bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Correlation Field Splitting of Chain Vibrations: Structure and Dynamics in Lipid Bilayers and Biomembranes
Authors: Wong Patrick T. T.
Published: November 2020

Pressure-tuning vibrational spectroscopy was first introduced to the study of structural and dynamic properties in biological systems from our laboratory about one decade ago. One of our efforts has been the search for spectral features and their pressure dependencies related to the structural and dynamic properties in biological systems. Pressure-induced correlation field splitting of the vibrational modes of methylene chains is one of the parameters that has been applied to monitor various structural and dynamic properties of a wide range of aqueous lipid bilayers and biomembranes in our laboratory. Correlation field splitting of the vibrational modes of the methylene chains in lipid bilayers is the result of vibrational coupling interactions among the ordered methylene chains with different site symmetry in the two-dimensional matrix. However, the basic theory and the characteristics of these interchain interactions in lipid bilayers still needed to be established. It was unknown whether the interchain interactions that result in the correlation field splitting take place within each lipid molecule or between neighboring molecules in the lamellar bilayers. The relative contributions of 'intramolecular and intermolecular interchain interactions to the correlation field splitting, and the effects of the long-range interchain interactions and interdigitation on the correlation field splitting, were also unknown. These problems have been resolved recently and are addressed in this chapter. Our laboratory has pioneered the study of structural and dynamic properties of biological systems by means of pressure-tuning vibrational spectroscopy (Wong et al., 1982). It is now well recognized that this spectroscopic technique is one of the most powerful physical methods for the study of biological and biomedical phenomena at the molecular level with enhanced resolution (Wong, 1984, 1987a, 1987b, 1987c, 1993). The biological systems we have studied by this method include not only various aqueous biomolecular assemblies but also whole cells and intact biological tissues (Rigas et al, 1990; Wong, 1984, 1987b, 1987c, 1993; Wong et al., 1991a, 1991b, 1993). We have found that the pressure-induced changes in many spectral features and parameters in both FTIR and Raman spectra of biological systems result from modifications in structure and dynamics at the molecular level.
Specific Adsorption of Cations
Authors: Yu T. R. , Sun H. Y.
Published: November 2020

In the adsorption of cations by soils, except for the electrostatic force discussed in Chapter 3, specific forces between the surface of soil particles and the cations may sometimes be involved. The adsorption caused by these specific forces is called specific adsorption. Apparently, this adsorption would be related to both the nature of the cations and the surface properties of the soil. Generally speaking, various oxides are the principal materials responsible for specific adsorption of cations in soils. Variable charge soils contain large amounts of iron and aluminum oxides. At the same time, their negative surface charge sites that can attract cations electrostatically are small in quantity. It can be expected that, compared to constant charge soils, their specific adsorption for cations would have more significance. Most of the cation species that can be adsorbed specifically by soils, such as copper, zinc, cobalt, and cadmium, belong to heavy metals. A large part of these heavy metals are transition elements in the periodic table. Alkali metal and alkaline earth metal ions can also be adsorbed specifically to some extent by soils under certain circumstances. However, this kind of adsorption is of less importance when compared to electrostatic adsorption, and the mechanism involved may be different from that for heavy metals. Among heavy metals, zinc occupies a special position in soil science because it is one important nutrient element for plants. In this chapter, after treatment on the principles of specific adsorption of heavy metal ions, detailed discussions will be presented for both the relative importance of specific adsorption and electrostatic adsorption of these ions and the consequences of specific adsorption, using the adsorption of zinc ions as an example. The cause of the difference in properties between the transition metal ions and the alkali metal and alkaline earth metal ions with respect to adsorption lies primarily in the difference in their atomic structure. Alkali metal and alkaline earth metal ions are characterized by a small amount of electric charge in the atomic nucleus, large ionic size, and weak polarizability. Therefore, the atom is difficult to deform.
Ion Diffusion
Authors: Yu T. R. , Wang E. J.
Published: November 2020

