cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Muonium I. Muonium Formation and Larmor Precession

A complete quantitative discussion is given of the experiments in which muonium was discovered through studies of the depolarization of muons in gases and of the Larmor precession of muonium in argon in a static magnetic field. Also described are the observation of the hfs interval $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\nu}$ of muonium in its ground state and the determination of $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\nu}$ to an accuracy of about 50% through the use of a static magnetic field. A theoretical discussion is given of muonium formation in gases, including polarization effects. The experimental results on the Larmor precession of muonium prove that close to 100% of the muons stopping in pure argon gas form muonium. The experimental results on muon depolarization in other gases, together with the theoretical considerations, suggest that abundant muonium formation should occur when muons are stopped in most gases; the case of S${\mathrm{F}}_{6}$ appears anomalous in that, at most, only small formation of muonium is indicated. A discussion of the energy levels and decay characteristics of muonium is given. This is the first in a series of papers on the muonium atom and on its interactions in gases.
Comparison of efficacy of three extractants to solubilize glomalin on hyphae and in soil

Glomalin, a glycoprotein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, is a major component of the humus fraction of soil organic matter. Glomalin is extracted from soil and hyphae of AM fungi by using sodium citrate at 121 degrees C in multiple 1-h cycles, but extensive extraction does not solubilize all glomalin in all soils. Efficacies of 100 mM sodium salts of citrate, borate or pyrophosphate (pH 9.0, 121 degrees C) were tested for two 1-h cycles for hyphae from four AM fungal isolates and four 1-h cycles for seven soils from four US geographic regions. Residual soil glomalin was examined by pyrophosphate extraction of soils previously extracted with citrate or borate followed by extraction of all soils after treatment with NaOH. Hyphal extracts were compared using Bradford-reactive total protein (BRTP) values, and extracts from soils were compared using BRTP, percentage C and C weight. No difference among extractants was detected for AM fungal isolates or across soils. The residual glomalin across soils for extractants contained the following percentages of the total BRTP: pyrophosphate, 14%; borate, 17%; and citrate, 22%. Comparisons among individual soils indicated that pyrophosphate extracted significantly more BRTP (10-53%) than borate or citrate in six soils and borate was equal to pyrophosphate in one soil. Extraction with borate should be compared with pyrophosphate before initiating an experiment. For routine extractions of ca. 85% of the glomalin across a variety of soils, sodium pyrophosphate appears to be equal to or better than borate and better than citrate.
A Spin-Drying Technique for Lyopreservation of Mammalian Cells

Stabilization of cellular material in the presence of glass-forming sugars at ambient temperatures is a viable approach that has many potential advantages over current cryogenic strategies. Experimental evidence indicates the possibility to preserve biomolecules in glassy matrices of low-molecular mobility using “glass-forming” sugars like trehalose at ambient temperatures. However, when cells are desiccated in trehalose solution using passive drying techniques, a glassy skin is formed at the liquid/vapor interface of the sample. This glassy skin prevents desiccation of the sample beyond a certain level of dryness and induces non-uniformities in the final water content. Cells trapped underneath this glassy skin may degrade due to a relatively high molecular mobility in the sample. This undesirable result underscores the need for development of a uniform, fast drying technique. In the present study, we report a new technique based on the principles of “spin drying” that can effectively address these problems. Forced convective evaporation of water along with the loss of solution due to centrifugal force leads to rapid vitrification of a thin layer of trehalose containing medium that remains on top of cells attached to the spinning glass substrate. The glassy layer produced has a consistent thickness and a small “surface-area-to-volume” ratio that minimizes any non-homogeneity. Thus, the chance of entrapping cells in a high-mobility environment decreases substantially. We compared numerical predictions to experimental observations of the drying time of 0.2–0.6 M trehalose solutions at a variety of spinning speeds ranging from 1000 to 4000 rpm. The model developed here predicts the formation of sugar films with thicknesses of 200–1000 nm, which was in good agreement with experimental results. Preliminary data suggest that after spin drying cells to about 0.159 ± 0.09 gH2O/gdw (n = 11, ±SE), more than 95% of cells were able to preserve their membrane integrity. Membrane integrity after spin drying is therefore considerably higher than what is achieved by conventional drying methods; where about 90% of cells lose membrane integrity at 0.4 gH2O/gdw (Acker et al. Cell Preserv. Technol. 1(2):129–140, 2002; Elliott et al. Biopreserv. Biobank. 6(4):253–260, 2009).
Preservice teachers' reflections on the instructional process

