cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Category typicality effects in children's memory performance: Qualitative and quantitative differences in the processing of category information

Abstract Kindergarten, third, and sixth graders (6, 9, and 12 years of age, respectively) received a cue-at-input/cue-at-output recall task, using category typical and atypical items that were based on either (1) children's conceptions of item typicality, or (2) adults' conceptions of item typicality. At each grade level, recall was greater with the child-defined lists than with the adult-defined lists, and typical items were recalled to a greater extent than atypical items. Further analyses items were recalled to a greater extent than atypical items. Further analyses revealed that the recall of typical items varied as a function of children's typicality ratings of items, and that the “typicality effect” in the adult-norm condition was due primarily to the children not realizing that many of the atypical items were appropriate category exemplars. In contrast, typicality effects in the child-norm condition were attributed to qualitative differences in the judged “goodness of example” of the typical and atypical items. The results were discussed in terms of the appropriateness of typicality as a dimension of children's natural language concepts, the role of age differences in knowledge base in affecting performance on a cognitive task, and of the importance of using child-generated norms in studies of children's processing of category information.
Endo-(1 3)β-D-glucanase activity secreted by Bacillus sp. no. 215

The production of an extracellular endo-(1 3)-β-D-glucanase by Bacillus sp. no. 215 was induced during growth with (1 3)-β-D-glucan (curdlan) from Cellulomonas flavigena strain KU as carbon and energy source. Maximum levels of activity (0.26 U ml-1 resp. 1.40 U mg-1) were detected in cell-free culture supernatant fluid after 25 h of aerobic growth at 55°C. The cells secreted an endo-(1 3)-β-D-glucanase with low electrophoretic mobility that used curdlan from C. flavigena strain KU and from Agrobacterium sp. (formerly Alcaligenes faecalis var. myxogenes) as substrates. The enzyme activity was highest at pH 7.0 and 55°C. It exhibited a remarkably low thermal stability with a half-life of 14 min at 55°C in the presence of substrate. Divalent metal cations were required for enzyme activity.
Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War. By Andrew F. Smith. (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2011. Pp. 295. $27.99.)

The author of this book is a prolific writer on the subject of food. Averaging one book a year since 2001, he has written popular histories of tomatoes, hamburgers, turkey, peanuts, popcorn, fast f...
Coarse-Grained Model DNA with Explicit H-Bonding and Implicit Solvent

We present a coarse-grained model for DNA that is intended to function realistically at the level of individual bases. The model is composed of residues with up to eight coarse-grained beads each, which is sufficient for DNA-like base stacking and base-base recognition by hydrogen bonding. The beads interact by means of short-ranged pair potentials and a simple implicit solvent model. Movement is simulated by Brownian dynamics without hydrodynamic coupling. The main stabilizing forces are base stacking and hydrogen bonding, as modified by the effects of solvation. Complementary double-stranded chains of such residues form stable double helices over long runs (∼10 μs) at or near room temperature, with structural parameters close to those of B-form DNA. Most mismatched chains or mismatched regions within a complementary molecule melt and become disordered. Long-range fluctuations and elastic properties, as measured by bending and twisting persistence lengths, are close to experimental values. Single-stranded chains are flexible, with transient stretches of free bases in equilibrium with globules stabilized by intrastrand stacking and hydrogen bonding. Model DNAs in covalently closed loops form right or left-handed supercoils, depending on the sign of overtwist or undertwist. Short stem-loop structures melt at elevated temperatures and reanneal when the temperature is carefully lowered. Overall, most qualitative properties of real DNA arise naturally in the model from local interactions at the base pair level.
Spatial summation and light adaptation in the goldfish visual system.

IN attempting to explain how visual acuity improves as illumination increases, Pirenne and Denton1 suggested that the retinal image is sampled by numerous units, each summing the effects of light over a region of the retina. At very low luminances, only units with the largest summation areas are functional, but with increasing luminance smaller units come into play as their thresholds are exceeded. Since that suggestion was made, cells at all levels of the visual system have been studied electrophysiologically and many receptive fields have been described that might form the basis for such units. Goldfish and other cyprinid fishes, have been the subjects of many such studies, and their retinal synaptic connections have been revealed in detail. I report here some psychophysical experiments which show the effects of light adaptation on spatial summation in the goldfish. The results are consistent with the connections made by rods and cones in the cyprinid retina, and with the theory of a progressive recruitment of ganglion cells with smaller receptive field centres as background luminance is raised.
What Do People Who Stutter Want—Fluency or Freedom?

