cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Inter- and intra-speaker variability in the production of voiceless nasal consonants

This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in general and for voiceless nasals in particular.This study uses both acoustic and aerodynamic data to investigate variation in the realization of phonemically voiceless nasal consonants, which have been found to differ cross-linguistically. In particular, it examines the timing of voicing and oral and nasal air flow during production of voiceless nasal consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions in Hakha Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Burma/Myanmar. Comparing three other Tibeto-Burman languages, Bhaskararao and Ladefoged (1991) found two distinct patterns in the production of voiceless nasal consonants, which varied by language, but reported general consistency among speakers of the same language. Results of the present study show considerable variation in the realization of voiceless nasals, both between individual speakers and even between individual tokens produced by the same speaker. This high degree of variability may be linked to the relatively weak acoustic cues for place of articulation among nasal consonants in...
The Greengrocer and Compassion in Time of War

This is a personal reflection on the effects of The Power of the Powerless on students living in post-tyrannical societies—the Czech Republic in 1993 and Iraq in 2010. Czech students read the essay...
Radiative Feedbacks From Stochastic Variability in Surface Temperature and Radiative Imbalance

Estimates of radiative feedbacks obtained by regressing fluctuations in top-of-atmosphere (TOA) energy imbalance and surface temperature depend critically on assumptions about the nature of the stochastic forcing and on the sampling interval. Here we develop an energy-balance framework that allows us to model the different contributions of stochastic atmospheric and oceanic forcing on feed- back estimates. The contribution of different forcing components are parsed based on their impacts on the covariance structure of temperature and TOA energy fluxes, and the framework is validated in a hierarchy of climate model simulations that span a range of oceanic configurations and reproduce the key features seen in observations. We find that at least three distinct forcing sources, feedbacks, and time scales are needed to explain the full covariance structure. Atmospheric and oceanic forc- ings drive modes of variability with distinct relationships between near-surface air temperature and TOA radiation, and the net regression-based feedback estimate is found to be a weighted average of the distinct feedbacks associated with each mode. Moreover, the estimated feedback depends on whether surface temperature and TOA energy fluxes are sampled at monthly or annual timescales. The results suggest that regression-based feedback estimates reflect contributions from a combina- tion of stochastic forcings, and should not be interpreted as providing an estimate of the radiative feedback governing the climate response to greenhouse gas forcing.
Application of FTIR imaging to detect dietary induced biochemical changes in brown and white adipocytes

Abstract Fourier Transform Infrared microspectroscopy Imaging (FTIR imaging) has powerful advantages when used as a complementary technique to histopathological investigations. The common histopathological investigations use a number of chemical fixatives and deparaffinizing agents that alter lipid profiles of biological tissues, particularly in lipid-rich adipose tissues. An infrared image is made of a multitude of pixels. For each pixel, identified by its (x,y) coordinates, corresponds an FTIR spectrum that reveals the chemical composition at this specific location. As a result, it allows biochemical analysis in selective locations within samples. Moreover, functional group distribution maps can be used as a staining free technique for spatial characterization of different biomolecules. Though FTIR imaging has been reported as a powerful approach to characterize adipose tissues, the biochemical heterogeneity within adipose tissues has not been acknowledged. This study shows relative changes in brown and white adipose tissues of mice due to consumption of high-fat diet. In particular, we report cryosectioning of adipose tissues, image acquisition, and different image analysis methods to evaluate dietary induced changes in lipids stored in brown and white adipocytes. Since biochemical changes in adipocytes constitute an important component in obesity investigations, this study shows the potential use of FTIR imaging to compare relative biochemical changes associated with dietary interventions.
Yakovlev's Basolateral Limbic Circuit in Multiple Sclerosis Related Cognitive Impairment

Background and purpose In 1948, Paul Yakovlev described an additional limbic circuit located basolateral to James Papez's circuit (1937) and included orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and dorsomedial nucleus of thalamus. This circuit is shown to be an important component of subcortical cognitive abilities. We aimed to demonstrate this circuit in a multiple sclerosis (MS) cohort using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and evaluate its role in MS-related cognitive impairment (CI). Methods We enrolled cognitively intact (n = 10) and impaired (n = 36) MS patients who underwent a comprehensive cognitive assessment; the minimal assessment of cognitive function in MS (MACFIMS) and structural magnetic resonance imaging. Correlation analyses between volumetric and DTI-derived values of the orbitofrontothalamic (OFT), amygdalothalamic tracts (ATTs), and dorsomedial nucleus of thalamus and CI index derived from MACFIMS were computed after adjustment for age, education, and lesion load. Results We observed a consistent trend between CI index and bilateral dorsomedial nucleus' mean diffusivity (MD) (r = .316; P = .02), left OFT Fractional anisotropy (FA) (r = -.302; P = .02), MD (r = .380; .006), and radial diffusivities (RDs) (r = .432; P = .002), also with right ATT FA (r = -.475; P = .0006) and left ATT FA ( = -.487; P = .0005). After Bonferroni correction, correlations of left OFT RD and right and left ATT FA with CI were found to be significant. Conclusions Our study provides in vivo DTI delineation of Yakovlev's historical basolateral limbic circuit and establishes a role in MS-related CI. These findings may potentially pave the way for future clinical studies using targeted invasive and noninvasive neurostimulation modalities for CI in MS.
Wrinkling and Local Instabilities

