cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Fermat’s principle, Fresnel zones, and ray methods for high-frequency signatures of elastic cylinders in water

Geometric methods are useful for understanding the magnitude and timing of high-frequency echoes from elastic objects in water. This presentation emphasizes, but is not limited to, elastic contributions associated with leaky waves on circular cylinders. The regions of strong coupling between the incident acoustic wave and guided leaky waves can be predicted using Fermat’s principle while the size of the associated Fresnel zones are useful for understanding signal magnitudes [P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 1628–1638 (1997); F. J. Blonigen and P. L. Marston, 110, 1764–1769 (2001)]. Ray theory predictions are supported by measurements with tilted cylinders [S. F. Morse, P. L. Marston, and G. Kaduchak, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 785–794 (1998); K. Gipson and P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 106, 1673–1680 (1999); F. J. Blonigen and P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 112, 528–536 (2002)]. Related applications include signatures and images of tilted cylinders near flat surfaces [D. S. Plotnick and P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140, 1525–1536 (2016)], time-frequency signatures [S. F. Morse and P. L. Marston, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 111, 1289–1294 (2002)], and signatures for other targets with corners. [Work supported by ONR.]
Improvement of Protein Model Scoring Using Grouping and Interpreter for Machine Learning

In this paper, we describe our protein folding research with the goal of improving protein model scoring by grouping of protein models and using an interpreter for machine learning (ML). The traditional approach is to use a handful of popular ML algorithms, such as Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forest and Neural Networks that are trained on a whole set of models. Our approach is to group the protein models and train the ML algorithms on each group separately. Our framework can be generalized to other application of ML where there is a strong diversification of data set. In this paper, we describe results of comparison of traditional vs. our grouping approach showing that some improvement in the scoring of protein models can be achieved. To further improve the scoring, an interpreter for machine learning is used. The interpreter is based on Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) tool. In this paper it is used to determine feature vector for each group of protein models. Different feature vectors are then used for ML training on different groups of protein models allowing us to improve the ML algorithms. In addition, interpreter of ML can be used in the future to provide feedback for the process of protein models generation.
Place Attachment, Image, and Support for Marijuana Tourism in Colorado:

Colorado became the first state in the United States that passed the legalization of recreational (retail) marijuana with Amendment 64 in 2012. With this unprecedented tourism environment, it is im...
Holistic Approach to Resilience of Steel-Frame Construction in Fire

AbstractCurrent governing codes and standards in the United States provide engineers with an option to design structures for the load effects caused by a fire. This process consists of calculating ...
Phase I trial of ADI-peg 20 plus docetaxel (DOC) in patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors.

2569 Background: ADI-PEG20 is an enzyme that degrades arginine (Arg), an amino acid relevant to biosynthetic pathways of normal and malignant cells. It has shown tolerability and activity in severa...
Fault Understanding, Navigation, and Control Interface: A Visualization System for Cyber-Resilient Operations for Advanced Nuclear Power Plants

Cyber is a buzzword these days—the destabilizing, invisible, insidious battleground that is shaking everything from financial institutions, hospitals, and airports to average individuals in an ever increasingly Internet-dependent world. The cybersecurity challenges facing nuclear power plant industrial control systems are much the same as for other industries where maintaining high availability of services is imperative. In this chapter, the authors discuss the development of cyber-resilient industrial control system technologies for nuclear power plants with a focus on operator support systems. These concepts culminate in the design and demonstration of the Fault Understanding Navigation and Control Interface (FUNCI) visualization system for cyber-resilient operation. Finally, the authors present the results of a study involving nuclear power plant operators.
Fault-related overpressure in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, India

AbstractDrilling and reaching to deeper target zones through an overpressured overburden formation in a structurally complex geologic setting requires robust geologic and geomechanical analysis to ...
Recurrent lymphoma presenting as painless, chronic intussusception: A case report

Background The clinical presentation of acute lymphoblastic lymphoma is highly varied. While prognosis is good, recurrence of disease can occur. Gastrointestinal relapse, including intussusception, is well-described but the absence of abdominal pain in this setting is rare. Case summary We report a 13-year-old male with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia in remission presenting with anemia and weight loss. Examination was significant for absence of abdominal pain, but a stool sample was positive for occult blood. Pan-endoscopy was performed with colonoscopy revealing a mass filling the colonic lumen. Biopsy of the mass confirmed recurrence of recurrent B-cell lymphoma. Computed tomography scan revealed ileocolic intussusception resulting from the tumor. This case is unusual in that the patient had no abdominal pain despite the presence of intussusception. Conclusion While intestinal involvement with lymphoma has been well described in the literature, presentation as painless intussusception has not been reported. This case report highlights the wide spectrum of clinical manifestations of recurrent B-cell lymphoma involving the gastrointestinal tract, in particular the near absence of symptoms despite the finding of intussusception.
Proprietary Costs and the Equity Financing Choice

