cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
THE RISK OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF NEONATAL MORTALITY

The authors examine the use of the infants weight at birth to estimate its risk of mortality by the 28th day of life. The performance of several commonly employed statistical models is compared for the population of single births to resident South Carolina mothers in 1975-1980. A log-linear function fitting the natural logarithm of the probability of neonatal mortality to birth weight performs far better in this analysis than a quadratic or a logistic model or a model using the logarithm of the probability of survival. The parsimonious log-linear model also appears preferable to more complex models with additional parameters. The authors use the model in an analysis of data in 2-year periods to demonstrate its value as an indicator of underlying changes in neonatal prospects and its easily interpreted parameters. The results highlight the importance of changes in neonatal moratlity affecting low birth weight infants which produce a noticeable shift in the range in which low birth weight is associated with the risk of mortality. These have proven more important in accounting for the decline in mortality rates than have changes affecting only neonates with more typical birth weights in South Carolina in 1975-1980.
Induced Structural Disorder as a Molecular Mechanism for Enzyme Dysfunction in Phosphoglucomutase 1 Deficiency.

Human phosphoglucomutase 1 (PGM1) plays a central role in cellular glucose homeostasis, mediating the switch between glycolysis and gluconeogenesis through the conversion of glucose 1-phosphate and glucose 6-phosphate. Recent clinical studies have identified mutations in this enzyme as the cause of PGM1 deficiency, an inborn error of metabolism classified as both a glycogen storage disease and a congenital disorder of glycosylation. Reported here are the first crystal structures of two disease-related missense variants of PGM1, along with the structure of the wild-type enzyme. Two independent glycine-to-arginine substitutions (G121R and G291R), both affecting key active site loops of PGM1, are found to induce regions of structural disorder, as evidenced by a nearly complete loss of electron density for as many as 23 aa. The disordered regions are not contiguous in sequence to the site of mutation, and even cross domain boundaries. Other structural rearrangements include changes in the conformations of loops and side chains, some of which occur nearly 20 A away from the site of mutation. The induced structural disorder is correlated with increased sensitivity to proteolysis and lower-resolution diffraction, particularly for the G291R variant. Examination of the multi-domain effects of these G➔R mutations establishes a correlation between interdomain interfaces of the enzyme and missense variants of PGM1 associated with disease. These crystal structures provide the first insights into the structural basis of enzyme dysfunction in PGM1 deficiency and highlight a growing role for biophysical characterization of proteins in the field of precision medicine.
Compound Motor Action Potential Quantifies Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Innervation in a Canine Model

Objective:The compound motor action potential (CMAP) is the summated action potential from multiple muscle fibers activated by a single nerve impulse. The utility of laryngeal muscle CMAP for quantifying innervation following recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury was investigated.Method:In a series of 21 canine hemi-laryngeal preparations, RLNs were exposed and a stimulating electrode placed. Maximum CMAP amplitudes and area under the curve from the thyroarytenoid (TA) muscles were obtained at baseline and at 6 months following injury to the RLN. Injury mechanisms included crush, stretch, cautery, and complete transection with microsuture repair.Results:Prior to injury, baseline CMAP amplitudes and area under the curve were 15.81 mV and 15.49mVms, respectively. Six months following injury, CMAP amplitude and area under curve were 105.1% and 102.1% of baseline for stretch, 98.7% and 112.7% for crush, 93.3% and 114.3% for cautery. The CMAP amplitude and area under the curve in the transection/repair group ...
The Biology and Morphology of Eriophyes emarginatae, a Prunus Finger Gall Mite, and Notes on E. prunidemissae

Two species of eriophyids associated with finger galls on western chokecherry, Prumus virginiana L. var. demissa (Torrey and Gray) Torrey were studied in southern California. Overwintered females of Eriophyes emarginatae Keifer caused the galls. Usually 1 eriophyid then entered the gall and laid 50-60 eggs. Analysis of the populations in several galls each week indicated that 1 generation of E. emarginatae was produced in a growing season. Female progeny overwintered in old buds situated near the base of branches. E. emarginatae has 1 type of female, the deutogyne, which, unlike the male and nymphs, lacks microtubercles on the rings. A 2nd species, E. prunidemissae Keifer, reproduced in apical and subapical buds early in the growing season and produced another generation later in the season after invading galls caused by E. emarginatae. Thus, by late summer E. prunidemissae outnumbered E. emarginatae in most galls. When the gall tissue died, E. prunidemissae migrated to buds near the top of the plant. Occasional eggs and nymphal instars of E. prunidemissae were found during the dormant season.
A Method of Keeping Alcoholic Specimens.

The following method of preserving alcoholic specimens has been used at the Dallas laboratory for the Bureau of Entomology for a number of years. It has been found to be more satisfactory than any other system tried.
Steroid-3 beta-ol dehydrogenase activity and androgen production in adrenal and interstitial-cell tumors of mice.

