cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Building a performance model of streaming media applications in utility data center environment

Utility Data Center (UDC) provides a flexible, cost-effective infrastructure to support the hosting of applications for Internet services. In order to enable the design of a "utility-aware" streaming media service which automatically requests the necessary resources from UDC infrastructure, we introduce a set of benchmarks for measuring the basic capacities of streaming media systems. The benchmarks allow one to derive the scaling rules of server capacity for delivering media files which are: i) encoded at different bit rates, ii) streamed from memory vs disk. Using an experimental testbed, we show that these scaling rules are non-trivial. In this paper, we develop a workload-aware, media server performance model which is based on a cost function derived from the set of basic benchmark measurements. We validate this performance model by comparing the predicted and measured media server capacities for a set of synthetic workloads.
Concurrent motion detection based on dynamic changes in interaural delay.

The ability to detect a dynamic change in the interaural delay of a pure tone in the presence of a distracter tone of a different frequency was investigated in four conditions: (1) a control condition in which no distracter tone was present, (2) the distracter tone was stationary (fixed interaural delay), (3) the distracter had an interaural delay that changed in the same direction as that of the target tone, i.e., concurrent auditory motion in the same direction, and (4) the distracter had an interaural delay that changed in a direction opposite to that of the target tone, i.e., concurrent auditory motion in opposite directions. In a cued single-interval two-alternative forced-choice design, the observer had to determine if the target tone had a constant or dynamic interaural delay. The target was a 500-Hz tone and the distracter was a tone with a frequency of 300, 510, 550, 600, 800, or 1000 Hz. Detection was also examined for a range of stimulus durations, rates of change in interaural delay (i.e., velocity), and extent of change in interaural time difference (i.e., 'distance'). Results showed that the best performance (highest d') was associated with the no-distracter condition, followed by the stationary-distracter, opposite-direction, and same-direction conditions, respectively. Detection improved with increasing frequency difference between distracter and target tones, but was nonetheless lower than that associated with the no-distracter condition, even when the distracter frequency was several critical bands removed from the target frequency.
Low-Frequency Collective Motions in Proteins

There are several kinds of low-frequency collective motions in proteins, which are believed to have a significant effect on their properties. We propose that a new kind of global collective motion in proteins are density fluctuations, which are slowly-varying, long-lived, propagating disturbances. These can be studied using the linear response formalism, which is a dynamical approximation that uses the full anharmonic interatomic potential. We have performed a molecular dynamics simulation of a realistic protein and have found results that are consistent with the theoretical predictions of linear response theory.
The Future of the Public Health Laboratory

The widely quoted Institute of Medicine (10M) report, "The Future of Public Health" (9), only refers to the functions of the public health laboratory indirectly or in an historical context. The current role of the laboratory is not described, nor does the word "laboratory" appear in the index. And, a review of recent strategic planning documents prepared by officials of state and local public health agencies did not mention the public health laboratory. These findings are not unusual. Today's laboratory is too often taken for granted, in stark contrast to the public health laboratory of the early twentieth century. Pasteur described laboratories as the "temples of the future" r see the accompanying article by Valdiserri (14)]. In 1914, Charles Chapin wrote that "". the diagnostic laboratory is the most essential part of the machinery for the control of communicable disease." Public health laboratories still are essential for the control of communicable (and environmental) diseases. But, times have changed . . Public health laboratories long ago demonstrated the importance of clean food and water. Environmental microbiology testing has become routine. Vaccines are available for many communicable diseases, and more vaccines are on the way. Many antibiotics are available, although clinicians usually shoot first and ask questions only in the event of failure. Today, many competent laboratories operated by hospitals, universities, group medical practices, and private corporations offer wide-ranging services. Medical and
The decline of community in Zinacantán : economy, public life, and social stratification, 1960-1987

This ambitious work shows how national prosperity and government expansion in Mexico in the 1970's transformed a relatively closed peasant community into a more outwardly connected, socially differentiated society marked by dissension and conflict. 'This fascinating study is a fine example of the benefits of long-term research. Cancian ...has witnessed something near to a transformation of the community whose ethnography he first wrote some 25 years ago. Though the main part of the book is a clearly and sensitively written ethnography of changing people in a changing place, Cancian also aims to contribute to current debates within anthropology. In particular, he reflects on those perspectives which have tried to link local ethnographic description to national and international economic processes.' Development Policy Review
Select informative features for recognition

The state of the art rigid object recognition algorithms are based on the bag of words model, which represents each image in the database as a sparse vector of visual words. We propose a new algorithm to select informative features from images in the database. which can save the memory cost when the database is large and reduce the length of the inverted index so it can improve the recognition speed. Experiments show that only using the informative features selected by our algorithm has better recognition performance than the previous methods.
Some Aspects of Bifurcation Structure of Laminar Flow in Curved Ducts

