cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A latitudinal cline in the Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) Clock gene: evidence for selection on PolyQ length variants

A critical seasonal event for anadromous Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is the time at which adults migrate from the ocean to breed in freshwater. We investigated whether allelic variation at the circadian rhythm genes, OtsClock1a and OtsClock1b, underlies genetic control of migration timing among 42 populations in North America. We identified eight length variants of the functionally important polyglutamine repeat motif (PolyQ) of OtsClock1b while OtsClock1a PolyQ was highly conserved. We found evidence of a latitudinal cline in average allele length and frequency of the two most common OtsClock1b alleles. The shorter 335 bp allele increases in frequency with decreasing latitude while the longer 359 bp allele increases in frequency at higher latitudes. Comparison to 13 microsatellite loci showed that 335 and 359 bp deviate significantly from neutral expectations. Furthermore, a hierarchical gene diversity analysis based on OtsClock1b PolyQ variation revealed that run timing explains 40.9 per cent of the overall genetic variance among populations. By contrast, an analysis based on 13 microsatellite loci showed that run timing explains only 13.2 per cent of the overall genetic variance. Our findings suggest that length polymorphisms in OtsClock1b PolyQ may be maintained by selection and reflect an adaptation to ecological factors correlated with latitude, such as the seasonally changing day length.
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering on optical material fabricated by femtosecond laser

Raman spectroscopy is a technology that can detect and distinguish materials based on the materials' Raman scattering. However, the signal produced using this technology is usually too small to be useful. The Raman spectrum signal can be enhanced by creating rough patches on the surface of the material. In this paper, a novel method to produce nanometer-sized features on optical materials such as glass, fused silica, and quartz substrate is presented. Using a femtosecond laser, the transparent materials are sputtered and deposited. When the materials cool down, they produce structures with nano-features. These nano-features on optical materials can make designing optical sensing systems much easier. Scanning electron microscope photos of nano-structures on quartz substrate and optical fiber show that features less than 100 nm in size have been successfully fabricated. The 3D micro- and nano-structures of the sensor were studied using a confocal Raman spectrum microscope and focused ion-beam milling. Raman spectrum signals show that the strength of the signal generated by Raman scattering was greatly enhanced compared to substrates without nano-features.
Generalized robustness of entanglement

The robustness of entanglement results of Vidal and Tarrach [Phys. Rev. A 59, 141 (1999)] considered the problem whereby an entangled state is mixed with a separable state so that the overall state becomes nonentangled. In general, it is known that there are also cases when entangled states are mixed with other entangled states and where the sum is separable. In this paper, we treat a more general case where entangled states can be mixed with any states so that the resulting mixture is unentangled. It is found that entangled pure states for this generalized case have the same robustness as the restricted case of Vidal and Tarrach.
Software Maintenance: Concepts and Practice

Software Maintenance: Concepts and Practice is an excellent paperback book that comprehensively covers a breadth of software maintenance issues. It is more than adequate as a textbook for a university-level course about software maintenance, although it has a few drawbacks in this respect (in particular a lack of technical guidance on key maintenance concerns such as impact analysis). In addition, it can be a useful reference for software researchers and, to a lesser extent, practitioners. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Associations of beta-endorphin with HVA and MHPG in the plasma of prepubertal boys: effects of familial drug abuse and antisocial personality disorder liability

Abstract It is well-established that the secretion of the opioid neuropeptide β-endorphin is perturbed by the administration of various drugs of abuse. Several investigators have speculated that variations in β-endorphin secretory regulation may precede the development of a substance use disorder, and thus be a component of the liability for substance abuse. In order to test this hypothesis, we examined fasting, morning plasma concentrations of β-endorphin and two catecholamine metabolites in prepubertal boys naive to drugs of abuse and at elevated familial risk for a substance use disorder (SA+), and in controls (SA−). Specifically, the dopaminergic metabolite homovanillic acid (pHVA), and the noradrenergic metabolite, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenylglycol (pMHPG) were measured. Between-group differences were not found for β-endorphin, pHVA, or pMHPG. Similarly, such differences did not differentiate sons of fathers with Antisocial Personality Disorder and controls. However, regression analysis revealed that although both pHVA and pMHPG predicted β-endorphin concentrations to similar degrees, the directions of influence were the opposite. pHVA was found to be positively associated with β-endorphin while pMHPG was found to be negatively associated with β-endorphin. No between-group differences in these relationships were found. The results suggest an opponent process in catecholaminergic regulation of β-endorphin in humans, and are consistent with observations in the central nervous system of animal models.
The civics of community development: participatory budgeting in Chicago

We investigate the relationship between community organizations and the implementation of a multi-ward participatory budgeting (PB) process in Chicago. Drawing on observations and surveys administe...
Crystalline Structure and Properties of EP and EB Copolymers by Solid-State NMR, DSC, and WAXS

