cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Predicting mild cognitive impairment from spontaneous spoken utterances.

Abstract Introduction Trials in Alzheimer's disease are increasingly focusing on prevention in asymptomatic individuals. We hypothesized that indicators of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may be present in the content of spoken language in older adults and be useful in distinguishing those with MCI from those who are cognitively intact. To test this hypothesis, we performed linguistic analyses of spoken words in participants with MCI and those with intact cognition participating in a clinical trial. Methods Data came from a randomized controlled behavioral clinical trial to examine the effect of unstructured conversation on cognitive function among older adults with either normal cognition or MCI ( ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT01571427 ). Unstructured conversations (but with standardized preselected topics across subjects) were recorded between interviewers and interviewees during the intervention sessions of the trial from 14 MCI and 27 cognitively intact participants. From the transcription of interviewees recordings, we grouped spoken words using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a structured table of words, which categorizes 2500 words into 68 different word subcategories such as positive and negative words, fillers, and physical states. The number of words in each LIWC word subcategory constructed a vector of 68 dimensions representing the linguistic features of each subject. We used support vector machine and random forest classifiers to distinguish MCI from cognitively intact participants. Results MCI participants were distinguished from those with intact cognition using linguistic features obtained by LIWC with 84% classification accuracy which is well above chance 60%. Discussion Linguistic analyses of spoken language may be a powerful tool in distinguishing MCI subjects from those with intact cognition. Further studies to assess whether spoken language derived measures could detect changes in cognitive functions in clinical trials are warrented.
Balanced Ethics Review: A Guide for Institutional Review Board Members. By Simon N. Whitney

For more than half a century, the US government has insisted that researchers who work with human subjects get approval from institutional review boards (IRBs) before interacting with the people th...
Evaluating Healthy Corner Stores: A Survey of Assessment Tools Used in the San Francisco Bay Area, 2016

Stakeholders from healthy corner store programs in the San Francisco Bay Area convened in November 2015 to discuss the future of programmatic and collaborative efforts. This study’s objective, to gather and synthesize the types of evaluation tools used in the 9-county region, was identified as one of several priorities. Tools were collected via an online survey in July 2016, and data were extracted for comparison, including data on the number and types of food items, nutritional standards, and store characteristics. Twenty-five evaluation tools were collected, and differences were found in nutritional standards, terminology, and use of validated measures. Discrepancies between evaluation tools should be reconciled to make robust regional comparisons.
What is the right balance between US monetary and fiscal policy? Explorations using simulated wavelet-based optimal tracking control

This paper uses wavelet-based optimal control to simulate fiscal and monetary strategies under different levels of policy restrictions. The model applies the maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform to US quarterly GDP data and then uses the decomposed variables to build a large 80-dimensional state-space linear-quadratic tracking model. Using a political targeting design for the frequency range weights, we simulate jointly optimal fiscal and monetary policy where: (1) both fiscal and monetary policy are dually emphasized, (2) fiscal policy is unrestricted while monetary policy is restricted to achieving a steady increase in the market interest rate, (3) only monetary policy is relatively active, while fiscal spending is restricted to achieving a target growth rate, and (4) monetary policy emphasizes short-run stabilization, while fiscal policy utilizes political cycle targeting. The results show that fiscal policy must be more aggressive when the monetary authorities are not accommodating the fiscal expansion and that the dual-emphasis policy leads to a series of interest rate increases that are balanced between a steadily increasing target and a low, fixed rate. This research is the first to construct integrated fiscal and monetary policies in an applied wavelet-based optimal control setting using US data.
Living Education Law in 2017: How Facebook, Prayer, Toilets, and Guns Impact Today's Teachers.

ABSTRACTSurvival for public school teachers goes beyond curriculum design, discipline and other skills. School law is critical for teachers to face the areas of challenge that are currently present...
Integration of Word Processing and Graphics

Production of technical publications must always overcome cost and time limitations. Device and CPU independent S/W exist that can be cost effectively integrated into a single system that will significantly aid in the production of technical publications.
Physical and Emotional States

Desirable as it is that nurses be in an optimal state of body and mind during their working hours, this cannot always be achieved. The nurse is as prone to headache, malaise, fatigue, apprehension and anger as the next person. Yet, being a professional worker, she needs to be aware of the effect any one of these conditions may have on her relationships with patients.
Feasibility, accuracy, and reproducibility of real-time full-volume 3D transthoracic echocardiography to measure LV volumes and systolic function: a fully automated endocardial contouring algorithm in sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation.

