cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Renault-Volvo Strategic Alliance (B): September 1993

The B case concerns the initial announcement of merger terms between the two firms and the first steps taken to "sell" the merger to Volvo's stockholders. The tasks for the student are to evaluate the merger terms, identify potential obstacles, and suggest an action plan by which Volvo's CEO might achieve shareholder support for the merger. See also the A (UVA-G-0480), C (UVA-G-0482), D (UVA-G-0483), and B (abridged; UVA-G-0484) cases.
To See or Not to See: Effects of Visual Feedback on Performance and Intuitions of Quarterbacks in American Football

We investigated the ability of quarterbacks in American football to intercept a moving receiver with a football in occluded and normal viewing conditions, and whether they can accurately predict their own success. Quarterbacks were successful in almost 80% of the trials in the occlusion condition, statistically as successful as in the normal viewing condition. Quarterbacks' predictions of their own success accounted for little variance in actual success. We propose that quarterbacks may attempt to generate a constant target-heading angle between where the football is thrown and the receiver, which may explain the high success rate in the occlusion condition.
Epitaxially-encapsulated quad mass gyroscope with nonlinearity compensation

We present an epitaxially-encapsulated 2×2 mm2 quad-mass gyroscope (QMG). Relative to the earlier QMG which measured 8×8 mm2 and required an external vacuum package and getter [1], this device is 16x smaller in area and is vacuum-sealed at the wafer-level. Due to the device's small size, high quality factor (Q) and large oscillation amplitude are required to achieve low noise. However, the device's high Q (85,000) makes it highly sensitive to mechanical nonlinearity, resulting in amplitude-frequency dependence and instability of the oscillator loop at large amplitudes. To overcome these problems, we demonstrate electrostatic compensation of the mechanical nonlinearity, enabling 10x greater amplitude and therefore scale factor (SF). Together with closed-loop amplitude control and quadrature compensation, this enables angle-random walk of 0.42 mdeg/s/VHz, comparable to the best QMG published to date. Closed-loop amplitude control and quadrature null are used to achieve a bias instability of 1.6 deg/hr.
Mobility, Communication, and Place: Navigating the Landscapes of Suburban U.S. Teens

In the context of sprawl and car dependence in U.S. metropolitan areas, young people—especially teens in middle-class suburbs—create new mobility practices with near-universal adoption of cellphone...
Gendered Disparities in the German Workforce: Development of Female Labor Union Participation and Current Challenges

With an increasing global female presence in political and economic representation, the continuation of a gendered division of labor and the rise of market flexibility draws into question how historical policies and decision making influence sociocultural-value systems, mobility, and market access in Germany. This paper explores the German labor market through the critical lens of labor union formulation, the dynamics within a German-European Union relationship, and social policy reforms to uncover the reasoning and rationale behind the reinforcement of female labor as precarious. An inclusive discourse on correcting imbalances within the formal/public and informal/private spheres must include the devaluing and exploitation of domestic and feminized labor. For Germany, the consistent segregation of female labor into part-time work and social policies that emphasize motherhood and childrearing stress the historical socioeconomic disincentives to enter and retain work within the productive economy.
Lunar Prospecting: Searching for Volatiles at the South Pole

The Resource Prospector is an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology demonstration mission, planned for a 2021 launch to search for and analyze volatiles at the Lunar South Pole. The mission poses unique operational challenges. Operating at the Lunar South Pole requires navigating a surface with lighting, shadow and regolith characteristics unlike those of previous missions. The short round trip communications time enables reactive surface operations for science and engineering. Navigation of permanently shadowed regions with a solar powered rover creates risks, including power and thermal management, and requires constant real time decision making for safe entry, path selection and egress. The mission plan requires a faster rover egress from the lander than any previous NASA rover mission.
Chronic Hepatitis C

ABSTRACTBackground.Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. Epidemiologic and natural history studies have helped to define the clinical impact of HCV infection, and molecular diagnostic assays have established clinical endpoints against which
Increased activity of the hexosamine synthesis pathway in muscles of insulin-resistant ob/ob mice

Enhanced glucose flux via the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway has been implicated in insulin resistance. We measured products of this pathway, UDP-N-acetyl hexosamines (UDP-HexNAc), and activity of...
Caveat doctor! Tuberculosis in physicians.

