cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of the Check & Connect Mentoring Program for At-Risk General Education High School Students

ABSTRACTAlthough graduation rates are rising, the high school dropout problem remains a national crisis, and evidence-based information about interventions for at-risk students is critically needed. Prior research shows that Check & Connect, an individualized mentoring program, has positive effects on school persistence and progression for students with disabilities. This study examined the efficacy of Check & Connect with general education students who showed early warning signs of risk for dropping out of high school in a large urban district. The sample included 553 students with the lowest predicted probabilities of on-time graduation based on attendance, behavior, and course performance in Grades 8 and 9. Students were randomly assigned to receive a Check & Connect mentor for three years, starting in the summer after Grade 9, or not. Findings suggest the program was implemented with fidelity, except with students who left district schools. Check & Connect did not have any statistically significant im...
Chiral polymer photonics

Chiral photonics concerns enantio-selective polarization control of linear and nonlinear optical functions. However, natural chiral media do not exhibit strong chiro-optic response. In our laboratory, guided by multiscale modeling, we have developed new chiral polymers and their nanocomposites. Their optical and magneto-optic activity can be amplified by manipulating supramolecular organization and by introducing strong coupling with plasmonic/excitonic, as well as paramagnetic nanoinclusions. We present here an account of our recent progress in the design, development and characterization of these materials that can have a potentially huge technological impact by allowing ultrathin, flexible, low-cost devices such as polarizers, optical isolators, optical magnetometers.
Investigation on the effect of nonlinear processes on similarity law in high-pressure argon discharges

In this paper, the effect of nonlinear processes (such as three-body collisions and stepwise ionizations) on the similarity law in high-pressure argon discharges has been studied by the use of the Kinetic Global Model framework. In the discharge model, the ground state argon atoms (Ar), electrons (e), atom ions (Ar+), molecular ions (Ar2+), and fourteen argon excited levels Ar*(4s and 4p) are considered. The steady-state electron and ion densities are obtained with nonlinear processes included and excluded in the designed models, respectively. It is found that in similar gas gaps, keeping the product of gas pressure and linear dimension unchanged, with the nonlinear processes included, the normalized density relations deviate from the similarity relations gradually as the scale-up factor decreases. Without the nonlinear processes, the parameter relations are in good agreement with the similarity law predictions. Furthermore, the pressure and the dimension effects are also investigated separately with and ...
Large Scale Authorship Attribution of Online Reviews

Traditional authorship attribution methods focus on the scenario of a limited number of authors writing long pieces of text. These methods are engineered to work on a small number of authors and generally do not scale well to a corpus of online reviews where the candidate set of authors is large. However, attribution of online reviews is important as they are replete with deception and spam. We evaluate a new large scale approach for predicting authorship via the task of verification on online reviews. Our evaluation considers a large number of possible candidate authors seen to date. Our results show that multiple verification models can be successfully combined to associate reviews with their correct author in more than 78% of the time. We propose that our approach can be used to slow down or deter the number of deceptive reviews in the wild.
Planning and Control of Maintenance Systems: Modeling and Analysis

(2000). Planning and Control of Maintenance Systems: Modeling and Analysis. Journal of Quality Technology: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 84-85.
A Split-Pole-Gapped NFT Write Head Design for Transition Curvature Reduction in Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

A write head design consisting of a split pole and a gapped near-field transducer is presented. Through simulation, we found our design can produce a maximum effective cross-track recording field gradient of 300 Oe/nm, and a maximum difference of 3.6 kOe between the center and ±20 nm away in the cross-track direction in the recording media near the magnetic gap (MG). The tradeoff between improved cross-track magnetic gradient and loss of optical efficiency due to parasitic absorption by the pole is studied as a function of the thickness of a low optical-index separator between the MG and the optical gap (OG). The separator is tapered to bring the cross-track field gradient close to the OG near the air bearing surface, while limiting the total amount of interaction of the evanescent optical field with the pole. With this tapered low-index separator, we are able to preserve the recording field cross-track gradient and amplitude, while reducing the parasitic optical absorption in the recording head due to pole proximity.
Nuclear Materials Safety Management: US Perspectives

The US approach to safety management at nuclear facilities consists of an integrated system whereby worker, environmental, and public safety is inherent to the work being performed. This approach is being applied to all Department of Energy (DOE) facilities and programs. A defense-in-depth philosophy identifies hazards and controls them at the level of the source material itself, the primary containment of the material, and, finally, the facility holding the material. Although hazards control has always been a part of the operations around nuclear materials and facilities, recent steps towards integration have improved overall safety as well as efficiency and security.
Conflict resolution roles in international peacekeeping missions