The crystalline structures of ethylene−propylene (EP) and ethylene−butene (EB) copolymers have been investigated using a combination of solid-state NMR, WAXS, and DSC. In high-propylene (>20 mol %)...
Conservatism and Perceptions of Poverty: An Attributional Analysis1

Attribution theory was used to relate causal explanations for poverty to affect and behavioral intentions. In Experiment 1, student subjects rated 13 causes of poverty on importance, the attribution of controllability, blame, affects of pity and anger, and judgments of help-giving (personal help and welfare). Two individual differences, conservatism and the belief in a just world, were also assessed. A principal components analysis categorized the causes into three types: individualistic, societal, and fatalistic. Conservatism correlated positively with a belief in the importance of individualistic causes, controllability, blame, and anger, and it correlated negatively with perceptions of the importance of societal causes, pity, and intentions to help. No systematic effects of the belief in a just world emerged. A structural equation analysis revealed that personal help is emotionally determined, whereas welfare judgments are directly related to attributions of responsibility and political ideology. Experiment 2 revealed a similar pattern of results using a nonstudent sample.
A novel nanosecond pulsed plasma brush for biomedical applications

The potential applications of non-equilibrium plasmas in biomedical fields are accelerating research efforts to explore and understand the physical and chemical processes responsible for their effectiveness. This work introduces and characterizes a non-equilibrium plasma “brush” for biomedical applications. The plasma electrodes consist of three parallel µm-thick sheets, a center high voltage electrode and two outer ground electrodes, which are separated by dielectric plates. Helium, argon, and dry air were individually evaluated as a carrier gas and were fed into the plasma chamber at a rate of 4 SLPM. The 3.5 cm in width, 75 µm in depth, and 1.5 to 4 cm in length (dependent on carrier gas) brush-shaped plasma plumes were generated in ambient air when 25 kV, 150 ns pulses were applied to the center active electrode at a pulse repetition rate of 500 Hz. Spatiotemporal optical emission spectroscopy was employed to evaluate the electronically excited species produced in the discharge as well as the rotational, vibrational, and electronic temperatures of the active species. Application of the cold plasma brush for surface decontamination was tested in a pilot study of plasma inactivation of two common nosocomial pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumaunnii.
Purification and properties of acid phosphatase in bovine milk

Abstract The acid phosphatase of bovine milk has been purified over 40,000-fold by extensive use of Amberlite IRC-50. The enzyme is a basic protein with an optimum pH of 4.75. Ascorbic acid triples the activity, while other reducing agents have only a slight activating effect. The acid phosphatase acts on aromatic phosphates, casein, and pyrophosphates (both organic and inorganic). It did not act on AMP, serine phosphate, and glycerol phosphate.
Case Series: Pediatric Seasonal Affective Disorder. A Follow-up Report

Six subjects who as children had received a diagnosis of seasonal affective disorder consented to participate in a 7-year follow-up study. Structured and semistructured interviews were conducted to assess the course of illness, response to treatment, and current clinical state. Seasonal patterns of symptoms and response to light therapy remained relatively stable over a 7-year period. Two subjects were using adjunctive fluoxetine. Seasonal affective disorder can occur in children and adolescents, responds to light therapy, and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of pediatric affective symptoms or cyclic school performance.
Comments on "Applications of some new tools to robust stability analysis of spark ignition engine: a case study"

The authors comment on the usage in the original paper (Abate, Barmish, Murillo-Sanches and Tempo, ibid., vol.2, p.22-30, 1994) of a previously published equation for internal combustion engine sampling period calculation. They then point out a need for inclusion of induction-to-power delay when dealing with models of low-speed engine operations such as around idle speed.
Minimally Supervised Model of Early Language Acquisition

Theories of human language acquisition assume that learning to understand sentences is a partially-supervised task (at best). Instead of using 'gold-standard' feedback, we train a simplified "Baby" Semantic Role Labeling system by combining world knowledge and simple grammatical constraints to form a potentially noisy training signal. This combination of knowledge sources is vital for learning; a training signal derived from a single component leads the learner astray. When this largely unsupervised training approach is applied to a corpus of child directed speech, the BabySRL learns shallow structural cues that allow it to mimic striking behaviors found in experiments with children and begin to correctly identify agents in a sentence.
“J” Rooting Does Not Affect the Performance of Florida Strawberry Transplants

Abstract Strawberry transplants set in Florida are often “J” rooted when planted. With the roots in an unnatural arrangement at planting as opposed to a more vertical arrangement it may effect establishment and subsequent growth and yield. A 2 × 2 factorial experiment was implemented to determine the effect of “J” rooting on two varieties of strawberry, Oso Grande' and ‘Sweet Charlie’. Plants were placed in traditional holes and “J” rooted or placed in enlarged holes where roots were allowed to be orientated vertically. No differences were detected for any measured parameter among treatment combinations. Therefore, it is concluded that “J” rooting does not affect transplant performance in a Florida annual hill production system.
125Te Mössbauer effect study of magnetic hyperfine structure in the ferromagnetic spinel CuCr2Te4

Abstract The Mossbauer hyperfine spectrum of 125Te has been measured in the ferromagnetic spinel CuCr2Te4. The hyperfine field was found to be 148 ± 5 kOe. The nuclear magnetic moment of the 35.6 keV excited state of 125Te was determined to be +0.74 ± 0.07 nm.
Cosegregation of a sex factor with the Escherichia coli chromosome during curing by acridine orange.

