cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Formation mechanisms of channels on Titan through dissolution by ammonium sulfate and erosion by liquid ammonia and ethane

Abstract Data obtained from the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instruments have revealed an array of fluvial channels on Titan's surface, often several hundreds of kilometers in length. The paucity of impact craters on Titan's surface suggests a formation by fluvial erosion into the water-ice bedrock. Additionally, at the landing site, the Huygens Probe Descent Imager and Spectral Radiometer (DISR) imaged Earth-like rounded cobbles 0.3–15 cm in diameter composed of water ice, reminiscent of rounded stream clasts on Earth. In this paper we examine different fluvial features on Titan, identified by the Cassini spacecraft, and evaluate the possibilities of channel formation by dissolution of ice by a concentrated solution of ammonium sulfate, and by mechanical erosion by flow of liquid ammonia and liquid ethane. We find that chemical erosion of Titan's channels could be completed in 280 to 1100 years (all units of time in this paper are Terrestrial, not Titanian), much shorter than the period of about 84,000 years that a concentrated (NH4)2SO4-H2O solution could exist as a liquid on the Titan surface. Mechanical erosion of Titan's channels is generally a much slower process, on the order of 102 to 105 years to completion, and is also slower than mechanical erosion of a model river on Earth, averaging 103 to 104 years. The erosional sequence of the channels on Titan may have started after the formation of water-ice on the surface by the process of chemical dissolution by (NH4)2SO4-H2O, overlapping, or followed by, a period of mechanical erosion by liquid NH3. A final stage on the cooling surface of Titan might have been characterized by liquid C2H6 as an agent of mechanical erosion.
“Human Drugs” in Chinese Medicine and the Confucian View: An Interpretive Study

I. INTRODUCTION In the name (or for the purpose) of healing and curing, human bodies living and dead - have been manipulated in a variety of ways since the beginning of human history. They have been sacrificed, fasted, cleaned, gazed upon, touched, examined, operated on, frozen, cut, dissected, displayed, and experimented on in medical practice, research, and teaching. Human biological materials have even been directly used for therapeutic ends. For instance, in contemporary biomedicine, human blood is transferred and organs and tissues are transplanted from one body to the another. In traditional Chinese pharmaceutics, some parts, excreta, and appendages of the human body have been employed as medicine. This chapter will offer a historical-ethical study of the Chinese knowledge and practice of “human drugs;” i.e. drugs derived from the human body. About three dozen human drugs, which include hair, fingernails, placenta, urine, bone, flesh, blood, menstrual blood, seminal fluid, and the penis, have been recorded in Chinese materia medica. The brilliant sixteenth-century physician-scholar Li Shi-Zhen systematically summarized them in a special section of his monumental work Bencao Gangmu (The Great Pharmacopeias). According to traditional Chinese pharmacological literature, even pubic hair was claimed to be therapeutic, with power to cure snakebite, difficult birth, abnormal urination, the yinyang exchange disorder (a disease entity peculiar to Chinese medicine based on its understanding of sexual behaviors to health), and the ox that suffered from bloating. In order to provide a primary picture about human drugs - the diseases they treat, their therapeutic effects, and the methods of taking this kind of medicine, let me cite the whole entry “yinmao” (literally, shady hair; i.e., pubes) from the Bencao Gangmu: PUBES [First recorded as medicine by] Shiyi [i.e., Bencao Shiyi (A Supplement to the Herbal) of Cheng Chang-Qi, an eighth-century physician]
A distributed dynamics for virus-spread control

Abstract Inspired by a local version of the replicator dynamics, this work proposes a discrete-time distributed algorithm that allows a connected group of nodes to dynamically achieve virus spreading minimization subject to operational constraints. The proposed algorithm is distributed in the sense that it can be implemented by network nodes via local and anonymous interactions. By employing a discrete-time LaSalle invariance principle, we obtain a bound on the algorithm step size that guarantees asymptotic convergence under time-varying interactions. The performance of the method is illustrated on simulation examples.
Exploiting surface consistency for surface-wave characterization and mitigation — Part 2: Application to 3D data

ABSTRACTWe present a case history demonstrating the 3D implementation of the surface-wave impulse estimation and removal (SWIPER) method. SWIPER is a tomographic inversion method that is able to predict and remove complex surface waves, which are multimodal and heterogeneous. The inversion generates surface-consistent model parameters, which correlate with near-surface elevation. These parameters include a surface map of the propagation velocity and attenuation values for each surface-wave mode as a function of frequency. The method also determines variations in source coupling as a function of frequency, which also correlate with the near-surface elevation changes. We show that the method works equally well with a fully sampled and decimated 3D dynamite-sourced data set. We start with a linear single-mode inversion and use the results to generate the starting model for a subsequent three-mode nonlinear inversion. The resulting velocity-dispersion grid has greater lateral resolution and extends to higher ...
Romancing the Theorem

It gives me joy to recall here a few of my interactions with Walter and his wonderful theorem, especially since perhaps I have spent a larger fraction of my time than most in analyzing this gem in a formal sense. It has been a love affair.
An Update on Common Orthopedic Injuries and Fractures in Children: Is Cast Immobilization Always Necessary?

