cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Episodic memory retrieval in adolescents with and without developmental language disorder (DLD).

BACKGROUND Two reasons may explain the discrepant findings regarding declarative memory in developmental language disorder (DLD) in the literature. First, standardized tests are one of the primary tools used to assess declarative memory in previous studies. It is possible they are not sensitive enough to subtle memory impairment. Second, the system underlying declarative memory is complex, and thus results may vary depending on the types of encoding and retrieval processes measured (e.g., item specific or relational) and/or task demands (e.g., recall or recognition during memory retrieval). AIMS To adopt an experimental paradigm to examine episodic memory functioning in adolescents with and without DLD, with the focus on memory recognition of item-specific and relational information. METHODS & PROCEDURES Two groups of adolescents, one with DLD (n = 23; mean age = 16.73 years) and the other without (n = 23; mean age = 16.75 years), participated in the study. The Relational and Item-Specific Encoding (RISE) paradigm was used to assess the effect of different encoding processes on episodic memory retrieval in DLD. The advantage of using the RISE task is that both item-specific and relational encoding/retrieval can be examined within the same learning paradigm. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Adolescents with DLD and those with typical language development showed comparable engagement during the encoding phase. The DLD group showed significantly poorer item recognition than the comparison group. Associative recognition was not significantly different between the two groups; however, there was a non-significant trend for to be poorer in the DLD group than in the comparison group, suggesting a possible impairment in associative recognition in individuals with DLD, but to a lesser magnitude. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS These results indicate that adolescents with DLD have difficulty with episodic memory retrieval when stimuli are encoded and retrieved without support from contextual information. Associative recognition is relatively less affected than item recognition in adolescents with DLD.
The Role of Adjuvant Radiation Therapy in Locally Advanced Bladder Cancer.

Background The standard of care for locally advanced bladder cancer (LABC) is neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by cystectomy. However, the role of adjuvant therapy for locally advanced bladder cancer is unclear. Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) for patients with LABC, and to determine which risk factors best predict for patients who may best benefit from adjuvant RT. Methods The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) was queried (2004- 2013) for patients with newly-diagnosed pT3-4N0-3M0 urothelial carcinoma of the bladder that received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and cystectomy. Patients were divided into two groups based on the adjuvant therapy they received: RT or observation. Statistics included multivariable logistic regression to determine factors predictive of receiving adjuvant RT, Kaplan-Meier analysis to evaluate overall survival (OS), and Cox proportional hazards modeling to determine variables associated with OS. Results Altogether, 1,646 patients met inclusion criteria; 59 (3.6%) patients received adjuvant RT, while 1,587 (96.4%) were observed. Patients treated with adjuvant RT were more likely to be female, have positive surgical margins, and receive treatment at a non-academic facility. There was no difference in median overall survival (OS) between patients treated with RT when compared to patients observed (17.7 months vs. 23.5 months; p = 0.085). However, an improvement in median OS with the use of adjuvant RT was observed among patients with positive surgical margins (20.3 months vs. 13.1 months; p = 0.032). On multivariate analysis, advancing age, pT4 stage, positive N stage, positive margins, and lower socioeconomic status were associated with worse OS. Conclusions In the largest study to date evaluating efficacy of adjuvant radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced bladder cancer, use of RT was not associated with OS in all patients, while RT was associated with improvemed OS among patients with positive surgical margins. Prospective studies are recommended to confirm these findings.
The contribution of anticoagulants to platelet dysfunction with extracorporeal circulation.

This investigation evaluates the effects of anticoagulants on platelet function. Fresh human blood from 40 nonmedicaled volunteers was anticoagulated with 4.3 units per milliliter heparin and/or acid-citrate-dextrose (ACD) solution 1:9. Retention of platelets from whole blood on glass beads was performed by the method of Bowie. Platelet retention of heparinized blood averaged 88.1 ± S.E. 1.5 per cent: ACD platelets averaged 24.6 ± S.E. 2.8 per cent. Platelet retention with citrate-phosphate-dextrose (CPD) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) yielded 26.0 ± S.E. 3.9 per cent and 19.1 ± S.E. 7.5 per cent, respectively. The addition of ACD to heparinized blood decreased platelet retention (19.7 ± S.E. 3.1 per cent). The addition of heparin to ACD or CPD blood did not alter the original decreased retention. Calcium added, even in excess, to blood containing heparin and ACD did not reverse the depressed retention (29.3 ± S.E. 4.6 per cent). The substitution of CPD gave similar results. With mixtures of separately collected ACD and heparininzed blood, depression of platelet retention was directly proportional to the amount of ACD blood present. Altering the pH of the ACD blood did not affect its depressed retention of platelets. Neutralizing heparinized blood 50 per cent with protamine or Polybrene also significantly depressed platelet retention 34.6 ± S.E. 5.8 per cent and 35.5 ± S.E. 4.0 per cent, respectively. Neither protamine nor Polybrene had any effect upon ACD blood. These data indicate that anticoagulants may play a significant role in the depressed platelet function observed during and following extracorporeal circulation.
A new and rapid process for production of solution-derived (Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3 thin films and powders