Abstract We have studied the mechanism by which acridine orange cures the sex factor F′ galλCI857 from cells of Escherichia coli . Under the conditions used, the loss of the episome followed first-order kinetics at a rate indicating that the acridine produced an immediate and complete cessation of episome replication. We prelabeled the bacterial DNA and followed the segregation during curing of the labeled chromosomes and the non-dividing episomes by thermoinduction and selective lysis of those cells that had inherited the prophage-bearing sex factor. During the course of curing, while the proportion of F′ cells decreased from 99 to 7% of the population, there was cosegregation of the episomes with the prelabeled strands of bacterial DNA with which they had been associated at the onset of the experiment. The result demonstrates that the inhibition of episome replication produced by acridine orange is not due to dissociation of the episome from the cellular element that is believed to constitute the bacterial unit of segregation.
A factor analysis of the original Stanford-Binet scale.

From the original Stanford-Binet scale, those items passed by between 10 and 90 per cent of a group of ten-year-old children were analyzed by the centroid method. Upon rotation, there appeared a common factor, for which two explanatory hypotheses are offered, the more tenable being that it is an effect of maturation. Primary factors tentatively identified are Number, Space, Imagery, Verbal Relations and Induction. A sixth factor apparently involves a reasoning ability and a seventh can not be interpreted.
Time course of spousal bereavement.

Abstract This article reports the results of a survey on 300 widows and widowers who experienced spousal bereavement weeks to years prior to the study, and discusses the symptoms, syndromes, and behaviors seen at various time intervals. Although the reactions to widowhood were highly variable and individual, it was clear that for many widows and widowers, the time course of grief was much more prolonged than generally expected. Dysphoric feelings, symptoms, and behaviors were most frequent during the first year of bereavement, but often remained prevent even four or more years after the death. In particular, anger, guilt, depresssion, and anxiety tended to diminish over time, but not to statistically significant degrees. Many widows and widowers never fully accepted the fact of their spouses' deaths and maintained a continuing relationship with their deceased spouses, in their own ways, indefinitely. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.
Human plasma triglyceride labeling after high-sucrose feeding. I. Incorporation of sucrose-U-14C

Abstract A 14 C-labeled sucrose load was given to 23 patients (including 18 obese females) after 1 wk on a low-sucrose, high-starch diet, then again after 1 wk of isocaloric high-sucrose, low-starch diet. Peak radio-activities of total plasma triglycerides (TG- 14 C) and of triglyceride-fatty acids (TGFA- 14 C) occurred between 3 and 6 hr after the acute oral loading during either dietary period. After high-sucrose diet (HSD) the peak activity of TGFA- 14 C appeared to occur earlier than after lowsucrose diet (LSD). On HSD the appearance of sucrose- 14 C in plasma TG- 14 C was significantly greater up to 12 hr after the acute loading, with maximal increments of 50% or more occurring at 3 hr, compared to a mean increase of merely 13%–14% in the fasting concentration of plasma TG after HSD. The increment results mainly from a greater and earlier appearance of 14 C in TGFA, rather than in the glyceride-glycerol. This implies that enhanced hepatic lipogenesis is responsible, not an increased availability of α-glycerolphosphate, nor any gross defect in removal of plasma TG. On HSD the rate of excretion of breath 14 CO 2 was also slightly but significantly greater during the first 2 hr following the acute loading, though not afterwards. There is a positive correlation of individual changes in excretion of 14 CO 2 with changes in plasma TG- 14 C and plasma TGFA- 14 C. The individual and temporal relationships between changes in the oxidative and the lipogenic processes, as well as the selectivity of the pathways affected, suggest that important factors are an increased rate of intestinal absorption of sucrose and increased pancreatic insulin secretion. Correlation studies further indicate a lesser response to the high-sucrose feeding in hyperglyceridemic patients, but such patients tend to convert more sucrose to plasma TG even on a low-sucrose diet. Thus, measurement of plasma TG- 14 C in the sucrose- 14 C loading test on LSD may disclose abnormal lipogenic potential.
Tunneling spectroscopy as a probe of adsorbate-surface interactions

