cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of electrodes on the phase evolution and microstructure of Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 films

Abstract The crystallization behavior of PZT thin films deposited by the sol-gel process on RuO2/SiO2/Si and Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si was studied and compared. X-ray diffraction studies reveal that in both cases crystallization of the perovskite structure is preceded by pyrochlore formation. Transformation of the as-deposited amorphous film to the pyrochlore phase occurs at about 500°C on both Pt and RuO2 electrodes. In the case of films deposited on RuO2 electrodes, the pyrochlore phase persists to higher temperatures, up to 700°C, as TEM shows. In the case of films deposited on Pt, the pyrochlore phase is completely transformed to perovskite upon annealing at 700°C for 10 minutes. The morphology and microstructure of the films are strongly electrode dependent. Films grown on Pt are characterized by a high density of perovskite nuclei. The subsequent growth of these nuclei results in dense, phase-pure perovskite films. In contrast, films grown on RuO2 are characterized by a lower density of nuclei resulting in inho...
A unified scaling model for flow through a lattice of microfabricated posts

A scaling model is presented for low Reynolds number viscous flow within an array of microfabricated posts. Such posts are widely used in several lab-on-a-chip applications such as heat pipes, antibody arrays and biomolecule separation columns. Finite element simulations are used to develop a predictive model for pressure driven viscous flow through posts. The results indicate that the flow rate per unit width scales as ∼h1.17g1.33/d0.5 where h is the post height, d post diameter and g is the spacing between the posts. These results compare favorably to theoretical limits. The scaling is extended to capillary pressure driven viscous flows. This unified model is the first report of a scaling that incorporates both viscous and capillary forces in the microfabricated post geometry. The model is consistent with Washburn dynamics and was experimentally validated to within 8% using wetting on microfabricated silicon posts.
Small effective size limits performance in a novel environment

Understanding what limits or facilitates species' responses to human-induced habitat change can provide insight for the control of invasive species and the conservation of small populations, as well as an arena for studying adaptation to realistic novel environments. Small effective size of ancestral populations could limit the establishment in, or response to, a novel or altered habitat because of low genetic variation for ecologically important traits, and/or because small populations harbor fixed deleterious mutations. I estimated the fitness of individuals from populations of the endangered plant Hypericum cumulicola, of known census and effective size, transplanted into native scrub habitat and unpaved roadsides, which are a novel habitat for this species. I found a significant positive relationship between estimates of population size and mean fitness, but only in the novel roadside habitat. Fitness was more than 200% greater in the roadside habitat than the scrub, mostly due to increased fecundity. These results combined with previous estimates of heterosis in this species suggest that fixed deleterious mutations could contribute to lower fitness of field transplants from small populations in the novel environment.
Characterization of primary lesions caused by the plastome mutator of Oenothera

Oenothera plants homozygous for a recessive allele at the plastome mutator (pm) locus show non-Mendelian mutation frequencies that are 1000-fold higher than spontaneous levels. Characterization of RFLP sites in a collection of mutants indicates that insertion-deletion hot spots in the pm lines are defined by tandem direct repeats, implicating replication slippage or misalignment during recombination. Several sites known to contain very short direct repeats were examined, and all were found to have been targeted in one or more plants of the mutant collection. To determine if replication slippage was occurring, two oligo-A stretches in non-coding DNA were examined, and 3 of 12 plants were found to have an additional adenine in a 13-base track. To search for other mutations that would not be visible as restriction fragment length polymorphisms, PCR-amplification products of the psbB gene were digested with a restriction endonuclease, denatured, and examined for single-strand conformational polymorphisms. Among 21 mutants, one 4-bp insertion and one point mutation were identified in psbB. The discovery that the plastome mutator can cause base substitutions as well as repeat-mediated insertions and deletions points to a likely defect in a component of the cpDNA replication machinery.
Exploring the experience of hallucinations from a perspective of self: surviving and persevering.

BACKGROUND: Despite improved treatment, little is understood about how clients view their hallucinations from a perspective of self, and few studies address the meaning of hallucinations or the relationship of hallucinations to the individual sense of being.OBJECTIVE:To understand hallucinations from an individual perspective of self.STUDY DESIGN: Heideggerian and hermeneutics-guided thematic analysis. Twelve individuals described their experiences of hallucinations. All interviews were recorded (with consent) and transcribed verbatim.RESULTS:Four themes described surviving and persevering: (a) Are they who they are? (b) a not-so-certain life; (c) finding strength in the broken places; and (d) I am still me. Although experiencing hallucinations was analogous to living with loss, participants recalled hallucinations as providing something positive in how they cared for and related to others.CONCLUSIONS:Practitioners can incorporate a language of caring that meets the needs of their clients, rather than the...
Power consumption and gas capacity of self‐inducting turbo aerators

