cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Fuel Efficient Powered Descent Guidance for Mars Landing

Motivated by the requirement for pinpoint landing in future Mars missions, we consider the problem of minimum-fuel powered terminal descent to a prescribed landing site. The flrst-order necessary conditions are derived for the case of free initial and flnal thrust directions, clarifying the characteristics of the minimum-fuel solution. The most general thrust magnitude proflle has a max-min-max structure. When the initial and flnal thrust directions are specifled, the minimum-fuel solution is changed, relative to the free initial and flnal thrust direction case, only in initial and flnal boundary-layers where there are maximum rate thrust direction adjustments. Minimum-fuel solutions are obtained numerically to illustrate the optimal strategies from several starting conditions.
Playing god: the bible on the Broadway stage

In recent years, various theater scholars have examined religious performances made by and for believer audiences, revealing how theater supports theology and cultivates belief. Henry Bial’s Playin...
Funding Music Guidelines for Grant Writing in the Music Classroom

With music education’s continued unstable role within the school system, music educators are actively seeking external funding to support and augment their programs. However, there are many challenges involved with grant writing including understanding where to find potential funders, writing the proposal, developing a budget, and including an evaluation. This article outlines the basic guidelines for writing grants and pursuing funding to support music education initiatives with descriptions of granting agencies, composing the proposal, the submission and notification process, and suggestions for collaborating with classroom teachers and university faculty to pursue grants.
Intelligent Fault Diagnosis and Management System for Power Optical Cables

Many power transmission and distribution GIS systems have been built by local power companies as the basic data platform of power grid.Power optic cables,as the infrastructure facilities of power communication system,are commonly affiliated to primary towers and poles of power transmission lines.And their safe and stable operation is one of the important factors to guarantee the reliable power supply.This paper introduces an intelligent fault diagnosis platform of power optical cable based on power transmission and distribution GIS and referred to the building mode of "SG186" project.It describes the aims and the key technologies.The actual operation shows that system possesses the features of reasonable design,easy operation and practical functions.It improves the maintenance and management level of power communication network.
A Robust Parameterization of Human Gait Patterns Across Phase-Shifting Perturbations

The phase of human gait is difficult to quantify accurately in the presence of disturbances. In contrast, recent bipedal robots use time-independent controllers relying on a mechanical phase variable to synchronize joint patterns through the gait cycle. This concept has inspired studies to determine if human joint patterns can also be parameterized by a mechanical variable. Although many phase variable candidates have been proposed, it remains unclear which, if any, provide a robust representation of phase for human gait analysis or control. In this paper we analytically derive an ideal phase variable (the hip phase angle) that is provably monotonic and bounded throughout the gait cycle. To examine the robustness of this phase variable, ten able-bodied human subjects walked over a platform that randomly applied phase-shifting perturbations to the stance leg. A statistical analysis found the correlations between nominal and perturbed joint trajectories to be significantly greater when parameterized by the hip phase angle (0.95+) than by time or a different phase variable. The hip phase angle also best parameterized the transient errors about the nominal periodic orbit. Finally, interlimb phasing was best explained by local (ipsilateral) hip phase angles that are synchronized during the double-support period.
Food, Culinary Identity and Transnational Culture: Chinese Restaurant Business in Southern California

The article documents the changes in Chinese restaurant business in the periods of pre-1965 and post-1965, the rise of Monterey Park and San Gabriel Valley in Southern California as new Chinese food centers and their impact. In the diverse multicultural context, the article analyzes changing life style and cultural identity (including food habit) of a new generation of Chinese immigrants in their accommodation to the host mainstream society.
Optimizing Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Early-Stage Breast Cancer

Mortality in breast cancer has declined in the past decade, owing to advances in diagnosis, surgery, radiotherapy, and systemic treatments. Adjuvant chemotherapy has had a major effect on increasing survival in women with locoregional breast cancer. Like all treatments, adjuvant chemotherapy is a work in progress, and it has evolved from single oral agents to complex multidrug regimens. The choice of regimens is not without controversy, however, and several have been shown to be more effective than others, especially in patients who are at high risk for recurrence. The taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel (Taxotere) have been shown to be effective in the adjuvant setting, and they have also been shown to improve the outcomes in node-positive disease. Both disease-free and overall survival are greater with doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and cyclophosphamide given in a dose-dense, every-2-week schedule with growth factor support than with the same agents given in an every-3-week schedule. Disease-free and overall survival in patients with node-positive disease are greater with docetaxel, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and cyclophosphamide (TAC) than with fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FAC). Febrile neutropenia is common with the TAC regimen, but it can be minimized with growth factor support. Based on these findings, dose-dense therapy and TAC are the current adjuvant treatments of choice in patients with node-positive disease; other, less-intense regimens may be appropriate in patients with lower-risk disease. Ongoing trials are investigating the efficacy of commonly used regimens, new chemotherapeutic and biologic agents, and novel doses and schedules of currently available agents.
Predicting a Child's Trajectory of Lexical Acquisition.

