cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Near Melting Temperatures on Microparticle Sand Rebound Characteristics at Constant Impact Velocity

When gas turbine engines operate in environments where the intake air has some concentration of particles, the engine will experience degradation. Very few studies of microparticles at temperatures approaching the melting temperature of the particles are available in open literature. Coefficient of Restitution (COR), a measure of the particles’ impact characteristics, was measured for microparticles using a particle tracking technique. This study presents data taken using the Virginia Tech Aerothermal Rig and Arizona Road Dust (ARD) of 20–40μm size range. Data was taken at temperatures up to and including 1323 K, where significant deposition of the sand particles was observed. The velocity at which the particles impact the surface was held at a constant 70m/s for all of the temperature cases. The target on which the particles impacted was made of a nickel alloy, Hastelloy X. The particle angle of impact was also varied between 30° and 80°. The COR of the particles decreases slightly as some of the particles approach their glass transition point and start to become molten. Other particles, which do not become molten due to different particle composition, rebound and maintain a relatively high COR. Images were taken using a microscope to examine the particle deposition that occurs at various angles. A rebound ratio is formulated to give a measure of the number of particles which deposit on the surface. The results show an increase in deposition as the temperature approaches the melting temperature of sand.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Maternal depressive symptoms as a predictor of alcohol use onset and heavy episodic drinking in youths.

Objective: The current study addressed a gap in the literature by investigating the association between maternal depressive symptoms and subsequent timing of their children's alcohol use onset and heavy episodic drinking (HED). Childhood depression/dysthymia symptoms, harsh discipline, and parental positive regard were examined as potential mediators of this relation. Method: Longitudinal self- and parent-report data were collected annually from a community sample of 754 youths (50% male; 43% African American) from kindergarten to Grade 11 (ages 5-18 years). The measures administered were the Things That You Have Done scale (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group [CPPRG], 1995a) and the Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drugs measure (CPPRG, 1995b), which assessed alcohol use behaviors; the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977); the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (Costello, Edelbrock, & Costello, 1985); and the Parental Discipline Scale (CPPRG, 1994). Results: Maternal depressive symptoms significantly predicted an earlier onset of alcohol use and HED in youths. Harsh parental discipline mediated the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and alcohol use onset as hypothesized; however, childhood depressive/dysthymia symptoms and parental positive regard did not. In the parallel analyses testing the 3 potential mediating variables in the prediction of HED, no significant mediation was found. Conclusions: These findings suggest the importance of intervening to prevent early and risky alcohol use among youths who have been identified as having a mother who is clinically depressed or is experiencing depressive symptoms; part of this intervention effort could involve working with depressed mothers to reduce their use of harsh discipline. These improved intervention and prevention strategies could have important implications for reducing the occurrence and early initiation of alcohol use and HED among at-risk youths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). Language: en
The Physiocrats' Concept of Economics

Introduction, 532. — I. The nature and scope of physiocracy: a normative and mathematical science based on "natural law," 534. — II. The theory of innate economic ideas, 538. — III. A mathematically exact science deduced from first principles, 540. — IV. Quesnay's own view of the new science, 544. — V. Quesnay's use of the inductive method and of mathematics, 549. — VI. The gulf between Quesnay and his disciples, 551.
Yeast centromere DNA is in a unique and highly ordered structure in chromosomes and small circular minichromosomes.

Abstract We have examined the chromatin structure of the centromere regions of chromosomes III and XI in yeast by using cloned functional centromere DNAs ( CEN3 and CEN11 ) as labeled probes. When chromatin from isolated nuclei is digested with micrococcal nuclease and the resulting DNA fragments separated electrophoretically and blotted to nitrocellulose filters, the centromeric nucleosomal sub-units are resolved into significantly more distinct ladders than are those from the bulk of the chromatin. A discrete protected region of 220–250 bp of CEN sequence flanked by highly nuclease-sensitive sites was revealed by mapping the exact nuclease cleavage sites within the centromeric chromatin. On both sides of this protected region, highly phased and specific nuclease cutting sites exist at nucleosomal intervals (160 bp) for a total length of 12–15 nucleosomal subunits. The central protected region in the chromatin of both centromeres spans the 130 bp segment that exhibits the highest degree of sequence homology (71%) between functional CEN3 and CEN11 DNAs. This unique chromatin structure is maintained on CEN sequences introduced into yeast on autonomously replicating plasmids, but is not propagated through foreign DNA sequences flanking the inserted yeast DNA.
Magnetogasdynamic effects on acoustic waves in MHD generators

