cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Writing Process, Psychology of

The psychology of the writing process treats the cognitive and emotional dimensions of expressing private thoughts as public written symbols, including their neural basis and development. The processes underlying the production of extended coherent text involve thinking, language, and memory. In formulating text, writers plan conceptual content and translate their ideas into sentences. As in speech, translation assigns grammatical functions to sentence parts, and positions these in a hierarchical structure. Graphemic representations for spelling must also be specified before motor execution via handwriting or typing may occur. Both before and after execution, production is monitored by reviewing ideas and the text already written. Whereas novice writers simply retrieve an idea from long-term memory and then tell what they know, mature writers often transform their knowledge about a topic through reflection on what to say and how to say it. Planning, sentence generation, and reviewing are juggled in complex patterns, and working memory demands are high when writers use the knowledge-transforming strategy. In children, even motor execution requires attention, detracting working memory resources away from the formulation and monitoring of text. In writer's block, text production fails because of the cognitive and emotional challenges of disclosing private thoughts as public symbols.
Pulses Biofortification in Genomic Era: Multidisciplinary Opportunities and Challenges

Agricultural production systems driven by green revolutionary efforts have resulted in the displacement of traditional food crops that provided greater levels of protein and essential micronutrients. This has led to half of the world’s population being deficient in essential micronutrients, with millions lacking in daily protein and micronutrient intakes. Biofortification of many commonly eaten staple foods is viewed as a sustainable solution to combat global micronutrient malnutrition. However, biofortification efforts with pulse crops [mainly lentils (Lens culinaris L.), field pea (Pisum sativum L.), and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)] have been limited to certain regions in North America and no global pulse biofortification initiative exists. The majority of the world’s population lives in Asia and Africa, where there is an urgent need to produce micronutrient and protein rich pulses to prevent micronutrient malnutrition deficiencies. This chapter reviews the last 10 years of literature on pulse genetic biofortification, discusses current pulse biofortification research efforts in the USA and other countries, and suggests urgent pulse biofortification efforts involving modern genomic tools and techniques along with the sound phenotyping targeted at finding sustainable solutions for regions with the greatest micronutrient deficiencies.
Pancreatic Necrosis and Infections in Patients With Acute Pancreatitis

The majority of patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) have a mild “edematous” form of the disease with a self-limited course devoid of serious local or systemic sequelae. However, in 3–5% of patients (10–20% in tertiary referral centers), a more severe form involving pancreatic and/or peripancreatic necrosis occurs. Necrotizing pancreatitis is the most severe form and is the predominant cause of serious morbidity and mortality in the spectrum of patients with AP. One of the most serious complications of necrotizing pancreatitis is infection of the necrosis, occurring in 15–30% of patients. This “superinfection” is important, because it significantly increases morbidity and mortality. With growing understanding of the etiopathogenesis of AP, many novel therapies are in development, and the optimal management of necrotizing pancreatitis continues to evolve. In recent decades, the clinical outcome of these patients has improved owing to advances in critical care management, as well as our knowledge of the natural history of the disease process, and careful selection and timing of patients for surgical intervention. This section describes the presentation, diagnosis, management, and outcomes of patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis and the associated complications of superinfection.
Central and Cerebellar Norepinephrine Depletion and Vestibulo-ocular Reflex (VOR) Adaptation

Adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) presents an attractive model for investigating neural plasticity in the central nervous system because a great deal is known about the neural organization that is responsible for its operation. Modifications in the gain of the VOR can be brought about by a mismatch of visual and vestibular inputs. This can be accomplished by modifying vision with reversing prisms (Gonshor and Melvill Jones 1976), magnifying or reducing lenses (Miles and Fuller 1974; Demer and Robinson 1982), or by altering the normal visual environment in other ways to produce a conflict between the two senses (Ito et al. 1974; Maioli and Precht 1984). The result is an adjustment of the gain of the VOR that allows this reflex to continue to carry out its primary function, i.e., to maintain an image of visual interest on the fovea of the eye in the presence of head movements. This reflex has a well-established time course during which adaptation takes place. Modifications to the gain of the VOR occur within a relatively short period (1–2 h) and can be maintained over an extended period of time (days to weeks).
Cyber Zen: Imagining Authentic Buddhist Identity, Community, and Practices in the Virtual World of Second Life

Cyber Zen ethnographically explores Buddhist practices in the online virtual world of Second Life. Does typing at a keyboard and moving avatars around the screen, however, count as real Buddhism? If authentic practices must mimic the actual world, then Second Life Buddhism does not. In fact, a critical investigation reveals that online Buddhist practices have at best only a family resemblance to canonical Asian traditions and owe much of their methods to the late twentieth-century field of cybernetics. If, however, they are judged existentially, by how they enable users to respond to the suffering generated by living in a highly mediated consumer society, then Second Life Buddhism consists of authentic spiritual practices. Cyber Zen explores how Second Life Buddhist enthusiasts form communities, identities, locations, and practices that are both products of and authentic responses to contemporary Network Consumer Society. Gregory Price Grieve illustrates that to some extent all religion has always been virtual and gives a glimpse of possible future alternative forms of religion.
Filled Pauses as a Special Case of Automatic Speech Behaviors and the Effect of Parkinson's Disease

