cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
THE GLOBAL MORPHOLOGY OF THE SOLAR WIND INTERACTION WITH COMET CHURYUMOV–GERASIMENKO

The forthcoming Rosetta-Philae mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko provides a novel opportunity to observe the variable nature of the solar wind interaction with a comet over an extended range of heliocentric distance. We use a simple analytical one-dimensional MHD model to estimate the sizes of the two most prominent features in the global structure of the solar wind interaction with a comet. When the heliocentric distance of the comet reaches d ≤ 1.51 AU, we expect a sharp shock to be observed, whose size would increase monotonically as the comet approaches the Sun, reaching a value ≅ 15, 000 km at perihelion (d ≅ 1.29 AU). Upstream of the shock, we expect the velocity-space distribution of the picked up cometary ions to be essentially gyrotropic. A well-defined ionopause is predicted when d ≤1.61 AU, though its size is expected to be only ≅25 km at perihelion, and it is expected to be susceptible to the 'flute' instability due to its small size. Consequently, we expect the magnetic field to penetrate all the way to the surface of the nucleus. We conclude with a brief discussion of the response of the comet's plasma environment to fast temporal variations in the solar wind.
Pragmatic reasoning schemas

We propose that people typically reason about realistic situations using neither content-free syntactic inference rules nor representations of specific experiences. Rather, people reason using knowledge structures that we term pragmatic reasoning schemas, which are generalized sets of rules defined in relation to classes of goals. Three experiments examined the impact of a “permission schema” on deductive reasoning. Experiment 1 demonstrated that by evoking the permission schema it is possible to facilitate performance in Wason's selection paradigm for subjects who have had no experience with the specific content of the problems. Experiment 2 showed that a selection problem worded in terms of an abstract permission elicited better performance than one worded in terms of a concrete but arbitrary situation, providing evidence for an abstract permission schema that is free of domain-specific content. Experiment 3 provided evidence that evocation of a permission schema affects not only tasks requiring procedural knowledge, but also a linguistic rephrasing task requiring declarative knowledge. In particular, statements in the form if p then q were rephrased into the form p only if q with greater frequency for permission than for arbitrary statements, and rephrasings of permission statements produced a pattern of introduction of modals (must, can) totally unlike that observed for arbitrary conditional statements. Other pragmatic schemas, such as “causal” and “evidence” schemas can account for both linguistic and reasoning phenomena that alternative hypotheses fail to explain.
Energy metabolism and Na+,K+ redistribution in human erythrocytes treated with lipopolysaccharide endotoxin.

SummaryHigh intracellular concentrations of ATP have been observed to protect human erythrocytes against the loss of K+ and gain of Na+ induced by h-LPS. This protection was abolished by ouabain, indicating that red cells treated with h-LPS are competent for cation transport mediated by Na+,K+-dependent ATPase. In addition, the failure of h-LPS to stimulate glycolysis by fragmented erythrocytes suggests that the increased glycolytic rate of intact h-LPS-treated red cells is a secondary effect of h-LPS. Thus, the cation redistribution induced by h-LPS appears not to be due to a primary effect of h-LPS on red cell energy metabolism. Since h-LPS demonstrates neither an obvious inhibitory effect on Na+,K+-ATPase activity nor a direct stimulating effect on erythrocyte glycolysis, it is proposed that a primary action of h-LPS on human erythrocytes is to increase plasma membrane permeability toward Na+ and K+. The cation redistribution resulting from increased membrane permeability would explain the secondary in...
The Dynamical Influence of Orography on the Large-Scale Motion of the Atmosphere.

Abstract In an attempt to understand the dynamical influence of the earth's orography upon the large-scale motion of the atmosphere, the system of “shallow water” equations on the rotating earth is integrated numerically. The model consists of an incompressible, homogeneous, hydrostatic and inviscid fluid. The “beta-plane” approximation is used to simplify the model. The fluid is confined in a channel bounded on the north and south by two parallel “walls” extending in the cast-west direction. Periodicity is the boundary condition applied at the east and west boundaries to simulate the cyclic continuity of the zone with longitude. A circular obstacle of parabolic shape is placed at the bottom in the middle of the channel. The steady-state solutions in the absence of the obstacle are used as the initial conditions of the problem. Five different cases are investigated in detail. All computations were performed for an interval of 20 days (some cases were run longer) with a time step of 6 minutes. The followin...
Efficient Harmonic and Phase Estimator for Single-Phase Grid-Connected Renewable Energy Systems

