cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
“The Separation That is Not a Separation But a Form of Union”: Merleau-Ponty and Feminist Object Relations Theory in Dialogue

We often think of normal childhood as a progressive development towards a fixed—and often tacitly individualistic and masculine—model of what it is to be an adult. By contrast, phenomenologists, psychoanalysts, sociology of childhood, and feminist thinkers have set out to offer richer accounts both of childhood development and of mature existence. This paper (1) draws on accounts of childhood development from phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty and object relations theorist D. W. Winnicott in order to argue that childhood development takes place in “transitional spaces”; (2) explores typical gendered patterns in the formation of selfhood that “split” relationality and separateness into the “feminine” and the “masculine”; and (3) offers a phenomenology of perception, love, and objectivity in order to show the manner in which, contra individualistic and masculine visions of adulthood, maturity requires an embrace rather than eschewal of ambiguity, and the capacity to continue to dwell in the transitional space between relatedness and separateness.
Agnes Rimando, a Pioneer in the Fate of Glyphosate and Its Primary Metabolite in Plants.

Glyphosate is the most used herbicide on the planet because of its excellent efficacy on almost all weed species and due to the large-scale adoption of transgenic, glyphosate-resistant (GR) crops. ...
Comparative Outcomes for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Surgery among Nursing Home Residents and Matched Community Dwelling Older Adults. Reply.

Purpose:We compared short and long-term outcomes between nursing home residents and matched community dwelling older adults undergoing surgery for pelvic organ prolapse.Materials and Methods:This r...
Non-stationary historical trends in wave energy climate for coastal waters of the United States

Abstract The thirty-year non-stationary historical trends in the wave energy climate for United States coastal waters between 1980 and 2009 are investigated using spectral partitioned wave data generated from a WaveWatch III® (version 5.05) hindcast. In addition to historical trends in the omni-directional wave power, frequency and directionally resolved wave power, frequency and directional spreading, and seasonal variability, are examined for the first time, including their geographical distribution. These historical wave energy climate trends are linked to changes to the dominant wave systems and commensurate trends in the historical wind climate. Total wave power trends are consistent with other studies, but the present study identifies regions, and specific frequency and direction bands, where significant wave energy climate changes have occurred. For some regions, changes to wave climate parameters exceeded one-percent annually, more than thirty-percent over the study period. Non-stationary trends of this magnitude have significant implications for ocean and coastal engineering projects designed assuming wave climates are stationary and warrant their consideration in design practices.
Effects of Co₃O₄ Addition on Magnetic Properties of NiCuZn Ferrite Feedstock for 3-D-Printing Power Magnetic Components

Novel designs of magnetic components (inductors and transformers) lead to size reduction of power electronic (PE) systems but are difficult to be fabricated by conventional methods. Additive manufacturing can ease the fabrication of the novel designs that require intricate geometries or multi-permeability cores. The challenge is the lack of functional soft magnetic feedstock/ink with sufficient choices of different permeability or with tailorable permeability. In this study, we explored an easy way to tailor the permeability of a NiCuZn ferrite feedstock by adding different fractions of Co3O4 to the ferrite powder in the feedstock. Toroid cores were 3-D-printed using the feedstock with different fractions of Co3O4. Relative permeability of the sintered toroid cores could be tailored from 495 to 138 with 0%–0.8% of the Co3O4. Besides, 0.5% of Co3O4 reduced the core-loss density of the ferrite by 77.6% at a low magnetic flux density of 5 mT. The effects of Co3O4 on saturation flux density, dc bias permeability, electrical resistivity, packing density, and microstructure of the sintered ferrite cores were also characterized. The mechanisms of how Co3O4 affected the magnetic properties of the ferrite feedstock were studied.
Kant's Defense of Common Moral Experience: A Phenomenological Account

Introduction: getting Kant's joke: a phenomenological defense of common moral experience Part I. The Interpretive Framework: 1. Kant's common, phenomenological grounding of morality 2. Response to immediate objections: experience 3. Response to immediate objections: feeling Part II. The Groundwork: 4. Kant's Groundwork rejection of the possibility of a reliable experience of categorical obligation 5. The phenomenological failure of Groundwork III Part III. The Critique of Practical Reason: 6. Recent interpretations of the Fact of Reason 7. The gallows man: the new face of attentiveness 8. The Fact of Reason is a forced, phenomenological fact 9. The gallows man's fact is the Fact of Reason 10. Thoughts on the deduction of freedom 11. Objective, synthetic, a priori, practical cognitions Conclusion.
Ecology: A Science and a Religion