Compression loaded faces of sandwich members are sometimes subject to local instability phenomena, the most prominent being the wrinkling or rippling and the intracell buckling or dimpling. This chapter presents the mechanics associated with these phenomena and the classical formulas that predict the conditions for inducing these forms of local instability.
The Schism of Orthodoxy

Lukacs’ History and Classconsciousness arose in the course and as a consequence of his post-World War I activities. The book illustrates what ambitions Lukacs entertained: to wrench away not only from Moscow but from everyone the intellectual leadership of the Communist movement because he was convinced that he knew better than any among his comrades what communism in its essence is, how it should be articulated, and what its relationship to Marxism was.
Fluids in Soils and Rocks

This chapter discusses the mode of occurrence of fluids in earth materials. The study of groundwater, with particular reference to its physics, chemistry, and geology, forms the basis of the science of hydrogeology, pursued jointly by engineers and geologists whose past interest has been mainly in regard to problems of drainage and water supply. A small proportion of the water that exists in soils and rocks may have its origin in the earth's interior, to find its way to the surface through volcanic and magmatic processes. This percolates downward to form sub-surface water in which various zones can be recognized. A simple engineering classification refers to all water lying below the water table, which is the surface below which the strata are saturated as groundwater, while the water that percolates from the surface to the water table is termed gravitational water.
A Flexible Curriculum for Promoting Inclusion through Peer Mentorship

The MaGE Training curriculum prepares computer science students for the task of inclusive peer mentoring and teaching. The curriculum raises awareness of the role of social identity in learning, emphasizes active learning within computer science, and provides preparation for technical code review. This article presents an overview of the MaGE Training curriculum where it has been used to train six cohorts of near-peer mentors and its impact on more than 500 students at a liberal arts college. While rapid growth in course enrollments has presented many challenges, results suggest that the MaGE curriculum has helped to address some of these challenges by maintaining high quality feedback to, and close interaction with, introductory students. Effectiveness is evidenced through increases in mentor self-efficacy, positive impact on student belongingness and continued enrollment, and reports of buffering the instructor workload. The flexibility of the curriculum is supported through a set of modules that can be engaged with via in-person discussions or viewed remotely. This enables easier adoption of the curriculum for use at other institutions.
Holdover Bias in the College Football Betting Market

This article investigated the efficiency of the college football betting market for the following season’s first game for members of the final Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Market inefficiency was identified, with bets against these teams winning significantly more than half the time. Separate analysis of the top 10 and the remaining members of the Top 25 indicated that the inefficiency was due to the previous season’s top 10 being significantly overvalued in the betting market at the start of the next season. Bets against the top 10 teams won significantly more than the 52.4% necessary for profitability. This was especially true when they played non-Power 5 schools. Efficiency could not be rejected for the teams ranked 11 through 25. The study contributed to the literature on betting market efficiency by providing evidence that bettors could be backward-looking and over-rely on outdated information.
Rhetorical Agreement: Maintaining Cohesive Conversations

To support a natural flow of a conversation in a chatbot, rhetorical structures of each message has to be analyzed. We classify a pair of paragraphs of text as appropriate for one to follow another, or inappropriate, based on communicative discourse considerations. To represent a multi-sentence message with respect to how it should follow a previous message in a conversation or dialogue, we build an extension of a discourse tree for it. Extended discourse tree is based on a discourse tree for RST relations with labels for communicative actions, and also additional arcs for anaphora and ontology-based relations for entities. We refer to such trees as Communicative Discourse Trees (CDTs). We explore syntactic and discourse features that are indicative of correct vs incorrect request-response or question-answer pairs. Two learning frameworks are used to recognize such correct pairs: deterministic, nearest-neighbor learning of CDTs as graphs, and a tree kernel learning of CDTs, where a feature space of all CDT sub-trees is subject to SVM learning. We form the positive training set from the correct pairs obtained from Yahoo Answers, social network, corporate conversations including Enron emails, customer complaints and interviews by journalists. The corresponding negative training set is artificially created by attaching responses for different, inappropriate requests that include relevant keywords. The evaluation showed that it is possible to recognize valid pairs in 70% of cases in the domains of weak request-response agreement and 80% of cases in the domains of strong agreement, which is essential to support automated conversations. These accuracies are comparable with the benchmark task of classification of discourse trees themselves as valid or invalid, and also with classification of multi-sentence answers in factoid question-answering systems. The applicability of proposed machinery to the problem of chatbots, social chats and programming via NL is demonstrated. We conclude that learning rhetorical structures in the form of CDTs is the key source of data to support answering complex questions, chatbots and dialogue management.
Comparing Jewish and Islamic laws of war

