cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Common developmental genome deprogramming in schizophrenia — Role of Integrative Nuclear FGFR1 Signaling (INFS)

The watershed-hypothesis of schizophrenia asserts that over 200 different mutations dysregulate distinct pathways that converge on an unspecified common mechanism(s) that controls disease ontogeny. Consistent with this hypothesis, our RNA-sequencing of neuron committed cells (NCCs) differentiated from established iPSCs of 4 schizophrenia patients and 4 control subjects uncovered a dysregulated transcriptome of 1349 mRNAs common to all patients. Data reveals a global dysregulation of developmental genome, deconstruction of coordinated mRNA networks, and the formation of aberrant, new coordinated mRNA networks indicating a concerted action of the responsible factor(s). Sequencing of miRNA transcriptomes demonstrated an overexpression of 16 miRNAs and deconstruction of interactive miRNA-mRNA networks in schizophrenia NCCs. ChiPseq revealed that the nuclear (n) form of FGFR1, a pan-ontogenic regulator, is overexpressed in schizophrenia NCCs and overtargets dysregulated mRNA and miRNA genes. The nFGFR1 targeted 54% of all human gene promoters and 84.4% of schizophrenia dysregulated genes. The upregulated genes reside within major developmental pathways that control neurogenesis and neuron formation, whereas downregulated genes are involved in oligodendrogenesis. Our results indicate (i) an early (preneuronal) genomic etiology of schizophrenia, (ii) dysregulated genes and new coordinated gene networks are common to unrelated cases of schizophrenia, (iii) gene dysregulations are accompanied by increased nFGFR1-genome interactions, and (iv) modeling of increased nFGFR1 by an overexpression of a nFGFR1 lead to up or downregulation of selected genes as observed in schizophrenia NCCs. Together our results designate nFGFR1 signaling as a potential common dysregulated mechanism in investigated patients and potential therapeutic target in schizophrenia.
Analysis of Turbulence Anisotropy with a Hartmann Sensor

A Hartmann Turbulence Sensor measured statistically significant, but weak, anisotropy near sunset times between the horizontal and vertical directions. Further analysis shows this anisotropy is not well oriented with respect to these axes.
The Performance Benefits of Contracted Knowledge

While research has clearly established the value of knowledge as a resource, prior work has argued that advantage is created when firms either create knowledge-based resources internally or form ex...
Making Civil Society Sustainable: The Legacy of USAID in Croatia

What makes civil society sustainable? This paper examines USAID “Legacy Mechanisms”—programs designed to support a stable civil society after USAID withdraws aid—in the context of post-war Croatia to reconceptualize civil society sustainability in terms of resilience. Rather than examine whether specific legacy mechanisms remained intact, this paper looks at how Croatian civil society organizations adopted, adapted, and dropped these legacy programs to respond to novel crises and a changing political and social environment once USAID exited Croatia. Drawing on archival data from USAID’s time in Croatia and interviews conducted between 2008 (the year after USAID withdrew) and 2016, this paper shows that the long-term impact USAID had on civil society lay not within the formal institutions and organizations it supported, but in the resilience, creativity, and cooperation it fostered in the civil society sector.
The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in 1763?

An entrenched part of the multicultural canon can be summed up by quoting from a book intended for undergraduate college students: "In the 1760s the British at Fort Pitt gave blankets from the smallpox hospital to Delaware Indians as a form of germ warfare."1 The story has been repeated time and again and has now become dogma, or so it seems. This essay will re examine this familiar tale and what historians have alleged about it to deter mine what is credible about the incident at Fort Pitt.
Coupled Cryogenic Thermal and Electrical Models for Transient Analysis of Superconducting Power Devices with Integrated Cryogenic Systems

Benefits of an integrated high temperature superconducting (HTS) power system and the associated cryogenic systems on board an electric ship or aircraft are discussed. A versatile modelling methodology developed to assess the cryogenic thermal behavior of the integrated system with multiple HTS devices and the various potential configurations are introduced. The utility and effectiveness of the developed modelling methodology is demonstrated using a case study involving a hypothetical system including an HTS propulsion motor, an HTS generator and an HTS power cable cooled by an integrated cryogenic helium circulation system. Using the methodology, multiple configurations are studied. The required total cooling power and the ability to maintain each HTS device at the required operating temperatures are considered for each configuration and the trade-offs are discussed for each configuration. Transient analysis of temperature evolution in the cryogenic helium circulation loop in case of a system failure is carried out to arrive at the required critical response time. The analysis was also performed for a similar liquid nitrogen circulation for an isobaric condition and the cooling capacity ratio is used to compare the relative merits of the two cryogens.
Physicochemical properties of branched-chain dicationic ionic liquids