Purpose In this study, the author examined the following questions: What proportion of adult persons who stutter (PWS) choose fluency and what proportion choose to be free from a need to be fluent ...
Characterization of YBa2Cu3Ox using core- and valence-level XPS

Abstract Hundreds of papers have been published involving the photoelectron spectroscopy of the high-Tc superconducting oxides since 1987. The early work, originally on bulk-sintered material, sputtered films, and later on “single crystals”, concentrated on finding “unusual” features in valence- or core-level spectra to relate to electronic structure effects which might explain the superconducting mechanism. The majority of this work has not adequately taken into account the facts that (a) photoemission probes only the top few monolayers of material, and (b) in many cases the top few layers are completely unrepresentative of the bulk material. This is particularly true for YBa2Cu3Ox, where the surface is extremely reactive, unstable, and prone to contaminating phases, even when prepared under UHV conditions. This has led to a flood of misinformation concerning the true characteristic spectra of this material and their interpretation. In this paper, we present core- and valence-level XPS for YBa2Cu3Ox single-crystal, bulk-sintered, and thin-film samples, and show that, when artifacts are eliminated, the characteristic spectra are the same, to first order, and easily allow distinction of surfaces consisting of the genuine orthorhombic phase (x > 6.4) from those with the non-superconducting tetragonal phase (x
Electro-Optic Sampling: Device Embodiments And Possibilities

Short optical pulses have been involved in a number of areas of science and technology. It is now possible to generate optical pulses of less than 10 fs duration corresponding to only a few optical cycles. One of the most important applications of these short optical pulses is in electronics, where, in conjunction with the electro-optic effect, electrical waveforms now can be characterized with a few hundred femtosecond resolution - corresponding to 1 THz in bandwidth. This technique makes possible the characterization in situ of high-speed optoelectronic and electronic devices as well as circuits operating in the picosecond time scale or 100 GHz frequency domain.
Transumbilical placement of the vaginal probe in obese pregnant women

Transabdominal ultrasonography in obese pregnant women is often unsatisfactory because of the poor transmission of ultrasound through a thickened abdominal wall. We report our experience with the placement of a transvaginal probe in the umbilicus to improve resolution in obese pregnant patients. The technique, which involves filling the umbilicus with ultrasound transmission gel and inserting the transvaginal probe into the umbilicus, was applied in 25 consecutive obese patients who had unsatisfactory fetal imaging by the standard transabdominal approach. The most frequent reason for incomplete fetal survey by the standard transabdominal approach was unsatisfactory imaging of the fetal heart (19 of 25 cases, 76%). The transumbilical approach resulted in improved resolution and satisfactory cardiac examination in 18 of these 19 cases (95%). in two cases, color and pulsed Doppler interrogation of intrafetal vessels become possible. A complete fetal survey was accomplished in 96% of the cases.
Colonial Legacy in African Museology: The Case of the Ghana National Museum

African museums were largely founded during the colonial era to house artifacts amassed by imperial agents whose contemporaneous understandings of race, evolution and culture led them to believe local populations were “backward” or otherwise “primitive.” Today in the hands of independent governments, scholars frequently cite “colonial legacy” to explain these institutions' continued irrelevance to the local communities they purport to serve. Recent efforts to “localize” African museums have proceeded without a critical analysis of the “colonial legacy” concept, which both denies local agency and cultural malleability in the museum concept, as demonstrated with the case of the Ghana National Museum.
A general theory of an elastic-plastic continuum

Abstract : Contents: Dynamical and thermodynamical equations; alternative form of the basic theory; large deformation elasticity; theory of an elastic-plastic continuum; thermodynamical restrictions; an isotropic elastic-plastic continuum; alternative form of the theory of elastic-plastic continuum; elastic-perfectly plastic continuum; infinitesimal theory; special cases of the general theory.
The relation between plasma ascorbic acid concentration and diet in the newborn infant.

Summary 1. The plasma ascorbic acid concentration of normal two-week-old infants on breast feeding averages 1.0 mg. per cent. 2. The plasma ascorbic acid concentration of normal two-week-old infants on artificial feeding for about one week averages 0.4 mg. per cent. Lower values result from longer periods of artificial feeding. 3. The addition of sufficient ascorbic acid to the diet prevents the fall in plasma concentration invariably found with pasteurized feeding.
Alcohol outlet density and related use in an urban Black population in Philadelphia public housing communities

Adolescent alcohol use behaviors are influenced by familial patterns and neighborhood factors. This work explored the influence of individual, family, and environment on alcohol use. Baseline data from a randomized controlled trial with Black mothers son dyads (n=382) were paired with census tract and alcohol control board data. Among mothers, younger age, along with neighborhood factors of alcohol outlet density, race, and education were significantly associated with use. Among sons, older age and alcohol outlet density in the neighborhood predicted use. Findings highlight neighborhood influence, beyond family qualities, as a significant determinant of disadvantaged Black mothers’ alcohol use. Implications for public health policy are discussed.
Continuous positive airway pressure normalizes cardiac autonomic and hemodynamic responses to a laboratory stressor in apneic patients.

