cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Perioperative Evaluation of Patients with Pulmonary Conditions Undergoing Non-Cardiothoracic Surgery.

This review describes the perioperative management of patients with suspected or established pulmonary conditions undergoing non-cardiothoracic surgery, with a focus on common pulmonary conditions such as obstructive airway disease, pulmonary hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, and chronic hypoxic respiratory conditions. Considering that postoperative pulmonary complications are common and given the increasing number of surgical procedures and the size of the aging population, familiarity with current guidelines for preoperative risk assessment and intra- and postoperative patient management is recommended to decrease the morbidity and mortality. In particular, smoking cessation and pulmonary rehabilitation are perioperative strategies for improving patients’ short- and long-term outcomes. Understanding the potential risk for pulmonary complications allows the medical team to appropriately plan the intra- and postoperative care of each patient.
Memory Development and Trauma in Preschool Children: Implications for Forensic Interviewing Professionals - A Review of the Literature

Currently very little research exists that connects what is known regarding autobiographical memory development with the field of child forensic interviewing Knowledge regarding autobiographical memory development is especially important when applying forensic interviewing techniques in interviews with young children aged Due to a lack of knowledge by interviewing professionals regarding memory development as well as pressure from law enforcement judges and juries children are often pushed beyond their capabilities In an effort to connect these two fields of expertise this paper explores the research regarding autobiographical memory development in preschool children specifically focusing on the impact of trauma on children rsquo s memories as well as developmental differences regarding memory retrieval in young children Based on a critique of the current literature implications for future research and practice regarding the trajectory of memory development as a predictor of a child rsquo s ability to describe a traumatic event are offered
Augmented Vehicular Reality: Enabling Extended Vision for Future Vehicles

Like today's autonomous vehicle prototypes, vehicles in the future will have rich sensors to map and identify objects in the environment. For example, many autonomous vehicle prototypes today come with line-of-sight depth perception sensors like 3D cameras. These cameras are used for improving vehicular safety in autonomous driving, but have fundamentally limited visibility due to occlusions, sensing range, and extreme weather and lighting conditions. To improve visibility and performance, not just for autonomous vehicles but for other Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS), we explore a capability called Augmented Vehicular Reality (AVR). AVR broadens the vehicle's visual horizon by enabling it to share visual information with other nearby vehicles, but requires careful techniques to align coordinate frames of reference, and to detect dynamic objects. Preliminary evaluations hint at the feasibility of AVR and also highlight research challenges in achieving AVR's potential to improve autonomous vehicles and ADAS.
Learning from near misses: Addressing nursing chemotherapy verification fatigue.

70Background: Administration of chemotherapy is high-risk, requiring multiple safety checks, including pre-treatment laboratory value verification by nursing. A recent series of near misses in our event reporting system highlighted that nurses verified chemotherapy orders with pending pre-treatment or abnormal labs, such as grade 2 hyperbilirubinemia and grade 4 neutropenia. Such laboratory results would normally require holding or modifying planned treatment doses. Methods: Nurses treating patients in the outpatient chemotherapy infusion units were surveyed regarding barriers to pre-treatment lab verification. A team of clinicians, nurses, and pharmacists outlined a process map of the order verification process from acknowledging patient assignment and looking at patient oncologic history to sending the physician order to pharmacy. Pharmacists collected baseline data by tracking near-miss incidents. Results: The survey response rate of outpatient treatment nurses was 18 of 32 (56%). Nurses ranked inconsi...
Erratum for Linz et al., "Bacterial Community Composition and Dynamics Spanning Five Years in Freshwater Bog Lakes".

Volume 2, no. 3, e00169-17, 2017, [https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00169-17][1]. The GPS coordinates for South Sparkling Bog were reported incorrectly in Table 1; they should instead be 46.003362, −89.705335. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1128/mSphere.00169-17
Materialism pathways: The processes that create and perpetuate materialism

Abstract Materialism has been examined in many social science disciplines from multiple perspectives. This review synthesizes this extensive literature into two organizing frameworks that describe how materialism develops in children and how materialism is reinforced and perpetuated in adulthood. The major components of the developmental model are the daily event cycle, developmental tasks, cultural influence, and family environment, all of which interact to influence how materialistic a child becomes. The reinforcement model describes how personal qualities that materialists tend to possess make them more vulnerable to threats in daily events, resulting in psychological discomfort. The desire to reduce this discomfort, in conjunction with the transformative powers that materialists ascribe to acquisition, results in actions and outcomes that reinforce materialistic tendencies. Suggestions for furthering the study of materialism are also included.
Truncated hierarchical tricubic C0 spline construction on unstructured hexahedral meshes for isogeometric analysis applications

