cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Examining Truth and State-Sponsored Media Campaigns as a Means of Decreasing Youth Smoking and Related Disparities in the U.S.

Introduction To analyze the impact of Truth and state-sponsored anti-tobacco media campaigns on youth smoking in the U.S., and their potential to reduce tobacco-related health disparities. Methods Our study included data from the 2000-2015 Monitoring the Future study, an annual nationally representative survey of youth in 8 th (n=201,913), 10 th (n=194,468), and 12 th grades (n=178,379). Our primary exposure was Gross Ratings Points (GRPS) of Truth or state-sponsored anti-tobacco advertisements, from Nielsen Media Research. Modified Poisson regression was used to assess the impact of a respondent's GRPs on smoking intentions, past 30-day smoking participation, and first and daily smoking initiation. Additive interactions with sex, parental education, college plans, and race/ethnicity were used to test for differential effects of campaign exposure on each outcome. Results Greater campaign exposure (80 th vs. 20 th GRP percentile) was associated with lower probabilities of smoking intentions among 8 th graders, smoking participation among 8 th and 12 th graders, and initiation among 8 th graders. Greater exposure was associated with a greater reduction in the likelihood of smoking participation among 10 th and 12 th grade males than females; 10 th and 12 th graders with parents of lower education versus those with a college degree; and 12 th graders who did not definitely plan to go to college relative to those who did. Conclusions Media campaign exposure was associated with a lower likelihood of youth smoking behaviors. Associations were more pronounced for groups disproportionately affected by smoking, including youth of lower socioeconomic status. Media campaigns may be useful in reducing smoking disparities and improving health equity. Implications Few recent studies have investigated the impact of anti-tobacco media campaigns on youth smoking and their potential to reduce tobacco-related health disparities in the U.S. We found media campaigns - specifically state-sponsored media campaigns - reduced the likelihood of several smoking outcomes among youth, with some evidence that they mitigate disparities for disproportionately affected groups.
The Aging Population and Competitiveness of Cities: Benefits to the Urban Economy By P. K. Kresl & D. Ietri

Does an ever-increasing aging population worldwide, particularly in urban areas, result in a net cost or gain to cities? In The Aging Population and Competitiveness of Cities: Benefits to the Urban...
Performance and Apprehension of the Mass in an Urban Catholic School: Strategy, Liturgy, Capital

This article examines students’ literacy practices during Mass and other Catholic religious services in a multilingual, multiethnic urban Catholic school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It discusses...
Secondhand smoke exposure in preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Summary Objectives Preterm infants and children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) often experience significant respiratory morbidities during the first two years of life. Second hand smoke (SHS) has been demonstrated to lead to respiratory morbidities in the general population. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence/impact of SHS on preterm infants and children with BPD. Methods Subjects (n = 352) were recruited from the Johns Hopkins BPD outpatient clinic between January 2008 and August 2012. Second hand smoke exposure and respiratory morbidities were assessed through questionnaires and chart review. Results Twenty-eight percent of preterm infants with BPD were exposed to SHS in the home setting, despite having significant lung disease. SHS was associated with multiple measures of socio-economic status, including lower household income (P < 0.001), lower caregiver education level (P = 0.013), and having public versus private insurance (P = 0.002). We found no difference in acute care use or chronic symptoms with SHS exposure. We observed trends that preterm infants who were exposed to SHS were more likely to be prescribed inhaled corticosteroids (P = 0.054) and were weaned off of supplemental oxygen over 2 months later (P = 0.13) than infants not exposed to SHS. Conclusion SHS exposure in preterm infants with BPD is common, even in those receiving supplemental oxygen and respiratory medications. Although there were no associations between respiratory outcomes and self-reported SHS exposure, trends toward increased use of inhaled steroids and a longer duration of supplemental oxygen use were noted. Further work is needed to determine more accurate means of assessing SHS risk in this vulnerable population. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2014; 49:173–178. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Neutral nanocluster chemistry studied by soft x-ray laser single-photon ionization : Application to soft x-ray optical surface contamination studies: SimOn and TimOn

Metal oxide clusters are employed in studies to help understand an important, specific, type of surface chemical problem: the contamination of soft x-ray mirrors by carbon deposits. Herein we report nanocluster chemistry studies that are relevant to the use of silicon oxide and titanium oxide capping layers. Systems involving Si m O n , and Ti m O n metal oxide nanoclusters are generated in a pulsed supersonic expansion/ablation source and passed through a reactor containing any reactant desired. The reaction products of these gas phase clusters are ionized using single photon ionization from a desk-top sized 46.9 nm Ne-like Ar laser providing the advantage of little or no fragmentation of desired nanoclusters. The ionized products are analyzed by a time of flight mass spectrometer and experimental results supply useful information related to condensed phase soft x-ray optical surfaces. The results illustrate the great potential of the use of very compact soft x-ray lasers in photochemistry and photophysics studies.
X-Linked Nonsyndromic Sinus Node Dysfunction and Atrial Fibrillation Caused by Emerin Mutation

