cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Northeast Pacific Record of the Cretaceous Marine Gastropod Atira and a Review of its Paleobiogeography

The Cretaceous record of the shallow-marine margaritine gastropod genus Atira Stewart, 1927 in the region extending from Vancouver Island, to northern Baja California is studied in detail for the first time. It is represented by A. popenoei n. sp. (late Turonian to earliest Campanian), A. ornatissima (Gabb, 1864) (latest Santonian to late Campanian or possibly early Maastrichtian), and A. inornata (Gabb, 1864) (“mid” Maastrichtian), which is the youngest known species of Atira.Atira originated in the tropical waters of the Tethys Sea in western Europe as early as the Early Cretaceous, possibly during the Hauterivian but was present there by the late Aptian to early Albian. The genus subsequently immigrated to other regions and became adapted to warm-temperate waters. By the late Turonian it had migrated westward to northern California. During the Campanian it reached south Sakhalin and in the earliest Maastrichtian it was present in southwest Japan. Although Atira? nebrascensis (Meek and Hayden, 1856) has been questionably reported from Campanian to “mid” Maastrichtian deposits in the Wyoming area of the Western Interior Basin, this species does not belong in genus Atira.
Bandwidth formulas for chromatic limitation in optical fibres

Simple formulas for baseband limitation due to chromatic dispersion in LED-based optical systems are derived from the baseband transfer function of Gloge, Ogawa and Cohen.1
“Dip-Pen” Nanolithography in Registry with Photolithography for Biosensor Development

“Dip-pen” nanolithography (DPN) was used to deposit molecules of interest onto silicon oxide surfaces grown by a number of different deposition techniques and prepared by photolithography and wet-chemical etching. Using this method, layers of fluorescently tagged silazanes were placed within 50 nm of micrometer-scale features with a 50 nm resolution on oxide substrates. It was also shown that these distances are even smaller when thiol molecules are used with Au substrates. Furthermore, proteins are immobilized on the silicon oxide substrates with sub-micrometer resolution.
A high-affinity iron transport system of Rhizobium meliloti may be required for efficient nitrogen fixation in planta

We have analyzed the ability of single site insertion mutants of Rhizobium meliloti 1021 defective in various components of a high-affinity iron transport system to produce nodules, fix nitogen and promote plant growth. Our results indicate that a high-affinity iron transport system may significantly increase the ability of the differentiated form of the bacterium to fix nitrogen and induce an increase in plant growth.
Letting go before a death: a concept analysis.

Title. Letting go before a death: a concept analysis Aim. This paper is a report of a concept analysis of letting go within the context of family caregivers and end-of-life care. Background. The term ‘letting go’ has been used in an informal manner by nurses and other clinicians working with patients and families with terminal illnesses to depict a lack of acceptance of a loved one’s impending death. Data sources. The CINAHL, Ovid Medline and PsychInfo databases were searched for the period of 1995–2007 for literature published in English in peer-reviewed journals from a variety of disciplines, using the specific keywords letting go or to let go. Methods. The Walker and Avant method of concept analysis was used, and the study was guided by Zerwekh’s family caregiving model of core competencies for hospice nurses. Results. Letting go before the death of a loved one involves a shift in thinking in which there is acknowledgement of impending loss without impeding its natural progression. An emotional attachment and recognition that everything has been carried out usually precede the concept, followed by a peaceful death and acknowledgement of change. Conclusion. The concept of letting go has been explored in many contexts but the core essence of the awareness and work towards the acceptance of an impending loss appears to be a universal domain. Research is needed to further explore and identify patterns of this phenomenon in family caregivers in the context of death of a loved one.
Surveying the Dying: Medical Epidemiology and the Terminally Ill

Epidemiologists have determined that in Mexico most persons with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis will die within 2 to 3 years of their diagnosis. As physicians, we are left to do the only thing we ca...
Hydrocarbon status in Florida real estate canals

Abstract The level of hydrocarbons present in the sediments of real estate canals on the east and west coast of Florida was determined using gas chromatography. Although the amount of alkanes present was found to be comparatively low, the ratio of the amount of odd carbon-numbered alkanes to even carbon-numbered alkanes suggested that canals on the Gulf of Mexico are receiving an influx of petroleum products. In addition, the most probable number technique was used to enumerate total aerobic heterotrophic bacteria, aerobic hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, sulfate reducing bacteria, and sulfate-reducing hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria present in the canal sediments. Results showed significantly higher numbers of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in the sediments of the west coast canals.
Direct en face imaging of secundum atrial septal defects by velocity-encoded cardiovascular magnetic resonance in patients evaluated for possible transcatheter closure.