Abstract Dicationic ionic liquids (DILs) typically have higher viscosities and thermal stabilities than most conventional monocationic ionic liquids. However, due to their coulombic interactions, they often demonstrate higher melting points than conventional ILs which limit their use in many applications. Utilizing branched alkyl spacer chains between two cationic terminal groups resulted in dicationic ILs with lower melting points and therefore extended liquid ranges. A systematic investigation was conducted to determine how the position and type of substituent groups may affect the physicochemical properties of branched DILs. When compared to their linear counterparts, an increase in the kinematic viscosities and lower densities were observed for branched DILs. Thermal stability was found to be highly dependent on the position of the alkyl substituent group along with the length of the spacer chain. While the substitution on the α‑carbon of a spacer chain resulted in a significant decline in the thermal stability of DILs, the effect of mid-chain substitution on their stability was negligible. The performance testing of branched DILs as gas chromatography (GC) stationary phase displayed excellent separation of geometrical isomers in BTEX mixture.
Primer in Patient Safety Concepts: Simulation Case-Based Training for Pediatric Residents and Fellows.

Introduction Health care quality and patient safety remain one of the core areas of focus for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. In addition to using the traditional approach...
Difficulties with Ureteral Stents

Ureteral stenting is a common urologic procedure with many indications, including instances of ureteral obstruction and trauma. It serves as a low-cost and low-morbidity alternative to other forms of urinary drainage such as percutaneous nephrostomy. Though one of its advantages is its ease relative to other urologic procedures, it is not without propensity for complications and pitfalls. Difficulties with ureteral stents can occur as a result of altered anatomy either associated with pregnancy or urinary tract reconstruction. Complications of ureteral stents include stent encrustation – sometimes as a result of a forgotten stent – and irritative voiding symptoms. Knowledge of basic endourologic principles and comfort with the full armamentarium of available endoscopic equipment will prepare one well for handling difficult cases of ureteral stenting.
Are M&A Contract Clauses Value Relevant to Bidder and Target Shareholders?

Merger and acquisition deals are governed by merger clauses which are negotiated between the bidder and target in order to communicate deal terms, specify risk sharing between the parties, and describe dispute management provisions in case of litigation. In a large sample of manually collected U.S. deal contracts involving publicly traded bidders and targets, we construct merger clauses indices based on legal scholars’ ex-ante prediction and examine the relationship between announcement returns and different types of merger clauses. We find that bidder protective clauses correlate with higher bidder returns while target protective clauses and pro-competition clauses correlate with higher target returns. We also find that bidder and target protective indices have larger impacts on announcement abnormal returns for “bad” deals than for “good” deals. Finally, we find that the inclusion of more bidder protective clauses leads to lower deal completion rates while the inclusion of more target protective clauses and pro-competition clauses has no impact on deal completion rates. These results are consistent with the expert lawyer/efficient contracting view of Cain, Macias, and Davidoff Solomon (2014), and Coates (2016), and against merger contracts as boilerplate agreements.
A control version of the Freidlin-Wentzell Theorem

The Freidlin-Wentzell theorem gives the probability of large deviations under small noise. Very roughly, it gives the probability that a particle undergoing diffusion inside a box, under very small but positive noise, will eventually hit the boundary of the box in a given time. Exit always happens at a particular point irrespective of the starting position, and this point of exit and time to exit can be calculated using the drift and volatility terms. We present an analogous control version of the theorem, where the goal of the controller is to keep the particle inside the box, as long as possible.
Light as a Catalytic Switch for Block Copolymer Architectures: Metal–Organic Insertion/Light Initiated Radical (MILRad) Polymerization

We detail a polymer synthetic methodology that merges the techniques of insertion and radical polymerization methods into a single organometallic catalyst. This metal–organic insertion/light initiated radical (MILRad) polymerization technique proves successful at polymerizing methyl acrylate (MA) and hexene, using light as a critical stimulus to activate the dormant photoresponsive nature of the insertion catalyst. In this study, we describe a novel approach that uses visible light (460 nm) to switch the catalytic activity of a cationic palladium catalyst from an insertion route to a radical process when desired. We discovered that in a mixture of MA and hexene one monomer can be selectively polymerized using light and dark cycles, respectively. As a result, this polymerization process enables the copolymerization of MA and hexene to create homo- and block copolymer architectures facilitated solely by visible light. In this work, we show the synthesis of MA homopolymers in molecular weight ranges (Mn 50–4...
PSense: Automatic Sensitivity Analysis for Probabilistic Programs

PSense is a novel system for sensitivity analysis of probabilistic programs. It computes the impact that a noise in the values of the parameters of the prior distributions and the data have on the program’s result. PSense relates the program executions with and without noise using a developer-provided sensitivity metric. PSense calculates the impact as a set of symbolic functions of each noise variable and supports various non-linear sensitivity metrics. Our evaluation on 66 programs from the literature and five common sensitivity metrics demonstrates the effectiveness of PSense.
Mercury Isotopes Reveal an Ontogenetic Shift in Habitat Use by Walleye in Lower Green Bay of Lake Michigan

