cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gender, perceptions, and reality: technological literacy among first-year students

Recent studies have found that gender gaps in information and communication technology (ICT) skills exist, despite changing gender role expectations for men and women. In this paper we report on survey results from an ongoing longitudinal study of ICT skills which found that--in general-- first-year students were confident in their ICT skills. However, comparison of student skills in four major technology domain areas indicates that there are differences between the male and fale first-year students in levels of confidence. We also report on a second, follow-up study designed to examine the actual ICT skills of the first-year students. This investigation indicates that both male and fale students have greater confidence than actual skill. The study also found that both male and fale students have approximately the same level of actual ICT skills. These findings suggest that fale students, although possessing ICT skills similar to their male counterparts, do not perceive thselves as competent users of technology. These differences in ICT skill confidence have implications for fluency with technology in acadia as well as the recruitment and retention of women in the Computer and Information Sciences.
Boundary Control of Beams Using Active Constrained Layer Damping

A variational mathematical model is developed using Hamilton’s principle to describe the dynamics of beams fully-treated with Active Constrained Layer Damping (ACLD) treatments. The resulting distributed-parameter model is utilized in devising a globally stable boundary control strategy which is compatible with the operating nature of the ACLD treatments. The effectiveness of the ACLD in damping out the vibration of cantilevered beams is determined for different control gains and compared with the performance of conventional Passive Constrained Layer Damping (PCLD). The results obtained demonstrate the high damping characteristics of the boundary controller particularly over broad frequency bands.
Identification of 1-(malonylamino) cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid as a major conjugate of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, an ethylene precursor in higher plants.

Abstract When labeled 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, an ethylene precursor, was administered to light-grown wheat leaves, it was primarily converted into a nonvolatile metabolite, which was identified as 1-(malonylamino)cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid. The natural occurrence of this conjugate in the wilted wheat leaves was confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
On the perception of intonation from sinusoidal sentences.

Listeners can perceive the phonetic value of sinusoidal imitations of speech. These tonal replicas are made by setting time-varying sinusoids equal in frequency and amplitude to the computed peaks of the first three formants of natural utterances. Like formant frequencies, the three sinusoids composing the tonal signal are not necessarily related harmonically, and therefore are unlikely to possess a common fundamental frequency. Moreover, none of the tones falls within the frequency range typical of the fundamental frequency of phonation of the natural utterances upon which sinusoidal signals are based. Naive subjects nevertheless report that intelligible tonal replicas of sentences exhibit unusual “vocal” pitch variation, or intonation. The present study attempted to determine the acoustic basis for this apparent intonation of sinusoidal signals by employing several tests of perceived similarity. Listeners judged the tone corresponding to the first formant to be more like the intonation pattern of a sinusoidal sentence than: (1) a tone corresponding to the second or third formant; (2) a tone presenting the computed missing fundamental of the three tones; or (3) a tone following a plausible fundamental frequency contour generated from the amplitude envelope of the signal. Additionslly, the tone reproducing the first formant pattern was responsible for apparent intonation, even when it occurred in conjunction with a lower tone representing the fundamental frequency pattern of the natural utterance on which the replica was modeled. The effects were not contingent on relative tone amplitude within the sentence replica. The case of sinusoidal sentence “pitch” resembles the phenomenon ofdominance, that is, the general salience of waveform periodicity in the region of 400-1000 Hz for perception of the pitch of complex signals.
Targeted forward mutagenesis by transitive RNAi

A novel technique is described that targets specific populations of transcripts for homology-based gene silencing using transitive RNAi. This approach is designed to target a subset of the transcriptome in order to identify genes involved in a particular localized process, such as photosynthesis. As a proof-of-concept approach, mesophyll cells from Arabidopsis thaliana were laser-microdissected from whole leaves to generate a focused cDNA library that was bi-directionally cloned into a transitive RNAi vector that had been designed to induce silencing of homologous, endogenous genes. Approximately 15% of the transformant plants identified from both sense and antisense libraries exhibited visible phenotypes indicative of photosynthetic defects. Amplification from the genome and sequencing of cDNA inserts identified candidate genes underlying the phenotypes. For 10 of 11 such mutants, re-transformation with an RNAi construct corresponding to the candidate gene recapitulated the original mutant phenotype, and reduction of corresponding endogene transcripts was confirmed. In addition, one of the re-transformed transgenes also silenced transcripts of closely related family members, thereby demonstrating the utility of this approach for mutagenesis of redundant gene functions. Preliminary results using tissue-specific transitive RNAi forward mutagenesis of the Arabidopsis vegetative shoot apical meristem demonstrate the broad applicability of this forward mutagenesis technique for a variety of plant cell types.
Complex magnetic fields breathe life into fluids

