cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Temperature Dependent Recombination Lifetime in Silicon: Influence of Trap Level

This paper discusses the temperature dependence of recombination lifetime in a variety of silicon materials using energy level as a parameter. A theoretical approach based on the Shockley-Read-Hall theory for energy level calculations has been used. Various types of defects created by introducing impurities, dislocations and grain boundaries into silicon waferswere studied. Results are presented for Czochralski grown Si wafers intentionally contaminated with gold and chromium, EFG ribbon with varying concentration of oxygen, web ribbons with extended defects and contaminants, large grain polycrystalline material, and Si/Si-Ge/Si heterostructures with varying misfit and threading dislocation density.
Direct detection of phospholamban and sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase interaction in membranes using fluorescence resonance energy transfer

We used fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to detect and quantitate the interaction of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase (SERCA) with phospholamban (PLB) in membranes. PLB inhibits SERCA only at submicromolar Ca. It has been proposed that relief of inhibition at micromolar Ca is due to dissociation of the inhibitory complex. To test this hypothesis, we co-reconstituted donor-labeled SERCA and acceptor-labeled I40A-PLB (superinhibitory, monomeric PLB mutant) in membranes of defined lipid and protein composition, with full retention of Ca-dependent ATPase activity and inhibitory regulation by PLB. FRET from SERCA to PLB was measured as a function of membrane concentrations of PLB and SERCA, and functional activity was measured on the same samples. The data revealed clearly that the stoichiometry of binding is one PLB per SERCA, and that binding is a strict function of the ratio of total PLB to SERCA in the membrane. We conclude that the dissociation constant of PLB binding to SERCA is far less than physiological PLB membrane concentrations. Binding at low Ca (pCa 6.5), where I40A-PLB inhibits SERCA, was virtually identical to that at high Ca (pCa 5.0), where no inhibition was observed. However, the limiting energy transfer at saturating PLB was less at high Ca, indicating a greater donor-acceptor distance. We conclude that (a) the affinity of PLB for SERCA is so great that PLB is essentially a SERCA subunit under physiological conditions and (b) relief of inhibition at micromolar Ca is due to a structural rearrangement within the SERCA-PLB complex, rather than dissociation.
Clinical features and risk factors for blood stream infections of Candida in neonates

Candida species are the leading cause of invasive fungal infections in children admitted to hospital. However, few data exist with regard to the clinical features, risk factors and prognosis for candidemia in neonates. The present retrospective study included 40 neonates from the Affiliated Children's Hospital of the Capital Institute of Pediatrics (Beijing, China) in the time period between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010 (candidemia group, n=19; non-candidemia group, n=21). The clinical characteristics, prognosis and previously identified risk factors for the two groups were recorded. According to the forward stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis, administration of antibiotics >2 weeks prior, the use of glycopeptide antibiotics, maternal candidal vaginitis and secondary gastrointestinal surgery were identified as predictors of candidiasis. When compared with the non-gastrointestinal dysfunction group, the proportion of neonates that had been subjected to parenteral nutrition, central venous catheters, gastrointestinal surgery, secondary gastrointestinal surgery, repeated tracheal intubation and glycopeptide antibiotic administration was significantly higher in the gastrointestinal dysfunction group (P<0.05). Long-term application of antibiotics, use of glycopeptide antibiotics, maternal candidal vaginitis and secondary gastrointestinal surgery appeared to be the risk factors of candidemia in neonates. The neonates co-existed with gastrointestinal dysfunction suffering from candidemia were likely to experience growth retardation at 6 months after hospital discharge. Candidemia is potentially life-threatening situation for neonates, and if patients do not succumb it may affect their early development.
A comparison of homing behavior in feral and homing pigeons.