The microregional transport of ions under an externally applied electric field has been discussed previously. When ions are distributed heterogeneously in soil on a macroscopic scale, because of the presence of concentration gradient (i.e., the difference in chemical potential), ions tend to migrate from a site of high concentration to a site of low concentration. Such a phenomenon is called ion diffusion. The diffusion rate of various ions in a soil is related to the nature of the ions and the interaction among them and is also affected by the chemical processes in the soil, such as adsorption, desorption, and repulsion. For variable charge soils carrying both positive and negative surface charges, the factors that affect ion diffusion are rather complex. In the present chapter, after treatment of basic principles of ion diffusion, the characteristic features of ion diffusion in variable charge soils will be discussed, with the emphasis on diffusion of anions because this is one of the important means for elucidating the characteristics of variable charge soils. In a solution, if the ion concentration in point A is higher than that in point B, under static conditions, the number of ions moving from point A to point B will be larger than that moving in the opposite direction due to the random thermal motion of ions. In order to express the net ion flux J within an unit time interval through an unit area, Fick introduced the first diffusion law: . . . J = –D dC/dX . . . (9-1) where dC/dX is the concentration gradient. The negative sign in the equation denotes that the flux is from high concentration to low concentration; that is, the direction of the flux is opposite to that of the concentration gradient. D is called the diffusion coefficient. It can be seen from the equation that the diffusion coefficient is the flux passing through an unit cross-sectional area within a unit time interval under a unit concentration gradient. D is the most important parameter in ion diffusion. Fick’s first diffusion law is applicable to both homogeneous and heterogeneous medium such as soil.
A 19F and 2H NMR Spectroscopic Investigation of the Interaction Between Nonionic Organic Contaminants and Dissolved Humic Material
Authors: Herbert Bruce E. , Bertsch Paul M.
Published: November 2020

Interaction between nonionic organic contaminants (NOC) and natural organic matter strongly influences the fate and transport of NOC in the environment. Microscopic descriptions of NOC-organic matter interaction have been developed based on macroscopic observations of NOC sorption to organic matter and organic solute transport under varying conditions. These models include the partitioning concept describing NOC sorption to organic matter and the concept of intra-organic matter diffusion used to account for nonequilibrium organic solute transport; however, little microscopic information exists to validate them. NMR may be a powerful method to gain information and insight concerning NOC-organic matter interaction. Chemical shifts, linewidths, and the magnitude of spin-spin couplings exhibited in the NMR spectra of a given nucleus are dependent on the characteristics of the surrounding media and therefore can be used to study the NOC-organic matter interaction. NMR characterization of the chemical interaction between NOC and organic matter can potentially provide information on important aspects of the sorption mechanism. This information may be useful to explain the influence of organic matter characteristics on NOC sorption and the mechanisms controlling nonequilibrium sorption of NOC to organic matter and mineral phases, and to evaluate different conceptual models of natural humic material, including the polymer concept, where humics are considered to be flexible linear polyelectrolytes, and the micelle concept, which considers humics to be aggregates of simple organic compounds, oligomers, and humic molecules ultimately forming micellar-type structures. NMR has been used to study the interactions of small organic solutes with macromolecules and organized organic assemblies. Fluorine-19 NMR has been particularly useful to study these interactions because this magnetically active nucleus is 100% abundant, has a high sensitivity (83% of 1H) and large chemical shift range, and exhibits no background signal. Several NMR studies have followed the interactions between fluorinated anesthetics and phospholipids, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles, and intact rabbit brain tissue. Generally, these studies have indicated both that sorption sites are less polar than aqueous solutions and that there is decreased mobility of the sorbed solute. Fluorine-19 NMR has also been used to characterize the interactions between fluorine-containing ligands, such as fluorotryptophan, and human serum albumin (HSA).
Solution and Condensed Phase Characterization
Authors: Minear Roger A. , Nanny Mark A.
Published: November 2020

Improvements in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instrumentation, magnetic field strength, pulse sequences, and computer technology and software have increased the range of applications and specific elements available for study by NMR. The five chapters in this Part clearly indicate the benefits of these advances, especially regarding studies of aquatic, environmental significance. Each of the studies focuses on environmentally significant issues. For example, chlorination is widely used to disinfect drinking waters, a method that can produce undesirable disinfection by-products. This was first recognized in 1974 with the discovery of trihalomethanes in most finished drinking waters where hypochlorite was used for disinfection. Chapter 7 examines the chlorination of alanine and relates it to the chlorination reactions of acetaldehyde and ammonia, a topic of importance with respect to drinking water disinfection. Aluminum is also widely used in drinking water treatment, and understanding its hydrolysis chemistry and complexation behavior is of great importance to aquatic chemistry. In addition, the aquatic chemistry of aluminum is important because acid rain can release soluble aluminum ions from clay into soil water, possibly damaging terrestrial plant life. Aluminum may eventually reach and accumulate in hydrological systems where it can be toxic to aquatic life. Chapters 8 and 9 focus on 27Al NMR in defining aqueous aluminum speciation in a mildly acidic solution or in the presence of complexing organic compounds. Furthermore, aluminum is of environmental and geochemical significance since it is an integral component of clays, another ubiquitous constituent of natural waters (surface and ground). Interaction between clays, cations, and internal water molecules can be significant in understanding the fate and transport of chemicals through the environment. Since colloidal suspensions of clay materials frequently represent challenges to water and wastewater treatment, understanding of physical and chemical processes are of tantamount importance to the environmental scientist and engineer. Chapter 10 explores cation behavior in clay matrices by using “uncommon” nuclei such as 7Li, 23Na, and 133Cs as probes. This is unique in that many NMR studies of complexation in clay have focused primarily upon the nuclei 27A1 and 29Si.
Use of 31P NMR in the Study of Soils and the Environment
Authors: Condron Leo M. , Frossard Emmanuel
Published: November 2020

