cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A mathematical model of the brown tide

A differential equation model is proposed for “brown tide” algae blooms in the coastal waters of Long Island which provides a plausible mechanisms for the underlying dynamics. Growth rates depend on annual variations in temperature and salinity. The maximum population density is effectively limited by the availability of a favorable concentration of nutrients, together with zooplankton grazing. Salinity depends on rainfall while nutrient concentration is influenced by tidal flushing. The first of these factors is aperiodic, the second periodic, in time. The resulting nonlinear model distinguishes between ‘fast’ algae growth and ‘slow’ long-term changes in nutrients and salinity. Because of this one can show that explosive increases of algae densities will occur infrenquently at sporadic intervals. Computer trials with the model appear to replicate many, if not all, the essential features of the observed bloom.
Crystal structure of the middle and C-terminal domains of the flagellar rotor protein FliG

The FliG protein is essential for assembly, rotation and clockwise/counter-clockwise (CW/CCW) switching of the bacterial flagellum. About 25 copies of FliG are present in a large rotor-mounted assembly termed the ‘switch complex’, which also contains the proteins FliM and FliN. Mutational studies have identified the segments of FliG most crucial for flagellar assembly, rotation and switching. The structure of the C-terminal domain, which functions specifically in rotation, was reported previously. Here, we describe the crystal structure of a larger fragment of the FliG protein from Thermotoga maritima, which encompasses the middle and C-terminal parts of the protein (termed FliG-MC). The FliG-MC molecule consists of two compact globular domains, linked by an α-helix and an extended segment that contains a well-conserved Gly–Gly motif. Mutational studies indicate that FliM binds to both of the globular domains, and given the flexibility of the linking segment, FliM is likely to determine the relative orientation of the domains in the flagellum. We propose a model for the organization of FliG-MC molecules in the flagellum, and suggest that CW/CCW switching might occur by movement of the C-terminal domain relative to other parts of FliG, under the control of FliM.
Prolonged recovery stay and unplanned admission of the pediatric surgical outpatient: an observational study

Abstract Study Objective: To determine the incidence of and reasons for prolonged length of stay in the postanesthesia care unit and unplanned hospital admissions of children scheduled for outpatient surgery. Design: Prospective, observational cohort study. Setting: C. S. Mott Children's Hospital, a tertiary care setting. Patients: 168 ASA physical status I, II, and III children (birth to 18 years), 130 of whom experienced a prolonged length of stay and 61 who had an unplanned hospital admissions. Measurements and Main Results: 3.9% of annual outpatient population experienced a prolonged length of stay, and 1.9% had an unplanned outpatient admission. Prolonged length of stay was most commonly due to postoperative nausea and vomiting (19%) or respiratory complications (16%), whereas unplanned hospital admissions were primarily for respiratory or surgical reasons (32% and 30%, respectively). Higher ASA status had a significant direct relationship with the incidence of unplanned outpatient admission and respiratory complications. Although most families were satisfied with the length of their child's care, 28% of parents whose children were sent home after a prolonged length of stay would have preferred a short hospital admission, and 16% of parents of children with an unplanned hospital admission would have preferred a longer stay in recovery and discharge home. Conclusion: Prolonged length of stay and unplanned hospital admissions were uncommon outcomes following pediatric outpatient surgery. However, the impact of such outcomes on hospital staffing and family convenience may have implications related to cost containment and patient satisfaction.
Atomistic study of dislocation nucleation in Ge/(001)Si heterostructuses

Abstract Nucleation of misfit dislocations in Ge/(001)Si heterostructures is investigated theoretically by an atomistic model based on the Stillinger-Weber potential (Stillinger and Weber 1985, Phys. Rev. B, 31, 5262). Both 60° and 90° dislocations are considered, and the energy is calculated as a function of distance of dislocations from the free surface in a thin-film heterostructure. The critical thicknesses of the dislocation nucleation obtained from the atomistic simulation are larger than the previously reported results of the continuum analysis, and we attribute this difference mainly to core energy of dislocations. The activation bamer for dislocation nucleation from the surface is estimated from the variation of energy with distance of a dislocation from the surface. The calculated activation energy is much larger than the thermal energy at normal growth temperatures. We also discuss the interaction between two 60° dislocations and the formation of a 90° dislocation at the interface by a dislocat...
Factors affecting the accurate determination of cerebrovascular blood flow using high speed droplet imaging

Detailed cerebrovascular blood flow can be more accurately determined radiographically from the new droplet tracking method previously introduced by the authors than from standard soluble contrast techniques. For example, arteriovenous malformation (AVM) transit times which are crucial for proper glue embolization treatments, were shown to be about half when using droplets compared to those measured using soluble contrast techniques. In this work, factors such as x-ray pulse duration, frame rate, system spatial resolution (focal spot size), droplet size, droplet and system contrast parameters, and system noise are considered in relation to their affect on the accurate determination of droplet location and velocity.
Reproductive biology of Nilgiri tahr, Hemitragus hylocrius (Mammalia: Bovidae)

