cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Location and Analysis of Discharge Failures in 550kV GIS During Field Withstanding AC Voltage Test

By combing the ultrasonic online monitoring and the measurement of discharge voltage value and SF6 decomposition products, four discharge failures in 550 kV GIS during withstanding AC voltage field test are located and analyzed. The main causes of the flashover on cone-type spacer surface are discussed. The relationship among surface flashover,partial discharge of defects, and surface charge transport are investigated. It is concluded that:1)the metal particles on the surface of conevtype spacer tend to initiate negative corona and accumulate negative surface charge,thus to intensify the distortion of the surface electric field and supply the required charge for discharge channel propagation; and 2)when the contacts between cone-type spacer and electrodes is insufficient,the surface discharge originates from the dielectric barrier corona at triple-junction points, while the corona propagation and the charged particles' drift and diffusion movement become the precondition to generate surface discharge. In addition, some suggestions are offered, concerning GIS field assemblage, ultrasonic location of failure, and the related experimental and theoretical researches.
Lasercomm system development for high-bandwidth terrestrial communications

In recent years, various terrestrial free-space optical (FSO) communications systems have been demonstrated to achieve high-bandwidth communications between mobile platforms. The terminal architectures fall into three general categories: (1) single aperture systems with tip/tilt control, (2) multi-aperture system with tip/tilt control, and (3) single aperture systems with tip/tilt control and higher order adaptive optics correction. Terrestrial modem approaches generally use direct detection receivers because they provide high bandwidth capability (0.1-10 Gbps) without the complexity of coherent detection. Modems are often augmented with a mix of forward error correction (FEC), interleaving, and/or retransmission for improved data transport. This paper will present a terminal and modem architecture for a low-SWAP FSO communications system that enables robust, high-bandwidth communications under highly scintillated links as found in terrestrial applications such as air-to-air, air-to-surface, and surface-to-surface links.
Sociology and the Catholic Church: Four Decades of Bitter Memories

The basic premise with which the Catholic Church has related to empirical social research in the last four decades can be stated quite simply: Who needs it? The Church (by which I mean here bishops and priests) assumes that it has a monopoly on truth. Not only does it not make mistakes; it also knows everything that it needs to know about every possible subject. It understands whatever needs to be understood about human social behavior because of the revelations of God through Jesus to the Church and especially to the Pope. Thus the Church can really learn nothing important from empirical research. At best, such research is a minor help; at worst, it is an obstacle to the Church's work. No one could possibly adopt such an approach to reality, you say? Read, for example, the writings of the current Archbishop of Cincinnati, the vice president of the American bishops, and see if I'm making it up. This basic premise underlies the four major assumptions about sociology that I have encountered in the last forty years:
Small Efficient Scale as a Foundation for Walrasian Equilibrium

Publisher Summary This chapter presents small efficient scale as a foundation for Walrasian equilibrium. The set of aggregate technological possibilities for the economy is obtained by summing the production sets of a very large number of productive units, interpreted as firms. These units are most efficient when their output is small (infinitesimal) relative to the demand, and the classical case of U-shaped average cost is admitted in the analysis. Moreover, because efficient scale is small, firms have only an infinitesimal effect on price when confined to the region in which they make positive profit. This enables one to capture the notion that the demand curve appears flat to a firm, while at the same time demand price may change substantially with substantial changes in aggregate quantity. The mass of firms active in an equilibrium is determined by the conditions of supply and demand. Small changes in aggregate demand will typically change the list of firms which are present in an equilibrium. Because changes in taste cause some firms to leave the market and others to enter, and because there are usually firms on the margin of entry, entry plays an important role in the explanation of value.
Mechanism of Cathodic Reactions in Acetic Acid Corrosion of Iron and Mild Steel

The mechanism of the cathodic reaction in acetic acid corrosion of iron and API X65 mild steel was investigated in mildly acidic sodium chloride electrolytes. The behavior of the charge transfer co...
Lecture 6: The Negro in the Three Americas

This is the concluding lecture of the series. Here Locke seeks to provide a comprehensive account of the indispensable role that African descendant peoples have played throughout the Americas. It is also, in this lecture that Locke’s Inter-American philosophical orientation is most on display. Locke draws on the many insights, principles, concepts and arguments he advanced earlier in the series; specifically with regard to African Americans in the United States to offer a fuller vision of the historical and present social role of Afrodescendant peoples throughout the three Americas.
Draft Genome Sequence of Bacillus luciferensis Isolated from Soil

Bacillus luciferensis is a Gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, motile rod. Here, we report the first draft genome sequence, to our knowledge, of a B. luciferensis strain (CH01), which will provide useful information for Bacillus and soil bacteria research.
Effectiveness of screening for craniosynostosis with ultrasound: a retrospective review.