Purpose In Parkinson's disease (PD), there are significant changes in the basal ganglia, a structure known to be important for controlling automatic responses to cues. Changes to the basal ganglia ...
Ketamine for emergency sedation of agitated patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract Prior studies suggest that ketamine is effective for acute agitation in the emergency department (ED) and prehospital settings. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the rate of sedation and need for airway management in patients given ketamine for management of acute agitation. Methods: We performed a systematic review of publications describing the use of ketamine to control agitation in the ED and prehospital settings. Studies were included if they included agitated patients, used ketamine to control agitation, occurred in the ED and prehospital setting and measured sedation status or need for airway management. Following data abstraction, a meta-analysis was performed to synthesize the rate of effective sedation and the need for airway management. Result: 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. 10 studies were conducted in the prehospital setting and 3 in the ED setting. The overall proportion of subjects receiving airway management across all 13 studies was 20% (95% CI = 0.0489–1.6505). The estimate of the proportion of subjects that achieved sedation was 85% (95% CI = 0.71–0.93). After synthesizing data from the four studies that compared ketamine to controls, ketamine was associated with increased rates of sedation (RR, 1.95 [CI, 0.47–8.1]) and increased need for intubation (RR, 2.44 [CI, 0.75–7.91]). The differences were not significant by random effects model.
Scientific journals still matter in the era of academic search engines and preprint archives

Abstract Journals play a critical role in the scientific process because they evaluate the quality of incoming papers and offer an organizing filter for search. However, the role of journals has be...
Telephone-Delivered Mindfulness Training to Promote Medication Adherence and Reduce Sexual Risk Behavior Among Persons Living with HIV: An Exploratory Clinical Trial

This study explored whether telephone-delivered mindfulness training (MT) to promote medication adherence and reduce sexual risk behavior was feasible for and acceptable to people living with HIV. Participants (N = 42; 50% female; M age = 47.5 years) were randomized to MT or health coaching (HC). Pre- and post-intervention, and at 3-month follow-up, we assessed adherence to ART, sexual risk behavior, and hypothesized mediators; we also conducted individual interviews to obtain qualitative data. Results showed that 55% of patients assigned to MT completed ≥ 50% of the training calls compared with 86% of HC patients (p < .05). Most patients reported satisfaction with their intervention (MT = 88%, HC = 87%). Patients in MT and HC reported improvements in medication adherence, mindfulness, and sexual risk reduction as well as reductions in anxiety, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and impulsivity over time; however, no between-groups differences were observed.
Inhibition of EZH2 Catalytic Activity Selectively Targets a Metastatic Subpopulation in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Epigenetic changes are increasingly being appreciated as key events in breast cancer progression. However, breast cancer subtype-specific epigenetic regulation remains poorly investigated. Here we report that EZH2 is a leading candidate of epigenetic modulators associated with the TNBC subtype and that it predicts poor overall survival in TNBC patients. We demonstrate that specific pharmacological or genetic inhibition of EZH2 catalytic activity impairs distant metastasis. We further define a specific EZH2high population with enhanced invasion, mammosphere formation, and metastatic potential that exhibits marked sensitivity to EZH2 inhibition. Mechanistically, EZH2 inhibition differentiates EZH2high basal cells to a luminal-like phenotype by derepressing GATA3 and renders them sensitive to endocrine therapy. Furthermore, dissection of human TNBC heterogeneity shows that EZH2high basal-like 1 and mesenchymal subtypes have exquisite sensitivity to EZH2 inhibition compared with the EZH2low luminal androgen receptor subtype. These preclinical findings provide a rationale for clinical development of EZH2 as a targeted therapy against TNBC metastasis.
Talking back: nuns, beatas, and colegialas invoke rights and constitutional principles in late colonial and early nineteenth-century Mexico

In the spirit of the now-substantial body of scholarship that reveals the feistiness and political savviness of people formerly thought to have none, this article focuses on the ways that cloistere...
Fostering Democratic Participation at Community Colleges: Understanding the Relationship Between Voting and Student, Institutional, and Environmental Factors:

Objective: The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between organizational characteristics, state political climate, and student civic engagement at community colleges, operation...
DeepNVM: a framework for modeling and analysis of non-volatile memory technologies for deep learning applications