SummarySteroid-3 β-ol dehydrogenase activity was measured in successive transplant generations of experimentally produced neoplasms of the adrenal cortex and testicular interstitial cells of the mouse. Different transplants varied widely in both their masculinizing effect and enzyme activity. In the adrenal tumors the concentration of this enzyme roughly paralleled the masculinizing effect of the transplant, but this was not true in the interstitial cell tumors. Androgenic activity however, was never observed in the absence of measurable 3 β-ol dehydrogenase. When compared with the sequence of reactions described in normal adrenal cortical and testicular interstitial cells the results are interpreted as indicating that the reaction catalyzed by 3 β-ol dehydrogenase may be the limiting step in androgen synthesis by the adrenal tumors but is not in the case of the testicular interstitial cell tumors.
Does Organizational Experience Shape Employees’ Public Service Motivation?

Organizations are important venues for shaping and fostering public service motivation. This study adopts James Perry’s institutional perspective of public service motivation, and builds on Moyniha...
Modular co-culture engineering, a new approach for metabolic engineering

With the development of metabolic engineering, employment of a selected microbial host for accommodation of a designed biosynthetic pathway to produce a target compound has achieved tremendous success in the past several decades. Yet, increasing requirements for sophisticated microbial biosynthesis call for establishment and application of more advanced metabolic engineering methodologies. Recently, important progress has been made towards employing more than one engineered microbial strains to constitute synthetic co-cultures and modularizing the biosynthetic labor between the co-culture members in order to improve bioproduction performance. This emerging approach, referred to as modular co-culture engineering in this review, presents a valuable opportunity for expanding the scope of the broad field of metabolic engineering. We highlight representative research accomplishments using this approach, especially those utilizing metabolic engineering tools for microbial co-culture manipulation. Key benefits and major challenges associated with modular co-culture engineering are also presented and discussed.
Latino Literature for Children and the Lack of Diversity

“Latino Literature for Children and the Lack of Diversity,” Gabriela Baeza Ventura, University of Houston.
Karen Newman and Jane Tylus, Early modern cultures of translation

It is beneficial for anyone interested in contemporary translation studies to take a wide step back – on a regular basis, this reviewer would argue – and consider the broader history of translation...
A Matlab toolbox for visualization of image manifolds

While manifolds have attracted significant attention from the image processing and computer vision communities, we are not aware of openly available tools for visualization of manifold-modeled data that allows for interactive navigation over the embedded dataset. We introduce the Manifold Analysis GUI (MAGI), a freely available toolbox for Matlab that provides a navigation interface for manifold-modeled image datasets. The inputs to MAGI are a matrix of image data and a corresponding matrix of their embedding coordinates; the toolbox also includes an implementation of Isomap to provide a default nonlinear embedding. MAGI displays a 2-D projection of the embedding that can be navigated interactively, showing the image corresponding to the embedding point closest to the mouse cursor.
Analysis of dense quantum dot systems using a self-consistent maxwell-bloch framework

Quantum dot systems have shown numerous applications in random lasing and light localization phenomena. Conventional simulations of radiation in quantum dot systems rely heavily on a differential formulation of Maxwell's equations to compute dynamics. Unfortunately, the computational costs incurred by the underlying differencing mechanism inherent in such models renders them infeasible for simulations in three dimensions. We propose an integral-equation framework to self-consistently describe the dynamics of a disordered system of quantum dots driven by an incident laser pulse. By adopting an integral formulation of Maxwell's equations, we remove the “radiation grid” in favor of highly optimized point-to-point communication of fields through integral equations. By adopting a semiclassical approximation of the quantum dot system, we partition the computational problem into two distinct parts: (1) determination of source polarizations through evolution of the optical Bloch equations, and (2) evaluation of radiation patterns with electric field integral equation techniques. The solution of each part proceeds explicitly in time, facilitating a complete description of both quantum dots and electromagnetic fields at each timestep, giving rise to phenomena such as localization, photon echo effects, and nonlinear response patterns.
Hand-Made, One-of-a-Kind Apparel: Evaluation Based on Personal Vanity

In spite of the growth in popularity of hand-made apparel, little is known about the personality traits that may influence the way in which consumers perceive the value of such products. Understanding the process of value judgment is important for business owners of hand-made apparel, since such clothes lack traditional product information cues, such as brand name, and is often more expensive than mass-market products. To fill this gap in literature, the study hypothesized that vanity (physical concern and physical view) influences consumers’ involvement in clothing (H1); involvement in turn influences consumers’ perceived product knowledge (H2); and finally, perceived product knowledge, in turn influences their perceived product value (H3).
The Roles of Feedback and Feedforward as Humans Learn to Control Unknown Dynamic Systems

