cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Assessment as Consultation: Working with Parents and Teachers

The author presents a perspective on school psychological services, beginning with the assessment process, that focuses on parent and teacher consultation. The paper outlines a focal shift from the individual child to the parental and systemic life in which the child is embedded. The role of the school psychologist is conceived as, primarily, consultative and collaborative in nature. Collaborating with parents and teachers in the assessment process involves mutual exploration and information gathering and reflects a paradigmatic shift from individual analysis to the analysis of dyadic and systemic parent-child and family-school relationships. Understanding parents' and teachers' perspectives and needs, providing a supportive, collaborative environment, and serving as a conduit between the family and the school is seen as vital to the role of the school psychologist.
State and Residency Differences in Hunters' Responses to Chronic Wasting Disease

This article examines: (a) the extent to which chronic wasting disease (CWD) may influence individuals to hunt in other states or quit hunting permanently; (b) hunters' acceptance of strategies for managing the disease; and (c) whether hunters' responses differ by residency, species hunted, and state where they hunted. Data were obtained from mail surveys (n = 9,567) of resident and nonresident deer hunters in eight states and elk hunters in three states. Hunters were shown hypothetical scenarios depicting CWD prevalence levels and human death from the disease. At current prevalence levels in some states, few hunters would change their behavior. If conditions worsen (e.g., 50% prevalence across state, human death), up to 18% of hunters would hunt deer or elk in other states and 37% would quit hunting these species. Arizona and North Dakota hunters were most likely to alter their behavior. Given that CWD is not in these states, it may pose a new risk. In Wisconsin, where hunting is a tradition, hunters wer...
A Dirac-Fock-Slater approach to atomic structure for highly charged ions

A very rapid, but accurate, fully relativistic method for calculating the atomic-structure data needed in determining collision strengths for highly charged ions is developed. A more rapid quasirelativistic approximation to this approach is also described. Results for oscillator strengths and energies are compared with those by mostly more elaborate programs for neonlike and nickel-like ions and generally good agreement is obtained.
Anaerobic membrane bioreactors and the influence of space velocity and biomass concentration on methane production for liquid dairy manure

Abstract Two pilot-scale anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) and a control completely mixed digester (CMD) were constructed to evaluate the influence of space velocity and biomass concentration on methane production for sand separated dairy manure. A negative impact on methane production resulted with operating the AnMBR system at 972 μHz–2960 μHz but no impact was found when operating at 69 μHz and 312 μHz. Operating at 69 μHz–350 μHz is realistic for a field installation. Despite the higher biomass concentration, the methane production of the AnMBRs was nearly equal to the CMD. An AnMBR with 69 μHz was operated equivalent to a CMD by returning all permeate to the digester tank and removing excess biomass directly from the reactor tank resulting in a hydraulic retention time (HRT) equal to the solids retention time (SRT). When using sand separated dairy manure and an HRT (and equal SRT) of 12 d, both systems produced methane at an equal rate, suggesting that the pump/membrane system did not influence methane production. The most likely reason was mass transfer limitations of hydrolytic enzymes. Based on methane production and volatile fatty acids analysis, it appears the fermentable substrate available for degradation was similar. The AnMBR proved to have benefit as part of an integrated nutrient management system that produced water that is virtually free of particulate nutrients, especially phosphorus. This enables the irrigation of the water to crops that need nitrogen and the efficient movement of phosphorus, as a solid, to needed locations.
Nonlinear stress-strain behavior of periodontal ligament under orthodontic loading

Previous studies of the periodontal ligament (PDL) have applied high forces to the dental units to examine the stress-strain behavior of this soft tissue. In this study, cadaveric specimens of mandibular premolars from 2 young adult and 2 elderly adult donors were tested to determine the biomechanical behavior of the PDL over an orthodontic force range. Transverse specimens were prepared from 9 premolars and subjected to loading in intrusion and extrusion. Stress-strain curves for both loading directions had distinct toe and linear regions, demonstrating nonlinear behavior of the PDL. The average linear shear modulus was higher for intrusion than for extrusion. The toe extrusive modulus was higher for the young group, and extrusive toe size was larger for the elderly group. In extrusion, the average modulus was higher for the cervical margin and the apex regions than for the midroot regions. The size of the toe region was smaller for intrusion than extrusion. The results indicate age-dependent, location-dependent, and load-direction-dependent nonlinear properties of the human PDL and suggest that analytical computer simulations of orthodontic tooth movements might benefit from incorporating the nonlinear material properties of the PDL.
Failure to transfer delayed tuberculin sensitivity from human to animal species.