Abstract Children frequently visit emergency departments for injuries and fractures related to sports and recreational activities; however, the routine care of these acute minor injuries is shifting to the domain of urgent care centers. Physicians on the front lines may not have access to real-time orthopedic consultation and therefore need to be versed in the diagnosis and treatment of common pediatric fracture patterns recognizing potentially operative fractures as well as injuries that may not even require follow-up care. Unlike adults, the pediatric bone remodels quickly, and many fractures heal well without surgical intervention or even cast immobilization. Unnecessary immobilization of injuries can be detrimental to healing, and unnecessary orthopedic follow-up can be costly and straining on our health care system. This article reviews common upper and lower extremity injuries in children highlighting some of the fractures where neither cast immobilization nor urgent/emergent orthopedic consultation is always necessary.
Perioperative antibiotic use in vagus nerve stimulator implantation: a clinical series

Preoperative antibiosis contributes up to one third of total antibiotic use in major hospitals. Choice of antibiotic is not uniformly standardized, and polypharmacy regimens may be used without knowing the effect on rates of surgical site infection, nonsurgical infections, or antibiotic resistance. Careful examination of trends in surgical prophylaxis is warranted. In this study, we aimed to examine our institution’s experience with vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) implantation, focusing on association between perioperative antibiotic practices and postoperative infectious outcomes. We conducted a single-center case-control study using a retrospective chart review of 50 consecutively operated patients undergoing VNS implantation over 24 months by two experienced surgeons at our institution from April 2014 to March 2016. In each surgery, the technical procedure, operating room, and surgical team were the same, while surgeon’s preference in antibiotic prophylaxis differed. Group 1 received a single dose of intravenous (IV) cefazolin (n = 26), and Group 2 received IV cefazolin, paired with one or both of gentamicin/vancomycin, in addition to a 10-day outpatient oral course of clindamycin (n = 24). Patient demographics, perioperative details, and minimum 3-month follow-up for infection and healthcare utilization were recorded. Student t tests were computed for significance. Group 1 patients on average were older than group 2 patients (10.2, 7.1 years, p = 0.01), and length of surgery was longer (115.5, 91.9 min, p = 0.007). There were no differences in number of surgeons gowned (p = 0.11), presence of tracheostomy (p = 0.43) or gastrostomy (p = 0.20) tube, nonsurgical infections (p = 0.32), and number of postoperative emergency department (ED) visits (p = 0.22) or readmissions (p = 0.23). Neither group had VNS infections in the follow-up period. Single preoperative dosing of one antibiotic appropriately chosen to cover typical skin flora conferred equal benefit to perioperative prophylactic polypharmacy in this study. There were no differences in postoperative infection events or ED visits/readmissions. Restraint with preoperative antibiosis shows equipoise in postoperative infection and overall resource utilization.
Synaptic Devices Based on Phase-Change Memory

The biological brain has the capability of learning, pattern recognition, processing imprecisely defined data, and executing complex computational tasks. Consisting of 1011 neurons and 1015 synapses as the major computational components, the biological brain is extremely power efficient, massively parallel, structurally plastic, and exceptionally robust against noise and variations (Kuzum et al. Nanotechnology 24:382001, 2013). The question of how to design and build a compact neuromorphic system is a grand challenge for academia and industry. An electronic synaptic device is an essential element in such neuromorphic systems. Among various electronic synapses candidates, nonvolatile memory-based synaptic devices have the highest potential to realize massive parallelism and 3D integration for achieving high function per unit volume. This chapter will focus on synaptic devices based on phase-change memory (PCM). We first review the basics of phase-change synaptic devices: device operation, phase-change materials, conduction mechanism, power consumption, and scaling. We then review the use of PCM synaptic device implementations spanning from single device operation to various array architecture designs in the following sections. The concept of spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), various pulse scheme designs, and pulse programming techniques for plasticity will be explained and compared. Last, we will discuss recent advances in designing PCM synaptic device to achieve lower power consumption and more stable resistance states.
Femoral Nerve Palsy Following Landmark Based Ilioinguinal-Iliohypogastric Nerve Block: Case Report and Safety Review

Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most commonly performed procedures in the United States. Ilioinguinal-iliohypogastric nerve blocks are commonly performed for postoperative pain control. Transient femoral nerve palsy is a recognized complication of this block. A 75-year-old male underwent an uncomplicated Lichtenstein repair of an incarcerated right inguinal hernia. An ilioinguinal-iliohypogastric nerve block was performed at the conclusion. Postoperatively, he reported symptomatology of femoral nerve palsy, with full resolution within 8 h. Femoral nerve palsy occurs when anesthetic is infiltrated into the transverse abdominis muscle, allowing for diffusion toward the femoral nerve along contiguous planes of the transverse abdominis-iliacus fascia. Incidence can be as high as 5%. Literature favors ultrasound to landmark-based approaches for improved efficacy and reduced complications. Postoperative protocols for femoral nerve palsy can be implemented with minimal effect on nursing workflow to improve patient safety from the effects of this complication. J Med Cases. 2017;8(5):155-158 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc2809w
Economic evaluation of epinephrine auto-injectors for peanut allergy.