Non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies such as spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) and spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memory (SOT-MRAM) have significant advantages compared to conventional SRAM due to their non-volatility, higher cell density, and scalability features. While previous work has investigated several architectural implications of NVM for generic applications, in this work we present DeepNVM, a framework to characterize, model, and analyze NVM-based caches in GPU architectures for deep learning (DL) applications by combining technology-specific circuit-level models and the actual memory behavior of various DL workloads. We present both iso-capacity and iso-area performance and energy analysis for systems whose last-level caches rely on conventional SRAM and emerging STT-MRAM and SOT-MRAM technologies. In the iso-capacity case, STT-MRAM and SOT-MRAM provide up to 4.2× and 5× energy-delay product (EDP) reduction and 2.4× and 3× area reduction compared to conventional SRAM, respectively. Under iso-area assumptions, STT-MRAM and SOT-MRAM provide 2.3× EDP reduction on average across all workloads when compared to SRAM. Our comprehensive cross-layer framework is demonstrated on STT-/SOT-MRAM technologies and can be used for the characterization, modeling, and analysis of any NVM technology for last-level caches in GPU platforms for deep learning applications.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 Enhances the Efficacy of Norfloxacin against Staphylococcus aureus Newman Biofilms.

ABSTRACT The thick mucus within the airways of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) promotes frequent respiratory infections that are often polymicrobial. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are two of the most prevalent pathogens that cause CF pulmonary infections, and both are among the most common etiologic agents of chronic wound infections. Furthermore, the ability of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus to form biofilms promotes the establishment of chronic infections that are often difficult to eradicate using antimicrobial agents. In this study, we found that multiple LasR-regulated exoproducts of P. aeruginosa, including 2-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline N-oxide (HQNO), siderophores, phenazines, and rhamnolipids, likely contribute to the ability of P. aeruginosa PA14 to shift S. aureus Newman norfloxacin susceptibility profiles. Here, we observe that exposure to P. aeruginosa exoproducts leads to an increase in intracellular norfloxacin accumulation by S. aureus. We previously showed that P. aeruginosa supernatant dissipates the S. aureus membrane potential, and furthermore, depletion of the S. aureus proton motive force recapitulates the effect of the P. aeruginosa PA14 supernatant on shifting norfloxacin sensitivity profiles of biofilm-grown S. aureus Newman. From these results, we hypothesize that exposure to P. aeruginosa PA14 exoproducts leads to increased uptake of the drug and/or an impaired ability of S. aureus Newman to efflux norfloxacin. Surprisingly, the effect observed here of P. aeruginosa PA14 exoproducts on S. aureus Newman susceptibility to norfloxacin seemed to be specific to these strains and this antibiotic. Our results illustrate that microbially derived products can alter the ability of antimicrobial agents to kill bacterial biofilms. IMPORTANCEPseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are frequently coisolated from multiple infection sites, including the lungs of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) and nonhealing diabetic foot ulcers. Coinfection with P. aeruginosa and S. aureus has been shown to produce worse outcomes compared to infection with either organism alone. Furthermore, the ability of these pathogens to form biofilms enables them to cause persistent infection and withstand antimicrobial therapy. In this study, we found that P. aeruginosa-secreted products dramatically increase the ability of the antibiotic norfloxacin to kill S. aureus biofilms. Understanding how interspecies interactions alter the antibiotic susceptibility of bacterial biofilms may inform treatment decisions and inspire the development of new therapeutic strategies.
Direct Quantification of Single Red Blood Cell Hemoglobin Concentration with Multiphoton Microscopy

Blood disorders, diseases, and infections often affect the shape, number, and content of red blood cells (RBCs) dramatically. To combat these pathologies, many therapies target RBCs and their contents directly. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) is an important pathological metric in both identification and treatment. However, current methods for RBC analysis and MCHC quantification rely on bulk measurements. Single RBC measurements could provide necessary insight into the heterogeneity of RBC health and improve therapeutic efficacy. In this study, we present a novel multimodal multiphoton approach for quantifying hemoglobin concentration at single RBC resolution. We achieve this by collecting two images simultaneously that allows us to excite water with stimulated Raman scattering and hemoglobin with transient absorption. This multimodal imaging is enabled by a newly designed orthogonal modulation theme for dual-channel lock-in detection. By leveraging water as an internal standard, we quantify MCHC of healthy RBCs and RBCs infected with Plasmodium yoelii, a commonly studied rodent parasite model.
Character education for students with disabilities

Many schools see it as part of their mission to provide character education or moral education to their students. Yet many students with disabilities are excluded from these curricula, programs, an...
Hybrid Beamforming Design for Wideband MmWave Full-Duplex Systems

Full duplex (FD), which allows bidirectional transmission over the same resources, has the potential to reduce latency and double spectral efficiency. Recently, FD has been studied in 5G LTE millimeter wave cellular communications for New Radio in 3GPP releases 15--17. The primary drawback of FD is self-interference (SI). SI arises in the receiver for system 1 because it receives transmissions from itself and system 2. Because system 1 is much closer, SI can be 100-1000x the received power from system 2, thereby severely degrading communication. In this paper, we investigate a FD relay extending mmWave coverage to a single user. We propose to use alternating projections in designing the precoder and combiner to maximize the sum of the uplink and downlink spectral efficiency while bringing the SI below the noise floor. Our contributions include (1) all-digital and hybrid beamforming design algorithms for SI cancellation; and (2) communication performance analysis in terms of spectral efficiency, energy efficiency and outage probability. We compare the proposed algorithms against beam steering, singular value decomposition, and angle search techniques.
Looks can be deceiving: Bacterial enzymes work through unanticipated mechanism.