Religion as a code of human conduct lends certain legal norms and rules to initiate and regulate war among humans. The deduction and interpretation of these rules from the scriptural sources remains a challenge. It is common understanding that scriptural sources evade a certain interpretation. This study seeks to compare the laws of war enshrined inside the Jewish and Islamic scriptures. Such a comparison underscores the point that the lawgiver remains cognizant of the real world threat perception scenarios and transmits commands in response to them. Accordingly, religious laws step closer to the positivistic understanding of laws. A contextual analyses of the both the scriptural sources remain the main methodological focus of this research enquiry. Such a methodological intervention, on the one hand, shall help in understanding certain socio-political realities. On the other hand, it will be useful in exploring and explaining the specific scope and importance of laws relevant to the waging of war in Islam and Judaism. Primary focus of this study remains jus ad bellum rather than jus in bello.
Advancement of Proton-Conducting Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells at Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

Proton conducting ceramics have been considered as a strategic material system used in solid oxide fuel cells and solid oxide electrolysis cells for electricity generation and hydrogen production. The high proton conductivity of protonic electrolyte and rapid development of robust electrode materials have significantly promoted the reduction of feasible operating temperature to intermediate temperature range (400~600 °C), which can attribute to favorable technical and economic advantages when they are compared with conventional oxide-ion conducting electrolyte based solid oxide cell system. In the past few years, Idaho National Laboratory has been devoted to developing advanced electrolyte and electrode materials R&D, diverse manufacturing capability, and expanding evaluation facility for these applications, aiming to further improve performance, stability and manufacturing cost. There are some remarkable accomplishments achieved on electrode engineering, electrolyte optimization, new material down-selection and large-scale cell fabrication in Idaho National Laboratory.
Parking prices and the decision to drive to work: Evidence from California

Abstract This paper explores the impact of parking prices on the decision to drive to work using a California household travel survey dataset and a discrete choice model. The paper tackles estimation challenges posed by insufficient parking information. The first challenge is the estimation of parking prices for those who do not drive, which is addressed by using a sample selection model. The second challenge is to understand the effect of the extent of the prevalence of Employer-Paid parking coupled with incentive programs offered in-lieu of parking. To address this challenge, two extreme scenarios are examined, and a range for the marginal effects of parking prices is estimated; one scenario assumes everyone receives Employer-Paid parking coupled with in-lieu of parking incentives, and the second assumes that no one is offered such incentives. The results suggest that higher parking prices reduce driving, regardless of the followed approach. It is estimated that a 10% increase in parking prices leads to a 1–2 percentage point decline in the probability of driving to work. This range varies with initial parking prices, where the lower end of the range increases at a decreasing rate, and the higher end peaks at $2.5 and decreases with higher prices. Moreover, there seems to be no evidence of sample selection bias. The evidence confirms that parking pricing can indeed be an effective transportation demand management tool.
Photovoltaic Hosting Capacity Estimation Considering the Impact of Electric Vehicles

As the deployment of renewable energy sources, particularly photovoltaic (PV) systems, is proliferating worldwide, the need to increase distribution system (DS) hosting capacity to PV systems without system upgrade is a major concern. This paper proposes a stochastic method to calculate the DS hosting capacity to PV while ensuring that voltage requirements are not violated. In the proposed method, electric vehicle (EV) loads are also integrated to improve DS hosting capacity for PV systems. EVs are integrated at random locations of DS with different penetration levels to analyze their effects on the DS hosting capacity. The proposed method is demonstrated on the IEEE 123 node test feeder through several case studies. In these case studies, the OpenDSS and MATLAB are used to perform the simulations. The results show that the hosting capacity of PV in the IEEE 123 node test feeder can be improved approximately by 4% by penetrating EV loads to 12% of spot loads at each PV location.
Hypochloraemia and 30 day readmission rate in patients with acute decompensated heart failure.

