cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Home-Based Rehabilitation: Enabling Frequent and Effective Training

Rehabilitation studies have recently demonstrated that the amount of time spent training is one of the most important factors in one’s ability to regain motor control. The methods employed need to be effective, but individuals need to spend significant amounts of time retraining. One of the most effective ways to enable more training time is for rehabilitation to occur in one’s home so individuals have adequate access to it and there is no cost associated with traveling to the clinic. There are several challenges that need to be overcome to make home rehabilitation more common; for example adapting the methods from the clinical setting to the home setting, ensuring safety, and providing motivation. This chapter outlines existing technologies for upper and lower limb rehabilitation and how they could be adapted for use in one’s home. Although many types of disabilities would benefit from home-based rehabilitation, this discussion will focus on traumatic brain injuries, specifically stroke related. Many of the methods that could be used at home for stroke would also have application for helping in other circumstances.
Hydroxy Metabolites of Tricyclic Antidepressants: Evaluation of Relative Cardiotoxicity

Patients treated with nortriptyline and imipramine also have considerable plasma levels of pharmacologically active hydroxy metabolites. Hydroxylation controls the clearance of tricyclic antidepressants; 2-hydroxyimipramine and 2-hydroxydesipramine each comprise about 30% of their respective parent drug levels, whereas unconjugated E-10-hydroxynortriptyline (E-10- OH-NT) constitutes 150%–300% of nortriptyline levels, and its geometrical isomer Z-10-hydroxynortriptyline (Z-10-OH-NT) constitutes only 5%–22% of the total hydroxynortriptyline formed (DeVane and Jusko 1981; Mellstrom et al. 1981). Since the renal clearance of these metabolites determines their steady-state concentrations, it is not surprising that disproportionate increases in hydroxy metabolite levels, relative to their parent compounds, have been demonstrated in patients suffering from chronic renal failure (Lieberman et al. 1985). Moreover a decrease in renal clearance in old age could also account for the disproportionately high concentration of 10-hydroxy-nortriptyline (Young et al. 1985) and 2-hydroxydesipramine (Kitanaka et al. 1982) observed in elderly patients. This may be of particular concern because in the aged the cardiovascular system may already be compromised.
Repulsion of energies of delocalized states in a double-layer system in a strong magnetic field

A double-layer system in a strong perpendicular magnetic field is considered. Assuming a random potential in each layer to be smooth, we calculate the positions of the delocalized states within a wide range of the tunneling strengths. We show that each delocalized state is composed of alternating pieces of equipotentials from different layers. These combined equipotentials form a percolation network, the nodes of which are the regions where equipotentials from different layers nearly touch each other.
Sources of all-trans retinal oxidation independent of the aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A isozymes exist in the postnatal testis

Despite the essential role of the active metabolite of vitamin A, all-trans retinoic acid (atRA) in spermatogenesis, the enzymes, and cellular populations responsible for its synthesis in the postnatal testis remain largely unknown. The aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A (ALDH1A) family of enzymes residing within Sertoli cells is responsible for the synthesis of atRA, driving the first round of spermatogenesis. Those studies also revealed that the atRA required to drive subsequent rounds of spermatogenesis is possibly derived from the ALDH1A enzymes residing within the meiotic and post-meiotic germ cells. Three ALDH1A isozymes (ALDH1A1, ALDH1A2, and ALDH1A3) are present in the testis. Although, ALDH1A1 is expressed in adult Sertoli cells and is suggested to contribute to the atRA required for the pre-meiotic transitions, ALDH1A2 is proposed to be the essential isomer involved in testicular atRA biosynthesis. In this report, we first examine the requirement for ALDH1A2 via the generation and analysis of a conditional Aldh1a2 germ cell knockout and a tamoxifen-induced Aldh1a2 knockout model. We then utilized the pan-ALDH1A inhibitor (WIN 18446) to test the collective contribution of the ALDH1A enzymes to atRA biosynthesis following the first round of spermatogenesis. Collectively, our data provide the first in vivo evidence demonstrating that animals severely deficient in ALDH1A2 postnatally proceed normally through spermatogenesis. Our studies with a pan-ALDH1A inhibitor (WIN 18446) also suggest that an alternative source of atRA biosynthesis independent of the ALDH1A enzymes becomes available to maintain atRA levels for several spermatogenic cycles following an initial atRA injection.
Risk Factors for Manipulation Under Anesthesia and/or Lysis of Adhesions After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.

Background:In the currently published literature, a higher risk for developing arthrofibrosis after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction has been reported for female patients, adolescent...
Global warming has increased global economic inequality.

