cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Constraints on density and shear velocity contrasts at the inner core boundary

SUMMARY The density jump (�ρ ICB) at the inner core boundary (ICB) is an important constraint on the dynamics and history of the Earth’s core. Two types of seismological data sensitive to �ρ ICB have been studied since the 1970s: free oscillation eigenfrequencies and the amplitudes of core reflected phases (PKiKP/PcP). The preliminary reference earth model (PREM) of Dziewonski & Anderson, based largely on normal mode data, has a relatively low value of �ρ ICB = 0.60 g cm −3 , whereas most studies based on PKiKP/PcP amplitude ratios find significantly larger values, sometimes in excess of 1.0 g cm −3 . It has been argued that, because PKiKP is rarely observed in the distance range considered (10‐70 ◦ ), the latter type of measurement provides only upper bounds on �ρ ICB. We have analysed 10 yr of high-quality global broad-band data accumulated since the work of Shearer & Masters. We systematically analysed over 4500 seismograms from intermediate/deep events (depth >70 km) and nuclear explosions in the distance range 10‐70 ◦ . The data were filtered in the bandpass 0.7‐3 Hz. We performed rigorous data selection and identified five pairs of very clear (quality A), and 15 possible (quality A − ) PKiKP and PcP arrivals. In addition, 58 records showed no PKiKP but a clear PcP. Together, we obtain a much less dispersed data set than previously available, with the quality A data at the lower end of the ensemble of amplitude ratios versus distance. We combine our high-quality measurements with two measurements from the literature that fall within our rigorous selection criteria and obtain estimates of �ρ ICB in the range 0.6‐0.9 g cm −3 and �β ICB in the range 2‐3 km s −1 . Our estimate of �ρ ICB is in agreement with a recent re-evaluation of normal mode data, thus reconciling results from body wave and mode studies and providing a tighter constraint on �ρ ICB for geodynamicists. Our study also provides evidence for a shear velocity gradient at the top of the inner core.
Mobilization of metals and phosphorus from intact forest soil cores by dissolved inorganic carbon.

Increased dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) enhances the mobilization of metals and nutrients in soil solutions. Our objective was to investigate the mobilization of Al, Ca, Fe, and P in forest soils due to fluctuating DIC concen- trations. Intact soil cores were taken from the O and B horizons at the Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM) to conduct soil column transport experiments. Solutions with DIC concentrations (∼20-600 ppm) were introduced into the columns. DIC was reversibly sorbed and its migration was retarded by a factor of 1.2 to 2.1 compared to the conservative sodium bromide tracer, corre- sponding to a log KD =− 0.82 to −0.07. Elevated DIC significantly enhanced the mobilization of all Al, Fe, Ca, and P. Particulate (>0.4 μm) Al and Fe were mobilized during chemical and flow
Standards of Proof TASH, Facilitated Communication, and the Science-Based Practices Movement

TASH’s historic commitment to advocacy and science has enabled it to be a trusted voice for people with severe disabilities and their families. We review recent developments in the controversy over facilitated communication (FC) in light of major contextual continuities and changes in the past two decades. A series of scholarly reviews of the literature on controlled experiments have established a preponderance of evidence that FC is not reliably an expression from the individual who receives facilitation. Evidence indicates that the facilitator is the usual source of the text. We discuss the standards of proof of efficacy that must apply before an intervention should be endorsed by a national organization that aims to have a major impact on policy and practices. The need for controlled experiments in evaluation interventions is discussed. The central concern in establishing efficacy of a practice is to rule out other plausible explanations for an outcome. The main concern in establishing effectiveness is replication under real-world conditions. The science-based practices movement has been taken up by most of the helping professions contributing to the education and support of people with severe disabilities. The movement aims to identify practices and catalog them in terms of the trustworthiness of the evidence supporting them. The movement has led to establishing standards for determining when an intervention can be said to be efficacious. We urge TASH to join this movement and, in light of a commitment to science-based practices, argue that it should withdraw its stated endorsement of FC, which is not supported by science-based research.
Elastic collisions among peakon solutions for the Camassa-Holm equation

The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamics of the interaction among a special class of solutions of the one-dimensional Camassa-Holm equation. The equation yields soliton solutions whose identity is preserved through nonlinear interactions. These solutions are characterized by a discontinuity at the peak in the wave shape and are thus called peakon solutions. We apply a particle method to the Camassa-Holm equation and show that the nonlinear interaction among the peakon solutions resembles an elastic collision, i.e., the total energy and momentum of the system before the peakon interaction is equal to the total energy and momentum of the system after the collision. From this result, we provide several numerical illustrations which support the analytical study, as well as showcase the merits of using a particle method to simulate solutions to the Camassa-Holm equation under a wide class of initial data.
Resistant hypertension and sleep apnea: pathophysiologic insights and strategic management.

