cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chemical Oxidation of Polymer Electrodes for Redox Active Devices: Stabilization through Interfacial Interactions

To achieve optimal performance in a conjugated polymer-based electrochemical device, i.e. for a supercapacitor to reach full depth of discharge or for an electrochromic device (ECD) to achieve maximum contrast, the two electrodes must be in different oxidation states when the device is assembled. Here, we evaluate the use of chemical oxidation as a scalable postprocessing method to adjust the redox state of polymer-coated electrodes. We evaluate how the extent of oxidation depends on both the redox properties of the conjugated polymer and on the choice of chemical oxidant, and how these parameters affect the functionality of the film. Comparing Ag(I) and Fe(III) oxidants, we find that it is not the oxidizing power that determines the extent of doping but rather the redox potentials of the polymers, with the more easily oxidized polymers doping to a higher extent. Because the polarity and surface energy of the polymer changes upon oxidation, we also show how a phosphonic acid surface pre-treatment improves...
The Cost-Effectiveness of Preoperative Staphylococcus aureus Screening and Decolonization in Total Joint Arthroplasty.

Abstract Background This article presents a break-even analysis for preoperative Staphylococcus aureus colonization screening and decolonization protocols in total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Methods Protocol costs, baseline infection rates after arthroplasty, and average revision costs were obtained from institutional records and the literature. The break-even analysis determined the absolute risk reduction (ARR) in infection rate required for cost-effectiveness. Results S aureus nasal screening ($144.07) was cost effective when initial infection rates of TKA (1.10%) and THA (1.63%) had an ARR of 0.56% and 0.45%, respectively. The most inexpensive decolonization treatment ($5.09) was cost effective with an ARR of 0.02% for both TKA and THA. The most expensive decolonization option ($37.67) was cost effective with ARRs of 0.15% (TKA) and 0.12% (THA). Conclusion Preoperative S aureus decolonization can be highly cost effective, whereas colonization screening requires excessively high reductions in infection rate.
Definition and Scope

In this chapter, the field of health psychology and what differentiates it from behavioral medicine is discussed, and this discussion is followed by an illustration of how health psychology can contribute to the understanding and management of a major health problem.
Fundamental Rights in Times of Emergency: Ataur Rahman vs Muhibur Rahman Revisited

This research analyses the Bangladesh’ Court Decision on the case of Ataur Rahman vs. Mahibur Rahman with regrad to fundamental rights in times of emergency. It is argued that the decision of the court in Ataur Rahman vs. Muhibur Rahman is erroneous decision. This is because while Article 141C of Bangladesh Constitution gives the Presidnet the power to suspend certain fundamental rights, yet Articles 27 to 35 and 41 of the Constitution cannot be suspended. In Bangladesh’s legal system, fundamental human rights are commonly viewed as a set of legal protections. Part III of the Constitution of Bangladesh has confirmed these rights for the citizens of Bangladesh. Some fundamental rights are even universally recognized rights which are contained in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), or the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Article 4 of the ICCPR deals with the state of emergency and Article 4(2) provides a list of non-derogable rights. Such as the right to life, the prohibition of torture, slavery etc. These rights are completely non-derogable in nature and cannot be derogated at all including during a state of emergency. Furthermore the Apex court of Bangladesh tried to justify that the President can derogate any fundamental right during an emergency. Such a proposition is contradicting core parts of our Constitution as well as several international instruments. This research uses normative legal research with statute approach and case approach, especialy analysing Ataur Rahman vs. Muhibur Rahman case.
Maturation of binocular luminance interaction in normal young and adult rhesus monkeys.

Purpose: Our aim was to answer three questions 1) Do adult rhesus monkeys have binocular luminance interactions (BLIs) similar to those found in adult humans? 2) Is BLI in very young rhesus monkeys functionally mature? 3) If not, how does it change with age?
Nestedness and migratory status of avian assemblages in North America and Europe

We examine patterns of nestedness and species incidence for the resident and migrant components of avifaunas in North America and Europe. While all assemblages were significantly nested, there were no significant differences between North American and European avifaunas overall in nestedness or incidence. Residents did not differ from migrants in their adherence to a nested distribution, but did exhibit significantly higher incidences when continental affiliation was ignored.¶We develop a new nestedness index that examines each species' relative contribution to an assemblage's overall pattern of nestedness. The relative nestedness index exhibits a quadratic relationship with incidence such that species with low incidences and species with high incidences generally increase the overall level of nestedness, while species with intermediate incidence tend to decrease nestedness.
Investigation of biomass gasification and effects of ammonia on producer gas combustion

