cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Liquid‐liquid equilibria in polymer blends–molecular weight effects

Flory's equation-of-state theory has been successfully used by several scientists to predict the qualitative nature of the liquid-liquid phase equilibria in polymer blends. This theory in its most simple form requires characteristic PVT parameters for each component plus an interaction energy parameter for the mixture. The melt titration technique was used to measure the miscibility of a series of polystyrene fractions (Mw = 4000 to 1,800,000) in low density polyethylene. Because the PVT properties of both of these polymers are well known, the experimental results could be compared with the predicted equilibrium compositions from Flory's equation-of-state theory using the interaction energy as an adjustable parameter. This comparison led to the conclusion that the interaction energy parameter may have some molecular weight dependence.
Combining reactive sputtering and rapid thermal processing for synthesis and discovery of metal oxynitrides

Recent efforts have demonstrated enhanced tailoring of material functionality with mixed anion materials, yet exploratory research with mixed anion chemistries is limited by the sensitivity of these materials to synthesis conditions. Synthesis of a particular metal oxynitride compound by traditional reactive annealing requires specific, limited ranges of both oxygen and nitrogen chemical potentials to establish equilibrium between the solid-state material and a reactive atmosphere. Using Ta–O–N as an example system, we describe a combination of reactive sputter deposition and rapid thermal processing (RTP) for synthesis of mixed anion inorganic materials. Heuristic optimization of reactive gas pressures to attain a desired anion stoichiometry is discussed, and the ability of RTP to enable amorphous to crystalline transitions without preferential anion loss is demonstrated through the controlled synthesis of nitride, oxide, and oxynitride phases.
Characterization and Testing of Amidoxime-Based Adsorbent Materials to Extract Uranium from Natural Seawater

Extraction of uranium (U) from seawater for use as a nuclear fuel is a significant challenge due to the low concentration of U in seawater (∼3.3 ppb) and difficulties to selectively extract U from the background of major and trace elements in seawater. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)’s Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) has been serving as a marine test site for determining performance characteristics (adsorption capacity, adsorption kinetics, and selectivity) of novel amidoxime-based polymeric adsorbents developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under natural seawater exposure conditions. This manuscript describes the performance of three formulations (38H, AF1, AI8) of amidoxime-based polymeric adsorbents produced at ORNL in MSL’s ambient seawater testing facility. The adsorbents were produced in two forms, fibrous material (40–100 mg samples) and braided material (5–10 g samples), and exposed to natural seawater using flow-through columns and recirculating flumes. All three formu...
Lazy Preservation: Reconstructing Websites from the Web Infrastructure

Backup or preservation of websites is often not considered until after a catastrophic event has occurred. In the face of complete website loss, webmasters or concerned third parties have attempted to recover some of their websites from the Internet Archive. Still others have sought to retrieve missing resources from the caches of commercial search engines. Inspired by these post hoc reconstruction attempts, this book introduces the concept of lazy preservation- digital preservation performed as a result of the normal operations of the Web Infrastructure (web archives, search engines and caches). In this book, the Web Infrastructure (WI) is characterized by its preservation capacity and behavior. Methods for reconstructing websites from the WI are investigated, and a new type of crawler is introduced: the web-repository crawler. Several experiments are used to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of lazy preservation for a variety of websites, including dynamic websites where recovery of the server components is necessary. This book is intended for those interested in preserving the Web and using search engines to that effect.
Du Sollst Nichts Hinzufügen Und Nichts Wegnehmen (Dtn 13,1): Rechtsreform Und Hermeneutik in Der Hebräischen Bibel (You Must Not Add to It Nor Take Away Anything from It (Deut 13:1): Legal Reform and Hermeneutics in the Hebrew Bible)

Published in German, 2006. Original title: Du Sollst Nichts Hinzufugen Und Nichts Wegnehmen (Dtn 13,1): Rechtsreform Und Hermeneutik in Der Hebraischen Bibel. This paper is based on a lecture given at the conference, "Recht und Gesetz in judischer, christlicher und islamischer Tradition," Evangelische Akademie Arnoldshain, O 16-19 2003. Cultures having a tradition of prestigious or authoritative texts must inevitably confront the problem of literary and legal innovation. Ancient Israel’s development of the idea of divine revelation of law creates a cluster of constraints that one would expect to impede legal revision or amendment. As a test-case, the article examines the doctrine of transgenerational punishment: the notion that God punishes sinners vicariously and extends the punishment due them to three or four generations of their progeny. A series of innerbiblical and post-biblical responses to the rule demonstrates, however, that later writers were able to criticize, reject, and replace it with the alternative notion of individual retribution. Thus it was the formative canon itself which fostered critical reflection on the textual tradition and resulted in intellectual freedom.
Winter irrigation increased yield of ‘Washington’ navel orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck)