Aims Despite recent advances in guideline-directed therapy, rehospitalization rates for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) remain high. Recently published studies demonstrated the emerging role of hypochloraemia as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients with ADHF. This study sought to determine the correlation between low serum chloride and 30 day hospital readmission in patients with ADHF. Methods and results We retrospectively reviewed electronic medical records of 1504 patients who were admitted to one 700 bed US tertiary care centre with the diagnosis of ADHF between June 2013 and December 2014. Of the 1504 reviewed records, 1241 were selected for further analysis. Hypochloraemia (either on admission or at discharge) was identified in 289 patients (23.3%) and was associated with significantly higher 30 day hospital readmission rate or death (42.2% vs. 33.7%, P = 0.008). This association persisted in multivariate analysis when controlling for serum sodium, weight loss, diuretic dose, adjunct thiazide use, serum blood urea nitrogen, and BNP levels (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.02-1.77, P = 0.033); however, the predictive value of the overall model was low (Naglkerke R2 = 0.040). Hypochloraemia was also found to be associated with increased 12 month mortality in our cohort (31.4% vs. 20.2%, P = 0.015) that correlates with the results of previously published studies. Conclusions Low serum chloride measured in patients admitted for ADHF is independently but weakly associated with increased 30 day readmission rate and demonstrated low predictive value as a potential biomarker in this cohort.
Electronic Networks of Practice as Third Places: Social Embeddedness, Membership Longevity and Contribution Quality

Electronic networks of practice have been investigated from learning and resource exchange perspectives using network analysis methods with connections derived from domain-specific relationships. By doing so, the literature has decentered interpersonal relationships in studies explaining the flow of knowledge throughout the network. I argue that through informal social interactions an individual becomes socially embedded in the network thereby creating strong social bonds with other members. These strong social bonds foster loyalty and attachment to the eNoP creating a symbolically constructed ‘place of significance’ rather than a “place of knowledge-sharing.’ Members may find alternative knowledge-sharing places among the many largely undifferentiated eNoP in cyberspace, but it is my conjecture that it is difficult to find alternative places of psychological significance in the virtual world. Utilizing Oldenburg’s (1989) third places as the theoretical lens, I demonstrate empirically that socially embedded members determined by a member’s social valued centrality have greater membership longevity and provide more positively rated contributions to the practice side of the eNoP relative to those members less socially embedded.
Abstract B32: Silencing of oncogenic KRAS by a mutant-favoring short interfering RNA

Oncogenic mutations in the KRAS gene are well-established drivers of cancer. Promising preclinical strategies including RNA interference (RNAi) have been developed to target oncogenic KRAS function, yet a clinically effective therapy to directly target KRAS remains to be achieved. While genetic knockdown of mutant KRAS (mKRAS) with RNAi is one promising approach, current methods are not mutant-selective, and thus they also decrease normal KRAS levels, raising concerns about normal cell toxicity. Here, we describe a custom short interfering RNA (siRNA) oligonucleotide (D1) designed to preferentially bind the most commonly occurring RAS missense mutations in codons 12 and 13. Our approach designed the siRNA to have three mismatches binding wild-type mRNA, but only two mismatches for the oncogenic mRNAs, thus having binding affinities more favorable for the mutant-specific sequences. Using NIH/3T3 mouse fibroblasts stably expressing human KRAS WT or mutant cDNA sequences and KRAS mutant lung cancer cell lines, we determined that D1 siRNA preferentially reduced mKRAS mRNAs versus the wild-type sequence at the transcriptional and protein levels. Phenotypically, D1 siRNA significantly reversed mKRAS-induced morphologic and growth transformation of NIH/3T3 cells. Furthermore, D1 siRNA significantly impaired the proliferation of several mKRAS lung cancer cells in 2D as well as 3D spheroids embedded in an extracellular matrix. To overcome clinical limitations of delivering the siRNA to lung tumors, we evaluated lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) as carriers of D1 siRNAs in orthotopic mKRAS lung cancer models and observed that Cy5.5-labeled LNPs are highly enriched in lung tumors and metastases. Compared with control siRNA-LNP treated mice, 344SQ (KRAS G12D) tumor-bearing mice injected once with D1 siRNA-LNPs had drastically decreased KRAS protein levels in tumors 72 h later (73% decrease, p=0.001). Using an orthotopically injected luciferase-labeled A549 (KRAS G12S) human lung cancer model, D1 siRNA-LNP treated mice had pronounced reductions in luciferase signal (56% reduction, p=0.045), chest wall metastases (67% reduction, p Citation Format: Bjoern Papke, Amanda E.D. Van Swearingen, Anne Y. Feng, Salma H. Azam, Emily B. Harrison, Runying Yang, Adrienne D. Cox, Channing J. Der, Chad V. Pecot. Silencing of oncogenic KRAS by a mutant-favoring short interfering RNA [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Targeting RAS-Driven Cancers; 2018 Dec 9-12; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2020;18(5_Suppl):Abstract nr B32.
Use of magic performance as a schema disruption method to facilitate flexible thinking