Resistant hypertension is common among adults with hypertension affecting up to 30% of patients. The treatment of resistant hypertension is important because suboptimal blood pressure control is the leading preventable cause of death worldwide. A frequent comorbid condition in patients with resistant hypertension is obstructive sleep apnea. The pathophysiology of sleep apnea–associated hypertension is characterized by sustained adrenergic activation and volume retention often posing treatment challenges in patients with resistant hypertension. This review will address some of the epidemiologic data associating apnea with the pathogenesis of resistant hypertension. Diagnosis and management of apnea and its associated hypertension will also be considered.
Feasibility of Site-Specific Management of Corn Hybrids and Plant Densities in the Great Plains 1

The goal of this research was to determine the potential for use of site-specific management of corn hybrids and plant densities in dryland landscapes of the Great Plains by determining (1) within-field yield variation, (2) yield response of different hybrids and plant densities to variability, and (3) landscape attributes associated with yield variation. This work was conducted on three adjacent fields in eastern Colorado during the 1997, -98, and -99 seasons. Treatments consisted of a combination of two hybrids (early and late maturity) and four plant densities (24,692, 37,037, 49,382 and 61,727 plants ha )1 ) seeded in replicated long strips. At maturity, yield was measured with a yield-mapping combine. Nine landscape attributes including elevation, slope, soil brightness (SB) (red, green, and blue bands of image), ECa (shallow and deep readings), pH, and soil organic matter (SOM) were also assessed. An analysis of treatment yields and landscape data, to assess for spatial dependency, along with semi variance analysis, and block kriging were used to produce kriged layers (10 m grids). Linear correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were used to determine associations between kriged average yields and landscape attributes. Yield monitor data revealed considerable variability in the three fields, with average yields ranging from 5.43 to 6.39 mg ha )1 and CVs ranging from 20% to 29%. Hybrids responded similarly to field variation while plant densities responded differentially. Economically optimum plant densities changed by around 5000 plants ha )1 between high and low-yielding field areas, producing a potential savings in seed costs of $6.25 ha )1 . Variability in yield across the three landscapes was highly associated with landscape attributes, especially elevation and SB, with various combinations of landscape attributes accounting for 47% ,9 5%, and 76% of the spatial variability in grain yields for the 1997, -98, and -99 sites, respectively. Our results suggest site-specific management of plant densities may be feasible.
A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF DIRECTED SUPPRESSION OF RAPE-RELATED MATERIAL AMONG RAPE SURVIVORS USING UNOBTRUSIVE MEASURES

The current study explored whether, consistent with Wegner's (1994) theory of ironic process of mental control, instructions to suppress rape-related thoughts would lead to paradoxical increases in the accessibility and distress associated with these thoughts. In order to minimize experimental artifacts, instructions and assessments were designed to be unobtrusive. Although no effects of suppression instructions on rape-related distress emerged, directed suppression was associated with a concurrent increase in heart rate. In addition, directed suppression led to a medium-sized effect of increased accessibility, although this effect was nonsignificant due to small sample size. Finally, individual differences in the tendency to suppress thoughts were associated with increased accessibility in the suppression condition, suggesting that thought control strategies may be particularly problematic when they are chronically employed.
Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia. Rehabilitation of diminutive pulmonary arteries.

BACKGROUNDPatients with tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary atresia, and diminutive pulmonary arteries are a high-risk group for whom there is no consensus on the correct approach to medical management. The purpose of this report is to review a 14-year experience in the treatment of these patients comparing management schemes.METHODS AND RESULTSBetween January 1978 and August 1988, 91 patients with tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia had an adequate evaluation of their pulmonary artery anatomy before any surgical management. Forty-eight of these patients had diminutive pulmonary arteries (38 to 104 mm2/m2) supplied by aortopulmonary collaterals and were managed in four different fashions. Of the 9 patients repaired primarily, 7 died early and the two survivors had poor hemodynamic outcome. Of the 9 patients conservatively managed with no intervention before 5 years of age, 4 died and only 1 had a satisfactory hemodynamic result after repair. Of 10 shunted patients, 3 died and 3 had satisfactory repairs. ...
Soziale Verantwortung und strategische Ziele: Warum sich unternehmerisches Engagement nicht auf Moral, sondern auf - beiderseitigen - Nutzen gründen muss

Auf die Frage nach dem Unternehmenszweck gehen die Antworten, je nach okonomischer Glaubensrichtung, Grundungsgeschichte oder -personlichkeit weit auseinander - und mit ihnen die Ansichten daruber, ob und in welchem Umfang es Sache des Unternehmens sei, sich uber seine unmittelbare Geschaftstatigkeit und Gewinnorientierung hinaus „sozial“ zu betatigen.
Delta-operator based signal processing: fast algorithms for rapidly sampled data

High sampling densities often lead to numerical ill-conditioning in statistical signal processing algorithms. Reformulation of signal or system dynamics via a delta, or divided-difference, dynamical operator can provide a framework within which the amelioration of such ill-conditioning can be treated on a formal and unified basis. A number of basic signal-processing problems have been studied in his context over the past decade, and these are reviewed here.
A software approach to multiprocessor address trace generation