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for plants and animals because of its vital role in energy transformation processes such as photosynthesis and glycolysis. Soil is the primary source of P for plants (and animals), and while native soil P is mainly derived from the mineral apatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH,F)2) present in soil parent material, supplementary P is added in fertilizers. In addition, large quantities of P are present in household and industrial chemicals such as detergents, and as a result organic wastes such as municipal sewage sludge contain significant amounts of various chemical forms of inorganic and organic P. The biogeochemical cycling of P in soil is determined by a complex interaction of chemical, biochemical and biological processes, which in turn are influenced by a variety of environmental and anthropogenic factors in natural and agro-ecosystems. It is clear that P is a key element in the environment; it is indispensable for plant growth, but its release into water bodies such as rivers and lakes can cause significant environmental damage as a result of eutrophication. The detailed chemical nature and associated transformations of P in the soil—plant system, and the fate of native and applied P in particular, must be fully understood in order to maximize the agronomic benefits of P while minimizing any adverse environmental impacts. The latter is particularly important in view of the growing importance of land application as a disposal option for organic wastes such as animal manures and municipal sewage sludge. The large gyromagnetic ratio of the 31P nucleus and its 100% natural abundance make 31P easy to detect by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and accordingly NMR has been used to examine P in a wide variety of environments. In particular, NMR spectroscopy has been shown to be a valuable tool for investigating the chemical nature and transformations of P in the soil environment and the associated fate of fertilizers, pesticides and organic wastes. This chapter includes a brief summary of the use of liquid-state 31P NMR to investigate the chemical nature and cycling of P in the soil-plant system and the fate of selected pesticides.
The Classroom Community "in Control"
Authors: Bartlett Leslee , Turkanis Carolyn Goodman
Published: November 2020

Many people think a well-functioning classroom needs a teacher to be in control. In the OC, the structure of the classroom is not based on a teacher or other adult controlling the children. A key aim of the OC is for children and adults to collaborate, with responsibility to the group, so that the classroom community is in control, not the teacher. If adults controlled the children, it would impede the children’s opportunities to learn how to become responsible for their own learning and their collaboration with the group. Building the skills and expectations for responsible participation in a group is an important part of the curriculum from kindergarten through sixth grade. On a daily basis in Leslee’s kindergarten classroom, time is spent helping children take responsibility for their own behavior. Five- and six-year-olds are capable of discussing, following, and reflecting on classroom guidelines that allow productive and co-operative learning to occur. The guidelines come from the class constitution that children help develop at the beginning of the year, which sets up expectations for behavior. A daily opportunity for the kindergarten classroom to learn to manage itself occurs during a challenging transition time between snack and story circle. Although this transition may last for only five minutes, it is easy for these young children to forget appropriate behavior—when children finish their snack, they can either choose a book to read or visit quietly in circle while waiting for the rest of the class to join them. The challenge of this transition often provides a learning experience through a conversation that takes place once the whole group is assembled in circle. With guidance from Leslee, the children evaluate their own behavior and that of the classroom as a whole. The goal is a classroom in control, not a teacher in control. To evaluate how the group is progressing in learning to manage the classroom structure, Leslee purposely leaves the classroom at times and asks a co-oper to keep an eye on things in case there are any issues.
Parents' Learning about Children's Learning
Authors: Lewis Leslie
Published: November 2020

Through their experiences in OC classrooms, parents become learners themselves and transform their way of thinking about how children learn and develop. The parents’ learning is an important resource for the children’s classroom learning, and it also extends the impact of the OC philosophy from classrooms to homes. Because parents and children share in learning at school, the philosophy and practices become part of many families’ home life. Before our family found the OC, I had been volunteering in my daughter’s kindergarten in her previous school—cutting, laminating, filing, and trying to stay out of the way. It didn’t take long to realize that the teacher (nice though she was) saw a clear distinction between home and school. She tolerated me, but neither of us had a clear idea how I could best help in the classroom. I wasn’t interacting with the children at all. Even when the teacher left the classroom for 15 or 20 minutes to deal with behavior problems, she didn’t ask me to take charge; the children were on their own. When a friend and I went to observe the OC, I was impressed that the co-opers and the teacher were focused and collaborative and supportive. Soon after this we joined the OC. I was motivated to help my daughter learn, like most parents in the OC, but I had a lot to learn myself about how I and other adults can help children learn. Initially, the only thing that made the OC more valuable to my family than the neighborhood school was the parental involvement—I could know what was going on in the classroom as well as being acquainted with the children and adults in my child’s life. As to other aspects of education at the OC, such as problem solving and building curriculum around children’s interests—I knew nothing about them and did not know what to expect. My children’s education has become one of the biggest educational experiences of my life. Some of my most important “lessons” were how children can solve problems and how adults can support this, how teaching can be integrated around children’s interests, and how adult flexibility supports children’s learning.
OC Teachers Take Their Learning to Other Schools
Authors: Smith Judy , Wilson Mimi
Published: November 2020