Objectives To assess the feasibility, accuracy, and reproducibility of real-time full-volume 3-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (3D RT-VTTE) to measure left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) using a fully automated endocardial contouring algorithm and to identify and automatically correct the contours to obtain accurate LV volumes in sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation (AF). Background 3D transthoracic echocardiography is not used routinely to quantify LV volumes and EF. A fully automated workflow using RT-VTTE may improve clinical adoption. Methods RT-VTTE was performed and 3D EF and volumes obtained using an automated trabecular endocardial contouring algorithm; an automated correction was applied to track the compacted myocardium. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and 2-dimensional biplane Simpson method were the reference standard. Results Ninety-one patients (67 in normal sinus rhythm [NSR], 24 in AF) were included. Among all NSR patients, there was excellent correlation between RT-VTTE and CMR for end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), and EF (r = 0.90, 0.96, and 0.98, respectively; p Conclusions Rapid, accurate, and reproducible EF can be obtained by RT-VTTE in NSR and AF patients by using an automated trabecular edge contouring algorithm. Furthermore, automated contour correction to detect the compacted myocardium yields accurate and reproducible 3D LV volumes.
Analytic Ladder Design

In this Chapter, phase linearity as a major consideration is introduced into the design of low-sensitivity discrete-time filters of the categories defined by the classes of transfer functions presented in Chapter 1. First, emphasis is laid entirely on the phase responses of the filters, but the resulting filters will also possess moderate amplitude selectivity. These will give rise to filters which can be acceptable for some applications in which the phase response is the main design objective while not requiring high selectivity. It is shown that anaytic closed-form expressions exist for the transfer functions of these classes of filters. Next the combined phase and amplitude approximation problem is considered, which leads to filters with flat delay in the passband as well as a moderate degree of amplitude selectivity. For the sake of brevity, we confine our discussion to switched- capacitor filters, and point out that the resulting transfer functions are also realizable in wave digital form, as indicated in Chapter 1.
The Timing of Home Leaving: A Comparison of Early, On-Time, and Late Home Leavers.

This study employs the National Survey of Families and Households of 1988 to study the predictors of age at home leaving for three groups of home leavers: early, on time, and late. Predictors examined include family structure, family formation, and personal characteristics. Discriminant analysis suggests that predictors vary by age of home leaving, and that the differences between early and other types of home leavers are most salient. The impact of family structure is the strongest for early home leaving, but much less for on-time and late home leaving.
The Complete COCOMO Model: Basic, Intermediate, Detailed, and Incremental Versions for the Original, Enhanced, Ada, and Ada Process Models of COCOMO

Since its publication in 1981, the COCOMO model presented in Software Engineering Economics (SEE) by Barry W. Boehm has been at the forefront of software models. Since 1984, the existence of the Constructive COst MOdel (COCOMO) User’s Group (CUG) has served to maintain the needed information exchange and to be the vehicle for subsequent updates to the COCOMO model (by Dr. Boehm). Its public acceptance is a matter of record. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has served as the sponsor of the CUG since about 1987. The Department of Defense and Cost Organizations both have strong interest in using the best methodologies available for software costing. COCOMO is the best documented such method and has a wide range of uses. The COCOMO model has promoted the purposes of Software Engineering since before 1981. It has not become dated. It has more than 20 automated implementations. In fact, many people are still discovering this model.
FROM PERIODICITY TO CHAOS IN HYDRODYNAMIC SYSTEMS

In recent years a number of fluid experiments have been performed to study the relevance of dynamical system theory to some simple fluid flows. We will review here some of those aspects, for Rayleigh Benard experiments only.
Missing information in statewide and national cancer databases: Correlation with health risk factors, geographic disparities, and outcomes.

Abstract Objective The objectives of this study were to analyze factors associated with outcomes and missing data in women with epithelial ovarian cancer using institutional, state and national databases. Methods Data were abstracted from the University of Virginia cancer registry, Virginia Department of Health (VDH) database, and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and analyzed for correlations with demographics, cancer characteristics, and outcomes. Statewide spatial associations between health risk factors such as smoking, obesity, and missing grade/stage were evaluated using bivariate LiSA in Geoda. Results There were 524 institutional, 3544 VDH, and 44,464 SEER cases of epithelial ovarian cancer. Institutional cases were younger, most often of white race, had increased grade 1, and decreased unknown grade and stage (all p Conclusions Over a third of nationally reported cases have an unknown grade and 10–20% have an unknown stage which correlates with the worst survival. Predictors of unknown grade include insurance, age, race, smoking status, obesity, and rural setting. Missing data may represent geographical differences or disparities in cancer care available as significantly fewer cases had an unknown grade/stage at a tertiary academic medical center compared to VDH and SEER.
Unequal Effects of Educational Attainment on Workplace Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke by Race and Ethnicity; Minorities' Diminished Returns in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