Is ecology a healthy, vibrant science? Whereas a rigorous definition of science is difficult, it is nonetheless clear that there are symptoms of ill health in ecology. The lay enthusiasm and concern for ecology stem more from the public’s failure to understand nature, and to influence society to relate wisely to nature, than they do from any notable achievements of ecologists. Indeed, there are few, if any, universally accepted and acclaimed breakthroughs in ecology, and, for that matter, few are likely because the field is conspicuously splintered into subdisciplines with serious loss of communication. For example, there are dichotomies between pure and applied branches of ecology which, although the two often pursue almost identical questions, involve different workers from different schools who have different values and seemingly speak different languages. In the same sense, there are serious dichotomies between theoretical and empirical ecologists which have led to a mutual contempt that is counterproductive to the proper pursuit of knowledge. In addition to the loss of communication between the theorists and empiricists, we find that the field is splintered into fairly rigidly defined “camps” or disciplines such as those working with descriptive problems, systematics, population regulation, ecosystem-system analysis, energetics, theory, or experimental ecology. The lack of communication and mutual respect between these groups is distressing.
Evidence for Tighter Binding of Magnesium-Thiamine Pyrophosphate to α-Ketoglutarate Dehydrogenase When Activated by Adenosine Monophosphate

Abstract The complex of α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase with lipoyl transsuccinylase isolated from cauliflower florets and assayed with exogenous lipoyl dehydrogenase is strongly activated by adenosine 5'-monophosphate. The fact that cauliflower α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase is free of bound thiamine pyrophosphate as isolated makes possible measurement of the influence of AMP on the binding of this cofactor to the enzyme. The presence of AMP causes an increase in the Vmax of the reaction and a decrease in the Km for Mg-thiamine-PPi. The kinetic indication of tighter binding of Mgthiamine-PPi implicit in the smaller Km is confirmed by independent and more direct measurements of the dissociation of the enzyme-cofactor complex. The half-time for dissociation of the complex of the enzyme with Mg-thiaminePPi is 5 ½ min. In the presence of AMP, the half-time of dissociation is increased to 179 min. The slower rate constant for the dissociation of the enzyme-Mg-thiamine-PPi complex is paralleled by a more rapid rate constant for the association of these components in the presence of AMP. The α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase reaction can utilize Ca2+, Mg2+, or Sr2+, although at significantly different rates. In the presence of AMP, the rate with any of these ions is stimulated and reaches approximately the same value regardless of which ion is supplied.
Perioperative management of neurosurgical patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Object The emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has posed a challenge in the treatment of neurosurgical patients. The authors investigated the impact of MRSA colonization and infection in the neurosurgical population at a community-based, tertiary care referral center. Methods Hospitalized patients under the care of the Kaiser Permanente inpatient neurosurgery service were prospectively entered into a database. In Phase I of the study, 492 consecutive patients were followed. Per hospital policy, the 260 patients from this group who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) underwent screening for MRSA based on nasal swab cultures and a review of their medical history for prior MRSA infections. These patients were designated as either MRSA positive (17 patients, 6.5% of screened patients) or MRSA negative (243 patients). The 232 patients admitted to non-ICU nursing units did not undergo MRSA screening and were designated as unscreened. In Phase II of the study, the authors r...
Folklore: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies

Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Alan Dundes Year: 2004 Pages: 1542 Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 0-415-31662-6 (hard cover). Prices: $865.00 USD(hard cover).
P2P document tree management in a real-time collaborative editing system

This paper presents our work in combining peer-to-peer dynamic tree management with hierarchical Operational Transformation (OT) over document trees to achieve low computational and communication costs. We discuss our approach in storing the document tree in a peer-to-peer, distributed manner and maintaining convergence, causality preservation, and intention preservation (CCI) via a peer-to-peer caching system. Because changes are sent to other users within the system only as needed (and cached when possible), our approach minimizes communication costs among multiple readers and writers. Our algorithms balance the traffic and computational load among peers. They ensure that users always have the most current/correct copy of the section(s) of the document which they are viewing. Our approach outperforms existing OT techniques that broadcast messages and compute OT for each operation at all peers. This paper presents our algorithms and simulation results demonstrating the efficiencies and load balancing among peers within the system.
Shareholder Horizon and Risk Taking of Financial Institutions

Is risk taking in financial institutions related to the horizon of their shareholders? In the period prior to the financial crisis of 2008-09, I document a signifiant and robust relation between the riskiness of financial institutions as measured by financial leverage and the firm's shareholder horizon as measured by the average portfolio turnover of the financial institution's institutional investors. Riskier banks have institutional shareholders with shorter horizons. Moreover, an exogenous shock to the financial leverage resulting from a change in accounting regulation impacts the bank's average shareholder horizon. My results indicate that shorter-horizon shareholders are attracted to riskier banks, suggesting the existence of risk based clienteles.
CAR: Clock with Adaptive Replacement

