cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Texas community pharmacists' willingness to participate in pharmacist-initiated emergency contraception.

Abstract Objectives To determine Texas community pharmacists' knowledge about and experience with emergency contraception (EC), their perceptions about and willingness to participate in pharmacist-initiated emergency contraception (PIEC), and whether their willingness is influenced by their background characteristics or experience with EC. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Texas in November through December 2004. Participants 300 community pharmacists. Interventions Mailed questionnaire consisting of 40 questions divided into three sections: experience with EC, perceptions about PIEC, and background information. Main Outcome Measures Pharmacists' perceptions and behaviors regarding EC and PIEC, and their willingness to participate in PIEC. Bivariate analysis to assess background characteristics and experience with EC in relation to willingness to participate in PIEC; multiple regression to identify predictors of willingness to participate in PIEC. Results With a usable response rate of 51%, results indicate that most pharmacists (91.2%) had heard of EC, while 45.2% kept EC in stock. More than one half (57.8%) had dispensed EC, and 95.5% were aware that EC is most effective when taken within 72hours. Some 27.4% were opposed to dispensing EC, primarily because of religious (86.1%) and moral (80.6%) beliefs. Most (57.7%) believed that there should be a minimum age (mean±SD, 17.25±1.93years) for patients receiving EC. Less than one half (46.7%) had heard of PIEC. Although pharmacists agreed (3.42±1.38) that PIEC would enhance the role of community pharmacists, they were unwilling (2.71±1.54) to participate in PIEC. Significant predictors of willingness to participate in PIEC included background characteristics, experience with EC, as well as benefits and barriers associated with PIEC. A regression analysis indicated that these significant predictors accounted for 58.6% of the total variance in willingness to participate in PIEC. Conclusion A majority of Texas community pharmacists were quite knowledgeable about and aware of EC, but fewer had actually dispensed EC. Most had not heard of PIEC before study participation, and their perceptions relating to PIEC were generally unfavorable. Potential barriers to PIEC outnumbered potential benefits for most pharmacists. Findings indicate that Texas community pharmacists were not willing to become involved in PIEC at the time of this study.
Improved charge neutralization method for depth profiling of bulk insulators using O2+ primary beam on a magnetic sector SIMS instrument

Use of electrons for charge neutralization during positive secondary ion SIMS analysis of insulators has typically been achieved using coincident primary ion and electron beams. The normal incidence electron gun on CAMECA magnetic sector SIMS instruments can effectively eliminate sample charging during analysis of thin insulating films if the electron energy is sufficient to penetrate the film. However, positive secondary ion SIMS bulk insulator analysis using this instrument can be difficult, especially if high sputtering rates are required. A neutralization method has been developed utilizing electron beam impact of a region adjacent to the sputtered area. Prior to analysis, the surface of the sample is coated with gold which provides a conductive surface layer and which has a high secondary and backscattered electron yield. Results have been obtained showing excellent neutralization for a variety of bulk insulators including glass, silica, alumina, and lithium niobate. Sputtering rates exceeding 2 nm/s have been achieved in bulk silica. The technique should be applicable to minerals and possibly for other materials in cases where the analyzed area cannot be directly irradiated with an electron beam.
Critical behavior of the two-dimensional XY model.

We present detailed Monte Carlo results for the susceptibility \ensuremath{\chi}, correlation length \ensuremath{\xi}, and specific heat ${\mathit{C}}_{\mathit{v}}$ for the XY model. The simulations are done on ${64}^{2}$, ${128}^{2}$, ${256}^{2}$, and ${512}^{2}$ lattices over the temperature range 0.98\ensuremath{\le}T\ensuremath{\le}1.43 corresponding to 270. Fits to \ensuremath{\chi} and \ensuremath{\xi} data favor a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) singularity over a second-order transition; however, unconstrained four-parameter KT fits do not confirm the predicted values \ensuremath{\nu}=0.5 and \ensuremath{\eta}=0.25. Our best estimate, ${\mathit{T}}_{\mathit{c}}$=0.894(5), is obtained using KT fits with \ensuremath{\nu} fixed at 0.5. The exponent \ensuremath{\eta} is calculated as a function of temperature in the spin-wave phase using Monte Carlo renormalization-group and finite-size-scaling methods. Both methods give consistent results and we find \ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\approxeq}0.235 at T=0.894. We also present results for the behavior of vortex density across the transition and exhibit how the dilute-gas approximation breaks down.
Lesion-induced transneuronal plasticity of the cholinergic innervation in the adult rat entorhinal cortex.

