cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Parents' Underestimations of Child Weight: Implications for Obesity Prevention.

Abstract Purpose Obesity prevention efforts may be ineffective if parents lack awareness of their children's overweight status. This study examined the factors that predicted parents' underestimation of child weight status. Design and Methods Using a cross sectional design, researchers recruited children and parents in a local children's museum. Parents completed a demographic questionnaire, the Newest Vital Sign, and the Child Body Image Scale. Children's height and weight were measured to calculate child BMI. Random effects modeling examined the association between predictor variables (parent race/ethnicity, income, education, and health literacy, and child BMI percentile, gender, and age) and the dependent variable, parent underestimation of child weight status. Results Participants included 160 parents (213 children aged 7–12 years) representing a racially and ethnically diverse sample who were affluent, educated, and with 36.6% of parents assessed with limited health literacy. Although 45.1% of children were overweight/obese, only 7.5% of parents chose this weight status; 80% of parents underestimated the weight of their normal weight children, 96% underestimated their overweight children, and 72% underestimated their obese children. Parents were more likely to underestimate weight of older children and those under 81st percentile of BMI. No other predictors were significant. Conclusions Parent underestimation of child weight status appears to be a widespread phenomenon in this sample, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, education, and health literacy. Practice Implications The consistent underestimation of child weight suggests that parents' misperception of weight status represents a critical pathway for intervention. Methods to improve parents' perception of child weight need be developed and tested.
Improving Student Understanding of Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis via GC/MS using a Rapid SPME-Based Method for Determination of Trihalomethanes in Drinking Water

This paper describes a method for determination of trihalomethanes (THMs) in drinking water via solid-phase microextraction (SPME) GC/MS as a means to develop and improve student understanding of the use of GC/MS for qualitative and quantitative analysis. In the classroom, students are introduced to SPME, GC/MS instrumentation, and the use of MS data for compound identification and quantification through traditional lectures and in-class problem solving. In the lab, they are introduced to GC/MS tuning and method development, learn how to use the GC/MS data system, and apply their knowledge to identify and quantify THMs in tap water samples. The method for this application is relatively simple, fast, and effective, and is based on the use of autosampler, SPME headspace sampling, a GC quadrupole ion trap MS instrument, and fluorobenzene as an internal standard. Data from analyses of standards demonstrated 1 ppb LODs, good linearity in the 5–100 ppb range, RSDs of 6% or lower, and good recoveries from spikes...
Mechamagnets: Tactile Mechanisms with Embedded Magnets

This paper presents Mechamagnets, a technique to rapidly prototype tactile mechanisms for tangible interfaces. We demonstrate how to embed different passive tactile mechanisms in physical systems through a combination of magnets and digitally fabricated parts. We also discuss how DIY materials and 3-axis magnetometers can instrument Mechamagnet interfaces into functional prototypes.
MMSE-Based Analytical Estimator for Uncertain Power System With Limited Number of Measurements

The expected penetration of a large number of renewable distributed energy resources (DER's) is driving next-generation power systems toward uncertainties that can have a huge impact on the reliability and complexities of state estimation. Therefore, the stochastic power flow (SPF) and forecasting-aided state estimation of power systems integrating DER's are becoming a major challenge for operation of the future grid. In this paper, we propose a new state estimation method referred to as “mean squared estimator” (MSE) to deal with the uncertain nature of the power system parameters. The estimator aims at achieving minimum mean-squared error and benefits from the prior study of SPF, which involves the probability density functions of the system parameters. The main advantage of this estimator is based on its ability to instantaneously incorporate the dynamics of the power system. Moreover, the analytical formula of MSE expresses the mean value of the estimated parameters corrected by an additional term that takes into account the measurement of the parameters. It is shown that the proposed MSE can provide an accurate state estimation with a limited number of measurements with guaranteed convergence. MSE has been tested using IEEE $\boldsymbol{14}$ , $\boldsymbol{30}$ , $\boldsymbol{39,}$ and $\boldsymbol{118}$ bus models for different measurement redundancies. The results have been compared to methods such as weighted least square, unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and compressive sensing-based UKF. The numerical results show superior performances, especially under a limited number of measurements where WLS and UKF may lead to divergence.
Biochemical and Molecular Techniques in Maize Research

Plants have special qualities. Not the least of these is the capacity to humble the molecular biologist who assumes them to be no more than green E. coli. As every maize geneticist already knew long ago, the plant runs the show. Though it’s an amazing show (if I can be forgiven the pun), the script is only just being writ. All this is by way of introducing a short compendium of techniques, recipes or even protocols, which should have worked the way they were, but didn’t. Or hadn’t. Or hadn’t been invented yet and had to be to get on with the main attraction, maize transposable elements here.
The Fantasy of First-Person Science

A week ago, I heard James Conant give a talk at Tufts, entitled “Two Varieties of Skepticism” in which he distinguished two oft-confounded questions.
“Higher State Police” for Hapsburg Security, 1815–1830

