cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Data level comparison of surface classification and gradient filters

Surface classification and shading of three dimensional scalar data sets are important enhancements for direct volume rendering (DVR). However, unlike conventional surface rendering, DVR algorithms do not have explicit geometry to shade, making it difficult to perform comparisons. Furthermore, DVR, in general, involves a complex set of parameters whose effects on a rendered image are hard to compare. Previous work uses analytical estimations of the quality of interpolation, gradient filters, and classification. Typical comparisons are done using side-by-side examination of rendered images. However, non-linear processes are involved in the rendering pipeline and thus the comparison becomes particularly difficult. In this paper, we present a data level methodology for analyzing volume surface classification and gradient filters. Users can more effectively estimate algorithmic differences by using intermediate information. Based on this methodology, we also present new data level metrics and examples of analyzing differences in surface classification and gradient calculation. Please refer to www.cse.ucsc.edu/research/avis/dvr.html for a full color version of this paper.
The cold wake of typhoon Chaba (2010)

Abstract The cold wake of typhoon Chaba (2010) is investigated using an array of temperature sensors connected from the surface to 540 m along the mooring line of an air-sea interaction buoy. Initially, surface forcing caused upper ocean water to entrain across the base of the thermocline, producing a mixed layer cooling and subthermocline warming between 42 and 100 m. However, this warm layer lasted just 12 h before it became overwhelmed by an upwelling of cold water. Observations indicate this upwelling occurred to at least 540 m while further analysis suggests that the actual depth of the ocean response to Chaba was closer to 700 m. This caused a massive reduction in heat content at the mooring site. The sea surface temperature decreased 2.5 °C. Due to the lateness of the season, the ocean didn’t recover to its pre-typhoon state, however, after sixteen days it did match the temperature outside the wake. These observations reveal intricate processes in a cold wake that redistribute heat between the mixed layer, the subthermocline region, and greater depths. This has implications for tropical storm intensity—by altering enthalpy fluxes, and climate—through the lateral and vertical movement of water which modifies the local temperature profile and impacts the transportation of heat to high latitudes.
Pulmonary Fibrosis among World Trade Center Responders: Results from the WTC Health Registry Cohort.

Dust created by the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on 9/11 included metals and toxicants that have been linked to an increased risk of pulmonary fibrosis (PF) in the literature. Little has been reported on PF among WTC responders. This report used self-reported physician diagnosis of PF with an unknown sub-type to explore the association between levels of WTC dust exposure and PF. We included 19,300 WTC responders, enrolled in the WTC Health Registry in 2003–2004, who were followed for 11 years from 2004 to 2015. Exposure was defined primarily by intensity and duration of exposure to WTC dust/debris and work on the debris pile. Stratified Cox regression was used to assess the association. We observed 73 self-reported physician-diagnosed PF cases, with a PF incidence rate of 36.7/100,000 person-years. The adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) of PF was higher in those with a medium (AHR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.1–5.8) and very high level of exposure (AHR = 4.5, 95% CI = 2.0–10.4), compared to those with low exposure. A test for exposure—response trend was statistically significant (Ptrend = 0.004). Future research on WTC dust exposure and PF would benefit from using data from multiple WTC Health Program responder cohorts for increased statistical power and clinically confirmed cases.
Clinico-radiologic features of pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis in children

Pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (PPFE) may be underdiagnosed clinically and radiographically in children with a remote history of cancer, leading to a delay in care and unnecessary lung biopsies. To describe the characteristic clinical and radiologic findings of PPFE in a cohort of children to facilitate recognition and noninvasive diagnosis. Clinical presentation, history of chemotherapy or radiation therapy, lung or bone marrow transplantation, and lung function testing and outcome were retrospectively extracted from the electronic medical records of eight children treated at our institution’s pulmonary medicine clinic with histopathology confirmation of PPFE from 2008 to 2018. Two pediatric radiologists evaluated the chest imaging studies for the presence or absence of published radiologic findings of PPFE in adults, including platythorax, pneumothorax, upper lobe predominant pleural and septal thickening, and bronchiectasis. Platythorax indices were calculated from the normal chest CT exams of eight age- and gender-matched individuals obtained via the radiology search engine. The mean presentation age was 12.9 years (range: 7–16 years). Seven of the eight had a history of chemotherapy and radiation therapy for cancer. Three of the eight had undergone bone marrow transplantation and none had undergone lung transplantation. The mean time between chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or bone marrow transplantation and the presentation of PPFE was 8.4 years (range: 5.6–12.1 years). Most of the patients presented with dyspnea (63%), cough (50%) and/or pneumothorax (38%). The mean percentage of predicted FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second) was 14.1 (range: 7.7–27.5). All eight patients demonstrated platythorax, bronchiectasis, pleural and septal thickening (upper lobes in four, upper and lower lobes in four) and six had pneumothorax. Five underwent lung biopsies, four of whom developed pneumothoraces. Clinical and radiologic findings of pediatric PPFE are similar to those in adults, although a majority of the former have a history of treated cancer. Clinical presentation of restrictive lung disease, dyspnea, cough or spontaneous pneumothorax years after treatment for childhood cancer combined with platythorax, upper lobe pleural and septal thickening and traction bronchiectasis on chest CT establishes a presumptive diagnosis of PPFE.
Characterizing microscale deformation mechanisms and macroscopic tensile properties of a high strength magnesium rare-earth alloy: A combined experimental and crystal plasticity approach

