cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Continuing Education for Practicing Engineers

The professional engineer of the 21st century must have a holistic view of his/her world, and recognize that continuing education is vital for maintenance of professional competitiveness.. Engineering education has generally responded to workforce technology needs which have traditionally changed rather slowly. Today’s professional engineer must be prepared to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex physical, legal, technical, and social climate with which he/she is confronted. Accordingly, today’s engineering education system is structured to prepare graduates for life-long learning, by placing greater emphasis on the learning process.In the 21st century, workforce technology and demands are changing at an extremely rapid pace, and in order to remain current, the modern engineering professional must adapt to those rapid changes. Within this environment, expertise in a single discipline or technology is no longer considered adequate for the professional engineer, since he/she must be comfortable working in multi-disciplinary teams, be capable of integrating a broad range of knowledge, and working across intellectual boundaries.The modern engineer must understand the global marketplace and its working environment, and in so doing develop an international perspective, and be prepared for participation in international projects. He/she must appreciate the issues relating to sustainability, and design accordingly to address the concerns. The engineer is expected to maintain a broad perspective, and be prepared to adjust to the rapid, dynamic changes which are encountered.This paper identifies some of the reasons for the pursuit of continuing education, and reviews options which are available to the practicing engineer in Florida, with particular emphasis on opportunities offered by the University of Florida.Paper published with permission.Compilation Copyright © 2018 ASME
DIFFERENTIAL REGULATION OF CIRCULATING CARDIAC NATRIURETIC PEPTIDES IN HUMAN ACUTE DECOMPENSATED HEART FAILURE: EVIDENCE FOR A SELECTIVE AND RELATIVE ATRIAL NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE DEFICIENCY

The endocrine heart releases Atrial and Brain Natriuretic Peptide (ANP and BNP) as protective mechanisms in heart failure (HF). While ANP is a more potent activator of Guanylyl Cyclase A than BNP, ANP is more susceptible to catabolism. Although BNP and biologically inactive NT-proBNP are well
Hospice utilization in advanced cervical malignancies: An analysis of the National Inpatient Sample.

Abstract Objective Hospice services improve quality of life and outcomes for patients and caretakers, compared to inpatient mortality. This study identifies factors that exert the strongest influence on end-of-life care modalities in patients with cervical cancer. Methods Admissions with a diagnosis of cervical cancer that were discharged to hospice or died in-hospital were identified in the National Inpatient Sample years 2007–2011, excluding admissions coded for hysterectomy. Logistic regression models were used to examine differences in age, race, length of stay, primary payer, hospital region, admission type, hospital bedsize, hospital teaching status, income quartile, and Elixhauser comorbidity index score between the groups. Results 2073 admissions with a diagnosis of cervical cancer resulting in hospice discharge (n = 1290) or inpatient death (n = 783) were identified. Age (P = 0.01), hospital region (P = 0.01), length of hospitalization (P Conclusion Modalities of care in terminal cervical cancer vary among sociodemographic and clinical factors. This data underscores the continued push for improved end-of-life care among cervical cancer patients and can guide clinicians in appropriate targeted counseling to increase utilization of hospice resources.
Intentional Reference as a Logical Relation: A Variation on a Theme in Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, and Bergmann

In his 1910–11 lectures that became Some Main Problems of Philosophy, Moore made critical and explicit use of an intentional relation — referring — which he took to hold between beliefs and facts: Obviously this expression ‘referring to’ stands for some relation which each true belief has to one fact and to one only; and which each false belief has to no fact at all; and the difficulty was to define this relation.... and we may know both that there is such a relation, and that this relation is essential to the definition of truth. And what I want to point out is that we do in this sense know this relation.... Take any belief you like; it is, I think, quite plain that there is just one fact, and only one,... which would have no being — would simply not be, if the belief were false. And as soon as we know what the belief is, we know just as well and as certainly what the fact is which in this sense corresponds with it.1
Crystal Field Effects in the Magnetic Susceptibility of Dilute Alloys of LaSn3 Containing Nd Impurities

Earlier studies1,2 of dilute (LaNd)Sn3 alloys have revealed interesting behavior for the Nd concentration (n) dependence of the superconducting transition temperature Tc, the temperature dependences of the superconducting and normal state heat capacities and normal state magnetic susceptibility, and the pressure dependence of Tc. Certain features of these data were attributed to the splitting of the Nd3+ spin-orbit groundstate by the LaSn3 host crystalline electric field (CEF) and the presence of significant magnetic interactions between Nd impurities for alloys with n ≳ 1.5 at. % Nd in La. Details of an analysis of our normal state magnetic susceptibility data2 are presented below, and the implications of these results for a theoretical interpretation3,4 of the superconducting state data are discussed. A more complete discussion of our experiments will appear elsewhere.5
Biopsy practices for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

e15646Background: American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) guidelines endorse radiographic diagnosis of HCC if key features are present on dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging (arte...
Small fish in a small pond: the impact of collaborative learning on academic success for less-prepared students in a highly selective STEM environment

