cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Medical Care Tasks among Spousal Dementia Caregivers: Links to Care-Related Sleep Disturbances

Objective Medical care tasks are commonly provided by spouses caring for persons living with dementia (PLWDs). These tasks reflect complex care demands that may interfere with sleep, yet their implications for caregivers' sleep outcomes are unknown. The authors evaluated the association between caregivers' medical/nursing tasks (keeping track of medications; managing tasks such as ostomy care, intravenous lines, or blood testing; giving shots/injections; and caring for skin wounds/sores) and care-related sleep disturbances. Methods A retrospective analysis of cross-sectional data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study and National Study of Caregiving was conducted. Spousal caregivers and PLWDs/proxies were interviewed by telephone at home. The U.S. sample included 104 community-dwelling spousal caregivers and PLWDs. Caregivers reported on their sociodemographic and health characteristics, caregiving stressors, negative caregiving relationship quality, and sleep disturbances. PLWDs (or proxies) reported on their health conditions and sleep problems. Results Caregivers who performed a higher number of medical/nursing tasks reported significantly more frequent care-related sleep disturbances, controlling for sociodemographic and health characteristics, caregiving stressors, negative caregiving relationship quality, and PLWDs' sleep problems and health conditions. Post hoc tests showed that wound care was independently associated with more frequent care-related sleep disturbances after accounting for the other medical/nursing tasks and covariates. Conclusion Spousal caregivers of PLWDs who perform medical/nursing tasks may be at heightened risk for sleep disturbances and associated adverse health consequences. Interventions to promote the well-being of both care partners may benefit from directly addressing caregivers' needs and concerns about their provision of medical/nursing care.
The Behavioral Catastrophe Is Rooted in Injury to White Matter

The biological basis for the functional loss accompanying spinal cord injury is mostly rooted in the loss of nerve impulse conduction (electrical traffic) through the lesion in injured white matter (Blight 1991; Folis et al. 1993). White matter owes its name to its staining characteristics as studied by the nineteenth century anatomist. This light staining was due to high concentrations of myelin, a fatty substance insulating most spinal cord nerve fibers or axons. White matter is comprised of myelinated and unmyelinated axons, many organized into numerous tracts, collective bundles of nerve processes coursing in the same direction to common target regions of the nervous system. This region is comprised solely of the processes of nerve cells (and not their cell bodies) surrounding the centrally located gray matter (darker in staining due to the presence of the nerve cell bodies). The connection between brain and body is made possible by the direction of nerve impulse traffic in the so-called long-tract pathways of white matter. Sensory information projects into the spinal cord via sensory nerve fibers that ascend the spinal cord to the base of the brain, while motor nerve impulse traffic (for example, initiating volitional movement) leaves the brain by descending the spinal cord in organized tracts of nerve fibers in the white matter.
Reconstructive Strategies for Skeletal Complications in the Polytrauma Patient

Care of severe musculoskeletal injury in the polytrauma patient presents unique challenges. Host physiology and the local injury environment must be considered when performing initial management. Temporizing or staged care is often prudent yet when possible acute total care is employed. Despite appropriate initial management, these high energy injuries are prone to nonunion, residual deformity, and infection. Thoughtful late, often innovative, reconstructive efforts are often necessary to promote improved functionality.
Wave non-reciprocity at a nonlinear structural interface

The principle of reciprocity is a basic feature of linear structural dynamics and acoustics. This work studies the passive break of reciprocity in two linear structural waveguides coupled by an unsymmetric nonlinear interface possessing mass, linear stiffness, and clearance nonlinearities. We show that the asymmetry and nonlinearity of the connection break reciprocity even with symmetric boundary conditions, and in some cases enable one-way transmission of propagating wavepackets in a preferential direction. A quantitative measure of non-reciprocity is introduced and applied to systematically study the effect of the clearance nonlinearities for two cases: an asymmetric system with dual identical clearance nonlinearities and an asymmetric system with dual unequal clearances. In the case of the asymmetric system with dual identical clearances, we demonstrate that the effectiveness of the non-reciprocity depends on whether incident waves at the structural interface encounter the clearance nonlinearities in series or in parallel. Finally, by considering interfaces with differing clearances, we show that it is possible to realize unidirectional propagation, i.e., preferential wave transmission in one direction and prevention of wave transmission in the reverse direction. These results demonstrate the efficacy of passively controlling the flow of energy in elastic waveguides using joints with clearance nonlinearities.
Chameleon: scalable adaptation of video analytics

