cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Valuing the Wounds of War: Korea's DMZ as Nature Preserve

Korea’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) contains a wealth of what this volume calls “collateral values” ranging from undisturbed habitat and de facto protection for the peninsula’s rare and endangered species to conservation of a variety of cultural sites, both ancient and more modern, that have deep meaning for Korea’s people. This chapter examines the environmental history of the DMZ, illustrating how changes in both nature and culture since 1953 have helped to transform a relic of war into a symbol of peace. Although never intended to be permanent, the DMZ has radically altered the landscape of the Korean peninsula in ways that many inside both North Korea and South Korea, as well as across the globe, wish to make lasting. Because of its scientific, environmental, and cultural importance, the DMZ has become the object of preservation efforts even as reunification remains an important goal. This chapter argues that, in both its material and symbolic forms, the DMZ may reify the discontinuities between north and south but, in very important ways, it also serves as a green ribbon of hope, a place that commemorates the human sacrifices of military conflict and protects a variety of ecosystems and species that are found nowhere else on the peninsula.
iART: Learning From Demonstration for Assisted Robotic Therapy Using LSTM

In this letter, we present an intelligent Assistant for Robotic Therapy (iART), that provides robotic assistance during 3D trajectory tracking tasks. We propose a novel LSTM-based robot learning from demonstration (LfD) paradigm to mimic a therapist's assistance behavior. iART presents a trajectory agnostic LfD routine that can generalize learned behavior from a single trajectory to any 3D shape. Once the therapist's behavior has been learned, iART enables the patient to modify this behavior as per their preference. The system requires only a single demonstration of 2 minutes and exhibits a mean accuracy of 91.41% in predicting, and hence mimicking a therapist's assistance behavior. The system delivers stable assistance in realtime and successfully reproduces different types of assistance behaviors.
Machine Learning Decision Tree Models for Differentiation of Posterior Fossa Tumors Using Diffusion Histogram Analysis and Structural MRI Findings.

We applied machine learning algorithms for differentiation of posterior fossa tumors using apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram analysis and structural MRI findings. A total of 256 patients with intra-axial posterior fossa tumors were identified, of whom 248 were included in machine learning analysis, with at least 6 representative subjects per each tumor pathology. The ADC histograms of solid components of tumors, structural MRI findings, and patients' age were applied to construct decision models using Classification and Regression Tree analysis. We also compared different machine learning classification algorithms (i.e., naive Bayes, random forest, neural networks, support vector machine with linear and polynomial kernel) for dichotomized differentiation of the 5 most common tumors in our cohort: metastasis (n = 65), hemangioblastoma (n = 44), pilocytic astrocytoma (n = 43), ependymoma (n = 27), and medulloblastoma (n = 26). The decision tree model could differentiate seven tumor histopathologies with terminal nodes yielding up to 90% accurate classification rates. In receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis, the decision tree model achieved greater area under the curve (AUC) for differentiation of pilocytic astrocytoma (p = 0.020); and atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor ATRT (p = 0.001) from other types of neoplasms compared to the official clinical report. However, neuroradiologists' interpretations had greater accuracy in differentiating metastases (p = 0.001). Among different machine learning algorithms, random forest models yielded the highest accuracy in dichotomized classification of the 5 most common tumor types; and in multiclass differentiation of all tumor types random forest yielded an averaged AUC of 0.961 in training datasets, and 0.873 in validation samples. Our study demonstrates the potential application of machine learning algorithms and decision trees for accurate differentiation of brain tumors based on pretreatment MRI. Using easy to apply and understandable imaging metrics, the proposed decision tree model can help radiologists with differentiation of posterior fossa tumors, especially in tumors with similar qualitative imaging characteristics. In particular, our decision tree model provided more accurate differentiation of pilocytic astrocytomas from ATRT than by neuroradiologists in clinical reads.
A 28 GHz Single-Input Linear Chireix (SILC) Power Amplifier in 130 nm SiGe Technology

This article presents an integrated high-efficiency 28 GHz power amplifier (PA) employing a combination of Chireix outphasing and Doherty architectures in order to simultaneously achieve power back-off efficiency and linearity with a single RF input signal and no predistortion. The amplifier consists of a dual-input high-efficiency outphasing PA and a simple input network which serves as a power splitter and feeds the same signal to the inputs of the main and auxiliary PA cells that are biased in class-AB and class-C regions, respectively, similar to the Doherty architecture. The operation of the PA cells together with the Chireix combiner result in back-off efficiency enhancement plus systematic AM-AM and AM-PM variations which are used to correct the distortions caused by transistors, resulting in a linear response. The implemented PA demonstrates 19 dBm saturation power (Psat) with 34.4% peak power-added efficiency (PAE) and 6 dB back-off PAE of >23% at 27.5 GHz. The modulated signal performance using a 100 MHz 64QAM OFDM signal shows an average output power of 11.9 dBm with PAE >20%, EVM < 5%, and ACLR < −33 dBc without using predistortion.
Spatially-resolved quantification of proteins in triple negative breast cancers reveals differences in the immune microenvironment associated with prognosis

