cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mobile Phones in Data Collection: A Systematic Review

Mobile phones are increasingly popular tools not only for daily use but also for research purposes. The authors systematically searched related literature using mobile phones as a tool for data collection and found 171 publications consisting of review, empirical, methodological, and theoretical studies in various disciplines such as medicine, engineering, and education. After reviewing contributions of previous review studies, the authors presented a description of data collection process consisting of four steps and used these four steps as a framework to review the existing empirical literature. The authors then reviewed contributions of methodological and theoretical studies, and end with a summary of current practices of collecting mobile data. Current challenges and future directions were also mentioned.
Modified smoothing-filter-based technique for IKONOS-QuickBird image fusion

Among the methods of spatial detail injection, smoothing-filter-based intensity modulation (SFIM) can quickly merge a huge amount of different spatial resolution imagery with little color distortion. However, the success of spatial-detail injection mainly relies on the designed low-pass filter. For IKONOS-QuickBird image fusion, SFIM requires an elaborate filter to extract adequate spatial details. To ease the filter design and preserve complete spatial information, a modified approach is presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique provides significant improvements over the original method.
Pathways to Hospital Death among the Oldest Old

Using the 1986 National Mortality Followback Survey (N = 2, 090), this research examines the conditions under which the oldest old (85+ years of age) are discharged from a nursing home to enter and die in a hospital as well as the conditions under which community dwellers enter and die in a hospital. Given the need to plan for health services for this growing population and the recent policy changes in length of hospital stay, this analysis focuses on pathways leading to a hospital death. Results suggest that the factors that influence site of death are necessarily quite distinct for those who have entered the institutional long-term care system versus those who have not. Among institutionalized patients, the incidence of an acute condition appears to precipitate hospitalization, whereas among community dwellers, the presence of a social support network and the decedent's race are the only salient factors predicting hospital death. Implications are discussed.
A network-theoretic approach for decompositional translation across Open Biological Ontologies

Biological ontologies are now being widely used for annotation, sharing and retrieval of the biological data. Many of these ontologies are hosted under the umbrella of the Open Biological Ontologies Foundry. In order to support interterminology mapping, composite terms in these ontologies need to be translated into atomic or primitive terms in other, orthogonal ontologies, for example, gluconeogenesis (biological process term) to glucose (chemical ontology term). Identifying such decompositional ontology translations is a challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a network-theoretic approach based on the structure of the integrated OBO relationship graph. We use a network-theoretic measure, called the clustering coefficient, to find relevant atomic terms in the neighborhood of a composite term. By eliminating the existing GO to ChEBI Ontology mappings from OBO, we evaluate whether the proposed approach can re-identify the corresponding relationships. The results indicate that the network structure provides strong cues for decompositional ontology translation and the existing relationships can be used to identify new translations.
Population genetics of hydrophilous angiosperms

Abstract Comparisons between genetic variation and life history and ecological characteristics have been produced for over 400 plant species since the advent of starch gel electrophoresis. Knowledge of how aquatic life histories relate to population genetic structure is lacking, however. Four hydrophilous species —Zostera marina L., Vallisneria americana Michx., Ceratophyllum demersum L., and Ceratophyllum echinatum Gray — have been studied using allozyme estimates of variation within and among populations. At the species level, the percent of polymorphic loci is equal to, or higher than, the average reported for all plant species. At the population level, however, hydrophilous taxa have lower percent of polymorphic loci, fewer alleles per locus, and lower levels of heterozygosity than non-hydrophiles. Except for Z. marina, hydrophilous species show much greater partitioning of variation among populations than non-hydrophiles, particularly when compared with anemophilous species. Explanations for these patterns include sexuality (Ceratophyllum), extensive clonal spread (all four species), and the greater isolation of freshwater populations (lakes as islands) relative to most terrestrial species and to coastal species such as Z. marina.
A reaction-diffusion system of a competitor-competitor-mutualist model

Abstract We investigate the homogeneous Dirichlet problem and Neumann problem to a reaction-diffusion system of a competitor-competitor-mutualist model. The existence, uniqueness, and boundedness of the solutions are established by means of the comparison principle and the monotonicity method. For the Dirichlet problem, we study the existence of trivial and nontrivial nonnegative equilibrium solutions and their stabilities. For the Neumann problem, we analyze the contant equilibrium solutions and their stabilities. The main method used in studying of the stabilities is the spectral analysis to the linearized operators. The O.D.E. problem to the same model was proposed and studied by B. Rai, H. I. Freedman, and J. F. Addicott ( Math. Biosci. 65 (1983), 13–50).
Rapid Identification of Orexin Receptor Binding Ligands Using Cell-Based Screening Accelerated with Magnetic Beads

We report here a simple and rapid method by which to screen one bead one compound libraries for highly specific ligands to cell surface proteins such as G protein-coupled receptors. This protocol, which harvests "hits" in a cell-based binding screen magnetically, eliminates the most tedious aspects of previously published bead screening techniques and allows millions of different compounds to be screened rapidly and cheaply. The method is demonstrated using the orexin receptor 1, which resulted in the isolation of moderate potency antagonists.
Attenuation of amphetamine anorexia by unilateral nigral striatal lesions.