Although research on teacher planning is in its infancy, Jackson (1965) reveals various teaching and planning processes have been studied and a distinction made between preactive and,interactive teaching. During preactive teaching, or periods of time when teachers do not interact with students, teachers have the most time to reflect on the total instructional process. Doyle (1979) maintains that all planning is affected by what teachers know about classrooms, an idea consistent with one of Colbert's (1979) teacher function categories: diagnostician. Assuming, as did Zahorik (1970), that general and haphazard planning leads to wasteful and unproductive plans and that preservice teachers' classroom knowledge is more limited than experienced teachers, we designed a study to examine the type of information preservice teachers consider when reflecting on the teaching process. Current research findings regarding teachers' planning influenced our choice of pupil characteristics, teaching activities, and evaluation criteria as areas of inquiry. Choices also were predicated on our recognition of teacher education programs' focus on all three areas with possible differences of emphasis on each for elementary and secondary preservice teachers. Therefore, we formulated two questions: 1. What pupil characteristics, teaching activites, and evaluation criteria do elementary and secondary preservice teachers consider and/or use? 2. Are there any pre/post associations in the type of information considered by elementary and secondary preservice teachers? Despite the paucity of research in this area, Zahorik (1975) and Yinger (1978) found that activities, subsuming content and materials as elements that help define the activities, were the most frequent planning concern of teachers. In contrast, Morine (1978) found that teachers paid little attention to pupil backgrounds, while Yinger (1978), on the other hand, found that attention was given to pupil characteristics during the planning process, but was not referred to in the plans themselves. Finally, both Yinger and Morine found that evaluation procedures were almost totally neglected by teachers during planning.
Fibroblast contraction of collagen gels requires activation of protein kinase C.

Fibroblasts stimulated to contract collagen gels with serum were completely inhibited by staurosporine, a broad spectrum kinase inhibitor. Further analysis demonstrated that staurosporine is potent (IC50 17 nM), rapid in onset, and completely reversible. Complete inhibition of gel contraction was also observed with calphostin C (IC50 48 nM), an inhibitor specific for protein kinase C (PKC). Similar effects were not observed with KT5926 or KT5720, inhibitors for myosin light chain kinase and cAMP-dependent kinase, respectively. These data suggested that serum-stimulated fibroblast contraction is dependent upon activation of PKC. This was also observed with fibroblast contraction stimulated with endothelin-1, platelet-derived growth factor, and transforming growth factor beta. PKC activated directly with low concentrations of phorbol ester was observed to stimulate fibroblast contraction of collagen gels, in some cases within 30 minutes of exposure. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Simple, Inexpensive Method of Tagging Ictalurid Fishes for Individual Identification

(1984). Simple, Inexpensive Method of Tagging Ictalurid Fishes for Individual Identification. The Progressive Fish-Culturist: Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 152-154.
Tables for Tolerance Limits for a Normal Population Based on Sample Mean and Range or Mean Range

Abstract Let x and r be respectively the observed mean and range in a random sample of size n from a normal population. Values of k 1 are tabulated which ensure a probability β that the pair of limits x ± k 1 r will include at least a proportion p of the population. For tolerance limits of the form x ± k 2 r, where x is the grand mean and r the mean range in N samples of size m each, necessary tables of the factor k 2 are provided for situations where m is either 4 or 5, these being common group sizes in control chart analysis.
Age-related Macular Degeneration: An Update on Treatment

Age-related macular degeneration is a chronic disease leading to progressive central vision loss. It is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the United States, most commonly affecting white Caucasians aged more than 55 years. Typical symptoms include decreased central vision, central scotoma, and metamorphopsia. Patients with acute loss of vision should be promptly referred to an ophthalmologist. New antiangiogenic therapies have significantly improved visual prognosis in these patients.
Irreversible inactivation of triose phosphate isomerase by 1-hydroxy-3-iodo-2-propanone phosphate.

Abstract I have synthesized 1-hydroxy-3-iodo-2-propanone phosphate, a compound structurally similar to dihydroxyacetone phosphate, as a potential active-site specific reagent for triose phosphate isomerase. Under mild conditions, the reagent irreversibly inactivates the enzyme. The kinetics of the inactivation in the absence or presence of the competitive inhibitor α-glycerophosphate, the stoichimetric incorporation of the reagent, and the similarities of the pH dependencies of enzymic activity and of the inactivation rate are indicative of a specific modification at the active site of triose phosphate isomerase.
STUDIES OF THE TRIAD II. Penetration of Tracers into the Junctional Gap

Ferritin and Imferon molecules were introduced as tracers inside "skinned" muscle fibers to test which part of the triadic junction gap is freely exchangeable with the sarcoplasm. At least 50% of the T-system surface is freely accessible from the sarcoplasm. Of the remainder, 30% of the total T-system surface is covered by the junctional feet, and 20% in the center of the junction may or may not be accessible. The possibility is discussed that the triadic junction may not function as an electrical coupling.
Clinical outcomes of systemic therapy for patients with deep fibromatosis (desmoid tumor).

