cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cartel stability and tariff policy

Abstract In this paper we investigate the effect that tariff policy has on the ability of firms to collude in oligopolistic industries. We find that small tariff rates lead to an industry structure more conducive to collusive behavior, while large tariff rates weaken cartels. There exists a critical tariff rate which has no effect on the cartel's stability. This critical value is found to be a decreasing function of N , the number of firms in the industry, and N D N the proportion of firms that are domestic.
Using radiosonde meteorological data to better assess air conditioning loads in tall buildings

Considering radiosonde-observed lower atmosphere air temperature and specific humidity data in support of isolated tall building's air conditioning (AC) planning, is suggested. Procedures to process such data and several illustrations of their utilization for summer afternoon meteorological conditions are provided. The constraints involved with the utilization of radiosonde data are discussed. Coastal and continental locations in the US, as represented by San Diego and Oklahoma City radiosondes, were considered for illustration. In San Diego, a significant decrease with height in air temperature, specific humidity and, consequently, ventilation load are typical. These characteristics are suggested to be typical for near shore areas of California. For Oklahoma City, air temperature typically decreased moderately with height. Specific humidity frequently increases, resulting in a mild dependence of the specific moist enthalpy on height.
Making an environmental market, unmaking adaptive capacity: Species commodification in the New England groundfishery

Abstract This article demonstrates how market-focused natural resource management can reduce adaptive capacity to environmental change. It describes attempts to standardize socio-ecological phenomena in the New England groundfishery for purposes of legal accountability and the development of environmental markets. Industry flexibility across harvested species has supported a range of informal social networks for the exchange of information and other goods and services. Federal catch share policy, associated species population assessments, and transferable harvest quotas neglect social and ecological diversity that figure centrally in adaptation strategies. New quota markets generate a cascade of impacts, including intensified capital investment, threats of industry consolidation, increased reliance on limited capabilities of fisheries science, more acute regulatory uncertainties, narrowing of species options, smaller and less predictable profit margins, shifts in industry expectations for the future, and changes in fishing practice. Presumed market incentives for resource conservation are weakened. State and non-profit interventions to protect marine resources and local fishing-dependent collectivities may have limited immediate impact, but still play important roles in the longer term. Permit banks, alternative seafood marketing, and reformist regulatory proposals maintain institutional diversity and invigorate informal social relations capable of decentralized information sharing and collective action, which are essential to more adaptive environmental governance.
On the pressure and stress singularities induced by steady flows of incompressible viscous fluids

Design for structural integrity requires an appreciation of where stress singularities can occur in structural configurations. While there is a rich literature devoted to the identification of such singular behavior in solid mechanics, to date there has been relatively little explicit identification of stress singularities caused by fluid flows. In this study, stress and pressure singularities induced by steady flows of viscous incompressible fluids are asymptotically identified. This is done by taking advantage of an earlier result that the Navier–Stokes equations are locally governed by Stokes flow in angular corners. Findings for power singularities are confirmed by developing and using an analogy with solid mechanics. This analogy also facilitates the identification of flow-induced log singularities. Both types of singularity are further confirmed for two global configurations by applying convergence–divergence checks to numerical results. Even though these flow-induced stress singularities are analogous to singularities in solid mechanics, they nonetheless render a number of structural configurations singular that were not previously appreciated as such from identifications within solid mechanics alone.
IgA nephropathy with crescents in kidney transplant recipients

Background: Crescentic glomerulonephritis is an uncommon finding in renal allografts. Recurrence or de novo mesangial deposition of immunoglobulin A (IgA) in renal allografts most often is clinically benign, but some case reports have shown that IgA nephropathy in renal allografts can present as crescentic glomerulonephritis and may lead to rapid deterioration of graft function and/or graft loss. Methods: We reviewed diagnoses of all allograft biopsies at University of Washington Medical Center (Seattle, WA) from 1989 to 2003 and found 33 cases of glomerulonephritis with crescents. Eight of these cases were the result of recurrent or de novo IgA nephropathy. Clinical and pathological features of these patients were reviewed. Results: Six of 8 cases with crescents were the result of recurrent IgA nephropathy, and 2 cases were presumptive de novo IgA nephropathy. Of the 8 patients with IgA nephropathy with crescents, 6 patients presented clinically with increasing serum creatinine levels; 4 patients, with proteinuria; and 4 patients, with hematuria. In 6 patients, there was 10% to 30% involvement of glomeruli, with crescents partially or completely filling urinary spaces. The other patients showed lesser (∼7% of sampled glomeruli) involvement. Four patients with IgA nephropathy with crescents developed renal failure and returned to hemodialysis therapy. Three patients had a benign clinical course, with stabilization of renal function. One patient was lost to follow-up. Conclusion: We identified a cohort of patients with glomerulonephritis with crescents in renal allografts with IgA nephropathy as the cause. In half the affected patients, this led to early progressive renal insufficiency and return to hemodialysis therapy.
Comparison at necropsy by age group of amount and distribution of narrowing by atherosclerotic plaque in 2995 five-mm long segments of 240 major coronary arteries in 60 men aged 31 to 70 years with sudden coronary death.