Abstract The effect of aging on the accumulation of microscale plasticity, and the resulting macroscopic mechanical behavior, were examined in the magnesium alloy WE43 under uniaxial tension. Full-field strains on the length scale of the microstructure, and their relation to the underlying crystallography, were captured using a combination of electron backscatter diffraction, custom nanoparticle patterning processes for corrosion-susceptible alloys, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), in-SEM uniaxial tensile and compressive loading, and distortion-corrected digital image correlation. The as-received material exhibited an average grain size of 12 µm. The strain incurred on individual slip traces in magnesium was resolved for the first time. Insights into slip activation across the microstructure revealed that using Schmid's Law with the nominal Schmid Factor appeared to be predictive for basal and non-basal slip. The DIC results were compared with simulation using an advanced open-source crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) code, PRISMS-Plasticity. The PRISMS-Plasticity model is a more precise determination of the local Schmid Factor and was used to simulate variations in slip and twin activity within each grain. Such simulations provide an avenue for physically interpreting the various slip traces observed in the dense DIC data and an improved understanding of the critical resolved shear stress of the various slip systems.
Galactic gamma-ray emission from pulsars

Using data from the most recent pulsar surveys, the contribution of pulsars to the gamma-ray flux from the galactic plane is examined. The assumption is made that pulsar gamma rays are produced by curvature radiation from relativistic particles above the polar cap and attenuated by pair production in the strong magnetic and electric fields. If the assumption is made that all pulsars produce gamma rays in this way, their luminosities can be predicted as a function of period and magnetic field strength. The distribution of pulsars in the Galaxy is determined using data on 328 pulsars detected in three surveys. The Z and R distributions are found to be very sensitive to the mean electron density in the galactic plane, as are the total number and birthrate of pulsars in the Galaxy. Longitude profile of pulsar gamma-ray flux are calculated for different values of the mean electron density.
Focus on Faculty: A Missing Link in Community–University Partnerships

Inherent in the call for this special issue is the idea that Community–University Partnerships (CUPs) matter. In the phrase “community–university partnership,” it is just two entities who are foref...
Three-dimensional Structure Simulation of Strong Oil Air-cooled Transformer and Finite Element Analysis of Internal Temperature Fluid Field

Power transformers are the main components of power transmission networks. The operating parameters of transformers are essential for the safe and stable operation of the power grid. In this paper, 220 kV oil-immersed air-cooled transformers are taken as the research objective, and three-dimensional simulation of transformer is carried out under different heat dissipation modes. Then, the qualitative analysis of the temperature rise of the transformer winding, the internal fluid field and the temperature field distribution of the transformer is emphatically calculated, which proves that the calculation method mentioned in this paper is of great correctness.
Electron-Nanobunch-Width-Dominated Spectral Power Law for Relativistic Harmonic Generation from Ultrathin Foils

Relativistic high-order harmonic generation from solid-density plasma offers a compact source of coherent ultraviolet and x-ray light. For solid targets much thinner than the laser wavelength, the plasma thickness can be tuned to increase conversion efficiency; a reduction in total charge allows for balancing the laser and plasma driving forces, producing the most effective interaction. Unlike for semi-infinite plasma surfaces, we find that for ultrathin foil targets the dominant factor in the emission spectral shape is the finite width of the electron nanobunches, leading to a power-law exponent of approximately $10/3$. Ultrathin foils produce higher-efficiency frequency conversion than solid targets for moderately relativistic ($1l{a}_{0}l40$) interactions and also provide unique insight into how the trajectories of individual electrons combine and interfere to generate reflected attosecond pulses.
Comprehensive n- and pMOSFET Channel Material Benchmarking and Analysis of CMOS Performance Metrics Considering Quantum Transport and Carrier Scattering Effects

