cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Contingency and Mysticism from Economics to Finance: Knight, Ayache, DeLillo:

The recent history of finance has been widely portrayed, by both critics and practitioners, as a story about risk. As pointed out by Mary Poovey, focusing on risk entails forgetting uncertainty. In...
Influence of features of curriculum materials on the planned curriculum

The study explored the verb clauses and thematic development evident in curriculum materials and in transcripts of teachers planning lessons using the materials. A central argument is that though teacher characteristics influence the ways they plan lessons with curriculum materials, the materials themselves influence teachers’ planned lessons via the ways mathematics is construed in the materials. We used verb clause and thematic analysis to analyze the features of curriculum materials and teachers’ lesson planning using those materials. We found differences between the curriculum materials in terms of how they construed mathematical activity and found that teachers’ lesson plans roughly aligned with the features in the materials; this speaks to the impact of features of curriculum materials on teachers’ lesson planning. We also found small but perceptible differences between teachers from different curriculum backgrounds, suggesting an enculturating effect from the materials.
Predicting attention across time and contexts with functional brain connectivity

The ability to sustain attention differs across people and varies over time within a person. Models based on patterns of static functional brain connectivity observed during task performance and rest show promise for predicting individual differences in sustained attention as well as other forms of attention. The sensitivity of connectome-based models to attentional state changes, however, is less well characterized. Here, we review recent evidence that time-varying functional brain connectivity predicts fluctuations in attention in controlled and naturalistic task contexts. We propose that building connectome-based models to predict changes in attention across multiple timescales and experimental contexts can help further disentangle state versus trait influences on functional connectivity patterns, elucidate the behavioral relevance of functional connectivity dynamics, and contribute to the development of a comprehensive suite of generalizable neuromarkers of attention. To achieve this goal, we suggest collecting multi-task, multi-session neuroimaging samples with concurrent behavioral and physiological measures of attentional state.
Initial experience with F-18 florbetapir PET: A semi-quantitative analysis

2512 Objectives F-18 florbetapir (Amyvid) PET scan is newly approved for imaging the amyloid load in the brain to differentiate Alzheimers dementia (AD), characterized by increased amyloid plaques in the cerebral cortex, from other types of dementia. Visual interpretation of the images is sometimes a challenge for physicians with limited interpreting experience. The goal of this study is to explore the feasibility of a simple semi-quantitative method of interpretation to aid physicians for accurate diagnosis. Methods A retrospective review was performed on 26 patients (13 male, 13 female) who underwent F-18 florbetapir scan. Images were acquired 45 minutes post IV injection of 10 mCi of F-18 florbetapir for 15 minutes on a PET/CT camera with CT attenuation correction. Mean SUVs in each lobe (frontal, temporal, occipital, parietal) and cerebella peduncle were measured. Values of positive & negative group were compared. Results Of the 26 patients, 17 were considered high probability for AD based on clinical evaluation and imaging data, and 9 had clinically lower probability with negative imaging findings. There is no significant difference in the mean SUV of the cerebella peduncle (p=0.37) between the AD 2.22 & normal group (NL) 1.96. However, significantly higher uptake is seen in all other lobes of cortex (see table). There is no significant age or gender variation of cerebella uptake (p=0.4). Mean ratio of cortex to cerebella peduncle is significantly higher in AD group (p Conclusions F-18 florbetapir imaging provides higher mean SUVs and ratios of cerebral lobes to cerebella peduncle in AD patients than in normal, thus indicating AD and potentially differentiating it from other dementia. Further study including a larger group of patients is warranted to establish normal reference value of F-18 florbetapir imaging for more accurate diagnosis of AD.
Border Landscapes: The Politics of Akha Land Use in China and Thailand

Janet C. Sturgeon. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005. xi and 255 pp., maps, photos, notes, tables, appendixes, bibliog., and index. $50.00 cloth (ISBN 0-295-98544-5). For those of us ac...
Genomic distances under deletions and insertions

As more and more genomes are sequenced, evolutionary biologists are becoming increasingly interested in evolution at the level of whole genomes, in scenarios in which the genome evolves through insertions, deletions, and movements of genes along its chromosomes. In the mathematical model pioneered by Sankoff and others, a unichromosomal genome is represented by a signed permutation of a multi-set of genes; Hannenhalli and Pevzner showed that the edit distance between two signed permutations of the same set can be computed in polynomial time when all operations are inversions. El-Mabrouk extended that result to allow deletions and a limited form of insertions (which forbids duplications). In this paper we extend El-Mabrouk's work to handle duplications as well as insertions and present an alternate framework for computing (near) minimal edit sequences involving insertions, deletions, and inversions. We derive an error bound for our polynomial-time distance computation under various assumptions and present preliminary experimental results that suggest that performance in practice may be excellent, within a few percent of the actual distance.
No Miracle in Massachusetts: Why Governor Romney's Health Care Reform Won't Work