Introduction Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a heritable disorder with male predilection, suggesting a sex chromosome defect in certain patients. Loss-of-function truncation mutations in EMD, encoding the nuclear membrane protein emerin, cause X-linked Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD) characterized by localized contractures and skeletal myopathy in adolescence, sinus node dysfunction (SND) in early adulthood, and atrial fibrillation as a variably associated trait. This study sought to identify the genetic basis for male-restricted, nonsyndromic sinus node dysfunction and AF in a multigenerational family. Methods and results Genealogical and medical records, and DNA samples, were obtained. Progressive SND and AF occurred in four males related through maternal lineages, consistent with X-linked inheritance. Skeletal myopathy was absent, even at advanced ages. Targeted X chromosome genotyping mapped the disease locus to Xq28, implicating EMD as a positional candidate gene. DNA sequencing revealed hemizygosity for an in-frame 3-bp deletion in EMD (Lys37del) in affected males, disrupting a residue within the LEM binding domain critical for nuclear assembly but leaving the remainder of the protein intact. Buccal epithelial cell staining with emerin antibody demonstrated near-total functional loss of emerin. Female relatives underwent prospective electrocardiographic and genetic testing. Those heterozygous for Lys37del had approximately 50-70% emerin-positive nuclei and variable degrees of paroxysmal supraventricular arrhythmia. Conclusions Mutation of EMD can underlie X-linked familial AF. Lys37del is associated with epithelial cell emerin deficiency, as in EDMD, yet it causes electrical atriomyopathy in the absence of skeletal muscle disease. Targeted genetic testing of EMD should be considered in patients with SND-associated AF and/or family history suggesting X-linked inheritance.
Technical progress in a three-country ricardian model with a continuum of goods

Abstract This paper develops a three-country extension to the Ricardian model with a continuum of goods. In contrast to the standard two country version, uniform technical progress in one country is shown to make the country which is a close substitute in production unambiguously worse off, while improving the welfare of the other, less similar country.
Infrared and Raman spectra of 1H-trifluorocyclopropene-d0 and -d1☆

Abstract From gas-phase and matrix-phase i.r. spectra and liquid-phase Raman spectra a complete assignment is derived for the vibrational fundamentals of 1H-trifluorocyclopropene-d0 and d1. For the undeuterated molecule the frequencies (in cm−1 and approximate characterizations of the fundamentals are: (a′) 3157 (CH stretch), 1793 (CC stretch), 1404 (CC stretch), 1160 (CC, CF stretch), 993 (CH bend), 854 (CC, CF stretch), 764 (CF2 stretch), 613 (CF bend), 500 (CF2 scissors), and 281 (CF2 rock); (a″) 1103 (CF2 stretch), 788 (CH wag), 570 (CF wag, CF2 torsion), 380 (CF wag, CF2 torsion), and 204 (CF wag, CF2 rock). All fundamentals of the undeuterated molecule and all but one of the deuterated molecule are directly observed.
Calibration of nonlinear solid-state sensor arrays using multivariate regression techniques

Abstract The application of an array of eight Taguchi gas sensors to analyze two- and three-component mixture sets of toluene, benzene, acetone, and trichlorethylene is presented. The calibration of each mixture set is performed by two linear-based parametric modeling techniques, partial least-squares and nonlinear partial least-squares, and two nonparametric modeling methods, multivariate adaptive regression splines and projection pursuit regression. The overall ability of nonparametric techniques to calibrate arrays of nonlinear responding sensors and predict future samples is much better than that of linear parametric models. The average prediction error for the nonparametric techniques is approximately half of that for the linear methods.
An empirical investigation of going private decisions of U.S. firms

According to many managers, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 caused the costs of being public to increase. Subsequently, following the Act, many firms went private rather than incur the costs. We investigate the differences in the financial characteristics of firms that went private between 1998 and 2003 and a control sample of firms which went public and did not go private Our results indicate that there are differences in the two groups, as well as differences in firms that went private prior to and following Sarbanes-Oxley. Taken together, our results are indicative of going private to avoid the higher costs of being public post Sarbanes-Oxley.
Tolerance to anticholinesterase compounds in mammals

Abstract Administration of multiple, sublethal doses of organophosphorus insecticides induces the development of tolerance to their toxicity. Among the differebt hypotheses investigated to explain the mechanism of this phenomenon, the one which has received the greatest experimental support is a downregulation of the muscarinic cholinergic receptors. Subsensitivity to cholinergic agonist has been demonstrated in vivo and in vitro in isolated organ preparations. Receptor bindng experiments using muscarinicantagonists and agonists revealed a decrease of cholinergic receptors in central and peripheral tissues. Tolerance to another class of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, carbamates has also been demonstrated. Difference from and similarities to organophosphate tolerance are discussed.
Allotetraploid hybrids between citrus and seven related genera produced by somatic hybridization

