cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Improving Access to Integrated Behavioral Health in a Nurse-Led Federally Qualified Health Center.

BACKGROUND:The specific aims of this project were to create a fully integrated, nurse-led model of a psychiatric nurse practitioner and behavioral health care team within primary care to facilitate...
Photoacoustic imaging and finite element strain analysis as novel tools for assessing the roles of aqueous veins and perilimbal sclera in intraocular pressure regulation

We developed a photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and finite element analysis (FEA) approach for characterizing the biomechanical behaviors of the aqueous veins and perilimbal sclera, and their roles in the regulation of intraocular pressure (IOP). 3D architectures of the sclera and the aqueous veins perfused with indocyanine green have been resolved by an optical resolution PAI system. The tissue ans strain fields were quantified using FEA. The performance of the proposed method has been validated by tensile test in scleral tissue. The methods have shown the capability of resolving the strain gradients at the vein-sclera interface during the manipulation of IOP.
Advice and Consent: When Senators Should Act Like Fiduciaries

There follows three simple points about the fiduciary ideal and its application to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. First, though the Constitution does not contain the standard for advice and consent, the rationale given for its structure in the Federalist Papers suggests such a fiduciary role. Second, the role of a fiduciary requires conservatism in the standard of evaluation chosen—and not a rush to apply a high standard such as “beyond a reasonable doubt” appropriate in a criminal trial by unthinking appeal to “due process,” “rule of law” or “presumption of innocence.” Third, in a case where testimony from an alleged victim of a sexual assault, or even sexual harassment, is evaluated in an advice and consent proceeding it is instructive to look at how other legislators (in the interest of promoting justice), as custodians of state criminal laws, have attempted to reform the laws relating to rape.
Understanding associative false memories in aging using multivariate analyses

ABSTRACT Associative memory declines in aging arise, in part, from age-related increases in false memories to recombined lures. Studies have shown that there is a benefit to associative memory if the configural context of associative pairs is maintained from encoding to retrieval. The current study aimed to examine whether this benefit of contextual congruency is reduced in aging, and whether the neural similarity of memory representations between targets and lures underlies age- related increases in false memories. Behaviorally, both age groups benefited from target pairs presented in a visual format that was congruent with how the pair was learned. While no age difference was observed in hits, the typical age-related increase in false alarms was found. Congruent with behavioral results, neither the relationship between target-related patterns of neural activity across memory phases (as measured by ERS) nor the discriminability of target classification as a function of condition at retrieval (as measured by MVPA). However, with regard to false memories, older adults exhibited overall lower pattern similarity for hits and FAs compared to hits and CRs (as measured by RSA). Additionally, Hit-FA RSA correlated with age- related increases in associative FAs across visual, frontal, and parietal cortices. Results suggest that while neural processes supporting associative memory retrieval are dependent on configural congruency between encoding and retrieval, there is no difference as to how congruency affects these processes in aging. Additionally, similarity of target and lure processing may reflect reduced diagnosticity of information processing in aging.
Wheelchair-Mounted Upper Limb Robotic Exoskeleton with Adaptive Controller for Activities of Daily Living.

Neuro-muscular disorders and diseases such as cerebral palsy and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy can severely limit a person’s ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Exoskeletons can provide an active or passive support solution to assist these groups of people to perform ADL. This study presents an artificial neural network-trained adaptive controller mechanism that uses surface electromyography (sEMG) signals from the human forearm to detect hand gestures and navigate an in-house-built wheelchair-mounted upper limb robotic exoskeleton based on the user’s intent while ensuring safety. To achieve the desired position of the exoskeleton based on human intent, 10 hand gestures were recorded from 8 participants without upper limb movement disabilities. Participants were tasked to perform water bottle pick and place activities while using the exoskeleton, and sEMG signals were collected from the forearm and processed through root mean square, median filter, and mean feature extractors prior to training a scaled conjugate gradient backpropagation artificial neural network. The trained network achieved an average of more than 93% accuracy, while all 8 participants who did not have any prior experience of using an exoskeleton were successfully able to perform the task in less than 20 s using the proposed artificial neural network-trained adaptive controller mechanism. These results are significant and promising thus could be tested on people with muscular dystrophy and neuro-degenerative diseases.
Dynamics of visual perceptual decision-making in freely behaving mice