ABSTRACTThis study examines academic outcomes for university students engaged in a supplemental peer learning program in a selective institution. Using a matched sample of 1266 students, half enrolled in the supplemental program and half not enrolled, we find that participating students on average earned higher grades in linked courses. Using a subsample of students in a chemistry course sequence, we find program participants were more likely to remain in the sequence than non-participants, and that the impact was greater for students with lower levels of preparation.
Ply: A Visual Web Inspector for Learning from Professional Webpages

While many online resources teach basic web development, few are designed to help novices learn the CSS concepts and design patterns experts use to implement complex visual features. Professional webpages embed these design patterns and could serve as rich learning materials, but their stylesheets are complex and difficult for novices to understand. This paper presents Ply, a CSS inspection tool that helps novices use their visual intuition to make sense of professional webpages. We introduce a new visual relevance testing technique to identify properties that have visual effects on the page, which Ply uses to hide visually irrelevant code and surface unintuitive relationships between properties. In user studies, Ply helped novice developers replicate complex web features 50% faster than those using Chrome Developer Tools, and allowed novices to recognize and explain unfamiliar concepts. These results show that visual inspection tools can support learning from complex professional webpages, even for novice developers.
Impact of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Through Online Banking Services on Customer Retention with Mediating Role of Customer Perception and Satisfaction. A Case of Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan

Customer retention and satisfaction are two important indicators of effectiveness of marketing strategies for companies. Customer relationship management has emerged as one of the most important factor determining the competitive edge for companies in different industries. In the Pakistani Banking industry, the online banking is used as a key tool for establishing better and effective relationship with the customers through the different touch points offered. The Customer Relationship Management through online banking has substantial implications for the customer retention in the Banking industry. This study analyzed the role of Online Banking CRM in context of Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan for assessing the impacts on Customer retention. The regression analysis was performed on the primary data collected from 120 respondents sampled from online banking customers of Standard Chartered Bank from Lahore Branches. The results indicate that CRM has significant relationship with customer satisfaction and perceptions regarding products and services of the bank which in turn results in increased ability of the bank to retain its customers.
Decolonizing Resilience: The Case of Reconstructing the Coffee Region of Puerto Rico After Hurricanes Irma and Maria

The term resilience has saliency in the scholarship and policy on post-disaster management and disaster-risk reduction. In this paper, we assess the use of resilience as a concept for post-disaster...
A Bayesian approach for the analysis of error rate studies in forensic science.

Abstract Over the past decade, the field of forensic science has received recommendations from the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to study the validity and reliability of forensic analyses. More specifically, these committees recommend estimation of the rates of occurrence of erroneous conclusions drawn from forensic analyses. “Black box” studies for the various subjective feature-based comparison methods are intended for this purpose. In general, “black box” studies often have unbalanced designs, comparisons that are not independent, and missing data. These aspects pose difficulty in the analysis of the results and are often ignored. Instead, interpretation of the data relies on methods that assume independence between observations and a balanced experiment. Furthermore, all of these projects are interpreted within the frequentist framework and result in point estimates associated with confidence intervals that are confusing to communicate and understand. We propose to use an existing likelihood-free Bayesian inference method, called Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC), that is capable of handling unbalanced designs, dependencies among the observations, and missing data. ABC allows for studying the parameters of interest without recourse to incoherent and misleading measures of uncertainty such as confidence intervals. By taking into account information from all decision categories for a given examiner and information from the population of examiners, our method also allows for quantifying the risk of error for the given examiner, even when no error has been recorded for that examiner. This opens the door to the detection of behavioural patterns in the decision-making of examiners through their ABC rate estimates. These patterns could be used to detect error prone examiners, enabling additional training efforts to be more tailored to each examiner, limiting the risk of errors before they occur. We illustrate our proposed method by reanalysing the results of the “Noblis Black Box” study by Ulery et al. [ 18 ]. We did not choose this study because we disagree with their results, but because it is a good example of a study with dependent observations and missing data, and the data is publicly available. The ABC estimates for the population generally agreed with Ulery et al.’s plug-in estimates. However, credible intervals obtained from ABC are much wider than the confidence intervals for the corresponding parameter estimates that did not account for the dependencies among observations.
Effects of animal age, marbling score, calpastatin activity, subprimal cut, calcium injection, and degree of doneness on the palatability of steaks from limousin steers.