The authors describe a technique for generating architecture-independent multiprocessor data address traces on a widely available RISC (reduced instruction set computer) uniprocessor for a specific class of parallel applications. Automatic modification of the application assembly language enables run-time recording of the virtual address and data for loads and stores. Barrier synchronization events are captured in the traces. The tracing technique (called the Tracer) is relatively fast, portable, and does not require access to a multiprocessor. The generality of the traces and the slow-down by a factor of 10 when generating traces compares favourably with other address tracing methods. The Tracer has proved useful in the evaluation of a hierarchical shared bus multiprocessor. The Tracer can be used to gather statistics on programs for use in stochastic models such as queuing networks. Additionally, the visualization of memory access patterns that can be made with the traces is a useful tool in studying parallel applications on shared memory multiprocessors. >
EUROPEAN PALEOZOIC POLYPLACOPHORA, MULTIPLACOPHORA, AND TURRILEPADIDA IN UNITED STATES REPOSITORIES

Abstract Three important collections of European Devonian and Lower Carboniferous polyplacophorans have been located in United States institutions. The specimens provided a basis for better description of important characters and clarified some taxonomic assignments. Two new polyplacophoran species are in the collections, Helminthochiton carpenteri from the Devonian of Germany and Pterochiton absidatus from the Lower Carboniferous of Belgium. Beloplaxus sagittalis (Sandberger and Sandberger, 1853–1855) is recognized as a multiplacophoran and a new genus and species of turrilepadid, Bouturrilipas scutatus, is proposed.
A Discussion of 'Importance of Past Performance: Empirical Evidence on Quality of E-Service Providers'

Banker and Hwang (2007) present a novel data set that combines 15 signals of reputation for an accounting service-provider context with the outcomes from 1,444 bidders on 221 accounting-based project auctions. At a conceptual level, Banker and Hwang (2007) add to prior evidence that higher seller reputation increases the likelihood of future sales. At an operational level, BH uses a service-provider context and three main proxies for service-provider reputation (feedback, self-selection, and experience). In this discussion, I consider the Banker and Hwang (2007) results in light of alternative explanations for their hypothesized results, most of which could not easily be addressed by the authors because of data constraints. I also discuss the usefulness of data sources such as those publicly available from electronic online auctions to help us understand better the answers to research questions about the measurement of a service-provider's performance. Finally, I evaluate the contribution of the Banker and Hwang study using the criteria of "legitimate, consequential, belief revision" first proposed in Maines, Salamon and Sprinkle (2006), and consider related opportunities for future research.
Diphenyl purine derivatives as peripherally selective cannabinoid receptor 1 antagonists

Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) antagonists are potentially useful for the treatment of several diseases. However, clinical development of several CB1 antagonists was halted due to central nervous sys...
Using patient preference to customize a patient's medication list.

OBJECTIVE The primary objective was to identify medication-list components preferred by patients. Secondary objectives included identifying a patient-preferred medication-list template, measuring change in patient knowledge and responsibility after using a medication list tailored to patient preference and assessing patient utilization of a personalized medication list. DESIGN 12-week prospective presurvey and postsurvey from January 2010 to March 2011. SETTING Anticoagulation Clinic in Downers Grove, Illinois, with approximately 400 patients. PATIENTS 53 English-speaking patients, 18 years of age or older, and taking eight or more medications. Cognitively and/or visually impaired patients were excluded. INTERVENTION Consenting subjects completed the prequestionnaire. Patients were then asked to visually decide their preference between three examples of medication-list templates. Personalized medication lists were created from the preferences chosen in the questionnaire and mailed to each patient. The postinterview was conducted approximately 30 days following, and patients were retested on the knowledge and responsibility questions as well as five new utilization questions about the medication list received. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) The primary objective was to identify medication-list components preferred by patients. Secondary objectives included: identifying the medication list template that patients preferred, measuring change in patient knowledge and responsibility after using the medication list tailored to patient preference, and assessing patient utilization. RESULTS Forty-four patients preferred a more detailed medication list. Thirty subjects participated in the postquestionnaire, and 54% preferred the most complex medication list. There was no statistically significant change in knowledge or gain in patient responsibility. CONCLUSION Patients preferred a more complex medication list as a reference to manage their home medications.
CT-based measurements of the sphenoid trigone in different sex and race.