Massachusetts has enacted a far-reaching state health insurance reform package, featuring an unprecedented mandate that every resident obtain health insurance coverage. The package has received considerable praise from across the nation, but a number of its features should raise concern. Among those features: the individual mandate opens the door to widespread regulation of the health care industry and political interference in personal health care decisions; the act's subsidies are poorly targeted; the Massachusetts Health Care Connector, which restructures the individual and small business insurance markets, has the potential to severely limit consumer choice; and the act imposes new burdens on business and creates a host of new government bureaucracies to manage the health care system.
LabView in engineering laboratory courses

The project is to introduce the national instruments software LabView to the lower division engineering laboratory courses in electrical and mechanical engineering. LabView provides a modern tool to perform the computer-based experiments, date acquisition, and instrumentation measurements. The objectives of this project are: gain hands-on experience; understand how engineering system works; develop technical skills including programming and analysis; provide interactive and remote access to the laboratory facilities at anywhere; share resources with other colleges and universities through the distance learning; and reduce the cost of laboratory equipment. We use ready-to-use examples to build up the electrical/mechanical systems and perform measurement and analysis. The compute-based experiments can be easily controlled and switched between host and client computers by computer network or Internet.
Civic Science and Salmon Recovery Planning in Puget Sound

Today, science and scientists as experts no longer hold sway as unquestioned authoritative sources of objective information in many policy debates. This has led to growing frustration on the part of government officials and scientists over their inability to have science exert as meaningful a role as they think appropriate in the consideration and selection of policy alternatives. Given this development, what can be done to restore or otherwise ensure that the appropriate science and scientists are integrated into the policy process so that they matter to policy outcomes? There is general agreement that traditional top-down, one-way (from scientists to others), linear models for conceptualizing the role of science and scientists in the policy process are not capable of capturing the changed political, social, and “scientific” realities of the contemporary policymaking context. Many have gravitated to the concept of civic science/scientists as a new and improved model. Yet, despite clear progress in reconceptualizing the role of science in the policy process, there are gaps in the literature when it comes to actual applications of civic science. As McNie correctly notes: “it is essential that we develop a more robust understanding of experience and practical experiments regarding how relationships [and institutions] are constructed and managed across the science-society boundary” (p. 29). This research develops lessons for civic science in the policy process by exploring an innovative collaborative governance effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries and the Shared Strategy for Salmon Recovery in Puget Sound (Washington). The integration of science into the salmon recovery process in this case relied on a series of actions that the Technical Recovery Team (TRT) took to bridge the traditionally separate science and policy spheres in order to increase the certainty of science impact, specific steps taken to establish and maintain the TRTs role as an authoritative, credible source of science, and the embrace of a results-oriented, adaptive learning approach.
Real-time analysis of apoptosis in vivo.

Publisher Summary Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is an important regulator of physiological processes including growth, development, immunity, and homeostasis. Mechanisms controlling programmed cell death are regulated, involving an intricate balance between antiapoptotic and proapoptotic signals. Various cytometric markers like in vivo membrane markers, radionuclide markers, and magnetic resonance markers have been developed to detect apoptosis. Programmed cell death is assessed enzymatically by measuring the activity of caspases. Once activated from their precursors, caspases propagate and amplify the signal cascade, resulting in dismantling of specific cellular targets (structural proteins and DNA repair enzymes) and further activation of destructive enzymes (DNases and other caspases). The requirement of lysing a large number of cells limits assessment of caspase activity to a single time and renders the study of individual cells impossible. To solve these problems, three fluorescence-based markers capable of detecting real-time caspase activity in intact cells have been described. These markers are effective in assessing in vitro programmed cell death in the same cells over time. Although each of the current markers has specific drawbacks, they all have paved the way in the development of real-time markers of this critical physiological process.
Special Topics in Elastostatics

Publisher Summary This chapter emphasizes the fact that, mathematically, elasticity theory has much in common with modern theories of thin elastic shells, plates, or rods; static theories of liquid crystals; and various other local theories associated with the most common types of variational principles. This chapter discusses that the interest in elasticity theory lies in improving the theory underlying the somewhat mystical process whereby definite forms of constitutive equations are selected. The domain of constitutive equations may include subdomains that are, in principle, inaccessible to the experimentist. The operationalist holds a contrary view. The chapter highlights that the elasticity theory can predict the effects that are not commonly thought of as being associated with the adjective “elastic.” In such cases, elasticity theory enters into free competition with other theories capable of describing the effect at hand.
Laser Spectroscopy of Hydrogen-Like and Helium-Like Ions

Laser spectroscopy of hydrogen-like and helium-like ions is reviewed. Emphasis is on the fast-beam laser resonance technique, measurements in moderate-Z ions which provide tests of relativistic and quantum-electrodynamic atomic theory, and future experimental directions.
Temporal variation of birth prevalence of congenital heart disease in the United States.

