cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Uniform momentum zone scaling arguments from direct numerical simulation of inertia-dominated channel turbulence

Inertia-dominated wall-sheared turbulent flows are composed of an inner and outer layer, where the former is occupied by the well-known autonomous inner cycle while the latter is composed of coherent structures with spatial extent comparable to the flow depth. In arbitrary streamwise–wall-normal planes, outer-layer structures instantaneously manifest as regions of quasi-uniform momentum – relative excesses and deficits about the Reynolds average – and for this reason are termed uniform momentum zones (UMZs). By virtue of this attribute, the interfacial zones between successive UMZs exhibit abrupt wall-normal gradients in streamwise momentum; these interfacial gradients cannot be explained by the notion of attached eddies, for which the vertical gradient goes as in the outer layer, where is inner-normalized wall-normal position. Using data from direct numerical simulation (DNS) of channel turbulence across inertial regimes, we recover vertical profiles of Kolmogorov length a posteriori and show that , thereby requiring that ambient wall-normal gradients in streamwise velocity must scale as . The data reveal that UMZ interfaces are responsible for these relatively larger wall-normal gradients. The DNS data afford a unique opportunity to interpret inner- and outer-layer structures simultaneously: we propose that UMZs – and the associated outer-layer dynamics – can be explained as the product of inner-layer bluff-body-like interactions, wherein wakes of quasi-uniform momentum emanate from the inner layer; wake-scaling arguments agree with observations from DNS.
Employee Management Strategies of Chinese Telecommunications Companies in Ethiopia: Half-way Localization and Internationalization

Despite much scholarly debate on Chinese employment practices in Africa, firm-specific studies on how companies manage expatriate and local employees and the dynamics of power in the process remain...
Color and Cost of Misaligned CARES Act

I utilize proprietary servicer call transcripts to document the implied cost in the CARES Act mortgage forbearance applications from people not in financial hardship. 13% Government-backed performing loan borrowers applied for forbearance of which only 1.5% were unemployed. I document selective verification of unemployment status by the servicer processing these forbearance applications for Non-Government borrowers. This selective verification has a racial undertone, i.e., African Americans apply at a 22.2% lower rate than White Americans as evidenced by communications initiated by them due to lack of financial sophistication. Among the borrowers who are informed about the CARES Act via communications initiated by the servicer, African Americans are dissuaded from availing forbearance (10.8% less than White Americans) and are offered loan modification or no relief. I also find that this discrimination permeates from the forbearance applications to the actual take-up rate of approved forbearance. I document taste based discrimination directly from these call transcripts using soft information from natural language processing.
Myo-inositol Oxygenase Overexpression Rescues Vitamin C Deficient Arabidopsis (vtc) Mutants

Biosynthesis of O_SCPLOWLC_SCPLOW-ascorbate (AsA) in plants is carried out by a complex metabolic network, which involves O_SCPLOWDC_SCPLOW-mannose/O_SCPLOWLC_SCPLOW-galactose, O_SCPLOWDC_SCPLOW-galacturonate, O_SCPLOWLC_SCPLOW-gulose, and myo-inositol as main precursors. Arabidopsis lines over-expressing enzymes in the myo-inositol pathway have elevated AsA, accumulate more biomass of both aerial and root tissues, and are tolerant to abiotic stresses as shown by manual and digital phenotyping. We crossed myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX4) over-expressers with two low-vitamin C mutants (vtc1-1 and vtc2-1) encoding enzymes involved in O_SCPLOWDC_SCPLOW-mannose/O_SCPLOWLC_SCPLOW-galactose route. The purpose of developing these crosses was to test MIOX4s ability to restore the low AsA phenotype in mutants, and to assess the contribution of individual biosynthetic pathways to abiotic stress tolerance. We used a powerful high-throughput phenotyping platform for detailed phenotypic characterization of the Arabidopsis crosses with visible, fluorescence, near-infrared and infrared sensors. We combined digital phenotyping with photosynthetic parameters and soil water potential measurements. Our results show that MIOX4 is able to restore the AsA content of the mutants and the restored lines (vtc+MIOX4) show high AsA, enhanced growth rate, accumulate more biomass, and display healthier chlorophyll fluorescence and water content profiles compared to controls. HighlightsConstitutive expression of a myo-inositol oxygenase restored vitamin C deficient (vtc mutants). The restored lines have elevated ascorbate content and are tolerant to abiotic stresses. Under normal and abiotic stress conditions, the restored lines have enhanced biomass and increased water retention.
Public attitudes towards individuals with bipolar disorder in the workplace

This study examined public attitudes toward working alongside someone with Bipolar Disorder (BD). Participants (N = 618) randomized to a vignette completed the Attitudes toward Individuals with BD ...
Punishment and Age

