cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Anne Spencer's Feminist Modernist Poetics

Although Anne Spencer has been regarded as one of the significant female poets of the Harlem Renaissance, less attention has been given to her role as an important innovator of American modernism. Spencer’s modernist formal experiments enabled her to express and enact her feminist aspirations for modern women. Her poems, including “Before the Feast at Shushan,” “Letter to My Sister,” and “The Lemming: O Sweden!,” explore the psychodynamics of male dominance and female resistance, affirming literary modern-ism’s liberatory potential for women in its ability to convey the affective experience of subordination and to disrupt older discursive structures rooted in masculinist ideology.
Comments on the holographic shear viscosity to entropy density ratio

We revisit the membrane paradigm calculations of the holographic shear viscosity tensor of strongly coupled isotropic plasmas with Einstein gravity dual by emphasizing the fact which was overlooked in the previous literatures that the shear viscosity is a fourth-rank tensor. Using the membrane paradigm we show that depending on whether the holographic shear viscosity tensor to entropy density ratio is \eta^j_i^j_i/s or \eta^{jiji}/s or \eta_{jiji}/s, we can derive three distinct formulae for the holographic shear viscosity tensor to entropy density ratios given explicitly in terms of the background metric g_{ij}. We find that the widely studied \eta^j_i^j_i/s holographic shear viscosity tensor to entropy density ratio takes the universal value 1/(4\pi) for isotropic background metric g_{ij} but \eta^{jiji}/s and \eta_{jiji}/s holographic shear viscosity tensor to entropy density ratios take non-universal values which depend on the details of the isotropic background metric g_{ij}.
How Best to Flip-Flop if You Must: Integer Dynamic Stochastic Programming for Either-Or

Standard portfolio analysis presumes one can blend different securities continuously. When one must choose all of one portfolio or all of another, we are in stochastic digital programming: either-or, zero-or-one choice. The algorithm for doing this optimally is shown to be simpler than in real variable maximizing, a switch from the usual extra complexities of digital programming. The Bellman multi-period dynamic programming is shown, paradoxically, to make it possible for a risk-averse investor to want sometimes to embrace an unfair gamble. The superiority of within-time diversification over across-time diversification carries over to this flip-flop case.
Principles for Saving and Valuing Lives

Many of the most pressing decisions of society directly or indirectly involve the saving or expenditure of lives. Energy planning, national health insurance, and occupational health and safety regulation, as well as national defense policy, represent major issues that invariably bring us back to the question: Which lives should be saved? Or, to reflect the process of life-saving more accurately, the question might be rephrased: Where should we spend whose money to undertake what programs to save which lives with what probability? Fifteen years ago, merely asking this question explicitly would have seemed unethical or at least repugnant to many, though its central issues were addressed implicitly in a whole range of individual and collective decisions. Today variants of this question are studied by theologians and sociologists, as well as economists and policymakers. The question of how lives should be valued is now an acceptable one for intellectual inquiry, although it is true that for some the answer cannot come through academic discovery processes.
Cuando la literatura quebequense vuela en Iberia: mitos y realidades de la traducción al español

La autora de este articulo pone a prueba el supuesto segun el cual, en el caso de la narrativa quebequense traducida al espanol, Espana actua como puerta de entrada al continente americano. Para ello, partiendo de una sociologia de corte bourdieusiano, analiza la circulacion en el espacio hispanico de traducciones de narrativa quebequense publicadas en Espana entre 1990 y 2012, y distribuidas o coeditadas en suelo americano. La autora concluye que, especialmente en el caso de los conglomerados editoriales internacionales, Espana actua como barrera que impide una segunda vida a estas traducciones en el continente americano.
Expanding Malware Defense by Securing Software Installations

Software installation provides an attractive entry vector for malware: since installations are performed with administrator privileges, malware can easily get the enhanced level of access needed to install backdoors, spyware, rootkits, or "bot" software, and to hide these installations from users. Previous research has been focused mainly on securing the execution phase of untrusted software, while largely ignoring the safety of installations. Even security-enhanced operating systems such as SELinux and Vista don't usually impose restrictions during software installs, expecting the system administrator to "know what she is doing." This paper addresses this "gap in armor" by securing software installations. Our technique can support a diversity of package managers and software installers. It is based on a framework that simplifies the development and enforcement of policies that govern safety of installations. We present a simple policy that can be used to prevent untrusted software from modifying any of the files used by benign software packages, thus blocking the most common mechanism used by malware to ensure that it is run automatically after each system reboot. While the scope of our technique is limited to the installation phase, it can be easily combined with approaches for secure execution, e.g., by ensuring that all future runs of an untrusted package will take place within an administrator-specified sandbox. Our experimental evaluation has considered over one hundred benign and untrusted software packages. Our technique was able to block malicious packages among these without breaking non-malicious ones.
Purification and characterization of a soybean flour-inducible ferredoxin reductase of Streptomyces griseus.