How does a child’s vocabulary production change and expand over time? Past research has often focused on characterizing population statistics of vocabulary growth. In this work, we develop models that attempt to predict when a specific word will be learned by a particular child. The models are based on two qualitatively different sources of information: a representation describing the child (age, sex, and quantifiers of vocabulary skill) and a representation describing the specific words a child knows. Using longitudinal data from children aged 15-36 months collected at the University of Colorado, we constructed logistic regression models to predict each month whether a word would be learned in the coming month. Models based on either the child representation or the word representation outperform a baseline model that utilizes population acquisition norms. Although the childand word-representation models perform comparably, an ensemble that averages the predictions of the two separate models obtains significantly higher accuracy, indicating that the two sources of information are complementary. Through the exploration of such models, we gain an understanding of the factors that influence language learning, and this understanding should inform cognitive theories of development. On a practical level, these models support the development of interventions to boost language acquisition.
A Coumarin from Mallotus resinosus that Mediates DNA Cleavage

A crude extract prepared from roots of Mallotus resinosus exhibited significant Cu2+-dependent DNA strand scission activity and was thus selected for bioassay-guided fractionation. Scopoletin (1), a simple coumarin, was identified as the active principle responsible for DNA cleavage activity of the crude extract. The DNA strand scission activity of 1, as well as that of three structural analogues, is reported.
Social skills assessment and intervention for children and youth

AbstractChildren and youth with deficits in social competence present substantial challenges for schools, teachers, parents and peers. These challenges cut across disciplinary, instructional and interpersonal domains and they frequently create chaotic home, school and classroom environments. Schools are charged with teaching an increasingly diverse student population in terms of prevailing attitudes, beliefs, behavioural styles, and racial/ethnic and language backgrounds. This article reviews the evidence-based literature on social skills assessment and intervention strategies for children and youth. The article begins with a discussion of the conceptualisation of social competence in which is described how social skills can function as academic enablers and how problem behaviours can function as academic disablers. It then describes various methodological and conceptual issues in social skills interventions and details specific social skills assessment strategies. This discussion is followed by a descrip...
Chinese Teaching and Learning of Mathematics

Exam-driven rewards, educational resources and academic beliefs drive Chinese students’ high scores on international tests of mathematics but reduce their willingness to take risks, as shown in analyses of Chinese exams, curricula and classroom observations. As scoring high on Chinese government exams yields economic, social and political rewards for both students and their families, extensive family and school resources are allocated to improve student learning. Family members encourage their children to study hard and spend heavily on books and other educational resources. Chinese societies create challenging, national curricula with standardized textbooks and teacher training. Instruction is teacher-centered and focused on basic mathematics concepts and skills via refined lectures and repeated practice. Exposed to this instruction, Chinese students often understand abstract mathematics ideas, recognize routine problems, recall many suitable strategies and apply them successfully. However, this emphasis on mastery discourages Chinese students from taking risks and attempting non-routine problems.
eComment. Aneurysms of the pulmonary artery.

The present article is one of the largest reported series of surgically treated aneurysms of the pulmonary artery [1]. These aneurysms are often going undiagnosed due to the lack of specific symptomatology. In many cases, the first symptom is spontaneous rupture with sudden death. Thus, it is imperative to follow-up the patients with a known aneurysm of the pulmonary artery and surgically repair them once they reach a specific diameter, exactly as we do with aortic aneurysms. However, the general rule of 5.5 cm cutoff that applies to the ascending and arch aortic aneurysms cannot necessarily be applied to the pulmonary artery, due to its different wall thickness and layers. Thus, most authors recommend elective repair of the pulmonary artery aneurysm when it has reached around 6 cm in diameter or when symptoms develop [1,2], mostly due to compression on the left main coronary artery. Rapid growth would also warrant an operative approach. Finally, meticulous preoperative diagnosis and work-up is necessary, since many aneurysms of the pulmonary artery co-exist with congenital cardiac anomalies, most often stenosis of the pulmonic valve (below, above, or at the valve level). For that reason, intraoperative transoesophageal echocardiography is of utmost importance. The concomitant pathology needs to be addressed at the same operative setting in order to avoid future problems.
Hydroxyurea: a new old therapy for Langerhans cell histiocytosis

To the editor: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is caused by lesions arising from myeloid dendritic cells that present in a variety of organ systems ranging from single bone or skin lesions to diffuse multisystem disease.[1][1] Survival for patients with LCH limited to skin or bone is nearly
The effects of postoperative hematocrit on shunt occlusion for neonates undergoing single ventricle palliation