We present results from an experiment in which human subjects interact with an unknown dynamic system 40 times during a two-week period. During each interaction, subjects are asked to perform a command-following (i.e., pursuit tracking) task. Each subject’s performance at that task improves from the first trial to the last trial. For each trial, we use subsystem identification to estimate each subject’s feedforward (or anticipatory) control, feedback (or reactive) control, and feedback time delay. Over the 40 trials, the magnitudes of the identified feedback controllers and the identified feedback time delays do not change significantly. In contrast, the identified feedforward controllers do change significantly. By the last trial, the average identified feedforward controller approximates the inverse of the dynamic system. This observation provides evidence that a fundamental component of human learning is updating the anticipatory control until it models the inverse dynamics.
Ambivalence over emotional expression, intrusive thoughts, and posttraumatic stress symptoms among Chinese American breast cancer survivors

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are common among breast cancer survivors. However, the association and the underlying mediating mechanism between psychosocial factors and PTSS were rarely investigated among breast cancer survivors. Previous studies have suggested the importance of emotional expression in cancer survivors’ PTSS. This study examined the association between ambivalence over emotional expression (AEE; defined as the conflict between the desire to express feelings and the fear of its consequences) and PTSS, and proposed intrusive thoughts as the mediators in such an association. We tested this proposed mediation model among Chinese breast cancer survivors whose culture discourages emotional expression. Participants were 118 Chinese-speaking breast cancer survivors in the USA, who were diagnosed with breast cancer of stages 0-III within the past 5 years. They completed questionnaires measuring their levels of AEE, PTSS, and intrusive thoughts. AEE was positively associated with intrusive thoughts (r = 0.43, p < 01), which were positively associated with the arousal and avoidance subscales of PTSS (r = 0.68 and r = 0.62, respectively, p < .01). Path analysis supported a partial mediation model with an indirect effect from AEE to the latent variable of PTSS (with both arousal and avoidance as indicators) via intrusive thoughts (β = 0.29; 95% CI= 0.18, 0.42) and the direct effect from AEE to the latent variable of PTSS (β = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.07, 0.35), all p < .001. Those who are highly ambivalent about emotion expression tend to have higher PTSS, and this may be partially due to the lack of opportunities to discuss emotional events, thereby increasing the repetitive cancer-related negative thoughts. Intervention for PTSS should consider helping cancer patients to develop adaptive emotional regulation strategies to reduce the detrimental effects of cancer-related intrusive thoughts.
Women’s Health: Pregnancy and Conception

Preconception is an ideal time to assist women contemplating pregnancy to modify health behaviors. Dietary needs in pregnancy are critical and may require supplementation. The use of mind-body medicine in the antenatal period assists patients in childbirth preparation. Integrative medicine techniques can be safely and effectively used for common third-trimester obstetric complications of pregnancy.
Electrochemical Measurement of Dopamine Release and Uptake in Zebrafish Following Treatment with Carboplatin.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: T. M. Field, M. Shin, C. S. Stucky, J. Loomis, M. A. Johnson, ChemPhysChem 2018, 19, 1192., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201701357. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
My Future, My Family, My Freedom: Meanings of Schooling for Poor, Rural Chinese Youth

In this article, Xin Xiang investigates what dushu, or “schooling,” means for rural senior secondary school students in a high-poverty county in southwestern China. With the persistence of China's rural-urban education inequality and alarming reports about secondary school dropout rates, rural students' and their families' attitudes toward schooling have become a topic of academic as well as public debate. Drawing from repeated interviews with and observations of twenty-seven students conducted over a year, Xiang uses portraiture methodology to illustrate the different dimensions of meaning these rural youth attach to dushu: the means to a future of comfort and dignity, a family responsibility and collective investment, and a path toward individual freedom and actualization. This portrait also reveals the deep contradictions that define these students' experiences of dushu and how it often denies the hopes they attach to it and demands painful compromises.
SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS FOR THE SOLUTION OF THE INVERSE VIBRATING BEAM PROBLEM

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses some conditions for the solution of the inverse vibrating beam problem. It focuses on the question of the existence of the solution to the inverse problem for the vibrating beam. It focuses on the case in which the beam has a free left end and a clamped right one. The inverse problem consists in determining the density ρ(x) and the flexural rigidity r(x) from a spectral data set. The operator for the vibrating beam falls within the class of oscillating operators. The derivatives of the eigenfunctions for the beam also form a Chebyshev system. The chapter focuses on an actual construction procedure that relies on the convergence of a sequence of discrete approximations.
Facilitated Binding of Steroid Hormone Receptors to Target DNA by the Chromatin High-Mobility Group Protein-1: Protein Manipulation of DNA Structure

The biological effects of the ovarian steroid hormones, estradiol and progesterone, on growth and development of female reproductive tissues, and on growth and progression of a high proportion of breast cancers,1-8 are mediated by specific receptors9-11 that are members of the nuclear receptor gene family. In addition to receptors for the sex steroid hormones and glucocorticoids, the gene family also includes receptors for thyroid hormone (TR), vitamin D3 (VDR), retinoic acid (RAR), and a number of other nuclear receptors for which a ligand has not yet been identified. Members of the nuclear receptor family are modular proteins composed of separate domains for ligand binding, DNA binding, and transcriptional enhancement.
The burden of comorbidity among the homeless at a drop-in clinic.