Energy security and global climate change are two of the greatest challenges that face the next century and it will be up to this generation to figure out a solution to these monumental challenges. Nearly everything ranging from commerce to travel to education relies on abundant and cheap energy to function and progress. For the last 150 years, this energy has come through the combustion of fossil fuels which are limited by their very nature. As these fuels are combusted to produce heat and power, various harmful gasses are emitted into the atmosphere and can lead to “acid rain,” smog, depletion of the ozone layer, and even a heating of the earth’s surface. Gasification of biomass provides one possible solution to both of these problems by utilizing a renewable energy source that is abundant and has the potential to be carbon negative. NOx emissions are regulated by the government and could potentially be the limiting factor on the potential of biomass gasification to have a major impact in overcoming the two greatest challenges of today. It is believed one of the primary causes of NOx emissions is due to nitrogen found in the feedstock that is gasified. This work is aimed at both developing the tools necessary to understand the detailed systems involved in biomass gasification, as well as to characterize the NOx emissions that result from the combustion of the biomassderived producer gas. In the current work, a two-fold approach is taken to address this issue. First, a process model is created utilizing the software Aspen Plus to simulate data taken from a pilot-scale gasification system utilizing maple and oak wood as the feedstock and air as the gasification medium. This model uses a mass balance approach to
Eyelid Anatomy and the Pathophysiology of Blinking

Blinking of the eyelids protects the eye and ensures corneal hydration. The eyelids must also move coordinately with eye rotation to maintain vision during upward eye movements. The neural control of eyelids is interconnected with brainstem circuits producing saccadic eye movements. The nervous system exhibits adaptive modifications that enable the eyelids to compensate for cornea irritation and dry eye. These modifications involve the trigeminal complex and the cerebellum. Blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm are focal dystonias with disruption of eye blink control mechanisms. Current studies indicate that both these disorders are caused by predisposition of the individual combined with precipitating factors.
Habitual sleep/wake patterns in the Old Order Amish: heritability and association with non-genetic factors.

Study objectives We sought to evaluate the contribution of genetic and non-genetic factors on habitual sleep/wake patterns in a community-dwelling agrarian population using a physical activity monitoring device, the Actical. Design Cross-sectional population-based study of healthy Old Order Amish enrolled in the Heredity and Phenotype Intervention (HAPI) Heart Study. Setting Lancaster County, PA, USA. Participants 723 healthy adults (54% men) with a mean age of 43.3 ± 13.8 years (range: 20-80). 96% of the subjects were connected into one 5-generation pedigree. Interventions N/A. Measurements Participants wore Actical accelerometers 24 hours/day for 7 days to determine physical activity level, as well as habitual wake time, bedtime, and sleep duration. Participants completed the Horne-Ostberg Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), a modified Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and a lifestyle questionnaire. A sub-study of 164 participants kept sleep diaries. Results Habitual wake time and bedtime determined by Actical were highly correlated with results from sleep diaries (r = 0.82 for wake time and 0.72 for bedtime, both P Conclusions Objectively measured wake time, self-reported morningness-eveningness preference, and daytime sleepiness appear heritable and wake time may be associated with physical activity level.
Physiological response of mid-canopy sweetgum trees to overstory loblolly pine mortality

Increasing water use patterns were more spatially restricted than increased nitrogen in leaves and litterfall in mid-canopy sweetgum trees of varying proximity to overstory pines undergoing mortality. Ecosystem changes following selective mortality of individual trees can be difficult to predict and depend on the response of surviving trees in the ecosystem. In the southeastern United States, southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann) selectively attacks and kills southern pines, particularly loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) which is prevalent throughout the region. Loss of loblolly pine should alter water and nutrient cycling unless co-occurring species are able to compensate for this lost functioning. The goals of this study were to determine changes in water and nutrient uptake of sweetgum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) adjacent to loblolly pines experiencing mortality from girdling. We found that sweetgums near girdled pines initially used significantly less water, then similar amounts of water, then more water than sweetgums near control pines as pines experienced mortality. Relationships between daily sapflow and the natural log of vapor pressure deficit also differed significantly across years in sweetgums near girdled pines but not sweetgums near control pines. For sweetgum trees in both locations, both leaf and litterfall nitrogen content were significantly higher in the pine mortality year compared with the previous pine girdling year. Together, these results suggest that changes in water use are more spatially restricted to the region near dying pines whereas sweetgums, regardless of location, benefited from the extra available nitrogen in the ecosystem.
Altered anabolic signalling and reduced stimulation of myofibrillar protein synthesis after feeding and resistance exercise in people with obesity.