A comparison of the amount and distribution of coronary arterial narrowing by atherosclerotic plaque at necropsy is described in each of four decades (31 to 70 years) of 60 male victims of sudden coronary death (SCD). Of 2995 five-mm segments examined (mean 50 per patient) of the four major (left main [LM], left anterior descending [LAD], left circumflex [LC], and right) coronary arteries, no significant differences were observed in the mean percent of 5 mm long segments narrowed severely (76% to 100% in cross-sectional area [XSA]) in each decade: 33% in the five patients aged 31 to 40 years, 29% in the 27 patients aged 41 to 50 years, 26% in the 18 patients aged 51 to 60 years, and 30% in the 10 patients aged 61 to 70 years. The mean percent of 5 mm segments severely narrowed was significantly (p < 0.05) greater in the proximal halves than in the distal halves of the LAD, LC, and right coronary arteries in only the two older decades. The mean percent of 5 mm segments minimally (0% to 25%) narrowed, however, was significantly higher in the younger than in the older decades. Thus, as groups, both young and old victims of SCD have similar amounts of severe coronary narrowing, but the younger victims have a greater proportion of their major coronary arteries minimally narrowed.
Digestible energy and efficiency of feed utilization in rats treated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin.

Abstract Treatment of male rats (300 to 325 g) with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo- p -dioxin (TCDD, 15 or 50 μg/kg) caused dose-dependent reductions in body weight, feed and water intakes, and fecal output. Urine output, however, was not altered by TCDD. Fecal energy loss, as a percentage of daily feed energy intake (kcal/day), was similar in control and TCDD-treated rats as was the percentage of feed energy absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, i.e., digestible energy. These findings dispel the long-standing proposal that a gross malabsorption syndrome is responsible for weight loss in TCDD-treated rats and place greater emphasis on hypophagia as the reason for weight loss. In support of a central role for hypophagia, it was found that control rats pair-fed to rats treated with a sublethal dose of TCDD (15 μg/kg) lost almost the same amount of weight. However, from 15 to 50 days post-treatment, the pair-fed animals consistently maintained their weight at a 10- to 15-g higher level than age-matched TCDD-treated rats. To determine why this weight difference occurs, the efficiency of feed utilization from Day 30 to 45 post-treatment in ad libitum fed control and TCDD-treated rats (15 μg/kg) that were maintaining different levels of body weight was compared. First, daily feed intakes of TCDD-treated and control rats were determined from Day 25 to 30 post-treatment. Second, weight of both groups were lowered by reducing feed intake in two successive 5-day periods to 50 and 10% of the respective ad libitum level. Third, on Days 40 to 45, both groups were refed their prereduction level of intake but reduced in proportion to the intervening loss in metabolic tissue mass. At each level of feed energy reduction, weight losses observed in the TCDD-treated and control rats were equivalent. Furthermone, although given only prerestriction amounts of feed that were indexed to their reduced metabolic body size (body wt kg 0.75 ), both TCDD-treated and control rats gained weight rapidly and at similar rates during the refeeding period. Thus, rats treated with a sublethal dose of TCDD displayed normal efficiency of feed utiization but did so at a subnormal level of weight. That is, just like control rats, TCDD-treated rats increased their efficiency of feed utiilzation (weight gain/feed intake) but only when their body weight was caused to fall below the lower weight maintenance level determined by the TCDD dose administered. This difference in weight level, below which control and TCDD-treated rats increase their efficiency of feed utilization, might explain why pair-fed control rats maintained a slightly higher level of body weight than TCDD-treated animals while ingesting the same amount of feed.
Network Distributed Quantization

We investigate the design of rate-distortion optimal quantizers for distributed compression in a network with multiple senders and receivers. In such network, several noisy observations of one or more unseen sources are separately encoded by each sender and the quantization indices transmitted to a number of receivers, which jointly decode all available transmissions with the help of side information locally available. The joint statistics of the source data, the noisy observations and the side information are known, and exploited in the quantizer design. A variety of lossless coders for the quantization indices, including ideal multiple-source Slepian-Wolf coders, are allowed. We present the optimality conditions such quantizers must satisfy, together with an extension of the Lloyd algorithm for a locally optimal design. Experimental results for distributed quantization of Gaussian sources confirm the high-rate quantization theory established in our previous work.
Salts enhance both protein stability and amyloid formation of an immunoglobulin light chain