METHODS The study was a retrospective chart review based on 174 patients seen during their initial visit. Information was obtained from data reported by each patient during the history and physical exam. RESULTS Patients most likely to use the clinic were predominantly male (92%), between the ages of 20 and 39 (71%), African-American (64%), and living in an emergency shelter (73%). Sixty-eight (39%) patients had some insurance coverage. Comorbidity was significant with 34 (20%) patients reporting all three types of pathology: physical, mental health, and substance abuse. Homeless patients reporting substance abuse were likely to report the coexistence of a medical condition (54%) or a mental health problem (27%). Patients who reported problems of depression, anxiety, or suicidal ideation or who heard voices had a significant concomitant occurrence of all three types of clinical pathology (P < .001). Patients living in an emergency shelter or on the street (as opposed to living with family or friends) were at high risk of medical problems (P < .001), mental health problems (P < .001), and substance abuse (P < .001). CONCLUSION The prevalence of a medical problem, mental health problem, and substance abuse among the homeless is significant. Homeless patients may be at high risk of two or more comorbid conditions if they live in an emergency shelter or on the street, have a substance abuse problem, or have a mental health problem. Targeted clinical services and preventive medicine programs would be beneficial to these patients.
Low testosterone: Androgen deficiency, endurance exercise training, and competitive performance.

PURPOSE Our intent was to (a) characterize weekly changes in resting testosterone (T), cortisol (C), and the T:C ratio in males during an intensive endurance training program, and (b) determine if clinical androgen deficiency (AD) based upon T-level criteria developed. METHODS An 18-week training program in which individual training volume (km/week) increased at 25% increments over baseline (BL) levels observed prior to the study beginning at 4-week intervals throughout the first 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, the volume was reduced to that of the first 4 weeks until the study end (week 18). Competitive performance running tests were assessed at BL and every 4 weeks, while blood T and C were assessed weekly. RESULTS Performance improved from BL at weeks 4-16 (p < 0.01). T was reduced (p < 0.01) from BL at weeks 3, and 5-18. The greatest reduction from BL was at week 13, subsequently T returned toward BL at week 18. C was highly variable, and no significant changes from BL were noted. The T:C ratio at weeks 5, 6, and 8-16 was significantly less than at BL (p < 0.01), the greatest reduction at week 13. The T:C ratio values also returned toward BL by week 18. Finally, ∼50% of the subjects reached T levels to be classified as AD. CONCLUSIONS Sports scientists should recognize decreases in T or T:C ratio is not always indicative of compromised competitive performance potential. Clinicians should be aware increased training loads can lead to AD in men.
Leveraging natural experiments to evaluate interventions in learning health systems.

Health systems are increasingly testing interventions to reduce costs and improve patient care.1 By leveraging their ability to deploy interventions across a network of providers and their data infrastructure, health systems have capacity to test new models of care delivery and to assess their effects. What differentiates health systems from learning health systems, however, is how systems combine this infrastructure with rigorous research methods to generate evidence that can inform decision-making.1 2 Critical to this is isolating the causal effects of interventions from potential sources of bias (internal validity) and providing evidence that generalises to broader, real-world settings (external validity). As Walkey et al demonstrate in this issue of BMJ Quality and Safety , natural experiments that arise in the design and implementation of health system interventions can provide valuable opportunities to learn about the effectiveness of interventions, yielding findings that may offer both high internal and external validity.3 Natural experiments arise when the design or implementation of a programme generates variation in exposure to an intervention that is ‘as good as random’, conditional on observed confounders. For example, patients may be allocated to different treatments based on an arbitrary eligibility threshold (Walkey et al exploit this variation); health systems may stagger the roll-out of interventions across sites4; or patients may be entered into a lottery to allocate a number of intervention slots.5 When well conceived and thoroughly vetted, natural experiments retain many of the appealing statistical features of …
Observational Cohort Study of Oral Mycobiome and Interkingdom Interactions over the Course of Induction Therapy for Leukemia.