We have developed an efficient protoplast-fusion method to produce somatic hybrid allopolyploid plants that combine Citrus with seven related genera, including four that are sexually incompatible. In this paper we report the creation of 18 new allotetraploid hybrids of Citrus, including ten among sexually incompatible related genera, that may have direct cultivar potential as improved citrus rootstocks. All hybrids were confirmed by cytological and RAPD analyses. If fertile, the attributes of these hybrids may be amenable to further genetic manipulation by breeding at the tetraploid level. Wide somatic hybridization of Citrus via protoplast fusion bypasses biological barriers to the natural allopolyploidization of Citrus, and creates new evolutionary opportunities that would be difficult or impossible to achieve by natural or conventional hybridization.
Enhancement of granulopoiesis by lithium carbonate in a patient with hairy cell leukemia

Forty-eight patients were enrolled in a clinical study of oral ciprofloxacin for the treatment of soft tissue or bone infections. Patients received 500 to 750 mg of ciprofloxacin every 12 hours. In the predominantly older population studied, there were 13 patients with osteomyelitis, 24 diabetic patients with soft tissue infection and probable osteomyelitis, and 11 patients with other soft tissue infections. Infecting pathogens included Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 25 patients, Serratia species in nine patients, Staphylococcus aureus in 13 patients, and other aerobic gram-negative rods in 21 patients. Clinical response (defined as resolution or improvement) was noted in 84 percent of patients with non-diabetic osteomyelitis, in 79 percent of patients with diabetic infections, and in 91 percent of patients with soft tissue infections. Microbiologic outcome was very favorable in 75 percent of cases, and Pseudomonas responded as well as any other pathogen. Pharmacokinetic properties of ciprofloxacin were evaluated in 12 patients, and the data were analyzed using both compartmental and non-compartmental analyses. Mean values for compartmental rate constants (hours-1) were as follows: absorption rate constant = 1.15; intercompartmental rate constants, k12 = 0.48, and k21 = 0.58; elimination rate constant = 0.46; distribution rate constant = 1.31; and terminal elimination rate constant = 0.19. The apparent volume of distribution at steady state/bioavailability was 196 liters and total body clearance/bioavailability was 45.9 liters/hour. The mean time to peak concentration was 1.3 hours. The mean peak concentration as determined by compartmental fitting (2.4 micrograms/ml) underestimated the observed peak (3.2 micrograms/ml) by 24.8 percent. Clearance of ciprofloxacin was similar regardless of the method used to fit the data, whereas the volume of distribution was significantly different when the two analysis techniques were compared. Ciprofloxacin was well tolerated, with the most frequent adverse reactions being rash, gastrointestinal intolerance, and increased levels of liver enzymes, each of which occurred in five patients.
Design and implementation of two-dimensional neural interfaces

Two-dimensional microelectrode arrays have been developed to serve as a direct man-machine neural interface wherein each microelectrode will be capable of action potential detection and stimulation. Passive arrays for determination of microelectrode circuit parameters have been designed and fabricated. The development of the circuit models, process steps and testing methods for postprocessing commercially fabricated CMOS devices into directly implantable microelectrode arrays are the desired end results. In parallel, the development of the required circuit designs for scanning and interfacing to the microelectrodes is being carried out. A 1024-site actively scanned array has been implemented using a standard double-metal 3- mu m polysilicon-gate CMOS process. The ultimate goal of the circuit design process is to achieve a density of microelectrodes comparable to the cross-sectional density of axons in peripheral nerves (approximately 2000 per mm/sup 2/). >
Energy analysis and NoC design for heterogeneous MPSoC platform for a video application

Networks-on-chip has been seen as an interconnect solution for complex system but the performance and the energy dissipation still represent limiting factors for Multi-Processors Systems-on-Chip (MPSoC). The future handheld devices must support multimedia applications for long battery life but this type of application imposes heavy constraints in terms of energy and forces the designers to optimize all parts of the platform to achieve the desirable goals. The objective of this paper is to analyze and assess the energy dissipation for heterogeneous NoC-based MPSoC platform running a video application. It identifies bottlenecks for the entire platform. We showed that the energy dissipation appear to be the most critical factor for memory and caches not for the communication architecture as the common belief. Also, we propose a new modeling and simulation approach regarding the channel width and buffer sizing which have a strong impact on the performance and the overhead of the chip. We showed that there are some hot spots in the system regarding the channel width and buffer size must be optimized to get a better performance.
Electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy in chest pain patients: Differentiation from acute coronary ischemic events

Electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and related repolarization changes alter the morphology of the ST segment and/or the T wave. Such electrocardiographic abnormalities--all features that are encountered in patients with acute ischemic heart disease--may confound the early emergency department evaluation of the chest pain patient. In the instance of the chest pain patient demonstrating ST segment/T wave abnormality, the correct electrocardiographic diagnosis must be made not only to offer appropriate management for that particular illness but also to avoid the incorrect application of potentially dangerous therapies such as thrombolysis. This report presents two cases in which the electrocardiogram demonstrated significant repolarization changes consistent with LVH, and focuses on the recognition of the expected ST segment/T waves changes and their differentiation from the primary ST segment/T wave changes associated with acute ischemic heart disease.
Development of a new durability index for compacted shale

Abstract Many highway embankments in the East Central United States and around the world have been constructed using compacted shale. When weathered, shale tends to degrade into a fine-grained mass of soil with high compressibility and low shear strength. Unfortunately, there are no reliable methods to predict the long-term behavior of compacted shale subjected to deterioration resulting from the weathering process. This study presents the results of analyses for index and geotechnical laboratory tests on both weathered and unweathered shale samples, durability tests on unweathered samples, and compaction and triaxial shear tests on compacted weathered shale samples. The result of this effort is the development of a new durability index that better characterizes the durability behavior of shales than the standard slake durability index. This new index is simple to perform and is well correlated with index and geotechnical properties of unweathered and weathered shale. A secondary result of this study is the development of a simple and reliable means to evaluate the shear strength of compacted shale behavior and swelling of core samples as a function of durability.
Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses with Demographic Data

An ecological evolutionary viewpoint offers new perspectives on contemporary demographic problems in general and on population–environment issues in particular. In turn, rich and detailed human demographic data can help solve problems of interest in evolutionary theory. Such data have been analyzed in greatest detail in studies of traditional and historical societies. Evolutionary approaches using historical data go beyond small-sample anthropological studies to the application of the evolutionary approach to large datasets, and illuminate important similarities between small-scale traditional societies and large modern populations living in evolutionarily novel environments. This article provides a concise update of the breadth of questions and hypotheses of likely interest to demographers and others that evolutionary theorists address using a variety of traditional and historical datasets. It suggests opportunities for additional collaborative work between evolutionary theorists and historical demographers and highlights topics relevant to modern demography.
Robust scientific evidence demonstrates benefits of artificial sweeteners.

Dr. John P. Foreyt received grants, honoraria, donations, and consulting fees from numerous food, beverage, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as other commercial and nonprofit entities with interests in obesity. He has served and is currently serving as a board member for multiple food, beverage, and pharmaceutical companies.Dr. Craig A. Johnston has no conflicts of interest to declare.
Women in the workplace: revisiting the production soldiers, 1939‐1945

More than any other war in history, the Second World War was a battle of production. The Germans and their allies had a ten‐year start amassing weapons. It was clear that Europe and the USA were playing a game of catch‐up, and it was equally clear that the side with the most aircraft, bombs, tanks and weapons would likely be the side that would win the war. Yet much of the workforce went to war and many women formed the logical alternative, though inexperienced, workforce. This was a culture change – the demands of wartime production had to take precedence over women’s conventional domestic roles, particularly those of married women. Few women in the USA had ever seen the inside of any manufacturing plant, let alone a defense plant, or the inside of a war plane or tank. But as their sisters abroad did, they left their kitchens, learned quickly and were wonderfully successful.
Effects of acute insulin insufficiency on liver and adipose tissue fatty acid synthesis

Abstract Insulin deficiency of 1.5–3 hours duration induced in rats by anti-insulin serum (AIS) resulted in a reduction in the incorporation of C 14 from labeled pyruvate or acetate into fatty acids in liver slices. Fatty acid synthesis was also reduced in livers of hypophysectomized rats and AIS resulted in a further decrease in lipogenesis. Metabolism of C 14 -labeled pyruvate by isolated adipose tissue was not influenced by prior treatment with AIS.
Phosphoproteome analysis of Drosophila melanogaster embryos.

Protein phosphorylation is a key regulatory event in most cellular processes and development. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics provides a framework for the large-scale identification and characterization of phosphorylation sites. Here, we used a well-established phosphopeptide enrichment and identification strategy including the combination of strong cation exchange chromatography, immobilized metal affinity chromatography, and high-accuracy mass spectrometry instrumentation to study phosphorylation in developing Drosophila embryos. In total, 13 720 different phosphorylation sites were discovered from 2702 proteins with an estimated false-discovery rate (FDR) of 0.63% at the peptide level. Because of the large size of the data set, both novel and known phosphorylation motifs were extracted using the Motif-X algorithm, including those representative of potential ordered phosphorylation events.
A critical analysis of the role of growth hormone and IGF-1 in aging and lifespan

