cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Physical Therapist Management of Acute and Chronic Low Back Pain Using the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health

Background and Purpose: The World Health Organization's Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (WHO-ICF) model was developed to describe, classify, and measure function in health care practice and research. Recently, this model has been promoted as a successor to the Nagi model by some authors in the physical therapy literature. However, conceptual work in demonstrating use of the WHO-ICF model in physical therapist management of individual patients remains sparse. The purpose of this case report series is to demonstrate the application of the WHO-ICF model in clinical reasoning and physical therapist management of acute and chronic low back pain. Case Description: Two patients, 1 with acute low back pain and 1 with chronic low back pain, were treated pragmatically using the WHO-ICF model and other applicable models of clinical reasoning. Intervention: Manual therapy, exercise, and education interventions were directed toward relevant body structure and function impairments, activity limitations, and contextual factors based on their hypothesized contribution to functioning and disability. Outcome: Both patients demonstrated clinically significant improvements in measures of pain, disability, and psychosocial factors after 3 weeks and 10 weeks of intervention, respectively. Discussion: The WHO-ICF model appears to provide an effective framework for physical therapists to better understand each person's experience with his or her disablement and assists in prioritizing treatment selection. The explicit acknowledgment of personal and environmental factors aids in addressing potential barriers. The WHO-ICF model integrates well with other models of practice such as Sackett's principles of evidence-based practice, the rehabilitation cycle, and Edwards and colleagues’ clinical reasoning model. Future research should examine outcomes associated with the use of the WHO-ICF model using adequately designed clinical trials.
What Do Young Science Students Need to Learn about Variables

Have the Next Generation Science Standards fulfilled a goal of specifying the objectives of precollege science education in clear and exact enough terms to make them readily implementable? Using students’ understanding of the concept of a variable as a case in point, the author suggests that the standards, despite their seeming precision and clarity, leave critical questions not fully answered regarding what K–12 students need to master to be judged knowledgeable regarding scientific practices. This is especially the case given that scientific practices entail not only procedural knowledge but also epistemic understanding, i.e., the purposes and ends toward which practices are conducted. If the teacher does not fully appreciate the epistemic component and lacks deep understanding of procedures, engaging students in related activities is less likely to seem worthwhile to the teacher and in turn to students, leaving teachers tempted to focus attention on content-defined learning, where goals are clearer.
Evaluation of commercial enzyme reagent kits by use of a semiautomated chemistry analyzer.

The overall performances of several enzyme reagent kits for alkaline phosphatase, creatine kinase, lactic dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase were evaluated using an ABA-100 Bichromatic Analyzer. Interassay precision using this instrument with commercial reagents compared well with published data for similar analyses performed at university hospitals and referral laboratories. Significantly poorer precision with lower limits of linearity was observed when reagents recommended for use at 30 C were used at 37 C. Significant differences in measured levels of creatine kinase, lactic dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase due to different lots of expendable cuvettes were found for elevated levels of these enzymes. AH kit reagents met manufacturers’ claims for stability; however, different absolute levels of lactic dehydrogenase were observed with one kit reagent on successive days. Slight hemolysis affected creatine kinase levels measured with some reagent kits significantly more than others.
A window into ape evolution

Humans, Old World monkeys, gibbons, and the great apes of Africa and Asia are the only survivors of a highly diverse evolutionary radiation that began at least 28 million years ago ( 1 , 2 ). The fossil record of human evolution after we diverged from apes is rich, but much less is known about the evolutionary history of modern apes. Not only is the fossil record incomplete but also the morphology of primitive apes from the Miocene (25 to 5 million years ago) seldom conforms to expectations based on living species. The ancestors of gibbons are particularly elusive. On page 528 of this issue, Alba et al. describe a Miocene fossil from Catalonia, Spain, that may bridge the gap between earlier small-bodied African apelike primates and living gibbons ( 3 ).
Exploration of Emissions Modeling for a General Aviation Airport

The purpose of this project is to explore, estimate and compare emissions at Purdue University Airport (KLAF) using the Emissions & Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS) using standard and customized inputs. In 1998, the FAA instituted a policy that identifies EDMS as the required model to perform air quality analyses for aviation sources. EDMS generates emissions outputs and dispersion models based on user inputs, including aircraft type, number of landing take-off cycles (LTO), airport layout, weather conditions, and other inputs. Engine emission factors are taken from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) engine data bank. Customized inputs are needed because emission outputs may not be modeled accurately due to outdated engine emission factors, LTO cycle data, lack of alternative fuel emission factors, and standard modeling inputs that are not airport specific. Within the LTO cycle are actual modes of flight that contain information about how long aircraft is in each mode, what is the specified distance in each mode, and lastly, the actual naming of the each of the modes. With the aid of the LTO cycle, the EDMS software will accurately measure the emission factors for each phase of flight.
Questions and Categories