KEY POINTS Lifestyle modifications that include the regular performance of exercise are probably important for counteracting the negative consequences of obesity on postprandial myofibrillar protein synthetic responses to protein dense food ingestion. We show that the interactive effect of resistance exercise and feeding on the stimulation of myofibrillar protein synthesis rates is diminished with obesity compared to normal weight adults. The blunted myofibrillar protein synthetic response with resistance exercise in people with obesity may be underpinned by alterations in muscle anabolic signalling phosphorylation (p70S6K and 4E-BP1). The results obtained in the present study suggest that further exercise prescription manipulation may be necessary to optimize post-exercise myofibrillar protein synthesis rates in adults with obesity. ABSTRACT We aimed to determine whether obesity alters muscle anabolic and inflammatory signalling phosphorylation and also muscle protein synthesis within the myofibrillar (MYO) and sarcoplasmic (SARC) protein fractions after resistance exercise. Nine normal weight (NW) (21 ± 1 years, body mass index 22 ± 1 kg m-2 ) and nine obese (OB) (22 ± 1 years, body mass index 36 ± 2 kg m-2 ) adults received l-[ring-13 C6 ]phenylalanine infusions with blood and muscle sampling at basal and fed-state of the exercise (EX) and non-exercise (CON) legs. Participants performed unilateral leg extensions and consumed pork (36 g of protein) immediately after exercise. Basal muscle Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) protein was similar between OB and NW groups (P > 0.05) but increased at 300 min after pork ingestion only in the OB group (P = 0.03). Resistance exercise reduced TLR4 protein in the OB group at 300 min (EX vs. CON leg in OB: P = 0.04). Pork ingestion increased p70S6K phosphorylation at 300 min in CON and EX of the OB and NW groups (P > 0.05), although the response was lower in the EX leg of OB vs. NW at 300 min (P = 0.05). Basal MYO was similar between the NW and OB groups (P > 0.05) and was stimulated by pork ingestion in the EX and CON legs in both groups (Δ from basal NW: CON 0.04 ± 0.01% h-1 ; EX 0.10 ± 0.02% h-1 ; OB: CON 0.06 ± 0.01% h-1 ; EX 0.06 ± 0.01% h-1 ; P < 0.05). MYO was more strongly stimulated in the EX vs. CON legs in NW (P = 0.02) but not OB (P = 0.26). SARC was feeding sensitive but not further potentiated by resistance exercise in both groups. Our results suggest that obesity may attenuate the effectiveness of resistance exercise to augment fed-state MYO.
Multi-dataset Low-rank Matrix Factorization

Low-rank matrix factorization can reveal fundamental structure in data. For example, joint-PCA on multi-datasets can find a joint, lower-dimensional representation of the data. Recently other similar matrix factorization methods have been introduced for multi-dataset analysis, e.g., the shared response model (SRM) and hyperalignment (HA). We provide a comparison of these methods with joint-PCA that highlights similarities and differences. Necessary and sufficient conditions under which the solution set to SRM and HA can be derived from the joint-PCA are identified. In particular, if there exists a common template and a set of generalized rotation matrices through which datasets can be exactly aligned to the template, then for any number of features, SRM and HA solutions can be readily derived from the joint-PCA of datasets. Not surprisingly, this assumption fails to hold for complex multi-datasets, e.g., multi-subject fMRI datasets. We show that if the desired conditions are not satisfied, joint-PCA can easily over-fit to the training data when the dimension of the projected space is high (~> 50). We also examine how well low-dimensional matrix factorization can be computed using gradient descent-type algorithms using Google’s TensorFlow library.
StatMost for Windows: Statistical Analysis and Graphics

(1997). StatMost for Windows: Statistical Analysis and Graphics. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development: Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 165-166.
Alexithymia - Not autism - is associated with frequency of social interactions in adults.

Abstract Objective While much is known about the quality of social behavior among neurotypical individuals and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little work has evaluated quantity of social interactions. This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to quantify in vivo daily patterns of social interaction in adults as a function of demographic and clinical factors. Method Adults with and without ASD (NASD = 23, NNeurotypical = 52) were trained in an EMA protocol to report their social interactions via smartphone over one week. Participants completed measures of IQ, ASD symptom severity and alexithymia symptom severity. Results Cyclical multilevel models were used to account for nesting of observations. Results suggest a daily cyclical pattern of social interaction that was robust to ASD and alexithymia symptoms. Adults with ASD did not have fewer social interactions than neurotypical peers; however, severity of alexithymia symptoms predicted fewer social interactions regardless of ASD status. Conclusions These findings suggest that alexithymia, not ASD severity, may drive social isolation and highlight the need to reevaluate previously accepted notions regarding differences in social behavior utilizing modern methods.
A study of voicing in Lebanese Arabic