Physicians long have been a high-risk group for developing tuberculosis. The progressive decline in the incidence of tuberculosis in the United States over most of the second half of the 20th century led to less tuberculosis and less awareness of tuberculosis among physicians. Recent changes, however, have led to an increase in the incidence of tuberculosis in the U.S. and may lead to more physicians being affected. Two physicians in Hawaii were diagnosed as having active tuberculosis in 1990. Physicians should take steps to prevent its spread and should consider the disease in the differential diagnosis when physicians or their patients are ill.
What Might an Insult to that Nervous System Do

In the last chapter we looked into the processes necessary to produce a central nervous system, more specifically, a visuomotor system. As with so many biological phenomena of seemingly staggering complexity and diversity at the end- product stage, these processes are built on simpler processes interacting within a tightly budgeted time span during development. For the central nervous system from the retina to the cortex and back on out through the oculomotor nerves, four processes occur: neurogenesis, migration, synaptogenesis, and myelination. From 2 to 90 weeks postconception (1 year after birth) most of the neurons of the visual system are generated and located in place, their synaptic connections are completed, and the myelin is laid down to make these connections task specific and the conduction via these connections rapid. The visual system of the infant during this period is astonishing in approaching (perhaps more rapidly than we dare guess) the adult in functional capacity.
Imaging of local porosity/voids using a fully non-contact air-coupled transducer and laser Doppler vibrometer system:

This study exploits the feasibility of imaging zones of local porosity/voids simulated by introducing microspheres during layup of a unidirectional carbon fiber–reinforced polymer composite panel. A fully non-contact hybrid system primarily composed of an air-coupled transducer and a laser Doppler vibrometer was used for imaging the local porosity/void zones from the guided wave response. To improve image resolution, several preprocessing techniques are performed. The wavefield reconstructed from the laser Doppler vibrometer measurements was first “denoised” using a one-dimensional wavelet transform in the time domain followed by a two-dimensional wavelet transform in the spatial domain. From the total wavefield, the much weaker backscattered waves were separated from the stronger incident wave by frequency–wavenumber domain filtering. In order to further enhance the signal-to-noise ratio and sharpen the image, the attenuation of incident wave propagation to the damage site was compensated through two pro...
System-Level Dynamic Variation Margining in Presence of Monitoring and Actuation

Adaptive system has become a popular approach to mitigate dynamic variations with the help of monitoring and actuation. However, design margin is still required due to imperfections in the entire adaptation process, including inaccuracy and latency for both monitors and actuators. In this letter, we study the system-level margining problem in presence of monitoring and actuation. We first analyze the margining strategies for different types of dynamic variation sources. Case studies are performed with different monitor and actuator types for temperature variations. Our experiment results show that inappropriate design and selection of monitor and actuator can result in up to 2.8X more system margin. Based on the results, some design guidelines are given for system design optimization.
Reenvisioning Community Colleges in Nepal: Preparing All Students for Success

This chapter presents an overview of Nepalese higher education and envisions an integrated system that mirrors the framework and mission of US style community colleges. It also highlights a policy discussion with higher education leaders from Nepal regarding the creation of alternative models of higher education that can be based on existing community-based colleges. The discussion illustrates how the rapid expansions in higher education in Nepal is demanding the creation of new policies and the possibility of even creating a new system that can accommodate the increasing number of students wanting access to higher education every year.
Maternal engineered nanomaterial inhalation during gestation alters the fetal transcriptome

The integration of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) is well-established and widespread in clinical, commercial, and domestic applications. Cardiovascular dysfunctions have been reported in adult populations after exposure to a variety of ENM. As the diversity of these exposures continues to increase, the fetal ramifications of maternal exposures have yet to be determined. We, and others, have explored the consequences of ENM inhalation during gestation and identified many cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes in the F1 generation. The purpose of these studies was to identify genetic alterations in the F1 generation of Sprague-Dawley rats that result from maternal ENM inhalation during gestation. Pregnant dams were exposed to nano-titanium dioxide (nano-TiO2) aerosols (10 ± 0.5 mg/m3) for 7-8 days (calculated, cumulative lung deposition = 217 ± 1 μg) and on GD (gestational day) 20 fetal hearts were isolated. DNA was extracted and immunoprecipitated with modified chromatin marks histone 3 lysine 4 tri-methylation (H3K4me3) and histone 3 lysine 27 tri-methylation (H3K27me3). Following chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), DNA fragments were sequenced. RNA from fetal hearts was purified and prepared for RNA sequencing and transcriptomic analysis. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) was then used to identify pathways most modified by gestational ENM exposure. The results of the sequencing experiments provide initial evidence that significant epigenetic and transcriptomic changes occur in the cardiac tissue of maternal nano-TiO2 exposed progeny. The most notable alterations in major biologic systems included immune adaptation and organismal growth. Changes in normal physiology were linked with other tissues, including liver and kidneys. These results are the first evidence that maternal ENM inhalation impacts the fetal epigenome.
LEFT ATRIAL VENO-ARTERIAL EXTRACORPOREAL MEMBRANE OXYGENATION: PERCUTANEOUS BI-ATRIAL DRAINAGE TO AVOID PULMONARY EDEMA IN PATIENTS WITH LEFT VENTRICULAR SYSTOLIC DYSFUNCTION

Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) in patients with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction may lead to pulmonary edema which is associated with worse outcomes. Decompression of the left atrium during VA-ECMO results in decreased pulmonary edema. We describe the
Empowering Education: Teaching Argumentative Writing to Cultural Minority Middle-School Students.

