cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Beneath the surface: the masculine self and body in Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Green Tea’

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between the masculine self and male body in Sheridan Le Fanu’s short story ‘Green Tea’ (1872), using a masculinity studies lens to analyze Mr Jennings’ destabilized masculinity within the parameters of Victorian male gender norms. I highlight the interwoven relationship between the masculine self and the body through looking at the physical depiction of Jennings, arguing that Jennings’ masculinity, his masculine self, is imprisoned as a reflection of the physical body; a relationship echoing Victorian gender norms regarding masculinity and the body. In the story, a demon follows and watches Jennings, appearing when Jennings is engaged in activity. Focusing on the relationship between the demon’s manifestation and Jennings’ activity, I show that the demon’s presence results from Jennings’ nonconformity to traditional notions of the masculine self. Le Fanu’s emphasis on the demon’s gaze serves to criticize Jennings’ masculinity as Jennings becomes submissive to...
Predicting Use of Protective Behavioral Strategies: Does Fraternity/Sorority Affiliation Matter?

Little research examines protective behavioral strategies (PBS) use among college high-risk drinking sub-groups. A secondary data analysis of the 2011 National College Health Assessment (n = 18,483 drinkers [13% Greek]) revealed fraternity and sorority members used PBS significantly (p < 0.001) less and reported significantly (p < 0.001) more alcohol-related consequences than non-Greeks. PBS use (β = –0.31) made the strongest contribution in explaining alcohol-related consequences (i.e., less frequent PBS use resulted in more consequences).
The profile of the rare earth elements in the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean

We analyzed the dissolved rare earth element (REE) content of three water column profiles (two shelf sites and one deep basin site) in the Canada Basin in order to better constrain the behavior of REEs in the Arctic Ocean. Dissolved concentrations of the REEs in the surface are 1.3 to 1.9 times higher than deep water (>500 m) concentrations, which are constant with depth (La: 19-23 pM, Nd: 14-17 pM, Yb: 4.0-4.3 pM). The dominant source of REEs to the surface waters of the Canada Basin is most likely Pacific water flowing through the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea and/or the Mackenzie River. Dissolved REEs in the intermediate and deep waters are constant and appear to behave conservatively, allowing us to investigate this aspect of REE behavior in the oceans. Calculated deep ocean residence times of the REEs in the Canada Basin range from 450-700 years and match the age of these waters. We postulate that these values are likely applicable to global deep ocean reservoirs and that observed deviations from this conservative value can help to constrain non-conservative processes acting on the REEs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Needle-tissue interaction force state estimation for robotic surgical suturing

Robotically Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RAMIS) offers many advantages over manual surgical techniques. Most of the limitations of RAMIS stem from its nonintuitive user interface and costs. One way to mitigate some of the limitations is to automate surgical subtasks (e.g. suturing) such that they are performed faster while allowing the surgeon to plan the next step of the procedure. One component of successful suture automation is minimizing the internal tissue deformation forces generated by driving a needle through tissue. Minimizing the internal tissue forces requires segmenting the tissue deformation forces from other components of the needle tissue interaction (e.g. friction force). This paper proposes an Unscented Kalman Filter which can successfully model the force components, in particular the internal deformation force, generated by a needle as it is driven through a sample of tissue.
Centering the Diverse Experiences of Black Women Undergraduates

In 2008, Kaba asked, “Are Black American women the new model minority?” (p. 309). On the surface, this question seems harmless and suggests that the model minority characteristic and stereotype is ...
Diverse perspectives and training paths in cardiology: An analysis of authorship in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Abstract Background The role of women and foreign medical graduates (FMGs) in cardiology research published in the United States has received limited study. Methods We examined the characteristics of the first and last authors of all original contributions and review articles published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology from October 1, 2015, to October 1, 2016. Results A total of 345 articles were identified, with 687 first and last authors originating from ≥50 different countries. Overall, 17% of authors were women (20% of the first and 14% of the last authors). Overall, 86% of authors held a medical degree (MD) or equivalent, and 25% of those also held another advanced degree (PhD, MPH, and/or MBA). The proportion of authors with an advanced degree in addition to an MD/equivalent was higher among foreign graduates and international contributors as compared with American graduates (31% vs. 30% vs. 17%, respectively, p Conclusion Foreign graduates and international researchers contribute substantially to cardiology research in the US, but women authors remain under-represented.
Bio from Bit

Understanding the origin and nature of life poses problems for our current formulation of physics. On the one hand our approaches to physics are incredibly adept at describing matter and energy and how they behave. On the other hand, the concept of information is important in biology, but its role in physics, and particular whether or not it is a fundamental concept like matter or energy, is not yet fully understood. In this essay I discuss how information—as we understand it in biology—might lead to new insights in physics. Living systems are causal structures that bridge counterfactual histories (and futures), and allow the possibility for transitions between histories. It is this multiple realizability that is one of the most distinctive properties of life. It also leads to some of their most interesting—and difficult to explain (for physics)—features, such as their apparent goal directedness.
Does Smokeless Tobacco Cause Hypertension

