cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Commentary on Jack Lyons's Perception and Basic Beliefs

This book deserves kudos. It presents one of the more novel versions of reliabilism to appear in recent years. The style is fast-paced and energetic, with no sacrifice in philosophical precision. It applies original interpretations of perceptual science to central issues in traditional epistemology, and should thereby earn itself a prominent place in the naturalistic epistemology literature. Finally, the book is more comprehensive than its title suggests. It illuminates a great many issues of traditional epistemology beyond perception, providing an up-to-date and thoroughgoing basic epistemology. A chief aim of the book is to develop a new and improved version of process reliabilism. In particular, Lyons concentrates on a certain class of objections to early process reliabilism (Goldman 1979), objections to the effect that the proposed conditions are insufficient for justifiedness. The two main counterexamples intended to demonstrate this non-sufficiency are BonJour's (1985) clairvoyance example(s) and Lehrer' s (1990) Truetemp example. Most people have the intuition that the protagonists in these examples do not have justified belief or knowledge, although the process used to acquire their belief is, by stipulation, completely reliable. A good chunk of Lyons's effort is devoted to re-shaping reliabilism so as to handle such cases better.1 In working toward such a re-shaping, Lyons's principal strategy is to make the basic/non-basic distinction, familiar from traditional (especially foundationalist) epistemology, an integral part of reliabilism. Neither early process reliabilism nor other versions of reliabilism assigns a central role to basicality. But Lyons treats basicality as a pivotal concept for working through certain counterexamples to
Mass loss from red giants - A simple evolutionary model for NGC 7027

NGC 7027 is a young planetary nebula with the remnants of a red giant circumstellar envelope surrounding the central, ionized region. By comparing the outer molecular envelope with the inner ionized material, it is argued that the mass loss rate has decreased by at least a factor of 3, and more probably by about a factor of 10, during the past 1000 years. From this result, it is argued that the luminosity of the central star has also decreased substantially during the same time, consistent with models for the rapid evolution of stars just after they evolve off the asymptotic giant branch. In this picture, the distance to NGC 7027 is less than 1300 pc. NGC 7027 was the last (and best) example of a star where apparently the momentum in the outflowing mass /M(dot)v/ is considerably greater than the momentum in the radiation field (L/c). With the above description of this object, the evidence is now strong that quite often the mass lost from late-type giants is ultimately driven to infinity by radiation pressure on grains. If M(dot)v is as large as L/c for asymptotic branch stars, then it is expected that the total amount of mass lost during this stage of evolution is of the same magnitude as the initial mass of the star, and therefore this mass loss can profoundly affect the star's ultimate fate.
Echocardiographic detection of pericardiocentesis-induced subepicardial and intramyocardial hematoma

Abstract Pericardiocentesis has been widely used to relieve significant pericardial effusion and, in most cases, can be performed safely and without complications. We describe a rare complication of pericardiocentesis not previously reported in a pediatric patient. The crucial role of 2-dimensional echocardiography in the detection of this rare complication is illustrated.
The effect of water vapor and bulk temperature on positive ion emission from wide bandgap single crystals during exposure to 248 nm excimer laser radiation

We investigate the effect of low partial pressures of water vapor and bulk temperature on laser-induced positive ion emission from cleaved, single-crystal sodium nitrate and sodium chloride. Both materials yield more intense Na þ emission in the presence of water vapor ðPH2O � 1 � 10 � 5 PaÞ than samples irradiated under UHV conditions (Ptotal < 1 � 10 � 7 Pa). Emission intensities increase rapidly with increasing temperature in a fashion consistent with activation energies on the order of 0.07–0.08 eV, both with and without water vapor. We attribute Na þ emission to a defect-mediated photoelectronic process. Na þ adsorbed at or near surface anion vacancies (electron traps) is ejected when the underlying or adjacent vacancy is photoionized. Vacancy formation in both materials is expected to have activation energies on the order of 0.08 eV, suggesting that Na þ emission is rate limited by the production of surface anion vacancies. We attribute the effect of water vapor to defect-mediated sorption that increases the ion emission probability. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Withdrawal from chronic phencyclidine produces a pentylenetetrazol-like discriminative stimulus

Rats trained to discriminate the anxiogenic compound pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) from water were implanted with osmotic mini-pumps containing 7 mg/kg/day phencyclidine (PCP) or water. Rats were tested for generalization to PTZ 24 hours prior to pump removal, and 4 to 96 hours after pump removal. While the pumps were in place, rats did not generalize to PTZ. When the pumps were removed on day 10, rats in the water group did not generalize to PTZ, but 69% of the rats in the chronic PCP group responded on the PTZ lever at 4 and/or 24 hours after pump removal, suggesting that the PCP withdrawal state mimics the interoceptive cue produced by PTZ. This withdrawal phenomenon was repeatable, in that rats that generalized once to PTZ during PCP withdrawal, generalized a second time when the procedure was repeated. In addition, the phenomenon was dose-dependent, as rats that did not generalize to PTZ after 7 mg/kg/day PCP did generalize when the chronic dose of PCP was increased to 10 mg/kg/day. These findings suggest that there is an anxiogenic component of PCP withdrawal and that tolerance does not develop to this effect.
The local redistribution of points along curves for numerical grid generation

