cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evidence for sound absorption in emulsions due to differing thermal properties of the two phases

Abstract The attenuation of low concentration indene in water emulsions was measured in the frequency range 5–145 MHz at 20°C. Due to the closeness in the densities and velocities of the two liquids, energy losses (in excess of those occuring in each phase separately) can be completely accounted for by the difference in the ratio of the expansivity to the specific heat of the two phases. This enables an estimate of the Sauter mean radius of the emulsions to be found.
Layered mode selection logic control for border security

Challenges in border security may be resolved through a team of autonomous mobile robots configured as a flexible sensor array. The robots will have a prearranged formation along a section of a border, and each robot will attempt to maintain a uniform distance with its nearest neighbors. The robots will carry sensor packages which can detect a signature that is representative of a human (for instance, a thermal signature). When a robot detects an intruder, it will move away such that it attempts to maintain a constant distance from the intruder and move away from the border (i.e. into its home territory). As the robot moves away from the border, its neighbors will move away from the border to maintain a uniform distance with the moving robot and with their fixed neighbors. The pattern of motion in the team of robots can be identified, either algorithmically by a computer or by a human monitor of a display. Unique patterns are indicative of animal movement, human movement, and mass human movement. To realize such a scheme, a new control architecture must be developed. This architecture must be fault tolerant to sensor and manipulator failures, scalable in number of agents, and adaptable to different robotic base platforms (for instance, a UGV may be appropriate at the southern border and a UAV may be appropriate at the northern border). The Central Arkansas Robotics Consortium has developed an architecture, called Layered Mode Selection Logic (LMSL), which addresses all of these concerns. The overall LMSL scheme as applied to a multi-agent flexible sensor array is described in this paper.© (2007) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Working Poor: Farmworkers in the United States

Reviewed by James H. McDonald, assistant professor ofanthropology, Division of Behavioral and CulturalSciences, University of Texas at San Antonio.In their book on migrant farm labor, Griffith and Kissammake the ambitious claim that they will provide a compre-hensive analysis of immigrant farm labor in the United Statesthrough the comparative analysis of different sending andreceiving communities that "balance(s) the detail of localstudies with the representativeness of national studies" (p.22). They do an excellent job of delivering on this claim andsuccessfully link national-level data and political-economicforces with local-level experience and struggle. In addition,their analysis is historically contextualized. We see the trans-formation of the migrant farmworker experience not as somelinear, mechanistic process, but one that is complex and con-tingent. Changes in federal and state agricultural policies andlaws, changes in immigration laws, changes in technology,changes in consumer preferences, and the organization ofproduction of various crops shape the receiving area's oppor-tunity structure for migrant workers. Conversely, conditionsin sending areas also deeply influence the characteristics ofthe migrant labor force. Griffith and Kissam do an excellentjob of illustrating how global and local conditions historicallyintersect and shape farming in the United States, farm-labordemographics, and farmworkers' experiences, which are in-creasingly transnational.
The paleoenvironmental-magnetic record of the Gold Hill Steps loess section in central Alaska

Abstract In contrast to the loess-paleosol sequences of China and Central Europe, paleosols of the Halfway House and Gold Hill Steps loess sections in central Alaska show no enhancement in magnetic susceptibility. Evidence for maghemitization and ultrafine superparamagnetic minerals is found in the topsoil and in the lowest weathered loess of the sequence. These minerals are not detected in the three paleosols within the profiles. Rock-magnetic characteristics also indicate a smaller magnetic grain size in the loess with the lowest magnetic susceptibility values. This finding supports the interpretations of Beget et al. (1990) that magnetic concentration and corresponding susceptibility variations may be related to changes in wind intensity.
Naloxone reduces social locomotor activity in rats.

Naloxone, a nonspecific opioid antagonist, has been found to decrease the activity and social behavior of rats tested in pairs but the effects on individual locomotor activity have been equivocal. In the present study, groups of male Long-Evans hooded rats received naloxone (1 or 4 mg/kg, IP) or vehicle alone (isotonic saline) 30 min prior to testing sessions. Individual locomotor activity was measured in two activity boxes (41-cm3) equipped with two infrared photobeams using daily 30-min testing sessions for 5 consecutive days. Following a 1-week washout period (no testing), activity and social attraction (paired distance and contact) were examined in pairs of rats from each group using daily 15-min testing sessions for 4 consecutive days. Locomotor activity and its habituation were not significantly affected by naloxone in rats tested individually. However, both doses of naloxone significantly reduced paired locomotor activity compared to the control group. Measures of social attraction were not significantly affected by naloxone. The present findings suggest that naloxone does not produce nonspecific depressant effects on activity but rather may antagonize opioid release in situational contexts of high arousal (e.g., social activity) with consequent reduction of activity.
The secret life of America's poison centers.