Renewable energy sources (RESs) in any power system can participate in removing the harmonics from the line voltage, but the RESs need to estimate these harmonics first. In this paper, an efficient method to estimate grid harmonics is proposed to be used by single-phase RESs. The proposed method provides accurate estimation for the harmonics while it has lower computation complexity than the other existing methods. To make the harmonic estimation process fast and accurate, the harmonics in the sampled grid voltage is eliminated before passing it to the phase-locked-loop block used for estimating the grid phase. Another application of the proposed method is to transform single-phase voltage or current from the stationary reference frame into the dq rotating reference frame. In this application, the use of the proposed method eliminates the need of generating fictitious voltage or current waveforms orthogonal to the measured quantities. The elimination of need to generate fictitious waveforms speeds up the transformation transients and reduces the operations to less than half of those required by traditional methods. Simulation and experimental results verified that the algorithm achieves fast and accurate harmonic estimation of highly distorted grid voltage.
Transferred T lymphocytes are compromised when the donor is pretreated with β-endorphin

A single intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of 14 pmol of beta-endorphin into 6-7-week-old BALB/c (+/+) donor mice, 24 h prior to isolation of their T lymphocytes for use for reconstitution of athymic BALB/c (nu/nu) nude mice, altered the immuno-protective effect of adoptive transfer against an intracerebral (i.c.) infection with a temperature-sensitive mutant of vesicular stomatitis virus (tsG31 KS5 VSV). Simultaneous injection of beta-endorphin and naloxone into donor animals negated the opiate effects on splenic lymphocytes. T lymphocytes, isolated from beta-endorphin-treated donors, and then depleted with anti-asialo GM1 antiserum and complement failed to demonstrate the detrimental effects of beta-endorphin.
Surgical Techniques and Exposures for Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus

Osteochondral lesions in the ankle most commonly occur on the dome of the talus involving the articular surface and the subchondral bone. These lesions are usually seen on the posteromedial or anterolateral aspects of the talar dome. The common presentation is chronic ankle pain with a history of ankle trauma. MRI should be used to further evaluate the ankle in patients suspected of having an osteochondral defect of the talus or if one is seen on plain radiographs of the ankle. Conservative treatment involving a period of casting and non-weight-bearing is recommended for acute, nondisplaced osteochondral lesions. Surgical management is recommended for unstable lesions or failed conservative management. A review of surgical techniques and exposures for treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus are discussed. The focus is on treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus. Techniques for debridement, microdrilling, microfracture and osteochondral autograft transfer system (OATS) are described.
Ultrastructural pathology of the flight muscles of Scolytus ventralis (Coleoptera: Scoltidae) infected by a nematode parasite

Abstract The ultrastructural pathology of the flight muscles of rematode-infected fir engraver beetles has been described. The description of the normal muscle is very similar to those of asynchronous muscles. In parasitized beetles the myofibers underwent a slight relaxation, and the mitochondria were disoriented. The nuclei appear to be unchanged. There was folding of the sarcolemma and a reduced number of mitochondria in the subsarcolemmal region. The vesicles of the sarcoplasmic reticulum and T-tubules were enlarged. The mitochondria were the most affected of the sarcoplasmic organelles. They became round and the cristae were swollen. The broken cristae were also released into the sarcoplasm and interspersed among the sarcomeres after the rupture of mitochondria membranes. Intramitochondrial granules were absent. These abnormalities were attributed to hypoxic or toxic effects. The ecological and behavioral pattern of this beetle described earlier is correlated with the ultrastructural pathology of the flight muscle.
A New Incremental Formulation of Elastic–Plastic Deformation of Two-Phase Particulate Composite Materials

In this study the double-inclusion model, originally developed to determine the effective linear elastic properties of composite materials, is reformulated in incremental form and extended to predict the effective nonlinear elastic–plastic response of two-phase particulate composites reinforced with spherical particles. The study is limited to composites consisting of purely elastic particles and elastic–plastic matrix of von Mises yield criterion with isotropic strain hardening. The resulting nonlinear problem of elastic–plastic deformation of a double inclusion embedded in an infinite reference medium (that has the elastic–plastic properties of the matrix) subjected to an incrementally applied far-field strain is linearized at each load increment through the use of the matrix tangent moduli. The proposed incremental double-inclusion model is evaluated by comparison of the model predictions to the exact results of the direct approach using representative volume elements containing many particles, and to the available experimental results. It is shown that the incremental double-inclusion formulation gives accurate prediction of the effective elastic–plastic response of two-phase particulate composites at moderate particle volume fractions. In particular, the incremental double-inclusion model is capable of capturing the Bauschinger effect often exhibited by heterogeneous materials. A unique feature of the proposed incremental formulation is that the composite matrix is treated as a two-phase material consisting of both an elastic and a plastic region.
Exploring the metanarrative of the traditional literary critical essay

