cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ultrathin furnace reoxidized nitrided oxide gate dielectrics for extreme submicrometer CMOS technology

The electrical characteristics of ultrathin reoxidized nitrided oxide (ROXNOX) gate dielectrics grown in a low pressure furnace at 850 degrees C have been investigated extensively. Experimental results show that a 1000 degrees C rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process after gate dielectric growth and polysilicon deposition can significantly reduce the levels of fixed charge and interface states in ROXNOX dielectrics. It has been demonstrated that a 45 AA ROXNOX gate dielectric can successfully block boron diffusion into the device channel region over a wide range of dopant activation temperatures and times. Channel mobilities for ROXNOX gate NMOS and PMOS devices are increased after the RTA process due to the improvement in dielectric quality, while the enhanced device reliability under hot carrier stress is maintained. >
Use of Spreader Flaps Without Dorsal Hump Reduction and the Effect on Nasal Function.

ImportanceInternal nasal valve (INV) collapse is a common cause of nasal obstruction, and spreader grafts are the established standard of treatment. Recently, spreader flaps have gained attention i...
Surgical Intervention for Peripheral Artery Disease Does Not Improve Patient Compliance with Recommended Medical Therapy

Background Nonadherence to smoking abstinence, antiplatelet therapy, and statin therapy in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with worse long-term outcomes. We hypothesized that patients who underwent invasive revascularization procedures would be more likely to adhere to these therapies than patients who were managed medically. Methods Prospective survey-based interviews pertaining to medication and behavioral compliance of patients with symptomatic PAD were performed. Specifically, adherence to smoking cessation, antiplatelet therapy, and antilipid therapy was evaluated. A retrospective review of the electronic medical record was then performed to obtain procedural data and divide patients into medically managed or surgically managed (open revascularization, percutaneous revascularization, amputation) cohorts. Results One hundred patients met criteria for inclusion and took part in the study. Overall, 62% were nonsmokers, and 59.1% of those with a history of smoking had quit; 66.7% were adherent to statin therapy; and 72.7% were adherent to antiplatelet therapy. Among patients treated with or without surgery, respectively, there was no difference in regards to rates of smoking abstinence (64.8% vs. 55.2%, P = 0.37), successful smoking cessation (61.5% vs. 53.6%, P = 0.51), antiplatelet adherence (73.9% vs. 74.1%, P = 0.99), or statin adherence (65.2% vs. 70.4%, P = 0.24). Major amputation was also not associated with adherence to these therapies. Conclusions Surgical revascularization does not influence the likelihood of adherence to smoking abstinence, smoking cessation, antiplatelet therapy, or statin therapy in patients with symptomatic PAD. Patients should be counseled regarding revascularization options with the understanding that their likelihood of medical treatment compliance will be unaffected by any proposed intervention.
Chirality Dependent Potency Enhancement and Structural Impact of Glycol Nucleic Acid Modification on siRNA

Here we report the investigation of glycol nucleic acid (GNA), an acyclic nucleic acid analogue, as a modification of siRNA duplexes. We evaluated the impact of (S)- or (R)-GNA nucleotide incorporation on RNA duplex structure by determining three individual crystal structures. These structures indicate that the (S)-nucleotide backbone adopts a conformation that has little impact on the overall duplex structure, while the (R)-nucleotide disrupts the phosphate backbone and hydrogen bonding of an adjacent base pair. In addition, the GNA-T nucleobase adopts a rotated conformation in which the 5-methyl group points into the minor groove, rather than the major groove as in a normal Watson–Crick base pair. This observation of reverse Watson–Crick base pairing is further supported by thermal melting analysis of GNA-C and GNA-G containing duplexes where it was demonstrated that a higher thermal stability was associated with isoguanine and isocytosine base pairing, respectively, over the canonical nucleobases. Furt...
Evaluating the Recovery Curve for Clinically Assessed Reaction Time After Concussion

Context: A change in reaction time is one of various clinical measures of neurocognitive function that can be monitored after concussion and has been reported to be among the most sensitive indicators of cognitive impairment. Objective: To determine the timeline for clinically assessed simple reaction time to return to baseline after a concussion in high school athletes. Design: Observational study. Setting: Athletic training room. Patients or Other Participants: Twenty-one high school-aged volunteers. Intervention(s): Participants completed 8 trials of the ruler-drop test during each session. Along with baseline measures, a total of 6 additional test sessions were completed over the course of 4 weeks after a concussion (days 3, 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28). Main Outcome Measure(s): The mean reaction times calculated for all participants from each of the 7 test sessions were analyzed to assess the change in reaction time over the 7 time intervals. Results: After a concussion and compared with baseline, ...
Real-time optimization of a chilled water plant with parallel chillers based on extremum seeking control