BACKGROUND: In the current study, the authors examined the outcomes of patients with desmoid tumors who received systemic therapy at a single institution to provide a basis for the examination of newer agents. METHODS: Records of patients with desmoid tumors who were treated with chemotherapy at the study institution were reviewed. The activity of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was not addressed. Patients without measurable disease and those receiving therapy could not be documented, and those receiving prophylactic therapy were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 68 patients received 157 lines of therapy. At the time of last follow-up, 9 patients had died, 7 of progressive disease. The cohort was 62% female, with a median age of 32.5 years. Approximately 32% of the patients had Gardner syndrome. The median follow-up was 63 months, and patients received a median of 2 lines of therapy. An intra-abdominal primary tumor location was the most common (44%). The greatest Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) response rate was observed with anthracyclines and hormonal therapy and the lowest response was noted with single-agent dacarbazine/temozolomide or tyrosine kinase inhibitors, principally imatinib. On multivariate analysis, macroscopic nodular morphology and the presence of Gardner syndrome were the only tumor factors found to be associated with a greater time to disease progression. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with other agents, antiestrogens and anthracycline-containing regimens appear to be associated with a higher radiological response rate against desmoid tumors. Systemic therapy can be successful in patients with desmoid tumors, and is a viable option in lieu of morbid or disabling surgery.
Relationship between reading and selected auditory abilities of third-grade children.

This project studied auditory abilities of a selected group of advanced and retarded third-grade readers from high and low socioeconomic environments. Two general hypotheses were posed: (1) advance...
HIV transmission networks.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Over the past several years one segment of the complex field of HIV transmission dynamics - heterosexual networks - has dominated theoretical and empirical investigation. This review provides an overview of recent work on HIV risks and networks with a focus on recent findings in heterosexual network dynamics. RECENT FINDINGS: Qualitative (ethnographic) assessments have demonstrated the heterogeneity and complexity of heterosexual connections particularly in Africa where tradition official polygamy and unofficial multiperson arrangements have lead to concurrency of sexual partnerships. A large quantitative study on Likoma Island Malawi demonstrated the considerable interlocking sexual connections that arise from a high-concurrency sexual setting even with a low average number of partnerships (low degree) of long duration. Such settings as suggested by ethnographic studies may be common in Africa and coupled with newer information about transmissibility during acute and early infection may provide a plausible explanation for endemic transmission and possibly for rapid HIV propagation. SUMMARY: Recognition of high-concurrency low-degree networks is an important development for understanding HIV transmission dynamics. Their relevance to heterosexual transmission and possible extension to other epidemiologic settings reinforces the heterogeneity and complexity of HIV transmission dynamics.
Impact of ischemia on left ventricular dyssynchrony by phase analysis of gated single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging.

Background There is increasing awareness of the value of phase analysis of gated tomographic myocardial perfusion imaging in assessing left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony. A concern repeatedly raised in many studies is whether reversible defects in the stress images “ischemia” could affect the phase-derived standard deviation and bandwidth, the two commonly used dyssynchrony indices. We hypothesized that the stress and rest images should provide comparable information because the images are acquired 1 hour after the tracer injection.
Influenza Surveillance: 2014–2015 H1N1 “Swine”-Derived Influenza Viruses from India

Summary The 2014-2015 H1N1 outbreak in India has reportedly led to 800 fatalities. The reported influenza hemagglutinin sequences from India indicate that these viruses contain amino acid changes linked to enhanced virulence and are potentially antigenically distinct from the current vaccine containing 2009 (Cal0709) H1N1 viral hemagglutinin.
Marital relationships and conflict resolution skills of bulimics

Twelve bulimic couples were compared to 14 maritally distressed couples and 15 normal control couples on measures of relationship satisfaction, conflict resolution styles, and beliefs about intimate relationships. Bulimics reported global relationship dissatisfaction with their marriages similar to that felt by women seeking marital therapy. Bulimics were also similar to females in distressed marriages in their reported use of few problem-solving skills and withdrawal from conflict. Bulimics and maritally distressed females subscribed to the dysfunctional belief that “partners cannot change.” These results provide support for the contention that bulimics experience dissatisfaction with their interpersonal relationships and that this dissatisfaction is accompanied by self-reported deficiencies in conflict resolution skills.
Early failures following cervical corpectomy reconstruction with titanium mesh cages and anterior plating.

