cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bladder Augmentation Procedures

Augmentation ileocystoplasty is often required to protect the upper tract and provide social continence in neurogenic bladder patients who fail conservative management. This procedure was traditionally performed in an open fashion. The morbidity and pain associated with open laparotomy incision have led to interest in a minimally invasive approach. Robotic assistance provides the benefits of minimally invasive surgery without the challenges of pure laparoscopy. We discuss the steps to performing robotic-assisted laparoscopic augmentation ileocystoplasty with salient tips and modifications of the technique to reduce operative time. The robotic approach has been shown to have similar complications and outcomes when compared to the open alternative. Long-term outcomes data is limited. With appropriate patient selection, robotic assisted laparoscopic ileocystoplasty is feasible and may decrease post-operative pain and length of stay.
Black Male School Leaders: Protectors and Defenders of Children, Community, Culture, and Village:

This study explored the ways in which the race-gendered identities and lived experiences of Black male K-12 public and independent school leaders inform their leadership in support of students, com...
Informed evaluation of pathology residency programs: A guide for pathology resident candidates

○ Objectives.-To identify resources and summarize important issues in anatomic and clinical pathology training and to assist the pathology resident candidate in evaluating potential training programs. Data Sources.-Published guides for medical residency applicants, recent literature discussing pathology education, and World Wide Web sites. Study Selection.-Resources perceived by the author as valuable for the pathology resident candidate. Data Extraction.-Key issues in pathology education are identified. Data Synthesis.-Issues are discussed from the perspective of a pathology resident candidate, and resources for further information are provided. Conclusions.-The pathology residency candidate faces unique challenges in the residency search process because of the breadth of pathology training and the limited exposure to the practice of pathology in medical school. General guides for residency applicants include little discussion of pathology-specific issues. Recent literature discussing pathology education is fragmented but provides invaluable insights for resident candidates. This review seeks to identify a wide variety of issues and resources as a starting point for evaluating potential training programs.
The Effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program on Student Achievement and College Entrance

The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) offers publicly funded vouchers to moderate- and low-income students in low-performing public schools to enroll in participating private schools. Established...
Old Age in the Time of COVID: Reflecting with Simone de Beauvoir on Age, Alterity, and the Intersectionality of Oppressions (preprint)

This paper begins from the author’s own discovery, during the COVIDepidemic, that she has become one of the “old.” The paper explores the ways in which the old are subject to distinctive forms of alterity and social exclusion, and to what Simone de Beauvoir (in La Viellesse; Old Age) calls a “conspiracy of silence,” in contemporary Western society. This exploration is then extended to document how the general conspiracy of silence has also long pervaded feminism and continues to pervade feminist theory. It is especially striking -- and troubling -- that considerations of old age are ubiquitously absent from current intersectional analyses of other major forms of oppression such as gender, race, and class. If feminist theory is effectively to fulfill its mission as a body of critical theory that bears on current oppressions and informs resistant political practices, then it urgently needs to extend its remit to examine old age. For old age is both an oppressive social location in itself and a site where multiple other oppressions intersect. Additionally, ignoring old age hampers theoretical work itself concerning such vital issues as vulnerability, power, justice, freedom, and possible groundings for political solidarity.
Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century

Learning in the 21st century no longer ends with K-12 and college preparation. Instead, for those adults who will succeed in negotiating the demands of the 21st century, it must continue across their lifetime. More than merely a focus on lifelong learning, however, this chapter illuminates the specific needs and skills of lifelong learning integrated with life and work in the 21st century. The discussion of modern skills includes scope, definitions, issues and trends, current and emerging practices, recommended strategies, and a glimpse of the future. The cornerstones of this discussion include approaches to learning such as lifelong learning, self-directed learning, 21st learning skills, information literacy, collaborative, situated, and problem based learning.
Bestimmung optimaler Einsatzpläne für Flugpersonal

Unter dem Airline-Crew-Scheduling-Problem versteht man das Problem, einen optimalen Einsatzplan fur das fliegende Personal einer Fluggesellschaft zu finden. Das Airline-Crew-Scheduling-Problem wurde wahrend der vergangenen 40 Jahre kontinuierlich untersucht, wobei stets nach approximativen Losungen gesucht wurde, selbst bei sehr kleinen Flottengrosen. Da die Ko¬sten fur das fliegende Personal der grosten US-Fluggesellschaften heutzutage nicht selten 1,3 Milliarden US-Dollar uberschreiten (sie bilden nach den Treibstoffkosten den zweitgrosten Posten der gesamten Betriebskosten), ist das Airline-Crew-Scheduling-Problem von zentraler Bedeutung. Einsparungen von wenigen Prozent bei den Kosten fur das fliegende Personal schlagen sich in erheblichen absoluten Betragen nieder.
Improved absolute radiometric calibration of a UHF airborne radar

