cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
WiSlow: A Wi-Fi Network Performance Troubleshooting Tool for End Users

Slow Internet connectivity is often caused by poor Wi-Fi performance. The main reasons of such performance degra- dation include channel contention and non-Wi-Fi interference. Although these problem sources can be easily removed in many cases once they are discovered, it is difficult for end users to identify the sources of such interference. We investigated the characteristics of different sources that can degrade Wi-Fi performance, and developed WiSlow, a software tool that diagnoses the root causes of poor Wi-Fi performance using user-level network probes, and leveraging peer collaboration to identify the physical location of these causes. WiSlow uses two main methods: packet loss analysis and 802.11 ACK number analysis. The accuracy of WiSlow exceeds 90% when the sources are close to Wi-Fi devices. Also, our experiment proves that the collaborative approach is feasible for determining the relative location of an interfering device.
Searching for Women in the Records of Women: Two Examples from the South German Dominicans

The thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries saw surprising growth in the female branch of the Dominican Order in the south of Germany and broad support of these women across both gender and socio-economic lines. The records of Unterlinden in Colmar, France, and Adelhausen near Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, show women involved in the foundation, support and daily life of these communities. It was especially in the foundation of these houses that we see such women, often widows, many of whom eventually joined the religious communities they had patronized.
Modification of soil physical properties and root growth response

Soil strength and root growth relationships depend on both soil and plant properties. Soil physical properties can be manipulated through mechanical, chemical, and biological methods to create an environment suitable for plant root growth. Each plant species has its own root growth characteristics,
Radiofrequency catheter ablation of idiopathic left ventricular tachycardia guided by a Purkinje potential.

BACKGROUNDVerapamil-sensitive, idiopathic left ventricular tachycardia (ILVT) with right bundle branch block configuration and left-axis deviation has been suggested to originate from the left posterior fascicle. The purpose of this study was to determine how frequently potentials generated by the Purkinje fiber network (P potential) can be recorded preceding ventricular activation, and the role of the P potential in guiding radiofrequency catheter ablation.METHODS AND RESULTSEight patients (mean age, 26 +/- 10 years) with ILVT (cycle length, 346 +/- 59 milliseconds) were studied. Right and left ventricular endocardial mapping during tachycardia identified earliest ventricular activation at the posteroapical left ventricular septum. In all patients, earliest ventricular activation during tachycardia was preceded by a distinct potential. This potential also preceded ventricular activation during sinus rhythm, consistent with activation of a segment of the left posterior fascicle (P potential). The earliest...
The optimal fin profile — a study in heuristics and rigor

The search for the optimal profile for a fin of extended surface in heat transfer has occupied a portion of the engineering and mathematics community for sixty years. In 1922 the electrical engineer Schmidt published a heuristic argument that this profile should be parabolic. A rigorous verification of this result was presented in 1959 by Duffin, reasoning with a Hamiltonian formalism entirely different from Schmidt's approach. The issue was reopened in 1984 by Maday, who pointed out that the model used by the previous workers had neglected the effect of the slant height in assessing the heat transfer off the fin surface. The inclusion of the “length-of-arc” factor introduced nonlinearities which confounded the Duffin proof. Earlier Weinig had argued that Schmidt's heuristics, with the slant height correction, led to a circular profile to which the parabola was a second-order approximation, but Maday's necessary- condition equations repudiated this. Indeed, Maday's numerical studies indicated that the optimal profile was “wavy”. The present paper shows that Maday's wavy numerical profile was symptomatic of a quite profound effect introduced by incorporation of the slant height factor - namely, the factor can be exploited (rather than neglected) to enhance the heat transfer; and in fact there is no limit to the predicted thermal performance of fins when wavy profiles are considered. The proof of this is rigorous and based on methodology introduced by Kraus and the author in Mathematical Modelling in 1982. Thus the question of the optimal fin joins Newton's surface of least resistance and other classical “counterexamples” in the calculus of variations. Although the mathematical consequence of the fin model equations are valid, the integrity of the model itself begins to deteriorate as the more pathological geometries are enforced, so the result is physically unachievable. However the construction of the counterexample suggests other unlimited-performance extended surface designs whose physical credibility is more tenable, and some preliminary experimental work bears out the optimistic prognosis of this theory.
From the Field: CRIME, MEDIA, AND PUBLIC OPINION: CRIMINOLOGISTS’ ROLE AS SOURCE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION

ABSTRACT Criminologists have responsibilities to advance understandings of the role of crime and justice in society. Part of this responsibility includes identifying factors influencing the commission of crime (e.g., age, substance abuse, economy, population shifts), criminal justice actions, and contextualizing these events in broader socio-historical perspective for many audiences. Traditionally, academic criminologists have tended to address two audiences, other academics and students, which fundamentally ignores other relevant segments of society, and allows less qualified individuals (e.g., victims, family members) and groups (e.g., social movement organizations, MADD) to shape opinion and policy on crime. What is frequently neglected is attention to educating the public, something potentially fostering support for retributive and highly punitive policies. To contribute to developing more effective crime reducing policies, this paper argues that criminologists should be more involved with shaping pub...
Elevated ratios of type I/III collagen in the lungs of chronically ventilated neonates with respiratory distress.

