cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Relationship of Teacher Training and Teaching Experience to Assessment of Teaching Performance of Community/Junior College Faculty

AbstractAn experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that no significant differences in teaching performance exist among classes of instructors placed in four categories which reflect the presence or absence of two factors: teacher training and teaching experience. The subjects for the study were instructors selected from the humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and natural sciences departments of community/junior colleges in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The evaluators were students currently enrolled in courses taught by the faculty subjects. Results indicated that instructors with little or no teaching experience were judged by students to be better than instructors with varying degrees of teaching experience, and instructors with little or no formal training to teach were judged by students to perform as well as or better than teachers who had extensive training to teach.
Elasticity of lipid bilayer interacting with amphiphilic helical peptides

Amphiphilic helical peptides exhibit an insertion transition when they interact with lipid bilayers. At low concentrations, the peptides adsorb at the hydrophilic-hydrophobic in- terface with the helical axes parallel to the bilayer surface. However, if the peptide concentration is above a critical value, a macroscopic fraction of the peptide molecules insert perpendicularly into the bilayer. The existence of a critical concentration for insertion is crucial to the peptides biological function. This phenomena can be understood in terms of the conventional theory of elasticity for a lipid bilayer.
Merger of African easterly waves and formation of Cape Verde storms

There are two easterly wave tracks over West Africa, one to the south and the other to the north of the African Easterly Jet (AEJ). A northern wave sometimes merges with a southern wave near the coast of West Africa. The dynamic and thermodynamic evolution of the waves during the merger and the impacts of the merger on subsequent storm development are examined in this study. Three groups of storms are identified: non-merger developers, merger developers and merger non-developers. Relative to non-merger developers, merger developers have a weaker circulation near the surface prior to the merger, but the merger leads to a stronger and deeper wave pouch, which is more conducive to tropical cyclogenesis. The dryness of the northern disturbances does not seem to hinder the storm development. Composite analysis shows that merger developers are associated with a warmer and broader heat low over West Africa and a more extensive AEJ, which helps to maintain the northern waves over the East Atlantic. Merger developers and non-developers resemble each other prior to the merger, but dry air intrusion west of the wave trough in the middle and upper troposphere contributes to the non-development of some mergers. The dry air in non-developers is related to a strong and broad upper-tropospheric trough and the associated subsidence west of the low-level wave pouch. The trough advects dry air from the extratropical Atlantic in the middle and upper troposphere and also induces a strong westerly vertical shear. Composites of aerosol optical depth suggest that the Saharan Air Layer has a limited contribution to the dryness in the vicinity of the non-developers.
Structural Changes in the Cervical Facet Capsular Ligament: Potential Contributions to Pain Following Subfailure Loading

While studies have demonstrated the cervical facet capsule is at risk for tensile injury during whiplash, the relationship between joint loading, changes in the capsule's structure, and pain is not yet fully characterized. Complementary approaches were employed to investigate the capsule's structure-function relationship in the context of painful joint loading. Isolated C6/C7 facet joints (n=8) underwent tensile mechanical loading, and measures of structural modification were compared for two distraction magnitudes: 300 m (PV) and 700 m (SV). In a matched in vivo study, C6/C7 facet joints (n=4) were harvested after the same SV distraction and the tissue was sectioned to analyze collagen fiber organization using polarized light microscopy. Laxity following SV distraction (7.30+/-3.01%) was significantly greater (p<0.001) than that produced following PV distraction (0.99+/-0.44%). Also, SV distractions produced significantly higher maximum principal strain (p<0.001) in the capsule and resulted in significantly greater decreases in stiffness (p=0.002) when compared to PV distraction. After SV distraction in vivo, mean angular deviation of the fiber direction (16.8+/-2.6 degrees) was significantly increased (p=0.004) relative to naive samples in the lateral region of the capsule, indicating collagen fiber disorganization. These findings demonstrate that certain subfailure loading conditions are associated with altered joint mechanics and collagen fiber disorganization and imply ligament damage. Damage in the capsule has the potential to both directly modulate nerve fiber signaling and produce sustained physiologic modifications that may initiate persistent pain.
Atheroma morphology and mechanical strength: looks are important, after all--lose the fat.