Background— Atrial septal defect (ASD) flow can be measured indirectly by velocity-encoded cardiovascular magnetic resonance (veCMR) of the pulmonary artery and aorta. Imaging the secundum ASD en face could potentially enable direct flow measurement and provide valuable information about ASD size, shape, location, and proximity to other structures. Methods and Results— Forty-four patients referred for possible transcatheter ASD closure underwent a comprehensive standard evaluation, including transesophageal and/or intracardiac echocardiography and invasive oximetry. CMR was performed in parallel and included direct en face veCMR after an optimal double-oblique imaging plane was determined that accounted for ASD flow direction and cardiac-cycle interatrial septal motion. ASD flow measured by direct en face veCMR correlated better with invasive oximetry than indirect (pulmonary artery and aorta) veCMR ( r =0.80 versus r =0.66). Additionally, 95% limits of agreement were narrower (±3.9 versus ±5.1 L/min). En face veCMR determined that defects usually were eccentrically shaped (major/minor axis length >1.5) rather than circular, with 16% having extreme eccentricity (major/minor >2.0). Overall, ASD size by both veCMR and intracardiac echocardiography correlated with final device size; however, in small to medium defects (<3 cm2) and extremely eccentric defects, veCMR correlated better with final device size than did intracardiac echocardiography. Importantly, CMR identified additional information in 9 patients (20%) that altered clinical management. Specifically, en face veCMR detected additional defects (n=3), large ASD with insufficient rim tissue (n=2), and sinus venosus defect with anomalous pulmonary vein (n=1). Cine and/or morphological imaging detected interrupted inferior vena cava (n=2) and sinus of Valsalva aneurysm (n=1). Conclusions— En face veCMR with an optimized imaging plane can determine ASD flow, size, and morphology. CMR provided information incremental to comprehensive standard evaluation that altered clinical management in 20% of patients. Received February 13, 2008; accepted May 16, 2008.
Parental and Marital Role Stress During the School Entry Transition

Three issues related to the oldest child's school entry transition were addressed. Retrospective reports of parents' initial response to their oldest child's school entry were contrasted with their responses three months later, revealing a significant decline in parental and marital role stress for mothers and a significant decline in parental role stress for fathers. Mothers reported significantly more parental and marital role stress at school entry than fathers. A second analysis, addressing relationships between demographic variables and parents' initial response to their child's school entry, identified the child's previous experience in pre-school as significantly related to stress for both parents, and level of education and being married previously as significantly related to fathers' stress. The final issue, predicting changes in parents' stress following a three-month period of adjustment, revealed that selected demographic and communication variables were significant predictors.
Do the Duration and Frequency of Physical Education Predict Academic Achievement, Self-Concept, Social Skills, Food Consumption, and Body Mass Index?.

Objective:Prior research on the efficacy of physical education has been conducted in a piecemeal fashion. More specifically, studies typically test a single benefit hypothesized to be associated with physical education (e.g. body mass index [BMI]) while excluding others (e.g. social skills) and not controlling for important confounds (e.g. diet). Such research designs have precluded a comprehensive evaluation of physical education, and may also help explain mixed findings reported in the literature. The purpose of this study, then, was to re-evaluate the efficacy of participation in physical education through a more robust model that considers BMI, academic achievement, self-concept, and social skills while controlling for poor diet and out-of-school activities (i.e. television viewing, sleep, and general activity levels).Design, Setting, and Method:Structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted on data derived from a sample of 10,210 fifth graders in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.Results:Nati...
Observation-based evaluation of hand hygiene practices and the effects of an intervention at a public hospital cafeteria.

Background Hand hygiene is important before meals, especially in a hospital cafeteria where patrons may have had recent contact with infectious agents. Few interventions to improve hand hygiene have had measureable success. This study was designed to use a poster intervention to encourage hand hygiene among health care workers (HCWs) and hospital visitors (HVs) upon entry to a hospital cafeteria. Methods Over a 5-week period, a poster intervention with an accessible hand sanitizer unit was deployed to improve hand hygiene in a hospital cafeteria. The dependent variable observed was hand hygiene attempts. Study phases included a baseline, intervention, and follow-up phase, with each consisting of 3 randomized days of observation for 3 hours during lunch. Results During the 27 hours of observation, 5,551 participants were observed, and overall hand hygiene frequency was 4.79%. Hygiene attempts occurred more frequently by HCWs than HVs ( P = .0008) and females than males ( P = .0281). Hygiene attempts occurred more frequently after poster introduction than baseline ( P = .0050), and this improvement was because of an increase in frequency of HV hand hygiene rather than HCW hand hygiene. Conclusion The poster intervention tool with easily accessible hand sanitizer can improve overall hand hygiene performance in a US hospital cafeteria.
CREB1 Encodes a Nuclear Activator, a Repressor, and a Cytoplasmic Modulator that Form a Regulatory Unit Critical for Long-Term Facilitation