Comprehensive channel material benchmarking for n- and pMOS are performed considering effects of quantum transport and carrier scattering. Various channel material options (Si, InAs, In0.7Ga0.3As, In0.53Ga0.47As, GaAs, and Ge for nMOS, Si and Ge for pMOS) are covered using hybrid simulation of quantum ballistic transport and semi-classical Monte Carlo. Current-voltage characteristics and performance metrics such as the capacitance and effective drive current ( $I_{eff}$ ) are explored considering device parasitic components. For low power operation, III-V nMOS may deliver good performance while Ge n- and pMOS with different source/drain tip designs may give performance advantage over Si from low power to high performance operations. CMOS benchmarking results for $I_{eff}$ , capacitance, and switching energy vs. delay (for gate capacitance loading vs. interconnect wire capacitance loading) are also presented for various homogeneous and hybrid combinations of n- and pMOS (Si CMOS, III-V hybrid CMOS, Ge hybrid CMOS, and Ge CMOS). Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed for $I_{eff}$ on the parasitic resistance ( $R_{SD}$ ) and contact resistivity ( ${\boldsymbol{\rho }} _{c}$ ). Novel channel materials may relax the $R_{SD}$ and ${\boldsymbol{\rho }} _{c}$ requirements to match the $I_{eff}$ performance of Si reference. Comprehensive literature reviews of experimental ${\boldsymbol{\rho }} _{c}$ ’s of novel materials are also presented to discuss the effect of material-dependent $R_{SD}$ .
"I Didn't Feel Confident Talking about This Issue . . . But I Knew I Could Talk about a Book": Using Young Adult Literature to Make Sense of #MeToo.

This article reports on one undergraduate student’s journey toward critical literacy about rape culture as a result of reading and discussing a young adult novel in a book study with peers. Using e...
Stability of Rankin–Selberg gamma factors for Sp(2n),Sp̃(2n) and U(n,n)

Let F be a p-adic field and E/F be a quadratic extension. In this paper, we prove a stability result on partial Bessel functions associated with Howe vectors for generic representations of reductiv...
Performance evaluation for energy efficiency attainment in buildings based on orientation, temperature, and humidity parameters

Energy consumption in buildings and infrastructure has increased many folds suggesting a need to shift towards energy efficiency and conservation as well as operation of buildings through sustainab...
Improvement of interfacial adhesion of unidirectional textile grade carbon fiber (TCF) with unsized, epoxy and urethane sizing reinforced in thermoset urethane composites

Abstract This work considers a unique wide tow (450k filaments) form of low-cost carbon fiber intended for non-aerospace applications. TCF is currently produced in epoxy and urethane sizing, and there is a need to understand its resulting composite properties. In this study, the interfacial adhesion of sized TCF reinforced in thermoset urethane (TSU) composites are examined through the surface, thermal and mechanical characterization techniques. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) results showed an increase in surface roughness for urethane (276%) and epoxy sized (78%) versus unsized TCF. XPS results showed 531% increase in O in epoxy sized TCF and 250% N content in urethane sized TCF compared to unsized TCF. The surface energy of epoxy and urethane sized TCF is enhanced by 78% and 96%, respectively compared to unsized TCF. The storage modulus showed improvement for urethane (23%) and epoxy (21%) sized than unsized TCF-TSU composites. The flexural, interlaminar shear strength (ILSS), and impact properties of urethane sized TCF increase by 24%, 50%, and 273%, respectively, than unsized TCF. The results demonstrate that the surface and thermal properties correlate with the mechanical properties of TCF-TSU composites and sizing enhances the wettability of the composites.
Enhanced recovery in liver transplantation: A value-based approach to complex surgical care

Abstract Background Value-based healthcare focuses on improving outcomes relative to cost. We aimed to study the impact of an enhanced recovery pathway for liver transplant recipients on providing value. Methods In total, 379 liver recipients were identified: pre–enhanced recovery pathway (2017, n = 57) and post–enhanced recovery pathway (2018–2020, n = 322). The enhanced recovery pathway bundle was defined through multidisciplinary efforts and included optimal fluid management, end-of-case extubation, multimodal analgesia, and a standardized care pathway. Pre– and post–enhanced recovery pathway patients were compared with regard to extubation rates, lengths of stay, complications, readmissions, survival, and costs. Results Pre– and post–enhanced recovery pathway recipient model for end-stage liver disease score and balance of risk scores were similar, although post–enhanced recovery pathway recipients had a higher median donor risk index (1.55 vs 1.39, P = .003). End-of-case extubation rates were 78% post–enhanced recovery pathway (including 91% in 2020) versus 5% pre–enhanced recovery pathway, with post–enhanced recovery pathway patients having decreased median intraoperative transfusion requirements (1,500 vs 3,000 mL, P Conclusion Implementation of an enhanced recovery pathway in liver transplantation is feasible, safe, and effective in delivering value, even in the setting of complex surgical care.
Effect of exclusion of bile from the intestine on gastric acid secretion.