A professor of English and an assistant professor of Education bring together humanistic textual analysis and descriptive empirical research to explore faculty perceptions and uses of the assignment they name the traditional literary critical essay and define as a critical essay that describes, analyzes or interprets a literary text(s) through close reading of the text(s)’s literary elements, such as theme, character, imagery, language, and metaphor. Through humanistic textual analysis, the authors demonstrate a consistent story of the prevalence of the traditional literary critical essay assignment in college literature classrooms in conjunction with negative assumptions about the purposes of the assignment, its political associations, and what influences faculty to use it. These historically situated issues were used to construct survey questions to explore faculty members’ perceptions of these assumptions. Carnegie institution ratings were used to sample faculty from colleges and universities across the United States. The survey was completed by 735 full-time faculty who teach literature courses. Survey findings support assumptions about the assignment’s prevalence but call into question several other assumptions in the historical narrative and point to the need for scientific study of pedagogical beliefs related to student writing in literature classes.
A novel radiation boundary condition for finite‐element method

This paper presents a novel radiation boundary condition (RBC) with the spectral integral method (SIM) to truncate the computational domain in the finite-element method (FEM). Because of the spectral accuracy of the SIM, the sampling density on the radiation boundary requires less than four points per wavelength to achieve a high accuracy (1%). As a result, the introduction of the SIM as an RBC actually can decrease the total number of unknowns in the system equation. Numerical results illustrate the usefulness of this novel RBC for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous objects. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 1995–2002, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22608
Modeling remote desktop systems in utility environments with application to QoS management

A remote desktop utility system is an emerging client/server networked model for enterprise desktops. In this model, a shared pool of consolidated compute and storage servers host users' desktop applications and data respectively. End-users are allocated resources for a desktop session from the shared pool on-demand, and they interact with their applications over the network using remote display technologies. Understanding the detailed behavior of applications in these remote desktop utilities is crucial for more effective QoS management. However, there are challenges due to hard-to-predict workloads, complexity, and scale. In this paper, we present a detailed modeling of a remote desktop system through case study of an Office application — email. The characterization provides insights into workload and user model, the effect of remote display technology, and implications of shared infrastructure. We then apply these learnings and modeling results for improved QoS resource management decisions — achieving over 90% improvement compared to state of the art allocation mechanisms. We also present discussion on generalizing a methodology for a broader applicability of model-driven resource management.
A Parametric Uncertainty Analysis Method for Markov Reliability and Reward Models

A common concern with Markov reliability and reward models is that model parameters, i.e., component failure and repair rates, are seldom perfectly known. This paper proposes a numerical method based on the Taylor series expansion of the underlying Markov chain stationary distribution (associated to the reliability and reward models) to propagate parametric uncertainty to reliability and performability indices of interest. The Taylor series coefficients are expressed in closed form as functions of the Markov chain generator-matrix group inverse. Then, to compute the probability density functions of the reliability and performability indices, random variable transformations are applied to the polynomial approximations that result from the Taylor series expansion. Additionally, closed-form expressions that approximate the expectation and variance of the indices are also derived. A significant advantage of the proposed framework is that only the parametrized Markov chain generator matrix is required as an input, i.e., closed-form expressions for the reliability and performability indices as a function of the model parameters are not needed. Several case studies illustrate the accuracy of the proposed method in approximating distributions of reliability and performability indices. Additionally, analysis of a large model demonstrates lower execution times compared to Monte Carlo simulations.
The influence of gender and temperament on children’s interaction with a baby

This study examined gender differences in children's interaction with a baby who visited their day-care center over several weeks. Twenty-two children ranging in age from 47 to 64 months of age participated. The children's teacher filled out a questionnaire assessing each child's extraversion, activity level, and loudness. A female baby visited the day care center from one to three times a week over a two-month period. Each child's interactions with the baby were observed twice. Active, outgoing, loud girls were much more likely to interact with the baby than either quiet girls or any boys. Several of these highly interactive girls had no younger siblings. Children were found to interact with the baby more on their second observation.
Sources and composition of sediment pore‐water dissolved organic matter in prairie pothole lakes

Sediment pore-water dissolved organic matter (DOM) in two North Dakota prairie pothole lakes was quantified by dissolved organic carbon analysis (DOC) and its composition was characterized as a function of sediment depth for molecular weight distribution (MWD), molar absorptivity at 280 nm (ɛ280), and fluorescence properties. Fluorescence excitation emission matrices were further analyzed by creating a Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) model specific to sedimentary pore-water DOM. The range of absolute pore-water DOC concentrations (∼ 26–183 mg C L−1) greatly exceeded abundances reported for other wetlands and generally increased with depth. Significant changes occurred in ɛ280 and fluorescence seasonally. Prairie pothole pore-water DOM is primarily allochthonous in nature and three ‘humic-like’ components explained ∼ 90% of total sample fluorescence, while a single ‘non-humic’ component was responsible for the remaining 10%. The contribution of the non-humic component, however, was more significant in the top 7 cm of sediment in samples collected in early autumn and is presumably derived from algal precursor material produced by primary production in the water column over the summer. The PARAFAC results corroborate ɛ280 and MWD changes in pore-water DOM composition over the growing season. This dynamic process could affect the type of DOM available for biogeochemical processes seasonally.
Grain-boundary fracture and boron effect in Ni3Si alloys