The AirMOSS airborne SAR operates at UHF and produces fully polarimetric imagery [1]. The AirMOSS radar data are used to produce Root Zone Soil Moisture (RZSM) depth profiles. The absolute radiometric accuracy of the imagery, ideally of better than 0.5 dB, is key to retrieving RZSM, especially in wet soils where the backscatter as a function of soil moisture function tends to flatten out [2]. In this paper we assess the absolute radiometric uncertainty in previously delivered data, describe a method to utilize Built In Test (BIT) data to improve the radiometric calibration, and evaluate the improvement from applying the method.
Characterization of the reactive flow field dynamics in a gas turbine injector using high frequency PIV

The present work details the analysis of the aerodynamics of an experimental swirl stabilized burner representative of gas turbine combustors. This analysis is carried out using High Frequency PIV (HFPIV) measurements in a reactive situation. While this information is usually available at a rather low rate, temporally resolved PIV measurements are necessary to better understand highly turbulent swirled flows, which are unsteady by nature. Thanks to recent technical improvements, a PIV system working at 12 kHz has been developed to study this experimental combustor flow field. Statistical quantities of the burner are first obtained and analyzed, and the measurement quality is checked, then a temporal analysis of the velocity field is carried out, indicating that large coherent structures periodically appear in the combustion chamber. The frequency of these structures is very close to the quarter wave mode of the chamber, giving a possible explanation for combustion instability coupling.
K-shell Auger rates for multiply-ionized atoms: I. Neon

Abstract Theoretical Auger rates for the various terms of electron configurations 1s 1 2s 2 2p n , 1s 1 2s 0 2p n and 1s 1 2s 1 2p n to the final terms after the Auger transitions are presented. The calculations are performed with the Hartree-Fock-Slater model. These rates can be conveniently used in the analyses of Auger-electron spectra produced, in particular, by heavy-ion collisions with neon.
On donuts and crumbs: A brief history of torus models

A variety of torus models for the infrared emission of AGN has become available in literature over the last decade. This includes radiative transfer models using smooth or clumpy dust and hydrodynamic models. I will review the various types of models that are currently in use and point out their main similarities, differences, and limits when it comes to interpreting observations. Finally, current and future observational challenges for these models are discussed.
Textile-Based Body Sensor Networks and Biomedical Computing for Healthcare Applications

Integrating body sensors with electronic textiles will be a great solution to realize the ubiquitous noninvasive health monitoring in people’s daily life. However, developing textile-based body sensor networks poses significant challenges for the sensor and senor network design such as miniaturization of Y. Kim (*) Department of Bioengineering, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA e-mail: ykim@umassd.edu H. Wang Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA e-mail: hwang1@umassd.edu # Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2015 X. Tao (ed.), Handbook of Smart Textiles, DOI 10.1007/978-981-4451-45-1_17 985 sensors, integration of radio integrated circuits (ICs) and modules with bodyworn antennas, energy consumption minimization, and so on. In the chapter, the challenges of designing electronic textile-based body sensor networks are discussed, and strategies and solutions to overcome the problems are proposed. To demonstrate the applicability of textile-based body sensor networks, the infant monitoring system will be illustrated.
Performance of chemically modified plastic blood collection tubes.

Abstract Objective The objective of this study was to compare newly-modified and aged chemoPET tubes, which contain no problematic surfactants, with commercially available serum blood collection tubes (BCTs) for use in analysis of cortisol, total triiodothyronine (TT3), total thyroxine (TT4), and routine clinical chemistry analytes in serum from apparently healthy volunteers and pooled quality control (QC) specimens. Materials and methods Blood specimens collected from 60 apparently healthy volunteers (18 males, 42 females) and pooled QC specimens poured into seven different BCTs were analyzed by a trained phlebotomist. Cortisol, TT3, and TT4 levels were measured on an Immulite 1000 instrument and routine chemistry tests were analyzed on a Siemens RxL instrument. The significance of differences between chemoPET and other BCT types compared to glass tubes were assessed by Student's paired t-test or repeated measures ANOVA or their non-parametric equivalents. The BCT-related biases (deviation from glass tubes) in analyte concentrations were compared with the current desirable allowable bias, derived from biological variation. Serum analyte concentrations in the different BCTs that exceeded their respective significant change limits were considered clinically significant. Results No statistically and/or clinically significant differences were noted in the analyte concentrations from serum specimens and pooled QC material when our newly modified and aged chemoPET tubes were compared to glass and other BCTs. Conclusions The chemoPET tubes described here may be a suitable alternative to serum BCTs that contain problematic surfactants known to interfere with some clinical assays on the Immulite 1000 and RxL instruments.
Environmental drivers of anuran calling phenology in a seasonal Neotropical ecosystem

