cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Steady-State Component of Three-Dimensional Slab-on-Grade Foundation Heat Transfer

General semi-analytical solutions for the steady-state heat conduction problems for circular and three-dimensional rectangular slab-on-grade floors with uniform insulation are presented. The soil temperature field, and the total slab heat loss are presented and analyzed using the Interzone Temperature Profile Estimation (ITPE) technique. A parametric analysis is conducted to determine the effect of thermal insulation U-value, slab size, and water table depth on the total slab heat loss. In particular, it was found that the total slab heat loss is independent of its shape but is strongly affected by the slab size and thermal characteristics.
Field Studies with Systemic Insecticides against Cattle Grubs and Lice

In tests involving 270 calves treated orally with single doses of systemic insecticides in bolus form, Dow ET-57 (Trolene) and Dowco-109 (phosphoramidothioic acid, methyl 1-, O -(-4- tert - butyl-2-chlorophenyl) O -methyl ester), gave high kills of Hypoderma lineatum (DeVill.) and H. bovis (L.). Control with both insecticides exceeded 90%. Dow ET-57 appeared to be as effective at a dosage rate of 85 mg./kg. as at 110 mg./kg. Dimethoate ( O,O ,-dimethyl-S- (N-methylcarbamolymethyl) phosphorodithioate), also called Am. Cyanamid 12,880, gave only erratic control at rates of 15 and 10 mg./kg. None of the three insecticides, when given orally, killed 100% of cattle lice, but dimethoate produced higher kills than Dow ET-57 or Dowco-109. When given as feed additives to 160 calves, Dowco-109 at 2.0, 7.5, and 15 mg./kg. fed for 10,2, and 1 day, respectively, and Dow ET-57 at 55 mg./kg. fed for 2 days, caused grub reductions of 61 to 82%. Better results might have been obtained under more normal feeding conditions than prevailed in this test. As a complete coverage spray, Bayer 21/199 (Co-ral) 0.25 and 0.5% (from wettable powder) provided excellent louse control for at least 5 months. Dowco-109 (wettable powder) provided good louse control for a period of from 3 to more than 4 months. Neither Bayer 21/199 nor Dowco-109 gave satisfactory control of grubs under the conditions of these spray tests, although each gave about 80% control in one test at a concentration of 0.5%. It was concluded that Bayer 21/199 might potentially provide “one-shot” grub and lie control on cattle.
Configuration of the system for a fashion coordination service based on clothes life logs

As human interfaces enhanced by augmented reality (AR) and ubiquitous service environments begin to take hold in society, researches are undertaken on daily life support services that focus on the availability of life logs. This paper presents an intelligent mirror (IM) system that is intended to assist the user with fashion coordination based on his/her clothes life logs. A clothes life log used here consists of several information elements: a photo image of clothes worn by the user, the number of times a particular set of clothes has been worn, its category, its wear comfort, and the occasion when it was worn (place, temperature, sky conditions, and wind speed). The system recommends clothes suitable for the conditions of a particular day. This paper defines equations used to determine the degree of similarity between the user's requirements and data in his/her clothes life logs, and presents an algorithm for recommending suitable clothes. An experimental system of the proposed IM was developed and was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm based on clothes life log data collected over 80 days.
Is the WTO mystery really solved

The WTO’s impact on bilateral trade remains puzzling due, in part, to previous studies’ failure to simultaneously address three issues: inclusion of zero trade, proper controls for multilateral resistance, and proper membership definition. Addressing all fails to suggest a positive effect.
DECISION ANALYSIS OF CORTICOSTEROID TREATMENT IN PREGNANCIES 24-32 WEEKS' GESTATION WITH PRETERM PREMATURE RUPTURE OF MEMBRANES. † 1575

DECISION ANALYSIS OF CORTICOSTEROID TREATMENT IN PREGNANCIES 24-32 WEEKS' GESTATION WITH PRETERM PREMATURE RUPTURE OF MEMBRANES. † 1575
Non-Cartesian sampling schemes and the acquisition of 2D NMR correlation spectra from single-scan experiments

Abstract Continuous non-Cartesian sampling schemes, widely used in modern NMR imaging, can yield complete 2D NMR spectra within a single-scan signal digitization. The present work illustrates a purely spectroscopic application of this strategy to the extraction of 2D NMR spectra from heteronuclear pairs of coupled spins. The experiment allows one to digitize a unidimensional data set which after proper rearrangement and processing, affords a complete chemical shift-heteronuclear coupling 2D correlation NMR spectrum. Theoretical and computational aspects involved in these single-scan experiments are discussed, and a series of solution NMR examples are presented.
Care through Authenticity: Teacher Preparation for an Ethic of Care in an Age of Accountability.