The secret state police surveys the entire territory of the state so as to discover every danger to security at home or abroad, so a Hapsburg Police Minister explained to the Emperor Francis in 1807. Although this police was publicly authorized and organized, they frequently acted secretly so as to be most effective. Hence their name of secret state police or, as they were also called, the higher state police. In contrast, the public or regular police dealt with a particular part of the country and occupied themselves with the security and the welfare of the inhabitants of a single locality.1 Count Pergen, the organizer of the Hapsburg Police Ministry, had repeatedly insisted upon these conceptions and practices while he brought a centralized police system into operation.
American Exceptionalism and the American Dream

America’s early national history is intended to demonstrate that certain values imbedded early on compose what Americans still think of as American exceptionalism. Individual economic interests merged with ethical values and rules of personal conduct to express the nation’s social and political goals. Nations often pride themselves on a perceived sense of historical exceptionalism. Claims of exceptionalism usually assume the exclusive and superior qualities of a people. However, American exceptionalism differs from others in two ways. The first is in its strong emphasis on economic values, while joining this approach to theology and the institutions of government. The second distinctive facet of American exceptionalism is the conviction that it is not exclusive to one people or resting on inherent racial traits, but based on core values as noted above and practices that can and should be exported to others.
Analytical Methods and Trends in Environmental Forensics

Environmental forensics utilizes analytical scientific approaches to address the release and sources of contamination within the environment. These methods often seek to reconstruct the history of deleterious environmental events, their sources, and amounts of chemicals released into the environment. Forensic methods couple well-regarded scientific approaches within the legal framework. This due diligence provides tangible science-based results that are important in a regulatory context, including chemical identification, transport of contaminants, and determinable operational histories. Problems environmental forensics address include identifying sources of contamination, defining time frames of emission, and coupling observed conditions to potential sources of contamination.
Exploring Eye-Tracking Data for Detection of Mind-Wandering on Web Tasks

Mind-wandering (MW) is a phenomenon that affects most of us; it affects our interactions with information systems. Yet the literature on its effects on human-computer interaction is only scant. This research aims to contribute to establishing eye-tracking measures that could be used to detect periods of MW while a user is engaged in interaction with online information. We conducted a lab study (N = 30) and present an exploratory analysis of eye-tracking data with a focus on finding differences between periods of MW and not-MW. We found 12 eye tracking measures that were significantly different between periods of MW and not-MW. We also show promising classification results of the same variables. Our results indicate plausibility of using eye-tracking data to infer periods of MW.
Emotional Face Processing among Treatment-Seeking Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorders: Investigating Sex Differences and Relationships with Interpersonal Functioning.

Background Individuals in treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) display deficits across a broad range of cognitive processes. Disruptions in affective processing are understudied, but may be particularly important for interpersonal functioning and post-treatment adaptation. In particular, the role of sex in AUD-associated emotion processing deficits remains largely unaddressed and was a focus of the current investigation. Methods Fifty-six treatment seekers with AUD and 54 healthy community controls (N = 110) were administered an emotional face discrimination task. Non-affective tasks included a sex-discrimination task and two brief measures of executive functioning. Two measures of interpersonal function were included. Results Emotion processing deficits were evident among women with AUD relative to other groups. This sex-contingent relationship was not observed in measures of executive function, sex-discrimination or interpersonal problems, although individuals with AUD performed more poorly on these measures. Conclusions Results were consistent with extant literatures examining cognitive, affective and interpersonal functioning among individuals with AUD, and provided novel evidence of vulnerability to alcohol-associated deficits in emotion processing among women. While similar sex-contingent effects were not apparent among other measures, results support modest interrelationships, specifically including the import of emotion processing to interpersonal functioning in AUD. These data offer guidance for further systematic investigation and highlight important considerations for future relapse-prevention and recovery-facilitation efforts.
A generic data-driven technique for forecasting of reservoir inflow: Application for hydropower maximization

Abstract A generic and scalable scheme is proposed for forecasting reservoir inflow to optimize reservoir operations for hydropower maximization. Short-term weather forecasts and antecedent hydrological variables were inputs to a three-layered hydrologically-relevant Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to forecast inflow for 7-days of lead-time. Application of the scheme was demonstrated over 23 dams in U.S. with varying hydrological characteristics and climate regimes. Probabilistic forecast was also explored by feeding ANN with ensembles of weather forecast fields. Results suggest forecasting skill improves with decreasing coefficient of variation in inflow and increasing drainage area. Forecast-informed operations were simulated using a rolling horizon scheme and assessed against benchmark control rules. Over two years of operations from Pensacola dam (Oklahoma), additional 47,253 MWh of energy could have been harvested without compromising flood risk with optimal operations. This study reinforces the potential of a numerically efficient and skillful reservoir inflow forecasting scheme to address water-energy security challenges.
Pharmacologic and Nonpharmacologic Management of Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia and its management may be organized into risk stratification and/or treatment of heart failure, stroke prevention, and symptom control. At the core of symptom control, treatment is tailored to either allow AF continue with controlled heart rates, so-called rate control, versus restoring and maintaining sinus rhythm or rhythm control. Rate control strategies mainly use rate-modulating medications, whereas rhythm control treatment includes therapy aimed at restoring sinus rhythm, including pharmacologic and direct current cardioversion, as well as maintenance of sinus rhythm, including antiarrhythmic medications and ablation therapy.
Effect of CO2 and H2O on the behavior of shale gas confined inside calcite [104] slit-like nanopore: a molecular dynamics simulation study.

