cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gender Differences in Emotion Dysregulation in an Autism Inpatient Psychiatric Sample.

There is a wide range of emotion regulation (ER)-related impairment observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems. Although the importance of ER is widely acknowledged in the ASD literature, little is known about factors associated with variability in ER impairment. Given the identified gender differences in ASD, gender may be a potential contributor to ER. This study examined gender differences in ER in an ASD inpatient psychiatric sample (n = 722; 146 females) aged 4-20 years, collected as part of the Autism Inpatient Collection. In addition, the study investigated whether age, nonverbal intelligence quotient (NVIQ), or verbal ability moderate the association between ER and gender. While both male and female inpatients with ASD presented with clinically elevated emotion dysregulation compared to general population norms, results suggest that female psychiatric inpatients have more severe dysregulation, including higher reactivity and dysphoria, than inpatient males. NVIQ and verbal ability did not moderate the association between gender and ER. Age moderated the association between gender and ER, with greater gender difference seen in older individuals, but only for dysphoria. However, overall, these effects were small. Improved understanding of ER presentation in males and females with ASD is critical, as these symptoms may differentially impact individuals with ASD and may warrant a different treatment emphasis. LAY SUMMARY: Previous research has identified several gender differences in presentation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms, as well as difficulties with emotion regulation in individuals with ASD. In order to better understand the factors that may contribute to emotion regulation in ASD, this study examined whether psychiatrically hospitalized males and females with ASD differed in emotion regulation and what factors influenced the differences. Results suggest that females with ASD have slightly but significantly more difficulty with emotion regulation compared to males. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1343-1348. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Intraocular pressure in infants and its influencing factors

Due to the growth and development status, corneal thickness and hardness of infant's eye were different from that of adults. The range of normal intraocular pressure (IOP) of adults is not ideal for reference when assessing the IOP in infants and young children. In addition, due to the un-cooperation of infants, when measuring the IOP in infants, sedation is usually needed. Therefore, the measurement state is completely different from the adults. Studies showed that the IOP measured under sedation was significantly different from measuring in the conscious state. Multiple factors such as different ophthalmotonometer, the thickness of the central cornea, age and other factors can affect the measurement results of the IOP. Therefore, it is very important to select a suitable ophthalmotonometer for infants, and consider the related factors' influence for assessing the IOP in infants. (Int Rev Ophthalmol, 2016, 40: 86-90) Key words: infants; intraocular pressure
Different Approaches to Teaching a Database Course to Graduate and Undergraduate Students

Database Design and Implementation is a cornerstone course in any computer science curriculum. Database Design is taught first using an abstract model, followed by a practical implementation using a DBMS. In this poster, we compare the performance of a class of graduate students versus a class of undergraduate students studying the same syllabus. The graduates performed better in the design part and the undergraduates did better in the implementation part. In the subsequent offering of the course, more time was given to the design part for the undergraduate students, and that resulted in an improvement of performance in both the design and implementation parts. We conclude that the younger undergraduate students can benefit from a more design-heavy course, while the older graduate students would need more emphasis on the implantation aspect of the course.
Experimental validation of a model-based method for separating the space heating and domestic hot water components from smart-meter consumption data

Smart meters are currently being rolled out in European district heating (DH) systems at a large scale to enable time-varying district heating tariffs and improve consumer awareness about their own consumption. Smart-meter data can also be used in more advanced applications, e.g. for establishing model-based control schemes for demand response purposes and data-driven building energy performance labeling schemes. Many of these applications require separate measurements of the consumption for space heating (SH) and preparation of domestic hot water (DHW); however, smart meters often only provide the total DH energy consumption (SH+DHW) in truncated units (e.g. whole kWh on an hourly basis). Typical approaches for separating these two components of DH consumption require measurements with a high temporal and numerical resolution and are therefore not applicable to smart-meter data. New methods suitable for disaggregating the combined DH demand are therefore needed. This paper presents a validation of a model-based method for disaggregating DH consumption using ground truth data from 44 residential buildings.
Information Percolation and Informed Short Selling: Evidence from Earnings Announcements

This study examines short selling in stocks of firms that reveal partial earnings-related information prior to their eventual earnings announcements (EA). By decomposing short selling into two components where the first corresponds to the final partial earnings disclosure and the second captures the subsequent incremental short selling until just before the EA, we estimate that the relative informativeness of shorting activity based on public partial versus private information accounts for approximately 80% and 20%, respectively, of the short selling-related decrease in the EA return. Importantly, the negative return predictability of short selling significantly increases the longer a firm implicitly delays its EA. Further, our evidence indicates time-varying short-sale constraints, ineffective following the release of partial information but rising markedly just prior to the EA. The overall findings support the proposition that short sellers are skilled investors who profit from both public partial and private information. The informativeness of short selling, however, depends critically on the efficacy of short-sale constraints.
The Offering of Mount Meru: Contexts of Buddhist Cosmology in the History of Science in Tibet

