cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Longitudinal study of marital interaction and dysfunction: Review and analysis

Abstract Psychological research on marriage is undergoing an important shift from the use of crosssectional, descriptive studies of marital conflict to longitudinal studies that have the potential to explain how marital conflict and marital quality are interrelated over time. This article reviews longitudinal research on marital conflict and concludes that, while there is some evidence to suggest that behavior exhibited during conflict (e.g., wives' resignation and sadness) foreshadows marital deterioration, many important issues must be addressed before the longitudinal association between conflict and marital satisfaction is well understood. Prominent among these issues are the methods used to assess change in marital satisfaction and the longitudinal path linking marital satisfaction to changes in interaction. Several recommendations are made for enhancing future research, including the derivation of interactional typologies, examination of whether and when marriages end, investigation of mechanisms of change, and the development of competing conceptual frameworks.
Simulating Controlled Variate and Rank Correlations Based on the Power Method Transformation

The power method transformation is a popular algorithm used for simulating correlated non normal continuous variates because of its simplicity and ease of execution. Statistical models may consist of continuous and (or) ranked variates. In view of this, the methodology is derived for simulating controlled correlation structures between non normal (a) variates, (b) ranks, and (c) variates with ranks in the context of the power method. The correlation structure between variate-values and their associated rank-order is also derived for the power method. As such, a measure of the potential loss of information is provided when ranks are used in place of variate-values. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation are provided to confirm and demonstrate the methodology.
Separation of metal ions on a new amide resin

Abstract The synthesis and characteristics of a new resin containing an amide fnctional group are described. The resin selectively retains uranium, thorium and zirconium from aqueous perhlorate solutions, and also strongly retains the noble metals fro aqueous or methanolic hydrochloric acid solutions. Unlike conventional anion-exchange resins, the platilnum-group metals and gold can be asil eluted with hydrochloric acid solutions containing sodium perchlorate and acetone, respectively. The chromatographic separation of thorium, uranium and zirconium, as well as that of some of the noble metals, has been demonstrated by using continuous spectrophotometric detection.
Structural properties and quasiparticle band structure of zirconia

We report ab initio calculations of the structural and quasiparticle properties of ${\mathrm{ZrO}}_{2}$, otherwise known as zirconia. The plane-wave pseudopotential method is used to compute the structural properties of the cubic, tetragonal, and monoclinic phases of zirconia. Oxygen vacancies in the cubic phase are also studied using a supercell approach. The structural parameters, including all internal degrees of freedom of all phases, are relaxed. Excellent agreement is achieved with experiment and with other ab initio calculations available. We compute the quasiparticle band gaps within Hedin's $\mathrm{GW}$ approximation using the method of Hybertsen and Louie, and confirm that the quasiparticle approach can be successfully applied to transition-metal oxides if the core-valence overlap is small. We predict the fundamental gap of pure cubic, tetragonal, and monoclinic zirconia to be 5.55 eV, 6.40 eV, and 5.42 eV, respectively. Within the $\mathrm{GW}$ approximation, the oxygen vacancy state in the cubic phase is found to be nondegenerate, fully occupied, and well separated from the valence and conduction bands, positioned 2.1 eV below the conduction band edge.
Dissection of the adenoviral VA RNAI central domain structure reveals minimum requirements for RNA-mediated inhibition of PKR

Virus-associated RNA I (VA RNAI) is a short (∼160-nucleotide) non-coding RNA transcript employed by adenoviruses to subvert the innate immune system protein double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase (PKR). The central domain of VA RNAI is proposed to contain a complex tertiary structure that contributes to its optimal inhibitory activity against PKR. Here we use a combination of VA RNAI mutagenesis, structural analyses, as well as PKR activity and binding assays to dissect this tertiary structure and assess its functional role. Our results support the existence of a pH- and Mg2+-dependent tertiary structure involving pseudoknot formation within the central domain. Unexpectedly, this structure appears to play no direct role in PKR inhibition. Deletion of central domain sequences within a minimal but fully active construct lacking the tertiary structure reveals a crucial role in PKR binding and inhibition for nucleotides in the 5′ half of the central domain. Deletion of the central domain 3′ half also significantly impacts activity but appears to arise indirectly by reducing its capacity to assist in optimally presenting the 5′ half sequence. Collectively, our results identify regions of VA RNAI critical for PKR inhibition and reveal that the requirements for an effective RNA inhibitor of PKR are simpler than appreciated previously.
Effect of vitamin B6 deficiency on the metabolism of isolated fat cells: response to insulin, epinephrine and theophylline.