This article reviews the literature regarding the cardiovascular effects of smokeless tobacco use. Articles were identified using a MEDLINE search of the English-language literature from 1966 to 1992 and a manual search of bibliographies of identified articles. From 875 articles regarding smokeless tobacco, 12 pertinent articles were identified. Smokeless tobacco caused a clinically significant acute elevation of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, or pulse in 5 of 6 experimental trials. Smokeless tobacco was weakly associated with chronic hypertension in 4 of 6 cross-sectional studies. Health care practitioners should be aware that smokeless tobacco may elevate blood pressure up to 90 minutes after use. Smokeless tobacco use should be considered a potential cause of sodium retention and poor blood pressure control because of its nicotine, sodium, and licorice content.
Psychosocial Factors in NTOS

Neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome is a chronic pain syndrome that may take years to be diagnosed. Years of undiagnosed or undertreated chronic pain can lead to anger, confusion, frustration, depression, family strains, and financial difficulties. This may lead to social isolation, loss of social support, and loss of employment.
Multivariate Analysis of Leg Morphology of Macrocyprididae

The fifth, sixth, and seventh legs and furcae of cypridacean ostracods are widely supposed to have considerable taxonomic significance and are relatively easy to dissect and illustrate. Nevertheless, some of the characters used in the past to diagnose new taxa have turned out to be invariant and, hence, without taxonomic importance, while many others are strongly correlated with each other or directly dependent on general size and, thus, not independent in their taxonomic significance. R-mode cluster and principal components analyses can be used to evaluate the independence of characters, so that the most appropriate characters may be selected for taxonomic and evolutionary applications. To demonstrate this, 112 characters have been measured on these appendages and carapace for 71 species of Macrocyprididae, a relatively small and homogeneous family. The results show the potential of such methods for improving ostracod taxonomy. Q-mode cluster analysis of the same data provides evidence to test the generic classification of these species based on the carapace and subjective judgments. In general, the results confirm the prevailing opinion that the furcae and male fifth limbs offer more taxonomic information than the female fifth limb, sixth limb, and seventh limb. However, a few previously ignored characters may have taxonomic value, masked at present by possible non-linearity of their relationships.
Crystal structures of AB3 and A2B7 rare earth-nickel phases

Abstract The structural data of several nickel-rich rare earth-nickel phases are reported. Excepting CeNi3, the other LnNi3-phases crystallize with the PuNi3-type structure. Both the Ce2Ni7- and Gd2Co7-type structures occur in several Ln2Ni7-phases. Ce2Ni7 possesses only the Ce2Ni7-type structure. Three modifications are encountered for Nd2Ni7. The low-temperature form is of the Ce2Ni7-type. The high-temperature forms are found to possess large periodicities along the c0-direction. Nd2Ni17 has the Th2Ni17-type structure at high temperatures.
2008 Global Financial Crisis-Ten Years After; Is Another Crisis ‘Resonating’?

The global financial crises have had severe impact on various financial markets and the world economies at large. At various points in time during economic recessions, the confidence of the global investors is always sapped while most investors panic for safety. The past ten years especially have witnessed intense governmental and intergovernmental interventions in the form of financial bailouts, regulatory reforms, coordinated stimulus and responses from the central banks to address liquidity problems caused by the global financial crisis. With the ever-growing populism around protectionism, the debates between globalism and capital control has become more intense. Considering the current issues bordering on tighter immigration, closing of boarders and higher tariffs for good produced in overseas by some countries, the coming years will become more interesting and difficult at the same time for many governments, countries, institutions and multinational companies. So, are we witnessing another global economic crisis? This paper decides to look into the effects, the widespread and the impacts of country governance on world economies at large.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons Aging in Rural Areas:

Older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons face many challenges in aging, including coping with life-long discrimination and encountering family and others who are not supportive ...
Understanding the Electronic Properties of Acceptor–Acceptor′–Acceptor Triads

In order to develop new organic materials for optoelectronic applications, a fundamental understanding of the electronic properties of specific chromophore combinations must be realized. To that en...
BeamBand: Hand Gesture Sensing with Ultrasonic Beamforming

BeamBand is a wrist-worn system that uses ultrasonic beamforming for hand gesture sensing. Using an array of small transducers, arranged on the wrist, we can ensem-ble acoustic wavefronts to project acoustic energy at spec-ified angles and focal lengths. This allows us to interro-gate the surface geometry of the hand with inaudible sound in a raster-scan-like manner, from multiple view-points. We use the resulting, characteristic reflections to recognize hand pose at 8 FPS. In our user study, we found that BeamBand supports a six-class hand gesture set at 94.6% accuracy. Even across sessions, when the sensor is removed and reworn later, accuracy remains high: 89.4%. We describe our software and hardware, and future ave-nues for integration into devices such as smartwatches and VR controllers.
Personal Bankruptcy Determinants Among U.S. Households During the Peak of the Great Recession