Background: One of the mechanisms by which high educational attainment promotes populations’ health is through reducing exposure to environmental risk factors such as second-hand smoke. Minorities’ Diminished Returns theory, however, posits that the protective effect of educational attainment may be smaller for racial and ethnic minority individuals particularly Blacks and Hispanics compared to Whites. Aims: To explore racial and ethnic differences in the association between educational attainment and second-hand smoke exposure at work in a national sample of American adults. Methods: Data came from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS 2015), a cross-sectional study that included 15,726 employed adults. The independent variable was educational attainment, the dependent variables were any and daily second-hand smoke exposure at workplace, age and gender were covariates, and race and ethnicity were the moderators. Results: Overall, higher educational attainment was associated with lower odds of any and daily second-hand smoke exposure at work. Race and ethnicity both interacted with educational attainment suggesting that the protective effects of educational attainment on reducing the odds of any and daily second-hand smoke exposure at work are systemically smaller for Blacks and Hispanics than Whites. Conclusions: In the United States, race and ethnicity bound the health gains that follow educational attainment. While educational attainment helps individuals avoid environmental risk factors such as second-hand smoke, this is more valid for Whites than Blacks and Hispanics. The result is additional risk of cancer and tobacco related disease in highly educated Blacks and Hispanics. The results are important given racial and ethnic minorities are the largest growing section of the US population. We should not assume that educational attainment is similarly protective across all racial and ethnic groups. In this context, educational attainment may increase, rather than reduce, health disparities.
SCN2A channelopathies in the autism spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders: a role for pluripotent stem cells?

Efforts to identify the causes of autism spectrum disorders have highlighted the importance of both genetics and environment, but the lack of human models for many of these disorders limits researchers’ attempts to understand the mechanisms of disease and to develop new treatments. Induced pluripotent stem cells offer the opportunity to study specific genetic and environmental risk factors, but the heterogeneity of donor genetics may obscure important findings. Diseases associated with unusually high rates of autism, such as SCN2A syndromes, provide an opportunity to study specific mutations with high effect sizes in a human genetic context and may reveal biological insights applicable to more common forms of autism. Loss-of-function mutations in the SCN2A gene, which encodes the voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.2, are associated with autism rates up to 50%. Here, we review the findings from experimental models of SCN2A syndromes, including mouse and human cell studies, highlighting the potential role for patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell technology to identify the molecular and cellular substrates of autism.
The association between race and intrinsic subtype on hormone receptor-positive breast cancer among young black women.

e12591Background: Hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer (HR+/HER2- BC) has the highest incidence and mortality rate across all racial/ethnic groups. HR+/HER2- BC is clinically and ...
Discourse Relation Embeddings: Representing the Relations between Discourse Segments in Social Media.

Discourse relations are typically modeled as a discrete class that characterizes the relation between segments of text (e.g. causal explanations, expansions). However, such predefined discrete classes limits the universe of potential relationships and their nuanced differences. Analogous to contextual word embeddings, we propose representing discourse relations as points in high dimensional continuous space. However, unlike words, discourse relations often have no surface form (relations are between two segments, often with no word or phrase in that gap) which presents a challenge for existing embedding techniques. We present a novel method for automatically creating discourse relation embeddings (DiscRE), addressing the embedding challenge through a weakly supervised, multitask approach to learn diverse and nuanced relations between discourse segments in social media. Results show DiscRE can: (1) obtain the best performance on Twitter discourse relation classification task (macro F1=0.76) (2) improve the state of the art in social media causality prediction (from F1=.79 to .81), (3) perform beyond modern sentence and contextual word embeddings at traditional discourse relation classification, and (4) capture novel nuanced relations (e.g. relations semantically at the intersection of causal explanations and counterfactuals).
Accounting for Tax Benefits of Employee Stock Options and Implications for Research

This paper examines how firms account for and report the tax benefits of employee stock options (ESOs). The tax benefits of ESOs reduce taxes actually owed but enter stockholders' equity directly without reducing reported income tax expense. Failing to adjust reported income tax expense for this benefit can lead to poorly specified studies with the distinct possibility of considerable measurement error and flawed inferences. We explain the adjustments needed for more reliable estimates of effective tax rates, tax burdens, and marginal tax rates often critical to analyses of firm‐specific and public policy issues. We document problems with firms' disclosures and, using a sample of large NASDAQ firms likely to be heavy users of ESOs, find that adjusting for the ESO tax benefit is essential to understanding the impact of taxes on those firms.
From Neoclassicism to Heterodoxy: The Making of a Feminist Economist

