cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Promotional Video Production in a Foreign Language Course

ABSTRACT: Multimedia equipment enables second language (L2) instructors to explore innovative course approaches, but such technologies are sometimes adapted with few pedagogical considerations. For optimal results, it is important to adapt multimedia technologies in a task-based activity whereby the resulting product delivers meaningful L2 content of practical value in the real world. This article describes a course project in which a group of intermediate Japanese language learners at the University of Arkansas produced the university's promotional video in the target language. Students wrote and narrated a script that described features of the university's popular colleges and facilities, videotaped the scenes on campus, and edited the recordings into a three-minute Japanese promotional video with English subtitles. The complete promotional video was later uploaded for viewing on the Worldwide Web. By employing user-friendly computer software, the students produced a promotional video of substantial real-life value and of near-professional audiovisual quality. Pedagogically, this video serves not only as a showcase of the learners' L2 skills but as a motivational tool for students with limited opportunities to use their target language.
Fibrillar Colloidal Boehmite; Progressive Conversion to Gamma, Theta, and Alpha Aluminas

The conversion of boehmite to transition aluminas and to alpha (corundum) was studied with (a)fibrillar colloidal boehmite, about 50 a.u. in diameter, (b)finely divided boehmite in the form of thin elongated platelets, and (c)macroscopic boehmite crystals. In the range 500o to 700o C., (a)was converted to fibrillar gamma, essentially unchanged in size or shape, (b)was dehydrated to gamma, but the platelets appeared to be partly cracked longitudinally about every 70 a.u., and (c)was similarly cracked into much smaller crystallites of gamma. At about 1000oC., (a)yielded only rodlike theta alumina, whereas (b)and (c)appeared to give a mixture of theta and delta aluminas, characterized by round holes or pores developed from the cracks. In the range 1000o to 1100oC., all the aluminas were converted to alpha, at a rate which was strongly dependent on temperature. The conversion of (a)and (b) to alpha could be followed by subsequent examination with the electron microscope. The alpha crystals, once nucleated, apparently grew rapidly to 0.5 or 1.0 μ in size, since there was no evidence of smaller alpha crystals. The smaller alpha crystals appeared to grow while embedded in a glassy matrix which must have been amorphous alumina. This phase acted as a bridge between the diminishing theta particles and the growing alpha crystals and may have consisted of the alumina which was in the process of being transported.
Transcriptional control: How nuclear receptors get turned on

The recently determined structures of the ligand-binding domains from three nuclear receptors show that a receptor undergoes a significant conformational change on ligand binding. It is not yet clear how this structural change results in transcriptional activation.
Predator-induced phenotypic plasticity in organisms with complex life histories

▪ Abstract Predator-induced phenotypic plasticity is widespread in nature and includes variation in life history, morphology, and behavior. In organisms with complex life histories, predator-induced phenotypic plasticity in the larval period has been widely documented. Several models predict how organisms should alter their size at and time to metamorphosis in response to an increased risk of predation. A survey of empirical studies finds that these theoretical predictions are frequently met. However, no one model performs the best. Additionally, there are several results not predicted by any model. Predator-induced plasticity in metamorphic traits may be related to predator-induced changes in larval morphology and behavior. Predictions of predator effects on larval traits are generally met, except for direct costs of predator-induced morphological phenotypes. Future work should incorporate more detailed studies of growth rate, morphology, and behavior during the larval period, as well as studies of size-...
Pre-encoding administration of amphetamine or THC preferentially modulates emotional memory in humans

Many addictive drugs are known to have effects on learning and memory, and these effects could motivate future drug use. Specifically, addictive drugs may affect memory of emotional events and experiences in ways that are attractive to some users. However, few studies have investigated the effects of addictive drugs on emotional memory in humans. This study examined the effects of the memory-enhancing drug dextroamphetamine (AMP) and the memory-impairing drug Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on emotional memory in healthy volunteers. Participants completed three experimental sessions across which they received capsules containing placebo and two doses of either AMP (10 and 20 mg; N = 25) or THC (7.5 and 15 mg; N = 25) before viewing pictures of positive (pleasant), neutral, and negative (unpleasant) scenes. Memory for the pictures was assessed 2 days later, under drug-free conditions. Relative to placebo, memory for emotional pictures was improved by AMP and impaired by THC, but neither drug significantly affected memory for unemotional pictures. Positive memory biases were not observed with either drug, and there was no indication that the drugs’ memory effects were directly related to their subjective or physiological effects alone. This study provides the first clear evidence that stimulant drugs can preferentially strengthen, and cannabinoids can preferentially impair, memory for emotional events in humans. Although addictive drugs do not appear to positively bias memory, the possibility remains that these drugs’ effects on emotional memory could influence drug use among certain individuals.
Sustainability failures of rural telecenters: Challenges from the sustainable access in rural india (sari) project