Abstract Background Three commercial epinephrine auto-injectors were available in the United States in the summer of 2016: EpiPen, Adrenaclick, and epinephrine injection, USP auto-injector. Objective To describe the variation in pharmacy costs among epinephrine auto-injector devices in New England and evaluate the additional expense associated with incremental auto-injector costs. Methods Decision analysis software was used to evaluate costs of the most and least expensive epinephrine auto-injector devices for children with peanut allergy. To evaluate regional variation in epinephrine auto-injector costs, a random sample of New England national and corporate pharmacies was compared with a convenience sample of pharmacies from 10 Canadian provinces. Results Assuming prescriptions written for 2 double epinephrine packs each year (home and school), the mean costs of food allergy over the 20-year model horizon totaled $58,667 (95% confidence interval [CI] $57,745–$59,588) when EpiPen was prescribed and $45,588 (95% CI $44,873–$46,304) when epinephrine injection, USP auto-injector was prescribed. No effectiveness differences were evident between groups, with 17.19 (95% CI 17.11–17.27) quality-adjusted life years accruing for each subject. The incremental cost per episode of anaphylaxis treated with epinephrine over the model horizon was $12,576 for EpiPen vs epinephrine injection, USP auto-injector. EpiPen costs were lowest at Canadian pharmacies ($96, 95% CI $85–$107). There was price consistency between corporate and independent pharmacies throughout New England by device brand, with the epinephrine injection, USP auto-injector being the most affordable device. Conclusion Cost differences among epinephrine auto-injectors were significant. More expensive auto-injector brands did not appear to provide incremental benefit.
Pilot evaluation of the antipruritic efficacy of a topical transient receptor potential melastatin subfamily 8 (TRPM8) agonist in dogs with atopic dermatitis and pedal pruritus.

Background Atopic dermatitis (AD) requires a multimodal therapy and there is a need for effective adjunctive interventions. TRPM8 agonists are known to alleviate pruritus by inducing cooling. Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of a novel TRPM8 agonist, 1-diisopropylphosphorylheptane (Cryosim-1), in atopic dogs. Animals Nine client owned dogs with moderate to severe pedal pruritus associated with nonseasonal AD. Methods This was a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, intraindividual, placebo-controlled study. A 2% Cryosim-1 or placebo-vehicle cream was applied to each forepaw twice daily for seven days. The owner rated the pruritus manifestations once daily using a pedal Pruritus Visual Analog Scale (PVAS) and provided a Owner's Global Assessment of Treatment Efficacy (OGATE) at study end. Results After seven days, the numbers of dogs with a pedal PVAS <2.0 for Cryosim-1 and placebo were three and five of nine, respectively; likewise, OGATE scores of good-to-excellent were two and five of eight, respectively – these proportions were not significant between treatment groups (P = 0.32 and 0.16, respectively). Furthermore, there was no significant difference between Cryosim-1 and placebo in the median percentage change from baseline PVAS (47% versus 75%; P = 0.15) and in the number of dogs with a ≥50% or a ≥90% reduction from baseline pedal PVAS (four of nine versus five of nine, P = 0.50; two of nine versus two of nine, P = 0.72). Conclusions In this pilot trial with a TRPM8 agonist in atopic dogs with pedal pruritus, the twice daily application of a 2% Cryosim-1 cream did not have an antipruritic effect superior to that of its vehicle.
Association of herbal/botanic supplement use with quality of life, recurrence, and survival in newly diagnosed stage II colon cancer patients: A 2-y follow-up study.

Abstract Objectives Our objective was to investigate the association between herbal/botanic supplement use and perceived quality of life (QoL), cancer recurrence, and all-cause mortality in colon cancer patients. Methods Patients (n = 453) newly diagnosed with stage II adenocarcinoma of the colon between 2009 and 2011 were recruited from the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry. Data including demographic variables, herbal medicine use and frequency, lifestyle, diet, cancer treatment, and QoL were collected by interviews at diagnosis (baseline) and 1 and 2 y after diagnosis. Mortality information was obtained via the National Death Index. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Colorectal (FACT-C) and Medical Outcomes Short Form 12 (SF-12) were used to evaluate QoL. Results At baseline, herbal/botanic supplement users were more likely to have a healthier lifestyle than non-users, including more physical activity (P Conclusion In this study, patients with stage II colon cancer using herbal/botanic supplements had no significant improvement in their QoL and no difference in odds of colon cancer recurrence and all-cause mortality over 2 y after diagnosis compared with those who did not use herbs/botanicals. Further studies are warranted to confirm the findings and to focus on types of herbal/botanic supplements.
A Sabbatical as a Middle Grades Science Teacher: Building New Practical Knowledge for Practice