In 1977, when the OC program was brand-new, and for a number of years thereafter, we shared the excitement and the work, both as parents and as teachers. We are now living in different states, working in very different kinds of schools. Judy is a high school principal in a large public high school in Washington State. Mimi is a fourth-grade teacher in an independent school in South Carolina that is associated with a major school-restructuring initiative (the Coalition of Essential Schools). In our efforts to contribute to reform in our classrooms and schools, we find that we are returning, about 20 years later, to the basic philosophy that directed our OC experience. In many ways, what we learned in the OC, both in terms of instructional practices and in terms of change processes, is giving us the confidence we need to proceed in our new settings. Personal experiences and the general principles of the OC—along with increasingly compelling research about how children learn that questions the way schools are traditionally organized and how we think about curriculum and instruction—have helped us organize and promote new programs on both sides of the country. The changes we are working on are not simple ones. We are looking at ways to integrate across disciplines, combining English, physics, and history into an integrated block. Instead of chopping school days into isolated blocks of time, we are exploring ways of lengthening these blocks of time and trying more flexible schedules. We are looking at designing work for children that covers fewer things in greater depth, through more focused inquiry. Believing that children will learn better if they can make connections, we seek ways to challenge students not just to memorize material but to apply it as well. We are working to make it possible for individual students to carry out research and to present their work before a critical audience. These changes have the potential to challenge the sacrosanct purpose of most schools: to prepare students for the next level and to get them into colleges.
Introduction: Catholic Higher Education in 1900
Authors: Gleason Philip
Published: November 2020

A great many Catholic colleges existed in the United States at the opening of the twentieth century. Exactly how many it is impossible to say with certainty because any answer presupposes agreement on the answer to a prior question: “What should be counted as a college?” The Catholic Directory for 1900 listed 10 universities, 178 “colleges for boys,” 109 seminaries, and 662 “academies for girls.” According to this count, there were no Catholic women’s colleges at that time, although the College of Notre Dame of Maryland graduated its first baccalaureate class in 1899 and is included among the 128 colleges for women listed in U.S. Commissioner of Education’s Report for 1899-1900. The same Report, however, listed only 62 Catholic institutions among the 480 included under the heading: “Universities and colleges for men and for both sexes.” No doubt some Catholic colleges simply failed to provide the information necessary to appear in the Commissioner’s Report. But their failure to do so is in itself significant; and even assuming that is what happened, it still leaves an enormous gap between the Commissioner’s figures and the 188 colleges and universities reported in the Catholic Directory. Moreover, many of the “colleges for boys” could, with equal justice, have been called academies, since elementary- and secondary-level students made up the majority of their student bodies. As the case of Notre Dame of Maryland indicates, Catholic “academies for girls” were beginning to upgrade themselves to collegiate status. Had the word college been more freely applied to non-Catholic institutions for women at an earlier date, a good many of these academies would probably have called themselves colleges long before, for they did not differ all that much from the “colleges for boys” in terms of curricular offerings and age-range of students. While the situation of Catholic institutions was particularly murky, the question “What makes a college a college?” engaged the attention of practically everyone involved in secondary and collegiate education at the turn of the century.
The Impact of World War I
Authors: Gleason Philip
Published: November 2020