Abstract We present a new method for truncated hierarchical tricubic spline (TH-spline3D) construction to enable adaptive isogeometric analysis on unstructured hexahedral meshes. Taking the input unstructured hexahedral mesh as the control mesh, we first develop blending functions with the aid of tricubic Bernstein polynomials. This development is an extension of defining bicubic Bernstein polynomial blending functions over quadrilateral meshes. We further build the hierarchical structure and apply the truncation mechanism to the developed blending functions for highly localized refinement. During the refinement of TH-spline3D, high-level blending functions are added in the solution space, whereas certain low-level ones are discarded or truncated depending on the high-level subdomain. The blending functions are piecewise polynomials that form a partition of unity. Their support overlapping is also reduced due to the truncation mechanism, resulting in sparser stiffness matrices compared to the classical hierarchical refinement. TH-spline3D supports Bezier extraction such that it can be easily incorporated into existing finite element frameworks. Several examples are used to demonstrate the analysis suitability and efficiency of the proposed method.
Accepting labels in two languages: Relationships with exposure and language awareness

In a study investigating how exposure to a non-native language influences acceptance of vocabulary from that language, English-speaking children heard novel labels from Spanish and English speakers. Children were categorized, based on their exposure to and fluency in Spanish, as minimal exposure, moderate exposure, or bilingual. Moderate-exposure children accepted labels from both speakers more frequently than minimal exposure children, and were statistically equivalent to bilinguals. Additionally, children’s language awareness was assessed; it was associated both with their willingness to accept labels across two languages and with the amount of exposure to Spanish.
Public art as public pedagogy: memorial landscapes of the Cambodian genocide

Historical memory in the form of public art acts as a pedagogical tool, both revealing the artist’s interpretation of history and serving as a historical device for the viewer. In Cambodia, new gen...
MEK + CDK4 a regimen for non-BRAF V6000 melanoma

Targeting of the BRAFV600 mutation has proven a highly effective treatment strategy for the subset of melanoma carrying this mutation. However, the majority (~60%) of patients with advanced melanoma do not carry this mutation and are not targetable by selective BRAF inhibitors. The rapidly evolving genetic landscape of melanoma has revealed that the vast majority of non-V600 BRAF mutant melanoma still express other genomic alterations that lead to MAP kinase pathway activation. The most frequent of these are activating mutations in the NRAS gene representing 1/3 of the non-V600 BRAF mutant melanoma or 15-20% overall. The other MAPkinase activating genetic alteration include NF1 loss of function, MAP2K1, C-RAF, K- or H-RAS, and alternate -non-V600 mutations in the BRAF gene. Therefore MEK inhibitors, ERK inhibitors, or even non-selective RAF inhibitors may represent effective therapeutic interventions. Early results in the NRAS mutant and non-NRAS or BRAF V600E mutant melanoma demonstrate clinical activity but likely not as robust as hoped. A trial with a MEK inhibitor (binmetinib) has demonstrated an unconfirmed objective response rate of approximately 20%. MEK inhibitors are also active against non-NRAS, non-BRAF V600 mutant melanoma including responses in those melanomas carrying mutations in BRAF gene outside of V600 codon. Genomic findings also demonstrate a high frequency of dysregulation of cell cycle regulatory proteins including genomic alterations in CDKN2A, CDK4, Cyclin D1, etc. This finding suggests a role for CDK4/6 inhibitors in the therapy of melanoma. Additionally, preclinical work has demonstrated the effectiveness of the combination of MEK inhibitors (trametinib, binimetinib) with CDK4/6 inhibitors (palbociclib, LEE011) in multiple mouse models of NRAS mutant melanoma. New, selective, and more effective CDK4/6 inhibitors have arrived in the clinic including palbociclib and LEE011 to name several, Based on this background clinical investigations have recently begun in non-BRAF V600 mutant melanomas with combination MEK inhibitor and CDK4/6 inhibitor treatment. While very early in their development, Binimetinib and LEE011 has already produced objective clinical responses in about 1/3 of NRAS mutant melanoma patients with another 1/3 demonstrating clinical responses not meeting RECIST 1.1 criteria. Most impressive is the rapid nature of these responses and in some cases accompanying relief from tumor-related symptoms. Early on some significant toxicities have been observed and alternate schedules are being explored. These regimens are also being evaluated in the non-NRAS mutant, non BRAF V600 mutant melanomas. As premature as these results are they still provide excitement that targeting mutations other than BRAFV600 is feasible and may provide hope for additional therapeutic options for the majority of melanoma patients.
Analysis of drug resistance of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in children with urinary tract infection.