Three series of experiments were conducted to determine whether the orientational and homing behavior of feral pigeons (“Commons”) in the U.S.A. is comparable to that of homing pigeons. Wild-caught adult and juvenile Commons showed meaningful nonrandom orientation when released at unfamiliar sites. When such birds were phaseshifted 6 h fast, their vanishing bearings were deflected approximately 90° counterclockwise, thus indicating use of the time-compensated sun compass. Young Commons reared and trained with Homers of the same age differed behaviorally from the Homers in a variety of ways and many fewer returned home from training and test releases, but the season for the fewer returns appeared to be more concerned with social behavior than with orientational capability. Zusammenfassung In drei Serien von Experimenten wurde untersucht, ob verwilderte Haustauben („Feldfluchter”, englisch „Commons”) in den USA im Orientierungs- und Heimkehrvermogen mit Brieftauben vergleichbar sind. 1 Wildfange aus zwei verschiedenen Stadten wurden auf der Verbindungslinie zwischen diesen wieder freigelassen und die individuellen Abflugrichtungen auf verschiedene Weise, aber mit demselben Resultat bestimmt. Die beiden Taubengruppen bevorzugten zwei ganz verschiedene Abflugrichtungen. Jungvogel (nicht alter als 6 Monate) zeigten eine geringere Abflugstreuung. Trotzdem kehrten mehr erwachsene (45% bzw. 68%) als junge Tauben (8% bzw. 36%) in den heimatlichen Kirchturm zuruck. 2 Vogel, deren Tagesrhythmus um 6 h vorverstellt worden war, wichen von der Abflugrichtung der Kontrollvogel um etwa 90° nach links ab. Also konnen sich auch in freier Natur aufgewachsene Vogel mit Hilfe von Sonnenkompas und innerer Uhr orientieren. 3 Verwilderte Haustauben, die vom Nestlingsalter an gemeinsam mit gleichaltrigen Brieftauben in einem Taubenschlag aufgezogen und systematisch trainiert wurden, nahmen bis zum Ende der Trainingsphase rasch an Zahl ab, weil viele nicht wieder heimkehrten (im Experiment von 1975 verblieben noch 19% der verwilderten Haustauben gegenuber 84% der Brieftauben). Bei den Einzelauflassungen waren die verwilderten Haustauben beim Abflug ebensogut orientiert wie Brieftauben, obwohl letztlich weniger heimkehrten. Bei den jungen verwilderten Haustauben ergaben sich Anzeichen fur schwachere Bindung an den Heimatort, was im Dienst der Ausbreitung stehen konnte. Ferner lassen sich verwilderte Tauben viel leichter als Brieftauben von Artgenossen im Gelande anlocken. Eine solche Anlockung durch fremde Taubenansammlungen steht bei freilebenden Tauben vermutlich im Dienst des sozialen Nahrungserwerbs und ist angepast an sporadisch, dafur aber gehauft auftretendes Futter. Dieses Verhalten, das die Heimkehr verzogert, ist den Brieftauben abgezuchtet worden. Die festgestellten Unterschiede im Heimkehrverhalten sind also eher bedingt durch Unterschiede im Sozialverhalten als durch Unterschiede im Orientierungsvermogen.
Doing Organization Development in Complex Systems: The Case at a Large U.S. Research, Land-Grant University:

The problem and the solution.Doing organization development in a university is similar to doing such work in any complex organization or system. It becomes even more difficult when the expertise to...
The Meaning of Work in the Lives of People Living with HIV Disease and AIDS.

Many individuals with HIV disease and AIDS are living longer, experiencing improved health, and planning for their futures due to the increased efficacy of new drug therapies and drug combinations ...
Neurocognitive Deficits in Borderline Personality Disorder: Implications for Treatment

Abstract The cognitive dimension of Borderline Personality Disorder has received relatively little attention in the clinical literature and is poorly understood. This article illustrates how a range of cognitive problems including attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities may contribute to the cognitive disturbances identified in the disorder including dissociation, paranoia, all or nothing thinking, overvalued ideas, and denial and splitting. A review of relevant research supporting the presence of cognitive deficits is summarized along with a developmental pathway for the expression of the cognitive dimension. Clinical examples are provided. Recommendations for inclusion of assessment and treatment strategies that address cognitive deficits within a psychodynamically based psychotherapy are discussed.
Mamdani approach to fuzzy control, logical approach, what else?

In fuzzy control, two approaches are mainly used: Mamdani's approach, in which we represent the knowledge base as a disjunction of statements A i (x) & B i (u) corresponding to individual rules, and logical approach, in which the knowledge base is represented as a conjunction of the rules themselves A i (x) → B i (u). Both approaches are known not to be perfect, so a natural question arises: what other approaches are possible? In this paper, we describe all possible approaches; alternative approaches use an “exclusive or” operation and correspond, e.g., to the fuzzy transform idea.
Prediction and evaluation of protein farnesyltransferase inhibition by commercial drugs

The similarity ensemble approach (SEA) relates proteins based on the set-wise chemical similarity among their ligands. It can be used to rapidly search large compound databases and to build cross-t...
Silicon technology-emerging trends from a system application perspective

Silicon technology development is at a crossroad, in spite of its exponential rate of progress for more than thirty years. CMOS will remain the backbone of all digital functions, but is reaching its scaling limits. In spite of digital CMOS reaching its limits, progress in silicon technology development will not slow down because system performance is not governed by CMOS logic alone. In this paper, we examine several emerging silicon technology trends from a system perspective. These trends include overcoming the memory bottleneck, enhancing NVRAM for data storage, development of nonvolatile RAM, and improving mixed-signal technology.
Daily versus As-Needed Corticosteroids for Mild Persistent Asthma