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) banned the execution of offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time of their offense. In their 5–4 opinion, the Court stated that there had been a growing national consensus against the death penalty for youthful offenders, and noted their belief that these offenders were less culpable for their actions because of deficits in decision-making ability, impulse control, and maturity. Of interest, in 2006, the Court declined to hear a case that addressed the constitutionality of the death penalty for aged prisoners (i.e., Allen v. Ornoski). For many years, it has been recognized that the process of aging is associated with changes in cognitive abilities that may negatively impact flexibility of thought, perspective taking, decision making, and memory. It can be readily seen that these deficits, like those associated with youth, may put the aged prisoner in a position in which the imposition of capital punishment is in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. To date, however, this issue has not been heard by the High Court. Keywords: juvenile death penalty; young offenders; elderly offenders; Eighth Amendment; capital punishment
Advanced Implicit Function Theorems

We will now consider implicit function theorems in both the real analytic and the complex analytic (holomorphic) categories. These are obviously closely related, as the problem in the real analytic category can be complexified (by replacing every x j with a z j ) and thereby turned into a holomorphic problem. Conversely, any complex analytic implicit function theorem situation is a fortiori real analytic and can therefore be treated with real analytic techniques. And both categories are subcategories of the C ∞ category.
Assessing the power of informative subsets of loci for population assignment: standard methods are upwardly biased

It is well known that statistical classification procedures should be assessed using data that are separate from those used to train the classifier. This principle is commonly overlooked when the classification procedure in question is population assignment using a set of genetic markers that were chosen specifically on the basis of their allele frequencies from amongst a larger number of candidate markers. This oversight leads to a systematic upward bias in the predicted accuracy of the chosen set of markers for population assignment. Three widely used software programs for selecting markers informative for population assignment suffer from this bias. The extent of this bias is documented through a small set of simulations. The relative effect of the bias is largest when screening many candidate loci from poorly differentiated populations. Simple unbiased methods are presented and their use encouraged.
Experimental Evaluation of a Planning Language Suitable for Formal Verification

The marriage of model checking and planning faces two seemingly diverging alternatives: the need for a planning language expressive enough to capture the complexity of real-life applications, as opposed to a language simple, yet robust enough to be amenable to exhaustive verification and validation techniques. In an attempt to reconcile these differences, we have designed an abstract plan description language, ANMLite, inspired from the Action Notation Modeling Language (ANML). We present the basic concepts of the ANMLite language as well as an automatic translator from ANMLite to the model checker SAL (Symbolic Analysis Laboratory). We discuss various aspects of specifying a plan in terms of constraints and explore the implications of choosing a robust logic behind the specification of constraints, rather than simply propose a new planning language. Additionally, we provide an initial assessment of the efficiency of model checking to search for solutions of planning problems. To this end, we design a basic test benchmark and study the scalability of the generated SAL models in terms of plan complexity.
Human corneal epithelial cell viability and morphology after dilute alcohol exposure.

Purpose To determine the effect of dilute alcohol on human corneal epithelial cellular morphology and viability. Dilute alcohol is used for epithelial removal during photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and laser subepithelial keratomileusis (LASEK). Methods Corneal epithelial sheets harvested from human eyes after alcohol application during PRK were examined by light and electron microscopy (specimens I-IV). In addition, tissue cultures of human epithelial sheets were monitored for epithelial migration and attachment (specimens V-VII). To determine the effect of dilute alcohol on epithelial cell viability, simian virus (SV)40-immortalized human corneal epithelial cells were exposed to dilute alcohol in distilled water (EtOH-H2O) or to keratinocyte serum-free medium (EtOH-KSFM) for incubation periods of 20 to 45 seconds and concentrations of 10% to 70%. Cell membrane permeability and intracellular esterase activity were analyzed by calcein-acetoxymethyl ester (AM)/ethidium homodimer assay. TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay was used to detect apoptotic cells at 0, 8,12, 24, and 72 hours. Results Electron microscopy showed varying degrees of basement membrane alterations after alcohol application, including disruptions, discontinuities, irregularities, and duplication (specimens I-IV). Cellular destruction and vacuolization of basal epithelial cells associated with absent basement membrane were also observed (specimen III). One of three cultured epithelial sheets showed attachment and outgrowth in the tissue culture until day 15 (specimen V). Twenty-second exposure of cultured immortalized human cells to various concentrations of EtOH-H2O showed significant reduction of viable cells when EtOH-H2O concentration exceeded 25% (P = 0.005). Increasing the duration of application of 20% EtOH-H2O beyond 30 seconds resulted in a significant reduction in viable cells (69.69% +/- 16.34% at 30 seconds compared with 2.14% +/- 2.29%, 10.45% +/- 7.11%, and 11.09% +/- 15.73% at 35, 40, and 45 seconds, respectively; P = 0.01). TUNEL assay of cultured human corneal epithelial cells exposed to 20% EtOH-H(2)O for 20 and 40 seconds showed maximal labeling at 24 hours (58.05% +/- 33.10%) and 8 hours (94.12% +/- 1.21%), respectively. Exposure to 20% EtOH-KSFM for 20 and 40 seconds resulted in substantially lower TUNEL positivity (3.51% +/- 0.20% at 24 hours and 7.11% +/- 0.49% at 8 hours). Conclusions The viability and electron microscopic findings in the basement membrane zone showed significant variation after treatment of the epithelium in vivo with dilute alcohol. The application of dilute alcohol on the monolayer of cultured corneal epithelial cells resulted in increasing cell death in a dose- and time-dependent manner.
The transcriptional repressor NKAP is required for iNKT cell development and maturation (HEM3P.274)

Invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cells are an innate lineage of lymphocytes that can produce copious amount of cytokines within hours of stimulation. In the thymus, positive selection into the iNKT cell lineage occurs at the double positive (DP) stage, before maturation through various stages (stage 0-3) to complete development. NKAP, a transcriptional repressor, is required for conventional T lymphocyte development and maturation. NKAP interacts with Hdac3 for its repressor function. Previously, using CD4-cre NKAP cKO mice, we have shown that NKAP is required for positive selection into the iNKT cell lineage. To study the role of NKAP in later developmental stages, we generated PLZF-cre NKAP cKO mice with NKAP deletion occurring after entry into the iNKT lineage at stage 0. In the PLZF-cre NKAP cKO mice we observed a significant decrease in the absolute number of iNKTs with a 20-fold reduction at stage 2 and 200-fold reduction at stage 3. This defect is cell intrinsic and cannot be rescued by over-expression of Bcl-XL. Our preliminary results indicate that there may be a block in iNKT cell maturation, as expression of transcription factors Tbet, Gata3, and ROR-γt that define NKT1, NKT2 and NKT17 lineages respectively, are decreased in PLZF-cre NKAP cKO. PLZF-cre Hdac3 cKO mice have a similar defect in iNKT development. Thus, NKAP together with Hdac3 may regulate iNKT cell development and maturation.
Presumed isolated inflammation of the superior oblique muscle in idiopathic orbital myositis

Abstract Objective To describe isolated involvement of the superior oblique muscle in association with idiopathic orbital myositis. Design A case report with review of the literature. Participant A 57-year-old man with acquired strabismus participated. Intervention Oral steroid therapy was administered. Main outcome measures Clinical and radiographic features before and after treatment were measured. Results Computed tomographic scanning showed isolated enlargement of the superior oblique muscle consistent with orbital myositis. Clinical and radiographic abnormalities quickly improved after oral steroid therapy. Conclusions Orbital pseudotumor may present as a myositis isolated to the superior oblique muscle. This extremely rare condition has been reported in only three patients, each of whom lacked early diagnosis or treatment. Early recognition may improve chances for a successful clinical outcome.
Variability in Punitive Damages: An Empirical Assessment of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision in Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker

Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker acknowledged what virtually all methodologically sound punitive damages research shows. The Supreme Court relied in part on an article by the present authors and others to state that empirical studies undercut the most audible criticism of punitive damages and that no mass of runaway punitive awards existed. Paradoxically, the Court simultaneously expressed concern about jury predictability based on a high mean and standard deviation in the punitive-compensatory ratio published in our article. The Court therefore reduced a $2.5 billion punitive award relating to the Exxon Valdez oil spill to $500 million to implement a 1:1 punitive-compensatory ratio and stated that “the constitutional outer limit may well be 1:1.” This article shows that our empirical findings relied on by the Court do not support the unpredictability concern or widely applying the limiting ratio. The high mean and standard deviation are artifacts of not accounting for the key variable that explains punitive awards - the compensatory award. Stratifying the mean and standard deviation of the punitive-compensatory ratio by the level of the compensatory award shows that the ratio is reasonably stable in high award cases and significantly and explicably more variable in low award cases. Basing doctrine on summary statistics that combine these heterogenous distributions is not statistically supportable. The award reduction in Exxon Shipping may have promoted consistency with other high compensatory award cases but the 1:1 principle the case hints at is not statistically supportable across the broad range of compensatory awards, and could contribute to an inability to tailor punitive awards to the facts and circumstances of particular cases.
[(η5-C5R5)TiCl2(η5-C5H4SiMe2)]2O·nCH2Cl2

The first title metallocene, 1,3-bis(dichlorotitanocene)-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane dichloromethane solvate, [(η5-C5H5)­TiCl2­(η5-C5H4­Si­Me2)]2O·­CH2Cl2, (I), crystallizes in space group P21/c. Compound (I) represents the first crystal structure of a bimetallic siloxy-bridged titanocene. The geometric parameters of (I) are similar to those of the parent titanocene; however, the disiloxane substituents adopt an unexpected eclipsed conformation. The second title metallocene, 1,3-bis­[(penta­methyl­cyclo­penta­dienyl)­(cyclo­penta­dien­yl)­titanium dichloride]-1,1,3,3-tetra­methyl­disiloxane, [(η5-C5-Me5)­TiCl2­(η5-C5H4­Si­Me2)]2O, (II), represents the second crystal structure of a bimetallic siloxy-bridged titanocene and crystallizes in the space group P21/n. Compound (I) possesses non-crystallographic twofold molecular symmetry and both metal centers adopt pseudo-tetrahedral geometries. The geometric parameters of (II) are similar to those of the mixed titanocene Cp*CpTiCl2 (Cp* = C5Me5) and the disiloxane substituents adopt a staggered conformation.
EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL FLOODING ON WATER QUALITY OF A FLOODPLAIN BACKWATER