A simple and rapid process for synthesizing (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT, PLZT, and PLT) precursor solutions has been developed. This process, termed the “basic route to PLZT” (or BRP) process, offers several advantages over standard methods, including rapid solution synthesis (<10 min), use of commercially available materials, film production under ambient conditions, ease of lanthanum dissolution at high concentrations (<1 min), and no heating requirements during solution synthesis. The PLZT precursor solution synthesis involves dissolution of lead acetate (or acetyl acetate) in pyridine followed by addition of a pre-dissolved mixture of titanium and zirconium iso-propoxide in toluene. The lanthanum source can then be added and, depending on the precursor, total synthesis time was <10 min. The preferred lanthanum starting material is a highly soluble bis(iso-propyl)aryloxide complex; however, this compound is extremely air and water sensitive. The compositions investigated in this study include PZT 40/60, PLZT 3/30/70, 5/30/70, and 10/40/60, and PLT films with 10–20 mol % La. All films were crystallized at 650 19°C and exhibit ferroelectric properties comparable to films produced by other techniques which require higher crystallization temperatures.
Protein turnover in Escherichia coli. Evidence against serine protease involvement in tryptophan synthetase degradation.

Abstract Degradation of E. coli tryptophan synthetase can be observed in a cell-free lysate. This system appears to respond to conditions of growth and nutritional state as expected from living organisms. Evidence is presented that the breakdown of tryptophan synthetase in this cell-free system is due to an enzymatic activity present in proportion to the amount of degrading activity in the bacteria at the time of sonication. Testing specifically for the breakdown of tryptophan synthetase, no evidence could be found for the participation of serine proteases in this process. Instead, our results support the recently advanced proposal that serine protease inhibitors interfere with protein synthesis in the living organism.
Divergence Functions and Geometric Structures They Induce on a Manifold

Divergence functions play a central role in information geometry. Given a manifold \(\mathfrak {M}\), a divergence function\(\mathcal {D}\) is a smooth, nonnegative function on the product manifold \(\mathfrak {M}\times \mathfrak {M}\) that achieves its global minimum of zero (with semi-positive definite Hessian) at those points that form its diagonal submanifold \(\varDelta _{\mathfrak {M}} \subset \mathfrak {M}\times \mathfrak {M}\). In this chapter, we review how such divergence functions induce (i) a statistical structure (i.e., a Riemannian metric with a pair of conjugate affine connections) on \(\mathfrak {M}\); (ii) a symplectic structure on \(\mathfrak {M}\times \mathfrak {M}\) if they are “proper”; (iii) a Kahler structure on \(\mathfrak {M}\times \mathfrak {M}\) if they further satisfy a certain condition. It is then shown that the class of \(\mathcal {D}_\varPhi \)-divergence functions [23], as induced by a strictly convex function\(\varPhi \) on \(\mathfrak {M}\), satisfies all these requirements and hence makes \(\mathfrak {M}\times \mathfrak {M}\) a Kahler manifold (with Kahler potential given by \(\varPhi \)). This provides a larger context for the \(\alpha \)-Hessian structure induced by the \(\mathcal {D}_\varPhi \)-divergence on \(\mathfrak {M}\), which is shown to be equiaffine admitting \(\alpha \)-parallel volume forms and biorthogonal coordinates generated by \(\varPhi \) and its convex conjugate \(\varPhi ^{*}\). As the \(\alpha \)-Hessian structure is dually flat for \(\alpha = \pm 1\), the \(\mathcal {D}_\varPhi \)-divergence provides richer geometric structures (compared to Bregman divergence) to the manifold \(\mathfrak {M}\) on which it is defined.
Safety of Next Day Discharge After Lobectomy: Have We Broken the Speed Limit?

Background Utilizing our standardized approach to air leak reduction (STAR) protocol has led to a continual decrease in the need for inpatient recovery after lobectomy. Although next-day discharges do occur, the current literature, to our knowledge, has not addressed their safety. We analyzed our STAR data set to study this group and their outcomes. Methods A retrospective review of prospectively collected data from the STAR data set was performed. Characteristics were compared between patients discharged on postoperative day (POD) 1 and those with longer admissions. Outcome data was analyzed. Results From June 2010 through June 2017, 390 patients underwent lobectomy and met study criteria. Of these, 150 (38%) were discharged on POD 1 versus 240 (62%) who were discharged later (mean length of stay, 3.9 days). There was no increase in morbidity, mortality, or 30-day readmission between the 2 groups. Distinguishing characteristics of the POD 1 group included more nonsmokers, use of a minimally invasive technique, and a lower incidence of prolonged air leak. FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second) and D lco (diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide) data were also favorable in the POD 1 group. The percentage of patients sent home POD 1 increased from an average of 23% over the first 3 years of the study to 63% over the last 3 years. Conclusions Appropriately identified patients can safely go home on POD 1 after lobectomy without an increase in 30-day readmission, morbidity, or mortality. A continued focus on lobectomy length of stay reduction has the capacity to increase patient satisfaction and lead to reduction in health care costs.
High-temperature interactions of desert sand CMAS glass with yttrium disilicate environmental barrier coating material

