cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Electrical Resistance of Liquid Sulfur to 420°C and of Liquid Selenium to 700°C

The electrical resistance of liquid sulfur was measured from just below the polymerization temperature to the vaporization point. Turning points in the resistance vs temperature curve, resulting presumably from polymerization and depolymerization, and a sharp decrease in resistance at 212°C agree well with previous results. Between ∼230° and 420°C, the resistance decreased without discontinuity. The resistance of selenium increased sharply by 3 orders of magnitude on melting and then decreased steadily by 5 orders of magnitude until the experiment was ended at 700°C. In both liquids, the electrical resistance as a function of temperature decreased more rapidly than that of an ideal intrinsic semiconductor whose molecular structure is stable over the temperature interval investigated. This rapid decrease is believed to result from chain dissociation and ring scission.
Patterns of Fish Growth along a Residential Development Gradient in North Temperate Lakes

Residential development of lakeshores is expected to change a variety of key lake features that include increased nutrient loading, increased invasion rate of nonnative species, increased exploitation rates of fishes by anglers, and alteration of littoral habitats. All of these factors may alter the capacity of lakes to support productive native fish populations. Fourteen north temperate lakes were surveyed to examine how growth rates of two common fish species (bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus; largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides) varied along a residential development gradient. Size-specific growth rates for both species were negatively correlated with the degree of lakeshore residential development, although this trend was not statistically significant for largemouth bass. On average, annual growth rates for bluegill sunfish were 2.6 times lower in heavily developed lakes than in undeveloped lakes. This effect of lakeshore development on fish growth was not size specific for bluegills between 60 and 140 mm in total length. An index of population production rate that accounted for both the size-specific growth rate and the size distribution of fishes showed that bluegill populations were approximately 2.3 times less productive in highly developed lakes than in undeveloped lakes. Our results suggest that extensive residential development of lakeshores may reduce the fish production capacity of aquatic ecosystems.
Rethinking “make do”: Action “from the side” and the politics of segmentation in the Republic of Macedonia

In this article, I examine the social performance of bodily movement “from the side” in bureaucratic institutions in Macedonia, specifically, how locals use their bodies to weave their way in and out of insider–outsider classifications that shape bureaucratic organization. Additionally, I explore how Macedonians and Albanians use, in common parlance, bodily movement “from the side” as a metaphor to lend different meanings to a new sociopolitical order wrought by the collapse of socialism. The case study of Macedonia helps refine theories of “make do” by pointing to the shifting degrees of insiderhood and outsiderhood within the body of insiders. [embodiment, bureaucracy, make do, insider–outsider classifications, make do, Macedonia]
Collaborative, Comparative Inquiry and Transformative Cross-Cultural Adult Learning and Teaching: A Western Educator Metanarrative and Inspiring a Global Vision

Intentionally designing international perspectives into adult educator preparation programs is a step toward developing instructors’ social and instructional cache of understandings about learning,...
Effect of oversulfation on the chemical and biological properties of chondroitin-6-sulfate

Chondroitin-6-sulfate was oversulfated using chlorosulfonic acid–pyridine complex and isolated as the sodium salt. Infrared analysis of the native and oversulfated compound gave identical results in respect to the OAH stretching, hemiacetal stretching and S@O stretching. Absorption around 825 cm � 1 was also present in both the compounds representing the sulfate group of galactosamine at equatorial C-6 position. The oversulfated compound showed a peak at 855 cm � 1 representing the new sulfate group on axial C-4 position of galactosamine. 1 H NMR studies confirmed the IR results and further showed that the oversulfated compound was a mixture of 61% of chondroitin-4,6-disulfate and 39% of the native compound. The oversulfated compound showed a 2.8-fold increase in sulfate content and a significant anticoagulant activity by doubling the prothrombin time of normal citrated human plasma using 9.5 lg of the sulfated compound while the native compound was inactive even at 2000 lg level. During in vitro studies using 0.05 M Tris buffer pH 7.35 containing physiological concentrations of NaCl (0.9%) the oversulfated compound gave a 1.8-fold enhancement of the activation of glutamic plasminogen (Glu-Plg) by tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and a 3.2-fold enhancement of Glu-Plg activation by urokinase (u-PA) in comparison to the control while the native compound or the unfractionated heparin were less active. � 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Silent chorioamnionitis as a cause of preterm labor refractory to tocolytic therapy

Abstract Thirty-seven consecutive patients with singleton pregnancies in “uncomplicated” preterm labor with intact membranes suitable for tocolysis were evaluated for evidence of silent chorioamnionitis by means of maternal serum C-reactive protein and amniotic fluid white blood cell count, Gram stain, and cultures. Abnormalities in these markers of infection were found to be significantly more common in cases that were refractory to tocolysis. These cases also showed both pathologic evidence of chorioamnionitis and a significantly greater neonatal early infectious morbidity. We conclude that silent chorioamnionitis is a significant cause of “uncomplicated” preterm labor refractory to conventional methods of tocolysis.
Reduced Confined Dynamic Modulus Testing Protocol for Asphalt Mixtures

