cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chapter 4 Framing Space: The First Landscape Play

This chapter introduces Stein’s first landscape play, Lend A Hand Or Four Religions (1922), through comparison to Tender Buttons (1912–13), another breakthrough text in which Stein explores how she might “include looking” at the world without re-admitting the mimetic basis of representation. These are related experiments in their use of painterly analogies to the figure–ground relations of landscape and still-life painting. Voris analyzes Stein’s methods in Lend A Hand for evoking a palpable spatial dimension and immanence in place of representation. In her first landscape play, the homology Stein employs is a scenic model of the co-presence of landscape and viewer. Later landscape plays differ markedly in style, revealing that Stein works at a sustained compositional problem and experiments with various possibilities in successive texts including a framed space, flux without a frame, and reversing the “places” of figure–ground.
Non-Contact Measurement of Line Voltage

This paper presents a capacitively coupled non-contact voltage sensor, which is specifically optimized for monitoring line voltages ranging from plug level to distribution levels at thousands of volts. The sensor uses a new arrangement of electrostatic pickups to measure the rate of change of an unknown potential, and digitally integrates that the rate of change in order to recover the original signal. This architecture allows for higher sensitivity and more robust disturbance rejection. The cost of the sensor is low because the number of parts is small and the capacitive pickups are integrated into a standard printed circuit board to create a monolithic sensor.
Developing a Before-school Physical Activity Club: Start with a Power-walking Program

Even with school-based efforts, many young people remain inactive. For school-age children, physical activity levels may be increased through participation in physical education or other organized physical activities throughout the school day. The implementation of a comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) within the school community is an inclusive strategy to provide more opportunities for students to develop an active lifestyle and meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. A CSPAP should include not only quality physical education, but also physical activity before, during and after school. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to describe how to effectively initiate and maintain a school-based morning activity program and provide practitioners with a guide to implement a power-walking club.
Focal arterial inflammation precedes subsequent calcification in the same location: a longitudinal FDG-PET/CT study

Background— Arterial calcium (Ca) deposition has been identified as an active inflammatory process. We sought to test the hypothesis that local vascular inflammation predisposes to subsequent arterial calcium deposition in humans. Methods and Results— From a hospital database, we identified 137 patients (age, 61±13 years; 48.1% men) who underwent serial positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (1–5 years apart). Focal arterial inflammation was prospectively determined by measuring 18F-flourodeoxyglucose uptake (using baseline positron-emission tomography) within predetermined locations of the thoracic aortic wall and was reported as a standardized uptake value. A separate, blinded investigator evaluated calcium deposition (on the baseline and follow-up computed tomographic scans) along the same standardized sections of the aorta. New calcification was prospectively defined using square root–transformed difference of calcium volume score, with a cutoff value of 2.5. Accordingly, vascular segment was classified as either with or without subsequent calcification. Overall, 67 (9%) of aortic segments demonstrated subsequent calcification. Baseline median (interquartile range) standardized uptake value was higher in segments with versus without subsequent calcification (2.09 [1.84–2.44] versus 1.92 [1.72–2.20], P =0.002). This was also true in the subset of segments with Ca present at baseline (2.08 [1.81–2.40] versus 1.86 [1.66–2.09], P =0.02), as well as those without (2.17 [1.87–2.51] versus 1.93 [1.73–2.20], P =0.04). Furthermore, across all patients, subsequent Ca deposition was associated with the underlying 18F-flourodeoxyglucose uptake (inflammatory signal), measured as standardized uptake value (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]=2.94 [1.27–6.89], P =0.01) or target-to-background ratio (2.59 [1.18–5.70], P =0.02), after adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusions— Here, we provide first-in-man evidence that arterial inflammation precedes subsequent Ca deposition, a marker of plaque progression, within the underlying location in the artery wall.
Ileal Neobladder: An Important Cause of Non-Anion Gap Metabolic Acidosis.

Abstract Background The differential diagnosis for a non-anion gap metabolic acidosis is probably less well known than the differential diagnosis for an anion gap metabolic acidosis. One etiology of a non-anion gap acidosis is the consequence of ileal neobladder urinary diversion for the treatment of bladder cancer. Case Report We present a case of a patient with an ileal neobladder with a severe non-anion gap metabolic acidosis caused by a urinary tract infection and ureteroenterostomy. Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This? Part of the ileal neobladder surgery includes ureteroenterostomy and predisposes patients to several clinically significant metabolic derangements, including a non-anion gap metabolic acidosis. These patients have an increased chronic acid load, bicarbonate deficit, and hypokalemia, which should be appreciated when resuscitating these patients.
Questionnaire Assessment Potentially Overestimates Anxiety in Parkinson's Disease