Purpose In thyroid orbitopathy, surgical treatment of exophthalmos and compressive optic neuropathy is orbital decompression. Deep lateral wall decompression has been advocated alone or combined with the medial wall for a "balanced" decompression. The degree of lateral decompression is dependent on the volume of the sphenoid trigone comprising the deep lateral orbital wall. This study aims to compare the volume of the trigone in various races in men and women. Methods After Institutional Review Board approval, patients with normal sinus CT scans (Siemens Somatom 40-slice) were retrospectively reviewed. Inclusion criteria were men and women aged 30 to 60 years, no orbital disease or surgery, normal orbital CT scans, and self-reported race (Asian, black/African American, white). Scans were measured with imaging software (Synapse, Fujifilm USA). The superior and inferior extents of the measured trigone were the superior and inferior orbital fissures, respectively. In the axial CT plane, the areas of each slice of the right and left trigone were manually outlined with the software and volume subsequently calculated based on the slice thickness (2 mm). Comparisons between groups were made via repeated measures analysis of variance. Results One hundred twenty subjects were included, 20 from each subgroup, yielding 240 measured orbits. The overall volume of the sphenoid trigone for all groups combined was 1.53 cm (standard deviation 0.72 cm). Mean male volume was significantly larger than mean female volume (1.71 ± 0.83 cm vs. 1.35 ± 0.55 cm; p = 0.004). Average left side volume was larger than paired right side volume (1.58 ± 0.74 cm vs. 1.49 ± 0.71 cm; p = 0.02). There were no significant differences in average volumes between races (p = 0.17). Conclusions The mean sphenoid trigone volume was larger in men than in women. There were no significant differences in volume between racial groups. The data showed significant interindividual and intraindividual variability. When analyzing these data for the purposes of orbital decompression, planning should be based on each side of each patient, as the expected degree of lateral decompression may vary greatly.
Relationship Between Implementation of Collaborative Strategic Reading and Student Outcomes for Adolescents With Disabilities

This study examines the interaction between the fidelity of implementation of a set of research-based strategies-Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)-and outcomes for students with mild to moderate disabilities using data from two nonoverlapping studies in middle school language arts and reading classrooms (Study 1) and middle school social studies and science classrooms (Study 2). The authors use a definition of fidelity that includes both the amount of CSR instruction delivered by teachers and the quality of implementation. Although there were no main effects for quality or amount of CSR instruction, in both studies there was an interaction effect between quality of implementation and special education status. The study used a within-groups design and multilevel analyses, and the results demonstrate that higher quality CSR instruction was associated with higher reading outcomes for students with disabilities. This finding was consistent across Study 1 and Study 2. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
Novel Uses of 3D Printing for in vitro Biomedical Research

3D printing is now a useful tool for the laboratory. Engineers and scientists can create much needed small prototype parts or replacement parts for research equipment. With many common laboratory tools such as pipettors or mini centrifuges being created for availability in open source websites like Thingiverse or the NIH 3D Print Exchange, new and useful laboratory equipment can be created and collaboratively shared with the scientific community. In this spirit, we have created a 3D printable cell culture dish warming system custom fit for 35mm dishes using an upright microscope. After printing, assembly, and attachment to an economical hot water pump, the media in the dishes are easily maintained at 35°C, keeping cells viable for longer periods when performing time course studies under a microscope. A 3D printed dome for containing CO2/O2 was also created and can be added to the warming system for complete stage-top incubation. This system can be used with or without an optical condenser and the dome can be sealed for inverted microscopes. A study using the dish warming system was run for 2 h to test the capability of the system to maintain temperature stability.
Changes in Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Reflectance Intensity as a Predictor of Functional Progression in Glaucoma.

PURPOSE We determined whether longitudinal changes in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) reflectance provide useful prognostic information about longitudinal changes in function in glaucoma. METHODS The reflectance intensity of each pixel within spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) circle scans was extracted by custom software. A repeatability cohort comprising 53 eyes of 27 participants (average visual field mean deviation [MD] -1.65 dB) was tested five times within a few weeks. To minimize test-retest variability in their data, a reflectance intensity ratio was defined as the mean reflectance intensity of pixels within the RNFL divided by the mean between the RNFL and RPE. This was measured in a separate longitudinal cohort comprising 310 eyes of 205 participants tested eight times at 6-month intervals (average MD, -0.99 dB; median rate of change, -0.09 dB/y). The rate of change of this ratio, together with the rate of RNFL thinning, and their interaction, were used to predict the rate of change of MD. RESULTS In univariate analyses, the rate of RNFL thinning was predictive of the rate of MD change (P < 0.0001), but the rate of change of reflectance intensity ratio was not (P = 0.116). However, in a multivariable model, the interaction between these two rates significantly improved upon predictions of the rate of functional change made using RNFL thickness alone (P = 0.038). CONCLUSIONS For a given rate of RNFL thinning, a reduction in the RNFL reflectance intensity ratio is associated with more rapid functional deterioration. Incorporating SD-OCT reflectance information may improve the structure-function relation in glaucoma.
Characterization of responses of neonatal sinus and AV nodes to critically timed, brief vagal stimuli.