Acute clinical cardiovascular events remain the main cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized societies. Corroborating evidence obtained from classical pathological observation and state-of-the-art imaging shows that fatal events are mainly due to thrombosis triggered by exposure of a disrupted atherosclerotic plaque contents, rather than to obliteration of blood flow by the plaque bulk. Thus, the time has finally come to concentrate on the factors that may weaken the structure of a plaque to precipitate its sudden disruption. Recent studies have identified morphological characteristics likely to be associated with a plaque’s tendency to rupture, underlining the possibility to clinically use such hallmarks to predict, control, and monitor plaque evolution. From a mechanical point of view, the delicate balance of plaque stability is controlled, on one hand, by the intrinsic properties of the tissue and, on the other hand, by the external forces to which the plaque is subjected. On the basis of circumstantial evidence, an increased content of lipid and a decreased content of collagen have been long suspected to decrease the mechanical strength of the plaque1 ; however, no direct proof has been offered so far. In a study published in this issue of Circulation Research , Rekhter et al,2 starting from this hypothesis, manipulated the composition of experimental lesion through dietary lipid loading, and then they examined the first side of this equation, ie, the relationship between collagen and lipid content and the mechanical properties of lesions. By demonstrating such a relation, albeit in an experimental model of plaque rupture and without specifically addressing the mechanisms, Rekhter et al2 have moved present assumptions regarding plaque stability closer to validation. As an important practical application, this study gives impetus to the development of clinical tests based on morphological characterization of collagen/fat content to predict and monitor …
Fluorescent particle atmospheric tracer: Toxicity hazard

Abstract Fluorescent particle atmospheric tracer (FP) is commonly used in atmospheric diffusion and air pollution studies. FP is a finely powdered mixture of zinc sulfide and cadmium sulfide which fluoresces a characteristic color when exposed to ultra-violet radiation. Cadmium and cadmium compounds are highly toxic and the use of FP in open atmospheric experiments presents a potential human health hazard.
Reliable broadcasting in dynamic network

A protocol for reliable broadcasting in dynamic networks is presented and analyzed. This protocol, which we call reliable broadcast protocol (RBP) disseminates the same message at least once to all those network nodes that have a path to the source of the message while the message is being distributed. In contrast with previous approaches to reliable broadcasting in dynamic networks, RBP requires the source to send a single message to accomplish broadcasting. Simulation results show that RBP is much more efficient and converges much faster than reliable broadcasting based on the propagation of information with feedback (PIF) algorithm on which several reliable broadcast protocols are based. In the case of single-channel wireless networks in which each node has a single broadcast link to all its neighbors, the performance of RBP is shown to approach the optimum.
Testing genetic association with rare variants in admixed populations.

Recent studies suggest that rare variants play an important role in the etiology of many traits. Although a number of methods have been developed for genetic association analysis of rare variants, they all assume a relatively homogeneous population under study. Such an assumption may not be valid for samples collected from admixed populations such as African Americans and Hispanic Americans as there is a great extent of local variation in ancestry in these populations. To ensure valid and more powerful rare variant association tests performed in admixed populations, we have developed a local ancestry-based weighted dosage test, which is able to take into account local ancestry of rare alleles, uncertainties in rare variant imputation when imputed data are included, and the direction of effect that rare variants exert on phenotypic outcome. We used simulated sequence data to show that our proposed test has controlled type I error rates, whereas naive application of existing rare variants tests and tests that adjust for global ancestry lead to inflated type I error rates. We showed that our test has higher power than tests without proper adjustment of ancestry. We also applied the proposed method to a candidate gene study on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Our results suggest that it is important to appropriately control for potential population stratification induced by local ancestry difference in the analysis of rare variants in admixed populations.
Effects of 7 days of arginine-alpha-ketoglutarate supplementation using NO2 Platinum on brachial artery blood flow and the levels of plasma L-arginine, nitric oxide, and eNOS after resistance exercise

Background Arginine-alpha-ketoglutarate supplements are alleged to increase nitric oxide production, thereby resulting in vasodilation, which will increase oxygen and nutrient delivery to muscles which during resistance exercise and facilitate muscle hypertrophy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of 7 days arginine-alpha-ketoglutarate supplementation using NO2 Platinum on arterial blood flow and the levels of circulating L-arginine, nitric oxide, and eNOS after resistance exercise.
Inclusion of Transverse Shear Deformation in Finite Element Displacement Formulations

A stiffness matrix is derived for a beam element with transverse shear deformation. It is shown that straightforward energy minimization yields the correct stiffness matrix in displacement formulations when transverse shear effects are considered. Since the TIM4 beam element does not represent the geometric boundary conditions for a cantilever beam the rotation of the normal must be retained as a grid point degree of freedom.
THE Cs/K EXCHANGE IN MUSCOVITE INTERLAYERS: AN AB INITIO TREATMENT

Plane-wave pseudopotential total energy calculations have been applied to investigate the structure and energetics of the Cs/K exchange into interlayer sites in muscovite mica. Novel muscovite structures were designed to isolate the effects of 2:1 layer charge, cation size/interlayer site shape, and tetrahedral Al/Si substitutions on the exchange. All atom and cell-parameter optimizations were performed with the intention to mimic the constant pressure, non-isovolumetric exchange conditions thought to be found at frayed-edge sites. Under conditions where the cell parameters are allowed to relax, the overall Cs/K exchange reaction is surprisingly close to isoenergetic. The forward reaction is more strongly favored with increasing layer charge. For the condition of zero layer charge and no interlayer site distortion, the difference in the optimal interlayer spacing for Cs relative to K is very small, indicating a baseline indifference of the muscovite structure to cation size. The presence of 2:1 layer charge or tetrahedral rotations arising from Al/Si substitutions clearly change this outcome. Analysis of the dependence of the interlayer spacing on layer charge shows that while the spacing collapses with increasing layer charge for K as the interlayer cation, the reverse is true for Cs. We attribute the contrasting behavior to inherent differences in the ability of these cations to screen 2:1 layer-layer repulsions. Such effects might be involved during exchange at frayed-edge sites where interlayer spacings are increased. This is known, from experiment, to be very selective for Cs. Overall, the exchange energetics are so low that the Cs/K exchange rate and degree of irreversibility are likely to be dominated by diffusion kinetics.
Tolerance of Sir1p/Origin Recognition Complex-Dependent Silencing for Enhanced Origin Firing at HMRa