The effect of CO2 and H2O on the behavior of shale gas confined in calcite [104] slit-like nanopore is investigated using molecular dynamics simulation technique. The study is relevant as the advancement of enhance gas recovery (EGR) technologies requires in-depth atomistic understanding of the hydrocarbons, water, carbon dioxide, and other fracturing fluid constituents inside the nanopores of shale gas reservoirs. We are considering carbon dioxide (CO2) because it is an attractive displacing agent for enhanced gas recovery and has the potential to be an “exotic” fracturing fluid. Water (H2O) is considered as it is the major component of water-based fracturing fluids. The structural and dynamical properties of the confined species are computed. The results indicate that the presence of CO2 and H2O in the nanopore drastically affects the behavior of shale gas. The shale gas molecules that were tightly packed near the pore wall displaced towards the center by CO2 and H2O molecules. A new layer of carbon dioxide and water is formed near the pore wall. Further investigation reveals that CO2 molecules align themselves flat near the surface, whereas H2O molecules have directional orientation with oxygen atoms of water molecules pointing towards to wall. The predicted lateral (in-plane) self-diffusion coefficient values of methane, ethane, carbon dioxide and water indicate complex dynamics inside the pore. The investigation shows the fastest dynamics for methane gas followed by ethane. Both CO2 and H2O are almost immobile. The increase in temperature in the range from 300 to 450 K does not appear to have any significant impact on the behavior of the molecules inside the pore. The adsorption energies show that both CO2 and H2O have stronger interactions with calcite [104] surface than shale gas molecules.
Chapter 20 – Implementation Using Digital Signal Processors

Publisher Summary The chapter speaks about the definition of digital signal processor. It is a special form of microprocessor that is optimized to perform DSP operations. They are designed to perform DSP functions in an efficient method, using conventional software programming design and verification techniques discussed in the chapter. Due to the special features and parallelism added for DSP operations, conventional programming languages such as C often do not have the syntax to express the needed operations. Although advanced compilers developed by the DSP processor manufacturers do try to interpret the programmer's intent and map to the DSP processor features in the most effective manner. For this reason, a vendor-specific language, known as assembly, is instead used to code the most DSP-intensive portions of the software. But the writing in assembly code does require knowledge of the DSP processor hardware architecture and how to optimally write code that takes advantage of the DSP processor architecture features.
The Input Fallacy

Algorithmic credit pricing threatens to discriminate against protected groups. Traditionally, fair lending law has addressed such threats by scrutinizing inputs. But input scrutiny has become a fallacy in the world of algorithms. Using a rich dataset of mortgages, I simulate algorithmic credit pricing and demonstrate that input scrutiny fails to address discrimination concerns and threatens to create an algorithmic myth of colorblindness. The ubiquity of correlations in big data combined with the flexibility and complexity of machine learning means that one cannot rule out the consideration of protected characteristics, such as race, even when one formally excludes them. Moreover, using inputs that include protected characteristics can in fact reduce disparate outcomes. Nevertheless, the leading approaches to discrimination law in the algorithmic age continue to commit the input fallacy. These approaches suggest that we exclude protected characteristics and their proxies and limit algorithms to pre-approved inputs. Using my simulation exercise, I refute these approaches with new analysis. I demonstrate that they fail on their own terms, are unfeasible, and overlook the benefits of accurate prediction. These failures are particularly harmful to marginalized groups and individuals because they threaten to perpetuate their historical exclusion from credit and, thus, from a central avenue to greater prosperity and equality. I argue that fair lending law must shift to outcome-focused analysis. When it is no longer possible to scrutinize inputs, outcome analysis provides the only way to evaluate whether a pricing method leads to impermissible disparities. This is true not only under the legal doctrine of disparate impact, which has always cared about outcomes, but also under the doctrine of disparate treatment, which has historically avoided examining disparate outcomes. Now, disparate treatment too can no longer rely on input scrutiny and must be considered through the lens of outcomes. I propose a new framework that regulatory agencies, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, can adopt to measure disparities and fight discrimination. This proposal charts an empirical course for antidiscrimination law in fair lending and also carries promise for other algorithmic contexts, such as criminal justice and employment.
The Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in the United States

