cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Behavioural nudges increase COVID-19 vaccinations.

Enhancing vaccine uptake is a critical public health challenge1. Overcoming vaccine hesitancy2,3 and failure to follow through on vaccination intentions3 requires effective communication strategies3,4. Here we present two sequential randomized controlled trials to test the effect of behavioural interventions on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. We designed text-based reminders that make vaccination salient and easy, and delivered them to participants drawn from a healthcare system one day (first randomized controlled trial) (n = 93,354 participants; clinicaltrials number NCT04800965) and eight days (second randomized controlled trial) (n = 67,092 individuals; clinicaltrials number NCT04801524) after they received a notification of vaccine eligibility. The first reminder boosted appointment and vaccination rates within the healthcare system by 6.07 (84%) and 3.57 (26%) percentage points, respectively; the second reminder increased those outcomes by 1.65 and 1.06 percentage points, respectively. The first reminder had a greater effect when it was designed to make participants feel ownership of the vaccine dose. However, we found no evidence that combining the first reminder with a video-based information intervention designed to address vaccine hesitancy heightened its effect. We performed online studies (n = 3,181 participants) to examine vaccination intentions, which revealed patterns that diverged from those of the first randomized controlled trial; this underscores the importance of pilot-testing interventions in the field. Our findings inform the design of behavioural nudges for promoting health decisions5, and highlight the value of making vaccination easy and inducing feelings of ownership over vaccines. Two randomized controlled trials demonstrate the ability of text-based behavioural ‘nudges’ to improve the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, especially when designed to make participants feel ownership over their vaccine dose.
CrossVQA: Scalably Generating Benchmarks for Systematically Testing VQA Generalization.

One challenge in evaluating visual question answering (VQA) models in the cross-dataset adaptation setting is that the distribution shifts are multi-modal, making it difficult to identify if it is the shifts in visual or language features that play a key role. In this paper, we propose a semi-automatic framework for generating disentangled shifts by introducing a controllable visual question-answer generation (VQAG) module that is capable of generating highly-relevant and diverse question-answer pairs with the desired dataset style. We use it to create CrossVQA, a collection of test splits for assessing VQA generalization based on the VQA2, VizWiz, and Open Images datasets. We provide an analysis of our generated datasets and demonstrate its utility by using them to evaluate several state-of-the-art VQA systems. One important finding is that the visual shifts in cross-dataset VQA matter more than the language shifts. More broadly, we present a scalable framework for systematically evaluating the machine with little human intervention.
Bottom-up and top-down effects on the perception of children's speech

This study examined adult’s perception of spoken words produced by children and by other adults in audio-only (AO) and audiovisual (AV) contexts, to determine whether talker age affects the magnitude of AV benefit. One-syllable words produced by five 4-6 year old child talkers and five adult talkers were presented to 151 adult listeners at three signal-to-noise ratios. The SNRs were determined through pilot testing to be the ones at which adult and child talkers’ productions were recognized equally accurately in the AO condition. The magnitude of AV benefit was statistically equivalent for the adult and child talkers. However, lexical factors affected the perception of children and adults’ speech differently. Word frequency had a larger effect on the perception of children’s speech, perhaps reflecting listeners’ expectation that children would be especially unlikely to use a low frequency word. Lexical factors also affected the nature of listener errors: listeners were less likely to provide a low-frequency word when misperceiving a child than when misperceiving an adult. Listeners were also more likely to guess a word with a different CV structure than the target for children than for adults. Results suggest that listeners apply qualitatively different expectations when listening to adults and children.
Lightning: The distant lightning electromagnetic environment: atmospherics, Schumann resonances, and whistlers

… taking into consideration the large number of lightning strokes simultaneously in existence around the globe and the fact that over much of their frequency spectrum [their] fields will be trapped within the Earth–ionosphere waveguide, there will be a continuous mean noise or “atmospheric noise”. J. Hamelin (1993) Introduction In Chapters 4, 5, 7, and 9, we examined the electric and magnetic fields associated with lightning at distances less than a few hundred kilometers. At these ranges, the fields propagate from the lightning source to the observation point either (i) in the atmosphere along the finitely conducting Earth boundary by way of a ground wave or (ii) directly through the atmosphere by line-of-sight propagation. The features of the field waveforms from relatively close lightning are determined primarily by the characteristics of the lightning. A discussion of the effects of the conductivity and permittivity of the Earth in changing the characteristics of the ground wave was given in the last part of subsection 4.6.4. In the present chapter we examine the characteristics of the electric and magnetic fields of distant lightning, observed at ranges from a few hundred kilometers to tens of thousands of kilometers. At such distances the field waveforms are significantly influenced by the properties of the propagation path. We will subdivide our discussion of distant electromagnetic environment into three parts, depending on the main types of observed signals: (i) atmospherics, time-domain signals typically in the VLF (3 kHz to 30 kHz) frequency band, which propagate in waveguide modes in the spherical Earth–ionosphere cavity (Section 13.3); (ii) Schumann resonances,
Adopting Software Product Lines