The present experiments were designed to determine the effect that lesions of the basal forebrain cholinergic system exert on cholinergic interneurons within the entorhinal cortex (EC) in the rat. Unilateral infusion of 192 IgG-saporin into the nucleus of the horizontal diagonal band of Broca (HDB) decreased the number of ipsilateral choline acetyltransferase immunoreactive (ChAT-ir) neurons by 54%. Two–four weeks after the lesion, the ipsilateral EC exhibited a moderate but significant loss of ChAT-ir fibres and interneurons. Adjacent sections revealed a parallel loss of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) immunoreactivity. Cell counts in the cingulate cortex were unaffected, suggesting that this effect was indeed specific to the main target area for HDB neurons. Ibotenic acid lesions also induced a significant 36% decrease in the number of cholinergic neurons in the ipsilateral HDB, and disappearance of ChAT terminals in the EC, whereas the number of ChAT-ir neurons in the EC was unchanged. Since ibotenic acid affects all cells and not only cholinergic ones, our results suggest that the specific degeneration of cholinergic neurons in the HDB after 192 IgG-saporin treatment could be inducing transsynaptic effects on their targets. Injections of 192 IgG-saporin directly into the EC also lesioned the cholinergic projection from the HDB, but had no effect on the intrinsic population. Eight weeks after immunolesion, the number of interneurons immunoreactive for ChAT and VIP in the EC had returned to normal values, and persisted for as long as 6 months after the lesion. By contrast, ChAT-ir neurons in the HDB were permanently lost. Our results suggest that the transient down-regulation of the cholinergic phenotype in entorhinal cortex interneurons could be a manifestation of activity-dependent plasticity, and that the loss of cholinergic innervation from the basal forebrain could be responsible for these effects through an imbalance of inputs. We hypothesize that the recovery of the phenotypic expression of entorhinal interneurons could be due to a recovery in their innervation, perhaps from sprouting axons in the same fields, belonging to surviving cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain.
Felony probation: A re-examination of public risk

The California Rand study focused major attention on the potential threat that felons on probation presented to the public. Their findings of a 65% rearrest rate during a 40-month follow-up of 1672 felons raised considerable concern but left one key question unanswered: are those disturbing results unique to California or are they representative of a nationwide crisis generated by the critical prison overcrowding problem? The authors of the present study replicated the Rand report for the State of Missouri in an attempt to answer those questions. A total of 2083 felons from the most urban population of Missouri were tracked for the same 40-month period utilized by Rand, with very different results. The Missouri rearrest rates were found to be a respectable 22%. The obvious conclusion is that felony probation is an effective alternate to prison in Missouri, and the Rand study may not be representative of felony probation in general.
Estimation of viscoelastic shear properties of vocal-fold tissues based on time-temperature superposition.

Empirical data on the viscoelastic shear properties of human vocal-fold mucosa (cover) were recently reported at relatively low frequency (0.01–15 Hz). For the data to become relevant to voice production, attempts have been made to parametrize and extrapolate the data to higher frequencies using constitutive modeling [Chan and Titze, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 565–580 (2000)]. This study investigated the feasibility of an alternative approach for data extrapolation, namely the principle of time–temperature superposition (TTS). TTS is a hybrid theoretical–empirical approach widely used by rheologists to estimate the viscoelastic properties of polymeric systems at time or frequency scales not readily accessible experimentally. It is based on the observation that for many polymers, the molecular configurational changes that occur in a given time scale at a low temperature correspond to those that occur in a shorter time scale at a higher temperature. Using a rotational rheometer, the elastic shear modulus (G′)...
A Noninfectious Source Of Renal Gas: Embolization

Gas in the renal parenchyma is rare and most commonly caused by infections with gas producing organisms. Renal chemoembolization is typically used for management of uncontrolled hemorrhage, arteriovenous fistula or palliation of refractory pain, or before radical nephrectomy for large tumors or those with invasion into the renal vein or inferior vena cava. We report a case of air in the renal parenchyma following embolization to alert the clinician that the presence of gas does not always indicate infection or necessitate intervention.
Beating the Random Ordering is Hard: Inapproximability of Maximum Acyclic Subgraph

We prove that approximating the max. acyclic subgraph problem within a factor better than 1/2 is unique games hard. Specifically, for every constant epsiv > 0 the following holds: given a directed graph G that has an acyclic subgraph consisting of a fraction (1-epsiv) of its edges, if one can efficiently find an acyclic subgraph of G with more than (1/2 + epsiv) of its edges, then the UGC is false. Note that it is trivial to find an acyclic subgraph with 1/2 the edges, by taking either the forward or backward edges in an arbitrary ordering of the vertices of G. The existence of a rho-approximation algorithmfor rho > 1/2 has been a basic open problem for a while. Our result is the first tight inapproximability result for an ordering problem. The starting point of our reduction isa directed acyclic subgraph (DAG) in which every cut isnearly-balanced in the sense that the number of forward and backward edges crossing the cut are nearly equal; such DAGs were constructed by Charikar et al. Using this, we are able to study max. acyclic subgraph, which is a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) over an unbounded domain, by relating it to a proxy CSP over a bounded domain. The latter is then amenable to powerful techniques based on the invariance principle. Our results also give a super-constant factor inapproximability result for the feedback arc set problem. Using our reductions, we also obtain SDP integrality gapsfor both the problems.
Wiring layouts in the tri-hexagonal grid ∗

