cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Competition, Industrial structure and Economic Growth

This paper takes as its starting point established findings on industrial conduct as measured by pricing power in South African industry. The South African findings are contrasted with recent results derived from firm-level data from China and India. A stark contrast emerges between China, with low mark-ups of price over marginal cost of production, and South Africa and India with high mark-ups. Given the impact of pricing power on productivity growth, we show that lack of competitive pressure in the manufacturing sector, contributes one important explanation of why China has a relatively large, while South Africa and India have a relatively small manufacturing sector. We also provide an estimate of foregone employment opportunities due to the presence of pricing power has carried for South Africa. We provide a framework in terms of which the impact of success of potential policy intervention in the labour market can be assessed, given the findings on industrial structure. Returning to Chinese firm level data, we also examine whether there is a case to be made for differential policy treatment of established, new entrant, and struggling firms - and find that there is little evidence to support such a claim. For China we find that state intervention in the manufacturing sector has primarily served to suppress pricing power. We conclude with reflections on competitive pressures in other sectors of the economy, as well as final inferences on desirable policy interventions designed to stimulate growth and employment creation.
Neuroendocrine Abnormalities in Female Athletes

This chapter will review hormonal changes noted acutely and chronically with exercise, specifically focusing on abnormalities noted in female athletes with menstrual dysfunction and/or energy deficiency. Where information regarding amenorrheic (presumably energy deficient) athletes is lacking, hormonal patterns in women with anorexia nervosa have been included. The last two decades have shed much light on the intricate relationships between exercise, nutrition, appetite regulation, stress, and the reproductive system. In athletes with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA), a combination of nutritional deficits, stress, and hormonal aberrations lead to a disruption of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulsatility, subsequently causing menstrual irregularity or amenorrhea. Particularly, low fat mass and alterations in hormones such as ghrelin, leptin, peptide YY, and cortisol have been associated with altered luteinizing hormone (LH) levels and LH pulsatile patterns. Importantly, one of the most severe consequences of FHA is poor bone health. In fact, many hormonal alterations that contribute to FHA also have deleterious effects on bone. This chapter will discuss relationships among the various hormonal changes in FHA and bone metabolism. Thus, it will describe some of the known and suspected mechanisms leading to the Female Athlete Triad (Triad), and will discuss the current data on hormonal interventions thus far attempted to treat Triad.
A Categorical Approach to Contour, Split and Join Trees with Application to Airway Segmentation

Contour, split and join trees can be defined as functors acting on the category of scalar fields, whose morphisms are value-preserving functions. The categorical definition provides a natural way to efficiently compute a variety of topological properties of all contours, sublevel or superlevel components in a scalar field. The result is a labeling of the contour, split or join tree and can be used to find all contours, sublevel or superlevel sets with desired properties.
Nonoperative Management of Femoroacetabular Impingement: A Prospective Study.

Background:The literature has given little attention to the nonoperative management of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) syndrome despite a rapidly expanding body of research on the topic.Purpose:...
Aging in Place: Changing Socio-ecology and the Power of Kinship on Smith Island, Maryland

This article examines how the people known as Smith Islanders interact with their environment over the life-course. The purpose of the study is to contribute to a better understanding of aging in a small, rural, coastal community which changes are environmentally driven. To address the aging process in changing environments in this essay, I explore the relationship between the place, sense of self, and knowledge. Because the majority of people on the island today are in late life, the main threads in the fabric of this ethnographic narrative weave themselves into stories about aging experiences. I focus on males’ experiences, their traditional knowledge, and the role of kinship over their life-courses. The life history narratives of a Smith Island waterman known as Eddie Boy, discusses two elements present in both his childhood narratives and his late adulthood: work and kinship. I show how changing socio-ecology has altered the potential for intergenerational relations, which older islanders cherish, and how such changes in late life pose a new aging dilemma for current Smith Islanders.
Conventions and Coalitions in Repeated Games

We develop a theory of repeated interaction for coalitional behavior. We consider stage games where both individuals and coalitions may deviate. However, coalition members cannot commit to long-run behavior, and anticipate that today's actions influence tomorrow's behavior. We evaluate the degree to which history-dependence can deter coalitional deviations. If monitoring is perfect, every feasible and strictly individually rational payoff can be supported by history-dependent conventions. By contrast, if players can make secret side-payments to each other, every coalition achieves a coalitional minmax value, potentially reducing the set of supportable payoffs to the core of the stage game.
Evaluation and Results of a Survey of Blackbird and Mammal Damage to Mature Field Corn Over a Large (Three-State) Area

Details are presented of a three-stage cluster sampling design used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to produce estimates of bird and mammal damage to ripening field corn in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee in 1977. Results of the survey are briefly discussed. Analyses were performed that allowed the design to be evaluated and improved for future use. Edge-effect bias, which occurs when damage in the periphery of fields is much greater than damage in the interior, is analyzed and discussed.
G-baToN: a versatile cell-cell interaction reporter system

Cell-cell interactions influence all aspects of development, homeostasis, and disease. Here, we describe GFP-based Touching Nexus (G-baToN) which relies upon fluorescent protein transfer driven by nanobody-mediated recognition to enable sensitive and specific labeling of cells after cell-cell interactions. A suite of orthogonal baToN tools enables reciprocal cell-cell labeling, interaction-dependent cargo transfer, and the identification of higher order cell-cell interactions across a wide range of cell types.
4,5-Diazafluorene and 9,9'-Dimethyl-4,5-Diazafluorene as Ligands Supporting Redox-Active Mn and Ru Complexes.