Using quasi-experimental and case study research methods, I investigated the effectiveness of two heuristics based on Toulmin's (1958) model of argument and classical rhetoric for helping middle-school students in two different schools to write argumentative essays. Experimental group essays exhibited larger pre- to posttest gains in development and voice than comparison group essays. Effects were especially strong for essays written by cultural minority (Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American) students, suggesting that these students benefited from heuristics regarding argument structure. However, the results of statistical tests to determine whether minorities benefited more than Whites are not consistent due to the unbalanced sample of minorities and Whites. Effects due to site, including differences due to teacher, classroom, and school, were not statistically significant. Students in the experimental group applied the heuristics flexibly, suggesting that students learned principles rather than rote procedures for argumentation and were able to adapt the heuristics and transfer their knowledge to a range of topics. Students in the experimental group also demonstrated greater knowledge of argument criteria and strategies. These results support the hypothesis that knowledge of argument structure sharpens students' judgment regarding the content and organization needed to generate logically connected arguments. By clarifying the requirements for writing persuasive argumentative essays, the heuristics tested in the present study may improve traditionally -underprepared students' ability to write academic essays.
Monitoring of selected trace elements in sediments of heavily industrialized areas in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES)

Abstract Located in Southwest Louisiana Calcasieu Parish is the home of several recent multibillion-dollar industrial projects creating a need for environmental monitoring projects. The monitoring of certain metals in the environment is important due to the toxic nature of these elements and the region's history of Superfund sites. Sediment samples were collected from seven locations around Calcasieu parish, and the concentrations of Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn were determined by ICP-OES. The locations were selected due to their proximity to industrialized locations. None of the sampled sediments exceeded the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality regulations. All sampled locations had higher concentrations when compared to a non-industrialized location from the area. These differences may have been caused by anthropogenic factors.
Investigation of a High-Power COTS Solution for Space

A power switch solution for a space environment using commercial off the shelf (COTS) devices is presented. The application was for a high load switch required to turn-on within 1 us that could support greater than 600 volts and current requirement of 15 amperes. The susceptibility of devices to single-event gate rupture (SEGR) and single-event burnout (SEB) was seen to correlate to the off resistance (RDSoff) and gate thickness of the devices.
Why make it? Understanding undergraduate engineering students' conceptions for the purpose of prototyping in engineering design activities

Prototyping in design provides ways to navigate ambiguity in the design problem, gain insight through the refinement of ideas, and aid in communication between team members. However, while designing, students often underutilize prototyping and do not consider it as an integral part of the design process. To facilitate the scaffolding of design activities, it is necessary first to understand students’ conceptions of prototyping. In this study, we use artifact elicitation interviews as a method to elicit students’ conceptions by moving from the specifics of the artifacts they brought with them to the interview, to their general understanding of prototyping. Participants in the study are students in an undergraduate sophomore design-oriented, project-based learning course in a large southwestern university. Students were invited to participate in a screening survey. After potential participants suitable for the purpose of this study were identified, some were selected for a follow-up interview. The findings of the study describe students’ conceptions of “what counts” as a prototype; what is valued in a prototype; the benefits of, and challenges associated with prototyping; and differences between in-class and out-of-class prototyping activities. The findings of this study improve our understanding to effectively scaffold prototyping activities in design and experiential learning.
Mapping anticipatory anhedonia: an fMRI study

Anhedonia-broadly defined as loss of interest and/or an inability to experience pleasure-is an important feature of several psychiatric disorders. Research into the clinical presentation and neurobiology of this symptom has identified components related to motivation, learning, anticipation, and experience of pleasure as important constructs that inform therapeutic interventions. The experimental study of anhedonia is largely based on incentive processing paradigms, most often with monetary rewards, though studies have also used pleasantness ratings of various stimuli. However, linking an individual's own system of reinforcers and ability to enjoy them with anhedonia and neural activity remains comparatively under-explored. A previous study of participants with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls found that activity word ratings correlated with measures of anhedonia, depression, and motivation. The present study collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) images in healthy controls while they rated activity words and pictures showing activities in order to identify networks differentially responsive to subjective decisions about the appetitive value of activities. The study sought to measure individually-relevant hedonic capacity as demonstrated by correlations between task measures and anticipatory anhedonia ratings. Ratings of potential pleasure were associated with neural activity in areas previously identified as relevant to pleasure and reward processing, such as anterior and posterior cingulate, middle frontal areas, and dorsal and ventral striatum. Although the study included only healthy controls, the results demonstrate a link between anhedonia measures, behavior, and brain responses and also test a paradigm that could be used to study anhedonia in clinical populations.
Early versus late salvage abdominoperineal resection for anal squamous cell carcinoma: Is there a difference in survival?