Abstract Intergranular fracture and boron effect in Ni3Si (22.5 at% Si) were studied by tensile testing in various environments at room temperature. Our results indicate that brittle grain-boundary fracture in Ni3Si is caused by two major factors: (1) moisture-induced hydrogen embrittlement, and (2) poor grain-boundary cohesion. Boron is found to segregate strongly to grain boundaries and suppress environmental embrittlement in Ni3Si. Boron, however, does not enhance the cohesive strength of the boundaries. As a result, Ni3Si showed a moderate increase in room-temperature tensile ductility in moist air when doped with boron. Auger analyses indicate that the silicon concentration at the grain boundaries is significantly lower than that in the bulk; however, there is no indication of strong co-segregation of nickel and boron atoms to the boundaries
The Influence of Underfill Properties on the Fatigue Life of Ball Grid Array Packages

The influence of underfill material properties on the fatigue life of a Ball Grid Array (BGA) package in the presence of thermal cycling is investigated in this study. The underfill material properties that are varied include Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and the coefficient of thermal expansion. The range in values are in accordance with typical underfills used in packages today. A finite element model is created using general purpose Ansys code by assuming that there exists an infinite array of solder interconnects, cylindrical in shape, surrounded by underfill material. The finite element geometry generated consists of a unit cell of concentric cylinders, with the inner being solder material and the outer being underfill material. The interconnect material is modeled as eutectic solder that behaves elastically-perfectly plastic. The Mode I cyclic stresses in the solder are determined as a temperature loading is applied. These stresses are then compared to the residual compressive stresses that are induced as a result of underfill shrinkage upon curing. Results suggest that Mode I stresses induced in the interconnects upon thermal cycling are not negligible in comparison to the beneficial compression that they provide upon curing. Even in the presence of this residual compression, for several material combinations a substantial amount of tension is induced in the connections while being cycled.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
Novel Capacitance Extraction Method Using Direct Boundary Integral Equation Method and Hierarchical Approach

In this paper, a novel hierarchical capacitance extraction method is introduced. It takes advantage of surface integral equations to have far less unknowns than the volumetric method. It uses the "divide and conquer" strategy to hierarchically solve the dense capacitance matrix efficiently. It partitions the problem into small regions (cells) automatically and each region is analyzed separately. An inverse binary-tree browse procedure is employed to combine cell capacitance matrixes from leafy level of the tree to the root. A global capacitance matrix is obtained at the root without computing charge distribution. Benchmarks using the developed code CSurf are provided to demonstrate its efficiency.
Diferric transferrin regulates transferrin receptor 2 protein stability

Transferrin receptor 2 (TfR2) is a type 2 transmembrane protein expressed in hepatocytes that binds iron-bound transferrin (Tf). Mutations in TfR2 cause one form of hereditary hemochromatosis, a disease in which excessive absorption of dietary iron can lead to liver cirrhosis, diabetes, arthritis, and heart failure. The function of TfR2 in iron homeostasis is unknown. We have studied the regulation of TfR2 in HepG2 cells. Western blot analysis shows that TfR2 increases in a time- and dose-dependent manner after diferric Tf is added to the culture medium. In cells exposed to diferric Tf, the amount of TfR2 returns to control levels within 8 hours after the removal of diferric Tf from the medium. However, TfR2 does not increase when non-Tf-bound iron (FeNTA) or apo Tf is added to the medium. The response to diferric Tf appears to be hepatocyte specific. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis shows that TfR2 mRNA levels do not change in cells exposed to diferric Tf. Rather, the increase in TfR2 is attributed to an increase in the half-life of TfR2 protein in cells exposed to diferric Tf. Our results support a role for TfR2 in monitoring iron levels by sensing changes in the concentration of diferric Tf.
Degradation processes in high power multi-mode InGaAs strained quantum well lasers

Recently, broad-area InGaAs-AlGaAs strained quantum well (QW) lasers have attracted much attention because of their unparalleled high optical output power characteristics that narrow stripe lasers or tapered lasers can not achieve. However, broad-area lasers suffer from poor beam quality and their high reliability operation has not been proven for communications applications. This paper concerns reliability and degradation aspects of broad-area lasers. Good facet passivation techniques along with optimized structural designs have led to successful demonstration of reliable 980nm single-mode lasers, and the dominant failure mode of both single-mode and broadarea lasers is catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD), which limits maximum output powers and also determines operating output powers. Although broad-area lasers have shown characteristics unseen from singlemode lasers including filamentation, their effects on long-term reliability and degradation processes have not been fully investigated. Filamentation can lead to instantaneous increase in optical power density and thus temperature rise at localized areas through spatial-hole burning and thermal lensing which significantly reduces filament sizes under high power operation, enhancing the COMD process. We investigated degradation processes in commercial MOCVD-grown broad-area InGaAs-AlGaAs strained QW lasers at ~975nm with and without passivation layers by performing accelerated lifetests of these devices followed by failure mode analyses with various micro-analytical techniques. Since instantaneous fluctuations of filaments can lead to faster wear-out of passivation layer thus leading to facet degradation, both passivated and unpassivated broad-area lasers were studied that yielded catastrophic failures at the front facet and also in the bulk. Electron beam induced current technique was employed to study dark line defects (DLDs) generated in degraded lasers stressed under different test conditions and focused ion beam was employed to prepare TEM samples from the DLD areas for HR-TEM analysis. We report our in-depth failure mode analysis results.
Analysis of the offset to a parabola

