the forest, and even the insects are subject to sampling bias. This is an important consideration when we use the evidence of fossils entombed in amber to interpret terrestrial environments and ecosystems of the past. A study in PNAS by Solorzano Kraemer et al. (8) compares the range of insects trapped in modern tree resin in a Madagascar forest with the diversity of insects that live there, which represents a major step in determining the extent to which inclusions in amber represent the diversity and ecology of ancient forest communities. Many different plants exude resin. Some of them are extinct, and some living resin producers are not found in the fossil record. Resins harden and darken over time through a process that usually involves polymerization. The rate of this transformation varies with resin chemistry and environmental conditions. Hardened resin … [↵][1]1Email: derek.briggs{at}yale.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Using ant colony optimization to optimize long short-term memory recurrent neural networks

This work examines the use of ant colony optimization (ACO) to improve long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks (RNNs) by refining their cellular structure. The evolved networks were trained on a large database of flight data records obtained from an airline containing flights that suffered from excessive vibration. Results were obtained using MPI (Message Passing Interface) on a high performance computing (HPC) cluster, which evolved 1000 different LSTM cell structures using 208 cores over 5 days. The new evolved LSTM cells showed an improvement in prediction accuracy of 1.37%, reducing the mean prediction error from 6.38% to 5.01% when predicting excessive engine vibrations 10 seconds in the future, while at the same time dramatically reducing the number of trainable weights from 21,170 to 11,650. The ACO optimized LSTM also performed significantly better than traditional Nonlinear Output Error (NOE), Nonlinear AutoRegression with eXogenous (NARX) inputs, and Nonlinear Box-Jenkins (NBJ) models, which only reached error rates of 11.45%, 8.47% and 9.77%, respectively. The ACO algorithm employed could be utilized to optimize LSTM RNNs for any time series data prediction task.
Identifying ethical problems confronting small retail buyers during the merchandise buying process

This research was designed to develop an inventory of vendor-related problems experienced by buyers for small retail apparel stores during the merchandise buying process, determine how frequently each difficulty occurs, and identify the experiences perceived to be unethical. Among the 22 vendor-related difficulties examined minimum order requirements, 6 month advance purchase, incomplete orders, late shipments, and shipping overcharges were identified most frequently. Analysis of results suggested that one factor, misleading vendor practices, and eight background variables (annual sales, price line, full- and part-time employees, retail and buying experience, and shopping large or small markets) were associated with unethical experiences. Ethically troublesome experiences mentioned most frequently were padded orders, selling competitor same merchandise, withholding return authorization and credit, shipping overcharges, and dealing with vendor's factor.
Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo: Fertilization: generating one living dynamical system from two

So far we have followed early development from the first cleavage of the zygote (fertilized egg) to the appearance of fully developed organs. We have reviewed the biology of the most fundamental processes along this path, introduced relevant physical concepts, and used them to build models of the same processes. As the organism matures it eventually arrives at the stage where it is ready to reproduce. At this point the female and the male possess the fully developed sex cells or gametes (i.e., egg and sperm), the fusion of which, termed fertilization , sets the developmental process in motion. Fertilization thus can be viewed both as an end and a beginning, the process that simultaneously terminates and initiates the developmental cycle. The major activities during fertilization that apply generally to any sexually reproducing organism are: (i) contact and recognition between the sperm and the egg; (ii) the regulation of sperm entry into the egg; (iii) fusion of the sperm's and egg's genetic material; and (iv) activation of the zygotic metabolism. It is clear from this list that fertilization is among the most complicated and spectacular of all developmental processes. It must also be clear that highly sophisticated machinery is needed to carry out the tasks associated with fertilization. The sperm must often travel over great distances relative to its size, it must distinguish between eggs of different related species (in certain marine organisms, sea urchins and abalone for example).
Static and dynamic models of biological networks: Research Articles