The reproductive biology of Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius) was studied in Eravikulam National Park, Kerala, India from August 1979 to September 1981. The rutting season occurred during the monsoon (July and August) and the main birth season was January to mid-February. Gestation was estimated at 179 days. Three females which lost their first young in 1981 conceived 18 to 21 days post-partum. One female conceived of her second young while the first was 15 days old. The remainder of the individually identified females gave birth to one young (n=40) or none (n=4). Infant mortality was highest during the first two weeks after birth. Young born during the monsoon also had a high mortality rate (0.50/week). Oestrus during the rut was discontinuous in 1980 and 1981. Periods of frequent oestrus corresponded with periods of low rainfall with a mean lag time of 4.9 days. The ultimate factor determining the birth season in Nilgiri tahr appears to be weather. The main birth season is timed so as to minimize thermal stress. Several proximal factors may be important in stimulating reproductive activity. These include photoperiod, temperature, the presence of males in mixed groups, and nutrition. The photoperiod response is unusual in that Nilgiri thar evidently respond to the abrupt decrease in apparent day length associated with the onset of the monsoon. The inverse correlation of rainfall and oestrous activity may have been effected through the sudden decrease in thermal stress on the females or heavy rainfall (5.7 cm/day) masking pheromonal stimulation. The pattern of lactation anoestrus observed in Nilgiri tahr approximates results obtained from some studies of domestic Caprini. Nilgiri tahr females are presumably able to increase their lifetime reproduction by giving birth twice in one year. However, this strategy seemed counterproductive in 1981 as survival was low for second offspring.
Geology of Rancho el Papalote Area, Chihuahua, Mexico: ABSTRACT

The Rancho el Papalote area is 35 km north of Chihuahua City and includes Minas Terrazes. The oldest rocks are highly fractured (17% dilation), massive Cretaceous biomicrites, containing rudistid bioherms, that crop out on ridges and peaks surrounded by volcanic rocks of two eruptive periods. The older volcanics are altered rhyolite and/or dacite flows, flow breccias, and minor lithic tuffs. The flow breccias are thickest around Cerro Choloma which may represent a vent. A boulder breccia containing limestone and chert clasts is along the limestone-older volcanic contact. The younger volcanics are rhyolite ash flows with minor basalt and andesite flows. There are at least five cooling units. A 44-m.y. (initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio = 0.7048) old vitric-crys al tuff (22% phenocrysts, sanidine/quartz = 4.5) overlies the older volcanics 1 km west of the ranch buildings. The "Red Platy," an ash-flow rhyolite, overlies the 44-m.y. tuff and is a distinctive marker bed. A small dike cutting the tuff may represent a vent for the Red Platy. The remaining units, vitric tuffs in the eastern part of the area, dip gently east and are cut by northwest-trending normal faults. The first of these ash flows has a basal lithic zone and contains 3% sanidine phenocrysts (Or 45). The next unit is vesicular at its base and has 6% sanidine phenocrysts. The youngest ash flow contains sanidine, quartz, and fayalite phenocrysts (sanidine/quartz = 1, phenocrysts = 4%). A basalt above the Red Platy contains distinctive gabbroic xenoliths. On the south the older volcani s are overlain by an andesite flow. At Minas Terrazas, copper deposits occur in skarns near a felsic intrusive. These skarns are mainly andradite and contain small amounts of pyrite and chalcopyrite. End_of_Article - Last_Page 756------------
Identification of a Novel Staphylococcus aureus Two-Component Leukotoxin Using Cell Surface Proteomics

Staphylococcus aureus is a prominent human pathogen and leading cause of bacterial infection in hospitals and the community. Community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA) strains such as USA300 are highly virulent and, unlike hospital strains, often cause disease in otherwise healthy individuals. The enhanced virulence of CA-MRSA is based in part on increased ability to produce high levels of secreted molecules that facilitate evasion of the innate immune response. Although progress has been made, the factors that contribute to CA-MRSA virulence are incompletely defined. We analyzed the cell surface proteome (surfome) of USA300 strain LAC to better understand extracellular factors that contribute to the enhanced virulence phenotype. A total of 113 identified proteins were associated with the surface of USA300 during the late-exponential phase of growth in vitro. Protein A was the most abundant surface molecule of USA300, as indicated by combined Mascot score following analysis of peptides by tandem mass spectrometry. Unexpectedly, we identified a previously uncharacterized two-component leukotoxin–herein named LukS-H and LukF-G (LukGH)-as two of the most abundant surface-associated proteins of USA300. Rabbit antibody specific for LukG indicated it was also freely secreted by USA300 into culture media. We used wild-type and isogenic lukGH deletion strains of USA300 in combination with human PMN pore formation and lysis assays to identify this molecule as a leukotoxin. Moreover, LukGH synergized with PVL to enhance lysis of human PMNs in vitro, and contributed to lysis of PMNs after phagocytosis. We conclude LukGH is a novel two-component leukotoxin with cytolytic activity toward neutrophils, and thus potentially contributes to S. aureus virulence.
Effects of travelling surface acoustic waves on neutron Bragg scattering from perfect crystals

