cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Monte Carlo Hierarchical Model Learning: (Doctoral Consortium)

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a well-established paradigm for enabling autonomous agents to learn from experience. To enable RL to scale to any but the smallest domains, it is necessary to make use of abstraction and generalization of the state-action space, for example with a factored representation. However, to make effective use of such a representation, it is necessary to determine which state variables are relevant in which situations. In this work, we introduce T-UCT, a novel model-based RL approach for learning and exploiting the dynamics of structured hierarchical environments. When learning the dynamics while acting, a partial or inaccurate model may do more harm than good. T-UCT uses graph-based planning and Monte Carlo simulations to exploit models that may be incomplete or inaccurate, allowing it to both maximize cumulative rewards and ignore trajectories that are unlikely to succeed. T-UCT incorporates new experiences in the form of more accurate plans that span a greater area of the state space. T-UCT is fully implemented and compared empirically against B-VISA, the best known prior approach to the same problem. We show that T-UCT learns hierarchical models with fewer samples than B-VISA and that this effect is magnified at deeper levels of hierarchical complexity.
An Overview of Learning Disabilities: Psychoeducational Perspectives:

In general, people with learning disabilities are a heterogeneous population that require a multidisciplinary evaluation and careful, well-planned intervention. Despite this heterogeneity, patterns of problems often co-occur. Therefore, diagnosticians and educators should look beyond single areas of achievement such as reading or arithmetic. In addition, problems in one area of learning typically have secondary impacts on higher levels of learning. That is, comprehension problems typically interfere with expression. Every effort should be made to examine patterns of problems and to avoid fragmentation of services so that each area of underachievement is not treated separately. Although learning disabilities usually interfere with school performance, they are not simply academic handicaps. They interfere with certain social activities as well as occupational pursuits. In many instances, they impact on mental health and self-esteem. Therefore, students need multiple services. And, as emphasized throughout this journal issue, learning disabled individuals may have comorbid conditions such as attention deficit disorder, depression, and neurologic problems. Furthermore, the problems may change over time. Children may first be identified because of language comprehension problems but later have reading or mathematics difficulty. With intervention, oral expressive problems may be alleviated but may be manifested later in written language.
How to Advertise Radical Product Designs

AbstractNew product designs can be radical in terms of new technology or new external form. Forms that are too radical, however, are often rejected by consumers because they represent new meanings to target buyers. We suggest that including designers’ beliefs, feelings, or intentions in advertising for products characterized by radical designs may help audiences contextualize and understand the new meanings embodied in the novel designs. This, in turn, can make such products more appealing to the average consumer. This paper presents an experimental study of viewer attitudes towards four radical new product designs when they are accompanied by designer philosophies. For all designs, the designer philosophies had positive impacts on viewer attitudes.
Insights into human evolution from ancient and contemporary microbiome studies

Over the past decade, human microbiome research has energized the study of human evolution through a complete shift in our understanding of what it means to be human. The microbiome plays a pivotal role in human biology, performing key functions in digestion, mood and behavior, development and immunity, and a range of acute and chronic diseases. It is therefore critical to understand its evolution and changing ecology through time. Here we review recent findings on the microbiota of diverse human populations, non-human primates, and past human populations and discuss the implications of this research in formulating a deeper evolutionary understanding of the human holobiont.
From Ithaca to Beijing: Hu Shih's Peripheral Centrality

"Hu Shih’s work undercuts any simplistic opposition between comparative or world literature and the study of a national tradition. For Hu, there was no question of abandoning Chinese traditions in order to adopt Western modes, or of creating a cosmopolitan alternative to nationalism. Instead, the European vernacular revolution provided a comparative perspective from which to serve China by revaluing the Chinese tradition itself...."
Mike Nichols: Sex, Language, and the Reinvention of Psychological Realism Kyle Stevens. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Mike Nichols: Sex, Language, and the Reinvention of Psychological Realism Kyle Stevens. Oxford University Press, 2015.This special book tells the fascinating tale of Mike Nichols, an extraordinary man who made many major contributions to the American stage and cinema as an actor and producer as well as a theater and film director. The book started as a biographical doctoral dissertation by its author, Kyle Stevens, a graduate student at the time at the University of Pittsburgh, and ended coincidentally very near the time of the death of Nichols in New York on November 19, 2014.The German-born Nichols came to the United States as a young boy where he lived in New York while attending private schools. His career began in the 1950s in Chicago, where he attended the University of Chicago and joined a local improvisational comedy group called The Compass Players, which later became the legendary entertainment phenomenon known as Second City. Among his colleagues here was Elaine May, a very talented young actress with whom he formed the highly successful dynamic comedy duo known as Nichols and May.Looking next at the book's contents, we find that its 202 pages of text contain an introductory chapter, "Mike Nichols and the Politics of Character," and a concluding chapter, "Nichols's Cinema of Conversation," as well as five chapters in between. The first of the five is "Nothing Goes Unheard: Nichols and May, Improvisation, and the Skewing of Language," and this chapter is followed by "Nichols's Comedy of Remarriage." Next appears "The Graduate and the Subversion of Silence," followed by "Carnal Knowledge: The Close-Up, Duration, and Affective Impotence." Fifth and last is "The Minds of Chameleons: Nichols and Streep."While Nichols will be remembered for individual feats that he accomplished in the theater and cinema, it is the staggering number of his major successes in a variety of artistic arenas over a lifetime of work that make him not just special, but spectacular.Starting with his early work with Elaine May, we find that their improvisational acts on Broadway in the late 1950s produced three successful albums, with the debut album winning them a Grammy Award.Soon after their act was dissolved in the early sixties, Nichols tried his hand at directing plays and soon found that he had a talent for this as well, after directing the actors in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park in 1963 and The Odd Couple in 1965. …
Shii Cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese Migration and Religious Conversion in Senegal