We studied the responses of sinus cycle length and atrioventricular (AV) nodal conduction to brief, critically timed vagal stimuli in 25 neonatal (9.6 +/- 3.1 days) canines. Vagal stimuli were deli...
SU-F-T-311: Comparison of Measurements From Two Diode Array QA Devices to Deep Point Dose Measurements with Two Treatment Planning Model Settings for Brain VMAT SRT Patient-Specific QA

Purpose: To investigate the sensitivity of traditional gamma-index-based analysis using diode arrays to detect significant dosimetric errors in patientspecific measurements for VMAT brain SRT plans. Methods: Quality assurance measurements were performed using an ion chamber and two different diode array devices for four brain SRT treatment plans. All cases were planned with Eclipse AAA RapidArc using 6MV VMAT for a TrueBeam STx. Ion chambers measurements were performed with a PinPoint 3D micro-ion chamber in both the Standard Imaging Stereotactic Dose Verification (SI) Phantom and in the ArcCheck (AC) cavity plug. Point dose measurements were taken at isocenter within the target. Array measurements were acquired with the ArcCheck and gantry-mounted MapCheck (MC) and assessed using the SNC patient software with a 3%/3mm absolute dose gamma-index analysis with global normalization and a 10% dose threshold. Calculations and their corresponding measurements were performed and compared before and after a dynamic leaf gap (DLG) adjustment. Results: The measured doses at isocenter dropped from 6.3%–8.7% in the SI phantom and 4.0%–9.3% for AC down to −0.1%–1.1% in the SI phantom and 0.8%–2.9% in the AC after adjusting the DLG. However, the cumulative dose differences to MC's central diode ranged −2.0%–1.9% before the DLG adjustment and were −7.7%–0.2% afterwards. Similarly, the gamma-index analysis results for MC were found to be 94.1%–100% before the DLG adjustment and 94.4%–100% afterwards. The gamma-index results from AC were 72.9%–98.7% before and 95.9%–99.7% after. Conclusion: Our data suggest that traditional passing criteria using gantry-mounted MapCheck may not have the sensitivity to catch significant dose errors introduced by DLG settings. ArcCheck measurements did flag some dose differences, however there appears to be a possibility that dose discrepancies may not always be observed for VMAT SRT treatments, and point dose measurements are recommended for verification.
Abstract 3903: Optimizing the antitumor efficacy of AuNR-assisted plasmonic photothermal therapy and its molecular impact

Plasmonic gold nanorods (AuNRs) are very promising for biomedical applications because of their strongly enhanced radiation (e.g. absorption and scattering) and non-radioactive photothermal properties due to surface plasmon resonance. In plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT), AuNRs absorb near infrared (NIR) laser and induce localized heat (i.e., hyperthermia) which can promote tumor tissue ablation. However, the lack of comprehensive studies to improve the efficiency of AuNRs has hindered their application. The objectives of this study were to perform a systematic analysis to optimize AuNR-PPTT based on different sizes, formulation and concentration along with various laser powers for cancer therapy in vitro and in vivo. We used AuNRs of sizes 26×6 nm and 72×19 nm with concentrations of 2.5, 5 and 10 nM, followed by 2 min of 0.5, 1, 1.78 W/cm2 NIR 808 nm diode laser exposure both in vitro and in vivo. For in vitro studies, we studied several head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines. We conducted an in vivo antitumor efficacy study in nude mice bearing human HNSCC Tu686 xenograft tumors with three formulations of AuNRs (72×19 nm and 26×6 nm with or without rifampicin (Rf) conjugation).Single dose intratumoral injection of 5 nM and 10 nM AuNRs (26×6 nm), followed by 2 min of 1.78 W/cm2 NIR laser exposure inhibited tumor growth and the 2.5 nM dose led to moderate antitumor efficacy. However, we observed severe skin burning at higher concentrations. In contrast, AuNRs (72×19nm) had no remarkable antitumor efficacy at high laser power. Impressively, small AuNR-conjugated Rf (AuNR-Rf) accumulated AuNRs inside the cell and had very significant antitumor efficacy (p [M.A.R. and M.R.K.A. contributed equally to this work.] Citation Format: Mohammad Aminur Rahman, Moustafa R. K. Ali, Zhixiang Zhao, Georgia Z. Chen, Mostafa A. El-Sayed, Dong M. Shin. Optimizing the antitumor efficacy of AuNR-assisted plasmonic photothermal therapy and its molecular impact. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3903.
Intergovernmental Relations and Monetary Management

As pointed out in Chapter 1, fiscal policy in China has virtually played no role in stabilizing the economy since the central fiscal authority has faced increasing fiscal imbalance and was overburdened by other objectives. During the course of the decentralization, the main task for macroeconomic control has been performed by the monetary policy. Unfortunately, the monetary policy has not functioned well: it has failed to stabilize the economy when necessary and, on many occasions, it became the cause of macroeconomic instability. Repeated inflationary pressures occurred during the 15-year reform period, with the retail price index shooting up to 18.7 per cent in 1989 and 21.8 in 1994. At the same time, output has also fluctuated significantly and frequently.
Do corporate payouts signal going-concern risk for auditors? Evidence from audit reports for companies in financial distress