We have examined longitudinally an ICT for a development project in rural India, closely watching activities and surveying users at as many as 100 Internet facilities in more than 50 different villages. The Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) project in Tamil Nadu, India, enjoyed many successes, including palpable---albeit localized---social and economic development impacts as well as the incubation of an---albeit inconsistently---celebrated ICT for a development start-up company (n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd.). Ultimately, however, the SARI project did not sustain itself. In the particular outcomes reported here, we follow the prospects of 36 private telecenters which were opened at various times between November 2001 and February 2004. By May 2005, 32 of these 36 telecenters had closed. However, in the same time period, most of 42 telecenters in the same area that were opened and run by a local NGO continued to function. We provide a comparative analysis between these two groups of facilities. We find that the best explanation for variation in a kiosk lifespan was their level of satisfaction with n-Logue Communications. Moreover, those sites that did express satisfaction with their institutional and technical support were in service for, on average, an additional year compared with dissatisfied sites. In addition to technical and operational support issues, we find that the lack of long-term financial viability was a major reason for the closure of the private telecenters. Financial sustainability was not realized by many centers; indeed, 85% of the operators interviewed cited finances as a major cause for their closure. Finally, telecenters that were owned by individuals with prior training in computers, or that had a separate trained operator, remained operational for a longer period.
Future employment selection methods: evaluating social networking web sites

Purpose – The use of social networking web sites (SNWs), like Facebook and MySpace, has become extremely popular, particularly with today's emerging workforce. Employers, aware of this phenomenon, have begun to use the personal information available on SNWs to make hiring decisions. The purpose of this paper is to examine the feasibility of using applicant personal information currently available on SNWs to improve employment selection decisions.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 378 judge ratings (63 raters×6 subjects) are evaluated to determine if raters can reliably and accurately determine the big‐five personality traits, intelligence, and performance based only on information available on SNWs. Interrater reliability is assessed to determine rater consistency, followed by an assessment of rater accuracy.Findings – Based solely on viewing social networking profiles, judges are consistent in their ratings across subjects and typically able to accurately distinguish high from low performers. In ad...
Innovation and Control in Standards Architectures: The Rise and Fall of Japan's PC-98

For more than a decade NEC dominated the Japanese PC market with its PC-98 architecture, which was incompatible both with its major Japanese rivals and the global PC standard. However, NEC was powerless to prevent the introduction of Japanese versions of Windows 3.1 and 95 that ran on its competitors' architectures as well as on the PC-98, unifying the Japanese PC market and creating a common set of application programming interfaces for all Intel-based Japanese PCs. The introduction of Windows rendered obsolete the large DOS-based software library that had provided strong positive externalities for the NEC architecture. Absent those advantages, the market share of the PC-98 standard fell from 60% to 33% in five years, and NEC finally abandoned the PC-98 in favor of the global standard. An examination of the unusual rise and fall of the PC-98 shows how victory in a standards competition can be negated by the introduction of a new architectural layer that spans two or more previously incompatible architectures.
Synthesis of globally optimal robust controllers: the two perturbation blocks case

An algorithm is presented for finding the global minimum for the robustness synthesis problem when two perturbation blocks are present. The problem reduces to solving a parameterized family of linear programs. The global solution was obtained by finding an optimal basis for a certain value of the parameter and then by determining the intervals for which the corresponding optimal basis does not change. This procedure is repeated a finite number of times until the whole range of the parameter is covered. >
Exercise: the Data on its Role in Health, Mental Health, Disease Prevention, and Productivity

How would you define exercise? If you look up exercise in the dictionary, it is defined as physical activity used for the purpose of conditioning any part of the body. Exercise is an important topic because in the United States less than 50% of the total population exercises on a regular basis. The lack of regular physical activity is linked to an increased rate of obesity, development of chronic diseases, and an overall decline in health. This article uses an evidence-based approach to demonstrate how exercise affects health, mental health, disease prevention, and productivity.
Implications of the Northridge earthquake for strong ground motions from thrust faults

The peak accelerations recorded on alluvial sites during the Northridge earthquake were about 50% larger than the median value predicted by current empirical attenuation relations at distances less than about 30 km. This raises the question of whether the ground motions from the Northridge earthquake are anomalous for thrust events or are representative of ground motions expected in future thrust earthquakes. Since the empirical data base contains few strong-motion records close to large-thrust earthquakes, it is difficult to assess whether the Northridge ground motions are anomalous based on recorded data alone. For this reason, we have used a broadband strong-motion simulation procedure to help assess whether the ground motions were anomalous. The simulation procedure has been validated against a large body of strong-motion data from California earthquakes, and so we expect it to produce accurate estimates of ground motions for any given rupture scenario, including blind-thrust events for which no good precedent existed in the strong-motion data base until the occurrence of the Northridge earthquake. The ground motions from the Northridge earthquake and our simulations of these ground motions have a similar pattern of departure from empirical attenuation relations for thrust earthquakes: the peak accelerations are at about the 84th percentile level for distances within 20 to 30 km and follow the median level for larger distances. This same pattern of departure from empirical attenuation relations was obtained in our simulations of the peak accelerations of an Elysian Park blind-thrust event prior to the occurrence of the Northridge earthquake. Since we are able to model this pattern with broadband simulations, and had done so before the Northridge earthquake occurred, this suggests that the Northridge strong-motion records are not anomalous and are representative of ground motions close to thrust faults. Accordingly, it seems appropriate to include these recordings in strong-motion data sets that are used to develop empirical ground-motion attenuation relations for thrust faults and to use this augmented data set as the basis for evaluating the need for modifications in design coefficients in the seismic provisions of building codes.
Design of quantum-dot lasers with an indirect bandgap short-period Superlattice for reducing the linewidth enhancement factor