It was not until the ingenious works of Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century that bacteria were first discovered and understood to be a “new” form of life on Earth (1). For the next 200 y, bacteria were largely ignored and thought to simply be “bags of proteins,” even though it was recognized that they could have enormous impacts on human health. It is now widely appreciated that bacteria are incredibly complex organisms that can function in a manner that mimics a multicellular organism (2, 3). The ability of bacterial cells to constantly produce and remodel their cell wall is no exception to this, and myriad crucial findings about this process have been made over the last century. One of the most seminal of these discoveries came in the 1940s when β-lactam−containing molecules were found to combat bacterial infections. More recently, the targets of these drugs, the penicillin-binding proteins, as well as other protein machinery have been identified as essential elements for construction of the complex mesh that keeps these cells intact, the peptidoglycan (PG). Still, many mysteries remain about exactly how bacterial cells grow and divide. In particular, while enzymes that cleave and tailor portions of the PG are known to play important roles in microbial survival, they are dramatically understudied. Taguchi et al. (4) shed light on two enzymes in Streptococcus pneumoniae , MpgA and MpgB, shown to cleave a nascent carbohydrate strand to liberate newly synthesized PG. While previous studies postulated that this occurred in a fashion similar to that utilized by a close relative, the lytic glycosylase MltG in Escherichia coli [1,6-anhydroMurNac product (5)], Taguchi et al. instead discover that MpgA and MpgB act as muramidases [saccharide product with reducing end (6)]. Amazingly, they determined that a single amino acid is largely responsible for … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: carlsone{at}umn.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Selection at an Autosomal Locus

We owe the basic ideas and models of selection to Fisher (1922, 1930), Haldane (1924–34), and Wright (1931). After developing the multiallelic equations of selection in Sect. 4.1, we shall study their dynamics for two alleles in Sect. 4.2 and generalize to multiple alleles in Sect. 4.3. We shall analyze the diallelic case with a constant level of inbreeding in Sect. 4.4 and investigate variable environments in Sect. 4.5. Sections 4.6, 4.7, and 4.8 treat intra-family selection, maternal inheritance, and meiotic drive as examples of the many possible less common selection schemes that require modifications of the formulation of Sect. 4.1. We shall discuss multiallelic mutation-selection balance in Sect. 4.9 and consider overlapping generations in Sect. 4.10. A weak-selection analysis for density- and frequency-dependent genotypic fitnesses will be performed in Sect. 4.11.
Performance evolution and power benefits of cluster system utilizing quad-core and dual-core Intel Xeon processors

Multi-core processors represent an evolutionary change in conventional computing as well setting the new trend for high performance computing. The chip-level multiprocessing architectures with a large number of cores continue to offer dramatically increased performance and power savings characteristics. Energy efficiency and scalability in performance have become more important to many enterprises and play important role in a cluster environment as well. This paper will describe how much we may expect from the cluster systems in terms of performance and power saving if we based the installation on the servers which are founded on the Intel Xeon Quad-Core and Intel Xeon Dual-Core processors family.
Reactions of Isobutane and Isobutylene over Silica- and L-Zeolite-Supported Pt/Sn and Pt/Sn/K Catalysts

Abstract The addition of potassium to a Pt/Sn/SiO 2 catalyst enhances the rates for both isobutylene hydrogenation and isobutane dehydrogenation, and a Pt/Sn/K L-zeolite catalyst exhibits considerably higher reaction rates than Pt/Sn/SiO 2 and Pt/Sn/K/SiO 2 . The results of microcalorimetric measurements for hydrogen and isobutylene adsorption, steady-state kinetics investigations for isobutane dehydrogenation and isobutylene hydrogenation, and deuterium tracing investigations for the dehydrogenation and hydrogenation reactions were combined to develop a quantitative kinetic model based on a four step Horiuti-Polanyi mechanism. The dissociative adsorption/desorption of isobutane appears to be the rate determining step for isobutane dehydrogenation and isobutylene hydrogenation. The higher reaction rates observed over Pt/Sn/K-L suggest that the zeolite pore structure and/or the presence of potassium may promote the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions by stabilization of activated complexes for elementary steps involving hydrocarbon species.
Endometrial osseous metaplasia mimicking retained intrauterine device: A case report