Abstract This study elucidates the role that authenticity—knowing and being one's self—plays in preservice teachers' introduction to care ethics in a multicultural urban context. In one teacher education program, in observations, interviews, and surveys, preservice teachers described that caring required authenticity to avoid complying with uncaring mandates, to make choices reflective of one's beliefs, to find connections between one's self and the curriculum, and to de-center one's own ways of seeing the world.
Performance, Space, Time: The Production of Interiority in Black Rock City

ABSTRACTTemporary environments for revelry and celebration offer incredible opportunities for exploration, experimentation, and empowerment; the impermanent nature of experience is mesmerizing when we cherish the moments and wish they would last forever. Ephemeral spaces constitute an amazing laboratory for researching the social production of interiority. When researching temporary environments, there is hardly a better case for ephemerality and enchantment than the surreal phenomenon of Burning Man, an event that creates Black Rock City in the Nevada desert. Black Rock City provides a safe and supportive environment for experimenting with new kinds of social organization, new relationships, norms, and rules of behavior, as well as new forms of art and new spatialities. The goal of this project is to explore the production of space by this alternative culture that physically gathers for only one week each year. The objective is to highlight the social nature of the interiorization of space in this city c...
Investigation of Buoyancy Effects on Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in Heating Mode

Experiments were performed to investigate the effects of buoyancy on heat transfer characteristics of supercritical carbon dioxide in heating mode. Turbulent flows with Reynolds numbers up to 60,000, at operating pressures of 7.5, 8.1, and 10.2 MPa, were tested in a round tube. Local heat transfer coefficients were obtained from measured wall temperatures over a large set of experimental parameters that varied inlet temperature from 20 to 55°C, mass flux from 150 to 350 kg/m2s, and a maximum heat flux of 65 kW/m2. Horizontal, upward, and downward flows were tested to investigate the unusual heat transfer characteristics due to the effect of buoyancy and flow acceleration caused by large variation in density. In the case of upward flow, severe localized deterioration in heat transfer was observed due to reduction in the turbulent shear stress and is characterized by a sharp increase in wall temperature. In the case of downward flow, turbulent shear stress is enhanced by buoyancy forces, leading to an enhancement in heat transfer. In the case of horizontal flow, flow stratification occurred, leading to a circumferential variation in wall temperature. Thermocouples mounted 180° apart on the tube revealed that the wall temperatures on the top side are significantly higher than the bottom side of the tube. Buoyancy factor calculations for all the test cases indicated that buoyancy effects cannot be ignored even for horizontal flow at Reynolds numbers as high as 20,000. Experimentally determined Nusselt numbers are compared to existing correlations available in the literature. Existing correlations predicted the experimental data within ±30%, with maximum deviation around the pseudocritical point.
Superiority of Latency-Weighted Scores Over Unweighted Scores in the Assessment of Professional Interests.

Scores obtained from latency-weighted testing correlated significantly with projective incomplete-sentence scores (0.55) but not with paper-and-pencil scores (.05) in assessing professional suitability. The latency-weighted scores provided increased diagnostic value in responses to interest-inventory items.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: The Impact of Individual, Couple, and Family Dynamics

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an increasingly common chronic medical condition that affects not only patients but also their families. Because this condition has significant psychosocial impact, effective treatment requires an integration of psychosocial treatment—including individual, couples, and family counseling—with conventional medical treatment. Individual psychological dynamics as well as couple and family dynamics that can influence the treatment process are described along with implications for couples counseling. An illustrative case example is included.
Analysis of secreted proteins as an in vitro model for discovery of liver toxicity markers.

Despite the wealth of sequence data and new technologies that can scan large portions of the transcriptome or proteome in a single experiment, attempts to identify human biomarkers of toxicity have been met with limited success. We have adapted an in vitro model system to identify proteins secreted by a human hepatoma-derived cell line (HepG2/C3A) in response to toxicant exposure. Using quantitative proteomics, we can find alterations in the abundance of proteins at the source of damage—liver cells—that are likely to be present in blood samples of exposed animals. In a proof of concept experiment, conditioned medium from cells exposed to ethanol was subjected to quantitative mass spectral analysis after abundant proteins were immunodepleted. Eighty-seven proteins were identified with almost half changing in abundance. Some of these were only identified in the highest treatment condition and presumably result from the release of intracellular proteins into the medium when the cell membrane is disrupted upo...
Astronomical observations with normal incidence multilayer optics: recent results and future prospects

High-resolution X-ray and EUV images of the solar corona have been obtained with two rocket-borne normal incidence Cassegrain multilayer telescopes. The Cassegrain images correspond to material at about 10 to the 6th K and about 80,000 K. Other images, at somewhat lower resolution, were obtained with Herschelian multilayer telescopes and Wolter-Schwarzschild hybrid grazing incidence/multilayer optical systems. The Cassegrain and Herschelian images are discussed emphasizing the analysis of polar plumes observed at the limb of the sun. The application of specific multilayer techniques to astronomical observations is discussed, emphasizing observations of the sun. Current efforts to develop a comprehensive Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array rocket instrument for the study of a wide variety of problems related to the solar atmosphere are reported.
A recursive method to calculate the expected molecule numbers for a polymerization network with a small number of subunits