A bifurcation study is made of laminar flow in curved ducts. The problem is formulated in a curvilinear coordinate system, and the governing equations, after orthogonal mapping is applied, are solved numerically by an iterative finite-difference method. Many computer runs were made with various duct cross-sections ranging from a circle to a square, to learn the transition of bifurcation structure with this change in cross-section and to reconcile the differences between them. In addition, a simpler technique is proposed to generate symmetric four-cell solutions in a circular pipe and a means is put forward to stabilize four-vortex structures in a complete cross-section.
Neuroanatomical differences in visual, motor, and language cortices between congenitally deaf signers, hearing signers, and hearing non-signers

We investigated effects of sign language use and auditory deprivation from birth on the volumes of three cortical regions of the human brain: the visual cortex surrounding the calcarine sulcus in the occipital lobe; the language-related cortex in the inferior frontal gyrus (pars triangularis and pars opercularis); and the motor hand region in the precentral gyrus. The study included 25 congenitally deaf participants and 41 hearing participants (of which 16 were native sign language users); all were right-handed. Deaf participants exhibited a larger calcarine volume than hearing participants, which we interpret as the likely result of cross-modal compensation and/or dynamic interactions within sensory neural networks. Deaf participants also had increased volumes of the pars triangularis bilaterally compared to hearing signers and non-signers, which we interpret is related to the increased linguistic demands of speech processing and/or text reading for deaf individuals. Finally, although no statistically significant differences were found in the motor hand region for any of the groups, the deaf group was leftward asymmetric, the hearing signers essentially symmetric and the hearing non-signers were rightward asymmetric – results we interpret as the possible result of activity-dependent change due to life-long signing. The brain differences we observed in visual, motor, and language related areas in adult deaf native signers provide evidence for the plasticity available for cognitive adaptation to varied environments during development.
Stable iron isotope fractionation between aqueous Fe(II) and model Archean ocean Fe–Si coprecipitates and implications for iron isotope variations in the ancient rock record

Abstract Iron isotope fractionation between aqueous Fe(II) (Fe(II) aq ) and two amorphous Fe(III) oxide–Si coprecipitates was investigated in an aqueous medium that simulated Archean marine conditions, including saturated amorphous silica, low sulfate, and zero dissolved oxygen. The equilibrium isotope fractionation (in 56 Fe/ 54 Fe) between Fe(II) aq and Fe(III)-Si coprecipitates at circum-neutral pH, as inferred by the three-isotope method, was −3.51 ± 0.20 (2 σ )‰ and −3.99 ± 0.17 (2 σ )‰ for coprecipitates that had Fe:Si molar ratios of 1:2 and 1:3, respectively. These results, when combined with earlier work, indicate that the equilibrium isotope fractionation factor between Fe(II) aq and Fe(III)–Si coprecipitates changes as a function of Fe:Si ratio of the solid. Isotopic fractionation was least negative when Fe:Si = 1:1 and most negative when Fe:Si = 1:3. This change corresponds with changes in the local structure of iron, as revealed by prior spectroscopic studies. The kinetics of isotopic exchange was controlled by movement of Fe(II) and Si, where sorption of Fe(II) from aqueous to solid phase facilitated atom exchange, but sorption of Si hindered isotopic exchange through blockage of reactive surface sites. Although Fe(II)–Fe(III) isotopic exchange rates were a function of solid and solution compositions in the current study, in all cases they were much higher than that determined in previous studies of aqueous Fe(III) and ferrihydrite interaction, highlighting the importance of electron exchange in promoting Fe atom exchange. When compared to analogous microbial reduction experiments of overlapping Fe(II) to Fe(III) ratios, isotopic exchange rates were faster in the biological experiments, likely due to promotion of atom exchange by the solid-phase Fe(II) produced in the biological experiments. These results provide constraints for interpreting the relatively large range of Fe isotope compositions in Precambrian marine sedimentary rocks, and highlight important differences between modern and ancient marine environments due to the absence or presence of dissolved silica. Evidence can be found in the Fe isotope compositions of the ancient rock record for both abiologic and biologic processes, distinction of which becomes apparent when sedimentological and diagenetic processes are fully explored, as well as Fe mass balance.
Laryngeal Signs and Symptoms and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD): A Critical Assessment of Cause and Effect Association

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has been associated increasingly with ear, nose, and throat (ENT) signs and symptoms. However, the cause and effect relationship between these two clinical entities are far from established. Many patients diagnosed initially with GERD as the cause of laryngeal signs do not symptomatically or laryngoscopically respond to aggressive acid suppression and do not have abnormal esophageal acid exposure by pH monitoring. This has resulted in frustration on the part of both gastroenterologists and ENT physicians and confusion on the part of patients. In this article we discuss the reasons for this controversy and highlight the recent data attempting to clarify this complex area.
EGF receptor transactivation mediates ANG II-stimulated mitogenesis in intestinal epithelial cells through the PI3-kinase/Akt/mTOR/p70S6K1 signaling pathway.

