cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stereotactic radiosurgery plus whole brain radiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone for patients with multiple brain metastases.

Abstract Purpose: Multiple brain metastases are a common health problem, frequently diagnosed in patients with cancer. The prognosis, even after treatment with whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), is poor with average expected survivals less than 6 months. Retrospective series of stereotactic radiosurgery have shown local control and survival benefits in case series of patients with solitary brain metastases. We hypothesized that radiosurgery plus WBRT would provide improved local brain tumor control over WBRT alone in patients with two to four brain metastases. Methods: Patients with two to four brain metastases (all ≤25 mm diameter and known primary tumor type) were randomized to initial brain tumor management with WBRT alone (30 Gy in 12 fractions) or WBRT plus radiosurgery. Extent of extracranial cancer, tumor diameters on MRI scan, and functional status were recorded before and after initial care. Results: The study was stopped at an interim evaluation at 60% accrual. Twenty-seven patients were randomized (14 to WBRT alone and 13 to WBRT plus radiosurgery). The groups were well matched to age, sex, tumor type, number of tumors, and extent of extracranial disease. The rate of local failure at 1 year was 100% after WBRT alone but only 8% in patients who had boost radiosurgery. The median time to local failure was 6 months after WBRT alone (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.5–8.5) in comparison to 36 months (95% CI, 15.6–57) after WBRT plus radiosurgery ( p = 0.0005). The median time to any brain failure was improved in the radiosurgery group ( p = 0.002). Tumor control did not depend on histology ( p = 0.85), number of initial brain metastases ( p = 0.25), or extent of extracranial disease ( p = 0.26). Patients who received WBRT alone lived a median of 7.5 months, while those who received WBRT plus radiosurgery lived 11 months ( p = 0.22). Survival did not depend on histology or number of tumors, but was related to extent of extracranial disease ( p = 0.02). There was no neurologic or systemic morbidity related to stereotactic radiosurgery. Conclusions: Combined WBRT and radiosurgery for patients with two to four brain metastases significantly improves control of brain disease. WBRT alone does not provide lasting and effective care for most patients.
Probabilistic vulnerability assessment based on power flow and voltage distribution

In this paper, a method to evaluate the power system vulnerability in terms of voltage magnitudes and transmission lines passing their limits is presented. Probabilistic technique is applied to obtain the distribution characteristics of the voltage magnitude and transmission line power flows. Cumulant-based expansion method is used to obtain the probabilistic distribution function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) of power flows on transmission lines and voltage magnitudes at buses. The index to measure the system vulnerability is developed. The western North American power system model is used in the simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.
Fibrinolytic activity in bronchoalveolar lavage of baboons with diffuse alveolar damage: trends in two forms of lung injury.

Background and methods Alveolar fibrin deposition is prominent in diffuse alveolar damage, the morphologic hallmark of the adult respiratory distress syndrome. To determine if a persistent abnormality of fibrin clearance occurs in the alveolar compartment during evolving diffuse alveolar damage, we characterized abnormalities of fibrin turnover in serial bronchoalveolar lavage specimens from two baboon models: a) diffuse alveolar damage induced by 80% oxygen and bronchoscopic seeding of Pseudomonas aeruginosa; and b) a more fulminant form of diffuse alveolar damage induced by bronchoscopic seeding of Pseudomonas and the infusion of oleic acid. Results Lavage procoagulant activity, due mainly to tissue factor associated with Factor VII, was increased and exceeded regulation by extrinsic pathway inhibitor in both models. Fibrinolytic activity was transiently diminished in baboons with evolving diffuse alveolar damage induced by oleic acid/Pseudomonas, but was preserved after 80% oxygen/Pseudomonas. Concentrations of plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 did not increase in lavage specimens obtained during evolving diffuse alveolar damage. Concentrations of alpha 2 antiplasmin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 tended to be higher in the lavage of oleic acid/Pseudomonas baboons with low fibrinolytic activity. Immunohistochemical analyses showed that tissue factor was distributed along the alveolar surface of controls and baboons with diffuse alveolar damage. Alveolar fibrin deposition was increased, by morphometric analyses, in both models. Conclusions These data indicate that while increased procoagulant activity is characteristic of evolving diffuse alveolar damage and favors alveolar fibrin deposition, fibrinolytic activity may be transiently diminished or remain intact during evolving diffuse alveolar damage in baboons.
Analysis of deformation-induced crack tip toughening in ductile single crystals by nano-indentation