Abstract A calcium-magnesium aluminosilicate (CMAS) glass was prepared by melting a sample of desert sand to evaluate the high-temperature interactions between molten CMAS and yttrium disilicate (Y2Si2O7), an environmental barrier coating (EBC) candidate material. Cold-pressed pellets of 80 wt% Y2Si2O7 powder and 20 wt% CMAS glass powder were heat treated at 1200 °C, 1300 °C, 1400 °C and 1500 °C for 20 h in air. The resulting phases were evaluated using powder X-ray diffraction. In the second set of experiments, free standing hot-pressed Y2Si2O7 substrates with cylindrical wells were filled with CMAS powder to a loading of ~35 mg/cm2 and heat treated in air at 1200 °C, 1300 °C, 1400 °C and 1500 °C for 20 h. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy and electron microprobe analysis were used to evaluate the microstructure and phase compositions of specimens after heat treatment. An oxyapatite silicate (Ca2Y8(SiO4)6O2) phase was identified in all specimens after CMAS exposure regardless of heat treatment temperature. Apatite appeared to form by dissolution of Y2Si2O7 into molten CMAS, reacting with CaO in the melt according to the reaction 4Y2Si2O7 + 2CaO → Ca2Y8(SiO4)6O2 + 2SiO2, and followed by precipitation of the apatite phase.
Effect of maternal diet on select fecal bacteria of foals.

Adult horses depend on the microbial community in the hindgut to digest fiber and produce short-chain fatty acids that are use for energy. Colonization of the foal gastrointestinal tract is essential to develop this symbiosis. However, factors affecting colonization are not well understood. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the age-related changes and effects of maternal diet on select fecal bacterial groups in foals from 1 to 28 d of age. Thoroughbred foals (n = 18) were from dams fed forage and one of two concentrates: an oat-based (OB) or corn and wheat middlings-based (CWB) pelleted concentrate. The mares had access to assigned concentrates, along with a mixed hay and cool-season grass pasture, 28 d before and 28 d after parturition. Fecal samples were collected from foals at 1 d (14 to 36 h), 4, 14, and 28 d after birth. Fecal samples were serially diluted with phosphate-buffered saline before inoculation of enriched, selective media to enumerate Lactobacillus spp., amylolytic bacteria, and cellulolytic bacteria. Enumeration data were log-transformed then analyzed with mixed model analysis of variance with repeated measures (SAS 9.3) to test the main effects of maternal diet (OB or CWB), time of sample, and interaction between maternal diet and time. Cellulolytic bacteria first appeared in foal feces between 4 and 14 d of age and increased with age (P 0.05). Maternal diet did not influence amylolytic or cellulolytic bacteria (P > 0.05). These results indicate that colonization of the hindgut is a sequential process beginning early in the foal's life and that maternal diet may influence some bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract of foals.
Closing the Brief Case: Meningococcemia Leading to a Diagnosis of Complement Deficiency in a 23-Month-Old.

1. What is the estimated rate of nasopharyngeal carriage of N. meningitidis in adolescents? Answer: a. Most often, this organism is a harmless colonizer in the nasopharynx. Acquisition can occur from close contact or crowded spaces. As a result, carrier/colonization rates in dormitories
Student Perspectives of Academic Advisors and Leader Development at the Graduate Level

Graduate-level academic advisors play an important role in setting the conditions for effective student learning. The advisor role may include more than administrative characteristics. The advisor ...
Correction to: Understanding Harm and its Moral Significance

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. Section Heading numbers (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) were erroneously removed in the article.
Structured light imaging for breast-conserving surgery, part II: texture analysis and classification.

Subdiffuse spatial frequency domain imaging (sd-SFDI) data of 42 freshly excised, bread-loafed tumor resections from breast-conserving surgery (BCS) were evaluated using texture analysis and a machine learning framework for tissue classification. Resections contained 56 regions of interest (RoIs) determined by expert histopathological analysis. RoIs were coregistered with sd-SFDI data and sampled into ∼4 × 4 mm2 subimage samples of confirmed and homogeneous histological categories. Sd-SFDI reflectance textures were analyzed using gray-level co-occurrence matrix pixel statistics, image primitives, and power spectral density curve parameters. Texture metrics exhibited statistical significance ( p -value f x = 1.37 mm − 1, optical wavelength of λ = 490 nm) achieved accuracies ranging from 0.55 (95% CI: 0.41 to 0.69) to 0.95 (95% CI: 0.90 to 1.00) depending on the benign–malignant diagnosis pair. Texture analysis of sd-SFDI data maintains the spatial context within images, is free of light transport model assumptions, and may provide an alternative, computationally efficient approach for wide field-of-view (cm2) BCS tumor margin assessment relative to pixel-based optical scatter or color properties alone.
A Multi-Armed Bandit Approach to Wireless Information and Power Transfer