“What is at stake for religion in an increasingly globalized world unchained yet bounded by processes of migration, cosmopolitanism and governmentality?” (2) Mara Leichtman endeavours to answer thi...
STRScan: targeted profiling of short tandem repeats in whole-genome sequencing data

Short tandem repeats (STRs) are found in many prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes, and are commonly used as genetic markers, in particular for identity and parental testing in DNA forensics. The unstable expansion of some STRs was associated with various genetic disorders (e.g., the Huntington disease), and thus was used in genetic testing for screening individuals at high risk. Traditional STR analyses were based on the PCR amplification of STR loci followed by gel electrophoresis. With the availability of massive whole genome sequencing data, it becomes practical to mine STR profiles in silico from genome sequences. Software tools such as lobSTR and STR-FM have been developed to address these demands, which are, however, built upon whole genome reads mapping tools, and thus may not be sensitive enough. In this paper, we present a standalone software tool STRScan that uses a greedy algorithm for targeted STR profiling in next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. STRScan was tested on the whole genome sequencing data from Venter genome sequencing and 1000 Genomes Project. The results showed that STRScan can profile 20% more STRs in the target set that are missed by lobSTR. STRScan is particularly useful for the NGS-based targeted STR profiling, e.g., in genetic and human identity testing. STRScan is available as open-source software at http://darwin.informatics.indiana.edu/str/ .
Abstract 17525: Activity-contextualized Wearable Ballistocardiogram Measurements Can Classify Decompensated versus Compensated Heart Failure Patients

Introduction: Wearable technology may allow continuous home monitoring of heart failure (HF) patients (pts) to predict its worsening and guide treatment in order to prevent hospitalization. Most cu...
Experimental Test of Spacecraft Parachute Deployment using Real-Time Hybrid Substructuring

Spacecraft are subjected to a variety of extreme loads during the course of a mission. One such demanding period during reentry is parachute deployment when a mortar on the spacecraft is used to deploy the parachute. Firing the mortar to expel the parachute imparts an impulsive force on the spacecraft and results in vibration throughout the spacecraft. Successful deployment of the parachute is critical to the success of the mission, and accurate prediction of the impulsive forces exerted on the spacecraft during deployment is paramount to the design and safety of the spacecraft. Typically the time history of the reaction force of the mortar is measured experimentally using a rigid mounting system. This approach neglects the structural compliance of the spacecraft and thus neglects the dynamic interaction between the mortar and spacecraft. This may lead to differences between the force profile observed during laboratory testing and those observed during the mission of the spacecraft.
Limited Liability Companies and Technology Transfer

This paper provides an introduction to a new organizational form of business in the United States, the Limited Liability Company (LLC), and explores the potential use of LLCs for technology-transfer arrangements. Favorable characteristics of LLCs are limited liability for all equity holders, avoidance of corporate double taxation, flexibility of organizational form and distributions of profit, and few restrictions on membership. An unfavorable characteristic is that shares in an LLC cannot be publicly traded. The paper argues that, overall, the LLC form promotes certain types of strategic alliances, including those dealing with technology transfer. In particular, LLC characteristics lend themselves well to strategic alliances that form to share risk, exploit complementary assets, reduce transactions costs, overcome investment barriers, exchange technology, speed innovation and development, and make international expansions. The paper also points out why technology-transfer arrangements can and will continue to take on other forms as well.
The Learning Power of Evolution.