Abstract Rats with unilateral lateral hypothalamic lesions, which destroyed the nigral striatal bundle, exhibited an attenuation of the food intake suppressive effect of (+)-amphetamine. Rats with unilateral medial hypothalamic lesions, however, did not differ significantly from intact controls in terms of responsivity to the anorexic effect of amphetamine. In a second experiment, unilateral substantia nigra lesions attenuated the anorexic effect of amphetamine to an extent comparable with the unilateral lateral hypothalamic lesion. Both the substantia nigra and unilateral lateral hypothalamic lesion severely depleted dopamine and to a lesser extent norepinephrine on the damaged half of the brain. Thus, unilateral falls in brain catecholamines can reduce the anorexic efficacy of amphetamine.
Deriving service variants from business process specifications

Software service organizations typically tend to develop custom solutions upon entry to a project engagement. This is not a scalable proposition. Today, driven by the need for enhancing profitability, reuse of existing assets across customer engagements is a more viable strategy. This is leading to the transformation of software services organizations from a labor-based to an asset-based model. In the enterprise application development domain, business processes are used to model the dynamic behavior of enterprise applications. Hence one highly prevalent asset-based approach in this domain is to build a scalable portfolio of services using a service-oriented architecture (SOA) approach. This provides a mechanism for representing business processes as a set of business-aligned, loosely-coupled services that can be iteratively composed and re-composed to create loosely coupled composite applications that mirror and support business processes.A key research problem that arises here is how to instantiate a stated business process specification as a combination of variants of existing services in the portfolio. We show via an illustrative example that this problem is non-trivial and scalable, and it depends on the semantics of the business process specification, especially with respect to the inter-service data and control flow dependencies that the instantiated business process specification has to satisfy. To that end, we also present our Variation-Oriented Service Design (VOSD) algorithm for automatically deriving service-level variants from the stated business process specifications. We also show that our algorithm is scalable, since its asymptotic complexity is linear in the number of service variants. We also illustrate our algorithm via the example.
Testicular lesions other than germ cell tumours: feasibility of testis-sparing surgery.

OBJECTIVE To review all non-germ-cell testicular lesions presenting at our institution and to determine the feasibility of testis-sparing surgery for these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS All surgery for testicular masses between June 1995 and June 2005 were reviewed retrospectively. Patients with atrophy, germ cell tumours, infection or torsion were excluded. The study comprised men who had radical orchidectomy for suspected germ-cell tumour but had other final pathology, and those where testis-sparing surgery was attempted for a presumed benign lesion. RESULTS Thirteen patients with lesions appropriate for the study were identified; all but one had a palpable lesion. The lesions could be categorized as inflammatory (three hyalinized fibrosis, two sarcoidosis, one chronic inflammation), cystic (one epidermoid cyst, one unilocular cyst), benign neoplasms (two adenomatoid tumours, one Leydig cell tumour, one capillary haemangioma) or malignant neoplasms (one lymphoma). Based on the preoperative impression, testis-sparing surgery was attempted in eight of the lesions and was successful in six where it was attempted. In the other five, testis-sparing surgery was not attempted because the preoperative impression was that of a germ cell tumour. Testis-sparing surgery was successful in only six of the 13 patients with these lesions. CONCLUSION Testis-sparing surgery might be possible if there is significant suspicion of a benign lesion. If frozen-section analysis is equivocal, a radical orchidectomy is required. Testis-sparing surgery was feasible in highly selected cases.
Structure of the redox sensor domain of Azotobacter vinelandii NifL at atomic resolution: signaling, dimerization, and mechanism.

NifL is a multidomain sensor protein responsible for the transcriptional regulation of genes involved in response to changes in cellular redox state and ADP concentration. Cellular redox is monitor...
SU‐E‐T‐131: Effect of Scanning Speed On MV and FFF Dosimetric Measurements Using a Scanning Chamber and EDGE Detector