The dynamic modulus (E*) of asphalt mixtures correlates well with field performance. Studies have shown that in comparisons of dense-, gap-, and open-graded mixtures, confined E* (C-E*) tests are recommended to rank and compare the expected field performance of the different mixtures. Unfortunately, C-E* tests are harder to perform than unconfined E* (U-E*) tests. Factors such as time, availability of equipment, technical complexity, and financial needs must be carefully considered when a confined laboratory-testing program is being proposed. The objective of this study was to develop a simple method by which C-E* values could be predicted from U-E* results with a reduced number of C-E* tests. The methods analyzed were developed by using E* test results conducted on nine asphalt rubber mixtures at different confinement levels and were validated by using three conventional dense-graded mixes previously tested at Arizona State University. The U-E* and C-E* test results generally showed a linear relationship with the applied bulk stress and were almost parallel regardless of the confinement level. An approach to predict a C-E* relationship from U-E* test data was developed by using one (or two) confined test(s) instead of the five required by current test protocols. The methods investigated potentially would provide a decrease in laboratory testing time of at least 50%. Because some level of laboratory confinement is recognized for gap- and open-graded mixes, the methods investigated in this study also may prove helpful in the development of more accurate pavement distress prediction models.
Rapid Selective Annealing of Cu thin films on Si Using Microwaves

A key requirement for future integrated circuit fabrication is lower processing temperatures at all stages of fabrication. Typical rapid thermal annealing processes, utilizing infrared radiation, heat the film as well as the substrate and create the potential for device reliability problems. Microwave annealing may enable a novel solution to the problem of selective annealing of metallic or other conductive thin films, which is possible in the limit where the metal film thickness is less than the skin depth of the material at microwave frequencies. This technique is advantageous because the relatively low absorption of silicon deters substrate heating and the metallic thin film shields the rest of wafer. We have investigated the quality factor, Q, and temperature of silicon as a function of its doping concentration and power input into the microwave cavity. As a particular application of microwave selective annealing, we have microwave annealed sub-micron Cu thin films sputtered on patterned SiO2/Si substrates and demonstrated an improvement in trench filling for use in interconnect metallization applications.
On the evaluation of the deformation kinetics in titanium using stress relaxation

Abstract The theoretical considerations in the conventional analysis using stress relaxation technique to determine deformation kinetics of metals are critically examined. It is shown that the underlying assumptions are not well obeyed in α-titanium above room temperature. It is suggested, therefore, that the conventional approach may not be used in titanium in the entire temperature range up to three-tenths its melting point. Alternatively, a more direct approach to obtain the activation parameters is briefly outlined.
A strategic model for firms: Who seek to embrace nanomanufacturing

The term 'nanotechnology' has captured the technological and economic interest of technologists and business professionals alike. The commercial interest in nanotechnology is overwhelming and the term often misrepresented. This is especially evident in nanotechnology market projections, which have risen dramatically over the past 5-10 years as more and more traditional 'product families' are engulfed by the diffusion terminology and then are included in these projections. Nanomanufacturing is seen as a potential Schumpeterian or Kondratief waves (Schumpeter, 1934, 1942; Kondratief, 1937); yet manufacturing processes have been shown to be greatly different in various industrial sectors. The hurdles and problems facing the companies are as diverse as those sectors. This paper seeks to make a contribution by offering a categorisation scheme for nanomanufacturing based on the types of hurdles that firms are quite likely to encounter and provide some case base examples of both evolutionary and revolutionary nanomanufactured products.
Explicit solutions in two species Volterra systems.

An important consideration in the non-linear predator-prey problem of Volterra type is the determination of the period. This paper gives explicit expressions in convergent trigonometric series for the populations of two interacting species, and derives a close estimate in terms of well known Bessel functions for the sum of the series which gives the exact period.
BCID: An effective data center power mapping technology

The mapping of the power delivery network to the equipment in a data center is an essential step towards having intelligent and efficient control over data center power distribution. Visual identification of the power connectivity is error-prone and expensive while other methods require high-power signal injection and significant human labor or interruption in the power delivery, making them impractical. The use of power modulation in a server has been proposed but requires large power variations in order to do the mapping. In this paper we propose a new technique that reduces by over an order of magnitude the amount of signaling power necessary to less than 2.5W. Using this technique we show that a simple, USB device is able to generate that signal, allowing a non-intrusive method to identify the power connectivity for a system. The speed of detecting the connectivity reliably makes this a feasible solution for mapping entire data centers.
The results of various modalities of treatment of well differentiated thyroid carcinomas: a retrospective review of 1599 patients.