ABSTRACT. Increased synthesis of type I collagen, leading to increased ratios of type I to type III collagen in the lungs, has been observed in the lungs of animals with experimental pulmonary fibrosis. Similar changes in collagen type ratios have been observed in lungs of humans dying of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and of adult respiratory distress syndrome. In this study, lung collagen type ratios were examined in infants with acute and chronic lung disease. Tissue from the right lower lobes of neonates was obtained post mortem. Specific collagen types were quantitated by solubilization of lung collagen with CNBr and fractionation of the resulting mixture of peptides by column chromatography and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Ratios of type I/III collagen were calculated for each lung sample using two independent pairs of marker peptides for these determinations. In some cases the ratio of type Y to type III collagen in these same lung samples was also quantitated. We observed a significant increase in the ratio of type I/III collagen in infants with a premortem diagnosis of chronic lung disease, usually preceded by respiratory distress syndrome. We also observed two infants with large changes in collagen type ratios who might have had pulmonary fibroplasia secondary to intrauterine lung disease. These data suggest that there may be several subsets of infants with respiratory distress syndrome, each having a different prognosis.
Does the coingestion of carbohydrate and amino acids improve recovery from endurance exercise

Practice PearlThis study demonstrates the importance of protein/amino acids for recovery in endurance athletes.
Extension and community: The practice of popular and progressive education

This chapter explores the relationship between popular education and the grassroots community-based educational principles of the Cooperative Extension Service's programs, which are grounded in the Progressive period and effectively used today in community economic development.
In Vitro Effects of Isobutyl Cyanoacrylate on Four Types of Bacteria

Isobutyl cyanoacrylate produced varying degrees of growth inhibition when applied to freshly plated Petri dishes of Staphylococcus aureus, Gaffkya, Neisseria catarrhalis, and a-Streptococcus. A biproduct or diffusible substance produced by the polymer was implicated as the cause. Destruction of growing colonies was observed only with a-Streptococcus after polymer application. The mechanism for this was not determined.
Hematology: The case against rituximab maintenance

The monoclonal antibody, rituximab, is used to treat lymphomas. This article discusses the results of randomized trials that suggest patients with follicular lymphoma should not receive rituximab maintenance therapy.
High energy diffractive dissociation of pions and the A1

Abstract The diffractive dissociation of a pion into five pions via A 1 ϱ production is used to study the Drell-Hiida-Deck effect at very high energies. It is shown that the predicted cross section for diffractive dissociation violates unitarity, so that (absorptive) corrections must be taken into account.
The motion of crystal electrons in an electric field

Crystal electrons in an electric field are described by Houston-wave functions. Their group velocity is averaged over the relaxation timeτ. This yields the current to be ohmic in weak fields and to be inversely proportional to electric fields which are strong enough to drive the electrons through the whole Brillouin-zone in a timeT<τ.
Measuring volunteers for exciting psychology experiments with the Sensation-Seeking Scale.

The sensation-seeking motive was first operationalized by Zuckerman, Kolin, Price, and Zoob (1964) with the development of the Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS). One area of applied research in which the SSS has been used is the study of volunteering. In this area, evidence suggests that high-sensation seekers volunteer for exciting activities more often than low-sensation seekers, but not for unexciting activities. However, a problem with this research is that no empirical data has been obtained related to the subject's belief of the exciting nature of the activities. In this study, college students were given the most recent form of the SSS and were asked to volunteer for either or both of two studies. SSS scores were higher, p less than .05, for volunteers than for nonvolunteers for a study that subjects rated as exciting, but did not differ for a study that subjects rated as unexciting. This demonstrates that volunteers for exciting studies, but not volunteers for unexciting studies, tend to be higher sensation seekers than nonvolunteers.
MRI-based computed tomography metal artifact correction method for improving proton range calculation accuracy.

Purpose Computed tomography (CT) artifacts can severely degrade dose calculation accuracy in proton therapy. Prompted by the recently increased popularity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the radiation therapy clinic, we developed an MRI-based CT artifact correction method for improving the accuracy of proton range calculations. Methods and materials The proposed method replaces corrupted CT data by mapping CT Hounsfield units (HU number) from a nearby artifact-free slice, using a coregistered MRI. MRI and CT volumetric images were registered with use of 3-dimensional (3D) deformable image registration (DIR). The registration was fine-tuned on a slice-by-slice basis by using 2D DIR. Based on the intensity of paired MRI pixel values and HU from an artifact-free slice, we performed a comprehensive analysis to predict the correct HU for the corrupted region. For a proof-of-concept validation, metal artifacts were simulated on a reference data set. Proton range was calculated using reference, artifactual, and corrected images to quantify the reduction in proton range error. The correction method was applied to 4 unique clinical cases. Results The correction method resulted in substantial artifact reduction, both quantitatively and qualitatively. On respective simulated brain and head and neck CT images, the mean error was reduced from 495 and 370 HU to 108 and 92 HU after correction. Correspondingly, the absolute mean proton range errors of 2.4 cm and 1.7 cm were reduced to less than 2 mm in both cases. Conclusions Our MRI-based CT artifact correction method can improve CT image quality and proton range calculation accuracy for patients with severe CT artifacts.
Constructs of writing proficiency in US state and national writing assessments: Exploring variability