The vast majority of materials research exploits equilibrium or quasi-equilibrium processes to produce inert materials. In contrast, living systems depend on far-from-equilibrium kinetic processes that require a continuous flux of energy to persist and perform useful tasks. The Greek god Hephaestus forged metal automatons that he miraculously animated to perform the tasks of living creatures. Is something like this actually possible? Here we show that subjecting magnetic fluids suspended in an immiscible liquid to uniform, multidimensional, time-dependent magnetic fields, generates a variety of life-like collective dynamics, including various forms of locomotion, swarming and feeding, that are sustained by the continuous injection of energy via the applied field. These leaderless emergent behaviors occur autonomously, without human guidance, and are quite surprising. Such self-healing, remotely-powered fluid automatons could be used as an extraction/separation technology to efficiently purify water by scavenging toxic chemicals and microorganisms, or alternatively enable the controlled release of chemicals. Other possible applications include vigorous fluid mixing and even microdroplet manipulation for microfluidic bioassays.
The role of the murine motor cortex in action duration and order.

This study examined the contributions of the primary and secondary motor cortices (M1 and M2) to action differentiation and sequencing in mice. In Experiment 1, mice with excitotoxic lesions of M1 and M2 and sham controls learned to emit lever presses exceeding a criterion duration to earn food rewards. Duration differentiation obeys Weber's law – i.e. the spread of the distribution is proportional to the average duration. M1 or M2 lesions did not affect differentiation of press durations. Experiment 2 studied the effects of the same lesions on the learning of a simple sequence consisting of two lever presses, one distal, and the other proximal, to the reward. M2 lesions impaired the acquisition and reversal of this sequence. M1 lesions, by contrast, had no effect on acquisition but impaired sequence reversal. Moreover, duration of the first press in a sequence was on average twice as long as that of the second press, though this ratio was not affected by motor cortex lesions. Together these results offer a first glimpse into the cortical substrates of instrumental differentiation in mice.
Emergency Department Experiences of Acutely Symptomatic Patients With Terminal Illness and Their Family Caregivers

Abstract Context Despite increased focus on improving palliative care in the emergency department (ED), there is little research on how to best address the specific needs of this patient population. Objectives To better understand the experiences of acutely symptomatic patients seen in the ED. Methods Using in-person semi-structured interviews, we explored the attitudes, experiences, and beliefs of 14 patients and seven family caregivers on the inpatient palliative care consult service, who had been admitted through the ED at two academic medical centers. We used a grounded theory approach to code responses. Transcripts were coded by a palliative medicine physician, an emergency medicine physician, and a general internist. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus. Coded sections were iteratively reviewed for interpretation, and concepts were collapsed into themes. Results Five distinct themes emerged: 1) unprepared for managing symptoms at home; 2) uncertainty and anxiety; 3) communication is essential; 4) mixed experiences with symptom management; and 5) conflicting perspectives about the purpose of palliative care clinicians in the ED. Conclusion Patients and caregivers identified systems, communication, and clinical issues in ED care that should be a focus for future research.
Disparity-tuned channels of the human visual system

Traditionally, it has been thought that the processing of binocular disparity for the perception of stereoscopic depth is accomplished via three types of disparity-selective channels--"near," "far," and "tuned." More recent evidence challenges this notion. We have derived disparity-tuning functions psychophysically using a subthreshold summation (i.e. low-level masking) technique. We measured correlation-detection thresholds for dynamic random-element stereograms containing either one or two surfaces in depth. The resulting disparity-tuning functions show an opponent-type profile, indicating the presence of inhibition between disparity-tuned units in the visual system. Moreover, there is clear inhibition between disparities of the same sign, obviating a strict adherence to near-far opponency. These results compare favorably with tuning functions derived psychophysically using an adaptation technique, and with the tuning profiles from published single-unit recordings. Our results suggests a continuum of overlapping disparity-tuned channels, which is consistent with recent physiological evidence as well as models based on other psychophysical data.
Equivalence of Protein Inventories Obtained from Formalin-fixed Paraffin-embedded and Frozen Tissue in Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry Shotgun Proteomic Analysis

Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens comprise a potentially valuable resource for retrospective biomarker discovery studies, and recent work indicates the feasibility of using shotgun proteomics to characterize FFPE tissue proteins. A critical question in the field is whether proteomes characterized in FFPE specimens are equivalent to proteomes in corresponding fresh or frozen tissue specimens. Here we compared shotgun proteomic analyses of frozen and FFPE specimens prepared from the same colon adenoma tissues. Following deparaffinization, rehydration, and tryptic digestion under mild conditions, FFPE specimens corresponding to 200 µg of protein yielded ∼400 confident protein identifications in a one-dimensional reverse phase liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. The major difference between frozen and FFPE proteomes was a decrease in the proportions of lysine C-terminal to arginine C-terminal peptides observed, but these differences had little effect on the proteins identified. No covalent peptide modifications attributable to formaldehyde chemistry were detected by analyses of the MS/MS datasets, which suggests that undetected, cross-linked peptides comprise the major class of modifications in FFPE tissues. Fixation of tissue for up to 2 days in neutral buffered formalin did not adversely impact protein identifications. Analysis of archival colon adenoma FFPE specimens indicated equivalent numbers of MS/MS spectral counts and protein group identifications from specimens stored for 1, 3, 5, and 10 years. Combination of peptide isoelectric focusing-based separation with reverse phase LC-MS/MS identified 2554 protein groups in 600 ng of protein from frozen tissue and 2302 protein groups from FFPE tissue with at least two distinct peptide identifications per protein. Analysis of the combined frozen and FFPE data showed a 92% overlap in the protein groups identified. Comparison of gene ontology categories of identified proteins revealed no bias in protein identification based on subcellular localization. Although the status of posttranslational modifications was not examined in this study, archival samples displayed a modest increase in methionine oxidation, from ∼17% after one year of storage to ∼25% after 10 years. These data demonstrate the equivalence of proteome inventories obtained from FFPE and frozen tissue specimens and provide support for retrospective proteomic analysis of FFPE tissues for biomarker discovery.
In situ doping and crosslinking of fullerenes to form efficient and robust electron-transporting layers for polymer solar cells

Efficient electron-transporting layers (ETLs) with a stable conductive fullerene doped into a thermally crosslinkable fullerene matrix have been developed for inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs). The improved electrical conductivity and solvent resistance of these ETLs have significantly enhanced the performance of PSCs.
The Hospitality Industry Entering The Life Care Market: Implications for Hotel Restaurant And Institutional Management Curricula:

The hotel industry is entering the life care market. The basis for this decision is the expanding aging market in America. These new housing units are the result of earlier studies and models. The new breed of management needs education on the aging resident. There are clear implications for future curriculum offerings in the H.R.I program.
Hemorrhagic Pancreatitis in a Young Child Following Valproic Acid Therapy Clinical and Ultrasonic Assessment

Hemorrhagic pancreatitis was diagnosed with portable realtime ultrasound in a critically ill 4-year-old child. The ultrasonic features were diffuse pancreatic enlargement, generally and focally increased pancreatic echogenicity, and ascites. Ultrasound was indispensable as a portable noninvasive imaging modality that allowed for rapid and accurate diagnosis.
An aspartyl cathepsin, CTH3, is essential for proprotein processing during secretory granule maturation in Tetrahymena thermophila

In animal cells, the assembly of dense cores in secretory granules is controlled by proteolytic processing of proproteins. The same phenomenon occurs in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila, but the...
Child support enforcement and in-hospital paternity establishment in seven cities

Abstract This study assesses the strength of child support enforcement (CSE) in the seven cities included in the Fragile Families study, with a special emphasis on in-hospital paternity establishment. First, using four indicators of the effectiveness of child support enforcement and paternity establishment, I show that Texas has a weak CSE regime compared to the other surveyed states. Second, Texas has a weak in-hospital paternity establishment program compared to a relatively strong regime in California. And third, using a multivariate approach, I show that the critical first step in obtaining increasing paternity establishment--paternity in-take interviews—are positively correlated with increasing the number of staff facilitating acknowledgment. After accounting for hospital practices as well as parents' characteristics, some places still do worse than others. For instance, the analysis suggests that hospitals in Austin, Texas and Newark, New Jersey are significantly worse than hospitals in Oakland, California at approaching unwed parents about voluntary paternity establishment.
Persistent episodic acidification of streams linked to acid rain effects on soil

Episodic acidification of streams, identified in the late 1980s as one of the most significant environmental problems caused by acidic deposition, had not been evaluated since the early 1990s despite decreasing levels of acidic deposition over the past decade. This analysis indicates that episodic acidification of streams in upland regions in the northeastern United States persists, and is likely to be much more widespread than chronic acidification. Depletion of exchangeable Ca in the mineral soil has decreased the neutralization capacity of soils and increased the role of the surface organic horizon in the neutralization of acidic soil water during episodes. Increased accumulation of N and S in the forest floor from decades of acidic deposition will delay the recovery of soil base status, and therefore, the elimination of acidic episodes, which is anticipated from decreasing emissions.
Science Signaling Podcast: 5 January 2010

This is a conversation with Michael Yaffe about Research Articles published by Science Signaling in 2009.
Ingestion of amniotic fluid enhances the facilitative effect of VTA morphine on the onset of maternal behavior in virgin rats.