Purpose: This study quantifies the effect of scanning speed on photon beam profiles and PDD measurements in a water tank. Methods: Data was acquired using OmniPro‐Accept 7 (IBA Dosimetry) for Varian TruebeamTM, 6 MV and 6 FFF, 3×3 and 10×10 cm2 fields. A CC13 compact chamber (Wellhofer) and an EDGE Detector (Sun Nuclear) were used to measure PDD, inline and crossline profiles (at dmax and 10 cm depths) in a Blue Phantom2 (IBA Dosimetry). Each scan was acquired five times at ten different scanning speeds [0.35 – 2.50 cm/sec], and compared to a reference scan (discrete steps of 1.0 mm/step, 2 sec/step). MATLAB was used to calculate the mean difference between the reference and scanned data, and the standard deviation, at each measured point in the scan. Results: For the CC13, the mean difference and the standard deviation of the measured PDDs increased with increasing scan speed for all field sizes and energies. The range of mean differences for speeds below 1.0 cm/sec was [0.04% — 0.13%], and above 1.5 cm/sec was [0.13% — 0.30%].For the EDGE detector, the mean difference and the standard deviation of the PDDs also increased with increasing scan speed. The range of mean differences for speeds below 1.0 cm/sec was [0.09% — 0.28%], and above 1.5 cm/sec was [0.21% — 0.57%].The mean difference for in‐field profile scans did not show significant dependence on scanning speed for either detector. The range of mean differences was [0.08% — 0.99%] for the CC13, and [0.13% — 2.16%] for the EDGE. Conclusion: Increased scanning speed was correlated with an increase in the mean difference of PDD curves. The mean difference for in‐field profile scans did not show significant dependence on scanning speed for either detector. The EDGE scan data exhibited larger mean difference for all scan types.
Dressed-state perturbation theory for multiphoton ionization of atoms

We introduce a perturbation theory using dressed bound states to include higher-order transition processes in the calculation of atomic multiphoton ionization. We calculate the ionization probability of hydrogen atoms using this theory and compare the results with the lowest-order perturbation result. We also calculate the shift of the hydrogen atom’s ground state that is due to the external field.
A boy with undescended testes.

QUESTION: A 3-year-old boy is seen in a medical student-run clinic at a transitional housing village for homeless families. He is brought in by his mother for a routine well-child visit. The child is reported to be healthy, and his immunization status is up to date. The child is playful and cooperative during the examination. His weight and height are normal for his age. Auscultation of his heart and lungs elicits no abnormalities. Examination of the genitalia reveals a circumcised penis and scrotum without palpable testes. What would you do now? ANSWER: Attempt to palpate the testes in both inguinal canals. A sweep of the inguinal regions reveals both testes elevated. When the examiner manipulates the left testis into the scrotum, it immediately ascends to its original position upon release. The right testis cannot be manipulated downward and stays fixed in the inguinal region. QUESTION: What is the diagnosis for these findings, for what conditions is the boy at increased risk, and what is the appropriate treatment, if any? ANSWER: The boy has an undescended right testis and an ectopic left testis. He is at increased risk for testicular cancer, future infertility, and possibly testicular torsion and inguinal herniation.1 Hormonal or surgical intervention, or orchiopexy, is indicated.1
Maternal aggression in mice: Protection of young is a by-product of attacks at the home site

Lactating female mice attacked male intruders in their home cages but showed little attack behavior either in novel cages or in cages with which they had been familiarized. Presence or absence of young did not determine the occurrence of maternal aggression, whereas attacks on the young by the intruder decreased maternal aggression and increased cannibalism of pups by the dams. Apparently, if the function of maternal aggression in mice is protection of the young, such protection occurs because the pups are in a place where attacks are likely to occur and not because the dam “defends” the young.
The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Publishing: A Framework for Contemporary Understanding

Drawing from the perspective of an interdisciplinary exploration of the sociocultural impact of the printing press and its effects on Catholic thinkers, educators, and worship practices, the author of this article explores the educational mission of Catholic publishing during the Reformation and how it has evolved in modern times. First, the author discusses the communication dynamics of the Reformation and specifically the impact of the printing press. Second, the author explores the historical reasons for why the Roman Church perceived the need for uniformity in worship. Third, the author focuses on how the Roman Church built upon this framework of uniformity to define and shape the issues that were being discussed when expanding their outreach to the public during this period. Fourth, the author shows how Catholic worship and education evolved within an interpretation that is relevant to the educational mission of Catholic publishers today.
Live demonstration: Hierarchical Address-Event Routing architecture for reconfigurable large scale neuromorphic systems

Recent advances in neuromorphic engineering for brain-like computing and neural prostheses are converging towards realization of electronic synaptic arrays approaching the integration density and energy efficiency of the human brain. A major impediment in this development is the real-time synaptic routing in a large-scale spiking neuron architecture. Here we present a hierarchical address-event routing (HiAER) communication architecture for routing neural events in a scaleable reconfigurable large-scale neuromorphic system. The neural events are routed in real-time through synaptic connections with configurable parameters governing connectivity, synaptic strength, and axonal delay. The HiAER architecture is implemented on a hardware platform with five Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA cores.
Micro-blogging as online word of mouth branding