ABSTRACT Studying the temporal dynamics of visual perceptual decision-making can offer key insights into cognitive processes contributing to it. Here, we investigated the time course as well as fundamental psychophysical constants governing visual perceptual decision-making in freely behaving mice performing 2-AFC orientation discrimination tasks. We did so by analyzing response accuracy against reaction time (i.e., conditional accuracy), and using drift diffusion modeling, in a series of experiments in which we varied target size, contrast, duration, and presence of a foil. Our results revealed two distinct stages in the time course of mouse visual decision-making - a ‘sensory encoding’ stage, in which conditional accuracy exhibits a classic tradeoff with response speed before asymptoting at a peak level, and a subsequent ‘short term memory-dependent’ stage exhibiting a classic asymptotic decay of performance following stimulus offset. We estimated the duration of visual sensory encoding as ~300 ms across tasks, the lower bound of the duration of short-term memory as ~1700 ms, the briefest duration of visual stimulus input that is informative as ~40 ms, and the longest duration that benefits overall decision accuracy as 1000 ms. Separately, by varying stimulus onset delay, we demonstrated that the conditional accuracy function and RT distribution, the two components of overall accuracy, can be independently modulated, and also estimated impulsivity of mice via an ‘impulsivity index’. Our results reveal shared stages in mouse and human visual decision dynamics and establish a quantitative foundation for investigating the underlying neural circuit bases in mice. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study presents a quantitative breakdown of the time course of visual decision-making in mice during naturalistic behavior. It demonstrates parallel stages in mouse visual perceptual decision dynamics to those in humans, estimates their durations, and shows that mice are able to discriminate well under challenging visual conditions – with stimuli that are brief, low contrast, and small. This work sets the stage for investigating the neural bases of visual perceptual decision dynamics and their dysfunction in mice.
Editorial: A New Chapter or a New Page for Marketing Science?

Marketing Science authors are facing challenging times, in which we have no monopoly over any topic. Yet we must produce original and relevant research in a timely manner. We are also living throug...
Emerging role for novel immunotherapy agents in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: from bench to bedside.

Therapies that augment the antitumor immune response have been an established treatment modality for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) since the 1980s. An improved understanding of the factors...
AppGuard: A hardware virtualization based approach on protecting user applications from untrusted commodity operating system

The security of user applications largely relies on the proper execution of the underlying operating system. However, existing commodity OSes are inevitably vulnerable due to their enormous code base containing a whole bunch of bugs that can be easily exploited by attackers. In such situations, a proper way of protecting users' data privacy and integrity at runtime is a paramount task that needs efficient solutions. While quite some efforts, such as Overshadow, SP3, InkTag, and AppShield, have been made to deal with this problem, existing solutions either induce non-trivial performance overhead, or demand modifications to the OS, applications, or the underlying hardware architecture. In this paper, we present AppGuard that can efficiently and feasibly protect user applications even on a compromised OS. AppGuard utilizes the hardware virtualization extensions to achieve such a goal. Compared to the existing solutions, AppGuard does not require any modifications to the application or the OS. Our evaluation results demonstrate that AppGuard can provide effective protection to user applications with much lower performance overhead.
Analyzing and Predicting Images Through a Neural Network Approach

A neural network approach has been developed to predict diagnostic image information to assist in the assessment of coronary artery disease. The predicted information represents the redistribution (or reversibility) of perfusion in the myocardium. A multilayer, backpropagation neural network is trained to predict the redistribution information from two other types of images: stress perfusion and myocardial thickening using SPECT imaging. The significance of this approach is two-fold: (i) the predicted reversibility information obviates the additional acquisition of delayed images (with the patient at rest), and (ii) the neural network approach represents a novel way with which to analyze and predict images from other images. This paper presents the methods that underlie the approach, and discusses the most recent experimental results that demonstrate its viability.
A Small Yeast RNA Blocks Hepatitis C Virus Internal Ribosome Entry Site (HCV IRES)-Mediated Translation and Inhibits Replication of a Chimeric Poliovirus under Translational Control of the HCV IRES Element

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection frequently leads to chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver and has been linked to development of hepatocellular carcinoma. We previously identified a small yeast RNA (IRNA) capable of specifically inhibiting poliovirus (PV) internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-mediated translation. Here we report that IRNA specifically inhibits HCV IRES-mediated translation both in vivo and in vitro. A number of human hepatoma (Huh-7) cell lines expressing IRNA were prepared and characterized. Constitutive expression of IRNA was not detrimental to cell growth. HCV IRES-mediated cap-independent translation was markedly inhibited in cells constitutively expressing IRNA compared to control hepatoma cells. However, cap-dependent translation was not significantly affected in these cell lines. Additionally, Huh-7 cells constitutively expressing IRNA became refractory to infection by a PV-HCV chimera in which the PV IRES is replaced by the HCV IRES. In contrast, replication of a PV-encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) chimera containing the EMCV IRES element was not affected significantly in the IRNA-producing cell line. Finally, the binding of the La autoantigen to the HCV IRES element was specifically and efficiently competed by IRNA. These results provide a basis for development of novel drugs effective against HCV infection.
I like those glasses on you, but not in the mirror: Fluency, preference, and virtual mirrors