The tremendous benefits of taking a software product line approach are well documented. Organizations have achieved significant reductions in cost and time to market and, at the same time, increased the quality of families of their software systems. However, to date, there are considerable barriers to organizational adoption of product line practices. Phased adoption is attractive as a risk reduction and fiscally viable proposition.
Vitamin A supplementation promotes the uptake and tissue storage of vitamin A in a kinetic study of neonatal rats (645.21)

Previous studies conducted in our laboratory have shown that supplementing neonatal rats with a combination of vitamin A (VA) and retinoic acid increases total retinol (ROH) concentration in plasma...
Going Forward: Improving the Legal Advice of National Security Lawyers

Attorney General Mukasey was correct when he noted that national security lawyers traditionally oscillate between aggression and timidity. Debates about which extreme is “better,” however, miss the larger point; namely, that these cycles are driven by factors that the competent national security lawyer has a duty to understand. Such a thorough knowledge allows lawyers in this field to dampen the harmful oscillation and render the best legal advice possible. After identifying factors that affect the rendering of such counsel, the author makes several specific policy recommendations that will assist lawyers—who are “uniquely suited to bear this responsibility” —in this critical task.
A Theory of Conditionals

A conditional sentence expresses a proposition which is a function of two other propositions, yet not one which is a truth function of those propositions. I may know the truth values of “Willie Mays played in the American League” and “Willie Mays hit four hundred” without knowing whether or not Mays, would have hit four hundred if he had played in the American League. This fact has tended to puzzle, displease, or delight philosophers, and many have felt that it is a fact that calls for some comment or explanation. It has given rise to a number of philosophical problems; I shall discuss three of these.
High‐Emperature Thermal Conductivity of Alumina‐Reinforced Zirconia Composites

10-mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (10YSZ) - alumina composites containing 0-30 mol% alumina were fabricated by hot pressing at 1500 °C in vacuum. Thermal conductivity of the composites, determined at various temperatures using a steady-state laser heat flux technique, increased with increase in alumina content. Composites containing 0, 5, and 10-mol% alumina did not show any change in thermal conductivity with temperature. However, those containing 20 and 30-mol% alumina showed a decrease in thermal conductivity with increase in temperature. The measured values of thermal conductivity were in good agreement with those calculated from the Maxwell-Eucken model where one phase is uniformly dispersed within a second major continuous phase.
Oxygen binding by hemoglobin of the galapagos rift vent worm Riftia pachyptila Jones (Pogonophora; Vestimentifera)

Abstract Kinetics of the reactions of Riftia pachyptila hemoglobin with oxygen were followed spectrophotometrically by stopped-flow and laser flash photolysis techniques. The rate of oxygen dissociation increases 8-fold over the range 5–20°C ( k = 2.2 s −1 at 10° C ). Oxygen recombination following flash photolysis was biphasic. The rates of both slow and fast phases of the reaction were independent of temperature from 0 to 20°C ( k fast ′ = 7 · 10 6 ; k slow ′ = 1 · 10 6 1 · mol −1 · s −1 ). As the oxygen affinity is relatively temperature independent, analysis in terms of the two-state model of Monod, Wyman and Changeaux (1965, J. Mol. Biol. 12 88–118) requires that the conformational equilibrium constant L decrease by approx. 50-fold between 3 and 15°C.
The Visual Foucauldian: Institutional Coercion and Surveillance in Frederick Wiseman's Multi-handicapped Documentary Series

During the mid 1980s, the renowned American documentary filmmaker Fred Wiseman produced a four-part series of films that sought to record the operations of institutions in Talladega, Alabama, devoted to the care and training of people with disabilities. These films—designated as the Multi-handicapped Series—have received much less attention than Wiseman's earlier work, as if films about disability mark a drastic departure from his previous award-winning productions, such as Titicut Follies (1965) and Hospital (1970). The Multi-handicapped Series takes up general categories of disabled populations as discrete documentary topics, Deaf (1986), Blind (1986), Multi-handicapped (1986) and Adjustment & Work (1986) as opposed to a specific location as in his earlier films. As a result, the latter series of films identify social and interpersonal structures developed in the name of specific conditions. Like Foucault's research on disciplinary tactics, Wiseman's films seek out many of the segregated social spaces typically occupied by persons classified as deviant: prisons, hospitals, charity networks, sheltered workshops, resident facilities, and vocational training structures. The Multi-handicapped Series focuses on the activities of professions and practitioners in education, administration, and therapy, as well as the institutional roles designed for bodies marked as disabled. Unlike its 19th century predecessor classification, feebleminded, the latter twentieth century U.S. policy answer has been waged as a matter of dividing disabilities into a binary structure of orthopedic or cognitive categories. Such a development has left many crossover bodies in a diagnostic no-body's-land. To analyze the history of these developments, this essay recognizes the formation of today's disability category as an effect of new regimes of power; a form of domination based upon the application of particularized diagnostic pathologies that provide the basis for cordoning off bodies which fail to fit neatly within the cognitive/orthopedic binary. As documents of the social spaces that are occupied by disabled people, Wiseman's films offer a rare contemplation of institutional practices and their application to populations viewed as nonnormative.
Loss of Marek's disease virus tumorigenicity is associated with truncation of RNAs transcribed within BamHI-H.