Objectives We examined the effect of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment for sleep apnea on cardiac contractility, heart rate variability, and hemodynamics at rest and in response to a laboratory stressor. Subjects and instrumentation Forty-one apneic patients were studied on three occasions: before treatment, after 1 full night of CPAP treatment, and after 1 week of CPAP treatment. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive effective treatment or placebo. Contractility and hemodynamics were determined with impedance cardiography, and parasympathetic activity was assessed by analysis of heart rate variability. Measures were determined at rest and in response to a stressor. Design and results For the cardiac sympathetic (contractility) measures (preejection period, cardiac acceleration index [CAI], and low-frequency/high-frequency ratio) significant interactions were found in the combination treatment (CPAP vs placebo) by study day (day 1, day 3, day 11) by test period (baseline, preparation, talking) [p ie , CAI levels were 24Ω /s 2 , 22 Ω/s 2 , and 14 Ω/s 2 on day 1, day 3, and day 11, respectively). These measures also became responsive to the stressor by showing increased sympathetic activity (CAI levels on day 11 were 14 Ω/s 2 at baseline, 32Ω /s 2 during speech preparation, and 36 Ω/s 2 while speaking). The parasympathetic indexes, such as high-frequency power or band of heart rate variability as determined by spectral analysis, showed a significant day-by-treatment interaction (p Conclusions These results indicate that CPAP normalizes contractility, increases cardiac vagal tone, and changes hemodynamic regulation from being resistance dominated to being cardiac dominated. Thus, after 1 week of treatment with CPAP, many of the indicators of poor cardiac functioning in apnea patients are improved.
A three tier architecture applied to LiDAR processing and monitoring

Emerging Grid technologies enable solving scientific problems that involve large datasets and complex analyses, which in the past were often considered difficult to solve. Coordinating distributed Grid resources and computational processes requires adaptable interfaces and tools that provide modularized and configurable environments for accessing Grid clusters and executing high performance computational tasks. Computationally intensive processes are also subject to a high risk of component failures and thus require close monitoring. In this paper we describe a scientific workflow approach to coordinate various resources via data analysis pipelines. We present a three tier architecture for LiDAR interpolation and analysis, a high performance processing of point intensive datasets, utilizing a portal, a scientific workflow engine and Grid technologies. Our proposed solution is available to the community in a unified framework through a shared cyberinfrastructure, the GEON portal, enabling scientists to focus on their scientific work and not be concerned with the implementation of the underlying infrastructure.
Theory of use of the turnover rates of body water for measuring energy and material balance

Abstract The theory is developed for the use of the isotopically determined turnover rates of the hydrogen and oxygen of body water for measurement of total energy and material balance of an animal. After a consideration of several simplifying assumptions, a summary is given of tests of the extent to which theoretical expectations are realized. The results of these appear to be in general accord with theoretical expectations.
Pancreatic Schwannoma: Literature Review

Pancreatic schwannoma is a rare neoplasm. Accurate preoperative diagnosis remains difficult, but computed tomography (CT) scanning and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) help to establish the diagnosis, and definitive diagnosis requires immunohistochemical examination. Cystic pancreatic schwannomas should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cystic neoplasms and pseudocysts. Simple enucleation may be adequate for pancreatic schwannoma. In this report, we examine a case of benign pancreatic schwannoma in a 56-year-old woman. She was being evaluated for an ovarian teratoma, and an 8-cm cystic mass was incidentally found in the head of the pancreas. She underwent a pylorus preserving Whipple procedure with bilateral oopherectomy. Only 37 cases have been reported in the English literature. We present a thorough review with an emphasis on the clinical presentation, diagnostic modalities, and treatment options in the management of this rare clinical entity.
Drug Use, Sexual Risk, and Syndemic Production Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Who Engage in Group Sexual Encounters

Objectives. We surveyed men who have sex with men (MSM) to determine whether sexual risk behaviors, recent drug use, and other psychosocial problems differed between men who engaged in one-on-one and group sexual encounters.Methods. We conducted an Internet-based cross-sectional survey of 7158 MSM aged 18 years or older in the United States recruited from a gay-oriented sexual networking Web site in 2008. Among MSM who engaged in group sexual encounters, we compared their past-60-day sexual behaviors in one-on-one encounters and group sexual encounters. We also compared risk profiles and syndemic production between men who did and did not participate in group sex.Results. Men reporting a group-sex encounter had significantly higher polydrug use and sexual risk than did the men not reporting group sex in the past 60 days. The odds of engaging in group sex with 4 or more sexual partners significantly increased with the number of psychosocial problems, supporting evidence of syndemic production.Conclusions. ...
Interrelationships among impulsive personality traits, food addiction, and Body Mass Index.