This paper reports on the experimental examination of the deformation characteristics near a crack tip in a cyclically work-hardened copper single crystal using a 2D surface scans with nano-indentation. The experimental methodology enables the characterization of the primary deformation field near a crack tip via the modulation of the imposed secondary deformation field by a nano-indentation. In a heavily deformed 4-point bend specimen, the measurements showed an existence of an asymptotic field around the crack tip at a distance of R P 2.5J/r0. The measurements also showed the qualitative details of toughness evolution within the high-gradient deformation field around the crack tip. The nature of dislocation distribution (i.e. statistically distributed vs. distributions necessitated by geometry) around the crack tip is quantified. The measurements indicate the dominance of the geometrically necessary dislocation within the finite deformation zone ahead of the tip up to a distance of R � 3J/r0. Thereafter, it is confined in radial rays coinciding with the sector boundaries around the crack tip. These measurements elucidate the origin of the inhomogeneous hardening and the size dependent macroscopic response close to crack tip. � 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chemical behaviour of tin fission products

Abstract The oxidation states of 27-hr 121 Sn, 127-day 123 Sn, 9·7-day 125 Sn, 2·1-hr 127 Sn, and 60-min 128 Sn formed from thermal-neutron fission of 235 U have been investigated in irradiated aqueous solutions of uranium and in aqueous solutions formed by dissolving irradiated uranium salts. In the irradiated solutions 121 Sn is formed predominantly ( ∼ 2 3 ) in the +4 oxidation state, whereas the other isotopes are formed predominantly ( ∼ 2 3 ) in the +2 state. The difference is attributed to different modes of formation since 121 Sn is known to be formed ⩾ 88 per cent by beta decay and 125 Sn ⩾ 70 per cent independently. The similarity in the fractions of tin (II) for 123 Sn, 125 Sn, 127 Sn, and 128 Sn is taken as evidence that all of these isotopes have similar and large fractional independent yields. This deduction supports suggestions that the stability of the 50-proton structure enhances the primary formation of tin isotopes in fission. Similar, but smaller, differences between the fractions of tin (II) for 121 Sn and for the other isotopes were observed for solutions of irradiated uranium (IV) salts. However, only tin (IV) was observed in solutions of irradiated uranium (VI) salts. Mechanisms are discussed which account qualitatively for the predominance of tin (IV) from beta decay and of tin (II) from fission in aqueous solutions.
Traction-separation laws and stick-slip shear phenomenon of interfaces between cellulose nanocrystals

Abstract Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are one of nature's most abundant structural material building blocks and possess outstanding mechanical properties including a tensile modulus comparable to Kevlar. It remains challenging to upscale these properties in CNC neat films and nanocomposites due to the difficulty of characterizing interfacial bonding between CNCs that governs stress transfer under deformation. Here we present new analyses based on atomistic simulations of shear and tensile failure of the interfaces between Iβ CNCs, providing new insight into factors governing the mechanical behavior of hierarchical nanocellulose materials. We compare the two most relevant crystal interfaces and find that hydrogen bonded surfaces have greater tensile strength compared to the surfaces governed by weaker interactions. On the contrary, shearing simulations reveal that friction between the atomic interfaces depends not only on surface energy but also the energy landscape along the shear direction. While being a weaker interface, the intersheet plane exhibits greater energy barriers to shear. The molecular roughness of this interface, characterized by a greater energy barrier, exhibits stick–slip deformation behavior as opposed to a more continuous sliding and rebonding mechanism observed for the interfaces with hydrogen bonds. Analytical models to describe the energy landscapes are developed using energy scaling relations for van der Waals surfaces in combination with a modification of the Prandtl–Tomlinson model for atomic friction. Our simulations pave the way for tailoring hierarchical CNC materials by taking a similar approach to techniques employed for describing metals, where mechanical properties can be tuned through a deeper understanding of grain boundary physics and nanoscale interfaces.
VSCF starter generator

Use of the same electrical machine for both starting an engine and then supplying electrical power is an old concept. The VSCF starter generator system is a modern mechanization of this idea. It is an all A C conversion system plus a wound rotor salient pole machine. During the start, the system functions as a brushless D C machine with 400 Hz supplied to it. After the start is completed, the output of the machine, now operating as a synchronous generator driven at variable speed, is converted to constant frequency (VSCF) 400 Hz power. No major power circuit changes are required to change mode.
Solvable q-state models in lattice statistics and quantum field theory

The commutation of transfer matrices of q-state lattice models are studied and solutions which generalize both the q = 2 ferroelectric models and the special q = 3 models of Stroganov are found. For cases which are continuously connected to a shift operator, associated commuting Hamiltonians are given and free energies calculated.
Intellectual Participation in an Information Age: Issues, Values, and Strategies.