Although CREB seems to be important for memory formation, it is not known which of the isoforms of CREB, CREM, or ATF1 are expressed in the neurons that undergo long-term synaptic changes and what roles they have in memory formation. We have found a single Aplysia CREB1 gene homologous to both mammalian CREB and CREM and have characterized in the sensory neurons that mediate gill-withdrawal reflex the expression and function of the three proteins that it encodes: CREB1a, CREB1b, and CREB1c. CREB1a is a transcriptional activator that is both necessary and, upon phosphorylation, sufficient for long-term facilitation. CREB1b is a repressor of long-term facilitation. Cytoplasmic CREB1c modulates both the short- and long-term facilitation. Thus, in the sensory neurons, CREB1 encodes a critical regulatory unit converting short- to long-term synaptic changes.
Finely integrated media for language learning

FLUENT, an immersive foreign-language learning environment, was developed without recourse to hypermedia techniques. Nevertheless, if one accepts the premisses, proposed in this paper, on which the idea of hypermedia has been constructed, FLUENT shows a strong relationship with it. The paper discusses this relationship after attempting to distil the essence of educational hypermedia, and after presenting a taxonomy of media for language learning. DOI: 10.1080/0968776930010107
Properties of an antibody to Kelevan isolated by affinity chromatography: Antibody reactivation of ATPase activities inhibited by pesticides

Abstract Antibody molecules were produced by injection of BSA-Kelevan into chickens and rabbits. Pure antibody was obtained by a single pass of blood serum through an affinity column. The affinity gel was prepared by covalently binding BGG-Kelevan to activated Sepharose 4B-CN. Purity of the antibody was determined by ultracentrifugation and gel electrophoresis. Properties of the antibody included: sedimentation coefficient = 6.2, pI = 7.0, calculated MW = 150,000, and precipitin band formation using the microouchterlony test. The antibodies in free or immobilized form were able to prevent or reverse Kepone inhibition of ATPase activity from a variety of tissues from different sources. About 70 μg (approx 0.4 μM) of purified antibody was sufficient to restore the activity of mitochondrial (oligomycin-sensitive) Mg2+ ATPase activity which had been inhibited (in vitro) by 1 μM Kepone. The antibody was effective in preventing enzyme inhibition by other organochlorine pesticides with widely differing molecular structures. However, nonchlorinated inhibitors of mitochondrial oligomycin-sensitive Mg2+ ATPase activity were much less affected by the antibody. The available evidence suggests that the antibody binding site for the hapten may be specific for secondary or induced bonding forces due to the carbon-chlorine bonds rather than for a specific molecular structure.
Tools for the Conceptual Design and Engineering Analysis of Micro Air Vehicles

Abstract : Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) are a subset of Unmanned Aircraft (UAS) that are up to two orders of magnitude smaller than manned systems. Near-Earth environments, such as forests, caves, tunnels and urban structures make reconnaissance, surveillance and search-and-rescue missions difficult and dangerous to accomplish. Therefore, MAVs are considered ideal for these types of missions. However, the data using full size aircraft is inadequate to characterize miniature aircraft parameters due to the lower Reynolds numbers and low aspect ratio (LAR) wings and impact of wing-propeller interactions. The main objectives of this research were to: collect and synthesize the available data/tools; create a statistically integrated database/tool set of MAV designs for conceptual design trades; validate the tool set using published experimental data; synthesize and model a prototype design using conceptual and empirical analysis; highlight MAV-specific design criteria and identify gaps in existing data for later research. The following design tools have constituted the starting point for creating a demonstration tool-set for MAV design: Digital DATCOM (aerodynamics), Athena Vortex Lattice (AVL) (stability and control), QPROP (propeller, motor, and energy requirement), MATLAB (various applications), Microsoft Excel (power/battery modeling) and Phoenix Integration ModelCenter (MC) as the executive control program (integration, sizing and trade studies). Validation cases were completed for the current level of the single-prop, fixed-wing design tool. A coaxial MAV prototype was evaluated and some parametric studies were conducted for QPROP performance.
The role of process variables in laser-based direct metal solid freeform fabrication

A fundamental understanding of how process variables relate to deposit characteristics is essential for solid freeform fabrication (SFF) process control. In this article, recent research into modeling and understanding solidification-related phenomena in laser-based direct metal SFF processes is summarized. A “process map” approach is outlined, which provides nonlinear thermomechanical model results for key deposit characteristics over the full range of relevant process variables. Process maps for predicting melt pool size, thermal gradients and maximum residual stress in thin-walled structures are presented, and process-related insights from them are described. Work underway to develop additional process maps, including those for microstructural control, is also summarized.
Vascular Superoxide Dismutase Deficiency Impairs Endothelial Vasodilator Function Through Direct Inactivation of Nitric Oxide and Increased Lipid Peroxidation