Understanding the causes of economic inequality is critical for achieving equitable economic development. To investigate whether global warming has affected the recent evolution of inequality, we combine counterfactual historical temperature trajectories from a suite of global climate models with extensively replicated empirical evidence of the relationship between historical temperature fluctuations and economic growth. Together, these allow us to generate probabilistic country-level estimates of the influence of anthropogenic climate forcing on historical economic output. We find very high likelihood that anthropogenic climate forcing has increased economic inequality between countries. For example, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has been reduced 17–31% at the poorest four deciles of the population-weighted country-level per capita GDP distribution, yielding a ratio between the top and bottom deciles that is 25% larger than in a world without global warming. As a result, although between-country inequality has decreased over the past half century, there is ∼90% likelihood that global warming has slowed that decrease. The primary driver is the parabolic relationship between temperature and economic growth, with warming increasing growth in cool countries and decreasing growth in warm countries. Although there is uncertainty in whether historical warming has benefited some temperate, rich countries, for most poor countries there is >90% likelihood that per capita GDP is lower today than if global warming had not occurred. Thus, our results show that, in addition to not sharing equally in the direct benefits of fossil fuel use, many poor countries have been significantly harmed by the warming arising from wealthy countries’ energy consumption.
“To Become Somebody in the Future”: Exploring the Content of University Students’ Goals in Nigeria

Youths’ self-articulated goals in sub-Saharan Africa are often missing from scholarly and development discourses, creating a challenge for those aiming to establish effective development programs and policies. This chapter explores the goals of undergraduate university students in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, drawing on data from 23 in-depth interviews, 7 focus group discussions, and a survey of 267 undergraduate students in universities in Port Harcourt, Nigeria collected between July 2012 and September 2013. Through a grounded theory analysis of the data collected, 40 specific goals were identified and developed into four categories: achievement, material, generativity, and relationship. The findings are useful for further research on aspirations and the design, monitoring, and evaluation of development programs that are sensitive and relevant to the needs of young people.
Trends In Opioid Prescribing And Self-Reported Pain Among US Adults

Clinically informed efforts to curb inappropriate opioid prescribing seek to reduce prescribing to adults with lower pain levels that are potentially manageable with alternative therapies. Accordin...
Up-conversion emission thermometry for semiconductor laser cooling

Abstract The ability to precisely measure temperature is critical to eventually developing semiconductor-based optical refrigerators. Presently, a number of approaches exist for conducting contactless temperature measurements. They are mainly based on the temperature-dependent optical response of materials. A common approach called pump–probe luminescence thermometry (PPLT) uses temperature-dependent shifts of a material’s band edge emission energy to assess temperature. PPLT, however, cannot be reliably applied to materials such as CsPbBr 3 nanocrystals, which exhibit temperature insensitive band gaps. To overcome this restriction, we have developed a new optical thermometry based on temperature-dependent changes to below gap-excited (anti-Stokes, ASPL) and above gap-excited (Stokes, PL) photoluminescence intensity ratios (i.e. I ASPL / I PL ). In it, I ASPL / I PL can be used to assess local temperature due to the exponentially sensitive nature of emission up-conversion efficiencies. The developed thermometry is not unique to CsPbBr 3 and can be applied other systems found suitable for demonstrating semiconductor-based laser cooling.
Abstract TP103: Neonatal Stroke Alters Communication of Microglial Cells With Microglia-Derived Exosomes and Microvesicles

Inflammation modulates brain injury after perinatal arterial stroke. We previously demonstrated that microglial cells play an important role in protecting neonatal brain from acute stroke by phagoc...
Scanning Differential Contrast Microscopy

We have been carrying out research on two types of scanning optical microscopes with the aim of measuring not only the width of surface features, but also the thickness of thin films and surface profiles.
Chapter 7 – LINEAR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses linear differential equations. It presents techniques for reducing linear differential equations to fundamental form. The chapter reviews the solutions of systems with constant coefficients and properties of the transition matrix. It also discusses the adjoint system. The chapter presents various examples and proofs to a number of theorems related to linear differential equations.
IS WHAT STUDENTS WANT WHAT THEY REALLY NEED? A VALUES VIEW OF UNDERGRADUATE MARKETING ELECTIVE COURSE OFFERINGS

Prior research on marketing curriculum design suggests that new course offerings are driven by inputs from faculty resources and interests, student demand and willingness to enroll in the course, a...
TAKIN' CARE OF SMALL BUSINESS: THE RISE OF STAKEHOLDER INFLUENCE

In this Exchange, we consider three crucial boundary conditions that Barnett, Henriques, and Husted (2020) overlooked in their model of diminished stakeholder influence. Although we agree that soci...
Haplotype architecture of the Alzheimer's risk in the APOE region via co-skewness.