Abstract The attenuation of Marek's disease virus (MDV) is associated with loss of pathogenicity and tumorigenicity. Previous studies have demonstrated a strong correlation between attenuation and amplification of a specific sequence located within the MDV terminal and internal repeats. We recently reported that the regions containing the amplified sequences, the BamHI D and H fragments, were transcriptionally active. However, differential transcription activity was observed to exist between attenuated and pathogenic MDV strains. Specifically, a major transcript of 1.8 kilobases was found to be produced by pathogenic MDV and not by attenuated MDV. We now report that the disappearance of this transcript is concomitant with the production of a 0.4-kilobase RNA, an RNA resulting from the truncation of the tumorigenicity-related transcript.
Know Before You Do: Anticipating Maneuvers via Learning Temporal Driving Models

Abstract : Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have made driving safer over the last decade. They prepare vehicles for unsafe road conditions and alert drivers if they perform a dangerous maneuver. However, many accidents are unavoidable because by the time drivers are alerted, it is already too late. Anticipating maneuvers a few seconds beforehand can alert drivers before they perform the maneuver and also give ADAS more time to avoid or prepare for the danger. Anticipation requires modeling the driver's action space, events inside the vehicle such as their head movements, and also the outside environment. Performing this joint modeling makes anticipation a challenging problem. In this work we anticipate driving maneuvers a few seconds before they occur. For this purpose we equip a car with cameras and a computing device to capture the context from both inside and outside of the car. We represent the context with expressive features and propose an Autoregressive Input-Output HMM to model the contextual information. We evaluate our approach on a diverse data set with 1180 miles of natural freeway and city driving and show that we can anticipate maneuvers 3.5 seconds before they occur with over 80% F1-score. Our computation time during inference is under 3.6 milliseconds.
Modified Kidner procedure utilizing a Mitek bone anchor

The recent development of small bone suture anchors has created several potential applications in reconstructive surgery of the foot. Mitek bone anchors are simple to insert, require less aggressive dissection and surgical time than reefing of the redundant posterior tibial tendon, and are a reliable method of tendon-to-bone fixation. Mitek bone anchors are an excellent technique for the treatment of redundant tibialis posterior tendon following a modified Kidner procedure. In modified Kidner procedures involving an excessively large os tibiale externum, Mitek anchoring of the redundant tibialis posterior tendon to the navicular bone is an excellent means for secure plication of the posterior tibial tendon in cases involving intraoperative tendon laxity. A description of the Mitek Anchor System and technique of application in a modified Kinder procedure is presented. The purpose of this study was to describe patient satisfaction and long-term clinical outcomes of the modified Kinder procedure with and without the Mitek bone anchoring system. A retrospective study of the modified Kinder procedure was performed with 13 patients being evaluated, seven with Mitek anchoring and six without. The University of Maryland 100-point Painful Foot Center Scoring System was modified to be more specific to the modified Kinder procedure for assessment of subjective long-term results. Patient overall satisfaction was rated good to excellent by 85.6% of patients in the Mitek group and by 100% of patients in the non-Mitek group. Use of the Mitek anchor allowed for quicker postoperative recovery to resumption of ambulation without assistive devices (average of 3 weeks vs. 4.42 weeks) and a quicker return to pain-free ambulation in normal shoegear (average of 4 weeks vs. 6 weeks). Mitek anchoring of the tibialis posterior tendon, theoretically, increases medial arch support as evidenced by 14% of the Mitek group and 67% of the non-Mitek group requiring postoperative orthotics.
General Theory for Quantum Statistics in Two-Dimensions

Because of complicated topology of the configuration space for indistinguishable particles in two dimensions, Feynman's path-integral formulation allows exotic statistics. All possible quantum statistics in two-space are characterized by an angle parameter $\ensuremath{\theta}$ which interpolates between bosons and fermions. The current formalisms in terms of topological action of multivalued wave functions can be derived in a model-independent way.
At What Scale Should Microarray Data Be Analyzed