Applying deep convolutional neural networks (NN) to video data at scale poses a substantial systems challenge, as improving inference accuracy often requires a prohibitive cost in computational resources. While it is promising to balance resource and accuracy by selecting a suitable NN configuration (e.g., the resolution and frame rate of the input video), one must also address the significant dynamics of the NN configuration's impact on video analytics accuracy. We present Chameleon, a controller that dynamically picks the best configurations for existing NN-based video analytics pipelines. The key challenge in Chameleon is that in theory, adapting configurations frequently can reduce resource consumption with little degradation in accuracy, but searching a large space of configurations periodically incurs an overwhelming resource overhead that negates the gains of adaptation. The insight behind Chameleon is that the underlying characteristics (e.g., the velocity and sizes of objects) that affect the best configuration have enough temporal and spatial correlation to allow the search cost to be amortized over time and across multiple video feeds. For example, using the video feeds of five traffic cameras, we demonstrate that compared to a baseline that picks a single optimal configuration offline, Chameleon can achieve 20-50% higher accuracy with the same amount of resources, or achieve the same accuracy with only 30--50% of the resources (a 2-3X speedup).
Isotope Ecology from Biominerals

Stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen can be used to make inferences about ancient climates and habitats. Biological hard tissues, particularly the biominerals of bioapatite, calcite, and aragonite are excellent archives of these isotopes and can be used to explore environments of Earth’s deep past.
Interventional Pain Management and Female Pelvic Pain: Considerations for Diagnosis and Treatment

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a recurring and/or constant pain of at least six months duration that has resulted in either functional or psychological disability that can require interventional treatments. Chronic pelvic pain can be visceral, somatic, neuropathic, or a combination. Patients with CPP often suffer from concurrent bowel or bladder dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, depression, and anxiety. The complexity of chronic pelvic pain can be challenging to treat, which can lead to frustration for both patients and their physicians. Treatment should involve a comprehensive and multi-modal approach involving psychosocial support, counseling, physical therapy, medication management, and interventional procedures. This manuscript will focus both on the etiologies and the interventional treatment options for chronic pelvic pain.
Bringing Infrastructural Criticism to Speculative Fiction: China Miéville’s “Covehithe”

This article unites infrastructural criticism, speculative fiction, and ecocriticism. Bruce Robbins, Patricia Yeager, and other scholars have been building the field of infrastructural criticism over the past ten years, but this work has largely focused on infrastructure within realist fiction. Because speculative fiction often emphasizes infrastructural objects and systems as the techno-scientific developments that differentiate their imagined worlds from ours, these narratives offer highly productive cases for rigorous analysis of those parts of the world that enable water, petro-culture, electricity, and telco flows and connections. This article presents through sustained close reading an ecological and ideological critique of the infrastructures at work in China Mieville’s short story “Covehithe” followed by consideration of how to develop this short story as a test case for a method of applying infrastructural criticism to other speculative fictions.
An integrated trauma-informed, mutual aid model of group work

This article presents an integrated trauma-informed, mutual aid model of group work. It applies the concepts and evidence of the trauma-informed care movement in mental health to the group work mod...
Direct observation of changing NO x lifetime in North American cities.

NOx lifetime relates nonlinearly to its own concentration; therefore, by observing how NOx lifetime changes with changes in its concentration, inferences can be made about the dominant chemistry occurring in an urban plume. We used satellite observations of NO2 from a new high-resolution product to show that NOx lifetime in approximately 30 North American cities has changed between 2005 and 2014 in a manner consistent with our understanding of NOx chemistry.
Life cycle assessment of seismic retrofit alternatives for reinforced concrete frame buildings

Abstract Reinforced concrete structures designed prior to modern building codes are still in use today. These structures are known for their inadequate design and fragile performance during earthquakes. Over the past decades, several seismic retrofitting alternatives have been proposed as strengthening solutions for these buildings. Since the construction industry has a significant environmental burden, the impacts of the retrofit solutions should also be considered in the decision-making process of a possible seismic strengthening intervention. In this study, we performed a life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis of three seismic retrofit alternatives for reinforced concrete structures, namely, RC column jacketing, beam weakening, and shear walls. An 8-story reinforced concrete case-study building available in the literature was adopted for the LCA analysis. The environmental impacts of the selected alternatives were quantified from cradle-to-grave and two disposal phase options were studied in a sensitivity analysis: landfilling and recycling. Detailed calculations and assumptions were made in order to obtain the inventory data for the impact assessment of the three alternatives. The calculated LCA results were compared and interpreted among the analyzed retrofit alternatives. The shear wall total environmental impacts were the highest of all the studied alternatives. The pre-installation (i.e., production) and disposal of the materials required by each alternative were the phases with the highest environmental impacts, while transportation impacts were comparatively small. Recycling of the construction and demolition waste reduced the environmental impacts in the disposal phase by 29%–53%, with a lower total environmental impact reduction of 12%–42% for all the retrofit alternatives studied.
Ebola vaccine trials: progress in vaccine safety and immunogenicity