Abstract Wei Lu has recently constructed a proper rational parameterization for the two-sided offset to a parabola—indicating that this locus, an irreducible curve of degree n = 6, is of genus 0. The theory of algebraic curves then requires that the parabola offset have 1 2 (n−1)(n−2) = 10 double points. One affine node and six affine cusps are readily identified by geometric arguments; we show that the remaining three double points are accounted for by a non-ordinary double point at infinity, having double points in its first and second neighborhoods.
Ceramides Are Transported Through the Golgi Apparatus in Human Keratinocytes in Vitro

The intercellular lipid sheets of the stratum corneum constitute the epidermal permeability barrier that permits terrestrial life. Although lamellar granules are known to deliver the precursors of the stratum corneum lipids into the intercellular spaces, their site of origin remains unknown. Lamellar granules have characteristics of both secretory granules and lysosomes, which are known to originate from the Golgi apparatus in other cell types. Glucosylceramides, a major component of lamellar granule contents and the precursors of stratum corneum ceramides, have been found to be synthesized primarily in the early compartments of the Golgi apparatus in other cell types. We have investigated the transport and metabolism of a fluorescently labeled ceramide in human keratinocyte cultures using laser-scanning confocal microscopy and lipid analysis. We found that ceramide is metabolized to glucosylceramide and sphingomyelin as it passes through the Golgi apparatus and the metabolites are then delivered to the plasma membrane. Cold temperature, Brefeldin A, and monensin, all known to inhibit transport from the Golgi to the plasma membrane, prevented ceramide metabolites from appearing at the plasma membrane. Because glucosylceramides are one of the most important lipid constituents of lamellar granules, these results support the hypothesis that the Golgi is the origin of lamellar granules.
Effect of Subprimal Fabrication and Packaging Methods on Palatability and Retail Caselife of Loin Steaks from Lean Beef

Eighty subprimals were fabricated from 20 pairs of beef strip loins from lean (fat thickness, 0.2-0.4 cm) US Standard and US Good carcasses. Three vacuum packaged (VP) and one dry aged treatments were randomly assigned to short loin sections of each carcass. Steaks from VP intact and VP not-reassembled subprimals were rated highest in overall appearance and eating quality. Dry aging reduced retail caselife, produced greater shrinkage and trim losses and lower overall satisfaction ratings by panelists. Precutting subprimals into steaks followed by VP aging tends to decrease retail caselife (especially if steaks are reassembled) and decrease juiciness and tenderness.
Reconciling Science and Politics in Forest Service Decision Making: New Tools for Public Administrators

In recent years, a wide variety of federal agencies have utilized alternative dispute resolution (ADR) approaches to resolve controversial issues. Although public officials represent central actors in most ADRs, there has been little systematic examination of their experiences and perceptions of ADR. This work begins to fill this gap by examining a key issue of concern for public officials: the impact of negotiations on professionally based decision making. Anecdotal evidence suggsts that public officials often are concerned that professionally based decision making will be compromised in ADR to reach a political consensus with competing stakeholders. Focusing on the U.S. Forest Service, this paper examines the effects of ADR on the agency's traditional scientific decision-making processes. Informants found that negotiating appeals accentuated the need for sound scientific information and broadened the knowledge base upon which forest management decisions are made. This view of negotiation involved recogn...
Silver-108m in Biota and Sediments at Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls

THE occurrence1 of the long lived silver radionuclide 108mAg (T½>100 yr) in biota from the Pacific Ocean has been held to suggest that the silver radionuclide ratio 110mAg/108mAg may be useful as a tracer of environmental processes. It also appears1 that large amounts of 110mAg and 108mAg were not produced during the 1958 test series or earlier, and that the production activity ratio 110mAg/108mAg was 162, a ratio derived solely from the thermal neutron activation of stable silver. We consider that their observations require reconsideration.
Managing Dental Patients with Joint Prostheses

A review of the literature on the possible link between late infections of major joint prostheses and dental bacteremias. A literature review explored the possible association of late infections of major joint prostheses and dental bacteremias. The review showed transient dental bacteremias had little or no role in causing late infections of prosthetic joint replacements. However, patients with certain systemic conditions or complications with their prostheses may be at greater risk for infection after transient dental bacteremias.
Controlled release from poly(phosphoester) matrices