BACKGROUND: Osseous metaplasia of the endometrium is a rare disorder and can be associated with infertility. Although successful diagnosis and treatment have been widely reported, correct diagnosis in many cases still represents a challenge. CASE: A 40-year-old woman complaining of infertility presented with a diagnosis of retained intrauterine device (IUD) on ultrasound. Hysteroscopy revealed a normal endometrial cavity, but no IUD was visualized. Curettage pathology specimens showed chronic endometritis and calcification. Repeat hysteroscopy was performed because of persistent echogenic foci in the endometrium on follow-up ultrasound. Several irregular and calcified plaques were successfully removed. CONCLUSION: Osseous metaplasia can be misdiagnosed because of its rare incidence. Physicians should be aware of osseous metaplasia in the differential diagnosis of patients with uncertain history who present with a sonographic image resembling an IUD.
Drosophila transcriptional repressor protein that binds specifically to negative control elements in fat body enhancers.

Abstract Expression of the Drosophila melanogaster Adh gene in adults requires a fat body-specific enhancer called the Adh adult enhancer (AAE). We have identified a protein in Drosophila nuclear extracts that binds specifically to a site within the AAE (adult enhancer factor 1 [AEF-1]). In addition, we have shown that AEF-1 binds specifically to two other Drosophila fat body enhancers. Base substitutions in the AEF-1 binding site that disrupt AEF-1 binding in vitro result in a significant increase in the level of Adh expression in vivo. Thus, the AEF-1 binding site is a negative regulatory element within the AAE. A cDNA encoding the AEF-1 protein was isolated and shown to act as a repressor of the AAE in cotransfection studies. The AEF-1 protein contains four zinc fingers and an alanine-rich sequence. The latter motif is found in other eukaryotic proteins known to be transcriptional repressors.
Blinded by Experience: Prior Experience, Negative News and Belief Updating

Traditional models of operations management involve dynamic decision-making assuming optimal (Bayesian) updating. However, behavioral theory suggests that individuals exhibit bias in their beliefs and decisions. We conduct both a field study and two laboratory studies to examine the phenomena in the context of health. In particular, we examine how an individual’s prior experiences and the experiences of those around them alter the operational decisions that the individual makes. We draw on an exogenous announcement of negative news by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and explore how this affects an operational decision – production tool choice – of interventional cardiologists deciding between two types of cardiac stents. Analyzing 147,000 choices over 6 years, we find that individuals do respond to negative news by using the focal production tool less often. However, we find that both individual’s own experience and others’ experience alter their responses in predictable ways. Moreover, although individual and other experience act as substitutes prior to negative news, the two types of experience act as complements following the negative announcement – leading to even greater use of the same production tool. Two controlled lab studies replicate our main findings and show that behavioral biases, not rational expectations, drive the effect. Our research contributes not only to operations management research, but also to the practice of healthcare and operations more generally.
A Review of “China's Pan-Pearl River Delta; Regional cooperation and development”

Regional governance is one of the great challenges of industrial development. The United States has wrestled with this problem since at least the 19th century. China is currently grappling with the...
Converging Trends in Family Research and Pediatrics: Recent Findings for the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on the Family

Pediatricians and their colleagues in the social and behavioral sciences seek better understandings of how to keep children healthy. Some of the most basic and essential understandings of the processes of health and illness have emerged from the study of families. More than 25 years ago, Litman1 asserted that “the family constitutes perhaps the most important social context within which illness occurs and is resolved. It consequently serves as a primary unit in health and medical care.” More recently, progressive health care professionals and organizations have moved toward family-centered care2,3 and family-focused care,4 reflecting philosophic, practical, and evidence-based commitments to the understanding of children’s health outcomes as a function of family characteristics. This article reviews these recent trends in pediatrics and in the social and behavioral sciences to document the opportunities and challenges faced by pediatricians and other health care professionals as they pursue basic commitments to healthy children and successful families. These emergent mutual concerns of pediatricians and social and behavioral scientists generate many of the implications for training, practice, policy, and research promulgated by the accompanying report of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force on the Family.5 We begin with consideration of contemporary pediatrics’ embrace of biopsychosocial analyses6 and the adoption of child development as a basic science7 as a means of diagnosing and treating within the “new morbidity.”8 Family-centered care and family-focused care evolve simultaneously with these advances in pediatrics. In the social and behavioral sciences, research themes describing successful families, incorporating cultural diversity and sensitivity, and seeking avenues to contribute to societal needs converge such that child health is a unifying concern. The venues in which such mutual interests of pediatricians and social and behavioral scientists evolve will be described. The manner in which contemporary …
Estimation of weld penetration using parameterized three-dimensional weld pool surface in gas tungsten arc welding

A skilled welder determines the weld joint penetration from his/her observation on the weld pool surface during the welding process. This paper addresses the estimation of weld joint penetration (i.e. determining back-side bead width that measures the degree of the weld joint penetration in full penetration welding) using the parameterized 3D weld pool surface in gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). To this end, an innovative machine vision system is used to measure the specular weld pool surface in real-time. Various experiments under different welding conditions have been performed to produce full penetration welds with different back-side bead widths and acquire corresponding images for reconstructing the weld pool surface and calculating candidate estimation parameters. Through the least squares algorithm based statistic analyses, it was found that the width, length, and convexity of the 3D weld pool surface provides the optimal model to predict the back-side bead width with an acceptable accuracy. A foundation is thus established to effectively extract information from the weld pool surface to facilitate a feedback control of the weld joint penetration.
Inhibition of basal and deprivation-induced proteolysis by leupeptin and pepstatin in perfused rat liver and heart.