It has been widely recognized that learning and evolution have the commonality of involving adaptive processes that once started do not need a programmer or designer. It is tempting to seek some mystical extra power in evolution, beyond that of learning, simply because of the apparently spectacular consequences of evolution that we see around us. However, such approaches have not succeeded to date. In response to this situation one of the authors made the, apparently radical, suggestion that evolution is nothing other than a constrained form of computational learning. In [Val08] a notion of evolvability was defined in a similar spirit to the definition of learnability. The goal of the definition is to offer a rigorous basis for the analysis of evolution and for distinguishing between efficient evolution and evolution that is only realized in some exponentially far limit. Before summarizing this framework we describe the following motivating concrete instance. Consider the 20,000 or so genes in the human genome. For each such gene the condition under which the protein corresponding to it is expressed, in terms of all the other proteins, is encoded in its regulatory region. In other words each of the 20,000 or so proteins is controlled by a function f of the other 20,000 or so proteins. The issue here is that if the function f is restricted to too small a class then it will not be expressive enough to perform the complex functions of biology. On the other hand, if the function is an arbitrary function, or from a too extensive a class, then no evolutionary algorithm will exist to maintain the viability of this genetic network of functions as environmental conditions change. The goal of this evolvability theory is, among other things, to understand how broad and expressive these functions can be allowed to be while still permitting their efficient evolution. The following is an abbreviated summary of the basic definitional framework. Let X = {0, 1}n be an n-dimensional space of experiences or examples (e.g. in the above instance the expression levels of the proteins), a set C of functions (e.g. the functions by which the expression level of each protein is determined in terms of the expression levels of the others), and a set R of representations of functions (e.g. the DNA strings of the genes). Also we define an ideal function f , which would define for each vector x ∈ X the best value from the viewpoint of the evolving organism. In the current instance, for each combination of expression levels
Conflict of Cultures

I have taken for my subject the cultural conflict in China. May I begin by telling a little story of the Siccawei Observatory which you visited this afternoon? As you know, this observatory of Siccawei had its historic origin in the Jesuit Movement of the seventeenth century. The Jesuits, amongst whom the most prominent was Matteo Ricci, first arrived in China about 1600 A.D. and brought with them three things.
Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness Using Classroom Observations: A Rasch Analysis of the Rater Effects of Principals

In most U.S. schools, teachers are evaluated using observation of teaching practice (OTP). This study investigates rater effects on OTP ratings among 421 principals in an authentic teacher evaluati...
HEART DISEASE AS A MAJOR CAUSE OF DEATH IN CANCER PATIENTS: AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC ANALYSIS OF 6 MILLION CANCER PATIENTS FROM THE UNITED STATES

The recent development of numerous anti-cancer, immunotherapy and androgen deprivation drugs resulted in significant improvement in cancer survival. However, the cardiovascular toxicity of such drugs is not well known. Furthermore, radical resection surgeries can result in significant cardiac
Risk of coronary artery disease in celiac disease population.

Background/Aims: Celiac disease (CD), a chronic autoimmune condition, is associated with systemic inflammation capable of causing extra intestinal manifestations. Chronic inflammatory process has been implicated in the pathogenesis of accelerated atherosclerosis. Studies examining the burden of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with CD are lacking. We evaluated the prevalence of CAD in patients with CD. Patients and Methods: Electronic health records from different health care systems were obtained utilizing a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant, patient de-identified web application. Among the 48,642,290 patients, 59,010 were diagnosed with CD. The remaining 48,583,280 patients without CD served as comparison controls. Results: The prevalence of CAD was significantly higher in patients with CD than in the controls [5140 (8.7%) vs. 2119060 (4.4%), P Conclusions: The prevalence of CAD increased nearly two-fold in patients with CD.
Designing Educational Virtual Environments for Construction Safety: A Case Study in Contextualizing Incident Reports and Engaging Learners

Safety education is important in the construction industry, with many onsite injuries and fatalities. Reviewing incident reports can be valuable in preventing the same mistakes from reoccurring and in reinforcing the concept of designing for construction safety. However, the required information can be difficult for students and non-experts to understand in a meaningful way without instructor facilitation. Recently research has shifted into using 3D virtual environments for safety education, with applications teaching learners how to identify hazards and operating procedures. While there are exploratory results on student engagement and overall learning, there is less focus on how the design influences the learning outcomes. For these reasons we conducted a case study in system design to understand how to effectively contextualize raw incident reports into a meaningful 3D educational experience. From our case study, we present a single-learner educational application with both a desktop computer and VR version. The desktop version was used in development of the application’s design framework and in a controlled study testing how interaction techniques influence learning and behavioral outcomes. The results showed that interaction technique did significantly affect total time spent using the application, but did not affect remembering and understanding. We discuss how lessons learned from the user study were applied to the VR version, what designs revisions needed to be made, and overall usability. Lastly, we summarize the experiences and evaluations from the case study by listing design guidelines for creating educational virtual environments from existing 2D information records.
Use of a prospective space-time scan statistic to prioritize shigellosis case investigations in an urban jurisdiction.