Convergences and conflicts in the dialogue between Buddhism and modern science occasionally find precedent in historical sources and encounters, some of which have set the stage for scenarios that are commonplace in the current dialogue. This paper brings recent scholarship and Tibetan sources on astronomy and geography in Tibet into conversation with the ongoing Buddhism and science dialogue. In response to a lack of context in the dialogue, the paper gives attention to how two contexts in particular, namely, the contemplative and historical, inform currents in the Buddhism and science dialogue about cosmology. The paper challenges claims made that Tibetans did not encounter European science until the twentieth century and that Tibetans were unaware of scientific cosmological ideas, and therefore have not updated the Buddhist Mount Meru cosmology. To address tensions inherent in the binary discourse on science vs religion, this paper asks, does the Mount Meru cosmology represent a domain wherein Buddhism or science hold more appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution about its existence?
Economic Consequence Analysis of Electric Power Infrastructure Disruptions: An Analytical General Equilibrium Approach

We develop a stylized two-sector analytical general equilibrium model of regional economic adjustment to widespread long-duration electric power outages. Algebraic solutions highlight the relative importance of costless inherent resilience and deliberate costly investment in backup infrastructure capacity in moderating the economy-wide costs of electricity disruptions. Numerically parameterizing the model to simulate the effects of a two-week power outage on California’s Bay Area economy yields modest welfare losses that are substantially smaller than stated-preference estimates of willingness to pay. The model represents a transparent approach to analyzing the tradeoffs between reliability and resilience in electric power provision and utilization.
Mechanistic Gene Networks Inferred from Single-Cell Data are Better Predictors than Neural Networks

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWWith advances in single-cell techniques, measuring gene dynamics at cellular resolution has become practicable. In contrast, the increased complexity of data has made it more challenging computationally to unravel underlying biological mechanisms. Thus, it is critical to develop novel computational methods capable of dealing with such complexity and of providing predictive deductions from such data. Many methods have been developed to address such challenges, each with its own advantages and limitations. We present an iterative regression algorithm for inferring a mechanistic gene network from single-cell data. Using this regression, we infer a developmental model for the gene dynamics in Drosophila melanogaster blastoderm embryo. Our results show that the predictive power of the inferred model is higher than that of other models inferred with least squares and ridge regressions. Furthermore, model predictions of the gene dynamics are more accurate than predictions made with neural networks. This holds true even in the limit of small sample sizes. We compare predictions for various gene knockouts with published experimental results, finding substantial agreement. We also make predictions for gene dynamics under various gene network perturbations, impossible in non-mechanistic models.
Microfabrication by electrical discharge machining-based hybrid processes

Abstract Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a popular nonconventional machining approach that is often used on hard materials. This method is popular because of the fact that EDM can machine any materials irrespective of its hardness. Modern engineering materials that are deployed in extreme conditions are often shaped or manufactured by EDM process. But this process has its own drawbacks. Lower material removal rate and significant tool wear can often hinder the machining efficiency in this method. Other conventional or nonconventional manufacturing methods can be combined with EDM to create a more uniform and balanced machining setup. Hybrid or combined approaches of machining can overcome the inherent drawbacks of EDM process. The performance of machining can improve significantly when other manufacturing processes are incorporated with conventional EDM.
An overview of the Japanese copula da as an utterance-final expression in conversation

Abstract The present study examines cases of the Japanese copula da used in the utterance-final position in naturally occurring conversations. The morpheme da in Japanese is typically categorized as a type of copula in linguistic studies, but da also functions as an utterance-final expression, especially in the spoken form of Japanese. The examined recordings of naturally occurring conversations for the present study contained 120 cases of utterance-final da, and 89 (74.2%) of them were uttered immediately following statements of subjective evaluation. In addition, of these 89 cases of utterance-final da that followed statements of evaluation, 87 were determined to follow statements in which the speaker expressed his or her negative attitude toward the evaluated matter. The data analysis also showed that 26 cases (21.7%) of utterance-final da in the examined recordings were uttered immediately after the speaker discovered a new piece of information. Based on the findings from the data analysis, the present study argues that utterance-final da is considered to be one of the expressions in Japanese that can signal both discovery of new information and the speaker’s negative attitude toward a stated matter. In addition, the present study also argues that da marks the speaker’s emotional exclamatory reaction when it is used in the utterance-final position.
Dialogue on economic choice, learning theory, and neuronal representations