Temporal variation represents an important component in understanding the structure of ecological communities and species coexistence. We examined calling phenology of an assemblage of anurans in the Gran Chaco ecoregion of Bolivia by deploying automated recording devices to document nocturnally vocalizing amphibians nightly at seven ponds from 20 January 2011 until 31 October 2011. Using logistic regression, we modelled the relationships between temperature, rainfall and photoperiod with calling activity. There was a distinct seasonal effect with calling activity concentrated in the rainy season with no species detected during the dry season from June until the end of October. Calling activity was positively and significantly correlated with photoperiod in 9 of the 10 species analyzed, but there were distinct species-specific relationships associated with rainfall and temperature. All of these species utilize ephemeral ponds as breeding sites, which can account for their reliance on rainfall as an important driver in calling activity. Two prolonged breeders exhibited similar seasonal breeding patterns across the rainy season, but differed in their response to daily abiotic factors, which might be attributed to the constraints imposed by their reproductive mode. Explosive breeders needed several days of rain to elicit calling. Two pairs of congeners had distinct species-specific relationships between their calling activity and abiotic factors, even though the congeners shared the same reproductive mode, suggesting that the reproductive modes vary in the constraints imposed on calling activity. The patterns observed suggest that calling phenology of tropical anurans is determined by the interaction of exogenous factors (i.e. climatic variables) and endogenous factors (i.e. reproductive modes).
SIGACT (Tutorial Session)

This session surveys some advances in theoretical computer science and their impact on the design of programming language compilers. The emphasis is on three major areas: the analysis of program syntax, the detection of errors at compile time, and the optimization of compiled code. The tutorials presented here do not purport to summarize all the work that has been done, but they will capture its flavor and demonstrate its practical importance.
Coatings for Advanced Large Frame Combustion Turbines for Power Generation

Use of metallic coatings for protecting hot section blades and vanes of combustion turbines for power generation has been a common practice for the last three decades. Since these coatings have to be optimized both with respect to different forms of corrosion and operation (base load vs. peak load) their performance can be machine specific. Power company users generally do not have sufficient knowledge of the failure mechanisms of the coatings and the basis for selecting coatings to suit their specific requirements. This paper describes the evolution of metallic coatings, discusses failure mechanisms, and describes a methodology for comparing and selecting machine-specific coatings. The methodology, which can be used to rank and predict the remaining life of coatings and for optimizing operation, forms the basis of a computer code known as COATLIFE. The ingredients of this methodology, i.e., degradation modeling and thermomechanical fatigue life (TMF) prediction, are reviewed in the paper.Copyright © 2003 by ASME
Issues in Freight Transportation Regulation: Discussion

by decision-making units." Shaffer apparently is suggesting a systems solution to the multigovernmental unit problem. However, the transportation policy problem fails to meet two and possibly all three of the preconditions necessary to the systems approach "(a) . . . aims and goals of the system are well defined and recognizable if not quantifiable, (b) . . . the decision making process in the real system is centralized and fairly authoritarian, and (c) ... a long range planning horizon is possible" (Manetsch and Park, p. 6a). The transportation system's aims and goals may be welldefined in the short run but change and fluctuate according to the varying powers and clout of interest groups in the intermediate and long run. Transportation decision making in any situation, short of nationalization, is neither centralized nor authoritarian. Certainly in a democratic society a long-range planning horizon is very unlikely. Shaffer gives numerous rail examples of why total systems approach solutions have been inoperable in the face of regulation (e.g., one solvent rail line could not be subsidized as part of an "optimal" three-line solution). He presents examples where first, second, and even third best solutions were not implementable, and yet the need for systems or total network-oriented research remains. At least those efforts intended to direct policy decisions should be multimodal in nature. Policy-directing systems research should include a prestudy political feasibility test as well as pretests for physical, financial, and economic feasibility. Certainly a good researcher would be unlikely to analyze the impacts of a solution that was not physically
The ethics of resigning

Resigning from office is a critical ethical decision for individuals. Resignation also remains one of the basic moral resources for individuals of integrity. The option to resign reinforces integrity, buttresses responsibility, supports accountability, and can provide leverage and boundary drawing. I argue that the moral reasons to resign flow from three related moral dimensions of integrity. Individuals in office promise to live up to the obligation of the office. This promise presumes that individuals have the capacity to make and keep promises, the competence to do the tasks of office, and the ability to be effective. This article examines how failure in each of these areas generates strong moral reasons to resign. ©1999 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Differential effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition and diuretic therapy on reductions in ambulatory blood pressure, left ventricular mass, and vascular hypertrophy.

