cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the accretion of meteoritic debris and interplanetary dust particles in the GPC-3 sediment core using noble gas and mineralogical tracers

Abstract Extraterrestrial (ET) noble gases (helium and neon) in 35 sediment samples from Central Pacific core LL-44 GPC-3 demonstrate the variable flux of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and major meteorite impacts over the past 70 Ma (21–72 Ma). Spinel mineralogical and chemical compositions clearly distinguish major impact events from the continuous flux of IDPs, including the well-established Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) and late Eocene (E/O) impact boundaries. No spinel grains with chemical or mineralogical evidence of a distinctly ET origin were found in an extensive survey of ‘background’ samples (i.e. non E/O or K/T boundary) suggesting that either the carrier grains for ET noble gas occur within the Fe–Ti oxide mineral fraction observed in this study (found to include ilmenite and ulvospinel) or are too small for identification by SEM. The presence of ilmenite and ulvospinel suggest lunar regolith is a potential source for ET noble gas-rich particles. Noble gas analysis on both the EMF (extractable magnetic fraction) and the Bulk minus EMF (Bulk − EMF) show that the He and Ne compositions are consistent with partially degassed noble gas signatures of zero-age magnetic grains (Z-MAG) and stratospheric interplanetary dust particles (IDPs). Conclusive evidence for a ‘planetary’ (Ne-A) noble gas signature is found only in the bulk sediments at the K/T boundary, although all GPC-3 K/T fractions (Bulk, EMF, and HF Digestion) plot along a mixing line between planetary (Ne-A) and solar wind (SW). Spinels from major impact boundaries (K/T; E/O) exhibit dendritic texture and elevated [Ni], consistent with previous reports. In contrast to the otherwise consistent [3He] signal from IDPs, the [3He] at the known impact boundaries (K/T and E/O) actually decreases. These anomalously low [3He] are accompanied by significantly elevated [Ne] and significantly lower (3He/20Ne)solar ratios (∼10× lower) produced by both preferentially degassing of He relative to Ne at times of increased flux of larger ET material. Degassed (“degassed-He/enriched-Ne profile”) noble gas characteristics occur in two sample intervals that do not correspond to any known impact events (47 and 71 Ma), explained by an influx of larger particles. SEM analysis of the 47 Ma sample shows spinels with dendritic textures, but without distinctive markers of large meteorite impacts (e.g. elevated Ni). Particle size increases and degassed signatures may be caused by major bolides, micrometeorites, comet showers; or simply a flux of larger IDPs, potentially with a different source.
Time Trends and Racial Differences in Female Breast Cancer Incidence in Pennsylvania, 1985–2004

Abstract Background: Differences in breast cancer incidence time trends can result from changes in ascertainment, new diagnostic codes, or possibly changes in underlying risk factors. Methods: Female breast cancer incidence data between 1985 and 2004 were obtained from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry. Joinpoint regression was applied to characterize time trends of age-specific, race-specific, and histology-specific breast cancer incidence. Estimated annual percent change (APC) was calculated. Spatial analysis was applied to detect spatial clusters of county-specific incidence for breast cancer in Pennsylvania. Results: The age-adjusted incidence of invasive breast carcinoma and breast carcinoma in situ was higher in white women than in black women. Invasive breast carcinoma incidence began to decrease significantly in 2001 (APC −3.0%) among white women but has been stable among black women since 1987. Among white women, the age-adjusted incidence of ductal carcinoma in situ increased significantly from 1...
Water-Vapor Sorption on Kaolinite: Hysteresis

Detailed water-vapor sorption measurements were made on Li, ISTa, K, Cs and Mg kaolinite at 25°C. When desorption is started from P/P0 near saturation, all ionic modifications show reversible hysteresis. The size and P/P0 range of the hysteresis loop varies with the nature of the exchangeable ion and sample history. No hysteresis occurs on Li and K kaolinite when desorption is started at P/P0 < 0.8 which along with other data indicates that Li and K exchangeable ions are not truly hydrated below P/P0 = 0.8. The hysteresis for all ionic modifications is traced to hydration of the exchangeable ions. The apparent anomalous position of Li and K ionic hydration is attributed to control of hydration of exchangeable ions by the difference between the hydration energy of the ion minus the specific adsorption energy of the ion for the clay. This difference must be positive before true ionic hydration occurs. A molecular model for sorption is postulated in which sorption is assumed to take place at specific sorption sites upon the clay surface. The energy of sorption at different sites is believed to be different and also to be a function of the hydration state of the exchangeable ion. By the use of the proposed model and the detailed sorption data, hydration of the different exchangeable ions as a function of the relative vapor pressure can be obtained. The sorption model also predicts phase changes in the sorbed film at certain relative pressures. These calculated phase changes agree very well with phase changes indicated from Jura-Harkins’ plots of the experimental data.
Retinol effects on CSF outflow through cultured human arachnoid granulation cells: implications for PTC