SummaryThis report describes attempts to transfer delayed sensitivity to tuberculin to monkeys and to rabbits by means of peripheral blood leucocytes obtained from sensitive human donors. No such transfers were obtained.
Circle plus partial helical scan scheme for a flat panel detector-based cone beam breast X-ray CT

Flat panel detector-based cone beam breast CT (CBBCT) can provide 3D image of the scanned breast with 3D isotropic spatial resolution, overcoming the disadvantage of the structure superimposition associated with X-ray projection mammography. It is very difficult for Mammography to detect a small carcinoma (a few millimeters in size) when the tumor is occult or in dense breast. CBBCT featured with circular scan might be the most desirable mode in breast imaging due to its simple geometrical configuration and potential applications in functional imaging. An inherited large cone angle in CBBCT, however, will yield artifacts in the reconstruction images when only a single circular scan is employed. These artifacts usually manifest themselves as density drop and object geometrical distortion that are more noticeable in the reconstructed image areas that are further away from the circular scanning plane. In order to combat this drawback, a circle plus partial helical scan scheme is proposed. An exact circle plus straight line scan scheme is also conducted in computer simulation for the purpose of comparison. Computer simulations using a numerical breast phantom demonstrated the practical feasibility of this new scheme and correction to those artifacts to a certain degree.
Ab initio centroid molecular dynamics: a fully quantum method for condensed-phase dynamics simulations

Abstract A fully quantum molecular dynamics method is presented which combines ab initio Car–Parrinello molecular dynamics with centroid molecular dynamics. The first technique allows the forces on the atoms to be obtained from ab initio electronic structure. The second technique, given the forces on the atoms, allows one to calculate an approximate quantum time evolution for the nuclei. The combination of the two, therefore, represents the first feasible approach to simulating the fully quantum dynamics of a many-body system. An application to excess proton translocation along a model water wire will be presented.
Quantitative Meta-analysis Identifies Brain Regions Activated During Rectal Distension in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Background and Aims The responsiveness of the central nervous system is altered in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). However, because of variations in experimental paradigms, analytic techniques, and reporting practices, little consensus exists on brain responses to visceral stimulation. We aimed to identify brain regions consistently activated by supraliminal rectal stimulation in IBS patients and healthy subjects (controls) by performing a quantitative meta-analysis of published studies. Methods Significant foci from within-group statistical parametric maps were extracted from published neuroimaging studies that employed rectal distension. Voxel-based activation likelihood estimation was applied, pooling the results and comparing them across groups. Results Across studies, there was consistent activation in regions associated with visceral afferent processing (ie, thalamus, insula, anterior midcingulate) among IBS patients and controls, but considerable differences in the extent and specific location of foci. IBS patients differed from controls in that there were more consistent activations in regions associated with emotional arousal (pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala) and activation of a midbrain cluster, a region playing a role in endogenous pain modulation. Controls showed more consistent activation of the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex. Conclusions Patients with IBS have greater engagement of regions associated with emotional arousal and endogenous pain modulation, but similar activation of regions involved in processing of visceral afferent information. Controls have greater engagement of cognitive modulatory regions. These results support a role for central nervous system dysregulation in IBS. These findings provide specific targets for guiding development of future neuroimaging protocols to more clearly define altered brain−gut interactions in IBS.
Legal, Extra-Legal, and Organizational Factors in the Disposition of Juveniles

This paper examines the effect of legal, extra-legal, and organizational factors on the processing of delinquents in selected California counties. A brief review of each perspective is given followed by a discussion of the data base and variables included in the analysis. Overall, bivariate relationships stress the importance of legal compared to extra-legal characteristics. The analysis also reveals clear evidence of the importance of organizational differences in juvenile court processing. Multivariate analysis revealed few differences in this pattern with the exception of “race” where some degree of interaction was found to exist when controls for offense were introduced. An analysis of covariance model shows that case sequence, county, and referral source were the most important predictors of case outcome.
Improved processing and oxidation-resistance of ZrB2 ultra-high temperature ceramics containing SiC nanodispersoids

Abstract We have studied the hot-pressing behavior of ZrB 2 /SiC ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) as a function of: (i) SiC starting-powder size, (ii) SiC vol%, (iii) ZrO 2 doping, and (iv) colloidal dispersion of ZrB 2 /SiC powder mixtures. It has been found that the addition of SiC promotes densification of ZrB 2 at a moderate hot-pressing temperature of 1650 °C. It has also been found that ball-milling of the ZrB 2 /SiC starting-powder mixtures using ZrO 2 balls media results in the doping of the powder mixture with ZrO 2 , which promotes hot-pressing densification. Reduction in the SiC starting-powder size, and colloidal dispersion of the powders, both have been found to promote hot-pressing densification of ZrB 2 /SiC materials; the highest density achieved in such ZrB 2 /SiC ceramics is 99.9%. Detailed microstructural characterization of the ZrB 2 /SiC ceramics using electron microscopy shows that some of these materials contain a Zr(O,B) 2 phase, and amorphous films at interphase interfaces. Oxidation studies reveal that SiC grain-size reduction results in improved oxidation-resistance in ZrB 2 /SiC materials. The ZrB 2 /SiC ceramics produced here possess modest hardness and toughness properties. The results presented here point to a new strategy for improving processing and oxidation-resistance of ZrB 2 /SiC materials: dispersion and reduction of SiC grains.
Global Radiation Resulting from Multiple Scattering in a Rayleigh Atmosphere