The role of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase and its downstream targets in the regulation of the transition from the G0/G1 phase into DNA synthesis in response to ANG II has ...
Energy-efficient sensor management in multi-static active sonar networks

In this paper, we formulate the sensor scheduling problem for multi-static active sonar sensor networks. We also present algorithms that schedule both sources and receivers to achieve desired duty cycles, while optimizing both the temporal and spatial sensing coverage. Finally, we present simulation results, based on a simplified propagation model, that demonstrate the performance of the presented sensor management algorithms.
Revision of spectral parameters for the B- and γ-bands of oxygen and their validation against atmospheric spectra

Abstract Until recently the B ( b 1 Σ g + ( v =1)− X 3 Σ g − ( v =0)) and γ ( b 1 Σ g + ( v =2)− X 3 Σ g − ( v =0)) bands of oxygen in the visible region had not been used extensively in satellite remote sensing of the atmosphere. These bands roughly cover the regions around 14,527 and 15,904 cm −1 , respectively (0.69 and 0.63 μm). However, these bands (in particular the B-band) are now being increasingly considered for future satellite missions. In this light, it is important to make sure that the reference spectroscopic parameters allow accurate retrieval of important physical characteristics from the atmospheric spectra. The spectroscopic parameters currently given for these bands in the HITRAN2008 spectroscopic database were tested against high-resolution atmospheric spectra measured with solar-pointing Fourier transform spectrometers at Park Falls, Wisconsin (B-band) and Kitt Peak, Arizona ( γ -band). It was found that the current HITRAN parameters cannot produce satisfactory fits of the observed spectra. In order to improve the database we have collected the best available measured line positions that involve the b 1 Σ g + ( v =1 and v =2) states for the three most abundant isotopologues of oxygen and performed a combined fit to obtain a consistent set of spectroscopic constants. These constants were then used to calculate the line positions. A careful review of the available intensity and line-shape measurements was also carried out, and new parameters were derived based on that review. In particular, line shift parameters, that were not previously available, were introduced. The new data have been validated using the high-resolution atmospheric spectra measured with the Fourier transform spectrometers at Park Falls, Wisconsin (B-band) and Kitt Peak, Arizona ( γ -band) and have yielded substantial improvement. In addition, we report the first direct observation and analysis of the 16 O 18 O lines in the γ -band.
3D Human Face Recognition Using Summation Invariants

A novel family of geometrically invariant features, called summation invariants are proposed for the recognition of the 3D surface of human faces. In particular, a 2D semi-local summation invariant feature is extracted from each column and each row of a rectangular region surrounding the nose of a 3D facial depth map. Through extensive experimentation, we empirically identify the most efficient 2D summation invariant features. We also investigate the proper pre-processing method for the 2D summation invariant features. Tested with the 3D facial data from the Face Recognition Grand Challenge v1.0 dataset, the proposed new features exhibit significant performance improvement over the baseline algorithm distributed with the dataset.
Responding to the Concerns of Student-Athletes Enrolled in a First-Year Experience Course.

This paper summarizes results of a study of 105 student-athletes enrolled in a first-year experience course. Students were asked, “What is the biggest unanswered question you have about college?” Results indicated that students’ most burning questions were related to academics; relatively few student responses were directly related to being a student-athlete. Discussion of the findings includes designing first-year experience courses to respond to students’ concerns.
Surveying the serologic proteome in a tissue-specific kras(G12D) knockin mouse model of pancreatic cancer

We have applied a serologic proteomic workflow involving three complementary MS approaches to a tissue-specific Kras(G12D) -knockin mouse model of pancreatic cancer that consistently forms precancerous lesions by 4 months of age. The three proteomics applications were highly complementary and allowed us to survey the entire range of low to high molecular weight serologic proteins. Combined, we identified 121 (49↓, 72↑) unique and statistically relevant serologic biomarkers with 88% previously reported to be associated with cancer and 38% specifically correlated with pancreatic cancer. Four markers, lysozyme C2, cytokeratin 19, Serpina1A and Pcf11, were further verified by Western blotting. When applying systems analysis, the top-associated gene ontology functions were tied to wound healing, RXR signaling, growth, differentiation and innate immune activation through the JAK/STAT pathway. Upon further investigation of the apparent immune response using a multiplex cytokine screen, we found that IFN-γ, VEGF and GM-CSF were significantly increased in serum from the Kras(G12D) animals compared to littermate controls. By combining three complementary MS applications, we were able to survey the native intact peptidome and the global proteome in parallel, unveiling pathways that may be biologically relevant to promotion of pancreatic cancer progression and serologic markers of noninvasive early-stage neoplasia.
Comparison of accelerated resolution therapy (ART) for treatment of symptoms of PTSD and sexual trauma between civilian and military adults