Abstract Persistent gaps between optimistic state and pessimistic national academic performance assessment results are increasingly leading to calls for unified national standards in the US. Critics argue that these gaps reveal vast differences in how proficiency is conceptualized; however, little is known about how conceptualizations compare among large-scale US assessments. To explore this issue, the present study investigated constructs of writing proficiency implicated in 41 US state and national high school direct writing assessments by analyzing the relationships between prompt-genre demands and assessment scoring criteria. Results of this analysis suggest that national writing assessments differ as a group from state assessments in the extent to which they emphasize genre distinctions and present coherent conceptualizations of writing proficiency. The implications of these assessment variations for college preparedness are discussed.
Overcoming Solvent Saturation-Transfer Artifacts in Protein NMR at Neutral pH. Application of Pulsed Field Gradients in Measurements of 1H-15N Overhauser Effects

Abstract Artifacts due to solvent saturation-transfer effects result in incorrect measurements of 1 H- 15 N heteronuclear NOE (HNOE). These artifacts are commonly observed in aqueous protein solutions at neutral pH. We describe the application of pulsed field gradients (PFGs) together with long recycle delays in overcoming errors in HNOE measurements which arise from H 2 O solvent preirradiation and solvent saturation transfer. Even in the absence of explicit solvent irradiation, the HNOE pulse sequence itself results in a nonequilibrium spin-state distribution of solvent nuclei which can then be transferred by chemical exchange into amide-proton sites. This effect can be avoided by using PFGs for suppression of solvent H 2 O together with a recycle delay sufficiently long for the magnetization of water to relax back to equilibrium values during the preparation period. These effects were studied in 15 N-enriched human type α transforming growth factor at pH 7.1. Comparisons of PFG-HNOE experiments with and without selective H 2 O irradiation and with different recycle times provide estimates of the effects of solvent irradiation on HNOE measurements, which are different for different amide nitrogen-15 nuclei. The amplitudes of these artificial HNOE enhancements are roughly correlated with solvent accessibilities of amide sites in the three-dimensional structure of hTGFα.
The characterization and quantification of methanotrophic bacterial populations in constructed wetland sediments using PCR targeting 16S rRNA gene fragments

Three mesocosms were studied to evaluate the effect of wetland plants on the methanotrophic bacterial populations in the sediments of a full-scale constructed wetland. Cores were collected from two vegetated mesocosms and one unvegetated mesocosm from fall 2002 through summer 2003. Competitive quantitative PCR revealed no significant differences in the quantities of either Type I or Type II methanotrophic bacteria between the vegetated and unvegetated mesocosms. Type I methanotroph-biased nested PCR-DGGE resulted in the detection of 23 different populations related to Methylococcus, Methylomonas, Methylobacter, Methylocaldum, and Methylosarcina spp. Type II methanotroph-biased nested PCR-DGGE resulted in the detection of 5 different populations, more than 90% of which were related to previously uncultivated Type II methanotrophs. While wetland vegetation did not affect the structure of either the Type I or Type II methanotrophic communities, the Type I methanotrophic community structure was observed to vary seasonally. This work suggests that wetland plants neither enhanced nor adversely affected the size or structure of methanotrophic communities in our constructed wetland. Substantial quantities of both Type I and Type II methanotrophic populations were detected in both planted and unplanted mesocosms, suggesting that the constructed wetland had substantial potential for xenobiotic bioremediation whether or not plants were present.
Analysis and application of prestressed concrete reactor vessels for LMFBR containment