This chapter is concerned with the implementation of peacekeeping missions. It focuses attention on the day-to-day activities of peacekeepers rather than on the resolution of the major issues dividing the conflicting parties. The chapter discusses how mediators choose tactics and implement a plan. It also discusses on the negotiation role and discuss how goals are set and plans are developed. The peacekeeper, as a third party, targets and attempts to improve the relationship between the disputing parties. In setting goals, the peacekeeper must consider the goals of all parties. A peacekeeper can take steps to move the parties off their current positions and to nudge them toward positions that are more agreeable to the other side. After initiating interactions, the peacekeeper can establish the protocol for the negotiation process by suggesting and enforcing mechanisms through which the interaction will be conducted. The chapter concludes with some implications for civilian negotiation and mediation.
Socioeconomic differences in nicotine exposure and dependence in adult daily smokers.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a major determinant of tobacco use but little is known whether SES affects nicotine exposure and the degree of nicotine dependence. The Pennsylvania Adult Smoking Study is a cross-sectional study of smoke exposure and nicotine dependence among adults conducted in central Pennsylvania between June 2012 and April 2014. The study included several measures of SES, including assessments of education and household income, as well as occupation, home ownership, health insurance, household density and savings accounts. Measurements included saliva for the nicotine metabolites cotinine (COT), 3-‘hydroxycotinine (3HC) and total metabolites (COT +3HC). Puffing behavior was determined using portable smoking topography devices. The income levels of lighter smokers (< 20 cigarettes per day) was $10,000 more than heavier smokers. Higher Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence scores were associated with lower income and job status, scores ranged from 5.4 in unemployed, 4.4 in blue-collar, and 3.8 in white-collar workers. In principal components analysis used to derive SES indicators, household income, number in household, and type of dwelling were the major SES correlates of the primary component. Job category was the major correlate of the second component. Lower SES predicted significantly higher adjusted total nicotine metabolite levels in the unemployed group. Job category was significantly associated with total daily puffs, with the highest level in the unemployed, followed by blue-collar workers, after adjustment for income. Among smokers, there was a relationship between lower SES and increased nicotine dependence, cigarettes per day and nicotine exposure, which varied by job type.
Dual-Path Noise Cancelling LNA

In this chapter we present a 0.7 V low power LNA which combines a 1:3 frontend balun with dual-path noise and nonlinearity cancellation for improved noise performance at low powers. In traditional noise cancellation techniques only the noise of the main path is cancelled while the noise of the auxiliary path is reduced by using higher power. In the proposed design, the noise and nonlinearity of both the main and the auxiliary paths are mutually cancelled allowing for low power operation. The 2.8 dB NF, − 10.7 dBm IIP3 LNA in TSMC’s 65 nm GP process consumes 475 μW of power resulting in an FOM of 28.8 dB which is 8.2 dB better than the state of the art.
“Taking the Nature Out of Mother”: From Politics of Exclusion to Feminisms of Difference and Recognition of Rights

This study presents examples of people and institutions that used maternalism to frame political projects and defined motherhood as a biologically determined, natural, and universalist category. Benevolent maternalist elite women reached out to working-class women; both women and men employed secular and religious discourses of motherhood for leftist or right-wing political causes. These examples supply evidence of the multifaceted, complex characteristics of the uses of motherhood that make maternal mobilization unsuitable for feminist activism in the twenty-first century.
Reassessing Support Groups for Parents of Visually Impaired Children

This article reports on a qualitative study of the psychosocial adjustment of parents of blind and partially sighted children and youths and their perceptions and experiences in parent support grou...
Feeding strategies and shade type for growing cattle grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue

Abstract Two experiments were conducted to determine animal performance of alternative feeding strategies to heifers grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue during summer months. In Experiment 1, 40 Limousin heifers (261 (40) kg initial BW) were stratified by weight and assigned to 1 of 4 treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Diet factors were either a spring harvested tall fescue silage diet fed ad libitum in grass traps (Silage) or grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue pasture with grain supplement (Grain; 2.1 kg DM hd−1 d−1), and shade factors were either natural (NAT; trees) or artificial (ART; 13.38 m2/pasture of 80% shade cloth) shade for 80 days. In Experiment 2, 40 Limousin heifers (277 (44) kg initial BW) were stratified by weight and assigned to 1 of 4 treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Diet factors were either a traditional grain supplement (Control) or feather-meal supplement (FM) while grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue pasture, and shade factors were either NAT or ART shade for 98 days. Control and FM supplements provided an estimated 56 and 175 mg metabolizable arginine/kg BW, respectively. Heifers were weighed on two consecutive days at the start and end of each experiment. In Experiment 1, weight gain of heifers was greater (P 0.10) in weight gain or cost of gain between Control and FM supplements. Heifers with NAT shade had a greater (P
Mogamulizumab Forecast: Clearer Patients, with a Slight Chance of Immune Mayhem