Background This is a longitudinal analysis of the largest and most comprehensive inpatient care database in the United States to determine temporal variation of birth prevalence of congenital heart disease (CHD) diagnosis, adjusting for potentially confounding factors. Methods We compared all entries of CHD diagnoses in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database in 1998 and 2008 to determine differences in birth prevalence of overall CHD and specific CHD phenotypes stratified by race, gender, socioeconomic status, and geographical location. Results CHD prevalence was 10.2/1000 in 1998 and 10.8/1000 live births in 2008, without significant changes in prevalence (P = .09). Prevalence of isolated patent ductus arteriosus increased from 1.9 to 2.8 per 1000 (P < .001), and this temporal increase remained statistically significant after stratification by race, income status, and geographic location. Prevalence of mild CHD increased from 8.0 to 9.1 per 1000 (P = .01), with most of this increase occurring among Caucasians and the upper socioeconomic class. There was a decrease in prevalence of severe CHD from 1.5 to 0.9 (P = .03), while prevalence of moderate CHD and all other specific CHD phenotypes remained unchanged in both cohorts. Conclusions We report increased prevalence of isolated patent ductus arteriosus and mild CHD; decreased prevalence of severe CHD; and unchanged prevalence of overall CHD and all other specific CHD phenotype. We speculate that increased prevalence of mild CHD was due to increased case detection because of improvement in echocardiography. Decrease in diagnosis of severe CHD could be due to the impact of pregnancy termination.
Characterization of a Multiphoton Endomicroscope

A multiphoton endomicroscope features a double clad photonic crystal fiber for light delivery and collection. Two thermally driven actuators and fiber resonator in its distal end provide three axis raster scanning.
New approach for pre-polish grinding with low subsurface damage

For an optical surface to be properly prepared, the amount of material removed during polishing must be greater than the volume of grinding damage. An intermediate stage between loose abrasive grinding and polishing can reduce the total volume of subsurface damage. This results in less time and expense needed during the polishing phase. We have characterized the Prestos's coefficient and subsurface damage depth for 3M Trizact™ diamond tile pads and believe it can fit this intermediary role. Trizact shows a sizeable reduction in the overall subsurface damage compared to similar sized loose abrasives. This understanding of the abrasive behavior allows us to create a better grinding schedule that more efficiently removes material and finishing with less overall damage than traditional loose abrasives.
A spectral method to separate disconnected and nearly-disconnected web graph components

Separation of connected components from a graph with disconnected graph components mostly use breadth-first search (BFS) or depth-first search (DFS) graph algorithms. Here we propose a new algebraic method to separate disconnected and nearly-disconnected components. This method is based on spectral graph partitioning, following a key observation that disconnected components will show up, after properly sorted, as step-function like curve in the lowest eigenvectors of the Laplacian matrix of the graph. Following an perturbative analysis framework, we systematically analyzed the graph structures, first on the disconnected subgraph case, and second on the effects of adding edges sparsely connecting different subgraphs as a perturbation. Several new results are derived, providing insights to spectral methods and related clustering objective function. Examples are given illustrating the concepts and results our methods. Comparing to the standard graph algorithms, this method has the same O(VE V + VVVlog(VVV)) complexity, but is easier to implement (using readily available eigensolvers). Further more the method can easily identify articulation points and bridges on nearly-disconnected graphs. Segmentation of a real example of Web graph for query amazon is given. We found that each disconnected or nearly-disconnected components forms a cluster on a clear topic.
Chemical Ordering and Microstructural Affects on Magnetic Properties of Sm2Fe17 and Sm2Fe17Nx

The effect of chemical order and defect structure on the magnetization process in Sm2Fe17 and Sm2Fe17Nx has been investigated. In Sm2Fe17, chemical disorder results in the development of random anisotropy and a small degree of magnetic hardness. The anisotropy is reduced as long-range order increases. The motion of domain walls in Sm2Fe17Nx is more dependent on the antiphase domain structure than on the amount of long-range order.
Mitral Valve Prolapse With Mid-Late Systolic Mitral Regurgitation Pitfalls of Evaluation and Clinical Outcome Compared With Holosystolic Regurgitation

Background—Mitral regurgitation (MR) of mitral valve prolapse predominates in late systole but may be holosystolic or purely mid-late systolic, but the impact of MR timing on MR left ventricular and left atrial consequences and outcome is unknown. Whether effective regurgitant orifice (ERO) by the flow convergence method is similarly linked to outcome in mid-late systolic MR and holosystolic MR is uncertain. Methods and Results—We comprehensively and prospectively quantified MR in 111 patients with mitral valve prolapse and mid-late systolic MR and matched them to 90 patients with mitral valve prolapse and holosystolic MR for age, gender, atrial fibrillation, ejection fraction, and ERO (flow convergence). Mid-late systolic MR versus holosystolic MR groups were well matched, including for comorbidity, blood pressure, and heart rate (all P>0.10). Mid-late systolic MR versus holosystolic MR caused similar color jet area, midsystolic regurgitant flow, and peak velocity (P>0.40). Despite identical ERO (0.25±0....
Are We There Yet? An Assessment of Research Design and Construct Measurement Practices in Entrepreneurship Research

Research design is a central element of empirical research, and thus, an important consideration for entrepreneurship researchers and anyone interested in entrepreneurship-related research findings...
Developing Adaptability: The Promise and Pitfalls of Collaborative Conservation

Conservation requires the ability to respond to change. Ongoing shifts in human activities, landscapes, and species abundance and distributions are occurring at rates and scales that challenge the ...
Self-control and frequency of model presentation: effects on learning a ballet passé relevé.