Using Chandrasekhar's solution for the radiative transfer problem in a plane-parallel model of the earth's atmosphere, under the assumption of perfect, conservative scattering according to the Rayleigh law, expressions are derived for the relative global and sky radiation received on a horizontal surface, as a function of normal optical thickness and inclination of incoming parallel radiation. The corrections representing the effect of ground reflection are also expressed in terms of certain functions already defined by Chandrasekhar. These expressions, which include the effect of all orders of scattering , are then used to compute the absolute global and sky radiation as a function of wavelength and solar zenith distance, based on the solar extraterrestrial energy curve as given recently by Nicolet. The results show that, under these assumptions, the global radiation received at the surface of the earth should remain essentially constant in spectral distribution for a wide range of solar altitudes, and that the pure sky radiation should have two maxima, centered at 3,300 A and 4,100 A respectively, for solar zenith distances ranging between o° and 45°. The theoretical work is compared with Bernhardt's results obtained by means of certain simplifying assumptions about the successive orders of scattering. The absolute global and sky radiation is integrated over the range 0.29 μ to 4.00 μ, and it is shown that in general the computation is in good agreement with existing measurements under clear sky conditions. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1954.tb01132.x
Inhibition of cartilage degradation by isothiazoloquinolinones

Abstract Several aryl-fused isothiazoloquinolinones were prepared and were found to inhibit IL-1β induced degradation of bovine nasal cartilage in an organ culture assay. These compounds, derived conceptually from the benzisothiazolone ring system, represent a new, non-peptide class of inhibitors of cartilage degradation.
Differential effects of gonadal function on bone histomorphometry in male and female rats

The effects of castration on bone histomorphometry and mineral homeostasis were compared in male and female rats. Measurements were performed 4 weeks after sham operation or gonadectomy. Orchiectomy produced increases in serum calcium and decreases in serum testosterone and androstenedione, whereas ovariectomy produced decreases in serum estradiol and testosterone. Orchiectomy did not alter static bone histomorphometric measurements of the tibial diaphysis, whereas ovariectomy increased cross-sectional and medullary areas, lowered endosteal tetracycline-labeled surface length, and markedly increased endosteal nonlabeled surface length. Orchiectomy decreased mean periosteal bone formation rate and mean periosteal bone apposition rate, whereas ovariectomy increased both measurements. Orchiectomy and ovariectomy markedly diminished trabecular area and trabecular surface length at the tibial metaphysis. Orchiectomy did not alter the number of osteoclasts per mm trabecular surface or the percentage of trabecular surface covered by osteoclasts, whereas ovariectomy increased both measurements. These findings indicate that gonadal hormones produce separate and distinct effects on bone metabolism as determined by histomorphometry in male and female rats.
Diffuse Optical Monitoring of Cerebral Blood Flow and Oxygenation for the Prediction of Vasovagal Syncope

A novel diffuse correlation spectroscopy flow-oximeter was used to simultaneously monitor cerebral blood flow (CBF) and oxygenation during head-up tilt tests. Results suggest that CBF change has the best sensitivity for predicting vasovagal syncope.
Estimating human exposure to nitrogen dioxide: An indoor/outdoor modeling approach

Adverse health consequences associated with human exposure to nitrogen dioxide are well documented. In order for policymakers to assess health risks and implement appropriate control strategies, accurate information is required concerning (1) the number of people exposed, (2) the severity and patterns of exposure, and (3) the health-related effects of exposure. In the past, data from central monitoring sites have been used to establish air pollution exposures. However, it is now recognized that people spend much of their time indoors or in areas away from fixed monitors where pollutant concentrations may be drastically different. An attempt to provide a more realistic estimate of nitrogen dioxide exposures is made. A simple deterministic model is developed, relating exposure to background ambient levels, indoor values, and human activities. Ambient and indoor parameters are derived from monitoring programs in six U.S. cities. Results suggest indoor nitrogen dioxide concentrations in private dwellings vary primarily with outdoor levels and type of cooking fuel, but are also affected by factors such as air-exchange rates and strength of indoor sources. Estimates of population exposures are obtained by combining observed distributions of nitrogen dioxide concentrations from outdoor and indoor settings with information about number of people and time spent in each microenvironment.
Addressing Social Justice Issues in Supervision: A Call for Client and Professional Advocacy