Mogamulizumab, approved by the FDA for relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides and Sezary syndrome, improves progression-free survival compared with vorinostat in the largest trial to date in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, with particular efficacy in leukemic disease, but carries a risk of immune-mediated toxicities with concomitant depletion of regulatory T cells.See related article by Kasamon et al., p. 7275.
A cost-effective viable strategy for gradually transitioning Egypt’s cities into truly IOT-enabled smart cities

A smart city is a city that uses information and communication technologies (ICT), smart sensors, actuators and video cameras to better support and optimize the delivery of urban services and to address challenges within city communities. A smart city collects and analyzes data from smart IoT sensors (IoT devices/nodes) and video cameras. The data collected by the sensor nodes can be used to develop applications and systems that benefit the city and the community. Smart city industry is projected to be a $400 billion market by 2021, with 600 cities around the globe expected to generate 60% of the world's GDP by 2025, according to McKinsey research. Many cities have adopted at least one smart city project. However, the majority of cities around the globe are not yet smart cities. The key hurdle is securing the huge fund needed to start a smart city project, and ensuring that there are sufficient resources to sustain the project over time. Because implementing new smart city infrastructure is a large and complex financial undertaking that poses a financial hurdle, specifically, for most of the under-developed countries, a viable and cost-effective strategy is needed to tackle this problem and conquer the digital divide. Building upon and leveraging existing infrastructure is the key to address this problem. This minimizes the cost of technology upgrades and allows for an easier integration process. In addition, leveraging existing infrastructure can give cities a better and quicker return on investment. The main objective of this work is to devise an innovative research and development initiative, which builds upon and leverages ongoing global deployment of smart city and outdoor lighting infrastructures trend, to explore the potential and assess the feasibility of gradually transitioning existing Egypt’s cities infrastructure into truly IoT-enabled smart cities. Specifically, we propose and develop an innovative cost-effective, future-proof, scalable and modular end-to-end device-to-cloud connected outdoor Lighting network infrastructure solution that is based on P2P 4G LTE cellular technology to provide the direct connectivity between lighting poles (IoT devices) and the cloud. The proposed intelligent Lighting solution includes three key building blocks:1) light pole-mounted smart control nodes; 2) cloud-based smart city software solution (NetServ) to remotely monitor, manage, and control the entire lighting infrastructure; and 3) P2P 4G LTE cellular network. In the proposed architecture, smart streetlights serve as the framework for a high- bandwidth, low-latency wireless sensor network, capable of transporting large amounts of data in real-time, while concurrently supporting deployment of a wide range of smart city services.
Chapter 17 – Network Convergence

Publisher Summary Network convergence involves the integration of different technologies and applications, which, when combined, create powerful new entities and products. One area of convergence that receives much emphasis is the merging of data, voice, and video on the network. It is a powerful concept and buzzword in networking circles. . It involves the melding of dissimilar network media, protocols, and applications to provide a network environment that is dramatically different that the previous one.. In the context of networking, convergence represents combining different technologies and applications. Currently, a major networking convergence issue receiving much attention is Internet Protocol (IP) telephony, which involves integrating voice and data. In IP telephony, digitized voice signals are converted to IP packets, which are then transmitted over the Internet. In this scenario, packet technology and the Internet are uniting voice and data such that traditional voice communication services are being delivered over an IP data network.
Presurgical Staphylococcal Decolonization for Select Orthopedic Surgeries

Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of surgical site infection (SSI) in orthopedic surgery and causes significant morbidity as a complication of prosthetic joint procedures. Prevention of infections via presurgical staphylococcal decolonization protocols, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening, and preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis attempt to manipulate the microbiome to create low bioburden of Staphylococcus aureus perioperatively. There are variable protocols for decolonization, but most commonly 5 days of a combination of chlorhexidine bathing, mupirocin nasal ointment, and chlorhexidine mouthwash are used to decrease bioburden of Staphylococcus from skin surfaces, as well as known staphylococcal reservoirs: the oropharynx and nasal mucosa. MRSA screening informs presurgical antibiotic prophylaxis choice; MRSA-colonized patients should receive standard cefazolin along with vancomycin to prevent MRSA SSI. Published evidence suggests that these interventions can significantly decrease the rates of staphylococcal SSIs in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery.
An integrated model of multimorbidity and symptom science.