A novel gain medium consisting of direct bandgap semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) embedded in a short-period superlattice of indirect bandgap as barrier material is proposed to produce QD lasers with extremely small linewidth enhancement factor /spl alpha/. Our analysis has shown that at least one order-of-magnitude reduction in /spl alpha/ can be achieved at room temperature compared to that of similar QDs embedded in direct-bandgap barriers, making low chirp, narrow linewidth semiconductor lasers feasible.
DETERMINING PROVENANCE OF LOCAL AND IMPORTED CHERT MILLSTONES USING FOSSILS (ESPECIALLY CHAROPHYTA, FUSULININA, AND BRACHIOPODA): EXAMPLES FROM OHIO, U.S.A

ABSTRACT French and North American cherts used for millstones during the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century in Ohio are generally similar in color, hardness, presence of cellular porosity, and other characters. Although basic differences in fossil content and geologic age have been known since the 1830s, and previous authors have noted the presence of fusulinids and other fossils in Ohio buhrstone, and charophytes as well as gastropods in millstone pieces found in New England but imported from France, little attention has been paid to the fossil content of chert millstones in the United States. We document examples of chert millstones in Ohio, distinguishing cherts (French buhr) imported from the Tertiary of France for use as millstones from local Pennsylvanian cherts (buhrstone) used for millstones. French buhr (known as meuliere in France), from the Tertiary deposits of the Paris Basin, contains gyrogonites belonging to the Oligocene species Gyrogona medicaginula, charophyte thalli, and fres...
Statistical gate sizing for timing yield optimization

Variability in the chip design process has been relatively increasing with technology scaling to smaller dimensions. Using worst case analysis for circuit optimization severely over-constrains the system and results in solutions with excessive penalties. Statistical timing analysis and optimization have consequently emerged as a refinement of the traditional static timing approach for circuit design optimization. In this paper, we propose a statistical gate sizing methodology for timing yield improvement. We build statistical models for gate delays from library characterizations at multiple process corners and operating conditions. Statistical timing analysis is performed, which drives gate sizing for timing yield optimization. Experimental results are reported for the ISCAS and MCNC benchmarks. In addition, we provide insight into statistical properties of gate delays for a given technology library which intuitively explains when and why statistical optimization improves over static timing optimization.
Multi-omics Approaches to Deciphering a Hypervirulent Strain of Campylobacter jejuni

Campylobacter jejuni clone SA recently emerged as the predominant cause of sheep abortion in the United States and is also associated with foodborne gastroenteritis in humans. A distinct phenotype of this clone is its ability to induce bacteremia and abortion. To facilitate understanding the pathogenesis of this hypervirulent clone, we analyzed a clinical isolate (IA3902) of clone SA using multi-omics approaches. The genome of IA3902 contains a circular chromosome of 1,635,045 bp and a circular plasmid of 37,174 bp. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that IA3902 is most closely related to C. jejuni NCTC11168, which is a reference strain and was previously shown to be non-abortifacient in pregnant animals. Despite the high genomic synteny and sequence homology, there are 12 variable regions (VRs) and 8,696 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and indels between the two genomes. Notably, the variable genes in the capsular polysaccharides biosynthesis and O-linked glycosylation loci of IA3902 are highly homogenous to their counterparts in C. jejuni subsp. doylei and C. jejuni G1, which are known to be frequently associated with bacteremia. Transcriptomic and proteomic profiles were conducted to compare IA3902 with NCTC11168, which revealed that the pathways of energy generation, motility, and serine utilization were significantly up-regulated in IA3902, whereas the pathways of iron uptake and proline, glutamate, aspartate, and lactate utilization were significantly down-regulated. These results suggest that C. jejuni clone SA has evolved distinct genomic content and gene expression patterns that modulate surface polysacharide structures, motilitiy, and metabolic pathways. These changes may have contributed to its hyper-virulence in abortion induction.
Combined learning and use for a mixture model equivalent to the RBF classifier