Studies in Caenorhabditis elegans demonstrate that disruption of the daf-2 signaling pathways extends lifespan. Similarities among the daf-2 pathway, insulin-like signaling in flies and yeast, and the mammalian insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling cascade raise the possibility that modifications to IGF-1 signaling could also extend lifespan in mammals. In fact, growth hormone (GH)/IGF-1-deficient dwarf mice do live significantly longer than their wild-type counterparts. However, multiple endocrine deficiencies and developmental anomalies inherent in these models confound this interpretation. Here, we critique the current mammalian models of GH/IGF-1 deficiency and discuss the actions of GH/IGF-1 on biological aging and lifespan.
An enhanced transform domain communication system (ETDCS) with narrow-band interference (NBI) avoidance capability

Reliable communication over hostile environment is desired by both military and civilian parties. In this paper, we propose an enhanced transform domain communication system (ETDCS) with narrow-band interference (NBI) avoidance capability. The basic idea for this system is to synthesize adaptive waveform in the frequency domain by a non-parametric spectral estimator, called Capon's method, at both the transmitter and the receiver to avoid spectrally crowded regions. This approach offers better bit error performance than existing similar systems such as the transform domain communication system (TDCS) that utilizes a parametric autoregressive (AR) spectral estimator, the wavelet domain communication system (WDCS) which uses wavelet domain periodogram, or the enhanced wavelet domain communication system (EWDCS) which employs the evolutionary wavelet spectrum (EWS). Specifically, our proposed ETDCS significantly improves the bit error performance under non-stationary interference such as swepttone interference while achieving consistent bit error performance under stationary interference such as partial band, singletone, and multitone interference. Hence, our proposed ETDCS provides a viable alternative for highly reliable communication in interference rich communication environments.
Clinical judgment: a search for sex differences.

Two studies investigated the effects of sex differences on clinical judgments. In Study I, 50 male and 50 female college students evaluated self-disclosing statements attributed to seriously disturbed psychiatric patients of both sexes. Judgments of emotional maladjustment were not influenced by sex of patient or judge. In Study II, 80 psychologically more knowledgeable judges read eight case studies and evaluated the patients in terms of degree of maladjustment, need for psychiatric intervention, and prognosis. Sex of patient had no effect on any of these judgments. Sex of judge frequently influenced judgments of need for intervention. No effect of Sex of Patient × Sex of Judge was observed. Discussion emphasized that sex-related bias in clinical judgments is not all-pervasive and that sex of patient rarely elicits bias by itself. The finding that women consistently perceive a greater need for intervention than do males is provocative but requires more precision in defining the types of intervention on w...
Formation of a Cesium Plasma by Continuous-Wave Resonance Excitation

The generation of a plasma in cesium vapor via a resonance process is described. The maximum irradiance used was 1.5 W/cm2, which is several orders of magnitude lower than the irradiances conventionally used to form plasmas. Plasma emission consisted of radiative decay from excited-state Cs atoms. Optical emission from the plasma was observed from laser powers of 200 μW with a nonintensified charge-coupled device (CCD). The ionization efficiency of the plasma was approximately 0.001, with the majority of the atoms in the plasma ionized. The plasma was found to behave linearly with respect to laser power; however nonlinear behavior was observed as the number density was altered. A collisional mechanism is proposed for the formation of the plasma.
Propranolol during the evolution and subsequent ten days of myocardial infarction in man: hemodynamic, initial cardiac energetic, and neurohumoral responses.

During the evolution of transmural myocardial infarction an intensive sympathetic hyperactivity was observed. Plasma l-norepinephrine and epinephrine contents were strikingly increased, the mean values to 2.047±1.10 (SD) and 0.947±0.48 μg/l, respectively. Propranolol (0.1 mg/kg) was administered intravenously within an average of 8.8 h of transmural myocardial infarction to 55 patients who did not show significant left ventricular failure. The drug was continued orally with an average dose of 567±20 (SD) mg q6h for 10 d. Mean plasma propranolol levels during the first 5 d ranged between 89 and 162 ng/ml. Cardiac index, left ventricular ejection fraction, and, to a lesser degree, blood pressure significantly decreased. Mean pulmonary capillary wedge pressure remained unchanged. Decreases in coronary blood flow and myocardial oxygen consumption were associated with improvement of myocardial lactate metabolism, suggesting reduced myocardial oxygen requirements. Plasma free fatty acid contents significantly decreased. Myocardial glucose extraction and respiratory quotient increased, indicating enhanced carbohydrate utilization. Prior to propranolol administration, plasma glucose and glucagon contents were increased and plasma insulin levels were inappropriately low. Initial glucagon and initial l-norepinephrine and epinephrine contents were correlated (r = 0.54 and 0.50, p <0.01). Beta-adrenergic blockade decreased plasma insulin contents in spite of hyperglycemia and abolished the correlation between glucagon and catecholamines. Propranolol was tolerated well by all patients; none of them developed acute left ventricular failure. The study demonstrates that propranolol can be safely administered during the evolution and early phase of transmural myocardial infarction, if selection criteria for patients are carefully considered. Propranolol, dampening the response to acute ischemic stress, diminishes energy requirements and thus appears to be a promising drug for preservation of ischemic myocardium.
Visual attention and depression: Cognitive biases in the eye fixations of the dysphoric and the nondepressed