Introduction: Ebolaviruses are non-segmented negative-strand RNA viruses in the Filoviridae family that cause a neglected infectious disease designated as Ebola virus disease (EVD). The most prominent member is the Ebola virus (EBOV), representing the Zaire ebolavirus species that has been responsible for the largest reported EVD outbreaks including the West African epidemic and the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Today, the most advanced EVD vaccine approaches target EBOV and multiple phase 1-4 human trials have been performed over the past few years. The most advanced platforms include vectored vaccines based on vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV-EBOV), distinct human (Ad5 and Ad26) and chimpanzee (ChAd3) adenoviruses and modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) as well as DNA-based vaccines administered as a prime-only or homologous or combined prime-boost immunization.Areas covered: Here, we review and discuss human trials with a focus on vaccine safety and immunogenicity.Expert opinion: Despite obvious progress and promising success in EBOV vaccine development, many shortcomings and challenges remain to be tackled in the future.
Design Space Exploration for Hotspot Detection

Advanced technology nodes suffer from high systematic defectivity. A significant part of such defectivity is caused by Lithographic Hotspots. Hotspots are Design Rule Check (DRC) clean areas of a layout which tend to show abnormal variation due to complex design-process interactions. In the past decade, we have witnessesed several Pattern Matching (PM) and Machine Learning (ML)-based hotspot detection solutions. However, there is little research towards addressing two pressing needs of the industry: (a) Development of hotspot detection models during early stages of technology development, and (b) Detecting Truly-Never-Seen-Before (TNSB) hotspots in incoming layouts. In this work, we propose solutions to address these issues and quantitatively demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies.
Examining Specificity of Neural Correlates of Childhood Psychotic-like Experiences During an Emotional n-Back Task

Abstract Background Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) during childhood are associated with greater risk of developing a psychotic disorder in adulthood, highlighting the importance of identifying neural correlates of childhood PLEs. Furthermore, impairment of cognitive functions, such as working memory and emotion regulation, has also been linked to psychosis risk as well as to disruptions in several brain regions. However, impairments in these domains have also been linked to other disorders, including depression. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to examine whether neural impairments in regions associated with working memory and implicit emotion regulation impairments are specific to PLEs versus depression. Methods The current study used an emotional n-back task to examine the relationship between childhood PLEs and neural activation of regions involved in both working memory and implicit emotion regulation using data from 8805 9- to 11-year-olds in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study 2.0 release. To examine specificity, we also analyzed associations with depressive symptoms. Results Our results indicated that increased PLEs during middle childhood were associated with decreased activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, striatum, and pallidum during trials requiring working memory. In contrast, increased activation of the parahippocampus, caudate, nucleus accumbens, and rostral anterior cingulate during face-viewing trials was associated with increased depressive symptoms. Conclusions These results support the dimensional view of psychosis across the lifespan, providing evidence that neural correlates of PLEs, such as decreased activation during working memory, are present during middle childhood. Furthermore, these correlates are specific to psychotic-like symptoms as compared with depressive symptoms.
The Impact of Elimination of the Donor Service Area (DSA) on United States Lung Transplant Practices and Outcomes at High and Low Competition Centers

Purpose On November 24, 2017, the DSA was removed as the primary unit of lung transplant allocation in the United States. We sought to examine the effects of center competition on recipient demographics, resource utilization, and outcomes before and after this change. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of adults in the SRTR database who underwent lung transplant in the year before or after DSA elimination. Pre- and post-DSA groups were compared using standard analytic tests. The Herfindahl Hirschman Index (HHI), a measure of market competition, was calculated, and centers in the lowest and highest HHI tertiles were identified. A difference-in-differences analysis was performed to assess the relative effects of the DSA change at these centers. Results The cohort included 4771 recipients (Table 1). In the post era recipients were less likely to have Group A diseases (31.0% vs 27.9%, p=0.02), and median waitlist times were shorter (p Conclusion Eliminating the DSA did not significantly affect pre-transplant resource utilization, LOS, or important complications. Effects were similar at low and high competition centers.
Auxetic cantilever beam energy harvester

This paper develops an auxetic cantilever beam energy harvester (ACBEH) to enhance the harvesting power from ambient vibration sources. A finite element analysis was performed to verify the power increase mechanism of the ACBEH. The simulation model of the ACBEH comprises of three main components: support, tip mass, and cantilever beam with a re-entrant hexagonal auxetic structure in which a piezoelectric element bonded to top of the auxetic region by using a thin elastic layer of epoxy. The performance of the ACBEH was computationally investigated and compared with an equivalent conventional energy harvester with a plain cantilever beam where they are attached to a bridge stay cable. The simulation result shows that the ACBEH excited by a harmonic acceleration of 1 m/s2 at 3 Hz is able to produce electric power of 427.22 μW, which is 2.51 times that of the power produced by the equivalent plain cantilever beam energy harvester (170.17 μW). This paper opens up a great potential of using auxetic cantilever beam applications for different energy harvesting systems in Metamaterials, Acoustics, Civil, Electrical, Aerospace, Biomedical, and Mechanical Engineering.
Aerial Drone: an Effective Tool to Teach Information Technology and Cybersecurity through Project Based Learning to Minority High School Students in the U.S.