Abstract An analytical model of a prestressed concrete reactor vessel (PCRV) for LMFBR and the associated finite element computer code, involving an explicit time integration procedure, is described. The model is axisymmetric and includes simulations of the tensile cracking of concrete, the reinforcement, and a prestressing capability. The tensile cracking of concrete and the steel reinforcement are both modeled as continuously distributed within the finite element. The stresses in the reinforcement and concrete are computed separately and combined to give an overall stress state of the composite material. The reinformcement is assumed to be elastic, perfectly-plastic; the concrete is taken to be elastic, with tensile and compressive stress limits. Cracking of concrete is based on the criterion of maximum principal stress; a crack is assumed to form normal to the direction of the maximum principal stress. Attention is also given to the fact that cracks do not form instantaneously, but develop gradually. Thus, after crack initiation the normal stress is reduced to zero gradually as a function of time. Residual shear resistance of cracks due to aggregate interlock is also taken into account. An existing crack is permitted to close. Prestressing of the PCRV is modeled by special structural members which represent an averaged prestressing layer equivalent to an axisymmetric shell. The internal prestressing members are superimposed over the reinforced concrete body of the PCRV; they are permitted to stretch and slide in a predetermined path, simulating the actual tendons. The validity of the code is examined by comparison with experimental data. Both static and dynamic data are compared with code predictions, and the agreement is satisfactory. A preliminary design has been developed for both pool and loop-type PCRVs. The code was applied to the analysis of these designs. This analysis reveals that the critical locations in such a design would be the head cover and the junction between the cover and the vessel wall and indicates the pattern of crack development. The results show that the development of a design adequate for current HCDA loads is quite feasible for pool-type or loop-type PCRVs.
A CASE OF CHEST PAIN AND DYSPNEA

0 Presenting Physician: The patient was a 75year-old man whose chief complaint was chest pain. Having felt nauseated for some 18 hours, the patient vomited and thereafter experienced the acute onset of severe left-sided pleuritic chest pain and dyspnea. The paramedics were called approximately two hours after the onset of symptoms, and their assessment was as follows: The patient was an elderly man who had severe sharp chest pain and shortness of breath. He had a history of bronchospastic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was currently taking theophylline (Theo-Dur), metaproterenol (Alupent) by inhalation, and prednisone, 10 mg daily. There was no other history of significant illness. Blood pressure was 164 mm Hg systolic by palpation; pulse rate, 92 beats per minute and irregular; respirations, 30/min and shallow. Cardiac rhythm was sinus with frequent premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) and occasional trigeminy. The skin was diaphoretic. Physical examination was normal except for audible bilateral inspiratory and expiratory wheezing and bilateral pitting edema of the legs. 0 Dr Michael Eliastam: This is essentially a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and a sudden change in respiratory status. In terms of a field diagnosis, spontaneous pneumothorax would head the list.
Nanostructure characterization of mechanical alloyed and consolidated iron alloys

High-energy ball milling (which is readily adoptable to commercial application) was used to develop sufficient quantities of nanostructured material to produce compacts capable of being measured for macroscopic properties. Characterization of the ball-milled powders show that grain boundary properties play a significant role in the overall properties of the milled powder. Nearly full-dense compacts were produced by hot-pressing. Characterization of the strength properties of these compacts show that there was little influence of hardness, density, or alloy composition on the failure properties. The range of failure stress was large and when fitted to a Weibull distribution suggest that failure was the result of flaws or cracks resulting from the hot-pressing. Hardness data, commonly used to evaluate the strength of nanostructured materials, showed no correlation to tensile strength, but correlated highly to compression maximum stress.
Cys32 and His105 are the critical residues for the calcium-dependent cysteine proteolytic activity of CvaB, an ATP-binding cassette transporter

CvaB, a member of the ATP-binding cassette transporter superfamily, is the central membrane transporter of the colicin V secretion system in Escherichia coli. Cys32 and His105 in the N-terminal domain of CvaB were identified as critical residues for both colicin V secretion and cysteine proteolytic activity. By inhibiting degradation with N-ethylmaleimide and a mixture of protease inhibitors, a stable wild-type N-terminal domain (which showed cysteine protease activity when activated) was purified. Such protease activity was Ca2+- and concentration-dependent and could be inhibited by antipain, N-ethylmaleimide, EDTA, and EGTA. At low concentrations, the Ca2+ analogs Tb3+ and La3+ (but not Fe3+) significantly enhanced proteolytic activity, suggesting that the size of the cations is important for activity. Together with comparisons of the sequences of members of the cysteine protease family, these results indicate that Cys32 and His105 are the critical residues in the CvaB N-terminal domain for the calcium-dependent cysteine protease activity and secretion of colicin V.
Tensile properties of impact ices

A special test apparatus was developed to measure the tensile strength of impact ices perpendicular to the direction of growth. The apparatus consists of a split tube carefully machined to minimize the effect of the joint on impact ice strength. The tube is supported in the wind tunnel by two carefully aligned bearings. During accretion the tube is turned slowly in the icing cloud to form a uniform coating of ice on the split tube specimen. The two halves of the split tube are secured firmly by a longitudinal bolt to prevent relative motion between the two halves during ice accretion and handling. Tensile test strength results for a variety of icing conditions were obtained. Both glaze and rime ice conditions were investigated. In general, the tensile strength of impact ice was significantly less than refrigerator ice. Based on the limited data taken, the median strength of rime ice was less than glaze ice. However, the mean values were similar.
Geology of the Smythii and Marginis region of the Moon: Using integrated remotely sensed data