The eye fixations of 20 dysphoric and 20 nondepressed subjects were recorded as the viewed a series of pictures with both happy and sad regions in order to test the hypothesis that dysphoric subjects would tend to fixate sad themes and that nondepressed subjects would tend to fixate happy themes. It was found that both the dysphoric and the nondepressed fixated happy regions significantly more often, longer, and sooner than they fixated sad regions. It was also found that the dysphoric fixated sad regions significantly more often than did the nondepressed. These results were interpreted as reflecting the operation of a visual attentional defense mechanism, which may work less effectively for the depressed, whose function may be to help the individual avert depression by avoiding negative themes and focusing on positive themes. The impact of negative cognitive biases in this study appeared to be to mitigate the strength of an overall more powerful positive cognitive bias.
Overcoming “Man Pride:” Redefining Masculinity with Mexican American Men on Federal Probation

ABSTRACT Few researchers have examined issues at the intersection of the criminal justice system, gender, ethnicity, and the treatment of behavioral health issues. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, this study examines perceptions, attitudes, and experiences related to the masculinity of Mexican American men who are on federal probation. Several participants described a process of moving away from behaviors characteristic of negative conceptions of masculinity toward more positive conceptions and subsequent behaviors. Several participants also described how family provided motivation to change. Suggestions are provided for addressing gender in therapy with this population.
TU-A-9A-02: Analysis of Variations in Clinical Doppler Ultrasound Peak Velocity Measurements

Purpose: Doppler ultrasound (US) peak velocity (Vmax) measurements show considerable variations due to intrinsic spectral broadening with different scanning techniques, machines and manufacturers. We developed a semi-automated Vmax estimation method and used this method to investigate the performance of a US system for clinical Doppler Vmax measurement. Methods: Semi-automated Vmax is defined as the velocity at which the computed mean spectral profile falls to within 1 background standard deviation of the background mean. GE LOGIQ E9 system with 9L and ML6-15 probes were studied with steady flow (5.3 – 12.5 ml/s) in a Gammex OPTIMIZER 1425A phantom. All Doppler spectra were acquired by 1 operator at the distal end of 5 mm angular tube using a modified clinical carotid artery protocol. Repeatability and variation of Vmax to scanning parameters and probes were analyzed and reported as percentage, i.e. (max-min)/mean. Results: Vmax estimation had good repeatability (3.1% over 6 days for 9L, and 3.6% for ML6-15). For 9L probe, varying gain, compression, scale, SV depth and length, and frequency had minimal impact on Vmax (all variations less than 4.0%). Beam steering had slightly higher influence (largest variations across flow rates were 4.9% for 9L and 6.9% for ML6-15). For both probes,more » Doppler angle had the greatest effect on Vmax. Percentage increase of Vmax was largely independent of actual flow rates. For Doppler angle varied from 30 to 60°, Vmax increased 24% for 9L, and 20% for ML6-15. Vmax measured by ML6-15 were lower than that by 9L at each Doppler angle with differences less than 5%. Conclusion: The proposed Vmax estimation method is shown to be a useful tool to evaluate clinical Doppler US system performance. For the tested system and probes, Doppler angle had largest impact in measured Vmax.« less
The Effectiveness of Aluminized Impregnated Drapery on Window Energy Savings

Summary Interior environments are directly affected by the transmission of heat energy through unprotected windows. At the point of transmission at the window plane, various methods of creating a barrier can be constructed to obstruct the energy transmission by modifying the air convection loops that pass in front of the window. Drapery is likely to be the most widely accepted and applied method of shielding the window. There are endless varieties of drapery fabric that are available for use for drapery construction. The drapery used in this research was “Meta-lon” aluminized drapery because of the advertised energy-saving quality. When tested in the Test Unit Controlled Environment (TUCE), the Metalon drapery provided a barrier for the transmission of heat to the interior air volume of the TUCE. The drapery displayed the ability to transmit less of the absorbed heat from the fabric than conventional drapery. As a result of lower heat transmission rates than ordinary drapery fabric, the air plane on the interior room side of the drapery absorbed less transmitted energy. Therefore, the natural convective loops that normally disperse the heat energy were cooler than those tested with the application of the conventional drapery. The use of the aluminum impregnated drapery can provide energy savings when combined with proper drapery management (opening and closing drapery at the proper time in the day according to needs).
Pin retention for extensive posterior gold onlays