Introduction As a multifactorial polygenic disorder, Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be associated with complex haplotypes or compound genotypes. Methods We examined associations of 4960 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) triples, comprising 32 SNPs from five genes in the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) region with AD in a sample of 2789 AD-affected and 16,334 unaffected subjects. Results We identified a large number of 1127 AD-associated triples, comprising SNPs from all five genes, in support of definitive roles of complex haplotypes in predisposition to AD. These haplotypes may not include the APOE e4 and e2 alleles. For triples with rs429358 or rs7412, which encode these alleles, AD is characterized mainly by strengthening connections of the e4 allele and weakening connections of the e2 allele with the other alleles in this region. Discussion Dissecting heterogeneity attributed to AD-associated complex haplotypes in the APOE region will target more homogeneous polygenic profiles of people at high risk of AD.
A Qualitative Assessment of Bone Mineral Density in Individuals With Hemifacial Microsomia: A Cone-Beam Computed Tomography Study.

Objective:The purpose of this study is to utilize cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) to compare the bone mineral density (BMD) on the affected versus nonaffected side, among individuals with hemi...
I Am Not Your Negro Movie Review: Critical Reflection and Discourse to Advance Social Equity

This article reviews I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary film based on Remember this House, an unfinished manuscript written by James Baldwin. I Am Not Your Negro is a critical film for any public s...
Educational Methods and Technological Innovations for Introductory Experiential Learning Given the Contact-Related Limitations Imposed by the SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Acute respiratory syndrome related coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to substantial changes in pharmacy curricula, including the ability to provide in-person introductory experiential practice experiences (IPPEs) to University of Colorado’s International-Trained PharmD (ITPD) students. Methods: The IPPE course for ITPD students was redesigned to offer remote educational activities in the health system setting and simulated practice and communication activities in the community setting. Students were evaluated via surveys regarding the perceived value of these changes, and changes in knowledge, skills and abilities before and after activities. Results: A total of 6 students were enrolled in the revised IPPE course. Students agreed or strongly agreed that the overall distance-based IPPE experience, the remote health system activities, and the community activities were valuable. Students also strongly agreed that course design successfully met course outcomes and was relevant to pharmacy practice. In terms of knowledge, skills and abilities, numeric improvements were observed in remote health system activities and community-based simulated patient interactions, but results were not statistically significant. A high baseline level of knowledge led to minimal improvements in perceptions of improvement in community pharmacy skills regarding pharmacy simulation software. Conclusion: Implementation of distance-based IPPE activities may be an alternate educational modality.
Introduction: The Original Nation Scholarship

The state continues to target and commit violent acts against the nation all over the world. Public discourses related to wars, armed violence, and human atrocities have failed to include broader discussions of historical and enduring tensions between the nation and the state. This chapter provides the outline of the Original Nation scholarship developed in this book in order to offer a fundamentally differing interpretation of geography, history, politics, and the role of international law, in which the identity of the nation is placed at the center of geopolitical analyzes of global affairs.
Issues Related to Water Affecting Indigenous Peoples of North America

Water is a vital ingredient to the environment, and without it, life would not be possible. For Indigenous Peoples of North America, water does not only sustain life, it is sacred. Issues related to water that affects Indigenous Peoples are multifaceted involving place, culture, and nation-to-nation policy related to colonialism and reconciliation. Environmental pollution disproportionately impacts Indigenous peoples because it contaminates foods and resources they depend on ultimately affecting health of not only individuals but a whole culture. Point source examples include contamination of rivers, lakes, and groundwater by industrial pollutants, pesticides, mining, and milling operations. Non-point examples include agricultural runoff and atmospheric contamination such as mercury and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Additional environmental and water-related challenges in the arid Southwestern United States, Arctic, and sub-Arctic include limited access to drinking water related to place and contamination of water supply and traditional foods caused by POPs and climate change.
Are Managers Listening to Twitter? Evidence from Mergers & Acquisitions

This paper studies the feedback effects of social media on corporate investment decisions. Using a comprehensive sample of millions of tweets from a popular social media network, I show that negative social media feedback around the announcement of a corporate acquisition increases the likelihood that the M&A deal is subsequently withdrawn, especially when the relevant tweets have a higher prominence and visibility, and when the acquiring firm’s stock has low price informativeness. This effect is not subsumed by the announcement returns of the acquiring and target firm or the reaction to the M&A announcement in traditional news media. Managers use feedback from social media as a substitute for other sources of information to help guide their investment decisions.
The Current Transitional State of Court-Connected ADR