The importance of World War I as a watershed in twentieth-century American history has long been recognized, and recent studies agree that that interpretation applies to higher education and to American Catholic history. Not surprisingly, it also applies to the development of Catholic higher education. The war did not in itself revolutionize that activity, but by reinforcing and accelerating tendencies already at work it closed the door on one epoch and set the stage for another. The decisive difference between the two eras was that the war settled in favor of the modernizing reformers the debate over the organizational issues discussed in Chapter 2. This came about because efforts to rationalize Catholic higher education were swept along in what David M. Kennedy has called “the great war-forced march toward a better articulated structuring of American life.” Coming after two decades of industrial consolidation and in the midst of a craze for “efficiency,” wartime mobilization brought the movement for planning and control to an unprecedented level of intensity. “Czars” were appointed, or national commissions established, to supervise industrial production, agriculture and food distribution, fuel supplies, labor, the railroads, and shipping. Mobilization of opinion was entrusted to the Committee on Public Information, which reached into every corner of the land, including the schools. This was all carried on at a high pitch of patriotism; the same emotion, along with the felt need to keep pace with ongoing changes, led to the creation of many voluntary agencies of coordination, such as the American Council on Education and the National Research Council, to mention two quite important for higher education. By far the most important result of this impulse among American Catholics was formation in 1917 of the National Catholic War Council and its transformation after the war into a permanent organization called the National Catholic Welfare Conference (both of which used the initials NCWC). Scholars have only recently begun to unravel the complexities of this story, but their work makes clear that, precisely because the NCWC represented so important a step toward centralization, its formation aroused fierce opposition from Catholics fearful of encroachments on their own freedom of action.
Transition to a New Era
Authors: Gleason Philip
Published: November 2020

We have already noted among the crosscurrents of the postwar decade assimilative tendencies that ran counter to a key impulse of the Catholic Revival— the drive to build a distinctive Catholic culture and thereby “to redeem all things in Christ.” Here we look more systematically at the most significant of those countervailing tendencies from the late 1940s, when they were still a minor theme, to the early 1960s when they merged with the forces unleashed by the Second Vatican Council. We begin with a development in American Catholic historical scholarship—research devoted to the Americanist controversy of the 1890s. The results of this research began to appear during the war; over the next fifteen years, books and articles on the subject assumed the proportions of a small flood. Taken as a whole, the new scholarship reinforced midcentury Catholic liberalism and helped prepare the way for the deeper changes of the 1960s. At bottom, the late nineteenth-century controversy arose from policy differences over how the Catholic church should respond to social and intellectual changes accompanying the onset of what we have been calling modernity. As pointed out in the Introduction, the Catholic University of America was a storm center of conflict; moreover, papal condemnations of Americanism in 1899 and of Modernism in 1907 played a crucial role in establishing the ideological framework within which Catholic higher education developed in the twentieth century. That framework involved a firm rejection of modernity, but the historical recovery of the Americanist episode indirectly nurtured a more positive attitude toward the modern world. The fact that Catholic historians of the generation immediately following the controversy studiously avoided investigating it shows how sensitive the issues remained for almost half a century. Theodore Maynard, who devoted a chapter to “The American Heresy” in his popular Story of American Catholicism (1941), observed that few Catholics had ever heard of such a thing and those who tried to learn more about it would soon find themselves at a dead end.
Ab Initio Studies of Anti-Cancer Drugs
Authors: Sapse Anne-Marie
Published: November 2020

Cancer is an extraordinarily complicated group of diseases which are characterized by the loss of normal control of the maintenance of cellular organization in the tissues. It is still not completely understood how much of the disease is of genetic, viral, or environmental origin. The result, however, is that cancer cells possess growth advantages over normal cells, a reality which damages the host by local pressure effects, destruction of tissues, and secondary systemic effects. As such, a goal of cancer therapy is the destruction of cancer cells via chemotherapeutic agents or radiation. Since the late 1940s, when Farber treated leukemia with methotrexate, cancer therapy with cytotoxic drugs made enormous progress. Chemotherapy is usually integrated with other treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, and it is clear that post-surgery, it is effective with solid tumors. This is due to the fact that only systemic therapy can attack micrometastases. The rationale for using chemotherapy is the control of tumor-cell populations via a killing mechanism. The major problem in this approach is the lack of selectivity of chemotherapeutic agents. Some agents indeed preferentially kill cancer cells, but no agents have been synthesized yet which kill only cancer cells and do not affect normal cells. Unfortunately, normal tissues are affected, giving rise to a multitude of side effects. In addition to drugs exhibiting cytotoxic activity, antiproliferative drugs are also formulated. According to their mode of action, anti-cancer drugs are divided into several classes. . . . alkylating agents antimetabolites DNA intercalators mitotic inhibitors lexitropsins drugs which bind covalently to DNA . . . Experimental studies of these molecules are complemented and enhanced by theoretical studies. Some of the theoretical studies use molecular mechanics methods while others apply ab initio or semi-empirical quantum-chemistry methods. Most of these molecules are large and besides their structures and properties it is important to investigate their interaction with DNA fragments (themselves large molecules). Ab initio calculations cannot always be applied to the whole system. Therefore, models are used and through a judicious choice of the entities investigated, the calculations can shed light on the problem and provide enough information to complement the experimental studies.
Market Control
Authors: Sperber Daniel
Published: November 2020