Introduction: The hybridization intensities derived from microarray experiments, for example Affymetrix’s MAS5 signals, are very often transformed in one way or another before statistical models are fitted. The motivation for performing transformation is usually to satisfy the model assumptions such as normality and homogeneity in variance. Generally speaking, two types of strategies are often applied to microarray data depending on the analysis need: correlation analysis where all the gene intensities on the array are considered simultaneously, and gene-by-gene ANOVA where each gene is analyzed individually. Aim: We investigate the distributional properties of the Affymetrix GeneChip® signal data under the two scenarios, focusing on the impact of analyzing the data at an inappropriate scale. Methods: The Box-Cox type of transformation is first investigated for the strategy of pooling genes. The commonly used log-transformation is particularly applied for comparison purposes. For the scenario where analysis is on a gene-by-gene basis, the model assumptions such as normality are explored. The impact of using a wrong scale is illustrated by log-transformation and quartic-root transformation. Results: When all the genes on the array are considered together, the dependent relationship between the expression and its variation level can be satisfactorily removed by Box-Cox transformation. When genes are analyzed individually, the distributional properties of the intensities are shown to be gene dependent. Derivation and simulation show that some loss of power is incurred when a wrong scale is used, but due to the robustness of the t-test, the loss is acceptable when the fold-change is not very large.
Accuracy of analytic semiclassical T-matrix elements

The accuracy of two different semiclassical methods of evaluating T-matrix elements by stationary-phase techniques are reported. Their predictions are compared to quantal results for the far-red-wing emission spectrum of Rb collisionally broadened by Xe perturbers. One method is based on the direct use of uniform semiclassical wave functions in the overlap integral of the T-matrix elements. It is shown to give very accurate results (generally to within 3% of quantal values) for both classically allowed and classically forbidden transitions, whether they are near to or far from the classical singularity associated with the collisional turning points. The other semiclassical method is based on a cubic expansion of the phases of the semiclassical wave functions. If simple semiclassical amplitudes and phases are used in the resulting expression, individual T-matrix elements can have significant errors. However, the sum over angular momenta tends to compensate for the individual discrepancies so that the final differential intensity is generally within 10% of quantal values, except for narrow spikes due to the turning-point singularities. The use of uniform semiclassical amplitudes and phases removes these spikes and reduces the error in the total differential intensity given by the cubic expression to only a few percent.
Basin Hydrologic Response to Changes in Climate and Land Use: the Conestoga River Basin, Pennsylvania

Climate change and land-use change can significantly affect the hydrology of a drainage basin. This study examines changes in streamflow under three environmental scenarios in the Conestoga River basin and its five sub-basins using AVGWLF, a combined model of ArcView GIS and Generalized Watershed Loading Function. The results of the study indicate that climate change scenarios (Hadley Centre model and Canadian Centre model) are projected to increase spring streamflow by 5% to 18%. Mean annual stream-flow is projected to decrease under the Canadian Centre model, while it is projected to increase by 11% under the Hadley Centre model. Urban growth is only projected to increase mean annual streamflow by less than 2%. The magnitude and direction of changes in streamflow are sensitive to watershed size and land-use scenarios. Smaller watersheds with higher proportion of impervious surfaces exhibit greater impacts than larger watersheds with relatively smaller urban areas. Assessing local hydrologic impacts of c...
Effect of Polymorphism of the β2-Adrenergic Receptor on Response to Regular Use of Albuterol in Asthma

Background: Regular use of inhaled β-adrenergic agonists may have adverse effects in some asthma patients. Polymorphisms of the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR)
Optimization of strength in cement pastes

Abstract It has been demonstrated that porosity is by far the dominant controlling factor limiting strength of hydrated cement paste. Mechanical means have been employed in the present study to minimize this porosity, “hot pressing” under rather modest temperatures and pressures, producing materials having very low porosity and unusually high strength. A new relationship to describe the interrelation of strength and porosity is given, and the effect of maturity of specimens, composition and microstructure are illustrated. Though theoretical density has not yet been achieved, the cement pastes have compressive strengths (as well as tensile and shear strengths) an order of magnitude higher than in normally hydrated cements, are stable and durable, and have dense interpenetrating microstructures.
Correlation between Lithium Drift Mobility and Minority-Carrier Drift Mobility in Germanium

The minority-carrier drift mobility of driftable and nondriftable germanium was measured in an effort to determine the presence of an impurity which reduced the lithium drift mobility but did not affect the resistivity and lifetime of some of the material used to make lithium-drift detectors. The measurements were made at 77°K where the mobility is limited by impurity scattering rather than lattice scattering. The mobility was measured as a function of temperature for five samples of Ge which had varying lithium drift mobilities. Good correlation was found between the driftability of the material and the minority-carrier drift mobility at 77°K. Estimated impurity levels in the range of 1014-1015/cm3 apparently reduce the effective lithium mobility, while impurity concentrations greater than 5 X 1015 make the Ge unsuitable for making lithium-drift detectors. A mass-spectrometer analysis indicated that the impurity apparently has a mass number less than Mg; oxygen is a likely possibility due to its known behavior with Li in silicon.
POWER, BARGAINING, AND LAW: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF LABOR ARBITRATION CASES*