Minimizing the ionizing radiation dose to children is fundamental to pediatric radiology. The most widely accepted imaging examination for evaluating craniosynostosis is computed tomography (CT) of the head, an examination that involves ionizing radiation. To determine if sonography of the cranial sutures is an adequate screening examination for the diagnosis of craniosynostosis in patients with abnormal skull shape. A retrospective review of all cranial suture ultrasound (US) examinations performed during the course of a 3-year period (July 2012 – September 2015) was undertaken. Results were compared with clinical follow-up and/or head CT to evaluate the accuracy of this modality as a screening tool to determine the presence or absence of craniosynostosis. Fifty-two sonographic exams were adequate for inclusion. Forty-five of the examinations did not reveal synostosis. In each of these instances, follow-up physical exam findings and/or CT imaging confirmed that no abnormal premature suture closure was present. US findings demonstrated synostosis in seven cases. CT exam or operative reports of these cases confirmed all seven findings of premature suture closure. Statistical analysis demonstrated a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 56.1–100.0%), a specificity of 100% (95% CI: 90.2–100.0%), and a negative predictive value of 100% (95% CI: 90.2–100.0%). Cranial US is a reliable screening tool to rule out craniosynostosis in patients with abnormal head shape.
diDO-IPTL: A Peptide-Labeling Strategy for Precision Quantitative Proteomics

We present an analytical strategy, dimethylation-deuteration and oxygen-exchange IPTL (diDO-IPTL), for high-precision, broad-coverage quantitative proteomics. The diDO-IPTL approach combines two advances in isobaric peptide terminal labeling (IPTL) methodology: first, a one-pot chemical labeling strategy for attaching isotopic tags to both the N- and C-termini of tryptic peptides, and second, a search engine (based on the Morpheus algorithm) optimized for identification and quantification of twinned peaks from peptide fragment ions in MS2 spectra. The diDO-IPTL labeling chemistry uses only high-purity, relatively inexpensive isotopic reagents (18O water and deuterated formaldehyde) and requires no postlabeling cleanup or isotopic impurity corrections. This strategy produces proteome-scale relative quantification results with high accuracy and precision, suitable for the detection of small protein abundance variations between complex biological samples. In a two-proteome mixture experiment, diDO-IPTL quant...
Decreasing intraoperative delays with meaningful use of the surgical safety checklist

Background Purposeful completion (fidelity) more than simple adherence to items in the surgical safety checklist may improve operating room efficiency and patient safety. The purpose of this study was to evaluate intraoperative delays and correlate them with adherence and fidelity to the preincision surgical safety checklist. Methods Trained observers evaluated surgical safety checklist compliance during 3 observation periods from 2014–2016. Degree of adherence, checkpoint verbalization, fidelity, and meaningful completion were assessed. Delays were categorized as missing or malfunctioning equipment, staff error, and medication issues. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, logistic regression, χ2 and Student t test were used to analyze results. Results Of the 591 cases observed, 19% (n = 110) had at least one documented, intraoperative delay. The majority of delays were related to missing (50%) or malfunctioning (30%) equipment. Compared with cases without delays, cases with delays did not have a different mean degree of adherence (96.3 ± 7.6% vs 95.6 ± 5.8%, P = .36). Degree of fidelity was different between cases with and without delays (mean fidelity 77.1 ± 14.9% vs 80.5 ± 7.14.2%, P = .03). Conclusion The preincision SSC is a communication tool offering an opportunity to discuss potential concerns and anticipated intraoperative needs. Fidelity rather than adherence to the surgical safety checklist seems to diminish intraoperative delays.
Evolutions or Revolutions

The relevance of a Kuhnian analysis of the history of psychology is discussed. Although the history of psychology can be interpreted as a series of revolutions against established paradigms, with each revolution being followed by a period of normal science, the argument is advanced that such an interpretation is inappropriate, misleading, incomplete, and damaging to the future of psychology. Revolutionary and evolutionary aspects of cognitive psychology are discussed in relation to behaviorism particularly in regard to active versus passive models, mentalistic constructs and knowledge versus stimulus-response associations. Finally, three problems confronting cognitive psychology are analyzed: the meaning of knowledge, the relationship between cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and the tendency of cognitive psychologists to ignore problems of emotion and motivation.
Linda Babcock: Go-getter and Do-gooder

In this tribute to the 2007 recipient of the winner of the Jeffrey Z. Rubin Theory‐To‐Practice Award from the International Association for Conflict Management (IACM), we celebrate Linda Babcock's contributions to diverse lines of research, her tireless and effective efforts to put the insights of her research into practice, and at a personal level, the impact she has had on each of our lives. Innovative ideas and novel methods have been the hallmarks of Linda's research on diverse topics: the impact of self‐serving conceptions of fairness on negotiations, the labor supply behavior of cab drivers, the impact of damage caps on settlements, the propensity of men and women to initiate negotiations, and the readiness of each gender to volunteer for, and work on, “nonpromotable tasks.” Linda won this award, however, not only for her path‐breaking academic research, but for her interest in and ability to convert it into actionable initiatives. From founding the Program for Research and Outreach on Gender Equity in Society (PROGRESS), whose mission is to develop tools to teach women and girls how to harness the power of negotiation, to her leadership of the Carnegie Mellon Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women, Linda shows how academics can play a leading role in translating theory into practice.
Skull base erosion by sphenoid fungus balls: diagnosis and endoscopic treatment.