CLOCK is a classical cache replacement policy dating back to 1968 that was proposed as a low-complexity approximation to LRU. On every cache hit, the policy LRU needs to move the accessed item to the most recently used position, at which point, to ensure consistency and correctness, it serializes cache hits behind a single global lock. CLOCK eliminates this lock contention, and, hence, can support high concurrency and high throughput environments such as virtual memory (for example, Multics, UNIX, BSD, AIX) and databases (for example, DB2). Unfortunately, CLOCK is still plagued by disadvantages of LRU such as disregard for "frequency", susceptibility to scans, and low performance.As our main contribution, we propose a simple and elegant new algorithm, namely, CLOCK with Adaptive Replacement (CAR), that has several advantages over CLOCK: (i) it is scan-resistant; (ii) it is self-tuning and it adaptively and dynamically captures the "recency" and "frequency" features of a workload; (iii) it uses essentially the same primitives as CLOCK, and, hence, is low-complexity and amenable to a high-concurrency implementation; and (iv) it outperforms CLOCK across a wide-range of cache sizes and workloads. The algorithm CAR is inspired by the Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC) algorithm, and inherits virtually all advantages of ARC including its high performance, but does not serialize cache hits behind a single global lock. As our second contribution, we introduce another novel algorithm, namely, CAR with Temporal filtering (CART), that has all the advantages of CAR, but, in addition, uses a certain temporal filter to distill pages with long-term utility from those with only short-term utility.
Revolutionizing Retail: Workers, Political Action, and Social Change

This text is about workplace equity. Kendra Coulter takes a close look at the possibility that we are creating a permanent low-wage economy that will prohibit large numbers of citizens from obtaini...
REMARKS ON NONLINEAR EVOLUTION EQUATIONS AND THE INVERSE SCATTERING TRANSFORM

In recent years there has been considerable attention devoted to a new and rapidly developing area of mathematical physics, namely the Inverse Scattering Transform (I.S.T. for short). This method has allowed us to solve certain physically interesting nonlinear evolution equations. By now there are a number of review articles [for example, see Scott et al, 1973; Miura, 1976; Ablowitz, 1978] on this subject as well as some new books [for example, see Zakharov et al, 1980; Ablowitz and Segur, to appear], all of which contain numerous references.
Modulation of α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic Acid Receptor Desensitization by Extracellular Protons

The interstitial milieu of the brain is buffered to an average pH of 7.3, but synaptic activation produces a temporal sequence of events that can affect pH in the synaptic cleft. Furthermore, pathophysiological processes such as ischemia and seizures produce global and prolonged acidification of interstitial pH. Changes in pH, in turn, can affect neuronal excitability by modulating receptors and channels. Patch-clamp recordings were made from cultured rat hippocampal neurons to determine whether physiologically relevant changes in interstitial pH (6.5–7.8) significantly affect AMPA receptor function. Acidic pH, such as that typically associated with ischemia (pH 6.5), significantly inhibited AMPA receptor-mediated responses in neurons. The effect of pH was agonist-dependent, with 2-fold greater inhibition of responses evoked by the strongly desensitizing agonists glutamate and quisqualate than the weakly desensitizing agonist kainate. Additional experiments tested the hypothesis that protons modulate AMPA receptor desensitization. In the presence of drugs that block AMPA receptor desensitization, pH 6.5 had no effect on glutamate-evoked responses. In neuronal macropatches, protons increased equilibrium desensitization without affecting macroscopic desensitization or deactivation kinetics. The mechanisms and molecular determinants of pH-mediated effects were further investigated using human embryonic kidney 293 cells expressing recombinant AMPA receptors. Inhibition of kainate-evoked responses varied with subunit and isoform composition, ranging from 10% to >40%. Flop isoforms, which exhibit faster and more extensive desensitization, were most strongly inhibited. These findings suggest that interstitial acidification can modulate AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission and that differences in receptor sensitivity to proton modulation may underlie the selective vulnerability of certain neuronal populations to ischemia.
Tubulogenesis: Zipping up Your Fly

In animals, rearrangements of the junctions between cells are fundamental to morphogenesis. Recent work has revealed the acrobatics that Drosophila tracheal cells perform as they intercalate to form unicellular tubes.
The effects of hypnosis, context reinstatement, and anxiety on eyewitness memory

The effects of hypnosis, context reinstatement, and motivational instructions on accuracy of recall for factual information and facial recognition accuracy following a stressful event were assessed. None of the three techniques had a significant effect on factual memory or susceptibility to suggestion as assessed by true-false and multiple-choice tests. However, participants high in hypnotic susceptibility showed somewhat better memory on the true-false test, and hypnosis affected performance on the two photograph line-ups. In addition, hypnosis appeared to enhance facial recognition accuracy for participants who were low in anxiety, but not for those high in anxiety. Finally, there was evidence of a curvilinear relationship between self-reported anxiety at time of retrieval and facial recognition accuracy.
Translational research: Essential contributions from interpretive nursing science

Translating research into practice is a central priority in the National Institutes of Health Roadmap. Nurse scientists must reevaluate how proposed research fits within and contributes not only to the development of new knowledge, but to the translation of that knowledge to the care of diverse communities and populations. Key barriers to the translation of evidence based practices in health programs and initiatives have been identified in the health services and nursing literature. Contributions that interpretive research approaches enable in addressing those barriers are articulated.
Impact of a Career Planning Course on Academic Performance and Graduation Rate

A study was conducted to assess the impact of a career-planning course in terms of time taken to graduate, graduation rate, credit hours taken, number of course withdrawals, and cumulative GPAs. St...
Human erythrocyte catalase: an improved method of isolation and a reevaluation of reported properties.

