cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bridging Musical Worlds. Arrangements of Works by Debussy in the Repertoire of the Sousa Band

As is generally known, Claude Debussy’s cakewalks and cakewalk-inflected compositions are a response to the ragtime craze that was stimulated in Paris by the performances of the American “March King” John Philip Sousa and his band in 1900 and 1903. Far less familiar is the fact that the Sousa Band in turn played a handful of transcriptions of works by Debussy in later years. Considering the instrumentation and the popular character of Sousa’s ensemble, his embracing of Debussy may seem surprising at first sight. However, a well-balanced mixture of ‘vernacular’ and ‘cultivated’ music and the employment of the latter for the sake of entertainment was the hallmark of his style of programming. Still it can be said that the Debussy arrangements, along with transcriptions of certain works by Richard Strauss, represent the highest degree of sophistication and modernity that could ever be found in Sousa Band programmes. Focusing on the analysis of transcriptions of the Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune by Sousa and of La cathedrale engloutie by Herbert L. Clarke (both written in 1921), this article aims to demonstrate that the departure from musical conventions in Debussy’s works required a fresh approach to band scoring which could only partially build on contemporary standards. Thus, arranging Debussy for wind band did not only mean crossing borders in a social and aesthetic sense but also in a technical one. Since traces of impressionist compositional thinking can even be found at some points in Sousa’s own works, the American bandmaster may be regarded as a pioneer of the popular adaptation of impressionist elements that soon would be common in the music of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood.
Barriers to Access in Public Adult Literacy Education

This qualitative research article explores barriers experienced by a group of African American and Latinx adults who sought to enroll and stay enrolled in a publicly funded literacy class and how t...
The Davis In-Order (DINO) CPU: A Teaching-focused RISC-V CPU Design

The DINO CPU is an open source teaching-focused RISC-V CPU design available on GitHub (https://github.com/jlpteaching/dinocpu). We have used the DINO CPU in the computer architecture course at UC Davis for two quarters with two separate instructors. In this paper, we present details of the DINO CPU, the tools included with the DINO CPU, and our experiences using the DINO CPU.
Wnt Signaling and Skeletal Dysplasias.

Identification of responsible genes for skeletal dysplasias evidences their critical roles in the skeletal development and maintenance. Mutations in the genes encoding the components of Wnt canonical pathway, which include WNT1, LRP5, LRP4, SOST and WTX, cause the disorders characterized by abnormal in bone mass. On the other hand, mutations in the genes for the components of Wnt non-canonical pathway such as WNT5A, ROR2, DVL1 and DVL3 are associated with dysmorphic skeletal disorders which manifest short limbs and facial anomalies. Thus, both canonical and non-canonical pathways of Wnt signaling play substantial roles in the human skeletons, and it is suggested that the former mainly controls bone mass while the latter regulates skeletal morphogenesis.
Markov Chain Monte Carlo: The Basics

Imagine you enter a big national park (in the poem it is a mountain), your path is essentially a Markov chain in a bounded space. The frequency that you stay at an attraction spot is proportional to its popularity.
Clinical fracture associated with androgen deprivation therapy: A retrospective study of early phase clinical trial cohorts.

234Background: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the mainstay treatment in both locally advanced and metastatic prostate cancer. Unfortunately, ADT is associated with rapid loss of bone mineral...
Continuous Electroencephalography Monitoring in Critically Ill Infants and Children.

Abstract Continuous video electroencephalography (CEEG) monitoring of critically ill infants and children has expanded rapidly in recent years. Indications for CEEG include evaluation of patients with altered mental status, characterization of paroxysmal events, and detection of electrographic seizures, including monitoring of patients with limited neurological examination or conditions that put them at high risk for electrographic seizures (e.g., cardiac arrest or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cannulation). Depending on the inclusion criteria and clinical characteristics of the population studied, the percentage of pediatric patients with electrographic seizures varies from 7% to 46% and with electrographic status epilepticus from 1% to 23%. There is also evidence that epileptiform and background CEEG patterns may provide important information about prognosis in certain clinical populations. Quantitative EEG techniques are emerging as a tool to enhance the value of CEEG to provide real-time bedside data for management and prognosis. Continued research is needed to understand the clinical value of seizure detection and identification of other CEEG patterns on the outcomes of critically ill infants and children.
Integrated maintenance and operations decision making with imperfect degradation state observations