Abstract: In this study we made use of voice onset time (VOT) to investigate the production and perception of initial stop consonants in Lebanese speakers of Arabic. These speakers generally produced the stops /b/, /d/, and /ḍ/ with voicing lead and the stops /t/, /ṭ/, /k/ and /q/ with short voicing lag. A slight overlap in the VOT distributions of the homorganic sets /d, t/ and /ḍ, ṭ/ suggests other cues besides VOT may sometimes be used to distinguish between these homorganic sets of stops. The production results further suggest that VOT may vary as a function of vocalic context. The estimated 50% cross-over point in the perception experiment matched the boundary between the distributions for the voiced and voiceless stops. The results suggest that VOT is an important acoustic parameter both in the production and the perception of Lebanese Arabic.
Riches and Rationality

A one-boxer, Erica, and a two-boxer, Chloe, engage in a familiar debate. The debate begins with Erica asking Chloe, ‘If you’re so smart, then why ain’cha rich?’ As the debate progresses, Chloe is l...
A CNN-based Path Trajectory Prediction Approach with Safety Constraints

Safety is one of the essential aspects to be considered in operating self-driving vehicles. In this paper, we aim to detect lanes and vehicles from input video or image by implementing advanced image thresholding techniques to detect lanes. We also use a linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier to detect vehicles from the image or video. A convolutional neural network (CNN) uses the images with the specified lane and vehicle detection as an input. It predicts the intention of going right, left, or drive straight based on the relative car distance on the video or the image. The main idea is to integrate CNN with lane and vehicle detection modules to estimate a safety path progression for a specific amount of time from the video or image based on the relative distance from other vehicles. Simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
“Engineered Microtissue as an Anatomically-Inspired Model of Parkinson’s Disease”

Abstract Although traditional small animal and cell culture models of neurodegenerative disease have been valuable in foundational discoveries, their inherent imprecision may have biased our understanding of etiology in humans and hindered translation of therapeutics. Recent breakthroughs to generate human stem cell–derived brain organoids — including from patient-specific cell sources — provide powerful platforms to improve disease modeling accuracy. However, brain organoids do not recapitulate crucial anatomical structures such as long bundled axon tracts — a central systems-level feature of human brains — critical to neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis, including Parkinson's disease. To address this challenge, advances in tissue engineering recapitulate brain pathways with three-dimensional anatomical fidelity to discrete systems-level brain structures, such as the first tissue engineered nigrostriatal pathway. Promulgating anatomically inspired human-derived engineered microtissue may improve translational relevance, empower personalized medicine, and ultimately reduce costs compared to conventional model systems, thus proving useful for targeted development and screening of new therapeutic strategies.
Electrical power dissipation in semiconducting carbon nanotubes on single crystal quartz and amorphous SiO2

Heat dissipation in electrically biased individual semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on single crystal quartz and amorphous SiO2 is examined with temperature profiles obtained by spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy. Despite the differences in phonon velocities, thermal conductivity, and van der Waals interactions with CNTs, on average, heat dissipation into single crystal quartz and amorphous SiO2 is found to be similar. Large temperature gradients and local hot spots often observed underscore the complexity of CNT temperature profiles and may be accountable for the similarities observed.
PARP inhibition suppresses topoisomerase 1 poisoning induced Caspase-3 dependent cell death in zebrafish embryos

In the present study the role of poly(ADP)ribosylation on rubitecan induced caspase dependent cell death was evaluated. We show that Top1 poisoning by rubitecan induces caspase mediated apoptosis which was reduced by PARP inhibitor olaparib in zebrafish embryo. Collectively our data introduces zebrafish as a valuable model for PARP related biomedical research.
Nineteenth-Century Sixteenth Amendments Jurisprudence and Sixteenth-Century Nineteenth Amendment Jurisprudence

These articles note that no Sixteenth Amendment cases were decided in the nineteenth century, and no Nineteenth Amendment cases were decided in the sixteenth century. The author provides explanations for those interesting phenomena.
Civic Dimensions of Critical Digital Literacies: Towards an Abolitionist Lens.

This paper analyzes the role of digital and civic literacies in the context of resurgent right-wing ethno-nationalism and movements for the abolition of oppressive institutions worldwide. We discus...
α-Synuclein, CSPα, SNAREs and Neuroprotection in vivo

Publisher Summary This chapter presents studies that established a clear and intriguing genetic link between α-synuclein and cysteine-string protein-α (CSP α) which are presynaptic proteins that are independently linked to neurodegeneration. The discovery of dominant α-synuclein Parkinson mutations and α-synuclein's tendency to aggregate has lead to the hypothesis that α-synuclein causes PD by a toxic gain-of-function, that is, a pathological function. The ﬁnding suggests that the seven amino acid changes between human and mouse α-synuclein are important for the pathogenesis of this neurodegenerative phenotype. The ﬁnding also indicates that it is possible to tease apart the physiological and pathological functions of α-synuclein using transgenic approaches. It is suggested that the normal physiological function of α-synuclein is neuroprotective to CSP α deletion. It is found that preservation of synaptic connections is also critical for PD treatments as the efficacy of dopamine replacement therapy closely depends on the remaining striatal terminals.
Management of Human Error by Design