Abstract Chilled water plants with multiple chillers are commonly used to provide cooling in large commercial buildings. Optimization offers a significant opportunity for improving the energy efficiency of such plants. Model based approaches used for control and optimization require accurate models, which can be difficult and/or expensive to obtain in practice due to large variations in equipment characteristics and operating conditions. In this paper, a model-free optimization strategy based on multivariate Extremum Seeking Control (ESC) with penalty terms is proposed for maximizing the energy efficiency of a chilled-water plant with parallel chillers. The feedback to ESC is the total power consumption of the plant consisting of chiller compressors, cooling tower fan, and condenser water pumps, in combination with penalty terms for input-saturation. The control inputs include the cooling tower fan airflow, condenser water flows and evaporator leaving chilled-water temperature setpoint. A band-pass filter array, instead of the high-pass filter in the standard ESC, is adopted to reduce the coupling among the input channels. The proposed strategy is evaluated with simulation study using a Modelica based dynamic simulation model of a chilled-water plant with two parallel chillers. Six cases are presented that demonstrate real-time optimization capability of ESC for this application.
The fallacy of the placebo-controlled clinical trials: Are positive outcomes the result of ‘indirect’ treatment effects?

This paper argues that placebo effects have a larger influence and may better explain clinical trial outcomes compared to purported treatment effects currently attributed to clinical treatments. Placebo-controlled clinical trials usually do not include an ‘active’ placebo and thus the clinical outcome could be due to the placebo responses induced by the non-therapeutic side effects of the treatment. For this paper, an active placebo includes substances or procedures that permits attribution of a physiological effect such as a B-vitamin that safely causes flushing as well as a biofeedback training procedure that safely trains physiological responses other than the target response. The paper also discusses the positive outcome of a sham treatment procedure in contrast to the nocebo effect. This paper emphasizes exercising caution when interpreting clinical trials of pharmaceutical or surgical treatments. The paper discusses possible mechanisms underlying the acceptance of treatment procedures which later have been shown to be ineffective or harmful, and highlights the importance of incorporating active placebo procedures to address any covert treatment side effects induced by placebo response. Finally, this paper argues that clinical trials of bio/neurofeedback treatments carefully consider the important and consequential influences of placebos when interpreting the results of trial outcomes.
Sequence characterizations of double Riordan arrays and their compressions

Abstract Inspired by the Fibonacci tree shown in the recent book, Catalan Numbers, by Richard Stanley, we present a combinatorial way to construct double Riordan arrays by using ECO technique. The sequence characterizations of double Riordan arrays and subgroups of the double Riordan group are found. As an extension of Pascal–Fibonacci triangle, the compression forms of double Riordan arrays called double quasi-Riordan arrays are defined. The connections of lower triangular matrices and double Riordan arrays as well as their compressions are given. Those results are also extended to the case of high order Riordan arrays, which are defined in the paper. The pairs of Sheffer polynomials and pairs of summation formulas associated with double Riordan arrays are defined and discussed.
US Health Policy and Health Care Delivery: Doctors, Reformers, and Entrepreneurs

The unique composition and configuration of doctors and hospitals in the US is leading to a crisis in primary care provision. There are significantly more specialists than generalists, and many community hospitals and outpatient facilities are concentrated in affluent areas with high rates of comprehensive insurance coverage. These particular features present difficult challenges to policymakers seeking to increase access to care. Carl F. Ameringer shows why the road to universal healthcare is not built on universal finance alone. Policymakers in other countries successfully align finance with delivery to achieve better access, lower costs, and improved population health. This book explains how the US healthcare system developed, and why efforts to expand insurance coverage in the absence of significant changes to delivery will fuel higher costs without achieving the desired results.
Transitions from Single- to Multi-Locus Processes during Speciation with Gene Flow

During speciation-with-gene-flow, a transition from single-locus to multi-locus processes can occur, as strong coupling of multiple loci creates a barrier to gene flow. Testing predictions about such transitions with empirical data requires building upon past theoretical work and the continued development of quantitative approaches. We simulated genomes under several evolutionary scenarios of gene flow and divergent selection, extending previous work with the additions of neutral sites and coupling statistics. We used these simulations to investigate, in a preliminary way, if and how selected and neutral sites differ in the conditions they require for transitions during speciation. For the parameter combinations we explored, as the per-locus strength of selection grew and/or migration decreased, it became easier for selected sites to show divergence-and thus to rise in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with each other as a statistical consequence-farther in advance of the conditions under which neutral sites could diverge. Indeed, even very low rates of effective gene flow were sufficient to prevent differentiation at neutral sites. However, once strong enough, coupling among selected sites eventually reduced gene flow at neutral sites as well. To explore whether similar transitions might be detectable in empirical data, we used published genome resequencing data from three taxa of Heliconius butterflies. We found that fixation index ( F S T ) outliers and allele-frequency outliers exhibited stronger patterns of within-deme LD than the genomic background, as expected. The statistical characteristics of within-deme LD-likely indicative of the strength of coupling of barrier loci-varied between chromosomes and taxonomic comparisons. Qualitatively, the patterns we observed in the empirical data and in our simulations suggest that selection drives rapid genome-wide transitions to multi-locus coupling, illustrating how divergence and gene flow interact along the speciation continuum.
A critical examination of the use of preliminary tests in two-sample tests of location