We have purified an NADH-dependent ferredoxin reductase from crude extracts of Streptomyces griseus cells grown in soybean flour-enriched medium. The purified protein has a molecular weight of 60,000 as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis. The enzyme requires Mg2+ ion for catalytic activity in reconstituted assays, and its spectral properties resemble those of many other flavin adenine dinucleotide-containing flavoproteins. A relatively large number of hydrophobic amino acid residues are found by amino acid analysis, and beginning with residue 7, a consensus flavin adenine dinucleotide binding sequence, GXGXXGXXXA, is revealed in this protein. In the presence of NADH, the ferredoxin reductase reduces various electron acceptors such as cytochrome c, potassium ferricyanide, dichlorophenolindophenol, and nitroblue tetrazolium. However, only cytochrome c reduction by the ferredoxin reductase is enhanced by the addition of ferredoxin. In the presence of NADH, S. griseus ferredoxin and cytochrome P-450soy, the ferredoxin reductase mediates O dealkylation of 7-ethoxycoumarin. Images
A FAST AND EFFICIENT SOURCE AUTHENTICATION SOLUTION FOR BROADCASTING IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Wireless sensor network has drawn increasing attentions in recent years due to its wide range of applications. Often deployed in hostile environments, wireless sensor network is particularly vulnerable to malicious attacks. Thus security becomes a critical issue. This paper studies the security support for source authentication for broadcasting in wireless sensor networks. Our problem is motivated by a real sensor network application scenario – Dirty Bomb Detection and Localization, which requires efficient broadcast source authentication service in real-time. Although there exist broadcast source authentication solutions developed for wireless sensor networks, they either require significate latency in key release from a one-way hash key chain, or need a large memory space and/or involve high communication overhead. None of these solutions could meet the strict requirements from real-time communication and the limited memory space in our application
I-DIAG: from community discussion to knowledge distillation

I-DIAG is an attempt to understand how to take the collective discussions of a large group of people and distill the messages and documents into more succinct, durable knowledge. I-DIAG is a distributed environment that includes two separate applications, CyberForum and Consolidate. The goals of the project, the architecture of I- DIAG, and the two applications are described. We focus on technical mechanisms to augment social maintenance and social regulation in the system.
Monitoring Phenylalanine—Tyrosine Metabolism by High-Resolution Liquid Chromatography of Urine

Urines, selected to demonstrate the utility of the LC system known as the "UV-Analyzer" for simultaneous investigation of a wide range of metabolites, were obtained from Parkinsonian patients being treated with l-DOPA alone or l-DOPA plus α-methyldopahydrazine, a dopa decarboxylase inhibitor. Sulfate conjugates are the major excretion products of those metabolites of l-DOPA retaining the catechol (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl) structure. Administration of the dopa decarboxylase inhibitor considerably decreased urinary excretion of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic and 3,4-dihydroxymandelic acids and increased excretion of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenyl lactic acid. Urinary chromatograms obtained for several children with neurological disorders manifest by seizures, infantile autism, and mental retardation showed elevated excretion of 4-hydroxyphenylacetic (a metabolite of tyramine) and 4-hydroxyhippuric acids. Two of the more severely affected children excreted a new metabolite, identified by mass spectrometry and gas chromatography—mass spectrometry as α-methoxy-α-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl)-acetic acid. This homolog of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxymandelic acid (VMA) was observed also in urine samples from patients with other types of diseases, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Lesch— Nyhan syndrome, malignant carcinoid, synovial sarcoma, multiple myeloma, and embryonic neoplasia. Its metabolic precursors are unknown.
Catalyzing database inference with fuzzy relations

Inference analysis plays a major role in database security and knowledge discovery. Common sense knowledge, typically expressed in imprecise or fuzzy terms, can be introduced as catalytic relations to existing databases. Analyzing the augmented databases materializes new rules and latent compromising inference channels based on common knowledge and existing database data. The paper shows how fuzzy relations can be used to catalyze new inferences in database systems. A knowledge discovery tool for analyzing catalytic inference in Oracle databases is described.
Role of adrenal hormones in the synthesis of noradrenaline in cardiac sympathetic neurones.

Abstract 1. Adrenalectomy or adrenal demedullation affected neither the levels of endogenous catecholamines in the rat heart nor the accumulation of 3H-noradrenaline 1 hr after its intravenous administration. 2. Twenty-four hours after intravenous administration of labelled amine, however, its retention was markedly reduced in the heart of adrenalectomized or demedullated rats. Ganglionic blockade prevented this reduction. 3. Rate calculations from the decline of catecholamine levels after blockade of synthesis with α-methyl-tyrosine showed that cardiac synthesis of noradrenaline increased about four-fold after demedullation and about three-fold after adrenalectomy. This increase in synthesis may compensate for the loss of circulating catecholamines. 4. There was no change in catechol-o-methyl-transferase activity, but monoamine oxidase activity was increased in the homogenates of the heart of adrenalectomized and demedullated rats. The increase in the cardiac monoamine oxidase activity was markedly greater in the adrenalectomized rats than in the demedullated rats. 5. It is suggested that adrenal cortex insufficiency may modulate the rate of synthesis of noradrenaline and monoamine oxidase activity in cardiac sympathetic neurones.
Testing the Deterrent Effects of Personal and Vicarious Experience with Punishment and Punishment Avoidance