The solutions of an MHD dispersion relationship have been examined to analyze the magnetogasdynamic effects on the acoustic and entropy waves in an MHD generator, with emphasis on both the magnetoacoustic phase velocities and wave amplitudes. The analysis was facilitated by the introduction of a new nondimensional frequency which incorporates the effects of frequency and the magnetic interaction parameter in one variable. To measure the relatively small effects predicted for laboratory-scale MHD generators, special experimental methods were developed based on the use of a low-frequency acoustic excitation and the analysis of the phase difference between pressure signals measured at different locations in the MHD generator. Preliminary results from experiments performed using the Stanford M-2 MHD generator facility demonstrate good agreement between the experimental data and solutions of the MHD dispersion relationship.
Exchange symmetry and preservation of kernel connectivity in the Baer-Kouri-Levin-Tobocman coupled-equations nuclear reaction formalism

Exchange symmetry is used to eliminate explicit reference to physically indistinguishable channels in the Baer, Kouri, Levin, and Tobocman coupled-equations nuclear reaction formalism. The resulting equations are similar in structure to the original ones except they are fewer in number and the interactions have a more complex structure. The reduction procedure presented here differs from an earlier one by Tobocman in that is preserves the kernel connectivity property of the original Baer-Kouri-Levin-Tobocman coupled integral equations.
Catherine Swietlicki. Spanish Christian Cabala: The Works of Luis de León, Santa Teresa de Jesús, and San Juan de la Cruz. University of Missouri Press, 1986. xii + 227 pp. $25

(1989). Catherine Swietlicki. Spanish Christian Cabala: The Works of Luis de Leon, Santa Teresa de Jesus, and San Juan de la Cruz. University of Missouri Press, 1986. xii + 227 pp. $25. Romance Quarterly: Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 494-495.
OVERVIEW: Late Cenozoic tectonics of the central and southern Coast Ranges of California

The central and southern Coast Ranges of California coincide with the broad Pacific‐North American plate boundary. The ranges formed during the transform regime, but show little direct mechanical relation to strike-slip faulting. After late Miocene deformation, two recent generations of range building occurred: (1) folding and thrusting, beginning ca. 3.5 Ma and increasing at 0.4 Ma, and (2) subsequent late Quaternary uplift of the ranges. The ranges rose synchronously along the central California margin and are still rising; their long axes are quasiparallel to the plate boundary and strike-slip faults. The upper crustal internal and marginal structures of the ranges are contractional, dominated by folds and thrusts resulting from the convergent component of plate motion. Newly constructed transects using seismic reflection and refraction, plus gravity and magnetic studies, reveal lower crustal basement(s) at depths of 10‐22 km. The upper surface of the basement and Moho show no effect of the folding and thrusting observed in the upper crust. We conclude that horizontal shortening is accommodated at depth by slip on subhorizontal detachments, and by ductile shear and thickening. The ranges are marked by high heat flow; weak rocks of the Franciscan subduction complex; high fluid pressure; bounding high-angle reverse, strike-slip, or thrust faults; and uplift at a rate of 1 mm/yr beginning about 0.40 Ma. Transverse compression manifested in folding within the Coast Ranges is ascribed in large part to the well-established change in plate motions at about 3.5 Ma.
Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity – By Afsaneh Najmabadi

Taking a page from Lynn Hunt's The Family Romance of the French Revolution, this highly original study examines the broad context of Iran's 1906 Constitutional Revolution through the lens of gender...
Exercise, upper respiratory tract infection, and the immune system

The relationship between exercise and upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) may be modeled in the form of a "J" curve. Various epidemiological studies suggest that unusually heavy acute or chronic exercise is associated with an increased risk of URTI. The risk appears to be especially high during the one or 2-wk period following marathon-type race events. Among runners varying widely in training habits, the risk for URTI is slightly elevated for the highest distance runners, but only when several confounding factors are controlled for. Two randomized experimental trials using small numbers of subjects have provided important preliminary data in support of the viewpoint that moderate physical activity may reduce URTI symptomatology. Clinical data support the concept that heavy exertion increases the athlete's risk of URTI because of negative changes in immune function and elevation of the stress hormones, epinephrine, and cortisol. On the other hand, there is growing evidence that moderate amounts of exercise may decrease one's risk of URTI through favorable changes in immune function without the negative attending effects of the stress hormones.
Light and materials in virtual cities

The level of accuracy required for physical models of materials and their interaction with light in virtual city models is an open question. We consider work that has been done to date on modeling architectural materials, the measurement of such materials in situ, and modeling of natural materials found in urban environments (e.g. snow, ice, and mud). We identify gaps in currently available data, in current technology for specifying materials on large sets of buildings and rendering complex materials on a large scale. We also consider illumination of cities -- both day lighting and the natural and manmade illumination at night. We identify issues related to night illumination, where assumptions about adapting to light source spectra and sensitivity to color that are made for daylight may not hold.
Role of Parenting and Maltreatment Histories in Unipolar and Bipolar Mood Disorders: Mediation by Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression.