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the appropriateness of testing the equality of two means using either a t test, the Welch test, or the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test for two independent samples based on the results of using two classes of preliminary tests. One class of preliminary tests determines whether the population variances differ, and the other class ascertains if the underlying distributions are symmetric or skewed. The F-ratio test and the Levene test (using the median) were compared as preliminary tests for variance homogeneity; and the D'Agostino S$\sb{\rm U}$ and the Triples tests were also compared as preliminary tests of symmetry/asymmetry. The simulation results were used in the formulation of an expert system procedure in which both classes of preliminary tests were incorporated in the test of equality of two means. Depending on the results of the two preliminary tests, the t test, Welch test, or Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test of means was selected. The performance of the expert system was evaluated relative to Type I error only. No power results were reported. The performance of an expert system was also evaluated with respect to robustness and the frequency at which the expert system selected the most appropriate means test. The results reported here indicate that a preliminary test procedure for equality of variance should be used rather than using the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test or t test for cases where nothing is known a priori about variance equality. A second conclusion is that a preliminary test procedure should be run at a significance level $\ge$0.25. Finally, suggestions for improvements in the overall expert system are given.
Hormone replacement therapy and nonhormonal control of menopausal symptoms in breast cancer survivors

Postmenopausal women often experience annoying and sometimes debilitating menopausal symptoms, and breast cancer survivors are no exception. Hot flashes, dyspareunia, atrophic vaginitis with attendant urinary tract symptoms, sleep disturbance, and mood change are among these symptoms. Estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) has been shown to ameliorate these problems [1,2], and as informed consumers, breast cancer survivors are increasingly inquiring about and/or requesting ERT.
Patient-reported outcomes across cerebrovascular event types: More similar than different.

Objectives To compare the degrees to which 8 domains of health are affected across types of cerebrovascular events and to identify factors associated with domain scores in different event types. Methods This was an observational cohort study of 2,181 patients with ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), or TIA in a cerebrovascular clinic from February 17, 2015, to June 2, 2017 who completed Quality of Life in Neurologic Disorders executive function and the following Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System scales as part of routine care: physical function, satisfaction with social roles, fatigue, anxiety, depression, pain interference, and sleep disturbance. Results All health domains were affected to similar degrees in patients with ICH, SAH, and ischemic stroke after adjustment for disability and other clinical factors, whereas patients with TIA had worse adjusted scores for 5 of the 8 domains of health. Female sex, younger age, lower income, and event Conclusions The subtype of stroke (ischemic stroke, ICH, and SAH) had similar effects in multiple health domains, while patients with TIA had worse adjusted outcomes, suggesting that the mechanisms for outcomes after TIA may differ from those of other cerebrovascular events. The most affected domains across all event types were physical function, satisfaction with social roles, and executive function, highlighting the need to develop effective interventions to improve these health domains in survivors of these cerebrovascular events.
The Work That Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger: Growth After Work-Related Trauma

In this paper I offer posttraumatic growth as a framework to understand how people can grow from work related traumas. This model illuminates important aspects in the careers literature by examinin...
A Novel Cadaveric Model of the Quadriga Effect.

Introduction The quadriga phenomenon results from excessive shortening of the flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) tendon to the middle, ring, or small finger. Methods Five cadaveric specimens were used to create a model for quadriga. The FDP tendons to the middle, ring, and small fingers were shortened in 5-mm increments, and the tip-to-palm (TTP) distance of adjacent fingers was recorded. Results Shortening of the middle finger FDP by 10 mm resulted in an average TTP distance of 6 mm in the ring finger and 5 mm in the small finger. Shortening the ring finger FDP by 10 mm produced an average TTP distance of 11 mm in the middle finger and 9 mm in the small finger. Shortening of the small finger FDP by 10 mm resulted in an average TTP distance of 14 mm in the middle finger and 10 mm in the ring finger. Discussion Shortening the FDP by as little as 10 mm produced a significant quadriga effect, which was more pronounced with shortening of the small and ring FDP tendons compared to the middle finger.
The Effect of Acquirer Net Operating Losses on Acquisition Premiums and Acquirer Abnormal Returns

ABSTRACT This study examines whether acquirer NOL-related tax benefits generated in an acquisition are shared with the target. For a sample of 1,959 acquisitions, we find that acquisitions of profi...
Using Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Networks to Improve the Spatial and Temporal Resolution of Concentration Maps