Abstract Background Prevalence and complexity of persons with multiple chronic conditions (MCC), also known as multimorbidity, are shifting clinical practice from a single disease focus to one considering MCC and symptoms. Although symptoms are intricately bound to concepts inherent in MCC science, symptoms are largely ignored in multimorbidity research and literature. Purpose Introduce an Integrated Model of Multimorbidity and Symptom Science. Methods Critical integrative review and synthesis process. Findings The model comprises three primary domains: 1. Contributing/ Risk Factors; 2. Symptom/Disease/Treatment Interactions; and 3. Patient Outcomes. Discussion The model highlights the multilevel nature of contributing factors and the recursive interactions among multiple etiologies, conditions, symptoms, therapies, and outcomes.
A Digital CMOS Silicon Photomultiplier Using Perimeter Gated Single Photon Avalanche Diodes With Asynchronous AER Readout

This paper presents a new architecture for a perimeter gated single photon avalanche diodes (PGSPADs) based CMOS digital silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) with fully digital asynchronous address event representation (AER) readout. A PGSPAD is a single photon avalanche diode with an additional polysilicon gate and mitigates the perimeter edge breakdown, modulates the noise floor, dynamic range, and sensitivity of the device. Spatial and temporal data compression techniques in the SiPM pixel improve dead time, and reduce electronics. Fill factor is improved using a compact, low power analog counter. The dead time improves by 25% with temporal compression improving by a factor of 10 for the pixel microcell. A $4\times 4$ pixel array in a standard $0.5~\mu \text{m}$ CMOS process is fully characterized for the dark counts as function of gate and excess bias as well as varying optical intensity. The array-level dynamic range is 142 dB.
Impact of Providing Data on Family Medicine Practice Management Education.

Background and objectives Residents need to learn about practice management, including how to improve the quality of their patient care utilizing practice data. However, little is known about the effectiveness of providing practice data to residents. This study examined the effectiveness of utilizing resident practice management reports. Methods We provided residents quarterly practice management reports with individual resident data on coding compliance (determined by manual chart review by a certified coder), clinical productivity (number of clinic sessions, visits per session, relative value units [RVUs] per visit, and RVUs per session), and patient quality outcomes (rates of diabetes mellitus control, diabetic nephropathy screening/management, hypertension control, influenza immunization, pneumococcal immunization, and colorectal cancer screening). We compared all data to national metrics. Quality outcome data was also provided by clinical team and with comparison to nonresidency departmental clinics. We surveyed residents before and after receiving these practice management reports to determine how they felt it prepared them for future practice (on a 9-point Likert scale). Results There was significant improvement in the ability to implement clinic-based processes to improve patient care (6.5 vs 5.6; P=.04) and learning about clinical productivity/financial aspects of practicing family medicine (6.3 vs 5.4; P=.03). Other areas had trends of improvement, although not statistically significant. Conclusions Providing residents with their clinic practice data, with reference to team practice data and national benchmarks further helps them learn and apply practice management, when superimposed on an existing infrastructure to teach practice management.
Comparison of Grade Replacement and Weighted Averages for Second-Chance Exams

We explore how course policies affect students' studying and learning when a second-chance exam is offered. High-stakes, one-off exams remain a de facto standard for assessing student knowledge in STEM, despite compelling evidence that other assessment paradigms such as mastery learning can improve student learning. Unfortunately, mastery learning can be costly to implement. We explore the use of optional second-chance testing to sustainably reap the benefits of mastery-based learning at scale. Prior work has shown that course policies affect students' studying and learning but have not compared these effects within the same course context. We conducted a quasi-experimental study in a single course to compare the effect of two grading policies for second-chance exams and the effect of increasing the size of the range of dates for students taking asynchronous exams. The first grading policy, called 90-cap, allowed students to optionally take a second-chance exam that would fully replace their score on a first-chance exam except the second-chance exam would be capped at 90% credit. The second grading policy, called 90-10, combined students' first- and second-chance exam scores as a weighted average (90% max score + 10% min score). The 90-10 policy significantly increased the likelihood that marginally competent students would take the second-chance exam. Further, our data suggests that students learned more under the 90-10 policy, providing improved student learning outcomes at no cost to the instructor. Most students took exams on the last day an exam was available, regardless of how many days the exam was available.
IgA Vasculitis Nephritis: A Case Series and Comparison of Treatment Guidelines.

Immunoglobulin A (IgA) vasculitis nephritis (IgAVN) and IgA nephropathy (IgAN) share many pathological parallels and are viewed as related diseases by many groups. Current treatment guidelines remain vague, controversial, and without consensus, especially regarding the role of immunosuppressive medications. We present five cases of IgAVN encountered at our tertiary care center between 2016 and 2020, which were treated with different immunosuppression regimens. Infection was the leading cause of death in this series. These cases provide evidence that IgAVN should be distinguished from IgAN on a spectrum of IgA-associated glomerulonephritis. The outcomes presented herein suggest that the morbidity and systematic involvement IgAVN is greater than previously believed and that these substantial risks should be reflected in contemporary treatment guidelines.
Dogramaci’s deflationism about rationality