Abstract We compare the deterministic method and the stochastic method for a polymerization network when the number of available subunits is small. For the stochastic method, we prove there is a recursive method to compute the expected molecule numbers of various components in the reaction network, using the stationary probability distribution of molecule numbers which we illustrate to have a multivariate Poisson form. For the deterministic method, ordinary differential equations for the component concentrations are built following the mass action law. The steady state of the system is extracted to estimate the corresponding molecule numbers. Identities involving the propensity function parameters for the stochastic method and the reaction rate constants in the deterministic method are used to connect the two methods. Computations are conducted for a group of combinations of total number of subunits and reaction rate constant ratios, and the results are compared.
Phase separation in rare-earth-doped SiO2 glasses

Abstract Phase separation in the rare-earth silicates, which is closely related to the phenomenon of concentration quenching in laser glasses, is discussed in terms of the theory of corresponding states in charged particle systems. This theory has been previously shown to apply to related systems such as the alkali and alkaline-earth silicates. Literature values of the critical temperatures and concentrations of the rare-earth silicates are found to increase with decreasing rare-earth ion radius in agreement with the corresponding states theory. Reduced values of the critical parameters are in excellent agreement with those of other charged particle systems if it is assumed that the rare-earth ions are effectively divalent. This assumption is consistent with the high degree of association observed for charged particle systems at their critical points. The theory of corresponding states is used to estimate the Er2O3SiO2 immiscibility boundary by rescaling data from the Nd2O3 SiO2 system.
Festival Open Houses: Settings for Interethnic Communication in Urban Malaysia

Ethnic festivals are prominent among recurring special events in Malaysia's multi-ethnic society, and the holding of "open houses" to accommodate the exchange of goodwill visits is a central feature of festival celebrations. The intra-ethnic exchange of visits is a tradition of long standing but, since independence in 1957, interethnic visiting has been promoted as part of social planning to increase contact and understanding across ethnic lines and develop sentiments of national unity. Field research in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur is drawn on to describe the patterns of festival visiting that have emerged, to examine the purpose of interethnic visiting in the context of a variety of purposes the visiting is perceived to serve, and to compare the status of festival visiting with that of other settings for interethnic communication that are available to urban Malaysians. Though individual levels of participation in open house visiting vary considerably, urban Malaysians are found to be sufficiently in...
Community response to coastal erosion: The view from two North Carolina beach areas

Abstract This article examines the value constraints which may directly influence the types of mitigation strategies that a community may consider in reducing the risks associated with coastal erosion. Research on the response to coastal erosion was carried out in two coastal communities in North Carolina, USA, and the results suggest that residents of both communities are aware of the hazard, and view it as a natural process with which they must cope. They recognize that erosion risk is increased by human action, and hence are strongly in support of non-structural approaches at the local level. Residents of both areas also indicate strong support for post-disaster assistance from federal and state governments, moderate support for structural techniques, but relatively weak support for subsidized hazard insurance.
Jugular Venous Bulb Oxyhemoglobin Saturation During Cardiac Surgery: Accuracy and Reliability Using a Continuous Monitor

Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of continuously monitoring jugular venous oxygen saturation (SjO2) with a fiberoptic catheter during hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). In the present study, with patients maintained at either moderate (28 degrees C) or mild (32-34 degrees C) hypothermia during CPB, SjO2 values obtained from a fiberoptic catheter were compared to intermittent samples analyzed by a co-oximeter. Twenty patients scheduled for elective coronary artery or valvular surgery had a 5.5 Fr Opticath catheter inserted into the left internal jugular bulb after induction of general anesthesia. The catheter was calibrated in vitro and in vivo according to the manufacturer's specifications. Catheter and co-oximetry SjO2 values obtained at four time points--1) pre-CPB, 2) target CPB temperature, 3) mid-rewarming, and 4) post-CPB--were compared using linear regression, Bland-Altman analysis, and Shrout-Fleiss interclass correlation coefficient analysis. These statistical methods revealed poor correlation between the catheter and co-oximetry SjO2 values: r = 0.44 by linear regression and 0.32 by interclass correlation coefficient analysis, and was unacceptably discrepant by Bland-Altman analysis. Oxyhemoglobin saturation values obtained continuously from a jugular venous bulb fiberoptic catheter during CPB may not accurately reflect true oxyhemoglobin saturation, and caution is warranted when interpreting SjO2 values obtained from a fiberoptic catheter during CPB.
On the quality of inferring interests from social neighbors