We exploit the longitudinal nature of the 2007–2009 Survey of Consumer Finances to examine whether determinants of bankruptcy identified in the existing literature are applicable to a period marked by a large downturn in the U.S. economy. We develop a framework to organize the literature on the main causes of filing for personal bankruptcy, then test whether these factors held during the 2007–2009 recession by comparing pre-filing characteristics of households who later file for bankruptcy and households who do not file. We find that, when controlling for a large number of individual and household characteristics, relatively few factors were statistically significant when correlated with filing for bankruptcy during the Great Recession. Age and credit card debt were positively associated with filing for bankruptcy. Changes in households’ circumstances (loss of income, retirement, new child in the household) were also statistically significantly associated with filing for bankruptcy. Notably, factors identified in the literature as related to bankruptcy filing were not significant, including income level and negative medical events. The findings help to better understand the complexity of the bankruptcy filing decision, and how to tailor programs and policies to help households deal with financial issues.
Does CDM ESD Protection Really Work

On-chip electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection is required to protect ICs against ESD failures of various origins. While ESD protection against human body model (HBM) ESD failures has been very successful, charged device model (CDM) ESD protection design emerges as a new challenge for ICs at advanced technology nodes. This paper reports a comparison study of CDM ESD protection versus HBM ESD protection. It found that the current practices of using conventional pad-based ESD protection networks for CDM ESD protection may not work. This study leads to a game-changing question to the field: Are existing CDM ESD protection approaches fundamentally faulty? It therefore calls for a completely new on-chip CDM ESD protection method to truly resolve the real-world CDM ESD failure problems.
The β3 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor is required for nicotine withdrawal-induced affective but not physical signs or nicotine reward in mice.

Abstract Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are the primary target for nicotine, the addictive component in tobacco products. These pentameric receptors are made up of various subunits which contribute to the diverse functions of nAChR subtypes. The β3 subunit of the nAChR has been understudied in nicotine dependence, even though it is expressed in brain regions important for drug reward. Therefore, we assessed nicotine dependence behaviors in β3 wildtype (WT) and knockout (KO) male and female mice. We evaluated nicotine reward in the conditioned place preference (CPP) test and then measured nicotine withdrawal signs after chronic exposure to the drug. For the withdrawal studies, mice were continuously infused with 24 mg/kg/day of nicotine using surgically implanted osmotic mini-pumps for 14 days. Mini-pumps were removed at day 15, and withdrawal signs (somatic signs, hyperalgesia, anhedonia-like measure using the sucrose preference test and anxiety-like behaviors using the light dark boxes) were collected at 24 h intervals for three days following spontaneous withdrawal of nicotine. Nicotine-induced CPP did not differ between β3 KO and WT mice. β3 KO mice displayed similar somatic symptoms and hyperalgesia compared to WT mice but showed significant absence in affective (anhedonia and anxiety-like behaviors) withdrawal signs in nicotine-dependent mice. These observations suggest that the β3 nicotinic subunits do not seem to influence nicotine reward but plays an important role in affective nicotine withdrawal signs. Given the health burden of tobacco use disorder and the modest effect of smoking cessation aids, it is important to understand underlying factor contributing to nicotine dependence. The results of this study will further our knowledge of the role of the β3 nAChR subunit in nicotine reward and withdrawal behaviors in hopes of finding new molecular targets for smoking cessation aids.
Using a Digital Personal Learning Network Assignment to Teach Social Curation and Lifelong Learning in Marketing

As the use of social media continues to grow in practice and as an academic discipline, so too does the need for marketing students (and faculty) to develop and maintain a career-focused and curren...
Training Nonprofit Management Students to Critically Consume and Apply Knowledge Curated by Evidence-Based Program Registries

Nonprofit management students can learn a great deal about program design and evaluation from evidence-based program registries (EBPRs), such as the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse and the Department of Justice’s CrimeSolutions.gov, which synthesize program evaluations and research about a wide range of types of programs that nonprofit organizations commonly operate. Nonprofit management educators and their students should use EBPRs with caution, though, as their research syntheses tend to prioritize internal validity over external validity. This article offers a pedagogical model useful for training students to critically consume and apply EBPR resources. Classroom-tested examples are provided to demonstrate the usefulness of this pedagogical model for preparing students to use EBPR resources independently in real-life settings. This pedagogical model is recommended for use in nonprofit management education more generally, as future nonprofit managers should be prepared to work effectively and independently in complex environments. Subscribe to JNEL
Research on Theoretical Power Calculation Model for Large-Scale Wind Power Base