An improved method for the isolation of human erythrocyte catalase from large volumes of cells is described. Time of isolation has been reduced and the need for larger equipment has been minimized. The yield is 200–300 mg per liter of packed cells. Amino acid composition, molecular weight, spectral constants, heme content, activity, and N-terminal residues have been determined. Although the isolative procedure is a modification of that of Morikofer-Zwez et al. (1969) (Eur. J. Biochem.11:49), the lability of the product toward oxygen as reported by them has not been observed nor has it been possible to produce extensive changes in properties of the material by subjecting it to the adverse conditions that they describe. However, by chromatographic procedures, it has been shown that the catalase immediately after isolation has a heterogeneity different than they describe and that alteration with time does occur. The cause of the heterogeneity has not been determined.
A method for the separation of seed oil steryl esters and free sterols: Application to peanut and corn oils

A method for separating and quantitating seed oil steryl esters and free sterols was developed using a combination of preparative column, thin layer (TLC), and gas liquid chromatography (GLC). Cholesteryl heneicosanoate and cholesterol served as internal standards. The method was applied to corn-oil samples (Mazola, Kroger) obtained from the local market and peanut-oil samples prepared in the laboratory from commercial varieties of peanuts (Florunner, Starr). Concentration (mg/100 g oil; mean ± SD) of steryl esters and free sterols in the 4 oils were: Mazola, 1420±40 and 370±8; Kroger, 950±40 and 320±4; Florunner, 74±0.5 and 150±3; and Starr, 51±0.5 and 130±2. Sitosterol was the major sterol in both the free sterol and steryl ester fractions of all oils and together with campesterol, stigmasterol and Δ5-avenasterol made up 90–95% of all sterols. Steryl esters of peanut oil contained higher proportions of linoleic acid and long-chain acids (C20–C24) than did whole oil. Corn-oil steryl esters also contained a higher proportion of linoleic acid than did whole oil. Squalene was the major hydrocarbon of all oils with the remaining hydrocarbon fraction consisting of a mixture of compounds.
The long-term outcome of mitral valve repair for mitral valve prolapse

The rationale of early surgery for severe chronic mitral regurgitation (MR) due to mitral valve prolapse (MVP) has been developed over the past decade on the basis of the understanding of the natural history of this disease and the predictors of outcomes after surgical correction of MR. The important decrease in operative mortality associated with the advancements in myocardial preservation, and more importantly the improved reparability of the myxomatous mitral valve, were an additional incentive to develop the concept of early surgery. Previous studies showed that mitral valve repair offers a survival advantage at short- and 10-year follow-up, and therefore suggested that it should be the treatment of choice for severe MR due to MVP. Moreover, very recent data provided new insight on the very long-term follow up, ie, beyond the usual first 10 years in which the initial survival benefit of repair may be negated by a late deterioration.
The Power of Unsustainable Development: What is to be Done?

Regardless of the state of theory and practice in sustain-able development, there is no doubt that an ethical/moral imperative exists to address socioeconomic inequality and degradation of the environment. To realize the goals of sustainable development, it must be liberated from its embeddedness in the ideology and institutional parameters of capitalism. This calls for a departure from the current reformist character of development theory and the practice and articulation of an alternative vision of political economy, as well as a politically strong commitment to realizing it. This endeavor should be global in scope: not in an attempt to create a homogeneous world order but rather to prevent social diversity from being reconfigured and disciplined according to the imperatives of capital. The state must play a pivotal role if social transformative efforts are to bear fruit and break through the impasse capitalism has imposed on realizing the goals of sustainable development.
Cyprus's Accession Negotiations to the European Union: Conditional Carrots, Good Faith, and Miscalculations

The European Union did not push forcefully for an intercommunal settlement that would reunite Cyprus as a prerequisite for EU accession. As a result, it gave away the carrot without tying it to an important condition. Several explanations are drawn from an analysis of processual and structural factors in the negotiation context.
Control based sensor management for a multiple radar monitoring scenario