Assessment of anxiety in Parkinson's disease (PD) is complicated by symptoms, such as trembling and shaking, that the two disorders have in common. This symptom overlap produces a potential for overestimation of the rate and severity of anxiety when assessed by self-report questionnaire. The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent to which anxiety scores in PD patients might be overestimated by two commonly-used mood state questionnaires. Fifty-nine patients with PD were administered the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Profile of Mood States. Results indicate that the rate of clinically significant anxiety on these measures is indeed higher than the rate of clinical anxiety as determined by interview alone, suggesting the potential for overestimation of anxiety in PD when using self-report questionnaires.
Concurrent Engineering in the Automotive Industry: Prospects for Worker Participation

Abstract Concurrent engineering practices designed to shorten product development lead time are making their way into the North American automotive industry. This paper reports the results of case study research undertaken to determine whether these practices provide new opportunities for auto workers and their unions in decisions about technology design and training. At the plant level in particular, it was found that the company's efforts to integrate design and manufacturing operations provided production workers and plant-level union representatives with new opportunities for substantive input in process design, earlier exposure to the new product, and significant control over the pre-Iaunch training program for skilled trades and production employees.
Methods and Applications of CRISPR-Mediated Base Editing in Eukaryotic Genomes

The past several years have seen an explosion in development of applications for the CRISPR-Cas9 system, from efficient genome editing, to high-throughput screening, to recruitment of a range of DNA and chromatin-modifying enzymes. While homology-directed repair (HDR) coupled with Cas9 nuclease cleavage has been used with great success to repair and re-write genomes, recently developed base-editing systems present a useful orthogonal strategy to engineer nucleotide substitutions. Base editing relies on recruitment of cytidine deaminases to introduce changes (rather than double-stranded breaks and donor templates) and offers potential improvements in efficiency while limiting damage and simplifying the delivery of editing machinery. At the same time, these systems enable novel mutagenesis strategies to introduce sequence diversity for engineering and discovery. Here, we review the different base-editing platforms, including their deaminase recruitment strategies and editing outcomes, and compare them to other CRISPR genome-editing technologies. Additionally, we discuss how these systems have been applied in therapeutic, engineering, and research settings. Lastly, we explore future directions of this emerging technology.
Informing and transforming language teacher education pedagogy

Given emerging trends in where, why, how, and to what end English language teachers are being prepared, we argue that greater attention to the design, enactment, and consequences of language teache...
Coring and extruding sediments from shall lakes with the simple, inexpensive VolksCorer and VolksExtruder

Materials for constructing a simple piston corer are available at most well-stocked hardware stores, primarily using galvanized fence post for the barrel, and pipe for the drive rod and head. These are assembled with a modicum of machinist skills. In the field, this VolksCorer operates like similar corers; it is limited to relatively shallow water (about 10–15 m) and is poorly suited for down-the-hole coring, but it requires few specialized tools. Likewise, materials to construct the VolksExtruder are widely available; this extruder, although simple, allows very precise extrusion control. The very low cost of the corer and extruder (less than US$50 each) make them suitable for investigators operating with low budgets without sacrificing sample quality.
Boundary value problems for systems of nonlinear partial differential equations

A Hilbert space lemma from [3] is used to give a method for solving boundary value problems for nonlinear systems. The lemma may be applied in various function space settings to yield L 2 solutions to systems of nonlinear partial differential equations (see [3]) but emphasis here is on a discrete setting which yields a readily programable numerical method for such problems. Basic to the discussion is the consideration of a family of Dirichlet spaces and their associated Laplacians.
A Rosier Reality: Incongruency in Stated and Revealed Ingroup Preferences among Young Asian American Speed Daters:

Several studies have identified inconsistencies between “stated” interpersonal attitudes and those “revealed” after an interaction. The authors used the speed-dating paradigm to examine stated and ...
Did we trade freedom for credit? Finance, domination, and the political economy of freedom

This article concerns freedom and financial markets. First, I consider the republican case for liberalization, extending Robert Taylor’s economic model of republicanism to financial markets. This c...
“We want to see you sex it up and be slutty:” post-feminism and sports media’s appearance double standard

The notion that women in the United States’ electronic sports media face greater standards of appearance is not new (Sheffer, M. L., & Schultz, B. (2007) Double standard: Why women have trouble get...
Acquired BRAF Rearrangements Induce Secondary Resistance to EGFR therapy in EGFR-Mutated Lung Cancers.