Consumers like the same accessories (eye glasses and earrings) more, and are more likely to recommend a purchase, when the accessories are displayed on a familiar other's regular image rather than mirror image. However, image format does not affect consumers' judgments when the other person is unfamiliar. These findings reflect differences in consumers' natural exposure history: we see others more often face-to-face than in the mirror, giving their regular image a fluency advantage; this advantage does not apply to unfamiliar others, whose image is disfluent in either presentation format. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.
Yugoslavism: Some Aspects and Comments

At the April, 1972, Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Social Science Association, which took place in Salt Lake City, five young American scholars presented papers dealing with various aspects of Yugoslavism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The papers and subsequent discussions were interesting from two standpoints. First, the authors belong to the youngest generation of American scholars familiar with the several Yugoslav languages and with Yugoslav archives and other sources. Second, the topic of Yugoslavism is not only complex and provocative, but currently topical as well. It is striking that even today, more than fifty-five years after the creation of the Yugoslav state, we do not have a modern and comprehensive study of the origins and development of the Yugoslav idea and, consequently, of the Yugoslav movement in the past. Inter-war Yugoslav historiography usually approached the problem from the "unitaristic" viewpoint, which corresponded to the political necessities of the time.1 As a reaction to this. post-war Yugoslav historiography espoused the other extreme: a stress on the national histories of the various Yugoslav peoples, to the detriment of the Yugoslav entity.2 When we attempt to study the development of Yugoslavism in the past, it strikes me as necessary to find the answers to three general questions: 1. What caused the origin of the Yugoslav idea? 2. What were the features of its development? 3. What were the internal and external obstacles the Yugoslav movement had to confront?
A Gray code for compositions

Abstract The paper describes a rapid algorithm for the sequential listing of the compositions of n into k parts.
E1 protein of human papillomavirus type 1a is sufficient for initiation of viral DNA replication

Abstract Previous studies on transient replication of papillomaviruses have shown an absolute requirement for the viral E1 and E2 proteins in DNA replication. Here we demonstrate that for human papillomavirus type 1a (HPV-1a) DNA, the E1 protein alone is sufficient for in vivo replication of plasmids containing the viral origin of replication. Replication was origin-specific and required the presence of a DNA sequence containing a putative E1 binding site, but the E2 binding sites were dispensable. In the presence of the E1 protein, E2 stimulated replication of plasmids containing the E1 and E2 binding sites, but no stimulation was observed when the origin plasmids lacked E2 binding sites. Conversely, in the presence of E1 alone, the E2 binding sites did not affect replication. Plasmids containing the replication origins of HPV-6b, HPV-18, and bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV-1) also replicated efficiently in the presence of the HPV-1a E1 and E2 proteins. However, plasmids containing the origins of HPV-6b and HPV-18 failed to replicate in the presence of HPV-1a E1 alone, whereas a plasmid containing the BPV-1 origin replicated to lower levels than the HPV-1a origin-containing plasmid. These results suggest that replication from papillomaviral origins in the presence of E1 alone is presumably dependent on the strength of E1-origin interactions. Additionally, E1-dependent replication is stimulated by the E2 protein in the presence of E2 binding sites.
Upregulation of profilin, cofilin-2 and LIMK2 in cultured pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells and in pulmonary arteries of monocrotaline-treated rats

Pulmonary hypertension is associated with remodeling of the smooth muscle layer of pulmonary arteries, manifested by reduced smooth muscle cell (SMC) contractility and enhanced motility and growth. These responses are underlied by increased dynamics of the peripheral actin network. Thus, we hypothesized that pulmonary hypertension is associated with upregulation of two proteins that regulate the dynamics of peripheral actin filaments, i.e., profilin and cofilin. We also analyzed the expression of LIMK2, which regulates the actin remodeling capacity of cofilin by phosphorylation. Experimental inflammation was induced by incubation of cultured pulmonary artery SMCs (PASMCs) with inflammatory mediators in vitro, and by subcutaneous administration of monocrotaline to Sprague-Dawley rats in vivo. Expression of messenger RNA (mRNA) was assessed by quantitative RT-PCR, protein levels and phosphorylation were analyzed by immunoblotting. Immune and Masson trichrome stained lung cryosections were analyzed by microscopy. PDGF, IL-1beta, ET-1 and TNFalpha upregulated the profilin, cofilin-2 and LIMK2 mRNA in cultured pulmonary artery SMCs (PASMCs). Along with the development of rat pulmonary artery and right ventricular hypertrophy, monocrotaline treatment also induced the mRNA and protein contents of profilin, cofilin-2 and LIMK2 in PASMCs. The cofilin upregulation was paralleled by a relative decrease of the phospho-cofilin content. The upregulation of profilin, cofilin and LIMK2 in experimental inflammation suggests that by intensifying the remodeling of subcortical actin filaments these proteins may contribute to the enhanced invasiveness and growth of SMCs, and to the development of increased vascular resistance and pulmonary hypertension.
Lens development and crystallin gene expression: many roles for Pax-6