Abstract In highly flexible and integrated manufacturing systems, such as semiconductor fabs, strong interactions between the equipment condition, operations executed on the various machines and the outgoing product quality necessitate integrated decision making in the domains of maintenance scheduling and production operations. Furthermore, in highly complex manufacturing equipment, the underlying condition is not directly observable and can only be inferred probabilistically from the available sensor readings. In order to deal with interactions between maintenance and production operations in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) in which equipment conditions are not perfectly observable, we propose in this paper a decision-making method based on a Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDP's), yielding an integrated policy in the realms of maintenance scheduling and production sequencing. Optimization was pursued using a metaheuristic method that used the results of discrete-event simulations of the underlying manufacturing system. The new approach is demonstrated in simulations of a generic semiconductor manufacturing cluster tool. The results showed that, regardless of uncertainties in the knowledge of actual equipment conditions, jointly making maintenance and production sequencing decisions consistently outperforms the current practice of making these decisions separately.
Dynamically reconfigurable electronic and phononic properties in intercalated HfS2

Abstract Dynamic reconfigurability of material properties is essential to enabling innovative neuromorphic- and quantum-computing paradigms. The unique structure of van der Waals layers can facilitate a robust mechanism for this desired reconfigurability. Here, we present a highly versatile and effective approach, based on electrochemical intercalation of organometallics, to control the electron and phonon behavior in hafnium disulfide. Computational and experimental exploration of the physical properties in the intercalated material indicates a significant and measured change. Furthermore, the weak chemical interactions between the organometallics and hafnium disulfide enable an electric-field mediated intercalant drift and charge–discharge process. The control of organometallic concentration in this way provides a dynamic 400-fold control of cross-plane electrical conductivity (1.8 μS/cm–741 μS/cm) and a corresponding 4-fold control of cross-plane thermal conductivity in hafnium disulfide (0.35 Wm−1 K−1–1.45 Wm−1 K−1). Our findings unveil a broad approach to dynamically design layered-material properties for high-performance electronic and phononic applications.
Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation. From Description to Pedagogy

The “Routledge Advances in Language Teaching” series in which the book under review appeared seeks to showcase the latest research on the teaching and learning of Spanish. Launched in 2018 and dire...
Impact of State Prioritization of Safe Infant Sleep Programs on Supine Sleep Positioning for Non-Hispanic White and Non-Hispanic Black Infants.

Objective Investigate whether safe infant sleep prioritization by states through the Title V Maternal and Child Block Grant in 2010 differentially impacted maternal report of supine sleep positioning (SSP) for Non-Hispanic White (NHW) and Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) U.S.-born infants. Methods We analyzed retrospective cross-sectional data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) from 2005 to 2015 from 4 states: WV and OK (Intervention) and AR and UT (Control). PRAMS is a population-based surveillance system of maternal perinatal experiences which is linked to infant birth certificates. Piece-wise survey linear regression models were used to estimate the difference in the change in slopes of SSP percents in the pre- (2005-2009) and post- (2011-2015) periods, controlling for maternal and infant characteristics. Models were also stratified by race/ethnicity. Results From 2005 to 2015, for NHW infants, SSP improved from 61.5% and 70.2% to 82.8% and 82.3% for intervention and control states, respectively. For NHB infants, SSP improved from 30.6% and 26.5% to 64.5% and 53.1% for intervention and control states, respectively. After adjustment for maternal characteristics, there was no difference in the rate of SSP change from the pre- to post- intervention periods for either NHW or NHB infants in intervention or control groups. Conclusions and relevance Compared with control states that did not prioritize safe infant sleep in their 2010 Title V Block Grant needs assessment, intervention states experienced no difference in SSP improvement rates for NHW and NHB infants. While SSP increased for all infants during the study period, there was no causal relationship between states' prioritization of safe infant sleep and SSP improvement. More targeted approaches may be needed to reduce the racial/ethnic disparity in SSP and reduce the risk for sleep-associated infant death. Key points · Supine sleep positioning improved for Black and White infants in the U.S.. · State prioritization of safe infant sleep did not directly impact SSP for NHB or NHW infants.. · More targeted approaches may be needed to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in safe sleep practices.
Intraventricular occurrence of a melanocytoma: Case report

Melanocytomas are rare tumors of the central nervous system that are believed to arise from leptomeningeal melanocytes. A young girl presented with a contrast-enhancing cystic mass in the temporal horn of the left lateral ventricle. Microsurgical resection of a black-colored vascular tumor supplied by the anterior choroidal artery was performed. Appropriate immunohistochemical staining and electron microscope evaluations were used to confirm the pathological diagnosis. The patient made an excellent recovery; follow-up imaging revealed no recurrent or residual tumor. This is the first documented primary occurrence of a melanocytoma in an intraventricular location. The intraventricular occurrence of this tumor suggests that melanocytes may migrate into the choroidal fissure and may infrequently undergo neoplastic proliferation in that location. This case contains implications for the differential diagnosis of intraventricular tumors.
Variability and accuracy of different software packages for dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging for distinguishing glioblastoma progression from pseudoprogression.

