cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mathematical and Musical Properties of Pairwise Well-Formed Scales

The short paper below presents the definition of the pairwise well-formed scale concept, and a few of the significant mathematical and musical features entailed by that definition. The verifications that are easily available are supplied here; for the more difficult proofs which are here omitted, the reader is directed to my dissertation (Clampitt 1997). While the definition itself is quite abstract, the body of implications and equivalences that constitute the theory include several musically attractive properties. With the significant exception of one structural subcategory, all other pairwise well-formed scales participate in modulating cycles that generalize the maximally smooth cycles defined in Cohn 1996 and intersect with the Cohn functions defined in Lewin 1996.
Self-affirmation and responses to health messages: a meta-analysis on intentions and behavior.

OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to quantify the magnitude of the effect of self-affirmation manipulations on health messages' influence on both intentions and behavior. METHODS A systematic search was conducted for experimental studies comparing participants who self-affirmed prior to reading a threatening health message to those who did not self-affirm. Effect sizes for health intentions and behaviors were aggregated using a random-effects model. RESULTS Data from 16 studies were included. The aggregate effect sizes for intentions and behavior were significant and small in magnitude (d+ = .26, 95% confidence interval [CI] = .04-.48; d+ = .27, 95% CI = .11-.43, respectively). A meta-regression analysis revealed that among studies assessing both outcomes, the size of an effect on intentions did not predict the size of an effect on behavior, β = .03, 95% CI = -.30-.36. Type of health behavior (damaging vs. promoting), timing of the health behavior (proximal vs. distal), type of self-affirmation manipulation (values vs. kindness), and the specificity of the health message (single vs. multiple health issues) did not moderate the effect of self-affirmation on intentions or behavior. CONCLUSIONS Self-affirmation influences health messages' effect on intentions and behavior; however, with the present study finding that intention effect sizes did not predict behavior effect sizes, and with past studies of heath behavior change finding that intentions do not always translate to behavior, little research supports a causal intention-behavior relation among self-affirmation studies. Future research is needed to address which specific health-related responses explain why self-affirmation elicits health behavior change.
Correlates of change in walking for exercise: an exploratory analysis.

Abstract This study was designed to identify correlates of change in walking for exercise. Respondents to a random sample mailed exercise survey were asked to complete a follow-up questionnaire 24 months after the first. Responses were obtained from 1,739 adults, reflecting an 86.6% return rate. Nonrespondents did not differ from respondents for baseline level of walking for exercise. Respondents overrepresented Caucasian and middle to high education (or income) adults. Residualized measures of change in walking for exercise served as the dependent variable, adjusted for baseline walking. Similarly, key independent variables, subject to change over time, were included after residualization. At both baseline and 24 months follow-up, adults walked for exercise an average of just under 1 hour per week, and 23.5% of the initially active adults ceased walking for exercise at 2 years. Multiple regression analyses explained more variance in walking for exercise among women than men. Change in dynamic variables s...
Rheumatic Manifestations of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease: The Other Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is an inflammatory thyroiditis that in some cases is characterized by lymphocytic infiltration of the thyroid gland, also referred to as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis or Hashimoto thyroiditis. Hashimoto thyroiditis is one of the commonest causes of hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism has been associated with osteoarthritis (OA) and inflammatory forms of arthritis and with several well defined connective tissue diseases, which in turn can cause arthritis. The presence of arthritis in patients with AITD with normal thyroid function is now being increasingly recognized. There is also considerable evidence to suggest that AITD is highly associated with fibromyalgia syndrome. We review the current literature on the rheumatologic manifestations of AITD and describe the features in its presentation that set it apart from other forms of autoimmune arthritis.
An application of a three-state all-or-none model to human eyelid conditioning data

The Bower-Theios three-state model was applied to eight sets of human eyelid conditioning data. In all instances, the prediction of stationarity in the intermediate state was not sustained. Earlier support of the model was concluded to have resulted from a bias in the method of testing for stationarity. Problems in the use of human conditioning data to test the model were discussed.
Bone induction by osteogenin and bone morphogenetic proteins.

Abstract Bone induction is a multistep process that includes chemotaxis and attachment of mesenchymal stem cells, proliferation of progenitor cells and differentiation into cartilage and bone. Endochondral bone formation is the predominant sequence. Bone induction can be operationally divided into the following phases: initiation, promotion and maintenance. The initiation of bone induction is primarily regulated by osteogenin and bone morphogenetic proteins. Recent work has led to the isolation, purification and cloning of osteogenin and other bone morphogenetic proteins. Other growth factors such as platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta isoforms, insulin like growth factors (IGF 1 and 2), and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) may promote and perhaps maintain the newly induced bone.
Constructing 3D microtubule networks using holographic optical trapping