We characterized the diverse and complex geology of the eastern limb region of the Moon using a trio of remote-sensing data sets: Clementine, Lunar Prospector, and Apollo. On the basis of Clementine-derived iron and titanium maps we classify the highlands into low-iron (3-6 wt % FeO) and high-iron (6-9 wt % FeO) units. The association of the latter with basalt deposits west of Smythii basin suggests that the highland chemical variation is the result of mixing between basalt and highland lithologies. Mare Smythii and Mare Marginis soils are compositionally similar, containing moderate iron (15-18 wt % FeO) and titanium (2.5-3.5 wt % TiO2). Smythii basin, in addition to the basalt deposits, contains an older, moderate-albedo plains unit. Our investigation reveals that the dark basin plains unit has a distinct albedo, chemistry, and surface texture and formed as a result of impact-mixing between highland and mare lithologies in approximately equal proportions. Clementine iron and maturity maps show that swirls along the northern margin of Mare Marginis have the same iron composition as the surrounding nonswirl material and indicate that the swirl material is bright because of its low agglutinate content. Gravity data for the eastern limb show high, positive Bouguer gravity anomalies for areas of thin basalt cover (e.g., Smythii basin and complex craters Joliot, Lomonosov, and Neper). We deduce that the uplift of dense mantle material is the primary (and mare basaltic fill the secondary) source for generating the concentration of mass beneath large craters and basins.
The Direction of Stretch-Induced Cell and Stress Fiber Orientation Depends on Collagen Matrix Stress

Cell structure depends on both matrix strain and stiffness, but their interactive effects are poorly understood. We investigated the interactive roles of matrix properties and stretching patterns on cell structure by uniaxially stretching U2OS cells expressing GFP-actin on silicone rubber sheets supporting either a surface-adsorbed coating or thick hydrogel of type-I collagen. Cells and their actin stress fibers oriented perpendicular to the direction of cyclic stretch on collagen-coated sheets, but oriented parallel to the stretch direction on collagen gels. There was significant alignment parallel to the direction of a steady increase in stretch for cells on collagen gels, while cells on collagen-coated sheets did not align in any direction. The extent of alignment was dependent on both strain rate and duration. Stretch-induced alignment on collagen gels was blocked by the myosin light-chain kinase inhibitor ML7, but not by the Rho-kinase inhibitor Y27632. We propose that active orientation of the actin cytoskeleton perpendicular and parallel to direction of stretch on stiff and soft substrates, respectively, are responses that tend to maintain intracellular tension at an optimal level. Further, our results indicate that cells can align along directions of matrix stress without collagen fibril alignment, indicating that matrix stress can directly regulate cell morphology.
Micro-mixing of highly viscous bio-samples using orbital shaking

Micro-mixing of highly viscous bio-samples is considered. Existing methods mix bio-samples by only shaking micro-wells or by specially designed micro-stirrers which are ineffective or unapplicable for highly viscous materials, letting alone small volumes at microliter or nanoliter level. Our method mixes viscous bio-samples in micro-wells using orbital shaking plus an innovative block which is built in with micro-channels. In this paper, the design of the block is presented, the flow of the bio-samples in the micro-channel under orbital shaking is developed, the Reynolds number of the flow in the micro- channel is calculated, and the dynamics of the mixing process is analyzed. Finally experiment results of mixing monoolein with water are presented. In each trial, X-ray diffraction is used to evaluate the results of mixing which confirm that the proposed approach is effective for mixing highly viscous bio-samples.
Comparing detrended UCR and NCS crime rates over time: 1973-1986

Previous comparisons of trends in UCR and NCS crime rates over time have found little convergence between these two series (Menard and Covey, 1988). When these series are detrended, however, either by using year as a control variable or by employing the method of first differences, the convergence between them is, in general, impressive. Thus, fluctuations in the UCR crime rates over time are paralleled by fluctuations in the NCS crime rates. If researchers detrend their data, as many time-series analysts do, then results based on UCR and NCS data are likely to be similar. This is encouraging news for those who use either set of data in time series-analyses.
Application of the Megargee MMPI Typology to Apopulation of Defendants Referred for Psychiatric Evaluation

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of 449 male and 111 female defendants referred for presentence psychiatric evaluation were classified using the system developed by Megargee and Bohn in 1977. The distribution of groups for each sex was compared with the results obtained by Megargee and Bohn and other researchers as well as with each other. The male groups differed on variables of age and type of referral. Female group distribution differed in all cases. Results are discussed in terms of the more prevalent violent groups among the male sample and higher prevalence of more benign types among the females.
The "trauma signature:" understanding the psychological consequences of the 2010 Haiti earthquake