We develop a firm-level private information index with three unique features. First, the index is a direct measure of the nature and magnitude of private information that is proprietary. Second, it is multi-dimensional. Third, it is not specific to any one setting. We conduct several tests to validate this index against extant firm-specific and industry-level proprietary cost proxies. We then use it to examine the role of proprietary information in a firm’s equity financing choice between private investments in public equity (PIPEs) and seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). In this context, the proprietary cost hypothesis posits that firms wanting to avoid public dissemination of sensitive private information can do so more effectively by choosing PIPEs over SEOs. Our tests provide strong support for the hypothesis. The results are robust to alternate index specifications and other factors that influence this choice.
Sex differences in drug-induced QT prolongation

Abstract Women have a higher rate of torsade when taking QT-prolonging medications. This higher risk can be in part explained by women having longer QTc intervals at both baseline and on-treatment compared to men. Endogenous sex hormones play a key role in the longer QTc at baseline in women. Longer on-treatment QTc may be caused by higher drug concentrations associated with dosing regimens that do not account for body size, which is on average smaller in women. Women are not, however, more sensitive to the QTc prolonging effects of drugs—the slope of the concentration–QTc relationship for drugs is not systematically higher in women. After adjusting for on-treatment QTc values, women have at least twofold the torsade risk compared to men when taking antiarrhythmic drugs. This highlights the importance of identifying other physiological factors that increase the torsade risk of QT-prolonging drugs in women.
The in vivo preventive and therapeutic properties of curcumin in bile reflux-related oncogenesis of the hypopharynx.

Bile at strongly acidic pH exerts a carcinogenic effect on the hypopharynx, based upon recent pre-clinical studies that support its role as an independent risk factor. We recently demonstrated in vitro that curcumin can prevent oncogenic profile of bile in human hypopharyngeal cells, by inhibiting NF-κB. We hypothesize that topically applied curcumin to the hypopharynx can similarly block early oncogenic molecular events of bile, by inhibiting NF-κB and consequently altering the expression of genes with oncogenic function. Using Mus musculus (C57Bl/6J), we topically applied curcumin (250 μmol/L; three times per day; 10 days) to the hypopharynx, 15 minutes before, 15 minutes after or in combination with bile acids (pH 3.0). Immunohistochemical analysis and qPCR revealed that topically applied curcumin either before, after or in combination with acidic bile exposure significantly suppressed its induced NF-κB activation in regenerating epithelial cells, and overexpression of Rela, Bcl2, Egfr, Stat3, Wnt5a, Tnf, Il6, Ptgs2. Akt1 was particularly inhibited by curcumin when applied simultaneously with bile. We provide novel evidence into the preventive and therapeutic properties of topically applied curcumin in acidic bile-induced early oncogenic molecular events in hypopharyngeal mucosa, by inhibiting NF-κB, and shaping future translational development of effective targeted therapies using topical non-pharmacologic inhibitors of NF-κB.
Gender and Ability Oppressions Shaping the Lives of College Students: An Intracategorical, Intersectional Analysis

Emergent findings from a constructivist grounded theory study explicate how gender and ability oppressions intersected to shape the experiences of 47 college students from four post-secondary insti...
Analog to Digital Conversion

The process of converting an analog, or continuous time, signal into a digital signal is known as analog-to-digital conversion (ADC). Many signals are inherently analog. Examples of analog signals obtained from a transducer abound. Other analog signals are inherently electrical, such as those obtained from biomedical electromyography or electroencephalography electrodes. In many cases, it is deemed desirable to process a signal by a microprocessor or computer to extract information, or to store the signal in some digital storage medium such as a hard drive, a floppy disk, or a CD ROM. If the original signal is in analog format, in such cases, it is necessary to convert the analog signal into an equivalent digital signal. This article describes the process of ADC. It introduces the topic and describes the operation of two of the most common methods of accomplishing ADC: the successive approximation ADC and the flash ADC. The sampling theorem is stated and proved, aliasing is described, and quantization noise is discussed. Oversampling is described, and the resultant improvements in ADC performance are documented. Then delta-sigma ADCs are introduced and described. Conventional first-order and second-order delta-sigma ADCs are described and evaluated. Performance comparisons among simple oversampling, first-order delta-sigma, and second-order delta-sigma ADCs are documented. The article concludes with an example of a higher order delta-sigma ADC performance evaluation. Keywords: analog-to-digital conversion; successive approximation; flash conversion; delta-sigma data conversion
Leveraging the Work Environment to Minimize the Negative Impact of Nurse Burnout on Patient Outcomes