One of the major social trends in the United States in the past quarter of a century is the growth of the institution of collective bargaining. The violence and turbulence of the conflicts between "labor and capital" of the Haymarket days, of the steel strike after World War I, and of the "little steel" strike of 1937 have been gradually superseded by collective bargaining agreements between "labor and management." These agreements set forth a variety of substantive and procedural rights and duties of both parties. Thus, power relations, though not entirely displaced, have been supplemented with bargaining relations.
On high level characterization of parallelism

Abstract The paper discusses issues pertinent to performance analysis of massively parallel systems. A model of parallel execution based on threads of control and events is then introduced. The key ingredient of this model is a measure of the communication complexity, which gives the number of events E as a function of the number of threads of control P and provides a signature of a parallel computation. Various consequences for speedup and load balancing are presented.
Kernel estimation of a smooth distribution function based on censored data

The problem of estimating a smooth distribution functionF at a pointτ based on randomly right censored data is treated under certain smoothness conditions onF. The asymptotic performance of a certain class of kernel estimators is compared to that of the Kaplan-Meier estimator ofF(τ). It is shown that the relative deficiency of the Kaplan-Meier estimator ofF(τ) with respect to the appropriately chosen kernel type estimator tends to infinity as the sample sizen increases to infinity. Strong uniform consistency and the weak convergence of the normalized process are also proved.
Metallodendrimers: homo- and heterogeneous tier construction by bis(2,2' :6', 2 -terpyridinyl)Ru(II) complex connectivity

Abstract A convenient combinatorial-style route for the incorporation of multiple, differing functional groups, in a controllable ratio, onto a dendritic poly(propylene imine) scaffolding is described. Attachment of the functionality is accomplished by the connective formation of bis(2,2′:6′,2-terpyridine)Ru(II) complexes via reaction of a terpyridine-modified dendritic surface with 1→3 branched monomers each possessing a focal terpyridine moiety. This synthetic approach produces a heterogeneous surface coating that is compared and contrasted to that of analogous homogeneous surfaced constructs. UV–vis absorption and TGA data for the metallodendrimers are also reported.
Synthetic 6-O-Methylglucose-Containing Polysaccharides (sMGPs): Design and Synthesis

With the hope of mimicking the chemical and biological properties of natural 6-O-methyl-d-glucose-containing polysaccharides (MGPs), synthetic 6-O-methyl-d-glucose-containing polysaccharides (sMGPs) were designed and synthesized from α-, β-, and γ-cyclodextrins (CDs). The synthetic route proved to be flexible and general, to furnish a series of sMGPs ranging from 6-mer to 20-mer. A practical and scalable method was discovered selectively to cleave the CD derivatives and furnish the linear precursors to the glycosyl donors and acceptors. The Mukaiyama glycosidation was adopted to couple the glycosyl donors with the glycosyl acceptors. Unlike in the 3-O-methyl-d-mannose-containing polysaccharide (sMMP) series, the amount of the Mukaiyama acid required in the sMGP series increased with an increase of substrate size; that is, for large oligomers, more than one equivalent of the acid was required.
Detection and Identification of Decay Fungi in Spruce Wood by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis of Amplified Genes Encoding rRNA

We have developed a DNA-based assay to reliably detect brown rot and white rot fungi in wood at different stages of decay. DNA, isolated by a series of CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and organic extractions, was amplified by the PCR using published universal primers and basidiomycete-specific primers derived from ribosomal DNA sequences. We surveyed 14 species of wood-decaying basidiomycetes (brown-rot and white-rot fungi), as well as 25 species of wood-inhabiting ascomycetes (pathogens, endophytes, and saprophytes). DNA was isolated from pure cultures of these fungi and also from spruce wood blocks colonized by individual isolates of wood decay basidiomycetes or wood-inhabiting ascomycetes. The primer pair ITS1-F (specific for higher fungi) and ITS4 (universal primer) amplified the internal transcribed spacer region from both ascomycetes and basidiomycetes from both pure culture and wood, as expected. The primer pair ITS1-F (specific for higher fungi) and ITS4-B (specific for basidiomycetes) was shown to reliably detect the presence of wood decay basidiomycetes in both pure culture and wood; ascomycetes were not detected by this primer pair. We detected the presence of decay fungi in wood by PCR before measurable weight loss had occurred to the wood. Basidiomycetes were identified to the species level by restriction fragment length polymorphisms of the internal transcribed spacer region.
Some Current Academic Research in System Reliability Theory

This paper is an expository survey of some recent academic research in the theory of system reliability and safety, applicable in the analysis of large complex systems such as nuclear reactors, computers, and space vehicles. The survey emphasizes new approaches in reliability theory, many nonparametric, rather than standard parametric approaches.
The measure of the mind

Images of Mind. by Michael I. Posner Marcus E. Raichle Scientific American Library/W. H. Freeman: 1994. Pp. 257. $32.95, £19.95.
Nucleation of hexagonal ice (Ih) in liquid water.