BACKGROUND Fungus balls typically are innocuous lesions found in immunocompetent hosts. They are located most commonly in the maxillary sinus but may be life-threatening when found in the sphenoid sinus. METHODS We review our series offour sphenoid fungus balls with skull base erosion. RESULTS Our average patient age was 68.7 years old (56-86 years) with three women and one man. One patient was insulin-dependent diabetic, the other three patients were otherwise healthy. The most common presenting symptoms were headache and dizziness with relatively few sinus-specific complaints. Endoscopy revealed polyps in two of the four patients. Computerized tomography scans revealed thickened osteitic bone in three cases and two of the four computed tomography scans showed microcalcification. All patients had bony erosion over the internal carotid arteries. Additionally, one patient internal carotid artery thrombosis, one patient had erosion of the planum sphenoidale, and a third patient had erosion to the brainstem inferior to the sella turcica. Three patients had magnetic resonance imaging that revealed heterogeneous lesions. Two magnetic resonance images showed hypointense T1 and T2 imaging. The third was isointense on T1 and hypointense on T2. All patients were treated with endoscopic marsupialization and removal of all gross fungal debris without complications. All pathological specimens were diagnostic for fungus balls. One offour cultures was positive for fungus. All patients are asymptomatic at time of lastfollow-up. CONCLUSIONS Sphenoid fungus balls present with vague, non-rhinological symptoms, but may have significant local expansion and destruction. These potentially lethal lesions usually can be suspected on preoperative imaging and are best treated with endoscopic removal.
Examining Help-Seeking Among National Guard Service Members

AbstractLow rates of help-seeking among military service members (SMs) remains a persistent problem. Data from 997 National Guard (NG) SMs were examined to assess predictors of help-seeking behavio...
Influence of Atomic Surface Structure on the Activity of Ag for the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to CO

The present work was undertaken to elucidate the facet-dependent activity of Ag for the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO. To this end, CO2 reduction was investigated over Ag thin films with (111), (100), and (110) orientations prepared via epitaxial growth on single-crystal Si wafers with the same crystallographic orientations. This preparation technique yielded larger area electrodes than can be achieved using single-crystals, which enabled the electrocatalytic activity of the corresponding Ag surfaces to be quantified in the Tafel regime. The Ag(110) thin films exhibited higher CO evolution activity compared to the Ag(111) and Ag(100) thin films, consistent with previous single-crystal studies. Density functional theory calculations suggest that CO2 reduction to CO is strongly facet-dependent, and that steps are more active than highly coordinated terraces. This is the result of both a higher binding energy of the key intermediate COOH as well as an enhanced double-layer electric field stabilizati...
Inferring differential behavior between giant ground sloth adults and juveniles through scapula morphology

ABSTRACTAnimals with large differences in body size between adults and juveniles will often exhibit differences in behavior through ontogeny, and these behavioral differences can sometimes have dir...
Australians and New Zealanders Taking Their Accounting Doctorate in the United States: 1960s to 2018

ABSTRACT This is a compilation of Australians and New Zealanders taking their accounting doctorate in the United States.
Time to First Culture Positivity Among Critically Ill Adults With Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Growth in Respiratory or Blood Cultures:

Background: For critically ill adults receiving empirical vancomycin, the duration of negative cultures after which vancomycin may be discontinued without risking subsequent growth of methicillin-r...
Use of intravenous immunoglobulin in a highly sensitized pediatric renal transplant recipient with severe BK DNAemia and rising DSA

BK DNAemia in renal transplant recipients is a significant cause of allograft dysfunction and can lead to graft loss due to BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy or to graft rejection due to immunosuppression reduction. Currently, the first-line treatment for BK DNAemia is immunosuppression reduction. Second-line treatment for BK DNAemia has not been well-established. In this report, we present a case of a highly sensitized second-time pediatric renal transplant recipient with severe and persistent BK DNAemia and rising DSA, who was treated with IVIG and subsequently found to have clearance of BK viremia with concomitant reduction in DSA.
Machine intelligence design of 2019-nCoV drugs

Wuhan coronavirus, called 2019-nCoV, is a newly emerged virus that infected more than 9692 people and leads to more than 213 fatalities by January 30, 2020. Currently, there is no effective treatment for this epidemic. However, the viral protease of a coronavirus is well-known to be essential for its replication and thus is an effective drug target. Fortunately, the sequence identity of the 2019-nCoV protease and that of severe-acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS-CoV) is as high as 96.1%. We show that the protease inhibitor binding sites of 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV are almost identical, which means all potential anti-SARS-CoV chemotherapies are also potential 2019-nCoV drugs. Here, we report a family of potential 2019-nCoV drugs generated by a machine intelligence-based generative network complex (GNC). The potential effectiveness of treating 2019-nCoV by using some existing HIV drugs is also analyzed.
Complete Repair of Massive, Retracted, and “Non-Repairable” Tears of the Rotator Cuff: The Anatomic Vector Repair