Abstract Introduction Multiple genetic mechanisms have been identified in EGFR-mutant lung cancers as mediators of acquired resistance (AR) to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), but many cases still lack a known mechanism. Methods To identify novel mechanisms of AR, we performed targeted large panel sequencing of samples from 374 consecutive patients with metastatic EGFR-mutant lung cancer, including 174 post-TKI samples, of which 38 also had a matched pre-TKI sample. Alterations hypothesized to confer AR were introduced into drug-sensitive EGFR-mutant lung cancer cell lines (H1975, HCC827, and PC9) by using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9 genome editing. MSK-LX138cl, a cell line with EGFR exon 19 deletion (ex19del) and praja ring finger ubiquitin ligase 2 gene (PJA2)/BRAF fusion, was generated from an EGFR TKI–resistant patient sample. Results We identified four patients (2.3%) with a BRAF fusion (three with acylglycerol kinase gene (AGK)/BRAF and one with PJA2/BRAF) in samples obtained at AR to EGFR TKI therapy (two posterlotinib samples and two posterlotinib and postosimertinib samples). Pre-TKI samples were available for two of four patients and both were negative for BRAF fusion. Induction of AGK/BRAF fusion in H1975 (L858R + T790M), PC9 (ex19del) and HCC827 (ex19del) cells increased phosphorylation of BRAF, MEK1/2, ERK1/2, and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 and conferred resistance to growth inhibition by osimertinib. MEK inhibition with trametinib synergized with osimertinib to block growth. Alternately, a pan-RAF inhibitor as a single agent blocked growth of all cell lines with mutant EGFR and BRAF fusion. Conclusion BRAF fusion is a mechanism of AR to EGFR TKI therapy in approximately 2% of patients. Combined inhibition of EGFR and MEK (with osimertinib and trametinib) or BRAF (with a pan-RAF inhibitor) are potential therapeutic strategies that should be explored.
Low-loss Integrated Lithium Niobate Photonics for Quantum Light Generation

We demonstrate high quality factor optical resonators fabricated in thin-film lithium niobate on a sapphire substrate. These devices can enable on-chip quantum light generation which is important for integrated photonic quantum information processing.
Health>Education>Health

I first met Carmendita as she was graduating from high school and needed her physical to go to college. Carmen, a bright, African American female, was so excited to be going to Muskingum University. The first person in her family to go to college, she had a full academic scholarship and planned to become a veterinarian. She had younger siblings and wanted to show them that with hard work, they could go on to higher education, too. As a first-generation college attender and oldest of four myself, I spoke with her about the challenges and future rewards. Carmen grew up in the inner city of a declining rust belt city and was interested in helping her family financially as well. She looked forward to being able to help younger siblings and her mother when she was able to become a vet.
Common Newborn Dermatologic Conditions

Dermatologic conditions in the newborn period are very common. In most instances, they are benign in origin. Although they may lead to concern in the patient’s parents and family, some conditions are present at birth, where some present in the first week or develop over the first few months. It is important for the clinician to differentiate between the benign conditions and those rare conditions that are associated with underlying conditions such as Sturge-Weber.
Mortality Burdens in California Due to Air Pollution Attributable to Local and Nonlocal Emissions

Limited research has been conducted on the contributions of local and nonlocal emission sources to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) and their associated mortality. In this study, we estimated the total mortality resulting from long-term PM2.5 and O3 exposures in California in 2012 using multiple concentration response functions (CRFs) and attributed the estimated mortality to different emission groups. The point estimates of PM2.5-associated mortality in California ranged from 12,700 to 26,700, of which 53% were attributable to in-state anthropogenic emissions. Based on new epidemiological evidence, we estimated that O3 could be associated with up to 13,700 deaths from diseases of both the respiratory and cardiovascular systems in California. In addition, 75% of the ambient O3 in California was due to distant emissions outside the western United States, leading to 92% of the O3-associated mortality. Overall, distant emissions lead to greater mortality burdens of air pollution in California than local anthropogenic emissions.
Intercellular signaling dynamics from a single cell atlas of the biomaterials response

Biomaterials serve as the basis of implants, tissue engineering scaffolds, and multiple other biomedical therapeutics. New technologies, such as single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), are enabling characterization of the biomaterial response to an unprecedented level of detail, facilitating new discoveries in the complex cellular environment surrounding materials. We performed scRNAseq and integrated data sets from multiple experiments to create a single cell atlas of the biomaterials response that contains 42,156 cells from biological extracellular matrix (ECM)-derived and synthetic polyester (polycaprolactone, PCL) scaffold biomaterials implanted in murine muscle wounds. We identified 18 clusters of cells, including natural killer (NK) cells, multiple subsets of fibroblasts, and myeloid cells, many of which were previously unknown in the biomaterial response. To determine intra and intercellular signaling occurring between the numerous cell subsets, including immune-stromal interactions in the biomaterial response, we developed Domino (github.com/chris-cherry/domino), a computational tool which allows for identification of condition specific intercellular signaling patterns connected to transcription factor activation from single cell data. The Domino networks self-assembled into signaling modules and cellular subsets involved in signaling independent of clustering, defining interactions between immune, fibroblast, and tissue-specific modules with biomaterials-specific communication patterns. Further compilation and integration of biomaterials single cell data sets will delineate the impact of materials chemical and physical properties and biological factors, such as anatomical placement, age, or systemic disease, that will direct biomaterials design.
Experiences of Transgender Couples Navigating One Partner’s Transition: Love Is Gender Blind:

This study investigated the experiences of romantic couples who maintained their relationship when one partner transitioned gender. For this phenomenological study, 13 couples were interviewed as a...
Accuracy of an Automated Hearing Aid Fitting Using Real Ear Measures Embedded in a Manufacturer Fitting Software.