The topic “questions and categories” is suggested by the fact that, in the original list of categories given by Aristotle, the names of six out of ten categories are interrogative in form: What is it? (τί έστι), How much? (ποσόυ), Of what sort? (ποιόν, qualis), Towards what? or Relative to what? (πόρς τι), Where? (που) and When? (ποτϵ)-1 And in the case of the four categories whose names are not interrogative in form, it is easy to represent them as answers to questions: What did he do? for action (ποιϵίυ); What did he suffer? for passion or being-acted-upon (πάσχϵιυ); What is he wearing? or How is he disposed? for the category of having or habitus (έχϵιυ); and What is his position? or How is he situated? for posture or situs (Кϵίσθαι). Hence it is an old observation, made by William of Ockham and probably not for the first time, that Aristotle’s classification of the categories is derived from a list of interrogative forms or questions asked in reference to a given subject - in reference to a man, for example, or some other individual substance. As Ockham says, every uncombined term (i.e. every uncombined word or concept) “by which one can answer a question posed concerning a substance is in some category. …But other uncombined terms are not in any category.”2 The categories of Aristotle do not represent a complete logical inventory, a classification of all terms or concepts represented in language. They do attempt to classify all the terms of a basic object language, where these terms are specified by the questions that can be asked or answered concerning an individual subject.
Modified Nutritional Recommendations to Improve Dietary Patterns and Outcomes in Hemodialysis Patients

The renal diet has traditionally been regarded as one of the most complex medical nutrition therapies to teach, understand, and implement. Specifically, patients are instructed to limit fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, dairy, and whole grains because of both phosphorus and potassium concerns. Furthermore, hemodialysis patients are often encouraged to decrease fluid intake to control interdialytic weight gain. These restrictions can result in frustration, lack of autonomy, and the perception that there is nothing left to eat. It is possible that the traditional renal diet may be liberalized, with a focus on whole foods low in sodium and phosphorus additives, to afford patients greater choices and ultimately improved outcomes. Therefore, the objective of this review is to concisely assess the evidence in support of a renal diet focused primarily on reducing the intake of sodium and inorganic phosphorus. Finally, the limited evidence for restrictions on dietary potassium intake is summarized.
Stressful and positive experiences of women who served in Vietnam

Experiences of women who served during the Vietnam War have been described in interviews/anecdotal reports but rarely in empirical literature. Potential positive (versus negative) aspects of service or its impact on well-being are seldom considered. We describe stressful and positive experiences reported by approximately 1,300 female military personnel, Red Cross workers, and others deployed to Vietnam. Prominent stressful (e.g., negative living/working conditions) and positive (e.g., interpersonal relationships) themes and differences based on trauma history, Vietnam experiences, and group membership are explored. We evaluate associations between themes and psychological well-being. Findings provide insight into experiences of this understudied group of women.
Negotiation-based routing in job shops via collaborative agents

In recent years, the application of agent-based systems in manufacturing has received a lot of attention in several areas, particularly scheduling and shop-floor control. This paper explores two methods of enhancing the negotiation process employed by an agent-based system to support performance improvements in real-time routing of job orders within job-shop environments. The first method takes advantage of an extended negotiation period to provide a more complete picture of the shop's conditions in order to enhance the validity of the decisions made by individual agents. The second approach explores the possibility of process model data to increase the accuracy of time estimates used in the negotiation process. The resulting performance of the two methods is tested using a simulated job shop.
Control of hybrid domain wall states in recessed trilayer synthetic antifferomagnet TGMR reader by tuning RKKY exchange coupling strengths

Synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) structures are used in modern magnetoresistive hard drive readers in order to minimize magnetostatic interactions of the reference layer (RL) and the free layer (FL), and therefore, decrease asymmetry of the FL response.
Improving emission uniformity and linearizing band dispersion in nanowire arrays using quasi-aperiodicity

We experimentally investigate a new class of quasi-aperiodic structures for improving the emission pattern in nanowire arrays. Efficient normal emission, as well as lasing, can be obtained from III-nitride photonic crystal (PhC) nanowire arrays that utilize slow group velocity modes near the Γ-point in reciprocal space. However, due to symmetry considerations, the emitted far-field pattern of such modes are often ‘donut’-like. Many applications, including lighting for displays or lasers, require a more uniform beam profile in the far-field. Previous work has improved far-field beam uniformity of uncoupled modes by changing the shape of the emitting structure. However, in nanowire systems, the shape of nanowires cannot always be arbitrarily changed due to growth or etch considerations. Here, we investigate breaking symmetry by instead changing the position of emitters. Using a quasi-aperiodic geometry, which changes the emitter position within a photonic crystal supercell (2x2), we are able to linearize the photonic bandstructure near the Γ-point and greatly improve emitted far-field uniformity. We realize the III-nitride nanowires structures using a top-down fabrication procedure that produces nanowires with smooth, vertical sidewalls. Comparison of room-temperature micro-photoluminescence (µ-PL) measurements between periodic and quasi-aperiodic nanowire arrays reveal resonances in each structure, with the simple periodic structure producing a donut beam in the emitted far-field and the quasi-aperiodic structure producing a uniform Gaussian-like beam. We investigate the input pump power vs. output intensity in both systems and observe the simple periodic array exhibiting a non-linear relationship, indicative of lasing. We believe that the quasi-aperiodic approach studied here provides an alternate and promising strategy for shaping the emission pattern of nanoemitter systems.
Influence of Music Style and Rate on Repetitive Finger Tapping.

