cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Oxidation of uranium nanoparticles produced via pulsed laser ablation

An experimental apparatus designed for the synthesis, via pulsed laser deposition, and analysis of metallic nanoparticles and thin films of plutonium and other actinides was tested on depleted uranium samples. Five nanosecond pulses from a Nd:YAG laser produced films of {approx}1600 {angstrom} thickness that were deposited showing an angular distribution typical thermal ablation. The films remained contiguous for many months in vacuum but blistered due to induced tensile stresses several days after exposure to air. The films were allowed to oxidize from the residual water vapor within the chamber (2 x 10{sup -10} Torr base pressure). The oxidation was monitored by in-situ analysis techniques including x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and followed Langmuir kinetics.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and initial oral contraceptives for the treatment of PMDD: effective but not enough.

BACKGROUND: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are almost unanimously considered to be very efficacious and the first line of pharmacologic treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and premenstrual syndrome (PMS). There is a need to examine if this is actually the case. More recently combined oral contraceptives (COCs) have been pursued due to their ovulation suppression effects. Their effects on PMS/PMDD should be further examined as well. METHODS: For this review of the literature from 1990 to the present MEDLINE PsychLit and Cochrane controlled trials register were searched. Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials of SSRIs and COCs (N>20) that report the rate of responders and not just percent improvement in severity of symptoms were selected for study. The data extraction were the percentage or number of responders as reported by the original authors. RESULTS: In many studies only mean improvement in severity was reported. In all studies the main inclusion criterion was meeting criteria for PMDD; this has not however been an outcome measure. However only 16 reports that provided actual rate of responders could be included. The percentage of non-responders (100% minus active medication) to SSRIs and COCs was found to be higher than the reported percentage of women who responded to active medication (response rate to an SSRI or COC minus the response rate to placebo). CONCLUSION: In the majority of larger-scale studies once the placebo effect is accounted for the percentage of women who respond to SSRIs or COCs is actually less than the percentage of women who do not respond at all. SSRIs provide an important step forward in the treatment of PMDD and PMS. COCs provide a different option still approximately 40% of women with PMDD do not respond to SSRIs. Treatment with a currently approved COC does not substantially improve the percentage of responders. Therefore additional alternative targeted treatment modalities need to be developed.
Generating Confusion Sets for Context-Sensitive Error Correction

In this paper, we consider the problem of generating candidate corrections for the task of correcting errors in text. We focus on the task of correcting errors in preposition usage made by non-native English speakers, using discriminative classifiers. The standard approach to the problem assumes that the set of candidate corrections for a preposition consists of all preposition choices participating in the task. We determine likely preposition confusions using an annotated corpus of non-native text and use this knowledge to produce smaller sets of candidates. We propose several methods of restricting candidate sets. These methods exclude candidate prepositions that are not observed as valid corrections in the annotated corpus and take into account the likelihood of each preposition confusion in the non-native text. We find that restricting candidates to those that are observed in the non-native data improves both the precision and the recall compared to the approach that views all prepositions as possible candidates. Furthermore, the approach that takes into account the likelihood of each preposition confusion is shown to be the most effective.
Invited Commentary: Maternal Plasma Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Thyroid Hormones—Challenges and Opportunities

Thyroid hormones play a fundamental role in fetal and child development. While iodine deficiency-related maternal and child hypothyroidism may cause severe mental retardation, recent evidence suggests that milder forms of maternal hypothyroidism and hypothyroxinemia during pregnancy are also associated with altered neurodevelopment. On the other hand, hyperthyroidism during pregnancy has been associated with adverse fetal outcomes. Findings published by Abdelouahab et al. in the American Journal of Epidemiology (Am J Epidemiol. 2013;178(5):701-713) suggest that plasma concentrations of maternal polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which were used as flame retardants until recently and are detected in the tissues of virtually every North American, are associated with umbilical cord and maternal thyroid hormone levels during pregnancy. Although PBDEs have been consistently shown to reduce levels of free and total thyroxine in experimental animal studies, the direction of associations in human studies has been inconsistent. In this commentary, I discuss challenges beyond the factors often cited in the epidemiologic literature to explain inconsistent findings which more specifically apply to the study of PBDEs and thyroid hormones. These include the determination of iodine intake status, the method used to adjust for blood lipid concentrations, the measurement of free thyroid hormone levels, the possible effect of PBDE metabolites, and the potential for reverse causality.
Perceived racial discrimination in health care, completion of standard diabetes services, and diabetes control among a sample of American Indian women.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine perceived experiences of racial discrimination (perceived discrimination) in health care and its associations with completing standards of care for diabetes management and diabetes control.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 200 adult American Indian (AI) women with type 2 diabetes from 4 health care facilities located on tribal reservations in the Pacific Northwest. Participants completed a survey, and medical records were abstracted. Logistic regression was completed to assess associations.ResultsSixty-seven percent of AI women reported discrimination during their lifetime of health care. After adjusting for patient characteristics, perceived discrimination was significantly associated with lower rates of dental exam; checks for blood pressure, creatinine, and total cholesterol; and pneumococcal vaccination. The association between perceived discrimination and total number of diabetes services completed was not statistically significant. Perceived di...
A new main control room for the AGS complex