Developing abilities to assemble nanoscale structures is a major scientific and engineering challenge. We report a technique which allows precise positioning and manipulation of individual rigid filaments, enabling construction of custom-designed 3D filament networks. This approach uses holographic optical trapping (HOT) for nano-positioning and microtubules (MTs) as network building blocks. MTs are desirable engineering components due to their high aspect ratio, rigidity, and their ability to serve as substrate for directed nano-transport, reflecting their roles in the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. The 3D architecture of MT cytoskeleton is a significant component of its function, however experimental tools to study the roles of this geometric complexity in a controlled environment have been lacking. We demonstrate the broad capabilities of our system by building a self-supporting 3D MT-based nanostructure and by conducting a MT-based transport experiment on a dynamically adjustable 3D MT intersection. Our methodology not only will advance studies of cytoskeletal networks (and associated processes such as MT-based transport) but will also likely find use in engineering nanostructures and devices.
BioPOEMS and Nanogap DNA Junctions

In this paper, Bio-Polymer-Opto-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (BioPOEMS) and nanogap DNA junctions are described. Nano- and microscale BioPOEMS are being developed for single cellular imagining and single molecular detection. Label-free DNA hybridization detection has been demonstrated using nanogap DNA junction arrays. Ultrasensitive nanogap DNA junction arrays and single molecular BioPOEMS offer new prospects for advanced lab-automation-on-a-chip or non-invasive diagnostic chips.
Sisterhood, Education and Marriage

All of Austen’s novels are acknowledged to be about forms of courtship and marriage. The extent to which ties of sisterhood impinge on those of marriage in her fiction is less generally appreciated. For although the hero, in most cases, educates the heroine (and she, in her turn, may help to teach him), sisters often play an equally crucial role in the development of their siblings. The heroine forms a close alliance with a sister, a relationship that often proves highly conducive to their development as individuals. In some ways, those sisters with deep sororal bonds owe their moral, social, and emotional education to their sisters even more than to their suitors or husbands. All of Austen’s novels follow the pattern of the Bildungsroman. Marriage is a goal the heroines attain, but the crucial stage in the lives of these women and their sisters is that of the initiation or apprenticeship to adulthood, and, during this period in their lives, Austen’s heroines look to their sisters for counsel and approbation. Thus we find that Elizabeth educates Jane, Elinor guides Marianne, Eleanor helps to shape Catherine’s mind, and Fanny refines Susan’s understanding. In this way, devoted sisters in Austen’s fiction prime each other for marriage. The suitor contributes to the teaching of the heroine, but his instruction is, in most cases, inaugurated and/or complemented by the education a sister provides.
Of Stocks and Barter: John Holt and the Kongo Rubber Trade, 1906–1910

Not long after the Atlantic slave trade was phased out in the Kongo region south of the river Zaire in the 1860s, rubber came to dominate the regional export economy.1 Vegetable oils, which had defined the economic transition from capturing slaves to producing commodities in many West African regions earlier in the century, were also exported from Kongo, as was cultivated coffee, but none of these commodities characterised the new economic era as much as extracted wild rubber. During the West-Central African rubber boom, which lasted from 1879 to 1913, Kongo formed the core of British commercial interests in this part of Africa, especially since Portuguese protectionist measures kept foreign traders out of the Angolan ports of Luanda and Benguela to the south. Of several British companies operating in Kongo since the mid-nineteenth century, however, only two firms from Liverpool managed to endure the competitive environment of the trade in commodities. One was the house of Hatton & Cookson, pioneers of ‘legitimate’ commerce in the wider Congo region. The other was a company managed by John Holt, who had built his fortune in the produce trade of the Bight of Biafra but had relatively little experience in West-Central Africa. Historians have neglected Holt’s presence on the coast of West-Central Africa, although the Holt company archives are unique in the detail they provide on the rubber trade in this region.
Assessing the worldwide epidemiology of sarcoidosis: challenges and future directions.

Sarcoidosis is a chronic systemic disorder characterised by granulomatous inflammation targeted to an as-yet-unidentified antigen [1]. First described over 100 years ago by Caesar Boeck and others [2], sarcoidosis occurs worldwide and affects men and women of all ages and races [3–5]. The disease shows a consistent predilection for adults, with peak incidence occurring primarily before 40 years of age [3–6], although older age at onset has been widely reported [7–10]. Clinical presentation of sarcoidosis can be quite variable [11, 12], ranging from asymptomatic disease [3, 4], or acute onset with resolution [13, 14], while other patients experience chronic progressive illness affecting various organ systems and requiring systemic therapy [13–15]. Pulmonary disease affects the vast majority of diagnosed patients, but other organ systems are often affected as well [3, 4, 6]. Chronic progressive disease may require long-term treatment with corticosteroids, cytotoxics and other agents that have serious side-effects [3, 16, 17]. The lifetime risk of death is estimated to be between 1.0% and 7.6% [17, 18], with deaths attributed to respiratory, neurological or cardiovascular system involvement [19, 20]. Population-based studies reveal higher sarcoidosis morbidity and earlier mortality among males
Thermal Performance of Asymmetrical Saw-Toothed Microchannels With Phase Change