Strip loin (longissimus lumborum), sirloin (gluteus medius) and round (semimembranosus) subprimals from 114 purebred and crossbred Limousin steers were used to identify main effects and interactions of animal age, marbling score, calpastatin activity, subprimal cut, calcium injection (5% wt/wt with a 200 mM CaCl 2 solution at 48 h postmortem), and degree of doneness on the palatability of cooked beef steaks. Steaks were aged for 14 d, frozen, thawed, cooked to different internal temperature end points, visually scored for degree of doneness, sheared on a Warner-Bratzler shear machine, and evaluated by a trained taste panel. Raw and cooked steaks from carcasses of higher USDA quality grades had higher fat and lower moisture percentages ( P <.05). Higher degrees of doneness resulted in lower moisture percentages (P <.05). Lower shear force values were associated with less variation in shear force. Younger slaughter age and lower calpastatin activity both resulted in greater tenderness (P <.05). Shear force was lowest between medium rare and medium and increased toward both ends of the degree of doneness scale for round and sirloin steaks ; however, shear force increased linearly with degree of doneness in strip loin steaks (P <.05). Subprimal cut had the largest effect on taste panel tenderness ratings, and degree of doneness had the largest effect on taste panel juiciness ratings. The improvement in shear force due to CaCl 2 injection was greater for strip loin and sirloin steaks than for round steaks (P <.05 for the interaction). Injection with CaCl 2 improved all taste panel attributes. In addition, CaCl 2 injection reduced the toughening effects of cooking (P <.05).
Impacts of broadband sound on silver (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead (H. nobilis) carp hearing thresholds determined using auditory evoked potential audiometry

Invasive silver (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead (H. nobilis) carp, collectively referred to as bigheaded carps, threaten aquatic ecosystems of the Upper Midwestern USA. Due to the extensive ecological impacts associated with these species, prevention of their further range expansion is the aim for fisheries management. Recent behavioral studies indicate bigheaded carps are deterred by acoustic barriers and exhibit negative phonotaxis in response to anthropogenic sound sources (≥ 150 dB re 1 μPa). However, the impact of long-term exposure to these sounds on the hearing capabilities of bigheaded carps has not been well documented. In this study, the auditory evoked potential (AEP) technique was used to determine auditory thresholds among bigheaded carps before and after exposure to high intensity (155.7 ± 4.7 dB re 1 μPa SPLrms; − 8.0 ± 4.7 dB re 1 ms−2 PALrms; mean ± SD) broadband sound. Fish were exposed to sound for 30 min or 24 h and AEP measurements were taken at three time points: immediately after exposure, 48 h, or 96 h later. Results indicate that silver and bighead carp experience temporary threshold shifts (TTSs) in frequency detection following sound exposure with the magnitude and length of TTS correlated with exposure duration. The findings from this study will be used to increase the long-term efficacy of acoustical deterrent measures aimed at preventing further range expansion of bigheaded carps.
Spontaneous and field-induced crystallographic reorientation of metal electrodeposits at battery anodes

The propensity of metal anodes of contemporary interest (e.g., Li, Al, Na, and Zn) to form non-planar, dendritic morphologies during battery charging is a fundamental barrier to achievement of full reversibility. We experimentally investigate the origins of dendritic electrodeposition of Zn, Cu, and Li in a three-electrode electrochemical cell bounded at one end by a rotating disc electrode. We find that the classical picture of ion depletion-induced growth of dendrites is valid in dilute electrolytes but is essentially irrelevant in the concentrated (≥1 M) electrolytes typically used in rechargeable batteries. Using Zn as an example, we find that ion depletion at the mass transport limit may be overcome by spontaneous reorientation of Zn crystallites from orientations parallel to the electrode surface to dominantly homeotropic orientations, which appear to facilitate contact with cations outside the depletion layer. This chemotaxis-like process causes obvious texturing and increases the porosity of metal electrodeposits.
Authorship diversity among systematic reviews in eyes and vision