Under the background of green, low-carbon, clean and efficient energy transformation, the new energy power generation industry has gradually developed into a blowout style, with the result of abandoning wind and abandoning light. In this paper, for the large-scale wind power base, the theoretical power calculation of wind farm power generation is compared and analyzed from the model wind turbine method and the wind data extrapolation method, and the automatic calculation of the wind farm wind power is realized from the algorithm and software, thus developing for wind power. The plan provides the basis for promoting the healthy and orderly development of wind power consumption and wind power industry
TURBINE-MRE: A 3D hybrid radial-Cartesian EPI acquisition for MR elastography.

Purpose To develop a novel magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) acquisition using a hybrid radial EPI readout scheme (TURBINE), and to demonstrate its feasibility to obtain wave images and stiffness maps in a phantom and in vivo brain. Method The proposed 3D TURBINE-MRE is based on a spoiled gradient-echo MRE sequence with the EPI readout radially rotating about the phase-encoding axis to sample a full 3D k-space. A polyvinyl chloride phantom and 6 volunteers were scanned on a compact 3T GE scanner with a 32-channel head coil at 80 Hz and 60 Hz external vibration, respectively. For comparison, a standard 2D, multislice, spin-echo (SE) EPI-MRE acquisition was also performed with the same motion encoding and resolution. The TURBINE-MRE images were off-line reconstructed with iterative SENSE algorithm. The regional ROI analysis was performed on the 6 volunteers, and the median stiffness values were compared between SE-EPI-MRE and TURBINE-MRE. Results The 3D wave-field images and the generated stiffness maps were comparable between TURBINE-MRE and standard SE-EPI-MRE for the phantom and the volunteers. The Bland-Altman plot showed no significant difference in the median regional stiffness values between the two methods. The stiffness measured with the 2 methods had a strong linear relationship with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.943. Conclusion We demonstrated the feasibility of the new TURBINE-MRE sequence for acquiring the desired 3D wave-field data and stiffness maps in a phantom and in-vivo brains. This pilot study encourages further exploration of TURBINE-MRE for functional MRE, free-breathing abdominal MRE, and cardiac MRE applications.
Collective navigation can facilitate passage through human-made barriers by homeward migrating Pacific salmon

The mass migration of animals is one of the great wonders of the natural world. Although there are multiple benefits for individuals migrating in groups, an increasingly recognized benefit is collective navigation, whereby social interactions improve animals' ability to find their way. Despite substantial evidence from theory and laboratory-based experiments, empirical evidence of collective navigation in nature remains sparse. Here we used a unique large-scale radiotelemetry dataset to analyse the movements of adult Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.) in the Columbia River Basin, USA. These salmon face substantial migratory challenges approaching, entering and transiting fishways at multiple large-scale hydroelectric mainstem dams. We assess the potential role of collective navigation in overcoming these challenges and show that Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), but not sockeye salmon (O. nerka) locate fishways faster and pass in fewer attempts at higher densities, consistent with collective navigation. The magnitude of the density effects were comparable to major established drivers such as water temperature, and model simulations predicted that major fluctuations in population density can have substantial impacts on key quantities including mean passage time and fraction of fish with very long passage times. The magnitude of these effects indicates the importance of incorporating conspecific density and social dynamics into models of the migration process. Density effects on both ability to locate fishways and number of passage attempts have the potential to enrich our understanding of migratory energetics and success of migrating anadromous salmonids. More broadly, our work reveals a potential role of collective navigation, in at least one species, to mitigate the effects of anthropogenic barriers to animals on the move.
Association between regional distributions of SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion and out-of-hospital sudden death during the first epidemic outbreak in New York.

BACKGROUND: Increased incidence of out-of-hospital sudden death (OHSD) has been reported during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. New York City (NYC) represents a unique opportunity to examine the epidemiologic association between the two given the variable regional distribution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in its highly diverse neighborhoods. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between OHSD and SARS-CoV-2 epidemiologic burden during the first COVID-19 pandemic across the highly diverse neighborhoods of NYC. METHODS: The incidences of OHSD between March 20 and April 22, 2019, and between March 20 and April 22, 2020, as reported by the Fire Department of New York were obtained. As a surrogate for viral epidemiologic burden, we used percentage of positive SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests performed between March 3 and August 20, 2020. Data were reported separately for the 176 zip codes of NYC. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed between the 2 measures to examine association. RESULTS: Incidence of OHSD per 10,000 inhabitants and percentage of SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion were highly variable across NYC neighborhoods, varying from 0.0 to 22.9 and 12.4% to 50.9%, respectively. Correlation analysis showed a moderate positive correlation between neighborhood data on OHSD and percentage of positive antibody tests to SARS-CoV-2 (Spearman ρ 0.506; P <.001). Regression analysis showed that seroconversion to SARS-CoV-2 and OHSD in 2019 were independent predictors for OHSD during the first epidemic surge in NYC (R2 = 0.645). CONCLUSION: The association in geographic distribution between OHSD and SARS-CoV-2 epidemiologic burden suggests either a causality between the 2 syndromes or the presence of local determinants affecting both measures in a similar fashion.
Sourcing the source: Bald eagle jasper quarries and the houserville habitation complex:

The construction of a road extension of Park Avenue through the Pennsylvania State University’s agricultural fields offered an opportunity to reinvestigate, in more detail, the Tudek jasper quarry ...
0.5T0.5R - Introducing an Ultra-Compact Memory Cell Enabled by Shared Graphene Edge-Contact and h-BN Insulator

In this work, we experimentally demonstrate, in a manufacture-friendly process, a hybrid memory device to replace the traditional 1T1R memory unit that is composed of one-transistor and one-resistive-random-access-memory (RRAM), i.e., two separate devices. This novel device, which can be considered as a 0.5T0.5R memory cell, is structurally enabled by utilizing the unique graphene edge-contact and resistively switchable hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) insulator. Aided by design optimization, record performance ( 1000), have been achieved by this 0.5T0.5R memory cell. Moreover, the observed cell-resistance’s fine-tunability with ultrashort pulse count, pulse amplitude, and gate voltage uncovers the potential of this device for neuromorphic and in-memory computing.
A new genus of Early Jurassic earwigs from England (Dermaptera)

A new genus of archidermapteran earwigs is described for Brevicula teres Tihelka (Dermapteridae) from Sinemurian deposits of the Black Ven Mudstone Member, Charmouth Mudstone Formation, Dorset, United Kingdom. Dacryoderma Engel, new genus, is distinct from Brevicula Whalley in the broadly rounded anterior tegminal border lacking a submedial hump and overall teardrop shape, with the anterior margin tapering gradually in a comparatively straight line to the more acutely rounded apex. The following new combination is established: Dacryoderma teres (Tihelka).
Thirsting to Write: Kettly Mars’s Aux Frontières de la soif and the Haitian Postearthquake Novel

What constitutes a Haitian postearthquake novel? Does such a work require the author to present to a greater or lesser degree people and situations that relate to the disaster and its ongoing effects? Is a work written after the earthquake but which does not mention it still a postearthquake novel? This article engages with some of the issues facing Haitian writers following the earthquake through a close discussion of a novel that does in fact write directly of the disaster and its aftermath: Kettly Mars’s Aux frontieres de la soif.
Isomorphic Interpreters from Logically Reversible Abstract Machines

In our previous work, we developed a reversible programming language and established that every computation in it is a (partial) isomorphism that is reversible and that preserves information. The language is founded on type isomorphisms that have a clear categorical semantics but that are awkward as a notation for writing actual programs, especially recursive ones. This paper remedies this aspect by presenting a systematic technique for developing a large and expressive class of reversible recursive programs, that of logically reversible small-step abstract machines. In other words, this paper shows that once we have a logically reversible machine in a notation of our choice, expressing the machine as an isomorphic interpreter can be done systematically and does not present any significant conceptual difficulties. Concretely, we develop several simple interpreters over numbers and addition, move on to tree traversals, and finish with a meta-circular interpreter for our reversible language. This gives us a means of developing large reversible programs with the ease of reasoning at the level of a conventional small-step semantics.
Health Outcomes, Assessment of

This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 10, pp. 6581–6586, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd, with revisions made by the Editor in Chief.
Prime Power Divisors of the Number of n x n Alternating Sign Matrices

We let A(n) equal the number of n×n alternating sign matrices. From the work of a variety of sources, we know that
Characterization of a bimobile DNA junction.

We present here a chemical and enzymatic footprinting analysis of a branched DNA molecule formed from four complementary 50-mer strands. These strands are designed to form a stable junction, in which two steps of branch point migration freedom are possible. Exposure of the junction to Fe(II).EDTA shows protection of 3 or 4 residues in each strand at the branch, while two resolvase enzymes (endonuclease VII from phage T4 and endonuclease I from phage T7), cleave all four strand near the branch. Chemical footprinting of this junction using the reagents MPE.Fe(II) and (OP)2Cu(I) shows that the branch site is hyper-reactive to cutting induced by these probes as it is in an immobile four-arm junction. The effects involve more residues than in the immobile case. In the absence of divalent cations, the structure of the junction alters, sites of enhanced cleavage by MPE.Fe(II) and (OP)2Cu(I) disappear, and purines at the branch become reactive to diethyl pyrocarbonate. Our interpretation of these results is based on the properties of immobile junction analogs and their response to these probes. In the presence of Mg2+, the three migrational isomers coexist, each probably in the form of a 2-fold symmetric structure with two helical arms stacked.
Planted forests, agriculture, and the environment — a perspective