Background: Burnout remains a persistent issue affecting nurses across the US health system. Limited evidence exists about the direct impact of nurse burnout on patient outcomes. This study explores the relationship between nurse burnout and mortality, failure to rescue, and length of stay, while also considering the effect of a good work environment. Methods: Cross sectional data from nurses and hospitals were used in conjunction with patient claims data. Multivariate logistic regression was used to study the relationship between nurse burnout, patient outcomes, the work environment, and Magnet status. Results: Higher odds of patient mortality, failure to rescue, and prolonged length of stay were found in hospitals that had, on average, higher nurse burnout scores. Good work environments were found to attenuate the relationship between nurse burnout and mortality, failure to rescue, and length of stay. Magnet status, another indicator of a good work environment, was found to attenuate the relationship between nurse burnout and mortality and failure to rescue. Conclusions: Improving the work environment remains a solution for hospitals looking to concurrently improve nurse burnout and patient outcomes. Administrators may look to the Magnet recognition program as a blueprint to better support nurses in providing safe, high quality care.
Anthropogenic influence on extreme precipitation over global land areas seen in multiple observational datasets.

The intensification of extreme precipitation under anthropogenic forcing is robustly projected by global climate models, but highly challenging to detect in the observational record. Large internal variability distorts this anthropogenic signal. Models produce diverse magnitudes of precipitation response to anthropogenic forcing, largely due to differing schemes for parameterizing subgrid-scale processes. Meanwhile, multiple global observational datasets of daily precipitation exist, developed using varying techniques and inhomogeneously sampled data in space and time. Previous attempts to detect human influence on extreme precipitation have not incorporated model uncertainty, and have been limited to specific regions and observational datasets. Using machine learning methods that can account for these uncertainties and capable of identifying the time evolution of the spatial patterns, we find a physically interpretable anthropogenic signal that is detectable in all global observational datasets. Machine learning efficiently generates multiple lines of evidence supporting detection of an anthropogenic signal in global extreme precipitation. Climate models project an intensification of extreme precipitation under climate change, but this effect is difficult to detect in the observational record. Here, the authors show that a physically interpretable anthropogenic impact on extreme precipitation is detectable in global observational data sets.
Will allogeneic CAR T cells for CD19+ malignancies take autologous CAR T cells ‘off the shelf’?

The question of whether allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells could replace autologous CAR T cell therapy has garnered considerable interest, but limited data have been available for comparisons to date. Now, Benjamin et al. have reported their experience with allogeneic anti-CD19 CAR T cells in 21 paediatric and adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Free-space group-velocity dispersion induced in space-time wave packets by V-shaped spectra

The authors introduce a space-time wave-packet structure that propagates in free space with a group velocity fixed at the speed of light in vacuum and large anomalous dispersion in free space. This is a noteworthy addition to the family of known optical wave packets and could have applications in optical signal processing and nonlinear optics.
Attitudes in and around organizations

Attitudes Much Ado about Something Job Satisfaction Reconsidered The Social Psychology of Attitudes A Little of This, A Little of That Job Satisfaction Redux Attitudinal Baggage Negative Racial Attitudes as an Exemplar Goodwill An Attitudinal Perspective The Study of Attitudes in the Organizational Sciences as History
Why Cops Love and Hate the Work

One of the happiest days in a policeman’s life is graduation day at the police academy. It is a day filled with emotionally loaded symbolism: the march into the auditorium, the speeches extolling his professional skill, the proud faces of his family members in the audience, and the feeling of a masculine rite of passage in which he is now a member of an elite fraternity of brave and powerful men who protect the weak and defend the virtuous.
Construction of Recombinant Ti Plasmids Containing the chlM Gene from E. Coli

The stable maintenance of foreign genes in plant cells is dependent upon the nature of the vector used in DNA transfer attempts. The potential vectors which presently exist can be divided into two categories: 1) vectors which integrate within the host genome and 2) vectors which can be established as independent replicons in plant cells. The first category includes the T-DNA from Agrobac-terium tumefaciens and the T-DNA from Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The second class of vectors comprises the caulimovirus and germinivirus genomes, as well as cDNA copies of viroids. The pros and cons of each of those vectors have been recently reviewed by Howell1.
Chemical Kinetics in Food Processing

This chapter focuses on chemical reactions in food that follow zero-order kinetics, exhibiting a constant rate of change in the concentration of a reactant or a product. It discusses problem statements for first-order kinetics, kinetic analysis of vitamin degradation, determination of rate constants, and illustrates their programming on a worksheet. Many chemical reactions that occur during food processing and storage follow first-order kinetics. The rate constant for a first-order reaction may be obtained by first taking the natural logarithm of concentrations and then plotting against time on an ordinary scale. Kinetic analysis of vitamin degradation involves determining concentrations of the vitamin at selected storage times. Storage studies conducted at different temperatures yield rate constants for each temperature. The rate constants are determined from the concentration of vitamin versus time data. In enzyme-catalyzed reactions, two important kinetic parameters are determined, namely, the maximum velocity and the Michaelis–Menten constant. Apart from the most common method, the Lineweaver–Burk method, other methods, such as the Augustinsson method and the Eadie–Hofstee method are also discussed
Legionella pneumophila Mip: New Function for an Old Protein?