Abstract We have studied the effects of a travelling surface acoustic wave (SAW) disturbance on symmetric Bragg case neutron diffraction from a perfect crystal of lithium niobate. Generally, the reflectivity is increased as the SAW distortion creates an effective moving mosaic crystal in the near surface region. Unlike the corresponding X-ray situation in which the crystalline distortion is effectively stationary, thermal neutron and SAW velocities are comparable, giving rise to significant Doppler effects that modify the reflected neutron intensity. No quantitative picture exists of the interaction between the neutron and the coherent surface phonons in the present situation. Several of our observations contradict even the qualitative expectations of a moving mosaic crystal analogy.
The cognitive structuring of patient delay in breast cancer

The reasons women give for delaying diagnosis of breast cancer symptoms are numerous and striking. Yet none prove reliable as indicators of those who will delay, and most women overcome all barriers to seek immediate diagnosis. This study looks more deeply into the reasoning of symptomatic women sustaining confidence in a decision to delay diagnosis of self-discovered breast symptoms. Using argument and heuristic analysis, we examined the structure and soundness of the reasoning in interviews with 28 women from the San Francisco Bay area monitoring breast symptoms. Fifteen women were sustaining decisions to delay seeking diagnosis. Their arguments' structure and soundness, and their dependence on heuristic strategies, were compared with those of women who did not delay. Prompt diagnosis-seekers used vivid stories of other women with breast cancer to explain their diagnosis seeking, and the others used similar stories to justify on-going decisions to delay. Diagnosis-seekers offered more arguments for doing so than for delay. Delayers offered fewer arguments for seeking diagnosis and many more for delay. Delayers abandoned sound and usually compelling arguments to seek diagnosis, relying instead on false information, poorly reasoned arguments, and self-created dominance structures around decisions to delay. Decisions to delay were resilient, yet required maintenance to sustain. Intervention studies aimed at decreasing patient delay should address the thinking process by questioning reliance on mistaken claims of control over possibly advancing cancer, satisficing (corner-cutting to arrive at a minimally adequate solution to achieve a goal) when scheduling diagnostic visits, simulating a benign diagnosis rather than the prevention of late-staged cancer, prioritizing fear control over protection of life. Interventions might also include challenging mistaken analogies and the too facile abandonment of sound arguments for seeking prompt diagnosis.
Silicon couplers for microfluidic applications

Several types of silicon fluidic coupler have been designed, fabricated, and tested to facilitate external connections to MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) fluidic devices. By using both bulk micromachining and DRIE (deep reactive ion-etching) techniques, couplers of different geometry have been produced for use with any standard MEMS fluidic port. In addition, couplers are easily modified to accommodate any arbitrary fluidic port geometry. For ease of use, these couplers interface with PEEK (polyetheretherketone) and fused-silica capillary tubing, both of which are commonly used in HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) systems and are supported by a wide range of plumbing products. Coupler performance was evaluated and an operating range of at least 0–8963 kPa (0–1300 psig) is attainable.
Nanobelt self-assembly from an organic n-type semiconductor: propoxyethyl-PTCDI.

Nanobelt structures have been fabricated for an n-type semiconductor molecule, N,N‘-di(propoxyethyl)perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI). The short alkyloxy side chain not only affords effective π−π stacking in polar solvents for self-assembling but also provides sufficient solubility in nonpolar solvents for solution processing. As revealed by both AFM and electron microscopies, the nanobelts have an approximately rectangular cross section, with a typical thickness of about 100 nm and a width in the range of 300−500 nm. The length of the nanobelts ranges from 10 to a few tens of micrometers. The highly organized molecular packing (uniaxial crystalline phase) has been deduced from the measurement of electron diffraction and polarized microscopy imaging. The detected optical axis is consistent with the one-dimensional stacking of the molecules.
Location aggregation from multiple sources

Tracking the location of people, computers, vehicles, and other mobile objects and performing computation on such location data are quickly gaining interest. The idea of location-based services has captured the imagination of application developers, wireless service providers, and content providers alike. However, the location of people, the most interesting mobile object, is tricky to determine because we don't track persons but rather the devices they carry or the transportation they use. That a person may be associated with numerous tracking devices simultaneously, but perhaps intermittently, makes location tracking challenging. We describe a methodology for aggregating location data from multiple sources associated with a single mobile object. We describe our existing location service infrastructure and illustrate scenarios where location aggregation is desirable and indeed required. Our experimentation in location-based services uses location data from wireless PDAs, vehicle tracking devices, and mobile and stationary computers.
Immigration and the Nation-State: The United States, Germany, and Great Britain. By Christian Joppke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 356p. $72.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.