Abstract Previous research has shown that injection of morphine into the ventral tegmental area (VTA) facilitates the onset of maternal behavior in virgin female rats, and injection of the opioid antagonist naltrexone into the VTA disrupts the onset of maternal behavior in parturient rats. Placentophagia – ingestion of placenta and amniotic fluid, usually at parturition – modifies central opioid processes. Ingestion of the active substance in placenta and amniotic fluid, Placental Opioid-Enhancing Factor (POEF), enhances the hypoalgesic effect of centrally administered morphine, and more specifically, enhances δ- and κ-opioid-receptor-mediated hypoalgesia and attenuates μ-opioid-receptor-mediated hypoalgesia. POEF (in placenta or amniotic fluid) ingestion does not, by itself, produce hypoalgesia. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that ingestion of amniotic fluid enhances the facilitative effect of opioid activity (unilateral morphine injection) in the VTA on the rate of onset of maternal behavior. Virgin female Long-Evans rats were given one intra-VTA injection of morphine sulfate (0.0, 0.01, or 0.03 μg, in saline) and an orogastric infusion of 0.25 ml amniotic fluid or saline once each day of the first three days of the 10-day testing period. Subjects were continuously exposed to foster pups that were replaced every 12 h; replacement of pups was followed by a 15-min observation period. Maternal behavior latency was determined by the first of two consecutive tests wherein the subject displayed pup retrieval, pup licking in the nest, and crouching over all foster pups, during the 15-min observation. We confirmed the previous finding that the VTA injection, alone, of 0.03 μg morphine shortened the latency to show maternal behavior and that 0.0 μg and 0.01 μg morphine did not. Ingestion of amniotic fluid (and therefore POEF) facilitated the onset of maternal behavior in rats receiving an intra-VTA microinjection of an otherwise subthreshold dose of morphine (0.01 μg).
METERG: Measurement-Based End-to-End Performance Estimation Technique in QoS-Capable Multiprocessors

Multiprocessor systems present serious challenges in the design of real-time systems due to the wider variation of execution time of an instruction sequence compared to a uniprocessor system. Even if non-determinism is tightly controlled by adding conventional QoS support, it is generally difficult to find the minimal hardware resource request settings (e.g., memory bandwidth) for a given user-level performance goal (e.g., transactions per second). In this paper, we introduce the METERG (Measurement-Time Enforcement and Run-Time Guarantee) QoS system that provides an easy method of obtaining a tight estimate of the lower bound on end-to-end performance for a given configuration of resource reservations. Every QoS-capable block in the METERG system supports two operation modes for each task requiring QoS: enforcement mode for estimating the lower bound on a tasks execution time and deployment mode for maximizing its performance. We evaluate the effectiveness of our approach with an execution-driven multiprocessor simulator implementing the METERG QoS memory subsystem. We show that the performance lower bound is easy to obtain by simply running an application in enforcement mode, and that this estimated lower bound is tight.
Making The Most Of Federal Health Information Technology Regulations

“Meaningful use” of interoperable electronic health records throughout the U.S. health care delivery system—the goal set forth in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009—is a critical national goal. Proposed federal regulations on data exchange standards and the definition of meaningful use are well conceived and provide a foundation for the nation to begin the journey.
Independent coding of object motion and position revealed by distinct contingent aftereffects

Despite several findings of perceptual asynchronies between object features, it remains unclear whether independent neuronal populations necessarily code these perceptually unbound properties. To examine this, we investigated the binding between an object's spatial frequency and its rotational motion using contingent motion aftereffects (MAE). Subjects adapted to an oscillating grating whose direction of rotation was paired with a high or low spatial frequency pattern. In separate adaptation conditions, we varied the moment when the spatial frequency change occurred relative to the direction reversal. After adapting to one stimulus, subjects made judgments of either the perceived MAE (rotational movement) or the position shift (instantaneous phase rotation) that accompanied the MAE. To null the spatial frequency-contingent MAE, motion reversals had to physically lag changes in spatial frequency during adaptation. To null the position shift that accompanied the MAE, however, no temporal lag between the attributes was required. This demonstrates that perceived motion and position can be perceptually misbound. Indeed, in certain conditions, subjects perceived the test pattern to drift in one direction while its position appeared shifted in the opposite direction. The dissociation between perceived motion and position of the same test pattern, following identical adaptation, demonstrates that distinguishable neural populations code for these object properties.
Delinquency, parental psychopathology, and parental criminality: clinical and epidemiological findings.

Abstract Prompted by the clinical recognition of serious psychopathology in both delinquent children and their parents, we report an epidemiological study of the possible association of delinquency, parental psychiatric treatment and/or hospitalization, and parental criminality. We also examine questions of assortative mating among psychiatrically impaired and criminally involved parents of delinquents. Findings suggest that delinquency, children's psychopathology, parental psychiatric impairment, and parental criminality may be different manifestations of an entire family's severe adaptational problems. Whether the psychiatric or criminal justice systems become involved may depend primarily on which system is impinged upon at a given time.
Automated nano-assembly of nanoscale structures

Nanoscale products have many potential applications. The complexity of nanomanufacturing requires to position, manipulate and assemble nanoobjects to form asymmetric patterns. The atomic force microscopy has been proven to be a powerful technique for nanomanufacturing. Typical manual nanomanipulation using an atomic force microscope (AFM) is time-consuming and inefficient. Automated AFM tip path planning is desirable for nanomanufacturing, but does not receive much attention. In this paper, a CAD-guided automated nanomanufacturing system is developed to manufacture a nanostructure/nanodevice based on the CAD model of the nanostructure/nanodevice. The system is implemented to manipulate nanoobjects to manufacture nanostructures automatically.
Liquid sample delivery techniques for serial femtosecond crystallography