Abstract Tunneling spectroscopy is a sensitive probe of two classes of adsorbate-surface interactions: interactions of the adsorbate with the substrate on which it is adsorbed and adsorbate interactions with the top metal electrode that is evaporated on top of it. The talk by Professor Hipps focuses on the first of these classes. This talk focuses on the second. In general, the interaction of the adsorbed molecules with the top metal electrode produces a down-shift in the vibrational mode position ranging in size from ⩽ 0.1% to ⩽ 10% depending on the dipole derivative of the mode and the type of top metal electrode.
Risk Perception, Learning, and Individual Behavior

Economically rational behavior does not require that individuals make perfect decisions. With repeated decisions, people often learn from their mistakes. Over twenty years ago Arrow in his Jahnssonin lectures recognized the essential role learning plays in a model of individual behavior under uncertainty. He observed that "subjectivity of beliefs does not exclude their being influenced by experience .... When beliefs are represented by probabilities, then the observation of an event causes the agent to act in accordance with the conditional probabilities given that event rather than with the probabilities held before the observation. The influence of experience on beliefs is of utmost importance for a rational theory of behavior under uncertainty ..." (Arrow, pp. 45-46). Unfortunately, most economic models for individual choice under uncertainty assume that individuals know the correct probabilities of the events at risk. For example, we assume that an individual knows the risk of an accidental death when taking a job. Significant deviations from the predictions of the conventional expected utility (EU) framework are interpreted as evidence of irrationality. In reality, decision makers are confronted with a diverse array of information about risks. Many of these risks may involve complex processes, e.g., health choices, financial decisions, or even vacation plans. How people deal with this complexity is an essential element in any description of how optimal decisions are made. There is ample evidence that people use rules (or heuristics) to reduce or simplify the information needed for decisions. Yet, we know little about how these rules are selected in the first place or how they are revised with experience.1 This paper reports evidence on how individuals update their risk perceptions. Our application involves a panel of 2,300 homeowners in New York state who participated in a state-sponsored study to measure radon. This colorless, odorless gas is a naturally occurring indoor air pollutant that is considered to be the second leading cause (after smoking) of lung cancer in the United States (National Research Council). As part of our research, we sent the homeowners their radon readings along with a randomly assigned "information treatment" that explained their risks from radon exposure. Our empirical models describe how stated risk perceptions are updated in response to new information. To motivate these models, we consider what can be learned about how individuals form risk perceptions from the conventional EU and four alternative models
American Folklore: A Guide to Reference Sources.

Libraries have long played an important role in the preservation, appreciation, and perpetuation of American traditions. As early as 1928, the Archive of American Folk‐Song was established in the Library of Congress to maintain a national collection of manuscripts and recordings of American folk songs. The archive's mission broadened to include all aspects of folklore and folklife, prompting a name change in 1981 to the Archive of Folk Culture. Today, the archive serves as a national repository for primary source material on American folklore, spoken word as well as music, and provides reference and reader services for the fields of folklore and ethnomusicology. In 1976, the American Folklife Center was established at the Library of Congress, and the archive was placed under its auspices. Charged with developing, promoting, and implementing programs that support American folklife, the center sponsors an active research and publications program. Archives are not the only connection, however, between libraries and folklore. With collections and performances of folktales in children's departments, folklore in school programs, family and local history collections in public libraries, and academic research collections, folklore engages a broad spectrum of library users.
Analysis of pantographic recordings.

Abstract Reproducibility of pantographic recordings was tested. Six pantographic recordings were performed on seven patients over a period of two months time. Three tracings were recorded under control conditions, and three were recorded under the experimental conditions (the suggested technique). The articulator settings obtained were compared and analyzed. Statistical and clinical implications were discussed. It was found that, for articulator settings obtained by using a pantographic technique, reproducibility is a practical quality of border movements. With a 95 per cent level of significance, it can be stated that there seems to be (1) a difference among patients, (2) a difference between right and left sides, and (3) virtually no clinically significant difference between experimental and control conditions.
Nonlinear excitations in one-dimensional correlated insulators

Abstract In this work we investigate charge transport in one-dimensional insulators via semiclassical and perturbative renormalization group methods. We consider the problem of electron-electron, electron-phonon and electron-two-level system interactions. We show that nonlinear collective modes such as polarons and solitons are responsible for transport. We find a new excitation in the Mott insulator: the polaronic soliton. We discuss fhe differences between band and Mott insulators in terms of their spin spectrum and obtain the charge and spin gaps in each one of these systems. We show that electron-electron interactions provide strong renormalizations of the energy scales in the problem.
A parallel electromagnetic genetic-algorithm optimization (EGO) application for patch antenna design