We consider static and dynamic approaches to the specification of probability distributions on graphs, consistent with desired statistical properties such as degree distributions, for use in modeling biological networks. In the static approach we develop analytical approximations to the Hamiltonian and partition functions. In the dynamic approach, we use a stochastic parameterized grammar to construct an evolutionary tree in which the nodes represent elements such as genes or cells and the links represent inheritance relations between the nodes. The grammar then constructs a network based on the feature vectors of the nodes in the tree. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11:57–63, 2006This paper was submitted as an invited paper resulting from the “Understanding Complex Systems” conference held at the University of Illinois–Urbana Champaign, May 2005
Chemical Mechanisms and their Applications in the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Earth System Model

NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Earth System Model (ESM) is a modular, general circulation model (GCM) and data assimilation system (DAS) that is used to simulate and study the coupled dynamics, physics, chemistry, and biology of our planet. GEOS is developed by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. It generates near-real-time analyzed data products, reanalyses, and weather and seasonal forecasts to support research targeted to understanding interactions among Earth-System processes. For chemistry, our efforts are focused on ozone and its influence on the state of the atmosphere and oceans, and on trace-gas data assimilation and global forecasting at mesoscale discretization. Several chemistry and aerosol modules are coupled to the GCM, which enables GEOS to address topics pertinent to NASA's Earth Science Mission. This manuscript describes the atmospheric chemistry components of GEOS and provides an overview of its Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF)-based software infrastructure, which promotes a rich spectrum of feedbacks that influence circulation and climate, and impact human and ecosystem health. We detail how GEOS allows model users to select chemical mechanisms and emission scenarios at run time, establish the extent to which the aerosol and chemical components communicate, and decide whether either or both influence the radiative transfer calculations. A variety of resolutions facilitates research on spatial and temporal scales relevant to problems ranging from hourly changes in air quality to trace gas trends in a changing climate. Samples of recent GEOS chemistry applications are provided.
Preoperative and Postoperative Radiation Therapy of Soft Tissue Sarcomas of the Extremities

Conservative surgery with radiation therapy, given either pre- or postoperatively, allows a high degree of local control with preservation of function in a large number of patients with soft tissue sarcoma of the extremities. Overall survival and local control appear to be equivalent between the two approaches. The successes achieved by radiation alone in sarcomas, and the excellent results when radiation is used either before or after surgery with limited margins, demonstrate that sarcoma cells are indeed sensitive to irradiation. Radiation may play a role in the management of most sarcomas of the extremities, allowing more limited surgical margins and the preservation of function.
An Analog Front End ASIC for Cardiac Electrical Impedance Tomography

In this paper, an end-to-end CMOS application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for readout channel in a cardiac electrical impedance tomography system is presented. The ASIC consists of an integrated current driver for current injection, an instrumentation amplifier, variable gain amplifier at the analog front end for voltage readout from electrodes, and an on-chip 10-bit successive approximation register analog to digital converter with serial peripheral interface. The ASIC is fabricated in the CMOS 0.18 $\mu$ m process with a supply voltage of 3.3 V. Amplitude and phase extraction of the voltages is performed in the digital domain with a matched filter. A fully integrated solution for use in multiple electrode system is demonstrated. The readout chain in the ASIC achieves a minimum signal-to-noise ratio of 71 dB over the frequency range of 500 Hz–700 kHz, while maintaining an average accuracy of 99.7 $\%$ . Frame rates of 21 frames per second for a 32 electrode system is feasible, and the ASIC has an overall power consumption of 11.8 mW.
Two types of coaching styles: graduate and undergraduate students collaborate in a university reading clinic

ABSTRACTTeacher educators simultaneously support and develop pre-service and in-service teachers. Using a situated approach, this qualitative study explored the coaching styles of graduate students...
Feasibility and Acceptability of Technology-Based Exercise and Posture Training in Older Adults With Age-Related Hyperkyphosis: Pre-Post Study.