Amyloid fibrils are associated with sulfated glycosaminoglycans in the extracellular matrix. The presence of sulfated glycosaminoglycans is known to promote amyloid formation in vitro and in vivo, with the sulfate groups playing a role in this process. In order to understand the role that sulfate plays in amyloid formation, we have studied the effect of salts from the Hofmeister series on the protein structure, stability and amyloid formation of an amyloidogenic light chain protein, AL-12. We have been able to show for the first time a direct correlation between protein stability and amyloid formation enhancement by salts from the Hofmeister series, where SO(4)(2-) conferred the most protein stability and enhancement of amyloid formation. Our study emphasizes the importance of the effect of ions in the protein bound water properties and downplays the role of specific interactions between the protein and ions.
The origin and fate of spermatophores in the viviparous teleost Cymatogaster aggregata (Perciformes: Embiotocidae).

The sperm of the shiner surfperch are packaged into high density aggregations which are introduced into the female genital tract at insemination. Germ cell differentiation occurs within cysts formed by nongerminal Sertoli cells. In late spermiogenesis, spermatozoa within the cysts come to lie parallel to each other and become more densely packed. These sperm packets (spermatophores), containing approximately 600 spermatozoa, then are released into the efferent sperm ducts. The exact nature of the spermatophore binding material is not known, but a major component is proteinaceous and is synthesized in the rough endoplasmic reticulum of the efferent sperm duct epithelial cells. The mechanism by which the spermatophores pass from cysts into ducts is not clear. It appears that whereas many Sertoli cells degenerate causing the cyst wall to break down, many Sertoli cells do not degenerate, but rather assume the configuration of columnar duct cells. The spermatophores remain intact within the testicular ducts, but rapidly dissolve within the female ducts in response to increased pH.
Thermochemical stress crazing and cracking of thermoplastics

A new method of inducing crazing and cracking in thermoplastics is discussed. The method involves the thermal quenching of hot thermoplastics into simple organic liquids or organic solutions. Data are presented for several different thermoplastics and a number of different liquids. The results are interpreted in terms of a model based on the work of Manning and Lineback that incorporates thermal strains and stresses, thermal conductivity, specific interfacial energies, and defects. The specific crazing energy for bisphenol-A polycarbonate when quenched into isopropyl alcohol is determined to be approximately 3 × 105 erg/cm2 from this model. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Neural responses to category ambiguous words.

Category ambiguous words (like hug and swing) have the potential to complicate both learning and processing of language. However, uses of such words may be disambiguated by acoustic differences that depend on the category of use. This article uses an event-related potential (ERP) technique to ask whether adult native speakers of English show neural sensitivity to those differences. The results indicate that noun and verb tokens of ambiguous words produce differences in the amplitude of the ERP response over left anterior sites as early as 100 ms following stimulus onset and persisting for over 400 ms. Nonsense words extracted from noun and verb contexts do not show such differences. These findings suggest that the acoustic differences between noun and verb tokens of ambiguous words are perceived and processed by adults and may be part of the lexical representation of the word.
Studies of Stress- and Fatigue-Induced Defects Using Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

The technique of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is proving to be of great value in the study of deformation-induced defects in various materials. Frequently SANS is the only practicable method for obtaining detailed, quantitative information on the kinetics of defect production. In crystalline material, the following defects produced by deformation are most amenable to study by SANS: bulk microcracking in brittle material; voids, bubbles and vacancy clusters; dislocations. If a broad definition is adopted for the types of defects to be considered, we can include the accelerated coarsening of particles and precipitates produced by high-temperature deformation. To date the greatest success with SANS in the study of defects associated with stress has been achieved with cavities (voids, etc.) and microcracks. The presence of dislocations can be detected by neutron scattering, but more extensive data on their nature, disposition and density usually can be obtained readily by TEM examination of thin foils. Accordingly, emphasis in this review will be on those defects for which neutron scattering has yielded detailed information not readily available by other methods.
"They Want to Destroy Me": How California's Fiscal Crisis Became A War on "Big Government Unions"

In 2003, California voters recalled their governor and elected movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. Two crises triggered this event: large ongoing state budget deficits and a failed electricity deregulation plan. In his first year, Governor Schwarzenegger dealt with the budget through large-scale borrowing and had a reasonably cooperative relationship with the legislature. But in 2005, with the budget still in deficit, he threatened to go to the voters with a budget solution. That decision somehow morphed into a gubernatorial campaign against “big government unions.” Ultimately, after vast sums were spent on a November 2005 special election, all the governor’s initiatives lost, including one offering “paycheck protection” to public union members. The decision to antagonize unions seemed to result from excess delegation of authority by the governor to outsiders and lack of control of his own staff.
Development and performance of the KTeV transition radiation detector system