Modern-day microprocessors consist of over one billion integrated circuits on silicon chips as small as a human fingernail. Normal operation of this circuitry produces an enormous amount of heat on a very small footprint. Dissipating this heat is a very challenging task, perhaps the largest roadblock to continued increases in computing technology. Microchannel heat sinks utilizing either single-phase flow or phase-change are an effective means of cooling stacked 3-D microelectronics. A roadblock to practical implementation of microchannels is the presence of flow instabilities. The asymmetric saw-toothed microchannel heat sink is proposed to address this issue. Deep reactive-ion etching is used to produce channels comprised of asymmetric sawtoothed structures that alter the local flow structure within the microchannel. All experiments are conducted using the dielectric fluid, FC-72. Each microchannel array has a footprint of 1 cm × 1 cm, comprised of thirty-four channels etched into a silicon wafer. A series of thin film serpentine copper heaters is fabricated on the other side of the silicon wafer to provide a uniform heat flux boundary condition. Experimental information is presented for a range of mass fluxes from 381 to 1777 kg/m2s, and inlet subcooling from 5°C to 20°C. Parameters presented and analyzed includes boiling curves, onset of boiling (ONB), averaged two-phase heat transfer coefficient.Copyright © 2016 by ASME
Lithium-Based Batteries for Efficient Energy Storage: Nanotechnology and Its Implications

Demand for energy overshadows all other problems mankind will face during the next half century. With more countries achieving higher economic development, this demand will continue rising dramatically. Plaguing the energy demand is our persistent dependence on fossil fuels and its related environmental effects. Renewable sources of energy are the most possible option to reduce this dependence. Since many green energy sources cannot provide consistent power at all times, efficient storage and transmission of generated energy is necessary. For this we require high-energy density devices that are rechargeable and cost-efficient. Although the development of new energy storage technology should continue, current high- energy density lithium-ion batteries should also be researched in great detail to improve their performance and widespread use. Toward this aim, we review the historic and recent development of cathode, anode and electrolyte materials in detail. We also review the mechanisms of charge transport and phase stability in these compounds. The use of nanotechnology has already found great influence in modifying these materials towards higher energy density and greater reliability. Nanotechnologies will go on to provide breakthroughs not only in better materials, but also better battery design for energy storage, such as in thin film and lithium-air batteries.
Reforming the Use of Race in Medical Pedagogy

Perez-Rodriguez and de la Fuente, a physician and a historian of Afro-Caribbean slavery, make a compelling interdisciplinary contribution to the expanding humanities and social science literature c...
Future Challenges: The Sociology of Racial and Ethnic Relations

These concluding remarks demonstrate that systemic racism involves the institutionalized patterns of subordinate and dominant societal positions, respectively, for people of color and for whites in a white-controlled, hierarchically arranged society. It reviews the systemic reality of white-imposed racism in the past and present, as it is seen in the exploitative and discriminatory practices of whites targeting people of color—and thus in the significant resources and privileges unjustly gained and legitimated by whites in that process.
A numerical algorithm to estimate an achievability limit for crewed planetary landing

Crewed planetary landing is a particularly difficult mission phase that involves astronauts collaborating with automated systems to identify a suitable landing point that is free of hazards. The landing vehicle needs to be capable of making final maneuvers to a suitable landing point with a highly constrained amount of fuel. To assist with this process, the concept of providing “achievability limit” information to the astronaut pilot has been proposed. However, an approach to accurately estimate the achievability limit in a complex three-dimensional planetary landing task has yet to be developed. Here, we present an algorithm to estimate the achievability limit. This algorithm consists of three components: 1) vehicle and environmental dynamics, 2) guidance algorithms which define a reference trajectory from current vehicle position to any potential landing point on the planetary surface, and 3) a standard “crossover” pilot model to predict the pilot's joystick inputs likely made in an effort to track this reference trajectory. By combining these components, we can numerically simulate any flown trajectory and predict the fuel required to reach any potential landing point. The algorithm performs many simulations to identify the landing points that are predicted to require exactly all of the vehicle's remaining fuel (i.e., the achievability limit). Our preliminary human subject experiment suggests the algorithm very accurately predicts the limits of achievability in a range of scenarios. An accurate prediction, of this achievability limit, is necessary to provide this information to the astronaut pilots and assist with landing point selection.
High-rate potassium ion and sodium ion batteries by co-intercalation anodes and open framework cathodes