Seasonal flooding of riverine backwaters is important in maintaining diverse aquatic habitats, but anthropogenic impacts have reduced the frequency and duration of such flooding. This study, conducted in a 2.5-km-long shallow floodplain severed meander backwater adjacent to the Coldwater River in Tunica County, Mississippi, USA, compared water quality during a late summer 30-day artificial flooding period with 28-day pre-flood and 26-day post-flood periods. Flooding was simulated by pumping 0.22 to 0.35 m3 s−1 from the river into the upstream portion of the backwater. In situ parameters (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity and fluorescent chlorophyll) were measured every 30 min at one site within the backwater. Solids (dissolved and suspended) and nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) were measured at three sites in the backwater and in the river every 3 to 5 days. Decreases in the amplitude of temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH diel cycles within the backwater were observed during flooding. Changes in patterns of solids and nutrients were also associated with flooding. Complex patterns in phosphorus and nitrogen emerged as a result of utilization by autotrophs (measured as chlorophyll) and seasonal changes. Artificial flooding in a shallow floodplain water body stabilized and improved water quality for aquatic biota and is a viable method for habitat rehabilitation in these systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Disjoint homometric sets in graphs

Two subsets of vertices in a graph are called homometric if the multisets of distances determined by them are the same. Let h ( n ) denote the largest number h such that any connected graph of n vertices contains two disjoint homometric subsets of size h . It is shown that ( c log n )/(log log n ) h ( n ) n /4, for n > 3.
Automorphisms of nilpotent groups of class two with small rank

Rational abelian groups, that is, torsion-free abelian groups of rank one, are characterized by their types. This paper characterizes rational nilpotent groups of class two, that is, nilpotent groups of class two in which the center and central factor group are direct sums of rational abelian groups. This characterization is done according to the types of the summands of the center and the central factor group. Using these types and some cohomological techniques it is possible to determine the automorphism group of the nilpotent group in question by performing essentially matrix computations. In particular, the automorphism groups of rational nilpotent groups of class two and rank three are completely described. Specific examples are given of semicomplete and pseudocomplete nilpotent groups.
Pion-exchange contributions to the isoscalar current and magnetic moment operators

Abstract One pion-exchange contributions to the isoscalar current density have been derived with emphasis on the equivalence theorem for pion-nucleon interactions. This current is conserved when used with the non-static OPEP and pion-exchange charge density derived earlier. The exchange charge and current densities satisfy the relativistic four-vector condition. The deuteron pion-exchange magnetic moment operator is also derived.
Isomers and conformers of H(NH2BH2)nH oligomers: Understanding the geometries and electronic structure of boron-nitrogen-hydrogen compounds as potential hydrogen storage materials

Boron−nitrogen−hydrogen (BNHx) materials are polar analogues of hydrocarbons with potential applications as media for hydrogen storage. As H(NH2BH2)nH oligomers result from dehydrogenation of NH3BH3 and NH4BH4 materials, understanding the geometries, stabilities, and electronic structure of these oligomers is essential for developing chemical methods of hydrogen release and regeneration of the BNHx-based hydrogen storage materials. In this work we have performed computational modeling on the H(NH2BH2)nH (n = 1−6) oligomers using density functional theory (DFT). We have investigated linear chain structures and the stabilizing effects of coiling, biradicalization, and branching through Car−Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations and subsequent geometry optimizations. We find that the zigzag linear oligomers are unstable with respect to the coiled, square-wave chain, and branched structures, with the coiled structures being the most stable. Dihydrogen bonding in oligomers, where protic Hδ+(N) hydrogens int...
LONG-TERM USE OF THIAZIDE DIURETICS AND RISK OF HIP FRACTURE

To assess whether long-term thiazide use is associated with a decreased risk of hip fracture, a nested case-control study was done in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan between 1984 and 1985 among residents who were 65 years of age or older and who were not receiving other drugs thought to affect bone mass. There were 905 hip fractures identified from hospital discharge records and 5137 population controls matched for age, sex, and calendar year. Drug use was ascertained from computerised pharmacy records. Risk of hip fracture decreased significantly with increasing duration of current thiazide use: relative risk (95% confidence interval) of 1.2 (0.9-1.5) for less than 2 years use, 0.8 (0.7-1.0) for use of 2-5 years, and 0.5 (0.3-0.7) for 6 or more years. In contrast, there was no such trend for use of other antihypertensive-diuretic drugs (relative risk 0.9 [0.6-1.3] for use of 6 or more years). This protective effect was not altered by age, sex, nursing home residence, previous hospital admission, or use of other antihypertensive-diuretic drugs or psychotropic drugs. Medical record review for a sample of 235 cases suggested this finding was not due to confounding by body mass, ambulatory status, functional status, or dementia. These results support the hypothesis that thiazides protect against osteoporosis in elderly people.
Multivariate prediction of hospital readmission.