This paper describes the design, implementation, and results of an NSF funded Summer Academy from 2016 to 2018, which engaged, on an annual basis, 30 to 60 rising 10th and 11th grade high school science students in an innovative, technology-enriched Project Based Learning (PBL) environment. This Academy emphasized how tech gadgets work and the impact that technology can have on improving communities by immersing students in the exploration of one such device that is a growing phenomenon, the “aerial drone.” In this Academy, the students learned various operations of the drone through Python programming language, and some cybersecurity issues and solutions. The student teams, under the guidance of diverse mentors, comprehensively fortified their STEM problem-solving skills and critical thinking. Both formative and summative evaluations for this Academy showed that it helped students improve their critical thinking ability and motivated them to pursue careers in STEM-related disciplines, specifically in information technology and cybersecurity areas.
Early Signs of Pubertal Development

Precocious puberty and precocious adrenarche are classically defined as onset of breast development or sexual hair growth in girls before age 8 years, or as onset of testicular enlargement to pubertal size or sexual hair growth in boys before age 9 years. These definitions are based on historical data in largely white, non-Hispanic populations, and timing of pubertal development may differ in children of different racial and ethnic groups as well as children with obesity. Although early pubertal development is most commonly a normal physiological variation in pubertal timing, careful evaluation is important to assess for the possibility of pathological causes including central nervous system tumors, peripheral estrogen- or androgen-secreting tumors, and certain genetic causes of precocious puberty, including McCune Albright syndrome, activating mutations of the luteinizing hormone receptor, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia. This chapter reviews the initial approach to children with early signs of puberty, focusing on history, physical examination, and initial laboratory and imaging evaluation.
Full Duplex Radios: Are we there yet?

Full duplex communication has been well explored in the past decade, with several physical layer designs proposed for effectively doubling the throughput of mobile devices. However, these systems are far from being well-deployed in the Wi-Fi and cellular applications, where most of the research has been done. In this paper, we investigate some of the fundamental pragmatic challenges in deploying full duplex that explain the reluctance from industry players in deploying this feature in commercial end-user devices and base stations at a large scale. Upon doing so, we identify that the problems lie not quite at the radio layer -- but at layers below and above it. At the hardware layer, we find that the power and complexity of IC-implementations of full duplex far exceeds that of other existing technologies that achieve similar throughput gain, such as multi-user MIMO. We further identified how higher-layer cellular and Wi-Fi traffic patterns and MAC protocols are fundamentally ill-suited to the full duplex paradigm. We report empirical analysis from the power consumption of an IC-implementation of a full duplex cancellation circuit, demonstrating that full duplex cancellation circuitry would consume at least 57 percent more power than a MIMO system achieving identical throughput gains. We also show how current traffic patterns reduce the benefits of full duplex to 1.25X instead of the expected 2X.
Ember - energy management of batteryless event detection sensors with deep reinforcement learning: demo abstract

Batteryless sensors avoid battery replacement at the cost of slowing down or stopping their operations when there is not sufficient energy to harvest in the environment. While this strategy can work for some applications, event-based applications still remain a challenge as events arrive sporadically and energy availability is uncertain. One solution is to only turn On a sensor right before an event is happening to both detect the event and save as much energy as possible. Therefore, the system has to correctly predict events while managing limited resource availability. In this demo, we present Ember, an energy management system based on deep reinforcement learning to duty cycle event-driven sensors in low-energy conditions. We show how our system learns environmental patterns over time and makes decisions to maximize the event detection rate for batteryless energy-harvesting sensor nodes subject to low energy availability. Furthermore, we show a novel self-supervised data collection algorithm that helps Ember in discovering new environmental patterns over time. For more details, we refer readers to the full paper of Ember [2].
Molecular and Clinical Features of Hospital Admissions in Patients with Thoracic Malignancies on Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Lung cancer patients undergoing systemic treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can lead to severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs) that may warrant immediate hospitalization. Patients with thoracic malignancies hospitalized at City of Hope while undergoing treatment with ICIs were identified. Pathology and available next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, including the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) status and clinical information, including hospitalizations, invasive procedures, and the occurrence of irAEs, were collected. Unpaired T-tests, Chi-square/Fisher's exact test, and logistic regression were used to analyze our cohort. The overall survival (OS) was calculated and compared using univariate and multivariate COX models. Ninety patients with stage IV lung cancer were admitted after ICI treatment. Of those patients, 28 (31.1%) had documented irAEs. Genomic analyses showed an enrichment of LRP1B mutations (n = 5/6 vs. n = 7/26, 83.3% vs. 26.9%; odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI): 13.5 (1.7-166.1); p < 0.05) and MLL3 mutations (n = 4/6, 66.7% vs. n = 5/26, 19.2%; OR (95% CI): 8.4 (1.3-49.3), p < 0.05) in patients with irAE occurrences. Patients with somatic genomic alterations (GAs) in MET (median OS of 2.7 vs. 7.2 months; HR (95% CI): 3.1 (0.57-17.1); p < 0.05) or FANCA (median OS of 3.0 vs. 12.4 months; HR (95% CI): 3.1 (0.70-13.8); p < 0.05) demonstrated a significantly shorter OS. Patients with irAEs showed a trend toward improved OS (median OS 16.4 vs. 6.8 months, p = 0.19) compared to hospitalized patients without documented irAEs. Lung cancer patients who required treatment discontinuance or interruption due to irAEs (n = 19) had significantly longer OS (median OS 18.5 vs. 6.2 months; HR (95% CI): 0.47 (0.28-0.79); p < 0.05). Our results showed a significant survival benefit in lung cancer patients hospitalized due to irAEs that necessitated a treatment interruption. Patients with positive somatic GAs in MET and FANCA were associated with significantly worse OS compared to patients with negative GAs.
Transcranial neuromodulation array with imaging aperture for simultaneous multi-focus stimulation in non-human primates.