We show that the decision function of a radial basis function (RBF) classifier is equivalent in form to the Bayes-optimal discriminant associated with a special kind of mixture-based statistical model. The relevant mixture model is a type of mixture-of-experts model for which class labels, like continuous-valued features, are assumed to have been generated randomly, conditional on the mixture component of origin. The new interpretation shows that RBF classifiers effectively assume a probability model, which, moreover, is easily determined given the designed RBF. This interpretation also suggests a statistical learning objective as an alternative to standard methods for designing the RBF-equivalent models. The statistical objective is especially useful for incorporating unlabeled data to enhance learning. Finally, it is observed that any new data to classify are simply additional unlabeled data. Thus, we suggest a combined learning and use paradigm, to be invoked whenever there are new data to classify.
Spatial distribution of discrete RAPD phenotypes of a root endophytic fungus, Phialocephala fortinii, at a primary successional site on a glacier forefront

summary Phialocephala fortinii is among the few identified hyphomycetes belonging to the Mycelium radicis atrovirens complex. This ‘dark-septate endophyte’ has a global distribution and colonizes a wide variety of host plants. In this study, the spatial distribution of discrete genets of P. fortinii on the forefront of a receding glacier was analysed using the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique to determine plants colonized and patterns of colonization. In two consecutive years of sampling, a total of 74 isolates of P. fortinii were obtained from nine plant species, typically ectomycorrhizal, ericoid mycorrhizal or non-mycorrhizal. The isolates showed substantial variation, sharing on average approx. half the RAPD markers. In the first year, three isolates belonging to a single genet were obtained from two plants separated by a distance of nearly 1‐5 m. The continuity of this genet was assessed by a sampling the following year. No isolates similar to that, or any of the genets collected the year before were observed. Consequently, the identical isolates from the previous year were concluded to represent discontinuous ramets. Two additional large genets were observed during the second year of sampling, which inhabited roots of several plants representing three dierent species. These data suggest that the sharing of P. fortinii genets among plant species might play a fundamental role in adaptation and interaction within the whole plant community in a system undergoing primary succession.
The American Connection: Ideology and the Transfer of American Technology to the Soviet Union, 1917–1941

When one nation looks to another as an example for social and economic change, as the Soviet Union did to certain aspects of American experience for a time after 1917, the results are likely to reveal much about the borrower nation—its dominant values as well as its economy and social structure. The role which foreign, and particularly American, technology and industrial expertise played in the Soviet economy during the interwar period is still inadequately understood and is a subject of some controversy, with implications not only for an understanding of Soviet history and society but for the study of international technology transfers. (The term technology will be used here not only in the sense of “machinery” and processes, but in the broader sense of Simon Kuznets's phrase, “stock of knowledge,” that is, the knowledge of techniques of production, including economic organization.) Such transfers, particularly those between economically advanced and less-developed countries, have played an important but as yet inadequately studied role in modern history.
Synchronous adrenocortical neoplasms, paragangliomas, and pheochromocytomas: syndromic considerations regarding an unusual constellation of endocrine tumors.

Summary The most common clinical syndromes presenting with paragangliomas and/or pheochromocytomas as their endocrine components are multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2, neurofibromatosis, Von Hippel–Lindau syndrome, Carney-Stratakis syndrome, Carney triad, and the recently described hereditary paraganglioma syndrome. Only Carney triad is known to also present with adrenocortical adenomas, currently representing the only described syndrome in which all 3 of the aforementioned tumors are found together. In most cases, prototypical lesions of the triad such as gastrointestinal stromal tumor and pulmonary chondromas are also seen. We present a case of a young woman with synchronous paragangliomas, adrenal/extra-adrenal cortical neoplasms, and pheochromocytoma without genetic mutations for multiple endocrine neoplasia 2, Von Hippel–Lindau syndrome, neurofibromatosis, and succinate dehydrogenase. We speculate that this represents a previously undescribed presentation of Carney triad and, at the very least, indicates the need for monitoring for the development of other tumors of the triad.
The Effectiveness of Two Methods for Teaching a Constraint-Seeking Questioning Strategy to Students with Learning Disabilities

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of two methods of teaching an efficient questioning strategy to students with learning disabilities. The methods compared were fa) cognitive modeling alone in the use of constraint-seeking questions, and (b) cognitive modeling and verbalization in the use of constraint-seeking questions, involving explicit and consistent instruction and feedback. Sixty subjects with learning disabilities were assigned randomly to one of these two conditions (n = 30 in each group). A pretreatment and posttreatment design was employed, with the criterion variable being number of questions required to obtain the correct answers to two 20 questions games. Results indicated that both groups showed significant reductions from pretreatment to posttreatment in the number of questions required. The two methods of instruction did not differ significantly in effectiveness.
Sensory and Instrumental Relationships of Texture of Cooked Rice from Selected Cultivars and Postharvest Handling Practices