Objectives : To investigate the drug resistance of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli ) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) in children with urinary tract infection (UTI) and to provide the rationale for clinical use of antibiotics. Methods : This is a retrospective analysis of drug susceptibility in children with E. coli or K. pneumoniae-positive urine culture between August 2013 and August 2017, Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, Shenzhen, China. Drug resistance was statistically assessed using Fisher exact test and χ2 test. Results : A total of 698 cases of E. coli, 426 of which were confirmed ESBL-producing strains, and 217 cases of K. pneumoniae, including 111 ESBL-producing strains, were detected, and the difference in proportion of positive ESBL-producing strains (61.03% versus 51.15%) was statistically significant (p=0.010). The average drug resistance rates of E. coli and K. pneumoniae to piperacillin/tazobactam, meropenem, ertapenem, imipenem, and amikacin were less than 15%. The average resistance rates of ESBL-producing E. coli and K. pneumoniae to cefpodoxime, cefixime, cefazolin, and ceftriaxone was less than 98%, while average resistance rates for non-ESBL-producing bacteria to the above 4 drugs was less than 20%. Conclusion : In southern China, the proportion of ESBL-producing strains and the drug resistance rates of E. coli and K. pneumoniae in UTI in children was high, but their resistance rates to carbapenems and β-lactamase inhibitor complexes containing tazobactam were low. Carbapenems are the most effective antibacterial drugs for the treatment of ESBL-producing bacteria. Saudi Med J 2019; Vol. 40 (11): 1111-1115 doi: 10.15537/smj.2019.11.24547 How to cite this article: Keshi L, Weiwei X, Shoulin L, Xiadong L, Hao W, Junhai J, et al. Analysis of drug resistance of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in children with urinary tract infection. Saudi Med J . 2019 Nov;40(11):1111-1115. doi: 10.15537/smj.2019.11.24547.
Examining the relationship between ethnic identity, depression, and alcohol use among students at historically black colleges/universities (HBCUs)

Alcohol abuse among college populations is a serious public health issue and is associated with many negative consequences; however, few studies have examined the drinking behavior of African American students at Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs). Alcohol abuse, including binge drinking, has historically been lower among African American than Caucasian college students; however, recent studies indicate that HBCU undergraduates are reporting increased rates of alcohol consumption, raising the question of which potential risk and protective factors are associated with alcohol consumption in this population. Ethnic identity has been identified as one protective factor for ethnic minorities, yet the processes that facilitate this relationship are little known. This study sought to further investigate the relationship between ethnic identity, depression, and alcohol use in a sample of 171 African American HBCU students. Participants were tightly clustered toward the desirable end on all measures, which restricted variability and thus attenuated correlational analyses to evaluate the relationships between study variables. There was a consistent pattern of high ethnic identification, minimal mental health distress, and low alcohol and substance use. Results suggest HBCU students are maintaining lower rates of alcohol consumption and binge drinking compared to nationally-stratified samples of undergraduates. Furthermore, these findings suggest African Americans attending HBCUs score highly on ethnic identity and resiliency. Cultural and social norms at HBCUs may help explain low rates of substance and alcohol misuse among HBCU students. Recommendations for culturally-informed alcohol use prevention and intervention strategies and for future research are provided.
Mechanical bar splices for incorporation in plastic hinge regions of RC members

Abstract Mechanical devices are incorporated in reinforced concrete (RC) structures in lieu of conventional lap splicing mainly to reduce bar congestion in joints. Mechanical bar splices, which are also referred to as bar couplers, might also be used to connect precast members to accelerate construction. Nevertheless, current codes prohibit the use of bar couplers in plastic hinge regions of RC special moment-resisting frames and RC bridge columns in high seismic zones preventing the use of couplers as precast connections. This may be because of a lack of systematic test data on the coupler performance, limited experimental studies on mechanically spliced RC members, and engineering precautions. All bar couplers available in the U.S. market were evaluated as part of this study and 10 products from six different manufacturers were identified as potential couplers to be used in precast members. New standard test methods for mechanical bar splices were developed and more than 160 bar couplers were tested under uniaxial monotonic and cyclic loading to failure to generate the first-of-its-kind systematic database of the coupler performance. Mechanical properties of these splices were established, and a coupler material model adopted from the literature was found to be viable in producing the splice stress–strain behavior. Furthermore, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the seismic performance of mechanically spliced bridge columns utilizing the verified coupler models. More than 240 pushover analyses were performed. It was found that mechanically spliced bridge columns may exhibit up to 43% lower displacement ductility capacity compared to conventional RC columns and the force capacity of these columns may be up to 10% higher than that for RC columns. Columns spliced with rigid and long couplers will show the lowest displacement capacities. Based on the research findings, a new standard testing method was prepared for seismic couplers and was submitted to the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) for possible adoption.
Shape design for stabilizing microparticles in inertial microfluidic flows

Design of isolated microparticles which stabilize at the centreline of a channel flow is examined numerically, for moderate Reynolds numbers ( and particle/channel geometry, which indicates substantial potential for integration with imaging flow cytometry tools and microfluidic biosensing assays.
Classification of Autism Spectrum Disorder Across Age Using Questionnaire and Demographic Information

Currently, diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lengthy, subjective process and machine learning has been shown to be able to accurately classify ASD, which can help take some of the subjectivity out of the diagnosis. Considering this, we propose a machine learning-based approach to classification of ASD, across age, that make use of subject self-report and demographic information. We analyze the efficacy of the proposed approach on 3 classifiers: k-nearest neighbors (KNN), Random Forest, and a feed-forward Neural Network. Our results suggest that the proposed approach can accurately classify ASD in children, adolescents, and adults as it is comparable to or outperforms current state of the art on the publicly available AQ-10 dataset.
The Prevalence of Broad Autism Phenotype in Young Adults: The Roles of Genetic Relationship to Autism, Gender, and Academic Major.