Massive and retracted tears of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus tendons of the rotator cuff are associated with great pain and disability and may be considered "non-repairable," depending on the extent of injury and the experience of the treating clinician. The technique of anatomic vector repair of the rotator cuff is a surgical treatment method that enables the surgeon to accurately characterize the injury pattern and successfully repair many of these debilitating injuries anatomically in a stepwise manner, often in cases that would have otherwise been treated with a less preferable surgical procedure that does not restore native anatomy.
Post-prison Employment Quality and Future Criminal Justice Contact

Several theories linking post-prison employment to recidivism suggest that the quality of employment has a causal effect on future criminal justice contact. However, previous work testing these theories has not accounted for differential selection into high-quality employment. Using six years of post-release employment records, I document how post-prison job quality varies by industry. Then, I use inverse propensity score weighting to estimate the effect of job quality on future arrests and prison spells. Some evidence indicates that parolees who find high-quality employment experience fewer arrests or returns to prison than otherwise similar parolees who find low-quality employment, with the effects most evident when comparing employment in the highest- and lowest-quality industries. Low-quality employment does not appear to reduce future criminal justice contact relative to unemployment.
When figure-ground segregation fails: Exploring antagonistic interactions in figure-ground perception.

Perceptual fading of an artificial scotoma can be viewed as a failure of figure–ground segregation, providing a useful tool for investigating possible mechanisms and processes involved in figure–ground perception. Weisstein’s antagonistic magnocellular/parvocellular stream figure–ground model proposes P stream activity encodes figure, and M stream activity encodes background. Where a boundary separates two regions, the region that is perceived as figure or ground is determined by the outcome of antagonism between M and P activity within each region and across the boundary between them. The region with the relatively stronger P “figure signal” is perceived as figure, and the region with the relatively stronger M “ground signal” is perceived as ground. From this perspective, fading occurs when the figure signal is overwhelmed by the ground signal. Strengthening the figure signal or weakening the ground signal should make the figure more resistant to fading. Based on research showing that red light suppresses M activity and short wavelength sensitive S-cones provide minimal input to M cells, we used red and blue light to reduce M activity in both figure and ground. The time to fade from stimulus onset until the figure completely disappeared was measured. Every combination of gray, green, red, and blue as figure and/or ground was tested. Compared with gray and green light, fade times were greatest when red or blue light either strengthened the figure signal by reducing M activity in the figure, or weakened the ground signal by reducing M activity in ground. The results support a dynamic antagonistic relationship between M and P activity contributing to figure–ground perception as envisioned in Weisstein’s model.
Fences as Controls to Reduce Accountants’ Rationalization

Occupational fraud frequently involves the direct or indirect participation of professional accountants (PA). To reduce fraud, companies often focus on the incentive/pressure and opportunity legs of the fraud triangle, perhaps believing that rationalization is beyond their control. We argue that rationalization reduction is necessary to minimize occupational fraud. We propose that educators and PA consider incorporating fences as controls to reduce rationalization. Because they focus on compliance and risk avoidance and are non-negotiable, fences appeal to accountant’s Myers Briggs personalities and conventional level of moral development. Educators can teach students about the fences used in practice, and explain how they help new professionals resist pressures and temptations. By adding fences to existing professional guidance, accountants can reduce the likelihood that they will be a party to fraud.
Elizabeth Bishop's Brazil: An Attraction in Difference

The correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop during her years in Brazil with fellow poet Robert Lowell shed light not only on her personal impressions and experience there but also on the broader atmosphere of Brazil in the 1950s and 60s. The abundant letters show an intimacy that Bishop was willing to explore in personal correspondence that was not readily forthcoming in her published poetry. The present essay analyzes that correspondence alongside the few poems Bishop wrote in or about Brazil to understand her pursuit of belonging and happiness that found an unlikely home—and a tragic end—in and around Rio de Janeiro for almost twenty years. Bishop’s trajectory from love to loss and happiness to tragedy intimately interacts, this essay argues, with changes in midcentury Brazil, from the national development pursued by Vargas and Kubitschek, including the building of Brasilia, to the fallout from the 1964 military coup and beyond.
Critical Thinking Activities in Florida Undergraduate Biology Classes improves Comprehension of Climate Change

This research shows that employing critical thinking (problem-solving and scientific reasoning) skills when learning about climate change helped undergraduate biology students to understand the sub...
Liquid Aerosol Detection Based on Sub-THz Portable Doppler Radars