The 2010 Haiti earthquake was one of the most catastrophic episodes in history, leaving 5% of the nation's population killed or injured, and 19% internally displaced. The distinctive combination of earthquake hazards and vulnerabilities, extreme loss of life, and paralyzing damage to infrastructure, predicts population-wide psychological distress, debilitating psychopathology, and pervasive traumatic grief. However, mental health was not referenced in the national recovery plan. The limited MHPSS services provided in the first eight months generally lacked coordination and empirical basis.There is a need to customize and coordinate disaster mental health assessments, interventions, and prevention efforts around the novel stressors and consequences of each traumatic event. An analysis of the key features of the 2010 Haiti earthquake was conducted, defining its "Trauma Signature" based on a synthesis of early disaster situation reports to identify the unique assortment of risk factors for post-disaster mental health consequences. This assessment suggests that multiple psychological risk factors were prominent features of the earthquake in Haiti. For rapid-onset disasters, Trauma Signature (TSIG) analysis can be performed during the post-impact/pre-deployment phase to target the MHPSS response in a manner that is evidence-based and tailored to the event-specific exposures and experiences of disaster survivors. Formalization of tools to perform TSIG analysis is needed to enhance the timeliness and accuracy of these assessments and to extend this approach to human-generated disasters and humanitarian crises.
Growth kinetics of Clostridium perfringens in cooked beef

The objective of this work was to investigate the growth kinetics of a three-strain cocktail of Clostridium perfringens in cooked beef. The study was conducted by growing the heat-activated spores in ground beef under isothermal conditions between 17–50C. A four-parameter Gompertz equation was used as a primary model to fit the growth curves along with a modified Ratkowsky model to analyze the temperature dependence of the bacterial growth. Results indicated that the Gompertz model could accurately describe the growth of C. perfringens in cooked beef. The estimated theoretical minimum, optimum, and maximum growth temperatures of this organism in cooked beef were 9.8, 47.1, and 50.8C, respectively. A linear relationship between the durations of the lag and exponential phases of growth curves was observed in this study. Such a linear relationship can be used to generate a linear isothermal growth curve complete with the lag, exponential, and stationary phases without complex mathematical computation. The kinetic models and growth parameters obtained from this study potentially can be applied to the food industry to design appropriate cooling schedules and estimate the growth of C. perfringens in thermally processed beef products under temperature abuse conditions.
The black-box complexity of nearest-neighbor search

We define a natural notion of efficiency for approximate nearest-neighbor (ANN) search in general n-point metric spaces, namely the existence of a randomized algorithm which answers (1 + e)-ANN queries in polylog(n) time using only polynomial space. We then study which families of metric spaces admit efficient ANN schemes in the black-box model, where only oracle access to the distance function is given, and any query consistent with the triangle inequality may be asked.For e < 2/5, we offer a complete answer to this problem. Using the notion of metric dimension defined in [A. Gupta, et al., Bounded geometries, fractals, and low-distortion embeddings, in: 44th Annu. IEEE Symp. on Foundations of Computer Science, 2003, pp. 534-543] (a la [P. Assouad, Plongements lipschitziens dans Rn, Bull. Soc. Math. France 111 (4) (1983) 429-448]), we show that a metric space X admits an efficient (1+e)-ANN scheme for any e < 2/5 if and only if dim(X) = O(log log n). For coarser approximations, clearly the upper bound continues to hold, but there is a threshold at which our lower bound breaks down--this is precisely when points in the "ambient space" may begin to affect the complexity of "hard" subspaces S ⊆ X. Indeed, we give examples which show that dim(X) does not characterize the black-box complexity of ANN above the threshold.Our scheme for ANN in low-dimensional metric spaces is the first to yield efficient algorithms without relying on any additional assumptions on the input. In previous approaches (e.g., [K.L. Clarkson, Nearest neighbor queries in metric spaces, Discrete Comput. Geom. 22(1) (1999) 63-93; D. Karger, M. Ruhl, Finding nearest neighbors in growth-restricted metrics, in: 34th Annu. ACM Symp. on the Theory of Computing, 2002, pp. 63-66; R. Krauthgamer, J.R. Lee, Navigating nets: simple algorithms for proximity search, in: 15th Annu. ACM-SIAM Symp. on Discrete Algorithms, 2004, pp. 791-801; K. Hildrum, et al., A note on finding nearest neighbors in growth-restricted metrics, in: Proc. of the 15th Annu. ACM-SIAM Symp. on Discrete Algorithms, 2004, pp. 560-561]), even spaces with dim(X) = O(1) sometimes required Ω(n) query times.
Is It Putin or Is It Oil? Explaining Russia's Fiscal Recovery

What accounts for the sea change in Russia's fiscal health? This article evaluates several contributing factors: high world energy prices, economic recovery, new tax policies, and the consolidation of state power. By examining the fiscal politics under the Yel'tsin and Putin governments, this article seeks to uncover the relative importance of political and economic causes for the recovery of the tax state in the 2000s. While increased energy production and high world prices augmented the Russian tax base tremendously, the consolidation of power under Vladimir Putin heightened the Russian state's extractive capacity and has enabled Russia's fiscal recovery.
Germany and its discontents: Die skeptiker's punk corrective