In general, fish residing in rivers differ from fish residing in lakes in their mercury (Hg) isotope ratios. Specifically, fish residing in lakes typically show enriched values for the isotope rati...
Using Form+Theme+Context (FTC) for Rebalancing 21st-century Art Education

This article addresses the need to rebalance 21st-century art education for inclusion and integration leading to fuller art engagement in an increasingly visual world. I expand upon the form versus content canon in art and offset the typically predominant use of sensory, formal, or technical qualities in comprehending meaning from, as well as in creating, works of art. This article proposes the utility of Form+Theme+Context (FTC) as a practical alternative for understanding as well as creating visual imagery. An FTC Palette for Decoding and Encoding Art is presented as a balanced and accessible approach to meaningfully creating and responding to art and artifacts. Careful examination of a painting by Ben Shahn demonstrates the FTC approach, designed to engage viewers in significantly discerning the artist’s visual and written ideas while seeking relationships and relevance to contemporary art and life. Moving towards an inclusive, pragmatic theory of balanced integration, connections of FTC to the profess...
NDN-ABS: Attribute-Based Signature Scheme for Named Data Networking

The Named Data Networking architecture mandates cryptographic signatures of packets at the network layer. Traditional RSA and ECDSA public key signatures require obtaining signer's NDN certificate (and, if needed, the next-level certificates of the trust chain) to validate the signatures. This potentially creates two problems. First, the communication channels must be active in order to retrieve the certificates, which is not always the case in disruptive and ad hoc environments. Second, the certificate identifies the individual producer and thus producer anonymity cannot be guaranteed if necessary.In this paper, we present NDN-ABS, an alternative NDN signatures design based on the attribute-based signatures, to addresses both these problems. With NDN-ABS, data packets can be verified without the need for any network retrieval (provided the trust anchor is pre-configured) and attributes can be designed to only identify application-defined high-level producer anonymity sets, thus ensuring individual producer's anonymity. The paper uses an illustrative smart-campus environment to define and evaluate the design and highlight how the NDN trust schema can manage the validity of NDN-ABS signatures. The paper also discusses performance limitations of ABS and potential ways they can be overcome in a production environment.
Predictors of visit frequency for patients using ongoing chiropractic care for chronic low back and chronic neck pain; analysis of observational data.

Chronic spinal pain is prevalent, expensive and long-lasting. Several provider-based nonpharmacologic therapies have now been recommended for chronic low-back pain (CLBP) and chronic neck pain (CNP). However, healthcare and coverage policies provide little guidance or evidence regarding the long-term use of this care. To provide one glimpse into the long-term use of nonpharmacologic provider-based care, this study examines the predictors of visit frequency in a large sample of patients with CLBP and CNP using ongoing chiropractic care. Observational data were collected from a large national sample of chiropractic patients in the US with non-specific CLBP and CNP. Visit frequency was defined as average number of chiropractic visits per month over the 3-month study period. Potential baseline predictor variables were entered into two sets of multi-level models according to a defined causal theory—in this case, Anderson’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use. Our sample included 852 patients with CLBP and 705 with CNP. Visit frequency varied significantly by chiropractor/clinic, so our models controlled for this clustering. Patients with either condition used an average of 2.3 visits per month. In the final models visit frequency increased (0.44 visits per month, p = .008) for those with CLBP and some coverage for chiropractic, but coverage had little effect on visits for patients with CNP. Patients with worse function or just starting care also had more visits and those near to ending care had fewer visits. However, visit frequency was also determined by the chiropractor/clinic where treatment was received. Chiropractors who reported seeing more patients per day also had patients with higher visit frequency, and the patients of chiropractors with 20 to 30 years of experience had fewer visits per month. In addition, after controlling for both patient and chiropractor characteristics, the state in which care was received made a difference, likely through state-level policies and regulations. Chiropractic patients with CLBP and CNP use a range of visit frequencies for their ongoing care. The predictors of these frequencies could be useful for understanding and developing policies for ongoing provider-based care.
A Single Bout of Premeal Resistance Exercise Improves Postprandial Glucose Metabolism in Obese Men with Prediabetes.