Background The underlying etiology of pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) remains unknown, however it has been estimated that an identifiable secondary cause is present in up to 10% of PTC cases. Of these secondary associations, vitamin A is of particular interest, as vitamin A toxicity is associated with an increased intracranial pressure similar to that seen in PTC. Recently, several clinical studies have suggested that serum and CSF retinol levels may be altered in PTC. We hypothesize that increased concentrations of retinoids in the CSF might increase resistance to CSF outflow at the arachnoid granulations (AGs).
The 1989–1990 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska: impacts on aircraft operations

Abstract The December 1989–June 1990 eruption of Redoubt Volcano affected commercial and military air operations in the vicinity of Anchorage, Alaska. These effects were due to the direct impact of volcanic ash on jet aircraft, as well as to the rerouting and cancellations of flight operations owing to eruptive activity. Between December and February, five commercial jetliners were damaged from ash encounters. The most serious incident took place on December 15, 1989 when a Boeing 747-400 aircraft temporarily lost power of all four engines after encountering an ash cloud as the airplane descended for a landing in Anchorage. While there were no injuries to passengers, the damage to engines, avionics, and aircraft structure from this encounter is estimated at $80 million. Four additional encounters between jet aircraft and Redoubt ash clouds occurred in the Anchorage area on December 15 and 16, 1989 and February 21, 1990; none resulted in engine failure. Two additional encounters took place on December 17, 1989 when jet airliners encountered the Redoubt cloud over west Texas. At the time of these encounters, the cloud was up to 55 hours old and had traveled in excess of 2,900 nautical miles (5,300 km). Following the December 15 encounters, Anchorage International Airport remained open, however, most airline companies canceled operations for up to several days. As communications between Federal agencies and airlines improved, and as a better understanding of the nature and behavior of ash-rich eruption clouds was achieved, most airlines resumed normal service by early January 1990. The resulting loss of revenue at Anchorage International Airport during several months following the eruption is estimated to total $2.6 million. The impact on general aviation and military operations consisted mostly of cancellation and rerouting of flights.
Different Types of Open Spaces and Their Importance to Exurban Homeowners

Exurban residential settings are relevant for understanding how societal desires for open space impact landscapes and their ecosystem services. In a 2005 image-based web survey of 468 exurban homeowners in southeast Michigan, we investigated how exurban home-buying choices may be related to having open space nearby, and we measured homeowners’ relative preferences for seven different types of open spaces characterized by different ecosystem services. Our study confirms that nearby open space is important to exurban homeowners, but it suggests that homeowners are somewhat heterogeneous in their preferences for different types of open spaces. They generally prefer forests, lakes, and streams, but their preferences for wetlands, prairies, playgrounds, and golf courses vary somewhat with education, age, or having children. In addition, homeowners for whom open space was less important when they bought their home had somewhat different preferences. We discuss the implications for protecting ecosystem services in planning, design, and development.
Effects of toroidal field ripple on suprathermal ions in tokamak plasmas

Analytic calculations of three important effects of toroidal field ripple on suprathermal ions in tokamak plasmas are presented. In the first process, collisional ripple-trapping, beam ions become trapped in local magnetic wells near their banana tips due to pitch-angle scattering as they traverse the ripple on barely unripple-trapped orbits. In the second process, collisionless ripple-trapping, near-perpendicular untrapped ions are captured (again near a banana tip) due to their finite orbits, which carry them out into regions of higher ripple. In the third process, banana-drift diffusion, fast-ion banana orbits fail to close precisely, due to a ripple-induced variable lingering period near the banana tips. These three mechanisms lead to substantial radial transport of banana-trapped, neutral-beam-injected ions when the quantity ..cap alpha..* identical with epsilon/sin theta/Nqdelta is of order unity or smaller.
THOMAS AQUINAS: INTEGRATING FAITH AND REASON IN THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL

The Second Vatican Council, social upheaval, and quickly changing cultural norms were a part of the fabric of life in the 1960s. Values and beliefs held firmly for generations were called into question. Faith, once solid, appeared to some Catholics to turn fluid and doubtful. Though now well over seven centuries old, the work of Thomas Aquinas can itself be understood and appreciated as a response to the demands of philosophical challenges that threatened to make things fall apart. By his fitting together of faith and reason, Aquinas’ intellectual approach can serve as a inspiration for educators, especially those at the high school level.
Pattern evoked potentials (PEPs) in Parkinson's disease

Controversy exists in the literature concerning whether Parkinson's disease (PD) results in prolongation of pattern evoked potential (PEP) responses. PEPs were obtained in 20 patients with PD. The latencies of the first major positive potential (P2) in response to independent left and right eye stimulation were evaluated. There was no statistically significant difference (group or individual) when patients with PD were compared with age-corrected controls. There was no difference in results in comparing patients with mild, moderate, and severe PD. These results contradict previous reports of markedly abnormal PEPs.
Animal, but not human, faces engage the distributed face network in adolescents with autism