Background Although guidelines recommend daily therapy for patients with mild persistent asthma, prescription patterns suggest that most such patients use these so-called controller therapies intermittently. In patients with mild persistent asthma, we evaluated the efficacy of intermittent short-course corticosteroid treatment guided by a symptom-based action plan alone or in addition to daily treatment with either inhaled budesonide or oral zafirlukast over a one-year period. Methods In a double-blind trial, 225 adults underwent randomization. The primary outcome was morning peak expiratory flow (PEF). Other outcomes included the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) before and after bronchodilator treatment, the frequency of exacerbations, the degree of asthma control, the number of symptom-free days, and the quality of life. Results The three treatments produced similar increases in morning PEF (7.1 to 8.3 percent; approximately 32 liters per minute; P=0.90) and similar rates of asthma exacerbations (P=0.24), even though the intermittent-treatment group took budesonide, on average, for only 0.5 week of the year. As compared with intermittent therapy or daily zafirlukast therapy, daily budesonide therapy produced greater improvements in pre-bronchodilator FEV1 (P=0.005), bronchial reactivity (P Conclusions It may be possible to treat mild persistent asthma with short, intermittent courses of inhaled or oral corticosteroids taken when symptoms worsen. Further studies are required to determine whether this novel approach to treatment should be recommended.
Analysis of RealTime Embedded Applications in the Presence of a Stochastic Fault Model

Real-time embedded systems are characterized by their need to complete task executions within their scheduled deadlines. Task scheduling could get complicated due to the occurrence of faults in such systems. Traditionally, researchers have accounted for faults by assuming a constant number of faults occuring in the system. However, such an assumption may lead the system designers to rather pessimistic estimates on tasks' response times. In this paper, the occurrence of faults has been modeled as a stochastic process with a Poisson distribution having a mean inter-arrival rate of lambda. The usefulness of the model has been evaluated in terms of estimated task response time, energy consumption and loss of predictability for two periodic real-time embedded task sets, one real-world and another synthetic. It has been shown that the proposed approach can achieve up to 40% improvement in terms of the estimated energy savings and task response time with very minimal loss of predictability in the system of about 1e-3 % as compared to the systems with constant number faults
Flood and drought hydrologic monitoring: the role of model parameter uncertainty

Abstract. Land surface modeling, in conjunction with numerical weather forecasting and satellite remote sensing, is playing an increasing role in global monitoring and prediction of extreme hydrologic events (i.e., floods and droughts). However, uncertainties in the meteorological forcings, model structure, and parameter identifiability limit the reliability of model predictions. This study focuses on the latter by assessing two potential weaknesses that emerge due to limitations in our global runoff observations: (1) the limits of identifying model parameters at coarser timescales than those at which the extreme events occur, and (2) the negative impacts of not properly accounting for model parameter equifinality in the predictions of extreme events. To address these challenges, petascale parallel computing is used to perform the first global-scale, 10 000 member ensemble-based evaluation of plausible model parameters using the VIC (Variable Infiltration Capacity) land surface model, aiming to characterize the impact of parameter identifiability on the uncertainty in flood and drought predictions. Additionally, VIC's global-scale parametric sensitivities are assessed at the annual, monthly, and daily timescales to determine whether coarse-timescale observations can properly constrain extreme events. Global and climate type results indicate that parameter uncertainty remains an important concern for predicting extreme events even after applying monthly and annual constraints to the ensemble, suggesting a need for improved prior distributions of the model parameters as well as improved observations. This study contributes a comprehensive evaluation of land surface modeling for global flood and drought monitoring and suggests paths forward to overcome the challenges posed by parameter uncertainty.
Health Training with SAVOIR and the RSM

SAVOIR, a middleware system, provides services that coordinate usage of a wide variety of collaborative and advanced applications, devices and services, and coordinates them for multiple simultaneous participants. Collaboration among participants is captured and recorded to bridge the knowledge gathered in past collaborations, making it available for future sessions. The Resource Space Model can effectively manage the references to the heterogeneous rich media in the stored sessions, and forms the basis for a flexible query mechanism. This paper presents the design of a healthcare training system based on SAVOIR and RSM, and is a specific instance an EventWeb.
Chemical Interactions in Ionomers and Ionomer Membranes Containing Metal particles and Ions

Ionomer membranes are employed in PEM fuel cells as the proton conducting element, but they also hold potential for catalytic applications in both hydrogen based and other low temperature fuel cells. In these applications the reactions of H2, CO, 02, H20 and other small molecules with metal-based catalysts are important to consider. Reactions of these species with perfluorocarbonsulfonic acid based ionomers (PFSA), of which Nafionsa are prototypical, containing Rh, Ru, Pt and other metal ions and particles are shown. Metal carbonyls form with metal ions that have been reduced in situ to reduced valence ions or to metal particles, by the combination of CO and H2O or with H2 directly. Metal nitrogen complexes also can be formed. In addition, the interactions of dissimilar metal ions leads to distinct species with NO or CO, for example, that are different from the products with either ion separately.
Precipitated calcium carbonates as weathering enhancers and impact modifiers for rigid PVC siding and profiles