Determining whether glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is progressing despite treatment is challenging due to the pseudoprogression phenomenon seen on conventional MRIs, but relative cerebral blood volume (CBV) has been shown to be helpful. As CBV’s calculation from perfusion-weighted images is not standardized, we investigated whether there were differences between three FDA-cleared software packages in their CBV output values and subsequent performance regarding predicting survival/progression. Forty-five postradiation therapy GBM cases were retrospectively identified as having indeterminate MRI findings of progression versus pseudoprogression. The dynamic susceptibility contrast MR images were processed with different software and three different relative CBV metrics based on the abnormally enhancing regions were computed. The intersoftware intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.8 and below, depending on the metric used. No statistically significant difference in progression determination performance was found between the software packages, but performance was better for the cohort imaged at 3.0 T versus those imaged at 1.5 T for many relative CBV metric and classification criteria combinations. The results revealed clinically significant variation in relative CBV measures based on the software used, but minimal interoperator variation. We recommend against using specific relative CBV measurement thresholds for GBM progression determination unless the same software or processing algorithm is used.
A Simulation-based Framework for Spoken Language Understanding and Action Selection in Situated Interaction

This paper introduces a simulation-based framework for performing action selection and understanding for interactive agents. By simulating the objects and actions relevant to an interaction, an agent can semantically ground natural language and interact considerately and on its own initiative in situated environments. The framework proposed in this paper leverages models of the environment, user and system to predict possible future world states via simulation. It leverages understanding of spoken language and multi-modal input to estimate the state of the ongoing interaction and select actions based on the utility of future outcomes in the simulated world. In this paper we introduce this framework and demonstrate its effectiveness for in-car navigation.
Protein Interactions, Post-translational Modifications and Topologies in Human Cells

The unique and remarkable physicochemical properties of protein surface topologies give rise to highly specific biomolecular interactions, which form the framework through which living systems are able to carry out their vast array of functions. Technological limitations undermine efforts to probe protein structures and interactions within unperturbed living systems on a large scale. Rapid chemical stabilization of proteins and protein complexes through chemical cross-linking offers the alluring possibility to study details of the protein structure to function relationships as they exist within living cells. Here we apply the latest technological advances in chemical cross-linking combined with mass spectrometry to study protein topologies and interactions from living human cells identifying a total of 368 cross-links. These include cross-links from all major cellular compartments including membrane, cytosolic and nuclear proteins. Intraprotein and interprotein cross-links were also observed for core histone proteins, including several cross-links containing post-translational modifications which are known histone marks conferring distinct epigenetic functions. Excitingly, these results demonstrate the applicability of cross-linking to make direct topological measurements on post-translationally modified proteins. The results presented here provide new details on the structures of known multi-protein complexes as well as evidence for new protein-protein interactions.
Diode-laser-based lidars: the next generation

The work on the development of compact diode laser-based lidar systems at SRI International is reviewed. Two systems, a pseudorandom modulation lidar, and a mobile remote sensor for natural gas pipeline leak detection are described in detail, and experimental results are presented. Methods to enhance signal detection by digital filtering are also reviewed.
The Developmental Pathway From Pubertal Timing to Delinquency and Sexual Activity From Early to Late Adolescence

There is strong evidence that early pubertal timing is associated with adolescent problem behaviors. However, there has been limited investigation of the mechanisms or developmental relationships. The present study examined longitudinal models incorporating pubertal timing, delinquency, and sexual activity in a sample of 454 adolescents (9–13 years old at enrollment; 47% females). Participants were seen for three assessments approximately 1 year apart. Characteristics of friendship networks (older friends, male friends, older male friends) were examined as mediators. Structural equation modeling was used to test these associations as well as temporal relationships between sexual activity and delinquency. Results showed that early pubertal timing at Time 1 was related to more sexual activity at Time 2, which was related to higher delinquency at Time 3, a trend mediation effect. None of the friendship variables mediated these associations. Gender or maltreatment status did not moderate the meditational pathways. The results also supported the temporal sequence of sexual activity preceding increases in delinquency. These findings reveal that early maturing adolescents may actively seek out opportunities to engage in sexual activity which appears to be risk for subsequent delinquency.
Lessons from the Broward County Mental Health Court Evaluation