ABSTRACT Objective: First-line psychotherapies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were principally validated in civilian populations. We compared treatment of symptoms of psychological trauma between civilian and military adults by use of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), an emerging, brief exposure-based therapy. Methods: We pooled individual patient data from two recently completed studies of ART. Treatment response for symptoms of PTSD was compared by civilian versus military status, stratified by gender and history of sexual trauma. Results: Mean age was 40.7 years in civilians (n = 62) vs. 42.2 years in military participants (n = 51). Mean PCL (PTSD) scores before/after treatment with ART were 53.2/30.2 among civilians compared with 56.0/40.5 among military participants (adjusted p = 0.25). Over follow-up (n = 91), there was an apparent greater reduction among civilians in Intrusive (p = 0.03) and Numbing symptoms (p = 0.01), but not in Arousal (p = 0.99) or Avoidance (p = 0.19) symptoms. ...
ENHANCING THE PRODUCTIVITY OF HYBRID YELLOW-POPLAR AND HYBRID SWEETGUM EMBRYOGENIC CULTURES

Abstract High-frequency embryogenesis systems were established for hybrid yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera×L. chinense) and hybrid sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua×L. formosana) by modifying a medium originally developed for embryogenic yellow-poplar cultures. Embryogenic cultures of both hybrids, consisting of proembryogenic masses (PEMs), were initiated from immature hybrid seeds on an induction-maintenance medium (IMM) supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), benzyladenine (BA), and casein hydrolyzate (CH). For hybrid yellow-poplar, as many as 2100 germinable somatic embryos per 4000 cells or cell clumps were produced when PEMs were grown in liquid IMM lacking CH, at a pH that varied with genotype (3.5 or 5.6), followed by size fractionation and plating on semisolid embryo development medium (DM; IMM lacking 2,4-D and BA) without CH, but supplemented with 4.0 mg l−1 (15 μM) abscisic acid. For hybrid sweetgum, up to 1650 germinable somatic embryos per 4000 cells or cell clumps we...
Statistically advanced, self-similar, radial probability density functions of atmospheric and under-expanded hydrogen jets

This paper presents improved statistical insight regarding the self-similar scalar mixing process of atmospheric hydrogen jets and the downstream region of under-expanded hydrogen jets. Quantitative planar laser Rayleigh scattering imaging is used to probe both jets. The self-similarity of statistical moments up to the sixth order (beyond the literature established second order) is documented in both cases. This is achieved using a novel self-similar normalization method that facilitated a degree of statistical convergence that is typically limited to continuous, point-based measurements. This demonstrates that image-based measurements of a limited number of samples can be used for self-similar scalar mixing studies. Both jets exhibit the same radial trends of these moments demonstrating that advanced atmospheric self-similarity can be applied in the analysis of under-expanded jets. Self-similar histograms away from the centerline are shown to be the combination of two distributions. The first is attributed to turbulent mixing. The second, a symmetric Poisson-type distribution centered on zero mass fraction, progressively becomes the dominant and eventually sole distribution at the edge of the jet. This distribution is attributed to shot noise-affected pure air measurements, rather than a diffusive superlayer at the jet boundary. This conclusion is reached after a rigorous measurement uncertainty analysis and inspection of pure air data collected with each hydrogen data set. A threshold based upon the measurement noise analysis is used to separate the turbulent and pure air data, and thusly estimate intermittency. Beta-distributions (four parameters) are used to accurately represent the turbulent distribution moments. This combination of measured intermittency and four-parameter beta-distributions constitutes a new, simple approach to model scalar mixing. Comparisons between global moments from the data and moments calculated using the proposed model show excellent agreement. This was attributed to the high quality of the measurements which reduced the width of the correctly identified, noise-affected pure air distribution, with respect to the turbulent mixing distribution. The ignitability of the atmospheric jet is determined using the flammability factor calculated from both kernel density estimated (KDE) PDFs and PDFs generated using the newly proposed model. Agreement between contours from both approaches is excellent. Ignitability of the under-expanded jet is also calculated using KDE PDFs. Contours are compared with those calculated by applying the atmospheric model to the under-expanded jet. Once again, agreement is excellent. This work demonstrates that self-similar scalar mixing statistics and ignitability of atmospheric jets can be accurately described by the proposed model. This description can be applied with confidence to under-expanded jets, which are more realistic of leak and fuel injection scenarios.
Strain-level bacterial identification by CeO2-catalyzed MALDI-TOF MS fatty acid analysis and comparison to commercial protein-based methods