Le punk, style musical et maniere d'etre ne en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis, est devenu, a partir de la fin des annees 1970, un element du paysage culturel de la RDA. Participant au phenomene culturel punk transnational, le punk est-allemand n'en a pas moins des caracteristiques specifiquement nationales. L'A. etudie ces specificites, en tant qu'elles temoignent d'un certain rapport a l'Etat socialiste, et les reponses fournies par le pouvoir, a travers l'etude de la production du groupe Die Skeptiker, apparu au milieu des annees 1980
Modeling 1-year survival after surgery on the metastatic spine

Abstract Background context Choosing appropriate surgical patients in the setting of spinal metastases can be challenging. Existing scoring systems focus primarily on patient selection or operative techniques. These scores are limited in their capacity to predict postoperative survival. Purpose The aim was to model survival after spine surgery for metastastic disease. Study design This was a retrospective multicenter study. Patient sample All patients who had undergone surgery for the treatment of metastatic spinal disease at one of four tertiary care centers between 2007 and 2013 were included. Outcome measure The outcome measure was 1-year survival after surgery. Methods Demographic, medical, oncologic, surgical, and survival data were abstracted from medical records. The effect of predictor variables on survival was evaluated alone and in combination using stepwise logistic regression. Multivariable logistic regression was subsequently used to adjust for confounders. A predictive score was then developed and compared against that of the modified Bauer score alone in terms of prognosticating 1-year survival after surgery. Results In the time period under investigation, 318 patients underwent surgical intervention for metastastic disease involving the spine, with 307 having data available for analysis. The survival rate at 1 year was 48% (n=142), with a median survival of 10 months. In final adjusted analysis, preoperative modified Bauer score (odds ratio [OR] 3.00; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.80–5.01; p Conclusions This study demonstrates the importance of including factors related to the overall health of a patient, in addition to parameters surrounding their cancer diagnosis, to better prognosticate survival. Our predictive score performed better than the modified Bauer alone and may be used to predict survival after surgical intervention for metastatic disease. Level of evidence III.
Incremental Model-Based Clustering for Large Datasets With Small Clusters

Clustering is often useful for analyzing and summarizing information within large datasets. Model-based clustering methods have been found to be effective for determining the number of clusters, dealing with outliers, and selecting the best clustering method in datasets that are small to moderate in size. For large datasets, current model-based clustering methods tend to be limited by memory and time requirements and the increasing difficulty of maximum likelihood estimation. They may fit too many clusters in some portions of the data and/or miss clusters containing relatively few observations. We propose an incremental approach for data that can be processed as a whole in memory, which is relatively efficient computationally and has the ability to find small clusters in large datasets. The method starts by drawing a random sample of the data, selecting and fitting a clustering model to the sample, and extending the model to the full dataset by additional EM iterations. New clusters are then added increme...
Interactive Effects of Three Core Goal Pursuit Processes on Brain Control Systems: Goal Maintenance, Performance Monitoring, and Response Inhibition

Goal attainment relies in part on one’s ability to maintain a cognitive representation of the desired goal (goal maintenance), monitor the current state vis-a`-vis the targeted end state and remain vigilant for lapses in progress (performance monitoring), and inhibit counter-goal behaviors (response inhibition). Because neurocognitive studies have typically examined these three processes in isolation from one another, little is known regarding if and how they interact during goal pursuit. However, these processes frequently co-occur during online, real-world goal pursuit. The present study employed a novel task to investigate how goal maintenance, performance monitoring, and response inhibition interact with one another. We identified functional activations distinct to each of the processes that correspond to results of prior investigations. In addition, we report interactive effects between response inhibition and goal maintenance in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and between performance monitoring and goal maintenance in the superior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Implications for studying the neural systems of in situ goals include the need for both experimental designs that distinguish between process, but also more complex, realistic tasks to begin to map interactions among these neurocognitive processes and how they are altered by the presence or absence of one another.
Adenomatoid tumor of male genital tract.

Abstract Twelve cases of adenomatoid tumor of the male reproductive system seen during the past thirty years at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center are presented, with a review of the literature. One case consisted of a rare intratesticular adenomatoid tumor in a thirty-six-year-old man. The tumor was located just beneath the superior pole within the testicle and adjacent to, but separate from, the epididymis.
CAN OXYGEN ISOTOPES FROM TURTLE BONE BE USED TO RECONSTRUCT PALEOCLIMATES

Abstract A substantial complication to using the oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of vertebrate bioapatite in paleoclimate studies is the need to distinguish variation due to temporal changes in the δ18O of surface waters from that due to temperature-dependent fractionation during biomineralization. One solution is multiple-taxon comparisons using data from coexisting homeothermic and heterothermic animals. Fossil emydid turtles have been suggested to be potentially useful as functional homeotherms because (1) modern emydids employ behaviors, such as basking, to restrict skeletal growth to a narrow temperature range; (2) their aquatic habitat constrains the isotopic variability of dietary inputs; and (3) emydids have a dense fossil record. But because turtles lack teeth and therefore tooth enamel, sampling must focus on bone, which is potentially more susceptible to diagenetic alteration. This study examines the δ18O of carbonate (δ18Oc) and phosphate (δ18Op) in hydroxylapatite from co-occurring emydids ...
The Blaeu Atlas of Scotland: Background and introduction