This volume provides the opportunity to include in our view of forestry a focus on an agronomic perspective as well as a naturalistic one. Planted forests have many parallels and much complementarity with the practices and concerns of agriculture. For example, after more than a half century of spectacular increases in food production, world agriculture today searches for the next generation of productivity gains in plant and animal crops.
Open, Generative, and User Centered: The Potential of SMS-Based Legal Technology for Development

For those desiring to create user-centered means of improving access to justice for low-income citizens of developing countries, SMS-based systems seem extremely promising. Development of such systems seems consistent with several trends in legal technology, including the unbundling of legal services, the empowering of legal clients, the prioritizing of citizens’ legal information needs and access capabilities in the design process, and the use of open source software. Further, legal-practice systems rooted in text-message technology could be extended to encompass a range of innovative law-related services and functions, including interactive document creation, e-filing of court documents, information retrieval, survey data collection, and online conferral with non-lawyers who possess relevant legal knowledge. By “meet[ing clients] where they are” and cultivating open systems, developers of open-source, SMS-based legal technologies such as mLegal exhibit great potential to enhance access to justice for low-income individuals in developing nations.
POWER OPTIMIZATION FOR PRESCRIBED THERMAL POLLUTION.

The optimum design of condenser cooling system for stream power plants requires the maximization of plant power subject to a prescribed temperature rise at the immediate point of effluent discharge into the main water source. To achieve this objective with a relatively small condenser pumping capacity, a portion of the total flow is first passed through the condenser and then mixed with the unheated water before final discharge into the water source. A portion of the condenser discharge generally recirculates upstream, mixes with a portion of the incoming flow, and eventually enters the condenser intake manifold after having heat transfer with the atmosphere. The present study shows that this general procedure does not provide the maximum power and is accompanied with a loss of plant power. To increase the plant power capability, it is necessary to prevent the mixing of the recirculation and the incoming flows and also to establish a relationship between the recirculation and the condenser flows as specified in this study.
Generalized evidence pre-propagated importance sampling for hybrid Bayesian networks

In this paper, we first provide a new theoretical understanding of the Evidence Pre-propagated Importance Sampling algorithm (EPIS-BN) (Yuan & Druzdzel 2003; 2006b) and show that its importance function minimizes the KL-divergence between the function itself and the exact posterior probability distribution in Polytrees. We then generalize the method to deal with inference in general hybrid Bayesian networks consisting of deterministic equations and arbitrary probability distributions. Using a novel technique called soft arc reversal, the new algorithm can also handle evidential reasoning with observed deterministic variables.
RETHINKING FINANCE THROUGH LAW: A Theoretical Perspective

Finance is traditionally studied by lawyers as well as by economists on the basis of the premise that a market economy has, at its core, a single natural and necessary institutional form, expressed, for example, in the basic rules and doctrines of contract and property. The literature about "varieties of capitalism" has proved insufficient to challenge this assumption. A corollary of this premise is the view that, barring particular market defects, a market economy can be counted on to channel the savings of society to its most efficient possible uses. The first task of regulation is supposedly to redress such localized flaws in competitive resource allocation. This brief text outlines the rudiments of another way of thinking about finance. It does by advancing a series of connected propositions. Under prevailing institutions, finance has become evermore decoupled from the real economy. The production system remains largely self-financed on the basis of the retained and reinvested earnings of private firms. Financial intermediation is substantially self-directed, oriented to asset trading and position taking by highly leveraged financial institutions, supported by accommodating monetary and regulatory policies. It need not be this way. A series of innovations in our present institutions and practices can greatly enhance the usefulness of finance and mitigate its dangers. Regulation, as conventionally understood and practiced, is not enough. Regulation, better oriented, can represent a first step toward institutional reorganization. The reorganization of finance should in turn be judged by the standard of its service to broader aims. The most important proximate aim is to increase the likelihood that finance will serve the productive agenda of society rather than serving only itself. One ulterior purpose is to enhance the contribution of finance to socially inclusive economic growth: the most widely professed political-economic objective in the world today. Another is to organize finance in ways that favor active rather than passive globalization: the engagement of a national economy with the world economy without abandonment of its capacity to implement a distinctive strategy of national development and to establish the institutional arrangements that the strategy may require. Such arrangements are likely to contradict the institutional formulas preferred by the interests and ideas prevailing in the great powers of the day. A crucial test of every program of reform is success in establishing the institutional vehicles that the program needs. This imperative gives reason to re-invent comparative law as a handmaiden of institutional innovation. Institutional details matter. They exist only as law.
Efficient variable ordering heuristics for shared ROBDD