In this chapter, Jacobsen traces the development of activism surrounding women’s presence in the economics profession and her own professional journey. Second-wave feminism in the economics discipline has been marked by the establishment of several significant institutions: The American Economic Association’s standing Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession and the International Association for Feminist Economics, including its influential journal Feminist Economics. Without such institutions, it is difficult to advance political and intellectual agendas. Thus the issue of how heterodoxies are treated in the economics profession is an important related theme. Jacobsen’s current involvement in academic administration leads to additional thoughts regarding how to relax continuing constraints on attainment of full gender equality in the profession, the academy, and the economy.
Cultural Factors and Communication During Medical Consultations with HIV-Positive Racial/Ethnic Minority Patients

CULTURAL FACTORS AND COMMUNICATION DURING MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS WITH HIV-POSITIVE RACIAL/ETHNIC MINORITY PATIENTS By Lillian Flores Stevens, M.A. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010 Major Director: Stephen M. Auerbach, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Department of Psychology This study examined the relationships between cultural characteristics, communication variables, and medical outcomes in HIV-positive racial/ethnic minority patients. Participants included 33 patients and 5 providers across two urban, community medical clinics. The patient sample was 61% African American, 24% Latino, and 15% Other/Mixed. The majority (73%) were male. Providers included one White female physician, one White male nurse practitioner, two White female nurse practitioners, and one White male physician assistant. In this descriptive study, patients completed self-report ratings of their desire for engagement in decision-making prior to their scheduled medical consultation. After their consultations, patients rated their provider regarding engagement in decision-making, interpersonal communication, and working alliance. Patients also completed measures of acculturation, fatalism, familism, and mistrust. Providers rated their engagement of patients in decision-making, the patients’ interpersonal style, and working alliance immediately after the consultation. Measures of CD4 count and viral load were obtained from patients’ medical records. Cultural characteristics were not related to patient desire for engagement in decisionmaking. Patient perceptions of being highly informed and involved in decision-making were not related to satisfaction or immune functioning. Patient perceptions of provider affiliation and control, and the complementarity between these two, were also not found to have any significant relation to satisfaction or immune functioning. Though working alliance was not found to have a significant relation to any outcome, the relation between patient perception of a stronger working alliance and higher satisfaction was marginally significant. A match between patient and provider on the bond subscale of working alliance was found to correspond to IMI affiliation complementarity. Though the hypotheses were not supported, certain demographic variables were significantly associated with outcomes. For example, use of antiretroviral medications was associated with lower viral load and gender (i.e., being male) was related to lower CD4. The limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.
Schema Modifications in the LISPO2 Persistent Object-Oriented Language

This paper addresses the issue of schema evolution in LISPO2, a persistent object-oriented language. It introduces the schema modifications supported by the LISPO2 programming environment and presents the potential inconsistencies resulting from these modifications at the schema, method and object levels. Furthermore, it describes how the environment efficiently detects such inconsistencies using a database representing the schema definition. Moreover for correct modifications, it presents how this database is used to update the schema, to trigger method recompilations and to restructure objects using a semi-lazy evolution policy.
Apollo 17 "Orange soil" and meteorite impact on liquid lava

THE “orange soil” from Shorty Crater differs greatly from ordinary lunar soils in that it consists of ∼99% 10–300 µm smooth shiny spherules and broken fragments of spherules of transparent orange glass, about 20% of which contain partly crystallized to opaque material. The remaining 1 % is chiefly crystalline basalt fragments. Although the colour of the individual orange spherule varies with thickness from yellow–orange to red–brown, all orange glass in our sample (74220, 70; 0.25 g) has a uniform index of refraction (∼ 1.712). By contrast, other lunar soils contain spherules ranging from 1.50 to 1.75. The orange glass is also completely free of bubbles, to the limit of resolution of the light microscope, whereas bubbles are present in many other spherule samples. The spherules generally appear spherical in a normal microscope mount, but when viewed from two directions many are found to be oblate spheroids with axial ratios varying from near 1.00 to as low as 0.42 (Fig. 1a). Some have fissioned during free flight1 and all stages of the fission process are found, as described for the Apollo 11 samples. Only a few spherules seem to have been distorted by landing while still soft. One notable exception is the occurrence of small spherules of orange glass conforming and adhering to the surface of larger black spherules (Fig. 1b).
Optogenetics for Retinal Disorders