Multiple hypotheses have been offered to explain the impaired face-processing behavior and the accompanying underlying disruptions in neural circuitry among individuals with autism. We explored the specificity of atypical face-processing activation and potential alterations to fusiform gyrus (FG) morphology as potential underlying mechanisms. Adolescents with high functioning autism (HFA) and age-matched typically developing (TD) adolescents were scanned with sMRI and fMRI as they observed human and animal faces. In spite of exhibiting comparable face recognition behavior, the HFA adolescents evinced hypo-activation throughout the face-processing system in response to unfamiliar human, but not animal, faces. They also exhibited greater activation in affective regions of the face-processing network in response to animal, but not human, faces. Importantly, this atypical pattern of activation in response to human faces was not related to atypical structural properties of the FG. This atypical neural response to human faces in autism may stem from abnormalities in the ability to represent the reward value of social (i.e. conspecific) stimuli.
Polymer based ADM and OXC devices

The development of polymer based waveguide devices for optical add/drop multiplex and optical cross-connect applications is summarized. Polymeric integrated optics can provide the basic building blocks to rapidly build complex devices with predictable performance.
BELLWETHERS FOR BOUNDEDNESS OF COMPOSITION OPERATORS ON WEIGHTED BANACH SPACES OF ANALYTIC FUNCTIONS

Let 𝔻 be the open unit disc, let v:𝔻→(0,∞) be a typical weight, and let Hv∞ be the corresponding weighted Banach space consisting of analytic functions f on 𝔻 such that . We call Hv∞ a typical-growth space. For ϕ a holomorphic self-map of 𝔻, let Cφ denote the composition operator induced by ϕ. We say that Cφ is a bellwether for boundedness of composition operators on typical-growth spaces if for each typical weight v, Cφ acts boundedly on Hv∞ only if all composition operators act boundedly on Hv∞. We show that a sufficient condition for Cφ to be a bellwether for boundedness is that ϕ have an angular derivative of modulus less than 1 at a point on ∂𝔻. We raise the question of whether this angular-derivative condition is also necessary for Cφ to be a bellwether for boundedness.
Component modeling for an integrated digital pixel

Future portable imaging products can benefit from the integration of a detector, analog-to-digital converter, digital processing, and data storage within a single chip. One approach combines these components into a processing element that can be tiled into a focal plane processor (FPP) array. Silicon area tradeoffs among the detector, analog interface, processing, and storage can influence system performance. This paper presents a technique that combines area models for each component of the tiled cell to evaluate system implementation alternatives for a 650mm/sup 2/ FPP array with Quad-CIF (176 /spl times/ 144) resolution. A pixel design tool enables comparisons of architectural design choices such as fill factor and data storage. Reducing data storage can increase fill factor. However, this sacrifices versatility in the application suite. Future work includes the development of performance models of each component based upon its physical implementation in silicon.
Inhibition of norepinephrine uptake into synaptic vesicles by butylated hydroxytoluene.

Abstract Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), a widely used antioxidant food preservative, has been found to be a potent inhibitor of norepinephrine uptake into synaptic vesicles isolated from rat brain. BHT levels as low as one per 400 phospholipid molecules were sufficient to cause 75% inhibition of norepinephrine accumulation at 30°C. The same levels of BHT which inhibited neurotransmitter transport also caused a significant increase in the fluorescence polarization of the membrane probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene embedded in synaptic vesicle membranes, suggesting that BHT may block transport indirectly by decreasing the transmembrane mobility of a norepinephrine carrier protein.
Multicystic biliary hamartoma: A report of a rare entity and a review of the literature

INTRODUCTION Multicystic biliary hamartoma is a rare liver tumor that was first described in 2005. Only nine cases are reported in the literature and all of them originate from Eastern patient populations, specifically Japan and Korea.
State-space multivariable non-linear identification and control of aircraft

AbstractIn the design of commercial and military aircraft, flying and handling qualities, as well as performance (agility and manoeuvrability, controllability and stability) and safety, have received increased emphasis. The aircraft must exhibit acceptable handling qualities while performing manoeuvres, and different flight management systems have been designed. For advanced aircraft, the assumption that longitudinal and lateral dynamics can be decoupled leads to poor flying and handling characteristics owing to longitudinal-lateral cross-coupling. Aircraft stability severely degraded at low speed, high-angle-of-attack flight and gain-scheduled linear control algorithms cannot provide the desired performance (gain-scheduled control laws are used because they are certifiable). These have resulted in the critical need for significant improvements in flying and handling qualities as well as expansion of the flight envelope at low-speed, high-angle-of-attack flight by using robust non-linear controllers. Mili...
Rainfall variability, fire and vegetation dynamics in neotropical montane ecosystems in north-western Argentina