The vertebrate eye lens has been used extensively as a model for developmental processes such as determination, embryonic induction, cellular differentiation, transdifferentiation and regeneration, with the crystallin genes being a prime example of developmentally controlled, tissue-preferred gene expression. Recent studies have shown that Pax-6, a transcription factor containing both a paired domain and homeodomain, is a key protein regulating lens determination and crystallin gene expression in the lens. The use of Pax-6 for expression of different crystallin genes provides a new link at the developmental and transcriptional level among the diverse crystallins and may lead to new insights into their evolutionary recruitment as refractive proteins.
The effect of delayed pollination in petunia hybrida

SUMMARY By delaying pollination with flowers of Petunia hybrida for up to 5 days, the viability of aged pollen and the numbers of seeds resulting from crosses declined with aging of either staminate or pistillate parent. In the resulting generation, given enough time to overcome transient maternal effects, plants from aged pollen were significantly heavier than were other plants. This suggests that there is selective mortality among stored pollen grains. This may have both basic and applied implications.
Experimental study of boron geochemistry: implications for fluid processes in subduction zones

A comprehensive experimental study, utilizing an autoclave hydrothermal apparatus with a 10B isotopic tracer, has been conducted to monitor the geochemical behavior of sediment B during early subduction zone processes. The partition coefficient of exchangeable B (KD) was determined over a temperature range of 25–350°C, at 800 bars and a water/rock ratio of 3-1.5 w/w. These KD are shown to be a complex function of temperature, pH, and possibly mineralogy. At low temperatures, KD is significantly high at ∼4 in contrast to the value of essentially zero at temperatures higher than ∼100°C. A KD of zero represents no B adsorption, implying efficient mobilization of exchangeable B at shallow depths during sediment subduction. Our experimental results demonstrate high mobilization of bulk B in sediments (both exchangeable and lattice bound) at elevated temperatures (200–350°C), in good agreement with previous observations of B in metasediments indicating progressive depletion during metamorphism. In addition, this study emphasizes the importance of a possible water/rock ratio dependence of B mobilization. In other words, the degree of sedimentary B mobilization in subduction zones strongly depends on the local thermal structure and porosity distribution. In low geothermal gradient areas, large amounts of porewater are expelled before significant B mobilization has occurred, so that some sedimentary B will survive and get into the deeper parts of the subduction zone. Our results imply that efficient mobilization of B from the subducted slab must occur and that arc magmatism recycles most of the remaining subducted B back to surface reservoirs. A reconsideration of the B budget in subduction zones provides critical information with respect to B sources and sinks in the ocean.
Identification of genes differentially regulated by glucocorticoids and progestins using a Cre/loxP-mediated retroviral promoter-trapping strategy

Glucocorticoids and progestins are two classes of steroid hormone with very distinct biological functions. However, the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and the progesterone receptor (PR) share many structural and functional similarities. One way that glucocorticoids and progestins can exert different biological effects is through their different abilities to regulate the expression of certain target genes. A strategy employing a retroviral promoter-trap and Cre/loxP-mediated site-specific recombination has been developed to identify genes that are differentially regulated by glucocorticoids and progestins. A mouse fibroblast cell line (4F) stably expressing both GR and PR and containing a single copy of a multifunctional selection plasmid is generated. This line is transduced with a self-inactivating retroviral promoter-trap vector carrying coding sequences for Cre-recombinase (Cre) in the U3 region. Integration of the provirus places Cre expression under the control of a genomic flanking sequence. Activation of Cre expression from integration into active genes results in a permanent switch between the selectable marker genes that converts the cells from neomycin-resistant to hygromycin-resistant. Selection for hygromycin resistance after hormone treatment yields recombinants in which Cre sequences in the U3 region are expressed from hormone-inducible upstream cellular promoters. Because Cre-mediated recombination is a permanent event, the expression of the selectable marker genes is independent of ongoing Cre expression. Thus this system permits the identification of genes that are transiently or weakly induced by hormone.
Characteristics of DNA from the oyster, Crassostrea gigas

Abstract DNA was isolated from sperm of the oyster, Crassostrea gigas, and characterized as to guanine-cytosine content, presence of satellite DNA, and renaturation kinetics. The value for G+C content obtained from the thermal denaturation profile (Tm = 82.5 °C) was 32.2 %, that from the buoyant density (1.693 g/cm3), 33.6 %. These experiments also demonstrated the presence of (G+C)-enriched regions in the DNA which appeared as a high-density satellite (57.1 %) in CsCl gradients. The renaturation kinetics revealed at least three different degrees of sequence repetition present in the oyster genome: unique genes (70 % of the total DNA), moderately repeated genes (23 %), and highly repeated genes (7 %). The adjusted Cot 1 2 of the unique fraction was used to calculate a minimum genome size of 7.6 · 1011 daltons per haploid set of chromosomes.
Forging force in resistance spot welding