The problem of wiring (or layer assignment for) VLSI layouts is a fundamental and classical one, and arises naturally after the routing phase of a CAD system. In this paper we present an algorithm for wiring layouts in the tri-hexagonal grid. This is the first wiring algorithm for layouts in the tri-hexagonal grid and it produces wirings that require at most five layers. Furthermore, our algorithm runs in O(N) time, where N is the number of grid points occupied by the layout.
Once-weekly exenatide as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a progressive disease that requires pharmacologic treatment to prevent microvascular and macrovascular complications. As the disease progresses, most patients require combination therapy to achieve glucose control targets. Exenatide once weekly (EQW) is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist approved in the United States in 2012 for use as a second-line agent to treat Type 2 diabetes mellitus. EQW has shown reductions in HbA1c and weight without causing an increased risk of hypoglycemia. This review will summarize the current clinical trial, observational study, and pharmacoeconomic analyses evaluating EQW and its impact on HbA1c and weight.
Cybersecurity risk management

Mission systems have become increasingly integrated with and dependent on the Information Technology (IT) and digital communications systems of cyberspace, resulting in increased susceptibility of those systems, and the missions they support, to cybersecurity attacks. Consequently, the integration of Cyberspace Operations with Terrestrial, Afloat, Air and Space Operations has become essential to the success of those missions, and the development, fielding, and operation of those mission systems in a secure manner have become vitally important. In general, approaches to cybersecurity for mission systems and for the development infrastructure that supports the production of those systems have focused on the implementation of technology as reactive mechanisms in the operational environment. Although those technical mechanisms are evolving and becoming increasingly sophisticated, they are not sufficient to provide the strength of protection and resiliency that is needed in today's complex and highly interconnected cyberspace domain. A more proactive approach is needed that builds in protective and resiliency mechanisms during acquisition and development, providing increased assurance that the security features, practices, procedures, and architecture of an information system are strong enough to mitigate all known operational risks, and accurately enforce Department of Defense (DoD) security policies. This paper presents a methodology for cybersecurity risk management (CSRM) for DoD mission systems that incorporates both qualitative and quasi-quantitative analyses for improved decision-making regarding effectiveness and return on investment (ROI). This methodology is designed to be used iteratively throughout the entire system lifecycle, during both system acquisition and operations. The methodology is in alignment with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), DoD's Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources Sector-Specific Plan, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) risk management standards, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) risk management standards, DoD risk management standards, DoD policies and directives for the Global Information Grid (GIG), and other emerging national cybersecurity initiatives.
The Antarctic Ice Borehole Probe

The Antarctic Ice Borehole Probe mission is a glaciological investigation, scheduled for November 2000-January 2001, that will acquire visible-light images and video in a hot-water drilled hole in the West Antarctic ice sheet. The objectives of the probe are to observe ice-bed interactions with a downward looking camera, and ice inclusions and structure, including hypothesized ice accretion, with a side-looking camera. The Probe mission also serves as a stepping-stone in the development of technology to acquire data in extreme ice and liquid environments. The information and experience will aid projects involving exploration in ice/liquid environments, including missions to Lake Vostok in Antarctica, Mars Polar Caps and Europa, Jupiter's moon. This focus of this paper is to describe the design and use of the probe.
A Major Appliance Manufacturer Rethinks Its Inventory Policies for Service Vehicles

A major appliance manufacturer needed to effectively manage $7 million in inventories of repair and replacement parts housed in more than 1,300 service vehicles used for warranty repairs. The manufacturer wanted to optimize the inventories while ensuring that its technicians carried the parts they needed to repair customers' appliances on the first visit. Typically, service vehicles carry only 400 of the 70,000 parts stocked centrally. Thus, the appropriate composition of vehicle stock is essential to attain acceptable levels of service and costs. We developed and applied an intuitive, efficient, effective, and easy-to-implement heuristic solution to this vehicle-stocking problem and found that the firm could trim more than $3 million per year from its warranty repair costs and increase its first-visit repair rate from 86 percent to 90 percent. The results of a pilot study supported these findings, and we estimated a payback of less than two years on full-scale implementation. The manufacturer is implementing these improved vehicle-stocking policies across its national network.
Virtual environment for robotic tele-rehabilitation

Haptic and visual displays are combined to realize cooperative, force-feedback tasks over the Internet. The operators "exert" forces on a virtual object which in turn generates a set of reaction forces to be displayed on the haptic devices. A novel cooperative control architecture based on wave variables is implemented to realize stable operation in the presence of time delays. The control scheme is validated experimentally for a manipulation task over the Internet using a pair of InMotion2 robots. Preliminary results are also presented for 3D tasks rendered on a head-mounted display equipped with a head tracker for changing viewing angles.
On the net transfer of carbon dioxide from liquid precipitation to the atmosphere