Stafford and Warr (1993) reconceptualized general and specific deterrence into a single theory in which people's tendencies to commit crimes are based on a combination of personal experiences and vicarious experiences with being punished and avoiding punishment. The authors make a significant contribution to the deterrence literature by considering the effect of punishment avoidance when testing deterrence theory. The present study tests the applicability of Stafford and Warr's reconceptualized theory. The results reveal only partial support for deterrence. We discuss the implications of our findings and make suggestions for future research on deterrence theory.
Atomic Group “Mutagenesis” Reveals Major Groove Fine Interactions of a tRNA Synthetase with an RNA Helix

RNA discrimination by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases involves both major and minor groove interactions with the acceptor stem domain of tRNA substrates. In the case of class II Escherichia coli alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AlaRS), minor groove atomic groups in and around the unique G3:U70 base pair previously have been shown to be critical for recognition. In this work, we probe the role of the first (1:72) base pair in discrimination by AlaRS by incorporating 26 new base pair combinations at this site. We find that atomic groups in the wild-type G1:C72 base pair do not contribute as significantly to positive recognition by AlaRS as the minor groove elements in and around the G:U base pair. Our results, however, are consistent with the importance of major groove discrimination at this site. In particular, substrates with a major groove carbonyl oxygen presented by either a G or a U at position 72 are very poor alanine acceptors. Comparison of inactive N1:G72 duplexAla variants with active N1:2-aminopurine72 varian...
Membrane-associated hyaluronate-binding activity of chondrosarcoma chondrocytes

The association of hyaluronate with the surface of chondrocytes was examined by several approaches using primary cultures of chondrocytes derived from the Swarm rat chondrosarcoma. In culture, chondrosarcoma chondrocytes produced large pericellular coats, which can be visualized by particle exclusion, and which can be removed by Streptomyces hyaluronidase. Exposure of chondrocytes, which had been metabolically labelled with 3H-acetate, to exogenous hyaluronate or to Streptomyces hyaluronidase resulted in the release of 36-38% of the endogenous, labelled chondroitin sulfate from the cell layer into the incubation solution. These results imply that at least 37% of the cell layer chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan is retained there by an interaction with hyaluronate. Thus membranes were prepared from cultured chondrocytes and examined for sites which bind 3H-hyaluronate. Binding was observed and found to be saturable, specific for hyaluronate, of high affinity (Kd = approximately 10(-10) M), and destroyed by treating the membranes with trypsin. The 3H-hyaluronate-binding activity was inhibited competitively by hyaluronate decasaccharides but not by hexasaccharides or octasaccharides, indicating that the binding sites recognize a sequence of hyaluronate composed of five disaccharide repeats. The binding activity was partially purified from a detergent extract of chondrocyte membranes by ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, followed by affinity chromatography on wheat germ agglutinin-agarose. Analysis of the partially purified binding activity by SDS-PAGE revealed five protein bands of 48,000-66,000 daltons in silver-stained gels. SDS-PAGE followed by Western blotting and exposure to monoclonal antibodies which recognize epitopes present in link protein and in the hyaluronate-binding region of cartilage proteoglycan revealed no immunoreactive protein bands in the partially purified material. We conclude that one mechanism by which hyaluronate associates with the chondrocyte surface may be via interaction with a membrane-bound hyaluronate-binding protein which is distinct from link protein and proteoglycan.
Backgammon Computer Program Beats World Champion

On July 15, 1979, a backgammon computer program beat the World Backgammon Champion in a match to 7 points. This is the first time a world champion in a recognized intellectual activity has been defeated by a man-made entity. This paper examines the scientific issues involved in constructing the program, an analysis of its performance, and the scientific significance of the win. We also present our SNAC method of constructing evaluation functions.
Food sources and intake of homeless persons

Abstract Given the magnitude of public and private efforts to supply those in need with food at emergency feeding sites, it might be assumed that homeless people do not have a problem getting adequate amounts of food. Results from a nationally representative study of 1,704 homeless adults and 400 soup kitchen and shelter providers in 20 cities with populations of 100,000 or more show that, for many homeless individuals, hunger or food security is a problem. Although the majority of providers serve meals on five to seven days per week, meal observations show that the average meal served provided 1,000 kcals and was low in fruits, vegetables and dairy products. Twenty-four hour food lists of the individuals' intakes show that people using services eat two or more meals per day but only meet the USDA recommendations for meats or meat alternatives. Their diets are particularly low in fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy products. Although solutions include increasing the quantity and quality of food available to homeless people, as well as increasing the availability of housing, it is most important to address the general problems of poverty that play a major role in keeping people in a homeless condition or without adequate resources.
Determinants of bank merger premiums