Abstract Isolated rat livers and hearts were perfused in the presence and absence of insulin and amino acids (or insulin alone) to generate the basal and 2x enhanced rates of intracellular protein degradation, respectively, that are normally demonstrable under these conditions. Additions of the thiol-proteinase inhibitor, leupeptin, to each tissue group inhibited both levels of degradation proportionately. In liver, administration of a pepstatin-liposome complex reduced deprivation-enhanced proteolysis by a small degree (20%), but when added with leupeptin, basal and deprivation rates were inhibited 55–60%. These findings are consistent with the notion that the lysosomal system is involved in both degradative components.
Multiple subtypes of voltage-gated calcium currents in the Edinger-Westphal nucleus

Abstract Avian Edinger-Westphal (EW) neurons provide a unique opportunity to compare electrophysiologically the membranes of cell bodies and terminals in the same population of neurons. Axons that originate from neurons in the lateral region of the EW nucleus form a morphologically distinct presynaptic terminal, known as a calyx, on ciliary ganglion neurons [32]. Several studies have shown that calyciform terminals in the ciliary ganglion exhibit predominantly N-type, high-voltage-activated (HVA) calcium channels [35–37,45]. The goal of this study was to characterize and compare the calcium currents expressed in EW cell somas with those reported in the terminals. Whole-cell patch-clamp techniques were used to record from cell bodies in the lateral EW nucleus in slice preparations. Slices were obtained from embryonic day 16 chicks, matching the age of the embryos in which calyces were studied. Recordings were localized to the lateral region of the EW nucleus using Lucifer yellow fills. Voltage-step commands from −70 to 0 mV produced calcium currents with both a sustained and an inactivating component. Depolarization steps to 0 mV from a holding potential of −40 mV eliminated the inactivating component. These recordings suggested the presence of both LVA and HVA calcium currents. Application of 0.1 mM NiCl 2 produced a reversible decrease in the amplitude of the whole-cell calcium current, preferentially affecting the inactivating component. The Ni 2+ -sensitive current activated and inactivated rapidly in a voltage-dependent manner. Treatment with 0.1 mM cadmium chloride caused a reversible reduction in the amplitude of the calcium current. ω-Conotoxin (CTX) (0.002 mM) produced an irreversible decrease in the amplitude of the calcium current. An unidentified component of the calcium current, which was Ni 2+ - and CTX-insenive, constituted ≈10–15% of the current. Nifedipine (0.010 mM) had no detectable effects on the calcium currents. These results suggest that, in contrast to their terminals, cell bodies in the lateral region of the EW nucleus express T-type, LVA as well as N-type, HVA calcium channels.
Clinical stage I nonseminomatous germ cell tumors of testis. Observation vs retroperitoneal lymph node dissection.

Abstract Between 1980 and 1989, 186 patients with testicular tumorswere seen at Roswell Park Memorial Institute. Of these, 66.6 percent (124/186) were diagnosed to have nonseminomatous germ cell tumors (NSGT) and 22 percent (41/186) were clinically determined to have Stage I disease. Patients with clinical Stage I NSGT either underwent observation or retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND). Recurrence in the observation group of patients was 23.5 percent (4/17) between four and eighteen months (mean 10 months) with the retroperitoneum being the most common site. All but 1 patient (80%) were salvaged with platinum-based combination chemotherapy. Of the 24 patients who had RPLND, 21 percent (5124) had a false-negative metastatic evaluation. All the patients who had surgically documented metastatic disease were successfully treated with chemotherapy. The similar recurrence rates in the observation group and the false-negative RPLND group suggest that the failure rate in the observation group is a result of the inability to stage accurately patients with NSGT. RPLND continues to be the standard therapy in patients with clinical Stage I disease. Despite its high recurrence rate, observation should, however, be offered to well-motivated and selected patients since salvage platinum-based combination chemotherapy is very effective and the majority of patients in this group are spared a major operative procedure.
Pollution records from sediments of three lakes in New York State