Auditory cues, including music, are commonly used in the treatment of persons with Parkinson’s disease. Yet, how music style and movement rate modulate movement performance in persons with Parkinson’s disease have been neglected and remain limited in healthy young populations. The purpose of this study was to determine how music style and movement rate influence movement performance in healthy young adults. Healthy participants were asked to perform repetitive finger movements at two pacing rates (70 and 140 beats per minute) for the following conditions: (a) a tone only, (b) activating music, and (c) relaxing music. Electromyography, movement kinematics, and variability were collected. Results revealed that the provision of music, regardless of style, reduced amplitude variability at both pacing rates. Intermovement interval was longer, and acceleration variability was reduced during both music conditions at the lower pacing rate only. These results may prove beneficial for designing therapeutic interven...
CSF Total and Phosphorylated Tau Biomarker Findings in a Large Rapidly Progressive Dementia Cohort (P03.077)

OBJECTIVE: Determine the diagnostic utility of CSF total tau (TTau) versus the ratio of total tau and phosphorylated tau (TTau/PTau) in a cohort of sporadic Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease (sCJD) and non-prion rapidly progressive dementia (npRPD) subjects. Assess sensitivity and specificity of TTau using a literature reported cut-off point, and compare this to tiered cut-off points for TTau/PTau to determine if and at what level this ratio provides better diagnostic accuracy than TTau alone. BACKGROUND: TTau has been reported as a reliable diagnostic maker for differentiating CJD from npRPD patients, but its utility is still not clear. We examined CSF levels for TTau alone compared to the ratio of TTau/PTau. DESIGN/METHODS: Data from medical records was stored in a secure database and queried. Most subjects, including npRPD, were referred as suspected CJD. sCJD patients either were pathology-proven or met UCSF or WHO criteria for probable CJD. Non-prion diagnoses were based on published, or accepted, criteria. Only the first LP in which both biomarkers were assessed was used for subjects with multiple lumbar punctures. RESULTS: TTau and TTau/PTau was evaluated in 55 sCJD and 36 npRPD subjects. Using previously published TTau cut-off point (positive at >1200 pg/mL), the sensitivity was 58% and the specificity 92%. The sensitivity and specificity of TTau/PTau cutoffs of 15, 20, and 25 were 87% and 81%, 76% and 89%, and 65% and 92%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that a CSF TTau/PTau ratio ≥ 25 might be a better diagnostic marker than TTau alone at >1200 pg/mL. Disclosure: Dr. Forner has nothing to disclose. Dr. Bechtel has nothing to disclose. Dr. Wong has nothing to disclose. Dr. Geschwind has received personal compensation for activities with Gerson Lehrman Group, Clinical Advisors and MedaCorp, and Eisai, Inc.
Let’s Get These Orders Straight

To complete this lab you should be familiar with the basic definition of a group. You should also be familiar with the definition of the order of an element in a group. (Recall that the order of an element g of a finite group G is the least positive integer k such that g k is equal to the identity of G.)
Agronomic performance and genetic shifts of genotype mixtures in peanut

Little information is available on the genetic shifts that may take place when seed mixtures of peanut are grown over time. Five peanut lines with distinct seed coat colors, but similar plant types, pod yields, and maturities, were grown in pure stands for four years. A mixture with equal numbers of seed from each of the five lines was grown each year. All mixtures were subsampled and grown in subsequent years without reconstitution. Yield, 100-seed weight, and total sound mature kernel proportions from the mixtures were higher than the pure stand average of the five lines, but yield and total sound mature kernel proportions were lower than the average adjusted for individual line production. The best component line was significantly better than the mixture for pod yield, 100-seed weight, and proportion of sound mature kernels. Intergenotypic competition shifted the mixture composition to increase the proportion of one of the high yielding lines after only two years, while other high yielding lines in the test either maintained or decreased their original proportion. The two lowest yielding lines in pure stand also decreased in proportion over time.
Malignant Conversion by Avian Sarcoma Virus

Basic cancer research involves two major questions: how cancer cells arise and how they differ in behavior from normal cells. Study of the interaction of the Rous sarcoma virus and related avian tumor viruses with sensitive chicken and duck cells in cell culture has suggested tentative answers to these questions. It appears that, in this system, cancer cells arise by the addition of genes to the normal cell and that these new genes, when expressed, cause changes in the cell so that the cancer cells require less than normal cells of a protein present in serum which controls cell multiplication. Therefore, under conditions in which this protein is limiting, the cancer cells have a selective advantage over normal cells.
I've got nothing to lose: consumers' risk perceptions and protective actions after the equifax data breach