Few science teacher educators take the plunge into full-time K-12 classroom teaching again while on sabbatical leave from their college or university. Dr. Charles Eick did just that and shares his experience in preparing for classroom teaching again and what he learned about himself and teaching in implementing a new reform-based curriculum to eighth graders. He approaches his story of teaching physical science from the perspective of building on his personal practical knowledge as a progressive teacher from 10 years ago for today’s twenty-first-century science classroom. Technology became a primary vehicle for teaching and learning a new curriculum through guided inquiry. His blend of new techniques learned in professional development with those from his past teaching experiences created a new learning environment. His new emphasis on inquiry for learning through conceptual change often excluded his past practical knowledge of other effective science teaching approaches based on the learning cycle. What he learns and relearns in authentic practice using guided inquiry adds great credibility to his teaching, research, and outreach today.
Quantifying Phenomenological Importance in Best-Estimate Plus Uncertainty Analyses

This paper describes a general methodology for quantifying the importance of specific phenomenological elements to analysis measures evaluated from nonparametric best-estimate plus uncertainty eval...
Judgment Accuracy and the Asymmetric Cost of Errors in Distributive Bargaining

Bargainers must generally attempt to judge their counterparts' preferences, beliefs, and alternatives to settlement. Both descriptive and prescriptive theorists have assumed that an accurate perception of the other bargainer's reservation price (r.p.) is advantageous. Yet, unbiased judgments are optimal only when the costs of underestimation and overestimation are symmetric. Optimistic bias has been found to have adaptive value in judgments related to other types of tasks. In two studies we examined the relationship between perceptions of the bargaining zone and settlements in essentially distributive bargaining games. In the largely exploratory study one, bargainers were generally optimistically biased (i.e., they thought their counterpart could concede more than s/he really could) and optimism was positively correlated with profitability. In study 2 we manipulated information to induce accurate or biased perceptions. Optimistically biased negotiators again reached more profitable settlements than accurate or pessimistically biased negotiators. Optimism did not increase the likelihood of impasse in either study. Nor did it damage the relationship between the parties. Initial optimism appears to play an adaptive role in bargaining.
Adaptive Methods for Nonconvex Optimization

Adaptive gradient methods that rely on scaling gradients down by the square root of exponential moving averages of past squared gradients, such RMSProp, Adam, Adadelta have found wide application in optimizing the nonconvex problems that arise in deep learning. However, it has been recently demonstrated that such methods can fail to converge even in simple convex optimization settings. In this work, we provide a new analysis of such methods applied to nonconvex stochastic optimization problems, characterizing the effect of increasing minibatch size. Our analysis shows that under this scenario such methods do converge to stationarity up to the statistical limit of variance in the stochastic gradients (scaled by a constant factor). In particular, our result implies that increasing minibatch sizes enables convergence, thus providing a way to circumvent the non-convergence issues. Furthermore, we provide a new adaptive optimization algorithm, Yogi, which controls the increase in effective learning rate, leading to even better performance with similar theoretical guarantees on convergence. Extensive experiments show that Yogi with very little hyperparameter tuning outperforms methods such as Adam in several challenging machine learning tasks.
Dave Brubeck's Southern Strategy

In January 1960, white jazz pianist Dave Brubeck made headlines for cancelling a twenty-five-date tour of colleges and universities across the American South after twenty-two schools had refused to...
The effect of multiplicity of PI-RADS 3 lesions on cancer detection rate of confirmatory targeted biopsy in patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and managed with active surveillance.

ABSTRACT Background and Objective To determine the effect of multiplicity of prostate imaging reporting and data system assessment category 3 (PI-RADS 3) lesions on cancer detection rate (CDR) of confirmatory targeted biopsy of such lesion in patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and managed with active surveillance. Methods This study was conducted at a single academic institution. There were 91 men with ≥ 1 PI-RADS 3 lesion detected through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after systematic prostate biopsy in the course of management of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer with active surveillance. We compared the CDRs based on targeted biopsy of PI-RADS 3 lesions that occurred (1) as solitary lesions, (2) as 1 of multiple PI-RADS 3 only lesions, or (3) with ≥ 1 higher grade lesion. Results Median age was 65.0 years (interquartile range 59.5–70.0), median prostate specific antigen was 5.95 ng/ml (interquartile range 4.30–8.83), and median prostate specific antigen density was 0.161 ng/ml2 (0.071–0.194). Forty-three men had solitary PI-RADS 3 lesions, 22 had multiple PI-RADS 3 only lesions, and 26 had multiple lesions with ≥ 1 higher grade lesion. The overall CDR (Gleason score ≥ 3 + 3) based on confirmatory MRI targeted biopsy in a given PI-RADS 3 lesion in each group was 23%, 45%, and 54%, respectively (P = 0.0274). The CDRs for clinically significant disease (Gleason score ≥ 3 + 4) were 16%, 32%, and 35%, respectively (P = 0.1701). Conclusions Coexisting lesions increase the CDR of confirmatory MRI targeted biopsy of PI-RADS 3 lesions in patients managed with active surveillance. Risk stratification algorithms for PI-RADS 3 lesion to guide biopsy and management decisions may consider including multiplicity of lesions.
Quantitative Technique: A Missing Gap in Africa’s Contemporary Historiography