Optogenetics is the use of genetic methods combined with optical technology to achieve gain or loss of function within neuronal circuits. The field of optogenetics has been rapidly expanding in efforts to restore visual function to blinding diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Most work in the field includes a group of light-sensitive retinaldehyde-binding proteins known as opsins. Opsins couple photon absorption to molecular signaling chains that control cellular ion currents. Targeting of opsin genes to surviving retinal cells is fundamental to the success of optogenetic therapy. Viral delivery, primarily adeno-associated virus, using intravitreal injection for inner retinal cells and subretinal injection for outer retinal cells, has proven successful in many models. Challenges in bioengineering remain for optogenetics including relative insensitivity of opsins to physiologic light levels of stimulation and difficulty with viral delivery in primate models. However, targeting optogenetic therapy may present an even greater challenge. Neural and glial remodeling seen in advanced stages of RP result in reorganization of remaining neural retina, and optogenetic therapy may not yield functional results. Remodeling also poses a challenge to the selection of cellular targets, with bipolar, amacrine and ganglion cells all playing distinct physiologic roles, and affected by remodeling differently. Although optogenetics has drawn closer to clinical utility, advances in opsin engineering, therapeutic targeting and ultimately in molecular inhibition of remodeling will play critical roles in the continued clinical advancement of optogenetic therapy.
Test-Retest Reliability of Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-49) in Adults with Systemic Sclerosis

Purpose To assess the test–retest reliability of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) in 3-month intervals among people with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods Thirty-nine adults with SSc completed the OHIP-49 at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Intraclass correlation (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM), SEM%, coefficient of repeatability (CoR), and 95% limits of agreement (LoA) were used to assess test–retest reliability and measurement variability. Results The ICC of the OHIP for the first time point (baseline to 3-month) was excellent (>.80), and the second time point (3-month to 6-month) demonstrated good reproducibility (>.60). However, the large SEM, SEM%, CoR, and 95% LoA indicated that the OHIP was neither a precise measurement nor sensitive to change in response to interventions. Conclusion The values of the ICC indicated that the OHIP scores demonstrated acceptable stability across each of the two 3 months’ retest duration, supporting the reliability of the OHIP for group-level comparisons. However, using the OHIP as a measure of an individual's oral health-related quality of life in adults with SSc is not recommended.
Probe-Based Traffic Monitoring Systems with Wireless Location Technology: An Investigation of the Relationship Between System Design and Effectiveness

As agencies place more emphasis on monitoring and managing the roadway network, the concept of traffic monitoring systems based on wireless location technology (WLT) is generating increasing interest. WLT-based monitoring anonymously samples the location of probes or drivers by using wireless devices, such as cellular phones. By using a series of these probe vehicle locations, WLT-based monitoring systems could generate true point-to-point speed estimates with a minimal infrastructure investment. Unfortunately, early deployments of these systems have not been entirely successful in generating the quality of information needed by transportation agencies and the public. When transportation agencies are approached by vendors of WLT-based monitoring systems, they have little information to determine whether the system is likely to be effective. The relationship between the design of a WLT-based monitoring system and the accuracy of speed estimates that it generates is explored. A simulation-based approach was used to define general guidelines for different aspects of system design and roadway network characteristics. The type of map matching used, the frequency between position estimates, the error of position estimates, and roadway network geometry were shown to have a significant impact on generating accurate speed estimates from a WLT-based monitoring system.
Reading ability and sensitivity to morphological relations

The morpho-phonological nature of English orthography is examined in this study of the relation between morphological sensitivity and decoding ability in the latter elementary grades. Children in grades three to six were required to distinguish derivationally-related word pairs (e.g., nature-natural) from foil pairs that are related in spelling but not in morphology (e.g., ear-earth). The materials included both transparently-related (i.e., the second word incorporated the pronunciation of the first, as in person-personal) and complexly-related word pairs (i.e., the second word involved some change in pronunciation, as in atom-atomic). Across two experiments, these items were presented in either oral or written form along with various tests of reading ability, intelligence and phonological awareness. The results indicate that children's recognition of derivational relationships improved with grade-level. As anticipated, there was also a significant association between sensitivity to derivational relatedness and decoding ability which remains significant even when the word pairs were orally presented and even when phonological awareness in taken into account. Both phonological awareness and sensitivity to morphological structure emerge as important factors in decoding skill in the later elementary grades.
Oxygen Sag Curve with Thermal Overload

A deterministic model is developed for the oxygen sag curve for a variable temperature condition under thermal overload. With the help of this model, optimal locations of thermal and organic outlets with respect to each other can be determined for a predetermined minimum dissolved oxygen concentration in the river. In the presence of the thermal overload, the critical oxygen concentration (lowest) is much lower than that under constant temperature conditions of the stream, and it occurs earlier, the recovery of DO could be faster, and indeed the DO level downstream may be higher than under the constant temperature condition. The critical DO concentration and the critical oxygen deficit do not necessarily occur at the same point in the presence of the thermal overload. The mathematical models presented herein could be used in place of the constant temperature models.
Colorimetric significance of mercury-emission lines in fluorescent lamps*

Ordinary fluorescent lamps have mercury-emission lines at approximately 405, 436, 546, and 578 nm, in addition to the continuous spectral power distributions that are emitted by their phosphors. The color of the light from such a fluorescent lamp is affected in part by the radiant powers of the four emission lines. When the values of the radiant powers are allowed to change within a prescribed range, corresponding color changes can be observed. The limiting boundary of these color changes can be estimated by using a Monte Carlo technique of calculation. It can be determined precisely by a geometrical method and by means of nonlinear programming. The merits of the different methods are discussed and numerical examples are given.
Effect of diet on betaine-homocysteine transmethylase of rat liver. III. B-vitamins other than vitamin B12.