Sediment core segments from Sylvan Lake, Lake Champlain and Lake Canadarago were dated radiometrically with 210Pb and 137Cs. Their respective sedimentation rates were determined to be 0.11, 0.14 and 0.52 g cm−2 yr−1. For the two lakes of lower sedimentation the variations of selected elemental abundances as function of depth were analyzed. Two groupings were found: Al, K, Ti, Rb and Zr were correlated among themselves but reflected different variations in the input of terrigenous erosion material to the lakes. The Cu, Zn and Pb correlated among themselves showed similar depth dependence with increasing concentrations toward the top which can be attributed to cultural pollution. Recent ‘excess’ fluxes to the sediments above the natural contribution by clastic material were derived for the location of the cores, which for Cu, Zn and Pb amounted to 3.8, 24 and 16 μg cm−2 yr−1 respectively for Sylvan Lake and 4.9, 20 and 16 μg cm−2 yr−1 for Lake Champlain. The corresponding 210Pb flux was 3.3 and 2.3 dpm cm−2 yr−1, respectively for the two lakes. Approximate residence times in the water column were obtained for trace metals at the Lake Champlain location. Short residence times estimated for Pb (< 0.15 yr) and Cu (< 0.4 yr) indicate fast removal, whereas those for Zn (1.0 ± 0.3 yr) and Cr (2.0 ± 0.5 yr) appeared to be dominated by the water residence time.
In order to grow, must the founder go: A comparison of performance between founder and non-founder managed high-growth manufacturing firms

Abstract Conventional wisdom and much of the entrepreneurship/small business literature hold that rapidly growing new firms quickly outgrow the founder's managerial capacity. Unless the founder is replaced or supplemented by “professional” management, performance is predicted to stagnate or decline rapidly. To empirically test this conventional wisdom, a group of founder-managed high-growth firms was compared-with a group of similar but “professionally” managed firms. Our sample of 155 mostly high-tech manufacturing firms was taken from Inc.'s 1985, 1986, 1989, and 1990 lists of the 100 fastest-growing publicly held firms in the United States. Mean values for 11 performance measures were calculated for the full sample and for both subsamples. Differences in mean values were tested for statistical significance. Overall, no significant differences in performance were found between founder-managed and professionally managed firms in this study. On average, founder-managed firms were somewhat (but not significantly) smaller and were growing at a slightly (but not significantly) lower rate. Foundermanaged firms also showed higher (but not significantly so) rates of profitability. Employee productivity was virtually identical for both groups of firms. Share price performance of professionally managed firms exceeded that of founder-managed firms by more than was expected, but the difference was not significantly different from zero. The data do not support the predictions of conventional wisdom. In our sample, foundermanagers appear to have been able to adapt to the increasing complexity of rapid growth without sacrificing performance or losing control. Our measures captured no evidence of management crisis or founders' disease afflicting these high-growth founder-managed manufacturing firms.
Evaluation of Radiation Exposure to Pediatric Trauma Patients

Abstract Background Pediatric trauma patients pose a diagnostic challenge to physicians. Computed tomography (CT) imaging identifies life-threatening injuries quickly and efficiently. CT radiation dose in pediatric trauma patients is a concern. Study Objectives We evaluated the cumulative effective dose of radiation received by pediatric blunt trauma patients and assessed characteristics of patients and studies received. Methods We retrospectively identified pediatric blunt trauma patients at a Level I trauma center between January 1 and December 31, 2006 utilizing the North Carolina Trauma Registry. We searched the patient radiographic history for images in the 7 days after their trauma event. We calculated cumulative effective radiation dose using dose length product and age coefficients. We collected demographic information including age, sex, mechanism of injury, hospital length of stay, and discharge status. Results Seventy-five pediatric blunt trauma patients with available radiographic records were included. The median age was 11.7 years; males comprised 64% of patients; median Injury Severity Score was 13.8; 64% were transfer patients; median number of CT scans during initial evaluation was 3.4 for directly seen patients and two for transferred patients. Mean effective ionizing radiation dose was 11.4 mSv for CT scans performed in the first 24 h. Sixteen percent of admitted patients had CT scans in the subsequent 6 days, with an average additional CT dose of 4 mSv. Average number of plain radiographs was five. Conclusions Pediatric blunt trauma patients receive a major radiation burden in their initial evaluation. Patients who are transferred from an outside facility endure an even higher dose of radiation.
Putting altruism in context