Abstract A large area, nine chamber transition radiation detector system was designed and constructed for the KTeV rare Kaon decay experiment E799 at Fermilab. The development and performance of this particle identification detector system will be described. The design goal of this system was to be better than 100 : 1 e/π rejection at 90% electron acceptance; however, the system performed much better.
State-of-the-art virtual reality hardware for computer-aided design

Virtual reality is an exciting new field, which may offer significant improvements in the efficiency of human-computer interface for a wide variety of computer applications. This paper serves to identify technology developments in virtual reality hardware devices that may allow for development of a more efficient user interface for computer-aided design packages for mechanical design functions. Presented is a survey of the current state of the art in the rapidly changing field of virtual reality hardware devices. The devices are broken down into classes that are related to user interface features that may improve the efficiency of computer-aided design functions. Classes of virtual reality hardware devices are identified needing future research and development to implement the most effective virtual reality computer-aided design interface.
Effects of stream order and season on mineralization of [14C]-phenol in streams

Mineralization of trace levels of [14C]-phenol by heterotrophic microorganisms was quantified at 4 sites along a river continuum in southwestern Virginia. Significant phenol mineralization rates were detected in surface sediment and seston samples at all sites from August 1985 through May 1986. Phenol degradation was strongly affected by season (ANOVA; P < 0.0001). From a baseline rate in August (range: 1.19 × 10-5 to 897 × 10-4 mg phenol mineralized mg AFDW-1 h-1) phenol mineralization rose to a yearly maximum in October (range: 1.21 × 10-4 to 1.16 × 10-3 mg phenol mineralized mg AFDW-1 h-1) despite decreasing stream temperatures. This autumnal peak in phenol degradation was attributed to the pulsed input of allochthonous detritus, especially leaf litter, which contains substantial quantities of phenols and related compounds. Although phenol mineralization was significant in these streams, phenols were metabolized at much slower rates than more labile compounds present in the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool. Estimates of turnover rates for three major components of DOM revealed that glucose and glutamate turnover rates (0.064–0.140 h-1 mg sediment AFDW-1 and 0.140–0.610 h-1 mg sediment AFDW-1, respectively) were, respectively, 2.2–4.7 × and 9.6–16.9 × greater than phenol turnover rates (0.015–0.064 h-1 mg sediment AFDW-1). Although the relatively low rates of utilization of refractory phenolic materials suggest that these compounds may accumulate and become more prevalent components of the DOM pool, phenol concentrations at the 4 study sites remained below detectable levels (i.e., < 1 μg 1-1) throughout the study. Consequently, it seems that although phenolic materials are metabolized more slowly than labile DOM, phenols are degraded at rates which preclude accumulation in the water column.
Hepatitis C-related Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Prevalence Around the World, Factors Interacting, and Role of Genotypes

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most frequently occurring cancer world-wide and is responsible for approximately one million deaths each year (1). It is frequently found in patients with chronic liver disease resulting from infection with hepatitis C virus, and as many as 170 million or more people may be infected with this virus (2). Epidemiologic studies have identified the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients infected with the hepatitis C virus and the routes of transmission of the disease (3-5), but it is unclear what factors interact with the virus to increase an individual's risk for carcinoma. The most plausible explanation presented thus far is that the virus causes chronic necroinflammatory hepatic disease with vigorous regeneration, fibrosis, and eventual cirrhosis (3). The World Health Organization has estimated that approximately 80 percent of patients with acute hepatitis C viral infection will go on to develop chronic hepatitis; of these, 20 percent will develop cirrhosis and 1-5 percent will progress to hepatocellular carcinoma (2). The purpose of this review is to determine which risk factors interact with hepatitis C infection among persons who develop hepatocellular carcinoma. Studies have shown that the roles of hepatitis B and C viruses in hepatocarcinogenesis vary considerably among populations. However, the independent role of hepatitis C virus in the genesis of hepatocellular carcinoma is poorly understood. Some conditions implicated as being predisposing, or etiologic factors for the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, include older age, male sex, excessive alcohol consumption, blood transfusion, chronic liver diseases, cirrhosis, and dietary exposure to aflatoxin (6-10). An important next step
Geographical patterns of cancer mortality in China.

