cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Unassisted Quitting and Smoking Cessation Methods Used in the United States: Analyses of 2010-2011 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey Data.

Introduction The study estimated the prevalence of unassisted quitting (ie, quitting without pharmacological aids or other interventions) among former smokers and identified the most common smoking cessation methods used by U.S. adult smokers who quit smoking between 2007 and 2011. Among long-term quitters, smoking-related behaviors and factors associated with using pharmacological methods and quitting unassisted were examined. Methods The analytic sample consisted solely of former smokers, including 3,583 "long-term quitters" (those who quit 1 to 3 years prior to the survey) and 2,205 "recent quitters" (those who quit within a year prior to the survey), who responded to the 2010-2011 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Results About 72% of former smokers quit unassisted, 26% used at least one pharmacological method, and 7% used at least one nonpharmacological method. The most common pharmacological methods were the nicotine patch (12%), Chantix/Varenicline (11%), and a nicotine gum/lozenge (8%). For long-term quitters, cutting back on cigarettes gradually and relying on social support were more commonly associated with pharmacological methods. Among long-term quitters, younger adults (18 to 44 years old), Non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, those who were less nicotine dependent prior to quitting and those who did not visit a doctor in the past 12 months before quitting had higher odds of reporting unassisted quitting than quitting with pharmacological methods. Conclusions Unassisted quitting remains the predominant means of recent and long-term smoking cessation in the United States. Attempters may try different ways of quitting during the same quit attempt. Implications Unassisted quitting remains a much more common method for recent and long-term smoking cessation than use of pharmacological or nonpharmacological methods. Smokers may try different ways of quitting during the same quit attempt. Thus, population-based studies that investigate the use of particular methods while ignoring other ways of quitting may overestimate the benefits of certain methods for smoking cessation.
Optical monitoring of either time misalignment or PMD accumulation in an 80-Gb/s Pol-MUX RZ-DPSK signal using degree-of-polarization measurements

We experimentally demonstrate chromatic dispersion insensitive monitoring of either time misalignment or PMD accumulation in an 80-Gb/s Pol-MUX RZ-DPSK signal using a polarimeter. The monitored DOP decreases 20% and 10.8% with 12.5-ps time misalignment at the transmitter and 12-ps in-line DGD, respectively.
The Relation Between Earnings Management and Non‐GAAP Reporting

Managers have a variety of tools at their disposal to influence stakeholder perceptions. Earnings management and the strategic reporting of non-GAAP earnings are just two of the available menu choices. We explore how real earnings management and accruals management influence the probability that a company will disclose a non-GAAP adjusted earnings metric in its earnings press release and the likelihood that it will do so aggressively. We first investigate situations where managers already meet analysts’ expectations either based on strong operating performance or after employing real and accruals management. We find that when solid operating performance alone allows firms to meet expectations, managers do not employ earnings management or non-GAAP reporting. However, when managers meet expectations using real and accruals management, they are significantly less likely to report a non-GAAP earnings metric. Next, we explore scenarios where companies fall short of expectations. We find that when they just miss expectations after managing GAAP earnings, they are significantly more likely to employ non-GAAP reporting, suggesting that the timing and relatively costless nature of non-GAAP reporting allows managers to appear to meet expectations on a non-GAAP basis when managed GAAP earnings fall short. Moreover, we find that companies are more likely to report non-GAAP earnings (and to do so aggressively) when they are unable to use real or accruals earnings management, are constrained by prior-period accruals management, and their operating performance is poor. Taken together, our results are consistent with a substitute relation between non-GAAP reporting and both real and accruals management. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Real-Time Distributed Coordination of Power Electronic Converters in a DC Shipboard Distribution System

This paper describes the implementation of a distributed coordinating control system for power electronic converters in a shipboard distribution system that ensures system optimization dynamically. Multiple agents take part in the process to determine optimal power sharing for the converters. A distributable optimization method suitable for real-time coordination of converters is developed for deployment in multi-agent system type frameworks. The presented optimal power-sharing method ensures minimum distribution losses and economic dispatch of sources while enforcing constraints such as source ramp rates and capacity limits.
Performance Analysis of Gesture Recognition Classifiers for Building a Human Robot Interface

In this paper we present a natural human computer interface based on gesture recognition. The principal aim is to study how different personalized gestures, defined by users, can be represented in terms of features and can be modelled by classification approaches in order to obtain the best performances in gesture recognition. Ten different gestures involving the movement of the left arm are performed by different users. Different classification methodologies (SVM, HMM, NN, and DTW) are compared and their performances and limitations are discussed. An ensemble of classifiers is proposed to produce more favorable results compared to those of a single classifier system. The problems concerning different lengths of gesture executions, variability in their representations, generalization ability of the classifiers have been analyzed and a valuable insight in possible recommendation is provided.
Two‐Phase Exhumation of the Santa Rosa Mountains: Low‐ and High‐Angle Normal Faulting During Initiation and Evolution of the Southern San Andreas Fault System