We examine the association between payout policy changes and going-concern decisions for financially distressed clients. Extant auditing standards indicate that payout reductions, which offer a prospect of short-term cash relief, can potentially mitigate going-concern uncertainty, whereas economic theory suggests payout decreases (increases) convey mixed but mostly negative (positive) signals about a company’s future financial status. We find that, compared with a bankruptcy prediction model over short (not to exceed 1 year) and long (2–3 years) horizons, auditors seem to significantly underreact to payout decreases (i.e., negative signals) but react appropriately to payout increases (i.e., positive signals) in their going-concern decisions. Moreover, auditors are three times more likely to make Type II misclassification errors in payout-decreasing firms than in payout-increasing and no-change firms. We also find that auditors take longer to determine the appropriate opinion for clients with payout changes, especially for those who cut their payouts. Overall, our findings suggest that auditors respond differently to positive and negative signals about companies’ future prospects, reflecting the mixed nature of payout decreases relative to payout increases and the professional standards’ emphasis on the prospect of short-term cash relief from payout reductions.
A Pluralistic View of Foundations of Science

Before writing this I read Bas van Fraassen’s statement. I find little I can disagree with in what he says. Consequently, what I would like to do is address several clusters of concepts and issues that are often somewhat neglected in discussions of the philosophical foundations of science.
Evaluating Flow Metric‐Based Stream Classification Systems to Support the Determination of Ecological Flows in North Carolina

Hydroecological classification systems are typically based on an assemblage of streamflow metrics and seek to divide streams into ecologically relevant classes. Assignment of streams to classes is suggested as an initial step in the process of establishing ecological flow standards. We used two distinct hydroecological river classification systems available within North Carolina to evaluate the ability of a hydrologic model to assign the same classes as those determined by observed streamflows and to assess the transferability of such systems to ungaged streams. Class assignments were examined by rate of overall matches, rate of class matches, spatial variability in matches, and time period used in class assignment. The findings of this study indicate assignments of stream class: (1) are inconsistent among different classification systems; (2) differ between observed and modeled data; and (3) are sensitive to the period of record within observed data. One clear source of inconsistency/sensitivity in class assignments lies with the use of threshold values for metrics that distinguish stream classes, such that even small changes in metric values can result in different class assignments. Because these two hydroecological classification systems are representative of other classification systems that rely on quantitative decision thresholds, it can be surmised that the use of such systems based on stream flow metrics is not a reliable approach for guiding ecological flow determinations.
The Orphan Receptor GPR31 Is the Platelet and HUVEC Receptor for 12(S)-HETE

Abstract Activation of platelet 12-lipoxygenase (12-LO) generates large quantities of 12(S)- HETE, an oxidized metabolite of arachidonic acid. For decades, the function of this lipid was unknown. Recently, we demonstrated that platelets undergo oxidative fragmentation when exposed to nanomolar concentrations of 12(S)-HETE (JCI 43:973, 2004). 12-LO activation occurs upon binding of human or rabbit anti-platelet GPIIIa to a specific platelet epitope GPIIIa49-66 (Cell 106:551, 2001) which is regulated by a specific IgG conformation (JBC 283: 3224, 2008). Fragmentation requires activation of the NADPH oxidase pathway downstream of the release of 12(S)-HETE since NADPH oxidase deficient (gp91 phox −/−) platelets fail to respond to exogenous 12(S)-HETE, whereas 12-LO−/− platelets are fully reactive. Since several lipid mediator receptors have been identified, including the leukotriene BLT1 and BLT2 receptors, we reasoned that the stereospecific action of the 12(S)-HETE was also likely mediated by a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR). Recent data published in an abstract has suggested that some tumor cells might respond to 12(S)- HETE through the orphan GPCR, GPR31 (Guo, et al., IMPaCT, 2007). We searched for evidence of this receptor in platelets and in HUVEC. GPR31 mRNA was found in highly purified platelet and HUVEC preparations by RT-PCR. Further, incubation of gel filtered platelets with [3H]12(S)-HETE demonstrated saturation binding that was 30- fold above background. Binding of the radioligand was inhibited by a 100-fold molar excess of non-radioactive 12(S)-HETE, but was not effected by addition of 12(R)-HETE, a stereoisomer of the 12-LO product (n=3). In two experiments the Kd for 12(S)-HETE binding to platelets was ~20 nM with a Bmax of ~16 fmol/106 platelets. Oxidative platelet fragmentation induced by anti-GPIIIa49-66 Ab is a 12(S)-HETE-dependent process. We now show that this can be inhibited by 13(S)-HODE with an IC50 of ~400 nM (n=3). 13- HODE has been suggested to be a competitive inhibitor of 12(S)-HETE (Pidgeon, et al., Cancer Metastasis Rev 26:503, 2007). CHO cells which do not express an endogenous 12-(S)-HETE receptor were transfected with a GPR31-bearing plasmid. [3H]12(S)-HETE binding to GPR31-CHO cells was dose-dependent and saturable while the radioligand did not bind to mock transfected cells. Radioligand binding to the GPR31-CHO cells was inhibited by both 13(S)-HODE as well as cold 12(S)-HETE with an IC50 of
STRUCTURE OF THE Drosophila CALMODULIN GENE