This book will enhance Christian Joppke's growing reputa- tion as one of the most thoughtful commentators on the politics of international migration and citizenship. Immigra- tion and the Nation-State is an impressive cross-national comparison that builds on elite interviews and reanalysis of primary materials, but its chief value is in its bold synthesis and critique of a rapidly growing and highly disjointed secondary literature. Although it assesses a variety of theo- retical concepts, the book is primarily a historically rooted, richly empirical work of analysis and interpretation. Joppke deals expertly with three liberal states with different nation- hood traditions and immigration histories. The United King- dom is distinctive in that it was at once a nation-state and an empire. The United States is the only case of the three in which governments deliberately sought to foster immigration for settlement. Germany was a divided nation whose com- mitment to reunification, embedded in the Basic Law, posed particularly troublesome issues for immigration and citizen- ship policy.
Epistatic Interactions Between smell-impaired Loci in Drosophila melanogaster

Odor-guided behavior is a polygenic trait determined by the concerted expression of multiple loci. Previously, P-element mutagenesis was used to identify single P[lArB] insertions, in a common isogenic background, with homozygous effects on olfactory behavior. Here, we have crossed 12 lines with these smell impaired (smi) mutations in a half-diallel design (excluding homozygous parental genotypes and reciprocal crosses) to produce all possible 66 doubly heterozygous hybrids with P[lArB] insertions at two distinct locations. The olfactory behavior of the transheterozygous progeny was measured using an assay that quantified the avoidance response to the repellent odorant benzaldehyde. There was significant variation in general combining abilities of avoidance scores among the smi mutants, indicating variation in heterozygous effects. Further, there was significant variation among specific combining abilities of each cross, indicating dependencies of heterozygous effects on the smi locus genotypes, i.e., epistasis. Significant epistatic interactions were identified for nine transheterozygote genotypes, involving 10 of the 12 smi loci. Eight of these loci form an interacting ensemble of genes that modulate expression of the behavioral phenotype. These observations illustrate the power of quantitative genetic analyses to detect subtle phenotypic effects and point to an extensive network of epistatic interactions among genes in the olfactory subgenome.
Levofloxacin-Induced Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia:

OBJECTIVE:To report a case of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) secondary to levofloxacin.CASE SUMMARY:An 82-year-old white man was treated with levofloxacin 500 mg/d for cellulitis. Three days following completion of levofloxacin therapy, the patient presented to the emergency department with severe jaundice, dizziness, and loss of vision. He received packed red blood cells (PRBCs) and was discharged home. Two days later at the follow-up visit, he was diagnosed with AIHA secondary to levofloxacin. The patient was hospitalized and treated with a tapering dose of prednisone and additional PRBC infusion. He was discharged from the hospital in stable condition after 3 days. Repeated hematologic laboratory studies following discharge demonstrated that the hemolytic anemia had resolved.DISCUSSION:Hemolytic anemia due to levofloxacin is an extremely rare, but potentially fatal, adverse drug event. An objective causality assessment revealed that the adverse reaction was probable. To our knowledge, this is the f...
The 'double-layer tape prep': an improvement to a standard technique.

The adhesive tape preparation (Scotch tape prep or cellophane tape prep) for microscopic examination of fungal colonies is a standard technique found in manuals of medical mycology (Forbes et al., 2002). The method is fast and inexpensive and allows direct visualization of fungal morphology. The only disadvantage to this technique is that the preparation dries and the tape wrinkles after several hours, making the preparation unreadable. To use the slide for consultation or education at a later time requires making a fresh preparation. Remaking the slide consumes resources and technician time and causes increased personnel exposure to the organism. We propose a very simple, inexpensive additional step that prevents tape wrinkling and drying, thus extending the useful life of the tape preparation to several weeks. We call this variation the ‘double-layer tape prep’. The standard cellophane tape preparation is performed under a biological safety cabinet following guidelines for laboratory safety. In the standard tape preparation, a 1.5 inch (40 mm) piece of clear cellophane tape is looped back on itself, sticky side out, using forceps. The loop is gently pressed to the surface of the mycelium (Fig. 1a), then gently lifted and unfolded onto a 25 3 75 mm glass slide, to which three or four drops of lactophenol cotton blue stain has been added (Fig. 1b). The sticky piece of tape with fungal structures will adhere to the slide. The layer of lactophenol cotton blue is the biological stain. The morphology of the fungus is observed without the use of a glass cover slip, as the transparent cellophane tape serves this purpose.
Phylogeny and fitness of Vibrio fischeri from the light organs of Euprymna scolopes in two Oahu, Hawaii populations