This paper intends to provide some insights of a scientific problem: how likely one's interests can be inferred from his/her social connections -- friends, friends' friends, 3-degree friends, etc? Is "Birds of a Feather Flocks Together" a norm? We do not consider the friending activity on online social networking sites. Instead, we conduct this study by implementing a privacy-preserving large distribute social sensor system in a large global IT company to capture the multifaceted activities of 30,000+ people, including communications (e.g., emails, instant messaging, etc) and Web 2.0 activities (e.g., social bookmarking, file sharing, blogging, etc). These activities occupy the majority of employees' time in work, and thus, provide a high quality approximation to the real social connections of employees in the workplace context. In addition to such "informal networks", we investigated the "formal networks", such as their hierarchical structure, as well as the demographic profile data such as geography, job role, self-specified interests, etc. Because user ID matching across multiple sources on the Internet is very difficult, and most user activity logs have to be anonymized before they are processed, no prior studies could collect comparable multifaceted activity data of individuals. That makes this study unique. In this paper, we present a technique to predict the inference quality by utilizing (1) network analysis and network autocorrelation modeling of informal and formal networks, and (2) regression models to predict user interest inference quality from network characteristics. We verify our findings with experiments on both implicit user interests indicated by the content of communications or Web 2.0 activities, and explicit user interests specified in user profiles. We demonstrate that the inference quality prediction increases the inference quality of implicit interests by 42.8%, and inference quality of explicit interests by up to 101%.
Induction of Vascular Smooth Muscle α-Actin Gene Transcription in Transforming Growth Factor β1-Activated Myofibroblasts Mediated by Dynamic Interplay between the Pur Repressor Proteins and Sp1/Smad Coactivators

The mouse vascular smooth muscle alpha-actin (SMA) gene enhancer is activated in fibroblasts by transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1), a potent mediator of myofibroblast differentiation and wound healing. The SMA enhancer contains tandem sites for the Sp1 transcriptional activator protein and Puralpha and beta repressor proteins. We have examined dynamic interplay between these divergent proteins to identify checkpoints for possible control of myofibroblast differentiation during chronic inflammatory disease. A novel element in the SMA enhancer named SPUR was responsible for both basal and TGFbeta1-dependent transcriptional activation in fibroblasts and capable of binding Sp1 and Pur proteins. A novel Sp1:Pur:SPUR complex was dissociated when SMA enhancer activity was increased by TGFbeta1 or Smad protein overexpression. Physical association of Pur proteins with Smad2/3 was observed as was binding of Smads to an upstream enhancer region that undergoes DNA duplex unwinding in TGFbeta1-activated myofibroblasts. Purbeta repression of the SMA enhancer could not be relieved by TGFbeta1, whereas repression mediated by Puralpha was partially rescued by TGFbeta1 or overexpression of Smad proteins. Interplay between Pur repressor isoforms and Sp1 and Smad coactivators may regulate SMA enhancer output in TGFbeta1-activated myofibroblasts during episodes of wound repair and tissue remodeling.
Water Management Challenges Associated with the Production of Shale Gas by Hydraulic Fracturing

Development of unconventional, onshore natural gas resources in deep shales is rapidly expanding to meet global energy needs. Water management has emerged as a critical issue in the development of these inland gas reservoirs, where hydraulic fracturing is used to liberate the gas. Following hydraulic fracturing, large volumes of water containing very high concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) return to the surface. The TDS concentration in this wastewater, also known as “flowback,” can reach 5 times that of sea water. Wastewaters that contain high TDS levels are challenging and costly to treat. Economical production of shale gas resources will require creative management of flowback to ensure protection of groundwater and surface water resources. Currently, deep-well injection is the primary means of management. However, in many areas where shale gas production will be abundant, deep-well injection sites are not available. With global concerns over the quality and quantity of fresh water, novel water management strategies and treatment technologies that will enable environmentally sustainable and economically feasible natural gas extraction will be critical for the development of this vast energy source.
Life-Threatening Reaction to Vancomycin Given for Noninfectious Fever

OBJECTIVE:To report a case of vancomycin-induced anaphylaxis (or anaphylactoid reaction) in a patient with a fever of unrecognized noninfectious origin.CASE SUMMARY:An 83-year-old white man, who was a patient of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, developed a serious anaphylactic (or anaphylactoid) reaction while receiving intravenous vancomycin as empiric therapy for a nosocomial fever of unknown origin. The fever was subsequently proved to have been due to acute polyarticular gout rather than an infection.DISCUSSION:This patient developed respiratory distress and an increased serum troponin concentration, suggestive of a myocardial enzymatic leak as a result of vancomycin therapy. Vancomycin was given before the noninfectious cause of his fever was recognized.CONCLUSIONS:Even with cautious slow infusion, intravenous vancomycin can precipitate life-threatening infusion-related reactions in some patients. Because of this, and to reduce selective pressure for vancomycin resistance, sources of fever that d...
Radioisotopic angiocardiography. Wide scope of applicability in diagnosis and evaluation of therapy in diseases of the heart and great vessels.