A new main control room has been built to control the accelerators of the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) complex. A new physical environment was produced to better control light, sound, temperature, and traffic. Five control consoles were built and installed to increase the number of machine physicists, operators, and development personnel that could be supported simultaneously. The consoles were all designed and implemented as general-purpose consoles so that a user would be able to control any facet of the accelerator operation from any of the control consoles. Equipment placement within consoles and console placement within the room reflect attention to the human factors needs of the operator. >
Visual cortex damage-induced growth of retinal axons into the lateral posterior nucleus of the cat

Ablation of visual cortical areas 17 and 18 in neonatal and young adult cats induces novel retinal projections to terminate bilaterally in the lateral posterior nucleus (LP) at a position ventromedial from the medial interlaminar nucleus. Comparison with the visual-field maps of LP indicate that the terminations are focussed on the representation of the visual-field center.
La carnavalización del discurso naturalista en A fuego lento, de Emilio Bobadilla

Estudia la obra del novelista cubano Emilio Bobadilla, autor de una original novela no consolidada por el canon critico. La dicotomia entre civilizacion y barbarie es el cimiento tematico y discursivo de A fuego lento, pero la novela discurre por los caminos de la parodia y de la carnavalizacion. Mediante un analisis de contenidos, de personajes y de estrategias se muestra una profunda critica a los discursos sobre la modernizacion de Hispanoamerica. This study is about the work of the Cuban novelist Emilio Bobadilla, the author of an original novel which has not yet been too well accepted in the literary canons. The dichotomy between civilization and barbarism is the thematic and literary basis of A fuego lento, but the novel uses parody and carnival. By means of an analysis of contents, characters and narrative strategies, discourse on the modernization of Latin America is deeply criticized.
Toward Biosynthetic Design and Implementation of Escherichia coli-Derived Paclitaxel and Other Heterologous Polyisoprene Compounds

Escherichia coli offers unparalleled engineering capacity in the context of heterologous natural product biosynthesis. However, as with other heterologous hosts, cellular metabolism must be designed or redesigned to support final compound formation. This task is at once complicated and aided by the fact that the cell does not natively produce an abundance of natural products. As a result, the metabolic engineer avoids complicated interactions with native pathways closely associated with the outcome of interest, but this convenience is tempered by the need to implement the required metabolism to allow functional biosynthesis. This review focuses on engineering E. coli for the purpose of polyisoprene formation, as it is related to isoprenoid compounds currently being pursued through a heterologous approach. In particular, the review features the compound paclitaxel and early efforts to design and overproduce intermediates through E. coli.
Effects of Low Doses of Quercetin and Genistein on Oxidation and Carbonylation in Hemoglobin and Myoglobin

Protein-bound carbonyls have been shown to increase with age as well as in numerous diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, adult respiratory syndrome pulmonary fibrosis, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's just to mention a few. The effects of the flavonoids quercetin and genistein were investigated according to their ability to inhibit the oxidation of hemoglobin and myoglobin via the Fenton's pathway. Antioxidative activity of the flavonoids were determined by oxidizing hemoglobin and myoglobin in separate experiments with 50 μM Fe(2+) and 0.01 mM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with and without quercetin and/or genistein. The samples were treated singly with either quercetin, genistein, or in combination at concentrations of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 μM, respectively, dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Samples were then incubated in a water bath at 37°C for 8, 12, and 24 hr, respectively. Levels of carbonylation were assayed by the protein carbonyl assay and the carbonyl levels quantified and expressed per mg of protein. The results indicate that protein carbonyls for samples treated with quercetin or genistein decreased in a dose-dependent manner compared to the controls. That of quercetin compared to genistein was more efficient in reducing the levels of protein carbonylation in hemoglobin and myoglobin, respectively. The combination of both flavonoids did show a gradual decrease in carbonyl compounds for only hemoglobin for all the doses and times tested. The results indicate that both flavonoids at low doses inhibited carbonylation in both hemoglobin and myoglobin and the inhibition may be attributed to the prevention of protein oxidation.
Investigation of the evaporation process conditions on the optical constants of zirconia films