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has emerged as a rapid approach for clinical bacterial identification. However, current protein-based commercial bacterial ID methods fall short when differentiating closely related species/strains. To address this shortcoming, we employed CeO2-catalyzed fragmentation of lipids to produce fatty acids using the energy inherent to the MALDI laser as a novel alternative to protein profiling. Fatty acid profiles collected from Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter, and Listeria using CeO2-catalyzed metal oxide laser ionization (MOLI MS), processed by principal component analysis, and validated by leave-one-out cross-validation (CV), showed 100% correct classification at the species level and 98% at the strain level. In comparison, protein profile data from the same bacteria yielded 32%, 54% and 67% mean species-level accuracy using two MALDI-TOF MS platforms, respectively. In addition, several pathogens were misidentified by protein profiling as non-pathogens and vice versa. These results suggest novel CeO2-catalyzed lipid fragmentation readily produced (i) taxonomically tractable fatty acid profiles by MOLI MS, (ii) highly accurate bacterial classification and (iii) consistent strain-level ID for bacteria that were routinely misidentified by protein-based methods.
Building Courses for Nontraditional Students with Blended Learning

The market for higher education is continuing to change, with an increasing number of students falling into the non-traditional category of 25 years old or older. The unique needs of these students are demanding that universities change their delivery methods. This change often takes the form of blended learning delivery. This paper will provide an overview of how blended learning best serves nontraditional students and how organizations can be successful in building blended learning experiences.
Agency Content on Licensing Exams: Assessing Professional Competency

Knowledge of real estate agency law and practice is critical for a real estate agent to function as a competent professional. Over the past decade and a half, states have passed numerous agency initiatives, including agency disclosure, buyer representation, dual agency, designated agency, limited agency, and non-agency. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether state real estate licensing exams are sufficiently screening for minimum levels of competency in these relatively new representational environments. Surprisingly, it was found that there is a lack of any significant testing on jurisdiction-specific agency law and relationships in over half of the states. This result indicates a need for many real estate license law authorities to review and update the content of their licensing exams.
On the Robustness of Multidimensional Scaling Techniques

Multidimensional scaling techniques are examined from the standpoint of their vulnerability to error. In particular, an integer-rank transformation is shown to provide a useful procedure for dealin...
Simulating the Formation of Sodium:Electron Tight-Contact Pairs: Watching the Solvation of Atoms in Liquids One Molecule at a Time

The motions of solvent molecules during a chemical transformation often dictate both the dynamics and the outcome of solution-phase reactions. However, a microscopic picture of solvation dynamics is often obscured by the concerted motions of numeroussolventmoleculesthatmakeupacondensed-phaseenvironment.Inthisstudy,we use mixed quantum/classical molecular dynamics simulations to furnish the molecular details of the solvation dynamics that leads to the formation of a sodium cation-solvated electron contact pair, (Na þ ,e � ), in liquid tetrahydrofuran following electron photodetach- ment from sodide (Na � ). Our simulations reveal that the dominant solvent response is comprisedofaseriesofdiscretesolventmoleculareventsthatworksequentiallytobuildupashellofcoordinatingTHFoxygensites around the sodium cation end of the contact pair. With the solvent response described in terms of the sequential motion of single molecules, we are then able to compare the calculated transient absorption spectroscopy of the sodium species to experiment, providing a clear microscopic interpretation of ultrafast pumpprobe experiments on this system. Our findings suggest that for solutesolvent interactions similar to the ones present in our study, the solvation dynamics is best understood as a series of kinetic events consisting of reactions between chemically distinct local structures in which key solvent molecules must be considered to be part of the identity of the reacting species.
The Origin of Polar Coordinates

(1952). The Origin of Polar Coordinates. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 59, No. 2, pp. 78-85.
Physiologic Influences of Transepithelial K+ Secretion

Cellular ionic balance relies on ion channels and coupled transporters to maintain and use the transmembrane electrochemical gradients of the cations Na+ and K+. High intracellular K+ concentration provides a ready reserve within the body allowing epithelia to secrete K+ into the fluid covering the apical membrane in the service of numerous physiologic activities. A major role for transepithelial K+ secretion concerns the balance of total body K+ such that excretion of excess K+ in the diet safeguards against disturbances to cellular balance. Accomplishing this transepithelial flow involves two archetypical cellular mechanisms, Na+ absorption and Cl− secretion. Ion channels for K+, Na+, and Cl−, as well as cotransporters, exchangers, and pumps contribute to produce transepithelial flow by coupling electrochemical gradients such that K+ flow enters across the basolateral membrane and exits through the apical membrane. Beyond excretion, transepithelial K+ secretion serves to create the high K+ concentration of endolymph in the inner ear that supports sensation of sound and body orientation. For several epithelia such as those in airways and gastric mucosa, the elevated K+ concentration of apical fluid may occur largely as a consequence of supporting the secretion of other ions such as Cl−or H+. Less well-appreciated consequences of K+ secretion may result as in saliva and colonic luminal fluid where a high K+ concentration likely influences interactions with the resident microbiome. Independent control of K+ secretion also allows for specific adjustments in rate that serve the physiology of organs large and small.
First Principles Study of the Aluminum–Cubic Boron Nitride Interface