SYNOPSIS Objective. A prospective space-time scan statistic was applied to Chicago's 2002 shigellosis surveillance data to evaluate its utility in objectively describing clusters and assisting in the prioritization of investigations. Methods. The prospective space-time module of SaTScan, a free software available online, was used to identify "live" clusters of disease, meaning cases that were current as of the date of the analysis and strongly associated in place and time. Fifty-two separate space-time analyses were run, one simulation for each week of 2002. Identified clusters were described in terms of space, time, risk factors reported by involved case-patients, and cases' links to venue-associated outbreaks. Results. Twelve live clusters were detected at the p<0.05 significance level: two single-household clusters and 10 community clusters. The community clusters ranged in size from 194 to 367 census tracts (median=294), and in disease burden from 21 to 41 cases (median=29). Geographically, all of the community clusters were located in the west-central part of the city and had a temporal span of 28 days. Within the 10 community clusters, 15 different day care centers were identified as potential exposure settings for case-patients or their close contacts. Conclusions. The prospective space-time scan statistic offers local health departments an objective way of describing clusters of shigellosis cases. The method used in this study could help prioritize the assignment and investigation of cases, particularly when overall shigellosis incidence exceeds expected numbers or when an agency's resources are stressed by other events, such as outbreaks.
Nonparametric inference of neutron star composition, equation of state, and maximum mass with GW170817

The detection of GW170817 in gravitational waves provides unprecedented constraints on the equation of state (EOS) of the ultra-dense matter within the cores of neutron stars (NSs). We extend the nonparametric analysis first introduced in Landry & Essick (2019), and confirm that GW170817 favors soft EOSs. We infer macroscopic observables for a canonical 1.4 $M_{\odot}$ NS, including the tidal deformability $\Lambda_{1.4} = 211^{+312}_{-137}$ ($491^{+216}_{-181}$) and radius $R_{1.4}= 10.86^{+2.04}_{-1.42}$ ($12.51^{+1.00}_{-0.88}$) km, as well as the maximum mass for nonrotating NSs, $M_{max} = 2.064^{+0.260}_{-1.34}$ ($2.017^{0.238}_{-0.087}$) $M_\odot$, with nonparametric priors loosely (tightly) constrained to resemble candidate EOSs from the literature. Furthermore, we find weak evidence that GW170817 involved at least one NS based on gravitational-wave data alone ($B^{NS}_{BBH}= 3.3 \pm 1.4$), consistent with the observation of electromagnetic counterparts. We also investigate GW170817's implications for the maximum spin frequency of millisecond pulsars, and find that the fastest known pulsar is spinning at more than 50% of its breakup frequency at 90% confidence. We additionally find modest evidence in favor of quark matter within NSs, and GW170817 favors the presence of at least one disconnected hybrid star branch in the mass--radius relation over a single stable branch by a factor of 2. Assuming there are multiple stable branches, we find a suggestive posterior preference for a sharp softening around nuclear density followed by stiffening around twice nuclear density, consistent with a strong first-order phase transition. While the statistical evidence in favor of new physics within NS cores remains tenuous with GW170817 alone, these tantalizing hints reemphasize the promise of gravitational waves for constraining the supranuclear EOS.
Don’t Put Words in My Mouth: Self-appointed Speaking-for Is Testimonial Injustice Without Prejudice

In this paper, I will characterize a phenomenon I call ‘self-appointed speaking-for’, and show how it constitutes a counter-example to Miranda Fricker’s definition of testimonial injustice (TI), ex...
Validating Effective Interventions in Patient/Family Education Using Tablet Computers.

Patient education at the bedside, with Android tablet computers, has proven to be successful at the University of South Alabama Children’s & Women’s Hospital in Mobile, Alabama. Plans to expand the...
Butadiyne-Bridged (Porphinato)Zinc(II) Chromophores Assemble into Free-Standing Nanosheets

The molecular engineering of chromophores that enables the controlled and reliable formation of hierarchical solid-state architectures is at the forefront of developing hybrid semiconducting materi...
Inclusion of Dislocation Pinning Interactions in a Model for Plastic Flow in II-VI Semiconductors

Plastic flow models for lattice relaxation in II–VI heterostructures have increased in sophistication, including thermal strains as well as dislocation multiplication, annihilation, coalescence, and compensation. However, despite evidence for the importance of pinning interactions, existing plastic flow models have not accounted for these interactions, whereby a gliding threading dislocation associated with a misfit dislocation along a type direction is impeded by interaction with a misfit dislocation along the orthogonal type direction. Such an impediment to glide will tend to reduce the extent of strain relaxation, perhaps appreciably in layers which are thin or exhibit low residual strain; in these cases, the motion of a gliding dislocation could be arrested altogether. In this paper we present a practical model for pinning interactions which can be used to extend the usefulness of plastic flow models, and we compare this model against experimental results for ZnSySe1y/GaAs (001) heterostructures.
Tyrosine phosphorylation is critical for ACLY activity in lipid metabolism and cancer