(2005). The Blaeu Atlas of Scotland: Background and introduction. Scottish Geographical Journal: Vol. 121, ‘Look at Scotland and enjoy a feast for the eyes’, pp. 237-242.
Densification Rates of Ceramic Matrix Composites with Initial Matrix Inhomogeneity

Abstract A viscoelastic finite element method is developed to analyze the effect of non-homogeneous matrix compaction on densification of ceramic matrix composites. The heterogeneous matrix of the composite is represented by a system of two or more co-axial cylinders of different initial matrix density. The sintering potential can be expressed in terms of a free strain rate. The free strain rate is derived from the relationship of relative density versus sintering time, measured from the neat matrix sample. The knowledge of free strain rate is a prerequisite for conducting the finite element analysis. For the heterogeneous matrix, two different density-time relationships are assumed, based on the concepts of neck formation and neck growth between contacting particles, and pore coarsening. The results of the finite element analysis show that a nonuniform compaction of the composite generally has a detrimental effect on the densification process.
Viscoelastic properties of sulfonated ethylene–propylene terpolymer neutralized with zinc cation

Stress-relaxation measurements in uniaxial extension, in the terminal zone, were made of sulfonated ethylene-propylene terpolymer (EPDM), neutralized with zinc cation. The sulfonation levels were 15 to 20 meq/100 g polymer (0.47 and 0.62 mol %), and for each level the effect of the ionic plasticizer, zinc stearate, was investigated.. For all the polymers, the decay of the modulus with elapsed time was gradual and featureless, reflecting a broad distribution of relaxation times. Sensitivity of the ionomers’ structures to thermal history before an experiment was suggested by irreproducibility in the magnitudes, but not the distribution, of relaxation times at a given temperature. For polymers containing zinc stearate measured at 80°C, the amount of permanent set was low for relaxation up to about 20 h, but increased rapidly with additional hours of stretch. Time-temperature superposition did not apply. Composite curves were constructed by matching the stressrelaxation response at short times; moduli measured at long times fell above the composite curve. The shapes of the composite curves were similar, regardless of the level of EPDM sulfonation or the presence of zinc stearate. The apparent Arrhenius activation energy for short-time relaxation at similar levels of the modulus was about 35 kcal/mol at 140°C for the unplasticized polymers and about 70 kcal/mol at 90°C for the polymers containing zinc stearate, in contrast to the usual effect of plasticizer on the rate of relaxation of amorphous polymers except near the glass transition temperature.
Improving pairwise sequence alignment accuracy using near-optimal protein sequence alignments.

Background: While the pairwise alignments produced by sequence similarity searches are a powerful tool for identifying homologous proteins - proteins that share a common ancestor and a similar structure; pairwise sequence alignments often fail to represent accurately the structural alignments inferred from three-dimensional coordinates. Since sequence alignment algorithms produce optimal alignments, the best structural alignments must reflect suboptimal sequence alignment scores. Thus, we have examined a range of suboptimal sequence alignments and a range of scoring parameters to understand better which sequence alignments are likely to be more structurally accurate. Results: We compared near-optimal protein sequence alignments produced by the Zuker algorithm and a set of probabilistic alignments produced by the probA program with structural alignments produced by four different structure alignment algorithms. There is significant overlap between the solution spaces of structural alignments and both the near-optimal sequence alignments produced by commonly used scoring parameters for sequences that share significant sequence similarity (E-values < 10 -5 ) and the ensemble of probA alignments. We constructed a logistic regression model incorporating three input variables derived from sets of near-optimal alignments: robustness, edge frequency, and maximum bits-per-position. A ROC analysis shows that this model more accurately classifies amino acid pairs (edges in the alignment path graph) according to the likelihood of appearance in structural alignments than the robustness score alone. We investigated various trimming protocols for removing incorrect edges from the optimal sequence alignment; the most effective protocol is to remove matches from the semi-global optimal alignment that are outside the boundaries of the local alignment, although trimming according to the model-generated probabilities achieves a similar level of improvement. The model can also be used to generate novel alignments by using the probabilities in lieu of a scoring matrix. These alignments are typically better than the optimal sequence alignment, and include novel correct structural edges. We find that the probA alignments sample a larger variety of alignments than the Zuker set, which more frequently results in alignments that are closer to the structural alignments, but that using the probA alignments as input to the regression model does not increase performance. Conclusions: The pool of suboptimal pairwise protein sequence alignments substantially overlaps structure-based alignments for pairs with statistically significant similarity, and a regression model based on information contained in this alignment pool improves the accuracy of pairwise alignments with respect to structure-based alignments.