The evolutionary relationship among Vibrio fischeri isolates obtained from the light organs of Euprymna scolopes collected around Oahu, Hawaii, were examined in this study. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on a concatenation of fragments of four housekeeping loci (recA, mdh, katA, pyrC) identified one monophyletic group (‘Group-A') of V. fischeri from Oahu. Group-A V. fischeri strains could also be identified by a single DNA fingerprint type. V. fischeri strains with this fingerprint type had been observed to be at a significantly higher abundance than other strains in the light organs of adult squid collected from Maunalua Bay, Oahu, in 2005. We hypothesized that these previous observations might be related to a growth/survival advantage of the Group-A strains in the Maunalua Bay environments. Competition experiments between Group-A strains and non-Group-A strains demonstrated an advantage of the former in colonizing juvenile Maunalua Bay hosts. Growth and survival assays in Maunalua Bay seawater microcosms revealed a reduced fitness of Group-A strains relative to non-Group-A strains. From these results, we hypothesize that there may exist trade-offs between growth in the light organ and in seawater environments for local V. fischeri strains from Oahu. Alternatively, Group-A V. fischeri may represent an example of rapid, evolutionarily significant, specialization of a horizontally transmitted symbiont to a local host population.
Efficient Multicast Algorithms for Multichannel Wireless Mesh Networks

The wireless mesh network is an emerging technology that provides high quality service to end users as the "last milerdquo of the Internet. Furthermore, multicast communication is a key technology for wireless mesh networks. Multicast provides efficient data distribution among a group of nodes. However, unlike other wireless networks, such as sensor networks and MANETs, where multicast algorithms are designed to be energy efficient and to achieve optimal route discovery among mobile nodes, wireless mesh networks need to maximize throughput. This paper proposes two multicast algorithms: the level channel assignment (LCA) algorithm and the multichannel multicast (MCM) to improve the throughput for multichannel and multi-interface mesh networks. The algorithms build efficient multicast trees by minimizing the number of relay nodes and total hop count distances of the trees. The algorithms use dedicated channel assignment strategies to reduce the interference to improve the network capacity. We also demonstrate that using partially overlapping channels can further diminish the interference. Furthermore, additional interfaces help to increase the bandwidth, and multiple gateways can further shorten the total hop count distance. Simulations show that those algorithms greatly outperform the single-channel multicast algorithm. We also observe that MCM achieves better throughput and shorter delay while LCA can be realized in distributed manner.
More Power to the Unconscious Conscious, but Not Unconscious, Exogenous Attention Requires Location Variation

Substantial evidence suggests that unconscious processing can be characterized as a lesser or weaker version of conscious processing. To test this notion, we designed a novel repeated-cuing procedure based on exogenous attention: The location of the attentional cue was first fixed across blocks (fixed-cue blocks), and then the cue was removed in subsequent blocks (no-cue blocks). The visibility of the cue was also manipulated. We found that when the cue was invisible, the response to a prespecified stimulus in the fixed-cue blocks was faster if the stimulus was at the cued location than if it was at the uncued location. But when the cue was visible, this cuing effect was abolished, potentially because of an awareness-dependent, location-based inhibition mechanism, as revealed by an attentional bias against the previously cued location in the no-cue blocks. We call this bias negative attentional aftereffect. These results provide novel evidence against the weaker-version characterization of unconscious effects, highlighting dissociable components of orienting and inhibition in exogenous cuing through awareness and temporal dynamics.
Marketing Education In A Changing Educational Environment

Traditional academe as well as the new for-profit upstarts have suddenly gotten aggressively involved in marketing education. This paper will look at post secondary higher educational institutions, their marketing activities and the changes technology has triggered in curriculum, the rise of innovative marketing activities in both traditional and distance education, the role for-profit institutions has had on marketing methods, and what does it all mean for administrators in an age of changing values on what an education should be as well as cope with the increasing demand for expanded enrollment in order to survive.
Distributions of neonicotinoid insecticides in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: a temporal and spatial variation analysis for pollen and honey samples

Environmental context Neonicotinoids are a group of widely used insecticides that have been implicated in the deterioration of honeybee health and the declining number of honeybee colonies worldwide. We wanted to find out whether neonicotinoids are commonly present in pollen and honey, which are the main food sources for bees. The results show that neonicotinoids are ubiquitous in the environment where bees foraged, and therefore could pose risks to honeybee health. Abstract It is known that honeybees are exposed to a wide variety of pesticides, including systemic neonicotinoids, through different media. Pollen might be a better matrix for assessing exposure to neonicotinoid not only because it is the protein source for bees, but also because pollen collected from foraging bees could help to establish the field-realistic levels of neonicotinoids. In this study, we aimed to assess temporal and spatial variations of neonicotinoids in pollen collected across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Monthly pollen samples and a honey sample were collected between April and August 2013 from 62 volunteered hives and analysed for eight neonicotinoids. We utilised the relative potency factor (RPF) method to integrate individual neonicotinoids into a single measurement of imidaclopridRPF. We then analysed the spatial and temporal variations of imidaclopridRPF in pollen using the response profile analysis. Overall, 73% of pollen and 72% of honey samples contained at least one detectable neonicotinoid. We found that 49, 20 and 4% of pollen samples contained one, two and three neonicotinoids respectively. In honey, we detected that 57 and 15% of samples contained one and two neonicotinoids respectively. Neonicotinoids as a group, or imidacloprid, in pollen exhibited no significant temporal or spatial variation, however, we found statistically significant spatial–temporal interaction differences of imidaclopridRPF concentrations. Considering the ubiquitous of neonicotinoids in the environment and their effects on bees at the sub-lethal levels, it is prudent to identify ways to minimise the uses of neonicotinoids in order to reduce the risk of neonicotinoid exposure to honeybees.
Acoustic Scanning and Syntactic Processing, Three Reading Experiments--First and Second Language Learners.