Radioisotopic angiocardiography has been performed in 120 patients after the intravenous injection of 99m Tc pertechnetate. A scintillation camera and a variable time-lapse videoscintiscope were used. The results indicate that the method permits identification and physiologic assessment of a wide variety of congenital and acquired cardiovascular lesions, including septal defects, valvular stenosis and incompetence, aneurysm, tumor, venous obstruction, ventricular hypertrophy, and effusion. Emphasis particularly is given, therefore, to the wide scope of applicability of the procedure. The diagnostic criteria employed for a representative group of these lesions are presented together with illustrative examples to demonstrate the type and quality of the information which may be obtained with the method. The procedure is rapid and safe and does not require hospitalization, heart catheterization, or special preparation of the patient, advantages which favor its use as a diagnostic screening test. In addition to its diagnostic uses, radioisotopic angiography may offer a useful and convenient method of assessing the effects of therapy or of following the course of disease.
Temperature-scan cryocrystallography reveals reaction intermediates in bacteriophytochrome

Light is a fundamental signal that regulates important physiological processes such as development and circadian rhythm in living organisms. Phytochromes form a major family of photoreceptors responsible for red light perception in plants, fungi and bacteria. They undergo reversible photoconversion between red-absorbing (Pr) and far-red-absorbing (Pfr) states, thereby ultimately converting a light signal into a distinct biological signal that mediates subsequent cellular responses. Several structures of microbial phytochromes have been determined in their dark-adapted Pr or Pfr states. However, the structural nature of initial photochemical events has not been characterized by crystallography. Here we report the crystal structures of three intermediates in the photoreaction of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophytochrome (PaBphP). We used cryotrapping crystallography to capture intermediates, and followed structural changes by scanning the temperature at which the photoreaction proceeded. Light-induced conformational changes in PaBphP originate in ring D of the biliverdin (BV) chromophore, and E-to-Z isomerization about the C(15) = C(16) double bond between rings C and D is the initial photochemical event. As the chromophore relaxes, the twist of the C(15) methine bridge about its two dihedral angles is reversed. Structural changes extend further to rings B and A, and to the surrounding protein regions. These data indicate that absorption of a photon by the Pfr state of PaBphP converts a light signal into a structural signal via twisting and untwisting of the methine bridges in the linear tetrapyrrole within the confined protein cavity.
Validating justifications in preschool girls' and boys' friendship group talk: implications for linguistic and socio-cognitive development.

Children are believed to construct their causal theories through talk and interaction, but with the exception of a few studies, little or nothing is known about how young children justify and build theories of the world together with same-age peers through naturally occurring interaction, Children's sensitivity to when a pair or group of interlocutors who interact frequently together feel that a justification is needed, is an index of developing pragmatic competence (Goetz & Shatz, 1999) and may be influenced by interactive goals and gender identity positioning. Studies suggest that salient contexts for justifications for young children are disagreement and control (e.g. Veneziano & Sinclair, 1995) but researchers have been less recognizant of ‘situations in which partners verbally assist in the construction of justifications as a means to maintain contact or create solidarity’ (Goetz & Shatz, 1999: 722) as contexts for justifications. The present study examined the spontaneously produced justification constructions in the naturally occurring free play of five friendship groups of preschool-aged children (aged from 3 ; 6 to 5 ; 4), in terms of the motivating context of the justification, marking of the causal relationship with a connective, and causal theories accessed in the talk. Partner expansion (validating justifications) was a salient motivating context for justifications, especially in the talk of friendship groups of girls, and seemed to privilege greater marking of the causal relationship with a connective and less arbitrary reasoning. One group of girls varied their use of validating justifications depending on the theme of play. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of use of validating justifications for children's causal theory building with peers, linguistic development, and pragmatic development.
Using Applications of Data Versioning in Database Application Development

Database applications such as enterprise resource planning systems and customer relationship management systems are widely used software systems. Development and testing of database applications is difficult because the program execution depends on the persistent state stored in the database. In this paper we show that how versioning of the persistent data stored in the database can solve some critical problems in the development and testing of database applications can be solved by versioning the data stored in the database. Our solution framework is based on long transaction management, a well-researched branch of database systems. We also present empirical experimental results that show the proposed framework's effectiveness in practice.
Drive for muscularity and conformity to masculine norms among college football players.