The HMR-E silencer is a DNA element that directs the formation of silent chromatin at the HMRa locus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Sir1p is one of four Sir proteins required for silent chromatin formation at HMRa. Sir1p functions by binding the origin recognition complex (ORC), which binds to HMR-E, and recruiting the other Sir proteins (Sir2p to -4p). ORCs also bind to hundreds of nonsilencer positions distributed throughout the genome, marking them as replication origins, the sites for replication initiation. HMR-E also acts as a replication origin, but compared to many origins in the genome, it fires extremely inefficiently and late during S phase. One postulate to explain this observation is that ORC's role in origin firing is incompatible with its role in binding Sir1p and/or the formation of silent chromatin. Here we examined a mutant HMR-E silencer and fusions between robust replication origins and HMR-E for HMRa silencing, origin firing, and replication timing. Origin firing within HMRa and from the HMR-E silencer itself could be significantly enhanced, and the timing of HMRa replication during an otherwise normal S phase advanced, without a substantial reduction in SIR1-dependent silencing. However, although the robust origin/silencer fusions silenced HMRa quite well, they were measurably less effective than a comparable silencer containing HMR-E's native ORC binding site.
In vitro platelet adhesion on polymeric surfaces with varying fluxes of continuous nitric oxide release.

Nitric oxide (NO) is released by endothelial cells that line the inner walls of healthy blood vessels at fluxes ranging from 0.5 � 10 � 10 to 4.0 � 10 � 10 mol cm � 2 min � 1 , and this continuous NO release contributes to the extraordinary thromboresistance of the intact endothelium. To improve the biocompatibility of blood-contacting devi- ces, a biomimetic approach to release/generate NO at polymer/blood interfaces has been pursued recently (with NO donors or NO generating catalysts doped within poly- meric coatings) and this concept has been shown to be effective in preventing platelet adhesion/activation via several in vivo animal studies. However, there are no reports to date describing any quantitative in vitro assay to evaluate the blood compatibilities of such NO release/gen- erating polymers with controlled NO fluxes. Such a meth- odology is desired to provide a preliminary assessment of any new NO-releasing material, in terms of the effective- ness of given NO fluxes and NO donor amounts on plate- let activity before the more complex and costly in vivo test- ing is carried out. In this article, we report the use of a lac- tate dehydrogenase assay to study in vitro platelet adhesion on such NO-releasing polymer surfaces with varying NO fluxes. Reduced platelet adhesion was found to correlate with increasing NO fluxes. The highest NO flux tested, 7.05 (60.25) � 10 � 10 mol cm � 2 min � 1 , effec- tively reduced platelet adhesion to nearly 20% of its origi- nal level (from 14.0 (62.1) � 10 5 cells cm � 2 to 2.96 (60.18) � 10 5 cells cm � 2 ) compared to the control polymer coating without NO release capability. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 81A: 956-963, 2007
Development of a car-like online navigation testbed

We present new realtime path planning and collision avoidance algorithms for an autonomous rover equipped with a laser range finder to be used as a platform for multi-agent navigation and control in unknown environments. For successful navigation, such tasks as localization, map-building, and collision avoidance should be handled at the vehicle level. The proposed architecture covers these aspects of robotic path- planning in a modular and robust manner, allowing quicker development of more sophisticated path-planners. Using a conventional SLAM algorithm, a feature map and the location of the vehicle is obtained. The information for orientation and distance of the obstacles ahead is available from a laser range finder. The proposed collision avoidance algorithm provides multiple paths to guide the vehicle through the environment. The system acts as a self-contained extendable platform for development and testing of high-level pathfinders.
Mapping barley genes to chromosome arms by transcript profiling of wheat–barley ditelosomic chromosome addition lines

Wheat–barley disomic and ditelosomic chromosome addition lines have been used as genetic tools for a range of applications since their development in the 1980s. In the present study, we used the Af...
Dempster-Shafer theory for sensor fusion in autonomous mobile robots