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective case series. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of titanium mesh cages in the reconstruction of the cervical spine following corpectomy. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Previous studies have shown high successful fusion rates and low failure rates with this technique. Similar reconstruction techniques using anterior strut bone grafting and anterior plating have shown higher failure rates following multilevel corpectomies. METHODS A retrospective review was performed of 23 consecutive patients who underwent anterior cervical corpectomy reconstructed with a titanium mesh cage, local autograft, and fixed anterior plating. Medical records and radiographs were reviewed. Average follow-up was 28 months. RESULTS Seven patients (30%) had reconstruction failures. There was 1 failure (6%) in the 1-level corpectomy group and 6 (75%) in the multilevel corpectomy group. All failures occurred before 12 weeks after surgery. The remaining patients had successful fusion (70%). CONCLUSION There is a high early failure rate (75%) with the use of a titanium mesh cage and fixed anterior plating for reconstruction of multilevel corpectomies. Posterior fusion and instrumentation should be considered when using this technique for multilevel reconstructions.
Verbal aggression and liking in interpersonal relationships

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived verbal aggressiveness and liking in interpersonal relationships. Participants were 226 individuals who reported on a recent interaction with an individual. Results indicated that perceived verbal aggressiveness of the individual was negatively correlated with liking for the individual. What this finding suggests is that when individuals are perceived to be verbally aggressive, they are less liked. Future research should consider exploring at what point(s) verbal aggressiveness occurs similarly between both partners in an interpersonal relationship.
The Time Dependence of Interface State Production

A model for the reaction kinetics of interface state generation is developed. The reaction kinetics lie between third and first order for high and low concentrations of radiolytic molecular hydrogen, respectively. The application of these equations to the treatments of post irradiation effects is discussed.
Postobstruction Pulmonary Edema

Several occurrences of pulmonary edema following relief of acute upper airway obstruction have been reported. The edema is associated with normal cardiac filling pressures and responds promptly to conservative therapy. Its origin may be attributed to the cardiopulmonary effects of the vigorous inspiratory effort that the spontaneously breathing patient generates to overcome respiratory obstruction (the Muller maneuver). A patient with postobstruction pulmonary edema complicated by hypovolemia and myocardial infarction is described. Prompt invasive hemodynamic monitoring in selected high-risk patients is suggested.
Donating stimulated peripheral blood stem cells vs bone marrow: Do donors experience the procedures differently?

As the demand for undifferentiated stem cells for the treatment of leukemia and other cancers has increased, new methods for their collection have been developed. One of these new methods, allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation, involves the administration of a granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF, filgrastim), and a 1-2 day apheresis collection procedure. Our goal in the current study was to examine donors' psychosocial and physical experiences of PBSC vs marrow donation. Potential participants included 80 donors from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) who donated a second time between 1991 and 1997. All of these donors had previously donated marrow. A final cohort of 70 donors (25 PBSC and 45 marrow) participated in a retrospective questionnaire study of their donation experiences. In general, all second-time donors reported low levels of concern about the physical consequences of donation. However, PBSC donors were more likely to have postponed the decision to donate a second time. Despite their reservations, PBSC donors reported fewer donation-related side-effects than did marrow donors. Finally, PBSC donors reported that marrow donation was more physically difficult, time-consuming, and inconvenient, and that they preferred PBSC to marrow donation.
Enthalpy and entropy of sublimation of tetraphenyl plumbane the bond dissociation energy of PbC

The sublimation pressures of tetraphenyl plumbane, PbPh4, in the temperature range 412 to 474 K have been determined from the simultaneous measurements of the rate of mass effusion and the torsional recoil. The standard enthalpy and entropy of sublimation derived from the least-squares analyses of the results are: ΔH°(PbPh4, c, 298.15 K) =(159 ±1) kJ mol-1 ΔS°(PbPh4, c, 445 K) =(243 ±3) JK mol-1mol-1 The average bond dissociation energy 〈D〉(PbPh) is calculated to be (204 ± 4) kJ mol−1.
Effect of grain refinement on corrosion of ferritic–martensitic steels in supercritical water environment

The effects of grain refinement on the corrosion behavior of three ferritic-martensitic (F/M) steels, HT9, T91, and NF616, and two binary model alloys Fe-15%Cr and Fe-18%Cr in supercritical water (SCW) have been investigated. Grain refinement down to a size of about one micron in the surface regions, was achieved by introducing severe plastic deformation by shot peening. After exposure to SCW with 25 ppb oxygen at 500 °C for up to 3000 h, an improvement in corrosion resistance was observed in grain-refined samples because of the enhanced diffusion of chromium on the surface, through a high density of grain boundaries. The chromium content in the steels and the exposure durations in SCW were determined to be important factors influencing the efficacy of the grain refinement effects. These results are supported by both experimental evidence and theoretical predictions. Another approach for grain refinement, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), was also investigated for T91 steel. ECAP resulted in lower weight gain due to corrosion compared to the untreated samples, but exhibited a slightly higher weight gain compared to the shot-peened samples after long-term exposures in SCW which is probably caused by different fractions of high-angle grain boundaries in grain-refined regions, introduced by different grain refinement techniques.
Structured Overcomplete Sparsifying Transform Learning with Convergence Guarantees and Applications