The creation of specialty mental health courts has emerged as a strategy to address the impact of persons with mental illness in the criminal justice system by consolidating the management of certain types of cases into a single court. This article describes an evaluation of the nation's first such court, the Broward County Mental Health Court. The purpose is to alert those who may conduct future evaluations of these types of courts to some of the contextual, logistic, and management features of our evaluation and the challenges we have encountered doing field research in this unique legal setting.
Examination of the factorial structure of adverse childhood experiences and recommendations for three subscale scores.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current investigation is to assess and validate the factor structure of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System's (BRFSS) Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) module. METHOD: ACE data available from the 2009 BRFSS survey were fit using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to estimate an initial factorial structure. The exploratory solution was then validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with data from the 2010 BRFSS survey. Lastly, ACE factors were tested for measurement invariance using multiple group factor analysis. RESULTS: EFA results suggested that a 3-factor solution adequately fit the data. Examination of factor loadings and item content suggested the factors represented the following construct areas: Household Dysfunction, Emotional/Physical Abuse, and Sexual Abuse. Subsequent CFA results confirmed the 3-factor solution and provided preliminary support for estimation of an overall latent ACE score summarizing the responses to all available items. Measurement invariance was supported across both gender and age. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study provides support for the use of the current ACE module scoring algorithm, which uses the sum of the number of items endorsed to estimate exposure. However, the results also suggest potential benefits to estimating 3 separate composite scores to estimate the specific effects of exposure to Household Dysfunction, Emotional/Physical Abuse, and Sexual Abuse. Language: en
Incidental learning, attention, and curiosity in squirrel monkeys calorie deprived as infants ☆

Abstract The long-term effects of infantile malnutrition on information processing were studied in squirrel monkeys. From 2 through 8 weeks of age, four low-calorie infants were fed reduced amounts of a high protein diet, limiting their mean body weight gain to 23% of that of four well-fed controls, with all of this gain occurring during the first 2 weeks on the low-calorie diet. Thereafter, both groups received the standard diet ad libitum . At 68 weeks of age, incidental learning was tested by introducing shape cues that were redundant to the solution of a previously learned, two-choice, color discrimination. Removal of the color cues showed that the low-calorie monkeys had learned significantly less about the shape cues than had the controls. The basis for this incidental learning failure was then examined with an embedded-figures dicrimination, to measure attentional ability, and a novel stimulus substitution task, to measure curiosity. The groups did not differ in detecting embedded figures, but the low-calorie monkeys were significantly less likely than controls to select or handle novel stimuli that had been substituted for previously learned discriminative cues. It was concluded that undernutrition in infancy may induce a long-term strategy of only learning information which leads to an immediate reward, while suppressing the acquisition of information due to intrinsic curiosity.
Perinatal and maternal mortality in a religious group avoiding obstetric care

We investigated perinatal and maternal deaths occurring among women who were members of a religious group in Indiana; these women received no prenatal care and gave birth at home without trained attendants. Members of the religious group had a perinatal mortality rate three times higher and a maternal mortality rate about 100 times higher than the statewide rates. These findings suggest that, even in the United States, women who avoid obstetric care have a greatly increased risk of perinatal and maternal death.
A proposed solution to the problem of levels in error-message generation

A simple "lets talk about it" strategy is developed that enables users to explore lower level error messages through dialogue.
Metropolitan Spaces: a Panel of Essays on the Production of Histories and Identities in East–Central Europe

METROPOLITAN SPACES is a set of essays each concerned with how, and under what circumstances, people living in the same city come to see themselves as sharing an identity. For contemporary city dwellers, forging a link between who they are and where they live is increasingly problematic because of the rapid changes in place and self in the metropolis. All of the papers focus on Vienna or Berlin, but as case studies, they offer insights into the processes of identity formation for other cities as well.
Allocation of visual attention to spatial locations: tradeoff functions for event-related brain potentials and detection performance.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to unilateral arrays of letters flashed in rapid, randomized sequences to left and right visual field locations. Subjects were required to focus attention exclusively on either left or right field stimuli, or to divide attention in different proportions between the two fields, with the aim of detecting infrequent target letters. Both d’ and percent hits for target detections increased significantly as attentional allocation to a stimulus location increased. Attention operating characteristic (AOC) curves for the target detection scoreswere highly similar in form to those for the amplitudes of the long-latency, endogenous ERP components—N350-650 and P400-800 (P300). All of these measures showed gradual, nearly rectangular tradeoff functions. In contrast, the AOC curves for the early sensoryevoked components displayed steep, nearly linear amplitude tradeoffs as attention was increasingly allocated to one visual field at the expense of the other. The early and late ERP components were considered as indices of separate but interacting levels of attentional selection having different operating principles.
Performance evaluation of cache replacement policies for the SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suite