This study analyzed the impact of prognostic variables of age, sex, histopathological diagnosis, extent of disease at diagnosis, and surgical intervention on well differentiated thyroid carcinoma and how surgical treatment, radioactive iodine, and radiotherapy influence the patients' outcomes. There have been 1599 patients with well differentiated thyroid cancer treated and followed at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1948 to 1989. The median follow-up for all patients was 11.0 yr, with the maximum follow-up being 43 yr and the minimum follow-up being 1 yr. The patients were predominantly female (2.3:1), with papillary (81%) and intrathyroidal carcinomas (42%) at the time of diagnosis. Sixty-six percent of the patients had a total thyroidectomy, 7% received external radiotherapy, and 46% had radioactive iodine as part of the treatment of the original disease; the overall recurrence rate was 23%, and the death rate was 11%. This study showed that treatment with radioactive iodine wa...
Public Reporting in Cardiovascular Medicine Accountability, Unintended Consequences, and Promise for Improvement

“The Trustees of Hospitals should see to it,” wrote Dr Ernest Amory Codman in 1918, “that an effort is made to follow up each patient they treat, long enough to determine whether the treatment given has permanently relieved the condition or symptoms complained of.”1 These views did not help Dr Codman’s career. He quit his position as a staff surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital to protest the hospital administration’s refusal to measure and disclose outcomes and was later forced to resign as chairman of the Suffolk District Surgical Society.2 Two weeks after his death in 1940, the hospital’s trustees passed a resolution calling him a “champion of truth” who was “willing to sacrifice personal place and standing to achieve what he believed to be right.”2 In poor financial circumstances, he was buried initially without a headstone. In 2014, Dr Andrew L. Warshaw, the surgeon-in-chief emeritus and a former president of the New England Surgical Society, organized a granite and bronze memorial for Dr Codman’s gravesite in Cambridge, MA.2 More than 7 decades after Dr Codman’s death, debate persists about how to measure and report outcomes in medicine. Although the concept of measuring outcomes is now firmly embraced, risk-adjustment methods, the dissemination of outcomes data, and the incentives for healthcare providers and healthcare systems to improve outcomes remain contested. Cardiologists and cardiac surgeons have been among the first physicians to grapple with these issues, largely because cardiac disease is appealing for outcomes measurement and reporting. Not only is cardiac disease the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for nearly one-fifth of healthcare spending,3 but the cardiovascular community has led the way in evidence-based guidelines that lend themselves to quality measurement. Globally, ischemic heart disease and stroke have become the top 2 causes …
The kinesin-4 protein Kif7 regulates mammalian Hedgehog signalling by organizing the cilium tip compartment

Mammalian Hedgehog (Hh) signal transduction requires a primary cilium, a microtubule-based organelle, and the Gli-Sufu complexes that mediate Hh signalling, which are enriched at cilia tips. Kif7, a kinesin-4 family protein, is a conserved regulator of the Hh signalling pathway and a human ciliopathy protein. Here we show that Kif7 localizes to the cilium tip, the site of microtubule plus ends, where it limits cilium length and controls cilium structure. Purified recombinant Kif7 binds the plus ends of growing microtubules in vitro, where it reduces the rate of microtubule growth and increases the frequency of microtubule catastrophe. Kif7 is not required for normal intraflagellar transport or for trafficking of Hh pathway proteins into cilia. Instead, a central function of Kif7 in the mammalian Hh pathway is to control cilium architecture and to create a single cilium tip compartment, where Gli-Sufu activity can be correctly regulated.
Good night, sleep tight: the time is ripe for critical care providers to wake up and focus on sleep

The role of sleep during recovery from acute illness has been overlooked for decades. Advances in the support of critically ill patients have been made in mechanical ventilation, specialized nutrition support, highly specific antibiotic therapy, and early rehabilitation. However, the promotion of sleep – a basic tenet for survival – has been actively ignored by critical care providers. Bourne and coworkers recently conducted a small clinical trial that describes improved sleep efficiency with oral melatonin use in critically ill patients.
Frequency-dependent selection by wild birds promotes polymorphism in model salamanders

Co-occurrence of distinct colour forms is a classic paradox in evolutionary ecology because both selection and drift tend to remove variation from populations. Apostatic selection, the primary hypothesis for maintenance of colour polymorphism in cryptic animals, proposes that visual predators focus on common forms of prey, resulting in higher survival of rare forms. Empirical tests of this frequency-dependent foraging hypothesis are rare, and the link between predator behaviour and maintenance of variation in prey has been difficult to confirm. Here, we show that predatory birds can act as agents of frequency-dependent selection on terrestrial salamanders. Polymorphism for presence/absence of a dorsal stripe is widespread in many salamander species and its maintenance is a long-standing mystery. We used realistic food-bearing model salamanders to test whether selection by wild birds maintains a stripe/no-stripe polymorphism. In experimental manipulations, whichever form was most common was most likely to be attacked by ground-foraging birds, resulting in a survival advantage for the rare form. This experiment demonstrates that frequency-dependent foraging by wild birds can maintain colour polymorphism in cryptic prey.
Houghing the Hough: peak collection for detection of corners, junctions and line intersections