A study conducted to determine the suitability of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) fillers in exterior PVC applications revealed that the surface-treated precipitated CaCO3s of average particle sizes 0.5 micron and 0.07 micron, in fact, minimized the initial yellowing of PVC seen on weathering. It is hypothesized that these particle-size CaCO3s, being optimum for light scattering, provide greater UV protection. Further, the high surface areas of these CaCO3s increase the capacity to neutralize the HCl responsible for yellowing of the PVC. The optimum filler level is 5 to 10 phr. At this loading level, long-term impact strength is also retained.
Irradiation effects in a comet's outer layers

Laboratory data and cosmic ray doses are used to understand the irradiation-induced formation and destruction of organics in the outer layers (mantle) of a comet in the Oort cloud and for determining the fate of volatiles in the mantle. This is used to estimate the change in the orthowater/parawater ratio with depth in the outer layers of a new comet and the average thickness of the refractory part of the mantle of a new comet. Because comets will have large-scale irregularities, regions of the mantle will be unstable, leading to enhanced activity on a new comet and producing 'permanently' active regions.
Large scale anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background

It is now generally accepted that the microwave background radiation, discovered in 1965 (Penzias and Wilson, 1965; Dicke et al, 1965), is cosmological in origin. Measurements of the spectrum of the radiation, discussed earlier in this volume by Blair, are consistent with the idea that the radiation is in fact a relic of a hot, dense, initial state of the Universe — the Big Bang. If the radiation is cosmological, measurements of both its spectrum and its angular distribution are capable of providing important — and remarkably precise — cosmological data.
Dentin removal efficacy over time of the Buc-1 ultrasonic tip

Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the loss of efficacy over time of the Buc-1 ultrasonic tip in dentin blocks. Study design An ultrasonic handpiece was mounted to the loading arm of a universal testing machine and a downward force of 15 g was applied in 20-sec cycles for a total of 30 min of instrumentation. Efficacy was measured by the change in weight of the dentin block to the nearest 0.01 mg after 2, 10, 20, and 30 minutes of instrumentation (n = 5 tips). Results Dentin removal decreased significantly between 2 and 10 minutes of instrumentation with no further significant decrease after 20 or 30 minutes (1-factor analysis of variance: α = .05). Conclusion The evidence suggests there is a significant decrease in dentin removal efficacy of the Buc-1 tip after 10 minutes of instrumentation. Continued instrumentation for up to 30 minutes showed no further decrease in efficacy.
Characterization of inhibin/activin subunit, follistatin, and activin type II receptors in human ovarian cancer cell lines: a potential role in autocrine growth regulation

Although ovarian cancer is the most common gynecological malignancy with a relatively poor 5-yr survival record, the mechanism(s) by which these tumors arise is not well understood. A role for inhibins and activins in regulating this transformation is suggested by the detection of circulating alpha or dimeric inhibin in some patients with ovarian cancer and by the alpha inhibin knockout mouse, in which development of gonadal tumors in 100% of homozygotes is associated with greatly elevated activin levels. To develop diagnostic tools with greater specificity for ovarian cancers, the present study was targeted at characterizing the biosynthetic capacity of the epithelial ovarian cancer cell lines from the American Type Culture Collection with respect to inhibin, activin, the related activin-binding protein follistatin (FS), and activin receptor type II. In addition, the functional capacity of this system was investigated by examining the ability of activin and FS to modulate cellular proliferation. All six cell lines contained abundant messenger RNA (mRNA) for activin receptor type II, but no inhibin alpha-subunit mRNA was detected in any cell line. Two cell lines contained mRNA for activin beta B-subunit (CaOV4 and SKOV3), one cell line contained beta A-subunit mRNA (SW626), and one cell line contained both (ES2); the latter also contained FS mRNA. FS mRNA was detected in another cell line (PA-1) that contained no detectable activin beta-subunit mRNA. Finally, one cell line (CaOV3) contained neither beta-subunit nor FS mRNA. Protein secretion was also examined. Consistent with the mRNA studies, the two cell lines containing FS mRNA secreted FS (PA-1 and ES2 cells), whereas three of the remaining lines secreted activin (A or B). In the cell line containing neither FS nor beta-subunit mRNA, no FS or activin could be detected. Finally, none of the cell lines secreted detectable immunoreactive inhibin. The effects of exogenous activin and FS on cellular proliferation were examined in these cell lines. No response was detected in the two cell lines that secreted FS (PA-1 and ES2). For the four cell lines not synthesizing FS, treatment with activin (1-100 ng/ml) resulted in an increase, whereas FS treatment (1-100 ng/ml) resulted in a decrease in cellular proliferation, as determined by [3H]thymidine incorporation. The response to activin correlated negatively with endogenous activin production, suggesting that autocrine activin production may be involved with cell proliferation. The differential expression and production of inhibin/activin subunits, activin receptors, and follistatin as well as the range of responses to exogenous activin among six ovarian epithelial cancer cell lines suggest that this family of hormones may be important in regulating cell proliferation in the ovary. Whether primary tumors have the same profile and the degree to which these results can be generalized to additional forms of ovarian cancer remain to be determined.
LIII.—A new Species of Ischnura (Order Odonata); A Dragon-fly Nymph, possibly Agriocnemis Selys, and other records from Tahiti