ABSTRACT Measurement of cooked rice texture attributes by sensory and instrumental methods is important because of the increased popularity of rice and rice products by globally diverse cultures. Many factors influence cooked rice texture, including cultivar, physicochemical properties, postharvest handling practices (milling degree, drying conditions, and final moisture), and cooking method. Information on the relationships between sensory, physical, and chemical characteristics will lead to better methods to quickly evaluate and predict end-use qualities, which will help to match rices with specific characteristics to populations that demand those attributes. This article reports the relationships between two modes of measuring texture attributes of rices: sensory and instrumental texture analyzers. Six medium- and short-grain rice samples differing by cultivar or growing location were dried to achieve final moisture levels of 12 or 15% and then regular- or deep-milled (n = 120). Correlations between in...
Chemical Structure and Superconductivity

Consideration of the chemical bonding topology of the conducting skeletons in the Chevrel phases MMo6S8 and the lanthanide rhodium borides LnRh4B4 indicates that the conducting skeletons consist of networks of edge-localized bonded atoms. These observations suggest that superconductivity is favored when electron mobility is restricted to fewer than three dimensions. Thus, the chemical bonding topologies of the highest Tc superconductors contain one of the following features: (1) edge-localized M−M bonding in the conducting skeletons of ternary and quaternary solid-state superconductors or related, partially localized bonding in superconducting transition metals and their alloys; (2) localized rather than fully delocalized bonding in copper oxide superconductors containing Cu−O−Cu linkages with appreciable Cu···Cu antiferromagnetic interactions; or (3) surface-localized bonding in fullerene superconductors containing direct C−C bonds such as K3C60. In addition, heavy fermion superconductors with considera...
Computationally efficient beamforming on real experimental data

We investigate processing Santa Barbara channel experiment (SBCX) data, using Beamforming algorithms that utilize a computationally efficient covariance matrix (CECM) estimate. The algorithms using the CECM are the Bartlett beamformer (CBF) algorithms, the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) and a white noise gain constrained MVDR (WNGC-MVDR) and a multiple signal characterization algorithm (MUSIC). The processing shows that for all the beamforming algorithms using the CECM in lieu of the sample covariance matrix (SCM) exhibited comparable performance, often overlapping at a reduced computational cost of greater then 20%.
Sources and Expectations for Hierarchical Structure in Bird-habitat Associations

Abstract Hierarchical structure in bird-habitat associations can arise from hierarchical structure in environmental variables and from the scale-dependent responses of birds to habitat. Hierarchical structure in environmental variables is expected to result from interactions between variables that differ in grain size (spatial resolution) and frequency, and should occur commonly. Birds cannot accurately sample habitat characteristics at all spatial scales simultaneously, and the habitat chosen for a given purpose may differ depending on whether a bird samples from high above the ground (which is best for sampling coarse-grained variables) or from ground level (which is best for sampling fine-grained variables). Additionally, birds may exhibit an absolute response to a habitat variable, if it is unsuitable beyond some threshold level, or a relative response, if all available habitat is suitable but some is preferred. Models that can represent hierarchical structure in habitat, as well as hierarchical, scal...
Evaluating Semantic Metrics on Tasks of Concept Similarity

This study presents an evaluation of WordNet-based semantic similarity and relatedness measures in tasks focused on concept similarity. Assuming similarity as distinct from relatedness, the goal is to fill a gap within the current body of work in the evaluation of similarity and relatedness measures. Past studies have either focused entirely on relatedness or only evaluated judgments over words rather than concepts. In this study, first, concept similarity measures are evaluated over human judgments by using existing sets of word similarity pairs that we annotated with word senses. Next, an application-oriented study is presented by integrating similarity and relatedness measures into an algorithm which relies on concept similarity. Interestingly, the results find metrics categorized as measuring relatedness to be strongest in correlation with human judgments of concept similarity, though the difference in correlation is small. On the other hand, an information content metric, categorized as measuring similarity, is notably strongest according to the application-oriented evaluation.
Stabilized tetrahedral elements for crystal plasticity finite element analysis overcoming volumetric locking

Image-based CPFE modeling involves computer generation of virtual polycrystalline microstructures from experimental data, followed by discretization into finite element meshes. Discretization is commonly accomplished using three-dimensional four-node tetrahedral or TET4 elements, which conform to the complex geometries. It has been commonly observed that TET4 elements suffer from severe volumetric locking when simulating deformation of incompressible or nearly incompressible materials. This paper develops and examines three locking-free stabilized finite element formulations in the context of crystal plasticity finite element analysis. They include a node-based uniform strain (NUS) element, a locally integrated B-bar (LIB) based element and a F-bar patch (FP) based element. All three formulations are based on the partitioning of TET4 element meshes and integrating over patches to obtain favorable incompressibility constraint ratios without adding large degrees of freedom. The results show that NUS formulation introduces unstable spurious energy modes, while the LIB and FP elements stabilize the solutions and are preferred for reliable CPFE analysis. The FP element is found to be computationally efficient over the LIB element.
Productivity and Resilience: Long-Term Trends and Storm-Driven Fluctuations in the Plant Community of the Accreting Wax Lake Delta