In this paper, we report research results investigating micro-blogging as a form of online word of mouth branding. We analyzed 149,472 micro-blog postings containing branding comments, sentiments, and opinions. We investigated the overall structure of these micro-blog postings, types of expressions, and sentiment fluctuations. Of the branding micro-blogs, nearly 20 percent contained some expressions of branding sentiments. Of these tweets with sentiments, more than 50 percent were positive and 33 percent critical of the company or product. We discuss the implications for organizations in using micro-blogging as part of their overall marketing strategy and branding campaigns.
Field survival of codling moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) on artificially infested sweet cherries

Sweet cherries, Prunus avium (L.), from North America must be fumigated with methyl bromide before export to Japan to eliminate possible codling moth (CM), Cydia pomonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), infestation. To potentially eliminate this postharvest procedure, CM survival on ‘Bing’ cherries was examined in the field for the 1999 and 2000 seasons using caged trees, each with fruit of varying maturity, to determine the likelihood of these cherries as a preferred host. In the 1999 season, more infested fruits were on the floor of the cages than in the trees, fruit maturity did not alter larval development, and only three adult moths were found from the five cages, producing a cohort survival < 0.1%. In the 2000 season, among five caged trees, only two weekly tree samples had infested fruits, and no further larval development was observed. This population decline was attributed to unrestricted larval movement and resulting predation. The observations from the two seasons suggest that cherry fruits are poor hosts for CM under field conditions.
Unionism and Employer Discrimination: Analysis of 8(a)(3) Violations

Summary and Conclusions The choice model of firm violations of section 8(a)(3) of the NLRA specified here was tested for the period 1972–1979 using a sample of firms from the New York and American Stock Exchange. The results show that previous violations of this section of the Act, relative per cent of union organization, and changes in firm employment are statistically significant determinants of the marginal benefits of violations. These findings generally support union officials' claims that the penalties in the Act are not strong deterrents to management violations and may be considered a relatively low cost of doing business. However, assertions by union officials that product market factors are important in firm decisions to violate the Act are not supported. In addition, the results do not support NLRB officials' belief that firms that commit violations are not likely to commit them again. The fact that there are no significant differences in violations by firms in our sample as a result of product market variables or industry implies that ethical considerations may be a factor in choosing to violate the Act. Since current penalties are low, and past violations are significant in determining current violators, an increase in penalties may reduce violations by those who do not consider the ethical implications of the Act. If the intent of the current NLRA is to reduce the coercion of employees by employers, an amendment to increase the economic costs to employers seems indicated.
Estimation of Driving Safety from On-Board Captured Scene by using Probe Image Database

In this paper, we propose a concept of probe car based safety information system. Largely, it is composed of five parts such as scene analysis, knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, prediction and estimation, and presentation. One of the most fascinating features we are aiming at is the capability to predict appearance of pedestrians by applying some statistical methods to the database of scene descriptions. Although this concept is under investigation, we will introduce the key technologies to approach it and show some experimental results.
Lectures on Division Algebras

Introduction A division algebra is a central simple algebra Azumaya algebras at the generic point The Brauer group Form of matrices Torsion question Galois extensions Crossed products and cohomology Corestriction Orders and regular domains Ramification Specialization and lifting Lattice methods Brauer Severi varieties Generic division algebra Bibliography.
The evolving etiology of bilateral vocal fold immobility.

Abstract Summary: In the past, bilateral vocal fold immobility (BVFI) occurred most commonly after thyroidectomy. However, no large series documenting the etiology of adult BVFI has been published within the past fifteen years. This study reviews the etiologic patterns of BVFI at our institutions. We compare BVFI from before and after 1980. We also review combined studies of unilateral vocal fold immobility (UVFI) to compare and unilateral versus bilateral etiologic trends. In comparison with previously published series, fewer cases of BVFI present today as a complication of thyroid surgery and more as the result of malignancies and nonsurgical trauma. Unfortunately, BVFI caused by malignancy is not usually an initial sign of local disease, but an ominous sign of recurrence or metastases. In comparing UVFI and BVFI we found that thyroidectomy causes a higher percentage of BVFI than of UVFI. Over one-third of UVFI cases were caused by neoplasm which further underscores the potential seriousness of immobile vocal folds and the need for careful investigation.
Case Learning Methodology in Operations Engineering

Teaching operations engineering to traditional and non-traditional engineering students using case learning methods presents both instructional challenges and provides learning rewards when performed properly. Unfortunately, few engineering faculty have had exposure to this learning approach. However, the skills are learnable and the results satisfying to instructor and student alike. The purpose of this paper is to explore case learning methods and illustrate their appropriateness for a course in operations engineering.
Biochemical and molecular characterization of an azoreductase from Staphylococcus aureus, a tetrameric NADPH-dependent flavoprotein.