Here we demonstrate a full-cell battery design that bridges the energy density and rate capability between that of supercapacitors or pseudocapacitors with that of traditional lithium-ion batteries. This is accomplished by pairing an anode that enables ultrafast ion co-intercalation, an open framework cathode that allows rapid ion diffusion, and linear ether based electrolyte that sustains cell-level stability and high rate performance. We show this platform to be suitable for both sodium and potassium batteries using graphite as the co-intercalation anode, and Prussian blue as the open framework cathode. Our devices exhibit active material energy densities >100 W h kg-1 with power density >1000 W kg-1 with cycling durability approaching ∼80% energy density retention over 2000 cycles. This work brings together state-of-the-art concepts for fast-charging batteries into a full-cell configuration.
Assessment in Academia. The good, the bad and the ugly

The use of assessment tools in academia is increasing at a torrid pace. The most important factor in this stunning increase in assessment is the desire for accountability during difficult economic times. In particular: administrators need to prove to a skeptical public that tax dollars are being spent wisely; individual department faculty need to justify their own budgets; employers want to know that the graduates they hire have the content, thinking and people skills that are required by corporations; and federal, state and private granting organizations want to know that their grant money is being put to good use. This paper will discuss the audiences for assessment and the types of tools that are now a normal part of our faculty responsibilities in the United States. The special focuses will be on considering how we distinguish good teaching from bad teaching, what U.S. universities are doing, and can do, to deal with bad teachers, and how I deal with these issues in my own classroom.
Biochar fails to enhance nutrient removal in woodchip bioreactor columns following saturation

Denitrifying bioreactors are edge-of-field structures that remove excess nitrogen (N) from intercepted agricultural drainage by supporting the activity of denitrifying microorganisms with a saturated organic carbon substrate. Although these bioreactors successfully mitigate N export, the typical woodchip systems have little effect on phosphorus (P), which is also often present in environmentally harmful quantities in drainage waters. Currently, the evidence that amending woodchip bioreactors with biochar enhances both N and P removal rates is mixed, but more work is required to test this hypothesis under controlled conditions. To determine the effect of biochar amendment on nitrate (NO3-N) and phosphate (PO4-P) removal in woodchip bioreactors, three media types-aged woodchips (W), 10% (B10) and 30% (B30) biochar by volume-were tested under different operational conditions during five-day laboratory trials with horizontal, flow-through columns. Nutrient removal was observed under different flow rates yielding hydraulic residence times of 3, 6, and 12 hours with four formulations of simulated agricultural drainage, all combination of 16.1 or 4.5 mg L-1 NO3-N and 1.9 or 0.6 mg L-1 PO4-P. Each unique treatment with respect to media type, HRT, and influent formulation was tested in triplicate using independent columns. All treatments successfully removed NO3-N, but PO4-P removal was inconsistent. Cumulative NO3-N removal efficiencies ranged 15-98% with an average removal rate of 11.0 g m-3 d-1; biochar amendment enhanced removal only in response to sufficiently high loading rates. Cumulative PO4-P removal efficiencies ranged from 66% removal to 170% export of the influent load; biochar addition was associated with increased export. These results indicate that pine-feedstock biochar poses a substantial increase to PO4-P leaching risk and only modestly enhances NO3-N removal given sufficiently high loading.
Cerebral Palsy: A Complete Guide for Caregiving

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Cerebral palsy (CP), a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture, is the most com...
Durvalumab in cancer medicine: a comprehensive review

Introduction: The U.S. FDA has approved durvalumab for the treatment of advanced urothelial and non-small cell lung cancers. However, this immunotherapy agent is also being explored in other cancers. There is also ongoing research to better predict the responses to this drug. Areas covered: We summarize the literature regarding durvalumab pharmacology, safety and efficacy in several tumor types. We searched PubMed/Medline database from inception to 20 April 2019, performed a snowball method, and visited independent websites such as the U.S. FDA ( https://www.fda.gov ), ClinicalTrials.gov, among others. Expert opinion: Advanced phase clinical trials have shown benefit of durvalumab in advanced urothelial and non-small cell lung cancers, and suggest benefit in several other tumor types. This agent has a tolerable toxicity profile and seems more effective in patients with a higher PDL-1 expression, although this correlation is not perfect. An improved method to predict a response to durvalumab would be beneficial to best tailor therapy and minimize medical care costs. More research is needed to establish its efficacy in different disease stages and applicability in other tumor types. Hopefully, prospective, randomized trials of durvalumab, alone and/or in combination with other agents, will bring answers to these questions in the near future.
Generating Sketch-Based Synthetic Seismic Images With Generative Adversarial Networks