Just as Quine and others have argued for a deflationism about the property of truth, Sinan Dogramaci has argued for a deflationism about rationality. Specifically, Dogramaci claims that we have no reason to think that the basic, deductive, epistemic rules we call “rational” have any sort of “unifying property.” A “unifying property” is a property that is necessary, sufficient, and explanatorily illuminating. My goal in this paper is to undermine Dogramaci’s argument for this radical position. I do this by first outlining Dogramaci’s distinctive view on the function of our epistemically evaluative terms. This view, called epistemic communism, has it that the function of terms like “rational” is to support the coordination of our community on a single set of epistemic rules. I offer a reconstruction of Dogramaci’s argument from epistemic communism to deflationism about rationality. I next raise an objection to Dogramaci’s argument: different sets of epistemic rules do not equally support the coordinative function. Dogramaci has a response to this objection, but I argue that this response is less than satisfactory. I illustrate that this response is unsatisfactory by employing work by David Enoch and Joshua Schechter. After pushing my objection to Dogramaci’s argument, I develop, on Dogramaci’s behalf, an objection to my non-deflationary attempt to undermine his argument. In the final section of the paper, I reply to this objection offered on Dogramaci’s behalf and conclude that whether we are epistemic communists or not, we need not accept deflationism.
The packings of $$\mathrm{PG}(3,3)$$PG(3,3)

Packings of $$\mathrm{PG}(3,q)$$PG(3,q) are closely related to Kirkman's problem of the 15 schoolgirls from 1850 and its generalizations: Fifteen young ladies in a school walk out three abreast for seven days in succession: it is required to arrange them daily so that no two shall walk twice abreast. The packings of $$\mathrm{PG}(3,2)$$PG(3,2) give rise to two of seven solutions of Kirkman's problem. Here, we continue the problem of classifying packings of $$\mathrm{PG}(3,q)$$PG(3,q) by settling the case $$q=3.$$q=3. We find that there are exactly 73,343 packings of $$\mathrm{PG}(3,3)$$PG(3,3).
Vaping and Instagram: A Content Analysis of e-Cigarette Posts Using the Content Appealing to Youth (CAY) Index

The promotion of flavors, perceptions of “coolness,” and general curiosity are characteristics of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) that have appealed to young adults. However, little is ...
Case study: Designing the taste of food waste

Abstract Nine years ago in 2011, halving global food waste (Target 12.3 on the United Nations’ 2030 goals) became an international conversation. This case study utilizes design thinking to propose a small solution to part of this wicked problem: redefining the root of “ugly” (edible yet cosmetically unappealing) food waste as a lack of positive “ugly” representation and overrepresentation of unrealistic agricultural “perfection” in digital media. Semiotics, visual literacy, and a history of food photography function as a critical framework by which the case study demonstrates how viewers can become active consumers and producers, contributing to increased “ugly” representation. A selection of existing images from marketing campaigns, Instagram, and fine art are critically analyzed and the resulting findings applied to create “ugly” food photographs that aim to eliminate stigma, improve consumer attitudes, and promote a value shift to accept “ugly” food as worthy of consumption.
Strength and flexibility of lithium disilicate bonded to polyetherketoneketone

Abstract Statement of problem Polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) is a high-performance polymer gaining popularity in dentistry for the fabrication of crowns, fixed partial dentures, removable partial denture frameworks, and frameworks for implant-supported fixed complete dentures. Despite a lack of performance data, lithium disilicate crowns have been bonded to retentive elements in PEKK frameworks. Purpose The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the bond strengths and flexibility of lithium disilicate to PEKK or zirconia. Material and methods Forty-five PEKK, 15 zirconia, and 60 lithium disilicate beam-shaped specimens (12.5×2×2 mm) were fabricated. The ends of the PEKK beams were subjected to 3 different surface treatments before the application and light polymerization of a primer: 50-μm aluminum oxide airborne-particle abrasion, nonthermal air plasma, and argon-oxygen plasma. The zirconia specimen bonding surfaces were prepared with 50-μm aluminum oxide airborne-particle abrasion and the application of primer. Lithium disilicate specimens were etched with 4.5% hydrofluoric acid, and primer was applied. The lithium disilicate specimens were luted with an adhesive resin cement to the PEKK and zirconia specimens by using light-activated and chemically activated polymerization. Fifteen monolithic specimens of PEKK, lithium disilicate, and zirconia (25×2×2 mm) were also fabricated. All specimens were incubated overnight in 100% humidity before testing. Bonded and monolithic specimens were loaded in a universal testing machine, and 4-point bend tests were conducted until failure (n=15). The flexural modulus and strength were calculated and statistically analyzed with 1-way analysis of variance and Student-Newman-Keuls post hoc tests (α=.05). Results All bonded specimens failed at the adhesive interface. The zirconia-lithium disilicate bond strength was approximately twice that of the strongest group of PEKK (airborne-particle abrasion group) bonded to lithium disilicate (42 ±12 MPa and 24 ±13 MPa, respectively) and was approximately 9 times more rigid (71 ±19 GPa and 8 ±2 GPa, respectively). Monolithic PEKK fractured at 238 ±22 MPa, monolithic zirconia at 771 ±128 MPa, and monolithic lithium disilicate at 173 ±26 MPa. Monolithic PEKK was approximately 30 times more flexible than monolithic zirconia (6 ±1 GPa and 178 ±16 GPa, respectively). All values were statistically significantly different (P Conclusions Bond strength between PEKK and lithium disilicate was significantly weaker than that between zirconia and lithium disilicate. Monolithic PEKK was significantly more flexible than monolithic zirconia.
Linolinic Acid Accumulation in Dragonhead

Dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica) seeds accumulate linolenate (18:3) to one of the highest levels known. To elucicbte the factors that contribute to the high 18:3 content of dragonhead compared to normal oilseeds, a pulse-chase study of radiolabeled 14C1 linoleoyl (18:2)-CoA was carried out at an early and late stage of embryo triglyceride (TG) synthesis. In dragonhead 14C-18:2 incorporation in PC increased and 14C-18:3 decreased, meanwhile the opposite was observed in TG (the incorporation of 14C-18:3 in TG is two-fold that of 14C-18:2 in PC). This suggests that both ω-3 desaturase is effectively desat uating 14C -18:2 in PC and acyltiansferases are transferring 14C -18:3 into TG. In contrast, soybean data indicate that 14C-18:2 is rapidly removed from PC and incorporated directly into TG. Also 14C -18:3 increased in dragonhead TG but no significant changes occurred in 14C -18:3 levels in soybean. This indicates that desaturase activity decreased during the late stage in soybean embryos and most of 14C -18:2 was released from PC and incorporated into TG without being converted into 18:3. In contrast most of the 18:2 was desaturated to 18:3 before transfer to the flee fatty acid/acyl-CoA pool in dragonhead.
Boosting Data Center Performance Through Non-Uniform Power Allocation

Data center power management is evolving from ad hoc methods based on maximum node power usage to systematic methods that employ power-scalable components. In addition, it is possible to exploit the power and throughput relationship to increase the total work performed and safely overprovision the rack space while staying below an aggregate power limit. This research describes a general framework for boosting throughput at a local level while load-balancing the available aggregate power under a set of operating constraints. Our solution is useful for those data centers that cannot expand the number of power circuits or seek effective usage of their available power budget due to unplanned power fluctuations. The framework is particularly well suited for environments with a heterogeneous workload and hence, a non-uniform power allocation requirement. Based on a representative workload for a two minute period, this paper shows a non-uniform power allocation scheme increases throughput by over 16% versus a uniform power allocation mechanism
Seronegative naturally acquired West Nile virus encephalitis in a renal and pancreas transplant recipient

West Nile virus (WNV), a single-stranded RNA flavivirus, has spread across the United States since arriving in 1999. While asymptomatic or self-limited in a majority of patients, WNV can cause a severe neuroinvasive disease, which occurs more often in transplant recipients with chronic immunosuppression. Diagnosis of acute WNV infection usually relies on serologic identification of immunoglobulin M (IgM) specific for the virus. We report a fatal case of naturally acquired WNV encephalitis in a renal and pancreas transplant recipient who was seronegative for WNV-specific IgM but had detectable WNV RNA by nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) several weeks after the onset of symptoms. This case demonstrates the importance of using both serologic assays and NAAT for WNV in transplant recipients with the clinical suspicion of encephalitis.
A synopsis of the clinical uses of argatroban

Argatroban, a direct thrombin inhibitor, has been used in Japan since the early 1980's and was recently approved for use in the United States for patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. However, its use has been studied in other clinical settings including, myocardial infarction, percutaneous coronary intervention and cerebral thrombosis. The doses used in the different clinical situations vary, but argatroban offers the advantage of not requiring renal adjustment. Because of its small molecular weight, argatroban has the ability to inhibit both clot bound and soluble thrombin. This paper provides a comprehensive review of both indicated and off label uses of argatroban. Pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, adverse events and drug interactions with argatroban are also discussed.
Inventing Trade Remedies in Response to Climate Change

The most likely source for international trade conflict in the next decade - and the greatest potential force for inducing structural change to the global trading system - is the continuing roll-out of climate change measures. Indeed, such conflict is likely even were a post-Kyoto global climate change regime to fail to develop. Trade conflict may be unavoidable in a world of uncoordinated and conflicting national responses to global climate change.The international trade politics of GHG limits are complex. Both cap-and-trade and carbon tax approaches will increase the cost of production of energy-intensive goods. Some important categories of internationally traded goods, such as steel and cement, are particularly affected. The shock of cost escalation will drive local producers to scrutinize the cost of carbon paid by rivals producing in other countries. New cries of unfair trade will likely sound in the event that there are (as there likely will be) large disparities in the prices of carbon between different WTO members. Differentials in national carbon prices are artifacts of the GHG emissions caps implemented by various states. It is carbon price differentials which are at the heart of the international trade/climate change collision.Assuming that some form of import restriction will be an inevitable accompaniment to domestic carbon emission limits, there is a range of tools available. Whatever the political appeal of border adjustments, their practical administration is daunting. Implementing border adjustments will likely involve high expense and considerable inaccuracy. Crude results will result in either ineffective discrimination or an unfair burden on trade. As such, a proposal for border adjustments may fall under its own weight. Occasional and exceptional measures - import restrictions as a trade remedy, modeled on anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, and safeguard actions - may be a better solution than widely and routinely applicable border tax adjustments.
The Taming of Converse: Reasoning about Two-way Computations