Subclinical levels of autism traits are known as the Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) and include a rigid personality, aloof personality, and pragmatic language difficulties. Genetic relatives of child...
Early to beta and neuronally precocial makes a mouse have weak gamma and be less social.

Summary In this issue of Neuron, Bitzenhofer et al. show that transiently stimulating the prefrontal cortex during a brief critical window early in development causes precocious maturation and lasting deleterious consequences on circuit activity and behavior.
Use of connected digital products in clinical research following the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive analysis of clinical trials.

Objectives In an effort to mitigate COVID-19 related challenges for clinical research, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new guidance for the conduct of ‘virtual’ clinical trials in late March 2020. This study documents trends in the use of connected digital products (CDPs), tools that enable remote patient monitoring and telehealth consultation, in clinical trials both before and after the onset of the pandemic. Design We applied a comprehensive text search algorithm to clinical trial registry data to identify trials that use CDPs for remote monitoring or telehealth. We compared CDP use in the months before and after the issuance of FDA guidance facilitating virtual clinical trials. Setting All trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov with start dates from May 2019 through February 2021. Outcome measures The primary outcome measure was the overall percentage of CDP use in clinical trials started in the 10 months prior to the pandemic onset (May 2019–February 2020) compared with the 10 months following (May 2020–February 2021). Secondary outcome measures included CDP usage by trial type (interventional, observational), funder type (industry, non-industry) and diagnoses (COVID-19 or non-COVID-19 participants). Results CDP usage in clinical trials increased by only 1.65 percentage points, from 14.19% (n=23 473) of all trials initiated in the 10 months prior to the pandemic onset to 15.84% (n=26 009) of those started in the 10 months following (p Conclusions These findings suggest that in the short-term, new options created by regulatory guidance to stimulate telehealth and remote monitoring were not widely incorporated into clinical research. In the months immediately following the pandemic onset, CDP adoption increased primarily in observational and non-industry funded studies where virtual protocols are likely medically necessary due to the participants’ COVID-19 diagnosis.
Distilling Knowledge for Empathy Detection

Empathy is the link between self and others. Detecting and understanding empathy is a key element for improving human-machine interaction. However, annotating data for detecting empathy at a large scale is a challenging task. This paper employs multi-task training with knowledge distillation to incorporate knowledge from available resources (emotion and sentiment) to detect empathy from the natural language in different domains. This approach yields better results on an existing news-related empathy dataset compared to strong baselines. In addition, we build a new dataset for empathy prediction with fine-grained empathy direction, seeking or providing empathy, from Twitter. We release our dataset for research purposes.
Crenellation Patterns for Fatigue Crack Retardation in Fuselage Panels Optimized via Genetic Algorithm

Abstract Crenellation is a promising technique to effectively improve the fatigue life of fuselage panels. It systematically varies the thickness of the fuselage skin at a constant structural weight. In the design of the crenellation patterns, the schemes of redistributing the skin material between different thickened and thinned regions can be innumerable. In order to select the optimum design from the huge searching space, a genetic algorithm was used in this study, which was coupled with FEM simulations used to predict the fatigue life of different crenellation designs. To accelerate the optimization process, a progressively refined searching approach and an old-individual-filtering technique were used. The suggested approach leads to both a reduced computational cost and improved solution quality.
Loudness of steady sounds - A new theory

A new mathematical theory for calculating the loudness of steady sounds from power summation and frequency interaction, based on psychoacoustic and physiological information, assuems that loudness is a subjective measure of the electrical energy transmitted along the auditory nerve to the central nervous system. The auditory system consists of the mechanical part modeled by a bandpass filter with a transfer function dependent on the sound pressure, and the electrical part where the signal is transformed into a half-wave reproduction represented by the electrical power in impulsive discharges transmitted along neurons comprising the auditory nerve. In the electrical part the neurons are distributed among artificial parallel channels with frequency bandwidths equal to 'critical bandwidths for loudness', within which loudness is constant for constant sound pressure. The total energy transmitted to the central nervous system is the sum of the energy transmitted in all channels, and the loudness is proportional to the square root of the total filtered sound energy distributed over all channels. The theory explains many psychoacoustic phenomena such as audible beats resulting from closely spaced tones, interaction of sound stimuli which affect the same neurons affecting loudness, and of individually subliminal sounds becoming audible if they lie within the same critical band.
Intracellular Expression of FcγRIII (CD16) and Its Mobilization by Chemoattractants in Human Eosinophils