SummaryThe present study aimed to quantify the effect of withholding irrigation during the winter season in southern California on the productivity of ‘Washington’ navel orange and to determine whether the additional expense of irrigating navel orange trees during the winter is a cost-effective production management strategy. Yield and fruit size were quantified for 30 year old ‘Washington’ navel orange scions on Troyer citrange rootstock which were rain-fed from October 1 to March 1 in each of three successive years and for another set of trees which were irrigated during the winter. Supplementing winter rainfall with irrigation significantly increased the weight of fruit per tree in all three years of the study (45 ± 17 kg fruit tree−1, n = 3 years) and number of fruit per tree in the two years in which the rain-fed, –winter irrigation trees had significantly lower predawn water potentials than the +winter irrigation trees. Despite the yield increases which resulted from supplementing winter rain with i...
Characterization of Macromolecular Structure Elements from a Green River Oil Shale, II. Characterization of Pyrolysis Products by 13C NMR, GC/MS, and FTIR

This paper is Part II of a study of the chemical structural components of the organic matter of oil shale in the Green River formation. Three sections of a well-characterized oil shale core from the Utah Green River formation were demineralized, and the resulting kerogen was pyrolyzed at 10 °C/min in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure at temperatures up to 525 °C. The pyrolysis products (light gas, tar, and char) were analyzed using 13 C NMR, GC/MS, and (FTIR). Pyrolysis yields of 80% (daf basis) were achieved at these conditions, with 60% daf tar yield at the highest temperature. The solid-state NMR results indicate that the aromaticity of the kerogen char increased from 20% (at RT) to 80% during pyrolysis, with a corresponding decrease in the average aliphatic carbon chain length from 12 to less than 1. The average number of aromatic carbons per cluster increased from 12 to 20 in a narrow temperature window between 425 and 525 °C, with an increase in the number of attachments per cluster from 6 to 8 in that same temperature window. Liquid-state NMR results of the condensed tars showed predominance of n-alkyl chains, with similar carbon aromaticities at each temperature. The alkyl chains were also observed in the GC/MS data. The light gases determined by FTIR were primarily CH4, CO, and CO2. The combination of gas, tar, and char yields and chemical structure analyses are valuable for modeling of oil shale processes based on chemical structure rather than based on empiricism.
The Creep Behavior of a High Molecular Weight Polystyrene

In 1932 Warren Busse noted that high molecular weight linear polymers at temperatures above their glass tempearature, Tg, responded for a time as if they were crosslinked: i.e. they exhibited1 a rubberlike molulus before viscous flow dominated the deformation. He proposed that entanglements involving neighboring threadlike molecules behaved as temporary crosslinks. The appearance of what is now referred to as the rubbery plateau in the creep compliance, J(t), and the stress relaxation modulus, G(t), curves plotted as a function of logarithmic time is the result of the diminution of viscous deformation by the entanglements. The enhanced molecular weight dependence of the viscosity at high molecular weights, M3.4 over the first power dependence observed at low molecular weights at constant monomeric friction coefficient2,3 is a related phenomenon attributed to the existence and influence of the molecular entanglements. The decrease of the entanglement concentration at high rates of shear is believed to be the principal mechanism responsible for the strong decrease in the shear viscosity with increasing shear rates. Graessley has developed a theory of non-Newtonian flow based on this concept4,5.
The investigation on the infection of Bartonella species in rodent hosts in Fujian

To study the infection status of Bartonella spp.in Fujian province. The blood sample of rat were collected from Xiamen,Fujian.Isolation of Bartonella was processed on 5% brain heart infusion agar media supplemented with rabbit blood.Bartonella-like isolate were confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR) amplification of Bartonella specific primers of the citrate syithase(gltA) gene.The 379bp fragment of gltA gene was sequenced.Twenty-two strains of Bartonella isolates were obtained from 151 blood samples collected and the infection rate was about 14.57%,the strains of Bartonella belonging to 2 genus of 2 orders,in which the infection rate of Sever rat was about 8.97% and Suncus murinus was about 20.55%.Aslo Suncus murinus with Bartonella was reported for the first time at home and abroad.In this paper it was indicated that the prevalence of Bartonella spp.was high in the most prevalent species of rodent hosts in Fujian.The finding of Bartonella in rodent hosts suggested the need for investigating the role of these agents as the source of human illness by the method of molecular biology.In the south of China,more than 50 percent of rodent hosts is made up by Suncus murines,so spoke for itself the epidemiologic significant of Suncus murinus which infect Bartonella.
Mood disturbance in the cancer setting: effects of gender and patient/spouse role.