Low-angle detachment fault systems are important elements of oblique-divergent plate boundaries, yet the role detachment faulting plays in development of such boundaries is poorly understood. The west Salton detachment fault (WSDF) is a major low-angle normal fault that formed coeval with localization of the Pacific-North America plate boundary in the northern Salton Trough, CA. Apatite U-Th/He thermochronometry (AHe; n=29 samples) and thermal history modeling of samples from the Santa Rosa Mountains (SRM) reveal that initial exhumation along the WSDF began at ca. 8 Ma, exhuming footwall material from depths of >2 to 3 km. An uplifted fossil (Miocene) helium partial retention zone is present in the eastern SRM, while a deeper crustal section has been exhumed along the Pleistocene high-angle Santa Rosa fault (SFR) to much higher elevations in the southwest SRM. Detachment-related vertical exhumation rates in the SRM were ~0.15 – 0.36 km/Myr, with maximum fault slip rates of ~1.2 – 3.0 km/Myr. Miocene AHe isochrons across the SRM are consistent with northeast crustal tilting of the SRM block, and suggest the post-WSDF vertical exhumation rate along the SRF was ~1.3 km/Myr. The timing of extension initiation in the Salton Trough suggests that clockwise rotation of relative plate motions that began at 8 Ma is associated with initiation of the southern San Andreas system. Pleistocene regional tectonic reorganization was contemporaneous with an abrupt transition from low- to high-angle faulting, and indicates local fault geometry may at times exert a fundamental control on rock uplift rates along strike-slip-fault systems.
Why Do They Think This Is Okay? Critiquing Performance as a Means for Change

This is how it goes down. I’m giving an invited talk about how a living history museum in the Midwest is using performance to help redress the trauma of the enslavement of African American people in the United States by inviting visitors to participate in a simulation of the Underground Railroad.
de Boor-suitable (DS) T-splines

Abstract We investigate necessary and sufficient conditions under which the de Boor algorithm can be applied to evaluate points on a T-spline surface. We compare these de Boor-suitable (DS) T-splines to the standard analysis-suitable (AS) T-splines. We also develop an algorithm to search in a T-mesh for the appropriate control points and blend them using the de Boor algorithm to compute the corresponding point on the T-spline surface.
Transhumance as Antidote for Modern Sedentary Stock Raising

Abstract Few grazing themes so endure yet are so difficult for outsiders to document with certainty as historical and current-day livestock grazing routes: stock driveways. Excursions from one biome, ecotone, or landscape to another—in general, undertaken to seasonal cues — allow livestock owners and their hired herders to exploit different environments that offer notable advantages in terms of freeing livestock from unvarying diet, overtaxed grazing grounds, common diseases, and cycles of drought or drenching rain. Movement at whatever scale permits herders or shepherds an escape from monotony when they shift grazing grounds to montane-woodlands or back to lowland environments in travel that benefits both jaded humans and husbanded animals. Significant economic and ecological advantages accrue from the shifts of seasonal silvopastoralism, but the terrain, and in particular the routes animals travel, often stretch across varied land ownerships, and sifting out rights of passage is an ethnographic adventure requiring longstanding observation and consistent fieldwork. Formal scholarship about the road between is less established than literature of “the trail,” which is a staple feature of folklore, film, and fiction. As concern grows about the energy costs of using highways or railroads to move livestock, attention returns to traditional practices and legal accommodations that make possible trailing livestock under their own power. Across Europe are 4 million ha of land associated with livestock driveways, once widespread in the United States as an item of Spanish-Mexican heritage. This synthesis focuses on livestock driveway establishment in two landscapes: Spain and, secondarily, the western United States of America, with an overarching theme of how stock driveways can connect ecosystems and, by sustaining customary use, knit together silvopastoral society.
Alert Management Systems: A Quick Introduction

We describe a type of data mining system designed to screen events, build profiles associated with the events, and send alerts based upon the profiles and events. These types of systems are becoming known as alert management systems (AMS). We give some examples of alert management systems and give a quick introduction to their architecture and functionality.
Self-reported safety practices in child care facilities.

To determine the prevalence of safety hazards and current injury prevention practices in child care settings, we administered a structured telephone interview to a geographically stratified, randomly selected sample of licensed child care facilities. Representatives of 130 child care facilities responded to questions about current injury prevention practices. Specific hazards assessed were related to burns, falls, poisoning, playgrounds, and emergency telephone numbers. Results indicated that 26.8% of providers who knew the temperature of their tap water stated that it was over 130°F.; 14.1% had space heaters accessible to children; 30.3% of those with stairs accessible to children lacked safety gates; 61.4% of those with playgrounds did not have an impact-absorbing surface under playground equipment; 16.9% of respondents had an unexpired bottle of syrup of ipecac; 55.8% demonstrated that a poison control center telephone number was available to them; and 80% of providers could demonstrate the availability of the telephone number of the local ambulance. We conclude that potential and remedial injury hazards exist in some licensed child care centers and that providers of child care within licensed facilities are a promising target for childhood injury prevention interventions.
On a Spectral Approach to Simulation Run Length Control