Aim We explored the relationships among rainfall, fire and tree population dynamics during the twentieth century. Relationships were analysed on seasonal, interannual and multiannual time scales. Location The study was conducted at ecotones between Andean grasslands and montane forests in north-western Argentina. In this area of subtropical monsoonal climate (wet summers, dry winters), annual rainfall has increased and forests have expanded into grasslands and shrublands during the 20th century. Methods We used annual tree-rings of alder ( Alnus acuminata H. B. K.), the dominant tree species, to date fire scars on 265 trees and determine establishment dates of 455 trees dispersed over areas > 100 ha at five sites. We also sampled tree establishment and resprouting in 21 plots of 0.1‐5 ha and determined mortality patterns in one recently burnt stand. Results Fire occurrence during the winter dry season tends to lag by 1 year after years of above-average moisture availability. This pattern is probably due to enhanced production of fine fuels during the growing season of the preceding years. Over 5-year periods, higher fire frequency is associated with greater variability in rainfall. On a 5-year time scale, tree establishment is also associated with higher rainfall variability. Tree age structures suggest that a decades-long trend towards increased rainfall may also promote forest expansion. By the age of 10‐20 years, Alnus acuminata attains a large enough size to survive the low-intensity fires typical of these open woodland sites. Recovery of A. acuminata after fire is also assured by vigorous resprouting and seedling establishment after fire removes or reduces the herbaceous understorey. During relatively wet periods or at relatively wet sites, fire appears to favour forest expansion by reducing competition between tree juveniles and non-forest vegetation.
On the energy efficiency of cognitive radios - A study of the Ad Hoc Wireless LAN scenario

Cognitive radios have been proposed in recent years to make more efficient use of the wireless spectrum and alleviate congestion on widely used frequency bands. A key aspect of these radios is the ‘cognition’ gained through a spectrum scanning process. The benefit of this cognition is apparent and well studied in terms of achieving better communication performance on selected spectrum. The benefits in terms of reduced energy consumption, however, due to easier channel access and less contention have not been quantified in prior work. On the other hand, spectrum scanning to gain cognition is a power-intensive process and the costs incurred in terms of energy lost need to be accounted for. Thus, it is not clear whether a cognitive radio would be more energy efficient than a conventional radio, and if so, under what circumstances. This focus on energy consumption is particularly important when considering portable communication devices that are energy constrained. This work takes a first step in this direction by exploring whether a cognitive radio can save energy over a conventional radio in the Ad Hoc Wireless LAN scenario. The interplay between different important parameters involved is analyzed and their impact on energy consumption is studied.
Flexible Polymer Sensors for In Vivo Intravascular Shear Stress Analysis

Hemodynamic forces, specifically fluid shear stress, play an important role in the focal nature of arterial plaque formation known as atherosclerosis. We hereby developed biocompatible and flexible intravascular microelectromechanical systems sensor to measure real-time shear stress in the aortas of New Zealand white (NZW) rabbits. Titanium (Ti) and platinum (Pt) were deposited on silicon wafers and patterned to form the sensing elements. The polymer, parylene C, provided insulation to the electrode leads and flexibility to the sensors. Based on heat transfer principle, the heat dissipation from the sensors to the blood flow altered the resistance of the sensing elements, from which shear stress was calibrated. The resistance of the sensing element was measured at approximately 1.0 kOmega , and the temperature coefficient of resistance was at approximately 0.16%/degC. The individual sensors were packaged to the catheter for intravascular deployment in the aortas of NZW rabbits (n = 5) . The sensor was capable of resolving spatial- and time-varying components of shear stress in the abdominal aorta. Computational fluid dynamic code based on non-Newtonian fluid properties showed comparable results within an acceptable range of experimental errors ( plusmn9%) for the maximal and minimal values in shear stress during one cardiac cycle. Therefore, we demonstrated the capability of biocompatible sensors for real-time shear stress measurement in vivo with a potential to advance the understanding between the blood flow and vascular disease.
Aircraft loss of control: Analysis and requirements for future safety-critical systems and their validation

Loss of control remains one of the largest contributors to fatal aircraft accidents worldwide. Aircraft loss-of-control accidents are complex, resulting from numerous causal and contributing factors acting alone or more often in combination. Hence, there is no single intervention strategy to prevent these accidents. This paper summarizes recent analysis results in identifying worst-case combinations of loss-of-control accident precursors and their time sequences, a holistic approach to preventing loss-of-control accidents in the future, and key requirements for validating the associated technologies.
Limits to length asymmetry detection in starlings: implications for biological signalling