Abstract In this paper we consider the problem of monitoring illuminations of multiple emitters by one electronic receiver located on a moving platform. The emitters exhibit a quasi-periodic radiation pattern, each in a different frequency band and with a different illumination period and illumination time. The goal is to tune the receiver to the appropriate frequency band at the appropriate time so as to maximize the probability of detection of each illumination of each radar (expressed as a quality of service (QoS) metric). This problem can be viewed as two subproblems: (1) generating tuning requests by particular frequency bands and (2) scheduling the receiver to satisfy the requests. In our scenario the number of requests from all the bands exceeds the physical capability of one receiver (overload) and thus selection is needed. The goal is to push the limits on the overload while still maintaining a required level of QoS metric. This can be achieved by controlling both the generation of the tuning requests and the scheduling. According to the control theory metaphor of software development, we map this problem onto a control architecture with one system-level controller and a collection of emitter-level controllers (one per emitter). We show that our control based sensor manager has significant advantages over a scheduler without feedback in terms of both the overload and the QoS metric. We also discuss design issues of such sensor management systems.
Some theoretical considerations on cytosolic redox balance during anaerobiosis in marine invertebrates

Abstract Studies on anaerobiosis in marine invertebrates have shown that many rely on malate, octopine, or alanopine dehydrogenases, rather than lactate dehydrogenase, for cytosolic redox balance. These systems were studied by computer simulations with the assumption that these dehydrogenases maintain their substrates and products at instantaneous equilibrium. The simulations permit a study of the redox ratio (NADH/NAD+) as a function of the concentration of lactate, malate, or octopine. The redox ratio was found to increase as these products accumulated. It was substantially less in the simulations of malate and octopine dehydrogenases when compared to those of lactate dehydrogenase. This factor may be important for maintaining glycolysis in these organisms, and suggests an advantage for the use of octopine dehydrogenase rather than its analogue lactate dehydrogenase.
Power in profit maximizing organizations

I study how profit-maximizing organizations make decisions. Members of organizations tend to have incompatible preferences over decisions, but willingness to pay for decisions plays a very limited role in actual decision making. A sizable empirical literature documents that people who provide critical services, are hard to replace, or deal effectively with external shocks are powerful; they have disproportionate influence over decisions. This can be profit maximizing because the right to shape the firm through its decisions renders the firm more attractive as an employer. Thus, the relative costliness of employees' departures should affect their relative power.
Lambda-splitting: a higher-order approach to cross-module optimizations

We describe an algorithm for automatic inline expansion across module boundaries that works in the presence of higher-order functions and free variables; it rearranges bindings and scopes as necessary to move nonexpansive code from one module to another. We describe---and implement---the algorithm as transformations on λ-calculus. Our inliner interacts well with separate compilation and is efficient, robust, and practical enough for everyday use in the SML/NJ compiler. Inlining improves performance by 4--8% on existing code, and makes it possible to use much more data abstraction by consistently eliminating penalties for modularity.
In vitro cytotoxicity of single-walled carbon nanotube/biodegradable polymer nanocomposites

Injectable nanocomposites made of biodegradable poly(propylene fumarate) and the crosslinking agent propylene fumarate-diacrylate as well as each of three forms of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity. Unreacted components, crosslinked networks, and degradation products of the nanocomposites were investigated for their effects on cell viability using a fibroblast cell line in vitro. The results did not reveal any in vitro cytotoxicity for purified SWNTs, SWNTs functionalized with 4-tert-butylphenylene, and ultra-short SWNTs at 1- 100 microg/mL concentrations. Moreover, nearly 100% cell viability was observed on all crosslinked nanocomposites and cell attachment on their surfaces was comparable with that on tissue culture polystyrene. The degradation products of the nanocomposites displayed a dose-dependent adverse effect on cells, which was partially due to increased osmolarity by the conditions of accelerated degradation and could be overcome at diluted concentrations. These results demonstrate that all three tested nanocomposites have favorable cytocompatibility for potential use as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications.
Pragmatic language assessment in Williams syndrome: a comparison of the Test of Pragmatic Language-2 and the Children's Communication Checklist-2.

Purpose Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are recognized as having a strong desire for social relationships, yet many of them have difficulty forming and maintaining peer relationships. One c...
Fluorescence of Oligomers that Contain Catechin or Epicatechin

Steady state and time resolved fluorescence of monodisperse oligomers of catechin and epicatechin is useful for the study of proanthocyanidins. The quantum yields for fluorescence have been used to measure the number average degree of polymerization of oligomeric procyanidins. The method requires calibration with a known sample. Quenching of the fluorescence by small molecules can be complex because the mechanisms may involve a mixture of static and dynamic quenching. The anisotropy of the fluorescence of a series of oligomers in viscous media reveals the existence of electronic energy migration in these molecules. Analysis of the time dependence of the decay of the fluorescence from dimers has been used to assess the relative populations of the two rotational isomers at the interflavan bond.
Micro-wilhelmy and related liquid property measurements using constant-diameter nanoneedle-tipped atomic force microscope probes.