Design-induced errors and error prevention as well as the concept of lines of defense against human error are discussed. The concept of human error prevention, whose main focus has been on hardware, is extended to other features of the human-machine interface vulnerable to design-induced errors. In particular, it is pointed out that human factors and human error prevention should be part of the process of transport certification. Also, the concept of error tolerant systems is considered as a last line of defense against error.
Dividend yield and expected returns

Abstract Previous research examining the relation between dividend yield and equity returns documents a U-shaped pattern arising from the positive CAPM-adjusted average excess return of zero-dividend firms. In contrast, this paper reports that zero-dividend firms earn negative average excess returns relative to firms of similar size. Despite the apparent conformity of these results to the predictions of after-tax asset pricing models, the negative size-adjusted excess returns cannot be drive solely by tax effects. These excess returns, which are concentrated in the initial zero-dividend years and approach - 1% per month, are attributed to possible dividend-expectation effects rather than taxes.
Chai-Tea, Cryptographic Hardware Implementations of xTEA

The tiny encryption algorithm (TEA) was developed by [4] Wheeler and Needham as a simple computer program for encryption. This paper is the first design-space exploration for hardware implementations of the extended tiny encryption algorithm. It presents efficient implementations of XTEA on FPGAs and ASICs for ultra-low power applications such as RFID tags and wireless sensor nodes as well as fully pipelined designs for high speed applications. A novel ultra-low power implementation is introduced which consumes less area and energy than a comparable AES implementation. Furthermore, XTEA is compared with stream ciphers from the eSTREAM portfolio and lightweight ciphers. The high speed implementations of XTEA operate at 20.6 Gbps (FPGA) or 36.6 Gbps (ASIC).
Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic.NET: Implementing the IEnumerable and IComparable Interfaces

Data we create via object creation cannot be treated in the same way native data (integers, strings, etc.) are treated. When we are working with strings, for example, it is easy to compare two strings to see if they are equivalent. In contrast, when we are working with two class objects, where each object is a composite of multiple data types, how we report the result of comparing the two objects is not obvious. Visual Basic.NET provides a special interface, IComparable, to aid us in making these types of comparisons. Class objects also present a problem when we want to store them in a data structure and retrieve them using a For Each loop. The VB.NET compiler cannot automatically return an enumerator for class objects stored in an ArrayList or some other data structure, so we must provide the enumeration code. The.NET Framework again helps us in this task by providing an interface, IEnumerable, that we can implement. In this chapter we'll discuss how to implement both interfaces and provide several examples to see exactly how they're used. THE ICOMPARABLE INTERFACE A class type usually represents a complex data type comprising components of one of the built-in data types (String, Integer, Boolean, etc.). For example, an Employee class might include data for an employee's name (including the first, middle, and last name), social security number, salary, the department in which he or she works, etc. If we want to compare two Employee objects to see if they are the same, how do we do it?
Gene expression and scalable genetic search

Gene expression evaluates the genetic fitness of an organism through a sequence of representation transformations (DNA→mRNA→Protein). Moreover it does so in a very distributed and decomposed fashion by evaluating different portions of the DNA in order to produce various proteins in different body cells. This chapter reviews some of the recent results that underscore the possible critical role of gene expression in scalable genetic search. It considers a Fourier basis representation to analyze genetic fitness functions and shows that polynomial-time construction of a decomposed representation in the Fourier basis is possible when the function has a polynomial-size description. It also points out that genetic code-like transformations may offer us a unique technique to transform some functions of exponential description in the Fourier basis to an exponentially long representation with only a polynomial number of terms that are exponentially more significant than the rest. This may be useful for a polynomial-time approximation of an exponential description. Since the construction of decomposed representation of functions from observed data plays an important role in machine learning, data mining, and black-box optimization, the role of gene expression in scalable genetic search appears quite critical.
Abstract W P234: Mitochondrial Dynamics During Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: The Role of Opa1 in Cytochrome c Release