With sociocultural norms in American culture suggesting that muscularity is associated with masculinity, men often strive for a muscular physique. Because the psychological research on this drive for muscularity has focused primarily on negative outcomes, our mixed-method study intended to assess the contextual nature of this dynamic by examining muscularity within a functional context (e.g., sport). We assessed the experiences of 197 college football players who operate in this “masculinized” context (e.g., Richman & Shaffer, 2000) where muscularity is viewed functionally (i.e., maximizing athletic performance, minimizing injuries). Quantitative results indicated that athletic identity and certain traditional masculine norms (i.e., risk taking, emotional control, primacy of work) were significantly related to the drive for muscularity among college football players. Qualitative results indicated that football players primarily cited reasons for their desire to be muscular that were related to athletic functioning, while also acknowledging social benefits of external gratification (e.g., physical appearance, conformity, sex appeal) that are more prominent in the drive for muscularity literature. Results of this contextual examination were interpreted within existing theoretical frameworks of social comparison theory, masculinity socialization, and drive for muscularity.
Cooperative computation in wireless networks

We study user cooperation in the context of physical-layer network coding. We examine a system in which users cooperatively transmit their messages to receivers whose task is to recover a finite-field linear combination of the users' messages. We present a cooperative scheme, based on a lattice-coding approach to block Markov encoding, that improves the computation rate over that of existing non-cooperative techniques. We apply our results to a simple relay network, showing that when inter-user gains are relatively strong, cooperative computation significantly improves network throughput.
Algorithms and procedures to analyze physiological signals in psychophysiological research

25 General Characteristics and History 25 Repeated Measures Methods 26 Null Bands and Null Hypotheses 27 Papers using Repeated Measures and Permutation Testing 28 Permutation Testing for Psychophysiological Data 29 Smoothing: Summary Curves 30 Permuting 31 Null Bands 32 Discussion 32
Placental Lactogen-I (PL-I) Target Tissues Identified with an Alkaline Phosphatase-PL-I Fusion Protein

SUMMARY The rat placenta expresses a family of genes related to prolactin (PRL). Target tissues and physiological roles for many members of the PRL family have yet to be determined. In this investigation we evaluated the use of an alkaline phosphatase (AP) tag for monitoring the behavior of a prototypical member of the PRL family, placental lactogen-I (PL-I). A probe was generated consisting of a fusion protein of human placental AP and rat PL-I (AP‐PL-I). The AP‐PL-I construct was stably expressed in 293 human fetal kidney cells, as was the unmodified AP vector that served as a control. AP activity was monitored with a colorimetric assay in conditioned medium from transfected cells. Immunoreactivity and PRL-like biological activities of the AP‐PL-I fusion protein were demonstrated by immunoblotting and the Nb2 lymphoma cell proliferation assay, respectively. AP‐PL-I specifically bound to tissue sections known to express the PRL receptor, including the ovary, liver, and choroid plexus. Binding of AP‐PL-I to tissues was specific and could be competed with ovine PRL. The results indicate that AP is an effective tag for monitoring the behavior of PL-I and suggest that this labeling system may also be useful for monitoring the actions of other
The Role of Subject-Matter Knowledge and Interest in the Processing of Linear and Nonlinear Texts

Sixty-six studies were reviewed that met several a priori criteria. Specifically, the studies had to be empirical investigations that related to a particular academic domain and that involved connected discourse presented either in traditional written form or on computer. In addition, the studies had to incorporate some measure of both knowledge and interest. The resulting body of literature was first summarized and analyzed in terms of the domains chosen, the subjects selected, the nature of the texts used, the manner in which knowledge and interest were assessed, and the principal outcomes reported. Next, from this analysis, six premises were proposed as guides for future research and practice. Finally, concluding remarks were advanced that address the overall significance of text-processing research that interactively considers the domain of knowledge and the interest of the reader.
The David–Benjaminite Conflict and the Intertextual Field of Psalm 7

According to its superscription, Psalm 7 was uttered by David in reaction to ‘the words of Cush, a Benjaminite’, a reference that has produced a range of speculation. This study argues that the connection drawn between the psalm and the David story is prompted by similarities between the poem and a wide range of interconnected narratives in Samuel, all of which relate to David's restraint in his dealings with Saul and other Benjaminites. The specific episode involving Cush is best placed in the context of David's flight from Saul when he is hiding in the ‘strongholds’, in light of previously identified similarities to 1 Samuel 24 and newly identified parallels to 1 Chronicles 12. In this connection, a new solution is suggested for the psalm's problematic v. 5b.
Estimating Unknown Transition Times Using a Piecewise Nonlinear Mixed-Effects Model in Men with Prostate Cancer