In recent years, sparse signal modeling, especially using the synthesis model has been popular. Sparse coding in the synthesis model is however, NP-hard. Recently, interest has turned to the sparsifying transform model, for which sparse coding is cheap. However, natural images typically contain diverse textures that cannot be sparsified well by a single transform. Hence, in this work, we propose a union of sparsifying transforms model. Sparse coding in this model reduces to a form of clustering. The proposed model is also equivalent to a structured overcomplete sparsifying transform model with block cosparsity, dubbed OCTOBOS. The alternating algorithm introduced for learning such transforms involves simple closed-form solutions. A theoretical analysis provides a convergence guarantee for this algorithm. It is shown to be globally convergent to the set of partial minimizers of the non-convex learning problem. We also show that under certain conditions, the algorithm converges to the set of stationary points of the overall objective. When applied to images, the algorithm learns a collection of well-conditioned square transforms, and a good clustering of patches or textures. The resulting sparse representations for the images are much better than those obtained with a single learned transform, or with analytical transforms. We show the promising performance of the proposed approach in image denoising, which compares quite favorably with approaches involving a single learned square transform or an overcomplete synthesis dictionary, or gaussian mixture models. The proposed denoising method is also faster than the synthesis dictionary based approach.
Escherichia coli RNase III (rnc) autoregulation occurs independently of rnc gene translation

Control of mRNA stability is an established means of regulating gene expression. However, the detailed mechanisms by which such control is achieved are only now emerging. In particular, there remains a question about the involvement of translation. Escherichia coli ribonuclease III (RNase III) negatively autoregulates expression of its own gene (rnc) approximately 10-fold, by cleaving the untranslated leader and initiating approximately 10-fold more rapid decay of the rnc mRNA, after which RNase III plays no further role. Here, we define the mechanism of this control further. Mutations that increase rnc gene translation abolish autoregulation by increasing the stability of the RNase III-cleaved transcript RNA approximately 10-fold, with no effect on the uncleaved species. Mutations that decrease translation destabilize the rnc mRNA in the presence or absence of RNase III. In so doing, they reveal a pathway of rnc transcript decay distinct from the RNase III-dependent pathway. Stability of a 'mini-rnc' transcript containing the rnc leader and only the first two codons of the rnc gene is unaffected by decreased translation, presumably because sequences required for this pathway were removed. Importantly, this mini-rnc transcript is regulated normally by RNase III. Moreover, rnc transcripts synthesized in vitro do not decay in cell-free extracts lacking ribosomes, unless they are first cleaved by RNase III. These two results show that RNase III cleavage can initiate rnc transcript decay independently of rnc gene translation, unambiguously establishing that control of mRNA decay need not involve changes in translation. How rnc gene translation is optimized for efficient autoregulation will also be discussed.
College Freshmen's Perceptions of Their High School Experiences

Among academically talented students, SES and racial group membership predict both college expectations and matriculation, and youth less often attend and complete postsecondary education if their ...
Forecasting Weather from Solar Radiation

I FEEL that the burden of Dr. C. E. P. Brooks's review of my recent paper (see Nature, Dec. 12, p. 1089) does me injustice.
962-121 Reliability of Q12 and Thallium Myocardial Uptake Measurements After Triphenyl Tetrazolium Chloride Staining

A recent investigation revealed that triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining had a significant effect on myocardial uptake determinations of radiolabeled tracers with experimental infarction/reperfusion studies. We therefore investigated the impact of TTC staining on technetium-99m-Q12 and thallium-201 myocardial uptake in canines during infarction. Ten adult male mongrel dogs underwent a left anterior descending occlusion for 2 hours and subsequent injection of Q12 or thallium with 30 minutes of circulation. The whole heart was then excised, washed with saline, and myocardial counts were determined by a well counter. The heart was then perfused with 1% TTC stain for 5–10 minutes and then recounted. Results (expressed as μCi ± SD) are below: 99m Q12(n = 5) Thallium-201 (n = 5) Pre-TTC 175 ± 57 44 ± 15 post-TTC 173 ± 57 36 ± 11 * % Change 1 ± 1% 16 ± 12% * * p l 0.05 from baseline There is no effect of TTC staining by coronary artery perfusion on the reliability of Q12 myocardial uptake measurement but thallium-201 retention is significantly reduced. TTC staining may have an important impact on the reliability of experimental infarction/reperfusion studies using thallium-201 but not 99m Tc-Q12.
Hexose-monophosphate shunt response to diamide in the component layers of the cornea