Abstract Objective: Impulsive personality traits have been robustly associated with alcohol and drug misuse, but have received little attention in the context of food addiction. The goal of the current study was to examine the interrelationships between impulsive personality traits, food addiction, and Body Mass Index (BMI), including indirect pathways of influence. Method: Participants ( N = 233) completed the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) to assess patterns of addictive consumption of food, the UPPS-P Impulsivity Scale to assess impulsive personality traits, and provided weight and height to generate BMI. Results: Significant positive associations were found between facets of impulsivity, food addiction symptoms, and BMI. Impulsivity was found to be indirectly associated with BMI by way of associations with addictive consumption of food. In particular, an inclination toward behaving irrationally while experiencing negative mood states (Negative Urgency) and low levels of task persistence (lack of Perseverance) were significantly associated with food addiction directly and that relationship was responsible for their relationship to BMI. Conclusions: Dispositional impulsivity, routinely associated with high-risk behaviors including addictive consumption of alcohol and drugs, may be an important risk factor when considering tendency to engage in addictive consumption of food. Monitoring food addiction symptoms early may help reduce the likelihood that compulsive food consumption patterns result in weight gain and obesity. Methodological considerations are discussed.
Properties of films prepared from low surface area/density alumina-silica

A sol-gel method was use to prepare bulk, closed pore, amorphous alumina-silica. Films prepared from this 47wt% Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}- SiO{sub 2} composition were examined by SAW, elipsometry and electrical measurements. The films were found to have a surface area of 1.1 cm{sup 2}/cm{sup 2}, a refractive index of 1.44 at 633 nm, and a relative permittivity of 6.2 at 200 KHz. These properties indicate potential applications as hermetic seals, barrier coatings, dielectric layers for capacitors and passivation coatings for electronic circuits.
Using Infrared Limb Brightening to Probe Isolated Dark Globules

The problem of radiation transport in dark globules with or without internal heat source, immersed in an isotropic incident interstellar radiation field, is solved. The phenomenon of infrared limb brightening, its dependence on cloud properties, and its observational implications are addressed. Numerical results regarding the dependence of limb brightening on total cloud opacity, luminosity of internal heat source, grain type, dust density distribution, and wavelength of emitted radiation are discussed. Observational implications concerning the use of limb brightening to place an upper limit on the luminosity of an embedded protostar and to determine the grain emissivity law in the far-infrared are examined. For sufficiently large optical depth, the limb-brightening ratio (LBR) is found to be related to the optical depth by a power-law relation in the 140-300 micron wavelength range, where thermal emission from grains peaks. By observing the LBR in this range, this power-law relationship can be exploited to determine the emissivity law of the dust grain in the far-infrared. Both the LBR and the longest wavelength for which limb brightening still occurs are related linearly to the luminosity of the central source.
Technology transfer to the People's Republic of China: A focus on services for powertrain design and development

This paper focuses on technology transfer issues that successful providers of services for powertrain design and development will consider as they build relationships with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Demand for all modes of transportation is growing rapidly in the PRC. Their auto industry claimed the title of “highest-volume worldwide producer of motor vehicles” in 2009; as of 2010, about 44% of passenger cars are domestic models, and private car ownership has been increasing at the rate of 25% per year. The exploding GDP not only brings great wealth to the nation as a whole, but also strains the infrastructure and the environment (as private car ownership climbs, congestion increases along with vehicular emissions). With this growth comes a commensurate need for knowhow and experience. Participating in this growth requires sensitivity to the past. An ancient, complex history has resulted in a unique business culture, at least when viewed through the eyes of the typical Westerner. Steeped in tradition, decisions are driven by concepts such as guanxi (a social and business network), mianzi (the saving of face in business), and renqing (an unwritten code of reciprocity).
Soil Stabilization with Bioenergy Coproduct

The production and use of biofuel have increased under the context of sustainable development. Biofuel production from plant biomass not only produces biofuel or ethanol but also coproduces products containing lignin, modified lignin, and lignin derivatives. The use of lignin-containing biofuel coproduct in pavement soil stabilization was explored as a new application area. The primary experimental test plan encompassed the comparison of coproduct-treated soils, untreated soils, and traditional stabilizer-treated soils in terms of their strengths. The focus of the secondary experimental test plan was to investigate the effect of additive combinations on strength improvement. The laboratory test matrix in each test plan included variations in additive type, additive content, curing period, and moisture condition. Statistical analyses were performed on unconfined compression strength test results to evaluate whether the strength improvements resulting from the addition of the coproducts to soils are signifi...
Simplified Mathematical Representations of Heavy-Duty Gas Turbines

Presentation de representations mathematiques simplifiees des turbines a gaz couvrant le domaine des turbines a un seul arbre, de 18 a 106 MW, ainsi que les systemes a combustible gazeux et liquide, le fonctionnement isole ou en parallele, et l'utilisation des generateurs refroidis par air ou par hydrogene. Discussion de modifications des modeles en vue de simplifications ulterieures
Assessment of Extreme Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts and Development of Regional Extreme Event Thresholds Using Data from HMT-2006 and COOP Observers