4,5-diazafluorene (daf) and 9,9’-dimethyl-4,5-diazafluorene (Me2daf) are structurally similar to the important ligand 2,2’-bipyridine (bpy), but significantly less is known about the redox and spectroscopic properties of metal complexes containing Me2daf as a ligand than those containing bpy. New complexes Mn(CO)3Br(daf) (2), Mn(CO)3Br(Me2daf) (3), and [Ru(Me2daf)3](PF6)2 (5) have been prepared and fully characterized to understand the influence of the Me2daf framework on their chemical and electrochemical properties. Structural data for 2, 3, and 5 from single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveal a distinctive widening of the daf and Me2daf chelate angles in comparison to the analogous Mn(CO)3(bpy)Br (1) and [Ru(bpy)3]2+ (4) complexes. Electronic absorption data for these complexes confirm the electronic similarity of daf, Me2daf, and bpy, as spectra are dominated in each case by metal-to-ligand charge transfer bands in the visible region. However, the electrochemical properties of 2, 3, and 5 reveal that the redox-active Me2daf framework in 3 and 5 undergoes reduction at a slightly more negative potential than that of bpy in 1 and 4. Taken together, the results indicate that Me2daf could be useful for preparation of a variety of new redox-active compounds, as it retains the useful redox-active nature of bpy but lacks the acidic, benzylic C–H bonds that can induce secondary reactivity in complexes bearing daf.
ApoE Lipidation as a Therapeutic Target in Alzheimer’s Disease

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is the major cholesterol carrier in the brain, affecting various normal cellular processes including neuronal growth, repair and remodeling of membranes, synaptogenesis, clearance and degradation of amyloid β (Aβ) and neuroinflammation. In humans, the APOE gene has three common allelic variants, termed E2, E3, and E4. APOE4 is considered the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), whereas APOE2 is neuroprotective. To perform its normal functions, apoE must be secreted and properly lipidated, a process influenced by the structural differences associated with apoE isoforms. Here we highlight the importance of lipidated apoE as well as the APOE-lipidation targeted therapeutic approaches that have the potential to correct or prevent neurodegeneration. Many of these approaches have been validated using diverse cellular and animal models. Overall, there is great potential to improve the lipidated state of apoE with the goal of ameliorating APOE-associated central nervous system impairments.
Magnetic flux inversion in a peculiar changing look AGN

We argue that the changing-look event in the active galactic nucleus 1ES 1927+654, followed by a dip of 3 orders of magnitude in the X-ray luminosity, is controlled by a change in the accretion rate and an inversion of magnetic flux in a magnetically arrested disk (MAD). Before the changing-look event, strong magnetic flux on the black hole powers X-ray emission via the Blandford-Znajek process while the UV emission is produced by a radiatively inefficient magnetized disk. An advection event, bringing flux of the opposite polarity, propagates inward leading, first, to a rise in the UV/optical luminosity and, then, to a dip in the X-ray luminosity when it reaches the black hole. We estimate the timescale for magnetic flux advection and find that the observed timescale between the beginning of the changing-look event and the minimum in the X-ray luminosity, $\approx200$ days, is in agreement with the time needed to cancel the magnetic flux in a MAD extending to $\approx180\:r_g$. Although flux inversion events might be rare due to the large ratio of flux-to-mass that is needed, we argue that AGN showing an unusually high ratio of X-ray to UV luminosity are prime candidates for such events. We also suggest that similar events may lead to jet interruptions in radio-loud objects.
Three Signatures of Adaptive Polymorphism Exemplified by Malaria-Associated Genes.

Malaria has been one of the strongest selective pressures on our species. Many of the best-characterized cases of adaptive evolution in humans are in genes tied to malaria resistance. However, the complex evolutionary patterns at these genes are poorly captured by standard scans for non-neutral evolution. Here we present three new statistical tests for selection based on population genetic patterns that are observed more than once among key malaria resistance loci. We assess these tests using forward-time evolutionary simulations and apply them to global whole-genome sequencing data from humans, and thus we show that they are effective at distinguishing selection from neutrality. Each test captures a distinct evolutionary pattern, here called Divergent Haplotypes, Repeated Shifts, and Arrested Sweeps, associated with a particular period of human prehistory. We clarify the selective signatures at known malaria-relevant genes and identify additional genes showing similar adaptive evolutionary patterns. Among our top outliers, we see a particular enrichment for genes involved in erythropoiesis and for genes previously associated with malaria resistance, consistent with a major role for malaria in shaping these patterns of genetic diversity. Polymorphisms at these genes are likely to impact resistance to malaria infection and contribute to ongoing host-parasite coevolutionary dynamics.
Quantitative PET Imaging and Clinical Parameters as Predictive Factors for Patients With Cervical Carcinoma: Implications of a Prediction Model Generated Using Multi-Objective Support Vector Machine Learning.