A theoretical and experimental analysis of self-inducting turbo aerator performance was carried out based on the theory of water jet injector operation. It was shown that the aerator's injection coefficient is completely determined by only two dimensionless groups, CH and EuG, between which there is a single valued dependence on whose basis generalization of experimental data is possible. An analytical expression for the optimality criterion or aerator performance index, accounting for aerator gas capacity, power consumption, and submergence, has been obtained in terms of CH and EuG with only one adjustable parameter. From the above two dependencies, a methodology was developed for determining optimal operating conditions, by means of which all the data necessary for the optimal design can be obtained from the results of bench scale experiment.
Can the bowel substitute for the kidney in advanced renal failure

This Editorial provides a brief commentary exploring the possibilities of the bowel acting as a substitute for kidney function in chronic kidney disease/end stage renal disease. Three concepts are highlighted as potential means by which bowel function can serve as an alternative to renal filtration: oral sorbents, diarrhea therapy and bacterial-enzyme nitrogen recycling within the gut.
Motion compensation by phase correction for synthetic‐aperture side‐scan sonar imaging

This article presents a robust motion estimation and correction technique for the realization of synthetic-aperture side-scan sonar imaging. It utilizes the redundancy provided by the multiple-element receiver array configuration. Physical-array subimages are used for the estimation of the motion errors between adjacent receiver positions. Subsequently, the motion errors are formulated in the form of phase perturbations and are corrected accordingly by making adjustments to the wave-field data samples prior to the formation of synthetic-aperture images. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 14, 259–261, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ima.20029
Interoperability between Bioinformatics Tools: A Logic Programming Approach

The goal of this project is to develop solutions to enhance interoperability between bioinformatics applications. Most existing applications adopt different data formats, forcing biologists into tedious translation work. We propose to use of Nexus as an intermediate representation language. We develop a complete grammar for Nexus and we adopt this grammar to build a parser. The construction heavily relies on the peculiar features of Prolog, to easily derive effective parsing and translating procedures. We also develop a general parse tree format suitable for interconversion between Nexus and other formats.
The Use of Simultaneous Prompting for Teaching Expressive Word Recognition to Preschool Children

This study investigated the effectiveness of a simultaneous prompting procedure in teaching expressive word recognition to preschool children. Four children, two typically developing, one with a physical disability, and one with mild developmental delays, served as subjects. The effectiveness of a simultaneous prompting procedure was evaluated through the use of a multiple probe design. Results indicate that the procedure was effective for three of the four students. These students acquired the behaviors in a near-errorless fashion, with a mean of 1.3% training errors. These students maintained the target behaviors at high rates up to 6 weeks after training and generalized the responses across stimulus materials, with an overall mean of 91% accuracy.
Post stroke urinary loss, incontinence and life satisfaction: when does post-stroke urinary loss become incontinence?

Aims While urinary incontinence (UI) has been extensively studied after stroke, the threshold for when it becomes a social problem by affecting life satisfaction or social participation has not been established. The study goal was to establish this threshold, examine the impact of UI on life satisfaction and participation, and determine whether UI contributes independently to poor stroke outcome. Methods Retrospective analysis was performed on prospectively collected data from a cohort of consecutive admissions to the acute Neurology Stroke Service of a large metropolitan teaching hospital. Four hundred and sixty patients with ischemic stroke were prospectively evaluated for stroke severity, medical, and demographic factors. Telephone interviews were completed with 361 community-dwelling subjects 6 months after stroke onset. Results The FIM bladder item was used to determine the frequency of urinary loss. All patients were continent before stroke onset, 16% reported UL at 6-month follow-up. ROC analysis suggested that UI once per month or more is associated with diminished quality of life and activity participation. Logistic regression found poor life satisfaction associated with ADL impairment, cognitive disability, low SF12 physical and mental health scores, and incontinence. Poor outcome was independent of stroke severity. Conclusions Urinary loss became incontinence when it occurred at least monthly. UI was associated with greater dependence in basic and instrumental ADL, decreased participation and low life satisfaction. Neurourol. Urdynam. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Adenovirus-Based Vectors for the Development of Prophylactic and Therapeutic Vaccines

Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases as well as cancer pose great global health impacts on the society. Vaccines have emerged as effective treatments to prevent or reduce the burdens of already developed diseases. This is achieved by means of activating various components of the immune system to generate systemic inflammatory reactions targeting infectious agents or diseased cells for control/elimination. DNA virus-based genetic vaccines gained significant attention in the past decades owing to the development of DNA manipulation technologies, which allowed engineering of recombinant viral vectors encoding sequences for foreign antigens or their immunogenic epitopes as well as various immunomodulatory molecules. Despite tremendous progress in the past 50 years, many hurdles still remain for achieving the full clinical potential of viral-vectored vaccines. This chapter will present the evolution of vaccines from “live” or “attenuated” first-generation agents to recombinant DNA and viral-vectored vaccines. Particular emphasis will be given to human adenovirus (Ad) for the development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. Ad biological properties related to vaccine development will be highlighted along with their advantages and potential hurdles to be overcome. In particular, we will discuss (1) genetic modifications in the Ad capsid protein to reduce the intrinsic viral immunogenicity, (2) antigen capsid incorporation for effective presentation of foreign antigens to the immune system, (3) modification of the hexon and fiber capsid proteins for Ad liver de-targeting and selective retargeting to cancer cells, (4) Ad-based vaccines carrying “arming” transgenes with immunostimulatory functions as immune adjuvants, and (5) oncolytic Ad vectors as a new therapeutic approach against cancer. Finally, the combination of adenoviral vectors with other non-adenoviral vector systems, the prime/boost strategy of immunization, clinical trials involving Ad-based vaccines, and the perspectives for the field development will be discussed.
Detection of Entity Mentions Occuring in English and Chinese Text

In this paper, we describe an integrated approach to entity mention detection that yields a monolithic, almost language independent system. It is optimal in the sense that all categorical constraints are simultaneously considered. The system is compact and easy to develop and maintain, since only a single set of features and classifiers are needed to be designed and optimized. It is implemented using one-versus-all support vector machine (SVM) classifiers and a number of feature extractors at several linguistic levels. SVMs are well known for their ability to handle a large set of overlapping features with theoretically sound generalization properties. Data sparsity might be an important issue as a result of a large number of classes and relatively moderate training data size. However, we report results that the integrated system performs as good as a pipelined system that decomposes the problem into a few smaller sub-tasks. We conduct all our experiments using ACE 2004 data, evaluate the systems using ACE metrics and report competitive performance.
Home Care of the High‐Risk Pregnant Woman Requiring Bed Rest

Home-care treatment of the high-risk pregnant woman often includes bed rest. Bed rest therapy has various physiologic and psychosocial side effects that generally are not recognized or treated. This article provides suggestions for providing comprehensive nursing antepartum and postpartum care of the pregnant woman requiring home bed rest and her family. Resources available to assist in this care are detailed.
Synthesis of custom networks of heterogeneous processing elements for complex physical system emulation

Physical system models that consist of thousands of ordinary differential equations can be synthesized to field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for highly-parallelized, real-time physical system emulation. Previous work introduced synthesis of custom networks of homogeneous processing elements, consisting of processing elements that are either all general differential equation solvers or are all custom solvers tailored to solve specific equations. However, a complex physical system model may contain different types of equations such that using only general solvers or only custom solvers does not provide all of the possible speedup. We introduce methods to synthesize a custom network of heterogeneous processing elements for emulating physical systems, where each element is either a general or custom differential equation solver. We show average speedups of 45x over a 3 GHz single-core desktop processor, and of 11x and 20x over a 3 GHz four-core desktop and a 763 MHz NVIDIA graphical processing unit, respectively. Compared to a commercial high-level synthesis tool including regularity extraction, the networks of heterogeneous processing elements were on average 10.8x faster. Compared to homogeneous networks of general and single-type custom processing elements, heterogeneous networks were on average 7x and 6x faster, respectively.
Phase Equilibrium Relationships at Liquidus Temperatures in the System FeO–Fe2O3–Al2O3–SiO2

Phase equilibrium data at liquidus temperatures are presented for mixtures in the system FeO–Fe2O3–Al2O3–SiO2. The volume located between the 1 and 0.2 atm. O2 isobaric surfaces of the tetrahedron representing this system was studied in detail. Scattered data were obtained at lower O2 pressures. Results obtained in the present investigation were combined with data in the literature to construct a phase equilibrium diagram, at liquidus temperatures, for the entire system FeO–Fe2O3–Al2O3–SiO2. Methods for interpretation of the diagram are explained.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 kills Caenorhabditis elegans by cyanide poisoning.