Abstract The ability to think flexibly has become increasingly important for success in work, life, and learning in the 21 st century. Flexible thinking enables students to overcome thinking fixedness and generate creative ideas and helps students to apply what they learned when faced with unknown or unfamiliar challenges. However, there has been a lack of effective and engaging teaching methods designed for teachers to facilitate students’ thinking flexibility ( Middleton, 2015 ). This study explored an innovative method based on the activity of magic performance with the aim of facilitating flexible thinking in an interactive and engaging way. An in-depth exploration of students’ experience in this activity revealed how magic performance as a unique schema disruption stimulus influences students’ flexible thinking. The results suggested three aspects of such influence: 1) Magic primes a childlike mindset in students and encourages them to use their imaginations, 2) The curiosity toward the secret of magic drives students to develop a flexible mindset, 3) The principles of magic promote flexible thinking transfer. The results may help creativity scholars understand why magic can be used to facilitate flexible thinking. The outcome may also help teachers form a deep understanding of how magic performance can be used to facilitate students’ flexible thinking in class.
The Impact of Surgeon Adherence to Preoperative Optimization of Hernia Repairs.

Abstract Background At the patient level, optimizing risk factors before surgery is a proven approach to improve patient outcomes after hernia repair. However, nearly 25% of patients are not adequately optimized before surgery. It is currently unknown how surgeon-level adherence to preoperative optimization impacts postoperative outcomes. In this context, we evaluated the association between surgeon adherence to optimization practices and surgeon-level postoperative outcomes. Materials and methods Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative data from 2014 to 2018 was analyzed to examine rates of surgeon adherence to preoperative optimization when performing elective ventral and incisional hernia repair. Adherence was defined as operating on patients who were nontobacco users with a body mass index >18.5 kg/m2 and Results Across 70 hospitals in Michigan, 15,016 patients underwent ventral and incisional hernia repair, cared for by 454 surgeons. Surgeon adherence to preoperative optimization ranged from 51% to 76%. Surgeons in the lowest optimization tertile had higher rates of emergency department visits (8.78% versus 7.05% versus 7.03%, P Conclusions Surgeons’ clinical outcomes, including complication rates, are affected by the proportion of their patients who are preoperatively optimized with regard to obesity and tobacco use. These results suggest that surgeons can improve their postoperative outcomes by addressing these issues before surgery.
Unjust: the health records of youth with personal/family justice involvement in a large pediatric health system.

Mass incarceration has had an undeniable toll on childhood poverty and inequality, however, little is known about the consequences on pediatric health. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the health of pediatric patients with probable personal or family history involvement with the correctional system. A descriptive study was conducted using electronic health record data of 2.3 million youth (ages 0–21 years) who received care in a large Midwestern hospital-based institution from February 2006–2020. We employed a correctional-related keyword search (e.g. jail, prison, probation, parole) to locate youth with probable personal or family history involvement. Health characteristics were measured as clinician diagnostic codes. Two percent of the total pediatric population had a correctional keyword in the medical chart (N = 51,855). This 2% made up 66% of all patients with cannabis-related diagnoses, 52% of all patients with trauma-related diagnoses, 48% of all stress-related diagnoses, 38% of all patients with psychotic disorder diagnoses, and 33% of all suicidal-related disorders within this institution’s electronic health record database – among other highly concerning findings. We captured an alarming health profile that warrants further investigation and validation methods to better address the gaps in our clinical understanding of youth with personal or family history involvement with the correctional system. We can do better in identifying, and supporting families affected by the correctional system.
The Impact of Training on Human-Autonomy Team Communications and Trust Calibration.

ObjectiveThis work examines two human–autonomy team (HAT) training approaches that target communication and trust calibration to improve team effectiveness under degraded conditions.BackgroundHuman...
Probing microstructural differences that manifest in human blood after taking aspirin using thixo-elasto-visco-plastic modeling and series of physical processes

Although prophylactic use of low dosage acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) to inhibit the effects of platelet aggregation is common, a few, if any, rheological studies validating the change in the physical and mechanical properties of human blood post-aspirin administration have been reported. Recent work modeling the rheological behavior of thixo-elasto-visco-plastic materials, such as human blood, indicates that they have all the hallmark features of a complex material, including shear-thinning, viscoelasticity, yield stress, and thixotropy. Using human blood rheological data collected on a Discovery Hybrid Rheometer, before and after a 14-day protocol of once daily 81 mg aspirin tablet, we compare the mechanical properties with the recently published enhanced thixotropic modified Horner–Armstrong–Wagner–Beris thixo-elasto-visco-plastic model and sequence of physical processes. We do so to highlight the subtle shift in mechanical properties in terms of the “liquid-like” and “solid-like” nature of blood. We will show both before and after parametric analysis, profile, and comparison, as well as the before and after aspirin elastic and viscous properties of the human blood.
SU-E-T-216: Comparison of Volumetrically Modulated Arc Therapy Treatment Using Flattening Filter Free Beams Vs. Flattened Beams for Partial Brain Irradiation