Most of the water-soluble carbonate and non-marine calcium (Ca*) in background aerosol in the northern hemisphere could originate as calcium carbonate (CaCO3) of arid soil origin. This is most relevant to the tropics, and a good portion of the temperate latitude belt. However, at equilibrium pH-values between about 6 and 7, the dissolved carbonate is primarily present as the bicarbonate (HCO3−). Selecting a random set of precipitation samples in the same pH-range, the HCO3−/Ca* stoichiometric ratio values were evaluated for a number of background locations in the northern hemisphere. The representative range observed is ∼ 0.04-0.5. Assuming that acid-base neutralization reactions are ubiquitous, the above range of ratio values suggests that aqueous precipitation at the surface - or possibly some raindrops aloft - in background locations affected by arid aerosol could act as a net source of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, and not vice versa, as has been universally assumed or implied in the past.
Evoked Potential Audiograms of the Nurse Shark ( Ginglymostoma cirratum ) and the Yellow Stingray ( Urobatis jamaicensis )

The hearing thresholds of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, and the yellow stingray, Urobatis jamaicensis, were measured using auditory evoked potentials (AEP). Stimuli were calibrated using a pressure-velocity probe so that the acoustic field could be completely characterized. The results show similar hearing thresholds for both species and similar hearing thresholds to previously measured audiograms for the lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris, and the horn shark, Heterodontis francisi. All of these audiograms suggest poor hearing abilities, raising questions about field studies showing attraction of sharks to acoustic signals. By extrapolating the particle acceleration thresholds into estimates of their equivalent far-field sound pressure levels, it appears that these sharks cannot likely detect most of the sounds that have attracted sharks in the field.
Celebrity gossip blogs and the interactive construction of addiction

Celebrity gossip blogs, some with millions of readers, are important sites for the interactive construction of addiction. The highly editorial nature of these blogs combined with their low bar to participation make them ideal sites to study how bloggers and readers interpret celebrity drug use. Through a case study of the widely known gossip blogger Perez Hilton’s coverage of actress Lindsay Lohan’s legal troubles, and reader responses to these stories, I show how interactive discussion of celebrity reinforces dominant constructions of habitual drug use as a form of badness and sickness best treated with jail and coerced treatment. Overall, I argue that new media forms such as celebrity gossip blogs are unlikely but important sites of social problem construction, maintenance and reinvigoration.
A Scale for Measuring Campus Morale.

A campus morale scale, based on 22 items selected from Pace's College and University Environment Scales, is described.
Could Spatial Heterogeneity in Human Vocal Fold Elastic Properties Improve the Quality of Phonation

The physical mechanisms leading to the acoustic and perceptual qualities of voice are not well understood. This study examines the spatial distribution of biomechanical properties in human vocal folds and explores the consequences of these properties on phonation. Vocal fold lamina propria specimens isolated from nine excised human male larynges were tested in uniaxial tension (six from non-smokers, three from smokers). An optical method was employed to determine the local stretch, from which the elastic modulus of three segments in the anterior-posterior direction was calculated. Several specimens exhibited a significant heterogeneity in the modulus with the middle segment stiffer than the other segments. It was concluded that such modulus gradients are stronger in specimens from non-smokers than smokers. To understand the functional implications of a modulus gradient, the first eigenmode of vibration was calculated with a finite element model. With a modulus gradient, the vocal fold’s eigenmode deflection was spread along the anterior-posterior length, whereas for a homogeneous modulus distribution, the deflection was more focused around the mid-coronal plane. Consequently, the strong modulus gradient may enable more complete glottal closure, which is important for normal phonation, while a more homogeneous modulus may be responsible for poor glottal closure and a perceived “breathy” voice.
Development of Novel Biodegradable Amino Acid Ester Based Polyphosphazene-Hydroxyapatite Composites for Bone Tissue Engineering

Hydroxyapatite formed from low temperature setting calcium phosphate cements (CPC) are currently been used for various orthopaedic applications. CPCs are attractive candidates for the development of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, since they are moldable, resorbable, set at physiological temperature without the use of toxic chemicals, and can be processed in an operating room setting. However they may have mechanical disadvantages which seriously limit them to non-load bearing orthopaedic applications. The aim of the present study was to develop composites from polyphosphazenes and calcium deficient hydroxyapatite precursors to form poorly crystalline hydroxyapatite-polymer composites. Composites were formed from calcium deficient hydroxyapatite precursors (Ca/P–1.5, 1.6) and biodegradable polyphosphazenes, poly[bis(ethyl alanato)phosphazene] (PNEA) and poly[(50%ethyl alanato) (50%methyl phenoxy)phosphazene] (PNEA50mPh50) at physiological temperature. The results demonstrated that poorly crystalline hydroxyapatite that resembled the mineral component of bone was formed in the presence of biodegradable polyphosphazenes. The surface morphology of all the four composites was identical with a porous microstructure. The composites supported the adhesion and proliferation of osteoblast like MC3T3-E1 cells making them potential candidates for bone tissue engineering.
Feasibility of Geometric Digital Controls and Augmentation for Ultrafast Dc-Dc Converter Response