Historiography, as a technique of writing history is a combination of art and the sciences. The over – ridding objective is to present history with commitment to truth and objectivity. To achieve this, the African historians working on Africa rely on a number of sources. However, in their presentation, they have over – used the traditional conservative historical method, which is a combination of the narrative and unit analysis with focus on qualitative technique. Over the years, the qualitative approach has become the norm in African historical research. This trend still persist unbroken till today. The position of this study is that the over – reliance on qualitative approach to the utter neglect and apparent under – use of quantitative method has created a missing gap in historical research. This is because contemporary burning issues in Africa can no longer be adequately understood and addressed without the use of innovative multidisciplinary mix, integrating politico – economic social, institutional sectors with quantitative analysis, in order to achieve an evidence based research for the solution of Africa’s multifaceted challenges.
EML webinar overview: Liquid metals at the extreme

Abstract Gallium-based liquid metals are often overlooked despite their remarkable properties: melting points below room temperature, water-like viscosity, low-toxicity, and effectively zero vapor pressure (they do not evaporate). They also have, by far, the largest interfacial tension of any liquid at room temperature. Normally small volumes of liquids with large tension form spherical or hemi-spherical structures to minimize surface energy. Yet, these liquid metals can be patterned and printed into non-spherical shapes (cones, wires, antennas, circuits) due to a thin, oxide skin that forms rapidly on its surface. The ability to pattern metal enables new types of ultra-stretchable wires, self-healing circuits, and soft logic devices (the latter of which perform logic in a ‘distributed’ way without conventional semiconductors). Combining liquid metals with elastomer can also lead to emergent and new material properties, such as tough fibers and composites with negative piezopermittivity (decreasing dielectric ‘constant’ with strain, which is unprecedented) and positive piezoconductivity (increasing conductivity with strain, which is highly unusual). Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of liquid metals it the ability to use interfacial electrochemistry chemistry to remove/deposit the oxide to manipulate the interfacial tension of the metal over unprecedented ranges (from the largest tension of any known liquid to near zero). The properties of liquid metals have implications for soft and stretchable devices with desirable mechanical properties for human–machineinterfaces soft robotics, and wearable electronics. EML webinar speakers and videos are updated at https://imechanica.org/node/24098 .
An emulation-based evaluation of TCP BBRv2 Alpha for wired broadband

Abstract Google published the first release of the Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip Time (BBR) congestion control algorithm in 2016. Since then, BBR has gained a widespread attention due to its ability to operate efficiently in the presence of packet loss and in scenarios where routers are equipped with small buffers. These characteristics were not attainable with traditional loss-based congestion control algorithms such as CUBIC and Reno. BBRv2 is a recent congestion control algorithm proposed as an improvement to its predecessor, BBRv1. Preliminary work suggests that BBRv2 maintains the high throughput and the bounded queueing delay properties of BBRv1. However, the literature has been missing an evaluation of BBRv2 under different network conditions. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of BBRv2 Alpha (v2alpha-2019-07-28) on Mininet, considering alternative active queue management (AQM) algorithms, routers with different buffer sizes, variable packet loss rates and round-trip times (RTTs), and small and large numbers of TCP flows. Emulation results show that BBRv2 tolerates much higher random packet loss rates than loss-based algorithms but slightly lower than BBRv1. The results also confirm that BBRv2 has better coexistence with loss-based algorithms and lower retransmission rates than BBRv1, and that it produces low queuing delay even with large buffers. When a Tail Drop policy is used with large buffers, an unfair bandwidth allocation is observed among BBRv2 and CUBIC flows. Such unfairness can be reduced by using advanced AQM schemes such as FQ-CoDel and CAKE. Regarding fairness among BBRv2 flows, results show that using small buffers produces better fairness, without compromising high throughput and link utilization. This observation applies to BBRv1 flows as well, which suggests that rate-based model-based algorithms work better with small buffers. BBRv2 also enhances the coexistence of flows with different RTTs, mitigating the RTT unfairness problem noted in BBRv1. Lastly, the paper presents the advantages of using TCP pacing with a loss-based algorithm, when the rate is manually configured a priori. Future algorithms could set the pacing rate using explicit feedback generated by modern programmable switches.
Activist Hedge Fund Success: The Role of Reputation