SummaryWhen isolated epididymal fat cells from vitamin B6-deficient rats were incubated with glucose, lipogenesis was greater both in the absence and presence of insulin than when fat cells from fed and fasted control animals were similarly treated. Fat cells from vitamin B6-deficient rats also appeared more sensitive to lipolysis induced by theophylline and to a lesser extent epinephrine. This effect appeared to be related at least in part to the inanition accompanying the vitamin deficiency. Insulin was effective in partially inhibiting the epinephrine effect on fat cells from ad libitum contols but not on fat cells from deficient rats or pair fed controls. Conversely, insulin appeared less effective in inhibiting the theophylline effect on fat cells from ad libitum controls than the other groups. Ratios of triglyceride to DNA were similar in fat cells obtained from control and deficient rats indicating that in rat vitamin B6-deficiency experiments the amount of fat cells used can be quantified by the a...
High-performance affinity chromatography and immobilized serum albumin as probes for drug- and hormone-protein binding

The binding of drugs and hormones to proteins within the blood is an important process in determining the transport, excretion, metabolism and activity of such agents. This paper discusses the combined use of immobilized serum albumin and high-performance affinity chromatography (HPAC) as tools for the study of such binding processes. The general approaches that are used in such work and are illustrated by several examples taken from previous work in the author's laboratory. The type of qualitative and quantitative information that can be obtained by such work is described, including the comparison of relative binding affinities, competitive displacement by other agents or the measurement of equilibrium and rate constants based on immobilized albumin columns. A comparison is also provided between the results that are obtained by these methods and those that are provided by solution-phase albumin. Some newer advances that are highlighted include use of HPAC to examine the binding of non-polar compounds to albumin, the effects of binding site heterogeneity on HPAC measurements and the use of chemically-modified albumin as a tool to examined the site-specific interactions of solutes with albumin.
Yield enhancement of reconfigurable microfluidics-based biochips using interstitial redundancy

Microfluidics-based biochips for biochemical analysis are currently receiving much attention. They automate highly repetitive laboratory procedures by replacing cumbersome equipment with miniaturized and integrated systems. As these microfluidics-based microsystems become more complex, manufacturing yield will have significant influence on production volume and product cost. We propose an interstitial redundancy approach to enhance the yield of biochips that are based on droplet-based digital microfluidics. In this design method, spare cells are placed in the interstitial sites within the microfluidic array, and they replace neighboring faulty cells via local reconfiguration. The proposed design method is evaluated using a set of concurrent real-life bioassays. The defect-tolerant design approach based on space redundancy and local reconfiguration is expected to facilitate yield enhancement of microfluidics-based biochips, especially for the emerging marketplace.
Secondary instability, EOF reduction, and the transition to baroclinic chaos

Abstract High-resolution numerical simulations illustrate how an initial baroclinic instability may become chaotic as the degree of supercritically is increased. The route to chaos is via bifurcations to periodic and quasi-periodic states, but the spatial structures involved are much more complex than those assumed in previous low-order models. The fundamental participants in the transition can be educed by studying the symmetry-breaking secondary instabilities of fixed points of the primary baroclinic instability problem. These unstable disturbances to the equilibrium way baroclinic flow serve to eradicate the fundamental zonal currents. Reduced low-dimensional models that replicate the full 10 4 -mode computer simulations can be formulated by projecting the governing equations onto the EOFs (empirical orothogonal functions) of the large-scale calculations. The successful constructions of such models using relatively few EOFs appears to be related to the fact that the EOFs are almost identical to the secondary instabilities of the primary baroclinic wave state, and these secondary instabilities are, in turn, the primary participants in the supercritical periodic and quasiperiodic states.
Requirement for myeloid growth factors in the differentiation of acute promyelocytic leukaemia

It is well known that the differentiation of acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) cells by all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) may be enhanced by myeloid growth factors, but the requirement for growth factors in this process is unclear. Our previous studies in multiple myeloma and non-APL acute myeloid leukaemia demonstrated that lineage-specific growth factors are required for the maximal activity of many pharmacologic differentiating agents in vitro. Thus, we studied whether the differentiation of APL is similarly dependent on growth factors. We found that the myeloid growth factors granulocyte colony-stimulating factor or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor markedly increased the differentiation of NB4 cells or APL blasts from clinical samples treated with ATRA, arsenic trioxide (ATO), or bryostatin-1 as evidenced by the enhanced expression of myeloid surface antigens and the inhibition of clonogenic growth. Furthermore, myeloid growth factors were necessary for the differentiation of APL cells since the activity of each pharmacologic agent could be blocked by specific growth factor-neutralizing antibodies. Each differentiating agent was active only at concentrations that inhibited cell cycling, suggesting that this property is also required for differentiation. These data demonstrate that both pharmacologic differentiating agents and myeloid growth factors are required, but neither sufficient, for the differentiation of APL cells. The combined use of pharmacologic differentiating agents and growth factors may improve the clinical efficacy of differentiation therapy in APL.
Supervisory beliefs of cooperating teachers