Multiple wireless transmitters communicate with their information receivers while radiating RF energy to multiple nearby energy harvesters. The channels from the transmitters to the receivers and to the energy harvesters are time-varying and unknown. The transmitters jointly determine their multi-antenna transmissions to fairly charge all the energy harvesters while maintaining the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio at the receivers. In this letter, this task is formulated as a combinatorial multi-armed bandit problem and is solved with the upper confidence bound algorithm. Numerical results show that the algorithm can quickly converge to the optimal strategy with moderate signaling overhead. It has superior performance in fair energy harvesting while maintaining communication quality.
Green tea and other natural products induced apoptosis in cervical cancer cells

2252 Cervical cancer is the third most common gynecologic malignancy in the world, accounting for 15% of all cancers diagnosed in women. Cervical cancer has a well-characterized pre-malignant phase, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). CIN is detectable using readily available well-established techniques including exfoliative cervical cytology (Pap smear), human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, and colposcopy. These facts make cervical cancer/CIN an ideal target for chemoprevention. Cancer chemoprevention is the administration of chemical agents to prevent or delay the development of cancer, in which chemical agents are used to prevent cancer in normal and/or high-risk populations. However, the number of currently available preventive agents is limited and the chemical agents are costly. Natural products, such as certain herbs have demonstrated anti-cancer effects. We investigated Arizona cactus extracts and green tea compounds (EGCG and polyphenol E) for their anti-cancer effects in cultured immortalized cervical epithelial cells and cervical cancer cells. Green tea compound and aqueous extracts of cactus pear were used to treat immortalized cervical epithelial cells and cervical cancer cells. The cactus mix and green tea compounds were used at six concentrations 0, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 or 25% and 0, 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 μg/ml, respectively. Growth inhibition, apoptosis induction, and cell cycle were analyzed in these cells. Cells exposed to these two natural products had a significant increase in apoptosis, especially cactus mix and tea-EGCG. Tea-poly E had a little effect on apoptosis induction at concentration of 50 μg/ml; however it increased G 1 and decreased S phases. Natural products effectively inhibited immortalized cervical epithelial cells and cervical cancer cells growth, and induced apoptosis. The mechanism of the anti-cancer effects of natural products needs to be elucidated in future studies. Supported by the Women’s Fund for Health, Education and Research, and the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI), grant number NOI-CN-35158.
First Sale and Exhaustion

This chapter in the forthcoming case book "Intellectual Property Licensing and Transactions: Theory and Practice" addresses issues of first sale and exhaustion for licensing transactions involving patents, copyrights and trademarks. Among the issues considered are licensing versus sale of software, patent exhaustion, post-sale restrictions, international exhaustion and gray market imports.
Impact of Extreme Weather on Healthcare Utilization by People with HIV in Metropolitan Miami.

Extreme weather events (EWE) are expected to increase as climate change intensifies, leaving coastal regions exposed to higher risks. South Florida has the highest HIV infection rate in the United States, and disruptions in clinic utilization due to extreme weather conditions could affect adherence to treatment and increase community transmission. The objective of this study was to identify the association between EWE and HIV-clinic attendance rates at a large academic medical system serving the Miami-Dade communities. The following methods were utilized: (1) Extreme heat index (EHI) and extreme precipitation (EP) were identified using daily observations from 1990–2019 that were collected at the Miami International Airport weather station located 3.6 miles from the studied HIV clinics. Data on hurricanes, coastal storms and flooding were collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storms Database (NOAA) for Miami-Dade County. (2) An all-HIV clinic registry identified scheduled daily visits during the study period (hurricane seasons from 2017–2019). (3) Daily weather data were linked to the all-HIV clinic registry, where patients’ ‘no-show’ status was the variable of interest. (4) A time-stratified, case crossover model was used to estimate the relative risk of no-show on days with a high heat index, precipitation, and/or an extreme natural event. A total of 26,444 scheduled visits were analyzed during the 383-day study period. A steady increase in the relative risk of ‘no-show’ was observed in successive categories, with a 14% increase observed on days when the heat index was extreme compared to days with a relatively low EHI, 13% on days with EP compared to days with no EP, and 10% higher on days with a reported extreme weather event compared to days without such incident. This study represents a novel approach to improving local understanding of the impacts of EWE on the HIV-population’s utilization of healthcare, particularly when the frequency and intensity of EWE is expected to increase and disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. More studies are needed to understand the impact of EWE on routine outpatient settings.
Time-Dependent Electrical Contact Resistance at the Nanoscale

Conductive-atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to investigate time-dependent electrical contact resistance (ECR) at the nanoscale. ECR is shown to decrease over time as measured using C-AFM and estimated using two approaches from MD simulations, although the experiments and simulations explore different time scales. The simulations show that time dependence of ECR is attributable to an increase in real contact area due to atoms diffusing into the contact. This diffusion-based aging is found to be a thermally activated process that depends on the local contact pressure. The results demonstrate that contact aging, previously identified as an important mechanism for friction, can significantly affect electrical conduction at the nanoscale.
Filament Plots for Data Visualization.