Fluctuating asymmetry has received considerable recent attention in evolutionary biology as these small developmental asymmetries can be related to biological fitness and, hence, could be used as a visual cue (or signal) of quality among individuals. The ability of signal receivers to detect and respond to small asymmetries is a fundamental assumption of the symmetry–signalling hypothesis, but has not been experimentally investigated. In this study I have investigated the perceptual threshold to detect and respond to paired–bar length asymmetry in a common bird, the European starling Sturnus vulgaris , by means of operant–learning techniques. The threshold indicates how large the length asymmetry must be to be reliably discriminated from symmetry; birds could not detect an asymmetry of 1.25%. In nature, many asymmetries can be smaller than 1.25%, hence this initial study suggests that caution should be used when trying to invoke symmetry–signalling in natural populations.
Environmental Determinants of Transformation Efficiency in Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori uses natural competence and homologous recombination to adapt to the dynamic environment of the stomach mucosa and maintain chronic colonization. Although H. pylori competence is constitutive, its rate of transformation is variable, and little is known about factors that influence it. To examine this, we first determined the transformation efficiency of H. pylori strains under low O2 (5% O2, 7.6% CO2, 7.6% H2) and high O2 (15% O2, 2.9% CO2, 2.9% H2) conditions using DNA containing an antibiotic resistance marker. H. pylori transformation efficiency was 6- to 32-fold greater under high O2 tension, which was robust across different H. pylori strains, genetic loci, and bacterial growth phases. Since changing the O2 concentration for these initial experiments also changed the concentrations of CO2 and H2, transformations were repeated under conditions where O2, CO2, and H2 were each varied individually. The results showed that the increase in transformation efficiency under high O2 was largely due to a decrease in CO2. An increase in pH similar to that caused by low CO2 was also sufficient to increase transformation efficiency. These results have implications for the physiology of H. pylori in the gastric environment, and they provide optimized conditions for the laboratory construction of H. pylori mutants using natural transformation.
Life course pathways of adverse childhood experiences toward adult psychological well-being: A stress process analysis.

Growing evidence suggests that toxic stressors early in life not only convey developmental impacts but also augment risk of proliferating chains of additional stressors that can overwhelm individual coping and undermine recovery and health. Examining trauma within a life course stress process perspective, we posit that early childhood adversity carries a unique capacity to impair adult psychological well-being both independent of and cumulative with other contributors, including social disadvantage and stressful adult experiences. This study uses data from a representative population-based health survey (N = 13,593) to provide one of the first multivariate assessments of unique, cumulative, and moderated effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) toward explaining 3 related yet distinct measures of adult mental health: perceived well-being, psychological distress, and impaired daily activities. Results demonstrate support for each set of hypothesized associations, including exacerbation and amelioration of ACEs effects by adult stress and resilience resources, respectively. Implications for services and future research are discussed.
Short-term volunteer teachers in rural China: challenges and needs

The brain-drain caused by imbalanced economic development has produced a lack of qualified teachers in rural China. Short-term volunteer teaching has emerged as a response. Despite the popularity of such programs, little systematic data have been gathered regarding their strengths and weaknesses. A short-term volunteer teaching program was studied. The volunteer teachers’ characteristics and teaching experience in the program were explored. It was found that volunteers did not receive sufficient training or support from the agency. Therefore, they experienced substantial challenges on site and suffered from burnout. Based on the volunteer teachers’ opinions and agency staff’s suggestions, the authors propose ways to improve short-term volunteer teaching programs in China.
Minireview: Physiological and Pathological Actions of RAS in the Ovary

The small G proteins of the RAS superfamily act as molecular switches in the transduction of cellular signals critical for a wide range of normal developmental events as well as pathological processes. However, the functions of Ras genes in ovarian cells have only started to be unveiled. RAS, most likely KRAS that is highly expressed in granulosa cells of growing follicles, appears crucial for mediating the gonadotropin-induced events associated with the unique physiological process of ovulation. By contrast, conditional expression of a constitutively active KrasG12D mutant in granulosa cells results in ovulation defects due to the complete disruption of normal follicular growth, cessation of granulosa cell proliferation, and blockage of granulosa cell apoptosis and differentiation. When the tumor suppressor Pten is disrupted conditionally in the KrasG12D-expressing granulosa cells, granulosa cell tumors fail to develop. However, ovarian surface epithelial cells expressing the same Pten;KrasG12D mutations...
Valuing the Effect of Acidification Damages on the Adirondack Fishery: Comment

in the northeastern United States. A "back of the envelope" guess of the annual damages to eastern U.S. aquatic ecosystems, agriculture, and materials, was around $5 billion, in 1978 dollars. (Crocker et al.) Whether one accepts this figure or not, the need is urgent for economists to develop coherent methods of assessing the damages from acid deposition. The economic damages from acid deposition are measured by their effects on consumer's surplus. Mullen and Menz's (MM) approach is an attempt to measure these effects that employs the "zone demand" model. An alternative approach is a utilitytheoretic model that is used to estimate an individual's site-specific demand for recreational fishing (Morey and Shaw). Both techniques use recreationist's travel costs to and from the site to proxy the price of the recreational activity. Both techniques also have important strengths and weaknesses pertaining to our understanding of the theory of benefits assessment and to formulating policy to combat acid deposition. The fresh-water bodies analyzed by MM are in or near the Adirondacks State Park, an area where the adverse impacts of acid deposition are well documented. In this comment the strengths and weaknesses of the MM approach are examined, and the implications of using the MM model to analyze aggregate impacts in the Adirondack and other regions are considered.
Facilitating Long-Term Recovery from Natural Disasters: Psychosocial Programming for Tsunami-Affected Schools of Sri Lanka.