Abstract The supervisory beliefs of cooperating teachers are examined in this study. Supervisors’ beliefs determine the degree of control or structure the supervisor believes should be provided in training situations. These beliefs can be viewed along a continuum of unstructured (nondirective) to highly structured (directive) situations. A survey using the Supervisor Belief Inventory (Cummings, 1992) was conducted in order to determine the predominant beliefs of teachers supervising student teachers. The results of this study indicated that the most prevalent style was indirect.
Transient Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion by Intraluminal Suture: II. Neurological Deficits, and Pixel-Based Correlation of Histopathology with Local Blood Flow and Glucose Utilization

We conducted a pixel-based analysis of the acute hemodynamic and metabolic determinants of infarctive histopathology in a reproducible model of temporary (2-hour) middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) produced in rats by an intraluminal suture. Three-dimensional averaged image data sets of local cerebral blood flow (LCBF) and glucose utilization (LCMRglc) acquired in the companion study (Belayev et al., 1997) either at the end of a 2-hour period of MCAO or after 1 hour of recirculation were comapped (using digitized atlas-templates) with data sets depicting the frequency of histological infarction in a matched animal group (n = 8) in which 2 hours of MCAO was followed by 3-day survival, sequential neuro-behavioral examinations, and perfusion-fixation and paraffin-embedding of brains for light-microscopic analysis. All rats developed marked postural-reflex and forelimb-placing deficits at 60 minutes of MCAO, signifying high-grade ischemia. Tactile placing deficits persisted during the 72-hour observation period while visual placing and postural-reflex abnormalities variably improved. Comapping of LCBF and histopathology showed that in those pixels destined to undergo infarction, LCBF measured at 2 hours of MCAO showed a sharp distributional peak centered at 0.14 mL/g/min. In 70% of pixels destined to infarct, LCBF at 2 hours of MCAO was 0.24 mL/g/min or below, and in 89% LCBF was below 0.47 mL/g/min (the upper limits of the ischemic core and penumbra, respectively, as defined in the companion study [Belayev et al., 1997]). Local cerebral glucose utilization measured at ~1 hour after 2 hours of MCAO was distributed bimodally in the previously ischemic hemisphere. The major peak, at 22 µmol/100 g/min, coincided exactly with the distribution peak of pixels destined to undergo infarction, while in pixels with a zero probability of infarction, LCMRglc was higher by 12 to 13 µmol/100 g/min. These results indicate that local blood flow at 2 hours of MCAO is a robust predictor of eventual infarction. Pixels with ischemic-core levels of LCBF (0% to 20% of control) have a 96% probability of infarction, while the fate of the penumbra is more heterogeneous: below LCBF of 0.35 mL/g/min, the probability of infarction is 92%, while approximately 20% pixels in the upper-penumbral LCBF range (30% to 40% of control) escape infarction. Our data strongly support the view that the likelihood of infarction within the ischemic penumbra is highly influenced by very subtle differences in early perfusion.
Cranial variation in the terminal Late Archaic of Ohio

Cranial and mandibular discrete traits and cranial metric traits were collected from 99-125 individuals in eight terminal Late Archaic sites. The analysis of ten metric traits in six samples showed that the samples shared the same generalized variance and that sexual dimorphism in the means of the metric traits was greater than inter-site differences. Since these samples share the same size and shape expression of a complex set of polygenic traits, we hypothesize a historical relationship among these samples. Discrete trait analysis showed a pattern of differentiation among the eight samples. This pattern of differentiation is related directly to the geographical separation between samples, and, as with metric traits, cultural differences do not contribute to the pattern of biological differences. The overall pattern of osteological variation in these samples can be summarized parsimoniously by paraphrasing the first law of geography: All of the terminal Late Archaic populations of Ohio were related to each other, but closer ones were more related than distant ones.
Inhibition of human hepatic CYP isoforms by mGluR5 antagonists.

Abstract Characterization of new chemical entities for their potential to produce drug-drug interactions is an important aspect of early drug discovery screening. In the present study, the potential for three metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonists to interact with recombinant human CYPs was investigated. 2-Methyl-6-(phenylethenyl) pyridine (SIB-1893), 2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl) pyridine (MPEP) and 3-[2-methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl) ethynyl]-pyridine (MTEP) were moderate competitive inhibitors of recombinant human CYP1A2 (Ki, 0.5–1 μM). SIB-1893, but not MPEP or MTEP, was also a moderate competitive inhibitor of CYP1B1. MPEP and MTEP were weak inhibitors of CYP2C19. None of the three compounds tested were significant inhibitors (IC 50 values >50 μM) of CYP3A4, 2C9, 2D6, 2A6, 2B6 or 2E1. The results suggest that MTEP is a selective inhibitor of CYP1A2 and may prove to be a useful tool in studying drug-drug interactions involving this enzyme.
Magnetic Fields in Watt-Hour Meters Effects of Wave Form on the Registration of Single-Phase Watt-Hour Meters