A class of biodegradable polymers, poly (phosphoesters), was studied for its potential as a matrix for controlled drug delivery. The degradability of the phosphorus ester linkage and the versatility of phosphorus-containing polymers make poly (phosphoesters) attractive candidates for development as a degradable biomaterial. The release of various drugs in vitro from a series of bisphenol-A based poly (phosphoesters) was examined. Sustained release for up to several months was achieved for cortisone acetate and model drugp-nitroaniline. The mechanism of release was found to be a combination of diffusion, swelling and degradation. The structure of the sidechain influenced the release behavior in all instances.
Confidence Interval Estimation for Sensitivity to the Early Diseased Stage Based on Empirical Likelihood.

Many disease processes can be divided into three stages: the non-diseased stage: the early diseased stage, and the fully diseased stage. To assess the accuracy of diagnostic tests for such diseases, various summary indexes have been proposed, such as volume under the surface (VUS), partial volume under the surface (PVUS), and the sensitivity to the early diseased stage given specificity and the sensitivity to the fully diseased stage (P2). This paper focuses on confidence interval estimation for P2 based on empirical likelihood. Simulation studies are carried out to assess the performance of the new methods compared to the existing parametric and nonparametric ones. A real dataset from Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) is analyzed.
Comparative Meristic Variability in Whiptail Lizards (Teiidae, Aspidoscelis): Samples of Parthenogenetic A. tesselata Versus Samples of Sexually Reproducing A. sexlineata, A. marmorata, and A. gularis septemvittata

ABSTRACT Is it correct, as is often assumed, that the clonal form of inheritance in parthenogenetic lizards results in less variability than occurs with genetic recombination in their sexually reproducing (gonochoristic) relatives? We tested this hypothesis by comparing morphological variability in samples of parthenogenetic Aspidoscelis tesselata and several gonochoristic species of whiptail lizards. To control for environmental factors that might differentially affect embryonic development of morphological characters, we compared samples obtained from the same or geographically adjacent localities. In addition, we compared apparently “uniclonal” and multiclonal samples from each of two color-pattern classes (C and E) of A. tesselata. For univariate meristic characters, parthenogenetic A. tesselata matched the variability of a sympatric gonochoristic species in 11 of 20 comparisons, had lower variability in six comparisons, and was more variable in three. For multivariate characters derived from principa...
Information flow through strong and weak ties in intraorganizational social networks

Abstract Strong and weak ties are compared in terms of their contributions to information flow about the work activity of persons in intraorganizational social networks. Strong ties are more important than weak ties in promoting information flow about activities within an organizational subsystem. Weak ties are more important than strong ties in promoting information flow about activities outside an organizational subsystem. The strength of weak ties in promoting boundary-spanning information flows lies not in their individual efficiency but in their numbers. In general, production of the highest probabilities of information flow is associated with a combination of both weak and strong ties.
On exploiting system dynamics modeling to identify service requirements

SOA provides a flexible framework for betterintegrated systems that meet business needs. However, the existing methods are not successful in helping business analysts to devise appropriate business services. Herein, a novel approach is presented to address service identification and thereby developing sound SOA. In contrast with conventional methodologies, we press on the criticality of exploiting the information of dynamic business behavior to develop business services.
Human Society Inspired Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks: The Effect of Parochialism

In this paper, we investigate the parochialism in dynamic spectrum access networks and its effect on spectrum resource competition and self-coexistence among cognitive radio secondary users. We assume that some greedy secondary users in the network form a parochial community in private and try to maximize their own utilities without concern for the interests of other secondary users outside the community. A noncooperative game is formulated first to analyze the equilibrium strategy of secondary users without any parochial community in the network. In the scenario where there is a parochial community, we analyze the expected payoff for the insider secondary users who deviate from the Nash equilibrium and derive the optimal strategy for them. Through numerical analysis, we see how the optimal strategies for the secondary users inside the parochial community in different circumstances deviate from Nash equilibrium. Simulation results demonstrate that being a part of the parochial community, the secondary users can obtain more utility than the outsider secondary users and the system will change from an equilibrium to an unfair situation.
Cerebral damage and behavior disorders in children

Summary 1. A disturbance in behavior may be the most prominent manifestation ofcerebral damage of varying etiology in children. 2. The clinical syndrome is fairly characteristic. 3. Subtle neurologic changes and the performance on psychometric tests are diagnostic aids. 4. In general, the outlook for improvement in behavior and ultimate recovery is good. 5. Treatment consists of giving the child added support at home and in school in the form of extra affection, attention, approval, encouragement, and praise.
Five views of Kypseli