Given the increased awareness of the need for counselors to be social change agents to best meet the needs of the clients they serve, the counseling profession has adopted competencies and standards to guide advocacy efforts. Supervision offers a forum for facilitating the development of these necessary skills for effective advocacy. This article presents a three-tier model to assist supervisors in preparing future counselor advocates. Framed within a social constructivist epistemology, the model facilitates the examination of social justice issues relative to client advocacy and professional advocacy in relation to self-awareness, client services, and community collaboration. Supplemental activities follow.
Trough height, pressure and flattening in tonometry☆

Abstract Our automatic, gentle, electronic tonometer which is based on an exact theory yields a characteristic tonogram. We have shown in a previous paper that the initial crest occurs when the transducer surface is just covered by the flattened cornea and that the trough occurs when it is more than covered. Using rabbit eyes, the relationship was investigated between the degree of flattening and the intraocular pressure by electronic manometry and cannulation. Then the change in manometric pressure was found at the incidence of the initial trough of the Mackay-Marg tonogram. It is demonstrated that a 1 1 2 - mm diameter circular transducer surface area requires a 3-mm diameter flattening of the cornea for the generation of the initial trough. The artificial rise in pressure caused by this applanation is 0.4 mm Hg.
Beta-adrenergic stimulation of pig myocytes with decreased cytosolic free magnesium prolongs the action potential and enhances triggered activity.

Beta-Adrenergic Stimulation and Repolarization. Introduction: Heart failure results in chronic beta-adrenergic stimulation, repolarization lability, and arrhythmias associated with early afterdepolarizations (EADs) and delayed afterdepolarizations (DADs). Having described a significant reduction in intracellular free magnesium ([Mg 2 + ] i ) in experimental heart failure, we asked whether a reduction in [Mg 2 + ] i would delay repolarization or facilitate EADs and/or DADs. Methods and Results: Left ventricular myocytes were isolated from Yorkshire swine. Cytosolic free [Mg 2 + ] was set at 0.12 mM (LoMg) or 1.2 mM (HiMg) through pipette dialysis. Action potentials (AP), Ca current (I C a ), and sodium/calcium exchange current (I N C X ) were measured in the presence or absence of isoproterenol (2 μM) at 37°C. Under basal conditions (0.1-Hz stimulation, 2 mM external [Ca 2 + ]), reducing [Mg 2 + ] i had no effect on AP duration and I C a but did significantly enhance I N C X . In contrast, during superfusion with isoproterenol, reduced [Mg 2 + ] i caused a significant increase in AP duration at both 50% and 90% repolarization (APD 5 0 and APD 9 0 ) compared with HiMg (P < 0.05). LoMg cells manifested a high incidence of triggered activities, including spontaneous AP, EADs, and DADs (83.3% in LoMg, n = 12 vs 38.3% in HiMg, n = 13; P < 0.05). I C a and I N C X were significantly increased in LoMg cells compared with HiMg cells (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Decreased cytosolic free magnesium prolongs AP duration and increases the incidence of triggered activity during beta-adrenergic stimulation. These effects may be due to increased I C a and I N C X in the presence of reduced intracellular [Mg 2 + ]. A magnesium-dependent increase in triggered activity coupled with delayed repolarization during beta-adrenergic stimulation could contribute to the arrhythmogenic substrate in heart failure.
ccm2-like is required for cardiovascular development as a novel component of the Heg-CCM pathway

The Heart of Glass-Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (Heg-CCM) pathway is essential for normal cardiovascular development in zebrafish and mouse. In zebrafish, the Heg-CCM pathway mutants santa(ccm1/san), valentine (ccm2/vtn), and heart of glass (heg) exhibit severely dilated hearts and inflow tracts and a complete absence of blood circulation. We identified a novel gene based on its sequence identity with ccm2, which we have named ccm2-like (ccm2l), and characterized its role in cardiovascular development. Disruption of ccm2l by morpholino injection causes dilation of the atrium and inflow tract and compromised blood circulation. Morpholino co-injection experiments identify ccm2l as an enhancer of the characteristic Heg-CCM dilated heart phenotype, and we find that ccm2 overexpression can partially rescue ccm2l morphant defects. Finally, we show that Ccm2l binds Ccm1 and perform deletion and mutational analyses to define the regions of Ccm1 that mediate its binding to Ccm2l and its previously established interactors Ccm2 and Heg. These genetic and biochemical data argue that ccm2l is a necessary component of the Heg-CCM pathway.
A gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric assay for flutroline, a γ-carboline antipsychotic agent, with direct derivatization on a moving needle injector

A method has been developed for the determination of flutroline in plasma using capillary gas chromatography and selected ion monitoring detection of the TMS derivative. The method is linear over the concentration range of 3-60 ng ml-1 and was used to define the drug pharmacokinetics and bioavailability in animals and man. A novel method for direct derivatization on the tip of a moving needle injector is described.
Stability of regional brachiopod diversity structure across the Mississippian/Pennsylvanian boundary