A methodology is established to cluster points along curves in a manner which does not change the existing pointwise distribution outside of a specified region containing the cluster. In each instance, points are pulled from the perimeters of the region towards the cluster center. The result is a smooth expansion form each end followed by a compression into the center. Altogether, this represents a local redistribution of points which can be employed either interactively or automatically.
The electrification of snowstorms and sandstorms

An analysis is made of available observations on the electrical properties of natural and artificial snowstorms. an explanation for this electrification is given in terms of a theory of charge transfer associated with temperature gradients in ice, which has been shown earlier to provide a tenable theory of thunderstorm electrification. Further analysis shows that sandstorms exhibit similar electrical effects to those of snowstorms, and it is suggested that the temperature gradient effect may provide an explanation for sandstorm electrification.
High pulse-energy atmospheric aerosol lidar at 1.5-microns wavelength: Opportunities for innovation from a meteorologist's perspective

Laser and optical engineering challenges and recent progress in the area of high pulse-energy direct-detection atmospheric lidar near 1.5 microns wavelength are described.
A critical review of in vitro dosimetry for engineered nanomaterials

A major obstacle in the development of accurate cellular models for investigating nanobio interactions in vitro is determination of physiologically relevant measures of dose. Comparison of biological responses to nanoparticle exposure typically relies on administered dose metrics such as mass concentration of suspended particles, rather than the effective dose of particles that actually comes in contact with the cells over the time of exposure. Adoption of recently developed dosimetric methodologies will facilitate determination of effective dose delivered to cells in vitro, thereby improving the accuracy and reliability of in vitro screening data, validation of in vitro with in vivo data, and comparison across multiple datasets for the large variety of nanomaterials currently in the market.
Cardiac allograft hypertrophy is associated with impaired exercise tolerance after heart transplantation

Background Exercise performance, an important aspect of quality of life, remains limited after heart transplantation (HTx). This study examines the effect of cardiac allograft remodeling on functional capacity after HTx. Methods The total cohort of 117 HTx recipients, based on echocardiographic determination of left ventricle mass and relative wall thickness at 1 year after HTx, was divided into 3 groups: (1) NG, normal geometry; (2) CR, concentric remodeling; and (3) CH, concentric hypertrophy. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing was performed 5.03 ± 3.08 years after HTx in all patients. Patients with acute rejection or significant graft vasculopathy were excluded. Results At 1 year post-HTx, 30% of patients had CH, 55% had CR and 15% had NG. Exercise tolerance, measured by maximum achieved metabolic equivalents (4.62 ± 1.44 vs 5.52 ± 0.96 kcal/kg/h), normalized peak Vo 2 (52 ± 14% vs 63 ± 12%) and Ve/Vco 2 (41 ± 17 vs 34 ± 6), was impaired in the CH group compared with the NG group. A peak Vo 2 ≤14 ml/kg/min was found in 6%, 22% and 48% of patients in the NG, CR and CH groups, respectively ( p = 0.01). The CH pattern was associated with a 7.4-fold increase in relative risk for a peak Vo 2 ≤14 ml/kg/min compared with NG patients (95% confidence interval 1.1 to 51.9, p = 0.001). After multivariate analysis, a 1-year CH pattern was independently associated with a reduced normalized peak Vo 2 ( p = 0.018) and an elevated Ve/Vco 2 ( p = 0.035). Conclusions The presence of CH at 1 year after HTx is independently associated with decreased normalized peak Vo 2 and increased ventilatory response in stable heart transplant recipients. The identification of CH, a potentially reversible mechanism of impairment in exercise capacity after HTx, may have major clinical implications.
Recognizing multi-agent activities from GPS data

Recent research has shown that surprisingly rich models of human behavior can be learned from GPS (positional) data. However, most research to date has concentrated on modeling single individuals or aggregate statistical properties of groups of people. Given noisy real-world GPS data, we—in contrast—consider the problem of modeling and recognizing activities that involve multiple related individuals playing a variety of roles. Our test domain is the game of capture the flag—an outdoor game that involves many distinct cooperative and competitive joint activities. We model the domain using Markov logic, a statistical relational language, and learn a theory that jointly denoises the data and infers occurrences of high-level activities, such as capturing a player. Our model combines constraints imposed by the geometry of the game area, the motion model of the players, and by the rules and dynamics of the game in a probabilistically and logically sound fashion. We show that while it may be impossible to directly detect a multi-agent activity due to sensor noise or malfunction, the occurrence of the activity can still be inferred by considering both its impact on the future behaviors of the people involved as well as the events that could have preceded it. We compare our unified approach with three alternatives (both probabilistic and nonprobabilistic) where either the denoising of the GPS data and the detection of the high-level activities are strictly separated, or the states of the players are not considered, or both. We show that the unified approach with the time window spanning the entire game, although more computationally costly, is significantly more accurate.
Fermi contour anisotropy of GaAs electron-flux composite fermions in parallel magnetic fields