Background: Global brain ischemia/reperfusion induces neuronal damage in vulnerable brain regions. A key event leading to neuronal death is mitochondrial cytochrome c (cyt c) release which we have demonstrated is accompanied by release of mitochondrial Opa1, a key mitochondrial fusion protein. We propose that cyt c release is dependent on disruption of Opa1, thus inadvertently promoting fission. Methods: Mitochondrial dynamics in vitro were analyzed with real-time imaging of neurons transfected with mito-localized GFP and MR-DEVD to detect caspase activation. Ischemia (OGD) was achieved with a media-gas exchange system and confocal microscopy. Mitochondrial dynamics in vivo was assessed with (i) 3D-electron microscopy to quantify mitochondrial volume, shape, and length and (ii) immunofluorescence for ATP synthase and Opa1. Results: Real-time imaging of cells during OGD (A, n=3/group) demonstrated that mitochondria transition from a tubular morphology to a highly fragmented morphology during ischemia. Tubular morphology was rapidly regained in the initial stages of reoxygenation, suggesting fusion remains intact following ischemia. However, mitochondria progressively undergo fragmentation culminating in cell death. Next, we utilized a rat model of cerebral ischemia to evaluate mitochondrial dynamics in vivo. Immunofluorescence (B, n=5/group) and 3D TEM (C, n=3/group) of control brains both exhibit mitochondria with long tubular morphology and Opa1 fluorescence in CA1 neurons was consistent with mitochondrial localization. In contrast, ischemia followed by 6 or 24 hrs of reperfusion resulted in extensive mitochondrial fragmentation (i.e. reduced mitochondrial length Conclusion: These data provide novel evidence that Opa1 may play a role in cell death during brain reperfusion.
A Scalable Process-Management Environment for Parallel Programs

We present a process management system for parallel programs such as those written using MPI. A primary goal of the system, which we call MPD (for multipurpose daemon), is to be scalable. By this we mean that startup of interactive parallel jobs comprising a thousand processes is quick, that signals can be quickly delivered to processes, and that stdin, stdout, and stderr are managed intuitively. Our primary target is parallel machines made up of clusters of SMPs, but the system is also useful in more tightly integrated environments. We describe how MPD enables much faster startup and better runtime management of MPICH jobs. We show how close control of stdio can support the easy implementation of a number of convenient system utilities, even a parallel debugger. MPD is implemented and freely distributed with MPICH.
Tier III Assessments, Data-Based Decision Making, and Interventions.

Within the Response-to-Intervention framework, students who fail to profit from high-quality general education instruction, accommodations, and supplemental instruction progress to a more intensive intervention program, sometimes referred to as “Tier III.” This article describes a problem-solving approach to designing such intensive, data-based, and scientifically supported interventions for students with pervasive reading problems who have failed to respond to less rigorous services. The application of well-established (i.e., progress monitoring) and emerging methods (i.e., brief experimental analysis) for optimizing interventions are described. Two case studies are provided to illustrate how these techniques may be combined to implement Tier III interventions.
Electromagnetic effects on the FED/INTOR limiter

Electromagnetic effects were among the critical issues of the impurity control system examined in the 1982 FED/INTOR design study. During a plasma disruption, the decaying plasma current induces voltages and currents in the first wall and limiter systems which can produce arcing between limiter segments and large forces and torques on the limiter. The effects of first wall time constant, limiter electrical resistance, and limiter segmentation on the voltages, forces, and torques were studied.
The Story of Me: The Underprotection of Autobiographical Speech

This article begins the debate over the constitutional underprotection of autobiographical speech. While receiving significant historical, scientific, religious and philosophical respect for centuries, the time-honored practice of talking about yourself has been ignored by legal scholars. A consequence of this oversight is that current free speech principles protect the autobiographies of the powerful but leave the stories of "ordinary" people vulnerable to challenge. Shifting attitudes about privacy combined with advanced technologies, meanwhile, have led to more people than ever before having both the desire and the means to tell their stories to a wide-spread audience. This article argues that truthful autobiographical speech deserves heightened constitutional protection. An analysis applying the various goals of free speech protection to autobiographical speech establishes that it occupies an exceptional place in the public discourse - perhaps rivaled only by political speech. Autobiographical speech adds vital knowledge to the public debate while also preserving the essence of human autonomy. This article concludes, therefore, that it is time for the law to recognize and to fully protect the freedom of autobiographical speech.
Completing the Psychobiological Architecture of Human Personality Development: Temperament, Character, and Coherence

Three models of personality and its development are described in terms of their psychobiological mechanisms. Personality is the organization within the individual of the psychobiological processes by which we adapt to experience. Personality as temperament involves individual differences in heritable traits that influence the salience of stimuli to which we attend selectively. Temperament is superseded by a model of self that includes temperament and character. The organization of self is described by three character dimensions, which correspond to executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The development of these higher cortical functions is experience-dependent and influenced by social and cultural learning. Temperament and character together can account for some of the self-organizing characteristics of personality development but are incomplete models of human personality and intellectual development. They cannot explain uniquely human characteristics, such as creativity, freedom of will, or spirituality, which involve individual differences in personality coherence. Personality coherence refers to mind as a complex adaptive system functioning as a unified whole, much like the quantum coherence of superfluids. This hierarchy of models is discussed in relation to Baltes’s (1997) hypothesis about the incompleteness of human ontogeny when limited to its first two levels.
Quorum sensing controls biofilm formation in Vibrio cholerae.