The key question is not whether or not there will be world-wide access to information but rather who will have access and how can library professionals make intellectual participation a reality for the greatest number of people. To make the enhancement of intellectual participation a professional priority, allies and partners are imperative. Clearly, academic librarians can reach out and touch others through providing an infrastructure of support and information services which will help people realize and maximize the power of information to inform, change, and empower their lives
Inherited Sterility in Progeny of Irradiated Male Sugarcane Borers

When male Diatraea saccharalis (F.) were irradiated with 5, 10, or 15 krad of irradiation (cobalt 60) and crossed with unirradiated females, fertility and fecundity showed a dose-dependent reduction with increasing dose. Also, the F/sub 1/ progeny of these crosses was more sterile than the irradiated male parents. When the dose to the P/sub 1/ male was 10 or 15 krad, the fecundity of the F/sub 1/ progeny was significantly reduced. Both normal females crossed with irradiated P/sub 1/ males and the F/sub 1/ male progeny showed an increased frequency of mating. F/sub 1/ progeny had longer development time when the P/sub 1/ male was treated with 10 or 15 krad. F/sub 1/ progeny mortality and sex ratio showed a dose dependent response, with each increasing as the dose to the P/sub 1/ male increased.
A case-based data warehousing courseware

Data warehousing is one of the important approaches for data integration and data preprocessing. The objective of this project is to develop a web-based interactive courseware to help beginner data warehouse designers to reinforce the key concepts of data warehousing using a case study approach. The case study is to build a data warehouse for a university student enrollment prediction data mining system. This data warehouse is able to generate summary reports as input data files for a data mining system to predict future student enrollment. The data sources include: (1) the enrollment data from California State University, Sacramento and (2) the related public data of California. The courseware is designed to build the data warehouse systematically using a set of 4 demonstrations covering the following data warehousing topics: fundamentals, design principle, building an enterprise data warehouse using incremental approach, and aggregation.
Patterns of psycholinguistic development in the severely mentally retarded: a hypothesis.

Abstract We hypothesize that the loss of psycholinguistic skills in some cases of severe mental retardation caused by prenatal disruption closely approximates ontogenetic patterns of language acquisition and phylogenetic patterns of cognitive development. This hypothesis was tested on 131 trainable mental retardates divided into four etiological classes. The results support the hypothesis and show that certain patterns of loss occur only in mental retardation resulting from prenatal disruption and characterized by postnatal developmental delay and do not occur in postnatal environmentally caused retardation.
Soil carbon responses to past and future CO2 in three Texas prairie soils

Changes in soil carbon storage could affect and be affected by rising atmospheric CO2. However, it is unlikely that soils will respond uniformly, as some soils are more sensitive to changes in the amount and chemistry of plant tissue inputs whereas others are less sensitive because of mineralogical, textural, or microbial processes. We studied soil carbon and microbial responses to a preindustrial-to-future CO2 gradient (250–500 ppm) in a grassland ecosystem in the field. The ecosystem contains three soil types with clay fractions of 15%–55%: a sandy loam Alfisol, a silty clay Mollisol, and a black clay Vertisol. Soil and microbial responses to atmospheric CO2 are plant-mediated; and aboveground plant productivity in this ecosystem increased linearly with CO2 in the sandy loam and silty clay. Although total soil organic carbon (SOC) did not change with CO2 treatment after four growing seasons, fast-cycling SOC pools increased with CO2 in the two clay soils. Microbial biomass increased 18% and microbial activity increased 30% across the CO2 gradient in the black clay (55% clay), but neither factor changed with CO2 in the sandy loam (15% clay). Similarly, size fractionation of SOC showed that coarse POM-C, the youngest and most labile fraction, increased four-fold across the CO2 gradient in the black clay, but increased by only 50% across the gradient in the sandy loam. Interestingly, mineral-associated C, the oldest and most recalcitrant fraction, declined 23% across the gradient in the third soil type, a silty clay (45% clay). Our results provide evidence for priming in this soil type, as labile C availability and decomposition rate (measured as soil respiration and soil C mineralization) also increased across the CO2 gradient in the silty clay soil. In summary, CO2 enrichment in this grassland increased the fast-cycling SOC pool as in other CO2 studies, but only in the two high-clay soils. Priming in the silty clay could limit SOC accumulation after prolonged CO2 exposure. Because soil texture varies geographically, including data on soil types could enhance predictions of soil carbon and microbial responses to future CO2 levels.
Risk factors for perioperative mortality after lower extremity arthroplasty: a population-based study of 6,901,324 patient discharges.