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES The first-line treatment for anal squamous cell carcinoma is Nigro protocol chemoradiotherapy. Some patients will fail curative intent chemoradiotherapy and have persistent disease while others may have an initial response followed by disease recurrence. The goal of this study is to investigate survival in anal squamous cell carcinoma patients who fail first-line treatment. METHODS The National Cancer Database (2004-2013) was used to identify patients with anal squamous cell carcinoma. The primary outcome was overall survival. RESULTS There were 256 patients in the early salvage group who underwent abdominoperineal resection (APR) within 6 months of completing chemoradiotherapy and 181 patients in the late salvage group who had APR 6 months or more after completion of chemoradiotherapy. Both groups of patients had similar tumor size (45 vs 50 mm; P = 0.07) and rate of positive margins (21.5% vs 15.6%;P = 0.13). There was no significant difference in overall survival between early and late salvage APR (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.50-1.32; P = 0.40). CONCLUSIONS The overall survival of anal squamous cell carcinoma patients undergoing early vs late salvage APR after failure of chemoradiotherapy is similar. As a result, patients with persistent disease should be offered surgery just as readily as those with recurrent disease.
Synchronized analysis of eye movement and EEG during program comprehension

Appropriate support for program comprehension contributes to efficient software development. Several previous studies used bio-information such as brain activity to classify the inner-state of programmer without interruption. In this paper, we measure programmer's brain waves and eye movement simultaneously while they comprehend the source code. In the experiment, we analyze difference of time-series brain wave features between success/failure for source code comprehension task. The result of the experiment showed the participants who success source code comprehension significantly increased power spectrum of a wave with the time passage. Also the eye movements of the succeed participants shift their focus of fixation from specification to source code in early time. Synchronized analysis of failed programmer shows similar but slow pattern of EEG and eye movement changes compared with succeed programmer.
Exclusion Criteria as Measurements II: Effects on Utility Functions:

Background. Researchers often justify excluding some responses in studies eliciting valuations of health states as not representing respondents' true preferences. Here, we examine the effects of applying 8 common exclusion criteria on societal utility estimates. Setting. An online survey of a US nationally representative sample (N = 1164) used the standard gamble method to elicit preferences for health states defined by 7 health domains from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®). Methods. We estimate the impacts of applying 8 commonly used exclusion criteria on mean utility values for each domain, using beta regression, a form of analysis suited to double-bounded scales, such as utility. Results. Exclusion criteria have varied effects on the utility functions for the different PROMIS health domains. As a result, applying those criteria would have varied effects on the value of treatments (and side effects) that change health status on those domains. Limitations. Although our method could be applied to any health utility judgments, the present estimates reflect the features of the study that produced them. Those features include the selected health domains, standard gamble method, and an online format that excluded some groups (e.g., visually impaired and illiterate individuals). We also examined only a subset of all possible exclusion criteria, selected to represent the space of possibilities, as characterized in a companion article. Conclusions. Exclusion criteria can affect estimates of the societal utility of health states. We use those effects, in conjunction with the results of the companion article, to make suggestions for selecting exclusion criteria in future studies.
Muhammad II Khwarazmshah Meets Chinggis Khan: A Tale of Hubris and Failed Leadership in the Thirteenth Century

In the thirteenth century, four powers collided in Central Asia with the territories of the modern states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan as their prize. One of them, the Mongol Empire, became the largest contiguous empire in history. The second, the Islamic Khwarazmian Empire, has been forgotten by history. The third was the empire of Qara Khitai while the final player was the Naiman, a tribal group that had been a rival to the Mongols. Why one survived and is remembered and the others did not is largely due to the leadership decisions of their respective leaders. Many of these decisions were prompted by the actions of one Muhammad II, the Sultan of the Khwarazmian Empire, located in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. Poor decisions dictated these leaders’ fates, but these decisions, at the time, seemed like logical choices and can only be understood in the context in which they were made.
Pulsed-jet propulsion via shape deformation of an axisymmetric swimmer

By using an axisymmetric immersed-boundary model, we numerically investigate the thrust generation of a deformable body via pulsed jetting. We focus on a single discharging process resulting from the deflation of the body as inspired by the jetting mechanism of cephalopods, such as squids. We examine three jet velocity profiles, namely, impulsive, half-cosine, and cosine, in the relatively low Reynolds number regime. For the impulsive profile, we demonstrate via wake visualization that the leading vortex ring does not pinch off from the trailing jet although its circulation stops growing after a critical formation number (hereby, the formation number is defined as the ratio between the length and diameter of the jet plug) of 6–7. The exact value of the critical formation number depends on the jet velocity profile, suggesting that jet acceleration and viscous dissipation play significant roles in vortex ring evolution. In terms of thrust generation, our results indicate that besides the jet momentum flux, an important source of thrust generation is jet acceleration. The implication is that the jet velocity profile is a key factor in determining the propulsive performance.
Multi-Task Learning with Deep Neural Networks: A Survey