We exploit the Accumulator Array of the Hough Transform by finding collections of (2 or more) peaks through which a given sinusoid will pass. Such sinusoids identify points in the original image where lines intersect. Peak collection (or line aggregation) is performed by making a second pass through the edge map, but instead of laying points down in the accumulator array (as with the original Hough Transform), we compute the line integral over each sinusoid that corresponds to the current edge point. If a sinusoid passes through /spl ges/2 peaks, we deposit that sum/integral into a new accumulator array - an array that has a direct one-to-one correspondence with the original image. Thus, "Houghing the Hough" identifies points that correspond to corners, junctions or line intersections in image space. During initial peak collection, we include in the line integral only the most (locally) significant peaks while sifting out other (comparatively) weaker peaks from the current as well as subsequent peak collections. This "contextual peak sifting" greatly reduces computation, the effect of noise and the occurrence of false positives. Virtual line intersections (vanishing points, occluded corners, etc.) are detected as peaks without proximate edge support. Results in real-world images show the technique performs well in identifying corners, junctions and intersecting lines in a variety of scenes containing manmade objects such as buildings, documents, etc.
Saturation effects in the LMS adaptive line enhancer-transient response

Digital implementation of the LMS (least-mean-squares) adaptive line enhancer (ALE) introduces certain nonlinear effects. Feedback-error-signal saturation effects on the ALE adaption are investigated. A set of nonlinear coupled difference equations is derived by projecting the mean weight vector upon a set of orthogonal basis functions. These equations are used to study the transient behavior of ALE for the case of one and two sinusoids in broadband noise. >
Representing laryngeal reaction time performance

Summary Different calculation methods have been used to derive laryngeal reaction time (LRT) values. Some represent average LRT performance and others, optimal. Whether experimental outcome differed depending on choice of calculation method was tested. Outcome included absolute LRT values, subjects' relative performance, and relationships between LRT values and other variables. Six calculation methods (two representing average performance, two representing optimal, and two others) were selected. Overall, outcome did not differ between the two calculation methods representing optimal performance, nor between the two representing average performance. However, outcome could differ between methods representing optimal and average performance. These results suggest that calculating an optimal and an average measure, or using a measure capturing aspects of both would be useful, especially when studying pathological populations. The difference between a given subject's average and optimal performance may also reveal additional information
Audio-visual speech recognition by speechreading

Speechreading increases intelligibility in human speech perception. This suggests that conventional acoustic-based speech processing can benefit from the addition of visual information. This paper exploits speechreading for joint audio-visual speech recognition. We first present a color-based feature extraction algorithm that is able to extract salient visual speech features reliably from a frontal view of the talker in a video sequence. Then, a new fusion strategy using a coupled hidden Markov model (CHMM) is proposed to incorporate visual modality into the acoustic subsystem. By maintaining temporal coupling across the two modalities at the feature level and allowing asynchrony in the state at the same time, a CHMM provides a better model for capturing temporal correlations between the two streams of information. The experimental results demonstrate that the combined audio-visual system outperforms the acoustic-only recognizer over a wide range of noise levels.
On the possibility of detection of ions from Venus at 1 AU

The possibility that single ionized helium enhancements observed near 1 AU are the result of ion pickup from Venus is analyzed and found to be implausible. It is still possible, however, that Venus ions are present in the solar wind with sufficiently high fluxes to be detectable by earth-orbiting satellites near the time of inferior conjunction. Because of the inclination of the orbit of Venus to the ecliptic, some inferior conjunctions are more favorable for such a search than others. The inferior conjunctions on June 17, 1972 and June 15, 1980 are most favorable for detection.
Activities of Clinafloxacin, Alone and in Combination with Other Compounds, against 45 Gram-Positive and -Negative Organisms for Which Clinafloxacin MICs Are High

Time-kill studies indicated that clinafloxacin showed synergy after 24 h with ceftazidime, amikacin, and imipenem against 12, 8, and 10 of 33 gram-negative rods, respectively; with vancomycin, teicoplanin, cefotaxime, and amikacin against 3, 3, 1, and 1 of 9 staphylococci and enterococci, respectively; and with vancomycin, penicillin, and cefotaxime against 0, 2, and 2 of 3 pneumococci, respectively. The MICs of clinafloxacin alone for most strains were ≥1 μg/ml.
Modeling And Analyzing Distributed Autonomy For Spaceflight Teams