Equifax, one of the three major U.S. credit bureaus, experienced a large-scale data breach in 2017. We investigated consumers' mental models of credit bureaus, how they perceive risks from this data breach, whether they took protective measures, and their reasons for inaction through 24 semi-structured interviews. We find that participants' mental models of credit bureaus are incomplete and partially inaccurate. Although many participants were aware of and concerned about the Equifax breach, few knew whether they were affected, and even fewer took protective measures after the breach. We find that this behavior is not primarily influenced by accuracy of mental models or risk awareness, but rather by costs associated with protective measures, optimism bias in estimating one's likelihood of victimization, sources of advice, and a general tendency towards delaying action until harm has occurred. We discuss legal, technical and educational implications and directions towards better protecting consumers in the credit reporting system.
CGRP ligand and receptor monoclonal antibodies for migraine prevention: Evidence review and clinical implications.

Background: Monoclonal antibodies that target calcitonin gene-related peptide or the canonical calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor have emerged as effective and well tolerated for the preventi...
Thirty years onward! Citation analysis of randomized experiments on drug and mental health courts

This study is meant to conduct the first known citation analysis on problem-solving courts (PSCs) using experimental designs. The use of citation analysis is meant to contribute to the experimental literature base by investigating the concept of “research quality.” Using Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate, citation counts were performed on drug and mental health courts, excluding self-citations. The total number of citations for the experimental research was gathered, as well as a calculation of the average number of citations per year between 1989 and 2018. Additionally, a temporal analysis was conducted to demonstrate if certain citations were cited frequently initially after publication and then decayed over time. The most cited experiments were on drug courts (n = 12). Specifically, Gottfredson et al.’s (2003) randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of drug courts amassed 309 citations of Google Scholar and yielded an average of 20.6 citations per year. The same study had 184 citations on ResearchGate, with an average of 12.26 citations per year. For mental health courts (n = 3), the most cited experiment was Cosden et al.’s (2005) evaluation of a mental health court with assertive community treatment, which had 199 citations on Google Scholar and an average of 13.27 citations per year. The study had 133 citations of ResearchGate, which is an average of 8.87 citations per year. The citation analysis presents an assessment of the most influential experiments regarding PSCs. The experimental research studies conducted by Gottfredson et al. (2003) and Cosden et al. (2005) were the most cited literature for drug court and mental health court, respectively, which contributes to the advancement of criminological research pertaining to PSCs.
Acute Kidney Injury Biomarker Responses to Short-Term Heat Acclimation

The combination of hyperthermia, dehydration, and strenuous exercise can result in severe reductions in kidney function, potentially leading to acute kidney injury (AKI). We sought to determine whether six days of heat acclimation (HA) mitigates the rise in clinical biomarkers of AKI during strenuous exercise in the heat. Twenty men completed two consecutive 2 h bouts of high-intensity exercise in either hot (n = 12, 40 °C, 40% relative humidity) or mild (n = 8, 24 °C, 21% relative humidity) environments before (PreHA) and after (PostHA) 4 days of 90-120 min of exercise per day in a hot or mild environment. Increased clinical biomarkers of AKI (CLINICAL) was defined as a serum creatinine increase ≥0.3 mg·dL-1 or estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) reduction >25%. Creatinine similarly increased in the hot environment PreHA (0.35 ± 0.23 mg·dL-1) and PostHA (0.39 ± 0.20 mg·dL-1), with greater increases than the mild environment at both time points (0.11 ± 0.07 mg·dL-1, 0.08 ± 0.06 mg·dL-1, p ≤ 0.001), respectively. CLINICAL occurred in the hot environment PreHA (n = 9, 75%), with fewer participants with CLINICAL PostHA (n = 7, 58%, p = 0.007), and no participants in the mild environment with CLINICAL at either time point. Percent change in plasma volume was predictive of changes in serum creatinine PostHA and percent changes in eGFR both PreHA and PostHA. HA did not mitigate reductions in eGFR nor increases in serum creatinine during high-intensity exercise in the heat, although the number of participants with CLINICAL was reduced PostHA.
The origin of spatial interaction

This paper uses spatial empirical methods to detect and analyze trade patterns in a historical data set on Chinese rice prices. Our results suggest that spatial features were important for the expansion of interregional trade. Geography dictates, first, over what distances trade was possible in different regions, because the costs of ship transport were considerably below those for land transport. Spatial features also influence the direction in which a trading network is expanding. Moreover, our analysis captures the impact of new trade routes both within and outside the trading areas.
Predicting geometric influences in metal additive manufacturing