INTRODUCTION Prediabetes is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Although resistance exercise (RE) is recommended for individuals with prediabetes, the effects of RE on postprandial glucose metabolism in this population are poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to elucidate how RE affects postprandial glucose kinetics, insulin sensitivity, beta cell function, and glucose oxidation during the subsequent meal in sedentary men with obesity and prediabetes. METHODS We studied 10 sedentary men with obesity (body mass index, 33 ± 3 kg·m-2) and prediabetes by using a randomized, cross-over study design. After an overnight fast, participants completed either a single bout of whole-body RE (seven exercises, 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions at 80% one-repetition maximum each) or an equivalent period of rest. Participants subsequently completed a mixed meal test in conjunction with an intravenous [6,6-2H2]glucose infusion to determine basal and postprandial glucose rate of appearance (Ra) and disappearance (Rd) from plasma, insulin sensitivity, and the insulinogenic index (a measure of beta cell function). Skeletal muscle biopsies were obtained 90 min postmeal to evaluate pyruvate-supported and maximal mitochondrial respiration. Whole-body carbohydrate oxidation was assessed using indirect calorimetry. RESULTS RE significantly reduced the postprandial rise in glucose Ra and plasma glucose concentration. Postprandial insulin sensitivity was significantly greater after RE, whereas postprandial plasma insulin concentration was significantly reduced. RE had no effect on the insulinogenic index, postprandial pyruvate respiration, or carbohydrate oxidation. CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION A single bout of RE has beneficial effects on postprandial glucose metabolism in men with obesity and prediabetes by increasing postprandial insulin sensitivity, reducing the postprandial rise in glucose Ra, and reducing postprandial plasma insulin concentration.
The Sīmurgh in Chach: bird symbolism in the Rawdat al-fariqayn

Modern scholarship has largely neglected Abu’l-Raja’ Chachi Khumraki (d. c. 1124 C.E.), although he was well versed in Islamic jurisprudence and esoterism, not to mention his unique interest in cla...
Emerging Technologies in the Treatment of Adult Spinal Deformity

Outcomes for adult spinal deformity continue to improve as new technologies become integrated into clinical practice. Machine learning, robot-guided spinal surgery, and patient-specific rods are tools that are being used to improve preoperative planning and patient satisfaction. Machine learning can be used to predict complications, readmissions, and generate postoperative radiographs which can be shown to patients to guide discussions about surgery. Robot-guided spinal surgery is a rapidly growing field showing signs of greater accuracy in screw placement during surgery. Patient-specific rods offer improved outcomes through higher correction rates and decreased rates of rod breakage while decreasing operative time. The objective of this review is to evaluate trends in the literature about machine learning, robot-guided spinal surgery, and patient-specific rods in the treatment of adult spinal deformity.
Designing a 2048-Chiplet, 14336-Core Waferscale Processor

Waferscale processor systems can provide the large number of cores, and memory bandwidth required by today’s highly parallel workloads. One approach to building waferscale systems is to use a chiplet-based architecture where pre-tested chiplets are integrated on a passive silicon-interconnect wafer. This technology allows heterogeneous integration and can provide significant performance and cost benefits. However, designing such a system has several challenges such as power delivery, clock distribution, waferscale-network design, design for testability and fault-tolerance. In this work, we discuss these challenges and the solutions we employed to design a 2048-chiplet, 14,336-core waferscale processor system.
Featurization Strategies for Polymer Sequence or Composition Design by Machine Learning

The emergence of data-intensive scientific discovery and machine learning has dramatically changed the way in which scientists and engineers approach materials design. Nevertheless, for designing macromolecules or polymers, one limitation is the lack of appropriate methods or standards for converting systems into chemically informed, machine-readable representations. This featurization process is critical to building predictive models that can guide polymer discovery. Although standard molecular featurization techniques have been deployed on homopolymers, such approaches capture neither the multiscale nature nor topological complexity of copolymers, and they have limited application to systems that cannot be characterized by a single repeat unit. Herein, we present, evaluate, and analyze a series of featurization strategies suitable for copolymer systems. These strategies are systematically examined in diverse prediction tasks sourced from four distinct datasets that enable understanding of how featurization can impact copolymer property prediction. Based on this comparative analysis, we suggest directly encoding polymer size in polymer representations when possible, adopting topological descriptors or convolutional neural networks when the precise polymer sequence is known, and using simplified constitutional unit representations depending on the noise-level of underlying data. These results provide guidance and future directions regarding polymer featurization for copolymer design by machine learning.
Custom, Preference, or Nature? Mormon Polygamy, Same-Sex Marriage, and Natural Law Theory

A central claim of natural law theory is that moral reality exists independently of human beliefs about that reality. Yet history is replete with natural law theorists who confused their beliefs about the natural law for the law itself. The 19th-century campaign against Mormon polygamy is a case study that echoed in recent debates about LGBTQ access to marriage. Nineteenth-century anti-polygamist arguments and contemporary defenses of traditional marriage each illustrate the dangers and pretensions of natural law theory. Anti-polygamists justified their attacks on Mormon polygamy with appeals to Protestant Christian morality, a sexist theory of republican self-government, and White supremacy, rooting each of these in the natural law. Though anti-polygamists were confident of the objective truth of their premises, the passage of time exposed these premises as merely customary values held by 19th-century White Americans. Natural law defenders of traditional marriage made the same mistake in a different way. They argued that the defining characteristic of marriage is reproductive sexual union, a definition now rejected by most Americans. Rather than mistaking widely held social conventions for the objective moral order, traditional marriage defenders mistook their sectarian religious beliefs about marriage for that order. Natural law essentialism has been a source of oppression of both religious minorities and LGBT persons throughout history. In both cases, it prevented the protection of personal identity and the opening of private space for the individual pursuit of the good that liberalism supposedly protects. The ease with which we mistake our social or personal commitments for Nature suggests that the natural law is an unreliable justification for coercive laws.
Physical activity during pregnancy and the role of theory in promoting positive behavior change: A systematic review.