In this paper, we describe an electromagnetic genetic algorithm (GA) optimization (EGO) application developed for the cluster supercomputing platform. A representative patch antenna design example for commercial wireless applications is detailed, which illustrates the versatility and applicability of the method. We show that EGO allows us to combine the accuracy of full-wave EM analysis with the robustness of GA optimization and the speed of a parallel computing algorithm. A representative patch antenna design case study is presented. We illustrate the use of EGO to design a dual-band antenna element for wireless communication (1.9 and 2.4 GHz) applications. The resulting antenna exhibits acceptable dual-band operation (i.e., better than -10 dB return loss with 5.3 and 7% operating bandwidths at 1.9 and 2.4 GHz) while maintaining a cross-pol maximum field level at least 11 dB below the co-pol maximum.
The lipogenic enzymes DGAT1, FAS, and LPL in adipose tissue: effects of obesity, insulin resistance, and TZD treatment

Acyl-coenzyme A:diacylglycerol transferase (DGAT), fatty acid synthetase (FAS), and LPL are three enzymes important in adipose tissue triglyceride accumulation. To study the relationship of DGAT1, FAS, and LPL with insulin, we examined adipose mRNA expression of these genes in subjects with a wide range of insulin sensitivity (SI). DGAT1 and FAS (but not LPL) expression were strongly correlated with SI. In addition, the expression of DGAT1 and FAS (but not LPL) were higher in normal glucose-tolerant subjects compared with subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (P < 0.005). To study the effects of insulin sensitizers, subjects with IGT were treated with pioglitazone or metformin for 10 weeks, and lipogenic enzymes were measured in adipose tissue. After pioglitazone treatment, DGAT1 expression was increased by 33 +/- 10% (P < 0.05) and FAS expression increased by 63 +/- 8% (P < 0.05); however, LPL expression was not altered. DGAT1, FAS, and LPL mRNA expression were not significantly changed after metformin treatment. The treatment of mice with rosiglitazone also resulted in an increase in adipose expression of DGAT1 by 2- to 3-fold, as did the treatment of 3T3 F442A adipocytes in vitro with thiazolidinediones. These data support a more global concept suggesting that adipose lipid storage functions to prevent peripheral lipotoxicity.
Diagnosis of switch open-circuit fault in PM brushless DC motor drives

An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is developed to diagnose open switch faults in the inverter bridge of PM brushless DC motor drives. Performance of the drive system under normal and faulty conditions is obtained through a discrete-time model. The motor DC-link current is monitored over one electrical cycle under healthy and faulty operations. The time-domain waveform is processed using wavelet transform, and suitable indices are derived to train ANFIS. Testing of the diagnosing system shows the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
Survey of Calcium Action in Stimulus-Secretion Coupling

Before we survey the plethora of information concerning the regulatory role of calcium in the secretory process, it is necessary to review briefly the general features of this process in order to better appreciate how calcium acts in secretory systems. Under electron-microscopic analysis a typical feature of the secretory cell is the presence of numerous membrane-bound granules (100–400 nm in diameter) scattered throughout the cytoplasm that contain a variable quantity of electron-dense material. Small granular vesicles are also a uniform feature at chemical synapses, being situated close to the presynaptic nerve terminal.
You can degrade but you can't hit: Differences in perceptions of psychological versus physical aggression

This study fills two major gaps in the partner aggression literature. First, little is known about perceptions of psychological aggression. Second, it is unclear whether any physical aggression or just high physical aggression is perceived to be negative and severe. We conducted an experiment with college students (N = 212) to examine perceptions of a hypothetical marital conflict that varied the husband's level of physical aggression (absent, low, high) and psychological aggression (low, high). The effect of manipulating the husband's physical aggression led to robust main effects on perceptions of negativity and severity. The distinction between any versus low or high physical aggression depended on the variable. The effect of manipulating the husband's psychological aggression was not nearly as robust.
Human Active Learning

We investigate a topic at the interface of machine learning and cognitive science. Human active learning, where learners can actively query the world for information, is contrasted with passive learning from random examples. Furthermore, we compare human active learning performance with predictions from statistical learning theory. We conduct a series of human category learning experiments inspired by a machine learning task for which active and passive learning error bounds are well understood, and dramatically distinct. Our results indicate that humans are capable of actively selecting informative queries, and in doing so learn better and faster than if they are given random training data, as predicted by learning theory. However, the improvement over passive learning is not as dramatic as that achieved by machine active learning algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative study comparing human category learning in active versus passive settings.
Optic tectum of the eastern Garter snake Thamnophis sirtalis. IV: Morphology of afferents from the retina