(1942). LIII.—A new Species of Ischnura (Order Odonata); A Dragon-fly Nymph, possibly Agriocnemis Selys, and other records from Tahiti. Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Vol. 9, No. 56, pp. 644-647.
Using Common Principal Components for Comparing GCM Simulations

Abstract The technique of common principal components (CPC) is applied to compare the results of a number of GCM simulations. The data used are the 120 monthly mean fields from 30 Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) simulations and an ensemble of five AMIP integrations from a single GCM. The spatial grid and 120 time points allows the calculation of up to 31 covariance matrices for input into the CPC analyses. The CPC methodology is applied to a variety of model comparision problems within the context of the AMIP experiment. The aspects of the simulations used for demonstration are the seasonal cycle of precipitation over the United States, the global 200-hPa velocity potential, and the difference between the 200-hPa divergence of four closely related AMIP models and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis and a small ensemble of simulations (five) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts AMIP model. These analyses...
Metamaterial-based single pixel imaging system (Presentation Recording)

Single pixel cameras are useful imaging devices where it is difficult or infeasible to fashion focal plan arrays. For example in the Far Infrared (FIR) it is difficult to perform imaging by conventional detector arrays, owing to the cost and size of such an array. The typical single pixel camera uses a spatial light modulator (SLM) - placed in the conjugate image plane – and is used to sample various portions of the image. The spatially modulated light emerging from the SLM is then sent to a single detector where the light is condensed with suitable optics for detection. Conventional SLMs are either based on liquid crystals or digital mirror devices. As such these devices are limited in modulation speeds of order 30 kHz. Further there is little control over the type of light that is modulated. We present metamaterial based spatial light modulators which provide the ability to digitally encode images – with various measurement matrix coefficients – thus permitting high speed and fidelity imaging capability. In particular we use the Hadamard matrix and related S-matrix to encode images for single pixel imaging. Metamaterials thus permit imaging in regimes of the electromagnetic spectrum where conventional SLMs are not available. Additionally, metamaterials offer several salient features that are not available with commercial SLMs. For example, metamaterials may be used to enable hyperspectral, polarimetric, and phase sensitive imaging. We present the theory and experimental results of single pixel imaging with digital metamaterials in the far infrared and highlight the future of this exciting field.
Radiation Exposure, Radiation Control and Decontamination

The radiation exposure received by nuclear power plant personnel is determined by the radiation fields to which the personnel are exposed and the length of time of exposure. This paper will discuss only the former, the radiation fields. In particular the design and operational features of nuclear power plants which most influence the buildup of these radiation fields will be explored, together with the difficulties of ascertaining the effects of changes in such design and operational features on radiation fields and exposure.
Factors affecting patients' adherence to orthodontic appointments

Introduction Studies show that attendance at orthodontic appointments affects treatment outcomes, treatment duration, and the probability of side effects. The aim of this study was to predict factors that influence patients' attendance at orthodontic appointments. Methods We conducted a face-to-face guided interview survey of 153 participants from orthodontic clinics in the Greater Boston area. Attendance at scheduled orthodontic appointments was self-reported as always, sometimes, or rarely. Participants' characteristics, including demographics, dental insurance, and oral hygiene practices, were self-reported. Moreover, from dental records, we collected the time that the participants spent undergoing active orthodontic treatment. Multivariable ordered logistic regression was used to report proportional odds ratios and attendance probabilities. A likelihood ratio test was performed to ensure that the proportional odds assumption held. Results For overall appointment attendance, 76% of the participants reported always attending, 16% reported sometimes attending, and 8% reported rarely attending. Based on multivariable logistic regression (adjusted for age, race, and sex), the participants with optimal oral hygiene practices were almost 6 times (5.9) more likely to attend appointments than those who did not ( P = 0.002). The odds of attending appointments decreased significantly (by 23%) for every 6-month increase in treatment duration ( P = 0.008). Participants covered by non-Medicaid insurance were 4 times ( P = 0.018) more likely to attend appointments than were those with Medicaid insurance. Conclusion Our findings indicate that adherence to orthodontic treatment follow-up visits was strongly correlated to insurance type, treatment duration, and oral hygiene practices. Unlike previous studies, sex was not a significant predictor of adherence.
U.S. coverup of Nazi scientists

“Paperclip” was a U.S. project to employ German scientists in sensitive military and space programs after World War II. This investigation reveals that evidence of Nazi activism and war crimes was suppressed in order to allow many of them to immigrate.
Lack of Value of Radioimmunoassay for Prostatic Acid Phosphatase as a Screening Test for Prostatic Cancer in Patients with Obstructive Prostatic Hyperplasia