This paper is concerned with the problems of generating confidence intervals for the steady state mean of an output sequence from a single run, discrete event simulation and using these confidence intervals to control the length of the simulation. It summarizes the results of two earlier papers, [5] and [6], and the reader is referred to those papers for a more detailed discussion.
The Asymmetry of Retrodictability and Predictability, the Compossibility of Explanation of the Past and Prediction of the Future, and Mechanism vs. Teleology

The temporally asymmetric character of the entropy statistics of branch systems has a number of important consequences which were not dealt with in Chapter Eight and to which we must now turn our attention. In particular, our conclusions regarding the entropy statistics of branch systems can now be used to elucidate (1) the conditions under which retrodiction of the past is feasible while prediction of the future is not,1 (2) the relation of psychological time to physical time, (3) the consequence which the feasibility of retrodictability without corresponding predictability has for the compossibility of explainability of the past and the corresponding predictability of the future, and (4) the merits of the controversy between philosophical mechanism and teleology.
Cyber Intrusion Prediction and Taxonomy System Using Deep Learning And Distributed Big Data Processing

The issue of cybersecurity is becoming more and more serious every day at all levels and in all domains. Cyber-attacks threaten the national security of every country and nation. Furthermore, cyber-attacks can significantly harm the economy. With the rapid and continuous growth of the cyber-universe, more software is being created, more data is being generated, and cybersecurity breaches and defense strategies are getting more complex. For such a problem, considering the size and complexity of the cyber-universe, big data mining techniques and advanced machine learning solutions will be most suitable to use for predicting brand-new attacks. This is because traditional machine learning methods would not help combat today’s cybersecurity issues. Anomaly-based intrusion detection systems are receiving tremendous attention nowadays. This is because of the vast improvement and development in big data solutions. This paper utilizes highly imbalanced real-life benchmark network traffic datasets of multiple types of attacks. After resolving the class imbalance issue in our datasets by applying oversampling approach, our study becomes twofold. First, we are building prediction models for each type of attacks separately and optimizing the model with the highest accuracy. Then, we build a prediction model for all attacks together using deep learning with the smallest number of features and we optimize the model to achieve the highest accuracy. Our developed model can accurately predict the threat and the type of attack.
The Structure and Characterization of 3,4,5-Triiodo-2-Methylthiophene: An Unexpected Iodination Product of 2-Methylthiophene

We report the structure and characterization of 3,4,5-triiodo-2-methylthiophene, obtained as an unexpected, unreported, and significant side product from the iodination of 2-methylthiophene using iodine and iodic acid. Identity of this unexpected product was confirmed by X-ray crystallography and 1H and 13C NMR. The compound crystallizes in the P21/c space group with unit cell parameters a = 16.4183(10) A, b = 4.1971(3) A, c = 14.3888(9) A, β = 111.4442(14), Z = 4, and Dcalc = 3.425 g cm−3. Analysis of residual electron density maps indicated the presence of crystallographic disorder between the 2-methyl and 5-iodo positions leading to a model of two distinct molecules of 3,4,5-triiodo-2-methylthiophene where the atoms of these two groups were exchanged. Non-covalent iodine–iodine and sulfur–iodine interactions are observed. Three products, two of which are constitutional isomers, are possible when installing multiple iodine atoms on 2-methylthiophene; X-ray structural analysis and spectral characterization show that the 4,5-diiodo isomer is not formed and that the 3,4,5-triiodo isomer is unexpectedly obtained. Halogen and chalcogen bonding are clearly observed.
Hyperprogression in PDL1 Expressive, Recurrent Gastroesophageal-junction Adenocarcinoma After Pembrolizumab

Hyperprogression is a pattern of accelerated tumor growth noted uncommonly after the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in some patients. We present a 56-year-old female with gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who was initially treated with neoadjuvant radiation and chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by esophagogastrectomy and postoperative FOLFOX chemotherapy. After a stable two-year course, she was noted to have recurrence at the GEJ which was biopsy confirmed. She was started on pembrolizumab, after which she developed several new metastases noted on the PET/CT. Lesions were noted in iliac bones, spine, retroperitoneal lymph nodes, hilar nodes, mediastinum, and lungs. Postdiscontinuation of the pembrolizumab, she received six cycles of paclitaxel with ramucirumab and showed remarkable improvement on the next imaging scan with resolution of osseous lesions, lung nodules and significant improvement in hilar, mediastinal, and retroperitoneal lymph nodes. We hope that this case report sheds further light on this uncommon complication of immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Smoother Adaptive Parametric Spectrograms: An Application to EEG Under General Anesthesia