Azo dyes are a predominant class of colourants used in tattooing, cosmetics, foods and consumer products. A gene encoding NADPH-flavin azoreductase (Azo1) from the skin bacterium Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 was identified and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. RT-PCR results demonstrated that the azo1 gene was constitutively expressed at the mRNA level in S. aureus. Azo1 was found to be a tetramer with a native molecular mass of 85 kDa containing four non-covalently bound FMN. Azo1 requires NADPH, but not NADH, as an electron donor for its activity. The enzyme was resolved to dimeric apoprotein by removing the flavin prosthetic groups using hydrophobic-interaction chromatography. The dimeric apoprotein was reconstituted on-column and in free stage with FMN, resulting in the formation of a fully functional native-like tetrameric enzyme. The enzyme cleaved the model azo dye 2-[4-(dimethylamino)phenylazo]benzoic acid (Methyl Red) into N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine and 2-aminobenzoic acid. The apparent K m values for NADPH and Methyl Red substrates were 0·074 and 0·057 mM, respectively. The apparent V max was 0·4 μM min−1 (mg protein)−1. Azo1 was also able to metabolize Orange II, Amaranth, Ponceau BS and Ponceau S azo dyes. Azo1 represents the first azoreductase to be identified and characterized from human skin microflora.
Lung NF-κB Activation and Neutrophil Recruitment Require IL-1 and TNF Receptor Signaling during Pneumococcal Pneumonia

Pulmonary inflammation is an essential component of the host defense against Streptococcus pneumoniae infection of the lungs. The early response cytokines, TNF-α and IL-1, are rapidly induced upon microbial exposure. Mice deficient in all TNF- and IL-1-dependent signaling receptors were used to determine the roles of these cytokines during pneumococcal pneumonia. The deficiency of signaling receptors for TNF and IL-1 decreased bacterial clearance. Neutrophil recruitment to alveolar air spaces was impaired by receptor deficiency, as was pulmonary expression of the neutrophil chemokines KC and MIP-2. Because NF-κB mediates the expression of both chemokines, we assessed NF-κB activation in the lungs. During pneumococcal pneumonia, NF-κB proteins translocate to the nucleus and activate gene expression; these functions were largely abrogated by the deficiency of receptors for TNF-α and IL-1. Thus, the combined deficiency of TNF and IL-1 signaling reduces innate immune responses to S. pneumoniae in the lungs, probably due to essential roles for these receptors in activating NF-κB.
A prospective study of maternal anxiety, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms in relation to infant cognitive development.

Abstract Aim Our objective was to examine the associations between maternal psychological health (trait anxiety, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms) during pregnancy or postpartum and infant visual, language, motor, and overall cognitive development. Study Design and Methods In the prospective Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition Study (2001–2006), central North Carolina women completed self-administered questionnaires during pregnancy to assess trait anxiety and depressive symptoms. An in-person interview assessed maternal perceived stress and depressive symptoms in the 4th postpartum month. Infant development was assessed at 12 months using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (n = 358). Multiple linear regression with restricted cubic splines was used to examine potential non-linear associations between trait anxiety, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms in relation to Mullen sub-scales and Composite scores. Results Increasing maternal anxiety was associated with poorer overall cognition (adjusted β for Composite = − 0.2, 95% CI: −0.4, 0.0). Postpartum stress was positively associated with language development and general cognition (adjusted β for Expressive Language = 0.2, 95% CI: 0.0, 0.4; adjusted β for Composite = 0.3, 95% CI: 0.0, 0.6). Elevated depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy and postpartum were associated with better fine motor skills (adjusted β = 9.7, 95% CI: 3.9, 15.5). Anxiety, postpartum depressive symptoms and stress were associated with gross motor skills in a non-linear fashion, as were postpartum depressive symptoms and stress with expressive language. Conclusions Maternal trait anxiety, depressive symptoms and stress had little negative influence on infant cognitive development. In fact, moderate psychosocial distress may slightly accelerate motor development in particular, and some aspects of language.
A wide-band all-NPN current mirror for precision biasing of multiple circuits

A wide-band current mirror for precision biasing has been fabricated in a complementary SOI bipolar process. The mirror is a feedback circuit using common-base transistor in the loop to compensate for base current loss.
Relay Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Motivated by application to wireless sensor networks, we study the following problem. We are given a set Sof wireless sensor nodes, given as a set of points in the two-dimensional plane, and real numbers 0 < r≤ R. We must place a minimum-size set Qof wireless relay nodes in the two dimensional plane to connect S, where connectivity is explained formally next. The nodes of Scan communicate to nodes within distance r, and the relay nodes of Qcan communicate within distance R. Once the nodes of Qare placed, they together with Sinducean undirected graph G= (V,E) defined as follows: V= S? Q, and $E = \{ uv | u,v \in Q \mbox{ and } ||u,v|| \leq R \} \cup \{ xu | x \in S \mbox{ and } u \in (Q \cup S) \mbox{ and } ||u,x|| \leq r\}$, where ||u,v|| denotes the Euclidean distance from uto v. Gmust be connected. It was shown in [1] that an algorithm based on Minimum Spanning Tree achieves approximation ratio 7. We improve the analysis of this algorithm to 6, and propose a post-processing heuristic called Post-Order Greedyto practically improve the performance of the approximation algorithms. Experiments on random instances give Post-Order Greedy applied after Minimum Spanning Tree an average improvement of up to 23%. Applying Post-Order Greedy after an optimum Steiner Tree algorithm results in another circa 6% improvement considering the same instances.
Controlling low-rate signal path microdischarge for an ultra-low-background proportional counter