The macrophage infectivity potentiator (Mip) protein of Legionella pneumophila is one of the most studied Legionella proteins and has long been known to promote virulence. Mip protein has been purified and shown to possess peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPI-ase) activity. Comparison of primary structures and crystallographic studies shows that Mip proteins have an N-terminal and a C-terminal domain. Type II secretion is one of five protein secretion systems that can mediate the export of proteins across the gram-negative outer membrane into the extracellular milieu and/or into target cells, and the authors have shown that the type II protein secretion system of L. pneumophila is required for optimal replication in macrophages, amoebae, and mice. Interestingly, one of transposon mutants (previously designated NU247) proved to contain a single transposon insertion in the mip gene, suggesting, for the first time, that Mip might influence protein secretion. This chapter talks about the NU247 reproducibly that showed a 40 to 70% reduction in p-NPPC hydrolase activity in its culture supernatants in comparison to the wild-type strain 130b. Since Mip is highly conserved in the Legionella genus, and surface and secreted Mip-like proteins are present in other pathogenic microorganisms, Mip and Mip-like proteins might promote the secretion of other important effectors.
A Convenient Method for Bromination of Aromatic Amines

Abstract Pyridinium hydrobromide perbromide has been used to monobrominate aromatic amines. The monobromo compounds are obtained in good yield and with only small amounts of polybromoination products.
Overcoming Physicality and the Eternal Present: Cybernetic Manipulatives

This chapter explores the visual and imagistic aspects of cybernetic manipulatives, how they may be designed to improve upon physical manipulatives, what their potentials and pitfalls may be, and how they fit into the larger evolution of technology use in support of mathematics learning. We will examine questions of ,physicality - of representations, dynamic connections between ,natural - and formal representations, and, especially, ways that new forms of records of actions may alter these connections and elevate levels of thinking involved in the doing of mathematics, from low-level computation to higher level planning, strategic and structural thinking. This paper extends earlier work [11, 12, 13], which also includes references to the wider literature relating to these topics, references not repeated here. It also relates closely to other papers on another aspect of the representational use of new technologies, dealing with dynamic linkages between formal mathematical notations and authentic human experience, particularly as instantiated in realistic simulations [14, 15, 16].
Simulation Models for Just-in-Time Provision of Resources in an Emergency Department

We address the issues for modeling problems of obtaining medical resources, such as beds and personnel, on a just-in-time basis for providing patient services in a hospital's emergency department [ED]. Simulation modeling is one approach to solving this type of problem. However, most past ED simulations have been highly detailed models that specifically consider individual doctors, nurses, paramedics, orderlies, X-ray machines and other unique types of lab testing equipment as separate "resources." When arriving patients request any of these resources, the model queues them if the requested resources are busy with other patients or administrative duties. We argue that these previous simulation models are appropriate for operations planning. However, for operations control a much simpler simulation can be appropriate. We present a simpler model that forecasts in real time when a generic ED will need additional resources to avoid becoming overcrowded. After obtaining an ED bed (queuing if necessary), each patient's treatment time in the ED is represented simply as an observation of a random variable. Although our model is significantly simpler than previous ED simulation models, it has been used successfully by the Vanderbilt University Adult Emergency Department to activate additional resources, including beds, nurses, and other personnel. This ED is located within a state-of-the-art medical center in a large urban area licensed to treat the highest levels of trauma with more than 50,000 patient visits each year. Our model was used in a pilot evaluation of simulation as a real-time tool for providing additional resources on a JIT basis to prevent significant overcrowding by accurately predicting when overcrowding will likely occur. This has allowed management in real time to inform nurses, assistant managers and educators with joint administrative/patient care duties to work exclusively on patients; to open additional temporary beds in hallways; and to expedite patient discharges. It has also been used to let flexible night-shift staff go home early. Since these resources are mobilized only when needed, their overall efficiency of utilization is increased. We discuss the simplifying assumptions in our simulation model and describe a comparable simulation written in a high-level simulation language, Arena [2008].
How e-businesses can achieve a competitive advantage