The purpose of this experiment was to examine the combined effects of self-control and frequency of model presentation on learning a complex motor skill, i.e., ballet passe releve. Before practice started self-control participants were asked to choose two viewings or six viewings (before practice and then every five trials) and the externally controlled groups were yoked to their self-control counterparts. All participants completed 15 acquisition trials followed by 5 trials for the immediate and 5 trials for the delayed retention tests 48 hours later. Dependent variables included cognitive representation scores, physical reproduction rankings, and balance time. Statistical analyses indicated that under limited physical practice conditions self-control and higher frequency of model presentation facilitated the development of cognitive representation and did not produce further benefits in movement reproductions and balance time. The results were discussed with respect to the social cognitive theory.
PROFILES OF UNIFORMLY ACCELERATED ION BEAMS.

Abstract An approximation of Moak's integral is derived which may replace Moak's tables over a useful range of parameters.
Mass spectrometry and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of compounds modeling the glycopeptide linkage of glycoproteins.

The properties of several compounds useful as models for three-dimensional conformational studies and the investigation of the chemical degradation of glycopeptide linkages both of the N- and O-glycosidic type are described. Using the method of differential chemical shift in H/sub 2/O and D/sub 2/O as solvents, the carbon NMR spectrum of N-acetylglucosaminylasparagine, 1-N-acetyl-..beta..-D-glucopyranosylamine, and 1-N-acetyl-2-acetamido-..beta..-D-glycopyranosylamine has been assigned. Electron impact mass spectra of the peracetylated derivatives of the latter two compounds show a peak apparently unique to glycopyranosylamides at m/e = 269, no analog of which is observed in the mass spectra of other peracetylated sugars. As models of the ..cap alpha..-O-glycosidic linkage, fully assigned carbon NMR spectra of ..cap alpha..-methyl-N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc), ..cap alpha..-methyl-3-O-methyl GalNAc, and -GlcNAc as well as the disaccharide Glc-..beta..-l ..-->.. 3 GalNAc are reported. Because certain anomalies in the chemical shifts and /sup 1/J/sub CH/ observed in the disaccharide and in O-glycosylated glycoproteins are not observed in the simple model compounds, they may result from conformational interactions in the glycopeptides.
General theoretical treatment of the angular dependence of critical depths in X-ray fluorescence spectroscopic studies of surfaces, thin films and multilayers

A general theoretical treatment is offered to obtain the critical depth (dc) values of the characteristic K, L and M x-ray fluorescence signals as a function of sample grazing incidence angle (θi′), exit angle (θe′) and atomic number Z. It is shown, for example, that for θe′ = 1° and θi′ = 89° in going from Z = 5 to Z = 74, dc values range from 102 to 104 A for K emission, from 30 to 500 A for L emission, and from 10 to 50 A for M emission provided 99% of the emerging radiation is accounted for. Detailed calculations are offered for cases when a smaller fraction of the outgoing radiation is considered. Critical depth calculations are also offered for single and multilayer thin films. The effect surface roughness has on the critical depth and the dc dependence on energy are also examined. Finally, the depth resolution is calculated for a given angular definition.
Undue influence or ensuring rights?: Attorney presence during forensic psychology evaluations

Forensic psychologists face a variety of ethical issues in conducting evaluations. One such issue is attorney presence during a forensic evaluation. In forensic evaluations, it is necessary to use standardized procedures while also attending to the rights of the individuals being assessed. This article examines the neuropsychological literature on extraneous influences in evaluations including effects of attorney presence. Then the article discusses the limited knowledge about attorney presence during forensic evaluations, addresses attorney motivations for being present during an evaluation, and considers attorney presence in the context of ethical mandates. Finally, suggestions are offered for forensic clinicians confronted with attorneys who wish to be present during assessments.
A new modeling and solution approach for the number partitioning problem

The number partitioning problem has proven to be a challenging problem for both exact and heuristic solution methods. We present a new modeling and solution approach that consists of recasting the problem as an unconstrained quadratic binary program that can be solved by efficient metaheuristic methods. Our approach readily accommodates both the common two-subset partition case as well as the more general case of multiple subsets. Preliminary computational experience is presented illustrating the attractiveness of the method.
Removing the Twiddling stigma: spontaneous lead retraction without patient manipulation.

After pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation, it takes weeks for the leads to scar in place. Occasionally, newly implanted leads dislodge by retracting towards the device pocket. This phenomenon is generally called ‘Twiddler's Syndrome,’ with the invoked mechanism being patient manipulation of the device pocket. We present a case of a 27-year-old man who had complete retraction of the atrial lead, but not the ventricular lead, after a submuscular dual-chamber ICD implantation. The specifics of this case demonstrate that leads can spontaneously retract during normal arm movement, without any conscious or unconscious device manipulation by the patient. Leads must be firmly secured in the device pocket via their suture sleeves in order to minimize the risk of retraction, regardless of mechanism.
Sleep: a neurobiological window on affective disorders

Abstract Most investigators now agree that in some patients biological factors play an important role in the etiology of mania and depression. This view is supported by genetic studies, by the iatrogenic induction of affective disorders by some medications and by exogenous hormones, by the distinctive natural history of some disorders, and by the favorable response to antidepressant drugs, lithium, and electroshock therapy. Nevertheless, the exact pathophysiological mechanisms and etiology of these disorders remain unknown, and the search for biological abnormalities in depression has often been unsuccessful. In recent years polygraphically defined sleep changes have emerged as perhaps the best documented biological marker associated with adult depression. In this short review, we will survey these findings, try to place them in context, and discuss their implications for the neurobiology of affective, illness.
High-throughput techniques for the evaluation of fire retardancy

As new flame retardant (FR) approaches are developed they must be evaluated with conventional FR additives, processing additives, stabilizers, and fillers. In most cases this is done in a number of polymers, and a variety of processing conditions also must be optimized. Thus the development of new FR methods is a multi-parameter problem. A full-factorial approach to developing the structure–property relationships of interest requires numerous experiments and is prohibitively labor intensive; additional methods in which the composition space can be rapidly sampled and evaluated are necessary. Several new high throughput approaches are described herein which have been correlated with conventional flammability tests.
A case of iconographic competition: The building industry and the postmodern landscape

In the capitalist world, urban form arises largely from the activities of building and land development enterprises. These firms increasingly find that what is essential to their competitive success is their ability to sell not mere commodities (houses, land parcels), but icons-products that gain market value by presenting appealing images. As building firms have refined their products iconic features, the urban landscape has undergone profound change-the present result is what many call the 'postmodern landscape'. Drawing on Joseph Schumpeter's concept of creative destruction, this article argues that landscape change in general, and the rise of the postmodern landscape in particular, reflect the working dynamics of market capitalism. The article then describes the variety of iconographic strategies through which building enterprises now shape the landscape.
Intermediate- and low-molecular-weight keratin detection with the monoclonal antibody MNF116. An immunohistochemical study on 232 paraffin-embedded cutaneous lesions

Immunohistochemical detection of certain low to intermediate molecular weight keratins often is impaired in routinely processed specimens due to masking of these antigens by formalin fixation. Despite standard enzymatic digestion, AE1:AE3 and CAM 5.2, two of the most currently utilized antikeratin antibody preparations, either stain weakly or fail to stain basal keratinocytes and tumors composed of basaloid keratinocytes in paraffin sections of formalin-fixed tissue. We present here our experience with the monoclonal antibody MNF116 which detects keratins 5, 6, 8, 17, and 19 (DAKO, Carpinteria, CA). We have studied 232 routinely-processed skin lesions with MNF116 and compared the staining with that of AE1:AE3 mixture or CAM 5.2. In normal skin, the staining achieved with MNF116 was particularly strong on the basal cells of the epidermis and adnexae. MNF116 was positive in all 154 epithelial tumors and negative in all but one (a leiomyosarcoma) of 78 mesenchymal and melanocytic tumors. AE1:AE3 mixture was positive in all but four poorly-differentiated squamous cell carcinomas and it was only weakly positive in most basal cell carcinomas. CAM 5.2 was positive in tumors of the sweat apparatus, Merkel cell carcinomas, metastatic carcinomas, and 5/15 basal cell carcinomas. We consider that, in routinely processed specimens, MNF116 is very useful and convenient for detection of cytokeratin expression in cutaneous lesions, and therefore helpful in the evaluation of tumors with small cells and other poorly differentiated neoplasms of the skin.
New infinite families of exact sums of squares formulas, Jacobi elliptic functions, and Ramanujan’s tau function