X-ray free-electron lasers overcome the problem of radiation damage in protein crystallography and allow structure determination from micro- and nanocrystals at room temperature. To ensure that consecutive X-ray pulses do not probe previously exposed crystals, the sample needs to be replaced with the X-ray repetition rate, which ranges from 120 Hz at warm linac-based free-electron lasers to 1 MHz at superconducting linacs. Liquid injectors are therefore an essential part of a serial femtosecond crystallography experiment at an X-ray free-electron laser. Here, we compare different techniques of injecting microcrystals in solution into the pulsed X-ray beam in vacuum. Sample waste due to mismatch of the liquid flow rate to the X-ray repetition rate can be addressed through various techniques.
Dermatology, Medical Care, the Government, and Us

Several economic factors are forcing changes in the American health care system. Many of these future changes will be implemented by the government. If left unguided, the governmental agencies could regulate doctors' practices, duties, and fees and place them in a bureaucratic maze. The cost of these changes to society may not represent either a cash saving or increased quality of medical care. Some of the anticipated changes could make medicine a less rewarding intellectual career. We, as dermatologists, should be aware of these changes as they affect our specialty, and we should actively work with our governmental authorities to ensure that any changes in our profession will really benefit the tax-paying public.
A Preview of Current Studies on Magnetic Monopole Detection Using Induction Coils

A single candidate event for magnetic monopoles reported recently by Cabrera1 has revived interest in detecting these elusive, magnetically singly-charged particles. Only five months after the publication of Cabrera’s paper, there are about ten or more research groups engaging in or contemplating experiments on induction-coil detection of monopoles. Since the estimated flux of monopoles is extremely small, such experiments should be well-designed so that, among others, the following three requirements can be met. 1) The sensing areas of the detector should be large so that, in the absence of any monopole event, and in a reasonable length of time, one can establish an upper limit on monopole flux comparable with or lower than those set by other means of detection such as the ionization technique.2 2) If a positive monopole event is observed, it should be unequivocally discernible from any spurious signals. 3) As much information as possible should be extracted from such an event. These conditions are particularly difficult to satisfy in experiments on monopole detection in view of the fact that theoretical estimates on the characteristic properties and abundance of monopoles vary greatly from theory to theory.3,4
TETonic shift: biological roles of TET proteins in DNA demethylation and transcription

In many organisms, the methylation of cytosine in DNA has a key role in silencing 'parasitic' DNA elements, regulating transcription and establishing cellular identity. The recent discovery that ten-eleven translocation (TET) proteins are 5-methylcytosine oxidases has provided several chemically plausible pathways for the reversal of DNA methylation, thus triggering a paradigm shift in our understanding of how changes in DNA methylation are coupled to cell differentiation, embryonic development and cancer.
Premodern, Modern, Postmodern? Placing New Urbanism into a Historical Perspective:

This study explores New Urbanism as part of a contemporary cultural paradigm referred to as postmodernism. By highlighting the complex relationship between New Urbanist design prescriptions and ear...
Aerial Insecticide Treatments for Management of Dectes Stem Borer, Dectes texanus, in Soybean

The Dectes stem borer, Dectes texanus LeConte (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), is an increasingly important pest of soybean and sunflower in central North America. Nine large-scale field trials were conducted over a 3-year period to determine if Dectes stem borer could be managed with insecticide treatments. Aerial applications of lambda on July 6, 12 and 15 were successful in significantly reducing adults, but applications on July 1, 20 and 24 were less successful. These data suggest that for central Kansas two aerial applications may be required to control Dectes stem borers in soybean. Based on our experience the first application should be made at the peak of adult flight about July 5th and the second application 10 days later. The local treatment schedule should be developed to follow the local Dectes stem borer adult emergence pattern. Treated aerial strips 59 m (195 ft) wide were not large enough to prevent reinfestation, but treated half-circles (24 ha or 60 acres) were successful in reducing in Dectes stem borer infestation of soybean. Sweep net samples of adults were not successful in identifying a treatment threshold, so treatment decisions will need to be based on field history of infestation. Further studies are needed to identify better sampling methods that can be used to establish treatment thresholds and to refine the best timing for treatments.
Relative tutte polynomials for coloured graphs and virtual knot theory

We introduce the concept of a relative Tutte polynomial of coloured graphs. We show that this relative Tutte polynomial can be computed in a way similar to the classical spanning tree expansion used by Tutte in his original paper on this subject. We then apply the relative Tutte polynomial to virtual knot theory. More specifically, we show that the Kauffman bracket polynomial (and hence the Jones polynomial) of a virtual knot can be computed from the relative Tutte polynomial of its face (Tait) graph with some suitable variable substitutions. Our method offers an alternative to the ribbon graph approach, using the face graph obtained from the virtual link diagram directly.
Algebraic methods for stochastic minimum cut and maximum flow problems