AbstractThis paper studies an intentional force increase during the process of resistance spot welding (RSW). Known for decades, the forging force as a way of influencing weld quality has rarely be...
Malignant melanoma of the spermatic cord

Abstract Malignant melanoma of the genitourinary system is an extremely rare tumor comprising only 0.2% of all melanomas. We present a case of primary malignant melanoma of the spermatic cord which, to our knowledge, is the first reported case. The relevant published reports are reviewed and the current management is discussed.
Dynamic interactors in multivariable process control—II. Time delays and zeroes outside the unit circle

Abstract New interactor matrices are introduced which extract the noninvertible elements (time delays and zeroes outside the unit circle) from a process transfer matrix. It is shown that these can be used to determine optimal triangularly decoupling controllers for minimum-time or sum of squared errors performance measures, parametrize admissible controllers, characterize all achievable closed-loop transfer matrices, and design fully decoupling controllers.
The Modeling of Lift and Dispersion Forces in Two-Fluid Model Simulations: Part II — Boundary Layer Flows

Two-fluid model simulations of a bubbly vertical boundary layer with point injection are presented. A new bubble turbulence dispersion model, designed to be used with RANS type turbulence models, was formulated and compared with recent data of [1] and [2]. These data showed that bubble migration toward the wall is controlled by the coherent large scale liquid structures within the boundary layer. The model is based on the application of a kinetic transport equation, similar to Boltzmann’s equation, and the idea that by selectively removing bubbles from the liquid eddies within the boundary layer, bubble capture at the wall introduces a preferential direction of migration and/or nonhomogeneous, anisotropic dispersion. This is the first model capable of predicting all the types of void fraction profiles observed experimentally for point injection. It is shown that without this new model, two-fluid model simulations fail to predict the experimental data. In addition, a new physical interpretation of the data of [1] and [2] is presented, which strongly suggests that the quantity controlling bubble migration toward the wall and bubble dispersion, is the boundary layer drift parameter (i.e., the ratio of the bubble’s terminal velocity to the free-stream liquid velocity).© 2003 ASME
Improving adaptive tracking in time-frequency plane using varying number of Adaptive Notch Filters

Previous work [1] uses Adaptive Notch Filters (ANF) to track time-varying signals in time-frequency plane with a fixed number of ANFs. However, if too few ANFs are used, some importan components may be missed. On the other hand, if too many ANFs are used, noise is also tracked and some artifacts may be introduced. This paper summary proposes an approach to estimate a number of ANFs in order to track a specific time-varying signal.
Multivariate analysis of subjective responses to d-amphetamine in healthy volunteers finds novel genetic pathway associations

Rationale Researchers studying behavioral and physiologic effects of d-amphetamine have explored individual response differences to the drug. Concurrently, genome-wide analyses have identified several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with these traits. Univariate methods can identify SNPs associated with behavioral and physiological traits, but multivariate analyses allow identification of clusters of related biologically relevant SNPs and behavioral components.
Speciation: Frog Mimics Prefer Their Own

Ranitomeya poison frogs in the Peruvian Amazon are a rare example of Mullerian mimicry in vertebrates. These frogs also prefer to court same-coloured mimics. This suggests that divergence in mimicry plays a role in reproductive isolation.
The theory of ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy

This paper discusses the use of ultrafast time-resolved IR spectroscopy to probe vibrational modes that are coupled to photochemically induced reactions. A detailed theory is derived that describes the IR probe signals in three different schemes: pulsed-pump, pulsed-probe spectroscopy in which the total power of the transmitted probe pulse is measured, pulsed-pump, pulsed-probe spectroscopy in which the probe pulse is spectrally dispersed after the sample and pulsed-pump, cw-probe with gating after the sample. It is found that the three schemes lead to subtly different signals which may greatly affect the interpretation of experiments. Also the coherent excitation of vibrational modes that are both IR and Franck-Condon active is considered.
ISR sensor processing and data exploitation

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, commonly abbreviated as ISR, refers to the system of sensors (data collection assets) and data analysis and dissemination resources used to provide information about strategic and tactical threats. The advances in ISR sensor technologies and the large amount of data generated from ISR systems are putting a significant demand on signal processing and data exploitation. For example, an electro-optical system can easily generate several billion bits per second while searching an area the size of a small city. Therefore, onboard front-end signal processing is needed to reduce the amount of information to a manageable size and to make the outputs compatible with existing and future communication links. Similarly, there is increasing interest in allowing data exploitation on board the platforms. This talk will address examples of front-end signal processing, demands in data exploitation, and associated high-performance embedded computing for ISR systems. The discussion will conclude with an emphasis on graph exploitation approaches to address the conversion of sensor information into knowledge that military forces and/or strategic analysts can act on in a timely manner.
Ecological economics of coastal disasters: Introduction to the special issue