This article discusses Dempster-Shafer (DS) theory in terms of its utility for sensor fusion for autonomous mobile robots. It exploits two little used components of DS theory: the weight of conflict metric and the enlargement of the frame of discernment. The weight of conflict is used to measure the amount of consensus between different sensors. A lack of consensus leads the robot to either compensate within certain limits or investigate the problem further, adding robustness to the robot's operation. Enlarging the frame of discernment allows a modular decomposition of evidence. This decomposition offers the advantages of perceptual abstraction, and permits expert knowledge about the domain to be embedded in the frames of discernment, simplifying the construction and maintenance of the knowledge base. Six experiments using this Dempster-Shafer framework are presented. Data from four types of sensor data were collected by a mobile robot and fused with the sensor fusion effects (SFX) architecture.
Complex biliary stones: treatment with a small choledochoscope and laser lithotripsy.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the use of a small choledochoscope and laser lithotripsy in the treatment of complex biliary stone disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five consecutive patients with complex biliary stone disease not amenable to surgical therapy, peroral endoscopic removal, or simple percutaneous retrieval techniques underwent 35 stone-removal procedures. A 3.4-mm endoscope and a pulsed dye coumarin green laser were used to pulverize and remove stones through preexisting, mature transhepatic biliary drain tracts (n = 18), t-tube tracts (n = 3), cholecystostomy tube tracts (n = 3), and a hepaticocutaneous enterostomy (n = 1). Procedures in 14 of the 25 patients (56%) were performed on an outpatient basis. RESULTS: Twenty-four of the 25 patients (96%) were cleared of their stone burden and underwent subsequent catheter therapy of strictures or abscesses as necessary. Complications of the stone removal included fever and chills in six patients (24%) and mild bleeding from a bile duct wall during remov...
Comment on Ordover and Willig

First, a disclosure: I have no financial interests in the present Microsoft antitrust suit with the Department of Justice. Indeed, I have never had any financial stakes in any of Microsoft’s legal battles, except that I use some of their products.
Cellular Location and Characteristics of Peptidase Enzymes in Lactic Streptococci

Abstract Cell extracts from Streptococcus lactis C2 fractionated by differential centrifugation possessed peptidases capable of hydrolyzing a variety of commercial dipeptides and were also active on whole casein as a substrate. Maximum dipeptidase activity for the soluble and ribosome-associated fractions was at pH 8.0 at 37C. Particulate associated dipeptidase activity was maximal at pH 7.0 to 8.0. The soluble and ribosome-associated enzymes were most active on alanylglycine while leucyl peptides were the best substrates for the particulate fraction. Activity with glycyl peptides was negligible with all cellular fractions. The presence of whole casein in the growth medium suppressed particulate and ribosome activity and slightly stimulated soluble peptidase and proteinase activity.
Scioto: A Framework for Global-View Task Parallelism

We introduce Scioto, shared collections of task objects, a lightweight framework for providing task management on distributed memory machines under one-sided and global-view parallel programming models. Scioto provides locality aware dynamic load balancing and interoperates with MPI, ARMCI, and global arrays. Additionally, Scioto's task model and programming interface are compatible with many other existing parallel models including UPC, SHMEM, and CAF. Through task parallelism, the Scioto framework provides a solution for overcoming irregularity, load imbalance, and heterogeneity as well as dynamic mapping of computation onto emerging architectures. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the Scioto framework and demonstrate its effectiveness on the unbalanced tree search (UTS) benchmark and two quantum chemistry codes: the closed shell self-consistent field (SCF) method and a sparse tensor contraction kernel extracted from a coupled cluster computation. We explore the efficiency and scalability of Scioto through these sample applications and demonstrate that is offers low overhead, achieves good performance on heterogeneous and multicore clusters, and scales to hundreds of processors.
On choosing models for linguistic connector words for Mamdani fuzzy logic systems

We examine ten antecedent connector models in the framework of a singleton or nonsingleton fuzzy logic system (FLS), to establish which models can be used. In this work, a usable connector model must lead to a separable firing degree that is a closed-form and piecewise-differentiable function of the membership function parameters and also the parameter characterizing that connector model. Our analysis shows that: for a singleton FLS where the Mamdani-product or Mamdani-minimum implication method is used, all ten antecedent connector models are usable; for a nonsingleton FLS where the Mamdani-product implication method is used, only one antecedent connector model is usable; and for a nonsingleton FLS where the Mamdani-minimum implication method is used, none of the ten antecedent connector models is usable. We also show, by examples, that the parameter of the antecedent connector model provides additional freedom in adjusting a FLS, so that the FLS has the potential to achieve better performance than a FLS that uses the traditional product or minimum t-norm for the antecedent connections.
Coherent switching with decay of mixing: an improved treatment of electronic coherence for non-Born-Oppenheimer trajectories.