Diuretic-based therapy is less effective in reducing the cardiac complications of hypertension than the risk of stroke and may be less effective in reducing left ventricular (LV) mass than is therapy with angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition. In view of the strong association of LV hypertrophy with cardiovascular risk, this study was designed to compare the impact of therapy with a diuretic and ACE inhibition on cardiac and vascular structure. Fifty essential hypertensives (74% male, 88% nonwhite) participated in a double-blind study for 6 months and were randomized to either ramipril or hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ). Echocardiography, carotid ultrasonography, and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring were performed at baseline and 3 and 6 months after initiation of therapy. The 22 ramipril patients were comparable to the 28 HCTZ patients at baseline in age, race, and 24-h BP. Although HCTZ resulted in a greater reduction in 24-h BP, only treatment with ramipril resulted in a decrease in LV mass (193 to 179 g, P < .005, v 184 to 182 g, P = NS), attributable to a reduction in wall thicknesses but not in chamber diameter. In multivariate analysis, both change in BP and treatment group were independent predictors of change in LV mass. Importantly, although neither drug reduced carotid artery cross-sectional area, relative wall thickness increased due to a tendency for vessel diameter to decrease and wall thickness to increase, particularly in the diuretic group. Ramipril caused a sustained fall in plasma angiotensin II, whereas HCTZ increased angiotensin II levels. Although diuretic therapy was more effective in lowering ambulatory BP in this predominantly nonwhite population, only therapy with ACE inhibition was associated with regression of LV mass. Vascular geometry was altered consistent with the reduction in distending pressure resulting in vascular remodelling.
Promotion and Inhibition of Iron Accumulation in Soybean Plants

Plants of four soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) genotypes differing in their ability to accumulate iron were studied. The efficient genotypes were Hawkeye (HA) and A62-9 (E-9), and the inefficient ones were PI-54619-5-1 (PI) and A62-10 (I-10). When plants of opposite efficiency were grown in the same solution, iron accumulation decreased in the primary leaves of efficient plants, but it was unaffected or slightly reduced in the leaves of inefficient plants.Absorption of iron during a 24-hour period by 17-day-old plants indicated that solutions in which either HA or PI plants had been previously cultured contained a heat-labile factor which increased iron accumulation by iron-stressed HA plants. Also, it was found that HA plants from mixed culture accumulated about 50% less iron than HA plants grown in pure culture, independent of the absorption solution used. The conditions described, therefore, may either stimulate or inhibit iron accumulation in efficient soybean plants.
Integral Solution of Diffusion Equation: Part 1—General Solution

A generalized method is presented that accommodates the linear form of the diffusion equation in regions with irregular boundaries. The region of interest many consist of subregions with spatially variable thermal properties. The solution function for the diffusion equation is decomposed into two solutions: one with homogeneous and the other with nonhomogeneous boundary conditions. The Galerkin functions are used to provide a solution for a diffusion problem with homogeneous boundary condition and linear initial condition. Problems with nonhomogeneous boundary conditions can be dealt with by many other schemes, including the standard Galerkin method. The final solution is a combination of these two solutions.
Adiabatic passage through an avoided crossing

Abstract Fast magnetic field sweeps (∼5 × 10 8 G s −1 ) are used for passage through an avoided crossing in the photoexcited triplet state of pentacene in p -terphenyl crystals. When B 0 / vb / vbx (molecular long axis), there is a level crossing calculated to be near 143 G. Our experiments reveal that the crossing is an avoided one, and the passage through the crossing is adiabatic. Our findings are consistent with the Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg theory of passage through an avoided crossing. By applying radio frequency pulses in the neighborhood of the avoided crossing we estimate the magnitude of the energy gap: 25±8 MHz.
Reading Proficiency and a Psycholinguistic Approach to Second Language Reading

This article presents psycholinguistic views of second language reading, discusses kinds of reading to teach, and provides advice on text and materials selection for different proficiency levels. Examples of the second language reading activities appear at the end.
Two-photon holographic recording in aluminosilicate glass containing silver particles.

Recording of holographic gratings by 532-nm laser pulses in photochromic bulk aluminosilicate glass containing silver particles is demonstrated. A diffraction efficiency of 1.5% is achieved for readout at the same wavelength. The speed of grating formation as a function of pulse energy suggests that two-photon excitation is responsible for the recording. The light causes bleaching of an absorption peak near 417 nm, which corresponds to the excitation of surface plasmons on the silver, and broad darkening throughout the visible to the near infrared. A likely mechanism for the photochromic effect is discussed.
Preparation of inositol phosphates from sodium phytate by enzymatic and nonenzymatic hydrolysis

Procedures for preparing myo-inositol bis-, tris-, tetrakis-, and pentakisphosphates from sodium phytate were established. Hydrolysis was achieved by autoclaving or enzymatic treatment; the inositol phosphates were separated by anion-exchange chromatography and were identified by fast atom bombardment-mass spectrometry. Enzymatic hydrolysis was more specific than autoclaving for isomer formation, whereas autoclaving was more efficient for producing the bis- and trisphosphates, which did not accumulate in significant amounts under the conditions of enzymatic hydrolysis. Sodium salts of the inositol phosphates were more powdery and less hygroscopic than the potassium salts. The procedures were satisfactory for producing gram quantities of each inositol phosphate, amounts adequate for animal studies of effects on mineral bioavailability.
Sensitivity of an ecological model to soil moisture simulations from two different hydrological models