The growing use of electrical equipment which causes distortion in the supply voltage and current has caused increased concern regarding the performance of watt-hour meters used to meter the energy required by such equipment. The watthour meter is designed and adjusted, in practice, to operate on practically distortionless current and voltage. An analysis of the factors involved and an experimental study of meter registration under definitely controlled conditions show that watt-hour meters should perform satisfactorily unless the degree of distortion is large. These controlled conditions included wide variations in the distortion of potential and current both individually and together. The characteristics of meters of recent design, of all the major manufacturers, were studied experimentally.
Quantification of mitral regurgitation by velocity-encoded cine nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

Objectives. The feasibility of velocity-encoded cine nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging to measure regurgitant volume and regurgitant fraction in patients with mitral regurgitation was evaluated. Background. Velocity-encoded cine NMR imaging has been reported to provide accurate measurement of the volume of blood flow in the ascending aorta and through the mitral annulus. Therefore, we hypothesized that the difference between mitral inflow and aortic systolic flow provides the regurgitant volume in the setting of mitral regurgitation. Methods. Using velocity-encoded cine NMR imaging at a magnet field strength of 1.5 T and color Doppler echocardiography, 19 patients with isolated mitral regurgitation and 10 normal subjects were studied. Velocity-encoded cine NMR images were acquired in the short-axis plane of the ascending aorta and from the short-axis plane of the left ventricle at the level of the mitral annulus. Two independent observers measured the ascending aortic flow volume and left ventricular inflow volume to calculate the regurgitant volume as the difference between left ventricular inflow volume and aortic flow volume, and the regurgitant fraction was calculated. Using accepted criteria of color flow Doppler imaging and spectral analysis, the severity of mitral regurgitation was qualitatively graded as mild, moderate or severe and compared with regurgitant volume and regurgitant fraction, as determined by velocity-encoded cine NMR imaging. Results. In normal subjects tike regurgitant volume was ∂ ± 345 ml/min (mean ± SD). In patients with mild, moderate and severe mitral regurgitation, the regurgitant volume was 156 ± 203, 1,384 ± 437 and 4,763 ± 2,449 ml/min, respectively. In normal subjects the regurgitant fraction was 0.7 ± 6.1%. In patients with mild, moderate and severe mitral regurgitation, the regurgitant fraction was 3.1 ± 3.4%, 24.5 ± 8.9% and 48.6 ± 7.6%, respectively. The regurgitant fraction correlated well with the echocardiographic severity of mitral regurgitation (r = 0.87). Interobserver reproducibilities for regurgitant volume and regurgitant fraction were excellent (r = 0.99, SEE = 238 ml; r = 0.98, SEE = 4.1%, respectively). Conclusions. These findings suggest that velocity-encoded NMR imaging can be used to estimate regurgitant volume and regurgitant fraction in patients with mitral regurgitation and can discriminate patients with moderate or severe mitral regurgitation from normal subjects and patients with mild regurgitation. It may be useful for monitoring the effect of therapy intended to reduce the severity of mitral regurgitation.
X10X: Model Checking a New Programming Language with an "Old" Model Checker

Parallel and distributed computing is becoming a norm with the advent of multi-core, networked, and cloud computing platforms. New programming languages are emerging for these platforms, e.g., the X10 language from IBM. While these languages explicitly support concurrent programming, they cannot eliminate all concurrency related bugs, which are usually hard to find. Finding such bugs is easier using specialized, language-aware model-checking tools. However, such tools are highly complex and developing them from scratch requires large effort. We describe our experience in developing a model-checking tool for a new language, X10, by systematically adapting an existing tool, the JPF model checker for Java. X10 programs can be compiled to Java, but unfortunately checking X10 programs directly with the unmodified JPF and X10 runtime can miss some behaviors and scales very poorly. We present four sets of techniques that can be employed to make checking a new language with an " old" model checker practical: (1) modify the model checker, (2) modify the language runtime, (3) extend the language compiler, and (4) develop a new static analysis. We instantiated each technique to enable checking X10 programs with JPF. We evaluated our new techniques on over 100 X10 example programs and found a substantial speedup.
Androgen and estrogen metabolism: relationship to obesity

Adipose tissue contains both aromatase and 17 beta-steroid dehydrogenase activity. Therefore, to see whether there was a relationship between obesity and certain parameters of androgen and estrogen metabolism we infused 88 women, mean age 51.1 +/- 0.3 years and mean weight 140 +/- 3 lbs, with 3H-testosterone (T)/14C-estradiol (E2) and 3H-androstenedione (A)/14C-estrone (E1) on separate occasions. Blood samples were obtained during the infusion and all urine was collected for 4 days following the start of the infusion. The blood samples were analyzed for radioactivity as A, T, E1, E2, and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and the urines were analyzed for radioactivity as E1 and E2. From these data we calculated the percent of A converted to T ([rho]A,TBB = percent of A infused measured as T in the blood), [rho]T,ABB [rho]E1,E2BB, and [rho]E2,E1BB. We also measured the ratio of radioactivity as 3H-DHT to radioactivity as 3H-A (CRA,DHT) and 3H-T (CRT,DHT) during the respective androgen infusions. From the ratio of 3H/14C as estrone or estradiol in the urine following 3H-A or 3H-T infusions, we calculated the percent of A or T that was aromatized to E1 or E2 ([rho]A,E1BM; [rho]T,E2BM). When the data from these women were related to weight or Quetelet's Index (QI = wt/ht2) by unweighted linear regression, the only values that were significantly correlated with weight and QI were [rho]T,E2BM and [rho]A,E1BM; for all other [rho] and CR values there was no correlation with weight or QI. We conclude that peripheral aromatization is positively correlated with adiposity but androgen interconversions and estrogen interconversions are not related to adiposity.
The peculiar impact of higher room rates on customers' propensity to book