We present an algebraic approach for computing the distribution of the capacity of a minimum s-t cut in a network, in which the arc capacities have known (discrete) probability distributions. Algorithms are developed to determine the exact distribution as well as upper and lower bounding distributions on the capacity of a minimum cut. This approach then provides exact and bounding distributions on the maximum flow in such stochastic networks. We also obtain bounds on the expected capacity of a minimum cut (and the expected maximum flow value).
New Carboniferous Bryozoa of the Bird Spring Formation, southern Nevada

Bryozoans were collected from a thin shaley limestone in the lower part of the Bird Spring Formation in the northern part of the Muddy Mountains, Clark County, southern Nevada (Fig. 1). The purpose of this paper is to describe a new genus and two new species of these bryozoans. The fauna of the Bird Spring Formation has taken on a new importance with the formation's designation as the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Mid-Carboniferous Boundary (Lane et al., 1999). Samples were collected from the bryozoan-bearing unit while teaching field camp during the spring of 1994.
Mapping the Antarctic Polar Front: weekly realizations from 2002 to 2014

Abstract. We map the weekly position of the Antarctic Polar Front (PF) in the Southern Ocean over a 12-year period (2002–2014) using satellite sea surface temperature (SST) estimated from cloud-penetrating microwave radiometers. Our study advances previous efforts to map the PF using hydrographic and satellite data and provides a unique realization of the PF at weekly resolution across all longitudes ( doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.855640 ). The mean path of the PF is asymmetric; its latitudinal position spans from 44 to 64° S along its circumpolar path. SST at the PF ranges from 0.6 to 6.9 °C, reflecting the large spread in latitudinal position. The average intensity of the front is 1.7 °C per 100 km, with intensity ranging from 1.4 to 2.3 °C per 100 km. Front intensity is significantly correlated with the depth of bottom topography, suggesting that the front intensifies over shallow bathymetry. Realizations of the PF are consistent with the corresponding surface expressions of the PF estimated using expendable bathythermograph data in the Drake Passage and Australian and African sectors. The climatological mean position of the PF is similar, though not identical, to previously published estimates. As the PF is a key indicator of physical circulation, surface nutrient concentration, and biogeography in the Southern Ocean, future studies of physical and biogeochemical oceanography in this region will benefit from the provided data set.
Palestine in Egyptian Colloquial Poetry

Shi9r al-9ammiyya is a poetry movement whose emergence in Egypt in the early 1950s coincided with the heyday of Nasser9s revolution, when the Palestine question was a national concern. With numerous practitioners today, the movement has yielded a large corpus of colloquial poetry that has become a significant part of Egypt9s cultural landscape.This article presents a historical survey of shi9r al-9ammiyya 9s best known poets—Fu9ad Haddad, Salah Jahin, and 9Abd al-Rahman al-Abnudi—and their poems on Palestine. Among the essay9s aims is to dispel the common misconception that the use of colloquial Egyptian ( 9ammiyya ) denotes parochial rather than pan-Arab concerns, with the standard ( fusha ) Arabic seen as a signifier of pan-Arab identity.
Immunization of mice with inactivated type 2 poliomyelitis virus against types 2 and 3 viruses.

ConclusionsExperiments were carried out in mice in which an inactivated suspension of the MEFl newborn-mouse adapted strain of Type 2 poliomyelitis virus was used as an immunizing agent. It was found that 1) the adapted strain had a far greater immunogenic potency than the standard when the animals were challenged with the homotypic strain; and 2) a significant and reproducible cross-protection was detected when the mice were challenged intraspinally with a heterotypic, Type 3 (Leon) strain.
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Pediatric Respiratory Failure

Respiratory failure is one of the major medical problems of newborn infants. The leading causes are hyaline membrane disease, meconium aspiration, persistent fetal circulation syndrome, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and sepsis. In full-term infants, pulmonary hypertension with right-to-left shunting is usually the predominant pathophysiology, regardless of the primary diagnosis. The standard treatment for neonatal respiratory failure with pulmonary hypertension involves the use of mechanical ventilation, induced respiratory alkalosis, and vasodilating drugs. Most infants do well on this regimen, but a small minority—5 to 10 per cent—fail to respondand die of respiratory failure. This small group of nonresponders presents a difficult problem that has been addressed with systemic life support via extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which allows “lung rest” at low ventilator settings. Although ECMO has been under study for 15 years, it has been widely applied to neonatal respiratory failure only in the last 3 years.
Imaging the Golgi Apparatus in Living Mitotic Cells