The inclusion of authors from diverse backgrounds and with different lived experiences is critical to ensuring the questions addressed in systematic reviews (SRs), as well as the subsequent conclusions and recommendations made, are representative of the global community. To assess the gender and geographic diversity of authors among all Cochrane SRs in eyes and vision as compared with a random sample of non-Cochrane SRs of interventions in the field of eyes and vision. The Cochrane Eyes and Vision US Satellite maintains a database of SRs in the field of eyes and vision. We selected all (n = 313) eyes and vision intervention SRs published in The Cochrane Library and a random sample of 313 eyes and vision intervention SRs published elsewhere for this study. We determined gender of the first and corresponding authors (“woman,” “man,” or “unknown”) using a previously developed algorithm and their location based on institution country and the World Health Organization region. From the 626 reviews included in our sample, we identified 751 unique authors who comprised 887 author positions (i.e., first and/or corresponding authors). We were able to ascertain the gender of 647/751 (86%) authors: 276 women and 371 men. Among Cochrane eyes and vision SRs, the proportions of women in first and/or corresponding author positions were consistent and approximately equal to men. Among non-Cochrane eyes and vision SRs, the representation of women was markedly lower as corresponding authors than other positions. Most authors of Cochrane eyes and vision SRs were from the UK (31%) and USA (26%), whereas most authors of non-Cochrane SRs were from China (34%). Compared with authors of non-Cochrane SRs in eyes and vision, authors of Cochrane SRs appear to have approximately equal representation of women and men among perceived important author positions and be located in European and North American countries, possibly due to the locations of the Cochrane editorial teams. Cochrane Eyes and Vision should continue to recruit authors from around the world in locations that reflect the global burden of eye disease.
Sound-politics in São Paulo: noise, actors, networks, and governance: Sound-politics in São Paulo, by Leonardo Cardoso, New York, Oxford University Press, 2019, 247 pp., $35 (paperback), ISBN 9780190660109

Noise is a topic that has introduced diverse perspectives ranging from Marxist structuralism (Attali [1977] 2011) to the history of sciences (Thompson 2002; Bijsterveld 2008). Recent studies have a...
Rapid Impact Analysis of B 1.1.7 Variant on the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in North Carolina

Abstract Background Several cases of the B1.1.7 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were identified in North Carolina first on January 23, 2021 in Mecklenburg County and later in Guilford County on January 28, 2021.[1,2] This variant has been associated with higher levels of transmissibility.[3–6] This study examines the potential impact of increased transmissibility as the B1.1.7 variant becomes more predominant given current vaccine distribution plans and existing non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Method We explored the anticipated impact on the effective reproduction number for North Carolina and Guilford County given the date of import of B1.1.7. The approximate growth rate in proportion of B1.1.7 observed in the United Kingdom was fit and used to establish the estimate share of B1.1.7 circulating in North Carolina. Using the nowcasted reproduction numbers, a stochastic discrete compartmental model was fit with the current vaccination rates and B1.1.7 transmissibility to estimate the impact on the effective reproduction number. Results We found that the effective reproduction number for North Carolina and Guilford County may exceed one, indicating a return to accelerating spread of infection in April as the proportion of B1.1.7 increases. The effective reproduction number will likely decrease into March, then increase as the proportion of B1.1.7 increases in circulation in the population. Conclusions Existing non-pharmaceutical interventions will need to remain in effect through the spring. Given the current vaccination rate and these interventions, it is likely that there will be an increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections. The impact of the variant will likely be heterogeneous across North Carolina given the reproduction number and volume of susceptible persons in each county at the time of introduction of the variant. Age-based vaccinations will likely reduce the overall impact on hospitalizations. This analysis underlines the need for population level genetic surveillance to confirm the proportion of variants circulating.
Atmospheric opacity has a nonlinear effect on global crop yields

Agricultural impacts of air pollution, climate change and geoengineering remain uncertain due to potentially offsetting changes in the quantity and quality of sunlight. By leveraging year-to-year variation in growing-season cloud optical thickness, I provide nonlinear empirical estimates of how increased atmospheric opacity alters sunlight across the Earth’s surface and how this affects maize and soy yields in the United States, Europe, Brazil and China. I find that the response of yields to changes in sunlight from cloud scattering and absorption is consistently concave across crops and regions. An additional day of optimal cloud cover, relative to a clear-sky day, increases maize and soy yields by 0.4%. Changes in sunlight due to changes in clouds have decreased the global average maize and soy yields by 1% and 0.1% due to air pollution and may further decrease yields by 1.8% and 0.4% due to climate change. Crop exposure to sunlight may be affected by air pollution, climate change and geoengineering. Empirical estimates of the effects of atmospheric opacity on sunlight reveal important changes in maize and soy yields in the United States, Europe, Brazil and China.
Equilibrium Non-Existence in Generalized Games

A generalized game is a strategic situation in which agents’ behavior restricts their opponents’ available action choices, giving rise to interdependencies in terms of what strategy profiles remain mutually feasible. This paper proposes a novel example of a simple generalized game in which the well-known convexity, compactness, continuity, and concavity assumptions are satisfied, but no Nash equilibrium exists. This finding reinforces that certain additional conditions appearing in the literature (primarily, the lower hemicontinuity of feasibility correspondences) are indispensable for equilibrium existence and must be considered as supplemental desiderata beyond the usual regularity conditions. Implications for institutional design are discussed.
Characterization of zirconium carbide microspheres synthesized via internal gelation