Purpose – This study's goal is to examine how an intensified room rate signal affects customers' perceptions, their propensity to book, and consequently hotels' revenue maximization.Design/methodology/approach – Subjects were asked to assess quality, sellout risk and the likelihood of getting a better deal based on an advanced booking scenario, where the signal's intensity was manipulated through the level of uncertainty. Analysis was conducted using a GLM multivariate procedure and a polytomous universal model.Findings – The results suggest that high quoted rates might affect customers' perceptions, their propensity to book, and consequently the hotel's revenues. Surprisingly, the impact of the high room rate signal on the sellout risk perception reversed its direction with the intensified signal.Research limitations/implications – The results imply that the maximal achievable revenue levels reported in a previous theoretical study ought to be re‐calculated because the assumptions used were not supported...
Epochs of Chinese & Japanese Art, an Outline History of East Asiatic Design

The progression of Japanese and Chinese art is an important subject for anyone interested in the culture of this area. This book explains the genre's advancement over almost five thousand years. First published in 1912, this edition is a reprint of the revised edition of 1913.
Carinal and Proximal Pressures During Intratracheal Pulmonary Ventilation in an Artificial Lung and in Rabbits |[dagger]| 183

Introduction: Accurate measurement of airway pressures (Paw) are crucial during mechanical ventilation. Intratracheal pulmonary ventilation(ITPV) utilizes a reverse thruster device to deliver a continuous flow of gas at the level of the carina, thereby generating a different carinal Paw than conventional ventilation (CV). This study compares the proximal and carinal Paw during CV and ITPV, in both an artificial lung an in a rabbit model.
Reading performance and general cognitive ability: A multivariate genetic analysis of twin data.

Confirmatory factor analyses of three reading performance measures and full-scale Wechsler IQ data obtained from 146 pairs of twins of average or above average reading ability were conducted. A simple factor model which contained one general reading factor, three specific factors, and a single set of IQ loadings was employed to assess the extent to which phenotypic correlations among the reading measures are due to IQ. The significance of the general reading factor was determined by constraining its loadings to be zero and then computing a χ2 goodness of fit for the reduced model. The resultant change in χ22 of 114.09 (P 0.5), the removal of the genetic covariance component did (χ210 = 20.26, P < 0.05). Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses of the genetic and unique environmental covariance matrices indicated that the reading factor could not be removed from either matrix without causing a highly significant deterioration in fit. However, the similarity between the genetic and phenotypic factor loadings suggests that the phenotypic factor structure is largely genetic in origin.
Asthma due to Dust from Redwood: Sequoia sempervirens

An atopic patient with adult onset of asthma due to sawdust from redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is described. Specific late asthmatic reaction developed after challenge with inhalation of his own redwood sawdust. No subjective or objective immediate reactions were detected. Avoidance of exposure resulted in improvement. There were no pulmonary or systemic responses to challenge with inhalation of sawdust from pine wood.
How Ada 2005 impacts CS1/2

Ada 2005 is the second revision of the Ada standard. It makes changes to the language definition in a number of areas. We summarize which changes have the greatest impact on introductory computer science classes that use Ada.
The role and relevance of refocused inventory: Supply chain management solutions

Abstract Practitioners and academics continue to note that there is no shortage of inventory in many, if not most, supply chains. Rather, the historical notion holds true: the right product is not in the right place at the right time to meet demand. In order to impact supply chain performance positively, it is necessary to re-address inventory's role and relevance with respect to the development, maintenance, and control of product flows. This paper suggests that examining such flows from a three-fold perspective can be beneficial to firms by providing a framework to assess efforts to achieve lowest total cost and expected customer service.
The Quality Network Adverse-Event Benchmarking Project: a New Jersey Perspective

The New Jersey Home Care Association initiated and conducted a benchmarking project in collaboration with the New Jersey Hospital Association involving the examination of the Outcome and Assessment Information Set and Outcome Based Quality Improvement (OBQI) reports generated byhome health agencies. The purpose was to determine if statewide trends existed. The plan was flexible and dependent upon the data results, but the design of appropriate educational programs for member agencies prior to the onset of risk-adjusted reports and Medicare’s mandated benchmarking was anticipated. Although no clear trends were identified as a result of the survey, the project was an important first effort that offered direct experience with the process of outcomes measurement and helped to demonstrate the value of data analysis to all agencies. Because of the project, agencies recognized the need to become informed about, participate in, and prepare for the next steps of Medicare’s OBQI and Outcome Based Quality Monitoring.
A possible connection between categorical and coordinate spatial relation representations.