Abstract Coastal disasters are increasing in frequency and magnitude—measured in terms of human lives lost, destroyed infrastructure, ecological damage and disrupted social networks. Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami illustrate the severe and widespread impacts of such disasters on human well-being. The proximate cause of most of these disasters is “forces of nature”. However, human decisions, driven largely by economic forces, do much to aggravate these natural disasters—for example, coastal mangroves and wetlands protect coastal communities from wave surges and winds, but are rapidly being converted for the production of market goods, and anthropogenic climate change driven by the energy use of our economy may exacerbate coastal disasters in several ways. The goal of economics should be to improve the sustainable well-being of humans. Our well-being is generated in part by the production of market goods and services, but also by the goods and services provided by nature, by social networks and norms, by knowledge and health–in short: built, natural, social and human capital, respectively. In seeking to increase human well-being solely by maximizing the monetary value of market goods (built capital), our current economic system may be doing more to undermine our sustainable well-being than to improve it, a point made clear by the growing negative impacts of coastal disasters. An economic system should allocate available resources in a way that equitably and efficiently provides for the sustainable well-being of people by protecting and investing in all four types of capital. This is what ecological economics seeks to do. This article introduces ten papers that apply the four capital framework to the analysis of coastal disasters, seeking to understand their impacts and how to mitigate them, how to predict and plan for them, and how to use this information to redesign coastal areas in a more sustainable and desirable way.
Short-term memory, phonological processing, and reading ability

Verbal short-term memory deficits are a common characteristic of children with reading problems and may markedly increase the difficulty of learning to read. Previous work suggests that the basis of the short-term memory deficit may involve limitations in phonetic coding. In the present paper, a series of experiments are reviewed which examined the role of phonological processes in short-term memory. First, a developmental study is described in which a significant relationship was found between phonetic processes and verbal memory span, but not between phonetic processes and nonverbal memory. Second, additional studies are reviewed which collectively found that children with reading problems are less accurate at phonetic encoding than are good readers, and that performance on phonetic processing corresponds with verbal memory span. No reading group differences were obtained on nonverbal perception or memory tasks. These findings suggest that both developmental and individual differences in verbal memory span are related to the efficiency of phonological processes. Practical implications of current cognitive research are discussed.
Seeding Rate Effects on Soybean Height, Yield, and Economic Return

The high cost of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] seed has increased the importance of determining the optimum seeding rates for maximum yield and economic return. Previous research has evaluated vegetation indices of soybean cultivars in five maturity groups (MG IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII) at six seeding rates (68,000; 136,000; 204,000; 272,000; 340,000; and 408,000 seeds ha ―1 ) under dryland conditions on a loamy sand soil in the southeastern Coastal Plain from 2007 to 2009. This study evaluated the effects of soybean seeding rate in 96-cm rows on mature plant height, grain yield, and economic return, and determined the optimum seeding rates. Plant height increased with increasing seeding rate for MGs IV, VII, and VIII in 2 of 3 yr and for MGs V and VI in all 3 yr. For MG V in 2009, and VII and VIII in 2008, optimum seeding rates were 255,200; 228,200; and 342,500 seeds ha ―1 , respectively, at maximum yield, and 230,600; 179,100; and 325,900 seeds ha ―1 , respectively, at maximum economic return. For MG IV in 2008 and VI in 2009, economic return decreased linearly with seeding rate. Seeding rates that produced economic returns within $2.50 ha ―1 of the maximum across years were 136,000; 208,600 to 252,600; 136,000; ≥ 172,300; and 308,400 to 343,200 seeds ha ―1 for soybean cultivars in MG IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII, respectively. These results suggest that optimum seeding rate varies for cultivars in different MGs and could be lower than current recommendations for MGs IV, VI, and VII, but higher for MG VIII.
Aqua's first 10 years: An overview

The Aqua spacecraft was launched in May 2002 with six Earth-observing instruments on board to collect data on a wide variety of Earth system variables. After 10 years of on-orbit operations, Aqua has provided data that have contributed to over 2,000 scientific publications, with new results on the Earth's energy budget, trace gases and particulate matter in the atmosphere, vegetation on land and in the oceans, and many aspects of the water cycle. Additionally, the Aqua data have been used for practical applications ranging from weather forecasting to deployment of firefighters and routing of aircraft. Although the 6-year design life of the satellite has been successfully completed and exceeded, enough fuel remains on Aqua for approximately another 10 years of operations.
In-situ synchrotron X-ray reflectivity measurements at the calcite-water interface