Abstract Microspheres of zirconium carbide with grain size 40-320 nm were synthesized using internal gelation techniques and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, and neutron total scattering. Compared with a polycrystalline benchmark ZrC sample prepared by plasma vapor phase deposition, the microspheres display lower variance in grain size and considerably lower microstrain, representative of a more homogenous internal microstructure. However, excess carbon was present in the microspheres, evident in both the X-ray and neutron diffraction data as well as a corresponding hypostoichiometric ZrC phase. The excess carbon phase is assumed to be pockets of carbon that remained unreacted through the combined internal gelation and subsequent carbothermic reduction synthesis process. Atomic-scale structural characterization with neutron PDF analysis confirmed the presence of localized nano-sized domains of graphite-like carbon material.
Exploring Correlation Between CT Number and ADC Value for Understanding Radiation Response.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S) Radiation induced changes in CT number (CTN) have been observed during/after radiation therapy (RT) in various tumors and healthy tissues and have been shown to correlate with radiation response. As CTN is related to the combined radiation attenuations of the intracellular volume (ICV) and the extracellular volume (ECV), the observed CTN changes may be contributed by the radiation induced variations in ICV and ECV, e.g., the ratio of ICV and ECV, in the tumor/tissue. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), derived from diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) is known to represent cellularity, i.e., the IVC/ECV ratio. The ADC or its change during/after RT has been shown to predict radiation response. CT and ADC images are commonly used in RT, offering necessary and complimentary data, one for anatomic and another for functional information. Based on these observations, we hypothesize that CTN correlates with ADC and this correlation can help understand radiation response in RT. The purpose of this study is to verify this hypothesis by analyzing selected CT and ADC data collected in our clinic. MATERIALS/METHODS Spleen and kidney were selected as the target organs for this study as they have no fat tissue that can interfere with and add complexity to the analysis. Data for a total of 20 and 15 patients with abdominal/pelvic cancers were used for the spleen and kidney analyses, respectively. The image data included the CT acquired during the standard CT simulation using the same CT scanner at 120 kVp and the ADC maps derived from the DWI acquired immediately before the first fraction using a 1.5T MR-Linac. The time gap between the CT and ADC acquisitions were approximately 3 weeks. Spleen and kidneys (left and right) were contoured on both the ADC and the CT images. The mean values of the ADC and CTN from the voxels within the contours were analyzed using a linear regression method. RESULTS The CTNs over the patient cohort have a median of 44.7 HU (range 31.5 ∼ 56.9 HU) for spleen, and 29.7 HU (range 23.0 ∼ 38.2 HU) for kidney. Both spleen and kidney data show a strong correlation between CTN and ADC (r = -0.80 for spleen and -0.83 for kidney, P < 0.001 for both). The linear regression lines were ADC = -0.0212 x CTN + 1.86 for the spleen and ADC = -0.0220 x CTN + 2.64 for the kidney. The difference between the y-intercepts may be interpreted as the additional water flow related to the renal filtration. With such an adjustment the data for the two organs can be fitted into one regression line same as that for the spleen. CONCLUSION There is a strong correlation between CTN and ADC in kidneys and spleen, suggesting that CTN is related to the ICV/ECV ratio (measured by ADC) and the radiation-induced changes in CTN during RT is related to the ADC changes. Further studies are needed to confirm the CTN and ADC correlation and to use the correlation for understanding radiation response.
Environmental Factors for Motivation of First-Generation Hmong American College Students in Academic Attainment

This qualitative thematic analysis study examined the motivations of first-generation college graduate Hmong American students in their educational attainment. Currently, Hmong American students are facing cultural and institutional barriers which continue to impact access to and achievement in college. Although there is an educational disparity, for some within the Hmong American student community, there is resilience to overcome and graduate from institutions of higher education which is important to understand. Culturally Engaging Campus Environment Model underpinned the one-on-one in-depth interviews of purposively sampled first-generation college graduate Hmong American students who attended the University of California, Merced. The findings from the study highlighted ways family supports, role models, breaking culturally normed gender roles, Hmong Student Associations (HSAs), and intentional holistic campus supports are important motivational environmental factors in Hmong American students’ higher education journey.
On the Rapidly Forced Pendulum

The rapidly forced pendulum equation \( \mathop x\limits^{..} + \sin x = \delta \sin t/\varepsilon \), with δ = δ 0 e p , p ≥ −2 and δ 0, e sufficiently small, is considered. We sketch our proof that the term proportional to δ 2 in the splitting distance d(t 0) in the (\( \mathop x\limits^. \),t) plane has the form $$ \delta ( - \frac{\pi }{4}\varepsilon \sec h\frac{\pi }{{2\varepsilon }} + O({\varepsilon ^2}\exp ( - \pi /2\varepsilon )))\sin \frac{{2{t_0}}}{\varepsilon. }$$
Critical cartography 2.0: From “participatory mapping” to authored visualizations of power and people