This study examines the merger premiums paid for a sample of 320 bank acquisitions consummated during the period January 1982 through October 1990. The results of the research indicate that higher merger premiums were paid for, (a) smaller size targets, (b) targets with higher return on common equity ratios (pre-merger), (c) targets with higher leverage as measured by the percentage of primary capital to total capital, (d) targets in a different state than the bidder, and (e) transactions carried out through exchange of stock as opposed to a cash purchase.
PALEOECOLOGIC ASSESSMENT OF AN EDRIOASTEROID (ECHINODERMATA)–ENCRUSTED HARDGROUND FROM THE UPPER ORDOVICIAN (MAYSVILLIAN) BELLEVUE MEMBER, MAYSVILLE, KENTUCKY

Since population studies are most reliable when applied to census assemblages, edrioasteroid paleoecology can best be understood by examining catastrophically buried obrution communities. This paleoecologic study examines a carbonate hardground surface encrusted with four species of isorophid edrioasteroids: Curvitriordo stecki, Carneyella ulrichi, Carneyella pilea, and Streptaster vorticellatus. Analysis of edrioasteroid diameters, a proxy for age, shows a bimodal distribution for Curvitriordo stecki, suggesting a hiatus in recruitment or multiple spatfalls. Low juvenile mortality may explain a left-skewed distribution among individuals of Carneyella ulrichi. Lack of juvenile individuals of S. vorticellatus suggests that this population matured from a single spatfall; there were too few specimens of C. pilea for analysis. Edrioasteroids on this surface exhibit no preferred ambulacral orientation. Spatial analysis (SA) shows an inter-specific clustered distribution at several spatial scales. Intraspecific SA indicates a clustered distribution for Curvitriordo stecki and Carneyella ulrichi; there were too few specimens of S. vorticellatus and C. pilea for analysis. Examination of inter- and intraspecific edrioasteroid taphonomy reveals that thecal collapse, disarticulated cover plates, and disarticulated interambulacral plates occur in nearly half of the population, suggesting brief post-mortem exposure on the paleoseafloor without protection of sediment cover. Individuals of S. vorticellatus suffered thecal collapse, yet all plates and ambulacra remained intact, suggesting that robust thecal elements may inhibit thecal disarticulation.
THE MURMUR OF THE HIDDEN MONSTER: CHANDRA'S DECADAL VIEW OF THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE IN M31

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) hosts a central supermassive black hole (SMBH), known as M31*, which is remarkable for its mass (~108 M ☉) and extreme radiative quiescence. Over the past decade, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has pointed to the center of M31 ~100 times and accumulated a total exposure of ~900 ks. Based on these observations, we present an X-ray study of a highly variable source that we associate with M31* based on positional coincidence. We find that M31* remained in a quiescent state from late 1999 to 2005, exhibiting an average 0.5-8 keV luminosity 1036 erg s-1, or only ~10–10 of its Eddington luminosity. We report the discovery of an outburst that occurred on 2006 January 6 during which M31* radiated at ~4.3 × 1037 erg s-1. After the outburst, M31* entered a more active state that apparently lasts to the present, which is characterized by frequent flux variability around an average luminosity of ~4.8 × 1036 erg s-1. These flux variations are similar to the X-ray flares found in the SMBH of our Galaxy (Sgr A*), making M31* the second SMBH known to exhibit recurrent flares. Future coordinated X-ray/radio observations will provide useful constraints on the physical origin of the flaring emission and help rule out a possible stellar origin of the X-ray source.
Disciplinary variation in automatic sublanguage term identification

The research presented here describes a method for automatically identifying sublanguage (SL) domain terms and revealing the patterns in which they occur in text. By applying this method to abstracts from a variety of disciplines, differences in how SL domain terminology occurs can be discerned. Results of this research have both practical and theoretical implications. These include 1) the identification of patterns of domain term occurrence, 2) a step toward the identification of families of SLs that share term occurrence patterns, 3) domain term extraction procedure that can exploit the term occurrence patterns, and 4) evidence to support the intuitive notion of a continuum of technicality of disciplines and their SLs. The investigation revealed relatively consistent differences between the hard sciences, such as physics or biology, and the social sciences and humanities, such as history or sociology. The hard sciences tended to have more domain terms, and more of these terms occurred in sequences than in the social sciences and humanities. The seed terms used in this research occurred adjacent to domain terms more often in the hard sciences than in the social sciences. The extraction process was more successful in the hard science disciplines than in the social sciences, identifying more of the domain terms while extracting fewer general terms.
Postmastectomy radiotherapy in the management of operable breast cancer

There is a long and detailed history of radiation therapy as an adjuvant to surgery in operable breast cancer. The results of a large number of randomized clinical trials will be reviewed. They can be summarized by saying that although the trials show a reduction in local-regional failure with the use of postoperative radiotherapy, a survival advantage has not been clearly identified. Many of the older trials used techniques and radiation doses inadequate by current standards, which may have afFected the results. Recent trials that used therapeutic doses of radiation, however, did demonstrate a survival advantage among patients who received postoperative radiotherapy
Thyroid hormone control of development of lateral motor column cells in the lumbo-sacral cord in hypophysectomized Rana pipiens.