Abstract The morphology of single retinal terminals in the optic tectum of the eastern garter snake was demonstrated by orthograde filling from extracellular injections of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into the optic tract. HRP-filled terminals share a characteristic shape and structure. Their parent axons course caudally in the stratum opticum within fascicles of 200-300 fibers of varying diameters. Single axons exit a fascicle and course into either the stratum fibrosum et griseum superficiale, ventrally, or the stratum zonale, dorsally, where they bifurcate successively two or three times into preterminal branches. Each preterminal branch gives rise to many thin, terminal branchlets laden with boutons. The arbors are ellipsoidal with their long axes oriented mediolaterally and their short axes oriented rostrocaudally. Arbors vary in their overall size (from 45 to 150 micron), in the diameters of their parent axons (from less than 0.5 to 3.0 micron), and in the size of their terminal boutons (from 0.5 to 3.5 micron). Bouton size increased with increasing diameter of the parent axon. The great majority of arbors are confined to one of three retinorecipient sublayers in the superficial tectum. However, the full range of arbor sizes and axon diameters is present in each sublayer.
Faculty development in industrial quality assurance practice: An education-industry model

Western Carolina University instituted a one-year project titled "Enhancement of Two-Year Industrial and Engineering Technology Faculty in Current Quality Assurance Practices. The activities carried out under this project are described. >
Dielectric Green's function for parameters of microstrip

The program generates a data file of the dielectric Green's function in format suitable as input to the program which has been previously deposited in the IEE Program Library for computation of the parameters of microstrip. With the two programs, tables of microstrip parameters can be generated for any value of substrate permittivity. This program also provides the option of including the effect of an upper ground plane. The calculation embodies the quasistatic approximation.
Multifocal acquired demyelinating neuropathy masqurading as motor neuron disease

We report five patients with pure motor neuropathy characterized by multifocal weakness, muscle atrophy that was sometimes profound, cramps, and fasciculations with relatively preserved reflexes. The clinical picture led to an initial diagnosis of motor neuron disease in all cases, but nerve conduction studies revealed multifocal conduction block confined to motor axons and predominantly involving proximal nerve segments. Routine sensory nerve conduction studies, ascending compound nerve action potentials, and somatosensory evoked potentials were all normal even through nerve segments in which motor conduction was severely blocked. Onset of symptoms was insidious, and progression was indolent. In two cases, after many years of neuropathy, sensory abnormalities developed but remained clinically trivial. These unusual cases probably have the same pathogenesis as previously described patients with persistent multifocal conduction block. Distinction from motor neuron disease is critical, since chronic demyelinating neuropathy may respond to treatment.
Pan Africanism: A Brief Intellectual History

In this article, I will historicize the socio-political and cultural emergence of Pan Africanism as an ideology. In doing so, one is enabled to appreciate its continued relevance and significance as well as its limitations and imposed misrecognition, morass misapplications, and muddled ambiguities within history. Historicizing Pan Africanism as a discourse frees it from an essentialist rendered definition and enables a new understanding in which Pan Africanism is to be understood as a performative-operative discourse. Being performative means that it ceases to be a close-minded rigid ideology proscribed by racial consciousness; it means assuming a new pose of repudiation that is dependent on contemporary socio-cultural tissues of historical experiences. But our concept is not just performative, it is also discursive because it generates a new sense of meaning for our contemporary understanding of Africanity.
Collective flow, multi-fragment emission and azimuthal asymmetries in intermediate energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

Abstract Using the MSU 4π Array with the NSCL K1200 Superconducting Cyclotron we have measured an excitation function for 40 Ar+ 51 V from 35 to 100 MeV/nucleon. We have observed a minimum in collective flow around 82 MeV/nucleon which marks the transition from attractive to repulsive scattering. Multi-fragment emission is observed to occur sequentially in reactions at 35 MeV/nucleon. As the beam energy is raised, the emission becomes more simultaneous. Using azimuthal asymmetries, we have extracted rotation-like phenomena. This signal for rotation is strong at 35 MeV/nucleon and nearly disappears as the beam energy is raised to 85 MeV/nucleon.
Client Types in Different Drug Abuse Treatments: Comparisons of Follow-up Outcomes

Differences in background characteristics of 1,812 Black and White male opioid addicts were used as the basis for defining profiles of “typical” clients assigned to methadone maintenance (MM), therapeutic community (TC), and outpatient drug-free (DF) programs. The three client types defined by these profiles, especially reflecting variations in criminal history and legal involvement, were compared using a composite outcome measure for drug use, criminality, and employment during the first year posttreatment. There were significant outcome differences among the client types, and the client type with greater criminal involvement had the poorest outcomes. The outcomes of clients in MM, TC, and DF treatments were not significantly different from one another, but they were significantly more favorable than those for clients in outpatient detoxification and a comparison intake-only group. The major finding, however, was the lack of evidence for an optimal match between client types and treatment types leading t...
A parametric device study for SiC diodes in vehicular applications