This article reviews the state of “critical cartography” which is being experimented with exuberance in a number of disciplines and arenas: geographers, community development activists, artists, and new media innovators, to name a few. The promise and possibilities of debunking and retooling cartography are significant: by opening up who can make a map and the kinds of maps that are made, overlooked phenomena can be reclaimed, different perspectives can be made apparent, and new knowledge constructed. However, the conditions under which the emancipatory potential of critical cartography might be realized need to be investigated. This article critiques the claims that current new mapping practices increase participation and democracy and outlines four issues critical cartography needs to further develop in order to increase its potential: 1) greater reflexivity on the critical cartographer's own position and influence of the project, 2) acknowledgement of the choices made of what not to include in the map, 3) greater consideration about the politics of aesthetics, 4) expanded search for deeper social engagement with new mapping projects. The article also discusses these issues through a case study map project of street vendors contesting the use of sidewalk space in Ho Chi Minh City. It explores the qualities a non-participatory, authored map project might engender critical visualization through processes of spatial ethnography.
[19] New methods to study poliovirus assembly and encapsidation of genomic RNA

Publisher Summary This chapter describes new methods to study poliovirus assembly and the encapsidation of genomic RNA. Poliovirus, a member of the Picornaviridae family, is a small nonenveloped icosahedral virus that encapsidates a single genome molecule of the positive sense. The capsid shell that encloses the viral RNA genome is composed of 60 copies of each of four structural proteins: VP1 (33 kDa), VP2 (30 kDa), VP3 (26 kDa), and VP4 (7.5 kDa). The availability of an infectious clone for poliovirus has made it possible to use molecular genetics for dissecting the assembly and encapsidation process. This chapter describes the growth and characterization of the recombinant vaccinia viruses that express the poliovirus capsid precursor protein and the 3CD proteinase and the use of these recombinant vectors to study P1 cleavage and the assembly of subviral particles. The chapter discusses the use of the recombinant vaccinia virus expressing the P1 capsid precursor in conjunction with the defective poliovirus genome to study the individual steps of poliovirus assembly and encapsidation. The derivation of recombinant vaccinia viruses VV-P1, which expresses the poliovirus P1 capsid precursor protein, and VV-P3, which expresses the poliovirus 3CD proteinase, is described in the chapter.
On Broadband Shock Associated Noise of Supersonic Jets

The noise of supersonic jets issued from choked or convergent-divergent nozzles is a subject of considerable current interest. When these jets are operated at off-design pressure ratios, measured noise spectra invariably show that they are made up of discrete and broadband components. The discrete tones or screech components are believed to be generated by an acoustic feedback phenomenon. One notable feature of these screech components is that the frequencies of the tones are the same in all directions. The broadband noise components have dominant frequencies which are usually higher than that of the fundamental feedback tone and range over several octave bands. At the present time, based on experimental and theoretical grounds, the broadband noise is generally further subdivided into two components each possessing distinctly different characteristics. These components are referred to as the turbulent mixing noise and the broadband shock associated noise or simply shock associated noise. The general consensus appears to be that the former is generated directly by the turbulence of the jet flow while the latter is produced by the unsteady interaction between the flow turbulence and the quasi-periodic shock cell structure of the jet. The primary objective of this paper is quite restricted.
Razing the Citizen: Economic Inequality, Gender, and Marriage Tax Reform

This chapter links the failure of U.S. social citizenship ideals to a broader weakness in U.S. ideas citizenship. To better advance policies of economic equality, U.S. law and politics needs a stronger vision not just of economic equality, but of gender equality and of democracy in general. Feminist scholars have analyzed how ideas about gender help shape the common assumption that the costs of raising and sustaining capable, productive citizens are largely private family responsibilities. But ideas about gender also help to undermine egalitarian economic policy by subtly shaping a vision where civic virtue ironically includes the project of razing citizens: turning democratic citizens into pre-modern subordinates dependent on private power. I use the example of recent tax policy reforms focused on reducing the so-called marriage penalty to show how problematic ideas of gender, anti-citizenship, and economic inequality have become entangled and how these must be reconsidered together to promote a meaningful vision of equal citizenship.
McCrae, Robert R

Robert R. McCrae was born in Maryville, Missouri in 1949. He received the B.A. in philosophy from Michigan State University in 1971, then went on to complete the M.A. (1974) and Ph.D. (1976) in personality psychology at Boston University. Following two years of research on smoking and personality at the University of Massachusetts, he joined the Gerontology Research Center of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health, in Baltimore, Maryland, first as a senior staff fellow, and then as research psychologist. He remained at NIA from 1978 until his retirement in 2009. Keywords: personality; personality traits
Spouse support, career continuance, and family life in the reserve components: A study of members and spouses of the virginia national guard