A set of augmentation-based controls is introduced for DC-DC converters. The controls support null response to disturbances in line or load for basic DC-DC converters. Augmentation resembles lossy snubbers, and takes the form of switched resistance to dissipate extra stored energy, resistive paths to deliver energy to the load while energy storage is increasing, and switched capacitance from an augmented phase to maintain the load during a transient. Cases are given for line step increases and decreases, and step load increases and decreases for buck and boost converters. It is shown that designs based on straightforward energy computations yield performance that remains within the specified output ripple band even during extreme transients
1,2,3-Oxadiazines and 1,2,3-Thiadiazines.

1,2,3-Oxadiazines and 1,2,3-thiadiazines are heterocycles with interesting biological applications. This chapter updates the previous work, concentrating on major new preparations, reactions, and concepts. The 1,2,3-oxadiazines 1 and their isomeric 4H- 2 and 2H- 3 derivatives still remain elusive ring systems. However, analogs of the benzoxadiazine system 6 have been studied for their antimicrobial activities. The use of a derivative of the benzoxadiazine system 6 as the base for nucleotide analogs is also reported. The 1-oxide and 1,1-dioxides of 1,2,3-thiadiazines 7 and the 2H- and 4H-1,2,3-benzothiadiazine systems 8 are prepared by oxidation reactions. A cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) inhibition study of a 1,1-dioxide derivative of benzothiadiazine system 8 and the synthesis and carbonic anhydrase inhibition studies of thienothiadiazines and are also reported. Additionally, the antibacterial activity of a 1,1-dioxide derivative of benzothiadiazine system 8 has been studied.
VO(2) kinetics and the O(2) deficit in heavy exercise.

The purpose of this study was to examine a new method for calculating the O(2) deficit that considered the O(2) uptake (VO(2)) kinetics during exercise as two separate phases in light of previous research in which it was shown that the traditional O(2) deficit calculation overestimated the recovery O(2) consumption (ROC). Eight subjects completed exercise transitions between unloaded cycling and 25% (heavy, H) or 50% (very heavy, VH) of the difference between the lactic acid threshold (LAT) and peak VO(2) for 8 min. The O(2) deficit, calculated in the traditional manner, was significantly greater than the measured ROC for both above-LAT exercises: 4.03 +/- 1.01 vs. 2.63 +/- 0.80 (SD) liters for VH and 2.36 +/- 0.91 vs. 1.74 +/- 0.63 liters for H for the O(2) deficit vs. ROC (P /= O(2) deficit). Therefore, estimation of the O(2) deficit during heavy exercise transitions should consider the slow component of VO(2) as an additional deficit component with delayed onset.
Why the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article Iv Cannot Replace the Dormant Commerce Clause Doctrine

Critics of the dormant Commerce Clause doctrine (DCCD), the judicially-created limitations on states' regulation of interstate commerce, have advocated replacing the DCCD with the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2 as the constitutional bulwark against interstate commercial discrimination. Academic critics of the DCCD such as Julian Eule and Charles Black urged that the Privileges and Immunities Clause be substituted for the DCCD, as have conservative jurists, like Justice Scalia. But none have considered in detail the consequences of making such a substitution. I argue here, however, that the substitution of the one for the other entails sacrificing substantial protection for interstate commerce against state discrimination because the Privileges and Immunities Clause does not apply to corporations and would not invalidate facially-neutral state statutes that nevertheless discriminate in their effects. In addition, the unavailability, under the Privileges and Immunities Clause, of certain exceptions to the DCCD (like the market-participant exception and Congress' redelegation power) would limit states and Congress to a greater degree than does the DCCD. Remedies for the shortcomings of the Privileges and Immunities Clause, I argue, would come at the expense of the alleged advantages of abandoning the DCCD for the Privileges and Immunities Clause in the first place, i.e., that Article IV, Section 2 is textually-based, would cabin judicial discretion in its application, and that its historical pedigree is superior to that of the DCCD.
A Modified Simplex Solution for Linear Programming with Variable Prices

HERE are many programming problems where the investigator is interested in the optimum plans for different price situations.2 Interest may center on price changes compatible with a given program remaining optimum, on the effect of altered support prices on farm income and optimum production plans, or on the nature of a farm or region's normative supply function. These problems could be tackled by deriving a series of optimum programs, one for each price situation of interest. This, however, would be extremely laborious. The purpose of this article is to illustrate more efficient "variable-price programming" methods. We discuss both one-price and two-price-variable programming. Methods become more complicated as the number of prices to be varied increases. However, the principles remain the same, and the reader should have little difficulty in extending our results to three or more prices if required.
DNA Excision Repair at the Nucleosome Level of Chromatin