The characterization of the subsurface is paramount for the exploration and production life cycle and, more specifically, for the identification of potential hydrocarbon accumulations. In recent years, the oil and gas industry has increased its interest in applying machine learning to accelerate the seismic interpretation process, which is regarded as a time-consuming and human-centered task. Although machine learning has been successfully used in many applications ranging from stratigraphic segmentation to salt dome detection, a usual bottleneck is the need for a large amount of high-quality annotated data. To overcome this, data augmentation approaches are commonly used, and one of the most powerful is synthetic data generation. In addition, sketch-based synthetic seismic images can be used to support image retrieval applications to help oil companies leverage petabytes of seismic data sets. In this context, this letter investigates the generation of synthetic seismic images based on sketches using generative adversarial networks (GANs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to propose such an approach. Experiments with five different sketch types in a public seismic data set indicate that realistic seismic images can be synthesized using rather simple sketches.
“Crear el propio lector, un lector nuevo”. Entrevista a Lucas Nine

espanolEntrevista a Lucas Nine (Buenos Aires, 1975) EnglishInterview with Lucas Nine (Buenos Aires, 1975)
Characterizing the Macrophage Response to Immunomodulatory Biomaterials Through Gene Set Analyses

The primary regulators of the innate immune response to implanted biomaterials are macrophages, which change phenotype over time to regulate multiple phases of the tissue repair process. Immunomodulatory biomaterials that target macrophage phenotype are a promising approach for promoting tissue repair. Although expression of multiple markers has been widely used to characterize macrophage phenotype, the complexity of the macrophage response to biomaterials makes interpretation difficult. The aim of this study was to put forth an objective method to characterize macrophage phenotype with respect to specific biological processes or standard phenotypes of interest. We investigated the utility of gene set analyses to analyze macrophages as they respond to model biomaterials in comparison to "reference" M1 and M2a macrophage phenotypes. Primary human macrophages were seeded onto crosslinked collagen scaffolds with or without adsorption of the proinflammatory cytokine interferon-gamma (IFNg). Gene expression of a custom-curated panel of 48 genes, representing the M1 and M2a gene signatures as well as other genes important for angiogenesis and tissue repair, was quantified using NanoString on days 3, 5, and 8 of culture. A dataset of phenotype controls, consisting of M0, M1, and M2a macrophages, was used as a source of comparison and to validate the methods of characterization. Gene expression of M1 and M2a markers showed mixed upregulation and downregulation by macrophages seeded on collagen and IFNg-adsorbed collagen scaffolds, highlighting the need for more holistic analyses. Euclidean distance measurements to the reference phenotypes were unable to resolve differences between groups. In contrast, rotation gene set testing with and without gene weighting based on the genes' ability to differentiate between M1, M2a, and M0 controls, followed by gene set variation analysis, showed that collagen scaffolds inhibited the classic M1 phenotype without promoting a classic M2a phenotype, and that IFNg-adsorbed collagen scaffolds promoted the M1 phenotype and inhibited the M2a phenotype. In summary, this work demonstrates a powerful, objective methodology for characterizing the macrophage response to biomaterials in comparison to reference macrophage phenotypes. With the addition of more macrophage phenotypes with defined gene expression signatures, this method could prove beneficial for characterizing complex hybrid phenotypes.
The Second Law and Entropy Misconceptions Demystified.

The challenges and claims of hypothetical violations of the Second Law of thermodynamics have been a topic of many scientific, philosophical and social publications, even in the most prestigious scientific journals. Fascination with challenging the Second Law has further accelerated throughout the development of statistical and quantum physics, and information theory. It is phenomenologically reasoned here that non-equilibrium, useful work-energy potential is always dissipated to heat, and thus thermodynamic entropy (a measure of thermal disorder, not any other disorder) is generated always and everywhere, at any scale without exception, including life processes, open systems, micro-fluctuations, gravity or entanglement. Furthermore, entropy cannot be destroyed by any means at any scale (entropy is conserved in ideal, reversible processes and irreversibly generated in real processes), and thus, entropy cannot overall decrease, but only overall increase. Creation of ordered structures or live species always dissipate useful energy and generate entropy, without exception, and thus without Second Law violation. Entropy destruction would imply spontaneous increase in non-equilibrium, with mass-energy flux displacement against cause-and-effect, natural forces, as well as negate the reversible existence of the very equilibrium. In fact, all resolved challengers’ paradoxes and misleading violations of the Second Law to date have been resolved in favor of the Second Law and never against. We are still to witness a single, still open Second Law violation, to be confirmed.
Evaluation of inpatient postpartum recovery using the Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 patient-reported outcome measure: a single-center observational study