River deltas are dynamic geologic features where the plant community engages in critical feedbacks with geomorphology, and plant community development is impacted by both riverine and coastal drivers. A vegetation index (NDVI) calculated from a time series of 54 peak growing season Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ images was used to assess the long-term trends and storm event-driven changes in the vegetation community associated with the Wax Lake Delta, an actively accreting subdelta of the Mississippi River. Multiple regression models were developed to explain variation in the vegetated area of the delta and mean delta NDVI from 1984 to 2011 as a function of date, hydrology, and seasonality. The models indicate that both vegetated area and mean NDVI increased over time from 1984 to 2011. Productivity measures following Hurricanes Lili (2002), Rita (2005), and Ike (2008) represented statistical outliers; significant decreases in NDVI following these storms suggest that hurricanes passing directly over or to the west of the delta result in short-term disturbance to the plant community, most likely related to saltwater intrusion associated with storm surge. However, in each case, both vegetated area and mean NDVI recovered to the long-term trend by the following growing season. These results demonstrate that the freshwater marshes within this mineral-rich, accreting delta are increasing in productivity as the delta matures and are extremely resilient to coastal storm disturbance.
Serum polysaccharide and fever in thrombocytopenic bleeding of leukemia.

Evidence indicates that bleeding is associated with fever in critically thrombocytopenic leukemic children. It appears that fever, generally the result of secondary infection, is associated with elevations of protein-bound serum polysaccharide. Polysaccharide and platelets are quantitatively independent but both excess polysaccharide and critical deficiency of platelets have direct relationships to the hemorrhagic diathesis in leukemic children. Implications are discussed.
On the evolution of word usage of classical Chinese poetry.

The hierarchy of classical Chinese poetry has been broadly acknowledged by a number of studies in Chinese literature. However, quantitative investigations about the evolutionary linkages of classical Chinese poetry are limited. The primary goal of this study is to provide quantitative evidence of the evolutionary linkages, with emphasis on character usage, among different period genres of classical Chinese poetry. Specifically, various statistical analyses are performed to find and compare the patterns of character usage in the poems of nine period genres, including shi jing, chu ci, Han shi , Jin shi, Tang shi, Song shi, Yuan shi, Ming shi, and Qing shi. The result of analysis indicates that each of nine period genres has unique patterns of character usage, with some Chinese characters that are preferably used in the poems of a particular period genre. The analysis on the general pattern of character preference implies a decreasing trend in the use of Chinese characters that rarely occur in modern Chinese literature along the timeline of dynastic types of classical Chinese poetry. The phylogenetic analysis based on the distance matrix suggests that the evolutionary linkages of different types of classical Chinese poetry are congruent with their chronological order, suggesting that character frequencies contain phylogenetic information that is useful for inferring evolutionary linkages among various types of classical Chinese poetry. The estimated phylogenetic tree identifies four groups (shi jing, chu ci), (Han shi, Jin shi), (Tang shi, Song shi, Yuan shi), and (Ming shi, Qing shi). The statistical analyses conducted in this study can be generalized to analyze the data sets of general Chinese literature. Such analyses can provide quantitative insights about the evolutionary linkages of general Chinese literature.
Oral food challenges in routine clinical practice : review article

The oral food challenge (OFC) is a vital tool in the accurate diagnosis of food allergy. While the OFC does come with the risk of a serious reaction, it is a much more specific test than other available allergy tests. When the OFC is carefully prepared and conducted under close physician supervision by an allergist/immunologist, the benefits of the test do outweigh the potential risks, as the result often leads to the elimination of unnecessary dietary restrictions and improved quality of life for our patients.
Advanced 3DIC Die Stacking for Memory and Mobile Applications

This paper presents the developmental progress and status for the assembly of multi-die, stacked 3D IC packages. Die stacking with TSV technology represents a critical path for future memory and mobile devices. The assembly of these complex stacks involves the extension of existing methods combined with the development of advanced backside wafer finishing. Assembly options including memory to logic, 2+memory to logic, and 2+memory configurations will be reviewed, including perspective assembly methodologies. Alternative assembly methodologies including die to die, die to substrate and die to wafer will be reviewed.
Correlation of Doxorubicin Delivery and Tumor Necrosis after Drug-eluting Bead Transarterial Chemoembolization of Rabbit VX2 Liver Tumors