This paper addresses the authors’ ongoing work to provide a simulation-based human factors approach to studying autonomy in spaceflight mission operations. Despite increasing challenges for coordination and effective integration among mission control centers, spaceflight crews, and robotic assistants, understanding of dynamic autonomy requirements for mission profiles is still limited. In addition, increasing capabilities of information and computing technologies add additional opportunities for coordination among distributed experts working with distributed vehicles and crews. This paper builds on work presented at prior ICES and other conferences and describes a developing concept of distributed, dynamically operational measures of autonomy and functional capability in spaceflight mission operations.
A typology of project-level technology transfer processes

Abstract This paper develops a conceptual typology of inward technology transfer (ITT), which explicitly considers technology transfer at the project, rather than the firm, level of analysis. Building on extant technology management literature and the organizational theories of information processing and interdependence, we carefully characterize the three dimensions of the typology: the technology uncertainty of the technology that is transferred, the organizational interaction between the technology source and recipient, and transfer effectiveness. Appropriate matches of technology uncertainty and organizational interaction result in four archetypal cases called “transfer process types”, which represent the most effective approaches to technology transfer. Real-life examples of effective and ineffective matches are presented, and implications of the typology for future research and practice are discussed.
Two-port noise and impedance measurements for two-terminal devices with a resonant tunneling diode example

A two-port technique is presented for determining the circuit elements and noise sources of the equivalent circuit of a two-terminal device at microwave frequencies. The two-terminal device is connected as a two-port so that intrinsic and parasitic circuit elements can be obtained from full two-port S-parameter measurements. This measurement does not require one of the two contacts to be grounded, which makes it particularly well suited for the characterization of integrated devices where parasitic elements become important and cannot be easily calculated. The noise of the device is measured by employing a noise-figure meter and the intrinsic noise is computed from the measured terminal noise. As an example, the impedance and noise elements of a resonant tunneling diode (RTD) are measured over frequency ranges of 2-8 and 2-4 GHz, respectively.
Augmented reflex cutaneous vasodilatation following short‐term dietary nitrate supplementation in humans

New Findings What is the central question of this study? Nitrate supplementation via beetroot juice has been shown to have several benefits in healthy humans, including reduced blood pressure and increased blood flow to exercising muscle. Whether nitrate supplementation can improve blood flow to the skin in heat-stressed humans has not been investigated. What is the main finding and its importance? Similar to previous studies, we found that nitrate supplementation reduces blood pressure. Nitrate supplementation increased vasodilatation in the skin of heat-stressed humans but did not directly increase skin blood flow. Nitrate supplementation has been shown to increase NO-dependent vasodilatation through both NO synthase (NOS)-dependent and NOS-independent pathways. We hypothesized that nitrate supplementation would augment reflex cutaneous active vasodilatation. Subjects were equipped with two microdialysis fibres on the forearm randomly assigned as control (Ringer solution) or NOS inhibition (20 mm l-NAME). Whole-body heating was performed to raise core temperature by 0.8°C above baseline core temperature. Maximal cutaneous vasodilatation was achieved via 54 mm sodium nitroprusside and local heating to 43°C. Skin blood flow (measured by laser-Doppler flowmetry) and blood pressure were measured. Cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC) was calculated as skin blood flow divided by mean arterial pressure (MAP) and expressed as a percentage of maximal CVC (%CVCmax). Subjects underwent heat stress before and after nitrate supplementation (3 days of beetroot juice; 5 mm, 0.45 g nitrates per day). During heat stress, MAP was reduced following nitrate supplementation compared with the control conditions (before 88 ± 3 mmHg versus after 78 ± 2 mmHg; P < 0.05); however, resting MAP was not different between conditions (before 88 ± 3 mmHg versus after 83 ± 2 mmHg; P = 0.117). Nitrate supplementation increased plateau CVC at control sites (before 67 ± 2%CVCmax versus after 80 ± 5%CVCmax; P = 0.01) but not at l-NAME-treated sites (before 45 ± 4%CVCmax versus after 40 ± 5%CVCmax; P = 0.617). There was no change in the calculated percentage of NOS-dependent vasodilatation before and after supplementation (before 59 ± 4% versus after 64 ± 6%; P = 0.577). These data suggest that nitrate supplementation augments CVC and reduces MAP during heat stress.
Effects of cocaine under concurrent fixed ratio schedules of food and IV drug availability: a novel choice procedure in monkeys.