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype. Recent studies have shown that MHC class II (MHCII) expression and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes are important prognostic factors in patients with TNBC, although the relative importance of lymphocyte subsets and associated protein expression is incompletely understood. NanoString Digital Spatial Profiling (DSP) allows for spatially resolved, highly multiplexed quantification of proteins in clinical samples. In this study, we sought to determine if DSP could be used to characterize expression of MHCII and other immune related proteins in tumor epithelial versus stromal compartments of patient-derived TNBCs (N = 10) using a panel of 39 markers. We confirmed that a subset of TNBCs have elevated expression of HLA-DR in tumor epithelial cells; HLA-DR expression was also significantly higher in the tumors of patients with long-term disease-free survival when compared to patients that relapsed. HLA-DR expression in the epithelial compartment was correlated with high expression of CD4 and ICOS in the stromal compartment of the same tumors. We also identified candidate protein biomarkers with significant differential expression between patients that relapsed versus those that did not. In conclusion, DSP is a powerful method that allows for quantification of proteins in the immune microenvironment of TNBCs.
Automated segmentation of RGB-D images into a comprehensive set of building components using deep learning

Abstract Building information modeling (BIM) has a semantic scope that encompasses all building systems, e.g. architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. Automated, comprehensive digital modeling of buildings will require methods for semantic segmentation of images and 3D reconstructions capable of recognizing all building component classes. However, prior building component recognition methods have had limited semantic coverage and are not easily combined or scaled. Here we show that a deep neural network can semantically segment RGB-D (i.e. color and depth) images into 13 building component classes simultaneously despite the use of a small training dataset with only 1490 object instances. For this task, the method achieves an average intersection over union (IoU) of 0.5. The dataset was designed using a common building taxonomy to ensure comprehensive semantic coverage and was collected from a diversity of buildings to ensure intra-class diversity. As a consequence of its semantic scope, it was necessary to perform pre-segmentation and 3D to 2D projection as leverage for dataset annotation. In creating our deep learning pipeline, we found that transfer learning, class balancing, and prevention of overfitting effectively overcame the dataset’s borderline adequate class representation. Our results demonstrate how the semantic coverage of a building component recognition method can be scaled to include a larger diversity of building systems. We anticipate our method to be a starting point for broadening the scope of the semantic segmentation methods involved in digital modeling of buildings.
Contextualizing rename decisions using refactorings, commit messages, and data types

Abstract Identifier names are the atoms of program comprehension. Weak identifier names decrease developer productivity and degrade the performance of automated approaches that leverage identifier names in source code analysis; threatening many of the advantages which stand to be gained from advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Therefore, it is vital to support developers in naming and renaming identifiers. In this paper, we extend our prior work, which studies the primary method through which names evolve: rename refactorings. In our prior work, we contextualize rename changes by examining commit messages and other refactorings. In this extension, we further consider data type changes which co-occur with these renames, with a goal of understanding how data type changes influence the structure and semantics of renames. In the long term, the outcomes of this study will be used to support research into: (1) recommending when a rename should be applied, (2) recommending how to rename an identifier, and (3) developing a model that describes how developers mentally synergize names using domain and project knowledge. We provide insights into how our data can support rename recommendation and analysis in the future, and reflect on the significant challenges, highlighted by our study, for future research in recommending renames.
Gerontological Social Work's Pivotal Role in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Response from AGE SW Leadership.

The COVID-19 pandemic is putting a spotlight on older adults, a population that many social workers, ourselves included, devote entire careers to. Whether in research, teaching, or community progra...
Sampling Rates and Other Considerations for Selected Passive Air Sampling Techniques

Passive samplers for gases use the motion of the gas molecules themselves to furnish the energy for the transfer of gases from the ambient air to a suitable collecting medium. There is no need for pumps, flow regulators, batteries, or other power supplies. Thus the passive sampler can be made much smaller, lighter, less expensive, and much simpler to use and maintain than active samplers. However, passive samplers cannot be used to sample particulates, which, at the particle sizes encountered in industrial or community air, have coefficients of diffusion that are many orders of magnitude lower than those for gas molecules. All passive samplers depend on Fick's first law of diffusion, which, paraphrased, states that the sampling rate is directly proportional to the coefficients of diffusion of the gas being sampled, the cross-sectional area of the diffusion path, and the concentration of the gas; it is inversely proportional to the length of the diffusion path. There are two major types of diffusion samplers currently described in the literature. One type uses an air column as the diffusion barrier. Since the coefficient of diffusion for a gas in air is a constant that can be calculated independently, the area and length of the diffusion path, that is, the sampler geometry, can be chosen to give a suitable sampling rate. The other type uses a thin membrane as the diffusion barrier. At the present state of the art, permeation constants for gases through specific membrane materials cannot be calculated from the data available in the literature. Therefore, the permeation devices currently in use depend on empirical calibration of a specific membrane and a specific absorbent for each gas. A wide variety of sampling rates can be obtained by using passive samplers, but each sampler operates at a fixed rate. The question of which sampling rates or ranges are the most desirable deserves serious attention by industrial hygienists.
Channel Thickness Optimization for Ultrathin and 2-D Chemically Doped TFETs