In this article, we review empirical research on the role of individuals’ parenting and maltreatment histories as developmental antecedents for symptoms and diagnosable episodes of unipolar and bipolar spectrum disorders. Our review is focused on the following three overarching questions: (1) Do negative parenting and a history of maltreatment contribute risk to symptoms or diagnosable episodes of unipolar and bipolar disorders? (2) Are the associations of negative parenting and maltreatment histories with bipolar disorders similar to those for unipolar depression? and (3) Are the associations between negative parenting and maltreatment histories and unipolar and bipolar symptoms or disorders mediated by cognitive vulnerability to depression? We begin by discussing the methodological requirements for demonstrating a psychosocial risk factor and the methodological issues that plague the parenting and maltreatment literatures. Next, we review the extant studies on the role of parenting histories in unipolar and bipolar disorders. We consider the specificity and possible moderators of the parenting–mood disorder relationship, as well as cognitive vulnerability to depression as a mediator of this relationship. Then, we review studies on the association of maltreatment histories with unipolar and bipolar disorders and the role of cognitive vulnerability to depression as a mediator of this association. We conclude with an assessment of the state of the parenting and maltreatment literatures in unipolar and bipolar disorder with regard to our guiding questions.
QCD radiative correction to pair annihilation of spin-1 bosonic dark matter

The next-to-leading order QCD corrections are calculated for the pair annihilation of spin-1 dark matter (DM) by dimensionally regularizing both ultraviolet and infrared singularities in the nonrelativistic (v<<1) limit. The complete O({alpha}{sub s}) correction is about 8% due to the massless gluon contribution. An extra 5% will be added if there is a new interaction from a massive gluon of approximately the same mass as the DM particle. The next-to-leading order QCD correction could result in a sizable shift to the DM mass constrained by relic density measurements.
The Algebraic Multiplicity of Eigenvalues and the Evans Function Revisited

This paper is related to the spectral stability of traveling wave solutions of partial dif- ferential equations. In the first part of the paper we use the Gohberg-Rouche Theorem to prove equality of the algebraic multiplicity of an isolated eigenvalue of an abstract operator on a Hilbert space, and the algebraic multiplicity of the eigenvalue of the corresponding Birman-Schwinger type operator pencil. In the second part of the paper we apply this result to discuss three particular classes of problems: the Schr¨ odinger operator, the operator obtained by linearizing a degenerate system of reaction diffusion equations about a pulse, and a general high order differential operator. We study relations between the algebraic multiplicity of an isolated eigenvalue for the respective operators, and the order of the eigenvalue as the zero of the Evans function for the corresponding first order system.
The new JEOL JEM‐ARM200CF at the University of Illinois at Chicago

A multitude of characterization techniques that can be applied across a wide range of length scales and to a variety of materials are available on modern scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM). In 2011, such an instrument was installed at the University of Illinois at Chicago: the aberration-corrected cold-field emission JEOL JEM-ARM200CF, capable of atomic-resolution imaging and spectroscopy in a temperature range between 80–1300 K. This paper will review a number of studies focusing on both structural and chemical characterization of materials including NbH, SrTiO3, Pt catalysts and AlxGa1–xN nanowires. Microscope versatility, a central theme of this work, is realized through the ability to perform fine-scale chemical characterization while retaining high spatial resolution. Of particular interest to many studies is the visualization of light elements, such as N, O or H, using simultaneous high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) and annular bright-field (ABF) imaging.
A Comparative Study of Children's Worries.

In the late thirties Pinter and Lev discovered that fifth and sixth graders in New York City worried most about family and school items, with the greatest single worry being "failing a test" in school. The present study was designed to replicated their work and to determine whether changing social, economic, and political conditions have affected the worries of children. In 1977 an augmented version of the 1939 Pinter and Lev Worries Inventory was administered to 645 rural and urban fifth and sixth graders in Chautauqua County, New York. Results indicate that "failing a test" was still the most worrisome item. Comparisons of the Pinter and Lev and the present study indicate that boys in the 1939 sample worried significantly more about economic items, girls in the 1977 sample worried significantly more in all areas except personal health, and children in the 1977 sample had more worries pertaining to "robbers." "kidnappers," "strange people following me," and "being taken away by strangers." In addition, "some-one dying in my family" ranked fourth for boys and girls in the 1977 sample and 39th for boys and 31st for girls in the 1939 sample.
Ethnobiology for A Diverse World: Autobiology? The Traditional Ecological, Agricultural and Culinary Knowledge of US!