Deposition parameters required for producing zirconia films for use in optical multilayer systems by electron-beam gun evaporation of zirconia and zirconium starting materials were investigated. The optical constants were determined as a function of distance, partial pressure of oxygen, and angle of incidence. The direct and reactive evaporation processes yielded ZrO2 films with refractive indices of 2.08 and 2.14, respectively, for vapor incident on the substrate at normal incidence.
Lesbian Safety Talk: Problematizing Definitions and Experiences of Violence, Sexuality and Space

The `Violence, Sexuality and Space' Research Project is the first major research project in Britain to explore how `safe', `public' spaces are created and sustained in response to homophobic violence. The research presented here examines lesbian safety talk and centres on lesbian focus group participants' responses to headline findings from a large-scale survey. The article illustrates the complexities involved in defining and interpreting violence and safety. It highlights the temporal and relative context of space, together with the importance of subjective, social and ideological constructions of violence and safety. The impact of sexuality on risk assessment and safety strategies is discussed alongside the influence of gender presentation, gender deviation and interpretative frameworks.
No "one-size fits all": towards a principled approach for incentives in mobile crowdsourcing

We are becoming increasingly aware that the effectiveness of mobile crowdsourcing systems critically depends on the whims of their human participants, impacting everything from participant engagement to their compliance with the crowdsourced tasks.In response, a number of such systems have started to incorporate different incentive features aimed at a wide range of goals that span from improving participation levels, to extending the systems' coverage, and enhancing the quality of the collected data. Despite the many related efforts, the inclusion of incentives in crowdsourced systems has so far been mostly ad-hoc, treating incentives as a wild-card response fitted for any occasion and goal.Using data from a large, 2-day experiment with 96 participants at a corporate conference, we present an analysis of the impact of two incentive structures on the recruitment, compliance and user effort of a basic mobile crowdsourced service. We build on these preliminary results to argue for a principled approach for selecting incentive and incentive structures to match the variety of requirements of mobile crowdsourcing applications and discuss key issues in working toward that goal.
Phenylephrine to Treat Hypoxemia during One-Lung Ventilation in a Pediatric Patient

To improve surgical visualization and facilitate the procedure, one-lung ventilation (OLV) is frequently used during thoracic surgery. Although generally well tolerated, the ventilation–perfusion inequality induced by OLV may lead to a decrease in oxygenation and, at times, hypoxemia. Effective treatment algorithms and strategies are necessary for the treatment of hypoxemia during OLV to ensure that the technique can be continued without interruption and allow for completion of the surgical procedure. Treatment strategies may include applying positive end expiratory pressure to the nonoperative lung, continuous positive airway pressure or low flow oxygen insufflation to the operative lung, decreasing anesthetic agents that interfere with hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV), or switching to total intravenous anesthesia. Although less commonly employed, α-adrenergic agonists may also improve oxygenation during OLV by augmenting HPV. We present a 12-year-old girl who developed hypoxemia during OLV, which was not corrected by the usual maneuvers. Hypoxemia was successfully treated with a phenylephrine infusion. The potential applications of α-adrenergic agonists such as phenylephrine in the treatment of hypoxemia during OLV are discussed and its physiologic basis reviewed.
Upper bounds on algebraic connectivity via convex optimization

The second smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix L of a graph is called its algebraic connectivity. We describe a method for obtaining an upper bound on the algebraic connectivity of a family of graphs G. Our method is to maximize the second smallest eigenvalue over the convex hull of the Laplacians of graphs in G, which is a convex optimization problem. By observing that it suffices to optimize over the subset of matrices invariant under the symmetry group of G, we can solve the optimization problem analytically for families of graphs with large enough symmetry groups. The same method can also be used to obtain upper bounds for other concave functions, and lower bounds for convex functions of L (such as the spectral radius).
Induced disgust affects implicit and explicit responses toward gay men and lesbians

In the current study, disgust was induced using a carefully controlled odor manipulation to observe its effect on participants' implicit and explicit responses to homosexuals. Participants were presented with a vial containing an odor that was described as “body odor” (n = 47) that induced a high level of disgust, or “parmesan cheese” (n = 43) that induced a moderate level of disgust, or an odor-free vial (n = 53). Subsequently, participants viewed images of homosexual and heterosexual couples, and their viewing times and ratings of the images' pleasantness were recorded. Additionally, they completed a “feelings thermometer” task, the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale that assessed feelings toward homosexuals, and the Three-Domain Disgust Scale to measure sensitivity along three dimensions of disgust (pathogen, moral, and sexual). Results indicated that those in the body odor condition viewed images of gay (but not lesbian) couples for less time relative to images of heterosexual couples compared with participants in the other two conditions. With respect to explicit ratings, participants in the body odor condition reported colder feelings for gay relative to heterosexual men on the feelings thermometer compared with those in the no-odor control condition. For pleasantness ratings, the odor manipulation served as a moderator, such that for those in the body odor condition only, higher sensitivity to sexual disgust predicted lower ratings for images of lesbian couples relative to straight couples. Thus, although induction of disgust biases implicit and explicit responses to gay couples, the degree to which this occurs for explicit ratings of lesbian couples depends on levels of sexual disgust. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
No forwarding address: Losing homes in bankruptcy