Abstract Rationale. The relative reinforcing strength of cocaine can be characterized by the distribution of operant behavior during the availability of other reinforcing stimuli. Objective. To develop a procedure to rapidly evaluate the relative reinforcing strength of cocaine in monkeys. Methods. Monkeys were trained to respond on two levers under concurrent fixed-ratio 30 (FR30) schedules of reinforcement. Responding on one lever resulted in food delivery, responding on the alternative lever resulted in delivery of IV saline or cocaine (0.032 or 0.1 mg/kg per injection). Daily sessions consisted of three 30-min components separated by 10-min timeout periods. The availability of saline, 0.032, or 0.1 mg/kg per injection cocaine varied across components, and only in an ascending order. The relative reinforcing strength of 0.0032–0.32 mg/kg per injection cocaine was examined by substituting different unit doses for the training doses of cocaine. Effects of cocaine pretreatment on response distribution were determined by giving IM injections of 0.1–1.8 mg/kg cocaine 10 min prior to sessions of saline availability. Results. Increasing unit doses of cocaine monotonically increased the distribution of responding on the injection-lever and monotonically deceased response rates. Responding occurred predominantly on the food-lever during availability of saline or 0.0032 mg/kg per injection cocaine, whereas availability of 0.032–0.32 mg/kg per injection produced >90% of responding on the injection-lever. Availability of 0.01 mg/kg per injection cocaine resulted in approximately equal levels of responding on the food- and injection-levers. Presession IM cocaine injections dose-dependently increased responding on the injection-lever. Conclusions. Stable behavior can be maintained under concurrent FR schedules of food and cocaine presentation in monkeys, and the distribution of behavior on food- and injection-levers is dependent on the available dose of cocaine.
Vocal source features for bilingual speaker identification

This paper introduces the use of two new features for speaker identification, Residual Phase Cepstrum Coefficients (RPCC) and Glottal Flow Cepstrum Coefficients (GLFCC), to capture speaker-specific characteristics from their vocal excitation patterns. Results on a cross-lingual speaker identification task taken from the NIST 2004 SRE demonstrate that these RPCC and GLFCC features are significantly more accurate than traditional mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC). In particular, these two new features give better results with smaller amounts of training data, due to lower model complexity.
New Inroads in Preventing Adolescent Drug Use: Results From a Large-Scale Trial of Project ALERT in Middle Schools

Objectives. We evaluated the revised Project ALERT drug prevention program across a wide variety of Midwestern schools and communities. Methods. Fifty-five South Dakota middle schools were randomly assigned to program or control conditions. Treatment group students received 11 lessons in 7th grade and 3 more in 8th grade. Program effects for 4276 8th-graders were assessed 18 months after baseline. Results. The revised Project ALERT curriculum curbed cigarette and marijuana use initiation, current and regular cigarette use, and alcohol misuse. Reductions ranged from 19% to 39%. Program effects were not significant for initial and current drinking or for current and regular marijuana use. Conclusions. School-based drug prevention programs can prevent occasional and more serious drug use, help low- to high-risk adolescents, and be effective in diverse school environments.
Diet-induced obesity and acute hyperlipidemia reduce IκBα levels in rat skeletal muscle in a fiber-type dependent manner

Increased activity of proinflammatory/stress pathways has been implicated in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in obesity. However, the effects of obesity on the activity of these pathways in ...
Advances in Understanding Autoimmune Pituitary Disease: Standardized Methods for Autoantibody Detection

An increasing focus on autoimmune disease has centered on the most commonly affected organ systems. Most of these diseases are associated with a disrupted architecture and function. They result from the infiltration of immunocompetent cells such as T lymphocytes, activation of residential cells, and tissue remodeling (1). In practice, assessing cellular reactivity requires the invasive interrogation of frequently inaccessible tissues. Many diseases in the spectrum of autoimmunity are also associated with production of circulating autoantibodies. In no disease has their importance in clinical decision making been more apparent than in type I diabetes mellitus (2). Despite their frequent lack of disease specificity, several autoantibodies have become invaluable diagnostic markers, and their levels are now routinely assessed by commercial laboratories. They have also been used to judge whether an individual might be at increased risk for developing disease in the future. Therefore, their presence can allow stratification in those who might benefit from increased clinical surveillance. Monitoring many autoantibodies has become a mainstay of managing autoimmune diseases such as those affecting the thyroid, pancreas, and adrenal glands. Furthermore, they have the potential for use as biomarkers for assessing the responses to therapy.
Ptolemeba n. gen., a Novel Genus of Hartmannellid Amoebae (Tubulinea, Amoebozoa); with an Emphasis on the Taxonomy of Saccamoeba

Hartmannellid amoebae are an unnatural assemblage of amoeboid organisms that are morphologically difficult to discern from one another. In molecular phylogenetic trees of the nuclear-encoded small subunit rDNA, they occupy at least five lineages within Tubulinea, a well-supported clade in Amoebozoa. The polyphyletic nature of the hartmannellids has led to many taxonomic problems, in particular paraphyletic genera. Recent taxonomic revisions have alleviated some of the problems. However, the genus Saccamoeba is paraphyletic and is still in need of revision as it currently occupies two distinct lineages. Here, we report a new clade on the tree of Tubulinea, which we infer represents a novel genus that we name Ptolemeba n. gen. This genus subsumes a clade of hartmannellid amoebae that were previously considered in the genus Saccamoeba, but whose mitochondrial morphology is distinct from Saccamoeba. In accordance with previous research, we formalize the clade as distinct from Saccamoeba. Transmission electron microscopy of our isolates illustrate that both molecularly discrete species can be further differentiated by their unique mitochondrial cristal morphology.
A decomposition analysis of medical expenditure growth among injured workers.