Activist hedge funds are the new breed of corporate raiders, yet we know little about how the management and board of target firms respond to activist investors. Using a behavioral perspective, we propose that the activist’s reputation for being confrontational may serve as a signal that conveys information by which to assess the likely behavior of the activist investor, which in turn influences whether or not management and the board acquiesce to its demands. Given that a campaign waged by a confrontational activist can draw attention and increased scrutiny to the company’s performance and strategy as well as be costly to engage in, we predict that management and the board may choose to settle with the activist in order to avoid such a confrontation. We propose and find that activists with a reputation for being confrontational will have greater success in getting their demands met.We also provide evidence that the effect of an activist’s reputation on campaign success extends to both major (e.g., business strategy) and minor (e.g., capital structure) demands. Our paper contributes to corporate governance research by providing insight on how the management and board of target firms respond when an activist knocks on the door. The paper provides evidence as to the importance of the social context surrounding activist campaigns and the role of reputation in influencing how companies respond to activist investors.
Exploration of Clinician Adherence and Competency as Predictors of Treatment Outcomes in a School-Based Homework and Organization Intervention for Students with ADHD

Addressing the complex homework and organization problems faced by students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) must be balanced with ensuring that interventions are feasible to implement. The Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) intervention was developed to be a brief intervention implemented in typical school settings with minimal training/support required for school clinicians. Given this, it is critical to explore how clinician adherence and competency relate to student outcomes. Participants included 107 adolescents with ADHD (Mage = 11.95, SD = 1.04; 69% male; 57% on ADHD medication) who participated in the HOPS intervention. Path analyses examined the relation between clinician adherence (fidelity to session content, session length) and competency (e.g., empathic, enthusiastic, calm, collaborative), controlling for baseline scores of the outcome measure and other relevant therapeutic processes (parent and adolescent engagement, working alliance). Clinician fidelity and competency were inversely related, such that highly competent clinicians had lower fidelity to the HOPS content. Importantly, clinician competency was a significant predictor of fewer parent-reported adolescent organizational problems and a higher percentage of assignments turned in post-HOPS, whereas clinician fidelity was unrelated to treatment outcomes. Session length was inversely related to parent-reported homework performance, such that longer session length was associated with worse homework outcomes. Findings suggest that school clinician competency is an important factor in predicting positive treatment outcomes for youth who participate in school-based homework and organization interventions. Training to help school clinicians improve their competency including being more empathetic, calm, motivating, and collaborative with students, and to help them flexibly implement school-based interventions is warranted.
56 – CO2 AS A VOLATILE COMPONENT OF THE MANTLE: THE SYSTEM Mg2SiO4–SiO2–H2O–CO2

The system Mg2SiO4–SiO2–H2O–CO2 has been studied at a pressure of 20 kbar as a model for the melting behavior of peridotite in the presence of two volatile components. In the presence of CO2 and H2O, the assemblage forsterite (Fo) + enstatite (En) begins to melt at a higher temperature than in the presence of H2O alone. The liquids are CO2– and H2O–charged, yet show no tendency toward carbonatite immiscibility. Partial melts are generated at temperatures greater than 1400°C when CO2/H2O ratios are greater than 45 mole % CO2 and are silica-undersaturated in the CIPW norm, whereas partial melts produced at lower temperatures and H2O–rich conditions are silica–oversaturated. Liquids in the vapor–absent region of the join Fo–En–H2O which are in equilibrium with Fo + En also exhibit this normative change in character at 1400°C at 20 kbar. The chemical change therefore is not a result of changes in melt structure due to CO2 solution, even though up to about 7 wt.% C02 dissolves in En melt at 20 kbar. Rather, CO2 raises the temperature of the peridotite solidus relative to the beginning of melting with H2O and reduces activity of H2O. Hydrous magmas produced in the mantle in general contain much less H2O than is needed to saturate the melt and hence do not evolve vapor as they rise, until shallow depths are reached. By contrast, magmas containing CO2 and H2O may evolve vapor in the mantle or lower crust. The principal cause is the relatively lower solubility of CO2 in silicate melts, which is less than that of H2O at high pressure and very much less at pressures less than 10 kbar. Vapor rich in CO2 dissolves less total silicate than H2O–vapor and has markedly lower solubility of silica but does dissolve alkalies. The relationship of silica-undersaturated liquid and CO2–rich vapor may explain some of the characteristics of kimberlite or of magmas associated with kimberlite.
How Your School, Non-profit Organization, or Business Can Reduce or Eliminate Its Carbon Footprint

Schools, non-profit organizations, and businesses (SNBs) are becoming much more engaged in sustainability and are finding ways to reduce greenhouse gases. Many K-12 schools, like Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, Florida, have embraced a sustainability mission and infuse climate education across the curriculum. Colleges and universities around the world are also taking concrete steps and are often guided by organizations like the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for benchmarking tools and accessing best-practice case studies. Non-profit organizations, many of which are engaged with climate change science and policy, can use the NGO Climate Compact to guide organizational efforts. Businesses have a wide array of tools available to them and most major companies conduct regular greenhouse gas inventories that they report back to their stakeholders. Several ways that SNBs can make easy, hard and/or expensive, and innovative/life-changing efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas impacts are presented.
Puzzled: Variations on the Ham Sandwich Theorum

Welcome to three new puzzles. Solutions to the first two will be published next month; the third is (as yet) unsolved. In each, the issue is how your intuition matches up with the mathematics.
Pointing in Intelligent Environments with the WorldCursor.