He is indeed a familiar personality in classical literature and frequently appears in literary epigraphic and papyrological sources. His duties are fairly well defined and have been competently described on a number of occasions. Likewise, we know him from Rabbinic sources, in which he appears under the guise of different spellings and even different names. Here I shall try to sum up Rabbinic evidence on the subject and thus define the office and duties of the agoranomos in Roman Palestine. The notion of authoritative supervision of the weights and measures in use in a market is ancient and is found in Biblical law. Deuteronomy 25:14-15 prescribes that “Thou shalt not have in thine house diverse measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and a just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have. . . .” Although this is formulated as a direct injunction upon the individual, clearly the practical implementation of such a commandment posits some kind of controlling authoritative framework. Tannaitic law (i.e., up to ca. 220 C.E.) exegetically expounds this latter verse as follows (Sifrei Deuteronomy, sec. 294): “[But] thou shalt have [a perfect and just weight]. . . .”—appoint an agoranomos for this (or according to some readings: for measures). Although this ruling is based upon the Biblical verse, the actual institution of the agoranomos is clearly Hellenistic in origin; the use of a Greek loanword, as apposed to some local (Hebrew or Aramaic) term, is ample testimony. From the Sifrei we learn of the agoranomos’ duty to control the standards of weights and measures in the market. Indeed, T. H. Dyer reminds us in his Pompeii (London, 1871) that in Pompeii “in a recess at the northeast end of the temple under the colonnade of the Forum stood the public measures for wine, oil, and grain. These consisted of nine cylindrical holes cut in an oblong block of tufa: There are five large holes for grain and four smaller ones for wine. The former had a sliding bottom that the grain when measured might easily be removed. The latter are provided with tubes to draw off the liquid. These measures were placed near the horrea or public granaries”.
An Empirical Comparison
Authors: Bäck Thomas
Published: November 2020

Given the discussions about Evolutionary Algorithms from the previous chapters, we shall now apply them to the artificial topologies just presented. This will be done by simply running the algorithms in their standard forms (according to the definitions of standard forms as given in sections 2.1.6, 2.2.6, and 2.3.6) for a reasonable number of function evaluations on these problems. The experiment compares an algorithm that self-adapts n standard deviations and uses recombination (the Evolution Strategy), an algorithm that self-adapts n standard deviations and renounces recombination (meta-Evolutionary Programming), and an algorithm that renounces self-adaptation but stresses the role of recombination (the Genetic Algorithm). Furthermore, all algorithms rely on different selection mechanisms. With respect to the level of self-adaptation, the choice of the Evolution Strategy and Evolutionary Programming variants is fair, while the Genetic Algorithm leaves us no choice (i.e., no self-adaptation mechanism is used within the standard Genetic Algorithm). Concerning the population size the number of offspring individuals (λ) is adjusted to a common value of λ = 100 in order to achieve comparability of population sizes while at the same time limiting the computational requirements to a justifiable amount. This results in the following three algorithmic instances that are compared here (using the standard notation introduced in chapter 2): • ES(n,0,rdI, s(15,100)): An Evolution Strategy that self-adapts n standard deviations but does not use correlated mutations. Recombination is discrete on object variables and global intermediate on standard deviations, and the algorithm uses a (15,100)-selection mechanism. • mEP(6,10,100): A meta-Evolutionary Programming algorithm that — by default — self-adapts n variances and controls mutation of variances by a meta-parameter ζ = 6. The tournament size for selection and the population size amount to q = 10 and μ = 100, respectively. • GA(30,0.001,r{0.6, 2}, 5,100): A Genetic Algorithm that evolves a population of μ = 100 bitstrings of length l = 30 • n, each. The scaling window size for linear dynamic scaling is set to ω = 5. Proportional selection, a two-point crossover operator with application rate 0.6 and a mutation operator with bit-reversal probability 1.0·10−3 complete the algorithm.
Second Moments of Rain
Authors: Polyak Ilya
Published: November 2020

The first part of this chapter presents a description of the GATE rain rate data (Polyak and North, 1995), its two-dimensional spectral and correlation characteristics, and multivariate models. Such descriptions have made it possible to show the concentration of significant power along the frequency axis in the spatial-temporal spectra; to detect a diurnal cycle (a range of variation of which is about 3.4 to 5.4 mm/hr); to study the anisotropy (as the result of the distinction between the north-south and east-west transport of rain) of spatial rain rate fields; to evaluate the scales of the distinction between second-moment estimates associated with ground and satellite samples; to determine the appropriate spatial and temporal scales of the simple linear stochastic models fitted to averaged rain rate fields; and to evaluate the mean advection velocity of the rain rate fluctuations. The second part of this chapter (adapted from Polyak et al., 1994) is mainly devoted to the diffusion of rainfall (from PRE-STORM experiment) by associating the multivariate autoregressive model parameters and the diffusion equation coefficients. This analysis led to the use of rain data to estimate rain advection velocity as well as other coefficients of the diffusion equation of the corresponding field. The results obtained can be used in the ground truth problem for TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite observations, for comparison with corresponding estimates of other sources of data (TOGA-COARE, or simulated by physical, models), for generating multiple rain samples of any size, and in some other areas of rain data analysis and modeling. For many years, the GATE data base has served as the richest and most accurate source of rain observations. Dozens of articles presenting the results of the GATE rain rate data analysis and modeling have been published, and more continue to be released. Recently, a new, valuable set of rain data was produced as a result of the TOGA-COARE experiment. In a few years, it will be possible to obtain satellite (TRMM) rain information, and a rain statistical description will be needed in the analysis of the observations obtained on an irregular spatial and temporal grid.
The Birth of the Earth
Authors: Verschuur Gerrit L.
Published: November 2020