This article reports the findings of a school-based intervention project conducted in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka 15 to 18 months after the December 2004 Tsunami. The work responds to the need for culturally relevant programming to address long-term psychosocial recovery of children and adolescents affected by large scale disasters. Program developers used a participatory action research process to adapt and implement a school-based program previously tested with the general population of Sri Lankan students. Qualitative analysis of student products (e.g. ecomaps, stories, text) was used to determine whether the program provided a context to address both tsunami-specific stressors and non-tsunami (but developmentally and contextually relevant) stressors for students in grades 5, 7, and 9. Findings indicated that program activities differentially elicited identification and discussion of stressors related to tsunami experiences and to 'normal' culturally-relevant developmental challenges. The feasibility of combining a recovery focus with universal school-based mental health programming thus holds promise for extending crisis intervention and disaster response models to include long-term psychosocial recovery and for the role of school-based mental health professionals in these efforts.
Patent foramen ovale: friend or foe?*

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has been increasingly used for the evaluation of patients with a suspected cardiac source of embolization [(1)][1]. Transesophageal echocardiography findings such as spontaneous echocardiographic contrast, atrial septal aneurysm (ASA), patent foramen ovale (PFO
An integrative method for testing form–function linkages and reconstructed evolutionary pathways of masticatory specialization

Morphology serves as a ubiquitous proxy in macroevolutionary studies to identify potential adaptive processes and patterns. Inferences of functional significance of phenotypes or their evolution are overwhelmingly based on data from living taxa. Yet, correspondence between form and function has been tested in only a few model species, and those linkages are highly complex. The lack of explicit methodologies to integrate form and function analyses within a deep-time and phylogenetic context weakens inferences of adaptive morphological evolution, by invoking but not testing form–function linkages. Here, we provide a novel approach to test mechanical properties at reconstructed ancestral nodes/taxa and the strength and direction of evolutionary pathways in feeding biomechanics, in a case study of carnivorous mammals. Using biomechanical profile comparisons that provide functional signals for the separation of feeding morphologies, we demonstrate, using experimental optimization criteria on estimation of strength and direction of functional changes on a phylogeny, that convergence in mechanical properties and degree of evolutionary optimization can be decoupled. This integrative approach is broadly applicable to other clades, by using quantitative data and model-based tests to evaluate interpretations of function from morphology and functional explanations for observed macroevolutionary pathways.
A Skeptical View of the Trademark Dilution Revision Act

The Trademark Dilution Revision Act ("TDRA"), adopted in October 2006, was the result of an almost two-year campaign to overturn the Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc. This brief essay takes a critical look at the TDRA. It argues that while some of the TDRA provisions are improvements, the statute as a whole represents a setback for American trademark law. By signaling congressional interest in shoring up dilution liability, the TDRA opens the door to more aggressive judicial application of the statute and broader interpretation. A stronger Section 43(c) threatens to sever trademark law from its policy moorings and send it in directions that risk high social costs. The problem with the TDRA, and the original Section 43(c) that it amends, is the same as the problem with dilution law more generally. Dilution, and especially dilution in its blurring form, lacks a coherent policy foundation. The lack of clear normative direction gives particularly wide latitude to industry groups to influence the legislative process in ways that serve their private interests at the expense of the public interest.
A Learning-Based Framework for Robot Peg-Hole-Insertion

Peg-hole-insertion is a common operation in industry production, but autonomous execution by robots has been a big challenge for many years. Current robot programming for this kind of contact problem requires tremendous effort, which needs delicate trajectory and force tuning. However, human may accomplish this task with much less time and fewer trials. It will be a great benefit if robots can learn the human skill and apply it autonomously. This paper introduces a framework for teaching robot peg-hole-insertion from human demonstration. A Dimension Reduction and Recovery method is proposed to simplify control policy learning. The Gaussian Mixture Regression is utilized to imitate human skill and a Dual Stage Force Control strategy is designed for autonomous execution by robots. The effectiveness of the teaching framework is demonstrated by a series of experiments.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
PhaseFi: Phase Fingerprinting for Indoor Localization with a Deep Learning Approach