A fundamental requirement for growth of rapidly proliferating cells is metabolic adaptation to promote synthesis of biomass1. ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) is a critical enzyme responsible for synthesis of cytosolic acetyl-CoA, the key building component for de novo fatty acid synthesis and links vital pathways such as carbohydrate and lipid metabolism2. The mechanisms of ACLY regulation are not completely understood and the regulation of ACLY function by tyrosine phosphorylation is unknown. Here we show using mass-spectrometry-driven phosphoproteomics and metabolomics that ACLY is phosphorylated and functionally regulated at an evolutionary conserved residue, Y682. Physiologic signals promoting rapid cell growth such as epidermal growth factor stimulation in epithelial cells and T-cell receptor activation in primary human T-cells result in rapid phosphorylation of ACLY at Y682. In vitro kinase assays demonstrate that Y682 is directly phosphorylated by multiple tyrosine kinases, including ALK, ROS1, SRC, JAK2 and LTK. Oncogenically activating structural alterations such as gene-fusions, amplification or point mutations of ALK tyrosine kinase result in constitutive phosphorylation of ACLY in diverse forms of primary human cancer such as lung cancer, anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) and neuroblastoma. Expression of a phosphorylation-defective ACLY-Y682F mutant in NPM-ALK+ ALCL decreases ACLY activity and attenuates lipid synthesis. Metabolomic analyses reveal that ACLY-Y682F expression results in increased β-oxidation of 13C-oleic acid-labeled fatty acid with increased labeling of +2-citrate (p
Identification of Gain Mismatches in Control Electronics of Rate Integrating CVGs

In Coriolis Vibratory Rate Integrating Gyroscopes (CVRIG), accuracy of angle measurement is known to be coupled to symmetry of the mechanical structure. This paper provides a study on the effect of asymmetries in control electronics on operation and accuracy of direct angle measurements. We demonstrated that gain mismatch in detection electronics affects the estimation of the pendulum variables in the CVRIG mathematical model. An error in the pendulum variables was shown to adversely affect the estimated orientation of the orbital trajectory and the closed-loop control. In the case of gain mismatch in actuation electronics, the control forces were observed to interfere with free precession of the oscillation pattern causing additional errors in the angle measurement. We proposed a method to distinguish the angle errors due to mechanical asymmetries from the angle errors caused by imperfections in control electronics. Using the method, we identified gain mismatches in the control electronics and subsequently used the identified parameters for calibration of a micro-fabricated gyroscope. By applying the method of calibration to a Dual Foucault Pendulum (DFP) gyroscope, we were able to reduce the angle bias error by 10-times and reached a 0.06 degree of precession accuracy at the input angular rate of 500 dps, without any compensation for mechanical asymmetries.
Manufactured Crisis: 'Deindustrialization,' Free Markets, and National Security

Both the American left and right often use “national security” to justify sweeping proposals for new U.S. protectionism and industrial policy. “Free markets” and a lack of government support for the manufacturing sector are alleged to have crippled the U.S. defense industrial base’s ability to supply “essential” goods during war or other emergencies, thus imperiling national security and demanding a fundamental rethink of U.S. trade and manufacturing policy. The COVID-19 crisis and U.S.-China tensions have amplified these claims. This resurgent “security nationalism,” however, extends far beyond the limited theoretical scenarios in which national security might justify government action, and it suffers from several flaws. First, reports of the demise of the U.S. manufacturing sector are exaggerated. Although U.S. manufacturing sector employment and share of national economic output (gross domestic product) have declined, these data are mostly irrelevant to national security and reflect macroeconomic trends affecting many other countries. By contrast, the most relevant data—on the U.S. manufacturing sector’s output, exports, financial performance, and investment—show that the nation’s total productive capacity and most of the industries typically associated with “national security” are still expanding. Second, “security nationalism” assumes a need for broad and novel U.S. government interventions while ignoring the targeted federal policies intended to support the defense industrial base. In fact, many U.S. laws already authorize the federal government to support or protect discrete U.S. industries on national security grounds. Third, several of these laws and policies provide a cautionary tale regarding the inefficacy of certain core “security nationalist” priorities. Case studies of past government support for steel, shipbuilding, semiconductors, and machine tools show that security‐​related protectionism and industrial policy in the United States often undermines national security. Fourth, although the United States is not nearly as open (and thus allegedly “vulnerable”) to external shocks as claimed, global integration and trade openness often bolster U.S. national security by encouraging peace among trading nations or mitigating the impact of domestic shocks. Together, these points rebut the most common claims in support of “security nationalism” and show why skepticism of such initiatives is necessary when national security is involved. They also reveal market‐​oriented trade, immigration, tax, and regulatory policies that would generally benefit the U.S. economy while also supporting the defense industrial base and national security.
Target-Based Interventions to Treat Radiation-Induced Lung Injury

The ability to achieve local tumor control and improved overall survival with radiation therapy is limited by the risk of unacceptable normal tissue toxicity. A number of therapeutic interventions targeting the molecular pathways responsible for the development of acute and long-term injury have been investigated in pre-clinical and clinical studies. These interventions have primarily targeted apoptosis, growth factors, and pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrogenic pathways in an attempt to prevent, mitigate, or treat radiation-induced injury. As the mechanisms underlying radiation-induced normal tissue injury are better elucidated, the identification of new potential targets and improved therapeutic interventions will allow patient-stratified dose escalation and improve long-term response rates. The following chapter outlines current target-based interventions being investigated and discusses the recent discovery of novel pathways that may be targeted in the future.
Measuring abnormal performance: Do stocks overreact?