Obviously, there is much to commend in court-connected mediation and what it offers to people caught up in disputes. With the help of mediators, parties may find it more feasible to reflect on their legal and extra-legal needs, prioritize among these needs, engage in open and thoughtful conversation, develop integrative solutions, and even consider the mediators' dispassionate feedback regarding positions or expectations. Proponents of court-connected mediation can also point to a multitude of accomplishments. For example, and most strikingly, many cases settle in mediation.' For the vast majority of those cases, litigants express satisfaction with the process and indicate that they had the opportunity to express themselves, that the other parties heard them, that they had input into the outcome, and that they view the process as fair.2 Additionally, parties rarely seek to undo the settlements reached in mediation, though this sometimes occurs. Parties generally view mediation as being as satisfactory or fair as trial,' and sometimes even more so.' Some research indicates that mediation saves time and costs for both courts and parties.' Occasionally, mediation even achieves communication and outcomes that would be unlikely in other court-connected procedures.! This catalogue of achievements clearly affirms the value of mediation. For well over a decade, however, other evidence has triggered concerns that mediation has strayed from its core mission as a mechanism for the meaningful and voluntary resolution of disputes' and that it has become entangled in the contentious game playing and covert manipulation that can occur in litigation. Judicial opinions reveal satellite litigation over (1) lawyers' authority to enter into mediated settlements on their clients' behalf; (2) lawyers' competence in advising their clients to accept" or reject 2 mediated settlement agreements; (3) the influence exercised by mediators;" (4) good-faith and fair-dealing violations;14 (5) the proposed vacatur of preliminarily approved mediated class settlements;" and (6) imprecise contract formation. 6 The process of mediation was adopted by many courts as a means to ameliorate wasteful conflict and reduce the courts' dockets." However, mediation (or more accurately, those participating in mediation) may now be contributing to such conflict and dockets.
A Case of Bias in Teaching, Grading, and Plagiarism

The target audience for this case study includes Ph.D. in Business students, who are taking classes related to instructional methods in business, or anyone who is teaching or preparing to teach a college course. It is particularly beneficial to readers who possess prior knowledge of various teaching methods, classroom incivilities, classroom management, and assessment and grading styles, as well as issues pertaining to plagiarism. In order to facilitate an active learning environment, an instructor must refrain from exhibiting the following behaviors: disrespect for students, bias in teaching, inconsistent grading styles, and unjust allegations of plagiarism.
Locally Updatable and Locally Decodable Codes

We introduce the notion of locally updatable and locally decodable codes (LULDCs). In addition to having low decode locality, such codes allow us to update a codeword (of a message) to a codeword of a different message, by rewriting just a few symbols. While, intuitively, updatability and error-correction seem to be contrasting goals, we show that for a suitable, yet meaningful, metric (which we call the Prefix Hamming metric), one can construct such codes. Informally, the Prefix Hamming metric allows the adversary to arbitrarily corrupt bits of the codeword subject to one constraint – he does not corrupt more than a δ fraction (for some constant δ) of the t “most-recently changed” bits of the codeword (for all 1 ≤ t ≤ n, where n is the length of the codeword).
A Quantum Mechanical Study of the Thermal Conduction Across a ZrB2-SiC Interface as a Function of Temperature and Strain

Studies on nanocomposites have proven them to be a promising option for various applications based on their excellent thermal and mechanical properties, especially at high temperatures. Such materials consist of heterogeneities in the form of interfaces, grain boundaries, triple junctions, and second phase dispersion. It is, therefore, important to understand the effect of heat transfer across a nanocomposite interface on its thermal conduction behavior. Analyses need to take into account possible phase changes as a function of changes in temperature and thermal stress levels. In the present research, atomistic analyses of thermal conduction across a nanocomposite interface are performed using quantum simulations based on plane-wave basis sets combined with the density function theory (DFT). Analyses of the effect of straining on the nanocomposite property changes are performed to study it as a promising means to obtain nanocomposites with tailored properties.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Ultrasound Enhanced Thrombolysis for Stroke

In the pivotal clinical trials of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) therapy, a low rate of early arterial recanalization was suspected because only a few stroke patients may have had early dramatic clinical improvement. Tissue plasminogen activator activity can be enhanced with ultrasound, including 2 MHz transcranial Doppler (TCD). Transcranial Doppler identifies residual blood flow signals around thrombi, and, by delivering mechanical pressure waves, exposes more thrombus surface to circulating TPA. For the first time in clinical medicine, the international multicenter CLOTBUST trial showed that ultrasound enhances the thrombolytic activity of a drug in humans, thereby confirming multidisciplinary experimental research conducted worldwide for the past 30 years. In the CLOTBUST trial, the dramatic clinical recovery from stroke coupled with complete recanalization within 2 h after TPA bolus occurred in 25% of patients treated with TPA+TCD compared with 8% who received TPA alone (P=0.02). Complete clearance of a thrombus and dramatic recovery of brain functions during treatment are feasible goals for ultrasound-enhanced thrombolysis that can lead to sustained recovery. An early boost in brain perfusion seen in the target CLOTBUST group resulted in a trend of 13% more patients achieving favorable outcome at 3 months. To further enhance the ability of TPA to break up thrombi, current ongoing clinical trials include phase II studies of 2 MHz TCD with ultrasound contrast agents or (microbubbles): TCD+TPA+Levovist; TCD+TPA+MRX nano-platform (C(3)F(8)). Intra-arterial TPA delivery can be enhanced with 1 x 7-2 x 1 MHz pulsed wave ultrasound (EKOS catheter, IMS trial). Dose escalation studies of microbubbles, ultrasound exposure, and the development of an operator-independent ultrasound device are underway.
Implicit Bias and Immigration Courts