Materials and device researchers build switching devices for the circuit researchers to use in their circuits, but they rarely know how and where the devices are going to be used. The circuits people, including power electronics researchers, take the devices as black boxes and use them in their circuits not knowing much about the inside of the devices. The best way to design optimum devices is an interactive design where people designing and building the devices have a close interaction with the people who use them. This study covers the circuit aspects of the SiC power device development. As a contribution to the abovementioned interactive design, in this paper, the device parameters, which need to be improved in order to design better devices, are discussed.
The band alignment problem at the Si-high-k dielectric interface

We investigate the use of the complex band structure of high-k gate dielectrics to estimate their charge neutrality levels, and compute band offsets to Si. Results of these model calculations are then compared to those obtained with direct electronic structure methods and available experiment. It appears that charge neutrality levels thus obtained indeed provide a consistent picture. However, the uncertainty in the conduction band position inherent in the local density approximation may render the theory inadequate for the engineering support. Despite this limitation, linear re-scaling of the charge neutrality levels based on the experimental band gaps has shown excellent agreement with experimental data.
Cost of "ad hoc" wafer release policies

Modern manufacturing operations must, on one hand, be very flexible in order to react to the rapidly changing market needs, and on the other hand, as cost effective as possible. The chaotic nature of the market, however, does not allow systematic minimization of manufacturing costs. This paper studies manufacturing flexibility, manufacturing cost trade-off. The analysis is performed using a simulation technique and assuming that the chaotic nature of the market can be modeled by 'ad hoc' wafer release policies.
Carbon nanotube reinforced small diameter polyacrylonitrile based carbon fiber

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and PAN/carbon nanotube (CNT) composite (99/1) based carbon fibers with an effective diameter of about 1 μm have been processed using island-in-a-sea bi-component cross-sectional geometry and gel spinning. PAN/CNT (99/1) based carbon fibers processed using this approach exhibited a tensile strength of 4.5 GPa (2.5 N/tex) and tensile modulus of 463 GPa (257 N/tex), while these values for the control PAN-based carbon fiber processed under the similar conditions were 3.2 GPa (1.8 N/tex) and 337 GPa (187 N/tex), respectively. Properties of these 1 μm diameter carbon fibers have been compared to the properties of the larger diameter (>6 μm) PAN and PAN/CNT based carbon fibers.
Cost inefficiency under financial strain: a stochastic frontier analysis of hospitals in Washington State through the Great Recession

The importance of increasing cost efficiency for community hospitals in the United States has been underscored by the Great Recession and the ever-changing health care reimbursement environment. Previous studies have shown mixed evidence with regards to the relationship between linking hospitals’ reimbursement to quality of care and cost efficiency. Moreover, current evidence suggests that not only inherently financially disadvantaged hospitals (e.g., safety-net providers), but also more financially stable providers, experienced declines to their financial viability throughout the recession. However, little is known about how hospital cost efficiency fared throughout the Great Recession. This study contributes to the literature by using stochastic frontier analysis to analyze cost inefficiency of Washington State hospitals between 2005 and 2012, with controls for patient burden of illness, hospital process of care quality, and hospital outcome quality. The quality measures included in this study function as central measures for the determination of recently implemented pay-for-performance programs. The average estimated level of hospital cost inefficiency before the Great Recession (10.4 %) was lower than it was during the Great Recession (13.5 %) and in its aftermath (14.1 %). Further, the estimated coefficients for summary process of care quality indexes for three health conditions (acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia, and heart failure) suggest that higher quality scores are associated with increased cost inefficiency.
Technical Aspects of Hyperthermia

Any attempt to cover, in one chapter, the physiology and physics of heating tumors, as well as the means of measuring tumor and normal tissue temperatures, is a difficult undertaking. It would not be unreasonable to write several treatises on these subjects. For example, the two major competing physical techniques that apply to localized heating, electromagnetics and ultrasound, each merit thorough expositions. To do so would require two textbooks, and I would hardly be competent to be the author of either. Therefore, to stay within space (and my own) limitations, I am going to be very selective in the choice of topics to be covered. As a guide to determining appropriate subject matter, I am taking what might be described as a consumer’s viewpoint. I don’t mean the ultimate consumer, the patient, who rarely is in a position to choose the treatment, but I am thinking of the physician. His or her questions relate not so much to specific aspects of the design of various systems, but to the machines’ capabilities and limitations, i.e., to their utility in a clinical setting. In Table 6.1 I have summarized much of the information available regarding advantages and disadvantages of various heating modalities.
Improving the performance of constructive multi-start search using record-keeping