As we apprehend the likelihood of an almost inconceivable cosmic impact occurring again at some time in the future, it is worth considering how we got to be here in the first place. The quest for an explanation of our origins is, of course, as old as the ability of humans to conceptualize questions and consider answers. Our species has probably been able to do that for hundreds of thousands of years, since well before evidence of its ability to comprehend was etched in cave paintings, perhaps back in an age when stone tools began to be patiently chipped out of flint rock. But when questions about origins were first hesitatingly formulated, answers could only be invented. There was no way any human beings could have known back then what we know now about the nature of the universe and its contents. Our collective ability to understand the world in which we live received an enormous impetus starting about 400 years ago when the scientific method for approaching reality was first practiced. That was when it was discovered that through experiment and observation, and above all through measurement, it became possible to unravel the secrets of the universe. That was when Galileo first pointed a telescope at the heavens, William Gilbert experimented with natural magnets, and Johannes Kepler discovered the laws of planetary motion. Since then, our species has gathered a stunning new perspective on the nature of this universe and its origins, a perspective that has relegated to the back burner of human thought most of the fantasies that have so long held sway over the human mind. As a result of the high technology that has emerged during this century, scientists have learned to probe into the depths of matter and into the farthest reaches of space. In the course of this exploration, astronomers, in particular, have learned that the universe has its roots in awesome violence and that the birth of the earth and moon were accompanied by what, from our perspective, would be considered catastrophic events. Were anything remotely similar to occur today, all life on earth would be instantly terminated.
Comet Impacts in History
Authors: Verschuur Gerrit L.
Published: November 2020

When in 1980 Luis Alvarez and his team published their suggestion that the mass extinction event of 65 million years ago was triggered by the impact of a large asteroid, their notion was treated with scorn by many geologists, astronomers, and paleontologists. Since then, a growing consensus has developed among scientists from various disciplines concerning the relationship between the K/T event and impact. Following the identification of the associated crater in the Yucatan, a great deal of argument has subsided. Even before the Alvarez study, two British astronomers, Victor Clube of Oxford University and William Napier of the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, considered the possibility that there was evidence in ancient documents that suggested that lesser impacts had occurred in historical times. What they found was that “The dreaded expectation of fire from the heavens is a pregnant component of our intellectual heritage.” Their proposals were received with even less fervor than first greeted the Alvarez hypothesis. The treacherous quicksand between intellectual disciplines is where Clube and Napier have dared to roam, in this case between astronomy and history. For their troubles they have suffered the slings and arrows of outraged critics from both sides. Yet they have found some interesting patterns in history that bear repeating, stories that may tell us something about what the future holds in store for us. The greatest barrier that stands in the way of Clube and Napier as they struggle to make their story heard may be the trauma suffered by astronomers in the United States in the 1950s. That was when the Immanuel Velikovsky affair stirred up painful controversy. Velikovsky was an amateur who dared suggest that there was evidence in ancient historical records, myth, and folklore for astronomical events that were not within the experience of modern astronomers. So far so good, and that is what Clube and Napier suggest as well. But Velikovsky added fanciful interpretations of the ancient myth and folklore while claiming his study was a scientific one. It didn’t take critical readers long to recognize that Velikovsky was neither an able astronomer nor a historian, but somehow he managed to convince a publisher of his credibility.
Introduction :Your Child Can Read Better With Your Help
Authors: Wiener Harvey S.
Published: November 2020