Background Hearing aid fitting guidelines recommend real ear measures (REM) to verify hearing aid performance. Unfortunately, approximately 70 to 80% of clinicians do not use REM, but instead download manufacturer first-fit. Studies report differences in performance between first-fit and programmed-fit with greatest differences in the higher frequencies. Recently, hearing aid and real ear analyzer (REA) manufacturers allow REA communication with hearing aid software feature to automatically program hearing aids to target. Little research is available reporting the accuracy of this feature. Purpose The aim of the study is to examine whether differences exist at 50, 65, and 80 dB SPL between two ReSound first-fit formulae (Audiogram+ and NAL-NL2) using ReSound AutoREM and Aurical NAL-NL2 Research Design The study design is of repeated measure type. Study Sample The study sample includes 48 ears. Data Collection and Analysis For the two fitting formulae, AutoREM real ear insertion gain (REIG) was measured at 50, 65, and 80 dB SPL and compared with measures from Aurical NAL-NL2. Results Mean AutoREM REIG for ReSound NAL-NL2 was 3 to 8 dB below Aurical NAL-NL2 for 50 dB SPL, within 1 to 3 dB for 65 dB SPL and 1 to 5 dB above for 80 dB SPL. Mean AutoREM REIG for Audiogram + was 1 to 12 dB below Aurical NAL-NL2 for 50 dB SPL, within 2 to 5 dB for 65 dB SPL and 1 to 7 dB above NAL-NL2 for 80 dB SPL. Conclusion Relative to the Aurical NAL-NL2, AutoREM REIG50 for Audiogram + and ReSound NAL-NL2 was lower. Relative to the Aurical NAL-NL2, AutoREM REIG65 for Audiogram + was higher at 1,000 Hz and lower at 4,000 to 6,000 Hz and for ReSound NAL-NL2 it was lower at 500 Hz and 4,000 Hz and higher at 3,000 Hz. Relative to the Aurical NAL-NL2, AutoREM REIG80 for Audiogram + was higher at 500 to 3,000 Hz and 6,000 Hz and ReSound NAL-NL2 was higher at 500 to 6,000 Hz. Because of wide intersubject variability clinicians should continue to use REM as a “check and balance” when using AutoREM.
Enhanced Multiplexing of Immunofluorescence Microscopy Using a Long-Stokes-Shift Fluorophore

Immunofluorescence labeling and microscopy offer a highly specific means to visualize proteins or other molecular species in a sample by labeling target antigens with fluorescent probes. These fluorescent probes can then be visualized using a fluorescence microscope, allowing their relative spatial relationships to be determined. Due to spectral overlap of common fluorophores, however, it can be challenging to analyze more than three antigens in a single sample with standard imaging approaches. This article describes multiplexed labeling and imaging of four target antigens through the use of a long-Stokes-shift fluorophore-a fluorophore with an unusually large gap between its excitation and emission maxima-in tandem with three conventional fluorophores. This combination allows for multiplexed imaging of four antigens in a single sample with excellent spectral discrimination suitable for sensitive analyses using standard imaging hardware. Particular advantages of this approach are its flexibility in terms of target antigens and the lack of any specialized procedures, reagents, or equipment beyond the commercially available labeling reagent coupled to the long-Stokes-shift fluorophore. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Four-probe immunofluorescence labeling Basic Protocol 2: Four-probe immunofluorescence imaging.
Improving Our Understanding of Medical Decision-Making Competence in Puberty Suppression