Abstract A highly controversial issue in financial economies is whether stocks overreact. In this paper we find an economically-important overreaction effect even after adjusting for size and beta. In portfolios formed on the basis of prior five-year returns, extreme prior losers outperform extreme prior winners by 5–10% per year during the subsequent five years. Although we find a pronounced January seasonal, our evidence suggests that the overreaction effect is distinct from tax-loss selling effects. Interestingly, the overreaction effect is substantially stronger for smaller firms than for larger firms. Returns consistent with the overeaction hypothesis are also observed for short windows around quarterly earnings announcements.
Stress Field in Coated Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Polymeric Composite Due to Hygrothermal Loading

Based on a four phase model of the composite, effects of fiber-matrix interphase (coating) on the stresses developed in different constituent phases due to hygrothermal loadings are evaluated. Interphase coating with high, low and the same modulus as that of the matrix have been considered. Obtained stresses, considering degradation in properties of the coating and the matrix due to moisture absorption and temperature rise, have been compared with the corresponding values furnished without properties degradation. Graphite being transversely isotropic and having opposite nature of thermal expansion coefficients in the longitudinal and transverse directions, the bulk of the results are given for the graphite/epoxy composite. The importance of the consideration of coating as a separate phase with its appropriate properties on the stress concentrations in different constituent phases is clearly brought out. It is also suggested that due accounting should be made for the changes in the properties of the matrix and the coating, caused by hygrothermal conditioning, otherwise the stress estimates could be quite misleading and erroneous. Effects of coating thickness and fiber volume fraction are also discussed.
Inter-country Comparisons of Poverty Based on a Capability Approach: An Empirical Exercise

In previous work Reddy and Pogge have argued that inter-country comparisons of income poverty based on poverty lines uniformly re?ecting the costs of the basic requirements of human beings are superior to the existing money-metric approaches. In this exercise, we implement a uniform approach to poverty assess- ment based on basic human capabilities for three countries: Nicaragua, Tanzania and Vietnam. We compute standard errors of the resulting poverty estimates and compare the incidence of poverty across these three countries. The choice of approach affects both cardinal estimates and ordinal rankings of poverty across countries and over time. Meaningful and coherent inter-country poverty com- parisons can be advanced through international co-ordination in survey design and in the construction of income poverty lines that uniformly re?ect the costs of the basic requirements of human beings.
Continuity and Change: The Evolution of the Law

Congress regularly passes significant laws. Some of these laws continue in their initial form, with the original bargain struck by the enacting coalition untouched by any future laws; others are changed - strengthened or weakened - soon after passage. What accounts for this variation in the stability of laws, in the longevity of the original legislative agreement? Why do some laws remain intact, in their original form, for long periods of time, while others are revisited and revised soon after passage? In this paper we explore a variety of explanations for the variance in the stability of laws. We contend that political conditions at the time of enactment - in particular, the existence of divided government and the level of ideological disagreement between the House and Senate - influence the likelihood that a law will be amended. We demonstrate that laws originally crafted by diverse political coalitions are less durable than those crafted by strong, unified coalitions that are in a position to entrench their preferred policies and protect them from future change. Furthermore, we show that the probability of a law being amended is affected by future political conditions, the actions of the judiciary, and factors specific to the law.
Modulation of the fibrinolytic response of cultured human vascular endothelium by extracellularly generated oxygen radicals.

Clinical and experimental data indicate that activated oxygen species interfere with vascular endothelial cell function. Here, the impact of extracellular oxidant injury on the fibrinolytic response of cultured human umbilical vein endothelial (HUVE) cells was investigated at the protein and mRNA levels. Xanthine (50 microM) and xanthine oxidase (100 milliunits), which produces the superoxide anion radical (O2-) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), was used to sublethally injure HUVE cells. Following a 15-min exposure, washed cells were incubated for up to 24 h in serum-free culture medium. Tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) antigen, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen, and PAI-1 activity were determined in 1.25 ml of conditioned medium and t-PA and PAI-1 mRNA in the cell extracts of 2 x 10(6) HUVE cells. Control cells secreted 3.9 +/- 1.3 ng/ml (mean +/- S.D., n = 12) within 24 h. Treatment with xanthine/xanthine oxidase for 15 min induced a 2.8 +/- 0.4-fold increase (n = 12, p less than 0.05) of t-PA antigen secretion after 24 h. The t-PA antigen was recovered predominantly in complex with PAI-1. The oxidant injury caused a 3.0 +/- 0.8-fold increase (n = 9, p less than 0.05) in t-PA mRNA within 2 h. Total protein synthesis was unaltered by xanthine/xanthine oxidase. The oxidant scavengers superoxide dismutase and catalase, in combination, abolished the effect of xanthine/xanthine oxidase on t-PA secretion and t-PA mRNA synthesis. Xanthine/xanthine oxidase treatment of HUVE cells did not affect the PAI-1 secretion in conditioned medium nor the PAI-1 mRNA levels in cell extracts. Thus extracellular oxidant injury induces t-PA but not PAI-1 synthesis in HUVE cells.
Observation of Crossover in the Dynamic Exponent z in Fe and Ni