ABSTRACT Although the term “microbiome” refers to all microorganisms, the majority of microbiome studies focus on the bacteriome. Here, we characterize the oral mycobiome, including mycobiome-bacteriome interactions, in the setting of remission-induction chemotherapy (RIC) for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Oral samples (n = 299) were prospectively collected twice weekly from 39 AML patients during RIC until neutrophil recovery. Illumina MiSeq 16S rRNA gene (V4) and internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequencing were used to determine bacterial and fungal diversity and community composition. Intrakingdom and interkingdom network connectivity at baseline (T1) and at midpoint (T3) and a later time point (T6) were assessed via SPIEC-EASI (sparse inverse covariance estimation for ecological association inference). In this exploratory study, mycobiome α-diversity was not significantly associated with antibiotic or antifungal receipt. However, postchemotherapy mycobiome α-diversity was lower in subjects receiving high-intensity chemotherapy. Additionally, greater decreases in Malassezia levels were seen over time among patients on high-intensity RIC compared to low-intensity RIC (P = 0.003). A significantly higher relative abundance of Candida was found among patients who had infection (P = 0.008), while a significantly higher relative abundance of Fusarium was found among patients who did not get an infection (P = 0.03). Analyses of intrakingdom and interkingdom relationships at T1, T3, and T6 indicated that interkingdom connectivity increased over the course of IC as bacterial α-diversity diminished. In (to our knowledge) the first longitudinal mycobiome study performed during AML RIC, we found that mycobiome-bacteriome interactions are highly dynamic. Our study data suggest that inclusion of mycobiome analysis in the design of microbiome studies may be necessary to optimally understand the ecological and functional role of microbial communities in clinical outcomes. IMPORTANCE This report highlights the importance of longitudinal, parallel characterization of oral fungi and bacteria in order to better elucidate the dynamic changes in microbial community structure and interkingdom functional interactions during the injury of chemotherapy and antibiotic exposure as well as the clinical consequences of these interrelated alterations.
“Whig Thomism” and the Making of the Catholic Neoconservative Movement

The writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, although widely noted for their clarity, are also rich and capacious enough to merit differing interpretations among scholars of good will and good faith. However, despite the noble intentions and praiseworthy work of the late Michael Novak and other Catholic neoconservatives, their marketing of St. Thomas Aquinas as the “first Whig” appears to sever elements of the Angelic Doctor's philosophy from its essential principles. Although jealously guarding the nobility of conscience and the interior life, St. Thomas envisioned a political community that was decidedly hierarchical and in which the faith was to be shepherded by the state, which itself was charged with suppressing heresy and dissident thinking. These political ideas, moreover, are rooted in the very heart of St. Thomas Aquinas's deepest philosophical and theological principles.
Perioperative Considerations in Left Ventricular Assist Device Placement

Mechanical circulatory support of end-stage heart failure is widely practiced and has improved the management of patients with progressive heart failure. Left ventricular assist device placement for end-stage heart failure is a complex operative procedure. Understanding the complex nature of the pathophysiology of heart failure and effects of anesthetic techniques on heart failure biomechanics of available devices and managing the patient hemodynamics during device implantation are key to deliver appropriate anesthetic care. Adequate preoperative preparation, patient selection, and managing various postoperative concerns are described below. Troubleshooting hemodynamics by using an algorithmic, multifaceted approach while separating from CPB is important. Managing patients in the immediate postoperative period requires a good understanding of the physiological integration of the native circulation with these devices. Early detection of complications secondary to device or patient factors is essential for optimal outcome after LVAD implantation.
Radiative heat transfer in FLiBe molten salt participating medium in a vertical heated tube under forced and mixed convection laminar flows

Abstract The contribution of radiative heat transfer (RHT) to convective heat transfer in a heated vertical pipe with laminar flow and constant wall temperature, for FLiBe molten salt, is investigated computationally. The combined effects of conduction in the fluid, forced convection, buoyancy, temperature-dependent physical properties, and thermal radiation are investigated. The P1 approximation is employed in the discretization of the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE). The COMSOL Multiphysics software is used to generate the numerical solutions. The theoretical analysis developed here demonstrates that only for intermediate values of the optical thickness, i.e. τ D ~ O 1 , the participating media effects are expected to be important. This analysis is confirmed computationally and a value of τ D ≈ 4 is shown to lead to the highest increase in overall heat transfer behavior. Under forced convection, the Nusselt ratio N u total / N u no - rad reaches a peak value of 1.76 at τ D = 4 and z/D = 200 , and is less than 1.1 for τ D 0 . 1 and τ D > 60 . Under aiding-flow mixed convection, N u total / N u no - rad reaches a peak of 1.34 at τ D = 4 . 2 and is less than 1.1 for τ D 0 . 4 and τ D > 36 . Under opposing-flow mixed convection, Nu total / Nu no - rad reaches a peak of 1.81 at τ D = 4 . 2 and is less than 1.1 for τ D 0 . 2 and τ D > 50 . RHT effects on the overall heat transfer are most pronounced in opposing mixed convection, where N u total / N u no - rad is 2.26 observed at z/D = 50 . The sensitivity to wall emissivity is evaluated; in forced convection, the peak N u total / N u no - rad is 1.66 at e = 0 (reflective wall) and 2.04 at e = 1 (absorptive wall). The sensitivity to pipe diameter is also discussed. Overall, for a vertical heated tube, radiative heat transfer effects lead to enhancement of heat transfer by as high as a factor of two, and they depend on the optical thickness of the flow, mixed convection environment ( Gr / R e 2 and direction of flow relative to the gravitational force), surface emissivity, and entrance effects.
The invertebrates scale of librarianship: Finding your niche