Live-cell imaging is a powerful tool which allows the observation of dynamic cellular processes while maintaining the native organization of the cell. Its advantages over other methods that disrupt cell integrity are abundantly evident in the study of cell division, where multiple subcellular organelles and molecules are involved in dynamic, spatio-temporally regulated processes such as Golgi and nuclear envelope disassembly/reassembly, spindle apparatus formation, chromosome condensation and segregation, and cytoplasmic division. This chapter will describe practical methods for cell synchronization, selection of fluorescent markers for transfection, and setting up imaging conditions and microscope parameters for acquiring time-lapse images of the Golgi apparatus in mitotic cells. These are general methods that can be applied to the study of many different types of organelles and molecules in dividing cells.
Withdrawing Versus Withholding Freedoms: Nudging and the Case of Tobacco Control

Is it a stronger interference with people's freedom to withdraw options they currently have than to withhold similar options they do not have? Drawing on recent theorizing about sociopolitical freedom, this article identifies considerations that often make this the case for public policy. However, when applied to tobacco control, these considerations are shown to give us at best only very weak freedom-based reason to prioritize the status quo. This supports a popular argument for so-called “endgame” tobacco control measures: If we believe that cigarettes would and should be withheld from entering markets in hypothetical scenarios in which they do not yet exist, then we also have reason to seek their abolition in situations, such as ours, in which cigarettes do exist—if necessary by banning their sale. The same considerations are then used to disarm objections that have recently been raised to using nudges in public policy.
Kinetics of Hydrolysis of Acetic Anhydride by In-Situ FTIR Spectroscopy: An Experiment for the Undergraduate Laboratory

A reaction kinetics experiment for the chemical engineering undergraduate laboratory course was developed in which in-situ Fourier Transfer Infrared spectroscopy was used to measure reactant and product concentrations. The kinetics of the hydrolysis of acetic anhydride was determined by experiments carried out in a batch reactor. The results compared very favorably with reported pseudo-first-order kinetics for this irreversible reaction. The resulting rate expression was used to predict the performance of a semibatch reactor.
Is There a Right of Freedom of Expression?: The Core of Freedom of Expression: Regulations of Conduct for the Purpose of Affecting Messages Received

Having shown in Chapter Two, primarily through an excursion into American First Amendment jurisprudence and its Track Two component, but with some glances at the analogous jurisprudence of Canada and Australia, that principles (1), (2), (3), and (4) – all of which focus on the effects of regulations on messages intended and received – are untenable for delimiting the scope of freedom of expression, I concluded that principle (5), which has as its focus the regulator's purpose in regulating conduct, defines that scope. Principle (5) includes within freedom of expression all conduct that is restricted for the purpose of affecting the messages that audiences receive. It is immaterial under principle (5) whether the conduct is the conventional method of expressing ideas – written or oral language – whether it is intended to express ideas by those engaging in it, or whether most people would receive the message in question from observing or hearing the conduct. All that matters is why the conduct is regulated. If it is regulated because of a message that the regulator wishes to suppress, alter, or otherwise affect, freedom of expression is implicated. Thus, if government forbids people from climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park – not because of the danger that they might be injured, not because of the harm they might cause the environment, but because government fears that some of them are receiving spiritual messages from the experience that the government wishes them not to receive – freedom of expression is in issue despite the absence of a speaker, an intent to speak, conventional symbols, and perhaps even the meaning most would attach to the experience.
PORTAGE, ALASKA: CASE HISTORY OF AN EARTHQUAKE'S IMPACT ON AN ESTUARINE SYSTEM

Abstract: Regional tectonic subsidence and differential sediment consolidation during the 1964 Alaska earthquake (Richter mag.=8.5) lowered the Portage area into the intertidal zone of Turnagain Arm, forcing abandonment of the town of Portage. Ground subsidence amounted to as much as 2.4 m, and subsequent deposition deposited an estimated 20 million m3 of silt over 18 km2 of land previously above tide water. Most of these post-earthquake sediments were deposited by tidal action rather than by the major streams that flow into Turnagain Arm in the vicinity of Portage. The layer of post-earthquake sediment is 1.5 m thick seaward of a highway embankment and thins landward to 0.9 m, with an areal distribution reflecting preexisting channel patterns. All samples landward of the highway contain less than 10% sand, whereas those seaward of the highway average over 20%. With minor exceptions, minerals in the sediment did not originate in the graywacke terrane of the surrounding Chugach Mountains, but ultimately must come from the plutonic and volcanic terranes west and north of Turnagain Arm and from coal beds of the Cook Inlet Basin. Preliminary studies of a 93-m core taken at Portage indicate rapid deposition for the past 8,000 years, perhaps caused by repeated episodes of subsidence associated with tectonic activity. The sediment accumulation at Portage from 1964 to 1974 is a striking result of one such episode.
A fast algorithm for vertex-frequency representations of signals on graphs