Abstract Nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide are both constitutive products of the endothelium. Because NO is readily inactivated by superoxide, the bioactivity of endothelium-derived NO (EDNO) is dependent on local activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD). We examined the effects of chronic inhibition of copper-zinc SOD (CuZnSOD) using a rat model of dietary copper restriction. Male weanling Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a Cu-deficient diet and received either no Cu replacement (Cu-deficient) or Cu in the drinking water (Cu-sufficient). Compared with Cu-sufficient animals, Cu-deficiency was associated with a 68% reduction in CuZnSOD activity and a 58% increase in vascular superoxide as estimated by lucigenin chemiluminescence (both P P P 2 -isoprostanes, a stable marker of lipid peroxidation, that correlated inversely with arterial relaxation to acetylcholine ( R =−.83; P
Competing exotic topological insulator phases in transition-metal oxides on the pyrochlore lattice with distortion

In this work we investigate the phase diagram of heavy ($4d$ and $5d$) transition-metal oxides on the pyrochlore lattice, such as those of the form ${\mathrm{A}}_{2}{\mathrm{M}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{7}$, where A is a rare-earth element and M is a transition-metal element. We focus on the competition between Coulomb interaction, spin-orbit coupling, and lattice distortion when these energy scales are comparable. Strong spin-orbit coupling entangles the spin and the ${t}_{2g}$ $d$ orbitals giving rise to doublet $j=1/2$ and quadruplet $j=3/2$ states. In contrast to previous works which focused on the doublet manifold, we also discuss the quadruplet manifold which is relevant for several pyrochlore oxides. The Coulomb interaction is taken into account by use of the slave-rotor mean-field theory and different classes of lattice distortions which further split the levels of the quadruplet $j=3/2$ manifold are studied. Various topological phases are predicted, including exotic strong and weak topological Mott insulating phases. We discuss the general structure of the phase diagram for several values of $d$-shell filling and various symmetry classes of lattice distortions. Our results are relevant to the search for exotic topological insulators and quantum spin liquids in strongly correlated materials with strong spin-orbit coupling.
Characterization of Airborne Molds, Endotoxins, and Glucans in Homes in New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

In August and September 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused breeches in the New Orleans, LA, levee system, resulting in catastrophic flooding. The city remained flooded for several weeks, leading to extraordinary mold growth in homes. To characterize the potential risks of mold exposures, we measured airborne molds and markers of molds and bacteria in New Orleans area homes. In October 2005, we collected air samples from 5 mildly water-damaged houses, 15 moderately to heavily water-damaged houses, and 11 outdoor locations. The air filters were analyzed for culturable fungi, spores, (1→3,1→6)-β-d-glucans, and endotoxins. Culturable fungi were significantly higher in the moderately/heavily water-damaged houses (geometric mean = 67,000 CFU/m3) than in the mildly water-damaged houses (geometric mean = 3,700 CFU/m3) (P = 0.02). The predominant molds found were Aspergillus niger, Penicillium spp., Trichoderma, and Paecilomyces. The indoor and outdoor geometric means for endotoxins were 22.3 endotoxin units (EU)/m3 and 10.5 EU/m3, respectively, and for (1→3,1→6)-β-d-glucans were 1.7 μg/m3 and 0.9 μg/m3, respectively. In the moderately/heavily water-damaged houses, the geometric means were 31.3 EU/m3 for endotoxins and 1.8 μg/m3 for (1→3,1→6)-β-d-glucans. Molds, endotoxins, and fungal glucans were detected in the environment after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans at concentrations that have been associated with health effects. The species and concentrations were different from those previously reported for non-water-damaged buildings in the southeastern United States.
ULTRASONOGRAPHIC DIAGNOSIS OF HYDRONEPHROSIS IN A COW

A ruptured right kidney was diagnosed in a cow with clinical signs of mild intermittent abdominal pain and no laboratory evidence of renal failure. Ultrasonography of the kidneys demonstrated unilateral hydronephrosis and retroperitoneal fluid. A unilateral nephrectomy using a staple instrument was performed. Ultrasonographic evaluation allowed an early and accurate diagnosis with subsequent successful surgical intervention and treatment.
Prospective study of brief neuropsychological measures to assess crash risk in older primary care patients.

BACKGROUND Practicing primary care physicians often encounter the difficult clinical situation of evaluating the older driver. We wanted to investigate the relation between self-reported driving behavior, neuropsychological measures, and crash risk to inform the development of a test battery that could predict unsafe driving behavior and was feasible for use by primary care physicians. METHODS This study was a prospective follow-up of 107 drivers aged 65 years and older recruited from a primary care setting in 1995. Tests of attention, visual information processing, spatial orientation, and general mental status were administered at baseline. At baseline and after 2 years of follow-up, patients were asked about their driving history using the driving questionnaire. Risk for reported crashes in the follow-up period was assessed in relation to baseline driving history and measures of cognition. RESULTS Baseline self-reports of driving habits and attitudes were associated with an increased risk of reporting a crash after 2 years of follow-up (relative risk ratio = 5.31; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.63, 44.63). In addition, baseline tests of attention, visual information processing, and spatial orientation were associated with an increased risk of reporting motor vehicle crash at follow-up. For example, respondents with poor performance on the Trail Making Test-part A, were almost four times more likely to report a crash at follow-up (risk ratio = 3.15; 95% CI, 0.76, 13.07). CONCLUSION Although our conclusions are tempered by small sample size, this preliminary study suggests that brief cognitive tests and simple questions about driving habits warrant further investigation as indicators of crash risk with potential utility for assessing older drivers in primary care.
AN INFLUENCE OF PLOIDY ON THE TIME OF EXPRESSION OF DOMINANT LETHAL MUTATIONS IN HABROBRACON