Purpose:Quantitative features from pre-treatment positron emission tomography (PET) have been used to predict treatment outcomes for patients with cervical carcinoma. The purpose of this study is t...
Methodology for seismic risk screening of existing buildings in Canada: Structural scoring system1

The National Research Council Canada recently developed a Semi-Quantitative Seismic Risk Screening Tool (SQST) for seismic risk screening of existing buildings in Canada. This paper presents the st...
Risk of Stroke in Patients with Left Ventricular Assist Device Who Had Myocardial Recovery

Purpose The risk factors and incidence rates of stroke after implantation of left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are well established. Little is known about the factors associated with stroke after LVAD explantation in patients who have had a myocardial recovery. Methods A single center retrospective study conducted between 2014-2019 for patients with myocardial recovery and subsequent LVAD explantation. We studied their demographics, clinical & laboratory data, echocardiographic, and invasive hemodynamic data to explore any possible associative factors predictive of stroke in the future. Results A total of 17 patients were identified with myocardial recovery while having an LVAD in place. Group 1 with no stroke (15 patients) and group 2 with stroke (2 patients).The mean age of patient at explant was 52.2 years in group 1 and 51.3 years for group 2, while mean duration of LVAD was 14.8 months for group 1 vs. 18.5 months for group 2.Majority of patients were women (59%) and main cause of heart failure was non ischemic cardiomyopathy (88%). There were 10 HeartMate 2 devices (HM 2), 3 HeartMate 3 (HM 3) devices, and 4 HeartWare (HVAD) Ventricular Assist Devices. There was no statistical difference in term of risk factors (DM, HTN, CAD, arrhythmia, CKD, smoking) between the two groups. However patients who had stroke had a trend of subtherapeutic INR and uptrending LDH with infection of the retained pump. In term of echo data, patient in group 2 had more evidence of RV dysfunction and abnormal inflow cannula position (figure 1). Conclusion Traditional risk factors e.g. subtherapeutic INR and pro-thrombotic states (like infection) along with echocardiographic features e.g. abnormal inflow cannula position and degree of RV dysfunction are among the main reasons for stroke in patients with myocardial recovery while having an LVAD in place.
Operando spatial mapping of lithium concentration using thermal-wave sensing

Summary The development of battery sensing techniques is crucial for safe, reliable, and fast operation of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). There is a growing realization that the spatially averaged chemical information provided by existing battery diagnostic tools is insufficient for understanding degradation of LIBs. Here, we report the use of thermal waves for operando probing of the local lithium concentration as a function of depth inside battery electrodes. The dependence of the thermal conductivity of electrodes on lithiation is used for lithium detection for the first time. A proof-of-concept study of graphite anodes demonstrates that thermal-wave sensing provides spatial information of lithium concentration comparable with experimental results using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Therefore, a valuable battery sensing technique based on thermal waves is developed for studying the lithium concentration and the degradation of electrodes during fast charge, which may lead to much cheaper and faster sensing techniques compared with synchrotron-based techniques.
Patterns of Coevolutionary Adaptations across Time and Space in Mouse Gammaretroviruses and Three Restrictive Host Factors

The classical laboratory mouse strains are genetic mosaics of three Mus musculus subspecies that occupy distinct regions of Eurasia. These strains and subspecies carry infectious and endogenous mouse leukemia viruses (MLVs) that can be pathogenic and mutagenic. MLVs evolved in concert with restrictive host factors with some under positive selection, including the XPR1 receptor for xenotropic/polytropic MLVs (X/P-MLVs) and the post-entry restriction factor Fv1. Since positive selection marks host-pathogen genetic conflicts, we examined MLVs for counter-adaptations at sites that interact with XPR1, Fv1, and the CAT1 receptor for ecotropic MLVs (E-MLVs). Results describe different co-adaptive evolutionary paths within the ranges occupied by these virus-infected subspecies. The interface of CAT1, and the otherwise variable E-MLV envelopes, is highly conserved; antiviral protection is afforded by the Fv4 restriction factor. XPR1 and X/P-MLVs variants show coordinate geographic distributions, with receptor critical sites in envelope, under positive selection but with little variation in envelope and XPR1 in mice carrying P-ERVs. The major Fv1 target in the viral capsid is under positive selection, and the distribution of Fv1 alleles is subspecies-correlated. These data document adaptive, spatial and temporal, co-evolutionary trajectories at the critical interfaces of MLVs and the host factors that restrict their replication.
The Cellular Endosomal Protein Stannin Inhibits Human Papillomavirus Entry