Abstract To enhance understanding of the processes of posthospitalization recovery and relapse, demographic and symptom-severity data collected from 1,919 adults admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit of a large urban hospital were examined in relation to readmission. For individuals diagnosed schizophrenic as well as for those given other diagnoses at index admission, multiple regression analyses produced equations that could explain only 3% of the variance in rehospitalization. The data are veiwed as consistent with prior research attributing minimal prognostic validity to demographic and symptom-related variables in contrast to such robust prehospitalization indicators as premorbid status and time of onset.
Role of microstructure in dynamic fatigue of glass-ceramics after contact with spheres

Dynamic fatigue data are reported for fine- and coarse-grained micaceous glass-ceramics after contact damage with spheres. The strengths of indented specimens are measured at stressing rates from ∼10−2 to 104 MPa·s−1 in water. The strength degradation is substantially faster in the coarse-grained structure, and is accelerated further by multicycle contact loading. Failures originate from contact sites in all cases but undergo a progressive transition from classical cone cracks to quasi-plastic microcrack zones with increases in the grain size and the number of contact cycles. The results highlight the particularly deleterious effect of quasi-plastic damage accumulation on lifetime.
Analysing Infrequently Sampled Animal Tracking Data by Incorporating Generalized Movement Trajectories with Kernel Density Estimation

Abstract When analysing the movements of an animal, a common task is to generate a continuous probability density surface that characterises the spatial distribution of its locations, termed a home range. Traditional kernel density estimation (KDE), the Brownian Bridges kernel method, and time-geographic density estimation are all commonly used for this purpose, although their applicability in some practical situations is limited. Other studies have argued that KDE is inappropriate analysing moving objects, while the latter two methods are only suitable for tracking data collected at frequent enough intervals such that an object’s movement pattern can be adequately represented using a space–time path created by connecting consecutive points. This research formulates and evaluates KDE using generalised movement trajectories approximated by Delaunay triangulation (KDE-DT) as a method for analysing infrequently sampled animal tracking data. In this approach, a DT is constructed from a point pattern of tracking data in order to approximate the network of movement trajectories for an animal. This network represents the generalised movement patterns of an animal rather than its specific, individual trajectories between locations. Then, kernel density estimates are calculated with distances measured using that network. First, this paper describes the method and then applies it to generate a probability density surface for a Florida panther from radio-tracking data collected three times per week. Second, the performance of the technique is evaluated in the context of delineating wildlife home ranges and core areas from simulated animal locational data. The results of the simulations suggest that KDE-DT produces more accurate home range estimates than traditional KDE, which was evaluated with the same data in a previous study. In addition to animal home range analysis, the technique may be useful for characterising a variety of spatial point patterns generated by objects that move through continuous space, such as pedestrians or ships.
Spontaneous combustion of char stockpiles

A transient one-dimensional spontaneous heating model has been formulated to describe the spontaneous heating process at relatively low temperatures. The model consists of three differential equations describing the temperature, oxygen, and moisture concentration in a char pile. These equations have been solved numerically by a finite difference technique, and the influence of the initial char temperature, char reactivity, particle size, and moisture content on the process of spontaneous heating have been examined. Sensitivities are presented for the most important factors affecting the self-heating of coal, including a comparison of coal pile characteristics with and without moisture adsorption, desorption, and migration. This model was also validated against data from large-scale spontaneous heating tests.
Numerical model of the moon's rotation

We have integrated numercially the differential equtions for the Moon's rotation with respect to an inertial coordinate system, and the variational equations for (i) the six initial conditions of the rotation; (ii) the moment-of-inertia ratios β and γ; and (iii) the coefficients of the third-degree gravitational harmonics. When these integrations are used in conjunction with our current lunar-orbit and Earth-rotation models, and all of the relevant initial conditions and parameters are adjusted to fit five years of McDonald Observatory lunar laser ranging observations, the root-mean-square (rms) of the postfit range residuals is 28 cm. When we adjust the lunar-rotation initial conditions separately to fit the physical libration angles given by the numerical model of Williams (1975), we find an rms orientation difference over a six-year interval of ∼0.03 arcsecond, after removal of a constant bias. A similar comparison of our model with the semi-analytical model of Eckhardt (1981) yields an rms orientation difference of ∼0.2 arcsecond.
Group A streptococcal infections in obstetrics and gynecology.