In recent years, two distinct lines of work have focused on the substrates of associative learning and on the mechanisms of economic decisions. While experiments often focused the same brain regions - most notably the orbitofrontal cortex - the two literatures have remained largely distinct. Here we engage in a dialogue with the intent to clarify the relationship between the two frameworks. We identify a potential correspondence between the concept of outcome defined in learning theory and that of good defined in neuroeconomics, and we specifically discuss the concept of value defined in the two frameworks. While many differences remain unresolved, a common idea is that good/outcome values are subjective, devaluation-sensitive and computed on the fly, not "cached" or pre-computed.
Chapter 26. Therapeutic Strategies in the Treatment of AIDS

Publisher Summary There have been over 50,000 cases of AIDS in the United States, and the disease is now present throughout tile world. In addition, there are estimated to be well over one million people in the United States alone infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This chapter discusses a number of agents that have been found to inhibit the replication of HIV2 in vitro . The chapter discusses one of these agents, 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxythymidine, also known as azidothymidine, AZT, orzidovudine that has been shown to induce clinical improvement and prolong survival in patients with AIDS. The very complexity of this virus and its life-cycle provides the medicinal chemist with a variety of potential targets for anti-viral agents. Antibodies to HIV can block viral binding, and thus prevent infection; however, persons infected with HIV, for reasons that are not completely clear, develop only low titers of neutralizing antibody, possibly presenting problems for vaccine development. A solublized form of the CD4 receptor glycoprote in lacking the cytoplasmic and transmembrane domains can inhibit HIV binding and replication in target cells, and clinical trials with this agent are now being contemplated. While AZT is not a cure for AIIDS and it does have prominent side effects in some patients, its development has increased the survival and quality of life of many patients and reduced some of the pessimism surrounding the AIDS epidemic. Drug development in this area can proceed quickly and medicinal chemists can potentially see new compounds brought into clinical use more rapidly in AIDS than any other area of study.
Finite Element Equations

Finite element equations capture the characteristics of the field equations. Their derivation is based on either the governing differential equation or the global energy balance of the physical problem. The approach involving the governing differential equation is referred to as the method of weighted residuals or Galerkin’s method. The approach utilizing the global energy balance is referred to as the variational method or Rayleigh-Ritz method.
Discovery and classification of motion nanodevices

Enabling technologies have been developed to synthesize and fabricate organic, inorganic and hybrid nanostructures. The fundamental theory has been further expanded to design, model, simulate and analyze simple nanoelectromechanical systems and devices. There are distinguishing features between nanoscale electromechanical systems, devices, and structures. In general, systems integrate nanodevices and nanostructures. However, using commonly used and accepted notations, we assume that the motion nanodevice is a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS). A spectrum of fundamental problems primarily associated with devising and discovering novel NEMS remains. These nanodevices can be classified as electronic and motion (rotational and translational transducers - actuators and sensors) nanoscale devices. This paper concentrates on the motion nanodevices. The key focus areas are synthesis, classification and analysis. We emphasize classification and synthesis paradigms with ultimate goal of classifying existing and discovering novel NEMS by performing electromagnetic-geometry synthesis. It is illustrated that NEMS intelligent databases can be developed within evolutionary-based CAD. The synthesis and classification paradigm reported directly leverages fundamental physics laws and high-fidelity modeling, allowing the designer to attain physical and behavioral (steady-state and transient) data-intensive analysis, heterogeneous simulation, optimization, performance assessment, outcome prediction, etc. We focus our attention on rotational and translational nanodevices which can be controlled by driving/sensing controlling/processing nanoelectronics. The examined nanodevices can be considered as NEMS as the electromagnetic-based nanomachines integrate motion and radiating energy nanodevices as well as nanostructures.
Fundamentals of Waveguide and Antenna Applications Involving DNG and SNG Metamaterials

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Subwavelength Cavities and Waveguides Subwavelength Cylindrical and Spherical Core-Shell Systems ENG-MNG and DPS-DNG Matched Metamaterial Pairs for Resonant Enhancements of Source-Generated Fields Efficient, Electrically Small Dipole Antennas: DNG Nested Shells Efficient, Electrically Small Dipole Antennas: ENG Nested Shells??-??Analysis Efficient, Electrically Small Dipole Antennas: HFSS Simulations of Dipole-ENG Shell Systems Metamaterial Realization of an Artificial Magnetic Conductor for Antenna Applications Zero-Index Metamaterials for Antenna Applications Summary References
Awarded Best Paper! - Using MEMS-Based Storage in Disk Arrays