The prefix ethno (‘other’) might be considered one of the unfortunate flaws associated with the origins of our (inter-)discipline that has pervasively shaped the history of ethnobiology. Since the late 19th century, when John William Harshberger (1896) first coined the term ‘‘ethnobotany,’’ the prevailing strategy of most fieldworkers trained in ethnobiology has been to go and bear witness to some other culture’s knowledge of plants and animals. We would be remiss to ignore the blatantly colonial or imperialistic tone of some of the earliest ethnobotanical studies. They were explicitly undertaken to either a) learn what of value could be extracted from another culture’s natural resource base as export crops, or b) learn how immigrants could take cues from native residents on how to make a living on their shared home ground, even as some of those immigrants usurped water and harvested native plants and wildlife from the homelands of the people that they were studying. As my fellow Arab-American Edward Said (1993:5) once wrote, ‘‘We are at a point in our work when we can no longer ignore empires and the imperial context in our studies.’’ Readers of Said’s Orientalism (1978) will remember his contention that portrayals of Arabs and Persians as ‘‘the other’’ –whether those portrayals represent them as primitives or as exotic sophisticates– historically served as implicit justifications for both European and North American political and colonial ambitions. The same can be said of English-, Spanish-, French- and Portuguese-speaking immigrants to the ‘‘New World,’’ who may have either villified or romanticized indigenous peoples of the Americas as being in some timeless homeostatic balance with the natural world. It both trivializes and simplifies their more nuanced knowledge and their complex interactions –positive and negative– with the biota of the Americas. One way out of this intellectual trap that many ethnobiologists have discussed and practiced is to devote time to encouraging (and in some cases, assisting) members of a particular cultural community to describe their own traditions from an emic view anchored in local language, belief, behavior and custom. Perhaps there is no better example of this in 20th-century ethnobiology than Ian Saen Majnep’s (Majnep et al. 1977) collaboration with ethnobiologists Ralph Bulmer and Christopher Healey, Birds of My Kalam Country. And yet, there is another pathway that ethnobiologists can and should take, and that is the investigation of the terms and underlying principles of ethnobiological classification and resource management which can be found
Multiband least squares FIR filter design

This paper gives two methods for the least squares approximation design of FIR digital filters. They both allow multiple pass and stop bands and arbitrary transition bands, all with explicit control of band edges. The first method is as simple to use as a window method. This design method builds up an optimal multiband frequency response by sequentially adding and subtracting optimal lowpass filters with transition bands. However, it assumes the ideal response has spline transition functions and does not allow error weighting. The second method allows different weights in the multiple passbands, stopbands and transition bands but it requires numerical solution of simultaneous equations which may be ill-conditioned. These methods compliment the Parks-McClellan algorithm which minimizes the Chebyshev error. >
IL-1β stimulates IL-6 production in cultured skeletal muscle cells through activation of MAP kinase signaling pathway and NF-κB

Recent studies suggest that the skeletal muscle may be a significant site of IL-6 production in various conditions, including exercise, inflammation, hypoperfusion, denervation, and local muscle in...
Low-Grade Sugar, a Potential Carbohydrate Feedstuff for Laying Chickens

Abstract IN MANY regions of the world, particularly the tropics, it is economically neither feasible nor possible to raise corn, wheat, and other grains for poultry. As a consequence, carbohydrate feedstuffs are imported since earlier investigations had shown the superiority of these grains over certain indigenous sources of carbohydrates. This dependence on imported feed has tended to discourage the expansion of poultry enterprises in tropical areas and increase the costs of production. Then, too, there are grain-deficient areas in the Temperate Zone; deficient not only for animal production but, more important still, for humans as well; and the shipment of Temperate Zone grains to the tropics can only tend to aggravate this situation. It is apparent, then, that indigenous plants from other geographical areas must be investigated and developed to supplement or materially add to the world’s supply of carbohydrate feedstuffs. While numerous studies have been reported on potential carbohydrate feeds . . .
Effect of “standard order” deletion on emergency department coagulation profile use

Study objectives: To determine whether the test ordering of physicians working in a teaching hospital emergency department could be influenced by modification of automated laboratory order sets. Design: Prospective, using data from the same ED before and after intervention. Setting: A 58,000-visit public university hospital ED. Type of participants: Emergency physicians caring for adult patients admitted from the ED to the ward medical services. Intervention: Beginning July 1, 1989, coagulation studies were deleted from the automated admission order sets used in the study hospital ED. Measurements and main results: Patient charts were examined to assess the effect of coagulation study deletion on the frequency and appropriateness of coagulation test ordering. A tripling of the percentage of patients who did not receive coagulation parameter testing was noted ( P 2 ). In no case were the tests omitted when a high-yield indication for their use was present. This resulted in an estimated reduction of $20,000 per year in patient charges. Conclusion: Modification of ED "standard orders" can result in reduction of laboratory use without an adverse effect on patient care.
A unified framework for nonlinear dependence testing and symbolic analysis