The detection of moving droplets is essential in food, energy, mining, and chemical industries. Portable radars are an emerging technology for the detection, identification, and monitoring of aerosol. However, existing works only rely on the Doppler effect caused by the motion of micrometer-size solid particles in the sensor’s field of view. Besides, the detection is done by non-portable radar systems. In this paper, the feasibility of using sub-THz portable Doppler radar technology to monitor the presence of randomly moving liquid aerosol is investigated. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Parallel Hierarchical Clustering using Rank-Two Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) is an effective tool for clustering nonnegative data, either for computing a flat partitioning of a dataset or for determining a hierarchy of similarity. In this paper, we propose a parallel algorithm for hierarchical clustering that uses a divide-and-conquer approach based on rank-two NMF to split a data set into two cohesive parts. Not only does this approach uncover more structure in the data than a flat NMF clustering, but also rank-two NMF can be computed more quickly than for general ranks, providing comparable overall time to solution. Our data distribution and parallelization strategies are designed to maintain computational load balance throughout the data-dependent hierarchy of computation while limiting interprocess communication, allowing the algorithm to scale to large dense and sparse data sets. We demonstrate the scalability of our parallel algorithm in terms of data size (up to 800 GB) and number of processors (up to 80 nodes of the Summit supercomputer), applying the hierarchical clustering approach to hyperspectral imaging and image classification data. Our algorithm for Rank-2 NMF scales perfectly on up to 1000s of cores and the entire hierarchical clustering method achieves 5.9x speedup scaling from 10 to 80 nodes on the 800 GB dataset.
In Situ Power Loss Estimation of IGBT Power Modules

A fault detection and prediction method of insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) has been improved over the past decades to reduce system down time. In situ lifetime estimation of IGBT modules has been challenging due to a number of requirements: necessity to operate at high-voltage in the switching environment, measurement precision of the gate-threshold voltage or collector-to-emitter voltage. This paper presents a wear-fatigue estimation framework that consists of collector-to-emitter measurement, power loss calculation and thermal lifetime prediction model. The measurement circuit enables the estimation of power loss across a variety of IGBT modules with minimum impact on system reliability.
Probabilistic Fatigue Damage Estimation for Rotorcraft Life-Limited Components

Condition-based maintenance programs for modern helicopters rely on algorithmic techniques to estimate the useful life remaining for life-limited components. Regime-recognition-based condition-base...
Epidural hematoma in patients with ankylosing spondylitis requiring surgical stabilization: a single-institution retrospective review with literature analysis.

Objective Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the sacroiliac joints and axial spine that is closely linked with human leukocyte antigen-B27. There appears to be an increased frequency of associated epidural hematomas in spine fractures in patients with AS. The objective was to review the incidence within the literature and a single-institution experience of the occurrence of epidural hematoma in the context of patients with AS requiring spine surgery. Methods Deep 6 AI software was used to search the entire database of patients at a single level I trauma center (since the advent of the institution's modern electronic health record system) to look at all patients with AS who underwent spinal surgery and who had a diagnosis of epidural hematoma. Additionally, a systemic literature review was performed of all papers evaluating the incidence of epidural hematoma in patients with spine fractures. Results A single-institution, retrospective review of records from 2009 to 2020 yielded a total of 164 patients with AS who underwent spine surgery. Of those patients, 17 (10.4%) had epidural hematomas on imaging, with the majority requiring surgical decompression. These spine fractures occurred close to the cervicothoracic or thoracolumbar junction. The patients ranged in age from 51 to 88 years, and there were 14 males and 3 females in the cohort. Eight patients were administered an antiplatelet and/or anticoagulant agent, and the rest were not. All patients required surgical stabilization, with 64.7% of patients also requiring decompressive laminectomies for evacuation of the hematoma and spinal cord decompression. Only 1 death was reported in the series. There was a tendency toward neurological improvement after surgical intervention. Conclusions AS has been a well-described pathologic process that leads to an increased risk of three-column injury in spine fracture, with an increased incidence of symptomatic epidural hematoma compared with patients without AS. Early recognition of this entity is important to ensure that appropriate surgical management includes addressing compression of the neural elements in addition to surgical stabilization.
Urban Furniture in a New Setting of Public Spaces Within the Kurdistan Region: Educational Targets and Course Design Process