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the most common sexually transmitted viruses and one of the most important infectious causes of cancers worldwide. While prophylactic vaccines are effective against certain strains of HPV, established infections still cause deadly cancers in both men and women. HPV traffics to the nucleus via the retrograde transport pathway, but the mechanism of intracellular transport of nonenveloped viruses such as HPV is incompletely understood. Using an overexpression screen, we identify several novel genes that control HPV16 entry. We focused on the mechanism by which one of the screen hits, stannin, blocks HPV16 infection. Stannin has not been previously implicated in virus entry. We show that stannin is constitutively expressed in human keratinocytes, and its basal levels inhibit entry by HPV16. Overexpression of stannin specifically inhibits infection by several HPV types, but not other non-enveloped viruses tested. Stannin is localized to the endolysosomal compartment and does not affect HPV16 binding to cells, uptake, or uncoating, but diverts HPV away from the trans-Golgi network and directs it to the lysosome where it is degraded. We further show that SNN interacts with L1 major capsid protein and that this interaction is modulated by the retromer binding motifs in the C-terminus of the minor capsid protein L2. Our findings shed light on novel cellular factors that control HPV entry.
Lifecourse factors associated with flourishing among US children aged 1-5 years.

Objective To examine the association between lifecourse factors and flourishing among children ages 1-5 years. Study design Using data from the combined 2016 and 2017 National Survey of Children's Health (N=18,007 children aged 1-5 years), flourishing was defined as parent-reported child's affection, resilience, curiosity about learning, and affect. Multivariable logistic regression modeled the associations between lifecourse factors and flourishing. These factors were identified according to the lifecourse health development model. Results Approximately 63% of children aged 1-5 years were flourishing. Children who were female (vs. male, adjusted prevalence ratio, APR: 1.06, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.00-1.11), White, non-Hispanic (vs. Black, non-Hispanic, APR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.01-1.26), not having a special health care need (vs. special health care need, APR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.03-1.26), not having an emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder (EBD) (vs. Ebd, apr 1.66, 95% CI:1.23-2.10), spoke English at home (vs. other language, APR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.06-1.54), parents received emotional social support (vs. no emotional social support, APR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.01-1.21), and who lived in a supportive neighborhood (vs. not in supportive neighborhood, APR: 1.12, 95% CI:1.05-1.18) were more likely to flourish. Children from households within 0-99% of the federal poverty level (APR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.79-0.98) were less likely to be flourishing compared to their counterparts from households within 400% of the federal poverty level. Conclusions Findings indicate that several lifecourse factors are associated with young children's flourishing, including being female, White, non-Hispanic, not having a special health care need or EBD, English as a primary language, parents receiving emotional social support, having neighborhood support, and a lower household income. Our findings promote the continuation of programs supporting diverse and low-income children's families and communities such as home visiting and Head Start which provide avenues for bolstering children's health and development across the lifespan.
Verauktionierung von Eigenkapitallimiten

Die effiziente Allokation von knappem Eigenkapital stellt fur Kreditinstitute zur Zeit eines der herausragenden Probleme im Rahmen der Gesamtbanksteuerung dar. Dabei bewegen sich die Banken in einem Spannungsfeld zwischen verscharften Regulierungsvorschriften zur Eigenkapitaldeckung auf der einen Seite und der wachsenden Dynamik extemer Markte auf der anderen. Die Regulierung verlangt in zunehmendem Mase die rechnerische Unterlegung risikotragender Geschafte mit haftendem Eigenkapita1, um die Gesamtrisikoposition der Banken zu begrenzen und damit das Bankensystem insgesamt zu stabilisieren [Bas196a; Bas96b]. Gleichzeitig bewegen sich die Kreditinstitute in einem dynamischer werdenden WettbeweIbsumfeld, das einen effizienten Einsatz sowie eine schnelle Reallokation der knappen Ressource Eigenkapital in die produktivsten Verwendungsmoglichkeiten fordert. Um dieser Herausforderung zu begegnen, werden in der Literatur hierarchische Planungsansatze vorgeschlagen, die mittels Eigenkapitalzuweisungen fur einzelne Geschaftsbereiche - bis hinunter zu den einzelnen Handlern - die Verwendung des Eigenkapitals regulieren sollen. Dabei wird die A1lokation auf Basis risikobereinigter Rentabilitatskennzahlen (wie z. B. der RORAC-Kennziffer) unter Verwendung interner Modelle zur Risikomessung durchgefuhrt [ScLi97; BrHo97]. Auf Gesamtbankebene sind bei der Allokation entsprechende Korrelationseffekte zwischen den eigenkapitalbindenden Geschaften sowie weitere Nebenbedingungen [Schi97, 494] zu berucksichtigen. Die entstehenden Planungssituationen werden aufgrund der Vielzahl von Handlungsmoglichkeiten extrem kompliziert. Schierenbeck/Lister merken dazu an, das „lediglich die mathematisch sehr komplexen und aufwendigen LP-Ansatze (…) in der Lage (sind), die (…) Maximierung des gesamtbankbezogenen RORAC (…) unter Berucksichtigung aller Nebenbedingungen zu generieren.“ [ScLi97, 499] Solche LP-Modelle sind zwar theoretisch dazu fahig, optimale Losungen zu ermitteln, sie sind jedoch auserst zeit- und datenintensiv. Zudem miissen alle notwendige Information von den dezentralen Geschaftseinheiten kommuniziert und auf Zwischenstufen aggregiert werden, was entsprechende Transaktionskosten verursacht. Weiterhin generieren LP-Ansatze nur dann tatsachlich optimale Ergebnisse, wenn alle Geschaftsmoglichkeiten, die sich bis zum Ende des Planungshorizonts ergeben, ex ante tatsachlich bekannt sind. Dies ist in einem dynamischen Umfeld nicht zu erwarten. Aus dieser Problematik resultiert das in der Literatur seit langem diskutierte Problem, ob zentrale LP-Ansatze zur Unternehmenssteuerung sinnvoll eingesetzt werden konnen, da sie zwar theoretisch uberlegen sind, an den praktischen Anforderungen jedoch haufig scheitern [Rolf92, 2; ScTe96, 179].
SU-E-T-558: Monte Carlo Photon Transport Simulations On GPU with Quadric Geometry