This Article highlights the importance of implicit bias in immigration adjudication. After tracing the evolution of prejudice in our immigration laws from explicit "old-fashioned" prejudice to more subtle forms of "modem" and "aversive" prejudice, the Article argues that the specific conditions under which immigration judges decide cases render them especially prone to the influence of implicit bias. Specifically, it examines how factors such as immigration judges' lack of independence, limited opportunity for deliberate thinking, low motivation, and the low risk of judicial review all allow implicit bias to drive decisionmaking. The Article then recommends certain reforms, both simple and complex, to help reduce such bias in immigration adjudication. * Associate Professor of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; J.D. Harvard University; B.A. Yale University. I would like to thank Professor Ann C. McGinley and Professor Jean Sternlight for their thoughtful comments on this piece. I would also like to thank the New England Law Review staff for organizing the Symposium on immigration reform and for their valuable editorial contributions. HeinOnline -45 New Eng. L. Rev. 417 2010-2011 New England Law Review v. 45 I 417
Eat (and Drink) Better Tonight: Food Stamp Benefit Timing and Drunk Driving Fatalities

This paper examines the relationship between the timing of food stamp benefits and daily alcohol-related fatal accidents. We exploit substantial exogenous variation in state food stamp distribution...
Situating Emotion: A Critical Realist View of Emotion and Nonconscious Cognitive Processes for Law and Legal Theory

This Article attempts to clarify legal thinking about emotion in decision making. It surveys evidence from psychology and neuroscience on the extensive role that emotion and related nonconscious cognitive processes play in human behavior, then evaluates the treatment of emotion in three legal views of decision making: rational choice theory, behavioral economics, and cultural cognition theory. The Article concludes that each theory is mistaken to treat emotion mostly as a decision objective rather than a part of the decision-making process and, indeed, to treat it as a force that mostly compromises that process. The Article introduces the view that emotion is a critical behavioral process that plays a role in most if not all decisions and is not readily amenable to accumulation or maximization. The Article discusses broad implications of this view for welfarist legal theory and policy generally and for an ongoing debate on risk regulation between behavioral economists and cultural cognition theorists. It also sketches potential applications in the law of employment discrimination, consumer protection, and criminal law. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1277 I. A CONTRADICTION ON EMOTION 1278 A. Undesirable Emotion 1279 B. Crucial Emotion 1280 C. Synthesis: The Emotionless Pursuit of Emotion ........ 1280 II. PROBLEMS WITH VIEWING EMOTIONS AS OBJECTS 1281 A. Problems with Preferences: Tap Water or Evian? Small or Tall? 1282 1. Miswanting 1282 2. Inconsistency and manipulability 1286 B. A Problem with Welfare: A Hole in the Bucket ......... 1286 C. A Problem with Choice: Water Under the Bridge ..... 1290 D. A Problem for the Model: Poor Service 1294 III. A NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR HOMO ECONOMICUS 1297 A. Evaluating the Environment 1299 1. Instant evaluation 1299 2. Thin slices 1302 3. Deciding advantageously without knowing the advantageous strategy 1304 4. Emotion and reason: affect as a decision necessity. 1305 B . Affect and Nonconscious Processes in Cognition and Behavior 1309 1. Automatic attitudes 1310 2. Automatic behavior 1312 3. Affect and "cold cognition" 1317 4. Out of control 1322 5. Context-dependent interaction with the environment 1325 C. The Pursuit of Being, Not Weil-Being 1328 IV. THEORIES OF EMOTION IN LAW 1330 A. (Unemotional) Rational Choice Theory 1330 B. Behavioral Economics, or Emotional Irrational Choice Theory 1333 1 . Emotional irrationalism's empiricism 1 334 2. Emotional irrationalism and risk regulation ......... 1336 C. Cultural Cognition or Emotional Rational Choice Theory 1343 1. Emotion and rationality …
The enterprise as community: firms, towns, and universities