I argue that Rachlin’s notion of self control is imprecise and not well suited to the discussion of altruism. Rachlin’s broader agenda, to improve collective welfare by identifying behavioral mechanisms that increase altruism, neglects the fact that altruism is neither necessary nor sufficient for desirable social outcomes. ∗I thank Philip Babcock, Vincent Crawford, Jim Moore, and Joel Watson for useful comments and NSF for financial support. †University of California, San Diego. Email: jsobel@ucsd.edu. Altruistic behavior presents a puzzle for both biology and economics. Biology must explain why traits that do not maximize an organism’s fitness survive. Economics, which starts from the assumptions that individual actors are selfish and rational, must explain why individuals take actions that do not appear to maximize short-term self interest. Evolutionary biology provides powerful ways of understanding unselfish behavior to closely related individuals (Hamilton [5]) or to reciprocity in long-term relationships (Trivers [12]), Rachlin is concerned with instances of human altruism that are hard to explain using these theories. Evolutionary mechanisms that rely on group selection (Boehm [3] or Sober andWilson [11]) or community enforced morality (Alexander [2]) provide explanations for unselfish behavior in human communities. These approaches teach us that to understand altruistic actions, we should examine the individual in connection with the composition and norms of the society in which he lives. Economic theory assumes that agents select from their available choices only an action that maximizes utility. Unselfish behavior does not occur. Economics adapts its methodology in the face of apparently contradictory evidence by broadening the definition of self interest, for example by assuming that individuals obtain utility from the act of giving or through the consumption of others, or by recognizing that economic relationships are dynamic and that an individual’s long-run selfish best interest is best served by doing things that are not consistent with short-term selfish goals. The approaches of both biology and economics illustrate that the context of actions is important and require careful attention to the definition of altruism. Rachlin [7] argues that one must consider altruism in the context of patterns of behavior and provides a definition that makes the mechanism supporting altruism a special case of the mechanism that determines self control. Rachlin should be commended for pointing out the importance of patterns of behavior. Altruism generated by a preference for establishing a pattern of “good” behavior is internally motivated. It does not rely on generating reciprocal responses from others that are vital to the dynamic arguments in biology and economics. Rachlin’s emphasis on patterns should motivate behavioral researchers to widen the context of their experiments. Choice models, at least as they are used in applications, may need to be broadened Sobel [10] provides an overview.
The evolution of the concept of medicalization in the late twentieth century.

This article attempts to outline a history of the critique of medicalization that developed in the 1960s in the work of Thomas Szasz, R. D. Laing, Michael Foucault, and others that was applied in their work to medical and psychiatric theory and practice, the penal system, and public health systems. This article follows the development of Foucault's own work on "governmentality" that emphasized the individualization and internalization of the themes of medicalization and the application of these ideas by his disciples to contemporary medical developments. Finally, the author explores recent historiography in the history of medicine and public health that supports this thesis of individualization that both undermines and reconfigures the older notion of medicalization.
Methodology to Assess Impacts of Alternative Truck Configurations on Flexible Highway Pavement Systems

Assessing the appropriateness of truck axle weight limits and truck configurations from the standpoint of the impact on infrastructure is a critical issue in the determination of North American truck size and weight harmonization. A methodology is discussed for determination of pavement response, estimation of load equivalencies, and development of performance curves for different cases of flexible highway pavement and heavy-vehicle interactions for normal environmental and thaw conditions. The pavement response model uses the MSC Software Corporation's general-purpose finite element program, MSC.MARC. Seven different truck configurations, using North American axle weight limits, are used to illustrate the impacts of alternative truck configurations on flexible highway pavement systems. Three progressive schemes are employed for impact assessment: the truck-factor scheme, the repetitions-to-failure scheme, and the tonnage-over-life scheme.
Sensor Network Tomography: monitoring wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks have been attracting increasing research interest given the recent advances in miniaturization and low-cost, low-power design. Consisting of a large collection of small wireless, low-power, unattended sensors and/or actuators, wireless sensor network technology poses its unique design challenges. Given their unattended nature and their complexity, it is critical that the users be given continuously updated indications of the sensor network health, i.e., explicit knowledge of the overall state of the sensor network after deployment. We call such indications of network health scans. Such macroscopic view of resources or activities in large sensor networks can provide users early warning of system failure, aid in incremental deployment of sensors, or tuning sensor collaboration algorithms.Monitoring wireless sensor networks leads to different challenges compared to existing diagnosis protocols for the Internet, or monitoring systems in other domains such as telecommunication networks, or power generation systems. The monitoring system should introduce minimal impact on network lifetime, scale with network size, yet preserve the fidelity of the overall picture. We propose Sensor Network Tomography to construct abstracted scans of sensor network health by applying localized algorithms in sensor networks for energy-efficient in-network aggregation of local representations of scans. Rather than collect detailed state information from each individual sensor node and then process centrally, this technique builds a composite scan by combining local scans piecewise on their way towards a collecting point. When local scans are aggregated, detailed information at an individual node may be lost. However, the compactness of such an abstracted representation can reduce the communication and processing cost significantly.
Neutron-Proton Scattering in the Energy Range of 18 to 21 Mev

The relative cross sections for neutron-proton scattering in the neutron energy range of 18 to 21 Mev were measured by means of a proportional counter telescope at the laboratory proton recoil angles of 15 degrees and 44 degrees 24 minutes, respectively. From these data a ratio of 1.06\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.16 for neutrons scattered in the center-of-mass system in the backward direction to those scattered in the sideways direction was computed.