Purpose: Monte Carlo simulation on GPU has experienced rapid advancements over the past a few years and tremendous accelerations have been achieved. Yet existing packages were developed only in voxelized geometry. In some applications, e.g. radioactive seed modeling, simulations in more complicated geometry are needed. This abstract reports our initial efforts towards developing a quadric geometry module aiming at expanding the application scope of GPU-based MC simulations. Methods: We defined the simulation geometry consisting of a number of homogeneous bodies, each specified by its material composition and limiting surfaces characterized by quadric functions. A tree data structure was utilized to define geometric relationship between different bodies. We modified our GPU-based photon MC transport package to incorporate this geometry. Specifically, geometry parameters were loaded into GPU’s shared memory for fast access. Geometry functions were rewritten to enable the identification of the body that contains the current particle location via a fast searching algorithm based on the tree data structure. Results: We tested our package in an example problem of HDR-brachytherapy dose calculation for shielded cylinder. The dose under the quadric geometry and that under the voxelized geometry agreed in 94.2% of total voxels within 20% isodose line based on a statisticalmore » t-test (95% confidence level), where the reference dose was defined to be the one at 0.5cm away from the cylinder surface. It took 243sec to transport 100million source photons under this quadric geometry on an NVidia Titan GPU card. Compared with simulation time of 99.6sec in the voxelized geometry, including quadric geometry reduced efficiency due to the complicated geometry-related computations. Conclusion: Our GPU-based MC package has been extended to support photon transport simulation in quadric geometry. Satisfactory accuracy was observed with a reduced efficiency. Developments for charged particle transport in this geometry are currently in progress.« less
Impact of pulmonary artery occlusion pressure value on the definition of acute respiratory distress syndrome.

tive end-expiratory pressure. Thus, we are not sure about the validity of these results without an ultrasound Doppler cardiac evaluation, as it cannot be excluded that some patients present de novo acute heart failure due to septic cardiac dysfunction [2]. Second, as stated by the authors, during mechanical ventilation with PEEP Ppao may not reflect left cardiac filling pressure [4]. Indeed, even if correct position of the catheter tip in West's zone III is confirmed after insertion using method previously described [5] or chest radiography, the matching of lung perfusion to ventilation may change from the initial location in patients with ALI and ARDS. Thus we may expect that misleading interpretation of Ppao during positive pressure ventilation could have influenced the results of this multicentric study. Finally, even if we agree with the authors that mandating Ppao of 18 mmHg or less may negatively impact clinical trials in which ARDS is in inclusion/exclusion criteria or an end-point, we believe that a more extensive definition in future may also be less precise than the mandatory actual combination.
Biliary tract cancer.

Cholangiocarcinomas are malignant tumors that arise from the epithelium of the intrahepatic or extrahepatic bile ducts. Cholangiocarcinomas are rare compared with hepatocellular carcinoma, comprising less than 10% of primary malignancies of the liver [1]. The autopsy incidence of cholangiocarcinoma is low also, being reported in 0.089–0.46% of necropsies [1]. Cholangiocarcinomas are diagnosed most frequently in the fifth and sixth decades of life [2]. There is only a slight male preponderance of cases of cholangiocarcinoma.
Designing for the Discipline: Open Libraries and Scholarly Communication, Summary of a Presentation by Thomas Krichel

Thomas Krichel speaks about the RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) system (http://RePEc.org). RePEc is a large digital library Krichel founded. Krichel says he is “bringing the world of economics into the world of computing and live information.” ...
Laboratory assessment of vibration emissions from vibrating forks used in simulated beach cleaning