Kosslyn (1987) theorized that the visual system uses two types of spatial relations. Categorical spatial relations represent a range of locations as an equivalence class, whereas coordinate spatial relations represent the precise distance between two objects. Data indicate a left hemisphere (LH) advantage for processing categorical spatial relations and a right hemisphere (RH) advantage for processing coordinate spatial relations. Although generally assumed to be independent processes, this article proposes a possible connection between categorical and coordinate spatial relations. Specifically, categorical spatial relations may be an initial stage in the formation of coordinate spatial relations. Three experiments tested the hypothesis that categorical information would benefit tasks that required coordinate judgments. Experiments 1 and 2 presented categorical information before participants made coordinate judgments and coordinate information before participants made categorical judgments. Categorical information sped the processing of a coordinate task under a range of experimental variables; however, coordinate information did not benefit categorical judgments. Experiment 3 used this priming paradigm to present stimuli in the left or right visual field. Although visual field differences were present in the third experiment, categorical information did not speed the processing of a coordinate task. The lack of priming effects in Experiment 3 may have been due to methodological changes. In general, support is provided that categorical spatial relations may act as an initial step in the formation of more precise distance representations, i.e., coordinate spatial relations.
Intraluminal contrast enhancement and MR visualization of the bowel wall: efficacy of PFOB.

Efforts to develop satisfactory intraluminal gastrointestinal contrast agents for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging have focused on depicting only the bowel lumen to exclude possible involvement by a pathologic process. To determine whether the bowel wall can be adequately imaged with use of the contrast agent and whether bowel wall visualization is a better index of the utility of the contrast agent for MR imaging, perfluoroocytlbromide (PFOB) was studied in human subjects. Twenty consecutive patients referred for abdominal or pelvic MR imaging were selected. All patients were given 400-1,000 mL of PFOB orally. MR imaging was performed at 0.38 and 1.5 T with T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo pulse sequences before and after administration of PFOB. The images were graded independently by three blinded readers. All readers reported significantly superior conspicuity of the bowel lumen and wall after PFOB than before PFOB administration (P less than .002). Among the post-PFOB studies, those with superior bowel wall visualization demonstrated superior overall image quality. In three patients, lesions were optimally demonstrated because the relationship of the process to the bowel wall, rather than just to the lumen, was identified. In two patients, masses arising within the bowel wall could be identified prospectively only when the bowel wall was adequately imaged. The authors conclude that while lumen identification is improved with PFOB, its greatest clinical utility may be in facilitating intestinal wall visualization.
Closing the Gate: Part-Time Faculty Instruction in Gatekeeper Courses and First-Year Persistence

This chapter reports the results of a large study on the effects of part-time faculty on student persistence and sug- gests that administrators give careful consideration when trying to reduce expenses through the use of such faculty in large beginning courses. Closing the Gate: Part-Time Faculty Instruction in Gatekeeper Courses and First-Year Persistence M. Kevin Eagan Jr., Audrey J. Jaeger Calls for greater accountability in terms of graduation rates and increased economic efficiency among higher education institutions have prompted scholars to examine nontraditional factors that might help to explain the retention puzzle. Terenzini and Reason (2005) emphasize the critical impor- tance of examining factors that lead to first-year student attrition, as four- year institutions, on average, lose more than 25 percent of students by the start of the second year. Recently researchers have begun examining the ef- fects of exposure to part-time faculty on student outcomes (Bettinger and Long, 2006; Jacoby, 2006; Jaeger and Hinz, forthcoming; Jaeger, Thornton, and Eagan, 2007; Kerhberg and Turpin, 2002; Ronco and Cahill, 2006); how- ever, these studies do not specifically address the types of courses students take with part-time faculty. Research on student retention has given limited attention to the role that introductory, or gatekeeper, courses play in students’ decisions to remain enrolled at an institution. Gatekeeper courses refer to classes with high enrollment that generally represent the introductory courses required for matriculation into a major field of study (Tobias, 1992). In this chapter, we describe the employment of part-time faculty in four- year higher education institutions, as well as highlight research on the impor- tance of key gatekeeper courses. Informed by Bean’s model (1990) of student attrition, which posits that students leave higher education institutions because of a sense of dissatisfaction with their environment, our analyses N EW D IRECTIONS FOR T EACHING AND L EARNING , no. 115, Fall 2008 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) • DOI: 10.1002/tl.324
ACRIDINE ORANGE BINDING BY MICROCOCCUS LYSODEIKTICUS