With the increasing demand of location-based services, indoor localization based on fingerprinting has become an increasingly important technique due to its high accuracy and low hardware requirement. In this paper, we propose PhaseFi, a fingerprinting system for indoor localization with calibrated channel state information (CSI) phase information. In PhaseFi, the raw phase information is first extracted from the multiple antennas and multiple subcarriers of the IEEE 802.11n network interface card (NIC) by accessing the modified driver. Then a linear transform is used to extract the calibrated phase information, which is proven to have a bounded variance. For the offline stage, we design a deep network with three hidden layers to train the calibrated phase data, and employ weights to represent fingerprints. A greedy learning algorithm is incorporated to train the weights layer-by-layer to reduce computational complexity, where a sub-network between two continuous layers forms a Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM). In the online stage, we use a probabilistic method based on the radial basis function (RBF) for online location estimation. The proposed PhaseFi scheme is implemented and validated with intensive experiments in two representation indoor environments. It outperforms other three benchmark schemes based on CSI or RSS in both scenarios.
University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center opportunities for improvement project

The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMCCC) Opportunities for Improvement project involved a detailed patient-level medical record review, feedback to medical providers and clinical leadership, and discussion of potential predictors of discordant or delayed care. The medical record review revealed that reasons for discordant or delayed care were well documented by clinical providers, and medical comorbidity was the most common predisposing factor. Another common theme was the difficulty in obtaining treatment records for patients who received a portion of their care outside UMCCC. The project provided a valuable opportunity to examine established processes of care and data collection and consider how the newly implemented electronic health record might support future efforts aimed at improving efficiency and communication among providers.
Factor Analysis of Perceptual Change

A procedure is presented in which current factor analysis techniques are extended to the description of changes in subjects’ perceptions of a product after exposure to an advertisement for the product.
Electron Microscope Studies of Some Vapor Deposited Materials: Nucleation, Epitaxial Growth and Surface Topography

The nucleation and epitaxial growth of deposits at both low and high temperature substrate conditions and the resulting two and three dimensional growth modes have been investigated using electron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. At high temperatures, the growth of small particles such as Au, Pt and Ge grown under low rate conditions similar to MBE are revealed by lattice imaging. Using an intermediate bufler layer Ag film, surface growth of (100) and (310) Au thin film layers are revealed by diffraction contrast to be in a step ledge growth regime. While the above investigations were performed ex situ to the microscope vacuum environment, an in situ evaporator has been also been installed on a high resolution electron microscope. Observations can be made in real time of cluster growth from atomic diameters on up. The resulting atomic motion around cluster edges is similar in appearance to surface melting.
Automated Data Collection

Human factors organizations frequently are requested to provide recommendations about design choices to a product design team. These recommendations should be based on operator performance data. However, in many cases the required information may not be present in the current literature and time and personnel resources may be limited. This paper describes how this problem has been solved by the Human Factors group in IBM at Boca Raton. We are using the IBM Personal Computer as a process controller for studies in our lab. This low cost tool facilitates the automation of studies which require the recording of data for subsequent analysis. The Personal Computer has also been used to analyze the data.
Gender, Honor, and Charity in Late Renaissance Florence: Law And the Majesty of Practice

H istorians and anthropologists of the Mediterranean world have, for a long time, assumed that a strictly patriarchal model governed gender relations and that this model was fixed geographically over the entire Mediterranean world and chronologically from the Homeric age to the nineteenth century. More recent research, however, suggests that equality of property rights between men and women was not a progressive trend but a discontinuous series of advance and retreat. By the late Roman empire, for example, women exercised considerable autonomy and independence concerning property rights, even though in theory these were vested in the male head of household. The use of the fideicommissum (a testamentary restriction on alienation of property) during the Roman Empire as a legal instrument to keep the patrimony together was often undermined in practice by the specific exigencies of families that did not conform to the ideal structural model. In more modern examples, even areas with strict rules concerning the ideal transmission of property to the eldest son conformed to the ideal pattern in barely one-third of cases.
Patterns of Immune Regulation in Rhesus Macaque and Human Families.

Clonal deletion, anergy, and immunoregulation comprise the 3 major mechanisms by which transplant tolerance induction and maintenance are thought to occur.1 In the case of transplants between family members, all 3 mechanisms may be in play from the moment the transplant is placed, due to microchimerism-based preconditioning of host and donor.2 Recent analysis of the immunoregulation aspect of this preconditioning has indicated its potential clinical relevance. Indeed, pretransplant “natural” alloantigen-specific immune regulation predisposed to superior graft outcome in both mice and humans.3,4 Surprisingly, we found that the optimal condition for success of a living donor kidney transplant in a depletional (CAMPATH-1H) protocol was not simply antidonor regulation, but “bidirectional” (recipient antidonor, but also donor antirecipient) regulation. The data suggested that transplant success in these heavily lymphodepleted patients might have resulted from mutual recognition by CAMPATH-1H–resistant recipient and tissue-resident donor T regulatory (Treg) cells of alloantigens expressed by the donor or recipient, respectively. In fact, when regulation was only unidirectional, for example, host-to-donor only, with no reciprocal regulation on the donor side, there was a very high incidence of class I and class II DSA and early rejection.4 Although the exact nature of the primary antigen exposure required to educate the host and donor Treg cells to these foreign antigens is unknown, one likely source is a previous encounter with antigens expressed by naturally acquired microchimeric cells.5,6 In living-related individuals, such antigens may include: (a) noninherited maternal antigens (NIMA) in offspring, (b) inherited paternal antigens (IPA) expressed by fetus-derived cells in the mothers, or (c) transmaternally derived antigens, expressed by cells from an elder sibling, for example, cells that persist in the mother from a previous pregnancy.7,8
Role of the slo1 CRAC4 Motif in BK Channel's Ethanol Sensitivity