Multi-task learning (MTL) is a subfield of machine learning in which multiple tasks are simultaneously learned by a shared model. Such approaches offer advantages like improved data efficiency, reduced overfitting through shared representations, and fast learning by leveraging auxiliary information. However, the simultaneous learning of multiple tasks presents new design and optimization challenges, and choosing which tasks should be learned jointly is in itself a non-trivial problem. In this survey, we give an overview of multi-task learning methods for deep neural networks, with the aim of summarizing both the well-established and most recent directions within the field. Our discussion is structured according to a partition of the existing deep MTL techniques into three groups: architectures, optimization methods, and task relationship learning. We also provide a summary of common multi-task benchmarks.
One-loop electron mass and three-loop Dirac neutrino masses

Abstract In the context of a left-right extension of the standard model of quarks and leptons with the addition of a gauged U ( 1 ) D dark symmetry, it is shown how the electron may obtain a radiative mass in one loop and two Dirac neutrinos obtain masses in three loops.
An Archive of Religio-Racial Identity

Although I had long been interested in early twentieth-century Black new religious movements in the United States, my decision to write a book exploring intersections of race and religion in severa...
MMS19 is required for NER and transcription in human cells

854 Yeast MMS19 encodes a polypeptide necessary for effective nucleotide excision repair (NER) and RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription. We have previously reported that human MMS19 is able to complement the NER and RNA Pol II transcription phenotypes of a yeast mms19 deleted strain. Human MMS19 associates with TFIIH by interacting with XPB and XPD, however, the precise functions of MMS19 in mammalian cells have not yet been established. To determine the functions of MMS19 in mammalian cells we altered the levels of MMS19 in human normal cells by using short interfering RNA (siRNA). MMS19 expression was quantified by RT-PCR and western blotting. Cells expressing normal and low levels of MMS19 were exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and high temperature. Cell viability after UV radiation and incubation at high temperature was analyzed by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. UV dose-dependent survival was measured by colony forming ability. The time required for the in vivo removal of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) after UV radiation was determined by NER immunoassay using monoclonal antibodies. Our data show that human cells with siRNA-mediated depletion of MMS19 have significant decrease in cell viability after either UV radiation or incubation at high temperature. A significant decrease in the removal of CPDs after UV radiation was also observed in MMS19 knockdown cells. These findings show for the first time that, in human cells, MMS19 protein is required for the effective removal of the UV-induced DNA damage and for efficient transcription at high temperature. Furthermore, our data suggests that the level of MMS19 expression might predict the ability of human cells to survive stress such as exposure to DNA damaging agents and high temperature. These findings might have important implications from human aging to cancer therapy.
Race, Religion, or Ethnicity?: Situating Jews in the American Scene

For Jewish Americans and the scholars who study them, religion, race, and ethnicity make up fundamental components of American social location. In other words, they are immediately relevant to how Americans conceptualize their own identities and the identities of others, as well as to the distribution of social, political, and economic resources. In this article, I argue that scholarship on Jewish American identity is typically both attentive to and itself deeply shaped by the myths that comprise dominant American conceptions of identity, such as those that inform and construct the social categories religion, race, and ethnicity. I examine, in each of three sections, scholarship that analyzes Jewish identification in terms of religion, ethnicity, and race, respectively, highlighting how the studies engage American social categories as the framework for studying Jewish American identification. The texts that use religion as the center of their analysis tend either to focus exclusively on Jewish Americans or to situate them in relation to the expectation of assimilation to (Christian) American social norms. Ethnicity-oriented scholarship, in contrast, often examines Jewish Americans as one among many ethnic groups, focusing initially on post-Civil Rights era multiculturalism and, in later work that accounts for race theory, on identity performance and representation. I argue that the turn to, or neglect of, race in contemporary studies reveals the varying levels of scholarly commitment to thinking through power, privilege, and the role of ‘whiteness’ in Jewish American experiences and in their relations with other groups.
Habitaciones evaporadas. Departamento para un joven doctor: Lyon, Francia Philippe Rahm architectes 2011

En la remodelacion de este departamento, las hipotesis planteadas en Astronomia Domestica han sido puestas a prueba en un caso real. Ante una planta predefinida, la intervencion se enfoca en reubicar las funciones en corte, de acuerdo a la temperatura, luz, y humedad que cada una necesita. Asi, la forma sigue a los flujos de energia, redefiniendo por completo las logicas habituales de composicion arquitectonica.
The architecture of a middleware layer for controlling the quality of multimedia sessions