AbstractWe examined the incidence of prostatic cancer in patients with an elevated radioimmunoassay for prostatic acid phosphatase and clinical benign prostatic hyperplasia on digital rectal examination. Of 295 patients screened with prostatic acid phosphatase tests 17 fulfilled the criteria of having an elevated prostatic acid phosphatase, clinically benign prostate and histological examination of the prostatectomy specimen. None of the 17 patients had histological evidence of prostatic cancer. The results confirm the predictions of mathematical models that prostatic acid phosphatase is of no practical value as a screening test for prostatic cancer in patients with clinical benign prostatic hyperplasia.
HIL: Designing an Exokernel for the Data Center

We propose a new Exokernel-like layer to allow mutually untrusting physically deployed services to efficiently share the resources of a data center. We believe that such a layer offers not only efficiency gains, but may also enable new economic models, new applications, and new security-sensitive uses. A prototype (currently in active use) demonstrates that the proposed layer is viable, and can support a variety of existing provisioning tools and use cases.
Cross-state differences in the minimum wage and out-of-state commuting by low-wage workers

Abstract The 2009 federal minimum wage increase, which compressed cross-state differences in the minimum wage, is used to investigate the claim that low-wage workers are attracted to commute out of state to neighboring states that have higher minimum wages. The analysis focuses on Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) that experience commuting flows with one or more neighboring state. A difference-in-differences-in-differences model compares PUMAs that experienced a sizeable increase or decrease in their cross-border minimum wage differential to those that experience smaller change in the cross-border differential. Out-of-state commuting of low wage workers (less than 10 dollars an hour) is then compared to that of moderate wage workers (10–13 dollars an hour). The results suggest that an increase in own state's minimum wage, relative to neighbor's, increases the frequency with which low-wage workers commute out of the state. The analysis is replicated on the subset of PUMAs that experience commuting flows with more than one neighboring state, so that the estimates are identified entirely within PUMA. As a whole, the results suggest that low-wage workers tend to commute away from minimum wage increases rather than towards them.
Response of bird community structure to habitat management in piñon-juniper woodland-sagebrush ecotones

Abstract Pinon ( Pinus spp.) and juniper ( Juniperus spp.) woodlands have been expanding their range across the intermountain western United States into landscapes dominated by sagebrush ( Artemisia spp.) shrublands. Management actions using prescribed fire and mechanical cutting to reduce woodland cover and control expansion provided opportunities to understand how environmental structure and changes due to these treatments influence bird communities in pinon-juniper systems. We surveyed 43 species of birds and measured vegetation for 1–3 years prior to treatment and 6–7 years post-treatment at 13 locations across Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. We used structural equation modeling to develop and statistically test our conceptual model that the current bird assembly at a site is structured primarily by the previous bird community with additional drivers from current and surrounding habitat conditions as well as external regional bird dynamics. Treatment reduced woodland cover by >5% at 80 of 378 survey sites. However, habitat change achieved by treatment was highly variable because actual disturbance differed widely in extent and intensity. Biological inertia in the bird community was the strongest single driver; 72% of the variation in the bird assemblage was explained by the community that existed seven years earlier. Greater net reduction in woodlands resulted in slight shifts in the bird community to one having ecotone or shrubland affinities. However, the overall influence of woodland changes from treatment were relatively small and were buffered by other extrinsic factors. Regional bird dynamics did not significantly influence the structure of local bird communities at our sites. Our results suggest that bird communities in pinon-juniper woodlands can be highly stable when management treatments are conducted in areas with more advanced woodland development and at the level of disturbance measured in our study.
Novel volumetric method for highly repeatable injection in microchip electrophoresis.

A novel injector for microchip electrophoresis (MCE) has been designed and evaluated that achieves very high repeatability of injection volume suitable for quantitative analysis. It eliminates the injection biases in electrokinetic injection and the dependence on pressure and sample properties in hydrodynamic injection. The microfluidic injector, made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), operates similarly to an HPLC injection valve. It contains a channel segment (chamber) with a well-defined volume that serves as an "injection loop". Using on-chip microvalves, the chamber can be connected to the sample source during the "loading" step, and to the CE separation channel during the "injection" step. Once the valves are opened in the second state, electrophoretic potential is applied to separate the sample. For evaluation and demonstration purposes, the microinjector was connected to a 75 μm ID capillary and UV absorbance detector. For single compounds, a relative standard deviation (RSD) of peak area as low as 1.04% (n = 11) was obtained, and for compound mixtures, RSD as low as 0.40% (n = 4) was observed. Using the same microchip, the performance of this new injection technique was compared to hydrodynamic injection and found to have improved repeatability and less dependence on sample viscosity. Furthermore, a non-radioactive version of the positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging probe, FLT, was successfully separated from its known 3 structurally-similar byproducts with baseline resolution, demonstrating the potential for rapid, quantitative analysis of impurities to ensure the safety of batches of short-lived radiotracers. Both the separation efficiency and injection repeatability were found to be substantially higher when using the novel volumetric injection approach compared to electrokinetic injection (performed in the same chip). This novel microinjector provides a straightforward way to improve the performance of hydrodynamic injection and enables extremely repeatable sample volume injection in MCE. It could be used in any MCE application where volume repeatability is needed, including the quantitation of impurities in pharmaceutical or radiopharmaceutical samples.
Polyimide characterization studies - Effect of pendant alkyl groups