This paper presents a unified approach for generalized induction variable recognition and substitution, pointer analysis, analysis of conditionally updated variables, value range analysis, array region analysis, and nonlinear dependence testing. The analysis techniques share a well-defined uniform approach based on the chains of recurrences algebra. The uniform algebraic approach provides a powerful unified framework for developing analysis algorithms for restructuring compilers. The paper introduces a new set of analysis algorithms that accurately handle conditional control flow, pointer arithmetic, and nonlinear symbolic expressions in loops, which are known to be problematic for conventional restructuring compilers.
An improved sculptured part surface design with jerk continuity for a smooth machining

Presents an investigation of jerk continuity in milling operations for the sculptured surface of parts. It has long been realized that chattering of machine tools during machining operations can cause detrimental effects on the quality of machined parts as well as on the cutting tool's life. One of the major reasons causing chattering is known to be the rough transition of cutter acceleration changes during machining of different part surfaces. The problem becomes serious when machining sculptured surfaces of parts. In this work, an effective computer aided sculptured surface design technique is proposed. The ultimate goal is to achieve a smooth and near chattering-free machining for producing precision parts. The proposed surface design scheme models part's sculptured surfaces in such a way that it warrants a smooth jerk transition at the boundaries of common surface patches on the part. This results in a drastic reduction of large step changes of cutter accelerations during machining operations which will in turn eliminate a good portion of chattering effects. Three theorems concerning the necessary jerk continuity conditions for surface patches connections are developed and their proofs are presented. Examples of an airfoil and a concept car model are implemented using the proposed modeling approach to demonstrate its effectiveness.
High-throughput fluorescence detection using an integrated zone-plate array

Microfluidic devices enable massive parallelization of sample manipulation and delivery, but a similarly parallelized and integrated optical detection system does not yet exist. Standard large numerical aperture wide field or scanning optical systems are not capable of the large field of view and detection sensitivity required to collect fluorescence from parallel arrays of microfluidic devices. Instead, we present a fluorescence measurement platform based on a microfabricated zone-plate array integrated into a parallelized microfluidic device. The zone-plate array is orientated so that a single high numerical aperture zone plate is aligned to read out the fluorescence from each of 64 output channels of a drop-making device. The parallelization of microfluidics and optics produces an integrated system capable of analysis of nearly 200 000 drops per second.
Fuzzy vector quantization algorithms and their application in image compression

This paper presents the development and evaluation of fuzzy vector quantization algorithms. These algorithms are designed to achieve the quality of vector quantizers provided by sophisticated but computationally demanding approaches, while capturing the advantages of the frequently used in practice k-means algorithm, such as speed, simplicity, and conceptual appeal. The uncertainty typically associated with clustering tasks is formulated in this approach by allowing the assignment of each training vector to multiple clusters in the early stages of the iterative codebook design process. A training vector assignment strategy is also proposed for the transition from the fuzzy mode, where each training vector can be assigned to multiple clusters, to the crisp mode, where each training vector can be assigned to only one cluster. Such a strategy reduces the dependence of the resulting codebook on the random initial codebook selection. The resulting algorithms are used in image compression based on vector quantization. This application provides the basis for evaluating the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithms and comparing the quality of the resulting codebook design with that provided by competing techniques. >
Editorial (Dick Tracy watch)

A well-executed telephone wristwatch was perhaps one of the most anticipated gadgets in history and seen by many as a milestone for the electronics industry. Fictitious but nevertheless outstanding crime fighter Dick Tracy had used one in its basic two-way radio form since 1946, with a video upgrade in 1964, and complete computer capability added in 1987. Few industry executives and engineers would have grown up unaware of the Dick Tracy watch and as such, its development had long been one of the goals of the electronics industry.
Metal Contact Formation On Zinc Cadmium Telluride Detector Material

The understanding of the electric contact formation process is critical in exploiting the full potential of Cd{sub 1{minus}x}Zn{sub x}Te (CZT) material for room temperature detection applications. The metal-semiconductor electrical characteristics were shown in this study to be strongly affected by the surface preparation steps prior to metallization (polishing, and chemical etching), the choice of the metal and contact deposition technique, and by the subsequent surface passivation of CdZnTe. In this paper, the authors also present the implementation new detector fabrication processing steps resulting in a significant lowering of the dark leakage current and an improvement in the detector performance.
Chi recombination activity in phage lambda decays as a function of genetic distance.