Replacement policy, one of the key factors determining the effectiveness of a cache, becomes even more important with latest technological trends toward highly associative caches. The state-of-the-art processors employ various policies such as Random, Least Recently Used (LRU), Round-Robin, and PLRU (Pseudo LRU), indicating that there is no common wisdom about the best one. Optimal yet unattainable policy would replace cache memory block whose next reference is the farthest away in the future, among all memory blocks present in the set.In our quest for replacement policy as close to optimal as possible, we thoroughly explored the design space of existing replacement mechanisms using SimpleScalar toolset and SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suite, across wide range of cache sizes and organizations. In order to better understand the behavior of different policies, we introduced new measures, such as cumulative distribution of cache hits in the LRU stack. We also dynamically monitored the number of cache misses, per each 100000 instructions.Our results show that the PLRU techniques can approximate and even outperform LRU with much lower complexity, for a wide range of cache organizations. However, a relatively large gap between LRU and optimal replacement policy, of up to 50%, indicates that new research aimed to close the gap is necessary. The cumulative distribution of cache hits in the LRU stack indicates a very good potential for way prediction using LRU information, since the percentage of hits to the bottom of the LRU stack is relatively high.
Late primary cytomegalovirus infection presenting with acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy in a heart transplant recipient: a case report and review of the literature.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is well recognized as a cause of morbidity and mortality in heart transplant recipients. Primary CMV infection can occur early post transplant in at-risk recipients with donor-derived infection, or any time after transplantation in community-acquired infection. We describe a unique case of primary CMV infection occurring 14 years after cardiac transplantation. In addition to end-organ CMV disease, this patient developed a post-infectious neurologic phenomenon, acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. This entity has rarely been reported in the solid organ transplant population.
Mechanical and in Vitro Performance of 13-93 Bioactive Glass Scaffolds Prepared by a Polymer Foam Replication Technique

A polymer foam replication technique was used to prepare porous scaffolds of 13-93 bioactive glass with a microstructure similar to that of human trabecular bone. The scaffolds, with a porosity of 85+/-2% and pore size of 100-500 microm, had a compressive strength of 11+/-1 MPa, and an elastic modulus of 3.0+/-0.5 GPa, approximately equal to the highest values reported for human trabecular bone. The strength was also considerably higher than the values reported for polymeric, bioactive glass-ceramic and hydroxyapatite constructs prepared by the same technique and with the equivalent level of porosity. The in vitro bioactivity of the scaffolds was observed by the conversion of the glass surface to a nanostructured hydroxyapatite layer within 7 days in simulated body fluid at 37 degrees C. Protein and MTT assays of in vitro cell cultures showed an excellent ability of the scaffolds to support the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 preosteoblastic cells, both on the surface and in the interior of the porous constructs. Scanning electron microscopy showed cells with a closely adhering, well-spread morphology and a continuous increase in cell density on the scaffolds during 6 days of culture. The results indicate that the 13-93 bioactive glass scaffolds could be applied to bone repair and regeneration.
Incoherent structured illumination improves optical sectioning and contrast in multiphoton super-resolution microscopy

Three-dimensional super-resolution imaging in thick, semi-transparent biological specimens is hindered by light scattering, which increases background and degrades both contrast and optical sectioning. We describe a simple method that mitigates these issues, improving image quality in our recently developed two-photon instant structured illumination microscope without requiring any hardware modifications to the instrument. By exciting the specimen with three laterally-structured, phase-shifted illumination patterns and post-processing the resulting images, we digitally remove both scattered and out-of-focus emissions that would otherwise contaminate our raw data. We demonstrate the improved performance of our approach in biological samples, including pollen grains, primary mouse aortic endothelial cells cultured in a three–dimensional collagen matrix and live tumor-like cell spheroids.
Relative humidity over Antarctica from radiosondes, satellites, and a general circulation model

[1] Radiosonde measurements are used to validate measurements of relative humidity (RH) over Antarctica from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) satellite instrument. Radiosonde observations are corrected for most known biases but still have a solar heating dry bias of up to 8% relative to other instruments. AIRS reproduces the observations of temperature and relative humidity with good fidelity. There is a ∼20% moist bias to the data in the upper troposphere relative to radiosonde measurements, but it is within the standard deviation of the measurements. Probability distribution functions of RH from radiosondes and AIRS are similar, suggesting that variability over Antarctica is well reproduced by the satellite. AIRS data are also compared to simulations from the Community Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) and are found to be significantly moister than the model, although the model does not allow supersaturation with respect to ice or liquid water. A climatology from AIRS indicates that it has a repeatable annual cycle over Antarctica. Supersaturation with respect to ice is very common over the continent, particularly in winter, where it might occur almost half the time in the troposphere. This may affect the quantity and isotopic composition of ice over Antarctica.
The HSAB Principle — more quantitative aspects