Summary Decreased acid secretion from Heidenhain pouches in response to food was found in cholecystectomized dogs with bile excluded from the intestine by cannulation of the common bile duct through a duodenal fistula when the animals were fed 3 hr after the onset of bile exclusion. The secretory response with exclusion of bile for 1 hr before feeding was not different from that without exclusion of bile. Secretin inhibited gastric secretion stimulated by a meal to the same degree when bile was excluded from the intestine as when it was not. These studies show that the presence of bile in the intestine is a factor which contributes to the regulation of gastric secretion and that inhibition of gastric secretion by secretin is unaltered by removal of this factor.
Liability of Newness

The concept of liability of newness in a start-up and early stage venture context is reviewed. Key sources of this liability are identified. Approaches to addressing or mitigating the liability of newness are explored. Keywords: job roles; liability of adolescence; liability of innovation; newness; social relations; structural inertia; survival
The Stimulus Effects of Employment Programs for Minnesota's Disabled Citizens: A Case Study of Merrick, Inc.

Keywords: human services; disabled adults; social dividends; economic benefit State budget negotiations around the country have focused on cuts to human services programs for people with disabilities. These include Long-Term Care (LTC) programs for disabled adults. Using an LTC day program in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota as a case study, this article provides an alternative perspective. It describes the social dividends of employment in LTC programs. These extend well beyond the services provided to clients. Other dividends include wages to program staff; avoided costs of residential supervision; taxes paid by clients and staff; state revenue from charitable gambling and grants supplementing state taxpayer dollars. Companies that employ people with disabilities through contracts with such programs do so because it makes good business sense. In sum, public investments in day service programs for people with developmental disabilities at this facility produce nearly $3.00 of economic benefit for every $1.00 spent. Apart from humanitarian concerns, government cuts to such programs are penny-wise and dollar-foolish.
Scanning electron microscopy of chick epiblast expansion on the vitelline membrane: Cell-substrate interactions

Abstract Cell-substrate interactions have been studied by examining migrating edge cells of the expanding chick extraembryonic epiblast on their normal substrate and in culture. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the outer face of the vitelline membrane is a random meshwork of fibrils (80 nm diam). The inner face, which is the normal substrate of epiblast expansion, is composed of a random branched system of fibers (400 nm diam) overlain by a network of fibrils (40 nm diam). The epiblast edge in situ has radially oriented filopodia (20 μm long, 200 nm diam.), frequently extending from broad lamellipodia. Blastoderms cultured on the inner face of unincubated vitelline membrane expand at a normal rate but display ruffles as well as filopodia and lamellipodia. When the blastoderm is cultured on the outer membrane face there is no expansion, but cells leave the edge and migrate across the membrane. In these cultures, ruffles are observed on the ventral epiblast face. Absence of the mass of yolk in culture appears to permit or provoke the observed ruffling. Comparison of dissociated epiblast edge cells and skin epithelial cells, cultured on glass and on the vitelline membrane inner face, indicates that epiblast cells remain flattened and display characteristic filopodia on both substrates, whereas skin cells display ruffles on the vitelline membrane but are flattened on glass. The mode of migration of epiblast edge cells seems to be more dependent on intrinsic factors than that of skin cells.
Physical Studies of the Drug-Resistance Transfer Factor in Proteus

The transfer unit, RTF, derived from an R factor has been transferred to Proteus mirabilis and characterized physiochemically.
Fermions and gravitational gyrotropy

In conventional general relativity without torsion, high-frequency gravitational waves couple to the chiral number density of spin one-half quanta: the polarization of the waves is rotated by $2\ensuremath{\pi}{N}_{5}{\ensuremath{\ell}}_{\mathrm{Pl}}^{2}$, where ${N}_{5}$ is the chiral column density and ${\ensuremath{\ell}}_{\mathrm{Pl}}$ is the Planck length. This means that if a primordial distribution of gravitational waves with E-E or B-B correlations passed through a chiral density of fermions in the very early Universe, an E-B correlation will be generated. This in turn will give rise to E-B and T-B correlations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Less obviously but more primitively, the condition Albrecht called ``cosmic coherence'' would be violated, changing the restrictions on the class of admissible cosmological gravitational waves. This altered class of waves would, generally speaking, probe earlier physics than do the conventional waves; their effects on the CMB would be most pronounced for low ($\ensuremath{\lesssim}100$) multipoles. Rough estimates indicate that if the tensor-to-scalar ratio is less than about ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$, it will be hard to constrain a spatially homogeneous primordial ${N}_{5}$ by present data.
A Magnificent Distraction? The Drag Cult for Nazi-Era Film Diva Zarah Leander

The article analyses the subtle understanding of the phenomenon of distraction by focusing on the drag cult's Zarah Leander, the Nazi cinema's leading and best-paid diva. It examines the reasons for the attraction that lures so many gay male Germans to Zarah Leander's cult.
Catalysis at Bimetallic Electrochemical Interfaces