Abstract The restoration of the coronal portion of a posterior tooth which has undergone extreme destruction can be accomplished by the construction of a cast gold onlay which derives its retention from pins or dowels. The retentive pins engage the sound dentin remaining in the tooth, and they can act in conjunction with either limited internal wall retention or external sleeve retention.
Deprivation level affects extinction of a conditioned taste aversion

Abstract Hooded rats were conditioned to avoid drinking saccharin by following exposure to saccharin with injection of cyclophosphamide, a drug that produces visceral upset. Extinction trials were then given by presenting saccharin without cyclophosamide injections with the rats under low (10 hr) or high (23 hr) fluid deprivation. The aversion extinguished in fewer trials in rats under high deprivation.
Engaging Families in Nontraditional Settings and Nontraditional Ways

AbstractMeaningful and appropriate family engagement practices are reflected in a servicelearning project performed at a local homeless shelter by teacher candidates in social studies methods courses at a large metropolitan university. This experience suggests how practicing teachers may incorporate similar nontraditional means to develop better understandings of children's contexts and promote collaborative responsibility for educating children by creating authentic family relationships based on mutual convenience.
Models for Affirmative Action Planning and Evaluation

Two models are presented as aids in setting realistic numerical goals for the employment of women and minority persons, and in evaluating progress towards meeting such goals. By modelling personnel flows in terms of hiring and persistence rates for various job categories, we develop a consistent structure for projecting future employment patterns as a function of hiring goals. These hiring goals themselves are made to depend on the growth-rate of staff size, the relative availability of women and minority candidates in the potential pool of job applicants, and the organization's policies towards equity in hiring. The second model considers a small organizational unit with fixed staff size. By formulating the process of attrition and replacement with new hires as a Markov chain, we are able to make probability statements about the number of positions that will be occupied by women and/or minority persons at some future time. The relationship of the these probabilities to the distribution among job applicants is made explicit. Applications of these models to faculty and staff planning at Stanford University are briefly discussed.
Recognition memory for sentences of varying length

Subjects learned 40 sentences, 10 each of 11, 12, 13, or 14 words in length. Either immediately or 24 h later they were given a recognition test. Neither retention interval nor sentence length produced any significant differences.
Soil peroxidase regulates organic matter decomposition through improving the accessibility of reducing sugars and amino acids

Peroxidase activity can be an important soil property for predicting soil organic matter dynamics, but peroxidase control on organic matter degradation has not yet been fully understood. We hypothesized that peroxidase could enhance soil C and N mineralization via improving the bioavailability of reducing sugars and amino acids. First, an arable soil (~13 g dry weight equivalent) was amended with horseradish peroxidase at 0, 0.1, and 0.2 activity units g−1 soil, and then examined for peroxidase and hydrolase activities, water-extractable phenolic content, and soil C and N mineralization over a 21-day incubation. Soil C mineralization was enhanced by peroxidase addition, but it was not correlated with the concentration of water extractable phenolics or hydrolase activity. Exoglucanase and β-glucosidase activities were significantly lower in soil amended with peroxidase at 0.2 units than at 0.1 units. Second, peroxidase, cellulase, protease or their combinations were added into sterile soils to examine enzyme-catalyzed productions of soluble reducing sugars and amino acids. Reducing sugar concentration was increased after peroxidase addition and this effect was more pronounced when both peroxidase and hydrolases were added. Thus-produced reducing sugars and amino acids were significantly correlated with soil C and N mineralization (Pearson’s correlation coefficient, r = 0.65 and r = 0.63, P < 0.01), respectively. Our results indicated that the effects of peroxidase on organic matter degradation were not through the production of soluble phenolics or the enhancement of hydrolase activity. Instead, by oxidizing phenolics soil peroxidase liberated carbohydrates and proteins that were otherwise encapsulated in soil humus and thus inaccessible to soil hydrolases and microbes.
Green’s-function Monte Carlo for lattice fermions: Application to the t − J model

We develop a general numerical method to study the zero temperature properties of strongly correlated electron models on large lattices. The technique, which resembles Green’s Function Monte Carlo, projects the ground state component from a trial wave function with no approximations. We use this method to determine the phase diagram of the two-dimensional t-J model, using the Maxwell construction to investigate electronic phase separation. The shell effects of fermions on finite-sized periodic lattices are minimized by keeping the number of electrons fixed at a closed-shell configuration and varying the size of the lattice. Results obtained for various electron numbers corresponding to different closed-shells indicate that the finite-size effects in our calculation are small. For any value of interaction strength, we find that there is always a value of the electron density above which the system can lower its energy by forming a two-component phase separated state. Our results are compared with other calculations on the t-J model. We find that the most accurate results are consistent with phase separation at all interaction strengths. Correlated quantum many-body systems have provided a host of new phenomena such as new states of matter, new forms of ordering transitions, etc. These phenomena are the result of the appearance of fundamentally new relevant degrees of freedom which emerge as a coherent superposition of the underlying degrees of freedom of the many variable system. Once one identifies the important degrees of freedom, these degrees of freedom can be treated by analytical or semi-analytical techniques which are variants of generalized perturbation expansions around the defining framework. The problem which arises is that such frameworks cannot be imagined before hand unless there are hints from either experiment or numerical studies of models correctly capturing the dynamics of more basic degrees of freedom which, at first sight, seem featureless. Several such models on a discrete lattice exist and a variety of numerical techniques are at our disposal to use. 1 Exact diagonalization techniques suffer from the fact that the dimensionality NH of the Hilbert space grows exponentially with system size Ns (number of sites). Taking into account all the symmetries of the problem can reduce the size of the invariant subspaces to smaller size NR (which may be a few orders of magnitude smaller than NH). However, the largest possible size increases only with the logarithm of the ratio of NH/NR. In particular, most interesting quantities scale with the linear dimension of the system which scales with [ln(NH/NR)] 1 d
Open-Loop Digital Predistortion Using Cartesian Feedback for Adaptive RF Power Amplifier Linearization