The middle Carboniferous was an interval of global change when the climate was transitioning from greenhouse to icehouse conditions. Field collections of paleotropical brachiopod assemblages across the Mississippian/Pennsylvanian boundary reveal a taxonomic turnover event in which the overall diversity structure is conserved, despite an apparent regional extinction of 63% of latest Mississippian genera and an apparent regional origination of 50% of earliest Pennsylvanian. An analysis of the global ranges of the brachiopods encountered in the field reveals that turnover was driven primarily by extirpation and immigration rather than true extinctions and originations. Taxonomic richness and evenness are indistinguishable between the latest Mississippian and earliest Pennsylvanian stages. Additive diversity partitioning shows that the within-collection, between-collections (i.e., within-bed), and between-bed diversity components do not change across the Mississippian/Pennsylvanian boundary for richness or evenness. Rank-abundance plots of genera show the same distribution for both stages, but with no correlation between the Mississippian abundances of range-through genera and their abundance in the Pennsylvanian. Detrended correspondence analysis shows a major change in taxonomic composition across that Mississippian/Pennsylvanian boundary and consistency in the general gradient along which genera were distributed. An estimation of spatio-temporal heterogeneity of taxonomic composition within each stage reveals that the earliest Pennsylvanian was significantly more homogeneous. These results suggest that middle Carboniferous brachiopod assemblages from tropical shallow-water carbonate platform settings were organized by some factor that was independent of the specific taxa present. Furthermore, the increased homogeneity in taxonomic composition in the Morrowan did not affect the overall diversity structure. Strong competitive interactions among taxa do not appear to be important in determining the taxonomic compositions and abundances of brachiopod stage-level assemblages.
Factors Associated With Late Detection of Critical Congenital Heart Disease in Newborns

OBJECTIVES: Critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) was recently added to the US Recommended Uniform Screening Panel for newborns. This study assessed whether maternal/household and infant characteristics were associated with late CCHD detection. METHODS: This was a statewide, population-based, retrospective, observational study of infants with CCHD born between 1998 and 2007 identified by using the Florida Birth Defects Registry. We examined 12 CCHD conditions that are primary and secondary targets of newborn CCHD screening using pulse oximetry. We used Poisson regression models to analyze associations between selected characteristics (eg, CCHD type, birth hospital nursery level [highest level available in the hospital]) and late CCHD detection (defined as diagnosis after the birth hospitalization). RESULTS: Of 3603 infants with CCHD and linked hospitalizations, CCHD was not detected during the birth hospitalization for 22.9% ( n = 825) of infants. The likelihood of late detection varied by CCHD condition. Infants born in a birth hospital with a level I nursery only (adjusted prevalence ratio: 1.9 [95% confidence interval: 1.6–2.2]) or level II nursery (adjusted prevalence ratio: 1.5 [95% confidence interval: 1.3–1.7]) were significantly more likely to have late-detected CCHD compared with infants born in a birth hospital with a level III (highest) nursery. CONCLUSIONS: After controlling for the selected characteristics, hospital nursery level seems to have an independent association with late CCHD detection. Thus, perhaps universal newborn screening for CCHD could be particularly beneficial in level I and II nurseries and may reduce differences in the frequency of late diagnosis between birth hospital facilities.
The Spillover Effects of Having a Sibling with Special Educational Needs

ABSTRACT The influence that students with special educational needs may exert on the schooling outcomes of their siblings without special educational needs has been given minimal attention in published research. Hence, the authors bring forth a unique contribution by evaluating the within-family effects of being a child without special educational needs in a family with a sibling with special educational needs. To do so, the authors utilized quasi-experimental methods on a sample of siblings in the Philadelphia School District over 6 years of observations. Because individual student data can be linked to home address information as well as classroom, school, grade, and year identifiers, the authors identified children in the same household over time and subsequently employs multilevel fixed effects models to evaluate achievement and nonachievement schooling outcomes. The results indicate that having a sibling with special educational needs is positively related to standardized achievement compared with th...
Comparison of trap and underwater video gears for indexing reef fish presence and abundance in the southeast United States

Abstract It is challenging to manage reef fish species in the Southeast U.S. Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (SUSLME) due to life history strategies that make them vulnerable to overexploitation, difficulty of sampling reef fish in high-relief hard bottom habitats, and fluctuations in utility of fishery-dependent data. In response to declines in fishery-dependent data due to fishery closures, fishery-independent sampling of reef fish has become even more critical to stock assessment. Here we test whether a long-term chevron trapping survey could benefit from the addition of underwater video cameras. Sampling occurred on continental shelf and shelf break habitats (15–83 m deep) between northern Georgia and central Florida. Reef fish frequency of occurrence was significantly higher on video compared to traps for 11 of 15 species analyzed, and the increase ranged from 38% to infinity for these 11 species. Frequency of occurrence for the four remaining species was not significantly different between traps and video. Although positive relationships were observed between log-transformed trap and video indices of abundance for five selected reef fish species, considerable amounts of unexplained variation existed and the relationship for three species was nonlinear. Underwater video can be a beneficial addition to a long-term trapping survey by increasing the frequency of occurrence for most reef fish species, which should translate into improved indices of reef fish abundance in the SUSLME.
Atmospheric CW-FM-LD-RR ladar for trace-constituent detection: a concept development