Abstract The HSAB Principle is reviewed, with special emphasis on common misconceptions of its meaning. The most quantitative way to use it is discussed, along with an analysis of why it sometimes seems to fail. Recent developments in the concept of chemical hardness are also reviewed. It is concluded that these have not yet helped much in estimating bond energies, but that there is hope for the future.
Attenuation in planar optical waveguides: Comparison of theory and experiment

Experimental measurements of the guided-wave attenuation and surface roughness for three Corning 7059 glass waveguides were compared to the predictions of a surface-scattering theory. The attenuation coefficient was calculated by means of a first-order boundary-perturbation theory, and was used to examine the role of the various parameters in determining guided-wave attenuation. The comparison to experiment shows that the measured level of surface roughness is insufficient to account for the measured TE 0 attenuation, a fact that suggests that scattering by refractive-index fluctuations in the volume of these waveguides dominates.
Reactions to random acts of kindness

In our fast-paced, high pressure society we are encouraged to take care of ourselves and not worry about our fellows. This has become such routine, that we have forgotten how to be kind to stranger...
n-Octadecyltriethoxysilane Monolayer Coated Surfaces in Humid Atmospheres: Influence of Capillary Condensation on Surface Deformation and Adhesion

We have investigated the effect of humidity on surface deformation and adhesion of mica surfaces coated with n-octadecyltriethoxysilane self-assembled monolayers using a surface forces apparatus. The Maugis model of contact elasticity based on linear elastic fracture mechanics is used to analyze the results. The Laplace pressure is assumed to act in the “Dugdale” zone outside the contact area to account for capillary condensation. We measure the radius of the contact area as a function of applied load and use the model to obtain the surface energy and elastic constant of these surfaces for humidities ranging from 0 to 99%. The limiting values in dry and near-saturated conditions are as expected from well-known theories. A significant result is that we also obtain the surface energy for intermediate humidities. Increasing humidity modifies the deformed shape of the surfaces in contact due to capillary condensation. The sharp bifurcation at the edge of the contact zone for low humidities (JKR-type contact) ...
Mobility from Part-Time to Full-Time Employment Among Kentucky Welfare Leavers

ABSTRACT In this article we analyze mobility from part-time to fulltime employment among a panel of welfare leavers in Kentucky from 1998 to 2001. Using discrete-time hazard analysis, the study tests human capital, situational, and structural variables to determine which factors explain mobility. Among all panel participants, those who acquired full-time employment were more likely to reside outside Appalachia, to be high school graduates, to have had some work experience at intake, and to have some college. Among a smaller sample of those who had acquired part-time jobs, work experience and education combined had a strong positive effect on mobility to full-time employment within the time frame of the panel study. Our results suggest that strict “work first” approaches may be misguided and that work experience combined with education, especially some college education, has the greatest potential to move clients quickly from welfare to full-time employment that may engender self-sufficiency.
Market equilibria for homothetic, quasi-concave utilities and economies of scale in production

Eisenberg and Gale (1959) gave a convex program for computing market equilibrium for Fisher's model for linear utility functions, and Eisenberg (1961) generalized this to concave homogeneous functions of degree one. We further generalize to:1. Homothetic, quasi-concave utilities. This also helps extend Eisenberg's result to concave homogeneous functions of arbitrary degree.2. We introduce the notion of a trading cone which enables us to compute market equilibrium in the presence of economies of scale in production provided differential pricing is allowed. Applications to network pricing are provided.
Spatial-profile effects and their removal in ultrashort-laser-pulse measurement using GRENOUILLE

We show that the effect of a non-uniform beam spatial profile can be removed from GRENOUILLE measurements of ultrashort-laser-pulses. Consequently, single-shot measurements can be performed even when a beam has poor spatial quality.
Sequence of the nucleoprotein gene from a virulent British field isolate of transmissible gastroenteritis virus and its expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Subgenomic mRNA from a virulent isolate of porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) was used to produce cDNA which was sequenced. Two non-overlapping open reading frames (ORFs) were identified. The largest, encoding a polypeptide of 382 amino acids (relative molecular mass (Mr ) 43 483), was shown to be the viral nucleoprotein gene. The second ORF, found 3'to the larger ORF, encodes a polypeptide of 78 amino acids (Mr 9068) which has yet to be assigned to a viral product. The nucleoprotein gene was expressed in yeast cells under the control of two types of yeast promoters: the constitutive PGK promoter, and the inducible GAL1 promoter. Yeast cells containing recombinant plasmids, with the nucleoprotein gene in the correct orientation, produced a polypeptide of M, 47000, identical to the viral product, that reacted with a specific monoclonal antibody.
Stress, Relaxation and Saliva: A Follow-up Study Involving Clinical Endodontic Patients