In this report we describe experiments to investigate a simple virulence model in which Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 rapidly paralyzes and kills the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans . Our results imply that hydrogen cyanide is the sole or primary toxic factor produced by P. aeruginosa that is responsible for killing of the nematode. Four lines of evidence support this conclusion. First, a transposon insertion mutation in a gene encoding a subunit of hydrogen cyanide synthase ( hcnC ) eliminated nematode killing. Second, the 17 avirulent mutants examined all exhibited reduced cyanide synthesis, and the residual production levels correlated with killing efficiency. Third, exposure to exogenous cyanide alone at levels comparable to the level produced by PAO1 killed nematodes with kinetics similar to those observed with bacteria. The killing was not enhanced if hcnC mutant bacteria were present during cyanide exposure. And fourth, a nematode mutant ( egl-9 ) resistant to P. aeruginosa was also resistant to killing by exogenous cyanide in the absence of bacteria. A model for nematode killing based on inhibition of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase is presented. The action of cyanide helps account for the unusually broad host range of virulence of P. aeruginosa and may contribute to the pathogenesis in opportunistic human infections due to the bacterium.
Two Ways of Learning Brand Associations

Four studies show that consumers have not one but two distinct learning processes that allow them to use brand names and other product features to predict consumption benefits. The first learning process is a relatively unfocused process in which all stimulus elements get cross-referenced for later retrieval. This process is backward looking and consistent with human associative memory (HAM) models. The second learning process requires that a benefit be the focus of prediction during learning. It assumes feature-benefit associations change only to the extent that the expected performance of the product does not match the experienced performance of the product. This process is forward looking and consistent with adaptive network models. The importance of this two-process theory is most apparent when a product has multiple features. During HAM learning, each featurebenefit association will develop independently. During adaptive learning, features will compete to predict benefits and, thus, feature-benefit associations will develop interdependently. We find adaptive learning of feature-benefit associations when consumers are motivated to learn to predict a benefit (e.g., because it is perceived to have hedonic relevance) but find HAM learning when consumers attend to an associate of lesser motivational significance.
Effects of Gonadal Hormones and Contraceptive Steroids on Glucose and Insulin Metabolism

Considerable data have been accumulated regarding the effect of naturally-occurring and synthetic sex steroids on glucose and insulin metabolism. The studies have been performed largely to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for changes in carbohydrate metabolism during pregnancy. Initially, studying glucose tolerance in women treated with contraceptive steroids seemed to be a logical way to dissociate the effects of gonadal steroids from the metabolic effects of human placental lactogen during gestation. However, such studies have been confusing and often apparently contradictory. Yet, if the structural characteristics of the steroid compounds tested are considered, these results are basically in agreement with, rather than contradictory to, data obtained earlier in laboratory animals. If one correlates the changes in glucose or insulin metabolism with the chemical structure of the estrogen or progestin tested, it is possible to show that there are clear structure-activity relationships between the compounds tested and the results observed, which appear to be modified by the functional state of the pancreatic islet cells in the subjects tested.
Predictors of Mortality Up to 1 Year After Emergency Major Abdominal Surgery in Older Adults.

Objectives To identify factors associated with mortality in older adults 30, 180, and 365 days after emergency major abdominal surgery. Design A retrospective study linked to Medicare claims from 2000 to 2010. Setting Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Participants Medicare beneficiaries aged 65.5 enrolled in the HRS from 2000 to 2010 with at least one urgent or emergency major abdominal surgery and a core interview from the HRS within 3 years before surgery. Measurements Survival analysis was used to describe all-cause mortality 30, 180, and 365 days after surgery. Complementary log–log regression was used to identify participant characteristics and postoperative events associated with poorer survival. Results Four hundred individuals had one of the urgent or emergency surgeries of interest, 24% of whom were aged 85 and older, 50% had coronary artery disease, 48% had cancer, 33% had congestive heart failure, and 37% experienced a postoperative complication. Postoperative mortality was 20% at 30 days, 31% at 180 days, and 34% at 365 days. Of those aged 85 and older, 50% were dead 1 year after surgery. After multivariate adjustment including postoperative complications, dementia (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.02, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.24–3.31), hospitalization within 6 months before surgery (HR = 1.63, 95% CI = 1.12–2.28), and complications (HR = 3.45, 95% CI = 2.32–5.13) were independently associated with worse 1-year survival. Conclusion Overall mortality is high in many older adults up to 1 year after undergoing emergency major abdominal surgery. The occurrence of a complication is the clinical factor most strongly associated with worse survival.
Ghrelin, Leptin, and Fatty Acids in Free-Living Callospermophilus lateralis (Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels)

Although golden-mantled ground squirrels (GMGS, Callospermophilus lateralis) have long been used as laboratory animals, little is known about their physiology as wild-living animals under natural conditions. In examining hormone profiles of serum taken from wild-living GMGS during the euthermic (May–August) season, we found that post-hibernation levels of the orexigenic hormone ghrelin were low, and gradually increased through July and August (pre-hibernation). Females generally had higher concentrations of circulating ghrelin than did males, possibly reflecting the greater energy requirements imposed on them by pregnancy and lactation. Leptin concentrations were extremely low throughout the summer months, possibly reflecting the lean condition of field GMGS, particularly on their exit from hibernation in May. These data provide preliminary evidence that seasonal changes in energy-modulating hormones may be informed by different energy requirements inherent between the sexes.
Introduction to Race and Opportunity in the American South