We present an approach to analyzing fine particulate matter (PM2.5) data from a network of "low cost air quality monitors" (LCAQM) to obtain a finely resolved concentration map. In the approach, based on a dispersion model, we first identify the probable locations of the sources, and then estimate the magnitudes of the emissions from these sources by fitting model estimates of concentrations to corresponding measurements. The emissions are then used to estimate concentrations on a grid covering the domain of interest. The residuals between model estimates at the monitor locations and the measured concentrations are then interpolated to the grid points using Kriging. We illustrate this approach by applying it to a network of 20 LCAQMs located in the Imperial Valley of Southern California. Estimating the underlying mean concentration field with a dispersion model provides a more realistic estimate of the spatial distribution of PM2.5 concentrations than that from the Kriging observations directly.
Deploying Darter - A Cray XC30 System

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville acquired a Cray XC30 supercomputer, called Darter, with a peak performance of 248.9 Teraflops. Darter was deployed in late March of 2013 with a very aggressive production timeline - the system was deployed, accepted, and placed into production in only 2 weeks. The Spring Experiment for the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms CAPS largely drove the accelerated timeline, as the experiment was scheduled to start in mid-April. The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors CASL project also needed access and was able to meet their tight deadlines on the newly acquired XC30. Darter's accelerated deployment and operations schedule resulted in substantial scientific impacts within the research community as well as immediate real-world impacts such as early severe tornado warnings [1].
From La Manuela to La Princesa de Jade: Visual Spectacle and the Repetition Compulsion

The relationship between El lugar sin limites and El carnaval de Sodoma is clarified by Marx’s reference to Hegel in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Napoleon Bonaparte: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” The catastrophe of the first appearance dissolves into the caricature of the second. In Ripstein’s universe, the tragic figure of La Manuela is recast and repeated as the carnivalesque Princesa de Jade. Mexico’s ambiguous conversion to European modernity becomes the grotesque performances of the modern brothel, the autochthonous sacrifices to globalization turn into the trance of consumption, and economic spectacle becomes the staged trompe-l’oeil universe of falsification and costume.
An interview with Barb Streubel, Chief Information Officer, Krueger International, Inc

Barb Streubel is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Krueger International, a contract furniture company and movable wall system, providing smart contract furniture solutions to the markets they...
Astrocyte-derived clusterin suppresses amyloid formation in vivo.

Accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide in the brain is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The clusterin (CLU) gene confers a risk for AD and CLU is highly upregulated in AD patients, with the common non-coding, protective CLU variants associated with increased expression. Although there is strong evidence implicating CLU in amyloid metabolism, the exact mechanism underlying the CLU involvement in AD is not fully understood or whether physiologic alterations of CLU levels in the brain would be protective. We used a gene delivery approach to overexpress CLU in astrocytes, the major source of CLU expression in the brain. We found that CLU overexpression resulted in a significant reduction of total and fibrillar amyloid in both cortex and hippocampus in the APP/PS1 mouse model of AD amyloidosis. CLU overexpression also ameliorated amyloid-associated neurotoxicity and gliosis. To complement these overexpression studies, we also analyzed the effects of haploinsufficiency of Clu using heterozygous (Clu+/−) mice and control littermates in the APP/PS1 model. CLU reduction led to a substantial increase in the amyloid plaque load in both cortex and hippocampus in APP/PS1; Clu+/− mice compared to wild-type (APP/PS1; Clu+/+) littermate controls, with a concomitant increase in neuritic dystrophy and gliosis. Thus, both physiologic ~ 30% overexpression or ~ 50% reduction in CLU have substantial impacts on amyloid load and associated pathologies. Our results demonstrate that CLU plays a major role in Aβ accumulation in the brain and suggest that efforts aimed at CLU upregulation via pharmacological or gene delivery approaches offer a promising therapeutic strategy to regulate amyloid pathology.
Patient derived models of bladder cancer amplify tumor specific gene expression compared to surgical specimen while maintaining gene expression of molecular subtype and epithelial mesenchymal transition markers