The vibrations associated with the use of vibrating manure forks are characterized and the vibration exposure time limits based on the recommendations of ANSI S2.70-2006 are estimated. To investigate the vibration exposures associated with these operations, a laboratory study was performed on the vibrations produced by the forks operated during simulated beach cleaning. The test apparatus for the laboratory study consisted of a mortar-mixing tub filled with a homogenous mixture of moist sand and debris. Vibration data were collected for eight seconds per trial. ANOVA results indicate that the mean acceleration for the fast fork was significantly higher than that for the slow fork. The slow fork with the mesh basket could be operated at full throttle for almost three hours before reaching the action value.
Network design for IP-centric light-trail networks

We explore network design principles for next-generation all-optical wide-area networks, employing light-trail technology. Light-trail is a light-wave circuit that allows multiple nodes to share the optical bandwidth through the inclusion of simple but flexible hardware overlaid with a lightweight control protocol. We develop light-trails as a novel and amenable control and management solution to address IP-centric communication problems at the optical layer. We propose optical switch architectures that allow seamless integration of lightpath and light-trail networks, and assess their costs and capabilities. We formulate the static light-trail RWA problem as an integer linear program. Since this programming problem is computationally intractable, we split it into two subproblems: (a) trail routing, for which we provide three heuristics, (b) wavelength assignment, for which we use the largest first heuristic available in literature. The objective of our design is to minimize the optical layer and electronic layer costs in terms of the number of wavelengths and communication equipment required. We illustrate our approach by comparing the performance of our trail design heuristics on some test networks.
Energy prices, labour productivity and causality: An empirical examination

Abstract This paper is directed at examining the impact of changing energy prices on productivity in the USA. By using a cross correlation test for unidirectional causality, it is clearly demonstrated that for the period 1947–1980, the rate of change of productivity was adversely affected by changing energy prices. Furthermore, there is at least a four to five year lag before the entire impact is exhausted.
Copper Contamination Impairs Herbivore Initiation of Seaweed Inducible Defenses and Decreases Their Effectiveness.

Seaweed-herbivore interactions are often mediated by environmental conditions, yet the roles of emerging anthropogenic stressors on these interactions are poorly understood. For example, chemical contaminants have unknown consequences on seaweed inducible resistance and herbivore response to these defenses despite known deleterious effects of contaminants on animal inducible defenses. Here, we investigated the effect of copper contamination on the interactions between a snail herbivore and a brown seaweed that displays inducible resistance to grazing. We examined seaweed inducible resistance and its effectiveness for organisms exposed to copper at two time points, either during induction or after herbivores had already induced seaweed defenses. Under ambient conditions, non-grazed tissues were more palatable than grazed tissues. However, copper additions negated the preference for non-grazed tissues regardless of the timing of copper exposure, suggesting that copper decreased both how herbivores initiated these inducible defenses and their subsequent effectiveness. Copper decreased stimulation of defenses, at least in part, by suppressing snail grazing pressure—the cue that turns inducible defenses on. Copper decreased effectiveness of defenses by preventing snails from preferentially consuming non-grazed seaweed. Thus, contaminants can potentially stress communities by changing seaweed-herbivore interactions mediated via inducible defenses. Given the ubiquity of seaweed inducible resistance and their potential influence on herbivores, we hypothesize that copper contamination may change the impact of these resistant traits on herbivores.
Thermal Effects in Rolling/Sliding Contacts: Part 2—Analysis of Thermal Effects in Fluid Film

Effets thermiques dans un contact roulant-glissant. Analyse des effets thermiques dans le film lubrifiant
An analysis of police traffic stops and searches in Kentucky: a mixed methods approach offering heuristic and practical implications

Is race a significant predictor of being searched by the police? Is race a significant predictor of having positive search results during traffic stop? We address these two questions by analyzing traffic stop data (n > 93,000) collected by two state and 24 local police agencies in a single state during the 2001 calendar year. Our findings show that race does correlate with a fruitful traffic stop but not in the manner that may be commonly thought. To supplement and better contextualize our quantitative findings, an exploratory study was then designed that used the focus group interviewing technique with groups of officers from five of the participating agencies to explore their perceptions of (1) traffic stops and searches and (2) public allegations of racial profiling and bias-based policing. The findings from this qualitative phase of the study highlighted the officers’ perceived role as community problem solvers “who profile problems and not people.” In tandem, this mixed-method approach was instrumental in advancing our knowledge of both the patterns and results from related searches, in addition to better contextualizing the underlying perceptions of officers regarding the use of race in “solving” community problems. The results from this combination of methodological approaches offer important heuristic and practical implications.
A dynamic systems perspective on qualitative simulation