The Devonian-Carboniferous boundary is documented in marine strata from the Appalachian Basin, Michigan Basin, Illinois Basin, Forest City Basin, Williston Basin, Tobosa Basin, southern continental margin, western platform, and several sub-basins of the Antler Foreland in the USA based on conodonts, brachiopods, miospores, carbon isotope data, and magnetic susceptibility data. The boundary is narrowly constrained and conformable in the Illinois Basin and Oklahoma; less well constrained in the Appalachian Basin, Antler Foreland, western platform, and the Alberta Platform, and often developed on an unconformity.
Library systematic review service supports evidence-based practice outside of medicine

Abstract Cornell University Library offers a systematic review service that meets growing patron demand across disciplinary areas. The library identified interest in evidence synthesis methodologies on campus as an opportunity to engage more deeply in faculty and student research and advocate for librarian involvement in systematic reviews. The service allows librarians to promote best practices for applying review methods in academic areas where they are less established, such as environmental science, economics, and agriculture. This article outlines the development of the service and presents strategies for providing sustainable support as review production grows across the colleges and departments we work with.
Walter's theorem for fusion systems

We determine the saturated 2-fusion systems in which the centralizer of some fully centralized involution contains a component that is the 2-fusion system of a large group of Lie type over a field of odd order.
Minimizing the risk of occupational Q fever exposure: A protocol for ensuring Coxiella burnetii–negative pregnant ewes are used for medical research:

Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii that can lead to abortion, endocarditis, and death in humans. Researchers utilizing parturient domestic ruminants, including sheep, have ...
Bream, Birtwistle, and Beyond: The Genesis of a New Work

In this personal memoir, the author describes his five-year association with Julian Bream during the founding of the Julian Bream Trust. He charts the genesis of Harrison Birtwistle’s work Beyond the White Hand and describes meetings with Bream and Birtwistle to discuss potential revisions to the guitar writing. Additional sections describe Bream’s approach to working with composers, building concert programs, and his approach to interpretation in general.
Identification of small molecules that mitigate vincristine-induced neurotoxicity while sensitizing leukemia cells to vincristine.

Vincristine is one of the most widely prescribed medications for treating solid tumors and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children and adults. However, its major dose-limiting toxicity is peripheral neuropathy that can disrupt curative therapy. Peripheral neuropathy can also persist into adulthood, compromising quality of life of childhood cancer survivors. Reducing vincristine-induced neurotoxicity without compromising its anticancer effects would be ideal. Here we show that low expression of NHP2L1 is associated with increased sensitivity of primary leukemia cells to vincristine, and that concomitant administration of vincristine with inhibitors of NHP2L1 increases vincristine cytotoxicity in leukemia cells, prolongs survival of ALL xenograft mice, but decreases vincristine effects on human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neurons and mitigates neurotoxicity in mice. These findings offer a strategy for increasing vincristine's antileukemic effects while reducing peripheral neuropathy in patients treated with this widely prescribed medication.
Policing insurgency: are more militarized police more effective?

Is militarized policing an effective way to combat insurgency? This article uses new global data on policing practices to evaluate whether states with militarized police perform better than those w...
Fine Particulate Air Pollution, Early Life Stress, and Their Interactive Effects on Adolescent Structural Brain Development: A Longitudinal Tensor-Based Morphometry Study.

Air pollution is a major environmental threat to public health; we know little, however, about its effects on adolescent brain development. Exposure to air pollution co-occurs, and may interact, with social factors that also affect brain development, such as early life stress (ELS). Here, we show that severity of ELS and fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) are associated with volumetric changes in distinct brain regions, but also uncover regions in which ELS moderates the effects of PM2.5. We interviewed adolescents about ELS events, used satellite-derived estimates of ambient PM2.5 concentrations, and conducted longitudinal tensor-based morphometry to assess regional changes in brain volume over an approximately 2-year period (N = 115, ages 9-13 years at Time 1). For adolescents who had experienced less severe ELS, PM2.5 was associated with volumetric changes across several gray and white matter regions. Fewer effects of PM2.5 were observed for adolescents who had experienced more severe ELS, although occasionally they were in the opposite direction. This pattern of results suggests that for many brain regions, moderate to severe ELS largely constrains the effects of PM2.5 on structural development. Further theory and research is needed on the joint effects of ELS and air pollution on the brain.
Mannose Adhesin—Glycan Interactions in the Euprymna Scolopes—Vibrio Fischeri Symbiosis

The recognition of and adherence to animal epithelia by bacteria is often mediated by bacterial surface lectins, called adhesins, that bind to sugars on the brush borders of host cells (Giampapa et al., 1987; Abraham et al., 1988; Sharon et al.,1989). We report here results of experiments that provide evidence for the role of adhesin-glycan interactions in the initiation of the model symbiosis (Ruby, 1996) between the sepiolid squid Euprymna scolopes and its light organ symbiont Vibrio fischeri.
Decreased loss of liver adenosine triphosphate during hypothermic preservation in rats pretreated with glucose: Implications for organ donor management