We consider variants of propositional dynamic logic (PDL) augmented with the converse construct. Intuitively, the converse α− of a program α is a programs whose semantics is to run α backwards. While PDL consists of assertions about weakest preconditions, the converse construct enable us to make assertions about strongest postconditions. We investigate the interaction of converse with two constructs that deal with infinite computations: loop and repeat. We show that converse - loop - PDL is decidable in exponential time, and converse - repeat - PDL is decidable in nondeterministic exponential time.
Life Cycle Assessment Synthesis for a Volume of Lubricating Oil in Marine Applications

Environmental considerations can be an important part of some decision-making procedures, along with other factors such as cost and risk, when weighing multiple alternative product or process choices. Availability of environmental data is crucial for environmental assessments. In marine vessels, lubricating oil use can vary widely between ships with different filtration systems, engine parameters, and oil change scheduling procedures, all of which can be altered to change lube oil usage. This research addresses a need for environmental data for mineral lubricating oil, in the format of a life cycle assessment (LCA) data synthesis based on a case study for the Washington State Ferries. Data are collected and presented separately for engine oil acquisition, use, and disposal, utilizing cross-platform data sourcing including currently existing literature, ferry oil analysis results with simple combustion modeling, and a software tool database. The purpose of this data assembly is to provide decision-makers with a simple source for the impacts of a typical volume of oil throughout its life cycle. The functional unit used is 3.79 liters (one gallon) of oil, which allows for adjustments for oil use by different systems for equivalent functional comparisons between alternatives, lending widespread applicability.
Complement (C1q) fixing solid-phase screening for HLA antibodies increases the availability of compatible platelet components for refractory patients.

BACKGROUND Immune refractoriness to platelet (PLT) transfusion is primarily due to HLA antibody. Patients at our institution are identified as refractory due to HLA by a Luminex-based immunoglobulin (Ig)G-single-antigen-bead (SAB) assay, but in highly sensitized patients, antigen-negative compatible donors cannot be found due to the high sensitivity of the IgG-SAB method. We developed an assay that detects only HLA antibodies binding the first complement component (C1q). We hypothesized that the C1q-SAB method might be more relevant than the IgG-SAB method because the antibodies identified may activate the complement cascade causing PLT destruction. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS Thirteen highly sensitized refractory patients received 177 PLT units incompatible by the IgG-SAB method. They were retrospectively retested by the C1q-SAB method. Calculated percent reactive antibody (CPRA) and HLA antibody specificities were compared between the two methods and corrected count increment (CCI) values were analyzed. Additionally the impact of ABO compatibility on CCI responses was evaluated. RESULTS The mean CPRA value was significantly lower by C1q-SAB (60%) than by IgG-SAB (94%; p < 0.05). Patients showed significantly better CCI (10.6 × 10(9) ± 0.8 × 10(9) /L) with C1q-compatible (n = 134) than with C1q-incompatible PLTs (n = 43) (2.5 × 10(9) ± 0.9 × 10(9) /L/m(2) ; p < 0.0001). ABO compatibility did not significantly impact the CCI values (p < 0.0001). Our results show that 75% of PLT units previously considered incompatible were actually compatible. CONCLUSION For highly refractory patients to PLT transfusion, the C1q-based SAB binding assay may be a better method for identifying clinically relevant HLA antibodies and selecting PLT units that will result in acceptable CCI.
Treelength Optimization for Phylogeny Estimation

The standard approach to phylogeny estimation uses two phases, in which the first phase produces an alignment on a set of homologous sequences, and the second phase estimates a tree on the multiple sequence alignment. POY, a method which seeks a tree/alignment pair minimizing the total treelength, is the most widely used alternative to this two-phase approach. The topological accuracy of trees computed under treelength optimization is, however, controversial. In particular, one study showed that treelength optimization using simple gap penalties produced poor trees and alignments, and suggested the possibility that if POY were used with an affine gap penalty, it might be able to be competitive with the best two-phase methods. In this paper we report on a study addressing this possibility. We present a new heuristic for treelength, called BeeTLe (Better Treelength), that is guaranteed to produce trees at least as short as POY. We then use this heuristic to analyze a large number of simulated and biological datasets, and compare the resultant trees and alignments to those produced using POY and also maximum likelihood (ML) and maximum parsimony (MP) trees computed on a number of alignments. In general, we find that trees produced by BeeTLe are shorter and more topologically accurate than POY trees, but that neither POY nor BeeTLe produces trees as topologically accurate as ML trees produced on standard alignments. These findings, taken as a whole, suggest that treelength optimization is not as good an approach to phylogenetic tree estimation as maximum likelihood based upon good alignment methods.
Extensions of Simple Modules for SL3(2n) and SU3(2n)