This article highlights findings from the cancer-specific and other medical caregiving literatures and details a 2-year longitudinal prospective investigation of mood among hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients and spousal caregivers (CGs). Emphases are on gender and role (patient, spouse). Couples (n = 131) completed the Profile of Mood States before HSCT, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after HSCT. Data from a nonmedical sample were also collected for normative comparison. Negative affect declined over time for both patients and CGs (P 0.05). Female CGs reported greater depression and anxiety than male CGs. In gender-specific normative comparisons, male and female patients and male CGs showed elevations in negative affect before transplant (P 0.05). Female CGs, in contrast, showed elevations at multiple time points (P < 0.01), suggesting slower resolution of distress over time. These results highlight the need to consider time, gender, and role when addressing emotional, marital, or psychiatric needs in couples. Further investigation is required to identify sources and long-term sequelae of negative affect among female CGs and their partners.
Borel Spaces and Polish Alphabets

We have seen that standard measurable spaces are the only measurable spaces for which all finitely additive candidate probability measures are also countably additive, and we have developed several properties and some important simple examples. In particular, sequence spaces drawn from countable alphabets and certain subspaces thereof are standard. In this chapter we develop the most important (and, in a sense, the most general) class of standard spaces-Borel spaces formed from complete separable metric spaces. We will accomplish this by showing that such spaces are isomorphic to a standard subspace of a countable alphabet sequence space and hence are themselves standard. The proof will involve a form of coding or quantization.
Tensor Analyzing Powers in (,p) Reactions on 46Ti and 52Cr

Measurements were made of the cross section and the vector and tensor analyzing powers on 52Cr(,p)53Cr at 6 MeV and 46Ti(,p)47Ti at 6 and 10 MeV. The experimental technique is discussed in ref. 1. The measurements were compared with DWBA calculations which included the deuteron D-state using the method of ref. 2.
Regulation and Function of Protein Kinase D Signaling

Protein kinase D (PKD) is an evolutionarily conserved protein kinase with structural, enzymological, and regulatory properties different from the PKC family members. The most distinct characteristics of PKD are the presence of a catalytic domain distantly related to Ca2+-regulated kinases and a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain that regulates enzyme activity. The N-terminal region of PKD also contains a tandem repeat of cysteine-rich, zinc finger-like motifs which confer high affinity binding of phorbol esters and repress catalytic kinase activity. The subsequent identification of PKD2 and PKD3, similar in overall structure and amino acid sequence to PKD, confirmed the notion that PKD is the founding member of a new family of protein kinases, now classified in the mammalian kinome within the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK) group. PKD can be activated within intact cells by multiple stimuli acting through receptor-mediated pathways. Rapid PKD activation has been demonstrated in response to G protein-coupled receptor agonists, growth factors, cross-linking of B-cell receptor and T-cell receptor and cellular stress. The phosphorylation of Ser744 and Ser748 in the activation loop of PKD is critical for its activation. Rapid PKC-dependent PKD activation can be followed by a late, PKC-independent, phase of catalytic activation and phosphorylation induced by agonists of Gq-coupled receptors. Accumulating evidence suggest that PKD plays a role in multiple cellular processes and activities, including signal transduction, chromatin organization, Golgi function, gene expression, immune regulation, cardiac hypertrophy and cell survival, adhesion, motility, polarity, DNA synthesis and proliferation. The studies on regulation and function of PKD reviewed here illustrate a remarkable diversity in both its signal generation and distribution and its potential for complex regulatory interactions with multiple downstream pathways. In conclusion, PKD emerges as a key node in cellular signal transduction.
Latinos Unidos por la Salud: The Process of Developing an Immigrant Community Research Team

The tremendous Latino growth combined with the challenges of living in a nontraditional migration area make Latinos, particularly those who are undocumented, a “difficult-to-reach” and understudied population in research. We describe the development and practice of an immigrant community research team created to investigate and improve research quality regarding health-related needs, beliefs, and behaviors of recent Latino immigrants living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our community research team, Latinos Unidos por la Salud (LUSalud), is composed of Latino immigrant community members and academic researchers working in a health research partnership. The community team members are considered “co-researchers” since LU-Salud was designed within a community-based participatory research framework where we engaged in shared decision making at each phase of the research process from design, data collection, and interpretation of findings to dissemination. The co-researcher approach promoted shared decision-making and community empowerment throughout the research process with our community members providing expertise about the “what” (Latino immigrant health-related beliefs and behaviors, questionnaire content, interpretation of data) and the “why” (to obtain perspectives from Latino immigrants who typically don’t engage with academics) and our academic members bringing expertise about the “how” (research design and methods, grant funding).
Prediction of the Wetting Behavior of Active and Hole-Transport Layers for Printed Flexible Electronic Devices Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to predict the wetting behavior of materials typical of active and hole-transport layers in organic electronics by evaluating their contact angles and adhesion energies. The active layer (AL) here consists of a blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM), whereas the hole-transport layer (HTL) consists of a blend of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). Simulations of the wetting of these surfaces by multiple solvents show that formamide, glycerol, and water droplet contact angle trends correlate with experimental values. However, droplet simulations on surfaces are computationally expensive and would be impractical for routine use in printed electronics and other applications. As an alternative, contact angle measurements can be related to adhesion energy, which can be calculated more quickly and easily from simulations and has been shown to correlate with contact angles. Calculations...
Network-as-a-Service in software-defined networking for end-to-end quality of service provisioning