Abstract This paper presents a simple geometric interpretation of qualitative simulation (QS), based on the phase space representation of dynamic systems theory. QS consists of two steps: transition analysis determines the sequence of qualitative states that a system traverses and global interpretation derives its long-term behavior. I recast transition analysis as a search problem in phase space and replace the assorted transition rules with two algebraic conditions. The first condition determines transitions between arbitrarily shaped regions in phase space, as opposed to QS, which only handles n-dimensional rectangles. It also provides more accurate results by considering only the boundaries between regions. The second condition determines whether nearby trajectories approach a fixed point asymptotically. It obtains better results than QS by exploiting local stability properties. I recast global interpretation of dissipative systems as a search for attractors in phase space and present a global interpretation strategy for the subset of these systems whose local behavior determines global behavior uniquely. Although limited in scope, this strategy handles many systems that appear in the QS literature.
Effect of Raw Soybeans and of Soybean Oil on Plasma Carotene and on Vitamin A as Measured by Activated Glycerol Dichlorohydrin

Summary Feeding raw soybeans in the amount of 9lb. daily to lactating cows caused marked differences in their blood plasma concentration of carotene from that of cows fed a control ration containing no soybean products. During the first 4 weeks the differences increased rapidly, but by 7–9 weeks they seemed to level off at about 250 γ carotene per 100ml. of blood plasma. The reversal in blood plasma concentrations of carotene that took place after a switch-over of rations was made between the cows receiving the control and the raw soybean rations indicates that the causative factor was the feed rather than the individuality of the cows. The feeding of expeller process soybean oil to lactating cows caused differences in their blood plasma concentrations that were intermediate with the concentrations found in the blood plasma of cows fed a control ration containing no soybeans or soybean products and cows fed raw soybeans. The oil apparently depressed the carotene concentrations but not to the extent of the raw soybeans. The differences that occurred in the blood plasma vitamin A concentrations among the cows fed the control, raw soybean and soybean oil rations were small and showed no particular trends. Activated glycerol dichlorohydrin, a new reagent for the determination of vitamin A, proved to be satisfactory for this determination in bovine blood.
Many-body theory of gain in InGaN and GaN quantum well lasers

Group-III nitride lasers are currently intensely studied because of their application potential as light sources in the ultraviolet and visible wavelength regions.
Communicating suffering in primary stage head and neck cancer

The findings presented in this discussion seek to make a contribution to quality of life (QOL) research, by highlighting the import of factors affecting the communication of primary stage head and neck cancer patient's experiences of suffering after treatments by their clinicians. Qualitative research methodology based on open-ended interviews with 18 survivors of American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Stage I and Stage II, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) were used. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. In this preliminary analysis, three important themes emerged: (1) a self diminished by cancer; (2) the fear of addiction to pain medications; and (3) hopelessness and the loss of meaning in life after SCCHN. Our present findings indicate that SCCHN patients understand their experiences of cancer and under-report their experiences of suffering mainly because of fear. These include fears of: being further diminished by SCCHN, fears of addiction, and an inability to cope with the additional losses associated with SCCHN. As a consequence, and perhaps, because of a failure the part of clinicians and patients to adequately address these fears, SCCHN patients may also experience greater psychological morbidity, becoming fatalistic about biomedicine's ability to restore them to health after cancer, or related symptoms, including pain, despite being 'cured.' This study provides a perspective on why this under-reporting occurs, thereby potentially enhancing clinician-patient communication and the QOL of SCCHN patients who present with curable disease.
The effects of changes in temperature or ionic strength on isolated rabbit and fish skeletal muscle thick filaments

Although the skeletal muscles of different vertebrate species have been assumed to be generally similar, recent X-ray diffraction and mechanical studies have demonstrated differences in the responses of these muscles to changes in physiological conditions. X-ray diffraction studies have indicated that lowering the temperature and lowering ionic strength may affect the crossbridge arrangement of rabbit thick filaments. Similar X-ray diffraction studies on the structural effects of lowering ionic strength in frog and fish muscles are less clear in interpretation, while lowring the temperature appears to have little effect in these muscles. In the present study we have compared the effects of lowering the temperature or ionic strength on the crossbridge order of isolated rabbit and fish thick filaments as observed in the electron microscope. In agreement with the X-ray results, rabbit filaments show a distinct loss of crossbridge order when stained at 4° C compared to 25° C, whereas fish thick filaments appear similar at both temperatures. Rabbit thick filaments, when diluted to one-forth of the normal ionic strength (while maintaining constant EGTA and ATP concentration), showed a strong tendency to bind to actin filaments, while similarly-treated fish filaments showed little tendency to aggregate or become disordered. These results appear to support the X-ray diffraction results of other investigators, and the idea that effects of ionic strength or temperature on muscle may vary with species.
Approximations on angular distribution of intensity of thermal radiation

Abstract In engineering literature, the approximation E 2 ( t ) ∼- a e − bt is frequently used and the values of a and b are obtained by curve fitting. The values of a and b are shown to be related to the assumed angular distribution of intensity by using Eddington's approximation. It is formally shown that E 2 ( t ) ∼- 0.348 exp [−1.1613 t ] + 0.652 exp [−2.941 t ] is equivalent to retaining the first four terms in the spherical harmonics expansion of intensity and the generalization of this procedure is indicated.
Widespread occurrence of polyhalogenated aromatic ethers in the marine atmosphere