A plane wave density functional methodology, with the local density approximation for the elemental constituents, was used to investigate the structure, bonding, and adhesion of atomic-scale interfaces between aluminum and cubic-boron nitride (c-BN). Two fully periodic interfaces, Al(110)–c-BN(110) and Al(001)–c-BN(110), were constructed for this purpose. Interfacial bonding, examined with contours of the charge density difference and electron localization function, was found to be stronger between Al–N pairs than Al–B pairs. The computed work of separation ( Ws ) values were 2.25 J/m2 for Al(110)–c-BN(110) and 2.65 J/m2 for Al(001)–c-BN(110). The higher adhesion in the latter interface is attributed to a higher planar density of interfacial Al atoms. The computed Ws values were compared with values from first principles calculations on other aluminum–ceramic interfaces. The possibility of adhesive transfer during tensile debonding was qualitatively investigated.
Theoretical Calculation and Experimental Research on Thermal Time Constant of Single-core Cables

Cable conductor temperature in operation is the key factor influencing insulation life,and cable operation state can be monitored through conductor temperature.Not only the value of temperature rise but also the change rate of conductor temperature is concerned.Generally the change rate of cable conductor temperature is represented by its thermal time constant.Consequently,the thermal time constant of single-core cable was introduced,transient thermal circuit models of cable body and its ambient medium were established,and the simplified equivalent ones were given.Moreover,thermal time constants of single-core cable buried in soil and in air were calculated,the on-site temperature rise test under step current was carried out,then the actual thermal time constants were obtained by fitting of the conductor temperature detected in tests.The validity of theoretical calculation was verified by test results.Thermal time constant of cables can be used to roughly estimate the transient response of conductor temperature and to determine the needed time of achieving highest allowable conductor temperature of cables when step current is applied,which provides theoretical support for cable condition monitoring and fault early warming in cable operation.
Electron Driven Shock Waves: Antiforce Class II Waves

The propagation of electrical breakdown waves in a gas has been investigated by applying a set of three-component fluid equations. The basic set consists of equations of conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, plus Poisson’s equation. In the fluid model, the wave front is assumed to be an electron shock wave followed by a transition region. The transition region in which the electron drift velocity and electric field go to zero is referred to as the sheath region. The sheath is very thin, being roughly a few mean free path long. Following the sheath region lies a comparatively thick region, in which the electron gas by means of further ionization cools to room temperature. This is referred to as the Quasi-Neutral Region. In a 1991 article (Proc. 18th ISSW), the solutions to different categories of breakdown waves for Quasi-Neutral Region, using the fluid model were reported. Now the boundary conditions and solutions to the Antiforce Class II Waves will be discussed.
Relationship between coronary hemodynamic changes and the phasic events of rapid eye movement sleep

Previous studies in dogs showed dramatic increases in coronary blood flow associated with episodes of sinus tachycardia during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The present study demonstrates that 90% of these surges in heart rate and coronary flow are concentrated during periods of phasic REM sleep and only 10% in tonic REM sleep. Intensely phasic REM was distinguished from moderately phasic REM sleep by the degree of phasic eye movement. The surges were three times more frequent during intensely phasic REM than in moderately phasic REM sleep. However, the magnitudes of heart rate (37% +/- 3%) and coronary flow (25% +/- 3%) surges were unaffected by the specific substage of REM sleep. The incidence of surge events was almost eleven times greater in epochs of phasic REM that also contained a muscle twitch than in those that did not. During REM sleep, muscle twitches accompanying surges were not associated with any additional elevations in coronary flow or myocardial demand. Our data indicate that the sinus tachycardia-associated surges in coronary flow represent integrated autonomic responses intrinsic to phasic periods of REM sleep in dogs.
Darkness at Noon: Mis-turn from Morality

Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon portrays the last days of a revolutionary hero, Nicolas Salmanovitch Rubashov, who has become disillusioned with the revolutionary regime and is being put on trial by it. Darkness at Noon is often characterized as Koestler's attempt to explain why – beyond reasons of torture and threat – so many of the Bolsheviks, who were put on trial by Stalin in the purges of the second half of the 1930s, falsely confessed to counterrevolutionary crimes. In his fallen hero, Koestler presents the kind of reasoning he believes motivated the revolutionaries both to commit atrocities in the name of the revolution, and later to confess to crimes that they did not commit. A turn to Darkness at Noon allows me to address three important issues that deserve to be highlighted given the claims I have made over the course of this study. First, I consider more carefully the difficulty of any attempt to loosen the hold of morality and calculable responsibility. Striving to escape the thrall of morality is no easy task, as I have emphasized again and again. I read Koestler's novel as a depiction of a failed attempt by Rubashov to leave the thrall of morality: Rubashov leaves the substance but not the form (calculable responsibility) of morality behind. Second, I explore the risks that accompany any attempt to leave the thrall of morality. Rubashov discards the substantive constraints of received morality while retaining the evasions of calculable responsibility, and this combination has grim consequences. His mis-turn supports my efforts to distinguish a political ethos that is wary of the totalizing claim of morality and calculable responsibility and that seeks release from the thrall of morality from an ethos that seeks to leave morality behind altogether. The third issue I raise is a danger that may accompany attentiveness to the sway of calculable responsibility in politics. Our diagnoses of the sway of calculable responsibility in the political commitments of others can provoke reductive readings of those commitments. We risk making our political “others” one-dimensional, straw-man exemplars of calculable responsibility, where history, lived experience, political struggle, the operations of power, and psychological nuance play limited or secondary roles in their political stances.
Tying up the Ends: Plasticity in the Recognition of Single-Stranded DNA at Telomeres.