Abstract Objectives Our primary objective was to test the effects of first postoperative hematocrit on early shunt occlusion for children undergoing systemic to pulmonary artery shunt placement. Because any intervention to reduce shunt occlusion is only beneficial if it reduces mortality or is, at least, mortality neutral, we also tested the effects of first postoperative hematocrit on in-hospital mortality. Methods We conducted a retrospective study on all neonates who underwent primary systemic to pulmonary artery shunt placement, with or without a Norwood/Damus–Kaye–Stansel procedure, at Columbia University Medical Center between January 2010 and July 2015. Univariable regression was used to test the effects of first postoperative hematocrit on early shunt occlusion and 30-day mortality, clustering standard errors by surgeon. In secondary analyses, we also tested associations between red blood cell transfusion volumes in the first 24 postoperative hours and first postoperative hematocrit, shunt occlusion, and mortality. Results Eighty infants met inclusion criteria. Median initial postoperative hematocrit was 41.7% (interquartile range, 37.9-46.0). Six infants (7.5%) died. Four infants (5.0%) died within the first 30 days. Five infants (6.3%) experienced early shunt occlusion. No children with early shunt occlusion died. In univariable models, for every 5 additional percentage points of hematocrit, an infant's odds of early shunt occlusion more than doubled (odds ratio, 2.70; P = .009). The odds of all-cause 30-day mortality remained unchanged. Conclusions Higher postoperative hematocrit levels are associated with early shunt occlusions in infants undergoing primary systemic to pulmonary artery shunt placement. Multicenter investigations are warranted to validate these findings and to determine ideal postoperative hematocrit targets for this population.
Early-life exposure to air pollution and greater use of academic support services in childhood: a population-based cohort study of urban children

There is a growing literature showing associations between prenatal and early-life exposure to air pollution and children’s neurodevelopment. However, it is unclear if decrements in neurodevelopment observed in epidemiologic research translate into observable functional outcomes in the broader pediatric population. The objective of this study was to examine the association between early-life exposures to common urban air toxics and the use of academic support services, such as early intervention and special education within a population-based cohort of urban children. Data for 201,559 children born between 1994 and 1998 in New York City were obtained through administrative data linkages between birth, early intervention and educational records. Use of academic support services was ascertained from birth through attendance in 3rd grade. Census tract at birth was used to assign estimates of annual average ambient concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX) using the 1996 National Air Toxics Assessment. Discrete-time hazard models were fit to the data and adjusted for confounders including maternal, childhood and neighborhood factors. Children with higher exposures to BTEX compounds were more likely to receive academic support services later in childhood. For example, the adjusted hazard ratio comparing children exposed to the highest decile of benzene to those with lower exposure was 1.09 (95% confidence interval 1.05, 1.13). Results were consistent across individual BTEX compounds, for exposure metrics which summarized exposure to all four BTEX pollutants and for multiple sensitivity analyses. These findings suggest urban air pollution may affect children’s neurodevelopment and educational trajectories. They also demonstrate the use of public health data systems to advance children’s environmental health research.
Circulating the Black Rapist: Sketches of the Life of Joseph Mountain and Early American Networks of Print

Abstract This article examines texts produced in response to the criminal trial of Joseph Mountain to illuminate the early construction of the black rapist in American print. The central text in its analysis is Mountain's own “criminal confession,” Sketches of the Life of Joseph Mountain (1790). This article views Mountain's text as a response to a different set of concerns than later narratives of African Americans convicted of rape and positions Mountain's biography as a response not merely to concerns over black slave revolt alone, but to a related, if more immediate threat of cross-racial, proletarian revolution.
Digital Systems and the Experience of Legacy

As people generate large quantities of heterogeneous data across their lifetimes, there is an opportunity to consider how we might build digital systems that leverage this information to help people communicate aspects of their life for which they would like to be remembered without the need to directly assign or pass on this information to another person. We present a study that leverages existing research and the use of an online design probe to explore how people think about how they'll be remembered, and how digital systems and information might help shape how people look back on and interpret people's lives after they've passed away. Findings from this work articulate specific challenges and opportunities for building systems to support people's ability to engage with experiences and memories through their digital materials.
Creep of single crystals and polycrystals of aluminum, lead, and tin

The activation energies for high temperature creep of single crystals and polycrystalline specimens of high purity aluminum, lead, and tin were determined by the technique involving the effect of abrupt changes in temperature on the creep rates. The data reveal that single crystals and polycrystalline specimens have the same high temperature activation energies. Furthermore, the activation energies for grain boundary shearing in aluminum and tin are equal to the respective activation energies for creep.
Polyethylene particles inserted over calvarium induce cancellous bone loss in femur in female mice.