Abstract Hexose-monophosphate shunt (HMS) activity was studied in whole cornea and in each of its component layers. Activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase suggest the presence of an active HMS in epithelium and endothelium, though the presence of lower endothelial activities indicates that the HMS could be less active in this layer. Studies using selectively labelled glucose demonstrate the HMS to be the major pathway of 14CO2 generation from glucose in the epithelium, accounting for 66% of all 14CO2 evolved. While total endothelial 14CO2 generation is comparable to that of the epithelium, the HMS accounts for only 37% of this total in endothelium. Diamide increases both total labelled CO2 evolution and the percent contribution of the HMS to this total. This response is dose dependent and is seen in each of the cornea's component layers. The greatest response is seen in the endothelium where the percent contribution of the HMS rises from a control value of 37 to 87 in 0.4 m m -diamide. This reserve shunt capacity of the endothelium could provide a powerful means of handling oxidative stress.
Conspiracy and Alternate History in Russia: A Nationalist Equation for Success?

In the post-Cold War period conspiracy theories have become more fashionable, both as an element for explaining international affairs and as one for rewriting history. In this latter aspect, they comprise part of a particularly broad genre, called alternate history. Each of these plural histories of Russia has its own proper focus, in terms of its periods of predilection, of its way of formulating the components of identity (religion, race, culture, state, and so on), and of designation of the enemy. However, nearly all of them use the conspirological framework and its presupposed secret manipulation to articulate the dramaturgy of the nation in logical terms. After a contextualization of the broad domain of alternate history, this article enquires into the modes of nationalist types of alternate history and its multiple conspiracies, and looks in detail at one of its “textbook cases,” so-called New Chronology. The principal hypothesis defended here is that the conjunction between conspiracy theory and the rewriting of history makes up one of the main instruments for disseminating nationalist theories in today Russia, theories based on a kind of post-modern, paranoid cultural imaginary.
The microallocative impact of the Hungarian economic reform of 1968: Some evidence from the export sector

We have investigated the allocative efficiency of the Hungarian export sector in both pre-reform and post-reform years. The results indicate that, although misallocation due to bilateral currency constraints was reduced by the reform, the overall efficiency of the export sector declined significantly. While the failure of the reform in a single, although from the Hungarian viewpoint, critical sector of the economy is not direct evidence of the failure of the entire reform, it does indicate that successful reforms may be more difficult to achieve than either western or socialist economists have anticipated.
The Mechanics of External Fixation

External fixation has evolved from being used primarily as a last resort fixation method to becoming a main stream technique used to treat a myriad of bone and soft tissue pathologies. Techniques in limb reconstruction continue to advance largely as a result of the use of these external devices. A thorough understanding of the biomechanical principles of external fixation is useful for all orthopedic surgeons as most will have to occasionally mount a fixator throughout their career. In this review, various types of external fixators and their common clinical applications are described with a focus on unilateral and circular frames. The biomechanical principles that govern bony and fixator stability are reviewed as well as the recommended techniques for applying external fixators to maximize stability. Additionally, we have illustrated methods for managing patients while they are in the external frames to facilitate function and shorten treatment duration.
Organometallic Chemistry of Amidate Complexes. Accelerating Effect of Bidentate Ligands on the Reductive Elimination of N-Aryl Amidates from Palladium(II)

We report a series of arylpalladium complexes of acetamidate, sulfonamidate, and deprotonated oxazolidinone ligands that undergo reductive elimination with rates and yields that depend on the binding mode of the ancillary and amidate ligands. Complexes of the acetamidate ligands containing the bidentate phosphines DPPF and Xantphos as ancillary ligands undergo reductive elimination. The rate and yield were higher from the complex ligated by Xantphos, which contains a larger bite angle. In contrast, the analogous amidate complex containing a single sterically hindered monodentate ligand and a κ2-bound amidate ligand does not undergo reductive elimination. This trend of faster reductive elimination from complexes containing bidentate ancillary ligands than from a complex with a single monodentate ancillary ligand is unusual and is consistent with an effect of the denticity of the ancillary ligand on the binding mode of the amidate. Complexes of sulfonamidate ligands underwent reductive elimination faster th...
An equity-based model of vandalism.

An equity-based model of vandalism is proposed which views this behavior as often having meaning for vandals and for society. Type and intensity of vandalism are then predicted based upon a specification of first and second order moderators of inequity resolution, and an ordering of vandalism along dimensions of instrumentality, expressiveness and message ambiguity. The role of perceived control as a primary determinant of mode and intensity of vandalism is stressed. Second order moderators such as state of the physical environment and availability of various group level processes are also incorporated into the model as sufficient, but not necessary, conditions. Illustrative predictions include the occurence of diffuse, malicious vandalism when inequity is high and control is low; whereas more tactical-selective forms of vandalism are proposed when control approaches moderate levels.
Visual, haptic and bimodal scene perception: evidence for a unitary representation.