In Escherichia coli, chi is a recombination hotspot that stimulates RecBCD-dependent exchange at and to one side of itself. chi activity is highest at chi and decreases with distance from chi. The decrease in chi activity may be a simple property of the physical distance over which chi can stimulate recombination. Alternatively, the decay in chi activity with distance may reflect the high likelihood that chi-stimulated recombination occurs in a single chi-proximal act, to the exclusion of additional chi-stimulated exchanges more distal to chi. To test the models, we determined if chi activity decreases as a function of physical distance (i.e., DNA base pairs) or genetic distance (homologous DNA base pairs). Our results indicate that chi activity decays as a function of genetic distance. In addition, we found that the sbcB gene product (exonuclease I, a 3'-->5' ssDNA exonuclease) modulates the distance over which chi can act. In contrast, the recJ gene product (a 5'-->3' ssDNA exonuclease) does not alter the decay of chi activity.
Assessing honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) foraging populations and the potential impact of pesticides on Eight U.S. Crops

Beekeepers who use honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) for crop pollination services, or have colonies making honey on or in close proximity to agricultural crops, are concerned about the reductions of colony foragers and ultimate weakening of their colonies. Pesticide exposure is a potential factor in the loss of foragers. During 2009–2010, we assessed changes in the field force populations of 9–10 colonies at one location per crop on each of the eight crops by counting departing foragers leaving colonies at regular intervals during the respective crop blooming periods. The number of frames of adult bees was counted before and after bloom period. For pesticide analysis, we collected dead and dying bees near the hives, returning foragers, crop flowers, trapped pollen, and corn-flowers associated with the cotton crop. The number of departing foragers changed over time in all crops except almonds; general patterns in foraging activity included declines (cotton), noticeable peaks and declines (alfalfa, blueberries, cotton, corn, and pumpkins), and increases (apples and cantaloupes). The number of adult bee frames increased or remained stable in all crops except alfalfa and cotton. A total of 53 different pesticide residues were identified in samples collected across eight crops. Hazard quotients (HQ) were calculated for the combined residues for all crop-associated samples and separately for samples of dead and dying bees. A decrease in the number of departing foragers in cotton was one of the most substantial crop-associated impacts and presented the highest pesticide risk estimated by a summed pesticide residue HQ.
The United States–China Currency Dispute: Is a Rise in the Yuan Necessary, Inevitable, or Desirable?

China-bashing has become a popular media and political sport. This is largely due to the US trade imbalance and the belief, by some, that China is responsible for it because it manipulates its currency to hold down the dollar prices of its goods, unfairly creating a trade advantage that has contributed to the loss of US businesses and jobs. This chapter reviews the problem of the large trade imbalance that the United States has with China and its relationship to Chinese exchange rate policy. It examines the link between a Chinese renminbi appreciation and the trade balance and also whether a generalized dollar decline could solve the global or Chinese–US trade imbalance. The consensus view explained here is that a renminbi appreciation is not likely to fix either the trade imbalance with China or overall. If these perceived benefits of a managed float are small or nonexistent, then perhaps they should be pursued anyway because of small costs or even benefits for China. Section 4 looks at the costs of a managed float in terms of the benefits of the earlier peg. Opponents of a fixed dollar/yuan exchange rate ignore the costs of a managed float for China, especially with limits on currency convertibility. These costs are outlined here in order to provide an economic basis for the earlier fixed rate and China’s reluctance to appreciate. Finally it is suggested that the necessary convertibility on capital account, toward which China is moving, could easily result in yuan depreciation under a floating rate regime. This is hardly the end that China critics have in mind, and it is not one that would improve US or other trade imbalances with China.
Toward Transparency and Sustainability: Building a New Financial Order

The only way that the global financial industry can survive and develop is by following a path towards transparency and sustainability. The key aspects and features of the different approach to be followed for best results are highlighted.
Uniqueness and Challenges of Sintered Silver as a Bonded Interface Material

There are numerous attributes of sintered silver (Ag) as a bonded interface between die and substrate or even between substrate and heat sink in power devices. This is attested to by the relatively large number of studies devoted to it the last several years. Sintered silver potentially has a high temperature capability, high electrical and thermal conductivities, its microstructure is in equilibrium, it could predictably respond linearly elastically during thermal cycling, and the time-dependent pore coalescence and pore growth that exists with solders is apparently minimal or even nonexistent. But sintered silver bonding is a relatively new technology and solid-state sintering science and its application can be unfamiliar to solder/bonding practitioners. There are at least five different aspects of it compared to solder bonding and those are overviewed here based on the authors' experience with Ag-sintering over the last several years. For sintered-Ag interconnect bonding: it is a solid-state process (i...
Matching and Weighting With Functions of Error-Prone Covariates for Causal Inference

ABSTRACTMatching estimators are commonly used to estimate causal effects in nonexperimental settings. Covariate measurement error can be problematic for matching estimators when observational treatment groups differ on latent quantities observed only through error-prone surrogates. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for matching and weighting with functions of observed covariates to yield unconfounded causal effect estimators, generalizing results from the standard (i.e., no measurement error) case. We establish that in common covariate measurement error settings, including continuous variables with continuous measurement error, discrete variables with misclassification, and factor and item response theory models, no single function of the observed covariates computed for all units in a study is appropriate for matching. However, we demonstrate that in some circumstances, it is possible to create different functions of the observed covariates for treatment and control units to construct a va...
Recent Developments in the Thermal Diffusivity Measurements of Diamond Materials