To test the acoustic scanning hypothesis for reading, three experiments were conducted with monolingual and bilingual subjects. Ss performed a crossout task, cancelling letters in a text as they read it for comprehension. Letters remaining uncancelled were then analyzed. In Experiment 1, letters were frequently unmarked in function words, words which are highly predictable since they serve primarily to mark case relationships between content words. Changing passage difficulty did not effect the ratio of letters marked in content and function words. No significant difference was found between monolingual and highly-proficient bilinguals. In Experiments 2 and 3, Anglos marked letters in content words and especially in syllables receiving primary or secondary stress, leaving uncancelled those in unstressed function word position. Less proficient foreign students marked almost equal numbers of letters in function and content words and in stressed and unstressed positions. They also marked letters in digraphs ...
Tabaistic regression and its application to the space shuttle Challenger O-ring data

In this paper, we introduce a new family of probability distributions called the tabaistic family of distributions. The members of this family can have either unimodal or bimodal probability density functions. This family can be used when the data comes from a skewed or bimodal distribution. A major application of the unimodal member of this family is in the analysis of binary or polytomous response data when covariates are present. The logistic regression (Hosmer, D.W., Lemeshow, S.: Applied Logistic Regression. Wiley, New York (2000)) and probit analysis (Finney, D.J.: Probit Analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1971)) are widely used when the distribution is symmetric. When the distribution is asymmetric, the tabaistic regression will be a better choice. We apply the tabaistic regression to analyze the space shuttle Challenger O-ring data and will compare the results with the logistic regression and the probit analysis models.
Growth, development and consumption by four syrphid species associated with the lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribisnigri, in California

The lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribisnigri Mosley, was accidentally introduced into California from Europe during the late 1990s and soon became an economic pest of Romaine lettuce along California’s central coast region. Indigenous syrphid larvae attack the lettuce aphid and are believed to be effective in the management of this invasive pest, although there have been no studies on the capacity of the syrphid larvae to kill and consume lettuce aphids. We focused on four syrphid species commonly found in central coast lettuce fields: Allograpta obliqua (Say), Eupeodes fumipennis (Thomson), Sphaerophoria sulphuripes (Thomson), and Toxomerus marginatus (Say). Laboratory feeding experiments were conducted to estimate the development times of all juvenile stages, the daily growth rate of larvae, the number of third instar aphids killed, the aphid biomass killed, and the aphid biomass consumed as measures of predator performance. Results show that during larval development E. fumipennis killed the most third-instar aphids (507 aphids, 88 mg biomass killed) and reached the largest size, followed by A. obliqua (228 aphids, 39 mg killed), S. sulphuripes (194 aphids, 31 mg killed) and T. marginatus (132 aphids, 20 mg killed). Body size alone did not account for species differences in per-capita larval consumption rates. This information is discussed in relation to the predation potential of syrphids through the short cropping cycle of lettuce, and the choice of plant species to use for floral resource provisioning to enhance the activity of syrphids needed for effective management of lettuce aphids in California’s central coast fields.
Another Reason to Consider Active Surveillance

Appropriate treatment of newly diagnosed, localized prostate cancer remains controversial. Menwith poorly differentiated cancers face a high risk of disease progression and often require multiple treatments including surgery, radiation, and androgen deprivation therapy. Conversely, men with low-volume, well-differentiated cancers often require no intervention at all. Unfortunately, the uncertainty surrounding the likelihoodofdiseaseprogressionencourages most patients to seek some type of aggressive treatment [1]. Active surveillance is available formenwhoarewilling to accept a small risk of disease progression to avoid the known complications associated with surgery and radiation. How safe is this approach? We recently conducted a systematic review of the literature documenting outcomes following a delay in curative treatment for men with localized prostate cancer [2]. We identified 17 retrospective studies that included a total of 34 517 patients diagnosed between 1981 and 2009. As expected, there was substantial heterogeneity among the reports in the criteria used to classify patients, the reasons for any treatment delay, and the outcomes used to define success or failure. Seven studies suggested no significant impact of a treatment delay within 2.1 yr of diagnosis, and four studies showed no difference in outcome after multivariable adjustment. Two studies showed less adverse pathology among men undergoing delayed treatment, but this was attributed to selection bias. By contrast, four studies showed evidence of biochemical progression and/or more adverse pathology after a significant treatment delay. Interpreting this literature is difficult. All of the studies analyzed were retrospective and nonrandomized. Reasons for delay were not always clear. As a consequence, these data are subject to significant biases. One particularly important bias is often termed the Will Rogers’ effect. This
Functional, Behavioral and Structural Features