Current disk arrays, the basic building blocks of high-performance storage systems, are built around two memory technologies: magnetic disk drives, and non-volatile DRAM caches. Disk latencies are higher by six orders of magnitude than non-volatile DRAM access times, but cache costs over 1000 times more per byte. A new storage technology based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) will soon offer a new set of performance and cost characteristics that bridge the gap between disk drives and the caches. We evaluate potential gains in performance and cost by incorporating MEMS-based storage in disk arrays. Our evaluation is based on exploring potential placements of MEMS-based storage in a disk array. We used detailed disk array simulators to replay I/O traces of real applications for the evaluation. We show that replacing disks with MEMS-based storage can improve the array performance dramatically, with a cost performance ratio several times better than conventional arrays even if MEMS storage costs ten times as much as disk. We also demonstrate that hybrid MEMS/disk arrays, which cost less than purely MEMS-based arrays, can provide substantial improvements in performance and cost/performance over conventional arrays.
Status of Government Forces in Non-International Armed Conflict

Legal voids exist and operate nowhere more clearly and widely in international law than in the laws of war applicable to non-international armed conflicts (NIAC). Status of government actors in NIAC provides an intriguing and specific example of just such a void. Where the protections and obligations of the law of armed conflict are premised almost entirely on the status of affected persons, the law of NIAC spurns such classifications, as well as the taxonomy of status-based protection generally. Yet modern forms of conflict and State practices may soon place pressure on the NIAC status void. Increasing media attention, growing international oversight, and progressively heightening sensitivity to the suffering produced by NIAC conspire to match the legal protective regime of NIAC with that of international armed conflict, including perhaps the latter’s use of status. This Article offers explanations of the likely influences behind the NIAC status void and offers logical, structural, and operational arguments in its defense. The Article concludes by addressing a series of considerations related to generalizations about international legal voids as an opportunity to reflect more deliberately on an appropriate interpretive approach to the law of NIAC.
Scalable and distributed GPS free positioning for sensor networks

Accurate positioning mechanisms are important in large scale sensor networks to achieve a number of functionalities like location aware routing, efficient coordination of resources and other application specific requirements. This paper proposes a distributed and scalable GPS free positioning algorithm for wireless sensor network. This approach is an effort in the direction of finding a solution to the positioning problem, which minimizes the number of messages exchanged and the coordinate setup time. We use a clustering based approach for the coordinate formation wherein a small subset of the nodes can successfully establish the coordinate system for the whole network. We also compare the performance of this system against existing mechanisms and show that our system scales linearly as the number of nodes in the network increases in contrast to the exponential increase in current mechanism. Additionally, out mechanism takes considerably lower convergence times. The proposed mechanism takes considerably lower convergence times. The proposed mechanism is scalable, distributed and able to support the ad hoc deployment of large scale sensor networks quickly and efficiently.
Forward-integration Riccati-based feedback control for spacecraft rendezvous maneuvers on elliptic orbits

We apply the forward-integrating Riccati-based feedback controller, which has been developed in our previous work for stabilization of time-varying systems, to a maneuvering spacecraft in an elliptic orbit around the Earth. We simulate rendezvous maneuvers on Molniya and Tundra orbits. We demonstrate that the controller performs well under thrust constraints, in the case where the spacecraft can thrust in only the orbital tangential direction, in the case where the thrusters may operate only intermittently due to faults or power availability, with thrust direction errors, and, finally, in an output feedback configuration where only relative position measurements are available.
Eosinophilic granuloma of the clivus: case report, follow-up of two previously reported cases, and review of the literature on cranial base eosinophilic granuloma.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of the use of stereotactic radiotherapy for an eosinophilic granuloma (EG) of the clivus. We report follow-up information on two previously reported cases and suggest a management plan for this rare lesion. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 4.5-year-old boy who presented with a complete abducens palsy on the right with an associated head turn. A computed tomographic scan of his head revealed a lytic lesion on that side, and magnetic resonance imaging showed the mass to be of low intensity on T1-weighted images and of high intensity on T2-weighted images with heterogeneous enhancement. INTERVENTION: A transnasal stereotactic biopsy was performed, revealing an EG. The patient was treated with stereotactic radiotherapy, and he became symptom-free with radiographic resolution of his lesion. Reviewing the literature, we found 13 series with 87 cases of EG in the petrous portion of the temporal bone. EG in the cranial base occurring outside of the temporal bone or in the temporal bone and extending intracranially is, however, quite rare, with only nine other cases reported, two of them clival. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a classification schema in which cranial base EG lesions be grouped with either the more common extracranial petrous temporal bone lesions or the very rare intracranial lesions. Although there are few cases in the literature, treatment results indicate that clival EG, and perhaps all intracranial cranial base EGs, be treated by a biopsy alone, followed by surgery or stereotactic radiotherapy if there is an incomplete resolution of the symptoms or if there is a recurrence.
The Impact of Gender Characteristics on Mentoring in Graduate Departments of Sociology

There has been much research on gender inequality in graduate education and the benefits of mentoring. However, most of this research focuses on how mentoring addresses female graduate students’ experiences of gender inequality instead of how the gender characteristics of departments impact the level of mentoring they offer. In particular, I examine how the gender composition of departments in terms of faculty and administration as well as faculty awareness of gender inequality or feminist issues influences the types of mentoring structures found in graduate departments of sociology. Bivariate correlations indicated that these characteristics (gender characteristics in particular) had significant relationships with mentoring structures in departments. This study concludes with a discussion of these relationships, an overview of policy implications, and suggestions for future research.
Five year follow-up of thirty-four resections for pulmonary tuberculosis.