Beers, Roland F., Jr. (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md). Acridine orange binding by Micrococcus lysodeikticus. J. Bacteriol. 88:1249–1256. 1964.—Micrococcus lysodeikticus cells bind acridine orange (AO) reversibly. The adsorption isotherm is consistent with a highly cooperative-type binding similar to that observed with polyadenylic acid. The cells exhibit a strong buffering action on the concentration of free AO which remains constant (1 μg/ml) over a range from 5 to 95% saturation of the cells by AO. The cells stain either fluorescent orange or green. The fraction stained orange is directly proportional to the quantity of dye adsorbed, indicating that these cells bind a fixed amount of AO (10% of dry weight). The green-stained cells contain less than 1% of the AO bound to orange-stained cells. The results suggest that the abrupt increase in amount of AO bound by the orange-stained cells occurs when the concentration of free AO reaches a threshold concentration. Similar results were obtained with Bacillus cereus. Mg increases the free AO concentration and the extent of binding capacity of the cells.
Kinematic design and commutation of a spherical stepper motor

This paper addresses the design and commutation of a novel kind of spherical stepper motor in which the poles of the stator are electromagnets and the poles of the rotor (rotating ball) are permanent magnets. Due to the fact that points on a sphere can only be arranged with equal spacing in a limited number of cases (corresponding to the Platonic solids), design of spherical stepper motors with fine rotational increments is fundamentally geometrical in nature. We address this problem and the related problem of how rotor and stator poles should be arranged in order to interact to cause motion. The resulting design has a much wider range of unhindered motion than other spherical stepper motor designs in the literature. We also address the problem of commutation, i.e., we determine the sequence of stator polarities in time that approximate a desired spherical motion.
PORTS: a parallel, optimistic, real-time simulator

This paper describes issues concerning the design of an optimistic parallel discrete event simulation system that executes in environments that impose real-time constraints on the simulator's execution. Two key problems must be addressed by such a system. First the timing characteristics of the parallel simulator must be sufficiently predictable to allow one to guarantee that real-time deadlines for completing simulation computations will be met. Second, the optimistic computation must be able to interact with its surrounding environment with as little latency as possible, necessitating rapid commitment of I/O operations.To address the first question, we show that optimistic simulators that never send incorrect messages (sometimes called “aggressive-no-risk” simulators) provide sufficient predictability to allow traditional schedulability analysis techniques commonly used in real-time systems to be applied. We show that incremental state saving techniques introduce sufficient unpredictability that they are not well-suited for real-time environments. We observe that the traditional “lowest timestamp first” scheduling policy used in many optimistic parallel simulation systems is an optimal (in the real-time sense) scheduling algorithm when event timestamps and real-time deadlines are the same. Finally, to address the question for rapid commitment of I/O operations, we utilize a continuous GVT computation scheme for shared-memory multiprocessors where a new value of GVT is computed after processing each event in the simulation.These ideas are incorporated in a parallel, optimistic, real-time simulation system called PORTS. Initial performance measurements of the shared-memory based PORTS system executing on a Kendall Square Research multiprocessor are presented. Initial performance results are encouraging, demonstrating that PORTS achieves performance approaching that of a conventional Time Warp system for the benchmark programs that were tested.
Burning Down the House A Berkeley Commune

Embodying change is never easy, especially when our history is often lost or overlooked. Performance allows us to reenact, reexperience, reclaim and bring those moments into the future. In 1973, a group of hippies moved into a beautiful house in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills. We didn’t know then that we would become a queer family that would endure many personal and political crises, including the AIDS epidemic and the destruction of our house in the great firestorm of 1991. Shifting through the ashes, stories emerge of the personal struggles and politics of the times that have much to offer us today, when we strive once again to do it differently. The following piece is an excerpt from the beginning of the play, which juxtaposes our early experiences with some of the more stark realities the fire would come to symbolize as the years progressed.
Geodesic Active Contour Based Fusion of Visible and Infrared Video for Persistent Object Tracking

Persistent object tracking in complex and adverse environments can be improved by fusing information from multiple sensors and sources. We present a new moving object detection and tracking system that robustly fuses infrared and visible video within a level set framework. We also introduce the concept of the flux tensor as a generalization of the 3D structure tensor for fast and reliable motion detection without eigen-decomposition. The infrared flux tensor provides a coarse segmentation that is less sensitive to illumination variations and shadows. The Beltrami color metric tensor is used to define a color edge stopping function that is fused with the infrared edge stopping function based on the grayscale structure tensor. The min fusion operator combines salient contours in either the visible or infrared video and drives the evolution of the multispectral geodesic active contour to refine the coarse initial flux tensor motion blobs. Multiple objects are tracked using correspondence graphs and a cluster trajectory analysis module that resolves incorrect merge events caused by under-segmentation of neighboring objects or partial and full occlusions. Long-term trajectories for object clusters are estimated using Kalman filtering and watershed segmentation. We have tested the persistent object tracking system for surveillance applications and demonstrate that fusion of visible and infrared video leads to significant improvements for occlusion handling and disambiguating clustered groups of objects
A Neural Method for Identifying Transmission Source Locations