Abstract This research note discusses the China cancer mortality data and the methodological problems involved in spatial analysis of these data. Some of the research findings produced by mapping and analyses of the cancer data at the provincial level are also summarized. The two most common cancers in China, stomach and esophagus, were found to have no significant correlation with some selected physical variables and population density, suggesting the need to examine other socio-economic variables such as dietary habit. The study also suggests that the type of diet which may be responsible for these two cancers could be very different from each others. Colon and rectum, leukemia, and breast cancers were found to have very high positive spatial autocorrelation and high correlation with population density—a result contrary to previous findings in the West. Future research using a geographic information system approach and county data is suggested.
Adenovirus-mediated expression of CXCL10 in the central nervous system results in T-cell recruitment and limited neuropathology

In the present study, the authors evaluated the contributions of the CXC chemokine ligand (CXCL)10 to leukocyte recruitment into the central nervous system (CNS) and disease development. Instillation of a replication-deficient adenovirus that expresses CXCL10 (AdCXCL10) into the CNS of C57BL/6 mice resulted in a rapid (day 3) and prolonged (day 21) infiltration of both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells as compared to mice infected with an adenovirus vector containing beta-galactosidase (Adbetagal). Despite increased T-cell infiltration into the CNS of AdCXCL10-infected mice, production of proinflammatory chemokines normally associated with the recruitment of activated T cells into the CNS was muted and mice developed limited neuropathology. Therefore, these results indicate that T-cell infiltration in the absence of appropriate activation is not sufficient to induce pathology within the CNS and that additional signals other than CXCL10 are required for induction of an immune-mediated neurologic disease.
Ruptured mycotic aneurysm of the spleen.

The fourth recorded survivor of a ruptured splenic aneurysm is presented. He is also remarkable for his multiple pathology including bacterial endocarditis, aortic incompetence with multiple peripheral embolism, and neurofibromatosis. It is emphasized that mycotic aneurysms of the spleen are an unusual complication of bacterial endocarditis, and a high index of suspicion is essential for their diagnosis. Treatment must be prompt and effective.
Population structure and recommendations for conservation of the narrowly endemic alpine butterfly, Boloria acrocnema (Lepidoptera : Nymphalidae)

Abstract Boloria acrocnema is a glacial relict species, known from two colonies in alpine southwestern Colorado, USA. Mark-recapture techniques were used to analyse its population structure at its type locality, Mt Uncompahgre. Adult activity there is confined largely to about 1 ha in which the larval foodplant, Salix nivalis, is abundant. Mark-recapture data indicate that daily population sizes are low, most adults remain in residence at the colony only a few days, and there are age-specific sexual differences in movement, with older females perhaps leaving the colony site. Survival of B. acrocnema is probably governed by a pattern of local extinctions, counter-balanced by colonizations of new habitat. The autoecology of B. acrocnema is discussed in the light of present conservation needs of this butterfly. Management actions being taken by several agencies are also presented; these include enforcing grazing restrictions, monitoring collecting pressure, and formal listing of this species under federal and state endangered species programmes.
Goal Programming as a Solution Technique for the Acquisitions Allocation Problem

Decisions influencing the allocation of acquisitions funds in academic libraries are often based on the influence of many conflicting expectations ranging from those of the university community, administrators, faculty, and students to those of the librarians themselves. Any effective allocation model must be capable of reflecting the librarian's judgment about the priority of desired goals within the constraints of the existing situation. Most allocation models fail to meet this requirement. This article demonstrates how goal programming techniques can be used to provide an optimal allocation solution within the context of conflicting and incommensurate goals. A goal programming model is developed and used to illustrate the solution of a library acquisition allocation problem.
Secondary flow in a parallel-disk viscometer

A numerical solution of theNavier-Stokes equations is obtained for flow in a parallel-disk viscometer. The inertial secondary flow consists of a single eddy which is well represented away from the free surface by the approximate analytical solution for infinite disks.
Lunar occultations: From conjecture to results

Abstract An historical sketch of the lunar occultation phenomenon and its astronomical uses is given. A brief review of the parameters affecting an occultation diffraction pattern is followed by chronological descriptions of occultation instrumentation, pretelescopic observations, the lunar atmosphere debate, timings and angular resolution.
Semantic query optimization for processing XML streams with minimized memory footprint

XQuery evaluation over XML streams requires the temporary buffering of XML elements. This paper presents a semantic query optimization solution to minimize memory footprint during XQuery evaluation by exploiting schema knowledge. We focus on one particular class of constraints, namely, the Pattern Non-Occurrence (PNO) constraints for XML streams conforming to pre-defined DTDs. PNO constraints facilitate the early release of buffered data (early buffer release) or possibly avoid to ever store the data (buffer avoidance), thus achieving a minimized memory footprint. We develop an automaton-based technique to detect PNO constraints at runtime. For a given query, optimization opportunities of early buffer release and buffer avoidance which can be triggered by runtime PNO detection are explored and the optimization decision is then encoded into the Raindrop algebraic plan. We implement our optimization technique within the Raindrop XQuery engine. Our experimental studies illustrate that the proposed techniques bring significant performance improvement in both memory and CPU usage with little overhead.
Langmuir‐Blodgett films of rigid rod oligoimides on gold: An x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy study