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the structure of Drosophila calmodulin gene. Calmodulin acts as a regulatory agent in many cellular functions via its regulation of numerous other proteins. The gene was isolated from a D. melanogaster genomic library with an eel calmodulin cDNA clone. Nucleotide sequence analysis confirmed that the fragment contained an open reading frame corresponding to amino acids 59–139 of bovine calmodulin. Comparison of the hybridization signals indicated that the gene is present only once per haploid genome. Consensus splice junction sequences were present at the ends of the open reading frame located in p500. The derived amino acid sequence of Drosophila calmodulin differs from the bovine sequence at three positions: Phe is substituted for Tyr at residue 99, Thr for Glu at 143 and Ser for Ala at 147. The single Drosophila calmodulin gene spans over 10 kb of DNA and contains at least three introns. The locations of the three known intervening sequences are in the same position relative to the coding sequence as three of the six chicken calmodulin introns.
Goalkeeper: Comprehensive process enforcement from the hypervisor

Abstract Controlling when and how a process runs is essential to the security of a system. In virtualized environments, an out-of-guest approach to process control is attractive because it allows fine-grained in-guest inspection and enforcement from the relative safety of the hypervisor, which makes in-guest misconfiguration by users or deliberate interference by malware more difficult. However, prior work in this area is incomplete, either lacking policy enforcement, missing certain types of malicious code due to insufficient coverage, or being unable to scale to many simultaneous guests. This work introduces Goalkeeper , a hypervisor-based security system that focuses on asynchronous, stateless, and lightweight Virtual Machine Introspection (VMI) techniques to enforce comprehensive guest process security policies at scale across tens to hundreds of guests per hypervisor. Running beneath each guest, Goalkeeper uses policy rules to ensure only whitelisted guest processes are allowed to execute, and terminates policy violators using a customizable set of VMI-based process termination techniques. In an evaluation across a population of 100 Linux virtual desktops, Goalkeeper is shown to catch malicious code that is missed by prior work while imposing a comparable performance overhead.
Leveraging Diverse Data Sources to Identify and Describe U.S. Health Care Delivery Systems.

Health care delivery systems are a growing presence in the U.S., yet research is hindered by the lack of universally agreed-upon criteria to denote formal systems. A clearer understanding of how to leverage real-world data sources to empirically identify systems is a necessary first step to such policy-relevant research. We draw from our experience in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Comparative Health System Performance (CHSP) initiative to assess available data sources to identify and describe systems, including system members (for example, hospitals and physicians) and relationships among the members (for example, hospital ownership of physician groups). We highlight five national data sources that either explicitly track system membership or detail system relationships: (1) American Hospital Association annual survey of hospitals; (2) Healthcare Relational Services Databases; (3) SKA (4) Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System; and (5) Internal Revenue Service 990 forms. Each data source has strengths and limitations for identifying and describing systems due to their varied content, linkages across data sources, and data collection methods. In addition, although no single national data source provides a complete picture of U.S. systems and their members, the CHSP initiative will create an early model of how such data can be combined to compensate for their individual limitations. Identifying systems in a way that can be repeated over time and linked to a host of other data sources will support analysis of how different types of organizations deliver health care and, ultimately, comparison of their performance.
Alpha2-Adrenergic Agonists (Centrally Acting Antihypertensive Agents)

Centrally acting inhibitors of the sympathetic nervous system have been available for the treatment of hypertension for nearly 40 years. This clinical use has been limited because of the central sedative and depressive effects associated with the antihypertensive action of these drugs. The search continues for similar acting drugs that do not produce these unwanted effects.
Moving Object Detection and Tracking in Wide Area Motion Imagery

Tracking objects in wide area imagery is a difficult task because of very low image resolution to even detect the presence of small objects in a scene. This chapter presents a new methodology for moving object detection and tracking in such low resolution wide area imagery that can work well in varying conditions as well as for very small objects like pedestrians. The basic concept that has been used for the development of this algorithm is that all the information that is available about the object of interest has to be utilized in the tracking process. As we are considering only the moving objects, there is no need to consider stationary structures like buildings, trees and other landmarks in the context of tracking. This has motivated for the development of a feature based tracking mechanism, which makes use of a dense version of localized histogram of oriented gradients on the difference images. A basic Kalman filter is used as the predictive mechanism in the tracking methodology. The robustness of this algorithm is illustrated by tracking various objects of interest in varying situations. The effect of image enhancement algorithms in relation with tracking in shadows is also illustrated with experimental results. It is observed that super-resolution algorithms can play an important role in improving tracking in long range videos.
The Speciation of Hydrophobic Organic Compounds by Dissolved Organic Matter