Abstract 1. 1. To determine to what extent thyroxine and the limb play a role in the development of the lateral motor cells, hypophysectomized tadpoles had their limbs amputated at stages II–VI and were immersed in solutions of dl -thyroxine in concentrations of 0.5 to 50 μg per liter. 2. 2. At these hormone concentrations, reductions in lateral motor column cell number in the spinal cord duplicate the reductions which occur normally during the midlarval period. In the absence of a limb, the response of the lateral motor cells to thyroxine is delayed for several stages. This is manifested by the temporary retention on the operated side of the cord of a significantly higher number of motor cells of small size than on the control side. 3. 3. In solutions of 50 μg of thyroxine per liter the lateral motor column shows an initial hypoplasia, through degeneration. Many pycnotic nuclei and much cellular debris can be seen in the cord on the operated side. 4. 4. It is concluded that one role of thyroxine is to hasten the degeneration and transformation of lateral motor column cells, presumably those which do not make functional peripheral connections, thereby eliminating them or making them indistinguishable from adjacent mantle cells.
Simplified Linear Stability Transition Prediction Method for Separated Boundary Layers

An existing transition prediction method for attached, two-dimensional, incompressible boundary layers based on linear stability analysis is extended to separated, two-dimensional, incompressible boundary layers such as those found in laminar (transitional) separation bubbles. It is shown why the present method, which tracks the growth of disturbances at many different frequencies, is more accurate than the so-called envelope methods for nonsimilar boundary-layer developments. Reliance on a database of precalculated stability characteristics of known velocity profiles makes this method much faster than traditional stability calculations of similar accuracy. The Falkner-Skan self-similar profiles are used for attached flow, and a new, very general family of profiles is used for separated flow. Comparisons with measured transition locations inside the bubble show good agreement over the range of chord Reynolds numbers and airfoil angles of attack of interest.
STM study of water adsorption on the TiO2(110)-(1 × 2) surface

Abstract Adsorption of H 2 O on the TiO 2 (1 1 0)–(1 × 2) surface was studied in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) using the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). At 300 K H 2 O adsorbs preferentially on the crosslinks of the TiO 2 (1 1 0)–(1 × 2) surface. Cooling down the surface to 110 K during H 2 O exposure results in adsorption on the crosslinks and other surface sites, presumably the 5-fold coordinated Ti-atoms. The reaction products, observed as bright protrusions at positive sample bias, are attributed to hydroxyl groups due to H 2 O dissociation. In addition, it was found that the UV-induced line-defects on the TiO 2 (1 1 0)–(1 × 2) surface do not interact with H 2 O as seen by STM.
River meandering on Earth and Mars: A comparative study of Aeolis Dorsa meanders, Mars and possible terrestrial analogs of the Usuktuk River, AK, and the Quinn River, NV

Abstract The paleo-meanders in the Aeolis Dorsa (AD) region show that meandering channels can develop in the absence of vegetation. Three possible mechanisms other than vegetation could contribute to the bank cohesion required to promote meandering: permafrost, abundant mud, and chemical cementation. Banks at the meandering Quinn River show little vegetation cover. Almost all sediment samples collected from the Quinn River deposits contain at least 41% mud (silt/clay), which is much higher than for most meandering streams. Ion chromatography (IC) analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed presence of salts in river waters and sediments which may induce fine sediment to flocculate and be deposited. We find that bank cohesion promoting meandering can be provided by silt/clay, the deposition of which may be induced by dissolved salts. The sinuous Usuktuk River in the continuous permafrost region near Barrow, Alaska exhibited no exposed permafrost on stream banks. Instead vegetation seemed to be the dominant control of bank erosion. We have not found evidence for ice control of bank cohesion in this or other terrestrial rivers of similar size and in meandering pattern to the Martian AD meanders. We conclude that bank cohesion in the AD meanders was probably provided by deposition of fine suspended sediment that was flocculated by dissolved salts.
Revision shoulder arthroplasty including bony deficiency

Abstract The shoulder is the most lax joint of the human body, and its stability is obtained by the action of the multiple surrounding structures, making surgical restoration of shoulder function a technically demanding procedure. Currently total shoulder arthroplasty has been widely accepted in the treatment of various diseases especially in rheumatoid and degenerative arthritis and fractures. As one might think, the increased number of shoulder arthroplasties has apparently led to higher revision rates, as in total hip and knee arthroplasties. The main mechanisms of failure after a primary shoulder arthroplasty are instability, component loosening, malposition, infection, and periprosthetic fracture.
Influence of column length and pore size on high-performance ion-exchange chromatography of estrogen and progestin receptors