We construct a computationally inexpensive 3D extension of Andrew's plots by considering curves generated by Frenet-Serret equations and induced by optimally smooth 2D Andrew's plots. We consider linear isometries from a Euclidean data space to infinite dimensional spaces of 2D curves, and parametrize the linear isometries that produce (on average) optimally smooth curves over a given dataset. This set of optimal isometries admits many degrees of freedom, and (using recent results on generalized Gauss sums) we identify a particular a member of this set which admits an asymptotic projective "tour" property. Finally, we consider the unit-length 3D curves (filaments) induced by these 2D Andrew's plots, where the linear isometry property preserves distances as "relative total square curvatures". This work concludes by illustrating filament plots for several datasets. Code is available at this https URL
Phage-encoded sigma factors alter bacterial dormancy

By entering a reversible state of reduced metabolic activity, dormant microorganisms are able to tolerate suboptimal conditions that would otherwise reduce their fitness. Dormancy may also benefit bacteria by serving as a refuge from parasitic infections. Here we focus on dormancy in the Firmicutes, where endospore development is transcriptionally regulated by the expression of sigma factors. A disruption of this process could influence the survivorship and reproduction of phages that infect spore-forming hosts with implications for coevolutionary dynamics. Here, we characterized the distribution and diversity of sigma factors in nearly 3,500 phage genomes. Homologs of sporulation-specific sigma factors were identified in phages that infect spore-forming hosts. Unlike sigma factors required for phage reproduction, the sporulation-like sigma factors were non-essential for lytic infection. However, when expressed in the spore-forming Bacillus subtilis, sigma factors from phages activated the bacterial sporulation gene network and reduced spore yield. Our findings suggest that the acquisition of host-like transcriptional regulators may allow phages to manipulate a complex and ancient trait in one of the most abundant cell types on Earth.
Criteria for the Selection of Construction Equipment

The selection of type and size of equipment rests on many factors. The cost for unproductive time, especially when the equipment is rented, can be considerable and may impact severely on the ultimate cost of construction. Such costs for idle time are greater for large capacity equipment than for small. The contrary is true for the costs of production. Three approaches to this trade-off give as many expressions for the optimum size of capacity of equipment that gives the least total cost. Seven diverse examples illustrate these optimizing methods. One method gives the quantity of work as a point of indifference in the choice between contending equipment. The other two methods give the optimum size in closed form from simple algebraic expressions. They include factors for the quantity of work, idle and productive times, production rates, and costs of the associated crews. The general relationship between the size or capacity of equipment, S, and the quantity of work, Q, is: S is proportional to the square root of Q.
Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen Directed Selective Thrombotic Infarction of Tumors

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a glutamyl preferring carboxypeptidase, is found in prostate and other carcinomas present on both tumor cells and associated microvascular lining cells. We find that the channel structures delineated by PSMA-expressing cells in human and rat prostate tumors are in functional continuity with the vasculature and thus form part of tumor microvasculature. The PSMA-positive cell-outlined channels are CD31 negative and mutually exclusive of CD31-positive cell-lined channels elsewhere in the tumor consistent with tumor cells adapted to a pseudoendothelial phenotype in vasculogenic mimicry. To assess the functional potential of such PSMA-lined microvasculature to selectively direct infarctive tumor therapy, we coupled the soluble extracellular domain of tissue factor to a PSMA catalytic site inhibitor to create a PSMA-directed selective tumor vascular thrombogen (STVT). This protein induced selective local in vivo infarctive necrosis of the rat Mat Lu prostate tumor when administered i.v. The combined administration of this STVT with low-dose doxorubicin produced a profound tumoricidal effect, resulting in complete eradication of some tumors. This is consistent with the therapeutic potential for a PSMA-directed STVT and expands the potential for selective infarctive ablation of tumors.
Computational Aspects of Pathology Image Classification and Retrieval

We are investigating the role of high performance computing for support of a comprehensive pathology image atlas. The primary computing component is a database access mechanism providing retrieval by content based image matching (CBIR) along with traditional term based queries. An organization based on information theoretic and Bayesian principles using decision trees and signature files is being developed. The essential role of HPC is the discovery, selection, and optimization of medically useful image feature sets via genetic algorithm and simulated annealing methods. This paper outlines the problem area along with aspects of the underlying theoretical basis and distinguishing computing characteristics. Efficiency of key portions of the computations can be greatly improved by using parallelism within the computer word length using bit counting instructions to implement voting and multimedia style instruction sets for low level image processing.
Improvement for lower hybrid coupler with step transformers and power dividers