* Abbreviations: GnRHas — : Gonadotropin Release Hormone analogs MacCAT-T — : MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment MDC — : medical decision-making competence PS — : puberty suppression In this issue of Pediatrics , Vrouenraets et al1 present findings on an important study assessing transgender adolescents’ medical decision-making competence (MDC) to give informed consent for starting puberty suppression (PS) among a sample of youth receiving care at 2 specialized gender identity clinics in the Netherlands. This study has significance for 2 important reasons: (1) PS has gained increased use in care for transgender adolescents2; and (2) recent legislation in several US states, as well as a recent court decision in the United Kingdom, seek to severely limit access to all gender-affirming care.3 PS using Gonadotropin Release Hormone analogs (GnRHas) has been shown to be reversible, when treatment is suspended, and has been a long-standing standard of care for children with precocious puberty.2 The benefits of PS include reducing the psychological distress of developing secondary sexual and other physical characteristics that may be incongruent with one’s gender identity. PS may also diminish the need for future surgical gender-affirming interventions, although a retrospective study in Pediatrics by van de Grift et al4 noted the possibility of limiting successful vaginoplasty for transfemale patients. The impact of long-term use of GnRHas on an adolescent’s future fertility and on bone development and growth is less clear.5 As described by Vrouenraets et al,1 PS allows transgender adolescents to “mature and accrue life experiences” before deciding about gender-affirming treatments, which have irreversible changes. Although the data collection for this study by Vrouenraets et al1 was initiated in 2016, the authors point to a 2020 decision handed down by the High Court of Justice in London, United Kingdom that youth 15 years and younger are “highly unlikely to understand puberty suppression (using GnRHas), and therefore cannot give … Address correspondence to Neal D. Hoffman, MD, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, 3415 Bainbridge Ave, Bronx, NY 10467. E-mail: nhoffman{at}montefiore.org
Reproductive Performance of Swine Bred to Produce Purebred and Two-Breed Cross Litters

SUMMARY These data included the records of 818 purebred gilts and sows of Duroc, Hampshire and Yorkshire breeding mated to produce all purebreds and all possible two-way crosses. A total of 212 gilts were slaughtered 30-day postbreeding (72 purebred matings and 140 crossbred matings) to evaluate ovulation rate, number of live embryos, average embryo length and embryo survival rate. A total of 450 litters (161 purebred and 289 crossbred) were farrowed to evaluate litter size, litter weight and average pig weight at O, 21 and 42 days postfarrowing. Litters were farrowed in the spring and fall of 1971 and 1973 and the summer of 1972. Of the 818 females selected for breeding, 16.4% failed to exhibit estrus or to be pregnant at slaughter or farrowing. Failure rates were similar for sows and gilts with Yorkshires having the most and Hampshires the least. Duroc and Yorkshire females ovulated more eggs and had more embryos 30 days postbreeding than did Hampshire females (P<.05). Yorkshires were the most productive of the straightbreds in terms of litter size and weight. Breed of dam and breed of sire effects were evident for many traits evaluated. Heterosis estimates were not significant for embryo data but were large and significant for litter size and weight at 42 days postfarrowing due to the 7.78% higher survival rate of the
An Easily Replaceable Intracranial Catheter

Replacement of a catheter draining an intracranial cyst or a ventricle can be difficult if the fluid space has collapsed. An intracranial catheter which can be safely and accurately exchanged is described. The catheter has a hole in the tip and can be exchanged over a guide wire. The catheter also offers an advantage during the original placement if the fluid cavity to be drained has a thick wall.
Fatigue resistance of silane-bonded epoxy/glass interfaces using neat and rubber-toughened epoxies

The influence that the energy absorbing ability of an epoxy has on the cyclic fatigue resistance of a silane-bonded epoxy/glass interface in moist air was studied using the double cleavage drilled compression (DCDC) test. The material properties of two epoxies with similar chemical structures were controlled through the manipulation of the molecular weight between cross-links, Mc, of the epoxy network. Two rubber-toughened epoxies with different nominal particle sizes (10–40 μm and 1–2 μm) were fabricated by adding a liquid butadiene/acrylonitrile copolymer to the epoxy resins. Mixtures of the silane-coupling agents 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (3-APES) and propyltriethoxysilane (PES) were used to treat the glass substrate in order to control the number of covalent bonds between epoxy and the glass. 3-APES has the ability to form primary bonds with both the epoxy and the glass, while PES forms primary bonds with only the glass. Experimental results showed that the manipulation of Mc had little effect on the cyclic fatigue resistance of the epoxy/glass interface. However, incorporation of rubber particles gave a significant improvement in the fatigue resistance. The rubber particles allowed the microscopic, non-linear deformation mechanisms of cavitation and shear yielding to dissipate energy during fatigue crack growth. Smaller particles gave the greatest improvement to fatigue resistance; about a 75% improvement compared to the neat (non-modified) epoxy. Adjustment of the number of silane bonds between the neat epoxies and the glass had little effect within experimental scatter on the fatigue resistance of the interfaces, suggesting that the energy dissipated through the breaking of bonds at the interface was insignificant compared to the energy dissipated through plastic and other inelastic deformation mechanisms in the epoxy.
CD‐ROM and Libraries:: A Natural Pair

As Public Services Librarian, I am constantly looking for new and innovative ways to help our patrons find information. Working at a rural multicampus college (we have three campuses, twenty miles apart) can pose a real problem when attempting to provide access to database searching. Telephone lines were too expensive and unreliable and we were spending too much money for online database retrieval.
Sampling-based algorithms for optimal path planning problems