Group A streptococcal (GAS) infections continue to be an infrequent, but potentially lethal infections in women despite the victory over childbed fever in the 1800s. Invasive group A streptococcal infection still causes 40% of septic deaths among patients with postpartum endometritis, necrotizing fa
The professional development of college science professors as science teacher educators

The purpose of the study was to examine qualitatively the development of four community college science professors as science educators while they prepared and taught a summer life science academy for K-12 teachers. Since this was the first experience with teacher education for the professors, the academy provided an excellent opportunity to study the response of science professors to the challenge of teacher education. The academy was sponsored by an NSF-funded Comprehensive Regional Center for Minorities in a large metropolitan area. The funding enabled the professors to learn about science education while preparing for the academy. Prior to the academy the professors thought that they could contribute to teacher development because of their expertise in science. In preparation, the science professors visited school classrooms, consulted with a science educator, read widely in the literature of science education, and worked with exemplary teachers. As a result of preparing and conducting the academy, the professors came to see their traditional lecture/lab approach to science education as inadequate with regard to most students. Since the experience of the academy, the professors have altered the format of some of their community college courses. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Low-intensity Far-Red Light Inhibits Early Lesions That Contribute to Diabetic Retinopathy: In Vivo and in Vitro

PURPOSE Treatment with light in the far-red to near-infrared region of the spectrum (photobiomodulation [PBM]) has beneficial effects in tissue injury. We investigated the therapeutic efficacy of 670-nm PBM in rodent and cultured cell models of diabetic retinopathy. METHODS Studies were conducted in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and in cultured retinal cells. Diabetes-induced retinal abnormalities were assessed functionally, biochemically, and histologically in vivo and in vitro. RESULTS We observed beneficial effects of PBM on the neural and vascular elements of retina. Daily 670-nm PBM treatment (6 J/cm(2)) resulted in significant inhibition in the diabetes-induced death of retinal ganglion cells, as well as a 50% improvement of the ERG amplitude (photopic b wave responses) (both P < 0.01). To explore the mechanism for these beneficial effects, we examined physiologic and molecular changes related to cell survival, oxidative stress, and inflammation. PBM did not alter cytochrome oxidase activity in the retina or in cultured retinal cells. PBM inhibited diabetes-induced superoxide production and preserved MnSOD expression in vivo. Diabetes significantly increased both leukostasis and expression of ICAM-1, and PBM essentially prevented both of these abnormalities. In cultured retinal cells, 30-mM glucose exposure increased superoxide production, inflammatory biomarker expression, and cell death. PBM inhibited all of these abnormalities. CONCLUSIONS PBM ameliorated lesions of diabetic retinopathy in vivo and reduced oxidative stress and cell death in vitro. PBM has been documented to have minimal risk. PBM is noninvasive, inexpensive, and easy to administer. We conclude that PBM is a simple adjunct therapy to attenuate the development of diabetic retinopathy.
Interactive, agent based, modeling and simulation of virtual manufacturing assemblies

* The research is part of the Virtual Environments in Education, Robotics and Automation (VERAM) project at the Software and Data Engineering laboratory at Georgia Southwestern State University and is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant #DMI-96100055 and the Georgia Board of Regents. Abstract The application of agent-based approaches to developing interactive, virtual environments for manufacturing assembly processes is explored and demonstrated in this paper. The overall research focus is on the investigation and integration of appropriate behavior specification mechanisms with virtual reality to build interactive virtual environments for dynamic online simulation based design of manufacturing systems, with the intent of designing intelligent and robust manufacturing control software. Specifically the design of virtual environments using an agent-based design framework, taking into account risks and uncertainties, while embedding domain-specific intelligence about system failures and breakdowns, is investigated.
The Influences of Parents' and Offsprings' Experience with Cohabitation, Marriage, and Divorce on Attitudes Toward Divorce in Young Adulthood

Abstract Data from a thirty-one year, intergenerational panel study are used to examine the influence of entry into and exit from marriage and cohabitation on changes in adult children's attitudes toward divorce. The influences of parents' marital dissolution and maternal attitudes toward divorce on the adult children's divorce attitudes are also investigated. Parental divorce followed by remarriage and maternal attitudes about divorce are each associated with adult children's tolerance of divorce. Among the adult children, direct entry into marriage decreases divorce tolerance, but marriage preceded by cohabitation does not. Divorce from a first marriage dramatically increases adults' acceptance of divorce.
Precursor states in the adsorption of Sb4 on Si(001).