Abstract Participants studied seven meaningful scene-regions bordered by removable boundaries (30 s each). In Experiment 1 ( N = 80) participants used visual or haptic exploration and then minutes later, reconstructed boundary position using the same or the alternate modality. Participants in all groups shifted boundary placement outward (boundary extension), but visual study yielded the greater error. Critically, this modality-specific difference in boundary extension transferred without cost in the cross-modal conditions, suggesting a functionally unitary scene representation. In Experiment 2 ( N = 20), bimodal study led to boundary extension that did not differ from haptic exploration alone, suggesting that bimodal spatial memory was constrained by the more “conservative” haptic modality. In Experiment 3 ( N = 20), as in picture studies, boundary memory was tested 30 s after viewing each scene-region and as with pictures, boundary extension still occurred. Results suggest that scene representation is organized around an amodal spatial core that organizes bottom-up information from multiple modalities in combination with top-down expectations about the surrounding world.
Top-down influence in early visual processing: a Bayesian perspective

Traditional views of visual processing suggest that early visual neurons are static spatiotemporal filters that extract local features by feedforward computation. The extracted information is then fed forward through a chain of modules to successively higher visual areas for further analysis. Recording from early visual neurons in awake behaving monkeys, we revealed there are many levels of complexity in the information processing of the early visual cortex. We found that the early visual neurons not only are sensitive to features within their receptive fields (RFs) but also to the global context of a visual scene, the behavioral relevance of the stimuli and the experience of the animals. These findings suggest that the early visual cortex (V1 and V2) is tightly coupled to and highly interactive with the rest of the visual system. The top-down interaction, mediated by recurrent feedback connections, introduces contextual information to influence the perceptual inference in the early visual cortex.
Clustering of time series data-a survey

Time series clustering has been shown effective in providing useful information in various domains. There seems to be an increased interest in time series clustering as part of the effort in temporal data mining research. To provide an overview, this paper surveys and summarizes previous works that investigated the clustering of time series data in various application domains. The basics of time series clustering are presented, including general-purpose clustering algorithms commonly used in time series clustering studies, the criteria for evaluating the performance of the clustering results, and the measures to determine the similarity/dissimilarity between two time series being compared, either in the forms of raw data, extracted features, or some model parameters. The past researchs are organized into three groups depending upon whether they work directly with the raw data either in the time or frequency domain, indirectly with features extracted from the raw data, or indirectly with models built from the raw data. The uniqueness and limitation of previous research are discussed and several possible topics for future research are identified. Moreover, the areas that time series clustering have been applied to are also summarized, including the sources of data used. It is hoped that this review will serve as the steppingstone for those interested in advancing this area of research.
Use of humanized severe combined immunodeficient mice for human vaccine development

The severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse has no adaptive immunity, lacking mature T and B cells in the peripheral blood or the lymphoid organs. It has been used extensively in biomedical research as a valuable translational model for xeno-engraftment of human tissues and cells. This review focuses on the engraftment of human peripheral blood cells and tissues in SCID mice, as well as in the newly established and more permissive SCID mice deficient in the IL-2 receptor γ-chain. Human immune responses could be elicited and assessed in these humanized SCID mice upon vaccination or sensitization with allogeneic tissues. A translational model is proposed to attain preclinical data for testing human vaccines.
Eligibility for Students With Emotional or Behavioral Disorders: The Social Maladjustment Dilemma Continues

An ongoing challenge in serving students with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD) is the practice that may allow schools to exclude students from special education programs and services based ...
Summarization Approaches Based on Document Probability Distributions

One of the main purposes of a summary is to be able to replace the original document. We assume that a summary would be able to replace or act as a substitute for the document if its probability distribution is similar to that of the original document. With this hypothesis in mind, we carry out our analysis using datasets from Document Understanding Conference (DUC), studying the results of unigram probability models and also looking at Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KLD) as a measure of ‘closeness’ between probability models of the documents and their summaries. In this paper, we also discuss two summary generation approaches that were designed based on the above hypothesis (a) Summary generation by extraction of sentences based on its coverage and (b) Minimum KLD Summary Generation Method (uses a metric for reducing redundancy). Our research shows that the above summarizer, which is light and simple, can deliver good summaries comparable to other state-of-the-art systems.
Thermal Stress Alters Postabsorptive Metabolism During Pre- and Postnatal Development