Despite rapid and sustained development, electronic commerce is still in its formative stage. Many companies doing e-business are still in the investment and brand-building phase and have yet to show a profit. However, as e-businesses shift their focus from building a customer base to increasing revenue growth and profitability, they should reevaluate their current business strategies, if any, and develop e-business strategies that provide a clear path to profitability. This study uses McCarthy's four marketing mix model and Porter's five competitive forces model to identify e-business strategies that will lead to a competitive advantage. The overall goal is to provide significant new insights into the development and implementation of e-business strategies that contribute to increased profit.
The Apoptosome at High Resolution

The mechanism by which the apoptosome activates caspases during apoptosis has been controversial. Qi et al. (2010) now present a crystal structure of a funnel-shaped octameric apoptosome complex from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that challenges currently held assumptions about the human apoptosome structure.
Signal transduction by retinoid receptors

Vitamin A derivatives (retinoids) affect a large variety of fundamental biological processes. Understanding of the signaling mechanism has been greatly advanced by the cloning of specific retinoid receptors. These regulatory proteins belong to the steroid/thyroid hormone nuclear receptor superfamily. Two types of retinoid receptors have been identified, the retinoic acid receptors (RAR alpha, beta and gamma) and the retinoid X receptors (RXR alpha, beta, and gamma). Similar to the steroid hormone receptors, the retinoid receptors bind to specific DNA sequences that have diad symmetries. However, the RARs require heterodimerization with RXRs for efficient DNA binding and gene regulation, while the RXRs can bind to DNA and function as homodimers in the presence of 9-cis-retinoic acid. In addition, RXRs can form heterodimers with thyroid hormone receptors and the vitamin D3 receptor and other receptors. Thus the RXRs have a very central role in serving as a partner for several hormone and vitamin receptors and thus may allow cross talk between different hormone signals. Retinoid responses can be restricted by the COUP-TF orphan receptors which bind to overlapping DNA sequences. Besides the classical way of action via DNA binding, the retinoid receptors can also interfere with other signaling pathways by interacting with the transcription factor AP-1. The advances made in understanding the mechanism of action of retinoids promise to contribute to the understanding and control of physiological responses and diseases.
Nuclear data sheets for A = 143

Abstract Level schemes and decay characteristics are presented for all nuclei with mass number 143. Experimental data, adopted values, comparisons with theory, and arguments for spin and parity assignments are given. The adopted level schemes and decay properties are based on data received before January 1, 1974.
Welfare bounds in the cooperative production problem

A general model of lower bound (individual rationality) and upper bound axioms for fair allocation is proposed. The Unanimity welfare function associates to each individual utility function the highest equal utility feasibile when all agents share this utility. If this function is a feasible lower bound (resp. upper bound), then it is the highest lower bound of all (resp. the lower upper bound). Applying this to cooperative production of private goods, we characterize when the Unanimity welfare is a lower (upper) bound function, and when the Stand Alone welfare is an upper or lower bound. Our approach unifies several familiar fairness properties.
An unsupervised method for intrusion detection using spectral clustering

In this paper we present an unsupervised approach for Intrusion Detection based on Spectral Clustering (SC). Recently Spectral Clustering has gained wider application because of its promising results on several challenging clustering problems [1]. SC uses Spectral Graph Theory to form a laplacian matrix where the first k eigenvectors of this matrix are clustered using k-means to form representative clusters. The representative clusters are labeled normal or anomalous according to an assignment heuristic. We have provided different techniques to detect intrusions (or anomalies) which are scattered uniformly and form small clusters of anomalous data. To improve the clustering results, the scattered anomalies are detected and removed before representative clusters are formed using SC. For evaluation, a synthetic and real data set (KDD Cup 1999) are used and our results show that the application of SC is a promising approach to the development of an Intrusion Detection System. From the experiments we demonstrate that the application of SC yields a Detection Rate (DR) in the range of 91%-100% with the False Positive Rate (FPR) being less than 4.5%.
Trance State Effects and Imagery Vividness Before and During a Hypnotic Assessment: A Preliminary Study

This preliminary study explored the relationship between imagery vividness before and during a hypnotic phenomenological assessment procedure, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory-Hypnotic Assessment Procedure (PCI-HAP), while also assessing trance (hypnoidal) state effects and several other variables. The PCI-HAP allows the assessment of trance state effects associated with hypnotism to be quantified and statistically assessed. The 102 subjects completed the PCI-HAP along with several other questionnaire items. Correlational and regression analyses suggested that imagery vividness during hypnotism (hypnotic imagoic suggestibility) was predicted by combined imagery vividness before hypnotism and trance (altered) state effects during hypnotism. When measuring several additional variables, imagery vividness during hypnotism was found to be a function of self-reported hypnotic depth and additional other variables. The usefulness of these results for better understanding imagery vividness before and during hypnotism is discussed.
Generalized OWA Aggregation Operators