In high-quality two-dimensional electrons confined to GaAs quantum wells, near Landau level filling factors $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$ and 1/4, we observe signatures of the commensurability of the electron-flux composite fermion cyclotron orbits with a unidirectional periodic density modulation. Focusing on the data near $\ensuremath{\nu}=1/2$, we directly and quantitatively probe the shape of the composite fermions' cyclotron orbit, and therefore their Fermi contour, as a function of magnetic field (${B}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$) applied parallel to the sample plane. The composite fermion Fermi contour becomes severely distorted with increasing ${B}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ and appears to be elliptical, in sharp contrast to the electron Fermi contour which splits as the system becomes bilayerlike at high ${B}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$. We present a simple, qualitative model to interpret our findings.
Heisenberg model with long range interaction

Abstract The functional Integral method as used by Siegert in his study of the Ising Model with long range interaction, is generalized and applied to the Heisenberg model. Above the Bragg-Williams Curie point, the functional integral expression for the partition function is evaluated by a saddle point approximation. This gives us an expansion in powers of the reciprocal range of the interaction which is essentially identical with the Ising Model result, in agreement with Brout who used a ring summation approximation. The expansion is not valid through the Curie point, and in its present form, our method seems to be incapable of giving spin waves.
Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) seedings in Western Colorado: What can we learn?

Non-native species have been widely transported, becoming components of ecosystems worldwide. In some cases this can change the structure and function of an ecosystem. Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum, Agropyron spp.) was introduced into the Western U.S. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Since introduction, it has been planted in western rangelands currently occupying millions of acres. Crested wheatgrass causes significant changes in areas where it dominates the vegetation, and restoring rangelands planted with crested wheatgrass to higher plant diversity and ecosystem function has been met with limited success. Here we revisit historical frequency monitoring data collected in western Colorado on public lands that were planted with crested wheatgrass between 1940 and 1980. We also monitored vegetation before and after mechanical treatment (removal of vegetation with the use of a dixie harrow pulled behind a tractor) and re-seeding of desirable species in three areas dominated by crested wheatgrass. We looked for increasing or decreasing trends in plant species, and for plant species that persist with crested wheatgrass. We found that crested wheatgrass increased significantly (p=0.09) over time, we also found five species of grasses, two shrub species, and one forb species that were persistent in areas planted with crested wheatgrass. We found that in mechanically treated areas, the only significant trend was a reduction of native grasses (p<0.05). Our findings suggest that in areas planted with crested wheatgrass, frequency of crested wheatgrass can increase over time. Further, mechanical treatments coupled with seeding were not effective at reducing crested wheatgrass cover, or at increasing native and desirable species. These sites may have experienced a shift to a stable state.
Environmental News Coverage of the Earth Summit by Brazilian Newspapers

This article examines how two important Brazilian newspapers (Floha de S. Paulo and O Globo) covered the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) or Earth Summit. The analysis will also determine the characteristics of the environmental media and its significance when it comes to coverage of environmental issues. This article provides historical background information on the environmental media in the US and in Brazil contextual information on the Earth Summit a content analysis of stories about UNCED published by the two Brazilian newspapers. Overall 649 news items were used to determine the type of sources used as well as the kind of issues covered. The analysis showed that government officials were the most frequently cited sources while environmentalists and scientists were all but ignored as news sources. The analysis also indicated that economic issues were surprisingly prominent in the coverage. These results are compatible with the previous studies done in several countries and indicate that environmental media are still extremely reliant on "official" voices. The finding also highlight the fact that the range of issues covered by the environmental media largely reflects the perceived public agenda.
Review Article Remotely-sensed tracers for hydrodynamic surface flow estimation

Abstract Research results concerning tracers useful for estimating hydrodynamic surface flow are reported. Tracer characteristics analysed include spectral signatures, mapping transformations, sensor penetration depths, conservativeness and horizontal variability. Fluorescent dye is limited in usefulness to small area Lagrangean drift estimates. Suspended sediments and salinity are limited to single-date descriptive and Lagrangean drift estimates for estuarine and adjacent coastal waters. Chlorophyll pigments and surface temperature are the most ubiquitous properties and hold the most potential to be useful tracers. This is particularly the case for coarse- to meso-scale circulation of coastal ocean waters. Potential drawbacks of chlorophyll and surface temperatures as tracers must be overcome prior to their successful application for flow estimations by (1) compensating for non-conservative sources/sinks; (2) achieving imaging precision sufficient to resolve tracer levels at smaller space scale; and (3) ...
Structural, optical and electrical properties of the novel semiconductor alloy ZnOxTe(1-x)