Abstract Recent studies of human donor livers indicate an association between ex vivo hepatocellular adenosine triphosphate and posttransplant graft function. To test the hypothesis that prior glucose loading of donor liver would optimize its adenosine triphosphate production and adenylate energy charge during ex vivo organ preservation, adult male rats were randomized to receive either intravenous dextrose or saline for 44 h. After this infusion, a liver lobe was exposed and freeze-clamped (time 0). The remaining liver was quickly flushed, excised, and stored in Collins' II solution at 2 °C for 8 h. Additional lobes were freeze-clamped at 1, 4, and 8 h. Liver adenosine triphosphate, total nucleoside triphosphates, and energy charge losses were significantly reduced in the dextrose-treated rats in comparison with saline-treated rats during the first 4 h of preservation. Although the livers from rats receiving intravenous dextrose were able to generate lactate, their glycogen stores were not utilized appreciably, suggesting that exogenous glucose served as a substrate for anaerobic glycolysis. Unesterified choline levels of the fasted rat livers were significantly higher than those from the rats receiving intravenous dextrose by the first hour, indicative of increased membrane breakdown. These results indicate that prior infusion of glucose enhances the capacity of the ex vivo liver, presumably through the induction and stabilization of key glycolytic enzymes, to anaerobically generate adenosine triphosphate. Administration of glucose to liver donors before organ procurement may improve posttransplant graft function by reducing the loss of hepatocellular energy, retarding membrane damage, and fostering glycogen storage for use in the early postoperative period.
Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Pathway-Dependent Tumor-Specific Survival Signaling in Melanoma Cells through Inactivation of the Proapoptotic Protein Bad

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling regulates fundamental cellular functions including proliferation, differentiation, and survival. We have demonstrated previously that inhibiting MAPK signaling induces apoptosis in melanoma cells but not in normal melanocytes, suggesting that the MAPK pathway propagates essential survival signals in melanoma cells. Here, we report that the 90-kDa ribosomal S6 kinase (RSK), a downstream effector in the MAPK signaling cascade, phosphorylates and inactivates the Bcl-2 homology 3-only proapoptotic protein Bad, thereby mediating a MAPK-dependent tumor-specific survival signal in melanoma cells. The MAPK kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/RSK MAPK signaling module is constitutively hyperactivated, and Bad is maintained in its inactive state by phosphorylation at Ser(75) in a MEK/ERK/RSK-dependent manner in melanoma cells. In contrast, in normal melanocytes, Bad is highly phosphorylated at multiple residues (Ser(75), Ser(99), and Ser(118)) in a MAPK pathway-independent manner. Importantly, ectopic expression of a constitutively activated RSK mutant abrogates Bad activation and renders melanoma cells resistant to apoptosis induced by a MEK inhibitor. Furthermore, overexpressing alanine-substituted (S75A) Bad further sensitizes melanoma cells to MEK inhibitor-induced apoptosis. Our results suggest that the MAPK pathway mediates melanoma-specific survival signaling by differentially regulating RSK-mediated phosphorylation of the proapoptotic protein Bad and may present potentially selective therapeutic targets for the treatment of melanomas.
Flattening filter‐free linac improves treatment delivery efficiency in stereotactic body radiation therapy

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) employs precision target tracking and image-guidance techniques to deliver ablative doses of radiation to localized malignancies; however, treatment with conventional photon beams requires lengthy treatment and immobilization times. The use of flattening filter-free (FFF) beams operating at higher dose rates can shorten beam-on time, and we hypothesize that it will shorten overall treatment delivery time. A total of 111 lung and liver SBRT cases treated at our institution from July 2008 to July 2011 were reviewed and 99 cases with complete data were identified. Treatment delivery times for cases treated with a FFF linac versus a conventional dose rate linac were compared. The frequency and type of intrafraction image guidance was also collected and compared between groups. Three hundred and ninety-one individual SBRT fractions from 99 treatment plans were examined; 36 plans were treated with a FFF linac. In the FFF cohort, the mean (± standard deviation) treatment time (time elapsed from beam-on until treatment end) and patient’s immobilization time (time from first alignment image until treatment end) was 11.44 (± 6.3) and 21.08 (± 6.8) minutes compared to 32.94 (± 14.8) and 47.05 (± 17.6) minutes for the conventional cohort ( p < 0.01 for all values). Intrafraction-computed tomography (CT) was used more often in the conventional cohort (84% vs. 25%; p < 0.05), but use of orthogonal X-ray imaging remained the same (16% vs. 19%). For lung and liver SBRT, a FFF linac reduces treatment and immobilization time by more than 50% compared to a conventional linac. In addition, treatment with a FFF linac is associated with less physician-ordered image guidance, which contributes to further improvement in treatment delivery efficiency.
Comment on Richard Willson's paper: Assessing communicative rationality as a transportation planning paradigm