PPPL and MIT are preparing an experiment of current profile control using lower hybrid waves in order to produce and sustain advanced tokamak regimes in steady state conditions in Alcator C-Mod. This new C-Mod coupler will have similar characteristics as the multijunction coupler used in other LH systems in order to obtain the full control of the phasing. This is achieved by using 3-dB vertical power splitters and a stack of laminated plates into which the waveguides are milled. Since the 3-dB vertical power splitter is in the form of the reduced height waveguide, the matching between standard WR187 waveguides and reduced height waveguides is very important in order to guarantee the power splitter performance and reduce the matching loss. 3-section quarter-wave transformers are designed for this purpose to replace the tapers in the system. Furthermore, the 3-dB vertical power splitter is redesigned with a post in the center of the coupling region, so that the splitter performance is greatly improved at the desired operating frequency.
Read anything mean lately? Associations between reading aggression in books and aggressive behavior in adolescents

Although there have been hundreds of studies on media violence, few have focused on literature, with none examining novels. Accordingly, the aim of the current study was to examine whether reading physical and relational aggression in books was associated with aggressive behavior in adolescents. Participants consisted of 223 adolescents who completed a variety of measures detailing their media use and aggressive behavior. A non-recursive structural equation model revealed that reading aggression in books was positively associated with aggressive behavior, even after controlling for exposure to aggression in other forms of media. Associations were only found for congruent forms of aggression. Implications regarding books as a form of media are discussed.
Ultrastructural Properties of the Extra Membranes of Escherichia coli O111a as Revealed by Freeze-Fracturing and Negative-Staining Techniques

Escherichia coli O111a is a thermosensitive strain which, when grown at 40 C, accumulates large quantities of intracellular membranes. The ultrastructure of these membranes in cells which have been chemically fixed, embedded, and examined as thin sections has been compared with that of membranes in cells negatively stained or freeze-fractured. Results indicate that the extra membranes are present in the three types of preparations examined and, therefore, clearly are not artifacts of chemical fixation. Negative staining has proved also to be a valuable tool as a rapid means of monitoring cells for the accumulation of large amounts of extra membranes. Also, examination of thin sections has shown that distinct continuities between the plasma membrane and the extra membranes exist. In general, membrane surfaces in freeze-fractured cells containing extra membranes appear smooth and lack the particles associated with the plasma membranes of many cells.
Enhanced glucose absorption in the jejunum of patients with cystic fibrosis

After oral D-xylose ingestion, cystic fibrosis patients have significantly higher blood levels of xylose than controls. The aim of this study was to examine whether nutrient absorption at the mucosal level is altered in cystic fibrosis. Steady-state perfusion experiments using isotonic test solutions were performed in 11 healthy controls and 10 cystic fibrosis patients. Net D-glucose absorption was higher in cystic fibrosis when the perfusate contained a glucose concentration of less than or equal to 50 mM. Kinetic analysis by three different methods, including Lineweaver-Burk analysis, revealed a lower apparent Km as well as a lower apparent Vmax in cystic fibrosis as compared with healthy controls (33.9 mM and 52.5 mmol/20 cm . h vs. 81.8 mM and 68.3 mmol/20 cm . h, respectively, p less than 0.01). Absorption of D-fructose and glycine demonstrated a tendency for increased net absorption in cystic fibrosis but the results were not significantly different. L-Xylose absorption and electrolyte movement were not altered in cystic fibrosis. Among several possible mechanisms investigated, a decrease in the apparent Km for glucose absorption would be consistent with a decrease in diffusion barriers overlying the jejunal mucosa in cystic fibrosis. Using an electrical method, the unstirred water layer thickness was significantly decreased in cystic fibrosis (546 +/- 41 micron in cystic fibrosis vs. 780 +/- 110 micron in controls, p less than 0.05). A decrease in the mucosal surface area in the cystic fibrosis group or an intrinsic defect in the mucosal glucose transport system could account for differences in the apparent Vmax values. We suggest, however, that enhanced absorption in cystic fibrosis is most likely due to a decrease in intestinal diffusion barriers possibly due to abnormal mucus overlying the intestinal mucosa.
Strokes of Luck

This essay aims to reorient current theorizing about luck as an aid to our discerning this concept's true philosophical significance. After introducing the literature's leading theories of luck, it presents and defends counterexamples to each of them. It then argues that recent luck theorists’ main target of analysis—the concept of an event's being lucky for a subject—is parasitic on the more fundamental notion of an event's being a stroke of luck for a subject, which thesis serves as at least a partial diagnosis of the leading theories’ failure. Next, it develops an analysis of strokes of luck that utilizes insights from the recent luck literature. Finally, having set out a comprehensive new analysis of luck—the Enriched Strokes Account of lucky events—the essay revisits the initial counterexamples to the literature's leading theories and argues that the Enriched Strokes Account properly handles all of them.
Toward an explanation of national price levels