We characterized the existence, translocation, and reabsorption during cellular activation of a constitutively expressed intracellular CD16 in the human eosinophil. By two-color flow cytometry, we showed that 6.5 ± 0.3% of nonpurified eosinophils expressed surface CD16. After digestion with phosphotidylinositol-specific phospholipase C, surface CD16 on both neutrophils and eosinophils decreased substantially, suggesting that eosinophil CD16 is a glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-linked isoform. However, CD16 was substantially expressed intracellularly in human eosinophils. Epitope-specific binding to CLB-gran11 mAb from non-NA2/NA2 donors demonstrated that intracellular eosinophil CD16 also differed from the transmembrane isoform of CD16 expressed on NK cells or macrophages. Western blot analysis performed with 3G8 or DJ130c mAb showed a broad band at ∼65 to 80 kDa, which was the same as neutrophil CD16 from the same NA2/NA2 donors. Upon stimulation by chemoattractants C5a, FMLP, or platelet-activating-factor, eosinophilic intracellular CD16 was rapidly translocated to the eosinophil surface, expressed maximally at 30 s, and then gradually disappeared from the cell surface during the next 10 min. Intracellular flow cytometry of stimulated eosinophils and sandwich ELISA of stimulated eosinophil supernatants demonstrated that the disappearance was due to its rapid release into medium and reabsorption by the cells. Our data identify a CD16B that is consistently expressed intracellularly but only rarely on the surface of nonactivated human eosinophils. This CD16 is transiently expressed during stimulation by chemoattractants.
Incorporation of frequency-dependent multiport macromodels into a fast time-domain integral equation solver

This paper formulates a general recursive convolution algorithm for efficiently computing the responses of macromodels, including those with transfer functions that include a phase shift. It also details the coupling scheme for the case where an admittance (Y) matrix macromodel is interfaced with the time-domain adaptive integral method (TD-AIM) accelerated TDIE based field solver.
Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women with Substance Use Disorders: The Gap Between Treatment Need and Receipt

Differences in pregnant and non-pregnant women’s alcohol and drug use, substance treatment need, and treatment receipt were examined using The National Survey of Drug Use and Health (2002–2006). Treatment need and receipt were defined by either self-report or DSM-IV criteria. Pregnant women were less likely to use alcohol and drugs than non-pregnant women. Among women who use drugs, pregnant women were more likely to need treatment (odds ratio (OR) = 1.92; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.46, 2.52), however they were not more likely to receive treatment (OR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.54, 1.51). Overall, there is an unmet need for treatment among reproductive-aged substance users.
Targeting Robo4 pathway reduces corneal angiogenesis induced by herpes simplex virus. (VIR1P.967)

The cornea is a complex tissue that must preserve its transparency to maintain optimal vision. Eye infections such as with herpes simplex virus (HSV) can result in a chronic immuno-inflammatory syndrome and pathological neovascularization that impairs vision. Recent reports demonstrate that angiogenic sprouting shows morphological similarities to axon growth. Moreover there are several key molecules that upon binding to receptors regulate the direction of both capillary and axon guidance. In this study we show that Roundabout 4 (ROBO4) receptor plays a significant role reducing angiogenesis. Using ROBO4 -/- mice we demonstrate that these mice are hyper-susceptible to HSV induced corneal angiogenesis compared to wild type mice. Moreover, providing additional soluble ROBO4 protein by subconjunctival administration significantly diminished the extent of corneal angiogenesis in wild type animals. Finally, by administration of soluble ROBO4 protein to ROBO-/- HSV infected mice it was possible to rescue the wild type phenotype. In conclusion, the administration of soluble ROBO4 protein promotes the activation of the ROBO4 pathway. This could represent a valuable therapeutic tool to control corneal angiogenesis related to HSV induced stromal keratitis.
Forms of Service in Thomas Deloney'sThe Gentle Craft

AbstractThis essay relates changing forms of early modern service to the emerging form of prose fiction in Thomas Deloney's The Gentle Craft (1597–1598). Recent scholarly work has emphasized that representations of service registered important changes in the socio‐economic structures of early modern England, but it has failed to link these material developments to aesthetic concerns. The Gentle Craft represents adaptable, mixed service practices as a model for the innovative aesthetics and generic hybridity of prose fiction. Deloney's narrative, which traces both the reinvigoration of the nobility through shoemaking and the dramatic upward mobility of the common shoemaker, paradoxically redefines service as an aspirational, capitalist occupation and as a deferential, respectful profession. In negotiating these seemingly contradictory positions, the text enacts the role of the flexible servant and demonstrates how early modern service was inflecting concepts of authorship and literary form. (E.R.).
An Empirical Study of Bond Market Transactions