Purpose: Flattening Filter Free (FFF) beams offer the potential for higher dose rates, short treatment time, and lower out of field dose. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the dosimetric effects and out of field dose of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) plans using FFF vs Flattening Filtering (FF) beams for partial brain irradiation. Methods: Ten brain patients treated with a 6FF beam from a Truebeam STX were analyzed retrospectively for this study. These plans (46Gy at 2 Gy per fraction) were re-optimized for 6FFF beams using the same dose constraints as the original plans. PTV coverage, PTV Dmax, total MUs, and mean dose to organs-at-risk (OAR) were evaluated. In addition, the out-of-field dose for 6FF and 6FFF plans for one patient was measured on an anthropomorphic phantom. TLDs were placed inside (central axis) and outside (surface) the phantom at distances ranging from 0.5 cm to 17 cm from the field edge. Paired T-test was used for statistical analysis. Results: PTV coverage and PTV Dmax were comparable for the FF and FFF plans with 95.9% versus 95.6% and 111.2% versus 111.9%, respectively. Mean dose to the OARs were 3.7% less for FFF than FF plans (p<0.0001). Total MUs were, on average, 12.5% greater for FFF than FF plans with 481±55 MU (FFF) versus 429±50 MU (FF), p=0.0003. On average, the measured out of field dose was 24% less for FFF compared to FF, p<0.0001. A similar beam-on time was observed for the FFF and FF treatment. Conclusion: It is beneficial to use 6FFF beams for regular fractionated brain VMAT treatments. VMAT treatment plans using FFF beams can achieve comparable PTV coverage but with more OAR sparing. The out of field dose is significant less with mean reduction of 24%.
Parallel and distributed supercomputing at Caltech

Caltech uses parallel computers for a variety of large-scale scientific applications. It has acquired commercial parallel computers, some of which have performance that rivals or exceeds that of conventional, vector-oriented supercomputers. A new project has been started that builds on experience with concurrent computers and attempts to apply Caltech methods to the simultaneous use of parallel and vector supercomputers at four institutions that will be connected by a 800 Mb/s wide-area computer network. Distributed supercomputing experiments will be carried out on this testbed. >
A 1–6 GHz analog radio frequency power driver in 90 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology for wireless applications

Summary One of the most challenging subsystems for integrated radio frequency (RF) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) solutions is the power amplifier. A 1–6 GHz RF power driver (RFPD) in 90 nm CMOS technology is presented, which receives signals from on-chip RF signal chain components at −12 dBm power levels and produces a 0 dBm signal to on-chip or off-chip 50 Ω loads. A unique unit cell design is developed for the RFPD to offset issues associated with very wide multi-fingered transistors. The RF driver was fabricated as a stand-alone sub-circuit on a 90 nm CMOS die with other sub-circuits. Experimental tests confirmed that the on-chip RFPD operates up to 6 GHz and is able to drive 50 Ω loads to the desired 0 dBm power level. Spur free dynamic range exceeded 70 dB. The measured power gain was 11.6 dB at 3 GHz. The measured 1 dB compression point and input third-order intercept point (IIP3) were −4.7 dBm and −0.5 dBm, respectively. Also, included are modeling, simulation, and measured results addressing issues associated with interfacing the die to a package with pinouts and the package to a printed circuit test fixture. The simulations were made through direct current (DC), alternating current (AC), and transient analysis with Cadence Analog Design Environment. The stability was also verified on the basis of phase margin simulations from extracted circuit net-lists. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Coupled molecular-dynamics Monte Carlo study of the transport properties of lateral surface superlattices.

The transport properties of a lateral surface superlattice, a two-dimensional (2D) electron system in a 2D periodic potential, are studied with a molecular-dynamics Monte Carlo technique including the Coulomb interaction. Excellent numerical energy conservation is achieved by adopting a predictor-corrector algorithm to integrate the equations of motion. With increasing 2D potential amplitude, electrons show a transition, from a mobile phase to an immobile phase, where the radial distribution function has some characteristic peaks, indicating the beginning of the long-range ordering of the electrons in the potential minima. The velocity autocorrelation function shows a 2D plasma oscillation in the mobile phase, while in the immobile phase the classical oscillation at the bottom of the potential well is observed. Raising the temperature improves the transport since electrons are released from the constraint of the 2D potential and the Coulomb potential.
Writing a manual for police officers: the Supreme Court revisits the vehicle search incident to arrest rule in Arizona v. Gant

In this article the authors examine the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Arizona v. Gant and argue that the high court correctly clarified the law regarding what police may do when conducting a search incident to the arrest of someone in a vehicle. In the following article, friend and colleague Martin O’Connor argues the Supreme Court (and this article) are wrong and that the decision will negatively impact police investigation of criminal activity.
Ego-State Therapy: An Overview