As a new academic librarian trying to establish myself and build relationships, I’ve been forced to give a fair amount of thought to what kind of librarian I want, and need, to be. Like many academic librarians, I have been trying to find the balance between being available for our faculty—supporting their (and their students’) instruction needs and facilitating their research—and being a professional in my own right, advocating for myself and my expertise. Many articles about the faculty-librarian relationship focus on faculty perceptions of librarians (or vice versa) and on the need for collaborative relationships. These are important aspects of academic librarianship to address, but they don’t really speak to a significant contributing factor—librarians’ perceptions of themselves and their role.
Coping with intelligence deficits in poverty-alleviation policies in low-income countries

Poverty-alleviation initiatives in lower-income countries are challenged by intelligence deficits that cause suboptimal designs that threaten their effectiveness, targeting, and sustainability. The uncertainty of theory and information, the adverse consequences of conventional family-level “means testing,” and unpredictable future events and conditions call for auto-targeting and auto-correcting policy designs with built-in adaptive capacity. Numerous categories and examples of these designs from multiple countries are presented.
“You turn your back and there’s somebody moving in”: Syntactic anacrusis in spoken English

Abstract Anacrustic Coordination (AC) is a type of biclausal conjunction such that an initial clause or phrase sets up a state of affairs and is followed by and and a strongly focused second clause, for example three years it’s been sitting here and I haven’t done it. AC figures in a number of kinds of interaction. One is the topic/comment conditional, as in call it up and there’s something that actually says your number. It is a possibility for enhancing certain illocutionary acts such as threats and warnings: I’m gonna take that and I’m gonna dig it into you. It is a basis for syntactic mirativity, the coding of surprise and unexpectedness (DeLancey 1997): you turn your back and there’s somebody moving in. AC raises questions about the nature of constructions and of Construction Grammar.
Reflections of a Leader

I simply cannot afford to have only one set of advisers. Yesterday, while holding the bedpan for the Attorney General, my palms tingling as his tinkle warmed the metal, I examined him on his foreign policy. "Schlepp," I asked him, "why should Israel invade China? Don't you think they're outnumbered?" "What?" asked Schlepp. (He was wishing about then that man had been created prostateless. ) "Don't you think one Kike can out-talk ten Slopeheads?" "Yes," I screamed, "but that won't save them from ambushes." Astrov came in. Schlepp shook his dong at him and yelled, "This country is being run by grandmothers and eggsuckers!" Astrov smiled and gave us our injections. I was reminded of my first fix at the country club. Such a rush! This morning my Chief of Intelligence flew me across country and I was awed. The cities! The plains! The gently rolling hills and softly verdant sea! He flew the jet upside down for a time. I got dust in my nose. "All this is yours," he said, "and one day it will be mine." I sneezed. "Only if you're nice to me." He landed on an aircraft carrier and we were transferred by helicopter and seal boat to a submarine, which had a rendezvous with counterinsurgency canoes. I was awed, and so was my bag man. I held a Press Luncheon off the record, off the tip of my tongue, off the top of my head, off the cuff. A Staff Reporter asked me how I stood the pres sure. "I think of the children," I said. "After all, somebody has to do it. If you can't stand the heat, you melt." My Ecology Assistant was asked about pollution: "When are you going to get the lead out of your ass?" He handled his answer very well. "When you get the smog out of your imagination." Word was received from the Secret Service that the shrimp was poisoned. They gave me Alaskan Crab instead. It was yummy for my tummy. One can do no more than one's best. When the rest of the world is mad, you have only your wits left to you. Having come this far and borne this weight and shifted this load, my feet hurt.
Realizing the Potential of IoT Using Software-Defined Ecosystems

Pervasive computational ecosystems that combine data sources and computing/communication resources in self-managed environments, such as the ones powered by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, have the potential to automate and facilitate many aspects of our lives, and impact a variety of applications, from the management of extreme events to the optimization of everyday processes. However, this vision remains mostly unrealized despite the fact that the technology to achieve it exists, largely because of the gap between our ability to collect data and our ability to gain insight from it. In this paper, we discuss the challenges associated with providing a pervasive computational ecosystem. We then present our vision of how to best support data-driven computational ecosystems and propose a conceptual architecture that leverages ideas from software-defined environments in order to combine data, computing, and communication resources. In addition, we show how this proposed architecture enables the execution of data-driven workflows on top of these resources.
Equivalent Circuit Modification for Organic Solar Cells