Abstract Background Physical activity (PA) during pregnancy provides physical and psychological benefits for mother and child. U.S. guidelines recommend ≥30 min of moderate exercise for healthy pregnant women most days of the week; however, most women do not meet these recommendations. Theory assists in identifying salient determinants of health behavior to guide health promotion interventions; however, the application of theory to examine PA among pregnant women has not been examined cohesively among multiple levels of influence (e.g., intrapersonal, interpersonal, neighborhood/environmental, and organizational/political). Subsequently, this systematic review aims to identify and evaluate the use of health behavior theory in studies that examine PA during pregnancy. Methods Articles published before July 2014 were obtained from PubMed and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria applied were: (1) empirically-based; (2) peer-reviewed; (3) measured factors related to PA; (4) comprised a pregnant sample; and (5) applied theory. Fourteen studies were included. Each study's application of theory and theoretical constructs were evaluated. Results Various theories were utilized to explain and predict PA during pregnancy; yet, the majority of these studies only focused on intrapersonal level determinants. Five theoretical frameworks were applied across the studies—all but one at the intrapersonal level. Few determinants identified were from the interpersonal, neighborhood/environmental, or organizational/political levels. Conclusion This systematic review synthesized the literature on theoretical constructs related to PA during pregnancy. Interpersonal, community, and societal levels remain understudied. Future research should employ theory-driven multi-level determinants of PA to reflect the interacting factors influencing PA during this critical period in the life course.
Human groups as units of selection.

David Sloan Wilson The simple theory of natural selection predicts that an individual, whether human or animal, will act "selfishly" so as to maximize his or her genetic contribution to the next generation. But what of altruism, kindness, and generosity? Where do these traits fit into theories of survival of the fittest? In his Perspective, Wilson discusses an article in The American Naturalist that suggests that these behaviors arose in humans to maximize the survival of groups of hunter-gatherers, and that selection has acted not only on the individual, but on groups as well.
A parallel algorithm for clipping polygons with improved bounds and a distributed overlay processing system using MPI

Clipping arbitrary polygons is one of the complex operations in computer graphics and computational geometry. It is applied in many fields such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and VLSI CAD. We have two significant results to report. Our first result is the effective parallelization of the classic, highly sequential Greiner-Hormann algorithm, which yields the first output-sensitive CREW PRAM algorithm for a pair of simple polygons, and can perform clipping in O(logn) time using O(n + k) processors, where n is the total number of vertices and k is the number of edge intersections. This improves upon our previous clipping algorithm based on the parallelization of Vatti's sweepline algorithm, which requires O(n + k + k') processors to achieve logarithmic time complexity where k' can be O(n2) [1]. This also improves upon another O(logn) time algorithm by Karinthi, Srinivas, and Almasi which unlike our algorithm does not handle self-intersecting polygons, is not output-sensitive, and must employ Θ(n2) processors to achieve O(logn) time [2]. We also study multi-core and many-core implementations of our parallel Greiner-Hormann algorithm.Our second result is a practical, parallel GIS system, namely MPI-GIS, for polygon overlay processing of two GIS layers containing large number of polygons over a cluster of compute nodes. It employs R-tree for efficient indexing and identification of potentially intersecting set of polygons across two input GIS layers. Spatial data files tend to be large in size (in GBs) and the underlying overlay computation is highly irregular and compute intensive. This system achieves 44X speedup on a 32-node NERSC's CARVER cluster while processing about 600K polygons in two GIS layers within 19 seconds which takes over 13 minutes on state-of-art ArcGIS system.
Courtship violence: Acceptable forms and situations.

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research by Roscoe was to explore whether college students believe the use of violence in dating relationships is acceptable, and if so, what forms and in which situations. METHODOLOGY: This is a quasi-experimental one-time study of 126 female undergraduate students (sample selection method unknown) aged 17-21 from a mid-western university. Ninety-four percent of the females were white. Each participant read a statement on violence (which reported that violence occurs in many relationships, i.e. parent-child, marriage, and courtship). Immediately after, the participants were instructed to list five acceptable forms of violence and five situations in which violence was acceptable in a dating relationship. It is not clear whether this survey was administered in person or by mail. No special data analysis methods were used. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Seventy percent of the women indicated some forms of physical force were acceptable. Fifteen forms of violence were identified, ranging from slapping and shoving (71% of the subjects specified this form) to threatening with a knife or gun (1.5%). Violence was acceptable for self-defense (38% of the subjects specified this situation) and prevention of sexual abuse (20%), or when the couple was playing (18%), when the partner was out of control (18%), or in retaliation (10%). AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS: The author stated that professionals should recognize the occurrence of dating violence, and that many young adults view it as acceptable. Young adults should be taught that violence is not a normal or necessary part of relationships. Adults interacting with college students should model non-violent modes of interpersonal interaction. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Dating Violence Perceptions KW - College Student Research KW - Partner Violence KW - Violence Against Women KW - Dating Violence Victim KW - Adult Female KW - Juvenile Female KW - Juvenile Victim KW - Adult Victim KW - Female Victim KW - Late Adolescence KW - Adult Perceptions KW - Juvenile Perceptions KW - Female Perceptions KW - Socially Approved Violence KW - Self-Defense Language: en
Glial hyaluronate-binding protein in polar spongioblastoma.