Abstract Extreme precipitation events, and the quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) associated with them, are examined. The study uses data from the Hydrometeorology Testbed (HMT), which conducted its first field study in California during the 2005/06 cool season. National Weather Service River Forecast Center (NWS RFC) gridded QPFs for 24-h periods at 24-h (day 1), 48-h (day 2), and 72-h (day 3) forecast lead times plus 24-h quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs) from sites in California (CA) and Oregon–Washington (OR–WA) are used. During the 172-day period studied, some sites received more than 254 cm (100 in.) of precipitation. The winter season produced many extreme precipitation events, including 90 instances when a site received more than 7.6 cm (3.0 in.) of precipitation in 24 h (i.e., an “event”) and 17 events that exceeded 12.7 cm (24 h)−1 [5.0 in. (24 h)−1]. For the 90 extreme events {>7.6 cm (24 h)−1 [3.0 in. (24 h)−1]}, almost 90% of all the 270 QPFs (days 1–3) were biased low, inc...
Minimizing latency and jitter for large scale multimedia repositories through prefix caching

Multimedia data poses challenges for efficient storage and retrieval due to its large size and playback timing requirements. For applications that store very large volumes of multimedia data, hierarchical storage offers a scalable and economical alternative to store data on magnetic disks. In a hierarchical storage architecture data is stored on a tape or optical disk based tertiary storage layer with the secondary storage disks serving as a cache or buffer. Due to the need for swapping media on drives, retrieving multimedia data from tertiary storage can potentially result in large delays before playback (startup latency) begins as well as during playback (jitter). In this paper we address the important problem of reducing startup latency and jitter for very large multimedia repositories. We propose that secondary storage should not be used as a cache in the traditional manner — instead, most of the secondary storage should be used to permanently store partial objects. Furthermore, replication is employe...
Superfaces: polygonal mesh simplification with bounded error

The algorithm presented simplifies polyhedral meshes within prespecified tolerances based on a bounded approximation criterion. The vertices in the simplified mesh are a proper subset of the original vertices. The algorithm, called Superfaces, makes two major contributions to the research in this area: it uses a bounded approximation approach, which guarantees that a simplified mesh approximates the original mesh to within a prespecified tolerance (that is, every vertex v in the original mesh will lie within a user specified distance /spl epsiv/ of the simplified mesh); its face merging procedure is efficient and greedy-that is, it does not backtrack or undo any merging once completed and thus, the algorithm is practical for simplifying very large meshes.
Genetic, evolutionary and plant breeding insights from the domestication of maize

The natural history of maize began nine thousand years ago when Mexican farmers started to collect the seeds of the wild grass, teosinte. Invaluable as a food source, maize permeated Mexican culture and religion. Its domestication eventually led to its adoption as a model organism, aided in large part by its large chromosomes, ease of pollination and growing agricultural importance. Genome comparisons between varieties of maize, teosinte and other grasses are beginning to identify the genes responsible for the domestication of modern maize and are also providing ideas for the breeding of more hardy varieties.
Double Modulation and Selective Excitation Photoreflectance for Characterizing Highly Luminescent Semiconductor Structures and Samples with Poor Surface Morphology

Photoreflectance (PR) is a powerful, contactless, and nondestructive technique capable of probing interband electronic transitions and built-in electric-fields at the surface and in interface regions in semiconductor materials and microstructures. It has been widely used as a characterization tool. However, its application to highly luminescent systems, such as quantum-well (QW) lasers and samples with poor surface morphology has been limited because of the difficulty in minimizing the interference from the luminescence and the pump beam that is scattered from the surface. We present a double modulation procedure where both the probe and pump beams are modulated which allows the PR component to be completely separated from the luminescence and scattered contributions. The separation is achieved through the appropriate choice of modulation frequencies and specially designed tuned amplifiers. A complete PR system, along with the necessary circuits, is presented. In addition, we have also exploited the freedom provided by the system to choose any pump wavelength to selectively modulate specific regions of the multilayer structure (QW, barrier, and cladding layer) and extract detailed information regarding the properties of each layer. The applicability of the procedure is demonstrated by fully characterizing a GaInP based QW laser structure used for visible emitters and by measurements on a saw-cut and chemically etched back surface of a commercial GaAs wafer. Finally, procedures attempted in the past to overcome difficulties with the luminescence and surface scattering are discussed and compared to the double modulation PR technique.
Design and Implementation of a Scalable Channel Emulator for Wideband MIMO Systems

Wireless channel emulation is becoming increasingly important, particularly with the advent of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where system performance is highly dependent on the accurate representation of the channel condition. In this paper, we compare the conventional finite impulse response (FIR)-based emulator versus solely performing the emulation in the frequency domain. We show that for single-input-single-output (SISO) systems, FIR-based emulators are computationally efficient but that the complexity rapidly becomes impractical for larger array sizes. On the other hand, frequency-domain approaches exhibit a fixed initial complexity cost that grows at a reduced rate as a function of the array size, resulting in significant savings in complexity for higher order arrays. As an illustrative example of this approach, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) architecture implementing a sample 3 times 3 MIMO system exhibits resource savings of up to 67% over a similarly constrained FIR approach. The architecture is discussed in detail, and implementation results, as well as laboratory measurements, are presented.
Prospective study of neuropsychologic testing and quality-of-life assessment of adults with primary malignant brain tumors.