This research is an attempt to analyze the existing urban form of outdoor public space of Duhok city and to give proposals for their improvements in terms of urban seating. The aim of this research is to identify the main urban furniture elements and behavior of users of three central parks of Duhok city, recognizing their functionality and the most common errors. Citizens needs, directly related to the physical characteristics of the environment, are categorized in terms of contact with nature. Parks as significant urban environments express their aesthetic preferences, as well as the need for recreation and play. Citizens around the world desire to contact with nature and places where they can socialize, play and practice different activities, but also participate in building their community and feeling the identity of their cities. The aim of this research is also to reintegrate these spaces in the wider urban context of the city of Duhok, to develop new functions by designing new seating patterns, more improved urban furniture, and necessary supporting facilities and equipment. Urban furniture is a product that uses an enormous number of people in public space. It has a high level of wear and damage due to intense use, exposure to sunlight and weather conditions. Iraq has a hot and dry climate characterized by long, warm, dry summers and short, cold winters. The climate is determined by the Iraq location at the crossroads of Arab desert areas and the subtropical humid climate of the Persian Gulf. The second part of this analysis will describe the possibilities of traditional and contemporary materials as well as their advantages in urban furniture production, providing users protection from extreme local climate conditions, but also taking into account solidities and unwelcome consequences, such as vandalism. In addition, this research represents a preliminary stage in the development of IND307 furniture design course for needs of the Department of Interior design, at the American University in Duhok. Based on results obtained in this research, the course would present a symbiosis between people and technology, promotion of new street furniture design that perceives pedestrian activities in an urban setting, and practical use of anthropometric measurements as a tool for technical innovations.
Remarks on the diachronic reconstruction of intonational patterns in Romance with special attention to Occitan as a bridge language

This paper approaches Romance intonation from a diachronic point of view. The position that is adopted is that this is an area open to investigation. Comparative techniques can be fruitfully employed for investigating the evolution and diversification of the intonational patterns of the Romance languages. The focus of the paper is on Occitan. This is an important bridge language whose study may elucidate how French diverged prosodically from the systems found in Ibero and Italo-Romance. It is argued that, since Occitan was retained contrasts in the position of wordaccent (lexical stress), any prosodic features that French shares with Occitan are logically independent from the lack of contrastive accent in French.
Inhibition of Clostridium botulinum by Strains of Clostridium perfringens Isolated from Soil

Thirty-one soil samples were examined for the presence of organisms capable of inhibiting growth and toxin production of strains of Clostridium botulinum type A. Such organisms were found in eight samples of soil. Inhibiting strains of C. perfringens were found in five samples, of C. sporogenes in three and of Bacillus cereus in three. Three of the C. perfringens strains produced an inhibitor effective on all 11 strains of C. botulinum type A against which they were tested, seven of eight proteolytic type B strains, one nonproteolytic type B strain, five of nine type E strains and all seven type F strains, whether proteolytic or nonproteolytic. They did not inhibit any of 26 type C strains, 6 type D strains, 4 type E strains, or 24 C. sporogenes strains. In mixed culture, an inhibitor strain of C. perfringens repressed growth and toxin production by a C. botulinum type A strain even though it was outnumbered by the latter about 40 times. It also repressed growth and toxin production of C. botulinum in mixed culture of soils in which this latter organism naturally occurred when cooked meat medium but not when trypticase medium was used.
Modules and Group Algebras

1 Augmentations, nilpotent ideals, and semisimplicity.- 2 Tensor products, Homs, and duality.- 3 Restriction and induction.- 4 Projective resolutions and cohomology.- 5 The stable category.- 6 Products in cohomology.- 7 Examples and diagrams.- 8 Relative projectivity.- 9 Relative projectivity and ideals in cohomology.- 10 Varieties and modules.- 11 Infinitely generated modules.- 12 Idempotent modules.- 13 Varieties and induced modules.- References.- List of symbols.
Poultry litter application to loblolly pine forests: growth and nutrient containment.

Forestland application of poultry manure offers an alternative to the conventional practice of pastureland application. Before such a practice is considered viable, however, it must be demonstrated that the forest ecosystem is capable of absorbing the nutrients contained in poultry manure, especially nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). From the forestry perspective, it must also be demonstrated that tree growth is not diminished. We investigated these questions using loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stands growing in central Mississippi in an area of high poultry production. Stockpiled broiler litter was applied to newly thinned, 8-yr-old stands at 0, 4.6, and 18.6 dry Mg ha-1, supplying 0, 200, and 800 kg N ha-1 and 0, 92, and 370 kg P ha-1, respectively. Levels of nitrate in soil water, monitored at a 50-cm depth with porous cup tension lysimeters, exceeded 10 mg N L-1 during the first two years after application in the 18.6 Mg ha-1 rate but only on two occasions in the first year for the lower rate of application. Phosphate was largely absent from lysimeter water in all treatments. Other macronutrients (K, Ca, Mg, S) were elevated in lysimeter water in proportion to litter application rates. Soil extractable nitrate showed similar trends to lysimeter water, with substantial elevation during the first year following application for the 18.6 Mg ha-1 rate. Mehlich III-extractable phosphate peaked in excess of 100 µg P g-1 soil during the third year of the study for the 18.6 Mg ha-1 rate. The 4.6 Mg ha-1 rate did not affect extractable soil P. Tree growth was increased by the poultry litter. Total stem cross-sectional area, or basal area, was approximately 20% greater after 2 yr for both rates of litter application. Overall, the nutrients supplied by the 4.6 Mg ha-1 rate were contained by the pine forest and resulted in favorable increases in tree growth. The higher rate, by contrast, did pose some risk to water quality through the mobilization of nitrate. These results show that, under the conditions of this study, application of poultry litter at moderate rates of approximately 5 Mg ha-1 to young stands of loblolly pine offers an alternative disposal option with minimal impacts to water quality and potential increases in tree growth.
Aortic arch geometry after the Norwood procedure: The value of arch angle augmentation