An investigation was conducted to determine the effect on selected polyimide properties when pendant alkyl groups were attached to the polymer backbone. A series of polymers were prepared using benzophenone tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (BTDA) and seven different p-alkyl-m,p′-diaminobenzophenone monomers. The alkyl groups varied in length from C1 (methyl) to C9 (nonyl). The polyimide prepared from BTDA and m,p′-diaminobenzophenone was included as a control.
Self-handicapping during play fighting in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Play may serve several potential functions, including learning to overcome unexpected circumstances. Self-handicapping, during which individuals do not utilize their full strength, is proposed to provide training for the unexpected. If self-handicapping occurs, then play fight intensity should decrease as partner age discrepancy increases. By playing with reduced intensity, the older partner self-handicaps, exposing itself to situations that it does not fully control. Self-handicapping was investigated in a captive group of brown capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella ) by recording the duration and sequence of play during focal samples. All instances of play fighting were scored from video for intensity. As the age difference between the partners increased, the intensity of play bouts decreased. Since partners with larger age disparities played less intensely, results provided quantitative evidence for self-handicapping, although additional factors may affect play intensity. We suggest that self-handicapping encourages play and provides support for the training for the unexpected hypothesis.
Understanding election candidate approval ratings using social media data

The last few years has seen an exponential increase in the amount of social media data generated daily. Thus, researchers have started exploring the use of social media data in building recommendation systems, prediction models, improving disaster management, discovery trending topics etc. An interesting application of social media is for the prediction of election results. The recently conducted 2012 US Presidential election was the "most tweeted" election in history and provides a rich source of social media posts. Previous work on predicting election outcomes from social media has been largely been based on sentiment about candidates, total volumes of tweets expressing electoral polarity and the like. In this paper we use a collection of tweets to predict the daily approval ratings of the two US presidential candidates and also identify topics that were causal to the approval ratings.
Numerical Analysis of Thermocapillary Flow Experiment in Microgravity

The present work analyzes numerically the thermocapillary flow studied aboard the Spacelab USML-1 which flew in the summer of 1992. Flows generated under two different heating modes, with flat or curved free surface shapes, are investigated. The results have been used to help design the space experiment. It is shown that thermocapillarity is an important driving force for fluid flow in the absence of gravity and that the driving force is very much affected by the flow itself. That coupling is considered to be responsible for the appearance of oscillatory flow.
Immunological Effects of Vasectomy

It is only recently that the adverse effects of vasectomy have become the subject of numerous scientific and at times speculative articles in medical and in lay periodicals. In this review of the literature on the immunological effects of vasectomy attention is directed to the following: immunological response; cellular immunity; effects on testes and epididymis and systemic effects of sperm autoantibodies. In 1970 50% of vasectomized men were found to have circulating spermatozoal antibodies. A more recent survey provides confirmation for this finding and presents an incidence of only 2% of agglutinating antibodies and 0% of immobilizing antibodies in a fertile control population. Some recent and convincing studies have shown sperm agglutinating and immobilizing antibodies to remain either at the same titer level or actually to increase 5-12 years postoperatively. Titers range from 2 to 2048 among different patients. The highest incidence of titers is 1 year after vasectomy but titers can be found as early as 6 months or as late as 20 years postoperatively. The wide range in titers can be explained in terms of technical problems in immune assays since only immunoglobulins and not those antibodies part of immune complex systems can be measured. Since sperm antigens are in abundant supply in vasectomized men because of the continuous resorption of spermatozoa after vasectomy possibly undetectable antibody titers actually reflect high levels of antisperm antibodies circulating in the form of immune complexes. Also it may be possible that the variety in measured titers of autoantibodies as well as the nonuniversal (70%) antibody response in a vasectomized population is a variable dependent on genetic content and therefore an individual characteristic. The fact that hormonal reponse takes place rather readily after vasectomy makes at least some degree of cellular response a necessary occurrence. Studies by Alexander and Anderson which show delayed hypersensitivity skin responses to sperm antigens indicate at least some degree of cell mediated response. A recent study draws a strong correlation between the presence of sperm agglutinins in the seminal fluid of vasovasostomized men and persistent infertility. It is likely that autoantibodies to sperm as a result of vasectomy have a significant role in persistent infertility in vasovasostomized individuals. The greatest controversy at present concerns the immunologic effect of vasectomy on various organ systems. The incidence and degree of atherosclerotic changes in lower primates are increased after vasectomy but whether vasectomy has the same effect in men has not as yet been determined.
Evaluating the PROMIS-29 v2.0 for use among older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System 29-item profile (PROMIS-29 v2.0), which measures health-related quality of life (HRQoL), has had limited evaluation among older adults (age 65+) with multiple chronic conditions. Our purpose was to establish convergent validity for PROMIS-29 in this population. We collected the PROMIS-29 v2.0 and the Veterans RAND 36 (VR-36) for 1359 primary care patients aged 65 + with at least 2 of 13 chronic conditions, oversampling those aged 80+. We conducted multiple analyses to examine score differences across subgroups, differential item functioning (DIF), and comparisons of PROMIS-29 v2.0 and VR-36 scores. The mean age was 80.7, and all patients had at least 2 of 13 chronic conditions. Older age, female sex, Hispanic ethnicity, and more chronic conditions were associated with worse physical health scores (PHS) and mental health scores (MHS) on the PROMIS-29 v2.0—findings which are in the expected direction. None of the 700 pairs of items met criteria for DIF. PHS and MHS were highly intercorrelated (r = 0.74, p < 0.001 for this and all other findings). PHS was more highly correlated with the VR-36 Physical Component Score (PCS) than the Mental Component Score (MCS) (r = 0.85 and 0.32, respectively), while MHS was highly correlated with both (r = 0.70 and 0.64, respectively). PROMIS-29 v2.0 demonstrates expected bivariate relationships with key person-level characteristics and does not show DIF. PROMIS-29 v2.0 scores are highly correlated with VR-36 scores. These results provide support for the validity of PROMIS-29 v2.0 as a measure of HRQoL among older adults with multiple chronic conditions.
Estimating relative channel impulse responses from ships of opportunity in a shallow water environment