Even simple behaviors arise from the simultaneous activation of multiple regions in the brain. Thus, the ability to simultaneously stimulate multiple regions within a brain circuit should allow for better modulation of function. However, performing simultaneous multi-focus ultrasound neuromodulation introduces challenges to transducer design. Using 3D Fullwave simulations, we have designed an ultrasound neuromodulation array for non-human primates that a) can simultaneously focus to multiple targets and b) includes an imaging aperture for additional functional imaging. This design is based on a spherical array, with 128 15mm elements distributed in a spherical helix pattern. It is shown that clustering the elements tightly around the 65mm imaging aperture located at the top of the array improves targeting at shallow depths, near the skull surface. Spherical arrays have good focusing capabilities through the skull at the center of the array but focusing to off-center locations is more challenging due to the natural geometric configuration and the angle of incidence with the skull. In order to mitigate this, the 64 elements closest to the aperture were rotated towards and focusing to a shallow target and the 64 elements farthest from the aperture were rotated towards and focusing to a deeper target. Data illustrated that this array produced focusing to the somatosensory cortex with a gain of 4.38 and to the thalamus with a gain of 3.82. To improve upon this, the array placement was optimized based on phase aberration simulations, allowing for the elements with the largest impact on the gain at each focal point to be found. This optimization resulted in an array design that can focus to the somatosensory cortex with a gain of 5.19 and the thalamus with a gain of 4.45. Simulations were also performed to evaluate the ability of the array to focus to 28 additional brain regions, showing that off-center target regions can be stimulated, but those closer to the skull will require corrective steps to deliver the same amount of energy to those locations. This simulation and design process can be adapted to individual monkey or human skull morphologies and to specific target locations within individuals by using orientable 3D printing of the transducer case and by electronic phase aberration correction.
Polyploidization and Vertebrate Origins: A Review of the Evidence

Since (1970) work, many authors have cited the idea that one or more genome duplication by polyploidization has played a role in the evolution of the vertebrates. In fact it is possible to distinguish many versions of this hypothesis. According to one popular version, there were two rounds of polyploidization, one occurring after the divergence of vertebrates from invertebrate chordates and the second after the divergence of gnathostomes from Agnatha (the “two-rounds” or 2R hypothesis). Here, I review separate lines of evidence that have been advanced in favor of polyploidization hypotheses and discuss some theoretical considerations bearing on the issue of polyploidization as a source of new genes. I conclude that, contrary to many assertions in the literature, there is no good evidence that the vertebrate genome underwent even one round of polyploidization. In fact, recent evidence allows us to go further and say that there is strong evidence against the 2R hypothesis. Linkage patterns often attributed to past genome duplication can be shown to result from independent duplication and translocation events, strongly implicating a role for adaptive evolution in the origin of linkage relationships.
Radiation and Altering Clinical Pharmacology

Ionizing radiation is a widely used therapeutic option in both curative and palliative cancer treatments, as well as in specialized benign conditions. Because the majority of cancer patients will receive radiation at some point in their treatment course, and because radiation is often given concurrently or sequentially with chemotherapy, it is critically important to understand the biology of how ionizing radiation affects tumor cells as well as normal tissue, how pharmacotherapy may alter the effectiveness of radiation, and how radiotherapy may augment standard pharmacologic interventions.
Sympathoadrenal activity, maternal, fetal, and neonatal responses after epidural anesthesia in the preeclamptic patient

This study confirms that preeclamptic patients have higher plasma levels of catecholamine than those of normal patients. It also demonstrates that epidural analgesia when administered to the preeclamptic patient during labor is followed by a significant reduction in the plasma levels of catecholamines without any adverse effects on maternal blood pressure, uterine activity, fetal heart rate, or the neonate.
Balancing depth and breadth in the data structures course