Abstract Objective Aortic arch reconstruction in the Norwood procedure is occasionally associated with postoperative airway and branch pulmonary artery stenosis, as well as recoarctation. This study investigated geometric changes in the aortic arch after the Norwood procedure and evaluated the efficacy of arch angle augmentation with glutaraldehyde-treated autologous pericardium in aortic arch reconstruction. Methods Of 52 consecutive patients who underwent the Norwood procedure between 1998 and 2013, a total of 36 patients who underwent postoperative multidetector-row computed tomographic angiography were reviewed retrospectively, and divided into 2 groups according to whether arch angle augmentation with glutaraldehyde-treated autologous pericardium was performed (AAA group, 26 patients) or not (NA group, 10 patients). Results The neoaortic arch in the Norwood procedure was characterized by having a significantly smaller angle, being lower in height, and being narrower than that in age-matched control patients with a normal aortic arch. Moreover, all of these arch geometric measurements were significantly larger in the AAA group than in the NA group. Freedom from reintervention and reoperation for bronchomalacia or branch pulmonary artery stenosis, caused by extrinsic compression of the neoaorta, was significantly better at 1 year in the AAA group than in the NA group. Recoarctation of the neoaorta was documented in only 1 (3.8%) patient in the AAA group versus 3 patients (30%) in the NA group. Conclusions Arch angle augmentation with glutaraldehyde-treated autologous pericardium in the Norwood procedure creates more aortopulmonary space with a smoother arch angle and diminished incidence of postoperative recoarctation, bronchial compression, or branch pulmonary artery compression.
GM130 Regulates Golgi-Derived Spindle Assembly by Activating TPX2 and Capturing Microtubules

Spindle assembly requires the coordinated action of multiple cellular structures to nucleate and organize microtubules in a precise spatiotemporal manner. Among them, the contributions of centrosomes, chromosomes, and microtubules have been well studied, yet the involvement of membrane-bound organelles remains largely elusive. Here, we provide mechanistic evidence for a membrane-based, Golgi-derived microtubule assembly pathway in mitosis. Upon mitotic entry, the Golgi matrix protein GM130 interacts with importin α via a classical nuclear localization signal that recruits importin α to the Golgi membranes. Sequestration of importin α by GM130 liberates the spindle assembly factor TPX2, which activates Aurora-A kinase and stimulates local microtubule nucleation. Upon filament assembly, nascent microtubules are further captured by GM130, thus linking Golgi membranes to the spindle. Our results reveal an active role for the Golgi in regulating spindle formation to ensure faithful organelle inheritance.
Currency risk and international property investments

Incorporating exchange rate fluctuations into the analysis of an international investment substantially alters the expected risk and return characteristics of the investments. With fluctuating rates, the value of a successful investment property could be devastated when converted to the investor′s home currency. This risk should be recognized and incorporated into the investment decision but, as results show, the ultimate strategy may not be periodic adjustments which have been used by many researchers, nor trying to hedge fully as others have suggested, but rather to examine returns in home market currency and leave exchange rate exposure decisions to the currency portfolio managers. Explores the possibilities of mitigating currency risk through several hedging instruments – forward and futures contracts, options, back‐to‐back loans and currency swaps. Results from a survey of international investors are also summarized and comments provide substantial evidence that investors are unsophisticated in deali...
Expression and transport of Angiotensin II AT1 receptors in spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia and sciatic nerve of the rat

To clarify the role of Angiotensin II in the regulation of peripheral sensory and motor systems, we initiated a study of the expression, localization and transport of Angiotensin II receptor types in the rat sciatic nerve pathway, including L(4)-L(5) spinal cord segments, the corresponding dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and the sciatic nerve. We used quantitative autoradiography for AT(1) and AT(2) receptors, and in situ hybridization to detect AT(1A), AT(1B) and AT(2) mRNAs. We found substantial expression and discrete localization of Angiotensin II AT(1) receptors, with much higher numbers in the grey than in the white matter. A very high AT(1) receptor expression was detected in the superficial dorsal horns and in neuronal clusters of the DRGs. Expression of AT(1A) mRNA was significantly higher than that of AT(1B). AT(1) receptor binding and AT(1A) and AT(1B) mRNAs were especially prominent in ventral horn motor neurons, and in the DRG neuronal cells. Unilateral dorsal rhizotomy significantly reduced AT(1) receptor binding in the ipsilateral side of the superficial dorsal horn, indicating that a substantial number of dorsal horn AT(1) receptors have their origin in the DRGs. After ligation of the sciatic nerve, there was a high accumulation of AT(1) receptors proximal to the ligature, a demonstration of anterograde receptor transport. We found inconsistent levels of AT(2) receptor binding and mRNA. Our results suggest multiple roles of Angiotensin II AT(1) receptors in the regulation of sensory and motor functions.
Field emission displays: a critical review