High quality spectra are crucial in anesthesia related procedures where Electroencephalogram (EEG) frequency content can drastically help track different brain states. To this end, an adaptive autoregressive model framework to fit non-stationary EEG data using hybrid Kalman Filtering (HKF) is developed. In this setup, a state-space formulation is adopted. Hybridity arises from the fact that the state vector, which includes the autoregressive parameters, evolves in continuous time, while the observation equation is discrete, to account for the fact that the observations, i.e. EEG data, are discrete points in time. As a smoothing constraint, the parameters are modeled to follow a continuous multivariate random walk. As shown in this work, their adaptive estimation by means of HKF and expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm yields smoother estimation of frequency spectra, outperforming other current purely discrete parametric methods as well as various non-parametric approaches. Examples of dynamic EEG data were taken from patients under gradually varying doses of propofol. The suitability of our method for online use in combination with its ability to smoothly track frequency changes in human EEG signals suggests that it can be used for real time brain state tracking under general anesthesia, facilitating the design of closed loop systems for automatic and precise control of brain states.
Early experience with feasibility of balloon sinus dilation in complicated pediatric acute frontal rhinosinusitis.

Background/objective Complicated acute rhinosinusitis in the pediatric population is an uncommon problem that may affect the orbit or brain and is life-threatening. This condition requires surgical intervention with endoscopic sinus surgery for source control, and prior studies have demonstrated the safety of balloon sinuplasty in chronic frontal sinusitis. Methods/results We present our approach with a balloon sinus dilation hybrid procedure to resolve four distinct types of complicated acute frontal sinusitis in pediatric patients, including intracranial manifestations, intraorbital complications, and recurrent disease. All four patients were able to be managed operatively with frontal balloon sinuplasty. Conclusions Prior efficacy has been demonstrated for chronic frontal sinusitis in the pediatric population. We demonstrate that frontal balloon sinuplasty is also feasible in the proper clinical setting for acute frontal sinusitis, even in the presence of regional complications or recurrent disease. Level of evidence 4.
The Beta-Spectra of Pu 239 , Pu 240 , and Pu 241

The beta-spectrum of ${\mathrm{Pu}}^{241}$ measured in a double lens spectrometer on samples containing ${\mathrm{Pu}}^{239}$, ${\mathrm{Pu}}^{240}$, and ${\mathrm{Pu}}^{241}$, exhibits an allowed shape from ${E}_{0}=20.5$ kev to 14 kev, where instrumental effects distort it. Conversion lines found beyond the end point combined with gamma-scintillation counter measurements lead to the assignment of gammas of 39, 53, 100, 124, and 384 kev associated with the alpha-decay of ${\mathrm{Pu}}^{239}$, and a gamma of 49.6 kev accompanying the alpha-decay of ${\mathrm{Pu}}^{240}$; and the existence of 26.4- and 59-kev gammas in ${\mathrm{Am}}^{241}$ alpha-decay is confirmed. A conversion line corresponding to a highly converted 41-kev gamma in ${\mathrm{Am}}^{241}$ was found. Gammas of 100 and 145 kev probably associated with the alpha-branch in ${\mathrm{Pu}}^{241}$ were also found.The influence of the orbital electronic rearrangement energy on the beta-decay is discussed.
Effects of 5‐HT 2A receptor stimulation on economic demand for fentanyl after intermittent and continuous access self‐administration in male rats

The relative value of and motivation for abused drugs often increases with drug experience and differs based on drug availability. Here, we determined how different intake patterns of fentanyl, a μ-opioid agonist, alter economic demand for fentanyl and how 5-HT2A receptor stimulation affects economic demand for fentanyl. We used a within-session demand threshold procedure to characterize changes in economic demand for fentanyl before and after intermittent or continuous access schedules. We subsequently tested the acute effects of 5-HT2A receptor stimulation with psychedelic 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI) on economic demand for fentanyl. Extended fentanyl experience with both intermittent and continuous schedules increased fentanyl consumption at low cost (Q0 ), increased total fentanyl consumption, and decreased demand elasticity (α), indicating both schedules elevated motivation to self-administer fentanyl. Overall, the two schedules produced similar alterations in economic demand for fentanyl, although low-cost consumption (Q0 ) increased more in the continuous access group. Systemic injections of DOI (0.0-0.4 mg/kg, i.p.) dose-dependently produced economic demand changes in the opposite direction produced by fentanyl experience. DOI decreased motivation (increased "α"), decreased Q0 , and decreased total fentanyl consumption. The selective 5-HT2A antagonist, M100907 (0.3 mg/kg, i.p.), blocked the effects of DOI, indicating that DOI is acting through 5-HT2A receptors to alter economic demand for fentanyl. In an economic food demand experiment, DOI (0.4 mg/kg) also increased demand elasticity and reduced food consumption. These results demonstrate that both intermittent and continuous fentanyl experience raise the economic demand for fentanyl, and acute 5-HT2A receptor activation reduces economic demand for fentanyl and food.
A Rigorous Analysis on Quadrature Single-Ended Ring Oscillators