In this paper we examine the definition of the term “feature”, and “functional feature” in particular. The goal of the paper is to shed some light on the reason for the profusion of types of features that have been discussed in the literature, to revisit the general definition of the term, and to attempt a definition that uses concepts from Artificial Intelligence. By separating structure, behavior and function, and by defining function, alternative interpretations of “functional feature” are obtained.Copyright © 2003 by ASME
High resistance to thermal decomposition in brown cotton is linked to tannins and sodium content

Brown cotton fibers (SA-1 and MC-BL) studied were inferior to a white cotton fiber (Sure-Grow 747) in fiber quality, i.e., a shorter length, fewer twists, and lower crystallinity, but showed superior thermal resistance in thermogravimetric, differential thermogravimetric, and microscale combustion calorimetric (MCC) analyses. Brown cotton fibers yielded 11–23 % smaller total heat release and 20–40 % greater char. Washing fibers in water and a 1 % NaOH solution showed that rich natural inorganic components and the condensed tannins present in brown cotton are responsible for the unusual thermal property. The loss of inorganics from white cotton during a water wash increased the thermal decomposition temperature of cellulose, resulting in no char yield. However, the stronger binding of metal ions for brown cotton as well as its dominant adsorption of sodium ions after a 1 % NaOH wash facilitated the low-temperature thermal-reaction route; the sodium content showed a significant negative correlation with the heat release capacity of the fiber. Condensed tannins greatly enhanced the adsorption of sodium ions to the fiber and exhibited inherent thermal stability. The limiting oxygen indices (LOI) calculated from the MCC parameters indicated the slower burning characteristic of brown cotton, and its LOI was further increased upon adsorption of sodium ions.
Military Service and Lifetime Arrests: Examining the Effects of the Total Military Experience on Arrests in a Sample of Prison Inmates:

Service in the military is an important event that may shape veterans’ life trajectories. Research has shown that military service is associated with increased risk of alcohol and substance abuse, mental illness, and antisocial behaviors, yet it remains unclear whether service places veterans at elevated risk of criminal justice involvement. In addition, most prior research treats military service as a dichotomous variable and does not consider the specific components of the military experience that might affect the impact that service has upon veterans. In the present study, a large sample of state prison inmates is utilized to test for the potential impact of military service, by itself, as well as age of entry, length of service, combat exposure, discharge type, and branch status on lifetime arrests. Results have implications for both military and criminal justice policies in ensuring that veterans have the assistance they need as they re-enter civilian life.
UC Berkeley Doctoral Dissertation: The Stewardship Claim at Los Alamos National Laboratory: Managing Hazardous Legal and Regulatory Environments

After a series of safety accidents in the mid-1990s, the Department of Energy via Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) claimed publicly that it could be the nation’s "nuclear stockpile steward" ("the Stewardship Claim"). The Laboratory did not define "stewardship" or what being a steward would require. This project begins by using knowledge from political and organization theory to help define what "stewardship" in the context of managing long-lived and highly hazardous materials would mean to a well-informed public, if it knew what to ask. Institutional Stewardship requires that such an organization be highly reliable (High Reliability), now and for the foreseeable future (Constancy), and inspire public trust and confidence. Institutional stewardship, by this definition, requires tremendous resources and an equivalent devotion to safety and security as to productivity.This study shows that legal and organizational structural problems at the higher levels of the DOE and LANL hierarchies produced the root causes of many safety and security accidents at LANL during the 1990s. These accidents produced tremendous unwanted public attention. The organization responded with the Stewardship Claim, which included massive changes to its legal and organizational structures designed to prevent accidents. However, though the research in this study showed that the top of the hierarchy was the largest single location of accident root causes, most of the changes to the legal and organizational structures focused on the lowest "human operator" level of the hierarchy. Thus, safety and security accidents persisted even after LANL attempted to become the nation’s nuclear stockpile steward.Systemic causes of accidents can be understood by examining patterns shared between failures, something LANL did not do until it had been blaming nearly a decade of systems accidents on human operators. While, accidents of some sort are often "normal" in complex sociotechnical systems, properly designed legal regimes and organizational structures, can make it more likely that an organization will meet the demands required by institutional stewardship.
GABAA circuit mechanisms are associated with ether anesthesia-induced unconsciousness.