Ego-state therapy is a psychodynamic approach in which techniques of group and family therapy are employed to resolve conflicts between the various "ego states" that constitute a "family of self" within a single individual. Although covert ego states do not normally become overt except in true multiple personality, they are hypnotically activated and made accessible for contact and communication with the therapist. Any of the behavioral, cognitive, analytic, or humanistic techniques may then be employed in a kind of internal diplomacy. Some 20 years experience with this approach has demonstrated that complex psychodynamic problems can often be resolved in a relatively short time compared to more traditional analytic therapies.
Enhancing the Climate for Creativity for Software Designers

Measurement of the degree to which company climate is supportive of creativity is becoming increasingly important. Tight economic conditions worldwide make it imperative for companies to find ways to generate more innovative products and services. This paper provides data on measurement of degree of creativity in climates of business organizations in general, then data specific to one profession, the Information Systems profession. It also discusses ways the climate for creativity can be enhanced to improve both creativity and productivity. However, the information is not only important to managers of IS, but also to the clients of IS. The departments for whom IS is designing software are equally concerned that software developers have a climate supportive of creative efforts. Therefore, this survey of programmers and analysts should be of interest across the company, not just to IS management.
Antibody response in cats to feline leukemia virus reverse transcriptase under natural conditions of exposure to the virus

Abstract Cats exposed to feline leukemia virus under natural conditions sometimes develop humoral antibodies to feline leukemia virus reverse transcriptase. These antibodies were found only in cats that were nonviremic. As measured in an assay for neutralization of reverse transcroptase functional activity, these antibody activities sometimes appear discordant from those directed to the feline oncornavirus-associated cell membrane antigen.
Phase-Related Differences in Mating Strategy of a Locust (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

The migratory locust, Locusta migratoria L., shows phase polymorphism in which various morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits change according to population density. Information about the reproductive behavior, particularly sperm competition and male-female associations, has been obtained mainly from crowd-reared locusts. To understand the reproductive strategy in different phases, i.e., solitarious versus gregarious phase, we compared the P2 (i.e., the proportion of offspring sired by the second male to mate), length of pre- and postcopulatory mounting and length of copulation between solitarious (isolated-reared) and gregarious (crowd-reared) adults of this locust. We observed that solitarious adults had a higher P2 value, shorter precopulatory mounting, and longer copulation than gregarious adults. A significant positive correlation between length of precopulatory mounting and copulation was found in gregarious adults, but not in solitarious adults in the two geographic strains used. Little or no postcopulatory mounting was observed in either phase. Pairing of crowd-reared males and isolated-reared females indicated that males did not play a decisive role in determining these behaviors. The results demonstrate phase-related differences in reproductive strategy that are likely to be adaptive for locusts facing a large variation in chance of encounters between the two sexes.
Identification of a tankyrase-binding motif shared by IRAP, TAB182, and human TRF1 but not mouse TRF1. NuMA contains this RXXPDG motif and is a novel tankyrase partner

Tankyrase-1 and -2 are closely related poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases that use an ankyrin-repeat domain to bind diverse proteins, including TRF (telomere-repeat binding factor)-1, IRAP (insulin-responsive aminopeptidase), and TAB182 (182-kDa tankyrase-binding protein). TRF1 binding allows tankyrase to regulate telomere dynamics in human cells, whereas IRAP binding presumably allows tankyrase to regulate the targeting of IRAP. The mechanism by which tankyrase binds to diverse proteins has not been investigated. Herein we describe a novel RXXPDG motif shared by IRAP, TAB182, and human TRF1 that mediates their binding to tankyrases. Interestingly, mouse TRF1 lacks this motif and thus does not bind either tankyrase-1 or -2. Using the ankyrin domain of tankyrase as a bait in a yeast two-hybrid screen, we also found the RXXPDG motif in six candidate tankyrase partners, including the nuclear/mitotic apparatus protein (NuMA). We verified NuMA as an RXXPDG-mediated partner of tankyrase and suggest that this interaction contributes to the known colocalization of tankyrase and NuMA at mitotic spindle poles.
Clinical Observations: Arginine vs Protein Supplementation in HIV-infected Men

Background: The enhancement of immune function and nutritional status is a challenge in the care of HIV-infected persons. The semiessential amino acid, L-arginine, has been shown to enhance immune function by promoting T-cell proliferation and nitrogen retention in animal and human models. Objective: We studied the effect of three levels of arginine supplementation in isonitrogenous doses on immune function and parameters commonly used to assess nutritional status. The side effect profile of oral arginine in HIV-infected male volunteers was also assessed. Design: The study design was experimental double-blinded with 19 HIV patients from an outpatient clinic randomized to consume 20 g (n = 7), 10 g (n = 6), or 0 g (n = 6) of arginine per day for four weeks. Protein powder was added to 0 g and 10 g arginine doses to make them isonitrogenous with the 20 g arginine dose. To assess immune function, peripheral blood CD4 T-cell numbers and viral loads were obtained at week 0, 4, and 8. The parameters used to ass...
Cultural Revolution Revisited