The goal of this study was to provide nationally representative data on characteristics of patients who died after hip and knee arthroplasty and to determine risk factors for such outcome. Using national in-patient data collected between 1990 and 2004, we identified a cumulative in-hospital mortality rate of 0.35% among an estimated 6 901 324 procedures. The strongest independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality were pulmonary embolism and cerebrovascular complications, which increased the odds for a fatal outcome by approximately 40-fold. Preoperative risk factors for in-hospital mortality were revision total hip arthroplasty, advanced age, and the presence of a number of comorbid diseases, predominantly dementia, renal, and cerebrovascular disease. Our results can be used to identify patients at risk for fatal outcome and implement interventions to reduce such risk.
The influence of somatostatin on drug-induced prolactin release in the monkey

The infusion of linear somatostatin did not block prolactin release induced by either perphenazine, TRH or serotonin. Somatostatin infusion, however, potentiated prolactin release induced by perphenazine and TRH but not that induced by serotonin.
Determination of the Wavelength Positioning Accuracy of a Sequential Scanning ICP Spectrometer

This work evaluates the wavelength reproducibility and accuracy of a sequential scanning plasma emission system. The long-term thermal and thermomechanical errors are found to be in the range of a few picometers. The short-term instability and mechanical instability are found to contribute very little error to wavelength positioning. The wavelength calibration algorithm is described. Its use improves the accuracy by a factor of 5 to 10 by comparison with results from the use of the diffraction grating equation alone.
Seropheresis: plasmapheresis for serum production.

A method of seropheresis is described by which serum is obtained from blood donors instead of plasma or whole blood. The donor is bled into a dry plastic bag and the serum is separated from the red cells by centrifugation before the blood has time to clot. The red cells are then mixed with anticoagulant and returned to the blood donor immediately. Seropheresis can be performed as a single venipuncture procedure and permits the production of large amounts of serum from an individual blood donor.
Do similar communities develop in similar sites? A test with zooplankton structure and function

McCune and Allen (1985) asked the question “Will similar forests develop on similar sites?” and concluded that dissimilar old-growth forests had developed on similar sites due to historical factors (colonization, disturbance, etc.). We asked “Do similar zooplankton communities develop in similar ponds?” We compared zooplankton community structure and function in 12 newly constructed experimental ponds during 1 yr of natural colonization and analyzed a suite of physical–chemical variables to evaluate the assumption of environmental similarity among ponds. Ponds were similar for the measured environmental variables. However, zooplankton communities were structurally different, as indicated by analyses of species presence/absence, colonization and species accrual curves, and taxa (rotifer, copepod, cladoceran, and Chaoborus) density and biomass. Species varied widely in their colonization abilities. Zooplankton communities also differed in productivity of some taxa and community-level respiration rates. Scale was important in detecting structure and function differences among zooplankton communities. Species- and taxa-level analyses showed clear differences among communities, but community-level analyses of structure (species richness, total density and biomass) and function (productivity, respiration, and ammonia regeneration rates) could not identify distinct sets of communities. Community structure and function may be comparable in sensitivity for detecting change but need to be compared at equivalent scales. Dispersal (as evidenced by colonization history) was a regulator of new zooplankton communities, because it did not occur rapidly or uniformly among similar ponds. All zooplankton do not disperse readily. The extent to which dispersal limits older zooplankton communities is unknown, but genetic studies indicate low dispersal rates among established populations. Dispersal also regulates assemblages of organisms expected to be less vagile than zooplankton and in various ecosystems, indicating that “supply-side” and metapopchulation concepts are valuable for community ecology. Priority effects may have lasting influence on subsequent community structure, depending on colonization rates and sequences. We propose explicit recognition (and careful examination) of a commonly assumed but rarely tested “quorum effect”: local abiotic and biotic processes regulate communities and arrival processes do not, because potential members have already arrived. Given either priority or quorum effects, dispersal may be an important, often-overlooked process regulating community structure and function, especially when it is not rapid.
The EU, the European Court of Justice and the International Legal Order after Kadi

This article examines the response of Europe's courts to the dramatic challenges recently brought before them against the UN Security Council's anti-terrorist sanctions regime. These challenges raise central questions concerning the authority of international law in general, and of binding decisions of the Security Council in particular. The article focuses specifically on the response of the European Union's Court of Justice (ECJ) in the Kadi case, in which the ECJ annulled the EC's implementation of the Security Council's asset-freezing resolutions on the ground that they violated EU norms of fair procedure and property-protection. Kadi is a remarkable case in many ways and it has been warmly greeted by most observers. The article argues however that the robustly pluralist approach of the ECJ to the relationship between EU law and international law in Kadi represents a sharp departure from the traditional embrace of international law by the European Union. It is an approach which carries certain costs for the EU and for the international legal order in the message it sends to the courts of other states and organizations contemplating the authority of Security Council resolutions. More importantly, the ECJ's approach carries the risk of undermining the image the EU has sought to create for itself as a virtuous international actor which maintains a distinctive commitment to international law and institutions.
Network and system automation and remote system operation