Short histories of dealer-market and exchange-based bond transactions in machine-readable form have recently become available. They permitted us to provide for the first time direct estimation of the effective bid-ask spread for corporate bonds in the institutional and retail markets. Overall, we found effective spreads for NYSE-traded corporate bonds to be similar to effective spreads for dealer-market transactions. Evidence is that corporate bond spreads have declined over time and that dealers carry out U.S. government bond trades with major institutional clients as a nonprofit service, perhaps to support other (ostensibly) profitable activities. We demonstrate that bid-ask spreads and the magnitude of price discrepancies between data sources are reliably associated with proxies for risk and liquidity.
Mismatched encoding in rate distortion theory

Summary form only given. A length n block code C of size 2/sup nR/ over a finite alphabet /spl chi//spl circ//sub 0/ is used to encode a memoryless source over a finite alphabet /spl chi/. A length n source sequence x is described by the index i of the codeword x/spl circ//sub 0/(i) that is nearest to x according to the single-letter distortion function d/sub 0/(x,x/spl circ//sub 0/). Based on the description i and the knowledge of the codebook C, we wish to reconstruct the source sequence so as to minimize the average distortion defined by the distortion function d/sub 1/(x,x/spl circ//sub 1/), where d/sub 1/(x, x/spl circ//sub 1/) is in general different from d/sub 0/(x,x/spl circ//sub 0/). In fact, the reconstruction alphabets /spl chi//spl circ//sub 0/ and /spl chi//spl circ//sub 1/ could be different. We study the minimum, over all codebooks C, of the average distortion between the reconstructed sequence x/spl circ//sub 1/(i) and the source sequence x as the blocklength n tends to infinity. This limit is a function of the code rate R, the source's probability law, and the two distortion measures d/sub 0/(x,x/spl circ//sub 0/), and d/sub 1/(x,x/spl circ//sub 1/). This problem is the rate-distortion dual of the problem of determining the capacity of a memoryless channel under a possibly suboptimal decoding rule. The performance of a random i.i.d. codebook is found, and it is shown that the performance of the "average" codebook is in general suboptimal.
Accounting pedagogy based on extant authoritative rules versus decision-oriented analysis: The case of other postemployment benefits

Contemporary financial accounting pedagogy has been criticized for its excessive concentration on extant authoritative rules and preparer-oriented mechanics. An alternative decision-oriented pedagogy would emphasize the economic consequences of financial account- ing choices, analyze the role of accounting information within a broader economic, legal and political context, and consider emerging issues that remain authoritatively unresolved. This article illustrates a decision-oriented accounting pedagogy for the treatment of the other pos- temployment benefits (OPEB) issues. This article has two primary objectives. First, it provides a source for relevant economic, legal, and accounting background information and a set of decision-oriented, conceptually-motivated cases and topics for class discussion. Second, it uses the OPEB topic to illustrate the general pedagogic principle of addressing accounting issues from a decision-oriented rather than a preparer-oriented perspective. This approach could be equally useful for the treatment of a variety of accounting related topics, including asset reversions from defined benefit pension plan terminations and curtailments, corporate restruc- turings and downsizings, or employee stock options and deferred compensation agreements. Recently, accounting educators have been criticized in both academic and professional quarters for their excessive concentration on extant accounting practices and authoritative rules to the exclusion of a more decision-oriented analysis. In lieu of a rule-dominated pedagogy, a number of broader objec- tives have been proposed, including developing:
Inverse emulsions in a molten salt/hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene system using block copolymers as emulsifiers.

Block copolymers of poly(N-t-butylbenzoyl ethylenimine) and poly(N-propionyl ethylenimine) (Bx/Ey and Bx/Ey/Bx) or poly (N-lauroyl ethylenimine) and poly (N-propionyl ethylenimine) (Ux/Ey) were synthesized by cationic ring-opening polymerization of 2-substituted δ2-oxazolines. Inverse emulsions (salt-in-oil) were made using these block copolymers as emulsifiers, hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as the nonpolar phase and methyl ammonium ethane sulfonate (MAES) as the polar phase. These inverse emulsions (S/O) were then cured using a triisocyanate to give a dispersion of molten salt (MAES) droplets in polyurethane. Pore sizes of these cured inverse emulsions were measured from scanning electron photomicrographs as a function of stirring time and concentrations of block copolymer and molten salt. The results indicate that pores with diameters in the range of 1.5 X 10−6 m can be obtained using triblock copolymer Bx/Ey/Bx, and that the surfactant molecules can be spread as a monolayer at the MAES-HTPB interface.
The effect of long-term amphetamine administration on the activity of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra

Abstract Spontaneously active neurons from the pars compacta region of the substantia nigra were studied in chloral hydrate anesthetized, immobilized rats which had been pretreated with daily intraperitoneal saline or d -amphetamine injections according to several schedules. The spontaneous firing rates of these neurons were not altered by any of the pretreatment regimens. In addition, the intravenous dose of d -amphetamine sulfate which was required to reduce the spontaneous firing rate of these cells by at least 50% (threshold dose) was not modified by amphetamine pretreatment. There was a significant positive linear correlation between the threshold dose and the initial spontaneous firing rate of the neurons from animals pretreated with multiple saline injections, but not from those receiving long-term d -amphetamine. These results demonstrate that there are no alterations in the sensitivity of dopaminergic neurons to amphetamine under conditions known to produce the enhanced effects of the drug on motor behaviors which develop during multiple injections.
Genetic and phenotypic relationships between clinical mastitis, laboratory criteria, and udder height.