In an attempt to evaluate the results of excisional surgery in pulmonary tuberculosis a study was done on all patients who underwent resections at Veterans Administration Hospital, Castle Point, New York over five years ago. A total of 34 patients were operated upon, eight in 1947 and 26 in 1948. The information that was required to complete this study was obtained from the various Veterans Administration Regional Offices designated to handle the post-hospital follow-ups as well as from the individual patients. A review of the medical literature failed to disclose similar studies in pulmonary resections which were performed over five years ago.
Set Separation Problems and Global Optimization.

Given a pair of finite, disjoint sets A and B in Rn , a fundamental problem with numerous applications is to find a simple function f(x) defined over Rn which separates the sets in the sense that f(a) > 0 for all a ∈ A and f(b) < 0 for all b ∈ B. This can always be done (e.g., with the piecewise linear function defined by the Voronoi partition implied by the points in A ⋃ B). However typically one seeks a linear (or possibly a quadratic) function f if possible, in which case we say that A and B are linearly (quadratically) separable. If A and B are separable in a linear or quadratic sense, there are generally many such functions which separate. In this case we seek a 'robust' separator, one that is best in a sense to be defined. When A and B are not separable in a linear or quadratic sense we seek a function which comes as close as possible to separating, according to some well defined criterion. In this paper we examine the optimization problems associated with the set separation problem, characterize them (convex or non-convex) and suggest algorithms for their solutions.
Rapid desalting of ammonium sulfate solutions by hydrophobic interaction chromatography

Open-air hydrophobic interaction chromatography with alkyl carbon functional groups coupled to agarose beads has been used to desalt large volumes of ammonium sulfate-fractionated bacterial cell lysates. The protein of interest can be simultaneously desalted and concentrated in less than 4 h, and the yield is significantly better than that obtained by the standard technique of precipitation, centrifugation, and dialysis.
SOURCES OF MASS POLITICAL DISAGREEMENT: REJOINDER TO MARIETTA

Abstract Do people tend to disagree over political issues because of conflicting values? Or do they disagree about which policies will most effectively promote shared values? In a previous article, I argued that the issues most people think are most important tend to fall into the latter category. On the issues of greatest importance to the mass public, most citizens agree about the ends that are desirable, but disagree about which policy means would best effectuate those ends. Consequently, disputes about facts—disputes about the actual effects of proposed public policies—lie at the heart of the most important divisions in contemporary American public opinion. However, people do not necessarily interpret their political disagreements this way. If they fail to recognize that facts that they see as self-evident are disputed by their opponents, they may see their opponents as having different values, since there could be few other explanations for their opponents' disagreement with them. However, evidence t...
Mass effects in the problem of three bodies

This is a study of the dynamical behavior of three point masses moving under their mutual gravitational attraction in a plane. The initial positions and velocities are identical for all cases studied and only the masses of the participating bodies change in the series of numerical experiments. In this way the effect of the coupling terms in the differential equations of motion are investigated. The motion in all 125 cases begins with an interplay between the three bodies, followed by temporary ejections or by an eventual escape. The total mass of the system is kept constant while the massratios change from 1 to 5. The initial velocities being zero, the total energy is negative in all cases.
Proton-Coupled Electron Flow in Protein Redox Machines

Electron transfer (ET) reactions are fundamental steps in biological redox processes. Respiration is a case in point: at least 15 ET reactions are required to take reducing equivalents from NADH, deposit them in O_2, and generate the electrochemical proton gradient that drives ATP synthesis. Most of these reactions involve quantum tunneling between weakly coupled redox cofactors (ET distances > 10 A) embedded in the interiors of folded proteins. Here we review experimental findings that have shed light on the factors controlling these distant ET events. We also review work on a sensitizer-modified copper protein photosystem in which multistep electron tunneling (hopping) through an intervening tryptophan is orders of magnitude faster than the corresponding single-step ET reaction.If proton transfers are coupled to ET events, we refer to the processes as proton coupled ET, or PCET, a term introduced by Huynh and Meyer in 1981. Here we focus on two protein redox machines, photosystem II and ribonucleotide reductase, where PCET processes involving tyrosines are believed to be critical for function. Relevant tyrosine model systems also will be discussed.
Interaction of daylength and lactation in the control of pelage development and nest-building in female meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus)