The data structures (CS 103) course in a computer science curriculum is the bridge between the CS 101/CS 102 sequence, which introduces the fundamentals of programming, and the algorithms course, which emphasizes rigorous analysis. The challenge for CS 103 instructors is to balance the breadth and depth of coverage of data structures material: pacing the assignment of projects with lectures so that all of the fundamental data structure topics are covered, and assigning large-scale projects to students without overwhelming them with time and complexity requirements. To address this challenge, this paper proposes an approach that combines pair programming, weekly assigned large-scale student-centered projects, web-based portfolios, a multiple-intelligence focus for material presentation [3], and process log (journal) entries submitted in conjunction with assignments. The approach is evaluated with an analysis of student questionnaires and an evaluation of written responses from students' process-logs. This paper documents the research and suggests directions for further study.
“Making the Difficult Choice”: Understanding Georgia’s Test-Based Grade Retention Policy in Reading

The author uses Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and habitus to analyze how students, parents, teachers, and administrators are responding to Georgia’s test-based grade retention policy in reading at one Georgia elementary school. In this multiple case study, the author interviewed, observed, and collected documents regarding ten fifth graders, their parents, teachers, and administrators. Within the field of test-based retention, the students and parents brought cultural, social, and economic capital that received little value, and they readily accepted that the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) was trustworthy and retention was fair. However, believing that retaining students would ultimately reproduce the inequities the policy claimed to address, the teachers and administrators used an appeals procedure to ensure that retention was not based solely on test scores.
Growth of mouse and human bone marrow in diffusion chambers in mice. Development of myeloid and erythroid colonies and proliferation of myeloid stem cells in cyclophosphamide- and erythropoietin-treated mice.

Both murine and human bone marrow cells were cultured in plasma clots which were formed inside diffusion chambers implanted into cyclophosphamide- and saline-treated mice. After an initial fall, the number of mouse bone marrow cells and numbers of mouse myeloid stem cells (CFU-C) and agar cluster-forming units rose faster in the cyclophosphamide-treated animals. These hosts also favored formation of myeloid (CFU-D-G) and erythroid (CFU-D-E) colonies and myeloid clusters in the plasma clot. The number and growth rate of mouse CFU-D-G were higher than those of CFU-C from the same marrow population. These observations suggest the existence of humoral factors stimulating granulocyte progenitor cell replication and differentiation. At its best the increment of CFU-D-E number was equivalent to that caused by a single 0·1 unit erythropoietin dose. Culture of normal human marrow cells resulted in colonies in the plasma clot containing only granulocytes and macrophages. Cyclophosphamide-treated host animals were essential for human CFU-D-G development. Plating efficiency for human marrow myeloid colonies was better in the conventional in vitro agar cultures than in diffusion chambers.
Cystic Renal Disease in the Domestic Ferret

Cystic renal diseases in domestic ferrets are a common anecdotal finding but have received scant systematic assessment. We performed a 17-y, case-control retrospective analysis of the medical records of 97 ferrets housed at our institution between 1987 and 2004, to determine the prevalence and morphotypes of cystic renal diseases in this species. Histologic sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin, Masson trichrome, or periodic acid–Schiff were evaluated by a comparative pathologist, and statistical analysis of hematologic and serum chemistry values was correlated with morphologic diagnosis. Of the 97 available records, 43 were eliminated due to lack of accompanying tissues. Of the 54 remaining cases, 37 (69% prevalence) had documented renal cysts, and 14 of the 54 ferrets (26%) had primary polycystic disease consisting of either polycystic kidney disease affecting renal tubules or, more commonly, glomerulocystic kidney disease. Secondary polycystic lesions were identified in 11 ferrets (20%), and 12 ferrets (22%) exhibited focal or isolated tubular cysts only as an incidental necropsy finding. Ferrets with secondary renal cysts associated with other developmental anomalies, mesangial glomerulopathy, or end-stage kidney disease had hyperphosphatemia and elevated BUN in comparison with those with primary cystic disease and elevated BUN compared with those without renal lesions. Although reflecting institutional bias, these results implicate primary and secondary cystic renal diseases as highly prevalent and underreported in the domestic ferret. In addition to the clinical implications for ferrets as research subjects and pets, these findings suggest a potential value for ferrets as a model of human cystic renal diseases.
Microplasticity and tensile damage in Ti-15V-3Cr-3Al-3Sn alloy and Ti-15V-3Cr-3Al-3Sn/SiC composite