Glial hyaluronate-binding (GHA) protein is a 60 kDa glycoprotein isolated from human white matter by affinity chromatography on immobilized hyaluronate. It is localized in white matter astrocytes by immunofluorescence with monoclonal antibodies. Amino acid sequences have not revealed similarities with other proteins except cartilage extracellular matrix proteins, the region of similarity being located within the hyaluronate-binding region. Cryostat sections of 13 intracranial neoplasms removed at surgery were tested for the presence of GHA protein by indirect immunofluorescence with monoclonal antibodies. These included seven astrocytomas, one oligodendroglioma, one medulloblastoma and one spinal cord ependymoma. All tumors were negative with the exception of one astrocytoma in which the GHA protein-positive areas had the typical appearance of polar spongioblastoma, i.e. small cells palisading around blood vessels and very delicate glial fibrillary acidic (GFA) protein-positive fibrils. Conversely, neoplastic as well as reactive GFA protein-positive astrocytes were GHA protein-negative. We suggest that polar spongioblastoma derives from a GHA protein-positive glial precursor and pertinent to this suggestion is the observation that the periventricular germinal layer was found GHA protein positive in a 22-week human fetus.
Kinetics modeling of dynamics: the case of femtosecond-activated direct reactions

A comparison between a kinetics model and the familiar picture of femtosecond dynamics for direct bond breakage is presented. The kinetics model involves a series of consecutive first-order reactions between transient configurations of the molecule as the bond stretches, before it breaks. We show that in the limit where a large enough number of transient configurations are included, the kinetics model reproduces the molecular response expected from the dynamical picture in a classical, one-trajectory sense.
Comment on Gewirth Constructing an Epistemology of Human Rights: a Pseudo Problem?

Those rights are human rights which, in Professor Gewirth's phrase, “all persons equally have simply insofar as they are human.” His task is to demonstrate that there are human rights, and to demonstrate that such demonstration is necessary to the very existence of these rights. “That human rights exist…is a proposition whose truth depends upon the possibility, in principle, of constructing a body of moral justificatory argument from which that proposition follows as a logical consequence.” As philosophers we should no doubt like to be able to prove the existence of human rights – prove that there are such rights in the event that the fool shall have said in his heart that there are none, even using his folly against him by showing his denial to entail its denial – but it is a bold claim that rights are things whose esse est demonstrari .
Inter-metropolitan migration of the newly landed immigrants in Canada: 1991–1996 and 1996–2001

Based on the tabulations of the Longitudinal Immigration Data Base, I characterized, explained and compared the 1991–1996 and 1996–2001 inter-metropolitan migration of the newly landed immigrants in Canada. The spatial and temporal patterns were consistent with the neoclassical economic theory and the ethnic enclave theory. In making their decisions on departure and destination choices, the immigrants were responsive to income and employment incentives, as well as the retaining and attracting powers of ethnic communities among Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). The research also discovered an interesting temporal pattern—while the inter-CMA migration of immigrants accentuated the over representation of the immigrants in Toronto and Vancouver in the 1991–1996 period, the rise of the “secondary” CMAs led to a spatial dispersal of the immigrants in the 1996–2001 period. This finding supplements the existing literature on internal migration of Canadian immigrants, which discovered little evidence of an increased dispersion of immigrants over time.
Potentiation of the l-Dopa effect in man by the use of catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitors

Abstract A potent COMT inhibitor (N-butyl gallate, GPA 1714) has been found effective in counteracting the toxic dose-related side-effects of l -Dopa therapy in patients with Parkinsonism. This drug was found effective also in relieving involuntary movements in a small group of patients with Huntington's chorea and spasmodic torticollis. The biochemical mechanism and implications of these diseases are as yet unknown. A possible relationship to disturbed monoamine metabolism is suggested by this clinical study.
Patterns of node mapping differ for axial and extremity primary cutaneous melanoma: A case for a more selective use of pre-operative imaging