Abstract The goal of making attractive flat panel displays (FPDs) based on arrays of cold cathodes has now become a reality. Pixtech and Futaba have begun commercial production of low voltage, monochrome field emission displays (FEDs). Moreover, public response to the high voltage, full color, VGA FED prototypes shown by Candescent and Motorola at various technical meetings and exhibits has been extremely positive and encouraging. Yet, the future of the FED industry is uncertain. The tremendous improvements in visual quality and reduction in manufacturing cost of liquid crystal displays, as well as the formidable progress made in other FPD technologies has raised the standard for FEDs. In this article, we first review the status of FEDs based on the Spindt microtip emitter. We focus on the scalability of the Spindt process to large substrates, phosphor selection, high voltage stability, and display lifetime. Second, we discuss in detail the recent advances made in alternate cold cathode technology, including carbon nanotubes and composite materials, and their potential advantages for FPD. This new technology offers a tremendous opportunity to lower capital investment, to cut manufacturing costs and to challenge the existing flat panel industry.
Inhibition of antigen-induced contraction of guinea pig trachea by ICI 198,615

We examined the extent of peptide leukotrienes involvement in ovalbumin-induced contraction of guinea pig trachea isolated from animals passively sensitized with antiovalbumin antibodies. Antigen challenge resulted in a concentration-dependent (EC50 = 10 ± 3 ng/ml, X ± S.E.M., n = 6) and prolonged (> 60 min) contraction of guinea pig trachea. The maximal contractile response was directly proportional to the quantity of sensitizing antibodies. The maximal response (but not EC50 for ovalbumin) was significantly (P < 0.01) enhanced by indomethacin (20%), only slightly (10%) inhibited by the histamine H1-antagonist pyrilamine and unaffected by the platelet-activating factor (PAF) antagonist CV-3988. The potent and selective leukotriene antagonist ICI 198,615 partially (45%) inhibited the anitgen-induced contraction in a concentration-related fashion (1–300 nM). Even at concentrations that abolish responses to leukotrienes, ICI 198,615 did not further inhibit the response, nor could other leukotriene antagonists (i.e. LY 171883 ot FPL 55712) inhibit more than 50% of this response. In contrast, the 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors AA-861 and REV 5901, also a leukotriene antagonist, abolished the contractile response. Taken together, the results suggest that in guinea pig trachea, leukotrienes, in combination with other lipoxygenase metabolites, mediate a major part of the response to antigen. In contrast, PAF, histamine and prostaglandins appear to play only a minor role.
Thermodynamic Characterization of Microcrack Dependent Material Response Properties

Available experimental data from uniaxial tests are analyzed to estimate values for parameters of a microcrack dependent model of material response. The experimental data on microcrack density evolution during uniaxial deformation were obtained with small-angle X-ray scattering techniques on polymer specimens. The parameters of the microcrack dependent model are the opening and size of the microcracks, a thermodynamic potential for microcrack kinetics that describes energy conditions for microcrack creation, and coefficients in a nonlinear Onsager type relationship to describe rate kinetics of microcrack creation. The Onsager relationship contains a nonequilibrium thermodynamic measure that is the work done per microcrack created minus the thermodynamic energy per microcrack created. Deformation stability concepts of microcrack dependent material response are discussed in terms of mechanical stability, thermodynamic stability, and global or system stability of the uniaxial test.
Changes in Moods and Activation Levels During the Menstrual Cycle in Experimentally Naive Subjects

Two experiments providing additional validity data on the Profile of Mood States and the Thayer Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List were performed. In the third and main experiment, seven ...
Quantification of anesthesia providers' hand hygiene in a busy metropolitan operating room: what would Semmelweis think?

Background Hand hygiene (HH) is poor in the health care environment representing a major public health concern. HH compliance is poorly studied in anesthesia providers who contribute extensively to nosocomial infection. The rate of HH opportunities and compliance by these providers was studied using embedded, clandestine observers. We aimed to quantify HH behaviors and taxonomize failures. Methods Following intensive training, 5 observers masquerading as nursing staff in an academic center, observed the HH of anesthesia providers over a 4-week period throughout the perioperative period using a World Health Organization tool. HH opportunities and HH failures were recorded and categorized using a qualitative content analysis. Results Nearly 8,000 HH opportunities were observed. HH opportunities averaged 34 to 41/hour and peaked several times at 54/hour. Aggregate failure rate was 82% with a range of 64% to 93% by provider group. Conclusion HH was very poor among anesthesia providers. The task density of anesthesia care may conspire with an intrinsic HH failure rate to create great opportunity for horizontal and vertical vectors for nosocomial infection. Our observations have led to aggressive educational and ergonomic interventions at our facility. Given the task density of anesthesia care, and the observed failure rates, novel approaches to HH should be investigated.