Abstract Metal additive manufacturing (AM) has evolved from scientific curiosity to a potential paradigm shift in materials manufacturing owing to its ability to control microstructure and fabricate complex geometries. However, geometry, often ignored as a variable, can have a significant impact on microstructure evolution, thereby indirectly limiting the design flexibility offered by AM. Currently, the process of retaining microstructure with changing geometry relies on trial and error-based processing followed by microstructural evaluation that places significant demands on time and costs associated with experimentation and characterization. We demonstrate that lightweight thermal models can be effectively used to predict microstructural changes with geometry. These models can in turn be used as precursors to developing geometry independent scan strategies and achieve microstructure control in various alloy systems. Even if the thermal signatures predicted by the model are not accurate, scan strategies can be developed to mimic the thermal conditions during initial process development. We present a case study on one of the most studied AM alloys: Ti-6Al-4V.
Successful tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) growth from uveal melanoma (UM) using a three-signal (3.0) method.

3027Background: Metastatic UM is a rare cancer with poor response rates to systemic therapy. Adoptive transfer of patient-specific TIL may represent the best strategy for treatment. TIL are harvest...
Metal–ligand cooperativity across two sites of a square planar iron(II) complex ligated by a tetradentate PNNP ligand

An iron(II) complex with a square planar geometry and S = 1 ground state was synthesized using a rigid tetradentate bisphosphine-bisamide [PNNP]2− ligand. This complex was shown to bind an equivalent of PMe3 to produce a five-coordinate low spin complex, and to react with two equivalents of borane reagents via addition of two B–H bonds across the metal–amide bonds in a metal–ligand cooperative fashion.
Disrupting Dark Networks

Part I. Introduction: 1. Social network analysis: an introduction 2. Strategic options for disrupting dark networks Part II. Social Network Analysis: Techniques: 3. Getting started with UCINET, NetDraw, Pajek, and ORA 4. Gathering, recording, and manipulating social networks Part III. Social Network Analysis: Metrics: 5. Network topography 6. Cohesion and clustering 7. Centrality, power, and prestige 8. Brokers, bridges, and structural holes 9. Positions, roles, and blockmodels Part IV. Social Network Analysis: Advances: 10. Dynamic analyses of dark networks 11. Statistical models for dark networks Part V. Conclusion: 12. The promise and limits of social network analysis.
Analysis of Narcotic Use in Isolated Facial Fractures: Potential Targets for a Narcotic Reduction Protocol.

ABSTRACT Anecdotal evidence suggests that patients with isolated traumatic facial fractures have high narcotic usage, yet there is a lack of literature delineating this relationship. This study aimed to characterize total amount and factors predictive of narcotic usage following isolated traumatic facial fracture. Study participants (n = 35) were predominantly male (91.4%), mean age 40.5, Caucasian (34.3%), suffered some form of assault (62.9%), and remained hospitalized for an average of 3.0 days. Average morphine milligram equivalent (MME) use in the inpatient setting was 967.6 for operative (n = 30) and 37.5 for nonoperative (n = 5) patients. Average total narcotic use across inpatient and outpatient settings was 1256.6 MME for operative and 105 MME for nonoperative patients. Operative intervention predicted a significant difference in total inpatient narcotic usage (P = 0.009). For patients who underwent surgical intervention, significant variations in narcotic usage were found based on mechanism of injury (24-hour postoperative, P = 0.030), but not injury severity or number of procedures. Specifically, individuals suffering highly traumatic fractures (eg, gunshot wound) demonstrated increased total postoperative narcotic usage of 1194.1 MME (P = 0.004). Interestingly, non-narcotic analgesic use including acetaminophen and lidocaine-epinephrine resulted in significantly lower narcotic usage in the postoperative setting. These findings suggest a role for narcotic-reducing enhanced recovery after surgery protocols in the setting of isolated facial trauma.
High Quality of Service in Future Electrical Energy Systems: A New Time-Domain Approach

In this paper we study dynamical distortion problems in future electrical energy systems with high renewable penetration. We introduce a new time-domain modeling of electrical energy systems comprising inverter-controlled distributed energy resources (DERs). This modeling is first used to quantify the relations between distortions and real/reactive power dynamics. Next, to ensure acceptable Quality of Service (QoS), a novel nonlinear distributed inverter control is introduced. Sufficient conditions are established for the guaranteed performance of the proposed control. These conditions further support the practical implementation of the derived controller. The effectiveness of this enhanced control is illustrated using simulations for the case of avoiding system instability during sudden grid reconfigurations. Simulations also show that distortions can be suppressed in systems with parallel-connected solar photovoltaics (PVs).
Examining Public Organization Communication Misalignments During COVID-19 Through the Lens of Higher Education

COVID-19 is forcing alterations to administrative communication. Higher education institutions transitioning online during the pandemic offers a fertile ground to analyze what happens to organizati...
Hydrogen-Related E’ Centers and Positive Charge in Irradiated Oxide Films