Several ordering heuristics for shared, reduced and ordered binary decision diagrams (ROBDDs) are described. These heuristics are tested on ISCAS and MCNC benchmark circuits. In all examples, the ordering is accomplished in a few seconds and generates smaller shared ROBDDs than other previously proposed heuristics. The objective is to provide a fast way to generate shared ROBDDs of reasonable sizes. The results could be used as a good initial solution to any semi-exhaustive ordering method to further reduce the sizes. >
Community networking-a LAKES approach

LAKES is an architecture for collaborative working developed at IBM Hursley to support a wide range of collaborative applications of the "same time/different place" variety across different platforms and communications media. Although it springs from work on desktop conferencing systems designed for business users, LAKES has been designed as a flexible architecture. One test of its flexibility is to see how well it can support the special needs of Community Networking. This paper outlines some key elements of the architecture and discusses ways in which it can be used to solve a variety of Community Networking problems. >
Colorectal cancers of rare histologic types compared with adenocarcinomas.

PURPOSE: To examine clinical characteristics of colorectal cancers of rare histologic types compared with adenocarcinomas. METHODS: Review of a population-based registry with complete ascertainment. RESULTS: There were 7,422 colorectal cancers, 4,900 (66 percent) colonic and 2,522 (34 percent) rectal. Two hundred fifty-five cancers (3 percent) were of nonadenocarcinoma varieties including 75 (33 percent) squamous, 74 (33 percent) malignant carcinoids, 37 (16 percent) transitional cell-like, 25 (11 percent) lymphomas, 9 (4 percent) sarcomas, and 2 (0.9 percent) melanomas. Sixty (1.2 percent) of the colon cancers occurred in the appendix, and proportionately more carcinoids accounted for these tumors. Compared with adeno-carcinomas, colonic and rectal carcinoids and colonic lymphomas accounted for a larger proportion of cancers in the younger age groups. The elderly had proportionately fewer colonic carcinoids. Colonic carcinoids, rectal squamous-cell cancers, and rectal transitional cell-like cancers were more common in women. Colonic lymphomas had a worse prognosis than adenocarcinomas. Survival was better with colonic and rectal carcinoids and rectal transitional cell-like cancers than with adenocarcinomas. CONCLUSIONS: Colorectal cancers of histologic varieties other than adenocarcinoma have distinctive epidemiologic and clinical traits.
Polymer solutions from latexes

In order to characterize a polymer by its reduced viscosity, it is necessary to put it into solution. For polymer made by emulsion polymerization, this usually involves coagulating the latex, washing and drying the coagulum, and then dissolving the residue in an organic solvent. The method fails when the polymer crosslinks on drying, as is the case with some adhesive resins. The method proposed here uses mixtures of N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) to put the polymer directly into solution without removing the water. The technique is applicable to many polymers and copolymers of ethyl acrylate and vinyl acetate.
Collaborative learning utilizing a domain-based shared data repository to enhance learning outcomes

A number of learning paradigms have postulated that knowledge formation is a dynamic process where learners actively construct a representation of concepts integrating information from multiple sources. Current teaching strategies utilize a compartmentalized approach where individual courses contain a small subset of the knowledge required for a discipline. The intent of this research is to provide a framework to integrate the components of a discipline into a cohesive whole and accelerate the integration of concepts enhancing the learning process. The components utilized to accomplish these goals include two new knowledge integration models; a Knowledge Weighting Model (KWM) and the Aggregate-Integrate-Master (AIM) model. Semantic Web design principles utilizing a Resource Description Framework (RDF) schema and Web Ontology Language (OWL) will be used to define concepts and relationships for this knowledge domain that can then be extended for other domains. Lastly, a Design Research paradigm will be utilized to analyze the IT artifact, the Constructivist Unifying Baccalaureate Epistemology (CUBE) knowledge repository that was designed to validate this research. The prototype testing population utilized sixty students spanning five classes, in the fall 2007, following IRB approved protocols. Data was gathered using a Constructivist Multimedia Learning Survey (CMLES), focus groups and semi-structured interviews. This preliminary data supported the hypotheses that students using the Integrated Knowledge Repository will first; have a more positive perception of the learning process than those who use conventional single course teaching paradigms and second; students utilizing the IKR will develop a more complex understanding of the interconnected nature of the materials linking a discipline than those who take conventional single topic courses. Learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The goal is to develop a knowledge structure that is capable of facilitating the integration of conceptual development in a field of study.
Interaction of the fluorescent analogue palmitoyl-(1,N6) etheno-CoA with mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase and phospholipid vesicles.