At a very broad level, firms and municipalities share a number of features. Among other things, both are self-governing entities that make investments and purchase, produce, and distribute goods and services, sometimes, but not always, for an explicit price. Yet towns and firms are perceived as being governed differently: Whereas municipalities are governed democratically, the archetypal firm is viewed as an autocracy. The sharp contrast conventionally drawn between “autocratic” firms and more “democratic” entities like towns and cooperatives is misleading, however. As Henry Hansmann (1988) has pointed out, traditional business corporations are, in essence, lender cooperatives, organizations over which investors exercise democratic control. From this perspective, the issue becomes less one of whether communities or enterprises are democratically governed but who gets to vote. Because some means of arriving at collective decisions (i.e., voting rules) will be needed regardless of which group of patrons is in charge (the exception being single-owner enterprises such as sole proprietorships), whether it is better to assign control to one set of patrons instead of another − or possibly to share control among two or more patron classes − will depend, in part, on the benefits and limitations of collective decision making and how those vary with the attributes of patrons and transactions. In this analysis, the predominance of investor democracy among commercial enterprises is the result of generally greater hazards of contracting for capital than with input suppliers, workers, and customers combined with arguably greater difficulties of the latter three groups in exercising effective collective control (Hansmann 1988: 277−284, 301; Williamson 1987).
Electrodeposition of CoxFe3–xO4 Epitaxial Films and Superlattices

Spinel ferrites are of interest because of their potential applications in spintronics (spin-based electronics) and solid-state memories. Cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) is an inverse spinel ferrite. Currently, the utility of CoFe2O4 is mainly based on its high coercivity and magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The magnetic and electrical properties of CoFe2O4 depend on its Co:Fe ratio. In this paper, a one-step electrodeposition of CoxFe3-xO4 (0 < x < 1) thin films from an alkaline Fe3+- and Co2+-triethanolamine solution is presented. The Co:Fe ratio in the CoxFe3–xO4 thin films can be tuned by controlling the deposition potential. That is, CoxFe3–xO4 thin films with tunable chemical and physical properties can be produced from a single solution. Superlattices in the CoxFe3–xO4 system were also electrodeposited from the same solution by simply pulsing between two potentials. Compared to CoxFe3–xO4 individual films, superlattices exhibit resistance switching and a more pronounced negative differential resistance (NDR...
The Determinants and Welfare Implications of US Workers' Diverging Location Choices by Skill: 1980-2000

Abstract From 1980 to 2000, the rise in the US college/high school graduate wage gap coincided with increased geographic sorting as college graduates concentrated in high wage, high rent cities. This paper estimates a structural spatial equilibrium model to determine causes and welfare consequences of this increased skill sorting. While local labor demand changes fundamentally caused the increased skill sorting, it was further fueled by endogenous increases in amenities within higher skill cities. Changes in cities' wages, rents, and endogenous amenities increased inequality between high school and college graduates by more than suggested by the increase in the college wage gap alone. (JEL D31, I26, J24, J31, J61, R23)
Generation of Assurance Cases for Medical Devices

In safety critical systems, the manufacturers should provide compelling and comprehensible arguments to demonstrate that their system is well designed and safety of the system to the public is guaranteed. These arguments are usually represented by an assurance case. However, one of challenging issues facing the safety critical industry is how to produce an assurance case that provides a set of well-structured arguments connecting safety requirements and a body of evidence produced during software development. In this paper, we take the medical systems industry into account to illustrate how an assurance case can be generated when a software process is employed. In particularly, we consider the Generic Insulin infusion Pump (GIIP) to show how an assurance case can be produced via during a popular software development process, called Rational Unified Process (RUP).
Traffic Fatalities and Public Sector Corruption

Traffic accidents result in 1 million deaths annually worldwide, though the burden is disproportionately felt in poorer countries. Typically, fatality rates from disease and accidents fall as countries develop. Traffic deaths, however, regularly increase with income, at least up to a threshold level, before declining. While we confirm this by analyzing 1,356 country-year observations between 1982 and 2000, our purpose is to consider the role played by public sector corruption in determining traffic fatalities. We find that such corruption, independent of income, plays a significant role in the epidemics of traffic fatalities that are common in relatively poor countries.
Modeling Students' Reasoning About Qualitative Physics: Heuristics for Abductive Proof Search

We describe a theorem prover that is used in the Why2-Atlas tutoring system for the purposes of evaluating the correctness of a student’s essay and for guiding feedback to the student. The weighted abduction framework of the prover is augmented with various heuristics to assist in searching for a proof that maximizes measures of utility and plausibility. We focus on two new heuristics we added to the theorem prover: (a) a specificity-based cost for assuming an atom, and (b) a rule choice preference that is based on the similarity between the graph of cross-references between the propositions in a candidate rule and the graph of cross-references between the set of goals. The two heuristics are relevant to any abduction framework and knowledge representation that allow for a metric of specificity for a proposition and cross-referencing of propositions via shared variables.
Effects of primary, secondary, and tertiary education on economic growth : evidence from Guatemala