The 2-D material-based TFETs are among the most promising candidates for low-power electronics applications since they offer ultimate gate control and high-current drives that are achievable through small tunneling distances ( $\Lambda $ ) during the device operation. The ideal device is characterized by a minimized $\Lambda $ . However, devices with the thinnest possible body do not necessarily provide the best performance. For example, reducing the channel thickness ( ${T}_{\text {ch}}$ ) increases the depletion width in the source, which can be a significant part of the total $\Lambda $ . Hence, it is important to determine the optimum ${T}_{\text {ch}}$ for each channel material individually. In this paper, we study the optimum ${T}_{\text {ch}}$ for three channel materials: WSe2, black phosphorus, and InAs using full-band self-consistent quantum transport simulations. To identify the ideal ${T}_{\text {ch}}$ for each material at a specific doping density, a new analytic model is proposed and benchmarked against the numerical simulations.
Clinical Stage of Cancer Affects Perioperative Mortality for Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgeries

Abstract Background The impact of the stage of cancer on perioperative mortality remains obscure. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cancer stage influences 30-d mortality for gastric, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers. Methods Data were collected from the National Cancer Database for patients undergoing resections for cancers of the stomach, pancreas, colon, or rectum between 2004 and 2015. The main analysis was conducted among patients with cancer stages 1-3. A sensitivity analysis also included cancer stage 4. Descriptive statistics were used to compare the patients’ baseline characteristics. Generalized linear mixed models were used to evaluate the relationship between stage and 30-d mortality, controlling for other disease-, patient- and hospital-level factors. Pseudo R2 statistics (%Δ pseudo R2) were used to quantify the relative explanatory capacity of the variables to the model for 30-d mortality. All analyses were performed using SAS 9.4. Results The cohort included 24,468, 28,078, 176,285, and 64,947 patients with stomach, pancreas, colon, and rectal cancers, respectively. After adjusting for other variables, 30-d mortality was different by stage for all cancer types examined. The factor most strongly associated with 30-d mortality was age (%Δ pseudo R2 range 14%-39%). The prognostic impact of cancer stage (Stages 1, 2, or 3) on 30-d mortality was comparable to that of the Charlson comorbidity index. Conclusions Cancer stage contributes to explaining differences observed in short-term mortality for gastrointestinal cancers. Short-term mortality models would benefit by including more granular cancer stage, beyond disseminated status alone.
Botulinum Toxin in Movement Disorders: An Update

Since its initial approval in 1989 by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of blepharospasm and other facial spasms, botulinum toxin (BoNT) has evolved into a therapeutic modality for a variety of neurological and non-neurological disorders. With respect to neurologic movement disorders, BoNT has been reported to be effective for the treatment of dystonia, bruxism, tremors, tics, myoclonus, restless legs syndrome, tardive dyskinesia, and a variety of symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease. More recently, research with BoNT has expanded beyond its use as a powerful muscle relaxant and a peripherally active drug to its potential central nervous system applications in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. Although BoNT is the most potent biologic toxin, when it is administered by knowledgeable and experienced clinicians, it is one of the safest therapeutic agents in clinical use. The primary aim of this article is to provide an update on recent advances in BoNT research with a focus on novel applications in the treatment of movement disorders. This comprehensive review of the literature provides a critical review of evidence-based clinical trials and highlights recent innovative pilot studies.
Minimization of a class of rare event probabilities and buffered probabilities of exceedance