Abstract A fluorescent analogue, palmitoyl-ϵCoA was shown to have a fluorescence lifetime (19.5 nsec.), polarization and absorption and emission characteristics useful for studying interactions with enzymes and with model membranes. The fluorescence lifetime was found to be wavelength dependent. The analogue was a better inhibitor (50% inhibition at ∼ 0.2 μM) than palmitoyl-CoA (50% inhibition at 0.5 μM) when bound to mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase (L-malate: NAD + oxido reductase E.C.l.l.137). The fluorescence depolarization when bound to this enzyme was less than that observed for binding to bovine serum albumin suggesting some mobility of the chromophore while bound. The changes in polarization upon titration with phosphatidylcholine (egg) vesicles were consistent with a partition of palmitoyl-(1,N 6 etheno)CoA between vesicles and malate dehydrogenase. Such partition may have physiological consequences.
Locus of Control vs. Employee Empowerment and the Relationship with Hotel Managers' Job Satisfaction

Abstract The researchers explore the effects of locus of control and empowerment on hotel managers' job satisfaction. Sixty-eight participants at a hotel managers' meeting for a major southeastern hotel management company were surveyed. In addition to satisfaction and control queries, some demographic tags were identified, specifically gender and race. While locus of control was proven to be directly related to satisfaction, it was not a predictor. Partial support of two additional hypotheses was achieved.
Vectorcardiographic and electrocardiographic changes following surgical correction of atrial septal defect

Abstract 1. 1. Twelve cases of atrial septal defect of the secundum type have been followed from 2 to 12 months postoperatively, after surgical correction by direct vision, utilizing a pump-oxygenator bypass, in order to study electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic changes. 2. 2. The electrocardiographic changes consisted of a regression in the degree of right axis deviation, a smaller R or R′ in Lead V1, and a taller R in Lead V6. In the majority of cases an RSR′ pattern persisted. 3. 3. The vectorcardiogram demonstrated gradual and marked changes toward normal. In the horizontal plane, before surgery, the QRS loop was displaced anteriorly, and to the right, with a clockwise sense of rotation. After surgery, the QRS loop became progressively more leftward, posterior, and the sense of rotation became counterclockwise. 4. 4. The electrocardiogram and the vectorcardiogram provide a simple and reliable method of evaluating the regression of right ventricular hypertrophy toward normality in patients who have undergone corrective surgery for atrial septal defect.
A 2 factor model helped to rule out early stage necrotising fasciitis

Source Citation Wall DB, Klein SR, Black S, de Virgilio C. A simple model to help distinguish necrotizing fasciitis from nonnecrotizing soft tissue infection. J Am Coll Surg. 2000 Sep;191:227-31. 1...
Cherubism and its charlatans

Cherubism is a rare hereditary condition characterised by progressive cystic proliferation of the mandible and maxilla in childhood, followed by post-pubertal involution of the process and jaw remodelling in adulthood. Its name is derived from the cherubic appearance that results from the jaw hypertrophy. Here, we present the case of a young boy with cherubism, in the context of his pedigree, to illustrate the clinical characteristics and their variable expression. We also seek to distinguish cherubism from central giant cell granuloma and giant cell tumour of the jaws, with which it holds a false synonymity.
Cognitive Dysfunction Associated with Elemental Mercury Ingestion and Inhalation: A Case Study

A 63-year-old man with a history of alcohol dependence ingested elemental mercury as a suicide gesture. Serial abdominal X-rays showed gradual but incomplete clearance of mercury from the colon. Routine chest X-ray showed evidence of punctate radiopaque materials in the lower lobe of the right lung. Blood and urine mercury levels both exceeded thresholds considered to be associated with cognitive dysfunction. Elicited cognitive deficits were most prominent in processing speed, flexibility, and response inhibition. Semantic fluency, visuospatial processing, and recall memory for visual and low-context verbal material were also affected. The deficits may have been attributable primarily to alcohol abuse. Elemental mercury is not readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract; however, mercury vapor, which was inhaled inadvertently, readily crosses the blood-brain barrier and is neurotoxic. We argue, therefore, that mercury toxicity is more likely than not to have been a factor contributing to the patient'...
Stimulated Mach-wave phonon emission: Towards broadband phonon emitters and receivers

We review the physics of photon-phonon coupling in guided wave systems, and discuss new opportunities for information transduction aorded by nanoscale connement of light and phonons within a novel class of optome- chanical waveguide systems. We present a fundamental analysis of optical forces generated through nanoscale light-matter interactions, and use these insights to develop new approaches for broadband signal processing via optomechanics. Recent experimental results will also be discussed.
30 Gbit/s 1:4 demultiplexer IC using AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs

An experimental high speed 1:4 demultiplexer integrated circuit featuring output bit alignment, reduced gate count, and a novel circuit architecture is presented. The experimental circuit features an inherently fast two-stage configuration, with operation at up to 30 Gbit/s demonstrated in an advanced AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar technology. The system clock frequency is half the bit rate with only one additional self-generated internal clock necessary.