Patient derived models (PDMs) are a powerful tool to study preclinical responses. However, the benefits of each model have not been compared head-to-head when models are derived from the same surgical specimen. PDMs derived from surgical specimens were established as xenografts (PDX), organoids (PDO), and spheroids (PDS). PDMs were molecularly characterized by RNA sequencing. Differential gene expression was determined between the PDMs and surgical specimens. Surgical specimens had the most differentially expressed genes reflecting loss of immune and stromal compartments in PDMs. PDMs and surgical specimens were clustered using the Euclidian distance analysis to test model fidelity. PDMs upregulated a clear, patient-specific bladder cancer signal. Overall, the molecular profiles of PDXs were the most similar to the matching patient surgical specimen than the PDO and PDS from that patient. The epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) gene expression profile is maintained in the PDMs showing the persistence of EMT in both in vivo and in vitro model setting. The consensus molecular subtype was determined in order to compare PDMs to each other and their matching surgical specimen, and only surgical specimens with Basal/Squamous or Luminal Papillary molecular subtype established PDMs. Patient derived models reduce tumor heterogeneity and allow analysis of specific tumor compartments while maintaining the gene expression profile representative of the original tumor.
Efficacy and Benefits of Augmented and Virtual Reality Based Learning during COVID-19

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has created extensive disruptions for medical education, causing urgency to implement and develop solutions to combat this disturbance. For students to pursue learning opportunities, the education system must improve. Augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) provide a promising future for the enhancement of medical education. This review article aims to evaluate the benefits and efficacy of AR and VR, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Multiple peer-reviewed, randomized trials were synthesized into a review study investigating the efficacy, benefit, and use of VR and AR for medical education. The reviewed studies included medical and graduate-level students as participants and aimed to support the use of AR and VR as an educational adjunct. The results of these trials support the use of additional technology in medical education. Results The COVID-19 pandemic propelled medical schools, educators, and students into a world of total computerized learning. This pandemic acted as a necessary push to implement novel, untested technologies into the educational sector. Previous research demonstrates that AR and VR can confront these unfamiliar challenges and allow for a safe and beneficial COVID-19 education, consisting of socially-distanced and low-risk patient-care practice. Conclusions The benefits of continuous, safe learning outweigh the potential technological challenges of implementing AR and VR into medical education. During the pandemic, the medical community is faced with teaching students many skills necessary to become adept medical practitioners. Although the COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity for the implementation of new technologies, virtual instruction does not have to end beyond this crisis. Virtual technology can teach medical students interpersonal skills such as empathy, engaging in difficult conversations, and delivering bad news. Because students have traditionally been exposed to passive teaching styles, it is time to look toward expanding medical students? repertoire and allow them to personalize their education.
Brassica carinata: New Reproductive Host Plant of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)

A laboratory experiment was conducted on two potential reproductive host plant species of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius). The two plant species, Brassica carinata A. Braun (carinata or Ethiopian mustard) and Myrica cerifera L. (southern wax myrtle), were considered for study as potential overwintering host species for B. tabaci because of their presence with green foliage in the southeastern United States agricultural community from the fall through spring season. The Middle-East-Asia Minor 1 of the cryptic whitefly species group of B. tabaci survives the mild winters in the southeastern United States. In this study, B. carinata was demonstrated to be a favorable host plant for B. tabaci. Based on a no-choice experiment, oviposition, egg hatch, and survival to the adult stage were similar for whiteflies on B. carinata as compared with collard (B. oleracea var. acephala de Condolle), a known favorable host for B. tabaci. However, results from a dual choice experiment indicated that the whiteflies preferred B. carinata to B. oleracea for feeding and oviposition. Conversely, although southern wax myrtle served as an ovipositional host, the ovipositional performance of B. tabaci in a no-choice assay was over eight-fold less than on B. carinata, and nymphal survival was not successful beyond the second instar on southern wax myrtle in a laboratory experiment. However, a few nymphs survived to the fourth instar on intact plants of southern wax myrtle in the landscape. The results of this study have implications on whitefly population dynamics. Winter populations of B. tabaci are suppressed in the field, but plant species, such as carinata or collard, that are present during the mild winter may help support a buildup of whiteflies during the spring.
A Deep Residual Convolutional Neural Network based Bearing Fault Diagnosis with Multi-Sensor Data

Accurate bearing fault diagnosis is essential and significant for the safety and reliability of industrial rotating systems. To monitor the health condition of bearings in full scales, multi-sensors are always assembled in different locations of bearings. The data from different types or different locations of sensors have different sensitivity for fault diagnosis and localization, which makes feature extraction from multi-source data is critical for diagnosis. Deep learning based approaches have been widely used in bearing fault diagnosis, and have achieved significant successes. Deep residual convolutional neural network, as an improved structure of convolutional neural networks, has powerful learning ability when dealing with a deeper network. To improve the training efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis and make better use of bearing vibration data, this paper proposes a deep residual convolutional neural network based bearing fault diagnosis in which multisensor data are converted and combined into grayscale images for feature extraction and diagnosis. The proposed approach is verified using the data of tapered roller bearings, which are tested under different rotating speeds and loads. Experimental results and comparisons show that the proposed approach can achieve promising diagnosis accuracy with high efficiency.
Critical Voices in School Reform : Students Living through Change