The different methods used for the determination of thermal diffusivity or thermal conductivity of diamond crystals, polycrystalline diamond films and diamond-like-carbon films are reviewed. Recent results of the thermal wave methods are discussed.
Is surgical cytoreduction for stage lV pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors justifiable

RESULTS: Fifty-one (51/64, 80%) patients had nonfunctional pNETS vs 13 (13/64, 20%) with functional pNETS. Sixteen (16/64, 25%) patients had pancreatic primary resected without concurrent liver resection, 27 (27/64, 42%) patients underwent combined pancreatic and liver resection, 5 patients (5/64, 8%) underwent resection of their liver metastases only without resection of their primary. Sixteen (16/64, 25%) patients did not undergo any NET-related surgeries. The 5and 10-year survival rates for the whole cohort were 62% and 48% respectively; survival in the surgical group was 66% and 49% vs 54% and 45% in non-surgical group. Patients who underwent surgical cytoreduction had a median survival of 81 months in contrast to nonsurgical group with a survival of 61 months.
Combustion-Driven Jet Actuators in Reversed Flow Configurations

The utility of small-scale, high power combustion–based pulsed jet actuators for flow control is investigated in an annular-return flow geometry that is generated by a primary round jet which impinges normally on a bounded end wall and subsequently fully reverses direction and exits the system in counterflow to the primary jet. The actuator jet is a momentary (pulsed) jet that is produced by the ignition of a mixture of gaseous fuel and oxidizer in a small (cubic centimeter scale) combustion chamber. The actuator generates a brief (msec scale), high impulse momentary jet where the operating frequency and the phase can be continuously varied by independently controlling the flow rate of the fuel/oxidizer and the ignition frequency. The flow characteristics of the unactuated flow are investigated, and the actuators (mounted into the wall of the annular return) are used to trigger flow transients that alter the global flow through strong feedback.
Effects of extreme tonotopic mismatches between bilateral cochlear implants on electric pitch perception: a case study.

Objectives: Recent studies suggest that pitch perceived through cochlear implants (CIs) changes with experience to minimize spectral mismatches between electric and acoustic hearing. This study aimed to test whether perceived spectral mismatches are similarly minimized between two electric inputs. Design: Pitch perception was studied in a subject with a 10-mm CI in one ear and a 24-mm CI in the other ear. Both processors were programmed to allocate information from the same frequency range of 188―7938 Hz, despite the large differences in putative insertion depth and stimulated cochlear locations between the CIs. Results: After 2 and 3 years of experience, pitch-matched electrode pairs between CIs were aligned closer to the processor-provided frequencies than to cochlear position. Conclusions: Pitch perception may have adapted to reduce perceived spectral discrepancies between bilateral CI inputs, despite 2―3 octave differences in tonotopic mapping.
Predictive Guided Wave Models Through Sparse Modal Representations

Ultrasonic guided waves are an attractive tool for structural health monitoring due to their capability to rapidly assess large regions of a structure. Yet, most guided wave based methods for detecting, locating, and classifying structural damage rely on our ability to accurately predict guided wave behavior. Characterizing and predicting guided wave behavior is difficult, particularly in mechanically complex materials such as fiber-reinforced composites. In this paper, we address this challenge through a sparse wavenumber analysis framework. Sparse wavenumber analysis integrates physics-based models, signal processing algorithms for compressive sensing, and a small number of local measurements to predict global wave behavior. We implement sparse wavenumber analysis for three wave systems: standing waves on a string, Lamb waves in an isotropic plate, and guided waves in a unidirectional, anisotropic plate. Through the use of simulation and experimental data, we show that sparse wavenumber analysis can accurately recover the sparse representations (i.e., the eigenmodes) of each system and then use these representations to predict global wave behavior. For the anisotropic plate, we accurately predict 149765 experimental time-domain measurements from only 36 local measurements.
Simulation and Analysis on Interconnection Process of Fixed Speed Wind Turbines Based Wind Farm with Power Grid

The interconnection process of fixed speed wind turbines based wind farm with power grid is analyzed and related improving measure is put forward. By use of DIgSILENT/PowerFactory software, an equivalent model of wind farm based on fixed speed wind turbines is built up, by which the influence of the interconnection process on power grid is researched. Research results show that for large-scale wind farm interconnected with weak power grid, in order to decrease the impact of the interconnection process on power grid and avoid voltage instability of power grid, the numbers of fixed speed wind turbines, which are interconnected with the power grid at the same moment, should be restricted.
The varicocele and semen characteristics.