Abstract Purpose Preoperative lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel lymph node mapping in melanoma improves the ability to locate nodes. However, it still remains unclear whether this step is required for all patients. Methods Patients diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma from 1996 to 2012 were identified. Exclusion criteria were in situ disease, metastatic disease, or no SLN biopsy. Results 214 patients were evaluated. Median age was 57 years, the majority were male (59.8%), white (97.2%), and stage I (60.7%). SLN revealed metastatic disease in 14.5% of patients. The most common primary site was the trunk (43.4%) followed by head and neck (21%), upper extremity (19.2%), and lower extremity (16.4%). Multiple lymphatic basins were most common for head and neck lesions (66.7%) followed by those on the trunk (28.8%), with fewer identified when lower (11.4%), and upper extremities were involved (4.2%). When comparison was restricted to extremity vs. axial, a single basin was noted in 94.5% vs. 59.9% of patients, p Conclusions Patients with axial melanomas benefit most from lymphoscintigraphy. This step may not be required for extremity melanoma.
Reversible and Irreversible Finestructure

Abstract Various statistics of temperature profiles are examined in an attempt to distinguish irreversible structures due to mixing from reversible distortions induced by internal wave straining. Even if all the low gradient regions were the result of mixing events, an analysis of the profiles shows that such events are rare and most often incomplete. An upper bound on the mixing effectiveness is obtained; it increases as the vertical scale decreases. Taking next the opposite view that internal wave straining is the sole process, an analytic model is developed to calculate the probability density function of temperature gradients. The model considers the straining by a weakly nonlinear Gaussian internal wave field of a linear temperature profile. The nonlinearity of the field is essential to account for the skewness of the probability distributions. Comparisons with data are quite satisfactory at scales larger than ∼2 m, less so at smaller scales. We conclude that nonlinear effects are important; at scale...
Functions of the conserved thrombospondin carboxy-terminal cassette in cell–extracellular matrix interactions and signaling

Thrombospondins (TSPs) are extracellular, multidomain, calcium-binding glycoproteins that function at cell surfaces, in extracellular matrix (ECM) and as bridging molecules in cell-cell interactions. TSPs are multifunctional and modulate cell behavior during development, wound-healing, immune response, tumor growth and in the homeostasis of adult tissues. TSPs are assembled as oligomers that are composed of homologous polypeptides. In all the TSP polypeptides, the most highly-conserved region is the carboxyl-region, which contains a characteristic set of domains comprising EGF domains, TSP type 3 repeats and a globular carboxy-terminal domain. This large region is termed here the thrombospondin carboxy-terminal cassette (TSP-CTC). The strong conservation of the TSP-CTC suggests that it may mediate ancestral functions that are shared by all TSPs. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the TSP-CTC and areas of future interest.
Does Second-Home Ownership Affect Primary Housing Demand?

Using American Housing Survey (AHS) data, this empirical paper suggests that if someone already has a second home, it may not affect their decision about the price of a new primary home, and they will not be likely to choose a cheaper one than their counterpart without a second home. This runs counter to the implicit suggestion of a previous study that second-home ownership may reduce the demand for primary housing. Many baby boomers have second homes and they have not yet locked up their current primary housing as the final home of their lifetime and may even trade up before they trade down. At present, except for continuous immigration, few other factors point toward growth in housing demand. Thus the finding here can be seen as good news for the housing market when it eventually recovers from its current downturn and crisis in mortgage lending.
Soft and Hard Adhesion

ABSTRACT The force needed to pull a cylindrical stud from a soft elastomeric film depends on their elastic and geometric properties. For a rigid stud and a thick elastomeric film, the pull-off stress (σ) depends on the elastic modulus (E) of the film and the radius (a) of the stud as σ ∼ (E/a)1/2 (soft adhesion). However, when the film is very thin, the pull-off stress is significantly higher than the case with thick films, and its value depends on the elastic modulus and the thickness (h) of the film as σ ∼ (E/h)1/2 (hard adhesion). Here, we study the pull-off behavior of a soft cylindrical stud, one flat end of which is coated with a high modulus thin baseplate. As the flexural rigidity of this baseplate is varied, we observe the transition between the two types of adhesion. We present a simple physical interpretation of the problem, which could be of value in understanding various biofouling and adhesive situations.
GaAs/GaAlAs Integrated Optoelectronics For Optical Interconnect Applications

The interconnection of electronic system modules, boards, and chips will become increasingly difficult using conventional electrical approaches as the data rates and the number of input/output ports increase. Optical interconnection implementing high-speed (multi-Gb/s) optical links will be an attractive and viable alternative technique. High-performance hardware for such optical interface applications are anticipated in the form of single-chip GaAs/GaAlAs integrated optoelectronic transmitters, receivers, and transceivers. GaAs optical and electronic device technology has advanced to the stage where such integrated optoelectronic devices are now possible. Key integration techniques developed and verified with simple operational transmitters are the basis for realizing more complex integrated optoelectronic circuits with sophisticated optical and electronic functions.
Momentum, pseudomomentum, and wave momentum: Toward resolving the Minkowski-Abraham controversy.