We introduce the WorldCursor, a pointing device and cursor designed for intelligent environments. The WorldCursor is analogous to the mouse and cursor used in traditional GUIs: the user may select and interact with a physical device by positioning the cursor on the device and clicking. We use the XWand (Wilson, 2003) as a physical pointing mechanism, and couple it with the WorldCursor device which projects a cursor on the physical environment. The WorldCursor improves upon the XWand by removing the need for external positioning technology such as video cameras. We detail the device and signal processing algorithms, and discuss its application in intelligent environments.
Human Papillomavirus and Genital Warts

Unknown until the second half of the twentieth century, human papillomavirus (HPV) is now recognized as being one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States, accounting for more than one third of the new cases of STIs each year (http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/1447-std_fs.cfm). Most HPV infections cause no symptoms, other types can cause genital warts, and still others cause invasive squamous cell anogenital carcinoma. This chapter provides an overview of HPV infection—its transmissibility and epidemiology. It focuses on genital warts in its discussion of the clinical consequences of HPV infection and treatment options. The contribution HPV infection makes to various genital cancers is mentioned, but the screening, diagnosis, and treatments of these conditions are outside the scope of this book.
Analysis of hemolytic determinants of plasmid pHly185 by Tn5 mutagenesis.

Abstract A nonconjugative hemolysin plasmid, pHly185, was isolated from Escherichia coli 185. Tn5 mutagenesis produced nonhemolytic derivatives that either expressed no hemolytic activity or did not secrete activity. These Tn5 insertions were located in three contiguous EcoRI fragments. Insertions inactivating hemolysin structural gene(s) were identified on all three EcoRI fragments. Mutations affecting the secretory function were clustered in one portion of a single EcoRI fragment.
El contrapunto de la percepción: Vallejo en clave local/global

La poca pacifica entrada al mercado global en la Colombia de los '80 y '90 ofrece un momento fecundo para la innovacion literaria, segun el estudio de Maria Helena Rueda "El contrapunto de la percepcion: Vallejo en clave local/global". Para Rueda, el texto que lanza a Vallejo a la fama internacional, La virgen de los sicarios, constituye un holograma de un momento en el que intelectuales, artistas y lideres civicos intentan representar realidades extremas para publicos internacionales. Nuevas subjetividades urbanas, como la del sicario, viven entre flujos mercantiles, en tanto una nueva literatura urbana colombiana se ubica en un espacio cultural que tambien siente el impacto de la globalizacion. Cuidadosamente, Maria Helena Rueda coloca La Virgen de los sicarios en este contexto, entre el canon nacional y un publico internacional que acogio con entusiasmo "la sicaresca".
Public Real Estate Management-Adapting Corporate Practice to the Public Sector: The Experience in Cleveland, Ohio

This paper addresses the issue of public real estate management, focusing on the potential to adapt corporate management practice to the public sector. The research begins with a review of the surv...
Implications of heavy-ion-induced satellite X-ray emission V: Fine structure of the sulfur K X-ray satellite peaks☆

We have studied Kα X-ray emission induced by 34 MeV 35Cl ions from several compounds at the ORNL EN Tandem Van de Graaff with a high-throughput, high-resolution Bragg crystal spectrometer in the Van Hamos geometry. The X-rays are diffracted off a cylindrically curved, highly reflective quartz crystal and detected with a position-sensitive proportional counter. The resolution of the spectrometer was better than one part in 2000. The data show remarkable and distinct fine structure in the individual KLn satellite peaks. Such data should aid in eventual comparisons with structures predicted by theoretical transition energy and intensity calculations.
Fast antirandom (FAR) test generation

Anti-random testing has proved useful in a series of empirical evaluations. The basic premise of anti-random testing is to choose new test vectors that are as far away from existing test inputs as possible. The distance measure is the Hamming or Cartesian distance. Unfortunately, this method essentially requires emuneration of the input space and computation of each input vector when used on an arbitrary set of existing test data. This prevents scale-up to a large test sets and/or long input vectors. We present and empirically evaluate a technique to generate anti-random vectors that is computationally feasible for large input vectors and long sequences of tests. We also show how this fast anti-random test generation (FAR) can consider retained state (i.e. effects of subsequent inputs on each other). We evaluate effectiveness using branch coverage as the testing criterion.
Stimulating effect of anabaena sp. (cyanobacteria) exudate on prymnesium parvum (haptophyta)1