Epitaxial films of undoped ZnOxTe(1-x) have been prepared on double-side polished c-axis oriented sapphire substrates with pulsed laser deposition. The method of epitaxial growth is expected to have the same domain matching epitaxial relationship with sapphire as does pure ZnO, where six lattice planes of ZnOxTe(1-x) match with seven lattice planes of sapphire [1,2]. High quality, single crystal, epitaxial alloys with around 4% Te have been grown that demonstrate excellent optical properties and a pronounced, sharp excitonic peak, in optical transmission. The incorporation of Te makes the compound more covalent, and less ionic than pure ZnO. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) demonstrates single-crystal growth with a sharp interface. The low-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of ZnOxTe(1-x) films is almost indistinguishable from those of pure ZnO, except a usually diminished intensity of the (0004) peak. The incorporation of Te in ZnO was verified by a shift in excitonic peak position in absorption, and through a shift in cathodoluminescence (CL) peak. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data verifies incorporation of telluride chemical state of tellurium atoms. Rutherford backscattering/channeling (RBS/C) confirmed crystal quality for the pure ZnO films. Hot-point probe measurements indicate as-grown, undoped films to be somewhat higher in resistivity than pure ZnO with inconclusive carrier type, as compared to the naturally n-type ZnO. This may be a consequence of the more covalent bonding between Zn and Te and suggests a possible strategy for p-type doping.
Gauging the impact of study abroad: how to overcome the limitations of a single‐cell design

Criterion and construct validation analyses support the use of both retrospective questions in lieu of a pretest and a methodological innovation to compensate for the absence of a control group in a program evaluation that calls for an unavailable experimental design. The findings obtained with this method present evidence that study abroad programs have a very positive impact on US university students.
Restoration of controllable hysteresis in partially depleted SOI CMOS Schmitt trigger circuits

This paper presents a new circuit technique to alleviate the uncontrollable floating-body-induced hysteretic component present in the transfer characteristics of voltage-mode CMOS Schmitt trigger circuits in a partially depleted silicon-on-insulator technology. This technique integrates a successive switching threshold shift mechanism with the systematic body contact scheme, resulting in improved noise immunity and well-defined hysteresis behavior for the Schmitt trigger circuit that is suitable for use as a low-noise receiver, level shifter, waveform-reshaping circuit, and delay element in very large-scale integrated applications.
Low-loss optical waveguides for the near ultra-violet and visible spectral regions with Al2O3 thin films from atomic layer deposition

article i nfo In this work, we report low-loss single-mode integrated optical waveguides in the near ultra-violet and visible spectral regions with aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. Alumina films were deposited on glass and fused silica substrates by the ALD process at substrate/chamber temperatures of 200 °C and 300 °C. Transmission spectra and waveguide measurements were performed in our alumina films with thicknesses in the range of 210-380 nm for the optical characterization. Those measurements allowed us to determine the optical constants (nw and kw), propagation loss, and thickness of the alumina films. The experimental results from the applied techniques show good agreement and demonstrate a low-loss optical waveguide. Our alumina thin-film waveguides are well transparent in the whole visible spectral region and also in an important region of the UV; the measured propagation loss is below 4 dB/cm down to a wavelength as short as 250 nm. The low propagation loss of these alumina guiding films, in particular in the near ultra-violet region which lacks materials with high optical performance, is extremely useful for several integrated optic applications.
Abnormal Rotational Knee Motion During Running After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Background: The effectiveness of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction for restoring normal knee kinematics is largely unknown, particularly during sports movements generating large, rapidly applied forces.Hypothesis: Under dynamic in vivo loading, significant differences in 3-dimensional kinematics exist between anterior cruciate ligament-reconstructed knees and the contralateral, uninjured knees.Study Design: Prospective, in vivo laboratory study.Methods: Kinematics of anterior cruciate ligament-reconstructed and contralateral (uninjured) knees were evaluated for 6 subjects during downhill running 4 to 12 months after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, using a 250 frame/s stereoradiographic system. Anatomical reference axes were determined from computed tomography scans. Kinematic differences between the uninjured and reconstructed limbs were evaluated with a repeated-measures analysis of variance.Results: Anterior tibial translation was similar for the reconstructed and uninjured limbs. How...
Test generation for synchronous sequential circuits based on fault extraction

The authors describe an efficient procedure for translating stuck-at faults in a gate level implementation into state-table faults in a state-table description of the circuit. Based on this fault procedure, a test generation approach is presented for stuck-at faults, which results in short test sequences and achieves complete coverage of stuck-at faults. Experimental results are given for both MCNC and ISCAS-89 benchmark circuits, to demonstrate the applicability of the method. >
Balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty in a child with Ebstein's anomaly and valvar pulmonary stenosis