Abstract Focal bone resorption (osteolysis) induced by wear particles contributes to long-term orthopedic joint failure. However, the impact of focal osteolysis on remote skeletal sites has received less attention. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of polyethylene particles placed over calvaria on representative axial and appendicular skeletal sites in female mice. Because recent work has identified housing temperature as an important biological variable in mice, response to particle treatment was measured in animals housed at room (22 °C) and thermoneutral (32 °C) temperature. Osteolysis was evident in skeletal tissue adjacent to particle insertion. In addition, cancellous bone loss was observed in distal femur metaphysis. The bone loss was associated with lower osteoblast-lined perimeter and lower mineralizing perimeter in distal femur, lower osteocalcin gene expression in tibia, and lower serum osteocalcin, suggesting the response was due, at least in part, to reduced bone formation. Mild cold stress induced by sub-thermoneutral housing resulted in cancellous bone loss in distal femur and lumbar vertebra but did not influence skeletal response to particles. In summary, the results indicate that focal inflammation induced by polyethylene particles has the potential to result in systemic bone loss. This is significant because bone loss is a risk factor for fracture.
Guidewires and Angled Catheters

In addition to the technological advances in fiberoptic telescopes, the evolution of ancillary equipment for ureteroscopy has been crucial to the development of endoscopy as a subspecialty within Urology. Angled catheters and guidewires are two essential tools that have enabled Endourologists to perform advanced maneuvers, thus broadening the diagnostic and therapeutic indications for ureteroscopy.
The Discrete Time Matrix Model

The discrete time recurrence model and the continuous time model which were discussed in Chapters Three and Four focused on the births that occurred at a particular time and their relationship to the births that occurred prior to this time. In each case the age distribution of the population was discussed almost as an adjunct to the model and not as an integral part of it. Perhaps this was unfortunate since it was the asymptotic age distribution of the model that gave meaning to the concept of a ‘stable’ population.
Picosecond Spectroscopy of Transient Absorption in Pure KCl

We present a brief review of various metastable and stable absorbing species generated during electron-hole recombination in alkali halides, emphasizing transient components which are the dominant features on the time scale of short laser pulses. The F-band in KC1 falls in this category, since it is produced with high efficiency (∼ 15% of e-h recombinations) but decays to 10% of its initial value (τ ≲ 20 μsec) even at liquid helium temperature. We report experiments in which a single 20 psec pulse of 2660 A light produces dense coloration in a pure KC1 crystal at flux levels too low to cause damage from other processes such as avalanche breakdown. We have used delayed pulses of 5320 A light to monitor the rise of the absorption on a picosecond time scale, as well as its decay (at room temperature) on a nanosecond time scale.
Distributed matroid-constrained submodular maximization for multi-robot exploration: theory and practice

This work addresses the problem of efficient online exploration and mapping using multi-robot teams via a new distributed algorithm for multi-robot exploration, distributed sequential greedy assignment (DSGA), which is based on sequential greedy assignment (SGA). While SGA permits bounds on suboptimality, robots must execute planning steps sequentially. Rather than plan for each robot sequentially as in SGA, DSGA assigns plans to subsets of robots using a fixed number of sequential planning rounds. DSGA retains the same suboptimality bounds as SGA with the addition of a term that describes the additional suboptimality incurred when assigning multiple plans at once. We use this result to extend a single-robot planner based on Monte-Carlo tree search to the multi-robot domain and evaluate the resulting planner in simulated exploration of a confined and cluttered environment. The experimental results show that for teams of 4–32 robots suboptimality due to redundant sensor information introduced in the distributed planning rounds remains small in practice given only two or three distributed planning rounds while providing a 2–8 times speedup over SGA. We also incorporate aerial robots with inter-robot collision constraints and non-trivial dynamics and address subsequent impacts on safety and optimality. Real-time simulation and experimental results for teams of quadrotors demonstrate online planning for multi-robot exploration and indicate that collision constraints have limited impacts on exploration performance.
Emotional distress and tobacco demand during the menstrual cycle in female smokers

Fluctuations in ovarian hormones over the menstrual cycle contribute to cigarette reward, however less is known about menstrual cycle influences on emotional distress in female smokers. We examined...
Optoelectronic Reservoir Computing with VCSEL

A new architecture based on multi-mode optical interconnect technology is proposed and described for the realization of a compact time delay opto-electronic reservoir computer. VCSEL and photodiode chip arrays are flip-chip mounted on a polymer waveguide structure containing micro-mirrors. A node is made of a photodiode and a laser connected back-to-back, with an amplified signal. The specifications for this amplifier are investigated and it is found that the cutoff frequency can be lower than the incoming sample rate for signal recovery and chaotic time series prediction tasks. An optical waveguide delay line sample is also presented and characterized experimentally. Results are promising for the realization of a compact platform for reservoir computers that could easily be scaled up to several physical nodes.
Feasibility of using social media to monitor outdoor air pollution in London, England.