Summary Multiple quorum-sensing circuits function in parallel to control virulence and biofilm formation in Vibrio cholerae. In contrast to other bacterial pathogens that induce virulence factor production and/or biofilm formation at high cell density in the presence of quorum-sensing autoinducers, V. cholerae represses these behaviours at high cell density. Consistent with this, we show here that V. cholerae strains ‘locked’ in the regulatory state mimicking low cell density are enhanced for biofilm production whereas mutants ‘locked’ in the regulatory state mimicking high cell density are incapable of producing biofilms. The quorum-sensing cascade we have identified in V. cholerae regulates the transcription of genes involved in exopolysaccharide production (EPS), and variants that produce EPS and form biofilms arise at high frequency from non-EPS, non-biofilm producing strains. Our data show that spontaneous mutation of the transcriptional regulator hapR is responsible for this effect. Several toxigenic strains of V. cholerae possess a naturally occurring frameshift mutation in hapR. Thus, the distinct environments occupied by this aquatic pathogen presumably include niches where cell-cell communication is crucial, as well as ones where loss of quorum sensing via hapR mutation confers a selective advantage. Bacterial biofilms could represent a complex habitat where such differentiation occurs.
Active learning with upper division computer science students

Computer science students, especially upper division students, are stereotypically considered to be introverted and therefore poor candidates for an active learning curriculum. Ironically, the requirements of their field demand skills in critical analysis and evaluation, as well as communication and collaboration skills, that are not easily acquired in the traditional classroom environment with a "lecture" agenda where students maintain a basically passive role. This paper describes experiments with active learning techniques performed in two different upper division computer science classes, "Societal Issues in Computing" and "Computer System Security". In spite of the traditional views of computer science as an individualistic subject matter with self centered nonsocial students, the authors have used active learning techniques in their classrooms for several semesters with encouraging results. In addition to an improved attitude and stated increased satisfaction, students' test results showed increased comprehension and improved critical reasoning abilities.
Development of an Algorithm for Determining Radiotoxicity of Spent Nuclear Fuel Over Time

Knowledge of how the radiotoxicity of spent nuclear fuel changes over time is essential when designing and evaluating spent fuel storage and treatment methods. The common method of performing calculations to obtain these data is to use standardized transmutation codes, which are computer programs with built-in solution methods to a given set of problem types. Currently widespread transmutation codes require a time-intensive process in order to prepare calculations of this nature and obtain the results in a convenient format. Furthermore, access to these transmutation codes is not universal. The purpose of this work was to use one of these codes, EASY2003, to develop a simpler and faster algorithm for solution of these time-dependent radiotoxicity changes. The basic methodology employed was to perform EASY2003 calculations separately on all relevant isotopes, and then to generate an algorithm that can amalgamate these individual results into a solution of any given fuel mixture and amount. For verification purposes, the algorithm generated was applied to a sample spent fuel mixture, and the solution was compared with a more traditional solution method generated by the transmutation code ORIGEN-ARP.
Static generation and dissipation of polyester continuous filament yarn

The effect of environmental conditions (temperature and relative humidity) and contact conditions (yarn tension and speed) on static generation and dissipation of polyester flat continuous filament yarn, when rubbed against stainless steel was analyzed. A newly developed device, housed in an environmental room, was used to charge the yarn while moving under desired tension. The charge potentials were measured at two different positions in real time. These measurements and previously established exponential relationship permitted the calculation of the initial potential (at the generation point) and a ‘characteristic decay time’, which is a measure of static dissipation. Experimental data showed that temperature, humidity, yarn tension, and yarn speed have significant effects on static generation; while temperature, humidity, and yarn speed yielded statistically significant changes on static dissipation. Anomalous behavior of static charge when measured at a temperature of 35°C, provided a meaningful clue ...
Characterization of flourocarbon SAM coated MEMS tribogauge

A MEMS tribogauge was used for on-chip and in-situ characterization of nano-tribological phenomena (stiction, friction, and wear of coated polysilicon surfaces). The device was fabricated using the SUMMiT-V process. Measurements were made on sidewall surfaces on the polysilicon-3 layer. The device consists of two orthogonally positioned comb-drive assemblies that are used for both actuation and sensing. One assembly is used to apply a normal load (F n ) to contacting surface, while the other induces a tangential load (F T ). Precise position control is tracked by employing a LabVIEW controlled AD7747 capacitance sense mechanism. The resolution of the characterization apparatus is ±10nm. Three MEMS tribogauge devices are tested; two of them have a chemisorbed layer of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) coatings and one with no SAM coating. The two types of SAM coatings are FOTS and 'Sandia vapor-SAM' (SVSAM). The tribogauge with no FSAM coating is either UV-Ozone or 'air plasma' treated to remove organic contaminants leaving behind -OH bonds on top of the MEMS surface (native oxide, SiO 2 ). Characterization using the tribogauge for each coating type includes: measurement of baseline stiction force [see manuscript], static and dynamic coefficient of friction [see manuscript], induced stiction force calculated after specific load cycles [see manuscript]. Experiments showed that the induced stiction force increases in proportion to the increase in the number of load cycles, indicating degradation of the FSAM coating and topographical changes to the interacting surfaces. The UV-Ozone /air plasma treated pristine tribogauge was used to measure the stiction force of the device with no SAM coating [see manuscript].
Selected Ion Flow Tube Studies of Air Plasma Cations Reacting with Alkylbenzenes