The self-consistent decay-of-mixing (SCDM) semiclassical trajectory method for electronically nonadiabatic dynamics is improved by modifying the switching probability that determines the instantaneous electronic state toward which the system decoheres. This method is called coherent switching with decay of mixing (CSDM), and it differs from the previously presented SCDM method in that the electronic amplitudes controlling the switching of the decoherent state are treated fully coherently in the electronic equations of motion for each complete passage through a strong interaction region. It is tested against accurate quantum mechanical calculations for 12 atom-diatom scattering test cases. Also tested are the SCDM method and the trajectory surface hopping method of Parlant and Gislason that requires coherent passages through each strong interaction region, and which we call the “exact complete passage” trajectory surface hopping (ECP-TSH) method. The results are compared with previously presented results for the fewest switches with time uncertainty and Tully’s fewest switches (TFS) surface hopping methods and the semiclassical Ehrenfest method. We find that the CSDM method is the most accurate of the semiclassical trajectory methods tested. Including coherent passages improves the accuracy of the SCDM method (i.e., the CSDM method is more accurate than the SCDM method) but not of the trajectory surface hopping method (i.e., the ECP-TSH method is not more accurate on average than the TFS method).
Music-Language Correlations and the “Scotch Snap”

in this study we examine a rhythmic pattern known as the Scotch Snap (SS): a sixteenth-note on the beat followed by a dotted eighth-note. A musical corpus analysis shows that the SS is common in both Scottish and English songs, but virtually nonexistent in German and Italian songs. We explore possible linguistic correlates for this phenomenon. Our reasoning is that languages in which stressed syllables are often short might tend to favor the SS pattern. The traditional distinction between long and short vowels correlates partly with the SS pattern across languages, but not completely. (German allows short stressed vowels, but the SS pattern is not common in German music.) We then examine the duration of stressed syllables in four modern speech corpora: one British English, one German, and two Italian. British English shows a much higher proportion of very short stressed syllables (less than 100 ms) than the other two languages. Four vowels account for a large proportion of very short stressed syllables in British English, and also constitute a large proportion of SS tokens in our English musical corpus. This is the first study known to us that establishes a correlation between speech rhythms in languages and musical rhythms in the songs of those languages.
To treat or not to treat: On what should surgical therapy be based?

Dr C. Autious has just returned from the most prestigious vascular surgery meeting in America. At the meeting, one of the most prominent complex aneurysm surgeons arose to discuss a paper concerning a procedure he had developed and popularized over the last decade. Dr L. Uminous stunned the audience with his declaration that he no longer recommends that his namesake procedure be performed. Instead, he proclaimed that a new, radically different procedure be adopted immediately. He showed slides detailing the novel proposal but did not give data concerning results obtained. The recommended procedure is technically possible but seems to require a different skill set. Dr Autious has a patient scheduled for elective surgery that he had planned to use the Uminous procedure to treat. What should he do? A.Do the recommended procedure as best you can. B.Refer the patient to Dr Uminous. C.Offer the recommended procedure with full disclosure. D.Give full disclosure and let the patient decide which procedure to use. E.Put the procedure on hold until more information becomes available.
Clinical Case Study: Achieving Long-term Control of Insulin Resistance

BACKGROUND: A total of 20.8 million people in the United States have diabetes, including 10.3 million adults over the age of 60 years, and more than 6 million people remain undiagnosed. Although diabetes is widely recognized as a prevalent and serious disease in managed care, current care is suboptimal, with less than 2% of American adults with diabetes receiving optimal quality of care. OBJECTIVE: To review the various treatment interventions available in diabetes care, including the use of pay for performance (P4P) initiatives. SUMMARY: In an effort to improve the current state of diabetes care, the NCQA's Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) diabetes measure was developed as a means to better promote monitoring of various clinical markers in patients with this disease. This measure has been employed in P4P initiatives across the country by granting incentives to providers who have a prespecified proportion of their patients with diabetes meeting the measure. Likewise, to improve outcom...
Atomic clocks of the future: using the ultrafast and ultrastable

The application of ultra-fast mode-locked lasers and nonlinear optics to optical frequency metrology is revolutionizing the field of atomic clocks. The basic concepts and applications will be reviewed using the latest results on optical atomic frequency standards.
Differential Genomic Effects of Six Different TiO2 Nanomaterials on Human Liver HepG2 Cells

Human HepG2 cells were exposed to six TiO2 nanomaterials (with dry primary particle sizes ranging from 22 to 214 nm, either 0.3, 3, or 30 μg/mL) for 3 days. Some of these canonical pathways changed by nano-TiO2 in vitro treatments have been already reported in the literature, such as NRF2-mediated stress response, fatty acid metabolism, cell cycle and apoptosis, immune response, cholesterol biosynthesis, and glycolysis. But this genomic study also revealed some novel effects such as protein synthesis, protein ubiquitination, hepatic fibrosis, and cancer-related signaling pathways. More importantly, this genomic analysis of nano-TiO2 treated HepG2 cells linked some of the in vitro canonical pathways to in vivo adverse outcomes: NRF2-mediated response pathways to oxidative stress, acute phase response to inflammation, cholesterol biosynthesis to steroid hormones alteration, fatty acid metabolism changes to lipid homeostasis alteration, G2/M cell checkpoint regulation to apoptosis, and hepatic fibrosis/stellate cell activation to liver fibrosis.
The O*NET content model: strengths and limitations