Purpose To quantify the correlation between doxorubicin (DOX) delivery and tumor necrosis after drug-eluting bead (DEB) transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Materials and Methods In this animal care committee-approved study, New Zealand white rabbit VX2 liver tumors were treated transarterially with DOX-loaded 70-150-μm DEBs in five treatment groups with varying drug doses: sham (saline), 0 mg, 12.5 mg, 25 mg, and 37.5 mg. DEB TACE was followed by 3- and 7-day sacrifice, tumor harvest, and sectioning. Drug delivery was assessed by using fluorescence imaging, and tumor necrosis was quantified by means of histologic analysis. Statistical correlation of DOX delivery and tumor necrosis was performed by using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (ρ). Results Thirty-six VX2 tumors (median diameter, 1.3 cm) in 20 rabbits (median weight, 2.8 kg) underwent successful DEB TACE. Treatment groups included eight, seven, eight, five, and eight tumors of similar size (P > .05). Tumors showed progressively greater DOX extent (sham, 0%; 0 mg, 0%; 12.5 mg, 3%; 25 mg, 20%; and 37.5 mg, 27%) and intensity (sham, 0.4; 0 mg, 1.9; 12.5 mg, 8.5; 25 mg, 9.6; and 37.5 mg, 18.3) and higher median percentage necrosis (sham, 68%; 0 mg, 64%; 12.5 mg, 76%; 25 mg, 78%; and 37.5 mg, 83%) across DOX treatment groups. Correlation of DOX extent (ρ = 0.975, P = .005) and intensity (ρ = 0.900, P = .037) with percentage tumor necrosis was statistically significant. Conclusion Incremental increases in DOX correlate with greater necrosis in rabbit VX2 liver tumors after DEB TACE. This result indicates an essential role for chemotherapy-induced cytotoxicity in TACE effectiveness and supports the use of chemotherapeutic drugs in transarterial therapy. (©) RSNA, 2016 Online supplemental material is available for this article.
Influence of Existing or Newly Constructed Pile on Flexible Circular Footing Settlement

Due to the space constraint, sometimes new construction activities have to invade into the footprints of existing structures. An example is that the planned piles to support new superstructures are in conflict with the footprints of existing bridge abutment footings, or vice versa. As a result, the footings have to be re-evaluated for their settlement to consider the influence of piles. As a dilemma, there is no method taking the influence into account. In this study, a numerical approach was adopted to investigate the influence of the new pile on the settlement of the existing footing (Application 1) and also the influence of the existing piles on the settlement of newly constructed footing (Application 2). FLAC was employed in this study. The pile and footing were simulated as elastic material with appropriate properties. Subgrade soil was modeled as elastic material. Firstly, the simulation was carried out for a pile and a footing separately and the results were compared with theoretical solutions serving as model calibration. Then the simulation was carried out to exam the influence for both applications. For each application, various conditions were investigated including different footing load, footing size and pile load. The results were compared and discussed. INTRODUCTION Due to space constraints or right-of-way issues, the construction related to new structures adjacent to existing structures, or upgrades and rehabilitation of existing structures often has to invade into the footprint of existing foundations. Hence, the design has to account for the influence between the new and existing foundations. However, there is no existing method to consider such influence. In this study, a numerical approach was adopted to investigate the influence between the new and existing foundations in terms of settlement increase. Two most commonly encountered applications were considered herein, namely: 1). Pile foundation is about to construct within an existing flexible circular footing, such as widening of existing bridges (called Application 1 in this paper); and 2). New flexible circular footing has to be built around an existing pile, such as footing to support retaining walls in conflict with the footprints of existing bridge 382 Geo-Frontiers 2011 © ASCE 2011
Contributions of a disulfide bond and a reduced cysteine side chain to the intrinsic activity of the high-density lipoprotein receptor SR-BI.

The high-density lipoprotein (HDL) receptor scavenger receptor class B, type I (SR-BI), binds HDL and mediates selective cholesteryl ester uptake. SR-BI’s structure and mechanism are poorly understood. We used mass spectrometry to assign the two disulfide bonds in SR-BI that connect cysteines within the conserved Cys321-Pro322-Cys323 (CPC) motif and connect Cys280 to Cys334. We used site-specific mutagenesis to evaluate the contributions of the CPC motif and the side chain of extracellular Cys384 to HDL binding and lipid uptake. The effects of CPC mutations on activity were context-dependent. Full wild-type (WT) activity required Pro322 and Cys323 only when Cys321 was present. Reduced intrinsic activities were observed for CXC and CPX, but not XXC, XPX, or XXX mutants (X ≠ WT residue). Apparently, a free thiol side chain at position 321 that cannot form an intra-CPC disulfide bond with Cys323 is deleterious, perhaps because of aberrant disulfide bond formation. Pro322 may stabilize an otherwise strained C...
Comparison of the Energetics of Histone Peptide Binding among Histone Readers