Prymnesium parvum blooms have become more frequent in the south-central United States, leading to significant ecological and economic impacts. Allelopathic effects from cyanobacteria were suggested as a mechanism that might limit the development of P. parvum blooms. This research focused on the effects of cultured cyanobacteria, Anabaena sp., on P. parvum. Over a 6-d period, daily additions of filtrate from the senescent Anabaena culture were made to P. parvum cultures growing in log phase. All treatments, including several types of controls, showed reductions in P. parvum biomass over the course of the experiment, but the treatments receiving Anabaena filtrate were reduced to a lesser degree, suggesting that filtrate from the senescent cyanobacteria culture was beneficial to P. parvum in some way. This unexpected outcome may have resulted from stimulation of heterotrophic bacteria by the addition of Anabaena filtrate, which likely contained exudates rich in dissolved organic carbon compounds. P. parvum was then able to supplement its nutritional requirements for growth by feeding on the elevated bacteria population. These findings coupled to previous observations suggest that interactions between cyanobacteria and P. parvum in natural environments are complex, where both allelopathic and growth-stimulating interactions are possible.
Relationship Competencies in Child Welfare Services

A series of nine focus groups were conducted to obtain worker and client views of key competencies in child welfare services. Both clients and workers cited the worker's ability to establish an effective working relationship as the primary prerequisite to effective assessment or intervention. A range of specific worker-client relationship competencies are identified and discussed, as are implications of the findings for social work practice, training, and education.
Extremity Salvage by Revascularization

Advances in prosthetic devices led to our analysis of revascularization in patients presenting with gangrene of the lower extremity. Between 1966 and 1976, 99 grafts were performed on 96 of the 249 patients treated by lower extremity revascularization who presented with the above criteria. Their mean age was 66 years; 46 (48%) were diabetic, 53 (55%) were over the age of 65, and 38 (40%) had angiographically proven disease with one vessel runoff. Initial therapy consisted of intravenous antibiotics and local debridement to control sepsis, followed by detailed arteriography. Femoral-popliteal bypass was per formed in 87 patients, and a more distal vessel was utilized in 9. There were 5 in- hospital deaths. Of these, 4 patients had come to major amputation. Four died as a result of myocardial infarctions, and 1 as a result of a cerebrovascular accident.Immediate graft patency was achieved in 93 of 99 patients (93%). Minor amputations were required in 44 patients. Early graft failure resulted in major amputa...
Vertical craniofacial growth changes in French-Canadians between 10 and 15 years of age

Introduction Because of limited available reference data, this study described the vertical growth changes that occur in untreated adolescents 10 to 15 years of age and evaluated the validity of measurements commonly used to classify patients’ vertical growth tendencies. Methods The sample consisted of 228 subjects (119 boys, 109 girls) between 10 and 15 years of age with normal occlusions or malocclusions who had lateral cephalograms (n = 1303) taken annually. Based on 6 landmarks, 3 angles (PPA, MPA, PP/MPA) and 2 proportions (PFH:AFH and UFH:LFH) were calculated. To reduce errors, each subject’s growth curve was estimated by using multilevel modeling procedures, and the estimated values were analyzed. Results Growth changes between 10 and 15 years for each of the 5 measurements followed relatively simple (linear or quadratic) polynomial models. On average, PPA and PFH:AFH increased, and MPA and PP/MPA decreased. The UFH:LFH ratio increased during the first few years and then decreased. MPA, PP/MPA, and PFH:AFH showed moderately high intercorrelations; PPA displayed moderate to moderately low correlations with UFH:LFH; UFH:LFH showed a moderate correlation with PP/MPA. Approximately 75% to 86% of the subjects classified as hyperdivergent or hypodivergent at 10 years maintained their classification. Subjects classified as hyperdivergent at 15 years of age showed significantly greater growth changes than did those classified within normal limits, who, in turn, showed greater changes than did the hypodivergent subjects. Conclusions Measurements typically used to classify vertical growth tendencies changed significantly during adolescence, with boys generally showing greater changes than girls. Although MPA, PFH:AFH, and PP/MPA measured the same phenotypic attribute, PPA and UFH:LFH were relatively independent of the other 3 measurements. Most subjects maintained their vertical facial types, but some worsened, and others improved.
Semiparametric variance‐component models for linkage and association analyses of censored trait data

Variance-component (VC) models are widely used for linkage and association mapping of quantitative trait loci in general human pedigrees. Traditional VC methods assume that the trait values within a family follow a multivariate normal distribution and are fully observed. These assumptions are violated if the trait data contain censored observations. When the trait pertains to age at onset of disease, censoring is inevitable because of loss to follow-up and limited study duration. Censoring also arises when the trait assay cannot detect values below (or above) certain thresholds. The latent trait values tend to have a complex distribution. Applying traditional VC methods to censored trait data would inflate type I error and reduce power. We present valid and powerful methods for the linkage and association analyses of censored trait data. Our methods are based on a novel class of semiparametric VC models, which allows an arbitrary distribution for the latent trait values. We construct appropriate likelihood for the observed data, which may contain left or right censored observations. The maximum likelihood estimators are approximately unbiased, normally distributed, and statistically efficient. We develop stable and efficient numerical algorithms to implement the corresponding inference procedures. Extensive simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed methods outperform the existing ones in practical situations. We provide an application to the age at onset of alcohol dependence data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism. A computer program is freely available.