Abstract Pregnancy and lactation inhibited moult into winter pelage in voles maintained in short daylengths; development of a winter pelage was, however, greatly accelerated once the short-day dams weaned their litters. The presumed elevation of prolactin titres during lactation appears to mask full development and expression of pelage changes induced by short daylengths. Nest-building behaviour, by contrast, was increased in response to short photoperiods and was further augmented during lactation and may thereby facilitate thermoregulation in short-day dams that do not develop a winter pelage.
Orbital drift of capsules and red blood cells in shear flow

Many numerical studies have considered the dynamics of capsules and red blood cells in shear flow under the condition that the axis of revolution of such bodies remained aligned in the shear plane. In contrast, several experimental studies have shown that the axis of revolution of red blood cells could drift away from the shear plane in a certain range of controlling parameters. In this article, we present three-dimensional numerical simulations on the orientation dynamics of capsules in simple shear flow with different initial undeformed shapes, namely, prolate, oblate, and biconcave disk. It is observed that unlike rigid ellipsoids in Stokes flow, capsules reorient their axis of revolution either towards the vorticity axis while undergoing a precessing motion or towards the shear plane while undergoing a kayaking-type motion. The specific dynamics are observed to depend on initial shape, capillary number, and the ratio of the internal to external fluid viscosity. Near the physiological values of the viscosity ratio, the biconcave shape performs a rolling motion like a wheel. If the viscosity ratio is reduced below the physiological range, a transition to the kayaking dynamics is observed with increasing capillary number. The critical shear stress at which the rolling-to-kayaking transition occurs is found to be dependent on the viscosity ratio.
Detection and counting of micro-scale particles and pollen using a multi-aperture Coulter counter

We demonstrate a high throughput, all-electronic Coulter-type sensor with four sensing microapertures to detect and count micro-scale particles. Four particle samples are utilized for this study: polymethacrylate particles 40 µm and 20 µm in diameter, Juniper Scopulorum (Rocky Mountain Juniper) pollen and Cottonwood pollen particles. The two types of pollen particles are roughly 20 µm in diameter. The particles are mixed with deionized water and forced to pass through the microapertures. Voltage pulses across all four apertures are recorded and analysed. Results demonstrate that the sensor can detect and count particles through its four sensing apertures simultaneously. Thus, the counting efficiency of the four-aperture sensor is approximately 300% higher than that of a single-channel Coulter counter, while maintaining the same accuracy, sensitivity and reliability. The counting efficiency can be improved further by integrating more sensing channels on a single micromachined chip. Results also demonstrate that the device can be used to differentiate between pollen and polymethacrylate particles; differentiation is based on a difference in surface charge for the two types of particles.
Proposed Standard Weight (Ws) Equation and Length-Categorization Standards for Stream-Dwelling Brown Trout (Salmo trutta)

ABSTRACT Weight-length data from 51 brown trout Salmo trutta populations (N= 10,673) in 14 states and one Canadian province were used to develop a standard weight (Ws) equation for stream-dwelling brown trout. The regression-line-percentile technique was used to develop the Ws equation from weight-length regressions for individual brown trout populations. The proposed Ws. equation is log10 Ws (g) = −4.867 + 2.960 log10 TL (mm), and the English equivalent is log10 Ws (lb) = −3.366 + 2.960 log10 TL (in). This equation is valid for fish 140 mm (approximately 6 in) and longer. Benchmark length categories were established using percentages applied to the largest individual of the data set. Proposed length category standards are 150 mm (6 in), 230 mm (9 in), 300 mm (12 in), 380 mm (15 in), and 460 mm (18 in) for stock, quality, preferred, memorable, and trophy lengths, respectively.
Identification of differentially expressed microRNA in parathyroid tumors

The molecular factors that control parathyroid tumorigenesis are poorly understood. In the absence of local invasion or metastasis, distinguishing benign from malignant parathyroid neoplasm is difficult on histologic examination. We studied the microRNA (miRNA) profile in normal, hyperplastic, and benign and malignant parathyroid tumors to better understand the molecular factors that may play a role in parathyroid tumorigenesis and that may serve as diagnostic markers for parathyroid carcinoma. miRNA arrays containing 825 human microRNAs with four duplicate probes per miRNA were used to profile parathyroid tumor (12 adenomas, 9 carcinomas, and 15 hyperplastic) samples normalized to four reference normal parathyroid glands. Differentially expressed miRNA were validated by real-time quantitative TaqMan polymerase chain reaction (PCR). One hundred fifty-six miRNAs in parathyroid hyperplasia, 277 microRNAs in parathyroid adenoma, and 167 microRNAs in parathyroid carcinomas were significantly dysregulated as compared with normal parathyroid glands [false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05]. By supervised clustering analysis, all parathyroid carcinomas clustered together. Three miRNAs (miR-26b, miR-30b, and miR-126*) were significantly dysregulated between parathyroid carcinoma and parathyroid adenoma. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed mir-126* was the best diagnostic marker, with area under the curve of 0.776. Most miRNAs are downregulated in parathyroid carcinoma, while in parathyroid hyperplasia most miRNAs are upregulated. miRNA profiling shows distinct differentially expressed miRNAs by tumor type which may serve as helpful adjunct to distinguish parathyroid adenoma from carcinoma.
On the non-extendibility of strongness and supercompactness through strong compactness