To better understand the mechanism of histone peptide recognition, here we probed the energetic contributions to recognize the same histone H3 peptide by three different plant homeodomain (PHD) H3K4me0 readers: hKDM5B-PHD1 (first PHD finger of hKDM5B), hBAZ2A-PHD, and hAIRE-PHD1. The energetic contributions of residues differ significantly from one complex to the next. For example, H3K4A substitution completely aborts formation of the hAIRE-histone peptide complex, while it has a small destabilizing effect on binding of the other readers, even though H3K4 methylation disrupts all three complexes. Packing density suggests that methylation of more tightly packed Lys residues can disrupt binding, even if the energetic contribution is small. The binding behavior of hKDM5B-PHD1 and hBAZ2A-PHD is similar, and both possess a pair of Asp residues in the Zn knuckle for interaction with H3R2. These Asp residues make significant energetic contributions to the formation of the hKDM5B- and hBAZ2A-histone peptide complexes, suggesting that there are interactions in addition to those reported in the recent NMR structure, and the hKDM5B-PHD1 Zn knuckle is thus remodeled to account for the observed peptide interaction energetics. However, the presence of the Zn knuckle Asp in sequences of other PHD family members may not always be sufficient for histone peptide binding. This study highlights reader-histone peptide interactions in the context of energetic contributions, interfacial packing, and sequence-based reader subtype predictability.
Mirror mirror on the wall, which query's fairest of them all?

Scientists heavily use database technologies to store and analyze massive amounts of experimental data. However these tasks require (sometimes, advanced) knowledge of a query language, which is not necessarily amongst the normal skills of a scientist. Database experts may help in the initial construction of such queries, which are then stored in a repository. Afterwards, instead of writing queries from scratch, stored queries can be re-used with few or no changes by people in the same or a dierent research group. However, as much as this is a desired reality, we are actually stepping into dreamland. Searching a pool of database queries for those that t in a certain analysis is not easy even for experienced database users. One solution could be to provide a description for each query and then, use a keyword search technique to identify queries of interest. But doing this manually is time consuming, and its success relies on the uniformity of the descriptions provided {which is extremely hard when many query writers are involved in this eort as typically happens. In this paper, we envision a system that can understand the problems past queries solve, the computations they involve and their signicance, and can help the user compose the queries required for the task at hand using this knowledge from past queries.
Telepathology and Digital Pathology Research

Telepathology, the practice of pathology at a distance, is a service component of digital pathology. The design and development of telepathology imaging systems has been a multi-disciplinary enterprise, involving software and hardware engineers, optical scientists, computer scientists, and others. Clinical translational research has had a role in evaluating each new wave of innovations in telepathology device design, testing, clinical trials and service implementations. Telepathology innovators have been disadvantaged by the very nature of their goal, that is, to create a means for pathologists to carry out their ordinary surgical pathology and cytopathology diagnostic service duties at a distance, equaling or surpassing the diagnostic performance and efficiency that they ordinarily achieve using conventional light microscopy. Unlike other novel medical imaging modalities, such as CT or MRI scans in diagnostic radiology, which offer the visualization of structures not seen with traditional x-ray radiography, the best that telepathologists can hope to do is equal the performance of a medical imaging technology, light microscopy, that is already a “gold standard” for medical diagnoses. This is challenging, especially when a robotic component is imposed between a digital imaging device in one location and the pathologist system operator in another. Nevertheless, many technical problems have been overcome and telepathology is beginning to enter the mainstream of pathology laboratory practice.
Statistical Characterization of Cable Electrical Failure Temperatures Due to Fire for Nuclear Power Plant Risk Applications

Single-value failure temperatures for fire loss of electrical cable functionality have been the norm for Fire Probabilistic Risk Assessments since the publication in 2005 of NUREG/CR-6850. If the calculated exposure temperature matches or exceeds the cable failure temperature, electrical failure is always assumed; if not, no failure is assumed. While this can be relaxed somewhat if a distribution for the exposure temperature is estimated, use of a distribution on the cable failure temperature itself more readily enables such relaxation and, therefore, a more realistic assessment. This paper develops probability distributions for different generic cable types (based on insulation) using data from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission tests. Results indicate mean failure temperatures considerably higher than those used deterministically, 252°C, 421°C and 383°C, respectively for thermoplastic, thermoset and Kerite-FR®. This suggests considerable relaxation from the conservatism inherent using the deterministic failure temperatures could be achieved. The paper then postulates two hypothetical distributions on the exposure temperature from applying a fire phenomenological model in a statistical way to estimate the possible relaxation using the distributed cable failure temperatures to enhance the realism of the assessment. Examples show that use of probabilistically-distributed cable failure temperatures (in conjunction with similar for exposure temperatures) can reduce the probability of electrical failure for a normally-distributed exposure temperature with a mean of 350°C and standard deviation of 58.3°C by factors of approximately three and eight for Kerite-FR® and thermoset cables, respectively. The reduction would be less pronounced for thermoplastic cables, although larger reductions would be possible here as well for lower exposure temperatures (e.g., a factor of two).