The micro-Wilhelmy method is a well-established method of determining surface tension by measuring the force of withdrawing a tens of microns to millimeters in diameter cylindrical wire or fiber from a liquid. A comparison of insertion force to retraction force can also be used to determine the contact angle with the fiber. Given the limited availability of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes that have long constant diameter tips, force−distance (F−D) curves using probes with standard tapered tips have been difficult to relate to surface tension. In this report, constant diameter metal alloy nanowires (referred to as “nanoneedles”) between 7.2 and 67 μm in length and 108 and 1006 nm in diameter were grown on AFM probes. F−D and Q damping AFM measurements of wetting and drag forces made with the probes were compared against standard macroscopic models of these forces on slender cylinders to estimate surface tension, contact angle, meniscus height, evaporation rate, and viscosity. The surface tensions for ...
Estimation based cooperative guidance controller for 3D target tracking with multiple UAVs

In this paper we propose an estimation based 3D cooperative guidance controller for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in a target tracking application. The target state vector is estimated from available measurements of range, azimuth, and elevation angle provided by a ground based sensor or an on-board seeker antenna. The cooperation of the vehicles is represented by a directed graph assuming perfect communication. Additionally, the state vector of each UAV is assumed to be corrupted by measurement noise and available from their own on-board sensors, namely GPS + IMU. The estimated states of the chasers and the target are utilized in a 3D nonlinear guidance law designed based on a backstepping like technique, which provides signals for the velocity, flight path, and course/heading angle to achieve the consensus of target tracking. We present the simulation results for 3 cooperative UAVs where all UAVs successfully reach consensus (target tracking).
GPR preprocessing optimization with signal-to-clutter metrics

Prior to the calculation of target detection features, ground penetrating radar (GPR) data typically requires extensive preprocessing to suppress clutter artifacts and enhance signals corresponding to weaker targets. Optimization of this GPR signal preprocessing pipeline is necessary to provide the best opportunity at visual detection and automatic target recognition. Manual, independent adjustment of the many configuration parameters in the data preprocessing pipeline is inefficient and not guaranteed to find an optimal result. In this paper, the authors present a new metric for GPR processed data quality and demonstrate its utility in an automated parameter sweep optimization of a large set of algorithm configuration parameters. The observed costs and benefits of using automated preprocessing optimization are presented and discussed. For preprocessing optimization and evaluation, a cost function was desired that is independent of the target detection features – to enable independent evaluation of the various components of the GPR target detection software. The proposed cost function, JSUM, is a signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR) metric, derived from the known KSUM metric. JSUM was developed to be sensitive to a particular type of noise in GPR data not captured by KSUM. The response of JSUM and KSUM to different common types of noise was explored to qualify the usefulness of the metric. JSUM was used as the cost function for a parameter sweep optimization across a set of preprocessing parameters. The outcomes of this optimization are presented for discussion.
ESTIMATES OF HICKSIAN IS AND LM CURVES FOR THE UNITED STATES

THERE ARE MORE FACTS AROUND than there are theories capable of explaining. But, while a theory should be capable of explaining a large number of facts in order to be useful, it is generally supposed that theories should not try to explain all of the facts relevant to their domain. This is because the theory, if it permits of no exceptions whatsoever, is necessarily as complex as the set of facts it is designed to explain. Current developments in the field of macroeconomic model building provide a case in point. On the one hand, there is the momental work of Professor Friedman on the influence of changes in the stock of money on the aggregate level of economic activity. It is testimony to his perseverance and the merit of his findings that many economists now protest that they never meant to imply that money didn't matter. The direct evidence that he has provided has undeniably made its mark, and the efforts of many economists are now directed toward uncovering evidence of variables other than the money supply that matter significantly. On the other hand, a magnificent chain of developments following in the heritage of Tinbergen has led to the construction of large and elaborate macroeconomic models. It is a living tribute to the ingenuity and creativity of men like Klein, Goldberger, Suits, and others, that the Brookings-SSRC model of the economy of the United States has been constructed.' But, this model has not been constructed without some misgivings, misgivings that reflect serious concern over the problems of complexity that are bound to arise whenever a model contains hundreds of equations.2 The model to be presented here, stemming from Hicks,3 could perhaps be
Entanglement increase from local interactions and not completely positive maps

Simple examples are constructed that show the entanglement of two qubits being both increased and decreased by interactions on just one of them. One of the two qubits interacts with a third qubit, a control, that is never entangled or correlated with either of the two entangled qubits, and is never entangled, but becomes correlated, with the system of those two qubits. The two entangled qubits do not interact, but their state can change from maximally entangled to separable or from separable to maximally entangled. Similar changes for the two qubits are made with a SWAP operation between one of the qubits and a control; then there are compensating changes of entanglement that involve the control. When the entanglement increases, the map that describes the change of the state of the two entangled qubits is not completely positive. The combination of two independent interactions that individually give exponential decay of the entanglement can cause the entanglement to not decay exponentially but, instead, go to zero at a finite time.
Data Analysis for Managers

Abstract Concrete suggestions are offered for reorientation of elementary business-statistics courses so as to give more prominent emphasis to tools useful in actual business practice and to instruction in the proper use of these tools so that business students can see more clearly what statistics has to offer.
The Identification of Coalitions in Small Groups Using Multidimensional Scaling: A Methodology