Angular-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) was used to study mono- and multilayer films of rigid oligoimides prepared on gold-coated glass slides by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) horizontal lifting technique. The experimentally obtained total atomic ratios were in a good agreement with molecular formulae. The attenuation of the substrate Au 4f photoemissio intensities was recorded as a function of both the number of LB dips and the take-off angles. The ratio of the thickness to the attenuation length was determined for three different oligoimides from the slopes of the linear attenuation regions. Interpretation of the thickness/attenuation length ratio was based on the models for the oligoimide LB films of oriented structures. The average tilt angle and the area/molecule used in modeling the oligoimide film structures were determined in independent experiments involving grazing angle infrared (GIR) spectroscopy, electrochemistry and LB pressure-area isotherms. The thicknesses of the oligoimide films were calculated from the models and used to derive the value of the attenuation length from the ARXPS slopes. The attenuation length value for Au 4f core-level photoelectrons (Ek = 1169.6 eV) was estimated to be 66–70 A in the LB films of all three different oligoimides.
Electron-phonon interactions in the copper oxides: Implications for the resistivity

The effects of strong Coulomb correlations on the electron-phonon interaction are calculated using a frozen-phonon approach applied to the extended Hubbard, infinite-{ital U} Hamiltonian. As the insulator is approached the electron-phonon interaction becomes progressively weakened due to the inability to transfer charge. Both the magnitude and concentration {ital x} dependence of {ital m}{sup *}/n are consistent with experiment. While there are no clear experimental trends for variations of 1/{tau} with {ital x}, the magntiude is in agreement with the data. That the calculated electron-phonon contribution to {rho} is nearly linear and found to account for most of the observed magnitude must be recognized in estimating the importance of other electronic or magnetic scattering contributions to the linear resistivity.
A multi-camera conical imaging system for robust 3D motion estimation, positioning and mapping from UAVs

Over the last decade there, has been an increasing interest in developing vision systems and technologies that support the operation of unmanned platforms for positioning, mapping, and navigation. Until very recently, these developments relied on images from standard CCD cameras with a single optical center and limited field of view, making them restrictive for some applications. Panoramic images have been explored extensively in recent years. The particular configuration of interest to our investigation yields a conical view, which is most applicable for airborne and underwater platforms. Instead of a single catadioptric camera (Gluckman, J.M. and Nayar, S.K., 1999; Swaminathan, R. et al., 2001), a combination of conventional cameras may he used to generate images at much higher resolution (Negahdaripour, S. et al., Proc. Oceans, 2001). We derive complete mathematic models of projection and image motion equations for a down-looking conical camera that may be installed on a mobile platform - e.g. an airborne or submersible system for terrain flyover imaging. We describe the calibration of a system comprising multiple cameras with overlapping fields of view to generate the conical view. We demonstrate with synthetic and real data that such images provide better accuracy in 3D visual motion estimation, which is the underlying issue in 3D positioning, navigation, mapping, image registration and photo-mosaicking.
The Two Faces of Courage

Courage is dangerous. If it is defined in traditional ways, as a set of dispositions to overcome fear, to oppose obstacles, to perform difficult or dangerous actions, its claim to be a virtue is questionable. Unlike the virtue of justice, or a sense of proportion, traditional courage does not itself determine what is to be done, let alone assure that it is worth doing. If we retain the traditional conception of courage and its military connotations–overcoming and combat–we should be suspicious of it. Instead of automatically classifying it as a virtue, attempting to develop and exercise it, we should become alert to its dangers. And yet and yet. There is an aspect of traditional courage that serves us: we require the capacities and traits that enable us to persist in acting well under stress, to endure hardships when following our judgments about what is best is difficult or dangerous. If courage is checked, redefined as the virtue that enables virtue–the various sets of dispositions, whatever they may be, that make us resolute in worthy, difficult action–then we need not fear the dangers of courage. We need rather to reform it by diversifying it, as a heterogeneous variety of traits that enable us to act well under stress, against the natural movements of self-protection.
A MODEL OF THE EMERGENCE OF THE TARASCAN STATE

By a.d. 1350, central-western Mexico was incorporated into the Tarascan state. This irechequa tzintzuntzani (kingdom of Tzintzuntzan) has been known primarily from sixteenth-century documents. With three decades of archaeological, ecological, and ethnohistoric research, it is now possible to propose a model of the emergence of the first archaic state in Michoacan. Critical issues to be addressed include (1) why state formation occurred (and why this form); (2) why even secondary state formation was “delayed” for more than a millennium; (3) why it occurred in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin; and (4) the role of Purepecha ethnicity in the process.
ObamaCare A Bad Deal for Young Adults