We performed a balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty in a child with Ebstein's anomaly using the standard technique. The procedure reportedly has not been performed in the face of this defect and, although difficult, was safely and successfully accomplished. In patients with Ebstein's anomaly and right ventricular outflow obstruction compounded by pulmonary valve stenosis, application of this technique may delay the need for surgical intervention.
Teachers' Beliefs About Co-Teaching

The proliferation of inclusion in public schools has prompted the development of several models of collaborative instruction. In response to that trend, this study provides some relevant information about the current state of practice from the perspective of essential stakeholders: the collaborating teachers. This investigation focused primarily on important factors affecting collaborative teaching, including effective strategies that were both valued and used, important teacher preparations, and valued school-based supports. Information relative to these issues was gathered by using the Perceptions of Co-Teaching Survey, an instrument developed by the author. A number of survey respondents were selected randomly to participate in a semistructured interview. Of the 139 participants who returned the completed survey, 92 represented intact collaborative teaching partners. From this respondent pool, 12 co-teachers were interviewed. Based on the most significant findings of the study, two conclusions were pos...
Assessing Undergraduate Business Degree Outcomes: A Comparison Of Two Universities

The importance of outcomes assessment has produced innovative course developments and resulted in enhanced Capstone educational experiences for undergraduate students at both universities. This collaborative paper compares the evolution and outcomes assessment of the Capstone business course as a fundamental component of the business curriculum, discusses initiatives to provide even greater educational opportunities for students, assessing effectively over the continuum, and keeping the courses current to the university and business environments.
Analysis of Moderately Thick Shells of Revolution

Using plausible transverse distributions of stress and a functional distinction between the differential transverse shears, a new method is presented for analysis of moderately thick arbitrary shells of revolution. The equations, obtained by a variational procedure, are written as a mixed first-order system for numerical integration. Sample results from two examples are included in the paper.
Carbapenem susceptibility breakpoints, clinical implications with the moving target

Carbapenems are primary agents used to treat a variety of Gram-negative multi-drug resistant infections. In parallel with increasing use, increasing resistance to carbapenem agents has manifested as increased minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). To attempt to improve clinical outcomes with carbapenems, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute and the Food Drug Administration decreased susceptibility breakpoints. The European equivalent expert committee, the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, also utilizes lower MIC susceptibility breakpoints. This review focuses on the rationale for recent breakpoint changes and the associated clinical outcomes for patients treated with carbapenems for infections with varying MICs proximal to the breakpoint. Supporting pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics that underpin the breakpoints are also reviewed.
Numerical experiments on planetary meridional temperature gradients contrary to radiational forcing

The existence of the phenomenon that the temperature in certain layers of the earth's atmosphere is higher at the pole than at the equator is considered as a general problem in planetary fluid dynamics. In a highly simplified model the solution of the problem depends upon a group of non-dimensional parameters. Taking the parameters of the earth's atmosphere as an example, numerical experiments were performed to study the nature of such a meridional counterradiational-heating temperature gradient and the dependence of it on the vertical variation of meridional differential radiation. Some general inferences were drawn from the experiments.
Effect of Cysteine and Pyridoxine on Taurine Excretion of Male Rats.

SummaryFeeding cysteine alone or with pyridoxine greatly increased urinary excretion of taurine in young or adult rats fed adequate amounts of pyridoxine. In Vit. B6-deficient young rats, these treatments caused only a slight increase in taurine excretion. The results indicated that the relative increase in urinary excretion of taurine after an oral dose of cysteine or cysteine and pyridoxine might be used as an index of Vit. B6 nutrition.
Characterization of developing antler cartilage matrix. I. Selected histochemical and enzymatic assessment.

Biopsy samples of the main beams and tines were obtained from the antlers of mature Rocky Mountain mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) during the rapid phase of the antler growth cycle. The samples were studied using histochemical and enzymatic techniques for the demonstration of mucosubstances. The reserve mesenchyme contained chondroitin 4- and 6-sulfates, hyaluronic acid and sialic acid. During prechondroblastic and chondroblastic differentiation, some strongly sulfated mucopolysaccharides were complemented by low molecular weight or incompletely sulfated chondroitin 4- and 6-sulfates. During maturation of the cartilage strongly anionic mucopolysaccharides (possibly heparin, keratan and/or dermatan sulfates) were present in the general matrix and especially prominent along the capsular margins. Calcification foci, beginning initially in the mid-trabecular regions and eventually extending to the trabecular margins, were highly reactive for mucosubstances and were enzyme-resistant. This histochemical study establishes the cartilaginous nature of the developing deer antler, defines some of the mucosubstance constituents involved in the chondrogenic and calcification process, and confirms the utility of the antler as a model for chondrogenic and calcification studies.
Effective cardiac drugs.