This issue of the Peabody Journal of Education focuses on “Race and Opportunity in the American South” and expands previous scholarly and policy conversations around education and opportunity in th...
Development and Validation of High-Throughput Crystallisation and Analysis (HTCAA) Methodology for Physical Form Screening

High throughput crystallisation methodology for physical form screening using multi-well plate and Raman microscopy was developed and validated. This methodology offers various advantages including small sample requirement (~1 mg per crystallization), no sample preparation, rapid data acquisition using non-destructive analytical technique and rapid data analysis using chemometric techniques. The effectiveness of this methodology was assessed by applying it to three pharmaceutical molecules i.e. olanzapine, clozapine and amoxapine. Sixteen novel solid forms of olanzapine, 3 novel physical forms of clozapine and 10 novel salts of amoxapine were obtained by utilising a total of only ~640 mgs of API and ~65 ml of solvents. The developed methodology is an effective tool for preliminary investigation of solid-form diversity during early stages of drug development and provides data to guide further crystallization efforts in appropriate direction.
Balancing the Fishes' Scales: Tribal, State, and Federal Interests in Fishing Rights and Water Quality in Maine

The state of Maine has a complicated and often adversarial legal relationship with the federally recognized Native American (Indian) Tribes in the state. Perhaps the most contentious legal relationship presently pertains to Maine’s authority to regulate water resources on Indian territories and lands (Indian lands). At their core, legal conflicts often involve disputes over power, money, respect, or any combination of these elements. What makes conflicts between states and Native American tribes so complex, and in this particular case volatile, is that the legal issues often involve clashes of all three of these elements. The legal framework for the current water resource dispute traces back to a series of state and federal laws setting aside reservation and trust land for the Tribes in the 1980s and 1990s, collectively known as the Settlement Acts. The Tribes’ lack of bargaining power during these settlements arguably resulted in a jurisdictionally oppressive framework for the protection of tribal natural resources. The most recent legal conflict erupted in February 2015, and juxtaposes Maine’s right to regulate water quality standards (WQS) against the Tribes’ right to fish for sustenance on their lands. The emotional responses ignited by this conflict illuminate why a comprehensive approach to settling the disputes between Maine its Tribes is needed.On February 2, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The letter informed the DEP that the EPA was disapproving all of Maine’s WQS related to human health criteria for waters in Indian lands. The primary purpose of the disapprovals, from the EPA’s perspective, was to protect the Tribes’ legally protected sustenance fishing rights. This Note analyzes the policy considerations, practical implications, and lost opportunities behind the EPA’s decisions to disapprove WQS on Indian lands in Maine. Part I provides an analysis of the EPA’s rationale for the decisions, including its Trust responsibility and authority under the Clean Water Act. Part II considers the history of the Tribes’ agreements with Maine and their rights under Maine and Federal law in the context of the EPA’s decision. Part III considers Maine’s primary legal arguments against EPA’s decision and highlights why the State should consider settlement. Finally, Part IV looks toward how Maine and the Tribes can build mutual trust, and attempt to resolve conflicts outside of the courts. Given the incessant conflicts over tribal water rights under the current framework, Part IV suggests an amendment to the Settlement Acts to bolster the position of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, allowing the Commission to foster a “true dialogue” between state officials and Tribal leaders and reduce the tendency to resort to the courts.
Verapamil prevents insulin antinatriuresis in euglycemic rats.

To determine whether calcium entry is necessary for insulin antinatriuresis, urinary sodium excretion was determined before and during euglycemic insulin administration in rats receiving verapamil (10 micrograms.kg-1.min-1) or vehicle. In vehicle rats, insulin reduced sodium excretion from 2.7 +/- 0.5 to 0.98 +/- 0.2 mu eq/min (P less than 0.05) without altering arterial pressure or inulin clearance. Insulin did not reduce sodium excretion in rats receiving verapamil. Baseline mean arterial pressure was lower in verapamil rats than in vehicle rats. To exclude the possibility that lower baseline arterial pressures prevented insulin antinatriuresis, insulin's effect on sodium excretion was determined in rats receiving captopril at a dose that reduced arterial pressure to the level observed in verapamil rats, and in verapamil rats with angiotensin II levels fixed to maintain arterial pressure equivalent to vehicle rats. In captopril rats, insulin reduced (P less than 0.05) sodium excretion from 1.07 +/- 0.3 to 0.3 +/- 0.01 mu eq/min, even though arterial pressure was not different from that in verapamil rats. Insulin failed to reduce sodium excretion in verapamil rats receiving angiotensin II. Thus verapamil prevents insulin antinatriuresis by renal mechanisms related to inhibition of calcium entry. Additionally, insulin antinatriuresis is independent of angiotensin II.
Response of the Truckee River to lowering base level at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, based on historical air photos and LiDAR data