The rapid growth in the size and complexity of today's information system networks highlights the importance of automation and remote system operation in managing these networks. Version 2 Release 2 of the NetView® program provides improved facilities in these two areas to assist enterprises in consolidating their operations staff in central locations and managing their information systems more efficiently and reliably. This paper describes the Systems Network Architecture (SNA) framework for remote system operation and the NetView remote operations platform, including the LU 6.2 data transport mechanisms and related management services applications. Extensions to the NetView automation platform that permit automation based directly on the receipt of SNA alerts or other structured data are described. In addition, enhancements that improve the performance, usability, and functional capabilities of the NetView automation table are discussed.
Applying WHO’s ‘workforce indicators of staffing need’ (WISN) method to calculate the health worker requirements for India’s maternal and child health service guarantees in Orissa State

OBJECTIVE: In one district of Orissa state we used the World Health Organizations Workforce Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) method to calculate the number of health workers required to achieve the maternal and child health service guarantees of Indias National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). We measured the difference between this ideal number and current staffing levels. METHODS: We collected census data routine health information data and government reports to calculate demand for maternal and child health services. By conducting 54 interviews with physicians and midwives and six focus groups we were able to calculate the time required to perform necessary health care tasks. We also interviewed 10 new mothers to cross-check these estimates at a global level and get assessments of quality of care. FINDINGS: For 18 service centres of Ganjam District we found 357 health workers in our six cadre categories to serve a population of 1.02 million. Total demand for the MCH services guaranteed under Indias NRHM outpaced supply for every category of health worker but one. To properly serve the study population the health workforce supply should be enhanced by 43 additional physicians 15 nurses and 80 nurse midwives. Those numbers probably under-estimate the need as they assume away geographic barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Our study established time standards in minutes for each MCH activity promised by the NRHM which could be applied elsewhere in India by government planners and civil society advocates. Our calculations indicate significant numbers of new health workers are required to deliver the services promised by the NRHM.
Dye-assisted laser skin closure with pulsed radiation: an in vitro study of weld strength and thermal damage.

Previous laser skin welding studies have used continuous wave delivery of radiation. However, heat diffusion during irradiation prevents strong welds from being achieved without creating large zones of thermal damage. Previously published results indicate that a thermal damage zone in skin greater than 200 µm may prevent normal wound healing. We propose that both strong welds and minimal thermal damage can be achieved by introducing a dye and delivering the radiation in a series of sufficiently short pulses. Two-cmlong incisions were made in guinea pig skin, in vitro. India ink and egg white (albumin) were applied to the wound edges to enhance radiation absorption and to close the wound, respectively. Continuous wave (cw), 1.06 µm, Nd:yttrium–aluminum–garnet laser radiation was scanned over the weld producing ~100 ms pulses. The cooling time between scans and the number of scans was varied. The thermal damage zone at the weld edges was measured using a transmission polarizing light microscope. The tensile strength of the welds was measured using a tensiometer. For pulsed welding and long cooling times between pulses (8 s), weld strengths of 2.4±0.9 kg/cm2 were measured, and lateral thermal damage at the epidermis was limited to 500±150 µm. With cw welding, comparable weld strengths produced 2700±300 µm of lateral thermal damage. The cw weld strengths were only 0.6±0.3 kg/cm2 for thermal damage zones comparable to pulsed welding.
Caffeine delays autonomic recovery following acute exercise.

BackgroundImpaired autonomic recovery of heart rate (HR) following exercise is associated with an increased risk of sudden death. Caffeine, a potent stimulator of catecholamine release, has been shown to augment blood pressure (BP) and sympathetic nerve activity; however, whether caffeine alters autonomic function after a bout of exercise bout remains unclear.MethodsIn a randomized, crossover study, 18 healthy individuals (26 ± 1 years; 23.9 ± 0.8 kg·m−2) ingested caffeine (400 mg) or placebo pills, followed by a maximal treadmill test to exhaustion. Autonomic function and ventricular depolarization/repolarization were determined using heart rate variability (HRV) and corrected QT interval (QTc), respectively, at baseline, 5, 15, and 30 minutes post-exercise.ResultsMaximal HR (HRmax) was greater with caffeine (192 ± 2 vs. 190 ± 2 beat·min−1, p < 0.05). During recovery, HR, mean arterial pressure (MAP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) remained elevated with caffeine (p < 0.05). Natural log transformatio...
Model based self adaptive behavior language for large scale real time embedded systems