Abstract Although membership requirements and aspects of family life for members of the reserve components of the United States armed forces differ from those of active force members, most of the previously existing empirical information about the role of spouse support in career continuance decisions of reservists has come from studies of active components' members and their spouses. The present study analyzed the survey responses of 2,427 married members of the Virginia Army National Guard and 1,540 spouses of Virginia Guard members. Data analysis suggested that the spouses of Guard members were very strongly committed to career continuance and indicated a stronger preference for longevity with the Guard than the members themselves. Multivariate procedures indicated spousal support was a consistent predictor of a member's intention to remain in the Guard even when demographic, military environment, and quality-of-life variables were controlled. Implications of these findings for future research and for family policy and procedures in the reserve components are discussed.
Z splitting criterion for growing trees and boosting

A splitting criterion that arrives out of the context of a new boosting algorithm is used to construct classification trees. Trees constructed using this Z function are compared to those using the entropy function of C4.5 and are found to give much lower error rates. The Z function is also used to construct boosting machines which, when compared to other implementations, give lower error rates.
A Refractory Case of Hepatic Amoebiasis

A 39-year-old man had three separate episodes of hepatic amoebiasis despite one course of emetine and chloroquine, two courses of metronidazole, and one prolonged course of chloroquine. Asymptomatic intestinal amoebiasis was first detected after his third episode of hepatic disease, and his eventual cure followed an intensive regimen designed primarily to treat the intestinal infection. It seems likely that the intestinal amoebiasis had been present undetected since the onset of hepatic disease and had served as the source for reinfection of the liver.
Giving Birth to Child or Idea: The Feminine Dilemma.

Women today face a dilemma in creativity. Historically, women have been forced to create vicariously by supporting another person who creates (e.g., a child). More direct creativity, of music, painting, or ideas, has been reserved for men. In vicarious creativity, the woman fulfills her biological role of producing offspring. She gives birth to a child instead of an idea and projects her unfulfilled need to create directly to the child, who then has the task of creating. Direct creativity was repressed in women for centuries because of a belief that women were inferior. This concept evolved into the idea that if they were creative, then they must have qualities or abilities that only men possess. Previous research using the Mf scale of the MMPI suggests that creative individuals of either sex exhibit some cross-sex identification and implies that androgeny may be a useful component of creativity. Creativity has also been seen as a sign of psychopathology. Some (e.g., Berler) believe creativity comes about to solve inner conflicts, while others (e.g., Rollo May) consider that creativity is a sign of courage. Women traditionally have not had direct creativity as an option in resolving personal conflict. Instead, they have been limited to vicarious creativity, while feeling resentment or fear that they do not live up to their role. The dilemma facing contemporary women is that by choosing one form of creativity (family or direct production), the need to do the other will be left unsatisfied. Should I have chosen a career? Should I have children? If she chooses both, she feels guilt at doing an inadequate job with either form of creativity. Thus, with the advent of more options, women have discovered a new dilemma.
A Quantile Regression Approach to Understanding the Relations Among Morphological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension in Adult Basic Education Students:

The purpose of this study was to investigate the joint and unique contributions of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at five reading comprehension levels in adult basic education (ABE) students. We introduce the statistical technique of multiple quantile regression, which enabled us to assess the predictive utility of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at multiple points (quantiles) along the continuous distribution of reading comprehension. To demonstrate the efficacy of our multiple quantile regression analysis, we compared and contrasted our results with a traditional multiple regression analytic approach. Our results indicated that morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge accounted for a large portion of the variance (82%–95%) in reading comprehension skills across all quantiles. Morphological awareness exhibited the greatest unique predictive ability at lower levels of reading comprehension whereas vocabulary knowledge exhibited the greatest unique predictive abil...
Pseudospectral Technique for Calculation of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Flows

Abstract A pseudospectral method and its numerical solution algorithm for application to boundary layer problems in the atmosphere are presented. The method introduces the evaluation of a polynomial function when the solution is expressed as the sum of a periodic function and a polynomial function. The periodic function is then treated by Fourier expansion. In the paper, the accuracy of method has been demonstrated. Numerical results for a system of time dependent equations, modeling the atmospheric planetary boundary layer flow and nocturnal flow over terrain are encouraging. The method offers a promising alternative to finite-difference techniques.
An iterative method for training multilayer networks with threshold functions