Methyl ethers of halogenated phenols have been identified in marine air samples from the North and South Hemispheres. The compounds are tribromoanisole, pentachloroanisole and tetrachlorohydroquinone dimethyl ether. The concentrations of these compounds are in the pg m−3 range, and they are among the more abundant high-molecular weight halocarbons in the remote marine troposphere. A probable source of these compounds is the microbial methylation of the biocide pentachlorophenol and tribromophenol of either pollutant or natural origin.
ShiftQ: a bufferred interconnect for custom loop accelerators

ShiftQs are hardware structures consisting of registers and switches which buffer and transport operands among function units within custom hardware loop accelerators. ShiftQs help minimize buffering and interconnect costs by customizing the hardware to the given schedule and by intelligent sharing of register and interconnect resources. This paper describes the ShiftQ schema and a method to automatically synthesize them from modulo-scheduled loops. We also evaluate the cost savings by comparing them against traditional storage and interconnect mechanisms.
Metaethical Cognition and Epistemic Reasoning Development in Adolescence.

The present study investigates whether epistemic cognition in moral domain (dubbed metaethical cognition) develops analogously to epistemic reasoning regarding empirical knowledge. The study’s conceptual framework distinguishes two main areas of metaethical cognition (beliefs about the nature of moral judgments and conceptions of the process of moral judgment formation), and three metaethical stances (intuitionism, subjectivism, and transsubjectivism). In a sample of 200 adolescents (M 1/4 16.18 years, SD 1/4 2.41), these metaethical stances could be reliably identified by means of a semistructured interview procedure. Adolescents’ metaethical stance was related to age, cross-sectionally as well as longitudinally. Furthermore, significant differences in metaethical cognition were found between high school students and an expert group of university students with special training in moral philosophy. Overall, metaethical and epistemic stances were correlated substantially. Findings demonstrate that metaethi...
Law enforcement in a time of community policing

Community policing creates the expectation that oficers will become more selective in making arrests and that those decisions will be influenced more by extralegal considerations and less by legal ones. Data on 451 nontraffic police-suspect encounters were drawn from ridealong observations in Richmond, Virginia, where the police department was implementing community policing. The arrest/no arrest decision is regressed on variables representing legal and extralegal characteristics of the situation. Legal variables show much stronger effects than extralegal ones, but that depends upon the officer's attitude toward community policing. Supporters of community policing are, as predicted, more selective in making arrests and much less influenced by legal variables than are officers with negative views. However, pro-community-policing officers are like negative officers in the extent of influence exerted by extralegal factors. There are some differences between the two groups of officers on the strength and direction of effects of predictor variables taken individually, but only 1 of 17 is significant. Thus, in a time of community policing, officers who support it do manifest some arrest decision patterns distinguishable from those of colleagues who adhere to a more traditional view of law enforcement.
The signal sequence moves through a ribosomal tunnel into a noncytoplasmic aqueous environment at the ER membrane early in translocation

The signal sequence is in an aqueous milieu at an early stage in the translocation of a nascent secretory protein across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. This was determined using fluorescent probes incorporated into the signal sequence of fully assembled ribosome-nascent chain-membrane complexes: the fluorescence lifetimes revealed that the probes were in an aqueous environment rather than buried in the nonpolar core of the membrane. Since these membrane-bound probes were not susceptible to collisional quenching by iodide ions, the space containing the signal sequence is sealed off from the cytoplasm by a tight ribosome-membrane junction. The nascent chain inside the ribosome is also not exposed to the cytoplasm and apparently passes through an aqueous tunnel in the ribosome.
Two inexpensive electronic circuits for analog display of multichannel EEG signals.

Abstract Two electronic circuits useful for high-resolution EEG recording systems are described. The first is an analog display driver that formats large numbers of EEG signals for display in a variety of modes on a standard CRT display. The second is an analog demultiplier circuit that reconstitutes large numbers of analog EEG signals from multiplexed D/A outputs. Each provides a readily expandable, high-resolution in EEG displat that can easily provide real-time or faster performance and that is much less expensive than computer-based digital display systems with comparable capabilities.
Estimated participation in U.S. carbon sequestration programs: A study of NIPF landowners in Massachusetts

Abstract Although carbon sequestration programs for non-industrial forestland owners in Massachusetts are being developed, very little is known about the program attributes of importance to different types of landowners or the likelihood that landowners will participate in any given program. This study estimates the probability that Massachusetts landowners will participate in several carbon offset programs using data from a survey of 3000 Massachusetts forestland owners. Results from an ordered logit discrete choice model suggest that the likelihood of enrollment in most programs is quite low. Landowners are clearly motivated by economic factors, but other aspects of carbon sequestration may also be important in their decision making.