The process by which supercooled fluids form stable, crystalline solids has been found to be elusive both experimentally and via computer simulations. This is because this process, generally called nucleation, is statistical in nature and because the set of intermediate states, generally called the critical nucleus, is very short-lived. Thus, there are very large uncertainties in even the limited experimental data that exist, and computer simulations that have been performed can yield descriptive information at best. Here we present a detailed and quantitatively accurate observation of the most important nucleation process, the freezing of liquid water at ambient conditions. We have accomplished this by using a method based on choosing a suitable set of order parameters to characterize the crystallinity of the system and a non-Boltzmann sampling Monte Carlo approach to obtain a statistical average of the properties of the system during its transition from liquid to ice (Ih). We have characterized the orde...
Studies of oligoadenylate formation on a poly(U) template

We have studied a variety of condensation reactions involving poly (U) as template and isomeric adenosine dinucleotides as substrates. We find that [3′–5′]-linked dinucleotides such as A3pA and pA3pA are better acceptors than the corresponding [2′–5′]-linked compounds, while ImpA2pA is a better donor than ImpA3pA. The reaction between A2pA and ImpA3pA, for example, yields only 4% of product while the reaction of A3pA with ImpA2pA yields 86% of product.
The retention of copper and lead particulate matter in plant foliage and forest soil

Abstract Soil and foliage samples were collected from 15 groves of American elders in the Mt. Airy Forest, Cincinnati, and tested for lead and copper concentrations. Analysis of variance revealed significant reduction of foliar copper and soil lead contents with distance into the forest; a result supporting the hypothesis suggested by Lederer (1982) and others that trees and shrubs not only beautify our cities, but are effective particulate interceptors. This ability of soil and vegetation acting as sinks for particulate matter contamination is especially beneficial in populated urban areas where ambient pollution levels tend to be high.
Message from the President: The Future of IAP

APA and JPS. Beginning in 2011, all members of APA and JPS will also be members of IAP. This is similar to the current triple membership structure already in place for EPC members. I hope to expand this model to other national and regional pancreatic societies in the near future. It is a great pleasure to serve as the President of the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP). I have been a pancreatologist for the last 28 years and have been involved with the organization almost since its inception. I am excited to be a part of shaping IAP’s future. The executive board and I are working on a number of exciting initiatives that will enhance IAP’s relevance to its members and the field of pancreatology. My first goal is to diversify the membership of IAP, making it an all-inclusive, truly international group. To do so, we must reach out to pancreatologists outside of North America, Japan and Europe, our traditional strongholds. One of the ways we are already doing this is through the joint IAP/Indian Pancreas Club meeting that is being held in Cochin, India in February 2011. We expect over 400 people to attend from all over the world. This meeting will provide members of both organizations an excellent chance to share scientific knowledge. I expect IAP will continue this tradition by co-hosting meetings with other emerging pancreas groups in addition to the traditional joint meetings with the American Pancreatic Association (APA), Japan Pancreas Society (JPS) and the European Pancreas Club (EPC). We are currently discussing the possibility of a joint meeting with our Chinese colleagues in 2013. More details will follow. I also want to encourage greater participation from pancreatologists outside Europe, which has historically contributed two thirds of our members. To that end, we have instituted a new membership structure for both the Published online: February 8, 2011
“I thought” initiated turns: Addressing discrepancies in first-hand and second-hand knowledge

Abstract The current article reports on the interactional work performed by turns-at-talk initiated with “I thought.” In the context of interpersonal talk within ongoing relationships, the practice of following some prior talk with an “I thought”-initiated turn is shown to routinely mark the prior turn as being in some way discrepant and select the prior speaker to account for that discrepancy. Participants are shown to routinely orient toward these discrepancies as belonging to epistemic domains that are simultaneously second-hand and first-hand knowledge for the “I thought” speakers and recipients, respectively. Finally, this paper argues that due to asymmetries in the participants’ respective authority over the relevant domains of knowledge, the practice overwhelmingly attributes responsibility for the discrepancy onto the “I thought” recipient. In the conclusion, “I thought”-turns are shown to serve an important function in the epistemic and affective maintenance of social relationships.
Ecological factors associated with the strength of trophic cascades in streams