Sampling-based motion planning received increasing attention during the last decade. In particular, some of the leading paradigms, such the Probabilistic RoadMap (PRM) and the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithms, have been demonstrated on several robotic platforms, and found applications well outside the robotics domain. However, a large portion of this research effort has been limited to the classical feasible path planning problem, which asks for finding a path that starts from an initial configuration and reaches a goal configuration while avoiding collision with obstacles. The main contribution of this dissertation is a novel class of algorithms that extend the application domain of sampling-based methods to two new directions: optimal path planning and path planning with complex task specifications. Regarding the optimal path planning problem, we first show that the existing algorithms either lack asymptotic optimality, i.e., almost-sure convergence to optimal solutions, or they lack computational efficiency: on one hand, neither the RRT nor the k-nearest PRM (for any fixed k) is asymptotically optimal; on the other hand, the simple PRM algorithm, where the connections are sought within fixed radius balls, is not computationally as efficient as the RRT or the efficient PRM variants. Subsequently, we propose two novel algorithms, called PRM* and RRT*, both of which guarantee asymptotic optimality without sacrificing computational efficiency. In fact, the proposed algorithms and the most efficient existing algorithms, such as the RRT, have the same asymptotic computational complexity. Regarding the path planning problem with complex task specifications, we propose an incremental sampling-based algorithm that is provably correct and probabilistically complete, i.e., it generates a correct-by-design path that satisfies a given deterministic μ-calculus specification, when such a path exists, with probability approaching to one as the number of samples approaches infinity. For this purpose, we develop two key ingredients. First, we propose an incremental sampling-based algorithm, called the RRG, that generates a representative set of paths in the form of a graph, with guaranteed almost-sure convergence towards feasible paths. Second, we propose an incremental local model-checking algorithm for the deterministic μ-calculus. Moreover, with the help of these tools and the ideas behind the RRT*, we construct algorithms that also guarantee almost sure convergence to optimal solutions. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, libraries.mit.edu/docs - docs@mit.edu)
Interactions between rough parts in object perception

The visual systems of humans and primates outperform the best artificial vision systems by almost any measure. Humans can easily recognize as complex objects as faces even if they haven't seen them in such conditions before. However, experiments with the inverted faces (Thatcher illusion) show strong dependences between parts and their configuration. We propose pattern recognition rules similar to the primate visual brain on the basis of the simple shape classification in the intermediate area of the visual cortex (V4). In the present work we have described interactions between parts and their configurations using single cell responses as the brain expertise (decision attribute). Experimental data as the set of condition (stimulus) and decision (cell responses) attributes were placed into a decision table. Applying the rough set theory (Pawlak, 1992) we have divided our stimuli into equivalent classes determined by evoked cell responses. On the basis of the decision table, we found the decision rules. Comparing decision rules for responses to object and to its parts, we have found the interaction rules in the receptive fields of the area V4. We have proposed the interaction rules for objects that are simpler than faces but we expect that such rules can give us neurophysiological basis for the Gestalt perception of the complex objects. By comparing responses of different cells we have found equivalent concept classes. However, many different cells show inconsistency between their decision rules, which may suggest that the brain uses several different decision logics in order to make object perception insensitive to changes in properties of its parts (rough parts).
The Everglades Ecosystem: From Engineering to Litigation to Consensus-Based Restoration

This article explores the history and future of South Florida's ecosystem restoration efforts. Part II provides a general introduction to South Florida's history of attempting to transform nature through engineering and manipulation of the natural environment. Part III explores the consequences of those engineering efforts for the Everglades ecosystem, and its recent history of litigation, negotiation and legislation that culminated with the passage and ongoing implementation of the Everglades Forever Act and Congressional adoption of historic legislation implementing the CERP. Part IV describes the future of environmental restoration throughout the greater Everglades ecosystem, including the restoration of Lake Okeechobee and the implementation and funding of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Finally, Part V provides the authors' conclusions.
The Americans with Disabilities Act: Implications for Social Services

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, and telecommunications. The act prohibits denying individuals with disabilities the opportunity to participate in a program or service or providing a service that is not equal to or that is different or separate from that given others. This article provides examples of possible barriers to full participation that might exist in social services and gives illustrations of reasonable modifications to increase access. Employers, private and government, profit and nonprofit, must make reasonable physical accommodations for disabled employees, unless such accommodation would cause undue hardship. This article gives examples of reasonable accommodations and undue hardship and discusses the ADA as a resource to clients with mental and physical disabilities and as a framework of protection for agencies serving them.
Acute pain management in dermatology Mechanisms and pathways

The number of dermatologic surgical procedures performed is increasing each year. The pain associated with these procedures is a major concern for patients and its treatment is part of the increasing emphasis on outcomes and quality of clinical care. Better understanding of pain signaling and how commonly used analgesics function can help improve our surgical pain management. This is part I of a 2-part review that will highlight the anatomy of acute pain signaling from the skin to the central nervous system and the factors that influence the plasticity of the pathway. Having this foundation of knowledge is needed to enhance the clinical treatment of pain. Part II will provide an updated review of available treatments, with an emphasis on their appropriate use for postsurgical pain management.
Stage-specific embryonic antigens detected by an antiserum against mouse blastocysts.