Electron paramagnetic resonance and capacitance-voltage results indicate that oxygen vacancy related defects (E’ centers) in hydrogen-treated SiO2 films occur in concentrations ten times that found in non-hydrogen treated films and, unlike their counterparts in non-hydrogen treated films, they are not associated with an increase in bulk or interfacial radiation-induced positive charge. We discuss evidence which supports the model in which incident radiation breaks SiH bonds, rather than a neutral oxygen vacancy, and produces hydrogen related E’ centers. Further, through a post-irradiation annealing study, we show that the E’ centers generated in H2 treated films are more stable than those generated in as-grown oxide films.
Evaluating the impact of aerosol particles above cloud on cloud optical depth retrievals from MODIS

Using two different operational Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud optical depth (COD) retrievals (0.86 versus 1.6 µm), we evaluate the impact of above-cloud smoke aerosol particles on near-IR (0.86 µm) COD retrievals. Aerosol Index (AI) from the collocated Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) are used to identify above-cloud aerosol particle loading over the southern Atlantic Ocean, including both smoke and dust from the African subcontinent. Collocated Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation data constrain cloud phase and provide contextual above-cloud aerosol optical depth. The frequency of occurrence of above-cloud aerosol events is depicted on a global scale for the spring and summer seasons from OMI and Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization. Seasonal frequencies for smoke-over-cloud off the southwestern Africa coastline reach 20–50% in boreal summer. We find a corresponding low COD bias of 10–20% for standard MODIS COD retrievals when averaged OMI AI are larger than 1. No such bias is found over the Saharan dust outflow region off northern Africa, since both MODIS 0.86 and 1.6 µm channels are vulnerable to radiance attenuation due to dust particles. A similar result is found for a smaller domain, in the Gulf of Tonkin region, from smoke advection over marine stratocumulus clouds and outflow into the northern South China Sea in spring. This study shows the necessity of accounting for the above-cloud aerosol events for future studies using standard MODIS cloud products in biomass burning outflow regions, through the use of collocated OMI AI and supplementary MODIS 1.6 µm COD products.
On the design and execution of cyber-security user studies: methodology, challenges, and lessons learned

Real-world data collection poses an important challenge in the security field. Insider and masquerader attack data collection poses even a greater challenge. Very few organizations acknowledge such breaches because of liability concerns and potential implications on their market value. This caused the scarcity of real-world data sets that could be used to study insider and masquerader attacks. Moreover, user studies conducted to collect such data lack rigor in their design and execution. In this paper, we present the methodology followed to conduct a user study and build a data set for evaluating masquerade attack detection techniques. We discuss the design, technical, and procedural challenges encountered during our own masquerade data gathering project, and share some of the lessons learned from this several-year project.
Capital Flows to Asia: The Role of Monetary Policy

Monetary policy played an important role in the Asian experience with capital inflows. Central banks used monetary policy to contain the threat of overheating, but the resulting increases in interest rates attracted additional inflows. Empirical measurement of these links shows that tight monetary policy was an important source of inflows to Indonesia and Thailand in recent years, and that the independence of monetary policy decreased during the inflow period.
Multiple Mediators of the Effects of Acculturation Status on Delinquency for Mexican American Adolescents

Research has shown that more acculturated Latino adolescents are at increased risk for delinquent behavior relative to their less acculturated counterparts. The present study examined the mediating effects of seven variables hypothesized to account for the empirical link between acculturation status and delinquent activity for a sample of Mexican American adolescents. Mediational analyses provided support for four of the putative mediators which included family conflict, maternal monitoring, inconsistent discipline, and negative peer hassles. Examined together, these variables totally mediated the effect of acculturation status on delinquent behavior. In addition, family conflict and maternal monitoring uniquely accounted for a significant proportion of the mediated variance above that explained by the other variables in the model. Adolescent's cultural identity, perceived discrimination, and maternal acceptance were not supported as mediators.
Digestion Theory Applied to Deposit Feeding

As many of the contributions to this volume show, consideration of deposit feeding leads quickly to questions of digestion. There are spectacular variations in feeding rate both among species (Cammen, 1980) and within individuals (Taghon and Jumars, 1984), respectively demanding digestive diversity and flexibility. Intuitively, it seems likely that organisms eating sand and mud might more often be limited by processing ability and food quality — i.e., by the rate at which digestive products can be formed — than by acquisition rate. When one looks for theoretical guidance to design measurements and experiments regarding this interspecific diversity and intraspecific flexibility, comparatively little is available (Milton, 1981; Sibly, 1981; Taghon, 1981; Troyer, 1984). Theories of how an organism should forage and what it should ingest are abundant, but comparably general optimization approaches to predict how it ought to digest what it captures are not. The need is clear for animals in general and for deposit feeders in particular: Variations in fitness can result from variations in digestion just as readily as they can from differences in acquisition.
Does colorspace transformation make any difference on skin detection

Skin detection is an important process in many of computer vision algorithms. It usually is a process that starts at a pixel-level, and that involves a pre-process of colorspace transformation followed by a classification process. A colorspace transformation is assumed to increase separability between skin and non-skin classes, to increase similarity among different skin tones, and to bring a robust performance under varying illumination conditions, without any sound reasonings. In this work, we examine if the colorspace transformation does bring those benefits by measuring four separability measurements on a large dataset of 805 images with different skin tones and illumination. Surprising results indicate that most of the colorspace transformations do not bring the benefits which have been assumed.
Two distinct enzymes contribute to biphasic S6 phosphorylation in serum-stimulated chicken embryo fibroblasts.