I read Michael David-Fox's article "What is Cultural Revolution?" with pleasure. In the first place, it is an intriguing combination of interpretive essay and Begri/fsgeschichte, not a common genre in our field, whose subject made me think again about issues that have not been in the forefront of my scholarly agenda in recent years. In the second place, he begins with an expression of surprise that the "Cultural Revolution" paradigm put forward in my 1974 and 1978 articles and the 1978 edited volume has been so unreflectingly accepted and little problematized.1 That same thing has puzzled me for years. Moreover, whenever I see the term Cultural Revolution used routinely, like any other standard category of Soviet history, I have to suppress irritation at seeing it unfootnoted as well as proprietorial pride. It is as if the Soviet Cultural Revolution of 1928-31 were one of the eternal verities. But in fact there was no Soviet Cultural Revolution, historiographically speaking, until that 1978 volume appeared. It was my discovery or, if you prefer, my invention.2 I came to the topic of cultural revolution in a very different way from Michael DavidFox. He sets out to trace the history of a concept, which in part means tracing the usages of a term. I, on the other hand, had encountered a historical phenomenon in the course of my empirical research and needed to find a name for it. This naming gave me a good deal of trouble, though settling on "cultural revolution" was certainly not as agonizing as deciding on the term vydvizhentsy for the beneficiaries of Soviet affirmative action in the 1920s and 1930s. I was aware, of course, that Lenin (and, following him, generations of Soviet historians) had used the term in a different sense than the one I proposed, but I did not feel constrained by terminological piety-rather the contrary. The name "Cultural Revolution" seemed appropriate to me, in the first place because it was the term most used by contemporary participants and, in the second place, because it suggested an analogy to the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Although David-Fox has taken 1978, the publication date of Cultural.Revolution, as the date of the historiographical discovery, the conference on which this volume was
Types of novae

A general classification of novae in terms of integral parameters is proposed. It is shown in particular that the distribution of novae in dependence on the intrinsic luminosity at maximum brightness reveals the existence of two distinct classes, designated as common novae and supernovae. In Section (A) the usefulness of the study of temporary stars in comparison with the study of permanent stars is discussed. Sections (B) and (C) give a tentative classification of novae in terms of integral parameters as well as a brief tabulation of some of the observational data on these parameters. In the course of this discussion a number of interesting problems suggest themselves. Among them the problems of the primary and secondary images of novae and of supernovae and the investigation of the final states of temporary stars are of particular interest. In (D) some approximate relations among the integral parameters are described. In (E) the frequency of occurrence n(M) of novae in dependence on their absolute magnitude M is explicitly established and graphically represented. The fundamental significance of the fact is emphasized that the function n(M) has two pronounced maxima. In (F) the importance of the fact is analyzed that supernovae preferably appear in those parts of nebulae whose surface brightness is low. Two outstanding cases of supernovae which are located in points of excessively low surface brightness are reproduced in Fig. 3. In Section (G) it is shown that the average frequency of occurrence of supernovae in different types of nebulae does not depend essentially on the type. In Section (H) a number of reasons are advanced which appear to be sufficient to rule out the assumption of collisions between luminous stars as a cause for supernovae. Finally in Section (I) a review is given of the decisive observations and considerations which have resulted in the recognition of supernovae as a separate class of temporary stars.
The nucleotide sequence and gene organization of red clover necrotic mosaic virus RNA-2

Abstract Red clover necrotic mosaic virus, a member of the dianthovirus group, is characterized by a genome composed of two nonhomologous single-stranded RNAs of approximately 4.0 (RNA-1) and 1.4 kb (RNA-2). The complete nucleotide sequence of the RNA-2 has been determined. RNA-2 is 1448 nucleotides in length with a 5' terminal m7G cap and no 3' terminal poly-A tail or 5' terminal VPg. An open reading frame beginning at the first initiation codon at nucleotide 80 and ending at nucleotide 1030 has been identified which can encode a polypeptide of 35 kDa. RNA-2 directs the synthesis of a 35 kDa polypeptide in vitro. SP6 and T7 transcripts from full length RNA-2 cDNA clones directed the synthesis of a polypeptide with the same electrophoretic mobility as the polypeptide directed from authentic RNA-2. Clones with various 3' terminal deletions both outside and within the 35 kDa open reading frame were transcribed and translated in vitro to define the limits of the 35 kDa open reading frame. A second, small open reading frame capable of encoding a polypeptide of 4.9 kDa was also indicated from the sequence; however, there was no evidence for a protein product of that size. RNA-2 is presumed to be monocistronic and encode a cell-to-cell movement function. A small but significant amino acid sequence homology was observed with the brome mosaic virus RNA-3a polypeptide.