Abstract Stage-specific cell surface antigens expressed during preimplantation mouse development and detected by a rabbit antiserum prepared against mouse blastocysts (A-BL2) have been characterized by immunoprecipitation and gel electrophoresis. Antibody activity is shown to be directed primarily against a pair of possibly related proteins of 65,000 to 70,000 daltons. These proteins are stage specific, being synthesized only between the 2-cell and morula stages of mouse preimplantation development. Two-dimensional gel analysis shows the A-BL2 immunoprecipitate to consist of at least three pairs of proteins showing charge heterogeneity on isoelectric focusing. This report is the first biochemical characterization of stage-specific embryonic antigens synthesized during murine preimplantation development.
Why do governments subsidize gasoline consumption? An empirical analysis of global gasoline prices, 2002–2009

Abstract Governments spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually to subsidize the consumption of fossil fuels without understanding the environmental and economic problems this practice creates. To shed light on these problems, we examine the case of gasoline subsidies using data on gasoline prices in 137 countries for the years 2002–2009. It is useful to study gasoline pricing because gasoline is the most important transportation fuel, and there are data for many countries for the time period of investigation. We find that major oil producers subsidize gasoline consumption by artificially reducing prices; countries with weak institutional capacity also seem to subsidize gasoline, but the effects are weaker. These results suggest that policy interventions to improve institutional capacity could help developing countries in particular reduce their fossil fuel subsidies.
Optimal control with minimax cost

The following paper discusses the optimal control of these systems, characterized by a set of n first-order state equations, in which performance is measured by Chebyshev-type functional over the state trajectory. The determination of control functions that minimize the maximum value of a given state function over the trajectory interval is shown to follow directly from the development of a differential minimax cost. The differential minimax cost allows the problem to be formulated as a coordinate minimization in the cost-augmented state space, and leads to the consideration of a set of suboptimal problems whose solutions are shown to converge to the required minimax control. The modifications required for the application of standard variational techniques to the reformulated problem are also discussed. The main result of this study is the demonstration of equivalence between the Chebyshev-type control problem and a more conventional Mayer-type formulation.
NEGATIVE COEFFICIENTS IN THE GRE VALIDITY STUDY SERVICE

Operational procedures for the Graduate Record Examinations Validity Study Service (GREVSS) are reviewed, with the emphasis on the problem of frequent occurrence of negative coefficients in the fitted within-department regressions obtained by the empirical Bayes method of Braun and Jones (1985). Several alterations of the operational procedures are proposed that would reduce the frequency of negative coefficients, and, if desired, completely eliminate them. It is argued, however, that there are no a priori reasons for assuming that all the coefficients are nonnegative. Reports of the fitted within-department regressions should be based on a single model, that would be found by model exploration. The estimation procedures could be improved by employing more flexible software for modelling between-department variation.
Correlated Charged Pions from Chiral Dynamics in High-Energy Nuclear Collisions

It is expected that chiral symmetry is approximately restored in the very excited matter produced in a high-energy nuclear collision and that the chiral order parameter will thereafter quickly relax towards its aligned vacuum value. This non-equilibrium evolution of the environment endows the pionic degrees of freedom with a time-dependent effective mass and this agency, in turn, may create correlated soft pions that could provide specific observable signatures of the chiral dynamics that are based solely on charged pions.
THE PENETRATION OF STRONG ELECTROLYTES

The entrance of strong electrolytes into Valonia is very slow unless the cells are injured. This, together with the very high electrical resistance of the protoplasm, suggests that they may penetrate largely as undissociated molecules formed at the surface of the protoplasm by the collision of ions. Under favorable circumstances KCl may be absorbed to the extent of 3 x 10(-8) mols per hour per sq. cm. of surface together with about 0.17 as much NaCl. Other substances which seem to penetrate to some extent are Li, Rb, Br, BrO(3), I, IO(3), and selenite. Little or no penetration is shown by SCN, ferricyanide, ferrocyanide, formate, salicylate, tungstate, seleniate, NO(2), SO(3), Sb, glycerophosphate, and many heavy metals and the alkaline earths. In sea water whose specific gravity had been increased by CsCl cells of Valonia floated for over a year and there was little or no penetration of Cs except as the result of injury. The penetration of NH(4)Cl decreases the specific gravity of the sap and causes the cells to float: under these circumstances they live indefinitely. It is probable that NH(3) or NH(4)OH penetrates and is subsequently changed to NH(4)Cl. It would seem that if the sea contained a little more ammonia this would be a floating organism.
Calorie restriction alters physical performance but not cognition in two models of altered neuroendocrine signaling