Publisher Summary Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is ubiquitous to natural waters and is known to undergo a number of reactions of environmental interest. Among these reactions neutral Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants (HOCs) can partition into or be bound to DOM. This process can significantly alter the fate of HOCs, by rendering them mobile and changing their bioavailability. This chapter reviews the speciation of HOC in the presence of DOM and examines the influence of DOM on the bioavailability of organic contaminants. DOM is capable of influencing the speciation of hydrophobic organic compounds in natural waters. The degree to which this occurs is highly variable, but depending upon the general structure of DOM and the properties of the analyte, rough estimates of HOC-DOM binding constant can be determined, using both empirical and semiempirical methods. The importance of this process, however, depends largely on the system of interest. In aquatic environments in which the DOM concentration is low coupled with small binding constants the effect of the DOM phase is minimal on HOC speciation. In unique environments with high DOM the amount of HOC bound can be significant. Thus, the degree to which facilitated DOM-mediated transport or transformation can occur is highly specific to the HOC and DOM substrate properties.
What Is Deceptive Lying

According to a popular definition, you lie if you say something that you believe is false with the intent to deceive about what you say. However, there are two respects in which this definition fails to capture the phenomenon that is of interest to moral philosophers. First, this definition does not count as lies cases where you intend to deceive your audience about your believing what you say rather than about what you say. Second, it handles inconsistently cases where you say something because you know that your audience does not trust you and will likely conclude that you believe something else. I propose a new definition of lying that handles both doxastic misdirection cases and double bluffing cases correctly. Basically, you lie if you say something that you believe is false with the intention of deceiving someone about something on which you have invited him to trust you.
NL2API: A Framework for Bootstrapping Service Recommendation Using Natural Language Queries

Existing approaches to recommend services using natural language queries are supervised or unsupervised. Supervised approaches rely on a dataset with natural language queries annotated with categorizing labels. As the annotation process is manual and requires deep domain knowledge, these approaches are not readily applicable on new datasets. On the other hand, unsupervised approaches overcome the limitation. To date, unsupervised approaches are primarily based on matching keywords, entity relationships, topics and clusters. Keywords and entity relationships ignore the semantic similarity between a query and services. Topics and clusters capture the semantic similarity, but rely on mashups that explicitly capture relationships between services. Again, for new services, the information are not readily available. We propose NL2API, a framework that relies solely on service descriptions for recommending services. NL2API has the benefit of being immediately applicable as a bootstrap recommender for new datasets. To capture relationships among services, NL2API provides different approaches to construct communities where a community represents an abstraction over a group of services. Based on the communities and users' queries, NL2API applies a query matching approach to recommend top-k services. We evaluate NL2API on datasets collected from Programmable Web and API Harmony. Our evaluation shows that for sizable datasets such as Programmable Web NL2API outperforms baseline approaches.
Assessing the Added Value of Coordinated Economic Dispatch in Central America

The benefits of increasing the size of an electricity grid to decrease per-unit operational costs are well-documented. This is especially true for areas with large levels of renewable energy penetration. Central America, with one of the highest levels of renewable generation in the Western Hemisphere, cooperates through the Central American Electrical Interconnection System (SIEPAC) interconnection line, which was used to facilitate the creation of a secondary regional energy market (MER). However, each country in Central America continues to dispatch its resources individually, with the market price and energy availability of the MER only taken into consideration during economic dispatch. The results of this paper indicate that through cooperative economic dispatch between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, a 32% average reduction in price for March and a 7% average reduction in October can be achieved. Further, retiring thermal generators in Nicaragua would allow for up to 328.1 MW of thermal capacity in Nicaragua to be retired leading to an overall decrease of 17 GWh of thermal generation in March 2016 and 5.75 GWh in October 2016. This decrease in thermal capacity under centralized dispatch would still retain an average spot price cheaper than under the separate dispatch case. These results indicate the promise for increased cooperation in the region as a means of reducing regional reliance on foreign oil purchases, as well as reducing the environmental impact of the regional grid.
A comprehensive treatment approach for idiopathic condylar resorption and anterior open bite with 3D virtual surgical planning and self-ligated customized lingual appliance.

Introduction We report the successful treatment of a 38-year-old woman with bilateral idiopathic condylar resorption and anterior open bite. She had incompetent lips, a gummy smile, increased lower facial height, high mandibular plane angle, skeletal and dental Class II malocclusion with mild mandibular crowding, increased overjet, and mandibular midline deviation to the right. Methods The treatment plan included: (1) presurgical alignment and leveling of the teeth in both arches; (2) jaw motion tracking (JMT) to detect mandibular movement; (3) 3-piece maxillary osteotomies with mandibular reconstruction and bilateral coronoidectomies; and (4) postsurgical correction of the malocclusion. The orthodontic treatment was performed with the use of custom lingual braces and clear brackets and the orthognathic surgery was planned with the use of virtual surgical planning. Results The idiopathic condylar resorption and anterior open bite were treated, crowding was eliminated in the lower anterior segment, correction of skeletal and dental Class II malocclusion was obtained, mandibular plane angle was reduced, and facial profile improved. Conclusions The results suggest that esthetic and functional results can be achieved with the cooperation of 2 specialties and with the use of state-of-the-art technology.