Summary Genetic aspects of mastitis resistance were investigated where quantitative scores were determined for clinical mastitis, bacterial infection, and leucocyte count. Heritability and repeatability estimates were obtained for these scores, and phenotypic and genetic correlations between scores were estimated. Correlations also were obtained between udder height and the scores for clinical mastitis, bacterial infection, and leucocyte count. Heritability estimates for clinical mastitis obtained from the paternal sister correlation and daughter-dam regression were inconsistent. Repeatability for clinical mastitis was estimated at .31. Estimated genetic correlations from the two analyses were .29 and .23 for clinical mastitis with bacterial infection, and .80 and .98 for clinical mastitis with leucocyte count. Udder height was found to be negatively correlated with scores for clinical mastitis, bacterial infection, and leucocyte count.
Calcimimetics inhibit renal pathology in rodent nephronophthisis

The development and progression of renal cysts appears to be driven by reduced cellular calcium and increased cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) from G-protein-coupled receptors. To test whether treatment with a calcimimetic that stimulates the G-protein-coupled calcium-sensing receptor might normalize cystic epithelial cell intracellular calcium and cAMP, thereby inhibiting cyst progression, we used pcy mice. These animals develop cysts principally in the collecting duct, as do humans with nephronophthisis (NPHP). We administered the calcimimetic R-568 mixed in their food at early or late stages in the pathogenesis of cyst formation. The treatment reduced cyst enlargement, and the early treatment inhibited development of renal fibrosis. Although the effect of later treatment was more modest, both stages of the disease responded positively to treatment. Additionally, R-568 decreased total kidney cAMP in the pcy mice and, in vitro, decreased cAMP levels and cell proliferation, while increasing intracellular calcium in immortalized human autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease renal epithelial cells. The latter two effects were unique to R-568 and not replicated by raising extracellular calcium. Thus, treating pcy mice with R-568 was effective in reducing cyst progression in this rodent model of NPHP. Direct studies will be needed to determine whether these results can be applied to the human disease.
The Stalk Region of the Escherichia coli ATP Synthase: TYROSINE 205 OF THE γ SUBUNIT IS IN THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE F1 AND F0 PARTS AND CAN INTERACT WITH BOTH THE ϵ AND c OLIGOMER *

The soluble portion of the Escherichia coli F1F0 ATP synthase (ECF1) and E. coli F1F0 ATP synthase (ECF1F0) have been isolated from a novel mutant gammaY205C. ECF1 isolated from this mutant had an ATPase activity 3.5-fold higher than that of wild-type enzyme and could be activated further by maleimide modification of the introduced cysteine. This effect was not seen in ECF1F0. The mutation partly disrupts the F1 to F0 interaction, as indicated by a reduced efficiency of proton pumping. ECF1 containing the mutation gammaY205C was bound to the membrane-bound portion of the E. coli F1F0 ATP synthase (ECF0) isolated from mutants cA39C, cQ42C, cP43C, and cD44C to reconstitute hybrid enzymes. Cu2+ treatment or reaction with 5,5'-dithio-bis(2-nitro-benzoic acid) induced disulfide bond formation between the Cys at gamma position 205 and a Cys residue at positions 42, 43, or 44 in the c subunit but not at position 39. Using Cu2+ treatment, this covalent cross-linking was obtained in yields as high as 95% in the hybrid ECF1 gammaY205C/cQ42C and in ECF1F0 isolated from the double mutant of the same composition. The covalent linkage of the gamma to a c subunit had little effect on ATPase activity. However, ATP hydrolysis-linked proton translocation was lost, by modification of both gamma Cys-205 and c Cys-42 by bulky reagents such as 5,5'-dithio-bis (2-nitro-benzoic acid) or benzophenone-4-maleimide. In both ECF1 and ECF1F0 containing a Cys at gamma 205 and a Cys in the epsilon subunit (at position 38 or 43), cross-linking of the gamma to the epsilon subunit was induced in high yield by Cu2+. No cross-linking was observed in hybrid enzymes in which the Cys was at position 10, 65, or 108 of the epsilon subunit. Cross-linking of gamma to epsilon had only a minimal effect on ATP hydrolysis. The reactivity of the Cys at gamma 205 showed a nucleotide dependence of reactivity to maleimides in both ECF1 and ECF1F0, which was lost in ECF1 when the epsilon subunit was removed. Our results show that there is close interaction of the gamma and epsilon subunits for the full-length of the stalk region in ECF1F0. We argue that this interaction controls the coupling between nucleotide binding sites and the proton channel in ECF1F0.
Resonant enhancement of charge density wave diffraction in the rare-earth tritellurides