This paper describes the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), a relatively recent database containing measures of occupational characteristics produced by the United States Department of Labor as a replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. O*NET scores cover cognitive, interpersonal, and physical skill requirements, as well as working conditions, and are derived mostly from survey responses of large, representative samples of workers. O*NET’s substantive scope and sampling are impressive, but there are also significant gaps and duplication in content. Underlying constructs, item wording, and response options are often vague or overly complex. However, O*NET items have generally sensible correlations with wages, which, along with the richness of the database, ensure O*NET’s place among researchers interested in work and labour markets.
Illicit Financial Flows from the Least Developed Countries: 1990-2008

This paper explores the scale and composition of illicit financial flows from the 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Illicit financial flows involve the cross-border transfer of the proceeds of corruption, trade in contraband goods, criminal activities and tax evasion. In recent years, considerable interest has arisen over the extent to which such flows may have a detrimental impact on development and governance in both developed and developing countries alike.This issue has been recognized by the UN as important for development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Illicit capital flight, where it occurs, is a major hindrance to the mobilization of domestic resources for development. In many cases, it significantly reduces the volume of resources available for investment in the MDGs and productive capacities. Through theUnited Nations, the international community has committed to strengthen national and multilateral efforts to address it. As the deadline for achievement of the MDGs draws closer, it is vital understand more about the nature of this problem and to explore possible policy solutions, especially for those countries furthest off-track towards the MDGs.The study’s indicative results find that illicit financial flows from the LDCs have increased from US $9.7 billion in 1990 to US $26.3 billion in 2008 implying an inflation-adjusted rate of increase of 6.2 percent per annum. Conservative (lower-bound) estimates indicate that illicit flows have increased from US $7.9 billion in 1990 to US $20.2 billion in 2008. The top ten exporters of illicit capital account for 63 percent of total outflows from the LDCs while the top 20 account for nearly 83 percent. Trade mispricing accounts for the bulk (65-70 percent) of illicit outflows from the LDCs, and the propensity for mispricing has increased along with increasing external trade. Empirical research on illicit flows indicates that there are three types of factors driving illicit flows — macroeconomic, structural, and governance-related.The ratio of illicit outflows to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) averages about 4.8 percent but there is wide variation among LDCs. Of the top 10 countries with the highest illicit flows to GDP ratio, four are small island countries, two are landlocked, and four are neither. In some LDCs, losses through illicit capital flows outpace monies received in official development assistance (ODA).
Experiences with the Quadratic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Band Theory Method

The Quadratic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method is a fast band theory method in the sense that all eigenvalues for a given k are obtained from one matrix diagonalization, but it differs from other fast band theory methods in that it is derived entirely from multiple-scattering theory, without the introduction of a Rayleigh-Ritz variational step. In this theory, the atomic potentials are shifted by Δασ(r) with Δ equal to E-E0 and σ(r) equal to one when r is inside the Wigner-Seitz cell and zero otherwise, and it turns out that the matrix of coefficients is an entire function of Δ. This matrix can be terminated to give a linear KKR, quadratic KKR, cubic KKR, …, or not terminated at all to give the pivoted multiple-scattering equations. Full potentials are no harder to deal with than potentials with a shape approximation.
Acetylsalicylic Acid Stimulates Murine Megakaryocyte Precursor Cells

Depression of platelet function with a single intraperitoneal injection of acetylsalicylic acid was found to produce significant increases in several thrombocytopoietic indicators despite no observed change in platelet counts. There was an increase in the number of megakaryocytic precursor cells (small acetylcholinesterase positive or "SAChE+" cells), platelet size, and 35S incorporation into platelets. The results are qualitatively comparable to data from previous experiments showing that treatment of mice with a thrombocytopoiesis-stimulating factor (TSF or thrombopoietin) and rabbit anti-mouse platelet serum will elevate thrombocytopoiesis. The results presented herein indicate that interruption of platelet function by aspirin results in the production of new platelets, presumably by the action of a feedback system controlling thrombocytopoiesis.
33 The Black Box of Pain Assessment in Extremely Premature Newborns Remains Closed

Background and aims In our NICU nurses assess the neonates’ pain with the validated COMFORTneo scale three times per day and additionally if they suspect pain. We treat more and more extremely premature neonates from 24 weeks gestation. In this study we explore if the COMFORTneo scale is valid for these extreme premature neonates. Methods COMFORTneo scores and Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) scores for pain and distress from 2011 were extracted from the patient data management system. We selected scores assigned in the first 28 postnatal days and considered three gestational age groups: extreme prematures: 23.6 to 27.0 wks, prematures: 27.1 to 35.6 weeks and term borns: 36 weeks and older. Results We retrieved 9915 scores in 638 newborns. The median number of scores per patient was 41 (IQR 28 to 55) for 76 extreme prematures; 8(IQR 3 to 18) for 329 prematures; and 3 (IQR 1 to 9) for 233 term borns. 10.0% of scores for the extreme prematures; 9.1% of scores for the prematures; and 15.8% of scores for the term borns suggested pain or distress (COMFORTneo score ≥ 14). Correlations between the COMFORTneo scale and the NRS pain ranged from 0.42 (extreme prematures) to 0.53 (prematures); those between the COMFORTneo scale and the NRS-distress 0.76 (extreme prematures) to 0.85 (term borns). Internal consistencies varied from Cronbach’s alpha 0.73 (in extreme prematures) to 0.85 (in term borns). Conclusions The COMFORTneo scale has acceptable psychometric properties for extreme prematures but we should continue to study other assessment strategies.
Expanding the Objectives of the Laboratory Experience