In this paper, we give two infinite families of explicit exact formulas that generalize Jacobi’s (1829) 4 and 8 squares identities to 4n2 or 4n(n + 1) squares, respectively, without using cusp forms. Our 24 squares identity leads to a different formula for Ramanujan’s tau function τ(n), when n is odd. These results arise in the setting of Jacobi elliptic functions, Jacobi continued fractions, Hankel or Turanian determinants, Fourier series, Lambert series, inclusion/exclusion, Laplace expansion formula for determinants, and Schur functions. We have also obtained many additional infinite families of identities in this same setting that are analogous to the η-function identities in appendix I of Macdonald’s work [Macdonald, I. G. (1972) Invent. Math. 15, 91–143]. A special case of our methods yields a proof of the two conjectured [Kac, V. G. and Wakimoto, M. (1994) in Progress in Mathematics, eds. Brylinski, J.-L., Brylinski, R., Guillemin, V. & Kac, V. (Birkhauser Boston, Boston, MA), Vol. 123, pp. 415–456] identities involving representing a positive integer by sums of 4n2 or 4n(n + 1) triangular numbers, respectively. Our 16 and 24 squares identities were originally obtained via multiple basic hypergeometric series, Gustafson’s Cl nonterminating 6φ5 summation theorem, and Andrews’ basic hypergeometric series proof of Jacobi’s 4 and 8 squares identities. We have (elsewhere) applied symmetry and Schur function techniques to this original approach to prove the existence of similar infinite families of sums of squares identities for n2 or n(n + 1) squares, respectively. Our sums of more than 8 squares identities are not the same as the formulas of Mathews (1895), Glaisher (1907), Ramanujan (1916), Mordell (1917, 1919), Hardy (1918, 1920), Kac and Wakimoto, and many others.
Effects of individualized observation with feedback on attending physicians’ clinical teaching

This study examined the effects of a program in which 28 attending physicians’ teaching behaviors were recorded by trained observers for a 5‐day period, the physicians’ teaching effectiveness was rated by learners, and the physicians were provided with recommendations for behavioral change during individual consultations. Fourteen physicians randomly assigned to a treatment group received the consultations 1 to 3 weeks prior to a second round of observations and ratings. The consultations involved feedback to the attending physicians on their observed teaching behavior, their ratings by learners, and the qualitative comments provided by observers and learners. The 14 attending physicians assigned to a control group also received consultations, but not until after the second round of observations and ratings. Data analysis revealed that treatment group members were more likely to change their teaching behaviors than were control group members. There was no difference between the groups on learner ratings o...
Sildenafil stops progressive chamber, cellular, and molecular remodeling and improves calcium handling and function in hearts with pre-existing advanced hypertrophy caused by pressure overload.

Objective: This study sought to test the efficacy of phosphodiesterase type 5A (PDE5A) inhibition for treating advanced hypertrophy/remodeling caused by pressure overload, and to elucidate cellular...
A combined finite element-boundary integral formulation for solution of two-dimensional scattering problems via CGFFT

A novel technique is presented for computing the scattering by two-dimensional structures of arbitrary inhomogeneity. The proposed approach combines the usual finite-element (FE) method with the boundary-integral equation to formulate a discrete system. This is subsequently solved via the conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm. A particular characteristic of the method is the use of rectangular boundaries to enclose the scatterer. Several of the resulting boundary integrals are then convolutions and can be evaluated via the fast Fourier transform (FFT) in the implementation of the CG algorithm. The solution approach presented here offers the principal advantage of having O(N) memory demand and employs a one-dimensional FFT, as against the two-dimensional FFT required in a traditional implementation of the proposed CG-FFT algorithm. The speed of the proposed solution method is compared with that of the traditional CG-FFT algorithm. Results are presented for several rectangular composite cylinders and one perfectly conducting cylinder. These are shown to be in excellent agreement with the moment method. >
Nitrification in three soils amended with zinc sulfate

Abstract Zinc as ZnSO 4 was added to three soils at rates of 0, 10, 100 and 1000 μg Zn g −1 soil. The soils were uniformly treated with 100 μg Ng −1 as nh 4 cl, incubated at 30°C and NH 4 + -N and (NO 3 − + NO 2 − )-N determined weekly for 7 weeks. Nitrification in all three soils was totally inhibited by 1000 μg Zn g −1 . At the 100 μg Zn g −1 rate, nitrification was significantly reduced in two of the three soils during some part of the incubation. This differential effect on nitrification at the 100 μg Zn g −1 rate was related to differences in soil properties. These results imply that, with respect to nitrification, care should-be taken not to apply Zn-containing materials indiscriminately to soils.
Random serial dictatorship and ordinally efficient contracts

For any preference profile at which the random serial dictatorship allocation is ordinally inefficient there exists an ordering exchange contract inducing an ordinally efficient random allocation that ordinally dominates the random serial dictatorship allocation.
Design and evaluation of an external filter technique for exposure equalization in mammography

We are developing an external filter method for equalizing x-ray exposure in the peripheral region of the breast. This method requires the use of only a limited number of custom-built filters for different breast shapes in a given view. This paper describes the design methodology for these external filters. The filter effectiveness was evaluated through a simulation study on 171 mediolateral and 196 craniocaudal view digitized mammograms and through imaging of a breast phantom. The degree of match between the simulated filter and the individual 3-D exposure profiles at the breast periphery was quantified. An analysis was performed to investigate the effect of filter misalignment. The simulation study indicates that the filter is effective in equalizing exposures for more than 80% of the breast images in our database. The tolerance in filter misalignment was estimated to be about +/- 2 mm for the CC view and +/- 1 mm for the MLO view at the image plane. Some misalignment artifacts were demonstrated with simulated filtered mammograms.
Institutionalized ableism and the misguided “Disability Awareness Day”: Transformative pedagogies for teacher education.