Introduction. Missing voices: Listening to Students' Experiences with School Reform E. M. Silva & B. C. Rubin Part 1. Difficult Endeavors: The Lived Complexities of School Reform 1. Struggling for Inclusion: A Case Study of Students as Reform Partners E. M. Silva 2. On Different Tracks: Students Living Detracking Reform at a Diverse Urban High School B. C. Rubin 3. 'There's not really discussion happening': Students' Experiences of Identity-Based Curricular Reform A. P. Rodriguez 4. Constructing and Resisting a Theory of Difference: Student Experiences in California's Single Gender Academies E. L. Wood 5. Helping, Bluffing and Doing Portfolios in a High School Geometry Class I. S. Horn Part 2. Deliberate Aims: Putting Students at the Center of Reform 6. Apprenticing Urban Youth as Critical Researchers: Implications for Increasing Equity and Access in Diverse Urban Schools A. Collatos & E. Morrell 7. 'Here it's more like your house': The Proliferation of Authentic Caring as School Reform at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice A. De Jesus 8. The Color Line in Student Achievement: How Can Small Learning Communities Make a Difference J. Yonemura Wing 9. 'We have a motion on the floor': Montclair High School and the Civics and Government Institute D. l. Keiser and S. Stein 10. 'I'm not getting any F's': What 'At-risk' Students Say About the Support They Need B. C. Rubin Conclusion The Dilemmas and Possibilities of Student-Centered School Reform Research B. C. Rubin & E. M. Silva
A Review of “Managing Research Data”

Managing research data is a growing field that is currently defining standards and best practices. This book provides 10 articles by data specialists from the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and...
Selecting Diverse Resources of Native American Perspective for the Curriculum Center: Children's Literature, Leveled Readers, and Social Studies Curriculum.

Biased and inaccurate information about Native Americans continue in children’s resources and remain in many of today’s curriculum centers. While Native American students remain a minority in schools, accurate information is vital for understanding contemporary society and our history by both Native and non-Native students. Many states including Washington State are creating tribal sovereignty curriculum and adding tribal perspectives to their state curriculum. Valuable print and digital resources and sources of continuing selection assistance are suggested to increase the holdings of today’s curriculum center in three areas: children’s literature, leveled readers and social studies curriculum.
Chronic nonallergic rhinitis in children: Role of adenoidal hypertrophy☆

Abstract Rationale The contribution of adenoidal hypertrophy (AH) to nasal symptoms of non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) is unknown. The primary outcome of this study was the prevalence of adenoidal hypertrophy in children with NAR. Secondary outcome was ability of intranasal glucocorticoids (INS) to reduce AH and related symptoms. Methods Symptoms suggesting allergic rhinitis were found in 294 children aged 1-15 years. Those with negative skin tests (ST) to a panel of environmental allergens, and AH on lateral neck X-ray were the study group. The benefit of INS was assessed by symptom score comparisons before and after therapy and X-ray changes. Results Negative ST were found in 147/294 (50%) of subjects who were then diagnosed with NAR. Of these 41/147 (28%) had AH. In the AH group symptoms included rhinorrhea 26/41 (63%), snoring 20/41 (48%), mouth breathing 18/41 (43%), nasal congestion 18/41 (43%), recurrent sinusitis/otitis media 7/41 (17%). Of AH patients 35/41 (85%) were treated with INS resulting in 18/35 (51%) reporting symptomatic improvement, and 5/35 (14%) being unchanged; in 12/35 (34%) there is no follow up. Repeat X-rays were done in 7/35 (20%) and revealed improvement of adenoid size in 2/7 (28%), no change in 3/7 (42%) and further enlargement in 1/7 (14%). Conclusions Our study reveals that AH is often associated with NAR in children. Use of INS leads to symptomatic improvement in approximately 50% of cases, and may reduce adenoidal size in a subset of cases. In children with NAR a trial of INS therapy seems reasonable prior to surgical intervention.
Intravenous dexamethasone for prevention of neonatal respiratory distress: A prospective controlled study.

Abstract A trial of intravenous dexamethasone for prevention of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome was carried out prospectively. There were 112 treated and 188 control patients, matched for gestational age, birth weight, rupture of membranes, and antepartum diagnosis. No short-term deleterious effects on mother or infant were demonstrable. There was an increased incidence of cesarean section and puerperal infection in the treated patients. This was not related to the steroid therapy. There was no increased incidence of infection in the treated neonates. At 28 to 33 weeks' gestation, the treated newborn infants had one half the perinatal mortality and one fourth the incidence of severe respiratory distress syndrome seen in the controls. Under 28 weeks, and from 34 to 36 weeks, no difference between treated and control groups was observed. Intravenous dexamethasone is effective in reducing perinatal mortality from respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants delivered between 28 and 33 weeks' gestation.
A Similarity Measure for Vision-Based Sign Recognition