Willson addresses in his paper a wide range of planning issues: better communication, honesty, re-education of planners, public participation, planning process, and so on, and aims at creating a new paradigm for transport planning. The paper has much content to recommend it to planners, decisionmakers and the public. Dr. Willson deserves credit ‐ as does Transportation ‐ for bringing up these issues. Dr. Willson is also right in pointing out that technical expertise and methods that have been built over the past 30 years continue to be needed. Is Prof. Willson’s case for Communicative Rationality as the new paradigm for transport planning valid? I am not persuaded. I agree with many elements of his argument enumerated above, but not the paradigm. If it is not the right paradigm, what is? I argue below that analysis and emotional communication are. This is puzzling when talking is involved in both, and a prominent econometrist friend once complained to me that “these planners like to talk rather than analyze the problems.” Willson’s core inspiration is Habermas’ concept of communicative rationality. Habermas crafted communicative rationality as postmodernist method to counter the instrumental rationality of industrial revolution. Two constructs, lifeworld and system, are central to his argument. Lifeworld comprises the social life with symbolic meanings ‐ religion, self-concepts, social norms, stories, art ‐ and form the cultural basis for communication, social interaction, consensus and conflict resolution. System is the material knowledge in society, such as agriculture or engineering. Prior to the modern era system and lifeworld had an experiential relation. Symbolically, Habermas argued, in the good old days people related to each other in human ways ‐ Oktoberfest brought people together to celebrate the hard work of harvest. Industrial revolution uncoupled system and lifeworld, mechanized harvest and commercialized Oktoberfest. Other than issues of money, there is now little human satisfaction in either. For Willson communicative rationality is an expansion of knowledge
Direct Computational Simulations for Condensation Inside Tubes and Channels

The paper presents accurate numerical solutions of the full 2D governing equations for steady and unsteady laminar/laminar internal condensing flows of pure vapor (R-113 and FC-72) inside a vertical tube and a channel. The film condensation is on the inside wall of a tube or one of the walls of a channel (the lower wall in case of a downward sloping channel). The new geometry in this paper is the cylindrical in-tube geometry with axisymmetric flows (vertical 1g or 0g flows). The new results encompass both the cylindrical and the earlier studied channel geometry. Exit condition specifications are again found to be important. The computations are able to predict whether or not a steady flow exists under a natural exit condition (selected from a range of choices available at the exit). If natural steady/quasi-steady flows exist — as is shown to be the case for gravity dominated or strong shear dominated condensate flows — the computations are able to predict both the natural exit condition and the associated condensate flow’s point of transition from stable to unstable behavior. Compared to gravity driven, shear driven cases (zero gravity or horizontal cases) tend to destabilize easier and generally have much larger pressure drops, much slower wave speeds, much larger role of surface tension, and much narrower flow regime boundaries within which the vapor flow can be modelled incompressible. It is found that only in gravity driven cases, be it vertical in-tube or inclined channel geometry, interfacial waves are able to cause a concurrent enhancement in heat transfer rates along with an enhancement in interfacial shear. Also it is found that this enhancement is significant if the condensing surface noise is in resonance with the intrinsic waves.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
Long-term effects of sinusoidal extracellular electric fields in penicillin-treated rat hippocampal slices