SummaryWhen a diet deficient in one of the following vitamins: thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxins pantothenic acid, or folic acid was fed to rats, the activity of the be-taine-homocysteine transmethylase of their livers was found to be higher than that of the livers of rats fed a complete diet. Deficiencies of biotin or choline, on the other hand, caused a slight decrease in the transmethylase activity.
Video compression using blur compensation

Traditional block-based motion compensation techniques such as those used in the H.264 video coding standards become ineffective when blurring starts to occur in the video sequence. Blurring typically occurs in video sequences when the relative motion between the camera and the scene being captured is faster than the camera exposure time. Blurring is also sometimes used as a special effect for smoothly transitioning between scenes in a movie. Blurring also naturally occurs when objects at different depths in a scene are focused and defocused in a video sequence. In this paper, we propose the blur compensation algorithm that makes use of the blurring information to provide improved compression performance when compared to H.264 in the presence of blur in video sequences. When coding blurred scenes in video sequences, bitrate reductions of up to 64% were achieved.
Development of a whole-body cortisol extraction procedure for determination of stress in golden shiners, Notemigonus crysoleucas

Baitfish such as golden shiners are subjected to stress during harvesting, grading, and transport. Their small size makes it difficult to measure the stress response with the biological indicator cortisol using conventional assay methods for plasma. This paper examines the development and validation of methods for whole-body cortisol extraction from individual baitfish. Three types of extracts were tested: (1) an ethyl ether unaltered extract (UA); (2) an extract reconstituted in phosphate buffered saline (PBS); (3) an extract that had been increased in volume by the addition of food-grade vegetable oil (VO). These extracts were evaluated using validation tests with radioimmunoassays (RIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). The UA extract produced inadequate volumes of extract for multiple assays and could not be used for the determination of cortisol in a single fish. The PBS reconstitution method failed the precision recovery of serial dilutions (62.3%), linearity (R 2: 0.7864), and parallelism validation tests. The VO volume-boosting method passed all validation tests [intra-assay coefficent of variation (%CV): 16.3 for ELISA and 5.9 for RIA; inter-assay %CV: 10.3; spiked recovery: 102.0%; dilution recovery: 93.0%; linearity R 2: 0.9435; log of serial dilutions was parallel] and provided enough extract for multiple assays from an individual baitfish. Based on these results, we conclude that the VO volume-boosting method presents a means for determining cortisol from individual baitfish using either RIA or ELISA assays.
Hydrogen chemisorption and the structure of the diamond C(100)-(2 × 1) surface

Abstract Upon heating to greater than 1300 K, diamond C(100)-(1 × 1) reconstructs, exhibiting a low energy electron diffraction (LEED) pattern with two domains of (2 × 1) symmetry. No evidence for higher order reconstructions (e.g., c(4 × 2)) is observed, ruling out correlated buckled dimers as a possible structure for the reconstruction. Hydrogen is found to play an important role in the transformation of the (1 × 1) surface during reconstruction. The presence of chemisorbed hydrogen on the (1 × 1) surface is monitored by electron-stimulated desorption time-of-flight spectroscopy (ESD-TOF) as a function of anneal temperature. Two distinct H+ ESD velocity distributions, fast and slow, are observed in the TOF spectra on the polished (1 × 1) surface. Upon heating, the fast component disappears with the onset of the (2 × 1) reconstruction. The slower of the two features remains even after annealing at temperatures of up to 1530 K, demonstrating that some hydrogen remains on the reconstructed (2 × 1) surface. Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) of H2 from the diamond C(100)-(1 × 1) surface also correlates with the surface reconstruction and the loss of the fast proton peak in the ESD spectra. For the “as polished” surface, the TPD results yielded an integrated hydrogen desorption flux of up to ten monolayers (based on two hydrogen atoms per surface carbon atom, e.g. 3.14 × 1015 H cm−2) indicating that the near-surface region for the as-polished diamond C(100)-(1 × 1) contains a large quantity of absorbed hydrogen. At low hydrogen coverage, the desorption process appears to be first order with an activation energy of ∼ 37 kcal mol and a first order pre-exponential of ∼ 3 × 105s−1. At higher coverages the apparent order increases and the activation energy decreases. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) of the diamond C(100)-(1 × 1) does not reveal any occupied states in the band gap from the valence band maximum (VBM) to the Fermi level (EF). In contrast, UPS for diamond C(100)-(2 × 1) exhibits occupied states in the band gap from the VBM to 1.5 eV above the VBM. No empty states could be found from 1.2 to 5.5 eV above EF for this surface using two-photon photoemission. By analogy to the Si and Ge(100) surfaces, the proposed model for the diamond C(100)-(2 × 1) surface is based on the formation of dimer pairs. The sharp two domain (2 × 1) LEED pattern, the presence of hydrogen on the reconstructed surface, and the observation of occupied surface states in the band gap suggest that symmetric dimers with monohydride termination at each carbon atom of the pair is the most likely structure.
Epilogue: Landscape in, around, and under the performative