For seventy years, homeownership has been an important indicator of middle class status and a central focus of public policy. Recently, however, homeownership has morphed from the American Dream into a nightmare for many homeowners. High loan to value mortgages, adjustable interest rates, option payment amounts and home equity loans have left many homeowners with high mortgage debt to income burdens and little or no home equity. By 2007, when home values began to plummet and unemployment to rise, even fixed rate first mortgages on many home were underwater. Homeowners could not refinance or sell homes for enough to pay off the debt, nor could they keep up the ongoing payments. Lender intransigence and complex securitization rules too often prevented mortgage modification. Increasingly, homeowners desperate to save their homes turn to bankruptcy courts for help. However, bankruptcy courts cannot reduce the principal amount on home mortgage loans. At most, bankruptcy can delay foreclosure and allow time to cure defaults. For many debtors, this limited relief is too little, too late: they still lose their homes.In the 2007 CBP sample, 55% of the cases were filed by homeowners. Ninety percent of those debtors hoped bankruptcy would let them keep their home. For many, however, those hopes were soon dashed. Phone interviews in spring 2008 showed that debtors in more than one in four chapter 7 cases had lost their home after their case was filed. Sample chapter 13 debtors fared a little better. That chapter supposedly was designed to help homeowners, but even there, a year after filing, more than one in ten homes had been lost. And that's not the final tally for home loss in chapter 13. Since those cases last up to 5 years and have a low success rate, many more chapter 13 debtors may have lost their homes after they were interviewed. The consequences of home loss are hard. Debtors and their families of course suffer most. They must move away from familiar, safer neighborhoods, often into areas with higher crime rates. Children are torn from the friends and schools they know. Finding affordable rental space is especially difficult for families with several children. Foreclosures and vacant homes drive down property values, so the neighborhoods debtors leave behind also suffer financially. Cities and towns lose tax collections and become less able to provide needed services. Lenders lose as well, for they recoup less and less from foreclosures as property values fall.
Electron mean free path in elemental metals

The electron mean free path λ and carrier relaxation time τ of the twenty most conductive elemental metals are determined by numerical integration over the Fermi surface obtained from first-principles, using constant λ or τ approximations and wave-vector dependent Fermi velocities vf (k). The average vf deviates considerably from the free-electron prediction, even for elements with spherical Fermi surfaces including Cu (29% deviation). The calculated product of the bulk resistivity times λ indicates that, in the limit of narrow wires, Rh, Ir, and Ni are 2.1, 1.8, and 1.6 times more conductive than Cu, while various metals including Mo, Co, and Ru approximately match the Cu resistivity, suggesting that these metals are promising candidates to replace Cu for narrow interconnect lines.
Younger age at initiation of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination series is associated with higher rates of on-time completion

Vaccination rates for human papillomavirus (HPV) have remained disappointingly low. It is critical to identify methods to increase on-time vaccine series completion rates (before 13 or 15years). To determine whether younger age (9 to 10years of age) at HPV vaccine series initiation was associated with improved on-time completion rates compared to initiation at 11 to 12years, we examined the prevalence of on-time HPV vaccine series completion rates from August 2006 through December 2012 in a large, population-based cohort of children and adolescents (aged 9.5 to 27years) residing in Olmsted County, MN on December 31, 2012 (n=36,223). We compared age at vaccine initiation between individuals who successfully completed both 2 and 3 doses of the vaccination series on-time (before age 13.5 or 15.0years) using multivariate logistic regression. On-time completion of both 2 and 3 doses of the vaccine series by age 13.5 or 15.0years was significantly associated with initiation at 9 to 10years as compared to 11 to 12years after adjusting for sex, race, insurance status, frequent health care visits, and year of first vaccination (all p<.01). Interventions focused on beginning the vaccination series at 9 to 10years of age may result in higher rates of timely series completion.
Child Welfare Leadership Development to Enhance Outcomes for Children, Youth and Families

Child welfare faces exceptional leadership challenges, including high retirement and turnover rates of agency leaders. At a time when the Children’s Bureau is focusing the work of the child welfare...
The effects of the spatial pattern of defoliation on regrowth of a tussock grass