Despite acknowledgement among social justice educators about the need to infuse anti-bias lessons in K-12 curricula, discussions of disability oppression are silent in schools. Token efforts at addressing the topic of disability generally manifest as “disability awareness day(s)” and often include “disability simulations,” which have been long condemned by disability rights activists as promoting cultural attitudes that are ableist in nature. In this article, we discuss a qualitative inquiry that examines shifts in the perceptions of graduate students, with regard to the pedagogical use of disability simulations for teaching children about disability. The context of this study is a teacher education course informed by critical disability studies perspectives. The findings indicate transformations in students’ thinking about the ableism implicit in disability simulations. We discuss the implications of this inquiry for social justice education, and suggest ways to prepare educators to disrupt the socio-pol...
A lightweight run-time scheduler for multitasking multicore stream applications

Stream programming models promise dramatic improvements in developers' ability to express parallelism in their applications while enabling extremely efficient implementations on modern many-core processors. Unfortunately, the wide variation in the architectural features of available multi-core processors implies that a single compiler may be incapable of generating general solutions which can run on many target systems, or even on different configurations of the same system. In particular, off-line approaches for finding optimal mappings and schedules for a stream program on a specific processor are limited by their lack of portability across different processors, and by a lack of flexibility for run time variations in resource availability in typical multi-tasking environments. The paper presents a scheme that includes a lightweight compile-time sequencer, and a dynamic scheduler capable of mapping stream programs onto available cores in a multi-core processor at run-time. Unlike previous implementations, our scheme requires limited knowledge of the target architecture's resources at compile time. The off-line portion of the scheme generates canonical scheduling information about the stream program. This information is utilized by the lightweight run-time scheduling algorithm to generate application mappings in linear time based on available resources giving near optimal throughput. Evaluations of schedules generated for twelve streaming benchmarks gives an average of 96% and 93% of the theoretical optimum throughput for schedules with up to 4 and 128 cores, respectively.
Amplitude, Scale, and Spectrum of Refractive Index Inhomogeneities in the First 125 Meters of the Atmosphere

An extensive series of observations was obtained with two refractometers and meteorological equipment installed on various levels of a 128-meter tower at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, New York. One of the refractometers was equipped with a multiple cavity unit for the study of correlation between two positions in the horizontal direction. The errors arising from the exposure of the cavity to the atmosphere and its ventilation were investigated. The amplitude of the refractive index variations could be correlated with various meteorological conditions. From the experimentally determined cross-correlation coefficient, and assuming that its variation with distance is given by the exponential (Taylor) form, scales in the neighborhood of 60 meters were obtained. A crude analysis of the data indicated that the intensity of the refractive index inhomogeneities varied, on the average, as the 1.6 power of their size.
Ensemble contextual bandits for personalized recommendation

The cold-start problem has attracted extensive attention among various online services that provide personalized recommendation. Many online vendors employ contextual bandit strategies to tackle the so-called exploration/exploitation dilemma rooted from the cold-start problem. However, due to high-dimensional user/item features and the underlying characteristics of bandit policies, it is often difficult for service providers to obtain and deploy an appropriate algorithm to achieve acceptable and robust economic profit.In this paper, we explore ensemble strategies of contextual bandit algorithms to obtain robust predicted click-through rate (CTR) of web objects. The ensemble is acquired by aggregating different pulling policies of bandit algorithms, rather than forcing the agreement of prediction results or learning a unified predictive model. To this end, we employ a meta-bandit paradigm that places a hyper bandit over the base bandits, to explicitly explore/exploit the relative importance of base bandits based on user feedbacks. Extensive empirical experiments on two real-world data sets (news recommendation and online advertising) demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach in terms of CTR.
On the nucleation of persistent slip bands in fatigued copper single crystals

Abstract The onset of strain localization in a copper single crystal, oriented for single slip, and cycled at a constant plastic strain amplitude corresponding to the low end of the plateau in the cyclic stress-strain curve, has been explored by inteferometry and analysis of hysteresis loops. Current methods for analyzing behavior early in life are shown to be inadequate, and several new methods, involving the shape of the hysteresis loops, are introduced. Changes in local curvature have been observed throughout rapid hardening, and the nucleation of persistent slip bands is shown to coincide with a basic change in the shape of the hysteresis loops.
The metabolism of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the lobster nervous system--glutamic decarboxylase.