We formulate a general framework for simultaneous remote ranging and spectral selection of trace constituents by an appropriate use of frequency modulation combined with mixing and filtering. A theoretical model of a spectroscopic continuous-wave, frequency-modulated, laser-diode-based range-resolving (CW-FM-LD-RR) ladar is developed for the expected echo signal modulated by the nonlinear absorption. Relationships between the heterodyne echo-signal amplitudes and frequencies and trace-gas concentration for each range are analyzed. Features of the echo-signal inversion and its calibration are studied. It is analytically shown that, by suitable processing, the range-dependent concentration profile of the absorbing gas can be extracted.
Production of Nano-Crystalline Zirconia-Based Powders Using a Flow-Through Hydrothermal Process

Nano-crystalline, zirconium oxide and oxyhydroxide particulates were produced using a novel, continuous, flow-through hydrothermal technology which was previously developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Homogeneous aqueous solutions containing 0. LM ZrO(NO3)2, 0.2-0.5M urea, and in some cases 0.025-0.10M NaF were pumped at pressures of 6000-8000 psi through a heated stainless steel reaction tube at 340-350°C. Flow at pressure was maintained using a nozzle at the down-stream end of the reaction tube. In this process, termed Rapid Thermal Decomposition of precursors in Solution (RTDS), the formation of zirconium oxide and oxyhydroxide nano-crystals (diameters of generally less than 15-nm) occurred during the solution’s brief residence time (<15 seconds) in the reaction tube, yielding aqueous slurries of agglomerated particulates upon exiting the nozzle. Powders were separated from these slurries, washed, then dried. RTDS powder prepared from 0.1M ZrO(NO3)2and 0.5M urea had a surface area of 210 m2/g and was determined to be a mixture of predominantly nano-crystalline (<10 nm crystallite diameter) cubic ZrO2 with the balance being monoclinic ZrO2. This powder was subsequently calcined to 500°C, pressed into a pellet at 20,000 psi and sintered at 500°C for one hour to yield a mechanically stable porous support with a measured surface area of 125 m2/g. In contrast, RTDS powder prepared from 0.1M ZrO(NO3)2, 0.5M urea, and 0.1M NaF was determined to be pure monoclinic ZrO2with a surface area of 58 m2/g.
Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors and the Treatment of Gastrointestinal Cancers

The cell cycle is a highly conserved and tightly regulated biological system that controls cellular proliferation and differentiation. The cell cycle regulatory proteins, which include the cyclins, the cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), and the CDK inhibitors, are critical for the proper temporal and spatial regulation of cellular proliferation. Conversely, alterations in cell cycle regulatory proteins, leading to the loss of normal cell-cycle control, are a hallmark of many cancers, including gastrointestinal cancers. Accordingly, overexpression of CDKs and cyclins and by contrast loss of CDK inhibitors, are all linked to gastrointestinal cancers and are often associated with less favorable prognoses and outcomes. Because of the importance that the cell cycle regulatory proteins play in tumorigenesis, currently there is a broad spectrum of cell-cycle inhibitors under development that, as a group, hold promise as effective cancer treatments. In support of this approach to cancer treatment, the growing availability of molecular diagnostics techniques may help in identifying patients who have driving abnormalities in the cell-cycle machinery and are thus more likely to respond to cell-cycle inhibitors. In this review, we discuss the prevalence of cell-cycle abnormalities in patients with gastrointestinal cancers and provide a preclinical and clinical overview of new agents that target cell-cycle abnormalities with a special emphasis on gastrointestinal cancers.
Modeling and measurements for mitigating interference from skyshine

Skyshine, the radiation scattered in the air above a high-activity gamma-ray source, can produce interference with radiation portal monitor (RPM) systems at distances up to even many hundred meters. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been engaged in a campaign of measurements, design work and modeling that explore methods of mitigating the effects of skyshine on outdoor measurements with sensitive instruments. An overview of our work with shielding of skyshine is being reported by us in another paper at this conference. This paper will concentrate on two topics: measurements and modeling with Monte Carlo transport calculations to characterize skyshine from an iridium-192 source, and testing of a prototype louver system, designed and fabricated at PNNL, as a shielding approach to limit the impact of skyshine interference on RPM systems.
VDBench: A Benchmarking Toolkit for Thin-Client Based Virtual Desktop Environments