When we encounter an English word that we do not understand, we can look it up in a dictionary. However, when an American Sign Language (ASL) user encounters an unknown sign, looking up the meaning of that sign is not a straightforward process. It has been recently proposed that this problem can be addressed using a computer vision system that helps users look up the meaning of a sign. In that approach, sign lookup can be treated as a video database retrieval problem. When the user encounters an unknown sign, the user provides a video example of that sign as a query, so as to retrieve the most similar signs in the database. A necessary component of such a sign lookup system is a similarity measure for comparing sign videos. Given a query video of a specific sign, the similarity measure should assign high similarity values to videos from the same sign, and low similarity values to videos from other signs. This paper evaluates a state-of-the-art video-based similarity measure called Dynamic Space-Time Warping (DSTW) for the purposes of sign retrieval. The paper also discusses how to specifically adapt DSTW so as to tolerate differences in translation and scale.
Electro-mediated damage in the narrowest pore of voltage-gated K channels in frog skeletal muscle membrane

Summary form only given as follows: In addition to electroporation of cell membranes, the authors have also shown shock pulse-induced reduction in voltage-gated ionic channel conductance and channel selectivity, which suggests possible electroconformational changes in proteins of the cell membrane. Therefore, the authors are now attempting to locate the damage in the protein structure. Some of their evidence suggests that the most vulnerable subgroups of channel proteins are located at the narrowest pore of the channels. Experiments were performed using an improved double vaseline-gap voltage and current clamp technique with cut fibers from skeletal muscle of the frog Rana temporaria. The experimental results showed that: 1) the binding of the neurotoxins TIX and TEA on sodium (Na) and potassium (K) channels are not affected by the high voltage electrical shock pulses; 2) the inactivity curve of the delayed rectifier K channel shows little change following electric shock; and 3) K channel conductance and ionic selectivity can be significantly reduced by the electric shock pulse, predicting a depolarization of the membrane resting potential, which has been further proved by directly measuring membrane potential response to an electrical shock. The figure below shows the shock pulse-induced depolarization of the membrane resting potential. Combining these functional alterations of channel proteins, it is possible to answer the question of what subgroups of the channel proteins are the most sensitive to a high voltage electrical shock. The neurotoxin binding sites of TTX and TEA are most likely located on the peripheral residue of the channel proteins not in the narrowest pore of the selectivity filter. Similarly, the well-accepted hypothesis of the channel inactivity suggests that channel inactivity function be correlated to the amino-terminal residues, which are intracellularly located away from the selectivity filter. In contrast, reduction of channel conductance and ionic selectivity are primarily correlated to the narrowest pore of the channels, the selectivity filter. In other words, the narrowest pore of the ion channel with a diameter of a few /spl Aring/ is the most sensitive subgroup to the external electrical field. >
Deformable model-based shape and motion analysis from images using motion residual error

We present a novel method for the shape and motion estimation of a deformable model using error residuals from model-based motion analysis. The motion of the model is first estimated using a model-based least squares method. Using the residuals from the least squares solution, the non-rigid structure of the model can be better estimated by computing how changes in the shape of the model affect its motion parameterization. This method is implemented as a component in a deformable model-based framework that uses optical flow information and edges. This general model-based framework is applied to human face shape and motion estimation. We present experiments that demonstrate that this framework is a considerable improvement over a framework that uses only optical flow information and edges.
Membership Composition of Open and Closed Therapeutic Groups A Research Note

Open and closed therapeutic groups are contrasted in the context of group development research Positive and negative aspects of group membership (including coerced entry) are considered. With appli...
Inhibition of peroxynitrite precursors, NO and O2, at the onset of reperfusion improves myocardial recovery

Summary Aim of study Previous reports note an increase in both reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) at the onset of myocardial reperfusion. We tested the hypothesis that inhibition of NO or ROS production at the time of reperfusion improves recovery of post-ischemic myocardial function. Methods and materials Isolated rat hearts were perfused with temperature controlled (37.4°C) modified Krebs Henseleit buffer solution at 85mm Hg. Following 20min of global ischemia, hearts were reperfused for the first 10min with: (1) standard buffer (control), (2) buffer with a NOS inhibitor, N -nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), (3) buffer with superoxide dismutase (SOD) or (4) buffer with N -morpholinosydnonimine hydrochloride (SIN-1), a peroxynitrite generator. Tissue O 2 and NO were continuously measured with thin electrochemical probes embedded in the wall of the LV. ROS was measured with the spin trap 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N -oxide (DMPO) (40mM). LV contractile function was continuously monitored. Results Recovery of LV contractile function was significantly improved in hearts initially reperfused with l-NAME and SOD and significantly depressed in hearts reperfused with SIN-1 compared with control ( p n =5–8 per group). DMPO-adduct during reperfusion (measure of ROS) was significantly decreased with SOD ( p n =4 per group) and unchanged with l-NAME and SIN-1 compared with Control. With l-NAME, tissue NO and PO 2 were significantly decreased, independent of coronary flow, during reperfusion compared with control and SIN-1. Conclusions Inhibition of O 2 − or NO at the time of reperfusion improves early reperfusion LV function and alters tissue oxygen tension. In contrast to pre-ischemic treatments, intervention to reduce peroxynitrite generation at the onset of reperfusion can effectively improve post-ischemic myocardial recovery.
Irrigation development in Mainland Tanzania: The issue of farmer local organisation—A suggestion