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has developed an ultra-low-background proportional counter (ULBPC) made of high purity copper. These detectors are part of an ultra-low-background counting system (ULBCS) in the newly constructed shallow underground laboratory at PNNL (at a depth of ~30 m water-equivalent). To control backgrounds, the current preamplifier electronics are located outside the ULBCS shielding. Thus the signal from the detector travels through ~1 m of cable and is potentially susceptible to high voltage microdischarge and other sources of electronic noise. Based on initial successful tests, commercial cables and connectors were used for this critical signal path. Subsequent testing across different batches of commercial cables and connectors, however, showed unwanted (but still low) rates of microdischarge noise. To control this noise source, two approaches were pursued: first, to carefully validate cables, connectors, and other commercial components in this critical signal path, making modifications where necessary; second, to develop a custom low-noise, low-background preamplifier that can be integrated with the ULBPC and thus remove most commercial components from the critical signal path. This integrated preamplifier approach is based on the Amptek A250 low-noise charge-integrating preamplifier module. The initial microdischarge signals observed are presented and characterized according to the suspected source. Each of the approaches for mitigation is described, and the results from both are compared with each other and with the original performance seen with commercial cables and connectors.
Suicide at 50 years of age and older: perceived physical illness, family discord and financial strain.

BACKGROUND: Mental disorders amplify suicide risk across the lifecourse, but most people with mental disorder do not take their own lives. Few controlled studies have examined the contribution of stressors to suicide risk. METHOD: A case-control design was used to compare 86 suicides and 86 controls aged 50 years and older, matched on age, gender, race and county of residence. Structured interviews were conducted with proxy respondents for suicides and controls. RESULTS: Perceived physical illness, family discord and employment change amplified suicide risk after controlling for sociodemographic covariates and mental disorders that developed > or = 1 year prior to death/interview. Only the effect of physical illness (OR 6.24, 95% CI 1.28-51.284) persisted after controlling for all active mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions to decrease the likelihood of financial stress and to help families manage discord and severe physical illness may effectively reduce suicides among middle-aged and older adults. Language: en
FLS2-Mediated Responses to Ax21-Derived Peptides: Response to the Mueller et al. Commentary

In [Danna et al. (2011)][1], we reported the surprising result that sulfated synthetic peptide preparations, corresponding to derivatives of the Xanthomonas oryzae pv oryzae axYS22 peptide, activate a variety of FLAGELLIN-SENSITIVE2 (FLS2)–dependent defense-related responses in Arabidopsis
The Explanatory Relevance of Psychological Properties

Worries about the causal efficacy of psychological properties are legion in recent philosophy of mind. Some of the sources of these worries are Davidson’s anomalism, content externalism, the irreducibility of consciousness, causal-explanatory exclusion, and the structurally-based feature of functional properties. A good number of answers to these (epi)phenomenal challenges end up accepting either strongly reductive or strongly anti-naturalist positions.1 Some of us, somewhat reluctantly, started to explore epiphenomenalism as a potential conclusion of some of these challenges.2 In this paper I will not discuss the sources of epiphenomenalist worries. My aim here is to explore whether epiphenomenalism, and in particular the kind of epiphenomenalism that I think results from some of the sources above, can make room for the explanatoriness of psychological properties (and, perhaps more generally, of other special science properties). As it can be suspected, the answer to that question will depend on our views about explanation. Explanatory pragmatism may have an easier time making causal inefficacy and explanatory relevance compatible. My general concern is, however, whether realist approaches to explanation can be compatibilist in this sense. In fact, the scope of this paper is slightly more limited: I try to show that the most compelling indirect and direct arguments going from epiphenomenalism to lack of explanatory relevance are not conclusive. In the opening section I introduce some terminology and briefly explain some of the epiphenomenalist worries. In sections 2 and 3 I consider different versions of an indirect argument: if we want epiphenomenal properties to be explanatory within explanatory realism they have to be real, genuine properties; but this is not possible. In the section 4 I discuss two versions of a direct argument linking epiphenomenalism and causal irrelevance.3
Performance analysis on coded system over quasi-static (MIMO) fading channels