In this work, a newly fabricated organic solar cell based on a composite of fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and regioregular poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with an added interfacial layer of AgOx in between the PEDOT:PSS layer and the ITO layer is investigated and an equivalent circuit model is proposed for the device. Incorporation of the AgOx interfacial layer shows an increase in fill factor (by 33%) and power conversion efficiency (by 28%). Moreover, proper correlation has been achieved between the experimental and simulated I-V plots. The simulation shows that device characteristics can be explained with accuracy by the proposed model.
On simple Igusa local zeta functions

The objective of this announcement is the statement of some recent results on the classification of generalized Igusa local zeta functions associated to irreducible matrix groups. The definition of a simple Igusa local zeta function will motivate a complete classification of certain generalized Igusa local zeta functions associated to simply connected simple Chevalley groups. In addition to the novelty of these results are the various methods used in their proof. These methods include use of the concept of canonical basis from quantum group theory and a formula expressing Serre’s canonical measure μc in terms of a suitably normalized Haar measure μ and density function Φ. The relevance of these results in the general theory of Igusa local zeta functions is also discussed.
Chapter 26. Reactions of Interest in Medicinal Chemistry

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses studies analyzing some reactions of interest in medicinal chemistry. Carbon–carbon double bonds of α,β-unsaturated ketones are reduced by alkali metals in hexamethylphosphortriamide. Yields and stereochemistry of the reduction are comparable to those obtained in liquid NH 3 . The source of hydrogen (H) for the reduction is proposed to be the N -methyl groups of the amide. Activated Zn powder in Ac 2 O saturated with HCl or HBr provides a convenient selective Clemmensen reduction of less-hindered keto groups in polyketonic systems. In another reaction, in the presence of catalytic amounts of Pd, acyl halides are decarbonylated smoothly to olefins, CO, and HX 5 . This reaction is useful in degrading carboxylic acids by one carbon. A specially precipitated Ni in refluxing H 2 O or aqueous dioxane reduces a wide variety of olefins, nitriles, carbonyl groups, and nitro groups. Allylic coupling of acetylenes is accomplished by use of lithio-1-trimethylsilyl propyne; in this case, there is minimal tendency for isomerization to allene systems. Another interesting reaction involves epoxides which react with LiBr and tri- n -butylphosphine oxide to form carbonyl systems.
Echocardiographic assessment of atrial properties in single ventricles vs. normal controls.

Introduction. Atrial function is increasingly being recognized as a significant factor in overall cardiac function in adults. Limited studies evaluating atrial properties exist in the pediatric congenital heart disease population. The goal of this study was to evaluate atrial properties in patients with single ventricle physiology after Fontan completion and compare these values with normal control patients. Methods. Echocardiograms were performed in patients with single ventricular physiology and in control patients. Tissue Doppler and blood flow measurements were obtained. Atrial fraction and atrial electromechanical values were calculated. Differences were assessed with one-way analysis of variance. Post hoc comparisons were performed with Tukey adjustment. P < .05 was considered significant. Results. No significant difference was present in age or heart rate between single ventricle and control patients. The single right ventricle tricuspid valve A wave (52.6 ± 14.5 vs. 36.7 ± 10.4 cm/s) and atrial fraction (39.2 ± 6.2 vs. 32.7 ± 7.7%) were significantly higher, and the E/A ratio (1.4 + 0.3 vs. 1.8 + 0.4), tricuspid valve E/A velocity–time integral (1.6 + 0.4 vs. 2.2 + 0.7 cm), and late diastolic annular value (5.3 + 1.5 vs. 8.7 + 1.4 cm/s) were significantly lower compared with the controls. The single left ventricle late diastolic annular velocity (4.2 + 1.0 vs. 6.7 + 1.3 cm/s) was significantly lower and atrial fraction was significantly higher compared with the controls (37.7 ± 12.5 vs. 29.8 ± 4.3%). There were no significant differences in atrial electromechanical measurements between groups, but the single right ventricle patients tended to have increased atrial dyssynchrony compared with controls. Conclusions. Patients with single ventricle physiology after Fontan completion have differences in atrial properties when compared with normal controls. These differences may have important implications in their long-term outcomes. Further studies are necessary to determine the clinical significance of these findings.
A macroecological theory of microbial biodiversity