The need to understand the key structure/composition relationships governing the electrocatalytic behavior of metal surfaces continues to motivate fundamental studies of surface processes at the solid-liquid interfaces. Although the field is still in its infancy, a great deal is already known and trends are beginning to emerge that give new insight into the true relationship between the surface structure/composition and electrocatalytic activity. In this chapter, we will describe how by systematic variation of surface crystallography and/or surface composition of bimetallic surfaces, very important electrocatalytic trends are delineated. Structure/composition-function relationships are established by utilizing in situ surface-sensitive probes and vibrational spectroscopy, which in combination with ex situ ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) techniques and classical electrochemical methods, provide a link between the macroscopic kinetic rate of the reaction and the microscopic properties at the electrified metal-solution interface. The preponderance of electrocatalytic reactions discussed in this chapter are those related to the development of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell technology, viz. the oxygen reduction reaction, hydrogen reaction, and oxidation of COb. We demonstrate that the ability to make a controlled and well-characterized arrangement of atoms on the surface and/or the near-surface region, heralds a new era of advances in our knowledge of electrochemical reactions.
rpartOrdinal: An R Package for Deriving a Classification Tree for Predicting an Ordinal Response

This paper describes an R package, rpartOrdinal, that implements alternative splitting functions for fitting a classification tree when interest lies in predicting an ordinal response. This includes the generalized Gini impurity function, which was introduced as a method for predicting an ordinal response by including costs of misclassification into the impurity function, as well as an alternative ordinal impurity function due to Piccarreta (2008) that does not require the assignment of misclassification costs. The ordered twoing splitting method, which is not defined as a decrease in node impurity, is also included in the package. Since, in the ordinal response setting, misclassifying observations to adjacent categories is a less egregious error than misclassifying observations to distant categories, this package also includes a function for estimating an ordinal measure of association, the gamma statistic.
Far???ultraviolet reflectance properties of the Moon's permanently shadowed regions

[1] Although of great interest for science and resource utilization, the Moon's permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) near each pole present difficult targets for remote sensing. The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission is able to map PSRs at far-ultraviolet (FUV) wavelengths using two faint sources of illumination from the night sky: the all-sky Ly α glow produced as interplanetary medium (IPM) H atoms scatter the Sun's Ly α emissions, and the much fainter source from UV-bright stars. The reflected light from these two sources produces only a few hundred events per second in the photon-counting LAMP instrument, so building maps with useful signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios requires the careful accumulation of the observations from thousands of individual LRO orbits. In this paper we present the first FUV albedo maps obtained by LAMP of the Moon's southern and northern polar regions. The results show that (1) most PSR regions are darker at all FUV wavelengths, consistent with their surface soils having much larger porosities than non-PSR regions (e.g., ∼70% compared to ∼40% or so), and (2) most PSRs are somewhat “redder” (i.e., more reflective at the longer FUV wavelengths) than non-PSR regions, consistent with the presence of ∼1–2% water frost at the surface.
Matrix Metalloproteinases: A Review

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of nine or more highly homologous Zn(++)-endopeptidases that collectively cleave most if not all of the constituents of the extracellular matrix. The present review discusses in detail the primary structures and the overlapping yet distinct substrate specificities of MMPs as well as the mode of activation of the unique MMP precursors. The regulation of MMP activity at the transcriptional level and at the extracellular level (precursor activation, inhibition of activated, mature enzymes) is also discussed. A final segment of the review details the current knowledge of the involvement of MMP in specific developmental or pathological conditions, including human periodontal diseases.
Perturbed metabolism and hormonal profiles in calves infected with Sarcocystis cruzi

Plasma concentrations of growth hormone (GH), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), insulin (IN), thyroxine (T4), and triiodothyronine (T3) in addition to metabolic parameters [N balance (NB), urinary 3-methylhistidine (TMH), urinary creatinine (CR), and urinary hydroxyproline (HP)] were measured in 4-mo-old Holstein steers divided equally among groups infected with Sarcocystis (I), noninfected ad libitum fed (C), and noninfected pair fed to I (PF) (7 steers per treatment). Effects of infection on these parameters beyond those attributable to altered dietary intake were determined using orthogonal contrasts (effect of intake, C vs I + PF; effect of infection, PF vs I). NB was higher in C than I and PF (P<.05) and lower in I than PF (P<.02). Hydroxyproline and CR were influenced by intake (P<.05) and HP excretion was reduced in association with infection (P<.05). Reduced intake was associated with lowered mean basal plasma concentrations of GH, IN, T3 and T4 (P<.05). Infection further reduced (P<.001) plasma T3 concentration. Triiodothyronine and T4 responses following an intravenous bolus of thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) were measured. The magnitude of the responses in I and PF were lower than those observed in C (P<.05). Plasma T3 responses were further reduced in association with infection (P<.05). Insulin responses to intravenous arginine infusion (ARG) were also low in association with reduced intake. Growth hormone responses to TRH or ARG were affected by the level of feed intake only. These data suggest that hormonal perturbations associated with the insult of infection further compromise metabolism and the direction of nutrient partitioning that would ordinarily be associated with developmental growth in young steers beyond those responses anticipated from solely the reduction of feed intake.
Derivation of Recommended Values: An Opinion*