Susannah Hoffman, Richard Cowan and Paul Aratow. Kypseli: Women and Men Apart—A Divided Reality. 16mm film, color, sound, 44 minutes. Purchase S425. Rental $40. Distributed by the University Extension Media Center, University of California, Berkeley.
Direct observations of higher frequency density fluctuations in the interplanetary plasma

Direct observations from the plasma spectrometers on Pioneer 6 at 1 AU in December, 1965, have been used to obtain the power associated with fluctuations in the number density of solar-wind protons in the frequency range from .001 to .01 Hz. A power-law spectrum is obtained in this frequency range. The extension of the power-law density spectrum based on direct observations to these higher frequencies is consistent with previous extrapolations of both spacecraft and interplanetary scintillation observations and with the dominance of large-scale turbulence in the solar wind. This result is also consistent with direct observations of the solar-wind proton speed and the interplanetary magnetic field.
Current prevalence of vitamin B6 deficiency in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients

Abstract Objective: To describe the current prevalence of vitamin B 6 deficiency based on erythrocyte glutamic pyruvic transaminase (EGPT) index in dialysis patients. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting: Four ambulatory clinical sites, including two hemodialysis clinics, one outpatient clinic for peritoneal dialysis patients, and one site providing care to both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients (a university-affiliated medical center). Patients: One hundred five adult dialysis patients (63 men and 42 women; ages 21 to 84 years) participated in this study. The ethnic makeup of the patient population in this study is as follows: 76 white, 24 black, and 5 patients of unknown ethnicity. Seventy-five percent were hemodialysis patients, and 25% were peritoneal dialysis patients. Intervention: Vitamin B6 status was measured with the EGPT index. Assessment of dietary intake during the preceding 3 months was conducted with a standardized food frequency questionnaire. Body composition was estimated with skinfold thickness measures. Main outcome measure: Fifteen (14%) patients were found to be vitamin B 6 deficient on the basis of an abnormal EGPT index of ≥1.25. Vitamin B6 supplementation, dietary vitamin B 6 or protein intake, type of dialysis, medication usage, gender, age, and ethnic group were not associated with or predictive of vitamin B6 status. Diabetes comorbidity and abnormal EGPT index were significantly associated ( P 6 deficiency (odds ratio=7.32, 95% confidence interval=2.06–25.99). Conclusion: Diabetes comorbidity is associated with increased risk for vitamin B 6 deficiency in dialysis patients.
Feeling happier when paying more: Dysfunctional counterfactual thinking in consumer affect

In this research the authors examine whether counterfactual thinking, the process of imagining alternatives to reality, can have a detrimental impact on consumers' feelings. Five studies examine the dysfunctional role of counterfactual thinking in the presence of Minimum Purchase Requirement conditional message framing (“X% off all purchases if you spend at least $Y”), and its affective consequences. Results show that the presence or absence of the minimum amount restriction (Studies 1A and 1B), success or failure to meet the restriction (Studies 2A and 2B), and perceived closeness (i.e., outcome proximity) to success or failure in meeting the restriction (Study 3), drastically influence consumer affect to the extent that participants receiving an inferior deal exhibited higher satisfaction than those receiving a superior deal. It is suggested that such promotion-induced counterfactual thinking polarizes consumer satisfaction, which may impede consumers from arriving at optimal conclusions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Recursive Stiffness Matrix Method for Wave Propagation in Stratified Media

A stable recursive stiffness matrix method is described for wave propagation in a layered elastic medium. The 4 × 4 global stiffness matrix for a stratified medium is recursively calculated from the layer stiffness matrices. The layer stiffness matrix has only six different elements, which are given in closed form. For general buried sources, a simple formulation has been developed to calculate the response for arbitrary positions of the receivers. Based on this method, characteristic equations for surface and guided modes in stratified media have also been obtained. The algorithm is unconditionally stable and retains the simplicity and flexibility of the transfer matrix method. Manuscript received 8 June 2001.
MORE BELLS AND WHISTLES: INTRODUCING THE RECENTLY REVAMPED NAPCRG WEB SITE

The North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) is pleased to offer an enhanced Web site (http://www.napcrg.org) that is easy to navigate and packed with worthwhile information. The revamped Web site now includes pertinent information about NAPCRG as an organization, member services, annual meeting information, publications, and other valuable resources. There is also a link exclusively for NAPCRG members where they can search both member and consultant directories. Key features are highlighted below.
Familial Aspects of Prostate Cancer: A Case Control Study

AbstractPurpose: We evaluated the importance of positive family history, age at diagnosis and history of vasectomy in predicting the risk for prostate cancer in the brothers of prostate cancer patients.Materials and Methods: A total of 1,084 men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer responded by interview to a family history survey, which included detailed information on the diagnosis of any cancer in the parents of the proband, diagnosis of prostate cancer in male relatives and age at onset of prostate cancer in the proband. A history of vasectomy was also obtained from the proband. The control cases consisted of 935 spouses of the probands who were administered the same questionnaire in an identical fashion.Results: Prostate cancer was not significantly associated with other types of cancer in proband parents. The presence of prostate cancer in the father, grandfather or uncle of the proband significantly increased the risk of prostate cancer in proband brothers. Early age at onset in the proband was als...
A study of the high-temperature transport anomaly in AgBr, by diffusion of sodium tracer