The effects of the spatial pattern of defoliation within a tussock grass, Agropyron desertorum, were investigated at a semiarid field site. In the middle of the spring growing season (mid-May), tussocks were clipped in repeatable defoliation patterns, and the regrowth of foliage was monitored. These clipping patterns involved removal of foliage from different locations within the tussock, but the total amount of foliage removed was held constant. Active meristems were left intact in all cases. The spatial pattern of defoliation affected both initial rates of tussock regrowth and total growing-season aboveground biomass production. When leaves were removed low in the tussock (older leaves), regrowth was greater than after removal of the same quantity of foliage high in the canopy (younger leaves). These differences in regrowth were due to differences in the rate of new tissue production rather than differences in the timing of senescence. The results were consistent over two years even though aboveground production differed considerably between years. The interaction of the spatial pattern and timing of defoliation was also studied by clipping additional plants in late May. The timing of defoliation affected the relative influence of different defoliation patterns on regrowth. In those defoliation patterns where active meristems were not removed in the late-May clipping, there were no differences in regrowth of tussocks which had either upper or lower foliage removed. However, because the grass culms had elongated by late May, active meristems were higher and were removed by one of the defoliation pattern treatments (a uniform clipping). This resulted in much less regrowth. Differences in the effects of clipping patterns applied in late May were associated with this removal of active meristems. Whereas, differences among clipping treatments following the earlier mid-May defoliation were probably a result of changes in factors which affected tussock carbon gain (e.g., light interception, foliage age structure). In either case, the spatial pattern of defoliation within a tussock grass clearly had significant effects on aboveground regrowth.
Development and testing of a time-domain equivalent source method for acoustic scattering

T he prediction of acoustic scattering from hard surfaces such as the fuselage or deck near an exhausting jet aircraft or rotocraft is important to attempts at predicting the spatial effects of various engine and nozzle configurations. A time-domain equivalent source method has been recently introduced by our group for predicting acoustic scattering using pressure gradient predictions obtained from an integral acoustic formulation (G1A). The approach discussed here involves using coincident source and control points, leading to improved performance for some geometries. In this paper the performance of the method is evaluated further as applied to three groups of sphere cases, as well as several series of corner cases. These are compared with analytic solutions for an acoustic source outside a sphere and an acoustic source near a corner formed by two semi-infinite planes meeting at a right angle. Parameters relevant to method performance are evaluated including the number of panels per period, samples per period, and certain stability related parameters. Possible avenues of improvement are discussed, such as improvements to the boundary condition representation.
Mineral Content of Commercial Samples of Mechanically Deboned Poultry Meat

Abstract Nine commercial samples of mechanically deboned poultry meat, including products from broiler, fowl, and turkey parts, were analyzed for potassium, sodium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and lead. Calcium content, which had a fourfold range over the nine samples, probably reflected the varying bone content. Iron content, for which the literature provides widely different values within a product type, fell within reasonable limits for specific products analyzed. The many almost uncontrollable production factors, and the consequent high variability in mineral composition, suggest the need for frequent monitoring of production lots of these products for mineral elements of nutritional interest.
A New Fungous Parasite on Dung-Inhabiting Ascomycetes

In December 1940 during the routine study of Ascobolus stercorarius in a laboratory class in cryptogamic botany, a student, Mr. Joseph Lipps, had the good fortune to discover an ascus-borne chytridiaceous sporangium emitting its zo6spores. With subsequent inspections of some of the various kinds of ascocarps and spores to be found on cow dung, I have seen many additional sporangia upon asci and ascospores of A. inmmersus, A. Leveillei, and A. stercorarius, and in a very few instances upon cells of the exciple in fructifications of the last named species. Inasmuch as the current taxonomic treatments of the Chytridiales include no records of non-filamentous Phycomycetes upon any species of the Ascomycetes, I extended the observations on this parasite to include a survey of apothecia that developed in moistchamber cultures of dung from several pastures, incorporating studies on1 the capacity of the organism to infect various Ascomycetous fungi as determined by rather crude but useful inoculation tests in hanging drop cultures. While chytridiaceous fungi are of common occurrence on nonfilamentous and Oo6mycetous Phycomycetes, they apparently are rarely associated with higher filamentous fungi. With special reference to the Rhizidiaceous forms in the latter association, one finds in the literature but two species, namely, 01pidium Uredinis (Lagerh.) A. Fischer, on uredospores of Puccinia, and the tropical Rhizophidium fungicolum Zimm. in association with hyphae of
Charm contribution to the atmospheric neutrino flux