Rat hippocampal slices in 0, 0.25, 1.5 or 3 mM penicillin were exposed briefly to extracellular sinusoidal electric fields (20 s, 5 and 60 Hz, 20-40 mV/cm in tissue). Fields induced long-term (min) changes in population spike amplitudes in the CA1 cell layer. Post-field effects included both depression of strongly epileptiform responses and potentiation of weakly epileptiform and normal responses. Endogenous extracellular fields may participate in the dynamic regulation of the course of seizures.
Clinical utility of the Vanderbilt ADHD diagnostic parent rating scale comorbidity screening scales.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder in childhood,1 and primary care physicians (PCPs) are frequently involved in the evaluation and diagnosis of youth with ADHD.2,3 Coexisting mental health problems in children with ADHD is the norm rather than the exception,4 with approximately three-quarters of children with ADHD meeting criteria for another psychiatric disorder.5 Indeed, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines which provide primary care physicians with evidence-based recommendations for the assessment and diagnosis of children with ADHD emphasize the importance of simultaneously evaluating common comorbid mental health problems.6 Still, over half of pediatricians remain uncertain as to whether they have the requisite training for assessing ADHD comorbidities.7 In 2002, the AAP and the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) jointly published a toolkit to be used in the assessment and treatment of ADHD in primary care settings (available at www.nichq.org). This toolkit includes a standardized measure of ADHD symptoms, the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Parent Rating Scale (VADPRS).8 In addition to items corresponding to the ADHD diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), the VADPRS includes symptom screens for three common comorbidities: oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), and anxiety/depression (ANX/DEP).8 Screenings for each domain contain a select group of behaviors for each comorbidity (the ODD and CD screens include DSM-IV-based symptoms, whereas the ANX/DEP screen consists of items modified from another pediatric scale). Further, VADPRS scoring algorithms provide recommended scoring thresholds which may indicate the possible presence of these comorbid disorders. While the VADPRS has strong psychometric properties for the assessment of ADHD8,9 and is frequently used by physicians,10 the comorbidity screening scales have not received adequate attention regarding their clinical utility,11,12 that is, the extent to which the dimensional scales of the VADPRS are useful for detecting the presence or absence of corresponding DSM-IV- based diagnoses. Promising evidence to date shows the VADPRS comorbidity screening scales to be reliable8 and broadly correlated with corresponding diagnoses of a structured diagnostic interview.13 However, the cutoff recommendations for the VADPRS comorbidity screening scales provided in the AAP/NICHQ ADHD toolkit have not been thoroughly evaluated for their clinical utility. Therefore, the purposes of the present study were to (1) evaluate the clinical utility of the cutoff recommendations for the VADPRS comorbidity screening scales provided in the AAP/NICHQ ADHD toolkit, and (2) establish whether alternative cutoff recommendations may improve clinical utility.
Comment on Szymanski's “Racism and Sexism as Functional Substitutes in the Labor Market”

Evidence has recently been presented by Szymanski (1976) showing that racial differences in income are inversely related to sexual differences in income. It appears that women and racial minorities serve as alternative, rather than co-existent, sources of cheap labor. In Szymanski's analysis, these differences held up even under important statistical controls. However, the units of analysis in the original study were the 50 states, and the author specifically welcomed attempts to replicate his results using SMSAs instead. States include a great diversity of economic areas, but they are not true labor markets. This note reports a replication of Szymanski's tables using data from the 124 largest Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs)1 While the original study was meant to describe labor market conditions in the entire United States, this replication applies only to metropolitan areas. The two sets of findings are equally reliable, but we will argue that the SMSA analysis is of greater validity.
Overlapping spheres continuum multiple-scattering Xα calculations of elastic cross sections in electron-molecule scattering

A recently developed parameter free continuum overlapping spheres multiple-scattering method for calculating low-energy elastic scattering cross sections in polyatomic molecules is described. Results on nitrogen, ethylene, halogenosubstituted ethylenes, 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene are presented and compared to experiment.
Spiritual health of oncology patients. Nurse and patient perspectives.

Although nurses describe their professional uniqueness as care of the whole person, the spiritual needs of patients often have received little attention. Therefore, this descriptive, cross-sectional survey was designed to investigate the spiritual health of oncology patients and how well oncology nu
Bell's measure as a quantitative tool in classical optical coherence of electromagnetic fields

We demonstrate an experimental measurement of Bell's inequality for a classical optical beam with two binary degrees of freedom: polarization and spatial parity; and illustrate the usefulness of this measure as a quantitative tool in classical optical coherence theory.
Support for life in prison without the possibility of parole among death penalty proponents

Past research provides a fairly consistent portrait of the death penalty supporter. However, when offered an alternative to death, such as life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP), support for the death penalty tends to diminish. Unfortunately, very little is known about death penalty proponents who support the LWOP option. This study compares death penalty supporters who favor the LWOP alternative with death penalty supporters who oppose this option. Income significantly influences LWOP opinions. The implications of these results and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Prior authorization for biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs: a description of US Medicaid programs.

Objective To evaluate state Medicaid prior authorization programs for biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Methods We obtained biologic DMARD prior authorization policy information from state Medicaid programs. Using aggregate Medicaid drug spending data, we calculated the proportion of DMARD prescriptions and spending attributed to adalimumab and etanercept in 1999 and 2005 and compared the changes in these proportions in states with and without prior authorization policies. Infliximab and other infused DMARDs were not included because of substantial missing data. Results Thirty-two states required prior authorization for ≥1 biologic DMARD, with wide variation in the specific agents covered and the criteria required for a drug to be authorized. There were 18 states with prior authorization requirements for adalimumab or etanercept. States that implemented prior authorization for these agents initially had lower use of the targeted medications, but use increased over time to a level similar to that in states that did not have prior authorization requirements. Conclusion States vary widely in their implementation of prior authorization policies to limit use of biologic DMARDs. Although it appears that these policies may have a short-term effect on the use of targeted medications, this effect does not appear to be sustained. The clinical impact and appropriateness of such policies is not clear from our data and should be studied further.
Moisture barrier properties of xylan composite films