Abstract In-situ synchrotron X-ray reflectivity (SXR) measurements of the calcite-water interface were made. These data were used to model the angstrom-scale interfacial width and electron density profile of the interface. Measurements were made on the (10T4) cleavage surface of Iceland spar calcite in contact with pure N 2 , humid N 2 , deionized water, and dilute nitric acid solutions at 25°C. The measurements were performed in an X-ray transparent reaction cell in which fluid pH was monitored during SXR data acquisition. Analysis of the data indicated that the pristine calcite surface in contact with pure N 2 has an interfacial width (statistical roughness) of 2.60 ± 0.15 A. Exposure to water vapor (humid N 2 ) resulted in the deposition of a water film 19.9 ± 0.4 A thick. There was no evidence from the SXR data that the adsorbed water film caused roughening of the calcite surface. However, when reacted with deionized water the calcite was roughened, yielding an interfacial width of 23.1 A. During successive reactions with fluids having decreasing initial pH the calcite/fluid interfacial width increased from 23.1 to 45.3 A. The SXR results indicate that intraterrace areas participate in the dissolution of calcite. A linear correlation was observed between interfacial width of the intraterrace areas and the quantity of calcite dissolved.
Monte carlo simulation of a quantized universe

A Monte Carlo simulation method which yields groundstate wave functions for multielectron atoms is applied to quantized cosmological models. In quantum mechanics, the propagator for the Schrodinger equation reduces to the absolute value squared of the groundstate wave function in the limit of infinite Euclidean time. The wave function of the universe as the solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation may be regarded as the zero energy mode of a Schrodinger equation in coordinate time. The simulation evaluates the path integral formulation of the propagator by constructing a large number of paths and computing their contribution to the path integral using the Metropolis algorithm to drive the paths toward a global minimum in the path energy. The result agrees with a solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation which has the characteristics of a nodeless groundstate wave function. Oscillatory behavior cannot be reproduced although the simulation results may be physically reasonable. The primary advantage of the simulations is that they may easily be extended to cosmologies with many degrees of freedom. Examples with one, two, and three degrees of freedom (d.f.) are presented.
Isotope Dilution Resin Bead Mass Spectrometry—An Ultra Trace Technique for Measuring Nuclides in Three-Mile Island Water

Abstract From the onset of the Three-Mile Island reactor incident (March 28, 1979), the distinct possibility existed that actinide and fission product pollutants could escape into the surrounding environment. Experienced analytical chemists in command of techniques which achieve the highest sensitivity were called upon for assistance in performing analyses. Cooling water was analyzed for uranium and plutonium, certain fission products, additives, and possible corrosion products by isotope dilution mass spectrometry. In particular, the thermal emission isotope dilution technique, in which an anion exchange resin bead was used to concentrate the uranium and plutonium, provided technical information on samples orders of magnitude smaller than those necessary for conventional counting techniques. The resin-bead-loaded sample acts as a point source in a pulse counting two-stage high abundance sensitivity mass spectrometer, enhancing the sensitivity so that levels as low as 10−13 plutonium and 10−11M uranium co...
Use of energy management systems for performance monitoring of industrial load-shaping measures

Abstract We have studied the use of industrial energy management and control systems (EMCSs) for monitoring the performance of electric load-shaping measures in three of California's most electricity-intensive and rapidly growing industrial sectors: food, plastics, and computing equipment and electronics. In this paper, we summarize current load-shaping strategies, report on the current use of EMCSs in selected industries, and recommend ways for electric utility companies to verify the potential of EMCSs for performance monitoring. We conclude that EMCSs can be used to collect and store data for evaluating industrial load shaping. Some sophisticated EMCSs are currently being used for this purpose, mostly in larger electronics firms. Most EMCSs now available need to be customized to monitor a particular facility. We also conclude that electric utility companies can encourage the use of EMCSs for performance monitoring by helping to educate their industrial customers about EMCSs, establishing protocols to standardize communication between EMCSs, and testing EMCSs with data-logging functions at demonstration sites.
Interfacial damage in ion-irradiated GaAs/AlAs superlattices

Damage creation at GaAs/AlAs/GaAs interfaces during irradiation with MeV Kr and Ar ions was investigated by ion channeling experiments. The GaAs layers became amorphous while the AlAs layers showed unusual damage behavior. At one interface, AlAs on GaAs, an amorphous phase grows into the AlAs while at the opposite interface, GaAs on AlAs, the AlAs remains crystalline. The asymmetry is also observed in samples with five alternating layers; amorphization occurs at the two AlAs on GaAs interfaces but not the GaAs on AlAs interfaces. The rate at which the amorphous layer grows does not depend on the deposited damage energy alone, but rather depends on the ratio of the ionization to damage energies, demonstrating the importance of ionization in the damage process
Use of Ex Vivo Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy during Mohs Surgery for Nonmelanoma Skin Cancers