Microorganisms are the most abundant, diverse and functionally important organisms on Earth. Over the past decade, microbial ecologists have produced the largest ever community datasets. However, these data are rarely used to uncover law-like patterns of commonness and rarity, test theories of biodiversity, or explore unifying explanations for the structure of microbial communities. Using a global scale compilation of >20,000 samples from environmental, engineered and host-related ecosystems, we test the power of competing theories to predict distributions of microbial abundance and diversity-abundance scaling laws. We show that these patterns are best explained by the synergistic interaction of stochastic processes that are captured by lognormal dynamics. We demonstrate that lognormal dynamics have predictive power across scales of abundance, a criterion that is essential to biodiversity theory. By understanding the multiplicative and stochastic nature of ecological processes, scientists can better understand the structure and dynamics of Earth's largest and most diverse ecological systems.
Nursing Home‐Acquired Pneumonia: Outcomes from a Clinical Process Improvement Program

At EHS Christ Hospital and Medical Center, an eight-step process improvement model was developed that incorporates continuous quality improvement concepts for monitoring, evaluating and improving patient care. Nursing home residents admitted with pneumonia were identified as the group having the most influence on mortality and costs associated with treatment of pneumonia at our hospital. A multidisciplinary team evaluated clinical resource use and patient care processes, and identified root causes of various influencing treatment. Clinical guidelines were created and outcomes were defined, resulting in significant improvement in the clinical management of these patients. Average length of stay decreased from 8.6 days in 1992 to 7.6 days in 1993, with a charge reduction of $1830 per patient. The methodologic framework of a process improvement program combines epidemiologic, clinical, and quality improvement sciences. This mix is essential in improving patient care and quantifying outcomes.
An analysis of stereo disparity for the recovery of three-dimensional scene geometry

The recovery of three-dimensional scene geometry from binocular stereo disparity is discussed. In order to accomplish this goal an analysis of disparity is presented. The analysis makes explicit the geometric relations between a stereo disparity field and a differentially projected scene. These results show how it is possible to recover scene properties, such as relative surface depth and orientation, in a direct fashion from stereo disparity. As a particular application of the analysis, a method for recovering the discontinuities of surfaces from stereo disparity is presented. The results of applying this method to both natural and synthetic binocular stereo disparity information are also presented. >
Hysteroscopic myomectomy in postmenopausal women

Abstract Study objective To review the findings in postmenopausal patients undergoing hysteroscopic myomectomy. Design Retrospective case-controlled study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). Setting Private practice. Patients Eighteen women with postmenopausal bleeding and two asymptomatic women with abnormal ultrasounds. Interventions Hysteroscopic myomectomy in 19 patients, with concomitant destruction of the endometrium in 4 patients, and resectoscopic biopsy in 1 patient. Measurements and main results Three patients underwent subsequent gynecologic surgery. One had hysteroscopy to evaluate and remove an asymptomatic residual myoma found on ultrasound. A sarcoma was found in two of the symptomatic patients. Two patients underwent hysterectomy—one for a sarcoma and the other for a carcinoma of the cervix. One patient has had further postmenopausal bleeding. Conclusion Women who have a submucosal myoma that becomes symptomatic in the menopausal period may be at increased risk for a sarcoma.
Deformation modeling of superplastic AA-5083

Abstract The superplastic deformation characteristics of a modified aluminum alloy were investigated at temperature range from 500 to 550°C. The alloy chemical composition was 4.69% Mg, 1.56% Mn, 0.177% Cr, 0.03% Si, and 0.07% Fe by weight. Total tensile elongations as high as 750% were observed at lower strain rates. A non-isothermal constitutive equation, that includes the evolution of grain size, was established and implemented in a finite element code. Numerical simulations of the uniaxial tension specimen were performed, and good agreement between the testing and the modeling results was obtained. A pressure control algorithm for the blow forming model was developed based on an averaging scheme that considered a subset of finite elements with the highest strain rate. A pressure history was generated from the finite element simulations for a constant target strain rate of 1×10 −3 s −1 . When these pressure histories were used in tray forming experiments, good agreement was obtained between the forming and modeling results.
Structural origin of large Martian channels

Abstract Large Martian channels have been attributed to fluvial erosion primarily because they widen in a downstream direction, appear to be braided in places, have tributaries, and may be sinuous. However, tension fractures in a variety of materials produce features that superficially resemble the Martian channels at, of course, a very different scale. Based on the morphology of these channels as viewed on Mariner 9 images, it is not possible to determine that these features have a fluvial origin. It is probable that most large Martian channels have a structural origin and reflect local or planet-wide tensional forces.
Synergistic Effects of Hemilabile Coordination and Counterions in Homogeneous Catalysis: New Tunable Monophosphine Ligands for Hydrovinylation Reactions

Heterodimerization of olefins is a reaction of enormous synthetic potential, since it has been demonstrated that excellent yields and selectivities can be achieved under exceptionally mild conditions in many cases.1,2 For example, we have recently shown that using catalysts derived from [(allyl)Ni(Br)]2 and a tertiary phosphine in combination with a silver salt, a nearly quantitative hydrovinylation of vinylarenes can be achieved (eq 1). In our