Abstract Microscopic evidence of plastic flow at stresses below the bulk yield stress is presented for a metastable β titanium alloy (Ti-15V-3Cr-3Al-3Sn) and model Ti-15V-3Cr-3Al-3Sn/SiC composite deformed to failure under monotonic loading at room-temperature. Microplasticity is shown to initiate in Ti-15V-3Cr-3Al-3Sn (Ti-15-3) alloy at stress levels between 5 and 10% of the bulk yield stress. Evidence of microplasticity is obtained via scanning electron microscopy examination of the deformed surfaces of smooth specimens that are loaded in incremental stages to failure. In the case of the monolithic Ti-15-3 alloy, deformation is shown to occur by a wide range of mechanisms at room temperature. These include: grain boundary sliding, grain boundary flow and bulk flow mechanisms. A wider range of matrix damage is observed in the model Ti-15-3/SiC composite deformed to failure under monotonic loading. These include all the damage components observed in the matrix and additional damage shear localization/slip band formation which is presumed to occur as a result of constraint effects in the composite. Plasticity in the Ti-15-3/SiC composite is also shown to involve early interfacial debonding, fiber fracture and multiple crack coalescence stages prior to the onset of catastrophic failure. The potential implications of the above results are also discussed.
Chapter 12. Multilayer adsorption as a tool to investigate the fractal nature of porous adsorbents

This chapter surveys the use of physical adsorption, from a monolayer upward, as an experimental method to study the fractal surface structure found in many porous and irregular adsorbents. The fractal structure leads to power laws of the Frenkel-Halsey-Hill (FHH) type for the adsorption isotherm, with exponents depending on the fractal dimension of the surface and on whether the dominant force is the substrate potential (van der Waals wetting, low coverage) or the film-vapor surface tension (capillary wetting, high coverage). We derive the power laws from a unifying framework which treats the two forces as competing effects and automatically identifies well-defined coexistence lines in the pressure-dimension diagram between the submonolayer regime, the van der Waals wetting regime, and the capillary wetting regime. We compute the resulting phase diagram for several adsorbate/adsorbent pairs, predicting which of the two power laws will be observed in what pressure range for a given surface geometry and adsorbate. A detailed comparison of the adsorption isotherm on a fractal surface with that in a single pore exhibits many parallels and differences between the two, which we also discuss in terms of t-plots and comparison plots. The aim of the presentation is to provide a simple, but complete set of guidelines for the interpretation of experimental adsorption isotherms, with a minimum number of parameters, in a thermodynamically and geometrically consistent way. A variety of recent experimental studies using multilayer adsorption for fractal analysis are reviewed as illustrations. The examples include some important test cases and range from metal films to carbon blacks, activated carbons, carbon fibers, pyrogenic silicas, silica xerogels and aerogels, porous glasses, and cements.
Structural, electronic, and dielectric properties of amorphous Zr O 2 from ab initio molecular dynamics

Realistic models of amorphous $\mathrm{Zr}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ are generated in a ``melt-and-quench'' fashion using ab initio molecular dynamics in a plane-wave pseudopotential formulation of density-functional theory. The structural properties of the resulting amorphous models are analyzed, with special attention to coordination statistics. The vibrational and dielectric properties of one of these models are then investigated from first principles using linear-response methods. The electronic dielectric constant and Born effective charges are found to be very similar to those of the crystalline phases. Encouragingly, the predicted total static dielectric constant is $\ensuremath{\sim}22$, comparable to that of the monoclinic phase. This work is motivated by the search for improved gate dielectric materials for sub-$0.1\text{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology, and may also have implications for $\mathrm{Hf}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ and for silicates of $\mathrm{Zr}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ and $\mathrm{Hf}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}$.
Cellulase and Other Polymer-Hydrolyzing Activities of Trichomitopsis termopsidis, a Symbiotic Protozoan from Termites.

Crude extracts of the anaerobic, cellulolytic protozoan Trichomitopsis termopsidis possessed endo-β-1,4-glucanase and cellobiase activities, as evidenced by hydrolytic action on carboxymethyl cellulose and cellobiose, respectively. Cell extracts also hydrolyzed microcrystalline cellulose. Hydrolysis of microcrystalline cellulose displayed optima at pH 5 and at 30°C, and glucose was the sole product liberated. Cellulolytic activities of T. termopsidis appeared to be entirely cell associated. Hydrolytic activity was also detected against Douglas fir wood powder, xylan, starch, and protein, but not chitin. The importance of these enzymes in the nutrition of T. termopsidis is discussed in terms of the natural habitat of this protozoan (the hindgut of wood-eating termites).
RELEASE OF NITROGENOUS SUBSTANCES BY BREWER'S YEAST III. Shock Excretion of Amino Acids