The windowed Fourier transform (short time Fourier transform) and the S-transform are widely used signal processing tools for extracting frequency information from non-stationary signals. Previously, the windowed Fourier transform had been adopted for signals on graphs and has been shown to be very useful for extracting vertex-frequency information from graphs. However, high computational complexity makes these algorithms impractical. We sought to develop a fast windowed graph Fourier transform and a fast graph S-transform requiring significantly shorter computation time. The proposed schemes have been tested with synthetic test graph signals and real graph signals derived from electroencephalography recordings made during swallowing. The results showed that the proposed schemes provide significantly lower computation time in comparison with the standard windowed graph Fourier transform and the fast graph S-transform. Also, the results showed that noise has no effect on the results of the algorithm for the fast windowed graph Fourier transform or on the graph S-transform. Finally, we showed that graphs can be reconstructed from the vertex-frequency representations obtained with the proposed algorithms. HighlightsVertex-frequency representations can be impractical for applications.High computational complexity is the main reason for impracticality.We developed an algorithm for fast calculation of vertex-frequency representations.We tested it using the windowed graph Fourier transform and the graph S-transform.A several orders of magnitude decrease in computational complexity is achieved.
How to fake hydrodynamic signals

Abstract Flow signatures in experimental data from relativistic ion collisions, are usually interpreted as a fingerprint of the presence of a hydrodynamic phase during the evolution of these systems. I review some theoretical ideas to ‘fake’ this hydrodynamic behavior in p+A and A+A collisions. I find that transverse flow and femtoscopic measurements can easily be forged through non-hydrodynamic evolution, while large elliptic flow requires some non-vanishing interactions in the hot phase.
Electrode surface effects on large gap breakdown in SF6 gas

An Investigation of electrode surface effects has indicated that surface defects are a major cause of non-ideal performance of large gaps used in SF6 gas. A discharge inception model with a sensitivity analysis demonstrates that realistic size surface irregularities can initiate failures that compare well with test measurements. Also, a method to treat area effects by using surface statistics has been demonstrated.
Statically-Informed Dynamic Analysis Tools to Detect Algorithmic Complexity Vulnerabilities

Algorithmic Complexity (AC) vulnerabilities can be exploited to cause a denial of service attack. Specifically, an adversary can design an input to trigger excessive (space/time) resource consumption. It is not possible to build a fully automated tool to detect AC vulnerabilities. Since it is an open-ended problem, a human-in-loop exploration is required to find the program loops that could have AC vulnerabilities. Ascertaining whether an arbitrary loop has an AC vulnerability is itself difficult, which is equivalent to the halting problem. This paper is about a pragmatic engineering approach to detect AC vulnerabilities. It presents a statically-informed dynamic (SID) analysis and two tools that provide critical capabilities for detecting AC vulnerabilities. The first is a static analysis tool for exploring the software to find loops as the potential candidates for AC vulnerabilities. The second is a dynamic analysis tool that can try many different inputs to evaluate the selected loops for excessive resource consumption. The two tools are built and integrated together using the interactive software analysis, transformation, and visualization capabilities provided by the Atlas platform. The paper describes two use cases for the tools, one to detect AC vulnerabilities in Java bytecode and another for students in an undergraduate algorithm class to perform experiments to learn different aspects of algorithmic complexity Tool and Demo Video: https://ensoftcorp.github.io/SID.
Synchronous fluorescence lifetime imaging and optical coherence tomography using a double clad fiber

We present the first results from a hybrid fluorescence lifetime imaging and optical coherence tomography platform using a double clad fiber.
Shear-wave velocity structure near Oroville, California

abstract Average upper crustal shear-wave velocities ( V ¯ s ) near Oroville, California, have been determined from S -wave arrivals on timed, strong-motion accelerograms of eight aftershocks of the Oroville earthquake (August 1, 1975; M L = 5.7) at twelve sites. The value of V ¯ s to depths of 8 to 10 km is approximately 3.3 km/sec along paths to sites located on or near crystalline basement but decreases systematically at sites across the contact with Great Valley sediments. The average S -wave velocity in this sedimentary column, which varies in thickness from 0 to approximately 600 m thickness in the instrumented area, is about 1 km/sec. S waves from two additional shallow aftershocks and an explosion are used to infer a two-layer structure appropriate for the bedrock sites, consisting of a 2-km thick layer with v s = 2.9 km/sec overlying material with v s = 3.65 km/sec. With the use of one or two trigger times as P waves, well-recorded events can be located within 2 to 3 km of the USGS locations with S -wave arrivals taken from the strong-motion accelerograms.
Visual Representations of Accounting Information

Modern accounting information systems provide decision-makers with such a large volume of accounting data, it can overwhelm even the most sophisticated accounting decision-maker. The result may be underutilization of relevant information. Advances in information visualization technologies provide an effective alternative to address the current and future volume of accounting information. This chapter addresses the theoretical background of visualizations, describing the literature that supports the use of visualizations. The application of information visualization to accounting is discussed, followed by a description of variety multidimensional visualizations techniques.