We consider the problem of choosing design parameters to minimize the probability of an undesired rare event that is described through the average of n i.i.d. random variables. Since the probability of interest for near optimal design parameters is very small, one needs to develop suitable accelerated Monte-Carlo methods for estimating its value. One of the challenges in the study is that simulating from exponential twists of the laws of the summands may be computationally demanding since these transformed laws may be non-standard and intractable. We consider a setting where the summands are given as a nonlinear functional of random variables, the exponential twists of whose distributions take a simpler form than those for the original summands. We use techniques from Dupuis and Wang (Stochastics 76(6):481–508, 2004, Math Oper Res 32(3):723–757, 2007) to identify the appropriate Issacs equations whose subsolutions are used to construct tractable importance sampling (IS) schemes. We also study the closely related problem of estimating buffered probability of exceedance and provide the first rigorous results that relate the asymptotics of buffered probability and that of the ordinary probability under a large deviation scaling. The analogous minimization problem for buffered probability, under conditions, can be formulated as a convex optimization problem. We show that, under conditions, changes of measures that are asymptotically efficient (under the large deviation scaling) for estimating ordinary probability are also asymptotically efficient for estimating the buffered probability of exceedance. We embed the constructed IS scheme in gradient descent algorithms to solve the optimization problems, and illustrate these schemes through computational experiments.
Field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry for pre-symptomatic rot detection in stored Ranger Russet and Russet Burbank potatoes

Abstract This study was aimed at early detection and rot progression monitoring in stored potatoes using a portable field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) system. Tuber samples of Ranger Russet (RR) and Russet Burbank (RB) cultivars were inoculated with Pectobacterium carotovorumsubsp.carotovorum (causes soft rot) and sterile water (control). The samples were stored in jars either at room temperature (25 °C with 30 % relative humidity [RH]) or reduced temperature (4 °C with 95 % RH). Volatile headspace from samples was scanned with FAIMS at regular intervals up to 14 days for room temperature and 31 days for reduced temperature storages. Infection symptoms were detected for higher ion current pertinent to headspace of inoculated samples compared to the controls of both the cultivars. Such discrimination was evident at FAIMS compensation voltage (CV)-dispersion field (DF) ranges of −1.70–1.31 V and 38–90 % for room temperature and −1.58–1.31 V and 36–92 % for reduced temperature storages. The rot was detected as early as one day after inoculation (DAI) under room temperature and five DAI under reduced temperature storages. The ion currents were affected by the storage temperature and humidity, and associated interaction with the DAI and cultivar (F7,712 = 21.6–31.4, p
Administrative Intensity and Faculty Job Stress.

This article speaks to the debate regarding the proper size of university administrations by presenting the results of an examination of how the relative size of administrative components within U.S. research universities affects the job stress of faculty members. Using national survey data merged with workforce data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), results from statistical modeling reveal that a higher ratio of faculty to some types of non-instructional workers is associated with increased faculty member stress. These findings suggest that shadow work—administrative tasks that are shifted to faculty members when the number of available clerical and support workers is reduced—may negatively affect faculty stress levels.
Impact of Conservation Agriculture on Greenhouse Gas Emission and Its Implications

Conservation agriculture (CA) is being practiced globally approximately in 125 M ha of land. However, in India it is adopted only about 1.5 M ha. The CA is recommended for its beneficial effects like protection from soil degradation, mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and restoration of soil health. It is an approach often considered as one of the resource conservation technologies (RCTs), which aims to utilize natural resources including soil, water, and nutrient. The CA approach includes residue retention/management, reduced tillage practices, and crop diversification. This chapter reviews impact of CA on GHG emission and carbon sequestration on prevalent cropping systems by comparing the effect of cropping system, residue management, integrated nutrient management, etc. with conventional agricultural practice. The conservation tillage system stabilizes soil carbon but may contribute more to GHG emissions as compared to conventional practice. The retention of crop residues and crop diversification affects nitrous oxide (N2O) emission from agriculture by altering the availability of nitrate (NO3−) and decomposability of carbon substrates. However, legume residues resulted in higher N2O-N losses compared to nonlegume. Hence, for a better understanding of the GHG emissions under CA practices, it is necessary to know the relative importance of its (CA’s) components, such as zero tillage, residue retention, and crop rotations on emissions and carbon sequestration. Whether conversion of conventional to conservation system can mitigate GHG emission is still a debatable issue; however, it definitely sequesters more carbon in the soil. Therefore, intensive research is needed, particularly on different tillage practices and cropping systems in combination with nutrient management on long-term CA systems.
Teaching death ritual during states of emergency: Centering death positivity, anti-racism, grief, & ritual

This article examines the challenges and opportunities of teaching an online university seminar on Death Rituals in the midst of several domestic and global crises, including: the COVID-19 pandemic...
A Comparison of Traditional Segmentation Methods with Segmentation Based upon Artificial Neural Networks by Means of Conjoint Data from a Monte-Carlo-Simulation

Simulated data are needed to compare traditional segmentation methods with segmentation by neural networks, because only under these circumstances the quality of reproduction between methods is comparable. Therefore conjoint data with differently distributed errors are created by a Monte-Carlo-Simulation. The results of a segmentation by neural networks are compared with those of a segmentation by traditional methods in order to reveal whether the introduced neural networks are capable of a better segmentation at all, respectively for which structure of the starting data the segmentation by neural networks appears to be particularly promising.
Serial combinators: “optimal” grains of parallelism