A major neuroendocrinological effect of calorie restriction (CR) is induction of neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the arcuate nucleus (ARC). Aside from its appetite-stimulating effects, NPY is thought to be involved in the modulation of behavioral processes including anxiety and learning and memory. In the present study physical fitness, anxiety, and learning/memory-related tasks were assessed in mice lacking NPY or a functional ARC after dietary manipulation by CR. Physical fitness was improved by CR when measured by inclined screen and rotarod, and this diet effect was not affected by NPY or ARC status. As has been observed previously, the NPY knockout mice displayed heightened anxiety in an open field. This phenotype was not fully recapitulated in the ARC-lesioned model. CR affected neither total locomotor activity in the open field nor thigmotaxic behavior in these models. Neither NPY nor CR had a significant effect on Morris water maze performance; however, ARC-damaged mice were unable to learn the task, and this deficit was not corrected by CR. We conclude that despite established effects of CR on ARC signaling, our results suggest a mechanistic separation between the two where behavior is concerned.
Kindling antagonism: effects of norepinephrine depletion on kindled seizure suppression after concurrent, alternate stimulation in rats.

Abstract The concurrent, alternate electrical stimulation of the entorhinal cortex and septal nucleus results in the development of fully generalized seizures at one electrode site and the suppression of seizure development at the other. We have labeled this phenomenon kindling antagonism. Selective, whole-brain depletion of norepinephrine (NE) virtually eliminates the development of kindling antagonism such that fully generalized seizures develop at both sites in a majority of animals. This effect occurs in the absence of appreciable changes in kindling characteristics of these animals compared with either untreated or vehicle-treated controls. These results suggest that the suppression of seizure development observed in the kindling antagonism model is normally maintained by a NE-dependent mechanism. Our results support those of earlier studies using single-site kindling paradigms in which NE depletion facilitates the rate of kindled seizure development. We suggest that the NE-dependent mechanism responsible for the seizure suppression observed to follow concurrent, alternate stimulation and the suppression of seizure development using single-site kindling paragigms may be the same. The nature of this NE-dependent seizure suppression mechanism and the anatomic locus or loci critical for this effect remain questions for future research.
Multimodal imaging in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with diffuse neuropsychiatric involvement.

ObjectivesThe objective of this paper is to investigate conventional and nonconventional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with diffuse ...
Online Technological Media in the Higher Education Classroom: An Exploratory Investigation of Varied Levels of Twitter Use

An exploratory quasi-experiment of college-level students was used to examine the difference in a variety of course indicators among instructors when they did not use Twitter as a supplement to their courses, when they moderately used Twitter, and when they used Twitter a great deal in their courses. When instructors used Twitter in their classes, perceived learning via technological mediums, perceived classroom community with regard to technological media, perceived pedagogical affect, perceived course effectiveness, perceived learning performance, and perceived perception of learning from Twitter were all greater than when they did not use Twitter in their courses. Overall results of this study recommend further research and a continued focus on the usage of Twitter in the higher education classroom.
Techniques for the Measurement of Small Anisotropies in Magic Angle Spinning NMR Spectra

Two novel methods for enhancing the effect of small anisotropies on magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra are described. The first method is a simple two-dimensional (2D) spin echo experiment, which generates rotational sidebands at a fraction of the spinning frequency in the ω1 dimension, while maintaining the effective spinning speed in ω2. It is shown that the rotational sidebands in the 2D spectrum are much larger than in a normal one-dimensional MAS spectrum obtained at the same spinning speed, and the relative intensities of the two-dimensional sideband array can be analyzed to yield the anisotropy and asymmetry parameter of the coupling tensor. The second method is designed to measure homonuclear dipolar couplings. We show that the effect of a dipolar coupling between members of an isolated spin pair can be enhanced by adjusting the spinning speed such that nωr = ωΔiso, where n is an integer, ωr is the spinning speed, and ωΔiso is the difference between isotropic shifts. When this condition, termed rotational resonance, is satisfied, a broadening or a splitting of the normally sharp resonance lines is observed. In addition, rapid exchange of Zeeman order between the dipolar coupled spins is seen. This method holds promise for the measurement of through space dipolar couplings and thus internuclear distances in polycrystalline solids.
No Infection Reduction Using Chlorhexidine Wipes in Total Joint Arthroplasty

Background Surgical site infection (SSI) after total joint arthroplasty (TJA) is a rare but devastating complication. Various skin antiseptic applications are used preoperatively to prevent SSI. Recent literature suggests 2% chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) wipes reduce microbial content at surgical sites, but it is unclear whether they reduce rates of SSI.
Hacker Curriculum: How We Can Use It in Teaching

This month's essay examines how to use elements of hacking experience in the regular computer science curriculum. The authors describe an architecture for a simulated computer network on which students can safely perform assignments.