Telomeres terminate nearly exclusively in single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) overhangs comprised of the G-rich 3′ end. This overhang varies widely in length from species to species, ranging from just a few bases to several hundred nucleotides. These overhangs are not merely a remnant of DNA replication but rather are the result of complex further processing. Proper management of the telomeric overhang is required both to deter the action of the DNA damage machinery and to present the ends properly to the replicative enzyme telomerase. This Current Topic addresses the biochemical and structural features used by the proteins that manage these variable telomeric overhangs. The Pot1 protein tightly binds the single-stranded overhang, preventing DNA damage sensors from binding. Pot1 also orchestrates the access of telomerase to that same substrate. The remarkable plasticity of the binding interface exhibited by the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Pot1 provides mechanistic insight into how these roles may be accomplished, a...
Identification of the SNARE complex mediating the exocytosis of NMDA receptors

In the central nervous system, NMDA receptors mediate excitatory neurotransmissions and play important roles in synaptic plasticity. The regulation of NMDA receptor trafficking is critical for neural functions in the brain. Here, we directly visualized individual exocytic events of NMDA receptors in rat hippocampal neurons by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM). We found that the constitutive exocytosis of NMDA receptors included both de novo exocytic and recycling events, which were regulated by different Rab proteins. We also identified the SNAP25-VAMP1-syntaxin4 complex mediating the constitutive exocytosis of NMDA receptors. Transient knockdown of each component of the SNARE complex interfered with surface delivery of NMDA receptors to both extrasynaptic and synaptic membranes. Our study uncovers the postsynaptic function of the SNAP25-VAMP1-syntaxin4 complex in mediating the constitutive exocytosis of NMDA receptors, suggesting that this SNARE complex is involved in excitatory synaptic transmission.
The Contribution of Nitroxidative Stress to Pathophysiological Pain and Opioid Analgesic Failure

Chronic pain affects nearly 10 % of the population worldwide and poses a tremendous socioeconomic burden. Current therapeutic strategies, which range from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to powerful opioids like morphine and fentanyl, do not effectively manage chronic pain in the majority of patients. A better understanding of pathophysiological nociception and the therapeutic targets therein is necessary. The generation of nitroxidative (nitrative and oxidative) stress—that is, the formation of superoxide and nitric oxide in tandem, their subsequent reaction to afford peroxynitrite, and the reaction of peroxynitrite and its decomposition products with biological molecules—is clearly involved in various types of persistent pain. In this chapter, we will catalogue the mechanistic pharmacological studies that support the contribution of nitroxidative stress to chronic pain, identify the cellular and enzymatic sources of nitroxidative species involved in this pathology, and delineate the mechanisms by which nitroxidative stress impacts nociceptive processing to produce persistent pain. Specifically, we will highlight the contribution of peroxynitrite (e.g., through nitration chemistry) to enhanced pro-nociceptive neurotransmission (modifications of glutamatergic, vanilloid, and prostaglandin signaling), suppressed inhibitory neurotransmission (modifications of GABAergic and catecholamine signaling), and to changes in transcriptional regulation that underpin chronic pain. Our overall goal is to refine the current generalized understanding of roles of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in persistent pain by defining nitroxidative stress as a specific, targetable pro-nociceptive mechanism for the ultimate treatment of chronic pain.
The Point of Mens Rea: The Case of Willful Ignorance

Under the “Willful Ignorance Principle,” a defendant is guilty of a crime requiring knowledge he lacks provided he is ignorant thanks to having earlier omitted inquiry. In this paper, I offer a novel justification of this principle through application of the theory that knowledge matters to culpability because of how the knowing action manifests the agent’s failure to grant sufficient weight to other people’s interests. I show that, under a simple formal model that supports this theory, omitting inquiry manifests precisely the same degree of disregard of others’ interests as manifested in knowingly acting criminally. Several surprising implications of this view are described, including that when the agent’s method of inquiry has a non-zero false positive rate, his omission of inquiry does not make the same contribution to his culpability as knowledge, while it does, by contrast, when the false negative rate is non-zero.
Doing, Allowing, and the Moral Relevance of the Past