Physicians must keep well abreast of current developments in drug therapy to provide adequate and proper treatment of cardiac conditions. From his own experience, the author reviews the use of digitalis, rhythm-regulatory drugs, coronary dilators, cardiac stimulants, diuretics, antihypertensive agents and anticoagulants. He cautions that older therapeutic agents should not be discarded until the newer ones have been proved effective.
Infection and neuroarthropathy: the utility of C-reactive protein as a screening tool in the Charcot foot.

BACKGROUND C-reactive protein is an acute-phase reactant used for the detection of inflammatory changes associated with infection and tissue necrosis. It may be helpful in determining the presence or absence of infection associated with Charcot's neuroarthropathy. METHODS In this study, C-reactive protein concentration was measured in seven patients with clinical features suggestive of an active Charcot joint. The patients were then followed up clinically and radiographically to determine whether infection was present. RESULTS In all seven patients, the C-reactive protein level was not suggestive of infection, and none of the patients progressed to a diagnosis of infection. CONCLUSION C-reactive protein may be useful as a screening test for the presence or absence of infection in patients with active neuroarthropathic osteolysis.
Rapid determination of glycogen and sugars in mosquitoes

A method is presented for rapid determination of glycogen and sugars in individual mosquitoes. It is suitable for large scale field studies of correlations between nutritional status and behavior. The method also describes a one step procedure for total carbohydrates and the determination of nectar sugars and the hemolymph sugar trehalose.
Nutrition Recommendations in Pregnancy and Lactation

The nutritional status of a woman during pregnancy and lactation is not only critical for her health but for future generations. Although a nutritionist or registered dietitian can help facilitate dietary counseling and interventions, physicians also need to be cognizant of nutritional needs during pregnancy because they differ significantly compared with nonpregnant populations. Furthermore, an individualized approach to nutritional counseling that considers a woman's nutritional status and body mass index is recommended.
Data Transformations in Regression Analysis with Applications to Stock—Recruitment Relationships

We propose a methodology for fitting theoretical models to data. The dependent variable (or response) and the model are transformed in the same way. Two types of transformations, power transformation and weighting, are used together to remove skewness and to induce constant variance. Our method is applied to the stock-recruitment data of four fish stocks. Also discussed are estimates of the conditional mean and the conditional quantiles of the original response.
Alcohol Effects on the Dorsal Striatum

The dorsal striatum is involved in action learning/selection. Distinguishable forms of action learning, goal-directed and habitual learning, are mediated by medial and lateral subdivisions of the dorsal striatum, respectively. Data from several studies now support the emerging picture that alcohol remodels dorsal striatal macro- and microcircuitry to promote the expression of habitual action strategies. In this chapter, we review known alcohol effects on the various synapse and cell types of the dorsal striatum and synthesize this work with what is known about alcohol’s influence on striatal-mediated behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of how alcohol action on dorsal striatum physiology may foster compulsive drinking, a hallmark of alcoholism.
You can trust me: a multimethod analysis of the Nigerian email scam

How do scammers invoke trust within the Nigerian email scam and how do recipients interpret such trust-laden offers? Rather than view the email content as static, this article suggests that the emails strategically appeal to trust as a means to enhance susceptibility. Content analysis of over a half-million scam emails reveals that references to trust language are most common in larger award claims and those claiming to be from Africa. However, experimental evidence suggests that trust language within scam letters has minimal influence on respondents’ perceptions of the letter. This analysis expands our understanding of the psychology behind the scam letter format and suggests means to further combat email fraud.
Decomposition of Methyl Formate over Supported Pd Catalysts

Methyl formate (MF) is used as alternative carbonylating agent in many organic transformations. The current study investigates nature of decomposition of MF over Pd catalysts on different support of varying physicochemical properties. Palladium catalysts with 1 and 5 wt% supported on Mg, and 5 wt% on γ-Al2O3 and α-Al2O3 were synthesized by wetness impregnation and their catalytic activities for MF decomposition were examined. MgO supported Pd with 1 wt% showed maximum MF conversion of about 40 mol% and produced predominantly carbon monoxide (CO) and methanol (MeOH) in the molar ratio of 1:1.2 at 150 °C, 1 atm. However, 5 wt% Pd/MgO catalysts showed decrease in the MF conversion to 33 mol% producing CO/MeOH in the ratio of 1:1. Catalysts with 5 wt% Pd supported on γ-Al2O3 and α-Al2O3 showed lower MF conversion compared to the Pd supported on MgO. Dimethyl ether (DME) was produced as the main by-product on Pd/γ-Al2O3 apart from CO and MeOH and it is attributed to dehydration of methanol on the acidic sites of the support. Higher MF conversion on Pd/MgO catalysts is mainly attributed to the support-metal interactions which are significant in case of Pd–MgO in addition to higher Pd dispersion with 1 wt% Pd on MgO. These results suggest that the presence of Pd over basic supports can be used to produce CO at lower temperatures; hence they may be used as a source of CO for carbonylation reactions at low pressures.
The research-based balance in early childhood mathematics: A response to Common Core criticisms