The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the need for a theory of comparative national price levels and to explore some of the elements that seem to belong to such a theory. Most theoretical discussions have maintained that national price levels tend towards equality and focus on presumably temporary divergences from equality. Yet strong evidence has been accumulating that there are large and long-standing differences inprice levels, the highest of which are more than twice those of countries with the lowest prices. Long-run price level differences are most clearly related to levels of real per capita output, with richer countries having higher price levels.These differences have been explained as resulting from greater advantages in productivity for the wealthier countries in goods production, mostly tradable, than in services production, mostly nontradable. The differences in relative productivity may be in total factor productivity or only in labor productivity, reflecting the greater capital intensity of goods production and possibly a higher elasticity of substitution between capital and labor in goods production.We find in the empirical analysis that a large part of the differences in price levels can be explained by structural factors such as real GDP per capita, the degree of openness of the economy, and the share of nontradable goods in output. The only non-structural factor emerging from a preliminary analysis of several of these was the rate of growth of the quantity of money.
Natural Histories of Discourse

Natural Histories of Discourse. Michael Silverstein and Greg Urban. eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 352 pp.
Company spokesperson vs. customer testimonial: Investigating quoted spokesperson credibility and impact in business-to-business communication

Abstract Through the framework of source credibility, this study examines the impact of quoting a company executive versus a customer testimonial in a business communication context. A 2 (spokesperson) × 7 (media channel) full factorial experiment ( N = 514) showed partial support for enhanced perceived credibility of information conveyed by a customer testimonial compared to a company spokesperson in independent and controlled media channels online. When evaluated through a measure of media credibility, a customer spokesperson rates higher than a company spokesperson. In addition, a product is viewed more positively by an audience receiving information quoting a customer spokesperson rather than a company spokesperson. An audience with low business expertise considers both types of spokespersons as more trustworthy than a high-expertise audience; however, a customer is considered more trustworthy than a company spokesperson. The study provides public relations professionals with insight in determining the use of spokespersons when communicating to businesspeople.
The influence of speaker roles on discourse marker use

Abstract This research examines the use of the discourse markers (DMs) you know, like, oh, well, yeah, and I mean in two speech contexts—interviews and casual conversations—to determine their role in marking and negotiating speaker roles. The DMs oh and well show statistically significant differences in rates of use between contexts, with both of these DMs occurring more frequently in conversations. Despite the initial classification of well as a presentation marker, these data indicate that oh and well both function primarily as reception markers and are used in conversations to create coherence between speaker turns. In interviews, the same speakers use oh and well less frequently because their role as interviewee does not require as much response to the other interlocutor's utterances. The DMs you know, like, yeah and I mean were used at similar rates across contexts, indicating that the functions of these presentation markers are more universal.
Physics in brief

What Makes Nature Tick ? By Roger G. Newton. Harvard University Press: 1993. Pp. 257. $27.95, £22.25.
Senator Barack Obama and Immigration Reform

Senator Barack Obama played a key role in supporting bipartisan efforts led by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy to legislate “comprehensive immigration reform.” This new legislation calls for augmenting border security, enforcing employer sanctions for firms that hire “undocumented workers,” and creating a path to “earned” citizenship for workers already in the United States. The authors argue that Senator Obama uses a “both . . . and” rather than an “either . . . or” approach to immigration that seeks to shift the terms of the debate. In this article, the authors chart Senator Obama's stance on immigration in relation to conservative and liberal positions. By doing so, they explore how Obama's constructed understanding of “earned” citizenship stands in sharp contrast to ultraconservatives' essentialized notion of “patriotic” citizenship.
Singularities and Scalar Fields: Matter Theory and General Relativity

Philosophers of physics should be more attentive to the role energy conditions play in General Relativity. I review the changing status of energy conditions for quantum fields-presently there are no singularity theorems for semiclassical General Relativity. So we must reevaluate how we understand the relationship between General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, and singularities. Moreover, on our present understanding of what it is to be a physically reasonable field, the standard energy conditions are violated classically. Thus the singularity theorems are unavailable for classical General Relativity. Our understanding of singularities in General Relativity turns on delicate issues of what it is to be a matter field-issues distinct from the content of the theory.
The role of coping responses and social resources in attenuating the stress of life events

The nature of individual coping responses to stressful life events was explored in a representative adult community sample. Two approaches to the classification of coping strategies were operationalized. Using these measures, small but significant gender and contextual differences in coping were identified. Mood and symptom levels were related to coping responses and to quantitative and qualitative measures of social resources. Measures of coping and social resources attenuated the relationship between undesirable life events and personal functioning.
The Euler-Lagrange equation and heat flow for the Möbius energy

We prove the following results: 1 A unique smooth solution exists for a short time for the heat equation associated with the Mobius energy of loops in a euclidean space, starting with any simple smooth loop. 2 A critical loop of the energy is smooth if it has cube-integrable curvature. Combining this with an earlier result of M. Freedman, Z. Wang, and the author, we show that any local minimizer of the energy must be smooth. 3 Circles are the only two-dimensional critical loops with cube-integrable curvature. The technique also applies to a family of other knot energies. Similar problems are open for energies of surfaces or, more generally, for embedded submanifolds in a fixed Riemannian manifold. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
On the variation of the structure of a social group with time