At Fermi lab, high energy physics experiments require very large number of real time computations. With thousands of processors (around /spl sim/1000 FPGA's, /spl sim/2500 embedded processors, /spl sim/2500 PC's and /spl sim/25,000,000 detector channels) involved in performing event filtering on a trigger farm, there is likely to be a large number of failures within the software and hardware systems. Historically, physicists have developed their own software and hardware for experiments such as BTeV [J.N. Buttler (2002)]. However, their time is best spent working on physics and not software development. The target users of this tool are the physicists. The tool should be user-friendly and the physicists should be able to introduce custom self-adaptive behaviors, since they can best define how the system should behave in fault conditions. The BTeV trigger system is being used as a model for researching tools for defining fault behavior and automatically generating the software. This paper presents a language to define the behaviors and an application scenario for the BTeV system and its expected fault scenarios. These self adaptive system tools are implemented using model integrated computing. The domain specific graphical language (DSL) is implemented within the generic modeling environment (GME) tool, which is a meta-programmable modeling environment developed at Vanderbilt University.
A novel hybrid CNN-SVM classifier for recognizing handwritten digits

This paper presents a hybrid model of integrating the synergy of two superior classifiers: Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM), which have proven results in recognizing different types of patterns. In this model, CNN works as a trainable feature extractor and SVM performs as a recognizer. This hybrid model automatically extracts features from the raw images and generates the predictions. Experiments have been conducted on the well-known MNIST digit database. Comparisons with other studies on the same database indicate that this fusion has achieved better results: a recognition rate of 99.81% without rejection, and a recognition rate of 94.40% with 5.60% rejection. These performances have been analyzed with reference to those by human subjects.
Low-Speed Atomistic Simulation of Stick–Slip Friction using Parallel Replica Dynamics

Atomic stick–slip friction has been predicted by molecular dynamics simulation and observed in experiments. However, direct quantitative comparison of the two has thus far not been possible because of the large difference between scanning velocities accessible to simulations and experiments. In general, the slowest sliding speeds in MD simulations are at least five orders of magnitude larger than the upper limit available to experimentalists. To take a step toward bridging this gap, we have applied parallel replica dynamics, an accelerated molecular dynamics method, to the simulation of atomic stick–slip. The method allows molecular simulations to run parallel in time in order to extend their duration, thereby enabling lower scanning velocities. We show here that this method is able to predict atomic stick–slip friction accurately and efficiently at scanning speeds several orders of magnitude slower than standard molecular dynamics simulations. The accuracy and usefulness of this method is illustrated by correct prediction of the logarithmic dependence of friction on velocity.
Developing an optimization model to identify ideal standpipe locations in Wum, Cameroon

The village of Wum, located in the Northwest province of Cameroon, West Africa, is home to over 30,000 people, most of whom gather water from local, contaminated streams and are vulnerable to many water-borne and water-related illnesses. Not only is their water ridden with bacteria, but they are also unable to collect sufficient amounts of water due to low supply in the streams and the distance they must walk to reach them. As the final section of a complete water filtration and distribution system design, this analysis uses optimization modeling to determine the optimal number and locations of standpipes throughout the village.
Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation and Reduction in Pregnancy Treatment (SCRIPT) Methods in Medicaid-Supported Prenatal Care: Trial III

This two-phase evaluation documented the delivery and effectiveness of evidence-based health education methods by regular staff to pregnant smokers. During Phase 1, a total of 436 Medicaid patients were screened and 416 (95%) gave consent: 334 nonsmokers and 102 smokers. This historical Comparison (C) group was assessed to document the "normal" pretrial smoking prevalence, patient nondisclosure (deception), and cessation rates at the first prenatal visit and during care. After this study, a formative evaluation of SCRIPT methods was conducted among 139 experimental group patients and 126 control group patients. During Phase 2, a total of 6,514 patients were screened over a 36-month period: 1,736 (27%) were smokers and 1,340 (77%) gave consent. After randomization, 247 became ineligible. The remaining 1,093 smokers received brief routine advice to quit. The experimental group (n = 544) also received a Commit to Quit video, A Pregnant Woman's Guide to Quit Smoking, and counseling. Self-reports and saliva were collected at baseline, ≥60 days, and ≤90 days postpartum for cotinine analyses to document cessation and significant reduction (SR) rates. The Phase 1 formative evaluation documented a 24% nondisclosure rate at the onset of care. It also confirmed a significantly higher experimental (17.3%) versus control group (8.8%) cessation rate and experimental versus control group SR rates of 22% and 16%. During Phase 2, unplanned policy changes, and delivery of experimental group counseling procedures to 15% to 20% of control group patients, resulted in a final experimental group cessation rate of 12% and a control group rate of 10%. The experimental group SR rate of 18%, however, was significantly higher than the control group SR rate of 13%. Effectiveness varied by the stability of clinic infrastructure, and degree of fidelity of staff performance of assessment and intervention procedures. The methods and results of this study will assist future health education programs for pregnant smokers to plan and conduct process and impact evaluations in prenatal care.
Cognitive radio-enabled distributed cross-layer optimization via genetic algorithms