Background Few adequately validated patient-reported outcome measures are available, which can assess recovery profiles following childbirth. Objective We aimed to determine whether quantitative recovery (using the Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 patient-reported outcome measure) was superior following vaginal delivery compared with cesarean delivery and evaluate validity, reliability, and responsiveness of this patient-reported outcome measure in the obstetrical setting in the United States. Study Design Women recruited into this single-center observational cohort study completed the Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 and EuroQol 5-dimension 3L patient-reported outcome measures within 72 hours of childbirth. We assessed the validity with hypothesis testing and structural validity. In hypothesis testing, the primary outcome was Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 scores after vaginal vs cesarean delivery. Secondary outcomes were differences in Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 scores for vaginal delivery following induction of labor vs spontaneous labor and scheduled vs unplanned cesarean delivery, correlation with clinical parameters (American Society of Anesthesiologists classification grade, body mass index, length of hospital stay, estimated blood loss, transfusion requirement, antiemetic use, and neonatal intensive care unit admission), and qualitative ranking of Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 items for each delivery mode. Structural validity was assessed by determining the correlation of the Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 scores with the EuroQol 5-dimension 3L and global health visual analog scale scores. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach alpha and inter-item correlation of Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 items. Responsiveness was assessed by evaluating the change in Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 scores over the 72-hour postpartum period. Results Data from 215 women were analyzed. In hypothesis testing, the median (interquartile range) Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 scores were higher following vaginal delivery than cesarean delivery (86 [77–94] vs 77 [64–86], respectively; P Conclusion Quantitative inpatient recovery following vaginal delivery is superior to cesarean delivery. The Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 appears to be a valid and reliable patient-reported outcome measure following these delivery modes. Further studies are needed to determine how to improve recovery domains identified in this study, to evaluate Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 in different languages and determine whether these domains impact outcomes beyond hospitalization.
Protein kinase C inhibitor anchored BRD4 PROTAC PEGylated nanoliposomes for the treatment of vemurafenib-resistant melanoma.

Abstract Limited treatment options and development of resistance to targeted therapy within few months pose significant challenges in the treatment of BRAF-mutated malignant melanoma. Moreover, extensive angiogenesis and vasculogenic mimicry promote the rapid progression of disease. The purpose of this study was to develop a protein kinase C inhibitor anchored BRD4 PROTAC (ARV) loaded PEGylated nanoliposomes (LARPC). Palmitoyl- dl -carnitine chloride (PC) was used as a protein kinase C inhibitor to provide a cationic surface charge to LARPC. The formulation was characterized for particle size, zeta potential, drug release and various cell culture assays using HUVEC and vemurafenib resistant melanoma cells. The particle size of LARPC was found to be 105.25 ± 2.76 nm with a zeta potential of +26.6 ± 6.25 mV. Inhibition of angiogenesis was demonstrated by ARV and LARPC using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC)-based matrigel basement membrane model. Additionally, LARPC demonstrated very low IC50 with promising inhibition of vasculogenic mimicry channel formation, cell migration as well as colony formation in vemurafenib-resistant melanoma cell lines. Hence, the outcome of this combination therapy indicated the suitability of LARPC as a potential and novel approach for eradicating vemurafenib-resistant melanoma.
Collective Choice May Tell Nothing About Anyone’s Individual Preferences

As has been known for over a century, aggregated preferences of a group may bear little or no similarity to the preference of any single individual, regardless of the aggregation method. Yet, it re...
The imaging fast ion D-alpha diagnostic (IFIDA) on DIII-D.

An Imaging Fast Ion D-alpha (IFIDA) diagnostic, characterized by a high optical spatial resolution of ≤2 mm for accurate validation of energetic particle (EP) transport models, has been developed on DIII-D. The diagnostic provides a 2D image in the radial–poloidal plane of the FIDA signal generated by EP emission after charge exchange with an injected neutral beam. A narrow passband filter integrates the FIDA signal in the spectral region of 650–652 nm (blue-shifted FIDA tail), which is mostly generated by co-passing EPs of energies E ≃ 40–80 keV. A beam modulation technique is employed to estimate the active component of the signal, which is then used to compute EP profiles and gradients with a higher accuracy than the standard spectroscopic FIDA diagnostic. The current diagnostic time resolution is ≃3 ms. In this work, the IFIDA diagnostic design is explained and data are compared with the spectroscopic FIDA diagnostic, which shares the same viewing geometry, to assess the improvements in EP profile reconstruction.
The Goldilocks Problem

A lot of work in constraint satisfaction has been focused on finding solutions to difficult problems. Many real life problems however, while not extremely complicated, have a huge number of solutions, few of which are acceptable from a practical standpoint. In this paper we will present a value ordering heuristic that attempts to guide the search towards solutions that are acceptable. More specifically, by considering the weights assigned to values and pairs of values, the heuristic will guide the search towards solutions for which the total weight is within an acceptable interval.
Wavelets and generalized functions

Abstract . Both wavelets and generalized functions or distributions have a similar history. They both were applied to problems before their theory was developed or even before they were completely understood. The two theories that were subsequently developed interact considerably. Some of these interactions are presented in this work. They include the expansions of distributions in terms of wavelets of functions, the introduction of wavelets of distributions with point support, and the distribution solutions of dilation equations. The theory is used to obtain sampling theorems for subspaces such as quadratic splines.
Toward a Theory of Citizen Interface with Political Discussion and News in the Contemporary Public Sphere