Collaborative multimedia systems demand overall session quality control beyond the level of Quality of Service (QoS) as pertaining to individual streams in isolation of others. To this end, we have recently introduced the concept of Quality of Session (QoSess) control. At every instant in time, the quality of the session depends on the actual QoS offered by the system to each of the application streams, as well as on the relative priorities of these streams according to the application semantics. In this paper, we present the architecture of a middleware layer for controlling the quality of a session. In addition, we describe the inter-stream bandwidth adaptation mechanisms, which are used by the QoSess layer to dynamically control the bandwidth shares of the streams belonging to a session.
Visiting Ground Zero: sacred echoes in secular rites

For the past several years since September 11, 2001, large numbers of people from across the continent and around the world have visited the site of the devastated World Trade Center in New York. Scholars in religious studies and the social sciences have noticed that there were and continue to be (though less so over time) religious aspects to the observances and performances of visitors to ‘Ground Zero’, as the site of the former World Trade Center almost immediately came to be called. A central argument of this article is that the ongoing stream of visitors to Ground Zero, strictly speaking, does not qualify this phenomenon as a pilgrimage in the traditional religious sense; it is more akin to the growing phenomenon of religious tourism, although it is not exactly that either. Nonetheless the event of 9/11 generated many ritualized activities; the article will also address the pro­cess scholars call ‘ritualization’ and related terms in ritual studies. Although ritualized performances at Ground Zero do not amount to a pilgrimage in the narrow sense that historians of religion mean when they analyse traditional pilgrimages, such as the Hajj to Mecca, or following the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, visiting Ground Zero has taken on both secular and religious elements.
Woodchuck Hepatitis Virus Contains a Tripartite Posttranscriptional Regulatory Element

The hepatitis B virus posttranscriptional regulatory element (HBVPRE) is a cis-acting RNA element that partially overlaps with enhancer I and is required for the cytoplasmic accumulation of HBV surface RNAs. We find that the closely related woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV), which has been shown to lack a functional enhancer I, also contains a posttranscriptional regulatory element (WPRE). Deletion analysis suggests that the WPRE consists of three independent subelements. Comparison of the bipartite HBVPRE and tripartite WPRE activities reveals that the tripartite WPRE is two to three times more active than the bipartite HBVPRE. Mutation of a single WPRE subelement decreases WPRE activity to the level of the HBVPRE. Bipartite and tripartite chimeras of the WPRE and HBVPRE possess activities which suggest that elements containing three subelements are posttranscriptionally stronger than those containing two. These data demonstrate that the posttranscriptional regulatory element is conserved within the mammalian hepadnaviruses and that its strength is determined by the number of subelements within the RNA.
METHODOLOGICAL BIAS IN PUBLIC OPINION SURVEYS

Statistically designed sample surveys have enabled pollsters to gauge public opinion on a wide range of issues. In such surveys, selection of a data collection technique is generally based on four criteria: (1) cost; (2) completion time; (3) response rate; and (4) response bias. Typically, more weight is placed on the first three factors and, as a result, adequate attention has not been given to the latter consideration. The study described in this paper looks at one type of response bias-that which results from the use of a specific data collection method. More specifically, this research uses a controlled experimental design in order to determine whether responses given in a public opinion polling are influenced by the method used to collect the data. Three methods are investigated: (1) mail questionnaire; (2) telephone interview; and (3) personal interview.
The Irony of American Agriculture

Many Americans first encounter the Great Depression and New Deal through images and narratives of environmental and agricultural crisis. These stories have enduring appeal. John Steinbeck's (1939) ...
Cyclodextrin-based device coatings for affinity-based release of antibiotics

Cyclodextrin-based hydrogels were synthesized to create robust networks with tunable mechanical properties capable of serving as device coatings. The CD networks were able to swell and load drug in aqueous and organic solvents. The rheological properties of the swollen gels were investigated using stress and frequency sweeps, with both demonstrating high storage modulus, indicating strong elastic gels. The ability of the gels to swell in numerous solvents allowed for the separate loading and release of different antibiotic drug molecules with varying hydrophilicities. Based on FTIR and TGA studies, each drug was found to form an inclusion complex with CD. For comparison, dextran gels were prepared similarly. As expected for affinity-based mechanisms, the release of drugs from the CD-based gels was slower than diffusion-based release from the dextran gels, and could be sustained for more than 200 h. Coating potential was tested by coating two different medical devices: metal screws and polymer meshes. The meshes were characterized by SEM, revealing that CD-based coatings resulted in a uniform thin film, whereas the dextran gels only partly coated the device and showed delamination. Considerably longer bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus was observed for both the CD hydrogels and coatings, as compared to dextran-based ones. The slow, sustained, affinity-based release of antibiotics from the CD-based networks reflects their potential as a delivery platform.
Concentration of estrogens in maternal peripheral plasma in late pregnancy, during labor and post partum.