A comprehensive analysis on quadrature feedforward ring oscillators is presented. The propagation delay and oscillation frequency for one particular oscillator are simulated using 180nm CMOS technology. Conditions for oscillation are derived analytically based on circuit parameters and confirmed through simulations.
Patient and physician factors associated with Oncotype DX and adjuvant chemotherapy utilization for breast cancer patients in New Hampshire, 2010-2016

Oncotype DX® (ODX) is used to assess risk of disease recurrence in hormone receptor positive, HER2-negative breast cancer and to guide decisions regarding adjuvant chemotherapy. Little is known about how physician factors impact treatment decisions. The purpose of this study was to examine patient and physician factors associated with ODX testing and adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer patients in New Hampshire. We examined New Hampshire State Cancer Registry data on 5630 female breast cancer patients diagnosed from 2010 to 2016. We performed unadjusted and adjusted hierarchical logistic regression to identify factors associated with a patient’s receipt of ODX, being recommended and receiving chemotherapy, and refusing chemotherapy. We calculated intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) to examine the proportion of variance in clinical decisions explained by between-physician and between-hospital variation. Over the study period, 1512 breast cancer patients received ODX. After adjustment for patient and tumor characteristics, we found that patients seen by a male medical oncologist were less likely to be recommended chemotherapy following ODX (OR = 0.50 (95% CI = 0.34–0.74), p 29 years: OR = 4.48 (95% CI = 1.68–11.95), p < 0.01). A substantial amount of the variation in receiving chemotherapy was due to variation between physicians, particularly among low risk patients (ICC = 0.33). In addition to patient clinicopathologic characteristics, physician gender and clinical experience were associated with chemotherapy treatment following ODX testing. The significant variation between physicians indicates the potential for interventions to reduce variation in care.
Sleep to Remember, Sleep to Forget: Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Can Have Inverse Effects on Recall and Generalization of Fear Memories.

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep has been shown to modulate the consolidation of fear memories, a process that may contribute to the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, contradictory findings have been reported regarding the direction of this modulation and its differential effects on recall versus generalization. In two complementary experiments, we addressed this by employing sleep deprivation protocols together with a novel fear-conditioning paradigm that required the discrimination between coexisting threat and safety signals. Using skin conductance responses and functional imaging (fMRI), we found two opposing effects of REM sleep: While REM impaired recall of the original threat memories, it improved the ability to generalize these memories to novel situations that emphasized the discrimination between threat and safety signals. These results, as well as previous findings in healthy participants and patients diagnosed with PTSD, could be explained by the degree to which the balance between threat and safety signals for a given stimulus was predictive of threat. We suggest that this account can be integrated with contemporary theories of sleep and fear learning, such as the REM recalibration hypothesis.
Legislative scrutiny in the United States: dynamic, whole-stream revision

Legislative drafting in the United States Congress is a dynamic process with many actors working to revise both a bill’s policy and language. Rather than a central drafting office or government age...
Imaging developmental cell cycles.

Abstract The last decade has seen a major expansion in development of live biosensors, the tools needed to genetically encode them into model organisms, and the microscopic techniques used to visualize them. When combined, these offer us powerful tools with which to make fundamental discoveries about complex biological processes. In this review, we summarize the availability of biosensors to visualize an essential cellular process, the cell cycle, and the techniques for single-cell tracking and quantification of these reporters. We also highlight studies investigating the connection of cellular behavior to the cell cycle, particularly through live imaging, and anticipate exciting discoveries with the combination of these technologies in developmental contexts.
RNA sequence analysis reveals ITGAL/CD11A as a stromal regulator of murine low-grade glioma growth.

Background Emerging insights from numerous laboratories have revealed important roles for non-neoplastic cells in the development and progression of brain tumors. One of these non-neoplastic cellular constituents, glioma-associated microglia (GAM), represents a unique population of brain monocytes within the tumor microenvironment that have been reported to both promote and inhibit glioma proliferation. To elucidate the role of GAM in the setting of low-grade glioma (LGG), we leveraged RNA sequencing meta-analysis, genetically engineered mouse strains, and human biospecimens. Methods Publically available disease-associated microglia (DAM) RNA-seq datasets were used, followed by immunohistochemistry and RNAScope validation. CD11a-deficient mouse microglia were used for in vitro functional studies, while LGG growth in mice was assessed using anti-CD11a neutralizing antibody treatment of Nf1 optic glioma mice in vivo. Results We identified Itgal/CD11a enrichment in GAM relative to other DAM populations, which was confirmed in several independently generated murine models of Neurofibromatosis type 1 (Nf1) optic glioma. Moreover, ITGAL/CD11A expression was similarly increased in human LGG (pilocytic astrocytoma) specimens from several different datasets, specifically in microglia from these tumors. Using CD11a-knockout mice, CD11a expression was shown to be critical for murine microglia CX3CL1 receptor (Cx3cr1) expression and CX3CL1-directed motility, as well as glioma mitogen (Ccl5) production. Consistent with an instructive role for CD11a + microglia in stromal control of LGG growth, antibody-mediated CD11a inhibition reduced mouse Nf1 LGG growth in vivo. Conclusions Collectively, these findings establish ITGAL/CD11A as a critical microglia regulator of LGG biology relevant to future stroma-targeted brain tumor treatment strategies.
Developmental studies of mediated memory.

Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes five developmental studies of mediational and, especially, production deficiencies with respect to children's performance on memory tasks. Some generalizations about the nature and development of mediational activity and related topics have been proposed and recent studies dealing with the development of mnemonic-mediational skills in children have been reported and interpreted—for example, verbal rehearsal. There are many different types of mnemonic-mediational activities, even within a single system of symbolic representation such as the verbal one. Mnemonic mediation is best conceived as a planful, instrumental, cognitive act, akin to problem-solving behavior. The developmental course of acquisition of any given mnemonic mediator typically consists of an age-dependent increase in the likelihood of its spontaneous occurrence in appropriate recall situations, rather than an age-dependent increase in the likelihood that, given its occurrence, it will mediate recall effectively. Mediator production is not an all or nothing affair; however, developmental intermediaries (production inefficiencies) between nonproduction and efficient production are probably the rule rather than the exception.
Magic in the Middle Ages: History and Historiography

The aim of this essay is to offer an introductory overview of magic in pre-modern Europe and of the range of scholarly approaches to that historical phenomenon. The article moves from the historical to the historiographical, examining first a series of historical watersheds in the development of Western thought on what magic is and how it works, and second, a set of modern methodological trends in the study of magic. In the process, the article highlights several topics driving current research into medieval magic and points out directions for future scholarship.
HAST failure investigation on ultra-high density lines for 2.1D packages

Silicon interposers have a potential problem which is high cost. Therefore, a 2.1D package using organic material is proposed and the research becomes hot. In this paper, to check whether insulators have enough HAST reliability, biased HAST and unbiased HAST were performed using 40-micron thick insulators. The insulators meet our criteria from both insulation resistance between lines and series resistance points of view in Line/Space 2microns/2microns. Series resistance increase ratio of meander lines depends on the interruption due to putting off from HAST chamber. Therefore, it is preferable to measure the series resistance in-situ in HAST chamber. Based on the experimental results that the series resistance increase was found not only in biased HAST but also in unbiased HAST, a model was proposed. The model is that the series resistance increase is not simply in proportion to electric field strength but in proportion to sum of a fitting parameter and electric field strength. Based on the model, a material with filler may pass our criteria in Line/Space 1micron/1micron in 40-micron thick. Insulation resistance of Line/Space 1micron/1micron need to be evaluated as a future work due to no failure no failure in the experiments down to Line/Space 2microns/2microns during the biased HAST.
Phonons and Lambda Temperature in Liquid 4He As Obtained by the Lattice Model

Consider a face-centered lattice with lattice constants d and define a set of operators a i * and a i which create and annihilate Bose particles at the ith site of the lattice. Imposing the usual commutation rules plus a constraint against multiple occupation of the same site leads to a set of hard-core boson operators that can be mapped on a set of spin-½ operators.1
Four-thirds power law for knots and links

Physical knot theory has recently been applied to polymer dynamics, and specifically to gel electrophoresis of DNA1,2. Knot energies3,4,5,6 measure the complexity of a knot conformation; minimum energy conformations are considered canonical or ‘ideal’ conformations. The rope length of a knot is one such measure of energy6, and an approximately linear relationship between rope length and the average crossing number for minimum rope-length conformations of simple knots has been reported7. Here I show that a linear relationship cannot hold in general: the rope length required to tie an N-crossing knot or link varies at least between ˜N3/4 and ˜N.
Wavelet-based pavement image compression and noise reduction

For any automated distress inspection system, typically a huge number of pavement images are collected. Use of an appropriate image compression algorithm can save disk space, reduce the saving time, increase the inspection distance, and increase the processing speed. In this research, a modified EZW (Embedded Zero-tree Wavelet) coding method, which is an improved version of the widely used EZW coding method, is proposed. This method, unlike the two-pass approach used in the original EZW method, uses only one pass to encode both the coordinates and magnitudes of wavelet coefficients. An adaptive arithmetic encoding method is also implemented to encode four symbols assigned by the modified EZW into binary bits. By applying a thresholding technique to terminate the coding process, the modified EZW coding method can compress the image and reduce noise simultaneously. The new method is much simpler and faster. Experimental results also show that the compression ratio was increased one and one-half times compared to the EZW coding method. The compressed and de-noised data can be used to reconstruct wavelet coefficients for off-line pavement image processing such as distress classification and quantification.
An Experimental Investigation on the Static Equilibria and Dynamics of Liquid Bridges