The Internet, with its vast and often revolutionary array of politically relevant discursive spaces—news sites and forums of political discussion—has stimulated renewed interest in traditional debates surrounding both the structural arrangements of news and political discussion, and their impact on citizens. As suggested by the “classic public sphere,” deliberative democracy must have a strong structural/institutional foundation. One sign of strength involves access. Another sign of strength involves the extent to which news and political discussion are meaningfully connected in time and space, allowing people to traverse with relative ease from one to the other. This article is directed toward examining the impact of Internet use on the accessibility and “traversability” of the contemporary public sphere.
Criminal Procedure Entitlements, Professionalism, and Lawyering Norms

This article explores how social norms affect lawyers' and judges' behavior and, thereby, the content of both legal entitlements and the practice of ethics. It draws from several large studies of local criminal law practice. Norms in law practice often conflict with legal entitlements. Yet this article argues that such norms are sometimes defensible and necessary responses to tensions in public values and to conflicts between policymaking institutions. Norms often identify a need for doctrinal change, rather than a need for change in practice to conform with doctrine. In other instances, however, norms neither reconcile such conflicts nor devise efficient options to formal rules. Norms sometimes are rent-seeking actions by lawyers and judges. Further, they can be driven by ideological commitments; norms serve personal visions of just outcomes and fair procedures that conflict with public values. Finally, because lawyers observe norms that conflict with formal entitlements - leading them explicitly to disavow or subvert rules - norms reveal how practitioners revise professionalism notions to accord with actions that undermine both client interests and public values. The article suggests ways courts can respond to norms and surveys strategies for reforming undesirable norms.
Pseudocompactness, Measurability, and Category in Compact Groups

It is shown that in the case where G is a compact topological group satisfying certain standard cardinality conditions, a theorem of Wilcox implies that it is possible to partition G into a collection of dense subsets, whose cardinality is Card(G), where each subset is pseudocompact. Thus each subset is of the second category in G, each subset is nonmeasurable, and each has Haar outermeasure one in G. This result simultaneously extends classical results of Ulam and Sierpinski on the partition of a perfect space into sets of category two and of Kakutani and Oxtoby on the partition of a compact metric group into nonmeasurable subsets of full Haar outermeasure. A useful proposition that in a compact group a subset has outermeasure one iff it meets every closed Gδ with positive Haar measure in the group is proved. This proposition is an important tool used in the proof of the theorem concerning partitions.
Larval distribution and survival of second generation European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) on Event 176 Bt Corn

European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis H . ubner (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) larvae that have completed development on Event 176 Bt corn hybids have either survived exposure to sublethal doses of Cry1Ab Bt toxin or exploited plant tissues that do not express the toxin. To evaluate the impact of such exposure on larval establishment and survival, Event 176 plants with and without tassels and a non-Bt isoline were infested with O. nubilalis egg masses during anthesis. On the non-Bt plants, larval establishment occurred primarily on pollen collecting in the leaf axils, silks and ears. In contrast, almost no larvae were recovered from leaf axils of the Bt treatments and at least 50% fewer larvae were recovered from the silks and ears during the first 2 weeks after infestation relative to the non-Bt plants. The larvae recovered from Bt treatments weighed significantly less than those observed in the non-Bt isoline at 4 weeks after infestation. By the eighth week, the larval weights of all three treatments were similar in three of four different field tests, suggesting that second generation larvae have the ability to compensate for initial exposure to sublethal doses of Bt toxin. In laboratory assays involving exposure of neonate larvae to silks of Event 176 and non-Bt corn, survival of neonate O. nubilalis was not different although larval weights were significantly reduced (2- to 6-fold). These results suggest that second generation larvae completing development on Event 176 corn do not completely avoid exposure to the Bt toxin, although those that do survive are able to compensate for these sublethal effects. The implication of these results is that Event 176 hybrids do not appear to satisfy requirements for high dose that are recommended for resistance management purposes. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Interaction of Mercuric Ions with the Bacterial Growth Medium and Its Effects on Enzymatic Reduction of Mercury

The interaction of Hg2+ with components of Luria-Bertani broth (LB), used to grow the mercury-resistant strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa PU21 (Rip64), was studied using cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry and liquid scintillation counting. The time course analysis of free Hg2+ and total Hg in LB solutions showed that 30–40% of Hg2+ formed complexes with tryptone and yeast extract within 140 h. Media containing free or complexed Hg2+ were treated with cell-free mercuric reductase as well as with growing cells to investigate the effect of the Hg2+-LB interaction on mercury reduction. In both assays, it was found that the complexed Hg2+ could not be reduced by mercuric reductase or P. aeruginosa PU21 (Rip64).
Experimental modification of disfluency in normal speakers.

The effects of contingent shock, threat of shock, and random shock on the disfluencies of 36 normal readers were variously explored in three experiments. When shock was made contingent upon specifi...
Theory of hexatic-to-hexatic transitions.