A method is described for translating a high-level functional program into combinators suitable for execution on multiprocessors with no shared memory. It is argued that the granularity of the standard set of fixed combinators is too fine, whereas the granularity of user-defined functions is too coarse. The notion of a serial combinator is introduced that in some sense has optimal granularity, and that takes into account pragmatic issues such as the complexity of expressions and communication costs between processors. The technique improves on the standard notion of super-combinators by making them larger to retain locality and improve efficiency, and by ensuring that they have no concurrent substructure that could result in lost parallelism. Simulation results demonstrate improved performance on both sequential and parallel computing models.
Strategy and Stance: A Framework for Understanding Public Advocacy

This paper proposes a new framework to analyze the behavior of "public advocates", defined as professionals who seek to influence public policy on behalf of the public interest. Using the framework, it describes systemic pressures that lead public advocates to overuse adversarial, coercive tactics. The framework classifies each action of a public advocate into four broad categories based on choices about "strategy" (how to use available resources to cause change) and "stance" (the mental map of the person or institution that s/he seeks to influence). Alternative strategies can be arrayed on a continuum from "push" to "pull", and alternative stances from "friend" to "foe". Using a matrix or grid, advocacy to influence a particular target can be characterized as push-foe, push-friend, pull-foe, or pull-friend. Based on extensive personal experience, the author suggests that the choice of stance is subject to a systemic negative bias: in a sustained dispute, most competing advocates will come to see the "other" as foes. A foe stance distorts judgment about strategy so that push strategies appear to be the only realistic option. This explains the prevalence of what the author calls the "Advocacy Trap", where advocates continue to treat others as enemies (foe stance) to be attacked and discredited (push strategy) despite repeated failure. To the extent that successful public advocacy requires a judicious mix of push and pull strategies, public advocates need to maintain a stance of respect in the face of hostility. The author concludes by calling for a new conversation among educators, scholars, philanthropists, foundations, citizen activists and journalists on how to educate, recognize, and support public advocates who embody this approach.
Volatile capital flows : taming their impact on Latin America

This volume addresses the problem of how to manage large capital flows in a volatile economic environment like Latin-America. It argues that economic liberalization remains a valid long-term strategy for the region, but that it needs to find ways of protecting itself against financial shocks. The extent to which countries should influence the composition of capital inflows is considered, as is the adjustment to less international capital without jeopardizing domestic needs, and whether international monetary co-operation should be strengthened to protect against future crises.
Spurious Elevation of Apparent Lactate Dehydrogenase Activity Caused by Triamterene

Triamterene induced spurious elevations in serum lactate dehydrogenase activity, as assayed by an automated fluorometric method; the enzyme activities were normal when measured spectrophotometrically. Solutions of the drug in normal serum or physiological saline, without addition of substrate or coenzyme, yielded high values for apparent "enzyme" activity by the fluorometric assay.
Integration of chemotaxis, transport and catabolism in Pseudomonas putida and identification of the aromatic acid chemoreceptor PcaY

Summary Aromatic and hydroaromatic compounds that are metabolized through the β-ketoadipate catabolic pathway serve as chemoattractants for Pseu- domonas putida F1. A screen of P. putida F1 mutants, each lacking one of the genes encoding the 18 puta- tive methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs), revealed that pcaY encodes the MCP required for metabolism-independent chemotaxis to vanillate, vanillin, 4-hydroxybenzoate, benzoate, protocat- echuate, quinate, shikimate, as well as 10 substituted benzoates that do not serve as growth substrates for P. putida F1. Chemotaxis was induced during growth on aromatic compounds, and an analysis of a pcaY- lacZ fusion revealed that pcaY is expressed in the presence of β-ketoadipate, a common intermediate in the pathway. pcaY expression also required the tran- scriptional activator PcaR, indicating that pcaY is a member of the pca regulon, which includes three unlinked gene clusters that encode five enzymes required for the conversion of 4-hydroxybenzoate to tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates as well as the major facilitator superfamily transport protein PcaK. The 4-hydroxybenzoate permease PcaK was shown to modulate the chemotactic response by facilitating the uptake of 4-hydroxybenzoate, which leads to the accumulation of β-ketoadipate, thereby increasing pcaY expression. The results show that chemotaxis, transport and metabolism of aromatic compounds are intimately linked in P. putida.
TIME-RESOLVED FLUORESCENCE-DECAY MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS ON SINGLE CELLS BY FLOW CYTOMETRY

A novel method is described for the measurement and analysis of fluorescence decays of individual cells and particles in flow. It combines the rapid measurement capabilities of a flow cytometer and the robust measurement and analysis procedures of time-domain fluorescence-lifetime spectroscopy. For excitation we use a cw laser that is pulse modulated by an electro-optic modulator. The characteristics and the repetition rate of the excitation pulses can be easily adjusted to accommodate fluorescence decays with a wide range of lifetimes.
The escalation and maintenance of child abuse: A cybernetic model