Dentally induced stress and relaxation-induced anxiety reduction recently have been correlated with salivary changes in private patients treated by a solo endodontist. Hypnosis was shown to be more effective than local anesthesia in anxiety reduction. Dental students and clinic patients were employed in this study in an attempt to replicate the previous findings. One additional salivary variable (pH) was examined. Twenty-nine endodontic clinic patients were treated, each by a different dental student. The patients completed dental anxiety questionnaires and had salivary samples taken prior to, and at the conclusion of, their initial endodontic treatments. Pain and anxiety were managed using local anesthesia, hypnosis, or nitrous oxide-oxygen, either alone or in combination. There were significant anxiety-reduction changes by the conclusion of the visits (p less than 0.001) as measured by increased salivary volume, increased salivary translucency, reduced salivary protein, increased salivary pH and reduced questionnaire-determined anxiety level. Hypnosis and nitrous oxide-oxygen were significantly more effective (p less than 0.05) than local anesthesia in anxiety reduction as measured by salivary changes and questionnaires. It can be concluded that saliva is an easily obtained fluid that can be used to determine levels of stress and relaxation.
Evaluation of classification methods for the prediction of hospital length of stay using medicare claims data

In this paper, we investigate the performance of a series of classification methods for the prediction of the hospital Length of Stay (LOS), based on two temporally sequential clinical scenarios. We used a 2012 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPar) dataset, which contains records of Medicare beneficiaries who used inpatient hospital services. Our subset included 300,000 randomly selected cases. During the prepossessing we added new features and linked our data with external datasets, using common key identifiers. In the first scenario our goal was to predict the LOS using a subset of information which is readily available to the clinician upon the patient admission, while the second scenario assumes that there is available additional data (information on the patient diagnosis and clinical procedures). For our experiments we used three different classifiers: Naive Bayes, AdaBoost and C4.5 Decision tree, for two different LOS cut-off points (4 day and 12 day hospital stay). The overall performance of our classifiers was ranging from fair to very good. On the other hand the true positive rate, that is the correct classification of the long hospital stays, was low, with an exception of Naive Bayes, which demonstrated significantly better performance in the second scenario. Our results indicate that Naive Bayes may be used for the prediction of the in-hospital LOS. Our analysis also indicates that the MedPar data combined with other data resources has the potential to provide a good basis for robust prediction analytics in hospitals.
DHEA and DHEA sulfate differentially regulate neural androgen receptor and its transcriptional activity

The mechanism of action of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), two interconvertable neurosteroids, has not been fully characterized in the central nervous system (CNS). Previous studies demonstrated that DHEA was intrinsically androgenic, suggesting that it may act through a genomic pathway. However, it is not known whether DHEA-S also produces androgenic effects, an important question given that the concentration of DHEA-S in brain is some 7-12 times that of DHEA. The current study compared the potential androgenic effects of DHEA-S with DHEA by examining their capacity to induce two characteristic effects of an androgenic compound. These included the ability to (1) up-regulate neural androgen receptor (AR) protein level in mouse brain and immortalized GT1-7 hypothalamic cells and (2) assess their effect on reporter gene expression through AR in CV-1 cells cotransfected with pSG5-AR and pMMTV-ARE-CAT reporter. Semi-quantitative Western blot analysis showed that DHEA treatment significantly augmented AR in mouse brain and GT1-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner and that these effects were not blocked by trilostane (TRIL), a known 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase inhibitor. DHEA also promoted AR-mediated reporter gene expression as a function of dose and the effect was comparable with or without the addition of TRIL. In contrast, DHEA-S treatment failed to increase AR level in the mouse brain or GT1-7 cells and modestly induced AR-mediated reporter gene expression only at substantially elevated concentrations compared to DHEA. The findings demonstrate that DHEA is capable of exerting androgenic effects through AR while the androgenicity of DHEA-S is negligible. The implications of the results for models of the mechanism of action of DHEA and its sulfate ester, DHEA-S, in the brain are considered.
Comment on stationary patterns of chemical concentration in the Belousov-Zhabotinskiic reaction

Abstract Solutions to the reaction-diffusion equations corresponding to the three-variable Oregonator model of the oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction were computed recently by Forbes using a series expansion method. In particular, solutions were obtained which correspond to stationary, relatively large-amplitude, spatial patterns in the concentrations of the three intermediate species assuming all their diffusion coefficients to be equal. We show that these solutions are unstable to numerical integration and so are not expected to be physically realizable. However, the increased rate at which the Forbes patterns decay when a critical parameter is perturbed slightly shows that there is some marginal stability associated with them.
Preliminary studies on K and L coincidence spectroscopy for optimizing the in vivo XRF measurement of lead in bone