The complexity of enzymatic mechanisms that have evolved for the recognition and removal of DNA lesions in mammalian cells is undoubtedly coupled to the complexity of the very “substrate” itself (i.e., the highly condensed structure of DNA in chromatin). For this reason, over the past decade my laboratory has focused on the role of chromatin structure in the process of excision repair in eukaryotes. In the discussion that follows, I have reviewed our results concerning features of DNA damage formation and excision repair at the nucleosome level of chromatin. It is important to keep in mind that the features discussed are reflective primarily of “bulk” (i.e., transcriptionally inactive) chromatin in mammalian cells. The discussion starts with a brief review of nucleosome structure, and ends with a rather simple, generalized model for excision repair of DNA in bulk chromatin of mammalian cells. Throughout this chapter, I have cited recent reviews, rather than specific papers, pertaining to a given topic. Specific references can be found in these reviews.
Crosses Involving Biochemically Deficient Mutants of Allomyces Arbuscula

The production of mutant strains with biochemical deficiencies in the water mold Allomyces arbuscula would be of great value in clarifying the life cycle of this organism, and might aid in making certain crosses between different strains, if these strains carried different biochemical potentialities. The work reported here concerns the production of such biochemical mutations in a strain of A. arbuscula (Philippine Islands No. 1) obtained from Dr. R. Emerson, and the results of several crosses between these deficient strains.
Study and Development of Biotechnology of Ammonia Removal in Wastewater

The ammonia-nitrogen wastewater is the important factor of rich nourishment in the polluted water.The primary study on biotechnology of ammonia removal and their principle and applying condition are simply reviewed in this paper.Especially,the development of biological nitrogen removal,such as the investigation on shortcut nitrification gentrification,simultaneous nitrification denitrification(SND),anaerobic ammonium oxidation,as well as microbe immobilization are discussed.It has pointed out that the trendence of the least sludge and CO2 releasing,the least use of energy is the development of biological denitrification.
Structure,Principle and Study Status of Planar Zirconia Automotive Oxygen Sensors

Increasing automobile market,stringent emission regulations and the status of relying on import make it imminent developing perfect and reliable automobile oxygen sensors with independent property right.At present,for small size,fast light off,low power,easy to integrate and operating stability in the rough environment,planar zirconia automotive oxygen sensors is the dominating products in the market.Introduced its structure,principle,study status in home and abroad and developing trend.
Sufism contra Shariah? Shāh Walī Allāh’s Metaphysics of Waḥdat al-Wujūd

This study analyzes the contested relationship between Sufism and the Shariah and Shāh Walī Allāh’s problematic of waḥdat al-wujūd. Some Sufis describe Sufism or taṣawwuf as the inner reality of the Shariah while others see it as the inward dimension of Islam. Drawing on a variety of classical sources, Walī Allāh stresses that accepting waḥdat al-wujūd does not mean one is being less faithful to the tenets of the Shariah, as it safeguards God’s transcendence vis-a-vis the world. Walī Allāh belabors to clarify various misconceptions that bedevil it. His views on waḥdat al-wujūd are largely in alignment with that of the school of Ibn ʿArabī, although he seems to add new dimensions to it at times. He also asserts that a Sufi sage’s (ḥakīm) understanding of the term differs from that of the uninitiate. In addition, he affirms that waḥdat al-wujūd does not negate the multiplicity of the cosmos, even though wujūd is one.
William Ewart Gladstone: National Acts of Religion

Shortly after his last premiership William Ewart Gladstone sat in his library at Hawarden assessing his life’s work. He made lists of achievements and mistakes, credits and debits, rendered careful accounts of his triumphs and disappointments. He was preparing for death and these were his final reckonings. In the same season he dreamed about the queen. He analyzed this dream as dispassionately as he did his career. His purpose was to know himself better, hence better prepare himself to meet God. He wrote: We may sometimes obtain a morsel of self knowledge through the medium of a dream… Since my retirement I have dreamt sometimes of Parliament and sometimes (both of them very rarely) of the Court, but without much meaning. Last night I dreamed that I was at Windsor. There had been a sort of breakfast, fugitive and early, at which several attended, and the Queen appeared, but without incident. However it was conveyed to me through one of the ‘pages’ (servants out of livery?) that I of all people in the world was to breakfast alone with the Queen at ten o’clock: a circumstance which was not accordant with what is known as to HM’s (very judicious) habits with reference to the early part of the day. Well, the time slid on, and the hour approached, and I was getting duly into what I may call a small perturbation as to the how and where of access. But the dream had lost its tail. The hour never came. And the sole force and effect of the incident is to show that the subject of my personal relation to the Queen, and all the unsatisfactory ending of my over half a century of service, had more hold upon me, down at the root, than I was aware.1
Developing Literacy and Language Competence: Preschool Children Who Are at Risk or Have Disabilities