Today’s parents have a lively interest in. assisting their children as learners, and this interest has spawned a plethora of books on home reading programs. It's natural to raise this question, then: why yet another book for helping children read at home? Surely the bookstore and library shelves are groaning with volumes that can help you create a "home schoolroom," enough to produce a nation of advanced readers. Why yet another book? For good reasons, believe me. Obviously, most parents want to help their children learn. A couple of years ago, Professor Joyce Epstei at Johns Hopkins surveyed the parents of more than 250 Baltimore children. Her findings, reported in The New York Times, showed that kids had higher reading scores if parents supported their youngsters' efforts at home. What's even more interesting is that although mothers and fathers wanted to involve themselves actively in their children's learning, very few knew just what to do. A shocking eighty per cent reported that they didn't have a clue about where to begin in helping their children succeed in school. With this apparent insecurity, many moms and dads are reaching for books in an effort to learn what they don't know. Hence, all the how-to-helpyour- child read productions. However, unlike Any Child Can Read Better, most "home learning" books address parents of toddlers and preschoolers and attempt to create a race of superkids who can read almost before they can walk. Teach-your-child- to-read books concentrate on turning the home nursery into a classroom—reading drills with flash cards, oversized words pinned as labels on familiar objects, interminable sessions on alphabet skills, phonetics, sight vocabulary, and sounding-out words. Too many books for parents of young learners have turned on the pressure and have turned off the pleasure for mothers and fathers as guiders and shapers of learning experiences. Moms and dads are not drill sergeants. Home isn't boot camp. If you're the mother or father of a preschooler, unless you're home learning parents who won't send your children to school in any case, don't teach your son or daughter how to read.
Towards a Model Theory of Venn Diagrams
Authors: Hammer Eric , Danner Norman
Published: November 2020

One of the goals of logical analysis is to construct mathematical models of various practices of deductive inference. Traditionally, this is done by means of giving semantics and rules of inference for carefully specified formal languages. While this has proved to be an extremely fruitful line of analysis, some facets of actual inference are not accurately modeled by these techniques. The example we have in mind concerns the diversity of types of external representations employed in actual deductive reasoning. Besides language, these include diagrams, charts, tables, graphs, and so on. When the semantic content of such non-linguistic representations is made clear, they can be used in perfectly rigorous proofs. A simple example of this is the use of Venn diagrams in deductive reasoning. If used correctly, valid inferences can be made with these diagrams, and if used incorrectly, they can be the source of invalid inferences; there are standards for their correct use. To analyze such standards, one might construct a formal system of Venn diagrams where the syntax, rules of inference, and notion of logical consequence have all been made precise and explicit, as is done in the case of first-order logic. In this chapter, we will study such a system of Venn diagrams, a variation of Shin’s system VENN formulated and studied in Shin [1991] and Shin [1991a] (see Chapter IV of this book). Shin proves a soundness theorem and a finite completeness theorem (if ∆ is a finite set of diagrams, D is a diagram, and D is a logical consequence of ∆ , then D is provable from ∆ ). We extend Shin’s completeness theorem to the general case: if ∆ is any set of diagrams, D is a, diagram, and D is a logical consequence of ∆. then D is provable from ∆. We hope that the fairly simple diagrammatic system discussed here will help motivate closer study of the use of more complicated diagrams in actual inference.
A Diagrammatic Subsystem of Hilbert's Geometry
Authors: Luengo Isabel
Published: November 2020

In the last few years there has been an increasing interest in the visual representation of mathematical concepts. The fact that computers can help us perform graphical tasks very easily has been translated into an increasing interest in diagrammatic representations in general. Several experiments have shown that diagrammatic reasoning plays a main role in the way in which experts in several areas solve problems (Gobert and Freferiksen [1992] and Kindfield [1992]). Two kinds of explanations have been given for the advantages of visual representations over linguistic ones. The first kind of explanation is psychological. It has been argued that visual representations are easier to use because they resemble the mental models hurnans build to solve problems Stenning and Oberlander [1991], Johnson-Laird and Byrne [1991], arid Tverski [1991]. The second kind of explanation is related to computational efficiency. Larkin and Simon [1987] have argued that diagrammatic representations are computationally more efficient than sentential representations because the location of each element in the diagram corresponds to the spatial or topological properties of the objects they represent. However, the efficiency of the use of diagrams is not enough justification for their use in analytical areas of knowledge. Mathematical discoveries often have been made using visual reasoning, but those very same discoveries were not justified by the visual reasoning. Diagrams are associated with intuitions and illustrations, not with rigorous proofs. Visual representations are allowed in the context of discovery, not in the context of justification. Many authors have considered diagrams in opposition to deductive systems. Lindsay [1988], for instance, has claimed that the main feature of visual representations is that they correspond to a non-deductive kind of inference system. Koedinger and Anderson [1991] have related diagrammatic reasoning in geometry to informal, inductive strategies to solve problems. Thus, though we have an empirical justification for the use of diagrams in mathematics (people use them and they work!) we do not usually have an analytical justification. In fact, the history of mathematics, and especially the history of geometry, is full of mistakes related to the use of diagrams.