The uncertainty of estimating relative channel impulse responses (CIRs) obtained using the radiated signature from a ship of opportunity is investigated. The ship observations were taken during a 1.4 km (11 min) transect in a shallow water environment during the Noise Correlation 2009 (NC09) experiment. Beamforming on the angle associated with the direct ray-path yields an estimate of the ship signature, subsequently used in a matched filter. Relative CIRs are estimated every 2.5 s independently at three vertical line arrays (VLAs). The relative arrival-time uncertainty is inversely proportional to source bandwidth and CIR signal-to-noise ratio, and reached a minimum standard deviation of 5 μs (equivalent to approximately 1 cm spatial displacement). Time-series of direct-path relative arrival-times are constructed for each VLA element across the 11 min observation interval. The overall structure of these time-series compares favorably with that predicted from an array element localization model. The short-term standard deviations calculated on the direct-path (7 μs) and bottom-reflected-path (17 μs) time-series are in agreement with the predicted arrival-time accuracies. The implications of these observed arrival-time accuracies in the context of estimating sound speed perturbations and bottom-depth are discussed.
Relationships between variance in electroencephalography relative power and developmental status in infants with typical development and at risk for developmental disability: An observational study

Background: Electroencephalography (EEG) is a non-invasive tool that has the potential to identify and quantify atypical brain development. We introduce a new measure here, variance of relative power of resting-state EEG. We sought to assess whether variance of relative power of resting-state EEG could predict i) classification of infants as typical development (TD) or at risk (AR) for developmental disability, and ii) Bayley developmental scores at the same visit or future visits. Methods: A total of 22 infants with TD participated, aged between 38 and 203 days. In addition, 11 infants broadly at risk participated (6 high-risk pre-term, 4 low-risk pre-term, 1 high-risk full-term), aged between 40 and 225 days of age (adjusted for prematurity). We used EEG to measure resting-state brain function across months. We calculated variance of relative power as the standard deviation of the relative power across each of the 32 EEG electrodes. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development (3 rd edition) was used to measure developmental level. Infants were measured 1-6 times each, with 1 month between measurements. Results: Our main findings were: i) variance of relative power of resting state EEG can predict classification of infants as TD or AR, and ii) variance of relative power of resting state EEG can predict Bayley developmental scores at the same visit (Bayley raw fine motor, Bayley raw cognitive, Bayley total raw score, Bayley motor composite score) and at a future visit (Bayley raw fine motor). Conclusions: This was a preliminary, exploratory, small study. Our results support variance of relative power of resting state EEG as an area of interest for future study as a biomarker of neurodevelopmental status and as a potential outcome measure for early intervention.
With Justice and Equality for Some

Chapter 4 offers a biography of Minnie Liddell, the married, stay-at-home mother of five, whose children were shuffled from one dilapidated northside school to another. In 1972, Liddell sued the St. Louis Board of Education for failing to provide black children with equal access to quality schools. The lawsuit resulted in the creation of the Voluntary Transfer Program, which utilized city-to-county transfers of students. It was the largest and most expensive desegregation program in the country. This chapter introduces the gendered forms of power that are discussed later in the book and provides a counter-narrative to arguments that black parents did not work to provide quality education for their children. Liddell’s nearly 30-year struggle to provide black students in St. Louis with access to quality schools serves as a stark example that the dismantling of school segregation required tremendous work. The task still has not been completely accomplished.