Software-Defined Network (SDN) is expected to have a significant impact on future networking.Although exciting progress has been made toward realizing SDN, application of this new networking paradigm in the future Internet to support end-to-end QoS provisioning faces some new challenges. The autonomous network domains coexisting in the Internet and the diverse user applications deployed upon the Internet call for a uniform Service Delivery Platform (SDP) that enables high-level network abstraction and inter-domain collaboration for end-to-end service provisioning. However, the currently available SDN technologies lack effective mechanisms for supporting such a platform. This chapter presents an SDP framework that applies the Networkas-a-Service (NaaS) principle to provide network abstraction and orchestration for end-to-end service provisioning in SDN-based future Internet. In order to address the new challenges brought in by resource abstraction enabled by NaaS to system modeling and analysis for QoS evaluation, a profile-based analysis method developed based on the network calculus theory is also presented in this chapter.
Coupling Matrix Synthesis and Impedance-Matching Optimization Method for Magnetic Resonance Coupling Systems

The general coupling matrix representation of bandpass filter (BPF) circuits is a widely used technique that has simplified the analysis and optimization of complex microwave filters. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel application of the general coupling matrix for modeling wireless power-transfer (WPT) systems based on the BPF model of magnetically coupled resonators. Compared to other methods of WPT analysis, our model simplifies accommodation of complex loads and provides direct expressions for impedance matching (IM) in WPT systems. Using this tool, we achieve optimal IM for two resonator systems with a complex load, thus achieving the greatest possible power-transfer efficiency (PTE). Furthermore, our model reveals additional design constraints for optimizing PTE in coupled resonator systems exhibiting low quality factor and small interresonator coupling. Overall, this paper introduces a new, versatile framework for the analysis and optimization of coupled resonator WPT systems. Experimental results are presented, verifying the optimal IM design process.
Bridge Management — The Answer to the Challenge

About 42 percent of the 578,000 highway bridges carrying public roads in the United States are classified as deficient by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Recent FHWA studies show that bridges between 15 and 35 years old have a total deck area of more than one billion square feet, or 40 percent of the total area of existing bridges. This huge cohort will require the best, most innovative, engineering and bridge management practices to be applied to meet the challenge of continued safety, mobility and economic opportunity that the United States’ highway system currently provides.
Role of Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase in Regulating Oil Content and Composition in Soybean

Accessions of the USDA Soybean ( Glycine max L. Merr.) Germplasm Collection exhibit genetic diversity for oil concentration ranging from 12 to 27 percent of dry weight. Although oil concentration is a highly heritable quantitative genetic trait, the genetic and biochemical basis for genotypic differences in the oil content of soybean seed is unknown. Recent knowledge on biological regulation of this trait has emerged from research on diacylglycerol acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.20), the enzyme that catalyses triacylglycerol synthesis. Diacylglycerol acyltransferase purified from the cv. Dare has a native mass of about 1.5 MDa. Structural analysis suggests the protein consists of 10 monomers having three nonidentical subunits in a 1:2:2 molar ratio. Kinetics of the enzyme purified from soybeans exhibiting high or low oil content suggest that genotypic differences in oil content may be governed by gene dosage effects. However, subtle conformational changes in protein structure may influence oil composition, as evidenced by apparent substrate specificities observed in germplasm containing low-palmitic acid. Therefore, diacylglycerol acyltransferase may play a unique role in determining the content and composition of triacylglycerol in soybean.
Raw and Count Data Comparability of Hip-Worn ActiGraph GT3X+ and Link Accelerometers