ABSTRACT Estrone, 17β-estradiol and estriol were estimated fluorometrically in serial samples of maternal plasma from 5 subjects in late pregnancy, during labor and post partum. Estradiol concentrations were stable from 2 to 3 weeks prior to delivery until placental delivery, when significant decreases occurred. While significant increases and decreases in estrone and estriol did occur during late pregnancy, no consistent pattern was observed. Levels in early labor were not significantly different from those during the final week of pregnancy. In the majority of subjects significant decreases did not occur until placental delivery. Rising estrogen levels were observed during oxytocin-induced labor, after premature rupture of membranes, in a single patient. It is suggested that a stable hormonal environment may be a prerequisite for initiation of labor.
Nimodipine facilitates associative learning in aging rabbits

Nimodipine is one of several dihydropyridines that block calcium channels. Originally administered to improve cerebral blood flow in elderly patients with chronic cerebrovascular disorders, nimodipine was noted to facilitate learning. These observations led to the present investigation of the effects of nimodipine on associative learning in aging rabbits. Nimodipine accelerated acquisition of conditioned eye-blink in both young and aging rabbits without altering the amplitude of responses to the conditioned or unconditioned stimuli or causing nonspecific responding. Thus, nimodipine may be a candidate for an effective treatment for age-related learning deficits.
Food Intake, Weight Gain and Amino Acid Pools of Rats Receiving 1-Aminocyclopentane-1-Carboxylic Acid.∗:

SummaryRats allowed diets containing 0.1% ACPC ad libitum for a 3-day period exhibited decreases in food intake and growth rate as compared to animals given the basal diet. Significant reductions occurred in the levels of the amino acids in plasma and tissues of rats receiving ACPC. When food intake was maintained by feeding with a stomach tube, no appreciable differences were found in growth rate or in the composition of the amino acid pools of animals injected with ACPC as compared to animals injected with saline. It would appear that ACPC does not affect the distribution of amino acids in animal tissues or the growth rate when food intake is controlled.
Continuous Determination of Free Cyanide by Means of Membrane Diffusion of Gaseous HCN and An Electrode Indicator Technique

Abstract A continuous measurement system for free cyanide has been developed based on the principle of diffusion across a gas-permeable membrane to affect the separation of hydrogen cyanide from the acidified sample solution. The cyanide absorbed in the alkaline indicator solution is subsequently analyzed by an indirect technique using a silver ion-selective electrode. In the concentration range of 30 to 400 μg CN−/L, the accuracy and precision of this method is approximately two percent. The detection limit of this system is approximately 0.5 μg CN−/L.
Reactions of vinyl acetate and vinyl trifluoroacetate with cationic diimine Pd(II) and Ni(II) alkyl complexes: identification of problems connected with copolymerizations of these monomers with ethylene.

Vinyl acetate (VA) and vinyl trifluoroacetate (VAf) react with [(N∧N)Pd(Me)(L)][X] (M = Pd, Ni, (N∧N) = N,N‘-1,2-acenaphthylenediylidene bis(2,6-dimethyl aniline), Arf = 3,5-trifluoromethyl phenyl, L = ArfCN, Et2O; X = B(Arf)4-, SbF6-) to form π-adducts 3 and 5 at −40 °C. Binding affinities relative to ethylene have been determined. Migratory insertion occurs in a 2,1 fashion (ΔG⧧ = 19.4 kcal/mol, 0 °C for VA, and 17.4 kcal/mol, −40 °C for VAf) to yield five-membered chelate complexes [(N∧N)Pd(κ2-CH(Et)(OC(O)CH3))]+, 4, and [(N∧N)Pd(κ2-CH(Et)(OC(O)CF3))]+, 6. When VA is added to [(N∧N)Ni(CH3)]+, an equilibrium mixture of an η2 olefin complex, 8c, and a κ-oxygen complex, 8o, results. Insertion occurs from the η2 olefin complex, 8c (ΔG⧧ = 15.5 kcal/mol, −51 °C), in both a 2,1 and a 1,2 fashion to generate a mixture of five- and six-membered chelates, 92,1 and 91,2. VAf inserts into the Ni−CH3 bond (−80 °C) to form a five-membered chelate with no detectable intermediate. Thermolysis of the Pd chelates result...
Corrections to Glauber theory in the optical limit

Abstract In the optical limit the leading finite energy correction to Glauber theory for scattering from a composite system in the fixed scatterer approximation takes a form similar, but not identical, to the leading correction to scattering from an elementary system via the optical potential.
Monterey Fan: Growth pattern control by basin morphology and changing sea levels