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) procedure has been evaluated to establish a routine test in the clinical laboratory for measuring the profiles of estrogen and progestin receptor isoforms in human breast and endometrial tumors. This procedure will be used to determine if there is a relationship between particular isoform profiles and response to various endocrine therapies. Evaluation of various HPLC modes has shown that high-performance ion-exchange chromatography (HPIEC) with silica-based anion exchangers offers a promising approach. In this paper, we have compared HPIEC columns of different lengths (10 and 25 cm) and pore sizes (300, 500 and 1,000 A) in order to obtain an optimal separation procedure. Because of receptor lability, all investigations were performed at 4 degrees C. The mobile phase consisted of 10-500 mM phosphate buffer, supplemented with the stabilizing agent, sodium molybdate at pH 7.4. Recoveries from each of the columns were between 70-100%. The length of the column did not influence significantly the retention time and salt concentration required for elution of receptor proteins. However, pore sizes appeared to alter these parameters. With a larger pore size (1,000 A), the retention of proteins was lower (elution with 50 mM phosphate) than that observed with the 500-A pore size column (elution with 100 mM phosphate) or of the 300-A pore size column (elution with 150 mM phosphate). Based solely on recovery patterns and peak shape, we conclude that separation of receptor isoforms on a 1,000-A, 25-cm column is best suited for clinical analysis.
Shape Indexing and Recognition Based on Regional Analysis

Shape indexing and recognition have received great attention in multimedia processing communities due to the wide range of utilities. In achieving shape representation, most influential methods treat shapes as intrinsic curves, which is not in agreement with the way human vision systems achieve the same task. In this paper, a new framework is developed where a shape is treated as a 2-D region. We first perform an eigen analysis to align P in the standard orientation. Three numbers are generated to indicate the global geometrical nature. Next, according to the two eigen vectors, we partition P into four halves and eight quadrants. Five numbers are then produced for each region to signify its geometrical properties and relation with P. The aggregate of these numbers, 63 in total, is the actual index for P. Recognition is effected by weighted LI distances between shapes. This indexing scheme captures the global geometry of shapes and is resilient to rotations and scales, which are of crucial importance in the perceptive process of human vision systems. It can tolerate occlusions present in most standard shape datasets but is not robust against severe occlusions. Empirical studies conducted on standard synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate encouraging performances.
Transfer of CH4 across the H2OCCl4 liquid-liquid interface with polarizable potential models

Abstract Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to investigate the free energy profile of transferring a methane molecule across the H 2 OCCl 4 liquid-liquid interface. The computed free energy curve decreases monotonically from bulk H 2 O to bulk CCl 4 . Examination of the solvation structures suggests that the transfer involves a smooth change of the composition of the solvation shell around CH 4 . The computed free energy of transfer estimated from the potential of mean force is 3.8 ± 0.7 kcal/mol. This value is in good agreement with the value of 1.9 kcal/mol, supporting our approach.
Dedicated asthma center improves the quality of care and resource utilization for pediatric asthma: a multicenter study.

OBJECTIVES To determine the relative effectiveness of pediatric asthma care among patients treated by a dedicated asthma center (AC) vs children who use the emergency department (ED) as a site of primary asthma care. METHODS A retrospective case-control design was used. A random sample of AC cases was selected from a designated comprehensive AC over a 12-month period. Concurrent ED control patients were identified from all cases of pediatric asthma from five urban hospitals based on two or more ED visits. Cases and controls were matched (1:2) based on age and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) asthma severity of illness classification. A telephone survey was administered to the caregivers of all enrolled patients in the study sample. RESULTS Four elements of pediatric asthma care were examined: quality, access, hospital utilization, and functional impact of disease. Demographic data were similar between the ED cases and the AC controls. In terms of quality of care, the AC patients were more likely to use maintenance antiinflammatory medications, 60.2% vs 22.5% (OR = 5.3; 95% CI = 2.9 to 9.7) and more likely to be taking medications at school, 71.4% vs 48.1% (OR = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.5 to 4.7). In terms of access to care, the AC families were more likely to have a physician to call to assist with outpatient management, 98.2% vs 65.0% (OR = 25.3; 95% CI = 9.0 to 76.9). Frequent ED utilization (> or = 1 visit/month) was less likely in the AC patients, 9.2% vs 22.0% (OR = 0.35; 95% CI = 0.16 to 0.79) and school absenteeism was lower as well (9.5 +/- 6.7 days vs 16.6 +/- 10.3, p < 0.001). Additionally, the caregivers of the AC patients missed fewer workdays (4.7 +/- 2.8 vs 7.4 +/- 4.1; p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS Significant disparities in quality, access, resource utilization, and functional impact exist between AC and ED patients. Emergency physicians have a unique opportunity to improve the public health by directing ED patients toward pediatric AC treatment.
Magnetic Resonance Elastography of the Heart