The surprising complexity of the reaction path of the dissociation of ${\mathrm{Sb}}_{4}$ and Si(001) is revealed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Four distinct types of precursors are identified, which can be converted to the final state of two-dimer clusters through thermal annealing, or through a novel STM-tip-induced conversion. An effective energy barrier of 0.5\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1 eV and an effective prefactor of \ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{3}$ Hz are measured for the thermal conversion of precursors to the final state. The results indicate that popular models assuming only one precursor state may fail for many semiconductor systems.
Curvature of indoor sensor network: clustering coefficient

We investigate the geometric properties of the communication graph in realistic low-power wireless networks. In particular, we explore the concept of the curvature of a wireless network via the clustering coefficient. Clustering coefficient analysis is a computationally simplified, semilocal approach, which nevertheless captures such a large-scale feature as congestion in the underlying network. The clustering coefficient concept is applied to three cases of indoor sensor networks, under varying thresholds on the link packet reception rate (PRR). A transition from positive curvature ("meshed" network) to negative curvature ("core concentric" network) is observed by increasing the threshold. Even though this paper deals with network curvature per se, we nevertheless expand on the underlying congestion motivation, propose several new concepts (network inertia and centroid), and finally we argue that greedy routing on a virtual positively curved network achieves load balancing on the physical network.
Migration and Its Risks

"This essay applies the theories of Ulrich Beck...to the politics of migration in Germany. In particular, the essay focuses on Beck's notion of the waning influence, indeed even relevancy, of science and scientists regarding postmodern risk phenomena. The essay argues that migration to Germany can be understood as a Beckian risk phenomenon, helping to explain the decreasing influence of social scientists over the politics of migration in the Federal Republic."
“Young People These Days … ” Evidence for Negative Perceptions of Emerging Adults

The current study investigated perceptions of emerging adults (aged 18–25) and found indications that ratings of attributes ascribed to this group are more negative than ratings of older groups. An...
Converging perspectives of dynamic theory and evolving neurobiological knowledge

Abstract Exciting findings in recent research in neurobiology do not regularly appear in the social and psychological sciences literature. Yet, there is neurobiological evidence that variously supports, qualifies, and elaborates on the understanding of dynamic treatment. Early in his career, Freud lamented that the science necessary to support and advance his theorizing in the psychological realm would only become available to future generations. A case in point is that recent findings reveal that neurobiological transformations in the brain can result from specific and focused relationship interactions. Addressed here are some biological phenomena which seem to lend support for the following analytic hypotheses: structural theory (id, ego, super‐ego), defense mechanisms, object relations, free association, transference, countertransference, the therapeutic alliance, and working through.
GPCA: an efficient dimension reduction scheme for image compression and retrieval

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the quantity of image data collected, due to advances in fields such as medical imaging, reconnaissance, surveillance, astronomy, multimedia etc. With this increase has come the need to be able to store, transmit, and query large volumes of image data efficiently. A common operation on image databases is the retrieval of all images that are similar to a query image. For this, the images in the database are often represented as vectors in a high-dimensional space and a query is answered by retrieving all image vectors that are proximal to the query image in this space, under a suitable similarity metric. To overcome problems associated with high dimensionality, such as high storage and retrieval times, a dimension reduction step is usually applied to the vectors to concentrate relevant information in a small number of dimensions. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a well-known dimension reduction scheme. However, since it works with vectorized representations of images, PCA does not take into account the spatial locality of pixels in images. In this paper, a new dimension reduction scheme, called Generalized Principal Component Analysis (GPCA), is presented. This scheme works directly with images in their native state, as two-dimensional matrices, by projecting the images to a vector space that is the tensor product of two lower-dimensional vector spaces. Experiments on databases of face images show that, for the same amount of storage, GPCA is superior to PCA in terms of quality of the compressed images, query precision, and computational cost.
High-speed pattern recognition by using stimulated echoes.

We present experimental results demonstrating the use of stimulated echoes for high-speed pattern recognition. One data image and two reference images (spatially encoded laser pulses) were stored and processed in a Pr3+:LaF3 crystal by focusing the pulses sequentially into the storage material. The processed information was later retrieved by a read pulse, generating two temporally separated echo images that are the spatial correlations between the data and reference images. Identification of the data image was accomplished by finding the echo image that showed the highest spatial correlation with the data image. The present processing speed is 30 ns per correlation operation.
Some issues in programming multi-mini-processors

Large computer systems, called multi-mini-processors, can be constructed by joining together many minicomputers. Two such systems are described, and seven issues encountered in the programming of such systems are discussed.
Unique Substrate Recognition by Botulinum Neurotoxins Serotypes A and E

Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are zinc proteases that cleave SNARE proteins to elicit flaccid paralysis by inhibiting the fusion of neurotransmitter-carrying vesicles to the plasma membrane of peripheral neurons. There are seven serotypes of BoNT, termed A-G. BoNT serotype A and serotype E cleave SNAP25 at residues 197-198 and 180-181, respectively. Unlike other zinc proteases, the BoNTs recognize extended regions of SNAP25 for cleavage. The basis for this extended substrate recognition and specificity is unclear. Saturation mutagenesis and deletion mapping identified residues 156-202 of SNAP25 as the optimal cleavage domain for BoNT/A, whereas the optimal cleavage domain for BoNT/E was shorter, comprising residues 167-186 of SNAP25. Two sub-sites were resolved within each optimal cleavage domain, which included a recognition or active site (AS) domain that contained the site of cleavage and a binding (B) domain, which contributed to substrate affinity. Within the AS domains, the P1', P3, and P5 sites of SNAP25 contributed to scissile bond cleavage by LC/A, whereas the P1' and P2 sites of SNAP25 contributed to scissile bond cleavage by LC/E. These studies provide insight into the development of strategies for small molecule inhibitors of the BoNTs.
Statistical Models for Empirical Search-Based Performance Tuning