The recent advances in thin client devices and the push to transition users' desktop delivery to cloud environments will eventually transform how desktop computers are used today. The ability to measure and adapt the performance of virtual desktop environments is a major challenge for ''virtual desktop cloud'' service providers. In this paper, we present the ''VD Bench'' toolkit that uses a novel methodology and related metrics to benchmark thin-client based virtual desktop environments in terms of scalability and reliability. We also describe how we used a VD Bench instance to benchmark the performance of: (a) popular user applications (Spreadsheet Calculator, Internet Browser, Media Player, Interactive Visualization), (b) TCP/UDP based thin client protocols (RDP, RGS, PCoIP), and (c) remote user experience (interactive response times, perceived video quality), under a variety of system load and network health conditions. Our results can help service providers to mitigate over-provisioning in sizing virtual desktop resources, and guesswork in thin client protocol configurations, and thus obtain significant cost savings while simultaneously fostering satisfied customers.
Brain Electrical Activity of Shy and Non‐Shy Preschool‐Aged Children During Executive Function Tasks

Psychophysiological and cognitive performance differences exist between shy and non-shy individuals. Neuroimaging studies have shown identifiable differences in task-related cortical functioning between adults with and without sensitivity to social events. The current study compared baseline and task measures of EEG power (6–9Hz) for 125 shy and non-shy children between the ages of 41 and 55months who differed in core executive function (EF) skills. Results indicated an increase in medial frontal EEG power from baseline-to-task for high EF performers (shy and non-shy). Shy/ low EF performers also demonstrated this increase, but the nonshy/low EF group did not. For the medial parietal region, only the shy children (high and low EF performers) showed an increase in power from baseline-to-task; and for the shy/high EF group, left hemisphere power was greater than the right during baseline and task. This study is believed to be the first continuous-recording EEG comparison between children who are shy and non-shy in the context of an EF assessment. These findings highlight differences in medial frontal and medial parietal power for children who differ in shyness and EF skills. They also suggest the value of future research examining strong EF skills as protective and regulatory for shy children. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Aging-resilient design of pipelined architectures using novel detection and correction circuits

Time-dependent performance degradation due to transistor aging caused by mechanisms such as Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) and Hot Carrier Injection (HCI) is one of the most important reliability concerns for deep nano-scale regime VLSI circuits. Hence, aging-resilient design methodologies are necessary to address this issue in order to improve reliability, preferably with minimal impact on the area, power and performance. This work offers two major contributions to the aging-resilient circuit design methodology literature. First, it introduces a novel sensor circuit that can detect the aging of pipeline architectures by monitoring the arrival time of data signals at flip-flops. The area overhead of the proposed circuit is estimated to be less than 45% compared to that of previous approaches, which are over 95%. To ensure the accuracy of its operation, a comprehensive timing analysis is performed on the proposed circuit including the influence of process variations. As a second contribution, this work presents an innovative correction technique to reduce the probability of timing failures caused by aging. This method employs novel reconfigurable flip-flops, which operate as normal flip-flops as long as the circuit is fresh, but function as time-borrowing flip-flops once the circuit ages. This unique flip-flop design allows utilization of the advantages of the time-borrowing technique while avoiding potential race conditions that can be created by employing such a technique. It is shown via simulations that by employing the proposed design methodology, the probability of timing failures in the aged circuits can be reduced by as much as 10X for various benchmark circuits.
The specific gravity of mesopelagic fish from the northeastern Pacific Ocean and its implications for acoustic backscatter

Knowledge of the species present, their morphology, and their size distribution is required to infer biomass from acoustic surveys of fish. The gas content and specific gravity of the body (with gas removed), rf, was measured for 71 species of mesopelagic fish in the NE Pacific Ocean. Those species that have functional swimbladders when large maintain constant rf with increasing body size. Species without functional swimbladders as adults show decreased rf with increasing body size. The acoustic-backscattering cross-section, sbs, was modelled for all individuals collected from three fish species that differed in the presence of a gas-filled swimbladder. The change in sbs with increasing body size was markedly different between the three. The low body density of those mesopelagic fish without gas-filled swimbladders greatly reduces their sbs. In species of fish that possess a functional swimbladder as juveniles and in which the swimbladder regresses with growth, the sbs first decreases, then increases with increased body size. Knowledge of the ontogenetic changes in swimbladder inflation and body density in mesopelagic fish is critical for the construction of the backscattering models used to interpret acoustic surveys.
Order reduction of nonlinear systems subjected to an external periodic excitation