A cybernetic model of child abuse is presented as a contribution to the theoretical literature on child abuse. The child's role in his or her own abuse is stressed; interaction between caretaker and child is emphasized. While the origins of abuse are discussed, the focus of the paper is on the maintenance and escalation of the pattern of abusive interaction. The author proposes to explain this pattern-maintenance through the application of Gregory Bateson's concept of schismogenesis, or regenerative feedback, a concept derived from cybernetics and family systems theory. Suggestions for intervention in this process are discussed in the conclusion.
Focus on Apoptosis to Decipher How Alcohol and Many Other Drugs Disrupt Brain Development

Maternal ingestion of alcohol during pregnancy can cause a disability syndrome termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which may include craniofacial malformations, gross structural brain pathology, and a variety of long-term neuropsychiatric disturbances, or it may consist of subtle brain changes and neuropsychiatric disturbances in the relative absence of gross dysmorphogenic features. Based on a large body of recent evidence, we have proposed (1) that most, if not all, of the deleterious effects of alcohol on the developing brain can be explained by a single mechanism. Alcohol has apoptogenic properties that cause large numbers of CNS progenitor cells, or fully differentiated brain cells (depending on developmental age at time of alcohol exposure) to commit suicide and be deleted from the pool of cells that would ordinarily survive and contribute to the normal functions of the brain. If excessive cell suicide is triggered by alcohol in a very early stage of development, the result, as Sulik and colleagues have shown (2), will be gross dysmorphogenic anomalies (e.g., craniofacial and midline brain anomalies), because the cells deleted are progenitor cells that are responsible for generating cell populations that comprise the building blocks of these craniofacial and brain structures. But if, as we have demonstrated (3–5), alcohol triggers suicide of CNS cells in later stages of development after these cells are already differentiating into neurons and glia, the result will be a reduced number of brain cells, derangement of brain circuitry, and various neuropsychiatric disturbances, depending on which populations of cells have been deleted and what combination of synaptic connections have been disrupted or destroyed.
Parent, dentist, and orthodontist satisfaction following alveolar cleft repair using recombinant human bone morphogenic protein.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate dental/orthodontic outcomes for patients who underwent recombinant human bone morphogenic protein (rhBMP-2) alveolar cleft repair and to examine parental satisfaction following the procedure. Design Retrospective review. Setting Tertiary children's hospital. Participants Parents, dentists, and orthodontists completed satisfaction questionnaires. Main Outcome Measures Parent, dentist, and orthodontist satisfaction with the use of rhBMP-2 in alveolar cleft repair. Results Parent response rate was 71.4% (30/42). The dentist response rate was 60% (18/30). The orthodontist response rate was 53.3% (16/30). Parent and patient satisfaction was 93.3% and 83.3%, respectively. Of dentist respondents, 55.6% reported that the bone quality and alveolar ridge mucosal repair allowed for dental treatment. Of orthodontist respondents, 87.5% reported the graft enabled treatment, and 73.3% felt the graft prevented tooth root exposure and resorption. Conclusions Parents, dentists, and orthod...
Information Structure and Syntactic Change in the History of English

This comprehensive compilation of studies concerning the relationship between syntax, information structure (IS) and text structuring within the domain of the clause (including main, subordinate an...
Explanation, Deliberation, and Reasons

Jonathan Dancy's Practical Reality defends a strikingly nonpsychologistic account of motivating reasons for action. When we explain what people do by citing their reasons, we are trying to isolate the considerations that were actually effective in moving them to act. But it is crucial, Dancy contends, that these considerations be understood in a way that preserves their connec tion to the normative contexts in which the concept of a reason also has a place. The considerations that move agents to act are considerations that agents take to cast a favorable light on the actions they perform, and it is at least sometimes the case that peoples' motivating reasons are also good rea sons for action, considerations that really do recommend or speak in favor of the action that was undertaken. If we make the plausible further assumption that these normative reasons are typically not psychological states of the agents to whom they apply, it follows that motivating reasons equally cannot be understood in essentially psychological terms. The reasons for which peo ple act are rarely if ever psychological states to which they are subject, but (real or purported) facts or states of the world of the sort that are capable of counting in favor of actions, and that in successful cases render sensible or reasonable the very actions that agents in fact perform. I agree wholeheartedly with Dancy that normative reasons do not in gen eral consist in psychological states. I also agree with Dancy that motivating reasons should be understood in a way that preserves their connection to the kinds of normative consideration that recommend or speak in favor of actions. As Dancy helpfully puts the point, our aim in answering the question as to why a given agent did something is to reveal the favorable light in which the agent saw what he was doing (p. 97).The considerations we cite in explaining action must be such as to enable us to understand the normative factors that were salient from the agent's point of view. This important dimension of motivating reasons goes missing when we construe them as psychological states whose contribution to the explanation of what the agent does derives
A system for simultaneous exposure of small animals to 50-Hz electric and magnetic fields