A variety of disease processes are known to affect the mechanical properties of the heart. Historically, quantifying myocardial stiffness has involved invasive, catheter-based procedures that provided a single global estimate of this biomarker. Recent research efforts have demonstrated that it is possible to noninvasively spatially resolve myocardial stiffness using magnetic resonance elastograpy (MRE). This chapter describes these developments, provides preliminary results, and points to potential clinical applications.
Hypoglycemia in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Iatrogenic hypoglycemia, typically the result of the interplay of therapeutic hyperinsulinemia and compromised defenses resulting in hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure (HAAF) in diabetes, is a problem for people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). It causes recurrent morbidity is sometimes fatal, leads to recurrent hypoglycemia, and precludes euglycemia over a lifetime of T1DM. Risk factors include those that result in relative or absolute insulin excess and those indicative of HAAF in diabetes. Elimination of hypoglycemia from the lives of people with T1DM will likely be accomplished by new treatment methods that provide plasma glucose-regulated insulin replacement or secretion.
Taking a Systematic Approach to the United States Military Academy Systems Engineering Program

Our group examined the United States Military Academy Systems Engineering (USMA SE) program from an internal perspective using the tools we learned in our program. The purpose of the project was to take a holistic system view of the SE program in support of the program assessment being conducted by our client, the SE Program Director. A major development in our capstone process is when we discovered our program should have a heavy emphasis in the decision-making aspect of systems engineering. This is due to the fact that all of our graduates will be commissioned as officers in the US Army and the primary job of an officer is to make decisions for his or her unit. This is why we believe that our program should emphasize decision making. Our revised objectives and outcomes is a culmination of research that looks at the values of different stakeholders while keeping in mind constraints like the USMA mission and ABET requirements. Next we developed alternatives to change the program curriculum to fulfill the program objectives and outcomes. Our recommendation is to eliminate two electives and a required course to allow for a three track stem. By doing this, our program is more systems engineering and aligning with what system engineering cadets should learn by graduation.
Critical inquiry into emergent‐oriented curriculum practice

Abstract This theoretical paper characterizes and explores emergent‐oriented curriculum practice through the experiences of an early childhood education (ECE) prospective teacher, in the context of the U.S., as she co‐constructs the meaning of emergent‐oriented curriculum with culturally diverse pre‐K (4–5‐year‐old) children during her field experience. The paper examines how the prospective teacher understood emergent learning, how she and the children created and shaped their curriculum, and what critical aspects pertain to emergent‐oriented curriculum work from the perspective of developmentally meaningful and culturally responsive practice.
A semi-automated serum thyroxine assay via the competitive binding technique.

Summary 1. A semi-automated method for the assay of thyroxine in serum by protein competitive binding is presented. The method provides the specificity which only this approach can give with the volume capability supplied by automation. 2. The feasibility of dialysis as a method of seperating free from protein-bound thyroxine is established, as is the use of the Auto Analyzer system for this type of assay.
A Theory of Musical Analysis: On Segmentation and Associative Organization

Hanninen's book presents and exemplifies a ‘theory of analysis’, not a theory of musical structure per se—a premise that will be addressed in this overview and at the end of the entire review. A Th...
Novelty and functional equivalence in superordinate categorization by pigeons

Superordinate categorization via association with a common response was studied in pigeons. Original training paired disparate classes (e.g., people + chairs and cars + flowers) with a common response (Responses 1 and 2, respectively). Reassignment training taught new responses (Responses 3 and 4, respectively) to one component class from each pair (e.g., people and cars). Superordinate categorization was documented in testing when the pigeons made the same responses to the stimuli that were withheld in reassignment training (e.g., chairs and flowers) as they did to the reassigned stimuli themselves (e.g., people and cars) and when the birds transferred these discriminative responses to novel stimuli from all four component classes. Reassignment training with novel stimuli produced effects that were similar to those of reassignment training with familiar stimuli. Superordinate categorization via association with a common response is thus a robust effect that generalizes to novel stimuli from each of the component classes.
Initial repair of iatrogenic colon perforation using laparoscopic methods.

Background Iatrogenic perforation of the colon during elective colonoscopy is a rare but serious complication. Treatment using laparoscopic methods is a novel approach, only described in the recent literature. We hypothesized that laparoscopic treatment of iatrogenic colon perforation would result in equal therapeutic efficacy, less perioperative morbidity, smaller incisions and decreased length of stay, and an overall better short-term outcome compared to open methods.
Gaussian skewness approximation for dynamic rate multi-server queues with abandonment