Loening investigates the impact of human capital on economic growth in Guatemala during 1951-2002 using an error-correction methodology. The results show a better-educated labor force having a positive and significant impact on economic growth. Consistent with microeconomic studies for Guatemala, primary and secondary education are most important for productivity growth. These findings are robust while changing the conditioning set of the variables, controlling for data issues and endogeneity. Due to an environment of social and political conflict, however, total factor productivity has been slightly negative for the past decades, and there is evidence of a missing complementarily between the country's skills and its technology base. The author presents a growth-accounting framework which takes into account quality changes of physical capital, and differentiates by level of education. It shows that the human capital variables explain more than 50 percent of output growth. Of these, secondary schooling is the predominant determinant of growth.
The Economic Transformation of Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland

In virtually every aspect of economic life, the communist legacy is adverse. Normal market institutions were destroyed by the communist rulers in the early post-war period, so that even the most basic categories of economic life in a market economy—corporations, bankruptcy law, securities trading, collective bargaining—must be painfully reconstructed. For four decades, capital spending was dictated by political fiat, in a system that valued heavy industry to the neglect of basic consumer needs, and that ruthlessly reoriented trade from Western Europe to the Soviet Union.
Coupled modeling of hydrogeochemical and electrical resistivity data for exploring the impact of recharge on subsurface contamination

[1] The application of geophysical methods, in particular, electrical resistivity measurements, may be useful for monitoring subsurface contamination. However, interpreting geophysical data without additional data and without considering the associated hydrogeochemical processes is challenging since the geophysical response is sensitive to not only heterogeneity in rock properties but also to the saturation and chemical composition of pore fluids. We present an inverse modeling framework that incorporates the simulation of hydrogeochemical processes and time-lapse electrical resistivity data and apply it to various borehole and cross-borehole data sets collected in 2008 near the S-3 Ponds at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Integrated Field Research Challenge site, where efforts are underway to better understand freshwater recharge and associated contaminant dilution. Our goal is to show that the coupled hydrogeochemical-geophysical modeling framework can be used to (1) develop a model that honors all the available data sets, (2) help understand the response of the geophysical data to subsurface properties and processes at the site, and (3) allow for the estimation of petrophysical parameters needed for interpreting the geophysical data. We present a series of cases involving different data sets and increasingly complex models and find that the approach provides useful information about soil properties, recharge-related transport processes, and the geophysical response. Spatial heterogeneity of the petrophysical model can be described sufficiently with two layers, and its parameters can be estimated concurrently with the hydrogeochemical parameters. For successful application of the approach, the parameters of interest must be sensitive to the available data, and the experimental conditions must be carefully modeled.
On the Distribution of the Sum of n Non-Identically Distributed Uniform Random Variables

The distribution of the sum of independent identically distributed uniform random variables is well-known. However, it is sometimes necessary to analyze data which have been drawn from different uniform distributions. By inverting the characteristic function, we derive explicit formulae for the distribution of the sum of n non-identically distributed uniform random variables in both the continuous and the discrete case. The results, though involved, have a certain elegance. As examples, we derive from our general formulae some special cases which have appeared in the literature.
Development of distributed ion pumps for g-2 beam vacuum system

Distributed ion pumps (DIPs) will be used for the beam vacuum system of the g-2 muon storage ring. The magnetic field intensity and alignment angle at the DIP locations are not uniform. The pumping behavior of several different ion pump elements under this non-uniform magnetic field has been studied. The results are compared with the theoretical predictions. Based on these results, the optimum design of the g-2-DIPs has been developed. >
Convergence in Distribution and in Probability

The notions of convergence in distribution and convergence in probability are introduced, discussed and illustrated with examples. Keywords: cumulative distribution function; characteristic function; central limit theorem; Chebysev's inequality
A hierarchical approach for solving large-scale traveling salesman problem

A hierarchical approach which combines an unsupervised learning algorithm and a recursive Hopfield neural network is proposed for solving the large-scale traveling salesman problem (TSP). For a TSP with given number of cities, an unsupervised learning algorithm was first used to find the clusters for decomposing the given problem and then a recursive version of the Hopfield network was applied to the centroids of the clusters. The proposed recursive Hopfield network was also applied to cities in each cluster in order to find an optimal path. A final tour was obtained by connecting together the resultant paths of each cluster. >
Semantically relevant image retrieval by combining image and linguistic analysis

In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to image-based information retrieval by combining image analysis with linguistic analysis of associated annotation information. While numerous Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems exist, most of them are constrained to use images as the only source of information. In contrast, recent research, especially in the area of web-search has also used techniques that rely purely on textual information associated with an image. The proposed research adopts a conceptually different philosophy. It utilizes the information at both the image and annotation level, if it detects a strong semantic coherence between them. Otherwise, depending on the quality of information available, either of the media is selected to execute the search. Semantic similarity is defined through the use of linguistic relationships in WordNet as well as through shape, texture, and color. Our investigations lead to results that are of significance in designing multimedia information retrieval systems. These include technical details on designing cross-media retrieval strategies as well as the conclusion that combining information modalities during retrieval not only leads to more semantically relevant performance but can also help capture highly complex issues such as the emergent semantics associated with images.
Office Rent Determinants During Market Decline and Recovery