An increasingly robust scientific literature documents the importance of both code-related and oral language skills for young children’s development of skilled reading. Children’s code-related skills reflect their knowledge of letters and sounds and are strongly associated with learning to read in studies with preschool and kindergarten children who are typically developing and at-risk or have disabilities. While there has been substantial work related to understanding and improving language and literacy outcomes for young children who are at-risk and have identified disabilities, much of what we know comes from descriptive, correlational studies. Random assignment studies of professional development interventions provide evidence that interventions designed to improve teachers’ early literacy instruction lead to changes in teachers’ instructional behaviors, particularly those behaviors related to decoding instruction. A continuing challenge is to demonstrate that when the professional development intervention is effective in changing teachers’ instruction, it also results in greater gains for children. Research follow-up with teachers who participate in interventions provides evidence about teachers’ continued use of effective teaching strategies targeted in the intervention and can facilitate our understanding of factors related to teachers’ adoption and continued use of effective instruction and curricula. Follow-up with children provides evidence for longer-term intervention effects as well as information about factors that may moderate those outcomes. Finally, research that promotes our understanding of how to adapt effective teaching practices to meet the needs of individual children in different circumstances, including children with moderate and severe disabilities, is also needed if we are to maximize early literacy and language outcomes for all.
Walk-In Brain: Virtual Reality Environment for Immersive Exploration and Simulation of Brain Metabolism and Function

Abstract Engineering collaborations with medicine have led to exciting ways to solve complex physiological problems with computational information. This type of collaboration requires a common platform for effective and efficient information expression. There is also a need for automation to minimize the time necessary to translate between different fields of study. To fit this need, Walk-In Brain is a software that can visualize medical imaging data alongside anatomical reconstructions, simulation results, and medical device models. In this chapter, the utilities and methodology of such a software will be explained.
Evidence for exocellular Arsenic in Fronds of Pteris vittata

The arsenic (As) hyperaccumulating fern species Pteris vittata (PV) is capable of accumulating large quantities of As in its aboveground tissues. Transformation to AsIII and vacuolar sequestration is believed to be the As detoxification mechanism in PV. Here we present evidence for a preponderance of exocellular As in fronds of Pteris vittata despite numerous reports of a tolerance mechanism involving intracellular compartmentalization. Results of an extraction experiment show that 43–71% of the As extruded out of the fronds of PV grown in 0.67, 3.3 and 6.7 mM AsV. SEM-EDX analysis showed that As was localized largely on the lower pinna surface, with smaller amounts on the upper surface, as crystalline deposits. X-ray fluorescence imaging of pinna cross-sections revealed preferential localization of As on the pinna surface in the proximity of veins, with the majority localized near the midrib. Majority of the As in the pinnae is contained in the apoplast rather than vacuoles. Our results provide evidence that exocellular sequestration is potentially a mechanism of As detoxification in PV, particularly at higher As concentrations, raising concern about its use for phytoremediation.
Nonlinear Process Control: An Adaptive Approach which Uses Physical Models

Abstract In this paper we develop a simple stabilizing control system for the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). A physically based argument is used to develop a Lyapunov function which is related in a positive manner to the internal energy of the system. This property appears in many chemical process control systems and it is the key in developing the stabilizing controller. The proposed control design methodology leads to a feedback-feedforward controller. The feedback element simply consists of a PD controller while feedforward terms are used to compensate for the nonlinear effects and decouple the response. Accurate expressions for the kinetic mechanisms and values for the physical parameters describing the process are not explicitly needed since an adaptive strategy can be implemented. Implementation aspects of the nonlinear adaptive controller are discussed briefly.
Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Magnetic Properties of R2Mg3SiPn6 (R = La, Ce; Pn = P, As).

Four new quaternary pnictides, R2Mg3SiPn6 (R = La, Ce; Pn = P, As), were synthesized via high-temperature solid-state reactions and gas-phase transport reactions with iodine. Their crystal structures were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. All four compounds are isostructural and crystallize in a new structure type in the orthorhombic space group Pnma (No. 62, Z = 4), Pearson symbol oP48. The crystal structures of R2Mg3SiPn6 are composed of two-dimensional puckered MgP3 layers, which are connected in a three-dimensional framework by P–P dimers and MgSiP4 double-tetrahedral chains. Rare-earth cations are encapsulated inside the channels of the framework running along [010]. Quantum-chemical calculations predict that La2Mg3SiP6 is an indirect narrow bandgap semiconductor. The Mg–P bonding in MgP4 tetrahedra and MgP6 octahedra was analyzed by means of crystal orbital Hamilton population (COHP) analysis. Magnetic characterization of Ce-containing compounds confirmed the trivalent nature of cerium...
A Critique of Differential Geometric Control Strategies for Process Control

Abstract During the past decade significant progress has been made in the control of nonlinear systems. This paper surveys promising non linear control strategies that are based on concepts from differential geometry. Several recently developed methods for nonlinear process control are analyzed from a differential geometric perspective. Simulation results are reviewed and potential shortcomings of the methods are discussed.
Rectal Douching Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Paris: Implications for HIV/STI Risk Behaviors and Rectal Microbicide Development