Abstract Serum stimulation of quiescent chicken embryo fibroblasts resulted in a time-dependent, biphasic activation of S6 kinase activity. Chromatographic fractionation of serum-stimulated cell lysates resolved two distinct S6 kinase activities. Anti-Xenopus S6 kinase II antiserum immunoprecipitated a 90,000-Mr S6 kinase but did not cross-react with a smaller, 65,000-Mr S6 kinase. Phosphopeptide analysis confirmed that the 90,000- and 65,000-Mr proteins were structurally unrelated and established that the 65,000-Mr protein isolated by the current protocol was the same serum-stimulated chicken embryo fibroblast S6 kinase as that previously characterized (J. Blenis, C. J. Kuo, and R. L. Erikson, J. Biol. Chem. 262:14373-14376, 1987). These results demonstrate the contribution of two distinct S6 kinases to total serum-stimulated ribosomal protein S6 phosphorylation.
Oxygen production and carbon sequestration in an upwelling coastal margin

[1] We examined high-resolution cross-shelf distributions of particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved O2 during the upwelling season off the Oregon coast. Oxygen concentrations were supersaturated in surface waters, and hypoxic in near-bottom waters, with greatly expanded hypoxic conditions late in the season. Simplified time-dependent mass balances on cross-shelf integrated concentrations of these two parameters, found the following: (1) The average net rate of photosynthesis generated 2.1 mmol O2 m−3 d−1 and (2) essentially none of the corresponding net carbon fixation of 1.4 mmol m−3 d−1 could be accounted for in the observed standing stocks of POC. After examining other possible sinks for carbon, we conclude that most of the net production is being exported to the adjacent deep ocean. A simplified POC budget suggests that about a quarter of the export is via alongshore advection, and the remainder is due to some other process. We propose a simplistic conceptual model of across-shelf transport in which POC sinks to the bottom boundary layer where it comes into contact with mineral ballast material but is kept in suspension by high turbulence. When upwelling conditions ease, the BBL waters move seaward, carrying the suspended, ballasted POC with it where it sinks rapidly into the deep ocean at the shelf break. This suggests a mechanism whereby the duration and frequency of upwelling events and relaxations can determine the extent to which new carbon produced by photosynthesis in the coastal ocean is exported to depth rather than being respired on the shelf.
Meeting basic human needs for water remains huge challenge, expert says

Since the 1998 publication of the first volume of The World's Water, a biennial report on freshwater resources from the Pacific Institute, some significant strides have been made in improving water management and quality. However, there has also been a continuing stream of bad news about the state of water in many parts of the world. With the 18 October publication of volume 7 in the series, two stark statistics stand out to lead author Peter Gleick: More than 1 billion people still lack safe drinking water, and more than 2.5 billion lack adequate sanitation.
Self- and Other-Reports of Traits from the Five-Factor Model: Relations to Personality Disorder

Abstract The current study used a psychiatric sample (N = 69) to examine: (1) the correspondence between self- and other-reports of general personality, as measured by the Five-Factor Model (FFM; Costa & McCrae, 1990), and personality disorder (PD) traits, as measured by a structured interview, (2) the relations between these two sets of ratings (FFM and PD traits) and consensus ratings of PD and impairment, and (3) the incremental validity of other-rated personality scores. Agreement between raters for the five domains of the FFM ranged from .23 (agreeableness) to .71 (openness); for the PD traits agreement ranged from .37 (avoidant) to .69 (antisocial). At both the domain and facet level, the personality profiles reflected in the correlations between the FFM scores and PD criteria were consistent across raters with the exception of narcissistic PD. Substantial evidence was found for the incremental validity of other-rated personality scores, with these ratings accounting for an additional 8 to 20% of th...
Review of History of hydraulic research in India by G. S. Dhillon