Two principal approaches are being used currently to develop reference samples used in geochemistry. The first is typified by work at The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop standard reference materials (SRMs) whose elemental concentrations are certified. All data is collected under stringent quality control (QC). Agreement between average results for replicated analyses (6≤n<20) obtained by two or more analysts using either a single, definitive method or independent methods of analysis is required for certification; a large number of laboratory/method average results is not. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), International Working Group (IWG), and others base recommended concentrations on larger sets of compiled data, which may or may not have been collected under similar conditions of QC. The derived recommended concentrations are updated periodically, on the assumption that recommended concentration quality improves as the size of the data base increases. That assumption is examined in this paper, and the general lack of statistically significant difference between original and updated concentration is demonstrated.
Financial Utility of Best Employee Selection Practices at Organizational Level of Performance

In 1993, Terpstra and Rozell found that organizations using effective employee- selection procedures enjoyed greater organizational performance. This study, a replication of Terpstra and Rozell's study in the financial services industry, failed to yield similar results. Human resource executives at 122 credit unions in the United States were surveyed about their organizations' selection procedures. The authors found no significant relations between the organizations' selection practices and their objective measures of financial success. Because of the limited number of studies in this area, the present study adds an important empirical counterpoint to Terpstra and Rozell's earlier findings. The authors suggest that the best practices model to enhance organizational performance may not always be accurate and suggest alternative models for future research.
Effects of dairy products on intestinal integrity in heat-stressed pigs.

Heat stress compromises intestinal integrity which may partially explain its negative effects on animal health and productivity. Research suggests that challenged intestinal barrier function improves with dietary dairy products in various models. Thus, the study objective was to evaluate the effects of bovine milk whey protein (WP) and colostral whey protein (CWP) on intestinal integrity in heat-stressed pigs. Crossbred gilts (39 ± 3 kg body weight) were fed 1 of 4 diets (n = 8 pigs/diet): control (Ct), control diet containing an 80% WP and 20% CWP product (WP80), control diet containing a 98% WP and 2% CWP product (WP98), and control diet containing a 100% WP product (WP100). After 7d on experimental diets, pigs were exposed to constant heat stress conditions (32 °C) for 24h. There were no treatment differences in growth or body temperature indices prior to heat stress. During heat exposure, both rectal temperature and respiration rate increased (+0.85 °C and 3-fold, respectively; P < 0.01), and feed int...
Acquisition of a defended resource: a benefit of group foraging for the neotropical wrasse, Thalassoma lucasanum

The neotropical Pacific wrasse, Thalassoma lucasanum, forms groups of 30 to 300 individuals that overwhelm the defense of embryos by the Pacific sergeant major, Abudefduf troschelii, and thereby gain access to a food resource from which solitary individuals are effectively excluded by paternal defense. The duration of feeding by the wrasse groups and the fraction of embryos eaten in a nest are positively correlated with group size. The benefit of group foraging is probably derived from a reduction in the frequency with which group members experience attack by defending sergeant majors, as reflected in the positive correlation of group size with feeding duration. Large foraging groups only form when sergeant major embryos are present in nests, indicating that this is a primary benefit of participation in these groups for this wrasse. In contrast, in the Caribbean large foraging groups of the congeneric bluehead wrasse, T. bifasciatum, fail to form despite the presence of defended embryos of the Caribbean sergeant major, A. saxatilis. This might be due to the relatively low population densities of the Caribbean wrasse in comparison to those of the Pacific wrasse or to the relatively low densities of Caribbean sergeant major nests containing embryos at any time.
Work in progress — Inter-disciplinary collaboration for a meaningful experience in a software development course

This paper addresses two main problems in two different domains by integrating them into one interdisciplinary project. Software engineering graduates lack the necessary skills and experience required by employers to address real-world problems. Students enrolled in organic chemistry course often struggle with the content due to its visual nature and its requirement for several learning skills (visual, logical, mechanical). To address these two seemingly non-related educational issues, the investigators in this project have devised a “business” relationship between the students in an upper-level software engineering course and the students in an organic chemistry course. The software engineering students have been “hired” to design and develop a mobile application to help tutor and teach the organic chemistry concept of “functional groups” by involving multiple avenues of learning. By enabling this business relationship we attempt to provide the software engineering students with authentic experiences involved in developing software and to provide organic chemistry students with a tool that helps them learn fundamental concepts in organic chemistry.
Parenting Self-Efficacy among Mothers of School-Age Children: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Correlates

Relationships among parenting self-efficacy, general self-efficacy, child and maternal characteristics, and parenting satisfaction in 145 mothers of school-aged children were examined. Higher parenting self-efficacy was observed in mothers of less emotional and more sociable children, and among mothers who were better educated, had higher family incomes, and reported more previous experience with children. Higher parenting self-efficacy and several mother and child variables predicted greater satisfaction with parenting. Influences of mothers' experience with children other than their own and maternal education on parenting satisfaction were mediated by parenting self-efficacy. Suggestions concerning the conceptualization and measurement of parenting self-efficacy are provided.
Soil salinity of urban turf areas irrigated with saline water: I. Spatial variability