Abstract Objective An emerging paradigm for understanding how anesthetics induce altered arousal is relating receptor targeting in specific neural circuits to electroencephalogram (EEG) activity. Enhanced gamma amino-butyric acid A (GABAA) inhibitory post-synaptic currents (IPSCs) manifest with large-amplitude slow (0.1–1 Hz) and frontally coherent alpha (8–12 Hz) EEG oscillations during general anesthesia. Therefore, we investigated the EEG signatures of modern day derivatives of ether (MDDE) anesthesia to assess the extent to which we could obtain insights into MDDE anesthetic mechanisms. Methods We retrospectively studied cases from our database in which patients received isoflurane anesthesia vs. isoflurane/ketamine anesthesia (n = 10 each) or desflurane anesthesia vs. desflurane/ketamine anesthesia (n = 9 each). We analyzed the EEG recordings with spectral power and coherence methods. Results Similar to known GABAA circuit level mechanisms, we found that MDDE anesthesia induced large amplitude slow and frontally coherent alpha oscillations. Additionally, MDDE anesthesia also induced frontally coherent theta (4–8 Hz) oscillations. Reduction of GABAergic IPSCs with ketamine resulted in beta/gamma (13–40 Hz) oscillations, and significantly reduced MDDE anesthesia-induced slow, theta and alpha oscillation power. Conclusions Large amplitude slow oscillations and coherent alpha and theta oscillations are moderated by ketamine during MDDE anesthesia. Significance These observations are consistent with the notion that GABAA circuit-level mechanisms are associated with MDDE anesthesia-induced unconsciousness.
Gene-Based Therapy of Long QT Syndrome

All that is currently known about the molecular genetics of the long QT syndrome (LQTS) has been discovered in the last 10 years. These discoveries have introduced the possibility of successful treatment of the syndrome based upon the patient's specific disease genotype. The purpose of this article is to review the deficiencies of β-blocker therapy in LQTS, illustrate the principal and potential efficacy of gene and mutation-specific therapy and explore the relevance of common LQT gene variants.
Surgical Intensive Care Unit Computerized Data Management System

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the computerized data management system of the surgical intensive care unit (ICU). It describes the reasons for automated data processing technology not working out previously in intensive care. Intensive care has provided some of the greatest advancements in medicine over the past decade. In the late 1960s, the mortality from respiratory failure after trauma was over 50%. In most ICUs in the United States, the mortality for the same clinical problem is less than 10%. However, this form of medicine is extremely expensive in terms of dollars and labor. The ICU generates the most data per patient, per unit of time, with the most significant implications of any hospital care facility. Managing information is the most time-consuming and costly aspect of care. The costs of manual handling data are increasing steadily. These are basically personnel costs, that is, nurses and clerks. On the other hand, automated data processing has increased in capability and decreased in cost each year.
A new reduced-oxide soldering activation method

This article describes a new reduced-oxide soldering activation (ROSA™) process that removes oxides from tin, tin-lead, and copper surfaces without the use of a flux. In this process, surface oxides are electrolessly reduced back to the metallic state by a highly reducing vanadous ion solution that is non-corrosive to most metals and is regenerated electrochemically. The electroless reduction and redox regeneration cycles form a closed loop such that oxygen gas is the only effluent. Wetting time and surface analysis data show that a ten-second exposure to the vanadous ROSA solution completely reduces all tin-lead oxides that would normally be encountered on production components. The ROSA treatment has a wide operating window, provides soldering performance comparable to that attainable with a fully-activated rosin flux, and offers the promise of providing low soldering defect rates without the use of CFC solvents.
CT diagnosis about the cystic lesions in abdomen in 16 children

Objective To discuss CT diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the cystic lesions in abdomen in children.Methods Sixteen children with the cystic lesions in abdomen were confirmed by surgery and histopathology.The CT features of different cystic lesions were analyzed.Results Intraperitoneal cystic lesions was 3 patients, including of 2 cases of the giant the omentum majus cyst,1 mesenteric cystis.The retroperitoneal cystis was 13 patients including of 7 choledochoceles,2 lymphangisma cyst,1 cystic teratoma,3 giant hydronephrosis.Conclusion CT diagnosis of the cystic lesions in abdomen of children is ease when lesions are minor.CT differential diagnosis is difficult when cystic lesions in abdomen are the giant.
Prediction of Residual Stress and Part Distortion in Selective Laser Melting

Abstract Selective laser melting (SLM) is widely used to make functional metal parts. The high-temperature process will produce large tensile residual stress (RS) which leads to part distortion and poor product performance. Traditional modeling approaches are not practical to predict residual stress and part distortion due to the exceedingly high computational cost. In this study, two efficient multiscale modeling methods have been developed to across microscale laser scan, mesoscale layer hatch, and macroscale part buildup for fast prediction of residual stress and part distortion. A concept of equivalent heat source has been developed from the microscale laser scan model. In the “stress-thread” method, the local residual stress field was predicted by the mesoscale layer hatch model using the equivalent heat source, then the residual stress field is imported, i.e., “stress-thread”, to the macroscale part buildup model to predict residual stress and part distortion. In the temperature-thread method, the powder–liquid–solid material transition has been incorporated. A body heat flux obtained from the microscale laser scan model is applied, i.e., “temperature-thread”, to the hatch layer. Then multiple hatches are sequentially “deposited” in the macroscale part buildup model with different scanning strategies. The predicted part distortions by both methods were compared and compared with the experimental data.