We extend the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator to a provide a new class of operators called the generalized OWA (GOWA) operators. These operators add to the OWA operator an additional parameter controlling the power to which the argument values are raised. We look at some special cases of these operators. One important case corresponds to the generalized mean and another special case is the ordered weighted geometric operator.
Hardware-Accelerated Parser for Extraction of Metadata in Semantic Network Content

We have implemented a new network information processing system using reconfigurable hardware that scans volumes of data in real-time. One of the key functions of the system is to extract semantic information. Before we can determine the meaning of text, we must identify its language. In a previous project, we have implemented an N-gram based language identifier that can process up to 1 Gbps throughput. However, a large percentage of computer network traffic, such as email and Web data, consists of markup information such as tags and protocol specific options. This additional data interferes with the language identification process causing decreased accuracy. Thus, we developed a hardware architecture for configurable application level processing. Our Application Level Processing System (ALPS) is a custom processor that is automatically generated using syntactic structure of the content. The resulting circuit is mapped on to a reconfigurable device to efficiently extract only the relevant data for the language identifier. To illustrate the effectiveness of the architecture, we have implemented a system that can process electronic mail. Our experiments show that ALPS can improve the accuracy of the hardware language identifier by up to a factor of 200 as compared to a system that does not decode the application-level protocol data.
Introtacts as predictors of discrimination performance in kindergarten children

Abstract Kindergarten children were given simultaneous discrimination tasks with two irrelevant dimensions varying within settings. Prior to each block of eight feed-back trials, the children were asked to attempt to provide a statement of the solution. The introtacts thus provided were found to have several of the desirable characteristics that have been reported for older children with either introtact or blank-trial probes, but which have not been found previously for kindergarten children with the blank-trial probe. Classification of the children according to the trial block on which they first verbalized the correct relevant dimension was found to account for more than 60% of the total variability in discrimination performance. The introtacts were also used to assign parameters to theoretical prediction equations, with nearly two-thirds of the total variability in discrimination performance accounted for by the theory. Extension of the method to other models is discussed.
The virD operon of Agrobacterium tumefaciens encodes a site-specific endonuclease.

Abstract Tumor formation by Agrobacterium tumefaciens involves the transfer and integration of a defined segment (T-DNA) of tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid DNA into the plant nuclear genome. A set of plasmid genes outside the T-DNA, the vir genes, are thought to mediate the transfer process. We report here that the virD operon encodes a site-specific endonuclease that cleaves at a unique site within each of the 24 bp direct repeats that flank the T-DNA. The endonuclease function was further localized to the 5′ end of this operon by demonstrating that cleavage does not occur in virD mutant strains of Agrobacterium and that the 5′ end of the virD operon is sufficient to direct cleavage in E. coli. Analysis of nucleotide sequence and protein data indicate that two proteins of 16.2 and 47.4 kd are involved.
The impact of pre-existing gas on the ascent of explosively erupted magma

Most, if not all, magmas contain gas bubbles at depth before they erupt. Those bubbles play a crucial role in eruption dynamics, by allowing magma to degas, which causes the magma to accelerate as it ascends towards the surface. There must be a limit to that acceleration, however, because gas bubbles cannot grow infinitely fast. To explore that limit, a series of experiments was undertaken to determine the maximum rate at which bubbly high-silica rhyolite can decompress. Rhyolite melt that was hydrated at 150 MPa with ~5.3 wt.% dissolved water and contained 7 to 18 vol.% bubbles can degas in equilibrium at 875°C when decompressed at rates up to 1.2 MPa s−1 from 150 to 78 MPa, and up to 1.8 MPa s−1 when decompressed further to 42 MPa. In contrast, that same rhyolite cannot degas in equilibrium at 750°C if decompressed faster than 0.015–0.025 MPa s−1. When combined with other published experiments, the maximum rate of decompression for equilibrium degassing is found to increase by a factor of ten for every 50–75°C increase in temperature. When compared to predictions from conduit flow models that assume equilibrium degassing, it is found that such models greatly over-estimate the rate at which relatively cold rhyolite can decompress, whereas that assumption is largely correct for hot rhyolite, and thus for most other magmas, all of which are less viscous than rhyolite. In addition, most bubbles that were 20–30 µm in size at high pressure were lost from the population at low pressure. That absence suggests that only relatively large vesicles seen in volcanic pumice may be relics of pre-eruptive bubbles, even if small bubbles were originally present at depth.
Metal–Organic Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy of AlxGa1-xN Films over Sapphire

We present a novel metalorganic hydride vapor phase epitaxy (MOHVPE) approach for lateral epitaxy of high-quality crack-free AlN layers over sapphire with thicknesses in excess of 20 µm. Feasibility of depositing thick AlN buffer layers and device quality AlxGa1-xN heterojunctions in a single chamber and growth run using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and hydride vapor phase epitaxy growths either sequentially or simultaneously is demonstrated. Transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and cathodoluminescence analyses confirm the viability of the MOHVPE grown layers for subsequent device fabrication.
Fractionation, isolation and chemical characterization of skin test active components of histoplasmin.