This article empirically examines office rent determinants in distinct periods of a market cycle. The study uses a dataset of office properties located in a large metropolitan area and spanning a s...
A Modular System for FPGA-Based TCP Flow Processing in High-Speed Networks

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can be used in Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) to inspect application data contained within network flows. An IPS operating on high-speed network traffic can be used to stop the propagation of Internet worms and to protect networks from Denial of Services (DoS) attacks. When used in the backbone of a core network, the device will be exposed to millions of active flows simultaneously. In order to protect the data in each connection, network devices will need to track the state of every flow. This must be done at multi-gigabit line rates without introducing significant delays.
High Speed Switching and Rotational Dynamics in Small Magnetic Thin Film Devices

The intent of this chapter is to review high-frequency magnetic device measurements and modeling work at NIST which is being conducted to support the development of high-speed read sensors, magnetic random access memory, and magnetoelectronic applications (such as isolators and microwaves components). The chapter will concentrate on magnetoresistive devices, those devices whose resistance is a function of the magnetic state of the device, which can in turn be controlled by a magnetic field. The low-frequency characteristics of magnetoresistive devices will be reviewed. Simulated high-frequency device dynamics, using single-domain and micromagnetic models, will be discussed. Next, high-speed measurements of magnetization rotation and switching in micrometer-size devices will be presented. The effects of thermal fluctuations and disorder on device dynamics will be examined, and high-frequency magnetic noise data will be presented. Finally, the need to understand and control high-frequency magnetic damping will be discussed, and a method for engineering high-frequency magnetization damping using rare-earth doping will be presented.
Federal Crop and Crop Revenue Insurance Programs: Revenue Assurance

Decision Making Federal crop insurance against individual farm yield losses in the form of multiple peril contracts has been available for some crops since 1938. Following the 1980 Federal Crop Insurance Act, the number of crops and the geographic coverage of the federal crop yield loss insurance program was greatly expanded. Beginning in the late 1980s, in addition to traditional multiple peril contracts, new policies were developed based on yield losses at the county level and offered for a limited number of crops in a limited number of counties.
Inference of gene regulatory networks using S-system: a unified approach

With the increased availability of DNA microarray time-series data, it is possible to discover dynamic gene regulatory networks (GRNs). S-system is a promising model to capture the rich dynamics of GRNs. However, owing to the complexity of the inference problem and limited number of available data comparing to the number of unknown kinetic parameters, S-system can only be applied to a very small GRN with few parameters. This significantly limits its applications. A unified approach to infer GRNs using the S-system model is proposed. In order to discover the structure of large-scale GRNs, a simplified S-system model is proposed that enables fast parameter estimation to determine the major gene interactions. If a detailed S-system model is desirable for a subset of genes, a two-step method is proposed where the range of the parameters will be determined first using genetic programming and recursive least square estimation. Then the mean values of the parameters will be estimated using a multi-dimensional optimisation algorithm. Both the downhill simplex algorithm and modified Powell algorithm are tested for multi-dimensional optimisation. A 50-dimensional synthetic model with 51 parameters for each gene is tested for the applicability of the simplified S-system model. In addition, real measurement data pertaining to yeast protein synthesis are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed two-step method to identify the detailed interactions among genes in small GRNs.
What Happens to Mental Health Court Noncompleters

Mental health court (MHC) research consistently finds that defendants who successfully complete and graduate from the court are less likely to recidivate than those who do not. However, research has not assessed what happens to these noncompleters once they are sent back to traditional court. Using follow-up data on six years of noncompleters from pre-adjudication MHC, we examine what happens to these defendants in traditional court. Findings suggest that 63.7% of defendants' charges were dismissed, 21.0% received probation, and 15.3% were sentenced to incarceration. We examine the time to disposition and differences in defendant characteristics and disposition outcome as well as the relationship between disposition and subsequent recidivism. Results suggest that more severe punishments in traditional court are associated with recidivism. Logistic regression analysis shows that defendants whose charges were dismissed in traditional court were less likely to recidivate than those who were sentenced to probation or incarceration. Our findings highlight the need for future MHC evaluations to consider traditional court outcomes and support trends towards post-adjudication courts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
International Prices and Exchange Rates

Abstract We survey the recent empirical and theoretical developments in the literature on the relation between prices and exchange rates. After updating some of the major findings in the empirical literature, we present a simple framework to interpret this evidence. We review theoretical models that generate insensitivity of prices to exchange rate changes through variable markups, both under flexible prices and nominal rigidities, first in partial equilibrium and then in general equilibrium.