The Truckee River in western Nevada has severely incised in response to a net 20 m of lake-level lowering of Pyramid Lake over the past 120 yr, leaving a suite of cut terraces that extend ~15 km upstream from the lake where incision was arrested by bedrock in the channel. Channel planform changes and terrace development were mapped over a 70 yr period using rectified aerial imagery and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data in ArcGIS. Discrete point elevations were extracted from the LiDAR data for channel remnants on each of the different-aged terraces and combined with channel distance measurements derived from the appropriate aerial imagery to derive true channel gradients for each of the photo years. These same point elevation measurements were also resolved to a common valley distance (CVD), as is often done when studying prehistorical terrace sequences. Comparison of the true channel distance (TCD) profiles to the CVD profiles demonstrates that the TCD profiles are longer and less steep than the CVD profiles. These differences exist because resolving terrace elevations to a CVD does not account for decreasing sinuosities and straighter channel planforms through time. As base level fell to its historical low elevation, the channel became steeper, straighter, and smoother, which increased the rate of sediment transport and delivery to Pyramid Lake. Over the past 120 yr, ~60,000,000 m 3 of sediment have been removed from the bed and banks of the lower river and redeposited in the lake, temporarily increasing the sedimentation rate. Larger trenches through deltaic and lacustrine deposits occupied by rivers and streams flowing into Pyramid Lake and other closed basins may reflect similar rapid responses to lowering base levels at times in the past. Therefore, lowering lake levels at Pyramid Lake and elsewhere during relatively dry times may be at least partly responsible for transient increases in sedimentation rates in lacustrine archives.
Regulating the Zero-Day Vulnerability Trade: A Preliminary Analysis

The global trade in zero-day vulnerabilities – software flaws unknown to the maker and public – constitutes a serious cybersecurity problem. Governments use zero days for military, intelligence, and law enforcement cyber operations, and criminal organizations use them to steal information and disrupt systems. The zero-day trade is global and lucrative, with the U.S. and other governments participating as buyers. Cybersecurity experts worry this trade enables governments, non-state actors, and criminals to gain damaging capabilities. The U.S. government’s participation raises concerns because keeping purchased zero days secret to preserve military, intelligence, or law enforcement utility undermines U.S. and global cybersecurity. These problems are generating a nascent, but growing, policy debate about the need to regulate the zero-day trade.This paper contributes to this debate by analyzing U.S. domestic and international options for controlling the zero-day trade. Domestically, it investigates criminalization, unilateral export controls, and increased oversight of U.S. executive branch actions. Internationally, this thesis analyzes international legal approaches, voluntary collective action through export controls, and cooperation through collective defense organizations. This thesis demonstrates regulation of the global zero-day trade will be difficult, signaling the pervasiveness of realpolitik in cyberspace. If controlling the trade is a desired aim, without U.S. leadership and coordinated international action, the pull of anarchy over regulation will prevail.
Effects of Sublethal Doses of Certain Insecticides on Eggs, Larvae, and Adults of Two Species of Heliothis

Eggs, larval, and adult stages of the bollworm, Heliothis zea Boddie. and the tobacco budworm, H. virescens (F.), were tested with endrin, azinphosethyl, azinphosmethyl, and a 1:1 (w/w) mixture of azinphosethyl and azinphosmethyl. LD50 values showed that the azinphos insecticides were more toxic than endrin to eggs and adults of both species. Endrin was more toxic than the azinphos insecticides to larvae of both species. All the insecticides produced deleterious effects on the weight, longevity, and fecundity of survivors of sublethal doses.
Evaluation of an Integrated Authoring Tool for Building Advanced Question-Answering Characters

We present the evaluation of an integrated authoring tool for rapid prototyping of dialogue systems. These dialogue systems are designed to support virtual humans engaging in advanced question-answering dialogues, such as for training tactical questioning skills. The tool was designed to help non-experts, who may have little or no knowledge of linguistics or computer science, build virtual characters that can play the role of an interviewee. The tool has been successfully used by several different non-experts to create a number of virtual characters used successfully for both training and human subjects testing. We report on experiences with seven such characters, whose development time was as little as two weeks including concept development and a round of user testing.
Efficient, Single-mode, 1.5-mJ, Passively Q-Switched Diode Pumped Nd:YAG Laser

We have demonstrated an efficient, compact, 1.5-mJ, 3.9-ns, passively Q-switched, single mode, diode pumped Nd:YAG laser using Cr4+:YAG as a saturable absorber.
Return to Chinese Rule 1945–1950

Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, units of the Chinese Nationalist government brought about Taiwan Retrocession on 25 October. We view the Kuomintang’s (KMT’s) first uneasy years on the island, such as the violent 28 February 1948 incident, against the backdrop of both Mao’s looming military threat from the Mainland and the Truman administration’s tepid political/military support for Formosa.
Home Practice Awareness of Thought Patterns and Muscle Tension

One responds to certain thought patterns, such as “ruminating” and “anticipating,” in a manner similar to imagined stressors, i.e., with muscle tension. The following home practice is intended to encourage self-awareness of this process and to teach ways to decrease the automatic (unconcious) response to such mental events. In becoming aware of and learning to inhibit any process one gains freedom of choice, whether to react or to act.
Flowsheet modeling of a continuous direct compression process

Abstract Continuous manufacturing for the production of pharmaceutical products is emerging as a key technology due to the advantages it has over traditional batch manufacturing methods. Process systems engineering is critical in rolling out this technology within the industry since it allows for more robust process development and can address regulatory concerns such as the need for quality by design. In this chapter, the use of flowsheet models applied to continuous direct compression is discussed. The unit operations involved in the process are outlined as well as the modeling approaches that can be adopted. Powder feeding is identified as the most important unit operation for maintain product quality and powder blending's role in smoothing out potential feeding disturbances is discussed.
Panel sequencing distinguishes monogenic forms of nephritis from nephrosis in children

Background Alport syndrome (AS) and atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome (aHUS) are rare forms of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that can lead to a severe decline of renal function. Steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) is more common than AS and aHUS and causes 10% of childhood-onset CKD. In recent years, multiple monogenic causes of AS, aHUS and SRNS have been identified, but their relative prevalence has yet to be studied together in a typical pediatric cohort of children with proteinuria and hematuria. We hypothesized that identification of causative mutations by whole exome sequencing (WES) in known monogenic nephritis and nephrosis genes would allow distinguishing nephritis from nephrosis in a typical pediatric group of patients with both proteinuria and hematuria at any level. Methods We therefore conducted an exon sequencing (WES) analysis for 11 AS, aHUS and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura-causing genes in an international cohort of 371 patients from 362 families presenting with both proteinuria and hematuria before age 25 years. In parallel, we conducted either WES or high-throughput exon sequencing for 23 SRNS-causing genes in all patients. Results We detected pathogenic mutations in 18 of the 34 genes analyzed, leading to a molecular diagnosis in 14.1% of families (51 of 362). Disease-causing mutations were detected in 3 AS-causing genes (4.7%), 3 aHUS-causing genes (1.4%) and 12 NS-causing genes (8.0%). We observed a much higher mutation detection rate for monogenic forms of CKD in consanguineous families (35.7% versus 10.1%). Conclusions We present the first estimate of relative frequency of inherited AS, aHUS and NS in a typical pediatric cohort with proteinuria and hematuria. Important therapeutic and preventative measures may result from mutational analysis in individuals with proteinuria and hematuria.
A Mobile Phone Based Reflectance Pulse Oximeter

We report a mobile-phone based reflectance pulse oximeter for use in resource-poor regions. The developed prototype was validated against a reference device in a breath-holding study.
Review of the book Identity, Social Activism, and the Pursuit of Higher Education by Susana M. Muñoz

Munoz (2015) has offered an important and passionate account of how national immigration policy interacts with institutional policy to delimit college access and identity meaning-making for undocumented youth. This text contributes to a growing literature that advances a critical narrative about undocumented youth.
Introduction: Field Transformations and Institutional Entrepreneurship in Cultural Industries

This chapter reflects on the mechanisms by which new organizations achieve legitimacy and garner influence in deeply institutionalized culture industry contexts, where incumbent organizations maintain significant gaps between their strategy formulation (i.e., “thinking”) and their behavior (i.e., “doing”) and exhibit low aspirations for learning. Petkova explores the ways in which emerging new entrepreneurs, creating new practices in such creative institutional contexts, as fashion, become accepted by incumbents in these industries. Also discussed are the means for gaining institutional legitimacy in the fashion field and a review of the behavior of fashion companies, in which the unresolved conflict between artistic and commercial priority represents one of the chief hurdles to accepting new paradigms in their organizational practice.
How does a Candidate Peptide Become a Hormone

Peptides, like people, have identity crises. We ask for them, as we do for ourselves, what is my role? Once we have isolated and chemically identified a peptide, we inject it and observe its various biological actions. This tells us the various things it can do. Only when we are satisfied that we have determined which of these things it actually does do when it is endogenously released under physiological conditions do we confer the title of hormone on it. A hormone is a peptide with a physiological role.
Statistical Mechanics of Nervous Nets