Evidence presented in this paper indicates that crude histoplasmins may be fractionated by Sephadex G-25 chromatography, resulting in quantitative yield of skin test active material. Data obtained from fractionations of four separate histoplasmin lots indicates that the procedure is applicable in varying degrees of efficiency to histoplasmins of varying degrees of skin test potency.Colorimetric estimation of protein, carbohydrate and electrophoretic data suggest that the skin test active component may be a protein-carbohydrate complex. Other data indicate that the skin test active complex is either grossly contaminated with inert materials of approximately similar molecular weight or consists of a major component complexed with a protein moiety.It has been possible to dehydrate the skin test active component to a powdered state. The powder is easily re-dissolved in sterile non-pyrogenic distilled water or physiological saline and apparently retains its skin test activity.The principal contributions of the...
The classical commentary : histories, practices, theory

This collection explores the issues raised by the writing and reading of commentaries on classical Greek and Latin texts. Written primarily by practising commentators, the papers examine: philosophical, narratological and historiographical commentaries; ancient, Byzantine and Renaissance commentary practice and theory, with special emphasis on Galen, Tzetzes and La Cerda; the relationship between the author of the primary text, the commentary writer and the reader; special problems posed by fragmentary and spurious texts; the role and scope of citation, selectivity, lemmatization and revision; the practical future of commentary-writing and publication; and the way computers are changing the shape of classical commentary. With a genesis in discussion panels mounted in the UK in 1996 and the USA in 1997, this volume continues international dialogue on the genre and future of commentaries.
Document image restoration using binary morphological filters

This paper discusses a method for binary morphological filter design to restore document images degraded by subtractive or additive noise, given a constraint on the size of filters. With a filter size restriction (for example 3 by 3), each pixel in output image depends only on its (3 by 3) neighborhood of input image. Therefore, we can construct a look-up table between input and output. Each output image pixel is determined by this table. So the filter design becomes the search for the optimal look-up table. By considering the degradation condition of the input image, we provide a methodology for knowledge based look-up table design, to achieve computational tractability. The methodology can be applied iteratively so that the final output image is the input image after being transformed through successive 3 by 3 operations. An experimental protocol is developed for restoring degraded document images, and improving the corresponding recognition accuracy rates of an OCR algorithm. We present results for a set of real images which are manually ground-truthed. The performance of each filter is evaluated by the OCR accuracy.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Influence of 12 Hours of Sound Stimuli on Gonad Development and Plasma Luteinizing Hormone in Japanese Quail (Cotumix coturnix japonica) Exposed to 6 Hours of Daily Light

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of sound stimulation on gonadal growth in male and female Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) maintained under a photoperiod of 6 hr light and 18 hr dark (6L:18D) from 1 to 12 weeks of age (Experiment 1) or 1 to 14 weeks of age (Experiment 2). The quail were split into three sound environments as follows: 1) 12 hr of radio music (RS) beginning 1 hr before lights off; 2) 12 hr of vocalization from a breeding colony of quail (QV) beginning 1 hr before lights off; 3) no sound stimulation (NS). In Experiment 1, birds were killed at 8, 10, and 12 weeks of age and in Experiment 2, they were killed at 8, 10, 12, and 14 weeks of age. There were no significant differences in tests weights of the three groups at 8 and 10 wk of age (Experiment 1), but those of the RS and QV groups were larger (P less than or equal to .05) than those of the NS group at 12 weeks. Tests in the NS group appeared to grow between 8 and 10 weeks, then regress. There were no differences in testis weights at 8 and 10 weeks of age in Experiment 2. At 12 weeks, testes in the RS group were larger (P less than or equal to .05) than those of the other two groups and by 14 weeks testes of both sound stimulated groups were larger than the NS group and were also different from each other.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
NMDA receptor in conditioned flavor-taste preference learning: blockade by MK-801 and enhancement by D-cycloserine.