Although advanced land surface schemes have been developed in the past decade, many biosphere models still use the simple bucket model, partly due to its efficiency when it is coupled with an CGCM model. In this paper, we use a sophisticated land surface model, the Simulator for Hydrology and Energy Exchange at the Land Surface (SHEELS), including an explicit vegetation canopy and its physiological control on evapotranspiration and multiple, interactive subsurface soil layers. It is found that this model has potential for improving the carbon cycling description of a widely used biosphere model, the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach (CASA), especially for multiple seasonal integrations.
The Normality of Political Administration and State Violence: Casuistry, Law, and Drones

Large unmanned aerial vehicles (i.e., drones) equipped with missiles and bombs or battle-equipped have progressively become the newest wave in “warfare.” We argue that the use of drones for targeted assassinations is merely a new technological tool for state violence that is increasingly becoming a regular exercise of the US power in the construction and reification of the broader social geopolitical order. Further, it is through law, domestic and international, that state violence, wars and the use of drones for targeted assassinations are legitimated and are a normality, and continuation of, the political management of the state. Taken with the core of humanitarian law that legitimates war and state violence, we suggest that the use of drones can be interpreted within the body of legislation, political discourse, and laws that serve to normalize and legitimize their use: no different than such processes that occurred with the technological advances that offered military tanks, aerial bombing, projectile missiles or even nuclear and chemical weapons.
Structure, function and evolution of turtle hemoglobins—III. Oxygenation properties

Abstract 1. 1. The oxygen equilibria of hemoglobins from fifty species and subspecies of turtles are reported. Hemoglobins from eleven species representing seven of the twelve living families are examined in detail. 2. 2. Turtle hemoglobins generally have lower oxygen affinities than mammalian hemoglobins. Heme-heme interaction is pH dependent. 3. 3. Variations in oxygen affinity, Bohr effect, heme-heme interaction and heat of oxygenation are compared in terms of their relationship to the respiratory physiology of turtles.
Old Knowledge and New Research: A Summary of the Conference on the Fischer Controversy 50 Years On

The richness and intensity of the three-day conference, promoted by the German Historical Institute in London from 13 to 15 October 2011, made the summary I was asked to provide unusually difficult...
Correlation of the Quick Word Test and Wide Range Vocabulary Test with the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale

The purposes of the present project were to determine the validity of the Quick Word Test (QWT) and the Wide Range Vocabulary Test Form B (WRVT-B) relative to the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale (SILS) serving as a criterion measure and to ascertain in light of the statistical outcomes whether the QWT and the WRVT-B can be used as effective instruments in assessing the intellectual ability of college students.The selection of the criterion instrument—the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale—was based on its reliability and validity as well as on its rather wide usage in educational and institutional settings.The correlation coefficients obtained in the present study between the QWT and the SILS and between the WRVT-B and the SILS were .68 and .73, respectively. These coefficients attained significance beyond the .01 level.In light of these relatively high and significant coefficients, it was concluded that the QWT and the WRVT-B are valid measures of intellectual functioning that may be used in a populatio...
Redox-Dependent pKa of CuB Histidine Ligand in Cytochrome c Oxidase

Cytochrome c oxidase is a redox-driven proton pump that converts atmospheric oxygen to water and couples the oxygen reduction reaction to the creation of a membrane proton gradient. The structure of the enzyme has been solved; however, the mechanism of proton pumping is still poorly understood. Recent electrostatic calculations of this group indicate that one of the histidine ligands of enzyme's CuB center, His291, may play the role of the pumping element. In the present paper, we use first principles to study models of the catalytic center of CcO, and calculate the pKa of the His291 residue for both the reduced and oxidized states of the CuB center. We used density functional theory to calculate the proton affinity of the δ-nitrogen of His291, and we used the self-consistent reaction field method to calculate the solvation energies. The pKa of 4-methylimidazole was calculated first to establish the accuracy of our method. For the reaction center, two different models were used. The minimal model contains...
Arthroscopic interval slide in the repair of large rotator cuff tears

An arthroscopic technique for coracohumeral ligament release from a retracted supraspinatus tendon is presented. The procedure is technically simple and can greatly improve the mobility of retracted rotator cuff tears, thus expanding the application of arthroscopic repair to larger tears.
An auto-pole-placement self-tuning controller

Abstract An explicit self-tuning controller is described that incorporates closed-loop pole location as the principal design criterion for the objective function of Clarke and Gawthrop. The algorithm includes several minor extensions to improve robustness : a variable dead-time compensator to deal with unknown or time-varying delay, and a method of treating steady-state offset that avoids retaining an integrator in the loop continuously. A new technique has been developed and included in the algorithm that enables the controller to be auto-tuning in the sense that the closed-loop pole(s) and sampling period can be determined on-line so as to optimize the system set-point step response, leaving the system designer to specify only internal model orders and noise characteristics on which to initiate retuning. The resulting controller is quite robust and can easily handle unstable, non-minimum phase systems in a single-loop configuration, as is demonstrated by several simulations including a non-linear model ...
Pollen Evidence of Changing Holocene Monsoon Climate in Sichuan Province, China