Monterey Fan is the largest modern fan off the California shore. Two main submarine canyon systems feed it via a complex pattern of fan valleys and channels. The northern Ascension Canyon system is relatively inactive during high sea-level periods. In contrast, Monterey Canyon and its tributaries to the south cut across the shelf and remain active during high sea level. Deposition on the upper fan is controlled primarily by the relative activity within these two canyon systems. Deposition over the rest of the fan is controlled by the oceanic crust topography, resulting in an irregular fan shape and periodic major shifts in the locus of deposition.
Pre-Irradiation Saccharin Habituation: A Factor in Avoidance Behavior:

Seven groups each with eight albino rats were habituated to a 0.1% sodium saccharin solution for either 8, 4, 2, 1, or 0 days prior to x-irradiation or sham-irradiation. The saccharin habituated groups showed a significant decrease in the degree of conditioned saccharin avoidance response as compared with the non-habituated group, but the degree of avoidance response was still significantly different from that of the sham-irradiated group. A group given water to drink prior to irradiation showed no significant difference in post-irradiation saccharin avoidance from the group given saccharin to drink. The results support previous evidence that prior experience with the CS (saccharin solution) significantly affects the intensity of the conditioned saccharin avoidance response in the trace conditioning paradigm using x-irradiation as the US, and also support previous work indicating that avoidance behavior to a preferred solution can be obtained without presentation of this solution prior to or during the ra...
Plasmonic nanorainbow for label-free biomolecule sensing

A gold nanowire array that we call nanorainbow SPR sensor array can be chemically functionalized and used to capture biomolecules. The localized plasmon resonance wavelength of the gold nanowires shifts on the biomolecule binding and reaction sites. The plasmon resonance shift of the gold nanorainbow is sensitive to the biomolecule immobilization in sub-nM concentration. As an application example, label-free oligonucleotide hybridizations are detected on the nanorainbow sensor in a multiplexed microfluidic chip.
Evaluación de las desigualdades entre los sexos en el régimen turco de pensiones

Desde los anos noventa, el regimen de bienestar social en Turquia se ha orientado mas hacia el mercado. La introduccion del Sistema Individual de Pensiones (SIP), que es un regimen administrado por sector privado de cotizaciones definidas, formo parte de este proceso. Este documento utiliza un modelo estocastico autorregresivo para establecer el efecto total de desventajas especificas, tales como una vida profesional mas breve, menos ingresos, una esperanza de vida mayor, crecimiento del salario real, costos administrativos y aversion al riesgo, sobre las prestaciones de jubilacion de las mujeres en Turquia. Usando un modelo actuarial, este articulo pretende contribuir a la informacion mediante la investigacion de la brecha que separa a mujeres y hombres en el regimen turco de cotizaciones definidas.
Calibration of Chandra's near on-axis optical performance

The Chandra X-Ray telescope has excellent angular resolution for on-axis sources. While the Wolter type I design optimizes on-axis performance, there is a relatively large region in which 0.5" to 1" imaging is possible. The Chandra PSF was first characterized during ground calibration and, most recently, from actual on-orbit measurements. The ground calibration provided data with the highest signal to noise but, because of gravity-induced distortions of the optics, could not completely characterize their performance. We present the results of on-orbit calibrations of the optics' performance, focusing on the near on-axis field of view. We present for the first time an analysis of the energy dependence of the on-orbit PSF.
Supplemental Irrigation In The Upper Mississippi Valley

(1967). Supplemental Irrigation In The Upper Mississippi Valley. The Professional Geographer: Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 184-188.
Integrated Analysis of Functional and Developmental Interdependencies to Quantify and Trade-off Ilities for System-of-Systems Design, Architecture, and Evolution

Abstract When complex systems and systems-of-systems are involved, the behavior of the whole entity is not only due to that of the individual systems, but also to the interactions and interdependencies between the systems. Classical systems engineering approach is not always suitable to manage such feature, and new tools and methods are required, capable to identify, analyze and quantify properties of the system-of-systems as a whole. This research addresses the need to deal with complex dependencies between systems, in both developmental and functional relationships. We propose a combination of two previously developed methods, to analyze functional and developmental dependencies between systems in a system-of-systems, and to assess the impact of such dependencies on metrics that characterize global prop erties of a system-of-systems over its life span known as ilities. The analysis can be used to drive decisions for system-of- systems design, architecture, and evolution, with respect to the identified metrics of interest. It also accounts for the presence of multiple stakeholders, and external factors that influence the operability and the development of a system-of-systems. The methods support the analysis of trade-offs between competing ilities and facilitates identification of better performing architectures. We show preliminary results of the application of the methods, and how the results can be interpreted to evaluate system-of-system ilities on synthetic problems. We also propose the necessary steps for further improvement of the methods, and for future research.