One of the most interesting questions about the health care overhaul now moving through Congress is how it would affect young adults. That legislation would force most or all Americans to purchase health insurance (an "individual mandate") and would impose price controls on health insurance ("community rating") that would limit insurers' ability to offer lower premiums to low-risk enrollees.Those provisions would drive premiums down for 55-year-olds but would drive them up for 25-year-olds - who are then implicitly subsidizing older adults. According to the Urban Institute, many young people could see their premiums double, whereas premiums for older adults could be cut in half.Massachusetts benefits from another type of subsidy that props up its regime of mandates and price controls: large subsidies from the federal government. In contrast, the United States as a whole has no external party it can exploit to subsidize a nationwide Massachusetts-style health care overhaul - unless Congress finances that overhaul through additional deficit spending, which is really just another way of taxing the young to subsidize the old.The irony is that Barack Obama won the presidency with 66 percent of the vote among adults aged 18 to 29. That's a larger share than any presidential candidate has won in decades. Yet his health care overhaul could impose its greatest burdens on young adults.
A design approach for actively shielded magnetic resonance imaging magnets

A design basis for an actively shielded arrangement of coils is presented which results in an optimized magnet configuration suitable for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A random search technique is used to select configurations using the least amount of conductor, exhibiting the smallest level of field inhomogeneity, and resulting in the least level of stray field while meeting central field and size requirements. A computer program has been developed which incorporates this design approach. Magnetic configurations selected with the aid of this design tool are discussed. >
Empirically Supported Couple and Family Interventions for Marital Distress and Adult Mental Health Problems

This article evaluates the efficacy, effectiveness, and clinical significance of empirically supported couple and family interventions for treating marital distress and individual adult disorders, including anxiety disorders, depression, sexual dysfunctions, alcoholism and problem drinking, and schizophrenia. In addition to consideration of different theoretical approaches to treating these disorders, different ways of including a partner or family in treatment are highlighted: (a) partner-family-assisted interventions, (b) disorder-specific partner-family interventions, and (c) more general couple-family therapy. Findings across diagnostic groups and issues involved in applying efficacy criteria to these populations are discussed.
Gender and Outcomes of Carotid Artery Interventions

The benefits of carotid artery revascularization in women have been debated since the publication of large randomized clinical trials comparing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) to medical therapy. Institutional series have historically had an underrepresentation of women and/or have lacked power for adequate analysis. Recent evidence from large databases reveals possible gender-based differences in outcomes of carotid artery stenting versus CEA. In this review, we evaluated clinical articles from 1991 to 2012, using Pubmed and Web of Science, which addressed gender and outcomes of carotid artery revascularization procedures. Our goal was to determine whether gender is associated with adverse outcomes following carotid artery interventions in patients with carotid artery disease.
Effect of the spatial resolution on the precision of parameter estimation in 3-D image registration with external markers

We have studied multimodal 3-D image registration with external markers. We have generated marker positions using Monte-Carlo techniques. The parameters of the registration (3 Euler angles, 3 translations and 3 magnifications) have been studied for various spatial resolution of the imaging modalities. We find that the precision (error of measurement) of these registration parameters varies linearly with the combined spatial resolution of the imaging modalities. >
High-power RF switching using III-nitride metal-oxide-semiconductor heterojunction capacitors

We propose and demonstrate a novel III-Nitride high-power robust RF switch using SiO/sub 2/-AlGaN-GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor heterojunction (MOSH) capacitors. A metal electrode deposited on the top of the SiO/sub 2/ layer and the low-resistivity two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel at the AlGaN-GaN interface serve as the MOSH capacitor plates. Two "back-to-back" connected MOSH capacitors form a double MOSH (D-MOSH) RF switch thereby eliminating the need for ohmic contacts and also allowing fully self-aligned fabrication. The D-MOSH switch has a symmetrical /spl pi/-type capacitance-voltage characteristic with a static ON-OFF capacitance ratio greater than 20:1. The RF switch exhibits similar polarity independent sharp /spl pi/-type transmission bias curve. At 2GHz, a single-element multifinger D-MOSH switch shows isolation greater than 25 dB and insertion loss of 0.7 dB. The switching power exceeds 60 W/mm making the novel D-MOSH switch robust device for high-power high-temperature integrated electronics.
High-frequency sonography of the volar digital nerves of the hand.