Pollen evidence from Lake Shayema, Mianning County, was obtained to examine postglacial vegetation and climatic change in southwestern Sichuan, China. The sclerophyllous character of the region's warm temperate vegetation today is a reflection of extreme drought in spring before the onset of the Asian monsoons. The pollen record displays several changes in the vegetation over the last 11,000 yr. From 11,000 to 9100 yr B.P., cold-tolerant species, such as Abies , Betula, and deciduous oaks, dominated the vegetation. Between 9100 and 7800 yr B.P., the abundance of deciduous oaks decreased and evergreen oaks increased, as did Tsuga and mesic deciduous species. This change suggests a warming climate with increased precipitation. From 7800 to 4000 yr B.P., sclerophyllous species increased at the expense of mesic deciduous species, an indication that precipitation was becoming more seasonal. Except for increased disturbance starting ca. 1000 yr B.P., the predominance of sclerophyllous vegetation continued until today. The pollen results are compatible with proposed global circulation hypotheses of a strengthened monsoon system during the early to mid Holocene.
Oriented Assembly of Metamaterials

Regular assemblies of colloidal particles have many potential uses from self-assembled electronics to biosensors. Recent advances in particle self-assembly suggest that such assemblies may also provide a simple route to metamaterials at infrared and visible length scales. Such metamaterials may, for example, be used to create cloaking devices or light-based circuits based on manipulations of local optical electric fields rather than on the flow of electrons ( 1 ).
Wired women writing: Towards a feminist theorization of hypertext

Abstract The electronic classroom provides a space for examining the central debates of contemporary feminism, particularly by applying feminist ideas to a theorization of hypertext and creating what I call feminist activist autobiographical hypertexts. In a feminist electronic classroom, we explore the potential for hypertext as a form with which to interrogate dominant ideologies and to produce alternative knowledge. In hypertexts informed by radical feminist theory, we bridge feminist theorizations of the social constructedness of subjectivity, and especially the mass media's role in such construction, with materialist feminist critiques of late capifalism and its oppressive institutions. We use feminist activist art as a model and take advantage of the way hypertext enables us to combine the best of both modern and postmodern strategies of textual production. Such strategies include employing a multiplicity of perspectives, collage (single-screen juxtapositions of text and image), montage (juxtaposition through linking), the juxtaposition of autobiography with social critique and with a critique of dominant media representations, the reappropriation of mass-mediated images and the recontextualization of dominant ideological signs, the articulation of the voices and experiences of previously silenced female subject, and the combination of conceptual, experiential, and emotional knowledge, including knowledge from the unconscious, where much oppressive ideology lies internalized and often repressed.
Effect of exogenous histone H5 on integration of histone H1 in rat liver chromatin. Correlations with aberrant ε - N -methylation of histone H1

Binding modes of histones H1 and H5, and their competition for chromatin-binding sites in rat liver nuclei, were correlated with aberrant N-methylation of H1 histone lysine residues, induced by chicken erythrocyte histone H5, in order to gain more insight into the integration of lysine-rich histones in chromatin. Addition of approx. 2.5 molecules of histone H5 per nucleosome to rat liver nuclei increases the ratio of total basic residues in histones to DNA nucleotides (BRNT) in the nuclear chromatin from 1.0 to 1.5. At this concentration, approx. 0.7 molecule of histone H5 is bound per nucleosome, and there is no displacement of histone H1 from the nuclear chromatin. If S-adenosyl[Me-3H]methionine is present in the incubation mixture, the aberrant incorporation of labeled methyl groups into histone H1 reaches a maximum at this concentration of histone H5. The radioactivity present in histone H1 from nuclei incubated with labeled AdoMet at a total BRNT ratio of 1.5: (i) resides mainly in a histone H1 subfraction tentatively identified by Bio-Rex 70 chromatography and acrylamide gel electrophoresis as histone H1c; (ii) presents as a single spot upon peptide mapping of tryptic hydrolysates by means of two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography; and (iii) elutes in the position of mono-N-methyllysine upon ion-exchange chromatography of histone H1 hydrolysates. Upon further increase of the BRNT ratio, the following changes are produced: (i) a gradual decrease in radioactive methyl uptake into histone H1; (ii) a gradual displacement of histone H1 from the chromatin; (iii) increased binding of histone H5 in chromatin, up to a maximum of 3.4 residues per nucleosome; and (iv) a slowly increasing uptake of label into histone H5. The combined data from histone H1/H5 binding and histone H1 methylation studies suggest that upon addition of exogenous histone H5 to rat liver nuclei the binding of two lysine-rich histones per nucleosome plays a significant role in the induction of specific changes in chromatin structure, which in vivo may have important functional implications in terms of chromatin condensation and suppression of transcription.
Advisability of Pretest Designs in Psychological Research

The advantages, disadvantages, and appropriateness of pretest designs vis-a-vis posttest-only investigations are reviewed from a pragmatic perspective. Generally, pretests provide information on pr...
From fire to ballistics: A historical retrospective