Trophic cascades are extensively documented in nature, but they are also known to vary widely in strength and frequency across ecosystems. Th erefore, much eff ort has gone into understanding which ecological factors generate variation in cascade strength. To identify which factors covary with the strength of cascades in streams, we performed a concurrent experiment across 17 streams throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We eliminated top consumers from experimental substrates using electrical exclusions and compared the strength of indirect eff ects of consumers on the biomass of primary producers relative to control patches. In each stream we 1) classifi ed the dominant invertebrate herbivores according to lifehistory traits that infl uence their susceptibility to predators, 2) determined the abundance and diversity of algae and herbivores, and 3) measured production-to-biomass ratios (P:B) of the stream biofi lm. Th is allowed us to assess three common predictions about factors thought to infl uence the strength of trophic cascades: cascade strength 1) is weaker in systems dominated by herbivores with greater ability to evade or defend against predators, 2) is stronger in systems characterized by low species diversity, and 3) increases with increasing producer P:B. When averaged across all streams, the indirect eff ect of predators increased the biomass of periphyton by a mean 60%. However, impacts of predators on algae varied widely, ranging from eff ects that exacerbated algal loss to herbivores, to strong cascades that increased algal biomass by 4.35 times. Cascade strength was not related to herbivore traits or species diversity, but decreased signifi cantly with increasing algal diversity and biofi lm P:B in a stream. Partial regression analyses suggested that the relationship between cascade strength and algal diversity was spurious, and that the only signifi cant covariate after statistically controlling for cross-correlations was algal P:B. Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about why trophic cascade strength varies in nature and is useful because it eliminates factors that have no potential to explain variation in cascades within these stream ecosystems.
Hispanic marketing and communication resources: a selective bibliography

Purpose ‐ The purpose of this article is to highlight and describe information resources on Hispanic marketing for practitioners and scholars in the field – as well as librarians collecting resources in the Communication and Business subject areas. Design/methodology/approach ‐ This article provides an overview of Hispanic marketing resources that were published within the last ten years. A few key sources on Hispanic culture and Hispanic statistics are included for a holistic picture of the Hispanic impact in the US consumer market. Findings ‐ The paper reveals that marketers and advertisers are keeping a close eye on the Hispanic consumer market as the Hispanic population in the US continues to increase. Yet, there are few scholarly sources examining and discussing Hispanic marketing communication. Originality/value ‐ With only a handful of information sources on Hispanic marketing communication, it is eminent to get scholarly research that teaches our future generations of marketers to conduct leading research and serve as an innovative resource for the Hispanic marketing industry.
Flavin Electron Shuttles Dominate Extracellular Electron Transfer by Shewanella oneidensis

ABSTRACT Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1 is widely studied for its ability to respire a diverse array of soluble and insoluble electron acceptors. The ability to breathe insoluble substrates is defined as extracellular electron transfer and can occur via direct contact or by electron shuttling in S. oneidensis. To determine the contribution of flavin electron shuttles in extracellular electron transfer, a transposon mutagenesis screen was performed with S. oneidensis to identify mutants unable to secrete flavins. A multidrug and toxin efflux transporter encoded by SO_0702 was identified and renamed bfe (bacterial flavin adenine dinucleotide [FAD] exporter) based on phenotypic characterization. Deletion of bfe resulted in a severe decrease in extracellular flavins, while overexpression of bfe increased the concentration of extracellular flavins. Strains lacking bfe had no defect in reduction of soluble Fe(III), but these strains were deficient in the rate of insoluble Fe(III) oxide reduction, which was alleviated by the addition of exogenous flavins. To test a different insoluble electron acceptor, graphite electrode bioreactors were set up to measure current produced by wild-type S. oneidensis and the Δbfe mutant. With the same concentration of supplemented flavins, the two strains produced similar amounts of current. However, when exogenous flavins were not supplemented to bioreactors, bfe mutant strains produced significantly less current than the wild type. We have demonstrated that flavin electron shuttling accounts for ~75% of extracellular electron transfer to insoluble substrates by S. oneidensis and have identified the first FAD transporter in bacteria. IMPORTANCE Extracellular electron transfer by microbes is critical for the geochemical cycling of metals, bioremediation, and biocatalysis using electrodes. A controversy in the field was addressed by demonstrating that flavin electron shuttling, not direct electron transfer or nanowires, is the primary mechanism of extracellular electron transfer employed by the bacterium Shewanella oneidensis. We have identified a flavin adenine dinucleotide transporter conserved in all sequenced Shewanella species that facilitates export of flavin electron shuttles in S. oneidensis. Analysis of a strain that is unable to secrete flavins demonstrated that electron shuttling accounts for ~75% of the insoluble extracellular electron transfer capacity in S. oneidensis.
Frontier Life: Late Prehistoric Adaptations of the Kansas City Locality

AbstractLate Prehistoric (AD 900–1500) adaptations along the lower Missouri River in the Kansas City locality include two distinct contemporaneous archaeological cultures, Steed-Kisker and Pomona. Both are reviewed with emphasis on interaction, change, and continuity. Evidence from other sites in northeastern Kansas, a prairie-woodland ecotone, points to interaction where their culture core areas overlapped, a locality that was a frontier throughout much of prehistory between cultures of the eastern woodlands and the Great Plains. Recent investigation of house remains at the Scott and Caenen sites, representing the Steed-Kisker and Pomona cultures respectively, provides significant insight concerning relations or lack thereof. About 130 years apart in time of occupation, they are only 350 m distant in Stranger Creek valley, the last major tributary of the Kansas River before its confluence with the Missouri River. Both illustrate the contrasting nature of these adaptations, specifically change from a Wood...
Assessing possible changes in flood frequency due to climate change in mid-sized watersheds in New York State, USA