Time-differential perturbed angular correlations have been determined with use of the dynamical critical exponent $z$ for Fe and Ni. In both systems, crossover from $z=2.5$ to $z=2.0$ is observed as $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{T}_{C}$. The value $z=2.5$ ($d=3$ Heisenberg model) has been previously observed in neutron-scattering experiments; the value $z=2.0$ (order-parameter-nonconserving models), in hyperfine-interaction experiments. Thus, the existence of two distinct kinds of dynamic critical behavior, each corresponding to a different universality subclass, is confirmed.
Using raster-based GIS and graph theory to analyze complex networks

Disruptions to transportation networks can be very costly. However, managing disruptions and the costs associated with these events, poses some challenges. Transport networks are, in many cases, large and complex. This paper develops a method, based on complex network theory, to analyse transportation networks. It provides a way, through the use raster-based geographic information system (GIS) techniques, to identify critical nodes or links in a network that reflect spatial interdependencies with other networks and to assess how resilient the networks are to failures of these locations. For purposes of illustration, the method is applied to the network of major roads and rail in the State of Florida.
Nucleotide and protein distribution in BrdU‐labelled polytene chromosomes revealed by ion probe mass spectrometry

Summary Detailed chemical maps of BrdU-labelled polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster, obtained by imaging secondary ion mass spectrometry, reveal separately the distribution of DNA and proteins in the chromosomes. The thymidine-analogue BrdU within the chromosomal DNA is localized by detecting the Br− secondary ion signal, while both nucleic acid and protein content are mapped through the abundantly emitted CN− signal. This novel approach supercedes, and helps explain the origin of, the banding patterns that are observed by conventional staining techniques. The high spatial resolution and chemical and isotopic sensitivity of this technique should enhance the localization of specific genes by in situ hybridization in mitotic chromosomes.
Incidence of Aphakic Cystoid Macular Edema with the Use of Topical Indomethacin

A prospective, controlled study utilizing topical 1 % aqueous indomethacin was employed in an attempt to determine the incidence of aphakic cystoid macular edema (ACME) following cataract surgery. The incidence of ACME in the indomethacin-treated group was significantly less than in the control group five weeks after cataract surgery (36% vs 18%; P P
High electric field approximation to charge transport in semiconductor devices

Abstract We consider the Boltzmann equation describing the charge transport in semiconductor devices, including the scattering of electrons with acoustic and optical phonons. Taking into account that at a high electric field the scattering events are nearly elastic, we develop a formal expansion for the distribution function valid for general band structures.
Ascorbic Acid Requirements of Coho Salmon and Rainbow Trout

Abstract Duplicate groups of small coho salmon and rainbow trout were fed a water-soluble vitamin test diet containing 0, 5, 10, 20, 40 or 100 mg of ascorbic acid per 100 g of dry diet. Both salmon and trout fed deficient diets developed acute lordosis or scoliosis with resultant high mortality. Rainbow trout appeared to exhaust ascorbic acid reserves more rapidly than coho salmon. Blood levels of ascorbate reflected diet content of vitamin C at lower levels of intake and anterior kidney tissue content increased directly with C level in diet. Wound repair was delayed or inhibited in fish on low C diets and results generally supported diet and tissue levels needed for rapid growth and absence of histopathology. A dietary need for vitamin C for both species was evident.
Numerical analysis of the reinforcement effect of a strain gage applied to a soft material

Abstract The reinforcement effect of a strain gage bonded to a low modulus material is described by a simple equation that relates the assigned, calibrated gage factor, the actual gage factor at which the strain indicator may be set to record the actual strain in the test piece outside of the neighborhood of the gage site, and a certain parameter that depends on the physical and geometrical properties of the strain gage and the specimen. It is found that the interaction effects due to reinforcement by the strain gage can be reduced substantially by increasing the length or by decreasing the thickness of the gage, whereas decreasing the thickness of the adhesive layer has but little positive effect. It is shown that appreciable error may be introduced into the data if the reinforcement effect of a strain gage bonded to a soft material is neglected in experimental stress analysis studies.
A High speed, wide dynamic range digitizer circuit for photomultiplier tubes

Abstract A circuit has been designed for digitizing PMT signals over a wide dynamic range (17–18 bits) with 8 bits of resolution at rates up to 53 MHz. Output from the circuit is in a floating point format with a 4 bit exponent and an 8 bit mantissa. The heart of the circuit is a full custom integrated circuit called the QIE (Charge Integrator and Encoder). The design of the QIE and associated circuitry reported here permits operation over a 17 bit dynamic range. Test results of a multirange device are presented for the first time.
Source of arousal and memory for detail.