To enable inter- and intrastudy comparisons it is important to ascertain comparability among accelerometer models. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare raw and count data between hip-worn ActiGraph GT3X+ and GT9X Link accelerometers. METHODS Adults (n = 26 (n = 15 women); age, 49.1 ± 20.0 yr) wore GT3X+ and Link accelerometers over the right hip for an 80-min protocol involving 12-21 sedentary, household, and ambulatory/exercise activities lasting 2-15 min each. For each accelerometer, mean and variance of the raw (60 Hz) data for each axis and vector magnitude (VM) were extracted in 30-s epochs. A machine learning model (Montoye 2015) was used to predict energy expenditure in METs from the raw data. Raw data were also processed into activity counts in 30-s epochs for each axis and VM, with Freedson 1998 and 2011 count-based regression models used to predict METs. Time spent in sedentary, light, moderate, and vigorous intensities was derived from predicted METs from each model. Correlations were calculated to compare raw and count data between accelerometers, and percent agreement was used to compare epoch-by-epoch activity intensity. RESULTS For raw data, correlations for mean acceleration were 0.96 ± 0.05, 0.89 ± 0.16, 0.71 ± 0.33, and 0.80 ± 0.28, and those for variance were 0.98 ± 0.02, 0.98 ± 0.03, 0.91 ± 0.06, and 1.00 ± 0.00 in the X, Y, and Z axes and VM, respectively. For count data, corresponding correlations were 1.00 ± 0.01, 0.98 ± 0.02, 0.96 ± 0.04, and 1.00 ± 0.00, respectively. Freedson 1998 and 2011 count-based models had significantly higher percent agreement for activity intensity (95.1% ± 5.6% and 95.5% ± 4.0%) compared with the Montoye 2015 raw data model (61.5% ± 27.6%; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Count data were more highly comparable than raw data between accelerometers. Data filtering and/or more robust raw data models are needed to improve raw data comparability between ActiGraph GT3X+ and Link accelerometers.
COMPARE analysis of the NCI-60 cancer cell lines reveals a pharmacological interplay between farnesyltransferase and tubulin deacetylase.

27 The COMPARE algorithm provides an instrumental platform for correlating drug sensitivities and/or molecular targets among the 60 human cancer cell lines of the National Cancer Institute (NCI-60). In this study, the level of tubulin acetylation in the NCI-60 cell lines is examined by quantitative western blotting and used as a seed for COMPARE analysis against the gene expression database generated from microarray data. This analysis generates a list of genes that correlate with tubulin acetylation. One such gene with a strong negative correlation is farnesyltransferase (FTase), such that cell lines with high levels of tubulin acetylation have low FTase gene expression. We have also examined the protein levels of FTase in all 60 cell lines, which confirm the negative correlation between FTase and tubulin acetylation. In addition, western blotting and immunofluorescence studies reveal that inhibition of FTase activity in cancer cells dramatically enhances the level of tubulin acetylation. Interestingly, co-immunoprecipitation experiments demonstrate that FTase interacts with the tubulin deacetylase HDAC6, providing evidence that these two enzymes are biologically linked. Lastly, we show that FTase inhibitors suppress HDAC6 activity in a cell-free tubulin deacetylation assay. These data indicate a pharmacological interplay between FTase and HDAC6. Additional mechanistic studies investigating the molecular nature of FTase interaction with HDAC6 are currently under investigation in our laboratory.
Morton’s Neuroma

Also called interdigital neuroma, Morton’s neuroma is a common cause of pain and/or paresthesias in the forefoot. Women are affected more than men, and age of onset is most often in the fifth or sixth decade. Obese patients, people who engage in a high level of athletic activities, and those who wear tight or high-heeled shoes are prone to this disorder. A Morton’s neuroma typically presents as an insidious onset of pain in the region of metatarsal heads, which worsens when weight bearing. History and physical examination are typically enough to diagnose this condition, but ultrasound and MRI can aid in narrowing the differential. Many patients respond to conservative therapy such as shoe modification, stretching, or short-term analgesics. Surgical excision is available for patients who do not respond to conservative treatment.
The Links Between Social Anxiety Disorder, Insomnia Symptoms, and Alcohol Use Disorders: Findings From a Large Sample of Adolescents in the United States

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with increased risk of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Most of the current literature has focused on the role of acute stress responding in this relation; however, both SAD and AUDs also are linked to insomnia symptoms (i.e., difficulty falling or staying asleep). As adolescence is a sensitive period for the onset of these disorders, the present study examined if insomnia symptoms might partially account for the SAD-AUD link in a large sample of adolescents. Data from the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement were examined. Participants (N = 10,140) completed interviews to assess past 12-month SAD and AUD diagnostic status as well as insomnia symptoms. Analyses tested whether insomnia symptoms accounted for a significant proportion of the SAD-AUD relation. Results indicated that insomnia symptoms were positively related to both SAD and AUD status, and the relation between SAD and AUD status was significantly reduced when insomnia symptoms were included in the model. Findings remained significant after controlling for the effects of age, gender, posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and other drug dependence status. Experimental examination and intensive longitudinal assessment of these relationships are needed before strong conclusions can be inferred about causality and temporal relationships. The current findings do indicate insomnia may be an important indirect and stigma-free treatment target to address in prevention and treatment efforts for SAD, AUDs, and their co-occurrence.
Aircraft routing in the presence of hazardous weather