The multi-server queue with non-homogeneous Poisson arrivals and customer abandonment is a fundamental dynamic rate queueing model for large scale service systems such as call centers and hospitals. Scaling the arrival rates and number of servers arises naturally when a manager updates a staffing schedule in response to a forecast of increased customer demand. Mathematically, this type of scaling ultimately gives us the fluid and diffusion limits as found in Mandelbaum et al., Queueing Syst 30:149---201 (1998) for Markovian service networks. The asymptotics used here reduce to the Halfin and Whitt, Oper Res 29:567---588 (1981) scaling for multi-server queues. The diffusion limit suggests a Gaussian approximation to the stochastic behavior of this queueing process. The mean and variance are easily computed from a two-dimensional dynamical system for the fluid and diffusion limiting processes. Recent work by Ko and Gautam, INFORMS J Comput, to appear (2012) found that a modified version of these differential equations yield better Gaussian estimates of the original queueing system distribution. In this paper, we introduce a new three-dimensional dynamical system that is based on estimating the mean, variance, and third cumulant moment. This improves on the previous approaches by fitting the distribution from a quadratic function of a Gaussian random variable.
Flanking sequence specificity determines coding microsatellite heteroduplex and mutation rates with defective DNA mismatch repair (MMR).

Flanking sequence specificity determines coding microsatellite heteroduplex and mutation rates with defective DNA mismatch repair (MMR)
Adapting Judicial Supervision to the Risk Level of Drug Offenders: Discharge and 6-month Outcomes from a Prospective Matching Study

This article reports recent findings from a program of experimental research examining the effects of adapting judicial supervision to the risk level of drug-abusing offenders. Prior studies revealed that high-risk participants with (1) antisocial personality disorder or (2) a history of drug abuse treatment performed significantly better in drug court when they were scheduled to attend frequent, bi-weekly judicial status hearings in court. Low-risk participants performed equivalently regardless of the schedule of court hearings. The current study prospectively matched misdemeanor drug court clients to the optimal schedule of court hearings based upon an assessment of their risk status, and compared outcomes to those of clients randomly assigned to the standard schedule of court hearings. Results confirmed that high-risk participants graduated at a higher rate, provided more drug-negative urine specimens at 6 months post-admission, and reported significantly less drug use and alcohol intoxication at 6 months post-admission when they were matched to bi-weekly hearings as compared to the usual schedule of hearings. These findings yield practical information for enhancing the efficacy and cost-efficiency of drug court services. Directions for future research on adaptive programming for drug offenders are discussed.
Software product assessment based on customer inputs: metrics and managerial implications

We provide a framework and modelling approach to assess alignment of product variety for a software firm in meeting customer requirements and efficiently managing customer satisfaction. Our framework includes assessment of customer satisfaction and market alignment at multiple levels such as the market, firm and product levels. We define quantitative alignment indices at these levels based on both the mean and variability across customers in the importance placed on different product quality attributes in determining customer satisfaction. We illustrate our framework using data collected from over 2,000 customers of database software products offered by the leading firms in the software industry. The managerial implications of our analysis are discussed.
The behavior of daily stock market trading volume

Abstract This paper documents the empirical distributions of daily trading volume prediction errors for several commonly used volume measures and expectation models for individual firms and for portfolios. The prediction errors for raw volume measures are significantly positively skewed, with thin left tails and fat right tails. However, natural log transformations of the volume measures are approximately normally distributed. For longer than one-day prediction intervals, recognition of autocorrelation in daily trading volume is advantageous for detecting abnormal trading. Results of analysis for clustering of events and for different size firms are also presented.
State-of-the-Art: Comparative Pharmacology of the β-Adrenoceptor Blocking Drugs

There are certain pharmacological differences among the many β- adrenoceptor blocking drugs (β- blockers) available today. These properties may influence the clinical selection of a β- blocker and include cardioselectivity, partial agonist activity, membrane stabilising activity and lipophilicity. These properties are reviewed to assess their relevance and relative importance in clinical and experimental situations.
The role of Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma in adverse pregnancy outcomes

Genital mycoplasmas are frequently found in the vaginal flora across socioeconomic and ethnic groups and have been demonstrated to be involved in adverse perinatal outcomes. Both Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma spp cause inflammation potentially leading to spontaneous preterm birth and PPROM as well as postdelivery infectious complications and neonatal infections. Herein we have provided an overview of the existing literature and supportive evidence for genital mycoplasma's role in perinatal complications. Future research will need to focus on clearly delineating the species, allowing for discrimination of their effects.
Kinetically stabilized hydrogen storage materials

Kinetically stabilized hydrides are characterized by a low reaction enthalpy and a decomposition reaction that is thermodynamically favorable under ambient conditions. The rapid, low temperature hydrogen evolution rates offer much promise for mobile proton exchange membrane fuel cell applications. However, a critical challenge exists to develop new methods to regenerate or recycle the hydride directly from the reactants and hydrogen gas.
Technical information centers: Specialized services to science and technology. An overview

The term “technical information center” can be used to describe any service which retrieves any type of data or information, but is generally used to refer to science information and its retrieval. For the purposes of this study, a “technical information center” will describe any service or library which makes information available to the scientific and technological community. This short study will attempt to describe the purposes, establishment, practices, and problems of such an information center, and to focus attention on the unique relationships that do or could exist between the “traditional” special or company library and the “modern” technical information center.