In this work, the basic problem of order reduction nonlinear systems subjected to an external periodic excitation is considered. This problem deserves attention because the modes that interact (linearly or nonlinearly) with the external excitation dominate the response. A linear approach like the Guyan reduction does not always guarantee accurate results, particularly when nonlinear interactions are strong. In order to overcome limitations of the linear approach, a nonlinear order reduction methodology through a generalization of the invariant manifold technique is proposed. Traditionally, the invariant manifold techniques for unforced problems are extended to the forced problems by ‘augmenting’ the state space, i.e., forcing is treated as an additional degree of freedom and an invariant manifold is constructed. However, in the approach suggested here a nonlinear time-dependent relationship between the dominant and the non-dominant states is assumed and the dimension of the state space remains the same. This methodology not only yields accurate reduced order models but also explains the consequences of various ‘primary’ and ‘secondary resonances’ present in the system. Following this approach, various ‘reducibility conditions’ are obtained that show interactions among the eigenvalues, the nonlinearities and the external excitation. One can also recover all ‘resonance conditions’ commonly obtained via perturbation or averaging techniques. These methodologies are applied to some typical problems and results for large-scale and reduced order models are compared. It is anticipated that these techniques will provide a useful tool in the analysis and control of large-scale externally excited nonlinear systems.Copyright © 2005 by ASME
A model for surface and bulk chemistry during silicon etching in high plasma density inductively coupled reactors

Summary form only given. Low gas pressure, high plasma density etching tools are becoming predominant in industry for rapid, uniform small feature etching. In these reactors, surface reactions (both on the wafer and the walls) take on greater importance since the rate of volumetric collisions is smaller (low gas pressure) while the reactive fluxes to surfaces are larger. We have developed a Monte Carlo simulation to investigate surface reactions and the disposition of etching products in high plasma density reactors, and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) tools in particular. Time dependent electric fields and source functions for radicals and ions are obtained from a companion hybrid plasma equipment model. Monte Carlo techniques are then used to track the trajectories of radicals and ions, volumetric reactions and surface reactions. An etch model for poly-Si in chlorine chemistries based on the work of Dane and Mantei is implemented in which the local etch rate is proportional to the neutral radical fluxes and ion power flux. Predicted etching rates for poly-Si using chlorine chemistries will be compared to experiments performed in ICP reactors. The effect of the etchant on the plasma chemistry, and hence on the etch rate, will be discussed. A 3-dimensional visualization of fluxes of plasma species will be presented.
Generalized Divergence-Free Carrier Smoothing with Applications to Dual Frequency Differential GPS

This paper develops a generalized framework for smoothing Global Positioning System (GPS) pseudorange measurements with carrier phase measurements. This framework, called 'Generalized Divergence-Free Smoothing', not only encompasses Dual Frequency Smoothing techniques known previously, but provides a continuum of possible smoothing configurations. When incorporated into DGPS architectures, the GDFS technique can be exploited to achieve specific objectives, such as minimum pseudorange errors, ionosphere-free measurements, or geometry-free integer ambiguity resolution. A highly flexible DGPS architecture based on GDFS processing is presented. The GDFS framework also provides a methodology for evaluating the performance of signal combinations for modernized Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
Binding of AMP to two of the four subunits of pig kidney fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase induces the allosteric transition.

To study the allosteric transition in pig kidney fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase), we constructed hybrids in which subunits have either their active or regulatory sites rendered nonfunctional by specific mutations. This was accomplished by the coexpression of the enzyme from a plasmid that contained two slightly different copies of the cDNA. To resolve and purify each of the hybrid enzymes, six aspartic acid codons were added before the termination codon of one of the cDNAs. The addition of these Asp residues to the protein did not alter the kinetic or allosteric properties of the resulting FBPase. Expression of the enzyme from a dual-gene plasmid resulted in the production of a set of five different enzymes (two homotetramers and three hybrid tetramers) that could be purified by a combination of affinity and anion-exchange chromatography because of the differential charge on each of these species. The hybrid with one subunit that only had a functional regulatory site (R) and three subunits that only had a functional active site (A) exhibited biphasic AMP inhibition. Analysis of these data suggest that the binding of AMP to the R subunit is able to globally alter the activity of the other three A subunits. The hybrid composed of two R and two A subunits is completely inhibited at an AMP concentration of ≈0.5 mM, 100-fold less than the concentration required to fully inhibit the A4 enzyme. The monophasic nature of this cooperative inhibition suggests that the AMP binding to the two R subunits is sufficient to completely inhibit the enzyme and suggests that the binding of AMP to only two of the four subunits of the enzyme induces the global allosteric transition from the R to the T state. Proteins 2001;44:255–261. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
The Evolution and Coordination of U.S. Commodity and Resource Policies

There is a growing popular and professional awareness of the incoherence of government policy. It has been argued in numerous forums that the Federal government’s contradictory policies hobble U.S. industry. In the popular media, many articles have described these incoherent policies (e.g., Business Week 1980). A frequently cited example is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restricting the use of pesticides while the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USD A) promotes pesticides for agricultural and forestry uses.