We revisit the estimate of the charm particle contribution to the atmospheric neutrino flux that is expected to dominate at high energies because long-lived high-energy pions and kaons interact in the atmosphere before decaying into neutrinos. We focus on the production of forward charm particles which carry a large fraction of the momentum of the incident proton. In the case of strange particles, such a component is familiar from the abundant production of ${K}^{+}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ pairs. These forward charm particles can dominate the high-energy atmospheric neutrino flux in underground experiments. Modern collider experiments have no coverage in the very large rapidity region where charm forward pair production dominates. Using archival accelerator data as well as IceCube measurements of atmospheric electron and muon neutrino fluxes, we obtain an upper limit on forward ${\overline{D}}^{0}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}}_{c}$ pair production and on the associated flux of high-energy atmospheric neutrinos. We conclude that the prompt flux may dominate the much-studied central component and represent a significant contribution to the TeV atmospheric neutrino flux. Importantly, it cannot accommodate the PeV flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, or the excess of events observed by IceCube in the 30--200 TeV energy range indicating either structure in the flux of cosmic accelerators, or a presence of more than one component in the cosmic flux observed.
An inductive typology of egocentric networks

Abstract We apply Random Forests to detailed survey data of social relations in order to derive an inductive typology of egocentric networks. Beginning with over 40 descriptors of 1050 northern California respondents’ networks, we combine 21 of these into seven dimensions, the extent to which those networks display: (1) interaction with nonkin, (2) proximity to kin, (3) overall involvement with kin (including support), (4) support from nonkin, and the extent to which (5) church, (6) work and (7) extra-curricular activities shape connections with others. We use these dimensions to reliably place 985 of the 1050 observations into types: career-and-friends (24%), family-and-community (20%), family-only (16%), untethered (8%), energetic (7%), withdrawn (6%), and home-and-church (5%). In the second part of the analysis, we describe the social and demographic attributes of respondents that predict membership in each cluster to present a richer picture of the network typology, as well as to confirm that the types have face validity.
Effect of fasting on hormones and metabolites in plasma of fast-growing, lean and slow-growing obese pigs.

Plasma concentrations of glucose, free fatty acids (FFA), insulin and growth hormone (GH) were determined immediately after food removal and then hourly for 24 hours. Blood was sampled from six lean and six obese pigs at 10 weeks of age via indwelling catheters. Plasma glucose decreased but was similar in both pig strains shortly after feed removal; at the end of the 24-hr fast, plasma glucose was higher (P less than .01) in lean pigs. Plasma FFA concentrations were similar in lean and obese pigs and increased five-fold within 24 hr of fasting. Plasma insulin was higher (P less than .05) in obese pigs than in lean pigs immediately after food removal only (21.4 +/- 3.0 vs 9.8 +/- 2.4 microU/ml). Pattern of GH secretion over 24 hr was episodic; average plasma GH was lower in obese pigs than in lean pigs (2.8 +/- .7 vs 9.4 +/- 1.9 ng/ml). In summary, FFA mobilization was similar in lean and obese pigs, GH concentrations were lower in plasma of obese pigs and relative differences in plasma glucose and insulin between pig strains were influenced by time after feed removal.
When Fair Isn't Fair: Sophisticated Time Inconsistency in Social Preferences

How do people think about fairness in settings with uncertainty? One view holds that fairness requires equality of opportunity; another holds that it requires equality of outcomes. Relative to the resolution of uncertainty, the first view takes an ex ante perspective, while the second takes an ex post perspective. In this paper, we conduct a laboratory experiment designed to determine which perspective people adopt, and under what conditions. We find that most people view fairness from an ex ante perspective when making decisions ex ante, and from an ex post perspective when making decisions ex post. As a result, they exhibit the hallmark of time-inconsistency: after making an initial plan that is fully state-contingent, they revise it upon learning that certain states will not occur. These patterns are robust and persist even when people are aware of their proclivities. Indeed, subjects who switch from ex ante fair to ex post fair choices, and who are aware of this proclivity, generally avoid precommitments and intentionally retain the flexibility to manifest time inconsistency. We argue that these patterns are best explained by a theory of nominal fairness.
Influence of stress on reproduction: measure of well-being

Reproduction can serve as a barometer of animal well-being. Whenever a group of animals stops reproducing, researchers begin to examine various aspects of their well-being. Do they have sufficient food? Are they too crowded? Is housing adequate? Are the animals being stressed? Scientists feel justified in making this correlation between well-being and successful reproduction, because reproduction is one of the most basic drives for all animals. When an animal fails to reproduce, not only is its genetic potential lost, but survival of an entire group may be jeopardized. To prevent such a consequence, an animal will make considerable physiological sacrifices to ensure reproductive success; only the most severe threats to its well-being will prevent the animal from reproducing.
Algorithm Improvement Program Nuclide Identification Algorithm Scoring Criteria And Scoring Application - DNDO.