Rectal douching is a common but potentially risky practice among MSM; MSM who douche may be ideal candidates for rectal microbicides as HIV prevention. Herein we explored rectal douching and its association with condomless receptive anal intercourse (CRAI), group sex, rates of HIV and other STIs, and likelihood to use rectal microbicide gels. We recruited a sample of 580 MSM from a geosocial-networking smartphone application in Paris, France in 2016. Regression models estimated adjusted risk ratios (aRRs) for associations between rectal douche use and (1) engagement in CRAI, (2) group sex, (3) self-reported HIV and STI diagnoses, and (4) likelihood to use rectal microbicide gels for HIV prevention. 54.3% of respondents used a rectal douche or enema in the preceding 3 months. Douching was significantly associated with CRAI (aRR: 1.77), participation in group sex (aRR: 1.42), HIV infection (aRR: 3.40), STI diagnosis (aRR: 1.73), and likelihood to use rectal microbicide gels (aRR: 1.78). Rectal douching is common among MSM, particularly those who practice CRAI, and rectal microbicide gels may be an acceptable mode of HIV prevention for MSM who use rectal douches.
Inferring scope through syntactic sugar

Many languages use syntactic sugar to define parts of their surface language in terms of a smaller core. Thus some properties of the surface language, like its scoping rules, are not immediately evident. Nevertheless, IDEs, refactorers, and other tools that traffic in source code depend on these rules to present information to users and to soundly perform their operations. In this paper, we show how to lift scoping rules defined on a core language to rules on the surface, a process of scope inference. In the process we introduce a new representation of binding structure---scope as a preorder---and present a theoretical advance: proving that a desugaring system preserves α-equivalence even though scoping rules have been provided only for the core language. We have also implemented the system presented in this paper.
Use of complementary approaches in pregnant women with a history of miscarriage.

Abstract Objectives To describe the use of complementary approaches in pregnant women with a history of miscarriage and to investigate whether a miscarriage is associated with the use of complementary approaches during their pregnancy. Design A cross-sectional survey was distributed to pregnant women residing in the United States (N = 890). Results Women who had a history of miscarriage, were Caucasian, were college educated, reported a high income, had low depression scores, and had low anxiety scores (all P Conclusions Findings from this study may help inform future studies for pregnant women with a history of miscarriage and may also provide information about appropriate strategies in which health care providers can refer their patients.
Chemical Lecture Demonstrations: An Opportunity for Engagement through Collections, Instruction, and Reference

Chemical lecture demonstrations have been used as a pedagogical tool since at least the founding of chemistry as a discipline in the 1600s. This paper describes how science librarians can engage ch...
Beyond “The Myth of the Latin Woman”: Teaching Critical Thinking with Judith Ortiz Cofer's Autobiographical Work

Judith Ortiz Cofer was one of my most important mentors: her influence on my life, both professional and personal, is more profound than I can express. I worked with Judith not as a student of crea...
A Flow Cytometry-Based Phenotypic Screen To Identify Novel Endocytic Factors in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Endocytosis is a fundamental process for internalizing material from the plasma membrane, including many transmembrane proteins that are selectively internalized depending on environmental conditions. In most cells, the main route of entry is clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME), a process that involves the coordinated activity of over 60 proteins; however, there are likely as-yet unidentified proteins involved in cargo selection and/or regulation of endocytosis. We performed a mutagenic screen to identify novel endocytic genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing the methionine permease Mup1 tagged with pHluorin (pHl), a pH-sensitive GFP variant whose fluorescence is quenched upon delivery to the acidic vacuole lumen. We used fluorescence-activated cell sorting to isolate mutagenized cells with elevated fluorescence, resulting from failure to traffic Mup1-pHl cargo to the vacuole, and further assessed subcellular localization of Mup1-pHl to characterize the endocytic defects in 256 mutants. A subset of mutant strains was classified as having general endocytic defects based on mislocalization of additional cargo proteins. Within this group, we identified mutations in four genes encoding proteins with known roles in endocytosis: the endocytic coat components SLA2, SLA1, and EDE1, and the ARP3 gene, whose product is involved in nucleating actin filaments to form branched networks. All four mutants demonstrated aberrant dynamics of the endocytic machinery at sites of CME; moreover, the arp3R346H mutation showed reduced actin nucleation activity in vitro Finally, whole genome sequencing of two general endocytic mutants identified mutations in conserved genes not previously implicated in endocytosis, KRE33 and IQG1, demonstrating that our screening approach can be used to identify new components involved in endocytosis.
Microscopic Methods for Analytical Studies of Fungi

Optical microscopy is essential in mycological research and analytical studies of fungi. This chapter describes techniques and procedures ­commonly used for microscopic studies of fungi and analytical studies of airborne fungal spores with an optical microscope.