The frequency of flooding is often presumed to increase with climate change because of projected increases in rainfall intensities. In this paper, using 50-plus years of historical discharge and meteorological data from three watersheds in different physiographic regions of New York State, USA, we find that annual maximum stream discharges are associated with 20% or less of the annual maximum rainfall events. Instead of rainfall events, approximately 20% of annual maximum stream discharges are associated with annual maximum snowmelt events while 60% of annual maximum discharges are associated with moderate rainfall amounts and very wet soil conditions. To explore the potential for changes in future flood risk, we employed a compound frequency distribution that assumes annual maximum discharges can be modelled by combining the cumulative distribution functions of discharges resulting from annual maximum rainfall, annual maximum snowmelt, and occurrences of moderate rain on wet soils. Basing on a compound frequency distribution comprised of univariate general extreme value (GEV) and gamma distributions, we found that a hypothetical 20% increase in the magnitude of rainfall-related stream discharge results in little change in 96th percentile annual maximum discharge. For the 99th percentile discharge, two waterbodies in our study had a 10% or less increase in annual maximum discharge when annual maximum rainfall-related discharges increased 20% while the third waterbody had a 16% increase in annual maximum discharges. Additionally, in some cases, annual maximum discharges could be offset by a reduction in the discharge resulting from annual maximum snowmelt events. While only intended as a heuristic tool to explore the interaction among different flood-causing mechanisms, use of a compound flood frequency distribution suggests a case can be made that not all waterbodies in humid, cold regions will see extensive changes in flooding due to increased rainfall intensities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of interface disorder on transmission probability in magnetic multilayer

We present a study of conductance through disordered Fe-Cr[100] and Co-Cu[100] interfaces within a realistic tight-binding model. In our model, the specular and diffuse parts of the conductance are treated on an equal footing. We observe a substantial increase in conductance due to disorder in the channels that are strongly reflected by pure interfaces. We also show how this phenomenon affects the giant magnetoresistance. In addition, we find that the series resistor model may significantly overestimate the resistance if the thickness of the disordered layer is less than several times the electron mean free path.
Time, place, technology: Twitter as an information source in the Wisconsin labor protests

Recently, Twitter has become a prominent part of social protest movement communication. This study examines Twitter as a new kind of citizen journalism platform emerging at the aggregate in the context of such ''crisis'' situations by undertaking a case study of the use of Twitter in the 2011 Wisconsin labor protests. A corpus of more than 775,000 tweets tagged with #wiunion during the first 3weeks of the protests provides the source of the analyses. Findings suggest that significant differences exist between users who tweet via mobile devices, and thus may be present at protests, and those who tweet from computers. Mobile users post fewer URLs overall; however, when they do, they are more likely to link to traditional news sources and to provide additional hashtags for context. Over time, all link-posting declines, as users become better able to convey first-hand information. Notably, results for most analyses significantly change when restricted to original tweets only, rather than including retweets.
Statistics of travel time and intensity of two first arrivals of short pulses backscattered by a rough 3D surface

The time history of a pulse backscattered by a rough surface contains information about the position of the surface and the properties of the scatterers. This information is utilized successfully in a number of remote sensing techniques ranging from echo sounding of the ocean bottom to medical ultrasonics and satellite altimetry. In the current paper, statistical properties of backscattered waves are considered in a geometrical optics approximation. The probing pulse duration is assumed to be sufficiently short so that signals backscattered in the vicinity of individual specular points on a rough surface do not overlap in time. Theoretical results previously obtained for a 2D problem [I. M. Fuks and O. A. Godin, 2005, Waves in Random and Complex Media, 14, 539–562; M. I. Charnotskii and I. M. Fuks, 2005, Waves in Random and Complex Media, 15, 451–467] are extended to wave scattering by 3D rough surfaces by following a mathematical approach developed in stochastic geometry. Predictions of an asymptotic the...
Artistic Undertones of Humanistic Leadership Education

Leaders are increasingly called on to function in ways that demand creative smarts as much as book smarts and street smarts. Consequently, more attention is being given to artistic potentialities of leadership. To help create relevant educational opportunities, the author responds in three ways. First is to identify a framework of characteristics that provide an artistic context for leadership in action. Second is to establish an integrative foundation for such characteristics and to translate the resultant pattern into an integral array of leadership competencies. Third is to develop a diverse array of artistic catalysts and activities to promote these competencies.
Computer-aided design of free-space opto-electronic systems

This paper presents a system capable of static and dynamic simulationsof heterogeneous opto-electronic systems. It is capable ofmodeling Gaussian optical signal propagation with mechanicaltolerancing at the system level. We present results which demonstratethe system's ability to predict the effects of various componentparameters, such as detector geometry, and system levelparameters, such as alignment tolerances, on system performance.