This epilogue to the dossier on “Feminist Landscapes” asserts that, like the performative and its periperformative vicinities, landscape matters (and is volatile, fascinating, and queer in the ways it matters and performs). The 10+ theses that follow set landscape in motion as a verb in, around, and under the performative, which means that they do much, if not most, of their volatile, even alchemical, work (in aspect, mood, modality, voice) in what Eve Sedgwick theorized as the periperformative's neck of the woods. Each thesis inflects the verb “to landscape” by conjugating a conceptually significant verb form with a complex instance of landscape in the performative by a contemporary woman artist actively engaged with landscaping. These landscaping performatives and periperformatives do their work through diverse assemblages of media and technique. But this is not a turn from landscaping to its representation understood as some sort of second-order remove from the real dirt and raking muck in the scaping ...
The State of Research on Markets for Sports Betting and Suggested Future Directions

Studies of markets for sports betting can be a rich source of knowledge on the process of price formation and the information content of market prices. But recent research in this field examines questions of a technical nature, questions of interest mostly to active participants in the literature. A change in direction, motivated by creative use of the efficiency hypothesis, may deliver insights that would be valuable to the profession in general. Some preliminary analyses along these lines are presented in the hope of stimulating new lines of inquiry in the field.
Influence of surface oxides on the colloidal stability of multi-walled carbon nanotubes: a structure-property relationship.

As with all nanomaterials, a large fraction of the atoms in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) reside at or near the surface. Consequently, surface chemistry will play a crucial role in determining the fate and transport of CNTs in aquatic environments. Frequently, oxygen-containing functional groups (surface oxides) are deliberately grafted into the CNT surface to promote colloidal stability. To study the influence that both the oxygen concentration and the oxygen functional-group distribution have on the colloidal stability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), a suite of oxidized MWCNTs (O-MWCNTs) were created using different oxidizing agents and reaction conditions. Stable colloidal suspensions were prepared by low-power sonication of O-MWCNT powders in Milli-Q water. Results from TEM, AFM, DLS, and XPS measurements revealed that, irrespective of the surface chemistry, the colloidal suspensions were composed of individual nanotubes with comparable length distributions. The critical coagulation concentrations...
Author's Response to Comment 2

We agree with Mr Ahmad in that the irrigation system described requires an assistant to hold the limb and the surgeon to irrigate the wound. The hole in the middle of the sucker is plugged by the surgeon and the wound subsequently irrigated. However, in terms of the Yankauer sucker acting as a sprinkler system, it does indeed work very well for large wounds and does decrease wound contamination in our experience. The trick is to place the distal end of the sucker about 2–3 cm from the wound and in the centre of the wound with a large bowl underneath the limb. Furthermore, we do acknowledge that this is a high-flow, low-pressure system which has been mentioned in our original text.
Aplanatic corrector designs for the extremely large telescope

The next century is knocking on our door, bringing with it the possibility of telescopes even bigger than the 8–10-m-class instruments that have proliferated over the past decade. The fixed spherical reflector is the most economical and pragmatic way to construct an extremely large primary mirror (30–50 m in diameter). Although spherical mirrors have virtues such as manufacturability and identically figured segments, they also create great amounts of spherical aberration and coma. Here we show that there are several catoptric (all-reflecting) corrector designs that enable a fast telescope based on a spherical primary mirror.
Growth of brain stimulation reward as a function of duration and stimulation strength.