Air traffic control in the 21st century will require the application of modern computer science techniques in order accommodate the future air travel demands of a more mobile population. One of the biggest challenges to air travel throughput is the presence of hazardous weather, which causes delays, cancellations, and rerouting of aircraft. The Flow-Based Route Planner (FBRP) is an algorithmic system designed to route flows of aircraft between designated origin and destination points while avoiding hazardous, time-varying weather systems. The objective is to compute shortest (minimum-time) routes that are available for safe passage of aircraft during a specified window of time, while avoiding time-varying hazardous weather constraints that come from a weather prediction model. To maximize throughput, multiple routes are required, and these routes must be chosen to avoid conflicts arising among aircraft on different routes. While the general form of this constrained optimal routing problem is NP-complete, the FBRP applies heuristics to constrain the path search algorithm in order to obtain good solutions within a reasonable running time. The FBRP is examined as a tool for solving routing problems, as a method for resolving airspace conflicts, and as a capacity estimation tool. It is shown to be practical and is compared with historical flight data and with alternative methods.
Recent Advances in Fertility Preservation for the Female

Modern methods of the treatment of cancer have a significant negative impact on human reproduction. In this chapter we briefly overview recent cancer statistics and discuss premature ovarian failure and other adverse reproductive outcomes in female patients who receive chemotherapy and radiation. In addition to this, we also discuss and delineate the options to preserve their fertility.
Networks of radical contention: The co-constitutive relations between structural conditions and public relations strategies and tactics in the committee in solidarity with the people of El Salvador:

In the 1980s, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) became a key node in a vast network of political opposition against US foreign policy. In this article, we argue th...
Association of antepartum vitamin D deficiency with postpartum depression: a clinical perspective

ObjectivePostpartum depression affects up to 20 % of new mothers within the first 12 months of parturition. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) has known importance in bone health, but it may also play an important role in other functions, including reproduction and fertility, immune function and mental health. This clinical commentary reviews literature evaluating 25(OH)D deficiency during pregnancy and the incidence of postpartum depressive symptomatology.DesignNarrative review, summary and recommendations.Setting/ParticipantsA literature search revealed five relevant studies of antepartum women, three based in the USA, one in Turkey and one in Iran.ResultsThree of the five studies measured serum 25(OH)D concentrations during the first or second trimester and discovered an association with 25(OH)D deficiency and depressive symptoms postpartum. One study determined an almost significant (P=0·058) inverse relationship with first-trimester 25(OH)D concentration and depressive symptoms postpartum, and the last study, which was a secondary analysis, did not find an association.ConclusionsThe Endocrine Society recommends routine vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy and lactation due to increased metabolic demand in the mother, but a recent Cochrane review recommended against screening. Vitamin D should be the target of more studies during pregnancy and the postpartum period since it appears to have an important role for both medical and mental health. Vitamin D supplementation is a relatively safe and cost-effective intervention during pregnancy, and it may prove to be important in the prevention of postpartum depression.
Controlling organism size by regulating constituent cell numbers

How living cells employ counting mechanisms to regulate their numbers or density is a long-standing problem in developmental biology that ties directly with organism or tissue size. Diverse cells types have been shown to regulate their numbers via secretion of factors in the extracellular space. These factors act as a proxy for the number of cells and function to reduce cellular proliferation rates creating a negative feedback. It is desirable that the production rate of such factors be kept as low as possible to minimize energy costs and detection by predators. Here we formulate a stochastic model of cell proliferation with feedback control via a secreted extracellular factor. Our results show that while low levels of feedback minimizes random fluctuations in cell numbers around a given set point, high levels of feedback amplify Poisson fluctuations in secreted-factor copy numbers. This trade-off results in an optimal feedback strength, and sets a fundamental limit to noise suppression in cell numbers with short-lived factors providing more efficient noise buffering. We further expand the model to consider external disturbances in key physiological parameters, such as, proliferation and factor synthesis rates. Intriguingly, while negative feedback effectively mitigates disturbances in the proliferation rate, it amplifies disturbances in the synthesis rate. In summary, these results provide unique insights into the functioning of feedback-based counting mechanisms, and apply to organisms ranging from unicellular prokaryotes and eukaryotes to human cells.
Technical trading patterns: can they truly predict price movements and can they be exploited for excess returns?