Abstract Purpose: To identify the characteristics of adult patients with newly diagnosed primary brain tumors associated with identifiable deficits in neuropsychologic function to target interventions to improve function and quality of life (QOL). Methods and materials: Adult patients with newly diagnosed primary brain tumors and their caregivers were enrolled and underwent a battery of standardized neuropsychologic tests, allowing for qualitative and quantitative assessment and sensitive to the effects of the brain tumor, QOL, or caregiver stress. Results: We enrolled 68 patients with no prior radiotherapy. Patients with left hemisphere tumors reported significantly more memory problems and depressive symptoms. They also exhibited poorer attention and were more distractible, with poorer verbal fluency and poorer verbal learning. Patients with glioblastoma multiforme demonstrated poorer psychomotor speed and visual tracking than patients with non–glioblastoma multiforme histologic features. Patients and caregivers perceived QOL in a similar fashion, with significant correlation between patient and caregiver on hope testing and general QOL on the Linear Analog Self-Assessment Scale. Conclusion: Patients with left hemisphere tumors and glioblastoma multiforme histologic features demonstrated testable differences in neuropsychologic function and QOL that may be amenable to improvement with medical therapy or tailored rehabilitation programs. Caregiver assessments can predict patient QOL, which may be useful in patients with declining status.
The unique role of advanced practice nurses at the National Institutes of Health: Results of a 2006 survey.

Purpose: To characterize the role of advanced practice nurses (APNs), particularly nurse practitioners (NPs), in the practice setting of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a Federal biomedical research facility. Data sources: APNs with prescriptive authority employed at the NIH were surveyed using an adaptation of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) “2004 Nurse Practitioner Sample Survey.” A total of 56 of 93 surveys were returned (63% response rate), and of these, 54 (96%) were completed by NPs. Conclusion: In the 20 years they have been at NIH, the number of NPs has grown from less than 10 to more than 100. NIH NPs combine clinical research responsibilities with the provision of comprehensive medical management to patients enrolled on NIH protocols, blending clinical, research, educational, and administrative tasks into a unique and multifaceted role. There is a high level of satisfaction among NPs employed at the NIH, and they are considered an integral part of the research team. Implications for practice: This survey shows the variability in practice opportunities available to NPs in a research environment and the impact they have on public health.
Pools of Water, Pillars of Fire: The Literature of Ibuse Masuji

To the Western world, Ibuse Masuji is known primarily as the author of Black Rain, a document of the atomic holocaust and perhaps modern Japanese literature's most important contribution to the world of letters. In Japan, where is career has spanned six decades of revolutionary historical and social change, his popular novels, stories, essays and poems have won that nations' highest literary awards. John Whittier Treat's illuminating study of Ibuse is "an inquiry into the life and writings of a man brave enough to attempt a story that, in the view of more than one Hiroshima survivor, was "beyond words." Treat's analysis is the first comprehensive critical work on Ibuse outside of Japan. He provides a key to Ibuse's extraordinary writings, making his Japanese subject accessible to a Western audience. Moving beyond conventional distinctions between Ibuse's earlier and later works, Treat synthesizes a framework in which to read and understand Ibuse as a whole. He begins with a question: why and how did this author come to write Japan's most acclaimed novel of the Hiroshima bombing? His answer is organized chronologically and thematically, incorporating elements of both biography and literary criticism. He translates extensively from Ibuse's works and from interviews with the author. Pervasive themes, motifs, and images are developed and interrelated throughout the short stories, essays and early novels of the 1920s and 1930s, wartime journals, and the historical fiction based on the accounts of castaways in Edo period Japan. Ibuse's quintessential humor and irony culminate in the powerful realism of Black Rain and his postwar writing. Ibuse's voice emerges clearly. His message is human; his subject is man as a survivor. Treat's book reveals an author whose complex themes "explore what binds man to his world--not, as is so often the case with modern fiction, what separates him." To this end, says Treat, Ibuse's work is about the work of literature, about coming to terms "with the power of words to prescribe as well as describe how we see ourselves complete in a fractured world."
Proportions of endpoint force pattern types obtained via intraspinal microstimulation in chronically spinalized cats are dependent on sensorimotor training