In Tanzania agriculture is the basis of development. Until recently this has been entirely rainfed agriculture. In 1972 the TANU political party (Chama) formulated an irrigation policy and in 1974 Chama decided to give new emphasis to small-scale irrigation projects. The author is interested in focusing on the issue of local organisation of the Tanzanian small-scale irrigation projects. He suggests models of organising and operating the small-scale irrigation systems based on the Tanzanian formal village organisation.
Subjective estimates of job performance after job preview: Determinants of anticipated learning curves

Abstract When people choose a particular occupation, they presumably make an implicit judgment that they will perform well on a job at some point in the future, typically after extensive education and/or on-the-job experience. Research on learning and skill acquisition has pointed to a power law of practice, where large gains in performance come early in practice, with diminishing returns with greater experience. However, it is not clear whether young adults understand the nature of job learning and performance over time. In the current study, 153 university students were provided with job descriptions and video clips for 20 different jobs. They were asked to estimate the shape of their learning curves for each job, and to provide judgments of their performance levels from the first day on the job to a point after six months of job experience. We investigated the patterns of expected learning/performance curves, and explored the role of personality, interests, self-concept, self-estimates of abilities, entity/incremental theories of intelligence, and gender in prediction of the patterns of expected curves. Participants generally expected a power function or a linear function of improvement across the jobs, with notable differences in anticipated performance depending on job characteristics of gender dominance, ability demands, and interest themes. Traits and job engagement variables provided significant predictive power for accounting for individual differences in expected job performance over time. Implications for implicit theories of intelligence and occupational choice are discussed.
Clinical considerations in the diagnosis of otitis media

Acute otitis media and otitis media with effusion are commonly encountered by both general practitioners and specialists. The diagnosis of otitis media requires a focused history and accurate physical examination. Unfortunately, many practitioners are either unaware of the criteria needed to make the diagnosis, or they incorrectly perform or misinterpret the physical examination. We review the pertinent historical and physical examination findings needed to accurately diagnose otitis media. Additionally, we examine the accessory tests that might help make the correct diagnosis in difficult cases. Finally, we address the issues involved in ensuring that both current and future physicians are appropriately trained in the diagnosis of this common illness.
NEIGHBORHOOD GENTRIFICATION: A DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS OF A HISTORIC DISTRICT IN CLEVELAND, OHIO

This study examines one gentrifying neighborhood, Ohio City, in Cleveland, Ohio. It utilizes block group-level data and discriminant analysis to identify key variables associated with the gentrification process. Two discriminant functions resulted from the analysis. One function is highly associated with the percentage of college-educated residents and the other associated with a high proportion of white population, aged 25 to 40, with high median incomes. The discriminant power accounted for by the two discriminant functions is 89%. The results of this study argue for increased use of block group data to examine gentrification, since these data allow more accurate analysis of gentrification borders, neighborhood change, and gentrification modeling.
Management's Preferences for FASB Statement No. 52: Predictive Ability Results

Research attempting to explain or predict preferences with respect to accounting rules is a relatively new branch of accounting research. Factors affecting a manager's welfare (e.g., political costs) are identified and then evaluated empirically to ascertain whether such factors are helpful in predicting a manager's decision to respond to proposed changes in the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB's) rules on foreign currency translation. FASB Statement No. 52, issued December 1981, replaced FASB Statement No. 8 and required U.S. multinational corporations to switch from the ‘temporal’ to the ‘current rate’ method of translating foreign currency financial statements into U.S. dollars. The models use current economic data as well as information about managers' responses to earlier changes in the rules for translating foreign currency statements. While the models adequately describe management's behaviour, and hence are consistent with earlier research, their predictive ability is only a modest improvement over naive prediction rules.
Mixed integer programming formulations for single machine scheduling problems

In this paper, the computational performance of four different mixed integer programming (MIP) formulations for various single machine scheduling problems is studied. Based on the computational results, we discuss which MIP formulation might work best for these problems. The results also reveal that for certain problems a less frequently used MIP formulation is computationally more efficient in practice than commonly used MIP formulations. We further present two sets of inequalities that can be used to improve the formulation with assignment and positional date variables.