Lewis, M. J. (University of California, Davis), and H. J. Phaff. Release of nitrogenous substances by brewers9 yeast. III. Shock excretion of amino acids. J. Bacteriol. 87: 1389–1396. 1964.—When Saccharomyces carlsbergensis (two strains) and S. cerevisiae (one strain) were grown in static culture and the harvested, washed cells were suspended in a solution of glucose, amino acids were suddenly released and then rapidly reabsorbed in a space of about 2 hr. The phenomenon of amino acid release, which was termed shock excretion, varied in intensity with the strain of yeast and was shown to be dependent on the size of the pool of free amino acids within the cells. Shock excretion was independent of osmotic pressure of the suspending medium, but required the presence of a fermentable sugar. d-Galactose and maltose caused shock excretion only when yeast was previously adapted to these sugars. Limiting glucose concentrations prevented reabsorption of amino acids, and a further decrease in glucose concentration also limited excretion. Shock excretion was strikingly reduced when the temperature of the suspending medium was lowered.
Characterization of PGEs and Other Elements in Road Dusts and Airborne Particles in Houston, Texas

It is imperative to quantify a wide range of elements in order to rigorously apportion the myriad sources of airborne particulate matter especially in industrialized urban environments. Herein, our recently reported analytical method that is optimized for the measurements of Rh, Pd, and Pt alongside numerous representative, transition, and lanthanoid elements is described. We also implemented the newly developed technique for the detailed elemental analysis of several tunnel dusts, surface road dusts, and airborne particulate matter collected in the greater Houston, Texas area. Rh, Pd and Pt were highly enriched in dusts swept from the road surface of the Washburn Tunnel averaging 152 ± 52, 770 ± 208 and 529 ± 130 ngg−1 respectively. Their concentrations were significantly lower in surface road dusts with Rh, Pd, and Pt ranging only between 5.9–8.4, 33.0–88.2, and 90.8–131 ngg−1. Average Rh, Pd, and Pt concentrations in ambient aerosols were 1.5, 11.1, and 4.5 pgm−3 in PM2.5 and 3.8, 23.1, and 15.1 pgm−3 in PM10, respectively. Rh, Pd, and Pt levels were elevated in the air inside the Washburn Tunnel reaching 12.5, 91.1, and 30.1 pgm−3 in PM2.5 and 36.3, 214, and 61.1 pgm−3 in PM10, respectively. These are amongst the first such detailed measurements in the United States and represent our efforts to rigorously quantify particulate pollution emanating from light-duty vehicles.
Source Mark: A Source-Level Approach for Identifying Architecture and Optimization Agnostic Regions for Performance Analysis

Computer architects often evaluate performance on only parts of a program and not the entire program due to long simulation times that could take weeks or longer to finish. However, choosing regions of a program to evaluate in a way that is consistent and correct with respect to different compilers and different architectures is very challenging and has not received sufficient attention. The need for such tools is growing in importance given the diversity of architectures and compilers in use today. In this work, we propose a technique that identifies regions of a desired granularity for performance evaluation. We use a source-to-source compiler that inserts software marks into the program's source code to divide the execution into regions with a desired dynamic instruction count. An evaluation framework chooses from among a set of candidate marks to find ones that are both consistent across different architectures or compilers and can yield a low run-time instruction overhead. Evaluated on a set of SPEC applications, with a region size of about 100 million instructions, our technique has a dynamic instruction overhead as high as 3.3% with an average overhead of 0.47%. We also demonstrate the scalability of our technique by evaluating the dynamic instruction overhead for regions of finer granularity and show similar small overheads, of the applications we studied, we were unable to find suitable fine grained regions only for 462.libquantum and 444.namd. Our technique is an effective alternative to traditional binary-level approaches. We have demonstrated that a source-level approach is robust, that it can achieve low overhead, and that it reduces the effort for bringing up new architectures or compilers into an existing evaluation framework.
Ultrastructure of blastocoel material in blastulae and gastrulae of the sea urchin Lytechinus pictus

The ultrastructure of blastocoelic material in blastulae and gastrulae of the sea urchin Lytechinus pictus was revealed by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The blastocoel of blastulae contained 30 nm diameter granules, aggregated in long chains. In gastrulae, on the other hand, another component was present: fine fibers. The 30 nm granules were attached to the surface of these fine fibers to form a thicker, rough-surfaced complex fibrous structure. Embryos cultured in sulfate deficient sea water had greatly reduced numbers of 30 nm granules in the blastocoel. The fine fibers appeared normal. Consequently, the 30 nm granules are selectively sensitive to sulfate deprivation.
Seasonality in firm-size portfolio returns: A nonparametric analysis

In this study the author uses stochastic dominance, a nonparametric method of portfolio performance analysis, to test for seasonality in firm-size portfolio return behavior. Stochastic dominance confirms the January effect, found in previous parametric studies, only for the smallest firm-size portfolio. It statistically eliminates the size effect for the larger firm-size portfolios in January and for all firm-size portfolios in the other months of the year. It is demonstrated that a market proxy problem and normality assumption violation may bias the parametric results. Nonparametric analysis, therefore, suggests that markets may be more efficient than parametric methods imply when model violations exist.