Two questions about the relationship between arousal and memory were investigated: First, does the source of arousal influence memory, and, second, what impact does arousal have on memory for detail? In Experiment 1, physiological arousal (running or not running in place) was factorially combined with emotional arousal (viewing a neutral or an emotional slide sequence). Recognition memory was tested for gist, central detail, and background detail. Experiments 2 and 3 were similar to Experiment 1, with the exception that a cued recall task was used in Experiment 2 and physiological arousal was manipulated with stationary biking in Experiment 3. The results of these experiments indicated that physiological arousal had little impact on memory and that emotional arousal led to improvements in memory for both central and background detail. Overall, these results supported the notions that the source of arousal is an important determinant of an event’s memorability (Christianson, 1992a) and that emotional arousal serves to enhance the scope of memory (i.e., flashbulb memory; Brown & Kulik, 1977).
Hospitalization for motor vehicle injuries among American Indians and Alaska natives in Washington

Abstract Objective: Little is known about the epidemiology of hospitalization for motor vehicle injury among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) in the Pacific Northwest. Current secondary data sources are inadequate to track this significant health problem. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of hospitalization for motor vehicle injury in this population through linkage of Indian Health Service (IHS) patient registration data to a statewide hospital discharge database. Methods: To create the numerator, IHS patient registration data were linked to Washington State hospital discharge abstracts from 1990 to 1994 for motor vehicle injury (ICD-9 E-codes 810-819). The denominator for this population was derived from the total number of IHS enrollees in 1992. Comparative numerator and denominator data for all residents were derived from the discharge database and Washington State intercensal population estimates, respectively. Results: AI/ANs experienced a nearly two-fold higher rate of motor vehicle injury hospitalization ( N = 588) compared to all residents [Incidence Ratio (I.R.): 1.82; 95% C.I. 1.52–2.19]. The greatest disparity in incidence rates occurred among 25–34 year olds (I.R. 2.18; 95% C.I. 1.53–3.10) and 35–44 year olds (I.R. 2.18; 95% C.I. 1.36–3.47). In-hospital mortality, severity of injury and length of stay were not different between the 2 groups. Median charges for American Indian hospitalizations were $6188 and the IHS was payer in, at most, 24% of hospitalizations. Conclusions: AI/ANs are at higher risk of hospitalization for motor vehicle injuries but, compared to all residents of Washington, appear to have similar severity of injuries and outcomes. Motor vehicle injury hospitalization among AI/ANs incurs substantial health care costs.
Sensitivity analysis of DEA models for simultaneous changes in all the data

In data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficient decision making units (DMUs) are of primary importance as they define the efficient frontier. The current paper develops a new sensitivity analysis approach for the basic DEA models, such as, those proposed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR), Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) and additive models, when variations in the data are simultaneously considered for all DMUs. By means of modified DEA models, in which the specific DMU under examination is excluded from the reference set, we are able to determine what perturbations of the data can be tolerated before efficient DMUs become inefficient. Our approach generalises the usual sensitivity analysis approach developed in which perturbations of the data are only applied to the test DMU while all the remaining DMUs remain fixed. In our framework data are allowed to vary simultaneously for all DMUs across different subsets of inputs and outputs. We study the relations of the infeasibility of modified DEA models employed and the robustness of DEA models. It is revealed that the infeasibility means stability. The empirical applications demonstrate that DEA efficiency classifications are robust with respect to possible data errors, particularly in the convex DEA case.
Electrochemical reduction of 4-aminopyrimidine and cytosine in dimethyl sulfoxide

Abstract The electrochemical reduction in dimethyl sulfoxide of cytosine (4-amino-2-hydroxypyrimidine) and one of its model compounds (4-aminopyrimidine) has been examined. Initially, each pyrimidine (RH) undergoes a reversible, diffusion-controlled one-electron reduction of the 3,4 N=C double bond to the radical anion (RH−, which can dimerize or can react with the parent compound (father-son reaction) to form the neutral free radical (RH2) and the pyrimidine anion (R−); the radical can dimerize or be further reduced, perhaps after effectve protonation; the anion forms a redox couple with Hg(1)−Hg(0). Other coupled reactions, which may occur under suitable conditions, include reaction between anionic dimer (−RH−RH−) and RH, proton-assisted decomposition of dimer to form reducible RH3+, and deamination of the two-electron reduction product (RH3), which is a gem diamine, to generate 2-hydroxypyrimidine or pyrimidine itself. The effects on the electrochemical redox pattern of added water, strong acid (HClO4), weak acid (chloroacetic and benzoic acids), and strong base (Et4NOH) are described.