Rate constants and product branching fractions are reported for reactions of the air plasma cations NO{sup +}, O{sub 2}{sup +}, O{sup +}, N{sup +}, and N{sub 2}{sup +} with several alkylbenzenes: toluene, ethylbenzene, n-propylbenzene, and m-xylene. The measurements were made using a selected ion flow tube (SIFT) apparatus at 300 K. All reactions were found to proceed at the collision rate. NO{sup +} reactions yield exclusively nondissociative charge-transfer products. C{sub 7}H{sub 7}{sup +} is the dominant product ion observed in all the O{sup +}, N{sup +}, and N{sub 2}{sup +} reactions. Charge transfer and formation of C{sub 7}H{sub 7}{sup +} are the major product channels in the O{sub 2}{sup +} reactions. Product distributions were converted to crude breakdown diagrams, showing the relative abundance of each product ion as a function of the reactant ion recombination energy. The flow tube results exhibit a shift in the product ion threshold energies, an effect attributed to a kinetic shift resulting from slow fragmentation of the excited charge-transfer complex combined with collisional stabilization of the complex by the He buffer gas. Two isomeric forms of the C{sub 7}H{sub 7}{sup +} product ion are produced in these reactions: the benzyl (Bz{sup +}) and tropylium (Tr{supmore » +}) cations. The Bz{sup +}/Tr{sup +} isomeric mixture ratio was quantified as a function of energy for all four alkylbenzenes. Changes in the Bz{sup +}/Tr{sup +} mixture suggest that ethylbenzene has a relatively larger reverse activation barrier compared with toluene for forming Tr{sup +} from the charge-transfer complex, while formation of Tr{sup +} from the larger alkylbenzenes probably proceeds via a different mechanism altogether. For m-xylene, the formation of both Bz{sup +} and Tr{sup +} isomers likely proceeds via a different mechanism than for the n-alkylbenzenes.« less
Individual Differences in Attitudes Relevant to Juror Decision Making: Development and Validation of the Pretrial Juror Attitude Questionnaire (PJAQ)1

This study involves scale development using theoretically derived items from previous measures and a lay consensual approach for generating new items. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the emergent constructs assessing individual differences in attitudes of prospective jurors. Using case summaries, the Pretrial Juror Attitude Questionnaire (PJAQ) demonstrates superior predictive validity over commonly employed measures of pretrial bias. The PJAQ confirms the importance of theoretically derived constructs assessed by other scales and introduces new constructs to the jury decision-making literature. The attitudes assessed by the PJAQ are conviction proneness, system confidence, cynicism toward the defense, racial bias, social justice, and innate criminality. Implications for assessing such attitudes and for better understanding the decision-making process of jurors are discussed.
Ultrastructural damage of leukocytes procured by the Leukopak: vulnerability of leukocytes to mechanical injury.

Because of the often observed undesired effects in patients transfused with leukocytes collected by continuous filtration leukapheresis (CFL), we have investigated the morphology of these cells in the hope that such studies may help evaluate their in vivo functions. Aliquots of CFL samples, procured by the Fenwal Leukopak and taken before and after tapping the filters, were examined. Leukocytes prepared by dextran sedimentation served as controls and were used to demonstrate the vulnerability of these cells to mechanical injury. The morphology of leukocytes harvested by filtration leukapheresis was markedly altered, ranging from formation of cytoplasmic projections and vacuoles to disintegration of entire cells. The severe changes were only observed in samples collected after the filters were tapped. The number of cells involved varied from donor to donor. In some cases more than half of the examined leukocytes showed signs of damage. Dextran sedimentation leukocytes retained their normal ultra-structure. However, substantial injuries were inflicted on dextran sedimentation collected leukocytes following brief periods of vortexing. Our results indicate that leukocytes are quite vulnerable to mechanical injury, and the major cause of damage found in Leukopak-isolated leukocytes is the tapping of the filters. The toxic reactions in some recipients transfused with Leukopak-collected leukocyte preparations may result from materials released from disrupted leukocytes. We believe that the employment of the continuous filtration to procure leukocytes with the present procedure should be reviewed.