The goal of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) Algorithm Improvement Program (AIP) is to facilitate gamma-radiation detector nuclide identification algorithm development, improvement, and validation. Accordingly, scoring criteria have been developed to objectively assess the performance of nuclide identification algorithms. In addition, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet application for automated nuclide identification scoring has been developed. This report provides an overview of the equations, nuclide weighting factors, nuclide equivalencies, and configuration weighting factors used by the application for scoring nuclide identification algorithm performance. Furthermore, this report presents a general overview of the nuclide identification algorithm scoring application including illustrative examples.
Legal Services Marketing: An Empirical Investigation of the Forecastability and Possible Interrelationship between Marriage Dissolutions, Personal Bankruptcies, and Unemployment

The following paper examines the longitudinal demand for two legal services, divorces and personal bankruptcies. For each service this paper presents the appropriate univariate model for forecasting. A causal relationship was suggested by a number of local attorneys in which bankruptcies were the result of untenable divorce settlements. Based upon this theory, the relationship between divorces, personal bankruptcies and an economic variable unemployment is examined.
“You Couldn’t Identify Your Grandmother If She Were in that Party”: The Bioarchaeology of Postmortem Investigation at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery

This research presents the historical, demographic, archaeological, and osteological evidence used to examine postmortem investigation represented among individuals from the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery recovered during archaeological investigations in the summer of 2013. As of 2013, four locations on the Milwaukee County Grounds in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, have been identified as cemeteries representing the burial of more than 7000 individuals. Three of these cemeteries are located on the periphery of the Milwaukee County Regional Medical Center and remain undisturbed. The fourth cemetery, utilized between 1882 and 1925, is in a developed area and was archaeologically excavated in 1991 and 1992 and again in 2013. The most recent excavations revealed coffin burial locations that produced a minimum of 665 individuals including 381 adults and 284 subadults. This research provides an osteoarchaeological profile for three types of medical investigation: legal autopsy, dissection, and medical specimen use. The conflict between the practice of anatomization and the social mandate for respectful burial produces these distinct osteoarchaeological signatures.
Generation, Endothelialization, and Microsurgical Suture Anastomosis of Strong 1-mm-Diameter Collagen Tubes

Tissue-engineered vascular grafts that are based on reconstituted extracellular matrices have been plagued by weak mechanical strength that prevents handling or anastomosis to native vessels. In this study, we devise a method for making dense, suturable collagen tubular constructs of diameter ≤1 mm for potential microsurgical applications, by dehydrating tubes of native rat tail type I collagen and crosslinking them with 20 mM genipin. Crosslinked dense collagen tubes with 1 mm inner diameter yielded ultimate tensile strength of 342 ± 15 gF and burst pressure of 1313 ± 156 mm Hg, comparable to the strength of a rat femoral artery, and supported endothelial cell adhesion and growth. End-to-end anastomosis of 0.5-mm-diameter tubes to explanted arteries displayed anastomotic strength of 82 ± 21 gF, which is sufficient for surgical applications. In vivo implantation of cell-free tubes as interpositional grafts in the rat femoral circulation yielded stable anastomosis with blood flow for 20 min. Seeded dense c...
An epidemiological model of internet worms with hierarchical dispersal and spatial clustering of hosts

Beginning in 2001, many instances of malicious software known as Internet worms have been using biological strategies such as hierarchical dispersal to seek out and spread to new susceptible hosts more efficiently. We measured the distribution of potentially susceptible hosts in the space of Internet addresses to determine their clustering. We have used the results to construct a full-size simulated Internet with 232 hosts with mean and variance of susceptible hosts chosen to match our measurements at multiple spatial scales. Epidemiological simulations of outbreaks among the roughly 2.8×106 susceptible hosts on this full-sized network show that local preference scanning greatly increases the chances for an infected host to locate and infect other susceptible hosts by a factor of as much as several hundred. However, once deploying this strategy, the overall success of a worm is relatively insensitive to the details of its dispersal strategy over a wide range of parameters. In addition, although using localized interactions may allow malicious software to spread more rapidly or to more hosts on average, it can also lead to increased variability in infection levels among replicate simulations. Using such dispersal strategies may therefore be a high risk, high reward strategy for the authors of such software.
Pigment Epithelium-Derived Factor (PEDF) mediates cartilage matrix loss in an age-dependent manner under inflammatory conditions