Achieving peak performance from the computational kernels that dominate application performance often requires extensive machine-dependent tuning by hand. Automatic tuning systems have emerged in response, and they typically operate by (1) generating a large number of possible, reasonable implementations of a kernel, and (2) selecting the fastest implementation by a combination of heuristic modeling, heuristic pruning, and empirical search (i.e. actually running the code). This paper presents quantitative data that motivate the development of such a search-based system, using dense matrix multiply as a case study. The statistical distributions of performance within spaces of reasonable implementations, when observed on a variety of hardware platforms, lead us to pose and address two general problems which arise during the search process. First, we develop a heuristic for stopping an exhaustive compile-time search early if a near-optimal implementation is found. Secondly, we show how to construct run-time decision rules, based on run-time inputs, for selecting from among a subset of the best implementations when the space of inputs can be described by continuously varying features. We address both problems by using statistical modeling techniques that exploit the large amount of performance data collected during the search. We demonstrate these methods on actual performance data collected by the PHiPAC tuning system for dense matrix multiply. We close with a survey of recent projects that use or otherwise advocate an empirical search-based approach to code generation and algorithm selection, whether at the level of computational kernels, compiler and run-time systems, or problem-solving environments. Collectively, these efforts suggest a number of possible software architectures for constructing platform-adapted libraries and applications.
An Ichthyophonus-type fungus in the deep-sea pelagic fish Scopelogadus beanii (Günther) (Pisces: Melamphaidae): pathology, geographic distribution and ecological implications

Parasitological examination of 400 specimens of the lower mesopelagic-bathypelagic melamphaid fish Scopelogadus beanii (Gunther) collected from throughout the species'geographic range in the Atlantic Ocean revealed cysts ranging in size from 1 to > 20 mm diameter in the livers of 50 individuals (12.5%). Histological preparations showed that the encysted material was an Ichthyophonus-type fungus, which destroyed the liver tissue in infected individuals by progressive necrosis, the extent of which varied with cyst number and size. Infections were found primarily in individuals > 80 mm s.l. (size of sexual maturity in S. beanii), with a significantly higher rate of infection among females. Liver weight was significantly reduced in infected fishes. Body wet weights tended to be lower in infected females. Fish from the western Atlantic showed a significantly greater prevalence of infection (17.0%) than those from either the eastern (1.1%) or South Atlantic (7.1 %). Within the western Atlantic, individuals collected from the slope waters of the Mid-Atlantic Bight showed a significantly higher percentage of infected individuals than those collected from more northerly areas (27.8% v. 9.9%, respectively); regional variations may be accounted for by differences in habitat and diet of S. beanii among these regions. The high percentage of infected individuals in the western North Atlantic, coupled with the pathogenic nature of the fungus, suggests the possible loss of reproductively competent individuals from the population of this region.
Effect of phase modulation on the temperature distribution of a microwave hyperthermia antenna array in vivo

Perfused, canine skeletal muscle and the brain tumour of a cancer patient were heated with an array of four parallel, interstitial antennas placed on the corners of a 2-cm square and driven at 915 MHz. The temperature distributions along the axial and diagonal catheters were measured with equal-phase driving of the antennas and with several time-varying schemes of driving phase differences among the antennas. When equal-phase driving was replaced by a rotating scheme of 90 degrees driving phase differences, the tissue area in the junction plane heated above a normalized index temperature of 0.6 increased by a factor of about 1.25. With a rotating phase of 135 degrees, the same area increased by a factor of about 1.6. The axial temperature distribution was not affected significantly by driving phase.
Factors Affecting the Coordination of Programs and Resources between Community Colleges and Area Vocational Technical Schools.

Recently identified economic, student, and legislative trends provide new challenges for community colleges during the 1980s. Among these is the delivery of articulated vocational education programs for adult students through a nontraditional setting. Central to the satisfaction of this goal is the development of increased linkages between community colleges and vocational‐technical education centers. A study was conducted in 1976 to explore factors that affected the coordination of programs and services between community colleges and area vocational technical schools in Pennsylvania. Further, an examination of the opinions of administrators from both of these institutional settings was conducted in order to give additional insight to this area. Varying levels and areas of coordination were identified among the community colleges and area vocational technical schools surveyed. Differences of opinion among administrators were identified to possible areas of coordination as well as factors that could affect...