This paper describes a framework for an approach to the engineering learning laboratory program that includes objectives emphasizing customer interfaces and the iterative nature of the engineering design process. The approach is designed to help students’ transition from standalone labs and laboratory-based design projects to a capstone experience. In this approach the students are customers of each other and must improve their product, a laboratory exercise, based on other student’s feedback. The four phases to the project are research of a topic, development of a laboratory exercise, continuous improvement and final report/evaluation. The phases are explained in a format that could be applied to other engineering laboratories and a case is presented to illustrate application in a specific course.
Learning from point sets with observational bias

Many objects can be represented as sets of multidimensional points. A common approach to learning from these point sets is to assume that each set is an i.i.d. sample from an unknown underlying distribution, and then estimate the similarities between these distributions. In realistic situations, however, the point sets are often subject to sampling biases due to variable or inconsistent observation actions. These biases can fundamentally change the observed distributions of points and distort the results of learning. In this paper we propose the use of conditional divergences to correct these distortions and learn from biased point sets effectively. Our empirical study shows that the proposed method can successfully correct the biases and achieve satisfactory learning performance.
Efficiency of compensation for absence of fall in insulin during exercise.

To assess compensation for the absence of the exercise-induced fall in insulin, dogs underwent 150 min of treadmill exercise with insulin infused intraportally with (IC + Glc; n = 7) or without (IC; n = 6) glucose clamped. Glucose production (Ra), gluconeogenic conversion (Conv), and intrahepatic gluconeogenic efficiency (Eff) were assessed with tracers ([3H]glucose, [14C]alanine) and arteriovenous differences. Glucose fell by 6 +/- 4 and 11 +/- 2 mg/dl at 30 min of exercise and by 8 +/- 2 and 36 +/- 5 mg/dl at 150 min in IC + Glc and IC. Glucagon rose by 16 +/- 8 and 55 +/- 17 pg/ml by 30 min of exercise and by 18 +/- 6 and 93 +/- 22 pg/ml by 150 min in IC + Glc and IC. Norepinephrine was unaffected by the glycemic decrement in IC, whereas epinephrine was greater for the last 60 min of exercise. Ra rose by an average of 0.9 +/- 0.3 and 3.7 +/- 0.2 mg.kg-1.min-1 in IC + Glc and IC. Conv rose by 91 +/- 39 and 325 +/- 75% in IC + Glc and IC at 150 min of exercise, and Eff rose by 87 +/- 57 and 358 +/- 99%. The compensatory Ra exceeded the maximum possible gluconeogenic rate, indicating that glycogenolysis was also stimulated. In summary, in the absence of the exercise-induced fall in insulin 1) glycemia falls approximately fourfold faster; 2) minimal glycemic decrements elicit a large and rapid increase in Ra; 3) this compensation involves a glycogenolytic and gluconeogenic response; 4) the accelerated gluconeogenic rate is due, in large part, to stimulation of Eff; and 5) the compensatory Ra is likely mediated, in part, by glucagon. Hence, although the fall in insulin is essential for normal glucoregulation during exercise, a highly sensitive counterregulatory response prevents severe hypoglycemia. The remarkable sensitivity of the liver to small changes in glycemia implies that the normal coupling of the exercise-induced increase in Ra to glucose utilization may be signaled by small, nearly imperceptible changes in glucose.
Anatomic Considerations for the Pulmonary Valve

Pulmonary valve disease ranges from physiologic pulmonic flow murmurs to significant stenosis that result in changes to the structure and function of the native valve. Inherent to each pathophysiologic change at the pulmonic valve is a predisposing structural or congenital condition. An understanding of the underlying etiology for pulmonary valve disease guides multidisciplinary decision-making regarding the approach and timing for surgical replacement or reconstruction. The following chapter describes pulmonary valve embryology and structure, predisposing congenital conditions for pulmonary valve disease, postoperative anatomic considerations, and reviews imaging modalities utilized in the characterization of pulmonary valve disease. This discussion provides a framework for the brief description of surgical approaches to repair.
A Scalable Cloud Based on Commodity Hardware