Equipment designed for simultaneous exposure of rodents to 60-Hz electric and magnetic fields is described. Three identical systems were constructed, each capable of continuous exposure of 256 rats or 640 mice to a nominal electric field at less than 50 kV/m, and to horizontal and vertical magnetic fields at less than 1 mT. Design features, construction details, and results of various tests of the systems are described. Tests were made: of phase relations between electric and magnetic fields; of uniformity of electric and magnetic fields; of changes across time in electric-field intensity as a result of animals' soiling of cages and various washing routines; of resistance of bedding material during humid and dry conditions; and of acoustic noise due to background, to field-generation equipment, and to air conditioning equipment. The results demonstrated that fields were effectively generated but that significant and troublesome changes in electric-field intensity occurred because of cage-soiling. However, when cages were frequently cleaned, field intensities were consistent from one exposure to another.
P03.13. Assessment of student learning at a CAM institution - why and how?

Methods Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) are specific statements that describe the knowledge, skills and attitudes that students are expected to learn at the successful completion of the curriculum. They provide the students with what to expect of the program and themselves. SLOs also assist in programmatic review, evaluation and improvement of the curriculum. As a result of their extensive role, outcome based education has become a priority in health professions. While it has been successfully implemented in medical, dental and nursing schools, outcome based education is gradually evolving in the complementary and alternative medicine professions. Our institution created four exclusive SLO Departments to develop, refine, and manage SLOs across all the programs. Furthermore, these departments were given the responsibility of assessment of student learning.
Telerobotic gastrointestinal surgery: phase 2--safety and efficacy.

Background The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the da Vinci surgical system for all abdominal operations in July 2000. In the past 6 years, virtually all gastrointestinal operations have been accomplished using telerobotic techniques. The purpose of this review is to summarize the short-term outcomes achieved with telerobotic gastrointestinal operations.
Information and Communication: Alternative Uses of the Internet in Households

the Internet a superhighway to information or a high-tech extension of the home tele- phone? We address this question by operationalizing information acquisition and enter- tainment as the use of the World Wide Web and interpersonal communication as the use of electronic mail (e-mail), and examine how 229 members of 110 households used these services during their first year on the Internet. The results show that e-mail drives people's use of the Internet. Participants used e-mail in more Internet sessions and more consistently than they used the World Wide Web, and they used e-mail first in sessions where they used both. Participants used the Internet more after they had used e-mail heavily, but they used the Internet less after they had used the Web heavily. While participants' use of both e-mail and the Web declined with time, the decline in Web use was steeper. Those who used e-mail more than they used the Web were also more likely to continue using the Internet over the course of a year. Our findings have implications for engineering and policies for the Internet and, more generally, for studies of the social impact of new technology.
Analysis of the sea surges at Venice from A.D. 782 to 1990

After an accurate search for old documents in Italian archives, the series of the sea surges has been reconstructed for a period of 12 centuries. In addition to written documents, other sources have also been investigated, e.g. the identification marks made by the Venetian Republic at the mean level of the high tides and accurate drawings made in the 18th century by the painterCanaletto with the help of a portable camera obscura. The sea surges at Venice are due to several forcing factors: a low pressure passing over the Mediterranean and generating a Sirocco wind; the barometric effect associated with a gradient of atmospheric pressure over the sea waters; free oscillations in the Adriatic sea; solar and lunar influences; subsidence of the soil. Except for a period which culminated in 1424–1442, when the moon was in perigee and the earth in perihelion, in general the meteorological factors largely dominate over the astronomical ones: the seasonal distribution shows a narrow peak in November–December and the series is important to show the frequency of the anomalies in the atmospheric circulations which determined meridional winds over the Adriatic sea. The analysis of the data shows clearly the 18.6 yr lunar nutation influence and a continuous rise of the sea level despite the cooling of the Little Ice Age. The most perturbed period were respectively: 1914–today, due to anthropogenic factors, i.e. excavating of new canals and underground water pumping; 1500–1550, during the Sporer Minimum of solar activity; 1720–1830; 1250–1350, which was also a stormy period in the North Sea. No apparent links with the Maunder Minimum of solar activity were found.
Methods of Measuring Retention

(1935). Methods of Measuring Retention. The Journal of General Psychology: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 144-155.
Microbeam analysis of hydrogen near a crack tip in titanium