A case studied in a previous paper, concerning the changes of the relative number of individuals of different types in a social group, is treated under more general assumptions. It is shown that under those more general conditions periodical fluctuations in the structure of the social group may occur.
Thermal-neutron capture cross-sections and capture resonance integrals of 253Es

Abstract The partial thermal-neutron capture cross-sections (σ2200) and capture resonance integrals (Ic) of 20·47-d253Es to produce 39·3-h254mEs and 276-d254gEs were measured relative to 59Co standards. The number of atoms of 254mEs produced per 253Es target atom was determined by measuring the alpha activity of the 3·24-h 254Fm daughter relative to 253Es alpha activity; the number of 254gEs atoms produced per 253Es target atom was determined by analysis of 254gEs alpha activity relative to 253Es alpha activity following appreciable decay of 253Es. The measured values for 253Es are: σ2200 (to 254mEs) = 155 ± 20b, σ2200 (to 254gEs) ⩽ 3b, Ic (to 254mEs) = 3009 ± 168b (0·412 eV cutoff) and Ic (to 254gEs) = 4299 ± 218b (0·412 eV cutoff).
Morphological and strength analysis of PCC bottom ash amended with bentonite

Within the last few years several studies have been completed to evaluate strength, stiffness, and durability properties of pulverized coal combustion (PCC) bottom ash mixed with various admixtures. Studies have shown that strength and stiffness of PCC bottom ash mixed with sodium bentonite changes with the increase in the curing period. Researchers have concluded that this change is due to the chemical composition of the bottom ash and bentonite. In order to understand the reasons for the change in characteristics of bottom ash-bentonite mixtures with time, the strength and structural characteristics of bottom ash-bentonite mixtures cured for various periods was evaluated. Results of the strength testing showed increase in strength and stiffness of the mixtures with curing period. The results of structural analysis using environmental scanning electron microscopy show development of fibrous elements which may cause increase in the unconfined compressive strength and stiffness of the mixtures with the curing period. Selected results from this study are presented herein.
Development of tellurium-modified carbon catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in PEM fuel cells

Abstract Tellurium (Te)-modified carbon catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction was prepared through chemical reduction of telluric acid followed by the pyrolysis process at elevated temperatures. The catalyst was found to be active for oxygen reduction reaction. High-temperature pyrolysis plays a crucial role in the formation of the active sites of the catalysts. When the pyrolysis was conducted at 1000 °C, the catalyst exhibited the onset potential for oxygen reduction as high as 0.78 V vs. NHE and generated less than 1% H 2 O 2 during oxygen reduction. The performance of the membrane–electrode assembly prepared with the Te-modified carbon catalyst was also evaluated.
Upwind searching for an odor plume is sometimes optimal.

A model is presented that suggests that the optimal strategy for an animal walking or crawling on a substrate while searching for the source of a chemical carried by a shifting wind or current may be to move upwind (or against the current). The requirements are that (1) the current direction fluctuates rapidly within a range that exceeds 30 ° on both sides of the mean direction, and (2) the searching animal can move accurately up- or downwind and, once within the influence of the chemical plume, can move efficiently to the source. Under these conditions, an upwind search is shorter (on the average) by 0.9–0.3 of the range of influence of the chemical stimulus. Thus, this strategy is relatively more important when the total search path is short, i.e., when sources are typically close by. The mean length of the downwind search path is given by 〈Ld〉=d +r[(1/E) + cos α]/2 and the upwind search path by 〈Lu〉=d +r[(2/E) − (α/sin α) − cos α]/2 whered is the starting distance up- or downwind of the source,r is the range of stimulus influence,E is the efficiency with which the searcher moves to the source within the influence of the plume,a is the angle of the maximum extent of wind direction from the mean, and the average, 〈 〉, is taken over all starting positions across the wind direction that lead to search paths that intercept the area swept by the plume.
Thermal radiation and laminar forced convection in the entrace region of a pipe with axial conduction and radiation

Abstract Combined forced convection and thermal radiation in the thermal entrance region of a circular pipe with axial heat conduction and thermal radiation are numerically studied in this article. The fluid is treated as a gray, absorbing and emitting medium with a fully developed velocity entering an isothermal semi-infinite long pipe. The method of moments is applied to approximately model the radiative heat transport process. The governing equations are solved by applying the SIMPLE algorithm. The effects of the Peclet number and its interaction with the conduction-radiation parameter and optical thickness on heat transfer behavior in the thermal entrance region are also investigated. The results obtained indicate that radiation plays more important role at a low Peclet number than at a high Peclet number and that axial radition is negligible when the Peclet number N >20. The numerical results for limited cases of no axial heat conduction and radiation are also compared with the available data published in open literature. In all cases, good agreement with these studies was obtained.