In the spinal intact cat, four typical end-point force patterns are obtained with intraspinal stimulation of the lumbar cord. The types and the proportions of the patterns found were examined in chronically spinalized cats receiving neuroregenerative transplants and/or sensorimotor training. In all groups tested, there was a departure from the frequencies at which each of the patterns was expressed by microstimulation in spinal intact cats. In trained animals, the four patterns found in spinal intact animals were obtained, in addition to two novel fields. However, in untrained animals primarily flexion responses were obtained. These results suggest that sensorimotor training has an important influence on the reorganization of spinal circuits in the chronically injured cord
Optimized application of penalized regression methods to diverse genomic data

Motivation: Penalized regression methods have been adopted widely for high-dimensional feature selection and prediction in many bioinformatic and biostatistical contexts. While their theoretical properties are well-understood, specific methodology for their optimal application to genomic data has not been determined. Results: Through simulation of contrasting scenarios of correlated high-dimensional survival data, we compared the LASSO, Ridge and Elastic Net penalties for prediction and variable selection. We found that a 2D tuning of the Elastic Net penalties was necessary to avoid mimicking the performance of LASSO or Ridge regression. Furthermore, we found that in a simulated scenario favoring the LASSO penalty, a univariate pre-filter made the Elastic Net behave more like Ridge regression, which was detrimental to prediction performance. We demonstrate the real-life application of these methods to predicting the survival of cancer patients from microarray data, and to classification of obese and lean individuals from metagenomic data. Based on these results, we provide an optimized set of guidelines for the application of penalized regression for reproducible class comparison and prediction with genomic data. Availability and Implementation: A parallelized implementation of the methods presented for regression and for simulation of synthetic data is provided as the pensim R package, available at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/pensim/index.html. Contact:chuttenh@hsph.harvard.edu; juris@ai.utoronto.ca Supplementary Information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A practical model to audit risk assessment in a health‐care setting

Risk assessment is one of the major steps in the audit‐planning process. The increase in the number of incidents of auditors′ negligence has focused attention on this important step. Risk is defined in a statement by the Internal Auditing Standards as “the possibility that an event or action may occur which would adversely affect the organization”. The effects of risk can be faulty decisions as a result of utilizing inaccurate or incomplete information; inappropriate accounting treatment; fraudulent financial reporting; failure to safeguard assets adequately; failure to follow certain organizational policies and procedures; non‐compliance with relevant laws and regulations and inefficient or ineffective use of resources. In order to minimize the risks, the internal audit department must develop an audit plan that ensures maximum coverage of the areas to be audited. Experts in the field of auditing stress that the risk could be minimized if the selection of potential audit areas emanates from a risk assess...
Social Influences on Self-Reported Physical Activity in Overweight Latino Children

Psychosocial variables influence physical activity for different age groups, sex, and ethnic groups. However, little is known about their influence on physical activity in preadolescent Latino children. The authors examined how a) confidence in one's ability to be physically active (self-efficacy); b) ideas about the consequences of being physically active (beliefs), and c) the influences of family and friends on physical activity (social influences) effect physical activity levels in overweight (body mass index ≥85%) Latino preadolescent children. One hundred and fourteen preadolescents participated in a larger intervention designed to improve healthy lifestyles for Latino families. The authors report baseline data collected at a community-based primary care clinic. Multivariate regression analyses showed that only social influences significantly predicted (P < .01) the metabolic equivalent adjusted self-reported baseline physical activity. Prevention and intervention strategies that augment social influ...
Supporting Child Victims of Sexual Abuse Implementation of a Trauma Narrative Family Intervention

Families who present for counseling to address child sexual abuse (CSA) benefit from interventions that are evidence-based and meet children’s developmental needs. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is an empirically supported approach that is structured to include parents or caregivers in parent-only sessions and a family component. This article reviews the CSA literature as it relates to families, provides an overview of TF-CBT and the trauma narrative intervention, and discusses preparation for and implementation of the narrative family session which is illustrated by a case study.
Effects of Alterations in Cannabinoid Signaling, Alone and in Combination with Morphine, on Pain-Elicited and Pain-Suppressed Behavior in Mice

Inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and anandamide (AEA) uptake, which limit the degradation of endogenous cannabinoids, have received interest as potential therapeutics for pain. There is also evidence that endogenous cannabinoids mediate the antinociceptive effects of opioids. Assays of pain-elicited and pain-suppressed behavior have been used to differentiate the effects of drugs that specifically alter nociception from drugs that alter nociception caused by nonspecific effects such as catalepsy or a general suppression of activity. Using such procedures, this study examines the effects of the direct cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) agonist (−)- cis- 3-[2-hydroxy-4-(1,1-dimethylheptyl)phenyl]- trans- 4-(3-hydroxypropyl)cyclohexanol (CP55940), the FAAH inhibitor cyclohexylcarbamic acid 3′-carbamoylbiphenyl-3-yl ester (URB597), and the AEA uptake inhibitor N- (4-hydroxyphenyl) arachidonylamide (AM404). Additional experiments examined these compounds in combination with morphine. CP55940 produced antinociception in assays of pain-elicited, but not pain-suppressed, behavior and disrupted responding in an assay of schedule-controlled behavior. URB597 and AM404 produced antinociception in assays of pain-elicited and pain-suppressed behavior in which acetic acid was the noxious stimulus, but had no effect on the hotplate and schedule-controlled responding. CP55940 in combination with morphine resulted in effects greater than those of morphine alone in assays of pain-elicited and scheduled-controlled behavior but not pain-suppressed behavior. URB597 in combination with morphine resulted in enhanced morphine effects in assays of pain-elicited and pain-suppressed behavior in which diluted acetic acid was the noxious stimulus, but did not alter morphine's effects on the hotplate or schedule-controlled responding. These studies suggest that, compared with direct CB1 agonists, manipulations of endogenous cannabinoid signaling have enhanced clinical potential; however, their effects depend on the type of noxious stimulus.
Reward Mapping for Transfer in Long-Lived Agents

We consider how to transfer knowledge from previous tasks (MDPs) to a current task in long-lived and bounded agents that must solve a sequence of tasks over a finite lifetime. A novel aspect of our transfer approach is that we reuse reward functions. While this may seem counterintuitive, we build on the insight of recent work on the optimal rewards problem that guiding an agent's behavior with reward functions other than the task-specifying reward function can help overcome computational bounds of the agent. Specifically, we use good guidance reward functions learned on previous tasks in the sequence to incrementally train a reward mapping function that maps task-specifying reward functions into good initial guidance reward functions for subsequent tasks. We demonstrate that our approach can substantially improve the agent's performance relative to other approaches, including an approach that transfers policies.
Intraoperative Evaluation of Primary Hepatocellular Tumors

Pathologists may be asked to perform intraoperative evaluation of primary hepatocellular tumors to (1) establish a diagnosis, (2) assess surgical resection margins, and (3) determine whether donor livers that contain nodules are suitable for transplantation. Most hepatocellular tumors detected in nondonor livers are similarly treated with excision, although focal nodular hyperplasia and fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma represent exceptions to this rule. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss features that aid distinction between different types of hepatocellular lesions.
Ultrafast nonlinear response in PLZT thin films with applied femtosecond pulses

Time-resolved field-induced second-harmonic generation is investigated in 35/0/100 PLZT thin films. The electric field applied to the thin film is derived from a fast photoconductive switch. The switch consists of a coplanar-waveguide-structure circuit and a Si-on-sapphire substrate. It includes a narrow central electrode (at high voltage) sandwiched between two conductive surfaces; one of them is at the same high voltage as the central electrode, where as the other is grounded. The high voltage is up to 200 V. The widths of the gaps' and the central electrode are designed for a 50-Ω characteristic impedance. The PLZT thin film is directly deposited on the circuit with an acetate-precursor process.
Paper-Based SERS Swab for Rapid Trace Detection on Real-World Surfaces

One of the important but often overlooked considerations in the design of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates for trace detection is the efficiency of sample collection. Conventional designs based on rigid substrates such as silicon, alumina, and glass resist conformal contact with the surface under investigation, making the sample collection inefficient. We demonstrate a novel SERS substrate based on common filter paper adsorbed with gold nanorods, which allows conformal contact with real-world surfaces, thus dramatically enhancing the sample collection efficiency compared to conventional rigid substrates. We demonstrate the detection of trace amounts of analyte (140 pg spread over 4 cm2) by simply swabbing the surface under investigation with the novel SERS substrate. The hierarchical fibrous structure of paper serves as a 3D vasculature for easy uptake and transport of the analytes to the electromagnetic hot spots in the paper. Simple yet highly efficient and cost-effective SERS substra...
Bold-fMRI study of influence of ametropia on neure activity in children's visual cortex

Objective:To explore ametropia's influence on children's visual cortex by using BOLD-fMRI technology and non-metal glasses.Methods:Bold-fMRI technique with 1.5T SIMENS SONATA MRI was used.BOLDfMRI activation maps of 8 ametropia eyes before and after ametropia correction were collected respectively.BOLD-fMRI activation maps of 8 normal eyes before and after dofocusing were collect- ed respectively.Results:After ametropia correction,the neure activity in the functional area of visual cortex of children with ametropia increased obviojsly(p＜0.05);while that of children with normal eyes,decreased(P＜0.05).Conclusion:Ametropia can decrease visual cortex neure activity apparently.So children with ametropia should be worn glasses as early as possible to correct ametropia,or else it will affect the functional development of visual cortex.