Abstract With increasing use of saline water for irrigating urban landscapes, soil salinization is becoming a concern. This study examined spatial variation in soil salinity over the length of selected fairways at five golf courses, and of large turf areas at two public parks located in west Texas and southern New Mexico. Salinity of water used for irrigation ranged from 680 to 2700 mg L−1, and the sites consisted mostly of Aridisols (upland soils) or Entisols (alluvial soils). Soil salinity distribution at sites consisting of deep Aridisols was spatially independent with the coefficient of variability (CV) ranging from 24 to 42%. The sites consisting of shallow Aridisols over a calcic horizon had erratic and random soil salinity distributions with an average CV of 37%. Since soil salinity distributions in Aridisols and Alfisols appeared to be spatially independent within the distance of fairways, soil sampling adequacy can be determined by the conventional probability statistics. However, salinity distributions at Entisols sites were spatially dependant to a length of 100 m or more. In addition, the clayey Entisols used for public parks had high levels of salt accumulation (>10 dS m−1 in the saturation extract) with the CV exceeding 60%. When salinity readings were stratified by soil type distribution, the CV was reduced to 28% on the average. The number of samples required to obtain the mean salinity over a typical length of fairways (250–300 m) within a deviate range of 20% averaged 6 in deep sandy Aridisols and Alfisols, and 13 each in other cases, provided that sampling of Entisols is made based on soil type distributions. These sampling requirements are greater than those for field soil moisture or saturation water contents. The spacing to collect the required number of samples over the prevailing length of fairways was between 23 and 38 m. Soil sampling for salinity appraisal is most problematic in Entisols, but can be made simple if a detailed soil map is available. In Aridisols containing a calcic horizon, it is probable to have saline spots over poorly permeable caliche.
The Effect of Nonlinear Piezoelectric Coupling on Vibration-Based Energy Harvesting

Advances in electronic and consumer technology are increasing the need for smaller, more efficient energy sources. Thus vibration-based energy harvesting, the scavenging of energy from existing ambient vibration sources and its conversion to useful electrical power, is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional power sources such as batteries. Energy harvesting devices have been developed based on a number of electro-mechanical coupling mechanisms and their design must be optimized to produce the maximum output for given environmental conditions. While the role of nonlinearities in the components has been shown to be significant in terms of the overall device efficiency, few studies have systematically investigated their influence on the system performance. In this work the role of a nonlinear piezoelectric relationship is considered on the performance of a vibration-based energy harvester. Using a Poincare-Lindstedt perturbation analysis the response of the harvesting system is approximated, including mechanical damping, stiffness nonlinearities, and the above mentioned nonlinear piezoelectric constitutive relationship. The predicted behavior is then compared against numerical simulations of the original system, focusing on the relationship between the power generated by the device, the ambient vibration characteristics, and the nonlinearities in the system.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Local or Dynamical Dimensions of Nonlinear Systems Inferred from Observations

In time delay reconstruction of the phase space of a system from observed scalar data, one requires a time lag and an integer embedding dimension. The minimum embedding dimension, dE, may be larger than the actual local dimension of the underlying dynamics, dL. The embedding theorem only guarantees that the attractor of the system is unfolded in the integer dE greater than 2dA with dA being the attractor dimension. We present two methods for determining the dimension, dL≤dE, of the underlying dynamics. The first relies on the local Lyapunov exponents of the dynamics, and the second seeks an optimum dimension for prediction of the time series for steps forward and then backward in time. We demonstrate these methods on several examples. Model building of the dynamics should take place in the dL-dimensional space.
The distal region of the long arm of human chromosome 1 carries tumor suppressor activity for a human fibrosarcoma line