There are many deep and difficult problems to be solved before any adequate understanding is achieved, of the workings of the central nervous system. “Macro”-neurophysiology and neuroanatomy provide an image of the central nervous system as a system of ordered nets arranged in a multileveled hierarchy, with an immense number of circuits within and between nets. Feedback inhibition undoubtedly plays a very important role in maintaining the activity of such nets, which is controlled by internal and external signals, especially from nets in the lower levels of the hierarchy (the reticular systems), and by signals from the receptors. “Micro”-neurophysiology and anatomy fill in the details necessarily obscured by macroscopic analysis. The analysis of intercellular interactions and of the responses of cells to specific forms, has established that there is a specific organization of nets into functional columns maintained by nearest neighbor interactions, by spatial summation and by inhibition. There are topological maps between many nets and from receptive fields. There are differences between the responses of nets in anaesthetized and unanaesthetized animals In unanaesthetized animals, cells may exhibit a maintained or “steady-state” reponse in addition to the transient response normally found in the cells of anaesthetized animals. How do these tonic and phasic responses influence each other? What is the role of the functional columns, and of the multileveled hierarchies? These are key questions that must be answered before any real understanding of neural coding and information processing can be expected.
Career Development of Outdoor Students in Higher Education: Comparing Methodologies

Students studying outdoor recreation in higher education settings often have two avenues to obtain their degree. One avenue includes traditional classroom instruction in which students gain skills and study theory and content over several semesters, and the other includes an intensive field-based course that uses experiential learning as its focal point (Carver, 1996; Lindsay & Ewert, 1999). This study examined whether the different avenues yielded different student outcomes, skill development, and career development. Subscribe to JOREL
Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas Emission Benefits of Vehicle Speed Limiters on On-Road Heavy-Duty Line-Haul Vehicles

Vehicle speed limiters (VSLs) are one of the strategies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from heavy-duty vehicles; they work by limiting peak vehicle speed. In the Federal Phase 2 Rule—GHG Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-duty Engines and Vehicles, the greenhouse gas emission model (GEM) includes emission reduction credits for vehicles equipped with tamper-proof VSLs set at 55 to 65 miles per hour (mph). In this study, on-road testing of three class 8 combination tractor-trailers was conducted at various cruising speeds between 45 and 78 mph under steady conditions to evaluate the emission impacts of VSLs on heavy-duty vehicles. The three tested trucks were equipped with model year (MY) 2007 and newer engines and low-rolling-resistance tires on both the tractors and trailers. One truck was tested with a combined test weight of 35,000 lb and each of the other two trucks was tested with a combined test weight of 76,000 lb. A portable emission measurement system (PEMS) was used to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and results showed that distance-based CO2 emission rates were dependent on both vehicle speed and engine revolutions per minute (rpm). Compared to average CO2 emission rates of approximately 1524 grams per mile (g/mile) at 78 mph for these test trucks, average CO2 emission rates at 51 mph were ~ 36% lower (approximately 978 g/mile) and represented the minimum distance-based (i.e., in g/mile) CO2 emission rates within the speed range evaluated for the three test trucks. Specifically, when decreasing speeds from 78 to 55 mph, CO2 emissions were between 0.7 and 2.6% lower per mph reduced. The emission benefits of using VSLs estimated from data in this study agree with the emission credits in the federal GEM. In addition, the quadratic relationship between CO2 emissions and vehicle speed measured for the three test trucks was used to corroborate updates to CARB’s EMission FACtor (EMFAC) 2017 model that were based on dynamometer testing; the measured trends from this VSL study support the predictions in that model.
Quantitative artery-vein analysis in optical coherence tomography angiography of diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and other eye diseases can affect artery and vein differently. Therefore, differential artery-vein analysis can improve disease detection and treatment assessment. This study aims to establish color fundus image analysis guided artery-vein differentiation in OCTA, and to verify that differential artery-vein analysis can improve the sensitivity of OCTA detection and classification of DR. Briefly, optical density ratio (ODR) analysis and blood vessel tracking were combined to identify artery-vein in color fundus images. The fundus artery-vein map was used to register arteries and veins in corresponding OCTA images. Based on the fundus image guided artery-vein differentiation, quantitative analysis of arteries and veins in control and NPDR OCTA images were performed. The sensitivities of traditional mean blood vessel caliber (m-BVC) and artery-vein ratio of BVC (AVR-BVC) were quantitatively compared for DR classification. One way, multi-label analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Bonferroni’s test and Student t-test was employed for evaluating classification performance. Images from 20 eyes of 18 control subjects and 48 eyes of 35 NPDR patients (18 mild, 16 moderate and 14 severe NPDR) were used for this study. Compared to m-BVC, AVR-BVC provided enhanced sensitivity in differentiating NPDR stages. AVR-BVC was able to differentiate among control and three different NPDR groups. AVR-BVC could also differentiate control from mild NPDR, promising a unique OCTA biomarker for detecting early onset of NPDR.