In this paper, we propose two optimization approaches based on genetic algorithms in addition to several assisting mechanisms for making these approaches more efficient and robust in actual network implementations. Using the fact that a cognitive radio is capable of sensing the prevailing environmental conditions and automatically adapting its operating parameters in order to enhance system (and potentially network) performance, the proposed approaches will optimize individual wireless devices using partial operating parameter and environmental information from adjacent devices within the network. Assuming stationary wireless nodes, with all wireless links employing non-contiguous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (NCOFDM) in order to enable dynamic spectrum access (DSA), the proposed approach will attempt to simultaneously minimize the bit error rate, minimize out-of-band (OOB) interference, and maximize overall throughput using a multi-objective fitness function. Simulation results show that the proposed procedure is able to reduce BER by one order of magnitude.
Child debriefing: a review of the evidence base.

Introduction Debriefing, a controversial crisis intervention delivered in the early aftermath of a disaster, has not been well evaluated for use with children and adolescents. This report constitutes a review of the child debriefing evidence base. METHODS: A systematic search of selected bibliographic databases (EBM Reviews, EMBASE, ERIC, Medline, Ovid, PILOTS, PubMed, and PsycINFO) was conducted in the spring of 2014 using search terms related to psychological debriefing. The search was limited to English language sources and studies of youth, aged 0 to 18 years. No time limit was placed on date of publication. The search yielded 713 references. Titles and abstracts were reviewed to select publications describing scientific studies and clinical reports. Reference sections of these publications, and of other literature known to the authors that was not generated by the search, were used to locate additional materials. Review of these materials generated 187 publications for more thorough examination; this assessment yielded a total of 91 references on debriefing in children and adolescents. Only 15 publications on debriefing in children and adolescents described empirical studies. Due to a lack of statistical analysis of effectiveness data with youth, and some articles describing the same study, only seven empirical studies described in nine papers were identified for analysis for this review. These studies were evaluated using criteria for assessment of methodological rigor in debriefing studies. RESULTS: Children and adolescents included in the seven empirical debriefing studies were survivors of motor-vehicle accidents, a maritime disaster, hostage taking, war, or peer suicides. The nine papers describing the seven studies were characterized by inconsistency in describing the interventions and populations and by a lack of information on intervention fidelity. Few of the studies used randomized design or blinded assessment. The results described in the reviewed studies were mixed in regard to debriefing's effect on posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and other outcomes. Even in studies in which debriefing appeared promising, the research was compromised by potentially confounding interventions. CONCLUSION: The results highlight the small empirical evidence base for drawing conclusions about the use of debriefing with children and adolescents, and they call for further dialogue regarding challenges in evaluating debriefing and other crisis interventions in children. Pfefferbaum B , Jacobs AK , Nitiema P , Everly GS Jr. Child debriefing: a review of the evidence base. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2015;30(3):1 10. Language: en
Recognizing 3D objects in hyperspectral images under unknown conditions

We present models and algorithms for recognizing 3D objects in airborne 0.4-2.5 micron hyperspectral images acquired under unknown conditions. Objects of interest exhibit complex geometries with surfaces of different materials. The DIRSIG image generation software is used to build spatial/spectral surfaces of different materials. The DIRSIG image generation software is used to build spatial/spectral subspace models for the objects that capture a range of atmospheric and illumination conditions and viewing geometries. Since we consider scales for which multiple materials will mix in a pixel, the object subspace models also account for spectral mixing. An important aspect of the work is the use of methods for partitioning object subspaces to optimize performance. The new algorithms have been evaluated using hyperspectral data that has been synthesized for a range of conditions.
IBM_EG-CORE: Comparing multiple Lexical and NE matching features in measuring Semantic Textual similarity

We present in this paper the systems we participated with in the Semantic Textual Similarity task at SEM 2013. The Semantic Textual Similarity Core task (STS) computes the degree of semantic equivalence between two sentences where the participant systems will be compared to the manual scores, which range from 5 (semantic equivalence) to 0 (no relation). We combined multiple text similarity measures of varying complexity. The experiments illustrate the different effect of four feature types including direct lexical matching, idf-weighted lexical matching, modified BLEU N-gram matching and named entities matching. Our team submitted three runs during the task evaluation period and they ranked number 11, 15 and 19 among the 90 participating systems according to the official Mean Pearson correlation metric for the task. We also report an unofficial run with mean Pearson correlation of 0.59221 on STS2013 test dataset, ranking as the 3 rd best system among the 90 participating systems.
The Partisan Dynamics of Networks, Coalitions, and Organizations in the Antiwar Movement after 9/11