HEN Habrobracon eggs are X-rayed at metaphase I and subsequently fertiwlized, the decreased hatchability is attributed to dominant lethal mutation, in the same sense in which the term is used when sperm are irradiated. This is justified by WHITING'S demonstration (1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1955) that cytoplasmic injury is not lethal at the doses employed. In unfertilized eggs, which develop as haploids, both dominant and recessive lethals are expressed, whereas only the dominant effects are expressed in the diploid zygotes. Hence the viable proportion should, in general, be increased if the eggs are fertilized after irradiation. An early experiment of WHITING (19458) showed dominant lethality to be the most frequent consequence of X irradiation of the oocytes, and the expected difference due to recessive lethals was not statistically significant. In further experiments, to be reported here, significant differences have been found, and these can theoretically be used to estimate the frequency of recessive lethals. This frequency can also be obtained by HEIDENTHAL'S method (1952), a test for heterozygosity of the FI females. Thus the recessive embryo lethals induced in oocytes can be estimated from two different data; first, from the daerence in hatchability of fertilized and unfertilized eggs, and second, from the proportion of FI females found by later testing to be heterozygous for such recessive lethals. When these two estimates are made within the same experiment, a curious discrepancy is noted: the apparent frequency of recessive embryo lethals is much greater by the first than by the second method. It will be shown that the disagreement results from the presence of a class of dominant lethals expressed before hatching in haploids, but after hatching in diploids. This leads to underestimation of the dominant lethality in diploids, and a corresponding overestimate of recessive lethals when the hatchabilities of haploids and diploids are compared after irradiation in metaphase I. When eggs are irradiated while in prophase, no such discrepancy is observed. This indicates a somewhat different basis for dominant lethality, depending on the stage irradiated. Aside from the delayed expression of certain dominant lethals, no anomalous effect of the unirradiated chromosome set need be assumed in order to explain the results. Thus it is shown that the introduction of an unirradiated chromosome set, within the time limitations of the technique, does not change the frequency of dominant or recessive lethal mutations in an irradiated set. Although this point may at first seem trivial, on closer scrutinyit Work performed under contract no. W-7405-eng-26 for the United States Atomic Energy Com
Making an Informed Vehicle Scrappage Decision

Abstract According to the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the number of publicly owned vehicles in the USA reached 3 913 999 in 2003. In order to maintain a stable vehicle fleet, government agencies must repeatedly make vehicle scrappage decisions because older vehicles must first retire to make room for newer vehicles. Typically, these decisions are made based on a deterministic ranking evaluation model to select candidate vehicles for replacement. The paper applied an objective and probabilistic method to a vehicle dataset collected by the DuPage County Forest Preserve District ((DCFPD), in the state of Illinois). A Weibull‐form survival model with time‐varying covariate and unobserved heterogeneity was estimated on the dataset. The results suggest that in addition to the fact that vehicle age is negatively related to the vehicle’s survival probability, there are other variables that also appear influential. The survival probabilities of alternative fuel vehicles are similar to those of reform...
Mixing entropy and product recycling

In this paper, we explore the relationship between the mixture of materials used in a product and the extent of end-of-life materials recycling from retired products in the United States. This is done for 14 common products, which are either widely recycled or not recycled. The results demonstrate the utility of using a normalized mixing entropy measure, identical to Shannon information, to resolve the products that are recycled and not recycled. The success of this measure is explained by outlining an analogy between recycling systems and communications theory. Two key observations are required: 1) the same axioms which establish Shannon information, "H", as a measure of the information content of a message, can also apply to a measure of mixing for materials, and 2) just as message codes can be represented as tree diagrams, so too can recycling systems. Using a well known communications theory result, Shannon's noiseless coding theorem, this analogy shows that "H" for material mixtures represents a reasonable lower bound on the cost of separation.
A Quantum Mechanical Molecular Dynamics Study of Binary Collisions of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN): Its Correlation to Shock Sensitivity