The factors driving the rapid increase in US medical spending are a concern for both policymakers and payers. This article analyzes variation in spending growth rates for a large sample of persons with workplace injuries. We analyze trends by type and age of injury, and by type of provider. Medical spending growth ranged from 2 percent to 12 percent for different injuries, and 3 percent to 16 percent across different types of providers. We decomposed spending growth into price, volume, and service intensity growth rates. Service intensity accounts for 20 percent of overall expenditure growth, but is a particularly large and variable contributor to spending growth in inpatient services, ranging from 35 percent to 73 percent of total spending growth among the four most prevalent injuries we studied. Efforts to forecast spending, and to design policies that manage spending growth, should account for heterogeneous trends across patients and providers. Language: en
DISTORTION PRODUCT RESPONSES OF SATURATING NONLINEARITIES

Saturating nonlinearities (Figure 1) show several amplitude scaling relationships that are common to this class of nonlinearity. Here we examine the output of distortion products (DP’s) at the DP frequencies fd = 2f1-f2 and at fd = 3f1-2f2.
Small Molecule- and Amino Acid-Induced Aggregation of Gold Nanoparticles

To understand which organic molecules are capable of binding to gold nanoparticles and/or inducing nanoparticle aggregation, we investigate the interaction of gold nanoparticles with small molecules and amino acids at variable pH. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectra were measured on mixtures of colloidal gold with small molecules to track the progression of the aggregation of gold nanoparticles. We introduce the 522 to 435 nm UV–vis absorbance ratio as a sensitive method for the detection of colloidal gold aggregation, whereby we delineate the ability of thiol, amine, and carboxylic acid functional groups to bind to the surfaces of gold nanoparticles and investigate how combinations of these functional groups affect colloidal stability. We present models for mechanisms of aggregation of colloidal gold, including surface charge reduction and bridging linkers. For all molecules whose addition leads to the aggregation of gold nanoparticles, the aggregation kinetics were ac...
Affective control efficacy and cognitive control efficacy: a comment.

Arch's interesting 1992 concept of affective control efficacy deserves further study, with attention to its possible overlap with cognitive control efficacy.
Pharmacoeconomic Evaluations: Guidelines for Drug Purchasers

OBJECTIVE: To propose a set of guidelines for use by health care organizations in the United States that seek useful, comparative clinical information and economic analysis on pharmaceutical produc...
Sequence analysis of the nucleoprotein gene of Rabies virus NB0901 strain isolated in Ningbo

Objective The nucleoprotein structural gene of the Rabies virus NB0901 strain isolated in Ningbo city in 2009 was amplified and sequenced by RT-PCR to get an insight into the epidemiological characteristics of rabies in this area.Methods The N gene sequence of the NB0901 strain was obtained using RT-PCR and sequence analysis.The homology of the gene with vaccine strains,3aG and CNT-1,was analyzed at the nucleotide and amino acid level,respectively,followed by phylogenetic analysis.Results The homology between the NB0901 strain and the vaccine strains ranged from 86.6%-90.1% to 95.5%-98.8%,respectively,at the level of nucleotide and amino acids.By comparison with the vaccine strains,mutations were found at NⅠ and NⅡ antigen epitopes of the NB0901 strain.Epitopes of the T helper cells were identical between the NB0901 strains and CNT-1 strains,whereas those in 3aG had remarkably mutated,suggesting that the NB0901 strain belonged to subtype A of groupⅠof Rabies virus.Conclusion Though NB0901 and the current vaccine strains belonged to the same group,this strain was partly different from the latter.Based on the analysis at the amino acid level,CNT-1 strains would be more effective in protecting infection of this strain than 3aG strains.
Differential activation of PKC-delta and -zeta by alpha 1-adrenergic stimulation in human airway epithelial cells

Phorbol ester and alpha 1-adrenergic stimulation of Na-Cl-K cotransport in human tracheal epithelial cells was investigated by determining the expression of protein kinase C (PKC) isotypes and their activation by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and methoxamine, an alpha 1-adrenergic agonist. PKC-alpha, -beta II, -delta, -epsilon, and -zeta were expressed in confluent cell cultures. PKC-beta I, -gamma, and -eta were not detected. PKC-alpha and -zeta were localized to the cytosol, and PKC-beta II and -delta were distributed approximately evenly between cytosolic and particulate fractions. Treatment with PMA for 30 min increased PKC activity in subcellular fractions and induced a redistribution of PKC-beta II and -delta to a particulate fraction. PMA treatment for 18 h reduced PKC activity to levels found in untreated cells and reduced, but did not deplete, PKC isotype mass. Methoxamine transiently increased PKC activity, with maximal levels at 40 s, and caused a shift in PKC-delta and -zeta mass to a particulate fraction. Methoxamine selectively induced a sustained increase in PKC-zeta activity but only a transient increase in PKC-delta. These results suggest that PKC-delta and -zeta mediate hormonal activation of Na-Cl-K cotransport.
Children with minimal chance for cure: parent proxy of the child’s health-related quality of life and the effect on parental physical and mental health during treatment

To assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) from the time of diagnosis until disease progression in a cohort of children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). The assessment was collected from the perspectives of the child and their parents and evaluated the effect of the child’s HRQOL on their parents’ physical and mental well-being, thus providing insight into the optimal timing of palliative consultation, including anticipatory grief and bereavement services. This longitudinal study assessed 25 parents and their children, ages 2–17 years of age with DIPG across five time-points, baseline and weeks 2, 4, 6, 16, 24. Assessments included the PedsQL 4.0 Core Scales, PedsQL 3.0 Brain Tumor Scale, and Short-Form 36. HRQOL instruments were completed by the child (age ≥5 years) and parent-proxy (ages 2–17 years), with the parent completing the SF-36. Children’s reports and parents’ proxy of their child’s HRQOL indicated poor physical functioning and increased anxiety at the initiation of therapy. A trending improvement in the children’s HRQOL was reported by children and parents from baseline to week 6, with a decline at week 16. The childs’ parent proxy reported cognitive problems, procedural anxiety and lower overall brain tumor HRQOL were assoicated with poorer self-reported parental mental status. Palliative care consultation should be initiated at the time of diagnosis and is supported in the high physical and emotional symptom burden reported by our patients, with heightened involvement initiated at 16 weeks. Prompt palliative care involvement, mitigating anxiety associated with clinic visits and procedures, management of brain tumor specific symptoms, advanced care planning, anticipatory grief and bereavement services, and care coordination may maximize HRQOL for patients and ensure positive long-term outcomes for parents of children with DIPG.
The pancreatic tumor microenvironment drives changes in miRNA expression that promote cytokine production and inhibit migration by the tumor associated stroma

The pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) microenvironment is largely comprised of fibrotic tumor associated stroma (TAS) that contributes to the lethal biology of PDAC. microRNA (miRNA) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression. We hypothesized that interactions between PDAC cells and TAS cells within the microenvironment modulate miRNA expression and thus, tumor biology. We observed that miR-205 and members of the miR-200 family (miR-200a, -200b, -200c, -141 and miR-429) were exclusively expressed in PDAC cells, consistent with an epithelial miRNA signature, while miR-145 and miR-199 family members (miR-199a and -199b) were solely expressed in TAS cells, consistent with a stromal miRNA signature. This finding was confirmed by qRT-PCR of RNA obtained by laser-capture microdissection of surgical specimens. Using an in vitro co-culture model, we further demonstrated regulation of miRNA expression by cell-cell contact. Forced expression in TAS cells of miR-200b/-200c and miR-205 to mimic these observed changes in miRNA concentrations induced secretion of GM-CSF and IP10, and notably inhibited migration. These data suggest interactions within the tumor microenvironment alter miRNA expression, which in turn have a functional impact on TAS.
Maximizing the Spread of Positive Influence by Deadline

Influence maximization has found applications in various fields such as sensor placement, viral marketing, controlling rumor outbreak, etc. In this paper, we propose a targeted approach to influence maximization in polarized networks i.e. networks where we already know or can predict node's opinion about a product or topic. The goal is to find a set of individuals to target, such that positive opinion about a specific topic or the product to be launched is maximized. Another key aspect that is present in most of the existing viral marketing algorithms is that they do not take into account the timeliness of the product adoption. In this paper, we present a framework where we infer the polarity, activity levels of the users, and then select seeds to launch viral marketing campaigns such that positive influence about the product is maximized by the given deadline.
Robust Time-Varying Load Modeling for Conservation Voltage Reduction Assessment

Due to the increasing penetration of intermittent renewable energy and highly stochastic load behavior, it is challenging to effectively assess conservation voltage reduction (CVR) in power distribution systems. This paper proposes a robust time-varying load modeling technique to accurately identify load-to-voltage (LTV) dependence, yielding an improved CVR assessment scheme. In particular, we propose a robust recursive least squares (RLS) approach to estimate time-varying parameters of a ZIP load model at the substation level. Based on the identified load model, we are able to effectively evaluate LTV and analyze CVR factors. We propose a RLS with variable forgetting factors to capture the variations of model parameters under different situations, including continuous and sudden changes of parameters. To further enable RLS to suppress bad or missing measurements, we advocate to use the Huber M-estimator with a convex cost function. Finally, the robust RLS is solved by an iteratively reweighted technique. We demonstrate the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed method using both simulations and field tests.