If is either supercompact or strong and < is strong or super- compact for every < , then it is known must be (fully) strong or supercompact. We show this is not necessarily the case if is strongly compact.
Contribution of individual side-chains to the stability of BPTI examined by alanine-scanning mutagenesis

Bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) serves as an important model system for the examination of almost all aspects of protein structure. Systematic studies of the effects of mutation on the thermodynamic stability of BPTI, however, have been limited by the extreme stability of the protein. A derivative of BPTI containing only the 5–55 disulfide bond, termed [5–55] Ala , has been shown previously to fold into a structure very similar to that of native BPTI and to be a functional trypsin inhibitor. [5–55] Ala undergoes a reversible thermal unfolding transition with a melting temperature of 39°C, and is therefore well suited for stability studies. Using an alanine-scanning mutagenesis approach, we have examined the contribution to stability of each side-chain in the [5–55] Ala derivative of BPTI. These studies demonstrate the importance of the two hydrophobic cores composed largely of clusters of aromatic residues, as well as the internal hydrogen-bonding network, in stabilizing BPTI. Overall, there is a strong relationship between change in buried surface area and stability for both polar and hydrophobic residues, with proportionality constants of 50 and 20 cal/A 2 , respectively. None of the alanine substitutions substantially stabilized [5–55] Ala . Nonetheless, approximately 60% (28/46) of the alanine mutants were destabilized by less than 10°C, suggesting that a form of BPTI with up to half of its residues being alanine could fold into a stable structure resembling the native one.
Microscale characterization of uranium(VI) silicate solids and associated neptunium(V)

Summary. The uranium(VI) silicate phases uranophane, Ca[(UO2)(SiO3OH)]2·5H2O, and sodium boltwoodite, Na[(UO2)(SiO3OH)]·1.5H2O, were synthesized in the presence of small, variable quantities (0.5–2.0 mol % relative to U) of pentavalent neptunium (Np(V), as NpO2 + ), to investigate the nature of its association with these U(VI) solid phases. Solids were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), gamma spectrometry (GS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). Neptunium concentration was determined in the bulk solid phases by GS and was found to range from 780–15 800 µg/g. In some cases, Np distributions between the aqueous and solid phases were monitored, and 78%–97% of the initial Np was associated with the isolated solid. Characterization of individual crystallites by TEM/EELS suggests the Np is associated with the U(VI) phase. No discrete Np phases, such as Np oxides, were observed. Because the U(VI) silicates are believed to be important solubility-controlling solids on a geologic timescale, these results suggest that the partitioning of the minor actinides to these solids must be considered when assessing the performance of a waste repository for spent nuclear fuel.
MODELING OF FLUX ROPE CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS

We present a forward-modeling technique for flux rope-like CMEs using an empirically defined model of a flux rope, the graduated cylindrical shell (GCS). To compare it with white-light coronagraph observations, we assume an electron distribution through the GCS and derive synthetic images in total and polarized brightness for various projections of the model using a Thomson scattering ray-tracing program. We test our forward modeling technique on 34 LASCO CMEs analyzed by Cremades & Bothmer. We are able to reproduce the CME morphology and derive the electron density (at the CME front) of these events using multi-instrument observations (MDI, Hα, EIT, LASCO) under the assumption of self-similar expansion. This study suggests that a flux rope-like structure is a good description for these events. We also find that we need to invoke a deflection and/or rotation of the structure relative to the position and orientation of the source region in most cases. Finally, we demonstrate an original technique to fit the electron density of the CME leading edge. We find that, on average, the peak of the density at the CME front is 7.5 times that in the equatorial model of Saito et al., and can reach ~22 times the model in some cases.
Use of bare-mounted Palmaz-Schatz stents employing the stent saddle technique on the delivery balloon: a single center experience.