The recent explosion in the speed and connectivity of the Internet has opened up the possibility of millions and possibly billions of devices connected together. Combined with the development of small, low power devices, new paradigms in the field of computing have opened up. Traditional passive electronic devices now have rudimentary computing capabilities. The resulting Internet of Things (IoT), comprised of smart interconnected devices is improving our ability to gather ambient information and make informed decisions that directly benefit humanity. However, the ubiquity of these devices also presents an interesting scenario wherein the devices can perform limited general-purpose computations when they are not performing their primary functions. A computational task divided into a large number of smaller, micro tasks, each of which take only a few CPU cycles to complete. By distributing these tasks over a large number of devices, we can achieve a substantial amount of computation with seemingly modest devices. In this work, we explore a mechanism to enable such massively parallel computations in low powered commodity hardware devices through fine-grained task parallelism.
Enhanced threshold resummation formalism for lepton pair production and its effects in the determination of parton distribution functions

We demonstrate that theoretical predictions using current resummation techniques for the lepton pair production (LPP) rapidity and ${x}_{F}$ distributions can be inconsistent with data in high rapidity and ${x}_{F}$ kinematic regions by observing their effect in global fits of parton distribution functions (PDFs). We present an enhanced resummation technique for the LPP rapidity and ${x}_{F}$ distributions that agrees with LPP data. The enhanced resummation method is used in conjunction with threshold resummation in deep inelastic scattering to perform two global fits of PDFs using the minimal and Borel prescriptions. The results are analyzed to determine the effect of threshold resummation on global fits of PDFs.
David Oliver: Why I'm changing my mind about resuscitation.

I’ve written before about planning end of life care,1 pragmatism in decisions regarding “do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation” (DNACPR), and possible dissonance between legal rulings and clinicians’ daily realities.2 I’ve called for more measured media reporting and said that dying people need protection from undignified, distressing medicalised intervention.13 My columns and others on DNACPR have elicited many responses,45 notably from Kate Masters,67 whose father’s action led to the Tracey judgment. Kate has been contacted by many families with similar stories. A memorable letter described resuscitation as “the routine, institutionalised electrocution and torture …
Sustainability Issues in Biomass Feedstock Production: A Policy Perspective

Demand for energy biomass has led nongovernmental organizations, industries with interests contrary to biofuels, and even governments to question whether bioenergy policies truly result in environmental and societal improvements befitting of their “bio,” “renewable,” and “green” labels. Environmental concerns range from potential emissions of greenhouse gas emissions from indirect land-use change, in some cases making the footprint of biofuels worse than petroleum. Environmental groups also fear that forests’ fragile ecosystems could be threatened by overharvesting that leads to water pollution and loss of biodiversity and soil productivity. In addition to environmental harms, social advocates predict that biomass production in developing countries could lead to loss of land tenure/rights, and labor and employment abuses. Laws and private standards have evolved in response to these concerns. Challenges remain, however, in implementing biofuels’ sustainability standards, such as enabling farmers to practically and economically use practice and measurement tools, reconciling divergent standards among countries, and solving the seemingly intractable “food versus fuel” dilemma. This chapter examines sustainability requirements for biomass-to-bioenergy that have arisen through the convergence of energy, environmental, agricultural, and forestry policies; examines core “sustainability” definitions in United States, European Union, Brazil, and private policies; and asks how international policy can reconcile meanings of sustainability to foster the nascent bioenergy sector.
Growth and Movements of Mummichogs ( Fundulus heteroclitus ) Along Armored and Vegetated Estuarine Shorelines

Alteration of estuarine shorelines associated with increased urbanization can significantly impact biota and food webs. This study determined the impact of shoreline alteration on growth and movement of the estuarine fish Fundulus heteroclitus in a tributary of the Delaware Coastal Bays. Fundulus heteroclitus is abundant along the east coast of the USA, and is an important trophic link between marsh and subtidal estuary. The restricted home range of F. heteroclitus allowed discrete sampling, and fish growth comparisons, along 35–65-m long stretches of fringing Spartina alterniflora and Phragmites australis marsh, riprap, and bulkhead. Fundulus heteroclitus were tagged with decimal Coded Wire Tags. Of 725 tagged F. heteroclitus, 89 were recaptured 30–63 days later. Mean growth rate (0.06–0.15 mm day−1 across all shoreline types) was greatest at riprap, lowest at Spartina and Phragmites, and intermediate at bulkhead, where growth was not significantly different from any other shoreline. This suggests that discernible environments exist along different shoreline types, even at the scale of tens of meters. No difference in movement distance was detected at different shoreline types; most individuals displayed a high degree of site fidelity. Forty-seven percent were recaptured within 5 m of their tagging location, although alongshore movements up to 475 m were recorded. Estimates of relative F. heteroclitus productivity, using relative density data from a concurrent study, were highest along Spartina and Phragmites, intermediate at riprap, and lowest at bulkhead. Therefore, despite greater growth rates along riprap than at vegetated shores, armoring reduces abundance sufficiently to negatively impact localized productivity of F. heteroclitus.