Most deontologists claim that it is more objectionable to do harm than it is to allow harm of comparable magnitude. I argue that this view faces a largely neglected puzzle regarding the moral relevance of an agent's past behavior. Consider an agent who chooses to save five people rather than one, where the one person's life is in jeopardy because of something the agent did earlier. How are the agent's obligations affected by the fact that his now letting the one die would retroactively make it the case that he has killed? I argue that the most promising deontological responses to this question are difficult to defend. Further, it is unclear how the deontologist can resolve a further set of cases, in which commonsense intuition indicates that an agent is required to terminate a threat she initiated more recently in preference to a threat she initiated less recently.
Reducing Perioperative Mortality with the Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump

The intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) enhances myocardial performance by minimizing oxygen supply/demand mismatch [1–6]. Balloon inflation during diastole enhances myocardial oxygen delivery due to increased diastolic coronary perfusion pressure [4–6]. Balloon deflation just prior to systole reduces myocardial oxygen demand by unloading the left ventricle [4–6]. Recent evidence has identified the IABP as a therapeutic modality that may reduce perioperative mortality due to these myocardial benefits [1–3].
Diabetes type 2 management: what are the differences between DPP-4 inhibitors and how do you choose?

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is characterized by progressive beta cell dysfunction and insulin resistance. Pharmacotherapy to treat dysregulated glucose metabolism focuses on augmenting the insu...
A 17-Year-Old Boy With Right Face Palsy, Left Leg Weakness, and Lytic Skull-Bone Lesions

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV), an infection that is endemic in certain parts of Asia, Africa, and South America, has been associated with malignancy and neurological deficits. Here, we describe a pediatric patient with chronic HTLV-I infection who developed complications associated with HTLV-I (ie, adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma and HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis). To our knowledge, this presentation in a child has never been described. The patient underwent a bone marrow transplant and, at the time of this writing, was in remission. This case report highlights the fact that HTLV-related complications, previously expected to occur after decades of infection, also can occur in pediatric patients, particularly those who acquired HTLV-I perinatally.
Self-Similar Blast Wave

Self-Similar Blast Wave - The concept of self-similarity played a key role in the development of blast wave theory. More specifically, it has been formulated to explore the effects of the atom bomb explosion. For that purpose, the blast wave is considered as a gasdynamic flow field generated by the deposition of a finite amount of energy in zero time at a geometric point in an unbounded compressible medium – an event referred to as a point explosion: Ipso facto, the flow field is geometrically symmetric, while its extent is bounded by a gasdynamic front, whereas its structure is governed by conservation principles expressed in terms of time dependent, spatially one-dimensional partial differential equations. This chapter presents the salient features of linearly, cylindrically and spherically symmetric fields created by point explosions whose fronts propagate into a vacuum.
Distribution-Based Dissimilarity Measures

In order for an image retrieval system to find images that are visually similar to the given query, it should have both a proper representation of the images visual features and a measure that can determine how similar or dissimilar the different images are from the query. Assuming that no textual captions or other manual annotations of the images are given, the features that can be used are descriptions of the image content, such as color [97, 62, 96, 91, 4], texture [25, 62, 6, 69, 56, 4], and shape [42, 62, 31, 44]. These features usually vary substantially over an image, both because of inherent variations in surface appearance and as a result of changes in illumination, shading, shadowing, foreshortening, etc. Thus, the appearance of a region is better described by the distribution of features, rather than by individual feature vectors.
Sources of Financial Support and Academic Performance in Economics Principles Courses

Summary, Limitations, Conclusions, and Extensions In this paper, we examine the relationship between hours worked per week and performance in economics principles courses in a medium-sized university and commuter campus in the Midwest. The results indicate that nearly 58.21 percent of students in the survey worked at least 25 hours or more a week with an average of 28.62 hours per week. The average number of credit hours taken per student was 11.73 hours. The results of our study suggests that hours worked per week by a student has a negative effect (-0.45) on course performance in principles of economics at this university. Students with higher GPAs and a B or higher grade in math and pre-requisite economics courses perform significantly better than their peers with lower GPAs and math grades. We find that the source of funding is an important determinant of course performance. In our study, students who were financed by their employers performed significantly (14.746 percentage points) higher than their peers with other funding sources. Finally, students who took out loans performed significantly better (8.593 percentage points higher) than their peers with other funding sources. There are limitations to our study. In our survey we asked students to identify their main source of funds to pay for higher education. This is a blunt instrument to measure the sources of funds. We are not able to account for complimentarity (more than one source of funding) and substitutability of funding sources when examining the relationship between funding source and course performance. Future research should
Modern pharmacotherapy of migraine.

Rectal ergotamine remains the mainstay for the symptomatic treatment of migraine. Intravenous chlorpromazine, prochlorperazine, and dihydroergotamine have been proven to be especially effective for severe attacks. Valproate is the new and exciting addition to long-term stabilization therapy.