— The glutamic acid decarboxylase has been purified from the lobster central nervous system. Potassium ion (0-075 m) and β-mercaptoethanol (0-025 m) were essential for enzyme activity. Enzyme had about 60 per cent of its optimal activity in the absence of added pyridoxal phosphate. Carbonyl reagents (10−4m-hydroxylamine or amino oxyacetic acid) would abolish this residual activity. The pH optimum of the enzyme was about 8-0. Standard Michaelis-Menten kinetics were applied to the decarboxylation of glutamate and a Km of 0.02 m was calculated. GABA inhibited the reaction (Ki= 1.25 × 10−3m), but the inhibition showed anomalous behaviour when graphed by the method of Lineweaver and Burk (1934). The GABA inhibition resembled competitive inhibition, but curves rather than straight lines intersecting at a common point on the velocity axis were obtained. This effect remains unexplained. Preliminary studies failed to reveal any subunit structure of the enzyme. The sedimentation coefficient (.S20.w) was 6-55 in a sucrose density gradient in an ultracentrifuge. This was unchanged by the addition of any of the agents that influence enzyme activity. The subcellular localization of the decarboxylase was explored in crude homogenates of lobster central nervous system prepared in various ways. The major proportion (about 90 per cent) of the enzyme activity was in the soluble fraction.‘Particulate’enzyme could be prepared, but gentle suspension of this material in buffer liberated most of the activity. A contaminant in the radioactive substrates led to the production of radioactive GABA without the simultaneous evolution of CO2. In this case, GABA production required active enzyme but was not an exclusive property of the glutamic decarboxylase activity.
Polarization-encoded optical shadow casting: Edge detection using roberts operator

Roberts-operator-based edge detection is implemented using polarization-encoded optical shadow casting. The proposed technique yields better results than the previously reported shadow-casting edge detectors. © 1993 John Wiley & sons, Inc.
The Reagan-Era Shift toward Restrictiveness in Old Age Policy in Historical Perspective

For forty years following the passage of the Social Security Act, the United States experienced a liberalization in public policy toward the aged. In the late 1970's, the momentum of this liberalization began to ebb, and by the early 1980's, a shift toward greater restrictiveness was underway. Scholars and journalists often discuss this Reagan-era shift as if it were a unique policy initiative. A case can be made, however, that this is just a recent example of a recurrent pattern of social policy reform and reaction in the history of American politics. This point is illustrated by placing the current policy shift alongside a historically remote period.
Testis function in rhesus monkeys treated with a contraceptive steroid formulation.

Abstract Rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatta ) were treated with testosterone (100μg/kg/day) plus estradiol (0.5μg/kg/day) via subcutaneous polydimethylsiloxane (PDS;Silastic) implants for thirteen months. This steroid regimen inhibited LH but not FSH secretion by the anterior pituitary, inhibited testicular testosterone and estradiol production and drastically reduced the numbers of vigorously motile spermatozoa in the ejacula. Importantly, these effects on testis function were achieved at dosages of testosterone and estradiol which approximate the amount of these two steroids produced daily in normal rhesus males.
Surgical management of gastroparesis: gastrostomy/jejunostomy tubes, gastrectomy, pyloroplasty, gastric electrical stimulation.

Treatment strategies for gastroparesis include surgical therapies, usually reserved for those who have failed diet modification and medical therapy. Enteral feeding is another option, and total parenteral nutrition is used as a last resort. Surgical options include gastrostomy or jejunostomy feeding tubes, pyloroplasty, gastrectomy (subtotal or total), and gastric electrical stimulation. Compelling data in support of surgical therapies to treat gastroparesis are limited. Jones and Maganti 1 reported their
Molecular quantum-dot cellular automata

Molecular electronics is commonly conceived as reproducing diode or transistor action at the molecular level. The quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) approach offers an attractive alternative in which binary information is encoded in the configuration of charge among redox-active molecular sites. The Coulomb interaction between neighboring molecules provides device-device coupling. No current flow between molecules is required. We present an ab initio analysis of a simple molecular system which acts as a molecular QCA cell. The intrinsic bistability of the charge configuration results in dipole or quadrupole fields which couple strongly to the state of neighboring molecules. We show how logic gates can be implemented. We examine the role of the relaxation of nuclear coordinates in the molecular charge reconfiguration.
Multi-objective control optimization for semi-active vehicle suspensions

Abstract In this paper we demonstrate a method for determining the optimality of control algorithms based on multiple performance objectives. While the approach is applicable to a broad range of dynamic systems, this paper focuses on the control of semi-active vehicle suspensions. The two performance objectives considered are ride quality, as measured by absorbed power, and thermal performance, as measured by power dissipated in the suspension damper. A multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) is used to establish the limits of controller performance. To facilitate convergence, the MOGA is initialized with popular algorithms such as skyhook control, feedback linearization, and sliding mode control. The MOGA creates a Pareto frontier of solutions, providing a benchmark for assessing the performance of other controllers in terms of both objectives. Furthermore, the MOGA provides insight into the remaining achievable gains in performance.