In this paper, we derive closed-form upper bounds on the error probability of coded modulation schemes used for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) quasi-static fading channels. The bounds are obtained from new tight union-bound techniques, and can be readily calculated when the distance spectrum is given. In deriving the bounds for the MIMO system, we assume the use of orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) as the inner code. The outer code is the block code. We obtain an equivalent single-input single-output (SISO) channel model for this concatenated coded-modulation system. The upper bounds derived here indicate good match with the simulation results of the complete transceiver the system in which the turbo-iterative decoding algorithm is employed at the receiver.
Relationships Between Choline Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and Quantitative Histopathology in Human Glioma

This study sought to correlate quantitative presurgical proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI) and diffusion imaging (DI) results with quantitative histopathological features of resected glioma tissue. The primary hypotheses were (1) glioma choline signal correlates with cell density, (2) glioma apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) correlates inversely with cell density, (3) glioma choline signal correlates with cell proliferative index. Eighteen adult glioma patients were preoperatively imaged with 1H-MRSI and DI as part of clinically-indicated MRI evaluations. Cell density and proliferative index readings were made on surgical specimens obtained at surgery performed within 12 days of the radiologic scans. The resected tissue location was identified by comparing preoperative and postoperative MRI. The tumor to contralateral normalized choline signal ratio (nCho) and the ADC from resected tumor regions were measured from the preoperative imaging data. Counts of nuclei per high power field in 5-10 fields provided a quantitative measure of cell density. MIB-1 immunohistochemistry provided an index of the proportion of proliferating cells. There was a statistically significant inverse linear correlation between glioma ADC and cell density. There was also a statistically significant linear correlation between the glioma nCho and the cell density. The nCho measure did not significantly correlate with proliferative index. The results indicate that both ADC and spectroscopic choline measures are related to glioma cell density. Therefore they may prove useful for differentiating dense cellular neoplastic lesions from those that contain large proportions of acellular necrotic space.
Meta-Analytic Choices and Judgment Calls: Implications for Theory Building and Testing, Obtained Effect Sizes, and Scholarly Impact

The authors content analyzed 196 meta-analyses including 5,581 effect-size estimates published in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Personnel Psychology, and Strategic Management Journal from January 1982 through August 2009 to assess the presumed effects of each of 21 methodological choices and judgment calls on substantive conclusions. Results indicate that, overall, the various meta-analytic methodological choices available and judgment calls involved in the conduct of a meta-analysis have little impact on the resulting magnitude of the meta-analytically derived effect sizes. Thus, the present study, based on actual meta-analyses, casts doubt on previous warnings, primarily based on selective case studies, that judgment calls have an important impact on substantive conclusions. The authors also tested the fit of a multivariate model that includes relationships among theory-building and theory-testing goals, obtained effect sizes, year of publication of...
Voltage drop reduction for on-chip power delivery considering leakage current variations

In this paper, we propose a novel on-chip voltage drop reduction technique for on-chip power delivery networks of VLSI systems in the presence of variational leakage current sources. The new method inserts decoupling capacitors (decaps) into the power grid networks to reduce the voltage fluctuation. The optimization is based on sensitivity-based conjugate gradientmethod and sequence of linear programming approach. Different from existing power grid noise reduction methods, the new approach considers the impacts of inter-die and intra-die variational leakage current sources due to unavoidable process variability during the decap optimization process for the first time. Leakage currents, which although are static in nature typically, can still add to the total voltage drops and dynamic voltage reduction thus must consider the leakage-induced voltage variations. The proposed algorithm exploits the relative constant variations for different decap configurations of power grid circuits to speed up the statistical optimization process. Decaps can be inserted in such a way that the resulting circuits have much higher probability to meet the voltage drop constraints in the presence of leakage current variations. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and show that the new method has 100X to 1,000X of speedup over the Monte Carlo based statistical decap optimization method.
MOLECULAR DETECTION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF INFECTIOUS BURSAL DISEASE VIRUS