Background: Hyperkyphosis is common among older adults and is associated with multiple adverse health outcomes. Kyphosis-specific exercise and posture training programs improve hyperkyphosis, but in-person programs are expensive to implement and maintain over long periods. It is unclear if a technology-based posture training program disseminated through a mobile phone is a feasible or acceptable alternative to in-person training among older adults with hyperkyphosis. Methods: In this 6-week pre-post design pilot trial, we recruited community-dwelling adults aged ≥65 years with hyperkyphosis ≥40° (±5°) and access to a mobile phone. The intervention had two parts: (1) exercise and posture training via video clips sent to participants daily via text messaging, including 6 weekly video clip links to be viewed on the participant’s mobile phone, and (2) text messaging prompts to practice good posture. We analyzed the subject recruitment, adherence, retention, and acceptability of the intervention. Outcomes included change in kyphometer-measured kyphosis, occiput-to-wall (OTW) distance, Short Physical Performance Battery score, Scoliosis Research Society (SRS-30) score, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression score, and Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) score. Results: A total of 64 potential participants were recruited, 17 were enrolled, and 12 completed postintervention testing at 6 weeks. The average age was 71.6 (SD 4.9) years, and 50% were women. The median adherence to daily video viewing was 100% (range, 14%-100%) and to practicing good posture at least three times per day was 71% (range, 0%-100%). Qualitative evaluation of intervention acceptability revealed that the mobile phone screen was too small for participants to view the videos well and daily prompts to practice posture were too frequent. Kyphosis, OTW distance, and physical activity significantly improved after the 6-week intervention. Kyphosis decreased by 8° (95% CI –12 to –5; P<.001), OTW decreased by 1.9 cm (95% CI –3.3 to –0.7; P=.007), and physical activity measured by PASE increased by 29 points (95% CI 3 to 54; P=.03). The health-related quality of life SRS-30 score increased by 0.11 point (SD 0.19), but this increase was not statistically significant (P=.09). Conclusions: Technology-based exercise and posture training using video clip viewing and text messaging reminders is feasible and acceptable for a small cohort of older adults with hyperkyphosis. Technology-based exercise and posture training warrants further study as a potential self-management program for age-related hyperkyphosis, which may be more easily disseminated than in-person training.
Minima distribution for global optimization.

This paper establishes a strict mathematical relationship between an arbitrary continuous function on a compact set and its global minima, like the well-known first order optimality condition for convex and differentiable functions. By introducing a class of nascent minima distribution functions that is only related to the target function and the given compact set, we construct a sequence that monotonically converges to the global minima on that given compact set. Then, we further consider some various sequences of sets where each sequence monotonically shrinks from the original compact set to the set of all global minimizers, and the shrink rate can be determined for continuously differentiable functions. Finally, we provide a different way of constructing the nascent minima distribution functions.
Free speech versus marginalized groups: Public and newspaper responses to the Charlie Hebdo attack:

This study explores how British and American newspapers covered the 2015 terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo. British newspapers prioritize free speech and the protection of marginalized groups compa...
Applications of Properties of L-Functions

In this chapter, we present two applications of properties of L-functions of Siegel modular forms. The first one is to determine whether a given modular form is a cusp form based on the size of its Fourier coefficients.
Murine Radiation-Induced Stomach Pathology from Whole Thoracic Irradiation

Purpose: Radiation-induced lung injury is a common side effect in the treatment of lung and breast cancers. There is a large focus in the field on leveraging mouse models of radiation-induced lung injury to find novel treatments for the condition. While attempting to irradiate mouse lungs for purposes of creating a radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis model, noticeable declines in health were observed at much earlier time points than recorded for lung pathology. This was later attributed to stomach pathology observed in CT images and ex vivo dissection. Methods: For this study, we used longitudinal microCT to characterize male C57Bl/6 mice irradiated with a single dose of 20 Gy to the whole thoracic area delivered by an X-Rad cabinet irradiator. CT was performed with respiratory gating at 2 to 4 week timepoints to construct a timeline of pathology leading up to fibrosis and quantify severity of fibrosis afterwards. However, a mouse imaged at the 10 week timepoint showed evidence of stomach distention. These mice were sacrificed and their stomachs removed. Histology was performed on the stomachs using H&E staining. Results: On the CT images, we observed a large, spherical volume of hypointense signal, caudal to the lungs (Figure 1). This correlated with a distended stomach caused by constipation and gas build-up within the stomach. Statistical analysis showed 81% of mice (n=105) died prematurely after irradiation and before significant development of pulmonary fibrosis. Mice sacrificed and dissected showed unpassed bolus as contents of the stomach, and histology showed cell necrosis of the stomach walls. Conclusion: The histology indicated an inability for food to be digested and moved into the small intestine. This lead to a blockage and ensuing stomach distention. Given the severity of the pathology9s consequences, it lead to the mouse9s imminent mortality inhibiting the efficacy of the study. Future studies need to consider careful placement of shields or any beam contouring devices to ensure protection of the stomach given its higher radiosensitivity in contrast to the lungs.
Co-presentation of pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (PAVM) and multifocal benign metastasizing leiomyoma (BML) of lungs: Diagnostic dilemma and successful endovascular treatment.