Abstract Air pollution is a serious public health concern. Innovative and scalable methods for detecting harmful air pollutants such as PM2.5 are necessary. This study assessed the feasibility of using social media to monitor outdoor air pollution in an urban area by comparing data from Twitter and validating it against established air monitoring stations. Data were collected from London, England from July 29, 2016 to March 17, 2017. Daily mean PM2.5 data was downloaded from the LondonAir platform consisting of 26 air pollution monitoring sites throughout Greater London. Publicly available tweets geo-located to Greater London containing air pollution terms were captured from the Twitter platform. Tweets with media URL links were excluded to minimize influence of news stories. Sentiment of the tweets was examined as negative, positive, or neutral. Cross-correlation analyses were used to compare the relationship between trends of tweets about air pollution and levels of PM2.5 over time. There were 16,448 tweets without a media URL link, with a mean of 498.42 (SD = 491.08) tweets per week. A significant cross-correlation coefficient of 0.803 was observed between PM2.5 data and the non-media air pollution tweets (p
Thai military power: A culture of strategic accommodation

Strategic culture is one of the most interesting, and potentially powerful, analytical concepts to emerge from within the Strategic Studies field. The notion that national and institutional culture...
Transient behavior at planar microelectrodes

Abstract We have previously formulated an integral equation method for the calculation of current in response to a potential step at a microelectrode and have applied it to obtain the diffusion-limited current at a band electrode. For systematic application to other electrode boundary conditions and cell geometries, generic programs for solution of relevant integral equations and inversion of resulting Laplace transforms have been developed. In this paper, we report on initial uses of these new programs for the band electrode case, including calculation of diffusion-limited current over a range 40 times greater than our earlier report and comparison with experiment.
Uniting the living through the dead: how voluntary associations made death a selective benefit

Voluntary membership associations played a pivotal role in the development of American society after the Civil War. These associations were active in the practices of death, but the extant literature has yet to provide a framework for understanding death as a selective benefit of membership, especially for politically oriented associations. This study adds to scholars’ understandings by providing a tripartite classification of death as a selective benefit: the ritual of death (funerals), the presentation of death (cemeteries, headstones, and grave markers), and the memorialization of death (memorial days). Through these actions, associations of this era were able to use death to motivate existing membership, uniting them to a greater purpose, demonstrating to members that their associational lives would not perish upon their passing. In this way, associations used death to build social and political capital among the living.
CHAPTER 4 – GENERALIZATION

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an incomplete exploration of the possibilities for the development of decision table programming through generalizing the features because neither the diversity nor the extent of that development is limited. An evaluation of features is involved: some are rejected as counterproductive to improvement, and others adjudged unproductive. It is not possible to separate the processes of generalization and innovation. In the form of transplants of familiar concepts into different settings, innovation enters as inspiration to generalization and as exemplification of it. Many of the improvements can be used in alternative forms and ways or may be considered for optional inclusion in decision table programming systems. Judgments on the appropriate forms of features or the desirability of their inclusion can be made during design, in the light of goals, constraints, and other features selected.
RFLP of the X chromosome-linked glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase locus in blacks.

The X chromosome-linked glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) A(+) variant is found in approximately 20% of blacks. Examination of the structure of the G6PD A(+) gene revealed that AT----GC transition occurred in the variant gene, resulting in the amino acid substitution Asn----Asp at the one hundred forty-second position from the NH2-terminal of the enzyme (Takizawa and Yoshida 1987). The nucleotide change created an additional FokI cleavage site in the variant A(+) gene; thus, the FokI fragment type of the variant A(+) DNA differs from that of the normal B(+) DNA. PvuII fragment type is also found to be polymorphic in blacks, but not in Caucasians. The majority of blacks, as well all nonblacks, have a major hybridization-positive fragment of approximately 4.0 kbp (PvuII type 1), while approximately 20% of blacks have a major fragment of approximately 1.5 kbp (PvuII type 2). The G6PD gene with PvuII type 2 contains an additional PvuII cleavage site approximately 0.7 kbp downstream from the mutation site of the G6PD A(+). Approximately 40% of the G6PD A(+) genes have PvuII type 2, while only approximately 10% of the G6PD B(+) genes are associated with PvuII type 2. The data indicate a statistically significant (X2 = 6.85, P less than .020) linkage disequilibrium between the G6PD types and the PvuII types at the G6PD locus.
Invocación y evocación: fantasmas de la violencia en Sumando ausencias de Doris Salcedo