Microbeam transmission elastic recoil detection (ERD) was used to analyze microscopic hydrogen distributions near a crack tip in Ti foil loaded with an initial atomic hydrogen concentration of 3.0% relative to Ti. A 5.8 MeV He ion beam focused down to the order of 10 μm was scanned in a 500 μm line perpendicular to the crack and approximately 20 μm ahead of the crack tip. ERD line maps were made for a series of increasing stresses which were applied by uniaxial tension perpendicular to the crack. The crack opening displacement (COD) for each stress load was measured from an ion-beam-induced secondary electron emission (SEM) spectrograph of the crack opening. The technique was used to characterize the fracture mechanical properties of α-Ti hydride and demonstrates the use of microbeam analysis for the study of binary hydrogen metal systems.
Biased Deposition of Nanocrystalline Be 1−x Cu x Coatings

Coatings of Be{sub 1-x}Cu{sub x} are prepared by magnetron sputter deposition onto spherical polymer mandrels. The application of an applied bias during deposition refines the columnar morphology of the coating and surface finish to the nanoscale. A mechanical testing technique is developed to load the thin-walled spherical capsules under uniaxial tension at constant strain to fracture. The bias-deposited material exhibits an increase in strength by a factor of three or more following a Hall-Petch type relationship with surface roughness.
Enzyme heterozygosity, metabolism, and developmental stability

Developmental homeostasis, measured as either fluctuating asymmetry or variance of morphological characters, increases with enzyme heterozygosity in many, but not all, natural populations. These results have been reported forDrosophila, monarch butterflies, honeybees, blue mussels, side-blotched lizards, killifish, salmonid fishes, guppies, Sonoran topminnows, herring, rufous-collared sparrows, house sparrows, brown hares, white-tailed deer, and humans. Because heterozygosity at a few loci can not predict heterozygosity of the entiry genome, these loci must be detecting localized zones that influence the developmental environment.
Image segmentation with implicit color standardization using cascaded EM: Detection of myelodysplastic syndromes

Color nonstandardness — the propensity for similar objects to exhibit different color properties across images — poses a significant problem in the computerized analysis of histopathology. Though many papers propose means for improving color constancy, the vast majority assume image formation via reflective light instead of light transmission as in microscopy, and thus are inappropriate for histological analysis. In this work, we present a novel Bayesian color segmentation algorithm for histological images that is highly robust to color nonstandardness; this algorithm employs a unique instantiation of the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm to dynamically estimate — for each individual image — the probability density functions (mixtures of gamma and von Mises distributions) that describe the colors of salient objects. To validate our segmentation scheme, we employ it as part of a computerized system to detect myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) on bone marrow specimens. Qualitative anecdotal evidence suggests that biopsies of MDS exhibit abnormalities in the arrangement of erythroid precursors (immature red blood cells). Herein, we confirm and quantify this phenomenon, using it to discriminate MDS from normal tissue: over a dataset of 53 representative regions selected from 18 patients, our classification system correctly discriminates MDS from normal tissue with an accuracy of 85% and an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.8803.
Epitaxial films of metals from the platinum group (Ir, Rh, Pt and Ru) on YSZ-buffered Si(1 1 1)

Abstract In the present work we have grown twin-free single crystal metal films of iridium (Ir), rhodium (Rh), platinum (Pt) and ruthenium (Ru) on silicon (1 1 1) substrates via an yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) buffer layer. A prerequisite for the realisation of heteroepitaxial metal films without additional texture components was the twin-free deposition of the YSZ films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). For the metal films on top, a novel two-step growth process was applied with an extremely low deposition rate for the first 20 nm. For all metals, a drastic texture improvement by up to a factor of 9 could be observed compared to the oxide buffer layer. Minimum values were 0.18° (Ir) and 0.12° (Rh) for tilt and twist, respectively. For all four metals investigated, twin-free epitaxial films could be grown on YSZ/Si(1 1 1) whereas the twinning problem for platinum films was solved by decoupling the Pt-YSZ interface via an additional iridium interlayer. The grown metal/YSZ/Si(1 1 1) multilayer samples offer the possibility to integrate a variety of interesting nanostructures and functional materials on silicon. They are now available in 4 in wafer size.
Comparative analysis of robustness of centralized and distributed network route control systems in incident situations

A procedure for providing real-time route guidance in congested vehicular traffic networks is described. The control procedure, implementable in a decentralized scheme, envisions a set of distributed local controllers in the network in which every controller can extract only limited information from detectors. The assignment logic is driven by informed local search procedures and heuristics. A simulation-assignment model was developed and used to assess the effectiveness and robustness of the procedure in dealing with normal as well as incident traffic conditions. A comparative study was undertaken to gauge the performance of the distributed control structure against a benchmark scenario of the time-dependent system-optimal logic in a centralized architecture. The assessment was conducted under various operational scenarios of different incident links, durations, and severity. The findings of the simulation-based experiments indicated that the distributed scheme is more robust than the centralized time-dependent scheme under incident conditions.