We performed resonant soft x-ray diffraction on known charge density wave (CDW) compounds, rare-earth tritellurides. Near the ${M}_{5}$ ($3d$-$4f$) absorption edge of rare-earth ions, an intense diffraction peak is detected at a wave vector identical to that of the CDW state hosted on Te${}_{2}$ planes, indicating a CDW-induced modulation on the rare-earth ions. Surprisingly, the temperature dependence of the diffraction peak intensity demonstrates an exponential increase at low temperatures, vastly different than that of the CDW order parameter. Assuming $4f$ multiplet splitting due to the CDW states, we present a model to calculate x-ray-absorption spectrum and resonant profile of the diffraction peak, agreeing well with experimental observations. Our results demonstrate a situation where the temperature dependence of resonant x-ray-diffraction peak intensity is not directly related to the intrinsic behavior of the order parameter associated with the electronic order, but is dominated by the thermal occupancy of the valence states.
Effect of a charge layer on the surface-plasmon-polariton dispersion curve

We have solved Maxwell's equations for the fields localized near the surface of a doped semiconductor possessing either a depletion layer, an accumulation layer, or an inversion layer. We present the dispersion relation for the frequency of the surface plasmon polariton as a function of the wave vector parallel to the surface for each of the three cases. The effect of the space charge at the surface is taken into account by dividing the surface region into layers and assuming a linear position dependence for the free-carrier concentration and the local dielectric constant within each layer. We have found the solution for the fields within each layer and have satisfied the boundary conditions for the normal and tangential components of the fields at each interface between layers. We show that the features of the dispersion curve can be used to obtain information about the space-charge region. For illustration, we compare our calculations with measured dispersion curves of $n$-type InSb.
Cautery-assisted palatal stiffening operation:

Abstract Outpatient surgical therapy of habitual snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea has evolved significantly in recent years. We introduce the cautery-assisted palatal stiffening operation (CAPSO) and detail its important advantages over uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty, and palatal radiofrequency ablation. CAPSO is critically analyzed with regard to extent of surgery, need for repetition of procedure, results, complications, predictors of success, and cost analysis. CAPSO is a mucosal surgery that induces a midline palatal scar that stiffens the floppy palate. Two hundred six consecutive patients underwent CAPSO over an 18-month period, followed by office examination and telephone evaluation. The success rate was initially 92% and dipped to 77% after 1 year. CAPSO eliminates excessive snoring caused by palatal flutter and has success rates that were comparable with those of traditional palatal surgery. CAPSO is a simple and safe office procedure that avoids the need for multiple-stage operations and does not rely on expensive laser systems or radiofrequency generators and hand pieces. (Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2000;122:547-55.)
Detecting Unstable Conjunctive Locality-Aware Predicates in Large-Scale Systems

Recently, the concept of locality-aware predicates (LAP) has been proposed. A LAP models a predicate within a local region of the whole network in a large-scale locality driven system, such as WSNs and modular robotics. In such systems, the cost of doing a global predicate detection is high, besides which, a predicate over the state of a local region better captures properties of local interactions. Thus, LAP detection becomes a relevant and interesting problem. In this paper, we explore the problem of detecting unstable conjunctive LAP, and develop a scale-free algorithm by running an interval-based detection algorithm using a vector clock built on-the-fly for processes in the local region. More importantly, we develop the encoded vector clock (EVC) technique. EVC makes detecting unstable conjunctive LAP more practical in large-scale systems by reducing the storage cost.
Persistent Net-AMI for Microgrid Infrastructure Using Cognitive Radio on Cloud Data Centers

We address the potential for a truly universal set of integrated wireless communication services, energy management, and control services for a next-generation of National Institute of Standards and Technology microgrid standards. Our approach uses cloud computing data center as the central communication and optimization infrastructure supporting a cognitive radio network of AMI meters which we label netbook advance metering infrastructure (Net-AMI). The Net-AMI is a novel low cost infrastructure of AMI meters that operate akin to netbooks with wireless transceiver that access to cloud data center energy services, cognitive radio services, and wireless communication services. Access occurs via cognitive radios channels. We claim that this solution solves the important problem in smart grid systems of how to develop an extensible, persistent, smart grid information network with a lifespan equivalent to that of most power systems (20-30 years). By persistence, we imply always operable, entirely software upgradeable, and independent of cellular networks. Our system is extensible and can easily handle thousands of variations in power systems, communication protocols, control, and energy optimization protocols. We formulate necessary link analysis and optimum scheduling of downlink and uplink Net-AMI packets in a multiuser cognitive radio environment.