Debate exists in financial markets over whether patterns exist in stock prices which can be used to predict future prices and to earn excess returns. Proponents of this idea, technical traders, view stock prices as following trends and exhibiting consistent patterns which can be exploited for gain. Fundamental analysts, however, believe that stock prices change only in response to the arrival of information which occurs randomly and does not generate any predictable patterns in stock prices. To fundamental analysts, consistent profit can only be gained if investors have access to information before everyone else and if they can correctly infer the effect of the news on market prices;Therefore, the question arises which view of the markets is more accurate. In an attempt to answer this question, this work will be separated into two parts. The first part will ask if predictable patterns in stock prices exist as technical traders surmise, or if these patterns are spurious as fundamental analysts would hypothesize. The second part will ask if profit can be consistently made according to the technical traders' rules for pattern trading, or if these profits are inconsistent;To evaluate the first part, this work uses a Monte Carlo experiment to compare the number of times three technical trading patterns are found in four actual stock price series to the number of times these patterns are found in randomly-generated series chosen to mimic the actual stock series. The evidence shows that we cannot reject the hypothesis that these patterns occur as frequently in the random series as they occur in the actual stock series. This finding contradicts the beliefs of technical traders;To evaluate the second part, this work calculates the returns gained from following technical trading rules regarding the patterns. Total profit is calculated for each stock price series and each pattern assuming an investment of 1 million and each trading rule exploited. The evidence shows that we cannot reject the hypothesis that average returns from these trading rules are zero.
Spectral near-field thermal emission extraction by optical waveguides

As far-field thermal emission is limited by blackbody radiation, the significant enhancement of thermal radiation in the near-field plays a vital role in a variety of applications such as infrared sensing, radiation cooling, and thermophotovoltaics. Yet the techniques of exporting the near-field signal to the far field are still not mature, typically relying on complex instrumentation capable of being applied only to the surfaces of model systems and structures. Here we develop an efficient method of extracting near-field thermal radiation to the far field by integrating a nanoscale thermal emitter with a high-index optical waveguide. By directly depositing the emitter onto the optical waveguide, it requires no vacuum gap and enables efficient coupling of near-field thermal radiation into propagating wave-guided modes. A single-mode planar waveguide incorporated with an indium-tin oxide (ITO) film as a thermal emitter is theoretically investigated to prove the feasibility of thermal extraction. The Wiener-chaos expansion method is applied to directly calculate the thermal radiation from the emitter-waveguide system. We experimentally demonstrate the fidelity of the optical-waveguide-assisted near-field thermal extraction by measuring the emission spectrum of an ITO-coated optical fiber and comparing with theoretical predictions. Our experimental demonstration in conjunction with the direct simulation paves the way for effectively extracting near-field thermal radiation with applications in chemical sensing, infrared imaging, and near-field thermal energy management.
Configurable error correction of code-division multiplexed TES detectors with a cryotron switch

The development of a superconducting analog to the transistor with extremely low power dissipation will accelerate the proliferation of low-temperature circuitry operating in the milliKelvin regime. The thin-film, magnetically actuated cryotron switch is a candidate building block for more complicated and flexible milliKelvin circuitry. We demonstrate its utility for implementing reconfigurable circuitry by integrating a cryotron switch into flux-summed code-division SQUID multiplexed readout for large arrays of transition-edge-sensor (TES) microcalorimeters. Code-division multiplexing eliminates the noise penalty of time-division multiplexing while being drop-in compatible with the latter's control electronics. However, code-division multiplexing is susceptible to single-point failure mechanisms which can result in an unconstrained demodulation matrix and the loss of information from many sensing elements. In the event of a failure, the integrated cryotron switch provides a zero-signal output from a single TES, enabling the demodulation matrix used to compute TES signals from SQUID signals to be constrained and data recovered from the remaining sensors. This demonstration of configurable error correction provides both a real-world application of the cryotron switch and a foundation for more complex circuitry at milliKelvin temperatures.
State and Religion: An Economic Approach

State and religion, two of the oldest institutions known to mankind, have historically had a complex relationship with each other. At times rulers have suppressed religion altogether, at others they have treated religion as independent of the state, and at still others they have preferred one religion over others or even endorsed one as the official religion. A survey of 177 countries in the year 2008 reveals a similar diversity of attitudes. There were 16 countries in the survey (9%) which exhibited a hostile attitude toward religion; 43 countries (24%) had a neutral attitude; 77 countries (44%) clearly favored certain religions; and 41 countries (23%) endorsed one or more religions as the official state religion.
Snowpack Influences Spatial and Temporal Soil Nitrogen Dynamics in a Western U.S. Montane Forested Watershed