A liquid bridge is a volume of liquid held between two or more solid supports. In the case of small disk supports with a sharp edge, the contact line between the bridge and the support disk will be anchored along the edge of the disk. For these cases the solid presents a geometrical singularity and the contact angle is indeterminate within a given range. This dissertation presents research conducted on liquid bridges with anchored contact lines. The three major topics covered are: determining the role of support geometry on static equilibria, liquid bridge dynamical behavior, and forces exerted by a liquid bridge on a support structure. The work was primarily experimental and conducted in a "Plateau tank" that allowed for the simulation of equivalent low-gravity conditions. The main thrust of the experimental work involved the use of a high resolution optical measurement system for imaging the dynamic zone shape, measurement of the static and dynamic contact angles and non-invasive analysis of excited surface modes. The liquid bridge was manipulated by computer controlled linear actuators which allowed precise control over the physical characteristics of the bridge. Experiments have been carried out to locate a bifurcation point along the maximum volume axisymmetric stability margin. Below the critical slenderness the bifurcation from an axisymmetric to a stable nonaxisymmetric configuration is supercritical. However, above this critical slenderness, the bifurcation is subcritical. A series of experiments analyzed the effect on axisymmetric bridge stability by using support disks of different radii, The shape behavior as transition points were approached, as well as the limiting case of a vanishing support radius was investigated. Experiments were performed to determine the resonant frequencies of axisymmetric bridges subject to lateral vibrations. Anomolous results led to a series of experiments to characterize nonlinearities present in the dynamic bridge shape. Finally, an attempt was made to experimentally measure the force exerted by the bridge on the lower support disk. This was done through use of a force balance apparatus. Particular attention was paid to the behavior of the bridge as the minimum volume stability limit was approached.
Making methane down deep

The global ocean is Earth's largest biome, which extends into the sediments and igneous crust below the oceans. The abundance of microbial life beneath the sea floor is at least comparable to that in the oceans ( 1 ), but this biome remains poorly understood. The ramifications of a massive buried biosphere are important on a global scale, with sub–sea-floor microbes playing a crucial role in carbon sequestration, element cycles, and Earth's evolution, and likely encompassing staggering metabolic and genetic diversity. On page 420 of this issue, Inagaki et al. ( 2 ) report that even at almost 2.5 km beneath the sea floor, microbial life is not only present and compositionally distinct from that in shallower sediments, but also producing methane.
Adaptive changes in hepatic glutathione metabolism in response to excess selenium in rats.

Experiments were conducted with rats to determine if administration of excess selenium (Se) alters hepatic glutathione (GSH) metabolism. Se was fed, 6 ppm as Na2SeO3, for 6 weeks in a 15% casein, tocopherol-free diet and compared to 0.1 ppm Se. High Se significantly increased the concentrations of hepatic nonprotein sulfhydryls (NPSH) and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) as well as the GSSG:NPSH ratio. Of the NPSH, 94.1 +/- 1.7% was shown to be GSH. Similar increases in NPSH, GSSG and GSSG:NPSH due to high Se were seen when the diet was supplemented with methionine (0.3%) and/or vitamin E (100 IU/kg diet) although methionine independently increased NPSH and GSSG. Hepatic glucose-6-P dehydrogenase, glutathione reductase and gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase activities were significantly increased by high Se but cysteine dioxygenase activity was unaffected. An i.p. injection of Na2SeO3 (15 mumol Se/kg body weight) significantly increased hepatic GSSG, which was followed by an increase in NPSH(GSH) compared to saline controls. These results indicate that excess Se causes a shift in hepatic GSH toward a more oxidized state. Increases in NPSH(GSH) and in the enzyme activities observed appeared to be adaptive changes initiated in an attempt to maintain a normal GSSG:GSH ratio. Elevated GSSG or the increased GSSG:GSH ratio caused by Se may initiate these adaptations.
Investigation of broadband on-body electromagnetic wave propagations

Electromagnetic wave propagations over human body surface are of great interests in recent years due to the emerging medical applications of wireless body area networks (WBANs). Extensive studies have been implemented to reveal on-body wave mechanisms and it was found that: a ground wave is the dominant mechanism for line-of-sight (LOS), near-skin propagation; and a creeping wave contributes most for non-line-of-sight (NLOS), around-torso propagation. The propagation characteristics (i.e., propagation and attenuation constants) of both waves have been extracted and show good agreements with theoretical model predictions.
Counterion influence on chemical shifts in strychnine salts

The highly toxic plant alkaloid strychnine is often isolated in the form of the anion salt of its protonated tertiary amine. Here we characterize the relative influence of different counterions on 1H and 13C chemical shifts in several strychnine salts in D2O, methanol-d4 (CD3OD) and chloroform-d (CDCl3) solvents. In organic solvents, but not in water, substantial variation in chemical shifts of protons near the tertiary amine was observed among different salts. These secondary shifts reveal differences in the way each anion influences electronic structure within the protonated amine. The distributions of secondary shifts allow salts to be easily distinguished from each other as well as from the free base form. The observed effects are much greater in organic solvents than in water. Slight concentration-dependence in chemical shifts of some protons near the amine was observed for two salts in CDCl3, but this effect is small compared to the influence of the counterion. Distinct chemical shifts in different salt forms of the same compound may be useful as chemical forensic signatures for source attribution and sample matching of alkaloids such as strychnine and possibly other organic acid and base salts.
Three-dimensional nonintrusive imaging of obscured objects by x-ray and gamma-ray computed tomography