Abstract Moisture barrier properties of films based on xylan reinforced with several cellulosic resources including nanocrystalline cellulose, acacia bleached kraft pulp fibers and softwood kraft fibers have been evaluated. Measurements of water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) were performed by a modification of the wet cup method described by ASTM E 96-95, indicating that membranes with 10% nanocrystalline cellulose, prepared using a sulfuric acid, exhibited the lowest permeability value of 174 g mil/h m2 among the composite films studied. Both the acacia and the softwood kraft pulp fibers when used for xylan film formation exhibited higher water vapor transmission rates at addition levels of 50% and no improvement at lower levels of 5% and 10%, in comparison to control xylan films. Reinforcement of xylan with hydrochloric acid made nanocrystalline cellulose yielded films that showed a reduction in water transmission but the reduction was not as significant as with the reinforcement of xylan with sulfuric nanocrystalline cellulose. The results showed that xylan films reinforced with 10% sulfuric nanocrystalline cellulose exhibited reductions in water transmission rates of 362%, 62% and 61% over films prepared with 10% softwood kraft fibers, 10% acacia fiber and 10% hydrochloric acid prepared nanocrystalline cellulose, respectively. The morphology of the resulting nanocomposite films was examined by SEM and AFM which showed that control films containing xylan and sorbitol had a more open structure as compared to xylan–sorbitol films containing sulfuric nanocrystalline cellulose. The results from FT-IR suggested strong interactions occurred between the nanocrystalline cellulose and the matrix.
Unusual infected hematoma:report of case

Hematoma must be considered in the differential diagnosis of facial area swelling, and because bacteria may be present, surgical treatment of the condition should be prompt. In the instance reported, infection occurred without an apparent entrance for bacteria.
P2Y12 or P2Y1 inhibitors reduce platelet deposition in a microfluidic model of thrombosis while apyrase lacks efficacy under flow conditions.

Determination of the patient-specific response to antiplatelet agents facilitates proper dosing for both acute and chronic prophylaxis. “Closed” systems (with or without flow) may fail to predict pharmacological potency in situations where platelets rapidly accumulate under flow conditions at a site of thrombosis (“Open” systems). Using an 8-channel microfluidic flow assay of human whole blood with corn trypsin inhibitor (± PPACK) perfused over focal zones of collagen, dose-response curves were measured for pharmacological agents at a wall shear rate of 210 s−1. The P2Y1inhibitorMRS 2179 (IC50 = 0.233 ± 0.132 μM) and P2Y12inhibitor2-MeSAMP (IC50 = 2.558 ± 0.799 μM) were potent blockers of secondary platelet accumulation under flow, while the P2X1inhibitor (NF 449) and apyrase failed to reduce platelet accumulation. MRS 2179 and 2-MeSAMP had undetectable effects on initial platelet adhesion to collagen. Numerical simulation of convective-diffusive transport and apyrase-mediated catalytic degradation of ADP indicated that ultra-high concentrations of apyrase (∼2000 U mL−1) would be required to have the same effect under flow as much lower concentrations (1 U mL−1) currently used in closed systems (aggregometry or cone-and-plate viscometer). This is the first evaluation of IC50 values for P2Y12 and P2Y1antagonists under controlled flow conditions. Evaluation of antiplatelet agents in open flow systems demonstrates that inhibition of either ADP by apyrase or antagonism of P2X1 signaling had no inhibitory effect on platelet accumulation. This technique provides a platform for rapidly investigating effects of antithrombotic therapies simultaneously in a model injury system.
Some limit theorems for random fields

We prove a central limit theorem with remainder and an iterated logarithm law for collections of mixing random variables indexed byZd,d≧1. These results are applicable to certain Gibbs random fields.
Effects of glucose therapy on experimental Escherichia coli septicemia.

Abstract Therapeutic and prophylactic employment of glucose infusion during E. coli septicemia apparently induces a reversal of the effect, manifested by the presence of the organism and its by-products. Dogs, receiving a continual infusion of E. coli at 1 × 107/ ml with elevated blood glucose levels, showed a 1000-fold decrease in circulating bacteria within 2 hr when compared with control animals. Dogs prophylactically treated cleared circulating E. coli in 30 to 60 min, sooner than control animals. Glucose infusion employed therapeutically and prophylactically has a curative effect in Gram-negative septicemias and bacteremias.
Physical geography of tropical Latin America: the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of environments

For the past 40 years, studies of physical geography in tropical Latin America have concentrated on the spatial and temporal diversity of biophysical environments and biota. Environmental heterogeneity arises from historical and present-day interaction between climatic, geomorphologic, edaphic, and biogeographic systems. Recent research emphasizes three major themes involving these systems: Quaternary climate change; human-altered biophysical environments; and geomorphologic activity. Findings on these themes are evaluated with respect to the tropical highlands, the tropical lowlands and related extra-tropical areas. Research on physical geography in Latin America promises numerous contributions toward a better understanding of environmental conservation.