This article is the acceptance keynote presentation after receiving the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Hypervelocity Impact Society at HVIS 2000, held in Galveston, TX, November 2000. As dictated by precedence, the article highlights some of the significant events and activities in my career. My technical activities and contributions can be divided into nominally three areas: 1) fire/thermal loading; 2) warhead mechanics; and 3) penetration/armor mechanics. A commonality of the areas is that they all deal with characterizing and understanding the response of materials or structures to intense loads. A summary of my research activities and significant findings are presented. Additionally, a brief history of the formation of the Hypervelocity Impact Society is presented.
Vision and Attention Theory Based Sampling for Continuous Facial Emotion Recognition

Affective computing—the emergent field in which computers detect emotions and project appropriate expressions of their own—has reached a bottleneck where algorithms are not able to infer a person’s emotions from natural and spontaneous facial expressions captured in video. While the field of emotion recognition has seen many advances in the past decade, a facial emotion recognition approach has not yet been revealed which performs well in unconstrained settings. In this paper, we propose a principled method which addresses the temporal dynamics of facial emotions and expressions in video with a sampling approach inspired from human perceptual psychology. We test the efficacy of the method on the Audio/Visual Emotion Challenge 2011 and 2012, Cohn-Kanade and the MMI Facial Expression Database. The method shows an average improvement of 9.8 percent over the baseline for weighted accuracy on the Audio/Visual Emotion Challenge 2011 video-based frame-level subchallenge testing set.
Delirium Is Independently Associated with Poor Functional Recovery After Hip Fracture

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of delirium in the natural history of functional recovery after hip fracture surgery, independent of prefracture status. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Orthopedic surgery service at a large academic tertiary hospital, with follow-up extending into rehabilitation hospitals, nursing homes, and the community. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred twenty-six consenting subjects older than 65 years (mean age 79 ± 8 years, 79% women) admitted emergently for surgical repair of hip fracture. MEASUREMENTS: Detailed assessment at enrollment to ascertain prefracture status through interviews with the patient and designated proxy and review of the medical record. Interviews included administration of standardized instruments (Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Scale, Blessed Dementia Rating Scale, Delirium Symptom Interview) and assessment of ambulation, and prefracture living situation. Medical comorbidity, the nature of the hip fracture, and the surgical repair were obtained from the medical record. All subjects underwent daily interviews for the duration of the hospitalization, including the Mini-Mental State Examination and Delirium Symptom Interview, and delirium was diagnosed using the Confusion Assessment Methods algorithm. Patients and proxies were recontacted 1 and 6 months after fracture, and underwent interviews similar to those at enrollment to determine death, persistent delirium, decline in ADL function, decline in ambulation, or new nursing home placement. RESULTS: Delirium occurred in 52/126 (41%) of patients, and persisted in 20/52 (39%) at hospital discharge, 15/52 (32%) at 1 month, and 3/52 (6%) at 6 months. Patients aged 80 years or older, and those with prefracture cognitive impairment, ADL functional impairment, and high medical comorbidity were more likely to develop delirium. However, after adjusting for these factors, delirium was still significantly associated with outcomes indicative of poor functional recovery 1 month after hip fracture: ADL decline (odds ratio (OR) = 2.6; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.1- 6.1), decline in ambulation (OR = 2.6; 95% CI, 1.03–6.5), and death or new nursing home placement (OR = 3.0; 95% CI, 1.1–8.4). Patients whose delirium persisted at 1 month had worse outcomes than those whose delirium had resolved. CONCLUSIONS: Delirium is common, persistent, and independently associated with poor functional recovery 1 month after hip fracture even after adjusting for prefracture frailty. Further research is necessary to identify the mechanisms by which delirium contributes to poor functional recovery, and to determine whether interventions designed to prevent or reduce delirium can improve recovery after hip fracture. J Am Geriatr Soc 48:618–624, 2000.
USE OF DIGITAL MULTISPECTRAL VIDEOGRAPHY TO CAPTURE ENVIRONMENTAL DATA SETS FOR VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

The Virginia Department of Transportation's (VDOT) environmental division frequently uses spatial information to analyze and assess a variety of environmental resources. Environmental personnel are constantly looking for faster and more accurate means of collecting and managing these data. Digital multispectral videography (DMSV) is a data collection technology that has shown great potential in other areas in which remote sensing data are used. DMSV provides digital frame coverage in four spectral bands for color infrared imaging, allowing for the detection of soils, vegetation, water bodies, chemically contaminated areas, and various other resources. This type of remote sensing differs from traditional methods in that sensor bandpass or wavelengths are typically ⩽25 nm wide as opposed to the more typical 100+ nm wavelengths. Testing the feasibility of using DMSV for some of VDOT's environmental data acquisition needs was the purpose of this research. It was accomplished by using the technology to capture...
SnapShot: Nuclear receptors II