Abstract We address common criticisms of the Common Core State Standards—Mathematics, evaluating them based on comprehensive reviews of existing documentation and research to better ground future debates and to ameliorate negative effects of possible misconceptions or misinterpretations. The four main criticisms follow. (1) No one who helped develop the standards had any expertise in the education of young children. (2.) The CCSSM dictates scripted curricula and didactic instruction rigidly applied to all children at the same pace. (3.) The standards emphasize academic skills and leave no time for play, exploratory approaches, or social-emotional development. (4.) The standards are too early and therefore developmentally inappropriate for children in the early grades. We conclude that these criticisms are not valid, and that, given the importance of mathematics to academic success in all subjects, all children need and deserve to build a robust knowledge of mathematics in their earliest years and can do so if we use the research knowledge and research-based standards and programs presently available. We summarize and exemplify the research-based balanced approach to teaching based on learning trajectories that can provide guidance for engaging and developmentally appropriate mathematical experiences that have been demonstrated to help all children learn to high standards.
Electrical-Spin Transduction for CMOS-Spintronic Interface and Long-Range Interconnects

We propose circuits for efficient transduction between electrical and spin signals and compare designs for long-range spintronic interconnects based on transducers and repeaters. This paper analytically analyzes the performance of spintronic all-spin logic (ASL) interconnects in terms of delay, area overhead, and energy dissipation, and validates the analysis by numerical simulations. The results of simulations show that compared to ASL repeaters, the proposed transducer-based interconnect achieves 5 ${\times }$ shorter delay, 19 ${\times }$ lower energy dissipation per bit per length, and a 9 ${\times }$ smaller area-delay-power product for a 4 $\mu \text{m}$ long interconnect. We show that the proposed interconnect can operate under supply voltage values ranging from 300 to 950 mV and tunnel magnetoresistance values ranging from 131% to 450%.
Restoration of/Natural Ecosystems on Surface Coal Mine Lands in the Northeastern United States

Abstract Surface mining currently accounts for 50 percent of the coal mined in the United States and will probably increase in the future because of the lower operating cost and increased production/man-day when compared with deep mining. In the past, reclamation of these sites consisted of partial regrading and planting of grasses and trees, often with only partial success. These past as well as current reclamation practices did not adequately restore natural vegetative communities and, for the most part, lacked the diverse plant communities that existed on the sites prior to mining. Of the 66 species of grasses, legumes and forbs currently recommended for reclamation, only 6 are native to the northeastern United States, whereas 44 of the 52 trees and 14 of the 31 shrub species are native to the region. Natural succession is essential to the development of diverse and stable flora and fauna communities on these lands. The restoration of natural ecosystem cannot be accomplished without restoring the organic and moisture retention as well as the microflora of the spoil since these components are essential to restoration of natural grassland and forested ecosystems.
Theoretical Investigations into Defected Graphene for Electrochemical Reduction of CO2

Despite numerous experimental efforts that have been dedicated to studying carbon-based materials for electrochemical reduction of CO2, a rationalization of the associated trends in the intrinsic activity of different active motifs has so far been elusive. In the present work, we employ density functional theory calculations to examine a variety of different active sites in N-doped graphene to give a comprehensive outline of the trends in activity. We find that adsorption energies of COOH* and CO* do not follow the linear scaling relationships observed for the pure transition metals, and this unique scaling is rationalized through differences in electronic structure between transition metals and defected graphene. This finding rationalizes most of the experimental observations on the carbon-based materials which present promising catalysts for the two-electron reduction of CO2 to CO. With this simple thermodynamic analysis, we identify several active sites that are expected to exhibit a comparable or even...
Abstract 206: Stem Cell-derived Exosomes Induce Cardiac Repair via mRNA Modification