We derive the momentum and pseudomomentum conservation laws from a very general nonrelativistic Lagrangian theory of the interaction of the electromagnetic field with a deforming, dispersive dielectric. From the former of these laws, we obtain the momentum density of an electromagnetic wave in matter to be ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}}_{0}$E\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}B, not the Abraham form of ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}}_{0}$E\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}}_{0}$H. From the latter of these laws, we obtain the electromagnetic pseudomomentum density in the absence of deformation of the matter to be P\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}B plus a dispersive term, not the Minkowski form of D\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}B as proposed by Blount (unpublished). We show by quantizing the energy of the wave that the sum of momentum and pseudomomentum, which we name wave momentum, corresponds to N\ensuremath{\Elzxh}k (N an integer), the quantity that enters wave-vector conservation or phase-matching relations in wave interactions and that is consistent with the Jones-Richards experiment.
Effect of gas pressure on the growth and structure of carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition

The effect of gas pressure on the structure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has been systematically investigated in the chemical vapor deposition process. The yield of CNTs (defined as the weight ratio of CNTs vs. catalyst) increases significantly with the gas pressure, reaches 600% at 600 Torr, then decreases with further increase of gas pressure. At low reacting gas pressure the CNTs have completely hollow cores, whereas at high pressure the CNTs have a bamboo structure. The density of the compartments in the bamboo-structured CNTs increases dramatically with the increase of the gas pressure. This result shows that the structure and yield of carbon nanotubes are strongly affected by the growth gas pressure.
Upregulation of imidazoline receptors in the medulla oblongata accounts for the enhanced hypotensive effect of clonidine in aortic barodenervated rats

The present study tested the hypothesis that an upregulation of the imidazoline receptor in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) of aortic barodenervated (ABD) rats may account for the enhanced hypotensive effect of clonidine. In vitro autoradiographic radioligand binding studies were utilized to investigate the binding characteristics of imidazoline receptors in the RVLM and nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), areas that play critical roles in cardiovascular regulation and elicitation of clonidine responses. ABD but not sham operation (SO) caused immediate and significant (P < 0.05) increases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) and an impairment of the baroreflex-mediated HR response (baroreflex sensitivity, BRS). Two days after ABD, these parameters, except BRS, subsided to near-control (SO) levels. Intracisternal (i.c.) administration of clonidine (0.1 μg) elicited a 3-fold greater decrease in BP of conscious ABD compared with SO rats (−20.3 ± 2.6 vs. −7.4 ± 0.9 mmHg) thus demonstrating the ability of ABD to enhance centrally-mediated hypotensive responses. Autoradiographic visualization of brain sections obtained from separate groups of ABD and SO rats 48 h after surgery preincubated with [3H]idazoxan (2.5–3.5 nM) showed that [3H]idazoxan binding in RVLM, middle NTM (mTNS) and rostral NTS (rNTS) was saturable and of high affinity. Uneven distribution of imidazoline binding sites was evident since in control (SO) rats, Scatchard analysis of binding data revealed similar densities (Bmax) of [3H]idazoxan binding sites in the RVLM and mNTS versus significantly higher density in the rNTS. In ABD rats, the binding dissociation constant (Kd) was significantly decreased in both the RVLM (8.1 ± 3.1 vs. 21.4 ± 5.0 nM) and rNTS (12.3 ± 1.3 vs. 18.6 ± 3.1 nM) compared with SO rats while the Bmax was not affected. This finding suggests an increased receptor affinity in the RVLM and rNTS of barodenervated rats. The mNTS of ABD rats exhibited significant increases in the Bmax (861 ± 96 vs. 570 ± 87 fmol/mg protein) compared with values of SO rats but the receptor affinity was not affected. It is concluded that: (i) aortic baroreceptors exert a tonic inhibitory influence on central imidazoline receptor function; and (ii) the enhanced hypotensive effect of clonidine in conscious ABD rats may be accounted for by the increased affinity of the medullary imidazoline receptors particularly in the RVLM.
Dissipative Boltzmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies.

The equations governing a flat Robertson-Walker cosmological model containing a dissipative Boltzmann gas are integrated numerically. The bulk viscous stress is modeled using the Eckart and Israel-Stewart theories of dissipative relativistic fluids; the resulting cosmologies are compared and contrasted. The Eckart models are shown to always differ in a significant quantitative way from the Israel-Stewart models. It thus appears inappropriate to use the pathological (nonhyperbolic) Eckart theory for cosmological applications. For large bulk viscosities, both cosmological models approach asymptotic nonequilibrium states; in the Eckart model the total pressure is negative, while in the Israel-Stewart model the total pressure is asymptotically zero. The Eckart model also expands more rapidly than the Israel-Stewart models. These results suggest that bulk-viscous'' inflation may be an artifact of using a pathological fluid theory such as the Eckart theory.