We have carried out semi-empirical quantum mechanical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations involving collisions of two pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) molecules at different molecular orientations and at several intermolecular separations. The common features of reactive scattering among all molecular orientations are (1) the dissociation mechanism of PETN remains unimolecular and (2) the dominant reaction channel is the breaking of an ONO2 bond. However, the probability of collision-induced decomposition of PETN depends strongly on initial conditions, in agreement with the experimentally observed sensitivity of shock-initiated detonation in bulk PETN along different crystalline orientations. In addition, the next most frequent reaction path shows a dependence on initial orientations.
Attentional mechanisms of borderline personality disorder

We consider whether disruption of a specific neural circuit related to self-regulation is an underlying biological deficit in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Because patients with BPD exhibit a poor ability to regulate negative affect, we hypothesized that brain mechanisms thought to be involved in such self-regulation would function abnormally even in situations that seem remote from the symptoms exhibited by these patients. To test this idea, we compared the efficiency of attentional networks in BPD patients with controls who were matched to the patients in having very low self-reported effortful control and very high negative emotionality and controls who were average in these two temperamental dimensions. We found that the patients exhibited significantly greater difficulty in their ability to resolve conflict among stimulus dimensions in a purely cognitive task than did average controls but displayed no deficit in overall reaction time, errors, or other attentional networks. The temperamentally matched group did not differ significantly from either group. A significant correlation was found between measures of the ability to control conflict in the reaction-time task and self-reported effortful control.
Variations in Tropical Cyclone Genesis Factors in Simulations of the Holocene Epoch

The thermodynamic factors related to tropical cyclone genesis are examined in several simulations of the middle part of the Holocene epoch when the precession of Earth’s orbit altered the seasonal distribution of solar radiation and in one transient simulation of the millennium preceding the industrial era. The thermodynamicpropertiesmostcrucialforgenesisdisplayabroadstabilityacrossbothperiods,althoughbothorbital variations during the mid-Holocene (MH) 6000 years ago (6ka) and volcanic eruptions in the transient simulation have detectable effects. It is shown that the distribution of top-of-the-atmosphere radiation 6ka altered the Northern Hemisphere seasonal cycle of the potential intensity of tropical cyclones in addition to slightly increasing the difference between middle tropospheric and boundary layer entropy, a parameter that has been related to the incubation period required for genesis. The Southern Hemisphere, which receives more solar radiation during its storm season today than it did 6ka, displays slightly more favorable thermodynamic properties during the MH than in the preindustrial era control. Surface temperatures over the ocean in both hemispheres respond to radiation anomalies more slowly than those in upper levels, altering the thermal stability. Volcanism produces a sharp but transient temperature response in the last-millennium simulation that stronglyreducespotentialintensityduringthe seasonsimmediatelyfollowingamajor eruption.Here, too, the differential vertical temperature response is key: temperatures in the lower and middle troposphere cool, while those near the tropopause rise. Aside from these deviations, there is no substantial variation in thermodynamic properties over the 1000-yr simulation.
A review of urban computing for mobile phone traces: current methods, challenges and opportunities

In this work, we present three classes of methods to extract information from triangulated mobile phone signals, and describe applications with different goals in spatiotemporal analysis and urban modeling. Our first challenge is to relate extracted information from phone records (i.e., a set of time-stamped coordinates estimated from signal strengths) with destinations by each of the million anonymous users. By demonstrating a method that converts phone signals into small grid cell destinations, we present a framework that bridges triangulated mobile phone data with previously established findings obtained from data at more coarse-grained resolutions (such as at the cell tower or census tract levels). In particular, this method allows us to relate daily mobility networks, called motifs here, with trip chains extracted from travel diary surveys. Compared with existing travel demand models mainly relying on expensive and less-frequent travel survey data, this method represents an advantage for applying ubiquitous mobile phone data to urban and transportation modeling applications. Second, we present a method that takes advantage of the high spatial resolution of the triangulated phone data to infer trip purposes by examining semantic-enriched land uses surrounding destinations in individual's motifs. In the final section, we discuss a portable computational architecture that allows us to manage and analyze mobile phone data in geospatial databases, and to map mobile phone trips onto spatial networks such that further analysis about flows and network performances can be done. The combination of these three methods demonstrate the state-of-the-art algorithms that can be adapted to triangulated mobile phone data for the context of urban computing and modeling applications.
The effects of high detection probabilities on model selection in paired release-recapture studies in the era of electronic tagging studies

Acoustic-tag studies with their high to very high detection rates defy traditional statistical wisdom regarding analysis of tagging studies. Conventional wisdom has been to use a parsimonious model with the fewest parameters that adequately describes the data to estimate survival parameters in release-recapture studies in order to find a reasonable trade-off between precision and accuracy. This quest has generated considerable debate in the statistical community on how to best accomplish this task. Among the debated options are likelihood ratio tests, Bayesian information criterion, Akaike information criterion, and model averaging. Our Monte Carlo simulation studies of paired release-recapture, acoustic-tag investigations indicate precision is the same if a fully parameterized or a reduced parameter model is used for data analysis if detection probabilities are very high. In addition, the fully parameterized model is robust to heterogeneous survival and detection processes, while a reduced parameter model may be sensitive to misspecification. Use fully parameterized, paired release-recapture models when detection probabilities are very high (≥0.90) to analyze acoustic-tagging data in order to retain both robustness and precision, and without the subjectivity and ambiguity introduced by the choice and application of model selection techniques.
Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Alternator using printed circuit board stators

Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Alternators (AFPMA) are a popular choice for small-scale off-grid wind turbine applications. Many off-grid wind power systems are home-built by energy conscience hobbyists. Building alternators of this type often require stators to also be built from scratch. The task of winding stators for an axial flux alternator is tedious and complicated. Recently, printed circuit board stators have appeared in the market place. The performance of these radical new stators has, until now, been unknown. It was the purpose of this research to build and test an AFPMA using these new stators and compare the results, specifically output power, to alternators of similar size using traditional wound stators.
Differential Alteration of the Reproductive Axis by Testosterone and Estrogen in Peripubertal and Adult Male Siberian Hamsters (Phodopus sungorus)

In male Siberian hamsters, administration of adult physiological levels of testosterone (T) and estrogen (E2) to juveniles inhibited pubertal onset by distinct pathways. It is presently unclear if T and E2 also exert an inhibitory effect on the reproductive function of sexually mature and sexually maturing hamsters. This study aims to determine if there is an age-dependent decline in the sensitivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis to these inhibitory steroids and if their actions remain distinct. Peripubertal and adult male Siberian hamsters were implanted with a silastic capsule containing T, E2, or cholesterol (Ch, control). Testosterone treatment significantly reduced testes mass and length and impaired spermatogenesis in both ages. In contrast, E2 treatment reduced testes mass only in peripubertal, but not adult, animals. In fact, E2 treatment significantly increased testes mass in adults without altering spermatogenesis. In addition, circulating E2 is very high immediately prior to pubertal onset and declines thereafter. Our results showed the inhibitory effects of T persist into adulthood whereas those of E2 subside as the animals become sexually mature. The decreased sensitivity of the HPG axis to the inhibitory effects of E2 in adult animals and the high level of circulating E2 immediately prior to pubertal onset suggest E2 may play an important role in the regulation of puberty in this species.
Histomorphological evaluation of loaded plate-form and root-form implants in Macaca mulatta monkeys.

Abstract: As part of a long-term evaluation of endosteal dental implants in primates, this paper describes the histological response to plate-form and root-form implants. Thirty-six primates received 48 mandibular distal abutment implants. After healing, the implants were restored with fixed partial dentures, which remained in function for two years. A subset of the group was ligated at the gingival sulcus to biologically stress tissues supporting the implants. Crestal bone height around implants was quantified using digital subtraction radiographic techniques. The ligated implants lost more crestal bone than non-ligated implants, as shown by ANOVA (P < 0.05). After retrieval, implants were embedded and sectioned for histomorphometric analysis including measurement of per cent osseointegration. Both plate-form and root-form non-ligated implants demonstrated about 60% osseointegration. When ligated, plate-form implants dropped to an average integration of only 34%, while root-form implants maintained 62% integration, a significant difference. These data show that in this primate model, plate-form and root-form implants maintained integration while in function for two years. When stressed with ligation, root-form implants maintained relative amounts of osseointegration, while per cent osseointegration of plate-form implants decreased.
Relay the Right Way: Harnessing Heterogeneity in Sequential Team Production

How a manager chooses to organize teams is a question with substantial efficiency implications. This study reports evidence on how ordering of heterogenous team members impacts productivity and free riding in a sequential production task. A laboratory experiment permits exogenous reordering of team members by cost of contribution. Analyses suggest that team productivity is higher when low cost team members lead and less variable when low cost members both precede and follow high cost members (e.g., the conventional relay team order). Additionally, team members are found to respond in-kind to the contributions of both predecessors and successors. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fast computation of 3D inhomogeneous scattered field using a discrete BCG-FFT algorithm