In recent years, there has been great interest in node localization within low-power communication networks. These technologies include Bluetooth, GPS, IEEE 802.11, and other transmission protocols. Most techniques are based on variations in the RF signal-to-noise ratio, but this paper introduces a new method, which employs packet statistics. In this work, packet information was collected from several stationary clients while moving a portable server and access point. Packet statistics and the corresponding server locations were subsequently used to train neural networks. Our studies have shown that the networks can determine the location of additional transmitters based on the packet histories of the stationary clients.
Estimation with finite memory

A finite-state model for sequential minimum-mean-square-error estimation of a random variable in additive noise is analyzed to determine the dependence of optimum performance and structure on the memory size of the estimator. Necessary conditions for determining the structure of the optimum finite-state estimator are derived for arbitrary statistics. Numerical results are presented for Gaussian statistics. The performance of several different estimators is used to show the trade-off one may obtain between memory size, observation quality, and number of observations.
Gene Profiling of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Astrocyte Progenitors Following Spinal Cord Engraftment

The generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) represents an exciting advancement with promise for stem cell transplantation therapies as well as for neurological disease modeling. Based on the emerging roles for astrocytes in neurological disorders, we investigated whether hiPSC-derived astrocyte progenitors could be engrafted to the rodent spinal cord and how the characteristics of these cells changed between in vitro culture and after transplantation to the in vivo spinal cord environment. Our results show that human embryonic stem cell- and hiPSC-derived astrocyte progenitors survive long-term after spinal cord engraftment and differentiate to astrocytes in vivo with few cells from other lineages present. Gene profiling of the transplanted cells demonstrates the astrocyte progenitors continue to mature in vivo and upregulate a variety of astrocyte-specific genes. Given this mature astrocyte gene profile, this work highlights hiPSCs as a tool to investigate disease-related astrocyte biology using in vivo disease modeling with significant implications for human neurological diseases currently lacking animal models.
Compact microstrip antennas on a high relative dielectric constant substrate at 60 GHz

A high relative dielectric constant substrate has been combined with a slot-loading technique to reduce antenna size. Further, the slot-loading technique has been used in an array configuration to increase the bandwidth by exciting each element at a different resonant frequency. This method results in almost a 30% decrease in size and 1.5% increase in bandwidth. Two 2×1 antenna arrays are demonstrated with a total area less than 2.5mm2.
Extending a Secure System Development Methodology to SOA

The design of secure service-oriented architectures presents a new set of challenges for the designer. While security standards do provide some solutions, a secure system is one in which security is built in right from the start, not after a design approach has been decided. We have presented a methodology to build secure systems using patterns. We extend it now to service-oriented analysis and design, adapting the use of a tree with architectural decisions to include also security decisions. This decision tree makes architectural knowledge explicit and reusable and has value on its own right, independent of SOA and our methodology.
RATIONALITY, PRICE RISK, AND RESPONSE

ducers is increased. Risk has long been recognized as potentially The purpose of this paper is to develop a important in determining agricultural supply. conceptual framework for incorporating a However, supply response models have either price risk variable into a rational expectations incorporated risk in an ad hoc manner or not model of supply response. The model is an at all. A rational expectations supply response improvement over previous rational expectamodel incorporating price risk is developed, tions models of supply response because it an estimation procedure suggested, and an does not disregard the second moment empirical example presented. (variance) of expected price. This approach represents a break with the Muthian reliance means for ignoring higher moments of the exTe role of risk iproduer deisionm- pectation (Sheffrin, pp. 10-11). Thus, the I he role of isk in producer decision mak- model allows the variability of an expectation ing has been recognized as a potentially to be reflected in supply response. When deciimportant determinant of production. Sandmo sion makers are risk adverse, this behavior has shown that competitive risk-averse firms will be evidenced by observed input allocaproduce a smaller output under price uncer- tions that are smaller than those implied by tainty than under the assumption of price cer- equating factor prices to marginal value prodtainty and that the higher the overall level of ucts. Additionally, by using a rational exrisk, ceteris paribus, the smaller the output. pectations framework, expectations are no Batra and Ullah have shown that an increase longer formed in an ad hoc manner as in in price risk leads to a decline in the firm's out- earlier risk models. The measure of price risk put in the case of decreasing absolute risk developed in the paper is based on the aversion. variability of the expectations error, and it is If producers are assumed rational and risk closer to the theoretical concept of price risk averse, they should consider not only ex- than measures used in previous studies. An pected output prices and yields when allocat- estimation procedure is illustrated with an ing resources, but also expected variability in empirical example based on sub-regional U.S. output prices and yields. The extent to which watermelon data. price and yield risks do in fact affect producer decisions is an empirical question. Given the