Abstract A 50-year-old female with a 20-year history of multifocal pulmonary benign metastasizing leiomyoma (BML), and asthma presented with subacute worsening of chronic dyspnea. A contrast-enhanced computerized tomography of the chest showed a single 1.4 × 1.5-cm contrast-enhancing mass in the right lower lobe among numerous non-enhancing bilateral pulmonary BML lesions. Pulmonary angiogram was not performed at that time due to clinical improvement. Four years later, the patient presented with refractory subacute worsening of her chronic dyspnea and was referred for embolization of the pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (PAVM). Two feeder arteries to the PAVM were embolized; each with a 6-mm Amplatzer-IV vascular plug and a 4-mm Nester coil. Follow-up angiograms demonstrated no flow through the PAVM. The patient's dyspnea resolved and she remained asymptomatic at one-year follow-up.
Evaluation and Improvement of the Near-Real-Time Linear Fit SO 2 Retrievals From Suomi NPP Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite

Changing a logic switch threshold in the linear fit sulfur dioxide (LFSO2) algorithm improves the performance based on the evaluation of the NOAA operational atmospheric SO2 near-real-time (NRT) retrieval. The LFSO2 is used to create estimates from measurements made by the Suomi NPP (S-NPP) Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS). We evaluate the LFSO2 and compare the results to those from a principal component analysis (PCA) offline algorithm. Twenty independent volcanic scenarios and one environmental disaster scenario spread over eight years are selected for this comparison. More than three months of Kilauea volcanic activity in 2018 are monitored and are included in this evaluation and comparison. We found that the operational LFSO2 retrievals at lower troposphere (TRL), mid-troposphere (TRM), and lower stratosphere (STL) exhibited a discontinuity and have a saturation-like relationship if compared with PCA results. Using the new retrieval logic, the discontinuity in LFSO2 retrievals and the saturation appearance in comparisons vanished and a close to a linear relationship with the matchup data from the PCA retrieval products is demonstrated. The minimum detectable values for all three SO2 layer products and the planetary boundary layer (PBL) products are estimated with the updated LFSO2 algorithm. Results for a volcanic cloud over Colombia for the updated LFSO2 for OMPS and a Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) algorithm for the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) measurements are also examined. Similar SO2 total mass estimates over the region are obtained from the two products.
Gain and Disdain: Patronal Obligations in the Works of Edmund Spenser

This paper charts the development over the course of the works of Edmund Spenser about ideas about patronage, specifically the patron’s obligations to the poet. This survey shows that Spenser’s earlier works (published before the mid-1590s) value material gain as the primary reward of patronage, while the later works prioritize protection from enemies over material reward. This aligns well with the changes in Spenser’s circumstances. The works appearing in the mid-1590s onward were written at a time when Spenser expressed concerns about Lord Burghley’s hostility towards him and the peril that the Irish posed to his accumulated land and wealth in Ireland. Accordingly, the later works focus on the need for patron to protect the poet from hostile aristocrats and warlike savages. This survey upends widespread critical assumptions that material gain was the only patronal reward valued by early modern English poets. It also establishes protection, usually assumed to be a meaninglessly conventional request from poets, to be a substantial goal sought from patrons.