AbstractOur results indicate that the physical presence of a varicocele is not always associated with an alteration in sperm cell concentration and that a reduction of semen characteristics is more likely in men with reduced sperm counts. Our study also indicates that a higher pregnancy rate after varicocele ligation occurred in wives of patients in the lower sperm count groups. Other forms of therapy also were found to be associated with pregnancy in wives of men with varicoceles. The post-surgical pregnancy rate was 25 per cent compared to 12 per cent in the non-surgical group.
The influence of academic projects on the professional socialization of family medicine faculty.

Background Successful academic physicians acquire and maintain productive colleague relationships, understand unwritten rules of academe, and effectively manage their careers. Developing these professional socialization skills are goals of some faculty development programs (FDPs), but there is scant evidence about whether such programs are effective. Methods A nationwide retrospective, cross-sectional written survey was conducted in two phases: (1) FDP directors who received US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration support between 1994 and 1997 described program activities and provided enrollee rosters and (2) enrollees reported socialization and colleague outcomes. Instruments were developed, pilot tested, and administered for this study. Analysis utilized descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and ANOVA. Results Of 52 eligible directors, 37 (71%) provided FDP activity details and rosters. Of 543 eligible enrollees, 351 (65%) returned surveys. A key result of factor analysis was a seven-item scale related to academic project activities. FDPs with greater emphasis on these activities were associated with enrollees reporting higher levels of colleague relationships and professional socialization skills. Conclusion This study's factor analysis indicates that certain FDP project activities are positively associated with enrollees' professional socialization outcomes.
Do the Monoamines in Crab pericardial Organs Play a Role in Peptide Neurosecretion

1. Pericardial organs of Libima emargmata and L. dubia were isolated, the nerves from the thoracic ganglion were stimulated electrically, and propagated electrical activity was recorded. Fluid which bathed the neurohaemal organ was assayed for cardio-excitor effects on the isolated crab heart, when necessary, made tachyphylactic to drugs. 2. Neither 10-6 M 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), 10-5 M dopamine (DA), nor 10-5 M UML applied directly to the pericardial organ evoke release, nor do DA or UML alter release in response to stimulation. 3. The rate of cardio-excitor release is normal in pericardial organs taken from reserpinized animals. Histochemical examination of the pericardial organs by the formaldehyde-induced fluorescence method confirmed depletion of the monoamines. 4. These experiments, taken together, provide strong evidence against a role of monoamines in the release of cardio-excitor hormone from this neurosecretory structure.
The Role of Cyclin C on Hematopoietic Cells.

Abstract The regulation of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is essential for the maintenance of multilineage blood production throughout life. The ability to self-renew or differentiate is a critical factor in the regulation of HSC numbers and cell fate, but so is the ability to enter and reside in a quiescent state (G0 phase of the cell cycle). The regulation of the G0 stem cell compartment is important for maintaining an inexhaustible pool of HSCs, protected from cellular stress. We have recently shown that the ETS transcription factor MEF is an important regulator of HSC quiescence (H. D. Lacorazza, Cancer Cell, 2006). The mechanism by which MEF or cell cycle regulatory proteins like p21 control entry into (and exit from) the G0 stage of the cell cycle is poorly understood. Insights into the mechanisms of HSC regulation could have important therapeutic potential. Recently, a Cyclin C/cdk3 interaction was reported to play an important role in cell cycle re-entry from quiescent state (G0 to G1) by phosphorylating the retinoblastoma protein (Rb) in human fibroblasts (S. Ren, Cell, 2004). To elucidate if cyclin C is involved in the regulation of cell cycle in hematopoietic cells, especially human CD34+ HSCs, we have optimized a FG12 lentivirus based shRNA strategy (kindly provided by D. Baltimore, PNAS, 2002). shRNA directed against cyclin C successfully decreased both cyclin C mRNA and protein expression levels. Using this vector, we have consistently achieved a 90 % transduction efficiency and a 60–70 % reduction of cyclin C levels in human CD34+ cells as evidenced by real time PCR. Now we are analyzing the cell cycle and biological effects of cyclin C knockdown and overexpression on hematopoietic cells using both human CD34+ cells and human leukemic cell lines.
The equilibrium and non-equilibrium thermal behaviour of aqueous ternary solutions based on complex physiological support media, containing NaCl, and dimethyl sulphoxide or glycerol

The effects of substituting a physiological support medium for water on phase diagram relationships in ternary systems composed of an aqueous component base (water or Eagle's minimum essential medium), NaCl, and a cryoprotective agent (glycerol or dimethyl sulphoxide) have been studied by differential thermal analysis. Primary solidification and eutectic transformations were observed, and both the transition temperatures and devitrification behaviour of non-equilibrium glassy phases were recorded. For most solutions it was found that substitution of the complex support medium for water had very little effect on equilibrium phase relationships. However, the aqueous component substitution resulted in small but measurable changes in the thermal behaviour of non-equilibrium glassy phases. In general, glass stability is enhanced. It is believed that the formation of stable glass phases plays a significant role in cryoprotection.