Previous studies treated the optimal combined K and L XRF system which consists of a Cd-109 point source, a low energy Ge detector (LEGe) and a Si(Li) detector. The Monte-Carlo library least-squares (MCLLS) approach and differential operator approach were treated separately. In this work, an approach for combining the MCLLS approach with the differential operator approach (MCDOLLS) is presented and an optimal configuration for coincidence spectroscopy of K and L X-rays is proposed based on preliminary experimental data.
Traveling old roads deeper into the woods leaves promises to keep

(1990). Traveling old roads deeper into the woods leaves promises to keep. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 29, Reforming Education: The Holmes Agenda, pp. 13-20.
Spin—lattice relaxation in a guest triplet state is induced by proton tunneling in a benzoic acid host crystal

Abstract Spin—lattice relaxation (SLR) of the triplet state of pentacene-6,13-quinone (PQ) in n -C 11 H 24 , and as a guest impurity in benzoic acid, BA- h 2 and the acid deuterated host, BA- d 2 , has been measured at temperatures near 4 K. Enhanced SLR in the BA hosts relative to n -C 11 H 24 is a thermally activated process which we attribute to a phonon-assisted tunneling transition between local BA tautomer states.
Parallelizing Principal Component Analysis for Robust Facial Recognition Using CUDA

Facial recognition techniques are of interest for tracking and identification in densely populated areas where security is an important concern. Traditional recognition techniques have yielded acceptable results with high repeatability but require special conditions such as a voluntary and stationary subject, close proximity, and appropriate lighting. Because no single algorithm yields robust results under uncontrolled conditions, more than one algorithm must be considered. Three popular template-based algorithms involved in facial recognition include Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), and Independent Component Analysis (ICA). Since facial recognition algorithms require processor-intensive and complicated matrix calculations, these three algorithms could be improved with hardware that can accelerate these calculations. The PCA algorithm studied in this research is a common mathematical method that has been parallelized for other applications, but not for the purposes of facial recognition using General Purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs). NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture is employed to implement the PCA algorithm for the GPGPU device. A C implementation of the PCA algorithm has been optimized specifically for use with CUDA kernels and future parallelization in mind. The results provided in this paper show that the parallel GPGPU implementation outperforms the multithreaded C implementation on a general purpose CPU.
Proton and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance studies of some yttrium and lanthanum complexes in aqueous solutions

Abstract Distinct proton and 13 C resonance patterns are observed for saturated solutions of complexes of the formula KLa(edta)·8H 2 O, K 2 LnOH(edta)·4H 2 O and K 3 LnO 2 (edta)·H 2 O (Ln  Y, La; edta  ethylenediaminetetraacetate) in deuterium oxide and are dependent upon the type of complex in the solid state. Proton and 13 C chemical shifts are metal sensitive. The 13 C spectra generally show three sharp single lines resulting from the resonance of carbon in the carboxylato, methylene-acetato and methylene backbone groups respectively. In comparison with the non-coordinated H 2 edta 2− ion, all 13 C chemical shifts are observed at higher frequencies for metal-coordinated edta, and carbons from both kinds of methylene groups display the metal- and the complex-type sensitivity. The proton spectra of yttrium complexes indicate that the presence of a peroxo group in the edta ligand sphere affects the lability of the Y—N bond in aqueous solution.
Increasing Negativity of Age Stereotypes across 200 Years: Evidence from a Database of 400 Million Words

Scholars argue about whether age stereotypes (beliefs about old people) are becoming more negative or positive over time. No previous study has systematically tested the trend of age stereotypes over more than 20 years, due to lack of suitable data. Our aim was to fill this gap by investigating whether age stereotypes have changed over the last two centuries and, if so, what may be associated with this change. We hypothesized that age stereotypes have increased in negativity due, in part, to the increasing medicalization of aging. This study applied computational linguistics to the recently compiled Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), a database of 400 million words that includes a range of printed sources from 1810 to 2009. After generating a comprehensive list of synonyms for the term elderly for these years from two historical thesauri, we identified 100 collocates (words that co-occurred most frequently with these synonyms) for each of the 20 decades. Inclusion criteria for the collocates were: (1) appeared within four words of the elderly synonym, (2) referred to an old person, and (3) had a stronger association with the elderly synonym than other words appearing in the database for that decade. This yielded 13,100 collocates that were rated for negativity and medicalization. We found that age stereotypes have become more negative in a linear way over 200 years. In 1880, age stereotypes switched from being positive to being negative. In addition, support was found for two potential explanations. Medicalization of aging and the growing proportion of the population over the age of 65 were both significantly associated with the increase in negative age stereotypes. The upward trajectory of age-stereotype negativity makes a case for remedial action on a societal level.