Abstract Conditioned flavor-taste preference (CFTP) is a robust form of learning in which animals acquire a preference for a flavor (e.g. Kool-Aid) previously mixed with a highly preferred tastant (e.g. fructose) over a flavor previously mixed with a less-preferred tastant (e.g. saccharin). Here, the role of the N -methyl- D -aspartate (NMDA) glutamate–glycine receptor (NR) was probed using systemic MK-801, a non-competitive antagonist, and D -cycloserine (DCS), a glycine agonist. Rats were injected with MK-801 (100 μg/kg) or vehicle 30 min prior to a daily 2-h conditioning session with 1-bottle access to a Kool-Aid flavor (grape or cherry) mixed with either 8% fructose (CS+/F) or 0.2% saccharin (CS−/S). CFTP expression was measured in 2-bottle preference tests between the Kool-Aid flavors mixed with 0.2% saccharin (CS+/S vs. CS−/S). While vehicle-treated rats acquired a preference for CS+/S over CS−/S, MK-801 prior to conditioning completely blocked CFTP learning. The effect of MK-801 was specific to CFTP acquisition, because follow-up experiments demonstrated that MK-801 did not induce a conditioned taste aversion, cause state-dependent learning, or affect CFTP expression. In a second approach, rats were injected with DCS (15 mg/kg) 60 min prior to daily conditioning. In contrast to MK-801, administration of DCS prior to conditioning enhanced CFTP learning (but not reversal conditioning). These results demonstrate that NR neurotransmission is critical for CFTP learning. Furthermore, enhancement of CFTP learning by DCS suggests that endogenous levels of glycine or D -serine may be a limiting factor in CFTP learning.
Ionic liquid assisted preparation of nanostructured TiO2 particles

Anatase-containing nanostructured TiO2 particles with high surface area have been synthesized using a water immiscible room temperature ionic liquid (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate) as an effective additional solvent by the sol–gel method at low temperature.
Advancing the Africentric Paradigm Shift Discourse: Building toward Evidence-Based Africentric Interventions in Social Work Practice with African Americans

For over a decade, a number of social work scholars have advocated for an Africentric paradigm shift in social work practice with African Americans; yet the paradigm shift has been slow in coming with respect to infusing Africentric theory and interventions into social work practice, education, and research. Interventions that infuse Africentric values (such as interdependence, collectivism, transformation, and spirituality) have been shown to create significant change across a number of areas important to social work practice with African Americans. However, a barrier to the full integration of Africentric models into social work practice is that Africentric programs lack cohesive documentation and replication and, thus, have limited potential to be established as evidence-based practices. The authors present an overview of various Africentric interventions, including their program components and methods of evaluation, with the aim of establishing guideposts or next steps in developing a discourse on Africentric interventions that are promising best practices or are emerging as evidence-based practices. The authors conclude with implications for social work practice, education, and research and a call for Africentric scholars to engage in increased discussion, dissemination of manualized treatments, and collaborative research to build the evidence-based Africentric knowledge base and foster replication of studies.
High-Resolution Anatomy of a Progressively Pinching Cell Division

The morphological progression of cell division in bacteria takes one of two paths: via a clearly defined division septum or by successive pinching of the cell envelope at the division site. The general features of both types of cell division have been established for decades, primarily through
The segregation of a translocation t(1;4) in two male carriers heterozygous for the translocation.

We examined the meiotic segregation pattern of a t(1;4)(p36.2;q31.3) reciprocal translocation in two male cousins heterozygous for the translocation. The wife of subject 1 had four recognized spontaneous abortions and two carrier daughters, and the wife of subject 2 had three recognized spontaneous abortions and no liveborn children. The results showed that subject 1 had an imbalance rate of 54% and subject 2 had an imbalance rate of 61% with respect to the translocation. This was not statistically different (P = 0.3174) and the 95% confidence intervals overlapped for each segregation type. The sex ratio of X- and Y-bearing sperm was not statistically different than the expected 50%. The rate of structural abnormalities was 11.3% in subject 1 and 17.8% in subject 2. Both of these values were above the range of control subjects in our lab, but only subject 2's value fell outside the 95% confidence interval for the control population.
Visceral Adiposity Is an Independent Predictor of Incident Hypertension in Japanese Americans

This prospective study used computed tomography to measure body fat in 300 normotensive Japanese Americans. Ninety-two participants developed hypertension within 10 to 11 years. Greater visceral ad...
Initiative to protect Canada's western boreal forest faces challenges from resource development

Gary Stewart pointed on the map of Canada to a brown swath of western boreal forest that stretches from the border of Ontario and Manitoba, across four provinces and several territories, and up through Alaska. Canada's 2.0 million square kilometers of western boreal forest includes 20–30% of wetlands—bogs, fens, marshes, shallow lakes, and river deltas. The forest of spruce, aspen, poplar, and other trees historically has been heavily and naturally disturbed by fires. Until recently, though, this vast region was fairly undisturbed by human activity, according to Stewart, manager of conservation programs for the western boreal forest region for the non-profit Ducks Unlimited Canada (DU). A 1986 North American Waterfowl Management Plan did not even include any perceived threats to Canada's western boreal forest, which DU says is the second-most important waterfowl breeding area in North America, after the Prairie Pot-holes region in Canada and the United States. The 13 million breeding ducks supported by the boreal forest are a primary reason for DU's interest, though the group's concern extend to habitat, wetlands, and other biodiversity