This article examines the art installation Adding Absences (2016) by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo as a space of ghostly memory. I understand the performance as a space where the absence of those who were killed during the Colombian conflict is used to conjure ghosts that are present as memory and that resist oblivion. For the analysis of this art installation, I use Derridian hauntology (and its theoretical derivatives) as a framework for analysis, and I resort to cultural and artistic studies of Salcedo's work, all in relation to the conflict, the post-accord and the possible post-conflict.
A Modular Assessment for Cache Memories

We construct and evaluate a modular assessment for students' knowledge about CPU cache memories. Caches play a key role in improving performance in modern computing. They are difficult for students to learn, but we have little conceptual or empirical evidence about why. Building on prior frameworks, we propose six underlying knowledge components that we believe students need to robustly evaluate how a cache can affect the performance of code on a processor. We constructed a modular assessment using these components that can be used as a diagnostic instrument to find the concepts students are struggling to understand. Because different institutions teach caches at varying depths of detail, individual modules of the assessment can be used by instructors and researchers as appropriate for their context. We evaluated the assessment using a combination of Classical Test Theory, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Our results suggest that the assessment is reliable and can be used modularly to assess various components of students' knowledge about caches, though future work needs to be done to evaluate the validity of these modules at different institutions. This assessment can help instructors and researchers design more precisely targeted instructional interventions to help students learn caches. The creation of similar modular assessments may help us in improving instruction in other difficult topics in computing.
High Vacuum Technology

Publisher Summary High vacuum is a term generally referred to pressures below 0.1 mm. of mercury. A criterion for determining whether high vacuum conditions exist is that the mean free path of gases in a system must be of the same order of magnitude as the dimensions of the system, or larger. The requirement for high vacuum often stems from the need for chemically inert surroundings necessary for handling reactive metals at high temperatures. The inert gas is usually introduced to the heat-treating equipment following the reduction of air pressure to the high vacuum range. High vacuum technology has already made the transition from research laboratories to properly engineered installations. The beneficial influences of high vacuum are entirely analogous to those obtained in the use of high pressure for certain processes. The influence of high vacuum on diffusional unit operations, such as distillation, drying, impregnation, evaporation and desorption, is to reduce the partial pressure of the inert component, usually air, and thereby increase the rate of mass transfer of the diffusing fluids. This chapter discusses relation between high vacuum technology and chemical engineering by focusing on miss balance, heat transfer, fluid flow, reaction equilibrium, and mass transfer. Theory and applications of vacuum pumps and gages are also illustrated.
N-terminal amino acid sequences of ω-gliadins and ω-secalins: Implications for the evolution of prolamin genes

Abstract Two new types of N-terminal amino acid sequence have been found for ω-gliadins from tetraploid and hexaploid wheats. A third type of sequence, which we have recently reported for an ω-gliadin from diploid wheat and for the ‘C’ hordeins of barley, has now been found for a group of components from rye (ω-secalins) and for ω-gliadins of tetraploid and hexaploid wheats. The sequences provide evidence that all these ω-type prolamins are related and derived in part from gene duplications, followed by divergence of the duplicated genes by point mutations and by insertion and deletion of portions of the gene DNA. Five-residue amino acid sequences that include mainly glutamine and proline occur a number of times in the N-terminal sequences of ω-type prolamins and may indicate that the genes for these prolamins have been formed through repeated duplication of short DNA sequences in which the codons for glutamine and proline predominated. The prolamins of wheat and related species seem to be unique to the grass family of flowering plants, which appeared late in the evolutionary process. The genes coding for these proteins may be the most recently evolved family of genes.
Aggregation of expert opinions

Summarizes research which is relevant to the basic question of how people aggregate a variety of expert opinions to generate their own judgment and make decisions. An introductory section discusses terminology and some general points in this line of research. A series of general questions are used to frame the larger literature. The first question concerns who is doing the aggregation: a normative model, an individual decision-maker or a group. The second question concerns the form of the information and the response that the decision-maker generates: binary, probabilities or a quantity estimate. The third question concerns the nature of the events that are relevant to aggregation: is the underlying uncertainty aleatory or epistemic, and is the task intellective or judgmental? The fourth question looks at characteristics of the information pattern and information sources, and includes characteristics of the experts and issues of redundancy in information. The fifth and final question reviews the combination rule being utilized. In the final section, we summarize some preliminary results from a new study by Budescu and Rantilla (1998), focusing on the determinants of confidence in aggregated expert opinions. These results are used as an illustration of the usefulness of our proposed general framework.
Case-based learning mechanisms to deliver learning materials