Climate change, and thermal stress (i.e., heat and cold) in particular, is a key limiting factor to efficient animal production and negatively impacts health and development during postnatal life. In addition, thermal stress (especially heat stress) during in utero development can permanently alter postnatal phenotypes and negatively affect future animal performance. The global effects of thermal stress on animal agriculture will likely increase as climate models predict more extreme weather patterns in most animal-producing areas. While the ultimate consequence of heat and cold stress is similar (reduced productivity and compromised animal welfare), their mechanism(s) of action substantially differs. Predictably, many of the metabolic and physiological effects of heat and cold stress are biologically contrasting; however, both are homeorhetically orchestrated to prioritize survival at the cost of agriculturally productive purposes. Consequently, thermal stress threatens global food security and this is especially apparent in developing countries. There is an urgent need for the scientific community to develop mitigation strategies to increase production of high-quality animal protein for human consumption during the warm summer months.
Hierarchical clustering and the Butcher–Oemler effect

We show that the rapid evolution in the fraction of blue, star-forming galaxies seen in clusters as a function of redshift (the Butcher-Oemler effect) can be explained very simply if structure formation in the universe proceeeds hierarchically. We show that a rich cluster observed at high redshift has had a significantly different evolutionary history to a cluster of the same richness observed today. High redshift clusters take longer to assemble and thus under- go more merging at small lookback times. We have investigated two models of star formation in cluster galaxies: 1) a model in which star formation is induced by galaxy-galaxy mergers and interactions and 2) a model in which star formation is regulated by the infall of galaxies onto larger systems such as groups and clusters. Both models produce trends consistent with the Butcher- Oemler effect. Our models of cluster formation and evolution allow us to make predictions about trends in the observed properties of clusters with redshift. We find that there should be a correlation between the mass of the cluster or group and the strength of the observed Butcher-Oemler effect, with more massive systems exhibiting more evolution than less massive systems. We also predict that both the blue galaxy fraction and the incidence of interacting galaxies in rich clusters should rise continuously with redshift. Finally, we have explored the influence of cosmological parameters on our predictions for cluster evolution. We find that models in which structure formation occurs at very early epochs, such as low $\Omega$ models, predict rather little recent star formation and merging activity in clusters at redshifts of around 0.4.
An image steganography implementation for JPEG-compressed images

A method of implementing image steganography in a color image for applications such as covert communication via the Internet and authentication of an employee carrying a picture identification card is described. By converting the color image to a one-dimensional signal in red, green, or blue, audibly masked frequencies in the 1-D signal are determined for each segment or block. Embedding of secure or confidential data is carried out by modifying the spectral power at a pair of commonly occurring masked frequencies. Compressing the data-embedded image to standard JPEG coding enables its transmission via the Internet. Experimental results show that the technique is simple to implement and causes barely noticeable distortion in the stego image. Using an oblivious technique and a key consisting of the frequencies where the spectrum is modified, successful data retrieval even at low level noise levels and at low-loss compression has been achieved. Higher payload of hidden data can be obtained at a cost of perceptibility of embedding. Lossy JPEG compression, however, leads to low payloads.
Brat Is a Miranda Cargo Protein that Promotes Neuronal Differentiation and Inhibits Neuroblast Self-Renewal

An important question in stem cell biology is how a cell decides to self-renew or differentiate. Drosophila neuroblasts divide asymmetrically to self-renew and generate differentiating progeny called GMCs. Here, we report that the Brain tumor (Brat) translation repressor is partitioned into GMCs via direct interaction with the Miranda scaffolding protein. In brat mutants, another Miranda cargo protein (Prospero) is not partitioned into GMCs, GMCs fail to downregulate neuroblast gene expression, and there is a massive increase in neuroblast numbers. Single neuroblast clones lacking Prospero have a similar phenotype. We conclude that Brat suppresses neuroblast stem cell self-renewal and promotes neuronal differentiation.
Issues in the Assessment of Children's Social Skills

Social skills intervention has outpaced assessment of children's social skills. If effective interventions are to be developed, it is essential that we conduct valid and reliable assessment of soci...
Some new wave-groups observed on the records of the South Pacific Earthquake Of June 26, 1924

The study of the records of the earthquake of June 26, 1924, which occurred in the south Pacific Ocean, has revealed a large number of groups of waves which cannot be accounted for by the tables of travel-times now in use. Hence it was found necessary to calculate the time required to traverse other possible paths. This was done by the Wiechert-Herglotz method using much of the data published by Geiger and Gutenberg and applying Snell's law. The new groups are PcS, PcSScP, PPPS, PPSS, PSSS, PPPS′, PPSS′, and PSSS′. These waves are served on many records.
A comparison of delusional disorders in women and men.

Abstract The authors compared delusional disorders in men and women and found that women have more frequent erotic and heterosexual delusions, more affective symptoms, and more interpersonal precipitants and that men have more delusions with a homosexual theme. Perhaps because of these differences in delusional content and affective symptoms, delusional women are more difficult to diagnose within the DSM-III nomenclature than are delusional men. The authors discuss these findings from psychodynamic, ethologic, and sociocultural perspectives and suggest ways of improving DSM-III to make it more representative of female patients.