This paper is Chapter 5 of a book manuscript titled, Party in the Street: the Antiwar Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11. The book develops the concept of the party in the street, which is the space in which social movements and political parties intersect. We argue that this space is relevant to the politics of movements and parties because the actors within it – which we call movement-partisans – are conflicted in their identities as participants in the movement and participants in the parties. Because partisan identification is, in general, stronger than movement identification, partisan identities tend to drive the mobilizations cycles of social movements. The book manuscript tests this idea at three levels: activists, organizations, and legislators. This particular chapter focuses organizations. It looks at the partisan dynamics of organizational networks, coalitions of organizations, and three organizational case studies. Each of these sets of evidence supports the proposition that partisan identification shapes the way that organizations participated in the antiwar movement.
Democratic Satisfaction and Support for Unorthodox Parties in Eastern Europe

This article seeks to explain the electoral behavior of Eastern Europe’s dissatisfied citizens. The focus is on the effect that dissatisfaction with democracy has on support for anti-establishment or unorthodox parties (UOPs). Through an analysis of 90 Eurobarometer surveys conducted between 1992 and 2004 in 10 Eastern European Countries, I show that initially the dissatisfied voters were more likely to support the largest mainstream parties. However, once mainstream parties of different stripes had been tried out, dissatisfied voters turned to unorthodox parties. From these parties, extreme nationalist and radical left parties have been far more likely to benefit from the dissatisfied vote than two other types of unorthodox parties. Second, I demonstrate that this gain for the more extreme or radical parties was done at the expense of other, more moderate UOPs because they all compete for the support of the same group of dissatisfied voters. Finally, I show that dissatisfaction with democracy is still more likely to result in abstention from the electoral process than in a vote for any party.
Robust impact of social anxiety in relation to coping motives and expectancies, barriers to quitting, and cessation-related problems.

Although social anxiety is related to smoking and nicotine dependence, little work has sought to identify factors that contribute to these relations. The current study examined whether social anxiety was associated with cognitive vulnerability factors related to smoking: perceived barriers for quitting, cessation-related problems, negative affect reduction outcome expectancies, and negative affect reduction motives. Further, we tested whether social anxiety was robustly related to these factors after controlling for cigarettes smoked per day, gender, alcohol use frequency, lifetime cannabis use status, panic attack frequency, anxiety sensitivity, and negative affectivity. The sample consisted of 580 (38.6% female) treatment-seeking smokers. Social anxiety was associated with perceived barriers for quitting, cessation-related problems, negative affect reduction outcome expectancies, and negative affect reduction motives. After controlling for covariates, social anxiety was robustly related to perceived barriers for quitting, cessation- related problems, and negative affect reduction outcome expectancies. Social anxiety was robustly related to negative affect reduction motives among men but not women. Results indicate that social anxiety is robustly related to cognitive vulnerability factors associated with poorer cessation outcomes, suggesting that social anxiety may be an important therapeutic target during smoking cessation.
The Use Of Ground Penetrating Radar To Evaluate The Location And Formation Of Sinkholes Associated With A Retention Pond

Development and construction over karst often leads to unintended results. In this case study, a retention pond was built in a new subdivision to capture surface runoff and add appeal for potential homeowners. However, water never rose to the proposed level and has drained suddenly and frequently since construction in the year 2000. The failure of the retention pond to perform as designed is due to the presence of carbonate bedrock beneath the site. The bedrock, the Prairie du Chien dolomite, is highly weathered and prone to many relatively small sinkholes. Geophysical surveys were proposed to evaluate the subsurface conditions and to determine the extent of sinkholes below the pond shorelines in an attempt to propose engineering solutions to the problem. Four geophysical surveys were performed: ground penetrating radar (GPR), seismic reflection and refraction, electromagnetics (EM), and subbottom profiling. Although all methods provided subsurface information, the GPR surveys were most useful to site characterization. The GPR surveys show evidence of severely disturbed soil in the subsurface that is associated with sinkhole formation. These surveys help delineate the areas around the retention pond that may produce additional sinkholes and failure and will help to focus remediation efforts.
Civil Examinations and Meritocracy in Late Imperial China. By Benjamin A. Elman. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Pp. 389. $45.00.)

One of the key elements buttressing the sustainability of the Chinese empire from the fifteenth century to its end in 1905 was the civil service examination institution, which was finalized in its ...
Metabolic disorders presenting with behavioral symptoms in the school-aged child.

This article presents some principles useful in identifying children with neuropsychiatric symptoms who prove to have metabolic disease. In general, any organic condition that produces cortical dysfunction could present with psychiatric symptomatology. It is important to note that the genetic basis, and consequently the fundamental biochemical defect, for most of these disorders has been known for less than a decade. Definitive (gene or enzyme replacement therapy) is therefore at a very early stage for these conditions. It is anticipated that continuing advances in genetics and gene therapy will soon lead to more specific and effective diagnostic and treatment strategies for many, if not all, of these conditions.