Abstract It may be clinically useful to know when prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels first begin to rise rapidly and to determine if the natural history of PSA progression is different in men with locally confined prostate cancers compared to men with metastatic tumors. This article uses a nonlinear mixed-effects model to describe longitudinal changes in PSA in men before their prostate cancers were detected clinically. Repeated measurements of PSA are available for 18 subjects with a diagnosis of prostate cancer based on prostate biopsy. PSA measurements were determined on repeated frozen serum samples collected from subjects with at least 10.0 years and up to 25.6 years of observation before the cancer was detected. A piecewise model is used to describe this data. The model is linear long before the cancer was detected and exponential nearer the time the cancer was detected. The time at which the PSA levels change from linear to exponential PSA progression is unknown but can be estimated by includin...
Consumer Confidence in the Food System, Media Coverage and Stock Prices for the Food Industry

Ongoing food safety incidents have generated a national interest in the significant costs that food recalls impose on stakeholders. This paper examines the impact of media coverage of food safety events on consumer confidence in food safety, and measures the response of stock prices of food companies to changes in consumer confidence. Results show that increases in media coverage have a negative impact on consumer confidence, and that decreases in the levels of consumer confidence regarding food safety have a negative impact on a stock price index for a basket of food companies. These findings suggest that financial performance of food companies is generally and negatively affected by food safety events, even though the event may be company and/or category-specific in nature.
The neurology of reasoning.

Of all the qualities of humankind, the ability to reason stands out as our most defining characteristic. It forms the cornerstone of scientific investigation and the expansion of human knowledge. Without the ability to reason, the developments of modern medicine and of science in general would never have occurred.
Subassembly stability and reorientation

The authors propose the stability analysis of subassemblies which has several important benefits in assembly planning. Some of the cost criteria such as reorientation, parallelism, and fixturing are identified. Incorrect assembly sequences can be eliminated by identifying unstable subassemblies. A more efficient planner can be built by reducing the search space by pruning out unstable subassemblies early in the planning steps. A more complete stability analysis of subassemblies is presented. Three necessary stability criteria are considered: subassembly-stability, pose-stability, and mating-stability. Force-based reasoning is introduced in the analysis. Algorithms to solve the stability criteria are described. >
Maskless Deposition of a Micropattern on a Wafer by Liquid Flow

Metalization patterns of micron size were deposited chemically on GaAs wafers with no litography masks by means of controlled laminar flow of liquid NaOCl. Iron used for metalization was dissolved in NaOCl wafer solution. To interrupt the continuous deposition of metal on semiconductor surface, the acrylic polymer was also dissolved in the liquid. Iron deposition appears to follow given crystalographic direction creating a set of parallel lines in direction. Spacing between the lines and width of the metallic lines are controlled by the temperature of the process, speed of liquid flow and percentage of polymer present in the solution.
Delta-spectral cepstral coefficients for robust speech recognition

Almost all current automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems conventionally append delta and double-delta cepstral features to static cepstral features. In this work we describe a modified feature-extraction procedure in which the time-difference operation is performed in the spectral domain, rather than the cepstral domain as is generally presently done. We argue that this approach based on “delta-spectral” features is needed because even though delta-cepstral features capture dynamic speech information and generally greatly improve ASR recognition accuracy, they are not robust to noise and reverberation. We support the validity of the delta-spectral approach both with observations about the modulation spectrum of speech and noise, and with objective experiments that document the benefit that the delta-spectral approach brings to a variety of currently popular feature extraction algorithms. We found that the use of delta-spectral features, rather than the more traditional delta-cepstral features, improves the effective SNR by between 5 and 8 dB for background music and white noise, and recognition accuracy in reverberant environments is improved as well.
Life table parameters, reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of increase, and estimated cost of rearing Podisus maculiventris (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) on an artificial diet.

The impact of an insect-free artificial diet provided at nymphal and/or adult stage upon the developmental rate, life table parameters, and fertility table parameters was examined for Podisus maculiventris (Say). This study showed that when fed an insect-free artificial diet during both the nymphal and adult stage, developmental time was prolonged, preoviposition period was extended, and reproductive rate (R0) and intrinsic rate of increase (r) were significantly lower than when fed larval insect prey at both nymphal and adult stages. Additionally, feeding larval prey to adults reared as nymphs on an artificial diet significantly increased the proportion of fertile females, the number of eggs laid by mated females, the reproductive rate and intrinsic rate of increase, but the mean generation time was not significantly different. Likewise, feeding artificial diet to adults reared on larval prey resulted in a significant reduction in reproductive rate and intrinsic rate of increase. The "realized" cost to rear P. maculiventris on the artificial diet was calculated (as the cost to double the population size) using raw material cost, fertility table parameters and doubling time values. Raw material cost for rearing P. maculiventris colony on Trichoplusia ni (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was only 1.4 times higher than the cost of artificial diet raw materials required to rear the same size colony. However, the realized cost of rearing was 3.5 times higher when rearing on artificial diet because of the prolonged developmental time and reduced reproductive output. The cost efficiency of rearing a beneficial insect on an artificial diet that decreases the intrinsic rate of increase of a colony is discussed, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of supplementing adult diets with natural prey at the reproductive stage.
New Tachinidae (Diptera) Host Records of Eastern North American Forest Canopy Lepidoptera: Baseline Data in a Bacillus thuriengiensis Variety kurstaki Nontarget Study