Loss or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes has been implicated by indirect methods in the etiology of most human cancers. In the functional studies presented here, tumor suppressors on human chromosome 1 were investigated using microcell-mediated chromosome transfer. Translocated chromosomes from normal human cells representing most of 1q, or all of 1p and a small portion of 1q translocated onto the region of the X chromosome encoding HPRT, were transferred into human fibrosarcoma cell line HT1080. Analysis of HT1080 microcell hybrids showed a tumor suppressor activity associated with 1q. All HT1080 cells carrying transferred 1q in a ratio of 1:1 with the HT1080 genome showed a more flattened morphology and a reduced ability to form tumors in nude mice compared to parental HT1080 cells. Diploid HT1080 cells carrying a single extra 1q also had a longer population doubling time and showed a loss of ability to clone in soft agar. Tumors arose from 1q-containing clones with a longer latency period, and a large majority of the cells comprising these tumors had lost the transferred chromosome. These results indicate the presence on chromosome 1q23-qter of a tumor suppressor gene or genes that can act to suppress transformation of a human fibrosarcoma cell line.
Differentiation between renal cortex and medulla in the response to hypotension using localized 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that renal medulla is more sensitive to hypoxia than is the cortex. Using the one-dimensional phase encoding technique to perform 31phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a perfused porcine kidney preparation, cortex and medulla were differentiated on the basis of the unique resonance at 3 ppm found only in medulla. Hypotension-induced hypoxia reduced total renal oxygen consumption by 60%, and urine flow by 44%. Nonlocalized 31P MRS spectra showed that [ATP]/[Pi] ratio fell by 40%, and intrarenal pH by 0.1 unit. Virtually all of these changes could be accounted for by changes in the renal cortex, where initial [ATP]/[Pi] was higher than in medulla (1.16 vs. 0.68). In medulla [ATP]/[Pi] fell only 29% (n.s. versus control) and pH remained unchanged during hypotension. Thus the cortex appears to be more sensitive to hypoxia in this preparation, and observations fail to support the proposed hypothesis. They are consistent, however, with the greater capacity of medulla for anaerobic glycolysis. Localized 31P MRS provides improved noninvasive metabolic assessment of cold-preserved kidneys.
Overlap between Traditional Periodical Indexes and Newer Mega Indexes

This article studies the overlap between the traditional periodical indexes and the newer mega indexes or databases. Some traditional general indexes have 100% overlap with the mega index from the same vendor and about 90% overlap with mega indexes from other vendors. Other traditional and more specialized subject indexes have considerable uniqueness when compared with the newer mega databases.
Multiscale simulation of irreversible deposition in presence of double layer interactions.

Sequential lattice Monte Carlo simulations, in which the transition probabilities are derived from the discrete form of the continuum-level mass conservation law, are used to predict the morphology of colloidal deposits. The simulations account for particle-surface (P-S) and particle-particle (P-P) electrostatic and van der Waals interactions. Simulation results for maximum coverage for monolayer deposition are in quantitative agreement with the hard-sphere RSA jamming limit. Moreover, as reported in earlier studies, monolayer simulations in the absence of P-S interactions qualitatively predict the monotonic increases in fractional coverage with increasing ionic strength, characterized by the Debye screening length (kappa a). Monolayer simulations with P-S interactions show that the dependence of fractional coverage on kappa a is strongly influenced by the ratio of particle to surface potentials (Psi(p)/Psi(s)). P-S and P-P forces achieve their respective maximum at different values of kappa a leading to a nonmonotonic trend in surface coverage as a function of kappa a. These results indicate that the incorporation of P-S interactions into colloidal deposition studies allows more accurate interpretation of the experimental data. In multilayer deposition simulations, balance between long-ranged weak interactions and short-ranged strong interactions between P-P and P-S, coupled with physical screening effects, resulted in widely varying coverages with height of the deposit, ionic strength, and Psi(p)/Psi(s). Moreover, fractal dimension of the deposit ranged from approximately 1 (kappa a > 1). Qualitative kinetic analysis showed widely varying deposition rates in different layers depending on Psi(p)/Psi(s) and ionic strength. The multilayer system approached the monolayer system in the limit kappa a--> infinity and Psi(p)/Psi(s)--> infinity.
The geography of vulnerability: incorporating species geography and human development patterns into conservation planning

Abstract In any country, the geography of species needing protection is central to the development of conservation strategies. In this study we mapped the distribution of restricted-range birds and butterflies not listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act in the conterminous United States, as well as measures of projected increases in human population and development. Areas with both restricted-range species and high growth rates were identified as “hot spots of vulnerability” — areas vulnerable to future species loss. These hot spots of vulnerability corresponded to many of the areas currently supporting large numbers of endangered species in the United States. Many of the restricted-range species identified, however, have existing ranges in Mexico and Central and South America. The conservation of these peripheral populations in the United States becomes even more important given that adjacent countries do not have legislation that protects endangered species. The methodology we present here could be used in other countries to identify species and areas of vulnerability before they become endangered.
In situ characterization of metal hydride thermal transport properties

Abstract Thermal property characterization of a metal hydride was conducted in a high pressure hydrogen environment with a transient plane source apparatus. This apparatus was integrated with a pressure vessel to measure the effective thermal conductivity and the thermal diffusivity of non-reactive and activated metal hydrides in hydrogen pressures up to 275 bar and 253 bar, respectively. In a non-reactive oxidized condition, the effective thermal conductivity of Ti 1.1 CrMn powder increased with hydrogen pressure from 0.8 to 1.6 W/m·K. For activated powder, effective thermal conductivity increased from 0.3 to 0.7 W/m·K with hydrogen pressure. It is postulated that the smaller particle size associated with the reactive condition caused the reduction in effective thermal conductivity. Also, the derived specific heat of the activated Ti 1.1 CrMn increased with reaction progress by a factor of two, with a maximum value at the fully hydrided state.