Concerns the problem of finding weights for feed-forward networks in which threshold functions replace the more common logistic node output function. The advantage of such weights is that the complexity of the hardware implementation of such networks is greatly reduced. If the task to be learned does not change over time, it may be sufficient to find the correct weights for a threshold function network off-line and to transfer these weights to the hardware implementation. This paper provides a mathematical foundation for training a network with standard logistic function nodes and gradually altering the function to allow a mapping to a threshold unit network. The procedure is analogous to taking the limit of the logistic function as the gain parameter goes to infinity. It is demonstrated that, if the error in a trained network is small, a small change in the gain parameter will cause a small change in the network error. The result is that a network that must be implemented with threshold functions can first be trained using a traditional back propagation network using gradient descent, and further trained with progressively steeper logistic functions. In theory, this process could require many repetitions. In simulations, however, the weights have be successfully mapped to a true threshold network after a modest number of slope changes. It is important to emphasize that this method is only applicable to situations for which off-line learning is appropriate. >
ASSESSING QUALITY IN THE TEACHING OF CONTENT TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

This paper offers a chain of evidence collected to identify and verify the domain of teacher knowledge and skills required to teach ELLs content effectively in mathematics, science, reading/English language arts, and social studies. We initially assessed this domain through a review of literature and state standards for nonspecialized teacher certification. We developed a set of 67 evidence statements in 2 categories: pedagogical knowledge and linguistic knowledge. We conducted a national survey of practitioners and teacher educators to validate these statements, receiving 269 responses. A panel of 14 teacher educators and teachers further validated the statements by reaching consensus that the statements support the claims of the assessment under development. We found that the domain of knowledge necessary to teach ELLs in the content areas is insufficiently defined in the standards and literature. However, we identified that across the content areas, teachers should have knowledge and understanding of the register of the particular discipline. Beyond merely understanding the linguistic demands of a given discipline, teachers should also be able to raise ELLs' metalinguistic awareness of effective oral and written communication in the language of the content area. Also, teachers' use of multimodal instructional materials was deemed commonly essential in assessing teacher knowledge. Finally, we acknowledge that the chain of evidence collected in this line of research is a small step taken forward to understanding what should be assessed and how. With that, we offer future directions for research.
Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the 10-point Manual Muscle Test (MMT) of strength in children with juvenile idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (JIIM).

Objective. Children with juvenile idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (JIIM) present with muscle inflammation and decreased strength that may affect their functional abilities. The purpose of this study was to determine the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the 0 to10-point manual muscle testing method for children with JIIM.Methods. For the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability studies, 10 and 9 children with JIIM participated, respectively. For intra-rater reliability, one pediatric therapist completed two assessments in one day with a one-hour break. For inter-rater reliability, four therapists assessed the same child within a single morning.Results. Spearman correlations for intra-rater reliability ranged from 0.70 to 1.00. Kendall's W coefficient for inter-rater reliability of groups of muscles (total, proximal, distal, and peripheral) ranged from 0.51 to 0.76.Conclusions. The total, proximal, and peripheral Manual Muscle Test (MMT) score, using the 0-10 point scale, has acceptable reliabil...
Admissible Estimators of the Population Total Using Trimming and Winsorization

In this article we provide admissibility and uniform admissibility results for estimators of the total of a finite population which employ trimming or Winsorization. These follow from application of recent Meeden-Ghosh techniques.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPOSITION, STABILITY AND RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF RAW COMMINUTED MEAT BATTERS

The rheological constants for sausage meat batters of varying composition were determined using a tube viscometer. Values for shear stress as a function of the rate of shear were fitted to the power law model of a fluid having a yield stress. Seven formulations were tested varying in composition from 20–60% fat, 30–60% water, and 9–18% protein, from mixtures of boneless beef, beef plates and flanks, and pork back fat. An eighth batter chopped from 100% pork back fat was also evaluated. Values for the power law coefficient ranged from 140–8,580 (in dyne-set/cm2 units), the power law exponent ranged from 0.104–0.722, (dimensionless) and the yield stress ranged from 0–278 (dynes/cm2). The formulations having high fat and low protein contents had lower values for the coefficient, and higher values for the exponent, in spite of their lower water contents compared to the rest of the batters. Among the formulations, there appears to be no direct relationship between the magnitude of the rheological constants and the stability measured as the amount of fat and water released during heating. However, in two of the formulations having exactly the same fat, water, and protein contents but made up of different proportions of the meats used, the more stable formulation showed a higher value for the coefficient and a lower value for the exponent when compared to the unstable formulation.
Inhibition of apoptosis in neuronal cells infected with Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae

Background Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae is an intracellular bacterium that has been identified within cells in areas of neuropathology found in Alzheimer disease (AD), including endothelia, glia, and neurons. Depending on the cell type of the host, infection by C. pneumoniae has been shown to influence apoptotic pathways in both pro- and anti-apoptotic fashions. We have hypothesized that persistent chlamydial infection of neurons may be an important mediator of the characteristic neuropathology observed in AD brains. Chronic and/or persistent infection of neuronal cells with C. pneumoniae in the AD brain may affect apoptosis in cells containing chlamydial inclusions.