Members of the Nondestructive Evaluation Section at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are implementing the advanced three-dimensional imaging technique of x- and gamma-ray computed tomography (CAT or CT) for industrial and scientific obscured object evaluation. This technique provides internal and external views of materials, components, and assemblies nonintrusively. Our work includes building of CT scanners as well as data preprocessing, image reconstruction, display and analysis algorithms. These capabilities have been applied to a variety of industrial and scientific NDE applications. We have used CT to study various objects with obscured features at our laboratory ranging in size from 1 mm3 to 1 m3. In these studies, CT has revealed flaws (e.g. cracks, voids, and inclusions), internal and external dimensional information, differences in elemental composition or material density, and other important material characteristics. CT has also been used to localize, identify, and quantify radioisotopes within canisters. As illustrative examples, we describe how CT was instrumental in the analysis of concrete specimens, diesel engine thermocouple plugs, jet engine turbine blades, ballistic target materials, and radioactive waste canisters.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Revocation of direct anonymous attestation

Direct Anonymous Attestation (DAA) is a special type of anonymous digital signatures, used by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) for the purpose of computer platform attestation whilst preserving platform anonymity. Like any other anonymous cryptographic primitives, how to efficiently revoke an existing member who is no longer legitimate, is an important and challenging subject for DAA. In this paper, we first explain two general DAA revocation approaches and a number of different DAA revocation degrees. We then present a variety of revocation mechanisms, which enable us to achieve these approaches and degrees in the existing three types of DAA schemes. Some of these mechanisms have already been shown in the literature and others are newly proposed in this paper.
The effect of TiO2 nanotubes on endothelial function and smooth muscle proliferation

In this study we investigate the effects of nanotubular titanium oxide (TiO(2)) surfaces on vascular cells. EC and VSMC response to nanotubes was investigated through immunofluorescence staining, scanning electron microscopy, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine proliferation assays, and prostaglandin I(2) (PGI(2)) enzyme immunoassays. We found that the nanotubular surface significantly enhances EC proliferation and secretion of PGI(2). The surface also results in a decrease in VSMC proliferation and increased expression of smooth muscle alpha-actin. These data suggest that engineered nanotopographical cues may influence both EC and VSMC behavior in a manner that may be useful for stent or other vascular applications.
Aurora inhibitor MLN8237 in combination with docetaxel enhances apoptosis and anti-tumor activity in mantle cell lymphoma

Auroras (A and B) are oncogenic serine/threonine kinases that play key roles in the mitotic phase of the eukaryotic cell cycle. Analysis of the leukemia lymphoma molecular profiling project (LLMPP) database indicates Aurora over-expression correlates with poor prognosis. A tissue microarray (TMA) composed of 20 paired mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) patients demonstrated >75% of patients had high levels Aurora expression. Aurora A and B were also found elevated in 13 aggressive B-NHL cell lines. MLN8237, an Aurora inhibitor induced G2/M arrest with polyploidy and abrogated Aurora A and histone-H3 phosphorylation. MLN8237 inhibited aggressive B-NHL cell proliferation at an IC(50) of 10-50 nM and induced apoptosis in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Low dose combinations of MLN8237+docetaxel enhanced apoptosis by ~3-4-fold in cell culture compared to single agents respectively. A mouse xenograft model of MCL demonstrated that MLN8237 (10 or 30 mg/kg) or docetaxel (10mg/kg) alone had modest anti-tumor activity. However, MLN8237 plus docetaxel demonstrated a statistically significant tumor growth inhibition and enhanced survival compared to single agent therapy. Together, our results suggest that MLN8237 plus docetaxel may represent a novel therapeutic strategy that could be evaluated in early phase trials in relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell NHL.
Fatal migration of vena caval filters

Inferior vena caval filters, which are used to prevent pulmonary thromboemboli, may migrate to the right ventricle of the heart. We describe two deaths after the migration of IVC filters. In neither was the filter incorrectly inserted or deployed. In each instance, a deep pelvic/leg vein thromboembolus was associated with the dislodged filter. When a thromboembolism becomes entrapped in the filter, the surface area increases and the previous low-resistance filter becomes obstructed or partially obstructed. The force of the blood flow on this entangled wire/clot may cause the filter/clot to embolize to the heart. Even though one may be tempted to certify the death as due to the failure of the filter, death likely would have occurred if the filter were not in place. If the deep venous thrombus is caused by a disease (not an injury or other medical complication), the manner of these deaths is best certified as natural.