Cholesterol (CLR) has been recognized for its ability to interact with ion channels. Among ion channels that sense CLR presence are large conductance, voltage/Ca2+-gated K+ (BK) channels. Functional BK channels result from tetrameric association of pore-forming slo1 subunits. CLR inhibition of slo1 current may result from CLR-sensing by the slo1 cytosolic tail domain (CTD). CTD contains seven CLR-recognition amino acid consensus (CRAC) motifs that contribute to the overall CLR sensitivity of the channel, with the contribution by CRAC4 being studied (Singh et al., 2012). Alcohol (ethanol) also modifies BK channel function, this effect resulting from an orchestration of several factors that include [Ca2+]i. In native membranes, ethanol increases slo1 channel open probability (Po) at [Ca2+]i<20-30 µM whereas reduces Po at [Ca2+]i<30 µM. Both CLR-enrichment and CLR-depletion of native membranes modify ethanol action on BK channels. Thus, we set to determine the role of CLR-sensing by the CRAC4 motif in the slo1 channel's ethanol sensitivity. Slo1 cloned from rat cerebral artery myocytes (cbv1) and the cbv1CRAC4T450F were incorporated into POPE:POPS (3:1 w/w) bilayers in 300/30 mM K+i/K+o gradient. At 0.3 μM Ca2+i, ethanol increased cbv1 Po by ≈3-fold. At 300 μM Ca2+i, ethanol failed to modify cbv1 Po in CLR-free bilayers but increased cbv1 Po in CLR-containing (33 mol%) bilayers. The discrepancy in ethanol effect between native membranes and planar bilayers may likely arise from their difference in proteo-lipid, including CLR, composition. Cbv1CRAC4T450F did not respond to ethanol in CLR-free bilayers, but was activated by ethanol in presence of 33 mol% CLR. Collectively, the similarity of ethanol modulation of BK channel activity studied with cbv1 vs. cbv1CRAC4T450F suggests that CRAC4 does not contribute to CLR modulation of ethanol action on slo1 at high [Ca2+]i. Support: R01AA023764 (AB), R37AA11560 (AD).
SACRIFICING YOUTH FOR A FABRICATED HUMANITY: GOVERNANCE, YOUTH, AND ONTO-THEOLOGY IN THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

This paper analyzes Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's recent film, Cabin in the Woods (2012), using Thomas J. Catlaw's Fabricating the People (2007), to illustrate the precarious position of youth at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author argues that just as the film requires young people to sacrifice themselves for the good of humanity, recent political events ask young people to sacrifice their well-being for the sake of neo-liberalism. Throughout the film, youth refuse the sacrificial logic of the Director, choosing instead a “logic of subtraction.” While the film seemingly ends with the nihilistic end of the world, when viewed through the lens of Fabricating the People it may also offer a hopeful suggestion for how young people can resist and change oppressive systems of governance.
Warren as a Case Study

This is an empirical study of Warren as a case of Midwestern first suburb. The research questions—addressing physical, cultural, economic, and political challenges of a shrinking first suburb—form the basis of research design. The salient features are (1) examining problems of shrinkage in the City of Warren, (2) focusing on the existing assets in Warren, (3) understanding current efforts of existing institutions in Warren to address shrinkage, and (4) applying multiple data collection tactics (literature review, interviews, and mapping) focusing on different stakeholders. The findings are then analyzed and discussed specifically for Warren and generalized in the context of shrinking first suburbs. Specifically, the research design uses data from multiple resources at multiple levels of Warren, Macomb County, and SEMCOG.
High resolution two-dimensional analysis of the proteins of Neisseria gonorrhoeae colony Type 1 and 4, heat shocked and non- heat shocked

Two-dimensional (2-D) analysis was used to examine the differences in protein composition between colony Type 1 (Tl) and Type 4 (T4) cells. Cell stocks were enriched for T1 and T4, and colony type was confirmed by transformation. 2-D analysis of Tl and T4 cells in both the heat shocked and non-heat shocked state was performed. Protein profiles characteristic of each state were found. In the non-heat shocked state, Tl cells contained 12 proteins which appeared to be expressed at a significantly higher level than was found in T4, whereas T4 cells expressed 5 proteins at higher levels than Tl cells. In heat shocked cells, however, T4 cells expressed 15 proteins to a higher level, as compared with Tl cells with 4.