In this paper, we discuss an integrated framework of case-based learning (CBL) in an agent that intelligently delivers learning materials to students. The agent customizes its delivery strategy for each student based on the student's background profile and his or her interactions with the graphic user interface (GUI) to our system, and based on the usage history of the learning materials. The agent's decision-making process is powered by case-based reasoning (CBR). To improve its reasoning process, our agent learns the differences between good cases (cases with a good solution for its problem space) and bad cases (cases with a bad solution for its problem space). It also meta-learns adaptation heuristics, the significance of input features of the cases, and the weights of a content graph for symbolic feature values. We have also built a simulation to comprehensively test the learning behavior of our agent.
Improving resource allocation strategy against human adversaries in security games

Recent real-world deployments of Stackelberg security games make it critical that we address human adversaries' bounded rationality in computing optimal strategies. To that end, this paper provides three key contributions: (i) new efficient algorithms for computing optimal strategic solutions using Prospect Theory and Quantal Response Equilibrium; (ii) the most comprehensive experiment to date studying the effectiveness of different models against human subjects for security games; and (iii) new techniques for generating representative payoff structures for behavioral experiments in generic classes of games. Our results with human subjects show that our new techniques outperform the leading contender for modeling human behavior in security games.
Analysis of the OECD/NRC BWR Turbine Trip Transient Benchmark with the Coupled Thermal-Hydraulics and Neutronics Code TRAC-M/PARCS

An analysis of the Peach Bottom Unit 2 Turbine Trip 2 (TT2) experiment has been performed using the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission coupled thermal-hydraulics and neutronics code TRAC-M/PARCS. The objective of the analysis was to assess the performance of TRAC-M/PARCS on a BWR transient with significance in two-phase flow and spatial variations of the neutron flux. TRAC-M/PARCS results are found to be in good agreement with measured plant data for both steady-state and transient phases of the benchmark. Additional analyses of four fictitious extreme scenarios are performed to provide a basis for code-to-code comparisons and comprehensive testing of the thermal-hydraulics/neutronics coupling. The obtained results of sensitivity studies on the effect of direct moderator heating on transient simulation indicate the importance of this modeling aspect.
Evaluation of personal digital assistant software for drug interactions.

PURPOSE: The accuracy, comprehensiveness, and ease of use of drug interaction software used with personal digital assistants (PDAs) were studied. METHODS: Each program was assessed for accuracy using 40 clinically important and 40 clinically unimportant drug interaction pairs. Accuracy was scored through the summation of software sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. The comprehensiveness of each program was determined by the number of components in the drug interaction monograph. Time needed to identify the management of five important drug interactions defined each program's ease of use. The aggregate scores for accuracy, comprehensiveness, and ease of use were calculated. RESULTS: Scoring 777 and 756 out of a possible 800 points, iFacts and Lexi-lnteract, respectively, provided the most competent, complete, use-friendly compendia for assessment of drug interactions. Mosby's Drug Consult and Mobile Micromedex ranked third and fourth, scoring 688 and 655 points, respectively, while ePocrates Rx v. 6.0 rated seventh, with a score of 559. All drug interaction resources suffer from limitations in the quality or relevance of evidence for the interaction, an absence of identifiable patient and medication risk factors, and a lack of standardization in assigning significance to the interaction. Consequently, clinicians must interpret the importance of the interaction based on all available evidence. Discussion of such evidence was available for only iFacts and Lexi-Interact. CONCLUSION: Both iFacts and Lexi-Interact excelled as PDA pharmacopoeia for assessing drug interactions. However, clinicians should understand the limitations of all current drug interaction resources and exercise vigilance in prevention and recognition of interactions relevant to their patients.
Laser desorption of energetic sodium ions from single-crystal NaNO3 at 1064 nm:

We report electron and Na+ ion emission from single-crystal sodium nitrate (∼10 eV band gap) upon exposure to IR (1064 nm, 1.16 eV) laser radiation. The fluence dependence of both the ion and the electron yield is highly nonlinear, and the kinetic energies of the emitted ions can reach values up to 5 eV. The fluence dependence and the ion energy distributions can be understood by a previously presented model involving multiple photon charge transfer plus electrostatic ejection of adions siting atop electron traps. Further evidence for the role of defects in the observed ion emission are provided by two-beam experiments; one beam (UV laser) is used to generate defects and the second beam (IR laser) is used to photodesorb the ions. Such experiments demonstrate that exposure of the sodium nitrate surfaces to UV laser radiation significantly increases the ion emission due to IR laser radiation.
A DC-coupled negative inductance circuit with integrated bias

Negative inductance circuits offer the potential for increased bandwidth in a variety of applications such as artificial magnetic conductors and metamaterials with negative permeability. To address such applications, a CMOS dc-coupled negative inductance circuit with integrated presented. The dc-coupled input is tailored voltages and accommodate applications having an inductive load in series with a low resistance. An integrated bias circuit is used to allow operation with a single power supply and to eliminate the need for a separate input bias. In addition, the parasitic capacitance of the CMOS transistors in the basic negative impedance inverter is used to set the negative inductance of the overall circuit. Results are presented that show a negative inductance of -11 0 nH in a 0.5 micron CMOS process.
Cord immunoglobulins in a middle class Caucasian population