State-space search redundancy, that is, multiple explorations of the same state, is an inherent problem in many heuristic search algorithms. It is prevalent in constructive multi-start algorithms. Record-keeping mechanisms, however, can minimize redundancy and enable exploiting time/space tradeoffs. This paper investigates the utility of record-keeping procedures in the context of Iterative Hill Climbing applied to the Traveling Salesperson Problem using several restart mechanisms including Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search, and Greedy Enumeration. Record-keeping methods such as unbounded memory, dedicated memory, and cache memory, as well as a novel "book-keeping" method utilizing a Bloom filter are investigated. Experiments performed using TSPLIB benchmarks and random TSP instances with 100 cities show that under the above mentioned restart and record-keeping mechanisms the IHC produces competitive results. In addition, the research shows that record-keeping, in specific Bloom filters, can considerably improve both the time performance of IHC and the quality of solutions produced.
Hybridization between native and introduced wildlife species: importance for conservation

Molecular techniques show that hybridization can be a major conservation problem. Introgression can lessen genotypic variety and break up gene complexes coadapted to local environments. Gamete wastage can be a problem for hybridizing species even when gene flow does not occur. Birds and mammals introduced for game purposes have hybridized with native populations, a process often facilitated by habitat modification. Further, translocation and stock enhancement programs can lead to loss of well-adapted genotypes. These problems increase as populations become fragmented and isolated, because finding mates is harder and habitat differences that bar reproduction are obliterated. What to do about hybridization is sometimes not obvious. Even if the problem is seen as important, often little can be done. Culling may be impossible because of difficulties in recognizing introgressed individuals. Wildlife biologists and managers should work to prevent introductions and translocations if hybridization problems cannot be ruled out. Further, wildlife professionals should educate the public about evolutionary aspects of introductions and translocations, including hybridization and introgression.
Dispersible and thermal stable nanofibrils derived from glycated whey protein

Formation of nanofibrils by heating proteins at pH 2.0 has been studied extensively because of the potential as novel biomaterials. However, nanofibrils of whey proteins have poor dispersibility and heat stability, limiting their application in fluidic and transparent products. We report, for the first time, the formation of nanofibrils from whey protein isolate (WPI) glycated with lactose (WPI-g-L) that were highly dispersible and remained transparent after heating at pH 3.0-7.0 and 0-150 mM NaCl. The WPI-g-L followed similar nanofibril formation mechanism as WPI based on reducing protein electrophoresis, analytical ultracentrifugation, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The rate of nanofibril formation from WPI-g-L was similar to that of WPI, but the yield was lower based on thioflavin-T fluorescence spectroscopy. The presence of the glycated lactose on nanofibril surface provided steric hindrance enabling the dispersibility and thermal stability and supplying functions such as viscosity in various fluidic, transparent consumer products.
Ultrafast photoinduced insulator-to-metal transitions in vanadium dioxide

An explanation is given for the ultrafast insulator-to-metal transition in VO${}_{2}$ following photoexcitation. The photoinduced orbital imbalance induces a coherent motion of the V-V dimers affecting the electronic structure. After the closing of the gap, Boltzmann scattering equilibrates the electron densities. If the electron density exceeds a critical value, a phase transition occurs to the metallic state. The model explains several key features, such as a structural bottleneck, coherent structural motion combined with phase shifts in the oscillation, the absence of ultrafast metal-to-insulator transitions, and the need for a critical fluency.
Research and application of damage detection method for oil drill

In order to effectively prevent and detect various defects existing in oil drilling device,and reduce the heavy economic losses due to corrosion and erosion,detection methods and their testing area were discussed and determined according to the material and stress state analysis of the underground drilling devices,and a combination of different processing technology and field application.At the same time,the advantages and disadvantages of various detection methods were compared in aspects of principle,equipment,testing method and application examples.Field application results show oil drilling device test including magnetic particle,electromagnetic,ultrasonic and penetration test can effectively prevent and reduce quality accident.
Longitudinal Associations Among Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Disordered Eating, and Weight Gain in Military Men and Women

Obesity is a major health problem in the United States and a growing concern among members of the military. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with overweight and obesity and may increase the risk of those conditions among military service members. Disordered eating behaviors have also been associated with PTSD and weight gain. However, eating disorders remain understudied in military samples. We investigated longitudinal associations among PTSD, disordered eating, and weight gain in the Millennium Cohort Study, which includes a nationally representative sample of male (n = 27,741) and female (n = 6,196) service members. PTSD at baseline (time 1; 2001-2003) was associated with disordered eating behaviors at time 2 (2004-2006), as well as weight change from time 2 to time 3 (2007-2008). Structural equation modeling results revealed that the association between PTSD and weight change from time 2 to time 3 was mediated by disordered eating symptoms. The association between PTSD and weight gain resulting from compensatory behaviors (vomiting, laxative use, fasting, overexercise) was significant for white participants only and for men but not women. PTSD was both directly and indirectly (through disordered eating) associated with weight change. These results highlight potentially important demographic differences in these associations and emphasize the need for further investigation of eating disorders in military service members.
A major medical error.

Virtually all of us have faced the awful realization that we have made a serious error. Almost as chilling is the prospect of telling the patient or family members about the error.