The major limitations of the Palmaz-Schatz stent stem from the design of its stent delivery system (SDS). The SDS is bulky and has poor trackability in lesions with proximal tortuosity and/or vessel calcification. The use of bare-mounted Palmaz-Schatz stents on low profile balloons represents an alternate approach for lesions that are not accessible for stenting with the SDS. Thus we evaluated the indications, procedural success rate, and in-hospital complications of patients undergoing bare stenting at a single center between 1 October 1995 through 30 September 1996. A total of 363 coronary interventions were performed during this period, including coronary stenting in 194 vessels. In 18 of these 194 vessels, bare-mounted Palmaz-Schatz stents were used. The indications for bare stenting were: inability to deliver the Palmaz-Schatz stent on SDS for suboptimal angioplasty results or acute/threatened abrupt closure; use of half stents; stenting in vessels < 3.0 mm; intermediate disease in the proximal segment that would have precluded optimal visualization of stent placement; and use of guides 7 French or smaller. Bare stenting was successful in 15 of the 18 patients (vessels) in whom it was attempted. There were no deaths, myocardial infarctions, stent thrombosis, repeat interventions, or significant bleeding in patients with successful bare stent delivery. The stents were successfully retrieved in the three patients in whom the stent could not be advanced into the target coronary segment. One of these patients had a propagated spiral dissection prior to attempts at bare stenting and required emergent bypass surgery. The remaining two patients with failed deployment had suboptimal angioplasty results but had an uncomplicated hospital course. Thus bare stenting represents an alternate percutaneous approach to tackle suboptimal procedural results and/or complications in patients who have failed stent deployment with the standard sheathed stent delivery system currently available in the United States. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Diagn. 41:361–368, 1997. Published 1997 Wiley-Liss Inc.1
Signal-dependent noise characterization in Haar filterbank representation

Owing to the properties of joint time-frequency analysis that compress energy and approximately decorrelate temporal redundancies in sequential data, filterbank and wavelets are popular and convenient platforms for statistical signal modeling. Motivated by the prior knowledge and empirical studies, much of the emphasis in signal processing has been placed on the choice of the prior distribution for these transform coefficients. In this paradigm however, the issues pertaining to the loss of information due to measurement noise are difficult to reconcile because the effects of point-wise signal-dependent noise permeate across scale and through multiple coefficients. In this work, we show how a general class of signal-dependent noise can be characterized to an arbitrary precision in a Haar filterbank representation, and the corresponding maximum a posteriori estimate for the underlying signal is developed. Moreover, the structure of noise in the transform domain admits a variant of Stein's unbiased estimate of risk conducive to processing the corrupted signal in the transform domain. We discuss estimators involving Poisson process, a situation that arises often in real-world applications such as communication, signal processing, and imaging.
Taylor-Made Libraries

Back in the 1950s, most Americans had read the book or watched the movie entitled Cheaper by the Dozen (which bears no real relation to the recent Steve Martin movies, except the idea of a comicall...
Ignition characteristics of hybrid Al–Ni–Fe2O3 and Al–Ni–CuO reactive composites fabricated by ultrasonic powder consolidation

Abstract Reactive composites of compositions 2Al–Fe2O3-x(Al–Ni), 2Al-3CuO-x(Al–Ni) and 2Al–Al2O3-x(Al–Ni) (x = 1–4) were fabricated from nano-thick Al and Ni flakes and Fe2O3 and CuO nanoparticles by ultrasonic powder consolidation (UPC). Application of in-plane ultrasonic vibration for 1 s at 573 K under a uniaxial pressure of 100 MPa produced full-density consolidates. Upon continuous heating at 125 K/min, the composites began self-heating just before they ignited. The 2Al–Fe2O3-1(Al–Ni) and 2Al-3CuO-1(Al–Ni) composites ignited at the melting point of aluminum, but all the other composites ignited well below the melting point, indicating that the reaction(s) between the Al and Ni flakes produced hot spots where liquid formed and triggered the ignition. The hybrid bimetallic–thermite compositions, 2Al–Fe2O3-x(Al–Ni) and 2Al–3CuO-x(Al–Ni), combine the large heat output of the Al–metal oxide thermite reaction and the low ignition temperature of Al–Ni exothermic reactions in single reactive composites.
Electrokinetic control of nitrate movement in soil

Abstract Nitrate contamination of surface and groundwater has become a serious concern in many agricultural areas throughout the world. Nitrate fertilization is widely used to increase crop yields and quality, but nitrates are highly soluble in water with low retention by soils. Appropriate nitrate application practices can minimize losses, but untimely rainfall can foil management intent. A small dc electrical input has previously been reported to influence nitrate movement in wet soil. Two sets of lysimeter experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of parallel electrodes on pH and nitrate distribution in field soils subjected to an electrical input. In one experiment, drip irrigation with injected nitrate application was used to grow Sudan grass; in the other, nitrate distribution in wet soil was observed after application of varying levels of electrical current. Increased nitrate concentration, reduced sodium and calcium concentration and lower pH values near the anode, the expected results, were not attained consistently in the test soils with an electrical input of 100–700 mA. The evaluation is being continued with simpler, more controlled conditions in soil column laboratory experiments.