The frequency of elevated cord IgM levels (≥20 mg. per cent) in a predominantly middle class Caucasian group of patients was very low (0.8 per cent). This suggests a low incidence of congenital infections and other causes for increased cord IgM in this type of population. Only one case of definite congenital infection was recognized and this was a child with rubella. The possibility of suppressed IgG response in this case was suggested. A correlation between low birth weight and low cord IgM was found in this study. The lower rates of increased IgM in middle and upper socioeconomic groups suggest that factors which cause fetal and neonatal damage are present less frequently in these populations.
Tchebycheff-derivative approximations to photoabsorption cross sections in atoms and ions

Abstract Spectral moments and Tchebycheff's inequalities are employed in the construction of continuous, convergent approximations to photoabsorption and ionization cross sections in atoms and ions.
A TEST OF TWO POSSIBLE MECHANISMS FOR PHOTOTACTIC STEERING IN VOLVOX CARTERI (CHLOROPHYCEAE)

We tested two competing models that could explain how differential flagellar activity leads to phototactic turning in spheroids of Volvox carteri f. weismannia (Powers) Iyengar. In one model, turning results from the flagella of anterior cells in the lighted and shadowed hemispheres beating at different frequencies. In a competing model, turning results from a change in beat direction in these flagella. Both models successfully explain phototactic steering under constant illumination, but they make different predictions when colonies are exposed to abrupt changes in light intensity. If turning is due to control of flagellar beat frequency, both progression and rotation rates will change in the same direction and with similar magnitudes. If spheroid turning is due to a change in flagellar beat direction, a decreased rate of progression will accompany an increased rate of rotation and vice versa. We used video-microscopy to observe the behavior of positively phototactic V. carteri spheroids exposed to 10× step-up and step-down stimuli. After a step-up stimulus, spheroids slow their progression and rotation by equal amounts. No significant changes are reported in these parameters after the reciprocal step-down response. These observations are consistent with the variable flagellar frequency model and inconsistent with the variable flagellar direction model for phototactic turning. Switching the direction of light stimulus by 180° results in reorientation of positively phototactic spheroids. The kinetics of this reorientation did not precisely match the predictions of either model.
CARDIAC PERFORMANCE DURING UPRIGHT EXERCISE BEFORE AND AFTER REPAIR OF COARCTATION

Coarctation patients are reported to have enhanced cardiac performance in the remote post-operative period. We examined data from coarctation patients (N=22) studied both before (mean 1.7 mo.) and after (mean 32 mo.) repair to evaluate cardiac performance. Controls were 10 longitudinally studied normal children matched for mean age, wt., ht., and BSA at time of first (COA-1 vs CTR-1) and second study (COA-2 vs CTR-2). Heart rate, blood pressure, and carotid pulse pre-ejection pre-ejection period to LV ejection time ratio (P/L) were measured. Cardiac output (CO) in L/min was determined by acetylene rebreathing in 8 COA and 6 CTR pts, with calculation of stroke volume (SV) in cc. Data was obtained at maximal exercise on an upright bicycle ergometer: At rest COA-1 also had significantly higher SBP, DBP and P/L. HR and CO did not differ at rest in COA-1 vs CTR-1, and no parameter differed at rest in COA-2 vs CTR-2. We conclude that patients studied both before and after repair of coarctation demonstrated a normalization of blood pressure and ventricular function (P/L). Cardiac performance was not elevated in either pre- or post-operative state.
Proximal Row Carpectomy

Proximal row carpectomy is extremely useful as a wrist reconstructive technique for cases of degenerative joint arthritis of the radiocarpal joint cause by scapholunate advanced collapse, scapholunate advanced collapse, schaphoid nonunion advanced collapse, trans-scaphoid perilunate fracture dislocations, lunate dislocations, and Kienbock disease. It should be selected with caution for patients younger than 35 years old. The procedure can be performed with or without temporary internal fixation with with Kirschner wires, and adjunctive techniques of dorsal capsule interposition, proximal capitate excision, and radial styloidectomy can be used. The longevity of the operation is good, but the patient should be informed preoperatively that secondary procedures may be required. Based on historical series, these procedures have included addition have included of radial styloidectomy when this has not been performed at the index procedure, revision of the surgery with capitate debridement or conversion to total wrist arthodesis. Conversion of proximal row carpectomy to total wrist arthoplasty with implants can be contemplated in selected patient particularly as newer implants are designed. The technique the senior author has used on occasion has been to perform revision surgery on those patients who have chronic pain who might need further debridement of the radius in the radial styloid, the proximal capitate, or evaluation of the integrity of the interposition.