Exosomes are cell-derived nanovesicles that carry and shuttle microRNAs (miRNAs) to mediate cell-cell communication. Vast majority of cell types including cardiac myocytes and progenitors actively secrete exosomes, whose miRNA contents are altered after physiological or pathological changes such as myocardial ischemia (MI). In this new study, we have discovered that chemical modification to mRNAs is a novel regulator of ischemia-induced gene expression changes in the heart. We hypothesized that the benefits of human CD34 + stem cell-derived exosomes (CD34exo) are mediated by mRNA modifications in the target cells via miRNA delivery. MiRNA profiling and bioinformatic analysis identified that CD34exo is selectively enriched with a number of miRNAs that directly target genes implicated in regulation of mRNA modifications. Interestingly, under myocardial ischemia, there was a significant increase in mRNA modifications in the mouse heart, which was decreased by about 70% with CD34exo-treatment. In line with the in vivo MI data, in vitro hypoxic stimulation in neonatal / adult rodent myocytes and non-myocytes increased mRNA modifications and controls known regulators of those mRNA modifications. Loss-of-function studies for regulators of mRNA modifications attenuated hypoxia-induced changes to epitranscriptome indicating important roles for these molecules under stress conditions. Finally, using gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies, we demonstrate that miR-126, one of the most enriched miRNAs in CD34exo, plays a critical role in regulating the mRNA modifications. We conclude that miRNAs enriched in CD34exo mediate their cardioprotective effect at least in part, by regulating the mRNA epitranscriptome of the target cell. Our new data suggests hypoxia as a novel regulator of the mRNA epitranscriptome and provides novel insights to post-transcriptional gene regulation in the heart.
Community perceptions of home environments that lead children & youth to the street in semi-rural Kenya

Abstract Research with street-involved children and youth (SICY) in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past three decades has established a complex web of both micro and macro-level factors that simultaneously "push" and "pull" children and youth to the street. There is still little research with adult family and community members in communities from which SICY originate. Forty men and women from five semi-rural villages in Meru County, Kenya participated in a Rapid Rural Appraisal utilizing a fishbone diagram to explore main and underlying reasons for why children may be or may feel unwelcome in the home and thus migrate to the street. Responses were analyzed in terms of ecological levels, child or parent perspective, and the push/pull framework. Overall, community members identified families and households experiencing stress and lacking the necessary resources to successfully adjust and adapt. Four ecological levels of influence were proposed as main reasons, with parent and caregiver factors mentioned most often, followed by household factors, children’s intrapersonal factors, and interpersonal (family) factors. Community and environmental level factors were also proposed as underlying factors. Analysis by gender revealed that both men and women emphasized push factors over pull factors, though men proposed more pull factors (from peers and street life) than women did. Men placed more responsibility on the children than women did, citing children's negative behaviors, dissatisfaction with home, and a desire for independence and work/income. Women, in contrast, emphasized children's feelings of being unloved and the experience of harsh punishment or abuse from caregivers. Findings suggest that interventions to reduce street involvement should support economically, medically, and psychologically vulnerable families and households through comprehensive family strengthening programs that build financial capacity, improve parenting and communication skills, and promote education over child work and labor.
Principles of Spoken Language Recognition

In this introductory chapter to Part G of this Handbook on spoken language recognition, we provide a brief overview of the principles of state-of-the-art language recognition approaches, and a general discriminative training framework to improve the performance and robustness of language recognition systems. It is followed by three chapters. The first of these addresses issues related to spoken language characterization in which knowledge sources can be utilized to distinguish one language from another. The second chapter deals with language identification based on phone recognition followed by language modeling using either spectral or token-based approaches. The third chapter presents vector-space characterization approaches to converting speech utterances into spoken document vectors for modeling and classification. With recent progress in speech processing, machine learning, and text categorization, we expect significant technology advances in spoken language recognition in the years to come.
Sex Segregation at Work

Work in all countries is characterized by a sexual division of labor in which tasks are assigned to workers on the basis of their sex. The sexual division of labor among paid workers is termed sex segregation. Thus, sex segregation is the tendency for the sexes to do different kinds of paid work in different settings. It may involve physical, functional, or nominal differentiation of work. Segregation is usually measured by the index of dissimilarity which assesses the sexes' different representation across work categories. Segregation is a mechanism of inequality. Because economic and social rewards are distributed through people's jobs, segregation facilitates and legitimates unequal treatment. Segregation also contributes to sex inequality by assuming that the sexes differ in fundamental ways, by reducing the likelihood of equal-status contact between the sexes, and by creating same-sex reference groups against whom workers assess their rewards. The consequences of segregation include disparities between the sexes' pay and promotion opportunities. The sex composition of jobs is linked to employment rewards because men hold more desirable jobs and because customarily female activities are culturally devalued. Popular explanations for segregation focus on the preferences of workers and employers, including statistical discrimination. More useful explanations emphasize the impact of employers' or nations' policies and practices on the extent of sex segregation.
When is a Quantum-Mechanical System “Isolated”?

In this talk I address the question: Under what conditions can we legitimately describe a quantum-mechanical system by a Schrodinger equation in its own right, and how are these conditions related to the degree of “entanglement” with its environment? As examples of systems that are often claimed to be strongly entangled with their environments but nevertheless seem to be well described by one-particle-like Schrodinger equations, I consider (a) Cooper pairs tunnelling between two different “boxes” and (b) quantum-optical systems confined to a cavity. In both cases I argue that the most “obvious” arguments grossly overestimate the true degree of entanglement.