Mesure de la formation des alliances et coalitions (en bref: des clans) dans les petits groupes. Application de l'analyse multidimensionnelle a l'echelle de mesure proposee
A fast algorithm for optimal length-limited Huffman codes

An O(nL)-time algorithm is introduced for constructing an optimal Huffman code for a weighted alphabet of size n, where each code string must have length no greater than L. The algorithm uses O(n) space.
Centration Of A Linear Cone To The Optical Axis Of A Reflaxicon

A reflaxicon that consists of an inner and outer axicon generates an annular bear from a compact beam. After the reflaxicon has been internally aligned, a linear cone must be centered in the annular leg to the optical axis of the reflaxicon. A technique for centration of the linear cone will be discussed.
Eye Movement Effects of Diazepam in Sons of Alcoholic Fathers and Male Control Subjects

Both animal and human studies suggest that the GABA-benzodiaze-pine receptor complex may be involved in the acute effects of ethanol, as well as the development of tolerance and dependence with chronic ethanol use. The current study was performed to assess sensitivity to benzodiazepines, and thus the functional sensitivity of the GABA-benzodiazepine receptor system, in subjects at high risk for alcoholism. Sons of alcoholic fathers (SOAs; n = 27) were com-pared with male controls without a family history of alcoholism (n = 23) in response to diazepam versus placebo. SOAs and controls received four logarithmically increasing doses of intravenous diaze-pam or placebo in randomized order on 2 days at least 1 week apart. Effects of diazepam were assessed using two eye movement tasks, peak saccadic eye movement velocity, and average smooth pursuit eye movement gain, which provide reliable, quantitative measures of benzodiazepine effects. In addition, memory, self-rated sedation, and pleasurable drug effects were measured. In comparison with control subjects, SOAs displayed significantly less diazepam effects on peak saccade velocity, average smooth pursuit gain, memory, and self-rated sedation, but significantly greater pleasurable drug effects. Differences in response to diazepam between SOAs and male controls may reflect altered functional sensitivity of the central GABA-benzodiazepine receptor system or a more general difference between groups in the effects of CNS active or sedating drugs.
Plasma plume dynamics in magnetically assisted pulsed laser deposition

The expansion of a laser produced plasma perpendicular to a magnetic field is studied with a quadruple Langmuir probe and a B-dot probe. In regions where the kinetic beta is less than one, we find plume deceleration and weak displacement of the magnetic field. As the plume expands into regions of weak magnetic field, plume deceleration stops and the displacement of the magnetic field is large. The diffusion time of the magnetic field lines was consistent with anomalously large resistivity driven by the presence of an instability. Electron temperatures are larger than in the field-free case due to Ohmic heating mediated by the anomalously large resistivity.
Amorphous magnetic alloys for high frequency power electronic applications

A brief review of the amorphous magnetic al­ loy is presented. Engineering magnetic properties of the new alloys are summarized. Discussions of potential applications include non-saturable in­ verter transformer, saturable transformer, ferro­ resonant transformer, EMI shield, pulse transformer, and energy-storage dc-dc converters.
Factors determining the distribution of soil nematodes in a commercial forest landscape

Abstract Soil nematodes were censused at 99 forested sites in southern Mississippi, USA to examine the impact of forest management practices on the soil community. Taxonomic richness and numerical abundance in five feeding groups were linked to soil organic matter, phosphorus, shrub cover, and abundance of other nematode groups, consistent with limitation by availability of food items. Sites adjacent to streams showed significantly larger populations of plant feeders than nearby uplands. Sites plowed (bedded) for tree planting and sites recently excavated had significantly lower richness and abundance of plant feeders than undisturbed sites. Fungal feeder richness was depressed at excavated sites, which showed low concentrations of soil organic matter. Aboveground vegetation structure and landscape position appeared to have little influence on nematode distributions. Commercial plantations and sites with a history of frequent fire did not differ from undisturbed sites in soil properties or in any measure of the nematode community. No significant changes in soil properties or nematode fauna were observed over a 60-year chronosequence beginning at tree establishment. These findings suggest that aboveground disturbance affects the nematode community only to the extent that it influences the availability of potential hosts or prey in the soil. In contrast to aboveground events, disturbance of the soil had a clear impact on the nematode community, with a magnitude proportional to disturbance intensity.
Evaluation of Rare Tumors with [F-18]Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography.