A theory of transitions between tilted hexatic-$I$ and -$F$ phases in liquid-crystal films is developed. A renormalization-group analysis leads to four tilted hexatic phases: the hexatic-$I$ and -$F$ phases, an intermediate hexatic-$L$ phase, and an unlocked phase. All these phases except the unlocked phase also exist if the films are crystalline rather than hexatic. These results are consistent with recent experiments on thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals.
Cortical Gray Matter Volumes Are Associated with Subjective Responses to Cocaine Infusion

We analyzed the relationship between cocaine-induced euphoria and measures of frontal and temporal gray matter volumes in eleven cocaine-dependent (CD) patients who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Self-reported ratings of the intensity of euphoric response to cocaine infusion were obtained from the CD subjects at 3, 10, and 30 minutes after cocaine infusion. Significant positive correlation between frontal and temporal cortical gray matter volume and the intensity of euphoria was observed at 10 minutes after IV cocaine. The data suggest that frontal and temporal lobe gray matter volume is associated with some of the reinforcing effects of cocaine. Given the well-established negative linear relationship between cortical gray matter volume and age, cortical gray matter volume may be a marker for the neurobiological substrate of the age-related reduction in addiction rates.
Structure of CT584 from Chlamydia trachomatis refined to 3.05 Å resolution

Chlamydia trachomatis is a major cause of various diseases, including blinding trachoma and pelvic inflammatory disease, and is the leading reported sexually transmitted bacterial infection worldwide. All pathogenic Chlamydiae spp. utilize a supramolecular syringe, or type III secretion system (T3SS), to inject proteins into their obligate host in order to propagate infection. Here, the structure of CT584, a T3SS-associated protein, that has been refined to a resolution of 3.05 A is reported. The CT584 structure is a hexamer comprised of a trimer of dimers. The structure shares a high degree of similarity to the recently reported structure of an orthologous protein, Cpn0803, from Chlamydia pneumoniae, which highlights the highly conserved nature of this protein across these chlamydial species, despite different tissue tropism and disease pathology.
Comparison between dietary and cenetic copper deficiency in mice: Copper-dependent anemia

Abstract Copper deficiency was produced by feeding a low copper diet to mice and rats during gestation and lactation. The copper-deficient offspring were compared to Brindled mice, which exhibit copper-deficient characteristics due to a genetic defect within the X-chromosome. Weanling mice nursed by dams fed the low copper diet exhibit classical signs of copper deficiency previously reported in other species, including: anemia, hypoceruloplasminemia, depressed brain copper levels, and cytochrome oxidase activities. However, in comparison to weanling rats derived from dams given the same treatment, the mice show only a minimal growth deficit and marginal copper depletion of liver with normal cytochrome oxidase, activity. Younger 11-day-old copper-deficient male mice also develop anemia, have low tissue copper levels (liver and kidney) and exhibit decreased ceruloplasmin activity. However, unlike copper-deficient rats, these mice do not have a decrease in serum ferroxidase activity. Age-matched Brindled mice are not anemic, even though they have low serum ferroxidase activity. Similar to the dietary deficient mice, Brindled mice do have low ceruloplasmin activity and low liver copper levels. In an attempt to resolve this enigma, mouse serum was chromatographed on Sephadex G-150. Only one ferroxidase activity peak, clearly separated from ceruloplasmin, was observed. Human and rat sera display two ferroxidase activity peaks, one chromatographing with ceruloplasmin activity, which is sensitive to azide, and a second peak which, like the mouse serum peak, appears as a shoulder on the void volume. These results demonstrate the potential of this mouse model in elucidating the nature of copper-dependent anemia. Furthermore, the data from this model suggest that changes in serum ferroxidase activity cannot explain the existence of anemia in dietary copper deficiency nor absence of anemia in genetic copper deficiency (Brindled mice).
Positron Lifetimes in Metals

Positron decay curves in various metals have been measured, using careful sample preparation techniques and a delayed-coincidence system with 0.30-nsec (full width at half-maximum) prompt time resolution and ${10}^{4}$:1 peak-to-background ratio. Evidence was found that the annihilation in pure metals under ideal conditions is characterized by a single exponential decay, the second lifetime usually observed being an artifact of sample preparation. In the case of Mg with ${\mathrm{Na}}^{22}$ produced in situ by the ($p, \ensuremath{\alpha}$) reaction, a single exponential decay over approximately four decades was observed. In a plot of annihilation rate versus conduction electron density, the observed rates for the nearly-free-electron metals fell close to the theoretical curve of Kahana, approaching the spin-averaged positronium rate at low densities. Compared with these rates, annihilation rates at a given valence-electron density were found to be higher in the transition metals and lower in Be, Bi, and in the semiconductors Si and Ge, in agreement with qualitative ideas about the one-positron many-electron system in real metals. Within the experimental error (\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.5%), no difference in lifetime was observed between intrinsic and heavily $n$-type Si, and similarly for Ge.
A family of symmetric block designs

Abstract A construction is given of a family of symmetric block designs with parameters v = n3 + n + 1, k = n2 + 1, λ = n whenever both n − 1 and n2 − n + 1 are prime powers.