Vaccination of hens, with the subsequent maternal immunity imparted to chicks, is the primary means of controlling infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). Effective vaccination depends on rapid and accurate diagnosis of the subtype present in a flock because vaccines based on the classic subtype of IBDV can fail to protect against challenge with a variant subtype. This review describes the various methods available to detect and differentiate between IBDV subtypes. Serotype 1 IBDV causes economically significant immunosuppressive disease in young chickens. Within serotype 1, two subtypes, classic and variant, can be differentiated by the virus neutralization assay. Antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (AC-ELISA) with MAbs has been successful at differentiating the very virulent IBDV phenotype (vvIBDV) from less pathogenic types. More rapid and sensitive molecular diagnostic methods based on reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for amplification of the IBDV VP2 gene have been a major focus of investigation in recent years. Conventional RT-PCR has been useful in detecting IBDV serotypes and, to a lesser extent, differentiating IBDV subtypes. One of the approaches has been the use of SspI and NgoM IV restriction enzymes, for restriction endonuclease (RE) analysis of RT-PCR products (RT-PCR-RE) and BstNI and MboI for restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis (RT-PCR-RFLP) to find unique banding patterns associated with antigenic variation within the variable region of the IBDV VP2 protein. However, these approaches were ultimately found to be unreliable because subtypes could not be consistently distinguished with restriction enzymes. These limitations led to studies in differentiating subtypes by detection of single nucleotide differences in sequence through real-time RT-PCR or DNA sequencing of RT-PCR products. Conventional RT-PCR, amplifying the VP2 hypervariable region, in combination with DNA sequencing of the PCR product, can differentiate classic, variant, and vvIBDV strains because variant and vvIBDV have characteristic nucleotide and amino acid substitutions. Real-time RT-PCR, targeting different regions of the IBDV genome, including VP1, VP2, and VP4 genes, in conjunction with melting-curve analysis is being investigated as a promising tool for molecular diagnosis of IBDV infection. These methods potentially allow for more rapid, sensitive, and specific detection and differentiation of IBDV classic, very virulent, and variant subtypes.
Amazon Coastal Squall Lines. Part II: Heat and Moisture Transports

Abstract The column response to propagating deep convection over the central Amazon Basin is investigated with rawinsonde data from the Amazon Boundary Layer Experiment (ABLE 2B). Heat and moisture budgets are calculated from a relatively small surface network (1000 km2) to determine the distribution of heating within the convective and stratiform regions of three Amazon coastal squall lines (ACSL) in varying degrees of maturity. Portable Automated Mesonet instrumentation, satellite imagery, and radar data are used to partition the large-scale system into distinct cloud and rainfall components. The dimensions of the surface network enable an evaluation of the collective effects of an ensemble of convective elements that are considered to be representative of the synoptic-scale system. Calculations of Q1 and Q2 from the ABLE 2B network follow the methods used by Johnson and Young and Gallus and Johnson. The computations are performed over intervals of 3–6 h using composite soundings derived from a network ...
The Ethics of Global Climate Change: Parenting the planet

Climate change and other environmental problems of global scale indicate that we have entered, as Nobel prize winner Paul Crutzen has described it, the “Anthropocene,” the era of pervasive human influence on the earth’s natural systems. Further, the collective action features of climate change render it a commons problem of global and intergenerational proportions. Grounding an ethical relationship with the environment in any of the existing consequentialist, deontological, and even virtue-based approaches is insufficient if the hallmarks of the Anthropocene are not considered. This chapter begins a conversation about an appropriate metaphor for the Anthropocene, from which ethical frameworks and vocabulary might flow. I suggest that the metaphor of parenting, while not perfect, captures the aspects of control, care, and inherent tragedy that characterize the stage that humans now occupy with respect to their relationship with the planet.
The Best Interests of the Child: Modern Lessons from the Christian Traditions

The trend toward an individualistic conception of children's interests has exacerbated the cultural fault lines between secularists and religious traditionalists, as the latter strongly associate state incursions into the family as direct threats to the maintenance of religious identity across generations. Recognizing a general religious resistance to the emerging legal conception of the child is a useful first step in placing children's rights in a broader socio-political context, but the articulation is unhelpfully vague when it comes to facilitating a more productive conversation on the legal status of the child among a citizenry whose understandings of the child have been shaped in significant part by Christianity. The vagueness emanates from the failure to discern that Christians do not engage the law's treatment of the child from a common starting point. Christians reject modern liberalism's conception of the child's best interests from a variety of theological premises regarding childhood, and these premises have diverse implications for the roles of individual autonomy, parental authority, and community identity in the realization of the child's best interests. Accordingly, this chapter begins to trace the contours of the three primary conceptions of the child in Christian thought and their relationships to the legal understanding of the child emerging in modern liberalism. Because the liberal conception of the child is framed in terms of the child's secularly accessible best interests, the chapter outlines the relationship by articulating the prevailing Christian understandings of the foundational element of the child's best interests - i.e., the child's salvation - in the sacramental, conversional, and covenantal traditions. And to ensure a manageable scope, the inquiry will focus on the development of baptism doctrine seen in the work of a leading figure within each tradition. The secular side of the inquiry is brought into focus by analyzing the presumptions about children underlying two archetypes of modern liberal thought in this area: first, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children; and second, persistent calls by political and legal theorists to impose more stringent state limitations on parental discretion in shaping the education of their children. Taken together, these examples reveal that while Christians' resistance to modern liberalism's conception of the child is broad and deeply rooted, the scope, substance and prophetic quality of the resistance are not uniform within Christianity.