Abstract The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the utility of positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy- d -glucose (FDG) in the clinical assessment of rare tumors. We identified 6 patients over the last 18 months with rare tumors who were referred for PET imaging at the time of initial diagnosis, for tumor surveillance or for posttherapy reevaluation. The PET findings were compared with follow-up clinical data, the results of other imaging modalities and histology. FDG PET correctly detected disease in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer, pleural mesothelioma, myxoid liposarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, synovial cell sarcoma and uterine leiomyosarcoma. These findings suggest that PET is useful in the evaluation of a variety of rare tumors both for initial preoperative staging and post-therapy assessment. Further experience with other uncommon tumors is necessary to define the precise role of FDG PET in this clinical setting.
Intestinal transplantation: current status

Intestine transplant is indicated for patients with intestinal failure who are unable to be weaned from parenteral nutrition (PN). Long-term PN, although life sustaining in many patients, can be associated with life-threatening complications including PN-associated liver disease (PNALD). Most patients are not considered for intestine transplant until they have developed severe PNALD and also need a liver transplant. Overall outcomes with intestinal transplantation are steadily improving, and current 1-year patient survivals for intestine-only transplants are now similar to those for liver transplant. Intestinal transplantation should be considered earlier in intestinal failure patients who are at high risk for developing PNALD and other life-threatening complications.
An Intercomparison of Model Simulations and VPR Estimates of the Vertical Structure of Warm Stratiform Rainfall during TWP-ICE

Abstract A model of rain shaft microphysics that solves the stochastic advection–coalescence–breakup equation in an atmospheric column was used to simulate the evolution of a stratiform rainfall event during the Tropical Warm Pool-International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) in Darwin, Australia. For the first time, a dynamic simulation of the evolution of the drop spectra within a one-dimensional rain shaft is performed using realistic boundary conditions retrieved from real rain events. Droplet size distribution (DSD) retrieved from vertically pointing radar (VPR) measurements are sequentially imposed at the top of the rain shaft as boundary conditions to emulate a realistic rain event. Time series of model profiles of integral parameters such as reflectivity, rain rate, and liquid water content were subsequently compared with estimates retrieved from vertically pointing radars and Joss–Waldvogel disdrometer (JWD) observations. Results obtained are within the VPR retrieval uncertainty estimates. Besides eva...
Generalization of an instrumental response between words and pictures

The amount of generalization of an instrumental response is greater from pictures to words than from words to pictures only if a more sensitive response index than the gross instrumental response is used. An increase in the electromyogram recorded from the arm muscle was used in the present study as a more sensitive index. The advantages of using changes of EMG amplitude as a response measure are discussed. A possible explanation for the asymmetrical generalization is presented.
Association of exercise-induced ventricular ectopic activity with thallium myocardial perfusion and angiographic coronary artery disease in stable, low-risk populations.

This study sought to determine the association of exercise-induced ventricular ectopic activity with thallium perfusion defects and severity of angiographic coronary artery disease (CAD). Two cohorts consisting of adults without heart failure or known severe ventricular ectopic activity at rest were studied. The first cohort consisted of adults (n = 2,743) who underwent maximum exercise thallium stress testing. The second cohort consisted of adults (n = 423) who underwent coronary angiography within 90 days of treadmill testing. Significant exercise-induced ventricular ectopic activity was defined as frequent ventricular premature complexes or nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. Severe CAD was defined as left main CAD (≥50% stenosis), 3-vessel CAD (≥70% stenosis), or 2-vessel CAD with ≥70% stenosis of the proximal left anterior descending artery. In the thallium cohort, exercise-induced ventricular ectopic activity was associated with a greater frequency of thallium defects (35.2% vs 18.7%, odds ratio [OR] 2.35, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.62 to 3.42, p <0.001); after adjusting for possible confounders, this association persisted (for any defect adjusted OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.53, p = 0.02; for septal defect adjusted OR 2.77, 95% CI 1.51 to 5.07, p <0.001). There was no association between exercise-induced ventricular ectopic activity and mortality during 2 years of follow-up. In the angiographic cohort, there was no association of exercise-induced ventricular ectopy with severe CAD (19% vs 20%, OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.41 to 2.09, p = NS). Exercise-induced ventricular ectopic activity was associated with a greater likelihood of thallium perfusion defects, but was not associated with angiographic severity of coronary disease or with short-term mortality.
PSEUDOPLASTIC AND RHEOPECTIC PROPERTIES OF A GLOBULAR PROTEIN (β-LACTOGLOBULIN) SOLUTION1

The apparent viscosity of β-lactoglobulin solutions was studied as a function of shear rate using a cone and plate uiscometer (Ferranti-Shirley Viscometer System). Aqueous buffered solutions (pH 7, ionic strength 0.04) containing up to 40% protein were subjected to a rate of shear between 800 and 17,000 sec-1. At protein concentrations of 5% and lower, the viscosity was independent of the shear rate or the time of shearing. At protein concentrations of 10% or higher, the viscosity decreased asymptotically with an increasing shear rate. At a constant shear rate, the viscosity of 10-30%β-lactoglobulin solutions increased with shearing time. However, this rheopectic property was not consistently observed but, rather, was dependent on the rate of shear at concentrations lower than 20%. A rheopectic hysteresis effect was observed for 10-30% protein solutions whereas thixotropy was observed for 40% solutions. The rheopectic nature appeared to be the result of the permanent denaturation of protein characterized by UV absorption and gel filtration.