Abstract A detailed measurement of the temperature dependence of the tracer diffusivity of substitutional sodium ion in AgBr indicates the activation energy for the formation of a Frenkel pair to be temperature-dependent. The approach used earlier by Muller and by Aboagye and Friauf in interpreting the “extra” ionic conductivity at high temperatures as due to an anomalous increase in the defect concentrations thus appears to be essentially correct. However, the decreases in defect formation enthalpy at high temperatures, as deduced from these diffusion experiments, are somewhat smaller than those obtained earlier from conductivity data. Also, the activation enthalpy for the jumping of a sodium ion into a neighboring vacancy is found to be nearly twice that for motion of a free vacancy, the increased migration barrier presumably resulting from the absence of covalent interactions in the case of the sodium ion.
Optimal control rules for scheduling job shops

The author develops control rules for job-shop scheduling based on the flow rate control model. He derives optimal control results for job shops with workstations in series (transfer line). He uses these results to derive rules which are suboptimal, robust against random events, and easy to implement and expand. >
SENSITIVITY OF STRESS CONSTRAINTS USING THE ADJOINT METHOD

Adjoint sensitivity calculation of stress and displacement functional may be much less expensive than direct sensitivity calculation when the number of load cases is large. However, efficient implementation is problem dependent and requires strategies for reducing the number of constraints used. The study shows that for truss and plane-stress elements it is easy to implement the adjoint method. Also an example demonstrates that even an extreme form of constraint lumping can work well in optimization of a wing structure allowing us to keep only a small number of constraints.
The interaction of chemical kinetics and diffusion in the dynamics of chemical vapor infiltration

The classical model of Chemical Vapor Infiltration (CVI) treats diffusion and surface reaction in a representative cylindrical pore. Two significant modifications to that approach are presented herein. One accounts for more complex chemistry by allowing for both gas-phase and surface reactions which lead to film growth. The other couples the pore model to a reactor model for the region external to the porous preform. The results demonstrate that it is possible to select chemical schemes that yield densification from the interior to the exterior of the preform, thus avoiding premature trapping of interior voids.
Intelliject's novel epinephrine autoinjector: sharps injury prevention validation and comparable analysis with EpiPen and Twinject

Background Currently marketed epinephrine autoinjectors (EAs) are prone to misuse that may lead to injury or a missed dose. A novel EA (NEA) (Intelliject Inc) was created to reduce such injuries by including features such as a unidirectional perceived injection end and a retractable needle. Objectives To validate the sharps injury prevention features of the NEA and to obtain feedback on, and preference for, features of the NEA compared with Twinject and EpiPen. Methods Twenty-eight health care professionals experienced with using the EpiPen or Twinject each injected 18 NEAs into an orange and provided confirmation of needle injection and retraction. Half of the injections were conducted using wet hands to replicate diaphoretic hands or wet environmental conditions. Participants provided feedback via a post-test questionnaire and gave ordinal preference rankings for the NEA, EpiPen, and Twinject based on shape, size, ease of use, ease of training, and overall preference. Participants also described known cases in which the Twinject or EpiPen was not correctly administered. Results For all 505 tested NEAs, the needle injected and retracted as intended. For overall preference, 100% of the experienced health care practitioners ranked the NEA first. Half of the participants recalled incidents in which the EpiPen or Twinject did not work as intended or caused an injury. Conclusions The sharps injury prevention feature was verified for the NEA, and health care professionals experienced in the use of EpiPen and Twinject for allergic emergencies perceived the NEA to be a safer and preferred alternative.
Gibberellins Promote Flowering of Arabidopsis by Activating the LEAFY Promoter

The gibberellin class of plant hormones has been implicated in the control of flowering in several species. In Arabidopsis, severe reduction of endogenous gibberellins delays flowering in long days and prevents flowering in short days. We have investigated how the differential effects of gibberellins on flowering correlate with expression of LEAFY, a floral meristem identity gene. We have found that the failure of gibberellin-deficient ga1-3 mutants to flower in short days was paralleled by the absence of LEAFY promoter induction. A causal connection between these two events was confirmed by the ability of a constitutively expressed LEAFY transgene to restore flowering to ga1-3 mutants in short days. In contrast to short days, impairment of gibberellin biosynthesis caused merely a reduction of LEAFY expression when plants were grown in long days or with sucrose in the dark. As a first step toward identifying other small molecules that might regulate flowering, we have developed a rapid in vitro assay for LEAFY promoter activity.