In this paper, we present a discrete formulation for solving the 3D scattering problems. The scattered fields from dielectric scatterers with arbitrary geometry are modeled using integral equation with equivalent sources. The inhomogeneity of the parameter of the scatterer is approximated by a set of 3D simple functions. The total field is represented by a set of local basis functions. A Galerkin testing formulation is applied and no approximation is made to the differential operators involved in the integral equation except for the projection of the unknown field and the operators onto the subspace spanned by the basis functions. It will be shown that the testing formulation can be represented by a multi-input and multi-output system with known linear kernels. The kernels are discretized using the rooftop basis functions and they are independent of the scattering configuration and the incident waves. Consequently, for a given sampling rate per wavelength, one need only evaluate once the kernels whose storage is of order N. The problem of solving the integral equation is similar to the deconvolution problem where the unknown fields inside the scatterers are modulated with the dielectric permittivity distribution.
Effectiveness of a smoking cessation program for peripheral artery disease patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives This study tested the effectiveness of a smoking cessation program designed for patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). Background Tobacco use is the leading risk factor for PAD incidence and progression and for ischemic events. Tobacco cessation reduces PAD-related morbidity and mortality, yet few prospective clinical trials have evaluated smoking cessation interventions in PAD patients. Methods We recruited outpatients with lower extremity PAD identified from medical records as cigarette smokers. Participants were randomly assigned to an intensive tailored PAD-specific counseling intervention or a minimal intervention. Participants completed surveys at baseline and at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Reported 7-day point prevalent smoking abstinence was confirmed by cotinine or carbon monoxide assessment. Results In all, 687 outpatients were identified as probable smokers with lower extremity PAD; 232 met study eligibility requirements; and 124 (53% of eligible) enrolled. Participants were receptive to counselor contact: the median number of sessions was 8.5 (range 0 to 18). Participants randomly assigned to the intensive intervention group were significantly more likely to be confirmed abstinent at 6-month follow-up: 21.3% versus 6.8% in the minimal intervention group (chi-square = 5.21, p = 0.023). Conclusions Many long-term smokers with PAD are willing to initiate a serious quit attempt and to engage in an intensive smoking cessation program. Intensive intervention for tobacco dependence is a more effective smoking cessation intervention than minimal care. Studies should be conducted to examine the long-term effectiveness of intensive smoking cessation programs in this population to examine the effect of this intervention on clinical outcomes related to PAD.
Failure of alglucerase infused into Gaucher disease patients to localize in marrow macrophages.

Gaucher disease is a common glycolipid storage disease, caused by a deficiency of lysosomal β-glucosidase (glucocerebrosidase). Alglucerase is a form of glucocerebrosidase enriched with terminal mannose moieties, so as to “target” the preparation to the high-affinilty macrophage receptor in patients with Gaucher disease. Our earlier in vitro studies indicated that alglucerase was bound by cells other than macrophages by a widely distributed, low-affinity mannose receptor. Bone was removed at surgery from six patients with Gaucher disease; in three cases, bone was obtainable both when the patient was untreated and after receiving an infusion of alglucerase. Four samples of bone were obtained from patients without Gaucher disease and served as controls. A bone marrow aspirate was obtained from another patient with Gaucher disease immediately after enzyme infusion. Marrow β-glucosidase activity and chitotriosidase (a macrophage marker) was determined on all samples. Even with the large bolus doses used for the treatment of Gaucher disease by some, scarcely any β-glucosidase activity was found in marrow samples; the amount of the enzyme was much less than would have been anticipated had the enzyme been evenly distributed to all body cells. Alglucerase is not targeted to marrow macrophages. Its unquestioned therapeutic effectiveness must be due either to its activity at some site other than marrow macrophages or to the fact that the doses administered are so enormous that even a small fraction is sufficient to achieve a therapeutic effect.
Advertising appeals across varying economic and regulatory conditions: A longitudinal content analysis in the mutual fund industry

This research investigates the relationship between the utilization of various appeals in mutual fund advertisements and prevailing market, and regulatory conditions during the period 2000—2009. Mutual fund firms promote their investment products utilizing an array of advertising appeals, including those that highlight performance, product and consistency. We hypothesize that the application of these appeals varies over time and according to market conditions. In addition, the research considers the 2007 regulatory efforts mandating the inclusion of mutual fund expense information in advertisements that promote fund performance. A longitudinal content analysis is utilized to survey the presence and prevalence of various advertising appeals by mutual fund providers in Money magazine from 2000 to 2009. Results reveal that appeal usage varies over time and by market performance. Appeals focusing on performance and product are strongly correlated with market performance, whereas appeals relating to trust are correlated with subpar market performance. In addition, the use of cost information, broadly defined, has become more important over the 2000–2009 period independent of market performance. The implications of these findings and their relationship to government regulation are also discussed.
Building a competitive city through innovation and global knowledge : the case of Sino-Singapore Suzhou industrial park

Special economic zones can be an effective instrument to promote industrialization if implemented properly in the right context. In China, starting in the 1980s, special economic zones were used as a testing ground for the country's transition from a planned to a market economy, and they are a prime example of China's pragmatic and experimental approach to reforms. One of the great special economic zone success stories in China is the Suzhou Industrial Park, a modern industrial township developed in the early 1990s through a Sino-Singapore partnership. It is successful not just in the economic sense, but also in terms of urban and social development in an eco-friendly way. One key lesson is that in a weak market environment, a facilitating and reform-oriented host government, coupled with foreign expertise and knowledge as well as a"whole value chain"approach can go a long way in developing urban-industry well-integrated special economic zones. This paper is intended to examine the success factors and key lessons of the Sino-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, which can be useful for other developing countries.