Clinical: Flutamide and bicalutamide for prostate cancer and alopeciaGlucocorticoid receptorGR/NR3C1 Endogenous: Cortisol (hydrocortisone) Diverse developmental and physiological roles (e.g., antagonism of inflammatory signaling pathways, mediation of the stress response, and gluconeogenesis)Metabolic, cardiovascular, immune and inflammatory, memory↑
Identification of an RNA-Protein Bridge Spanning the Ribosomal Subunit Interface

The 7.8 angstrom crystal structure of the 70Sribosome reveals a discrete double-helical bridge (B4) that projects from the 50S subunit, making contact with the 30Ssubunit. Preliminary modeling studies localized its contact site, near the bottom of the platform, to the binding site for ribosomal protein S15. Directed hydroxyl radical probing from iron(II) tethered to S15 specifically cleaved nucleotides in the 715 loop of domain II of 23S ribosomal RNA, one of the known sites in 23Sribosomal RNA that are footprinted by the 30S subunit. Reconstitution studies show that protection of the 715 loop, but none of the other 30S-dependent protections, is correlated with the presence of S15 in the 30S subunit. The 715 loop is specifically protected by binding free S15 to 50S subunits. Moreover, the previously determined structure of a homologous stem-loop from U2 small nuclear RNA fits closely to the electron density of the bridge.
Open a Window and Let in Your PASSPORT

Congratulations are in order! There's a new arrival in my house. My husband and I have welcomed into our lives an active, fully operating, 386DX 40MHz computer. Don't laugh, I'm serious. We built it from the mini‐tower and motherboard on up. We planned for months which components we wanted, what peripherals, and how much memory. We purchased furniture for its own little corner in the living room. It is beautiful. It has a modem, two disk drives, a hard drive. We are very proud techies.
Inhibition of Catecholamine Secretion from Adrenal Medulla Cells by Neurotoxins and Cholinergic Antagonists

The effects of several neurotoxins and cholinergic antagonists on the nicotine-induced secretion of catecholamines by adrenal medulla cells in culture were investigated. Aconitine, veratridine, and batrachotoxin, in the presence of 1 micrometer-tetrodotoxin inhibited the nicotine-stimulated secretion of catecholamines in a dose-dependent manner in Locke's solution. In Na+-free sucrose medium, tetrodotoxin was not required to inhibit the stimulatory effects of aconitine, veratridine, and batrachotoxin, and these agents by themselves inhibited the nicotine-stimulated secretion of catecholamines. Scorpion venom, which also increases the flux of Na+ through tetrodotoxin-sensitive channels, was not an effective inhibitor of nicotine-stimulated secretion. Histrionicotoxin, atropine, hexamethonium, and decamethonium--as well as the Na+-channel activators--noncompetitively inhibit nicotine-stimulated secretion. The effects of these agents on nicotine-stimulated secretion appears similar to their effects on the inhibition of depolarization at the neuromuscular junction. Reversibility studies suggest that the stimulatory and inhibitor sites of the neurotoxins are different, while studies in Na+-free media suggest that tetrodotoxin-insensitive sodium channels are not involved in the inhibitory effect of the neurotoxins. A possible site of action for the inhibitory effects of the neurotoxins. A possible site of action for the inhibitory effects of the neurotoxins is the nicotinic-receptor-associated ion channel.
From tax computation to tax planning: the use of Monte Carlo simulations in tax education

Although many attempts to improve tax education have provided worthwhile enhancements for the classroom, few have addressed the need to train tax students in tax planning applications. Starting from the recognition that the critical parameters used by the tax practitioner are not deterministic, students can model probabilistic tax situations through simulation techniques. This paper illustrates how, using recent computerized developments, Monte Carlo simulations can make teaching advanced taxation both more realistic and more challenging. The philosophical shift that becomes possible with this technology is also consistent with recent suggestions to reorient accounting education toward active learning and skill development.
Smoking and the risk of upper aero digestive tract cancers for men and women in the asia-pacific region

Although smoking is an established causal factor for upper aero digestive tract cancer (UADTC), most of the evidence originates from the West. Thus, we analysed data from 455,409 subjects in the Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration. Over a median of around six years follow-up, 371 deaths from UADTC were observed. The hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for current smokers, compared with those who had never smoked, was 2.36 (1.76 - 3.16), adjusted for age and alcohol drinking. Tobacco control policies are urgently required in Asia to prevent millions of deaths from UADTC that smoking will otherwise cause.
Industrial and spatial interdependency in modeling: An employment forecasting model for the counties in the San Francisco Bay Region

This paper discusses the structure and empirical estimation of the County Employment Forecasting System (CEFS), a system used to forecast employment for 32 sectors for each one of the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Region. CEFS differs in several aspects from the majority of models which attempt to simulate employment change at the subregional level; it explicitly considers the relationships between sectors, it accounts for the interactions between counties, and can provide a set of county forecasts which are consistent with the overall regional projections.