Declines in winter snowpack have increased the severity of summer droughts in western U.S. forests, with the potential to also impact soil available nitrogen (N). To understand how snowpack controls spatiotemporal N availability, we examined seasonal N dynamics across elevation, aspect, and topographic position (hollow vs. slope) in a forested watershed in the northern Rocky Mountains. As expected, peak snow‐water equivalent (SWE) was generally greater at higher elevations and on north‐facing aspects. However, the effects of topographic position and snowdrift led to variability in snow accumulation at smaller spatial scales. Spatial patterns of the snowpack, in turn, influenced soil moisture and temperature, with greater SWE leading to generally higher soil moisture levels during the summer and smaller temperature fluctuations throughout the year. Wetter conditions in spring or fall generally supported greater inorganic N pools, but at the driest locations (low‐elevation slope), pulses of N mineralization in summer may have played important roles in overall N dynamics. More importantly, soil moisture during the summer appeared to be more influenced by antecedent snowpack from the previous year than by current‐year summer rain. Subsequently, N mineralization under snowpack may be strongly influenced by soil moisture and temperature conditions from the previous fall, before snowpack accumulation. Together, our results indicate that snowpack strongly influences N dynamics beyond the current growing season in western coniferous forests through mediation of soil moisture and temperature, and suggest that further decline in winter snowpack may affect these forests through constraints in both water and N availability.
Contextualizing Eschatology in African Cultural and Religious Beliefs

Contextualizing Eschatology in African Cultural and Religious Beliefs addresses the African consciousness and nuances of eschatological beliefs as part and parcel of the holistic African Indigenous worldviews within the context of the people's traditional heritage. The concept of eschatology is usually explained from the perspective of "endtimes" in relation to either the human individual or the cosmos. Within these contexts, the primary interests, particularly with regard to human eschatology, have centred on the questions of death, afterlife, immortality, destiny, judgment, reward and punishment, and the final destination or eternal "home" of humans. This book explores the characteristic nature, the modes, the process as well as the dynamics associated with the various features culminating the functional expression of the "reality" of eschatological beliefs demonstrated in varied but fundamentally the same subject matter of practices among different African ethnic groups. It also discusses the influences of other religious traditions, particularly Christianity and Islam, on contemporary African eschatological thoughts and their attendant consequences. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African studies, eschatology, religious studies, and the philosophy of religion.
Heritage Language Labor Market Returns: The Importance of Speaker Density at the State Level

Vocal public opinion and mainstream media encourage immigrants to adopt English as their new standard of communication in the USA (Volkova et al. 2018), which generates assimilation tension within these communities (International Journal of Multilingualism 15(4):329–348 2018; Online Submission 12(2):65–86 2018). In the context of English-First (EF) movements and resulting difficulties that immigrants face, we investigate the extent to which continuing the use of a heritage language in a predominantly monolingual economy is monetarily beneficial. Using the Public Use Microdata Sets, we find suggestive evidence of a concave relationship between the proportion of a state’s population that speaks a non-majority language in the home and economic outcomes such as income and employment. Our descriptive analysis indicates the existence of benefits of speaking a heritage language for an individual in such an environment, implies that EF movements do not benefit immigrant populations overall, and implies a non-zero population proportion in which benefits to speaking a heritage language are maximized.
Behavioral predictors of individual differences in opioid addiction vulnerability as measured using i.v. self-administration in rats.

Abstract Background Like other forms of psychopathology, vulnerability to opioid addiction is subject to wide individual differences. Animal behavioral models are valuable in advancing our understanding of mechanisms underlying vulnerability to the disorder’s development and amenability to treatment. Methods This review provides an overview of preclinical work on behavioral predictors of opioid addiction vulnerability as measured using the intravenous (i.v.) self-administration (SA) model in rats. We also highlight several new approaches to studying individual differences in opioid addiction vulnerability in preclinical models that could have greater sensitivity and lead to more clinically relevant findings. Results and conclusions Evidence for the relationship between various behavioral traits and opioid SA in the preclinical literature is limited. With the possible exceptions of sensitivity to opioid agonist/withdrawal effects and stress reactivity, predictors of individual differences in SA of other drugs of abuse (e.g. sensation-seeking, impulsivity) do not predict vulnerability to opioid SA in rats. Refinement of SA measures and the use of multivariate designs and statistics could help identify predictors of opioid SA and lead to more clinically relevant studies on opioid addiction vulnerability.
GARCH Model, Heavy Tails and the Chinese Stock Market Returns

The Chinese stock market is unique in which it is moved more by individual retail investors than institutional investors. Therefore, for economic and political stability it is more important to efficiently manage the risk of the Chinese stock market. We investigate its volatility dynamics through the GARCH model with three types of heavy-tailed distributions, the Student’s t, the NIG and the NRIG distributions. Our results show that estimated parameters for all the three types of distributions are statistical significant and the NIG distribution has the best empirical performance in fitting the Chinese stock market index returns.
Leaving histone unturned for epigenetic inheritance

Post-translational modifications in histones play important roles in regulating chromatin structure and gene expression programs, and the modified histones can be passed on to subsequent generations as an epigenetic memory. The fission yeast has been a great model organism for studying histone modifications in heterochromatin assembly and epigenetic inheritance. Here, we review findings in this organism that cemented the idea of chromatin-based inheritance and highlight recent studies that reveal the role of histone turnover in regulating this process.