The strength of a train of rewarding brain stimulation required to support a criterion level of operant performance declines hyperbolically as the duration is increased. This finding has been attributed to a process of leaky integration. However, the rate at which integration approaches asymptote has been shown to depend on stimulation strength, a finding that differs from the behavior of a simple leaky integrator. The authors replicate both findings and show that they are both well described by a new model that incorporates a hyperbolic strength-duration function, a logistic function mapping stimulation frequency onto reward intensity, and another logistic function mapping reward intensity onto performance.
Cirrus Crystal Terminal Velocities

Abstract Cirrus crystal terminal velocities are of primary importance in determining the rate of transport of condensate from upper- to middle-tropospheric levels and profoundly influence the earth’s radiation balance through their effect on the rate of buildup or decay of cirrus clouds. In this study, laboratory and field-based cirrus crystal drag coefficient data, as well as analytical descriptions of cirrus crystal shapes, are used to derive more physically based expressions for the velocities of cirrus crystals than have been available in the past. Polycrystals—often bullet rosettes—are shown to be the dominant crystal types in synoptically generated cirrus, with columns present in varying but relatively large percentages, depending on the cloud. The two critical parameters needed to calculate terminal velocity are the drag coefficient and the ratio of mass to cross-sectional area normal to their fall direction. Using measurements and calculations, it is shown that drag coefficients from theory and la...
Before They Were Fat: Adipocyte Progenitors

Adipose tissue mass can expand throughout adult life. Therefore, proliferative adipocyte precursor cells must stand at the ready to respond to increased demand for energy storage. Recent provocative studies have identified discrete immature cell populations from which brown and white adipocytes are derived. This work not only brings fundamental insight into adipose tissue formation but also provides new tools to study how adipogenesis is regulated in pathological conditions such as obesity and diabetes.
Regional distribution of pulmonary blood volume: An index of pulmonary capillary wedge pressure determined from blood pool scintigraphy

Abstract Progressive redistribution of pulmonary blood flow to the lung apices occurs with increasing degrees of left ventricular failure, and correlates with increasing pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP). If similar changes in pulmonary blood volume (PBV) occur, then technetium-99m equilibrium blood pool scintigraphy, by assessing relative distribution of PBV, may allow prediction of PCWP. Therefore 30 patients being monitored with pulmonary artery balloon flotation catheters underwent imaging. PCWP was compared with the average radioactive count density arising from apical (A) and basal (B) regions of interest within the right lung, expressed as an A B ratio. Correlation was strong for patients imaged erect, either posteriorly ( r = 0.864, p = 0.001) or in the 45 ° left anterior oblique position ( r = 0.842, p = 0.001), and only slightly less impressive for patients imaged supine ( r = 0.678, p = 0.001). Especially when imaging was performed with patients erect, an A B ratio greater than unity identified with high sensitivity (100%) and specificity (83 to 88%) an abnormally elevated PCWP (> 12 mm Hg). Moreover, directional changes in the A B ratio reflected concomitant changes in PCWP after intervention. Thus, analysis of lung A B radioactive count ratios obtained by equilibrium blood pool scintigraphy may be used to evaluate PCWP.
Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Communities of the Southern Cumberland Plateau

The Cumberland Plateau supports diverse plant communities that vary greatly across cove and plateau habitats. Unfortunately, little is known about how terrestrial invertebrate communities vary across cove and plateau habitats and how disturbance affects these communities. To address this deficiency, we used the Ant Leaf Litter protocol to survey ant diversity on the southern Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. We surveyed forested habitats on top of the plateau surface and on the cove slopes, as well as sites that were logged within the past 6 yr. After surveying 14 sites we found 1) 10,130 ants representing 55 species from 21 genera and six subfamilies, including five new records for Tennessee; 2) significant differences in ant communities by habitat type; 3) that south-facing cove slope ant communities more closely resembled the ant community of plateau surface native forest sites than the ant community of north-facing cove slopes; 4) that recently logged sites hosted a distinct ant community (including hybrid imported fire ants) not found in undisturbed habitats; and 5) by resampling three sites surveyed 5 yr earlier, that the ant leaf litter protocol can be used to track ant community change over time. Ants thus proved to be an excellent system for examining invertebrate diversity across habitats on the Cumberland Plateau.
Designing and learning: a disjunction in contexts

Abstract Two ideologies about engineering, one claimed the habit of engineering design practitioners, the other that of engineering educators, are advanced. The two are incompatible. The disjunction is elaborated in terms of two distinct postulates and their consequences. A remedy for educators is recommended and the experiences of the author in attempting to change the context of learning to better accord with engineering practice are described.
A possible role of the parasympathetic system in the alcohol withdrawal syndrome

Abstract Exposure of rat ileum in vitro to ethanol (4.6%) leads to an increased sensitivity of the preparation to acetylcholine after withdrawal of the alcohol. We have hypothesized that the increased sensitivity is indicative of the involvement of the parasympathetic system in the alcohol withdrawal hyper-sensitivity. This hypothesis is discussed as a potentially useful model in studies of alcohol withdrawal symptomatology.