Macrolepidopteran caterpillars collected in 1995 and 1996 in the Monongahela National forest, Pocahontas County, WV, and the George Washington National forest, Augusta County, VA, yielded 60 previously unreported tachinid host associations. Most associations were between native species, but the introduced polyphagous tachinid Compsilura concinnata (Meigen) produced eight new associations with native hosts. The tachinids collected were slightly broader in their host preferences than associated Braconidae and Ichneumonidae, illustrating their potential importance in regulating foliage-feeding macrolepidopteran populations in the region studied. The sample years reported herein are the pretreatment baseline portion of a long-term study on the effects of Lymantria dispar (L.) defoliation, efficacy of applied Bacillus thuringiensis variety kurstaki Berliner, and the natural occurrence of the L. dispar pathogen Entomophaga maimaiga Humber, Shimazu & Soper on nontarget organisms.
Cellular defense against latent colonization foiled by human cytomegalovirus UL138 protein.

Intrinsic immune defenses mediated by restriction factors inhibit productive viral infections. Select viruses rapidly establish latent infections and, with gene expression profiles that imply cell-autonomous intrinsic defenses, may be the most effective immune control measure against latent reservoirs. We illustrate that lysine-specific demethylases (KDMs) are restriction factors that prevent human cytomegalovirus from establishing latency by removing repressive epigenetic modifications from histones associated with the viral major immediate early promoter (MIEP), stimulating the expression of a viral lytic phase target of cell-mediated adaptive immunity. The viral UL138 protein negates this defense by preventing KDM association with the MIEP. The presence of an intrinsic defense against latency and the emergence of a cognate neutralizing viral factor indicate that “arms races” between hosts and viruses over lifelong colonization exist at the cellular level.
Electronic Clinical Trial Protocol Distribution via the World-Wide Web: A Prototype for Reducing Costs and Errors, Improving Accrual, and Saving Trees

Clinical trials today typically are inefficient, paper-based operations. Poor community physician awareness of available trials and difficult referral mechanisms also contribute to poor accrual. The Physicians Research Network (PRN) web was developed for more efficient trial protocol distribution and eligibility inquiries. The Medical University of South Carolina's Hollings Cancer Center trials program and two community oncology practices served as a testbed. In 581 man-hours over 18 months, 147 protocols were loaded into PRN. The trials program eliminated all protocol hardcopies except the masters, reduced photocopier use 59%, and saved 1.0 full-time equivalents (FTE), but 1.0 FTE was needed to manage PRN. There were no known security breaches, downtime, or content-related problems. Therefore, PRN is a paperless, user-preferred, reliable, secure method for distributing protocols and reducing distribution errors and delays because only a single copy of each protocol is maintained. Furthermore, PRN is being extended to serve other aspects of trial operations.
The Importance of Observational Evidence to Estimate and Monitor Mortality Reduction From Current Breast Cancer Screening

Abstract The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of breast cancer screening were conducted 20–50 years in the past. Since that time, such critical factors as women’s risk, screening technology, and breast cancer treatment have all evolved. This makes us less certain that we can trust the RCTs to inform decision makers of the benefits and harms of screening in today’s world. Because of several important inherent problems of RCTs, many have turned to observational studies to provide evidence relevant to the current day. Unfortunately, observational studies also have important limitations that make us question their results. There are ways, however, to improve the validity and reliability of observational studies. An international team of independent experts should develop standards for trustworthy observational studies of screening that can then be carried out in an ongoing way to monitor the benefits and harms of screening.
A direct-measurement technique for estimating discharge-chamber lifetime

The use of short-term measurement techniques for predicting the wearout of ion thrusters resulting from sputter-erosion damage is investigated. The laminar-thin-film technique is found to provide high precision erosion-rate data, although the erosion rates are generally substantially higher than those found during long-term erosion tests, so that the results must be interpreted in a relative sense. A technique for obtaining absolute measurements is developed using a masked-substrate arrangement. This new technique provides a means for estimating the lifetimes of critical discharge-chamber components based on direct measurements of sputter-erosion depths obtained during short-duration (approximately 1 hr) tests. Results obtained using the direct-measurement technique are shown to agree with sputter-erosion depths calculated for the plasma conditions of the test. The direct-measurement approach is found to be applicable to both mercury and argon discharge-plasma environments and will be useful for estimating the lifetimes of inert gas and extended performance mercury ion thrusters currently under development.