We present a new adaptive power amplifier (PA) linearization technique. We leverage analog Cartesian feedback (CFB) to train a Cartesian look-up table, reducing DSP and power amplifier modeling requirements to a minimum and eliminating model convergence as a design issue. Because the CFB system does not continuously operate, we overcome the bandwidth limitation traditionally associated with this technique. In addition, we exploit sample averaging to greatly relax the noise requirements of the analog feedback path. We implemented a prototype 900-MHz direct-conversion transmitter with a class-A PA. We measured a 10-dB reduction of out-of-band distortion products with no noise floor degradation for 40-MHz-bandwidth, 16-QAM test signals.
Effect of mortality change on stable population parameters.

The stable population model is used to establish formulas expressing the effects of mortality change on population growth rates, birth rates, and age composition. The change in the intrinsic growth rate is shown to be quite accurately approximated by the average decline in age-specific death rates between age zero and the mean age at childbearing in the stable population. This change is essentially independent of the initial level of fertility in the population. Changes in birth rates and age composition are shown to be simple functions of the age pattern of cumulative changes in mortality rates relative to an appropriately defined “neutral” standard.
Microbial content of household dust associated with exhaled NO in asthmatic children

Exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) is increasingly used as a non-invasive measure of airway inflammation. Despite this, little information exists regarding the potential effects of indoor microbial components on eNO. We determined the influence of microbial contaminants in house dust and other indoor environmental characteristics on eNO levels in seven-year-olds with and without a physician-diagnosis of asthma. The study included 158 children recruited from a birth cohort study, and 32 were physician-diagnosed as asthmatic. The relationship between eNO levels and exposures to home dust streptomycetes, endotoxin, and molds was investigated. Streptomycetes and endotoxin were analyzed both as loads and concentrations in separate models. Dog, cat, and dust mite allergens also were evaluated. In the multivariate exposure models, high streptomycetes loads and concentrations were significantly associated with a decrease in eNO levels in asthmatic (p<0.001) but not in healthy children. The presence of dog allergen, however, was associated with increased levels of eNO (p=0.001). Dust endotoxin was not significant. The relationship between eNO and indoor exposure to common outdoor molds was u-shaped. In non-asthmatic children, none of the exposure variables was significantly associated with eNO levels. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating a significant association between microbial components in the indoor environment and eNO levels in asthmatic children. This study demonstrates the importance of simultaneously assessing multiple home exposures of asthmatic children to better understand opposing effects. Common components of the indoor Streptomyces community may beneficially influence airway inflammation.
Long-term effects of feeding flaxseeds on hepatic lipid characteristics and histopathology of laying hens

ABSTRACT The long-term effects of dietary flaxseed and tocopherols on hepatic and blood plasma lipids, fatty acids, tocopherols, hepatic TBA reactive substances, and histopathology of Brown Leghorn hens were investigated. Thirty-two-week-old ISA Brown Leghorn hens (n = 120) were kept in cages and were fed 1 of the 3 corn-soybean meal-based diets, a control diet (no flax) or a 10% flax diet with or without 100 IU of tocopherols, until the hens were 64 wk of age. Feeding diets with 10% flaxseed reduced hepatic and plasma fat content, hepatic triglycerides, total number of fat vacuoles, and number of cells with 75% or higher lipid infiltration in hepatocytes (P
Tableaux Vivants in the Literature Classroom

Tableaux vivants provide fun and interesting ways to begin class discussion of ideas about new books and reactions to books already read. A drama technique somewhat like charades, a tableau vivant is interactive and involves cooperative learning and creative and critical thinking.
The Lagrangean multiplier test for a model with two selectivity criteria

Abstract This paper shows that the usual F-statistic for the hypothesis of no selection bias for a model with two different selection rules is asymptotically equivalent to the LM statistic. This means that the F test has good power properties, at least asymptotically.