The group of extensions between any two irreducible 2-modular representations of the groups SL 3 (2 m ) and SU 3 (2 m ) is determined
Functional Evidence for Gi-Gq crosstalk through G protein-coupled Receptor Heterocomplexes

We have studied signaling through a complex of two distinct G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) types: a serotonin (Gq-coupled) and a metabotropic glutamate (Gi-coupled). We used two-electrode voltage clamp in Xenopus oocytes expressing the receptors and used endogenous calcium-activated chloride or heterologously expressed Kir channels to monitor the effects of GPCR signaling. Previous biochemical studies had shown Gi signaling by stimulating the serotonin receptor in the serotonin-glutamate receptor complex (Gonzalez-Maeso et al., Nature 2008 452:93-97). Our work here focused on studying whether Gq signaling could also take place when stimulating the glutamate receptor.Upon glutamate receptor activation, oocytes expressing both receptors elicited calcium-activated chloride currents, not observed in oocytes injected with the glutamate receptor alone. Furthermore, these currents could be blocked by a specific regulator of Gq-protein signaling (RGS2) and were accompanied by phosphatidylinositol (3,4)-bisphosphate (PIP2) hydrolysis in the membrane, results consistent with Gq-signaling. Finally, receptor chimeric studies further confirmed that the glutamate-serotonin complex needs to be formed in order to allow Gi-Gq cross activation.Our results indicate that along with complexes between GPCRs that are coupled to the same class of G-protein, heterocomplexes are also possible, enabling simultaneous signaling of distinct signaling pathways in response to a single agonist.
The Social Origins of Q: Two Theses in a Field of Conflicting Hypotheses

This article examines current written- and oral-tradition views of Q. Two theses are argued: (1) The case seems the stronger that Q was an elaborated written text in Greek rather than an oral-derived text. Moreover (2), there is good evidence that Q originated in oral Aramaic Jesus sayings, perhaps some of which were written down, either as maxims or pointed, brief chreiai. However these theses are evaluated, Jesus scholarship must account for several important socio-cultural transitions in this picture, notably: from Jesus material in oral (Aramaic?) form to written Greek form; from non-elite origin to documentation by scribes in service of the elites; from Jesus material with pointed political significance within Herodian social relations to polemical theological material within Judean political religion.
Effects of material strain on triboelectric charging: Influence of material properties

Abstract We address electrostatic charging of unstrained and strained latex rubber sheets contacted with a series of materials: polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyurethane (PU) and stainless steel (SS). For PTFE, strain causes a reversal in the direction of charge transfer. For PU, the direction of charge transfer is reversed after repeated contacts due to material transfer, and strain increases the number of contacts needed for this reversal. For SS, strain reduces the frequency of electrical discharges occurring. These effects may be explained by strain either changing material properties relevant to triboelectric charging, or changing the nature of contact between the surfaces.
Auger electron spectroscopy study on the interfacial chemical reactions and drive-out diffusion of thin Au/Cr bilayers on GaAs

Abstract The contact reaction and drive-out diffusion between a GaAs substrate and a bilayer of thin films of gold and chromium were studied. The interdiffusion and drive-out diffusion were analyzed by Auger electron spectroscopy. Drive-out diffusion of gallium, arsenic and chromium atoms was observed. The arsenic and gallium concentrations close to the surface depend on the thickness of the chromium layer. The thickness of the arsenic-rich surface layer shows a linear dependence on the chromium layer thickness.
Motivational interviewing with significant other participation: Assessing therapeutic alliance and patient satisfaction and engagement

Inclusion of concerned significant others (SOs) in alcohol use treatment has demonstrated efficacy but has not been tested in the context of brief interventions. In this study, individual motivational interviewing (MI) sessions were compared with MI sessions including a significant other on within-treatment outcomes (alliance, fidelity, client satisfaction, and engagement). Participants (N = 382) were adult alcohol users recruited in a Level I trauma center. Perceived alliance did not differ across conditions, but patients and SOs reported higher alliance, satisfaction, and engagement than was perceived by the therapist. The occurrence of MI components, or discussion areas, was consistent across conditions. Higher baseline SO drinking was associated with lower patient engagement, whereas higher baseline SO acceptance of patient drinking was associated with lower SO engagement. Results suggest that individual MI sessions can be adapted to include an SO with minimal impact on patient acceptability and treatment fidelity. Research should, however, consider SOs' influence on participant outcomes and the relevance of specific SO characteristics.