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to describe our technique for high-frequency sonography of the volar digital nerves and to define the course, caliber, and morphology of normal volar digital nerves. Methods: The volar digital nerves of 10 volunteers were imaged in the long axis using a linear ultrasound transducer. Height, weight, glove size, and hand dominance were recorded. Each radial and ulnar nerve was divided into four segments. Segment thickness and depth were measured. A mixed model analysis for repeated measures was utilized (α = 0.05). Results: The average nerve thickness (NT) was 1.1 mm (± 0.01 SE), and the average nerve depth (ND) was 2.8 mm (± 0.04 SE). Neither NT nor ND demonstrated any significant correlation with height, age, weight, body mass index, or glove size. Nerves ranged in thickness from 0.7 to 1.5 mm and in depth from 0.7 to 6.8 mm. Conclusion: High-frequency sonography permits high-resolution imaging of the volar digital nerves. Muscle Nerve, 2012
Hemispheric asymmetries during processing of immoral stimuli

Evolutionary approaches to dissecting our psychological architecture underscore the importance of both function and structure. Here we focus on the function of our neural circuitry and report a functional bilateral asymmetry associated with the processing of immoral stimuli. Many processes in the human brain are associated with functional specialization unique to one hemisphere. With respect to emotions, most research points to right hemispheric lateralization. Here we provide evidence that not all emotional stimuli share right-hemispheric lateralization. Across three studies employing different paradigms, the processing of negative morally-laden stimuli was found to be highly left-lateralized. Regions of engagement common to the three studies include the left medial prefrontal cortex, left temporoparietal junction, and left posterior cingulate. These data support the hypothesis that processing of immoral stimuli preferentially engages left hemispheric processes and sheds light on our evolved neural architecture.
Robust tracking, error feedback, and two-degree-of-freedom controllers

The purpose of this paper is to establish first, that in the absence of error feedback, asymptotic tracking is a property that is fragile with respect to the controller parameters. This implies that arbitrary small perturbation of the parameters of such a controller will cause asymptotic tracking to fail. Second, we propose a general 2-DOF controller architecture. We prove that in this structure, asymptotic tracking is, in general, fragile with respect to the controller parameters F/sub r/, F/sub y/ and C, while it is robust with respect to the plant parameters as well as the components H and L of the 2-DOF controller. Moreover, the only way to realize a 2-DOF controller in a nonfragile way is to generate the error signal exactly, which amounts to setting F/sub r/=F/sub y/=1. The results reconcile the requirements of the internal model principle, namely the necessity of error feedback, with the additional design freedom potentially offered by 2-DOF controllers. It specifies the controller architecture necessary for robustness and identifies the blocks whose parameters are available for tuning in the design process.
A combinatorial role for NFAT5 in both myoblast migration and differentiation during skeletal muscle myogenesis

Skeletal muscle regeneration depends on myoblast migration, differentiation and myofiber formation. Isoforms of the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) family of transcription factors display nonredundant roles in skeletal muscle. NFAT5, a new isoform of NFAT, displays many differences from NFATc1-c4. Here, we examine the role of NFAT5 in myogenesis. NFAT5+/- mice displayed a defect in muscle regeneration with fewer myofibers formed at early times after injury. NFAT5 has a muscle-intrinsic function because inhibition of NFAT5 transcriptional activity caused both a migratory and differentiation defect in cultured myoblasts. We identified Cyr61 as a target of NFAT5 signaling in skeletal muscle cells. Addition of Cyr61 to cells expressing inhibitory forms of NFAT5 rescued the migratory phenotype. These results demonstrate a role for NFAT5 in skeletal muscle cell migration and differentiation. Furthermore, as cell-cell interactions are crucial for myoblast differentiation, these data suggest that myoblast migration and differentiation are coupled and that NFAT5 is a key regulator.
Optimal tracking control of affine nonlinear discrete-time systems with unknown internal dynamics

In this paper, direct dynamic programming techniques are utilized to solve the Hamilton Jacobi-Bellman equation forward-in-time for the optimal tracking control of general affine nonlinear discrete-time systems using online approximators (OLA's). The proposed approach, referred as adaptive dynamic programming (ADP), is utilized to solve the infinite horizon optimal tracking control of affine nonlinear discrete-time systems in the presence of unknown internal dynamics and a known control coefficient matrix. The design is implemented using OLA's to realize the optimal feedback control signal and the associated cost function. The feedforward portion of the control input is derived and approximated using an additional OLA for steady state conditions. Novel tuning laws for the OLA's are derived, and all parameters are tuned online. Lyapunov techniques are used to show that all signals are uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB) and that the approximated control signal approaches the optimal control input with small bounded error. In the ideal case when there are no approximation errors, the approximated control converges to the optimal value asymptotically. Simulation results are included to show the effectiveness of the approach.