The book attempts to cover only those studies in which a practicing engineer is involved in problem formulation and in the evaluation and application of the results. Such studies mainly have been conducted by a handful of government organizations. One such organization is the Irrigation and Power Research Institute, Amritsar. The author had a long association with this institute; consequently, he emphasized studies conducted in this institute. Most studies are related to the development of irrigation and hydropower. The title of the book should be ‘‘Development of Irrigation Structures in India.’’ The book contains 20 chapters. The first chapter, entitled ‘‘Growth of Hydraulic Research in India,’’ summarizes the chronology of the establishment of hydraulic research organizations during the British rule and after independence in 1947. The remaining chapters deal with the various aspects of river behavior and control, including research areas ~e.g., ice modeling, tidal power, and lock structures! in which no significant contribution was made by Indian research organizations. The history of hydraulics in India dates back 3000 B.C. and it is not covered in the book. In 1998 the reviewer led a group of graduate students from The Univ. of Iowa to India and visited some of the ancient sites, e.g.: ~1! the remains of an ancient city at Lothal, Gujarat, built about 4,500 years ago, which includes an intricate system of surface and underground drains and a large rectangular basin probably for docking trade ships; ~2! the remains of one of the finest of the Gujarati step wells, known as Adalaj Vav, built some 500 years ago; and ~3! a number of crossdrainage works on the Ganga Canal that are over 150 years old. There still is a scope for another book on the history of hydraulics that also covers the ancient period and the basic hydraulic research.
Public health or public menace? The Rockefeller Foundation and public health in Mexico 1920-1950.

This article explores how the Rockefeller Foundation's hookworm campaigns, sponsorship of local sanitary units and involvement in public health education in Mexico shaped the conceptualisation and practice of public health during the decades following the Mexican Revolution. A 1923 hookworm agreement set the terms of the relationship, minimising the Foundation's financial commitment while maximising its administrative control. In establishing rural health units, the Foundation adapted to local conditions without compromising scientific public health by ingeniously incorporating midwives while shunning other traditional healers. When President Lazaro Cardenas's socialist politics threatened the Rockefeller model of public health in the 1930s, delicate tactics enabled the Foundation to overcome these challenges. For the Mexican government, the overriding goals of modernisation and progress required an acceptance of Rockefeller pressure and scientific expertise. The special status granted the Rockefeller foundation, its political, administrative, educational and financial strategies, and its institutional flexibility enabled it to influence profoundly the development of the Mexican public health system.
End-to-end performance management for scalable distributed storage

Many applications---for example, scientific simulation, real-time data acquisition, and distributed reservation systems---have I/O performance requirements, yet most large, distributed storage systems lack the ability to guarantee I/O performance. We are working on end-to-end performance management in scalable, distributed storage systems. The kinds of storage systems we are targeting include large high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, which require both large data volumes and high I/O rates, as well as large-scale general-purpose storage systems.
Fabrication and evaluation of two-layer stratified volume diffractive optical elements

Stratified volume diffractive optical elements can approach volume grating behavior with diffractive optic techniques. Fabrication and alignment of the layers within such an element is discussed and preliminary evaluation of a two-layer device is presented.
Biomass conversion to mixed alcohol fuels using the MixAlco process.

The MixAlco process is a patented technology that converts any biodegradable material (e.g., sorted municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, industrial biosludge, manure, agricultural residues, energy crops) into mixed alcohol fuels containing predominantly 2-propanol, but also higher alcohols up to 7-tridecanol. The feedstock is treated with lime to increase its digestibility. Then, it is fed to a fermentor in which a mixed culture of acid-forming microorganisms produces carboxylic acids. Calcium carbonate is added to the fermentor to neutralize the acids to their corresponding carboxylate salt. The dilute (~3%) carboxylate salts are concentrated to 19% using an amine solvent that selectively extracts water. Drying is completed using multi-effect evaporators. Finally, the dry salts are thermally converted to ketones which subsequently are hydrogenated to alcohols. All the steps in the MixAlco process have been proven at the laboratory scale. A techno-economic model of the process indicates that with the tipping fees available in New York ($126/dry tonne), mixed alcohol fuels may be sold for $0.04JL ($0.16/gal) with a 60% return on investment (ROI). With the average tipping fee in the United States rates ($63/dry tonne), mixed alcohol fuels may be sold for $0.18JL ($0.69/gal) with a 15% ROI. In the case of sugarcane bagasse, which may be obtained for about $26/dry ton, mixed alcohol fuels may be sold for $0.29/L ($1.09/gal) with a 15% ROI.
Library Collections as Humanities Data: The Facet Effect

Many library collections contain digital text, images, and audio. Materials in these forms and the metadata that describe them are frequently the objects of inquiry that Digital Humanists, inside a...
Efficient PMU networking with software defined networks

An important goal for the smart grid is to give power grid operators like utilities a global view of the health of the power grid. As the smart grid is built-out, the size and complexity of the required communications network is increasing. In this paper we propose using software defined networks (SDN) for the smart grid, as SDN allow for a flexibly defined network (through programmability) along with superior performance and implementations based on industry standards. To demonstrate that SDN can be used as the underlying technology for power grid networking we have implemented a multi-rate, multicast network for phasor measurement unit (PMU) data. We compare the SDN solution to the conventional approach as well as two other advanced PMU networking methods, IP Multicast and GridStat and show that our method achieves lower latency and optimal network utilization.