Background. Ex vivo confocal scanning laser microscopy offers rapid optical reflectance imaging of excised tissue without conventional frozen histopathology that can potentially expedite Mohs surgery. Objective. The objective was to determine the feasibility of using ex vivo confocal scanning laser microscopy during Mohs surgery for detecting residual basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Methods. One-hundred fifteen Stage I Mohs surgery excisions (92 basal cell carcinoma, 23 squamous cell carcinoma) were imaged with acetowhitening and confocal scanning laser microscopy and compared to conventional Mohs frozen histologic sections for normal and tumor features. Results. Large aggregates of residual tumor such as nodular basal cell carcinoma were easily detected by ex vivo confocal scanning laser microscopy, whereas smaller tumor foci were not consistently identified. Confocal morphology of tumor subtypes is described. Conclusion. Ex vivo confocal scanning laser microscopy can potentially expedite Mohs surgery in rapidly detecting large nodular basal cell carcinomas without conventional frozen histopathology. Further improvements in instrumentation and image quality are necessary to allow broader application and acceptance of this novel technology in Mohs surgery.
Evolution of the lower continental crust: granulite facies xenoliths from the Eifel, West Germany

The lower continental crust is a key region to understanding processes of crust–mantle differentiation and subsequent evolution of the crust. The region is metamorphosed into granulite or amphibolite facies1,2. Whereas felsic to mafic granulites with an average intermediate major element composition are typically observed in old exposed lower crustal terranes, mafic compositions are preponderant among granulite facies xenoliths transported by young alkalic basaltic volcanics and kimberlites1. Radiometrie ages for granulite bulk rocks using the Rb–Sr or U–Pb methods are usually interpreted as metamorphic ages. In contrast, Sm–Nd ages obtained on such metamorphics are interpreted to reflect pre-metamorphic events3–7, although a case of severe disturbance of the Sm–Nd isotope system during granulite facies metamorphism has also been reported8. We present here Sm–Nd and Rb–Sr isotope data for a suite of mafic lower crustal xenoliths from the Hercynian belt. Our data suggest that the igneous precursors of these granulites differentiated from depleted mantle ∼1.5 Gyr ago. In most of these granulites this evidence for a mid-Proterozoic age has been obliterated by a young (≺172 Myr) metasomatic overprint by mantle derived fluids or melts.
Inexpensive vibrational anharmonicities from estimated derivatives: Diatomic molecules

Four alternatives are compared for estimating vibrational anharmonicity constants without explicitly calculating the expensive fourth derivatives of the potential curves. In the first, semiempirical approach, fourth derivatives for 53 diatomic molecules are estimated from ab initio second and third derivatives by using the Morse model potential. Vibrational anharmonicities ωexe are then computed from the third and fourth derivatives. The second approach invokes a purely empirical linear correlation between ωexe and the harmonic frequencies ωe. The third and fourth empirical approaches suppose that the effective harmonic and anharmonic force constants are proportional (with an additive constant in the fourth approach). Experimental values for ωexe are compared with empirical predictions and with semiempirical estimates based upon Hartree–Fock (HF), Moller–Plesset (MP2), and local, nonlocal, and hybrid density-functional theories (DFT), using the small 6-31G* basis set. Ab initio values of ωe and bond lengths re are also compared against experiment. The (U)MP2 results are the worst and include several anomalies. The other semiempirical methods yield results of comparable accuracy for ωexe of hydrides, although the DFT methods are markedly better for ωe and re and for ωexe of nonhydrides. The empirical estimates are nearly as good as the semiempirical ones. We conclude that: (1) both empirical and semiempirical approximations are useful for predicting stretching anharmonicity constants ωexe to precisions of σ≈5 cm−1 for hydrides and σ≈1.5 cm−1 for nonhydrides; and (2) MP2 theory is relatively unreliable for such calculations. In addition, we find the following tests to be useful when evaluating the reliability of vibrational constants calculated at the UMP2 level: (a) the calculated values of ωe and ωexe should not deviate substantially from the empirical relations; (b) harmonic frequencies and intensities calculated at the MP2 level should be smaller than those calculated at the corresponding HF level; (c) a large distance-dependence of the spin contamination, d〈S2〉/dR≳0.05 A−1, suggests that calculated constants are too large. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 19: 1315–1324, 1998
The repatriation of 1973 and the re-making of modern South Asia

In the aftermath of the 1971 war, nearly 250,000 people found themselves stranded in various parts of the subcontinent. These ‘trapped minorities’ became hostages in a complex negotiation process that highlighted how questions of citizenship and belonging remained unresolved in post-Partition South Asia. By studying three groups - the non-Bengalis, the Bengalis and the prisoners of war in a comparative perspective, this paper re-visits the question of who was welcome within certain borders and on what terms. It argues that these decisions depended not just on the state's policies towards ‘outsiders’ but also upon its own relationship with its minority communities.