Inflammation is a major cause of cartilage destruction and leads to the imbalance of metabolic activities in the arthritic joint. Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) has been reported to have both pro- and anti-inflammatory activities in various cell types and to be upregulated in the arthritic joint, but its role in joint destruction is unclear. Our aim was to investigate the role of PEDF in cartilage degeneration under inflammatory conditions. PEDF was ectopically expressed in primary human articular chondrocytes, and catabolic gene expression and protein secretion in response to the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) were evaluated. Metatarsal bones from PEDF-deficient and wild type mice were cultured in the presence or absence of IL-1β. Cartilage matrix integrity and matrix metalloproteinases MMP-1, MMP-3, and MMP-13 were evaluated. PEDF-deficient and wild type mice were evaluated in the monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) inflammatory joint destruction animal model to determine the role of PEDF in inflammatory arthritis in vivo. Student’s t-tests and Mann–Whitney tests were employed where appropriate, for parametric and non-parametric data, respectively. We showed that PEDF protein levels were higher in human osteoarthritis samples compared to normal samples. We demonstrated that ectopic PEDF expression in primary human articular chondrocytes exacerbated catabolic gene expression in the presence of IL-1β. In whole bone organ cultures, IL-1β induced MMP-1, MMP-3 and MMP-13 protein production, and caused significant cartilage matrix loss. Interestingly, Toluidine Blue staining showed that PEDF-deficient bones from 29 week old animals, but not 10 week old animals, had reduced matrix loss in response to IL-1β compared to their wild type counterparts. In addition, PEDF-deficiency in 29 week old animals preserved matrix integrity and protected against cell loss in the MIA joint destruction model in vivo. We conclude that PEDF exacerbates cartilage degeneration in an age-dependent manner under an inflammatory setting. This is the first study identifying a specific role for PEDF in joint inflammation and highlights the multi-faceted activities of PEDF.
Plasmon-Enhanced Resonant Excitation and Demethylation of Methylene Blue

Using methylene blue (MB) as a model system, we demonstrate surface plasmon-enhanced resonant excitation that leads to N-demethylation reaction under visible light irradiation (λ = 633 nm) at low photon flux. The chemical changes are monitored by detecting the vibrational signatures of the reactant and product species in situ using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. Drastic temporal evolution of SERS spectra has been observed upon continuous irradiation. While the SERS spectra acquired immediately after irradiation are the same as the Raman spectrum of MB solid powder, the spectra recorded a few seconds later are remarkably similar to that of thionine solid powder, indicating N-demethylation of MB. No demethylation reaction has been observed under resonant excitation (λ = 633 nm) of MB adsorbed on nonplasmonic surfaces. Similarly, excitations of plasmon resonances at 532 and 808 nm wavelengths that do not overlap with the MB electronic transition do not lead to transformation of MB to ...
ATP Synthesis and Ion Gradients in the Methanogenic Bacteria

The methanogenid bacteria are a major representative of the Archaebacteria, which has been proposed to be a new Urkingdom, separate and distinct from the Eubacteria and Eukaryotes [1].
Testosterone, Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Endogenous sex hormones are associated with the risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Recent studies suggested the role of these hormones in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies investigating the association between sex hormones and NAFLD. Material and methods. Material and methods. A comprehensive search of the databases of the MEDLINE and EMBASE was performed from inception through April 2016. The inclusion criterion was the observational studies that assessed the association of serum total testosterone (TT) and sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and NAFLD. We calculated pooled effect estimates of TT and SHBG with 95% confidence intervals (CI) comparing between subjects with and without NAFLD by using random-effects model. Results. Results. Results. Sixteen trials comprising 13,721 men and 5,840 women met the inclusion criteria. TT levels were lower in men with NAFLD (MD = -2.78 nmol/l, 95%CI -3.40 to -2.15, I 2 = 99%) than in those without. Men with higher TT levels had lower odds of NAFLD whereas higher TT levels increased the odds of NAFLD in women. In both sexes, SHBG levels were lower in patients with NAFLD than controls and this inverse association was stronger in women than men and higher SHBG levels were associated with reduced odds of NAFLD. Conclusion. Conclusion. Conclusion. Our meta-analysis demonstrated a sex-dependent association between TT and NAFLD. Lower TT levels are associated with men with NAFLD and inversely associated with women with NAFLD, whereas higher SHBG levels are associated with lower NAFLD odds in both men and women
Commonalities in frequency-dependent viscoelastic damping in glasses in the MHz to THz regime

We use non-equilibrium molecular dynamics oscillatory shear simulations to study frequency-dependent viscoelastic damping spanning nearly six decades in frequency range (MHz to THz), in a wide range of model glasses including binary glasses such as Cu-Zr metallic glass (MG), Wahnstrom glass and amorphous silica, and unary glasses, namely, Dzugutov glass and amorphous silicon. First, for the Cu-Zr MG, we elucidate the role of quench rate, number of shear cycles, shear amplitude, and shear temperature on the damping characteristics. We observe striking commonalities in damping characteristics for all glasses studied—(i) a peak in the loss modulus in the high-frequency regime (∼THz) and (ii) persistent damping in the low-frequency regime (extending down to 10 s of MHz). The high-frequency peak is seen to overlap with the range of natural vibrational frequencies for each glass, and arises from coupling between the excited harmonic vibrational modes. On the other hand, persistent damping at intermediate and low frequencies is shown to be a result of long time-scale local, irreversible deformation.