In 1982, I was a postgraduate year 2 internal medicine resident at Albany Medical Center. Intrigued by the specialty of emergency medicine, I selected a rotation in the pediatric emergency department (ED). In the first hour of my first day, a red rotary-dial wall telephone rang. The nurse pointed to me and then the telephone—suddenly I was the poison center! Most emergency physicians were raised in the era of poison centers. The first one was established in Chicago in 1953. The concept caught fire. Perhaps fueled by the baby boom, the number of self-identified poison centers skyrocketed to more than 600 in the United States by 1970. Although the rapid adoption was gratifying, these were mainly small centers that focused on their hospital’s catchment area. Some were mainly a tool intended to capture pediatric patients for the hospital. Despite the large number of centers, coverage of the United States was incomplete. The services provided by these centers varied widely. Few centers were open 24 hours; some were open only when an interested physician was on duty in the hospital. In places in which physicians were actually involved in the center, they were often like me, house officers without poisoning expertise. There was no uniform information source for unusual and complicated poisons.
Dynamic statistical control of manufacturing test

A method for controlling manufacturing tests in real time by statistically predicting test behavior is described. This statistical prediction is used to eliminate certain tests in sequential testing. Analytic methods for clustering tests for more efficient execution and an algorithm for predictive testing are presented. A relational database using structured-query-language system, called SQL/DB2 is proposed; its structure allows efficient retrieval of the information needed for test prediction, test clustering, and predictive testing. A test-system architecture based on personal computers is presented. >
Microelectromechanical high-density energy storage/rapid release system

One highly desirable characteristic of electrostatically driven microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is that they consume very little power. The corresponding drawback is that the force they produce may be inadequate for many applications. It has previously been demonstrated that gear reduction units or microtransmissions can substantially increase the torque generated by microengines. Operating speed, however, is also reduced by the transmission gear ratio. Some applications require both high speed and high force. If this output is only required for a limited period of time, then energy could be stored in a mechanical system and rapidly released upon demand. We have designed, fabricated, and demonstrated a high-density energy storage/rapid release system that accomplishes this task. Built using a 5-level surface micromachining technology, the assembly closely resembles a medieval crossbow. Energy releases on the order of tens of nanojoules have already been demonstrated, and significantly higher energy systems are under development.
Shear viscosity and dielectric constant in aqueous isopropanol and aqueous acetonitrile

The importance of aqueous mixtures as solvents has motivated the investigation of the usefulness of classical molecular dynamics simulation, using simple effective pair potentials and the Lorentz-Berthelot combining rules, to predict mixture viscosities and dielectric constants. In the acetonitrile-water system, near quantitative agreement with experiment is found; however, the calculated shear viscosity in the 2-propanol-water system is underpredicted by more than a factor of two. Moreover, the results do not appear to be strongly dependent on the mixture combining rules, as a 10% decrease in the unlike OO Lennard-Jones size parameter for this system had no discernable effect on the calculated viscosity. In both systems, the dielectric constant predictions were in qualitative accord with experiment, although systematically underpredicted as in the pure component models.
An unusual cause of intraoperative acute superior vena cava syndrome

Acute intraoperative superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome is an exceedingly rare complication in the cardiac surgical population. We describe the case of a 71-year-old female undergoing multi-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting who developed acute intraoperative SVC syndrome following internal thoracic artery harvest retractor placement. Her symptoms included severe plethora, facial engorgement and scleral edema, which was associated with hypotension and severe elevation of central venous pressure. Transesophageal echocardiography was crucial in the diagnosis, management, and optimal retractor placement ensuring adequate SVC flow. Potential causes of intraoperative SVC syndrome are reviewed as well as management options.
Instability of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis

The continued efficacy of environmentally safe biopesticides derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is threatened by the potential for development of resistance in pest populations. Instability of resistance is defined here as the tendency for the frequency of resistant genotypes to decrease in a population beyond effects directly attributable to immigration or emigration. Instability can be quantified as R, the average rate of change in the logarithm of the LC50 (concentration killing 50% of individuals) per generation, which is analogous to the average rate of response to selection per generation. In seven strains of Plutella xylostella, the first insect with field populations reported to be resistant to Bt, resistance declined when exposure to insecticide ceased (mean R = − 0.19). In four other pests, resistance to Bt declined slowly or not at all (mean R = − 0.02) in the absence of exposure to Bt Reduced biotic fitness associated with resistance is the most likely cause of instability of resistance ...
Lectotypifications in Elatine (Elatinaceae) and Some Taxonomic Remarks

Elatine orthosperma Duben, E. spathulata Gorski, Elatine hydropiper L. subsp. gyrosperma Fr. and E. triandra Schkuhr var. callitrichoides Nyl. are lectotypified, and an epitype is selected for the lectotype of E. spathulata. The synonymizing of E. spathulata with E. hydropiper is supported. — Flora Nordica Notes 36.
Cognitive Competence and Mathematical Development.

Disentangling the complex network of relationships between classificational and relational schemata and mathematical potential in children remains a tantalizing though elusive goal of learning research. Theory suggests that certain cognitive competencies provide the intellectual framework for subsequent mathematical concept development (Case, 1978; Inhelder, Sinclair, & Bovet, 1974; Piaget, 1928, 1965). Several empirical studies have addressed this problem by investigating initial concept development in young children. Gonchar (Note 1) investigated the relationship of seriation, one-to-one correspondence, and classification competence to the development of whole number concepts in kindergarten and third-grade children. Employing contingency table analysis, he concluded that an understanding of number is not achieved without at least the codevelopment of classificational and relational competencies. Dodwell (1960), using scalogram analysis, found sequential dependencies of an operational understanding of number on prior attainment of classificational and relational competency. He found that children who could solve ordinal and cardinal problems were also successful at seriation and one-to-one correspondence tasks but not the converse. Howlett (1973) investigated the relationship between the ability to deal effectively with class-inclusion situations and achievement with missing addend examples. He concluded that children operating at the concrete level with respect to class inclusion were significantly better at solving missing-addend problems than those at the preoperational level. Steffe (1968) studied the relationship between conservation of number competence and addition achievement for first-grade children. LeBlanc (1968) carried out a similar experiment relative to subtraction achievement. Both reported significant achievement contrasts between highand low-level conservers with the high group performing significantly better. Gelman (1972) offered further insight into the development of number knowledge by demonstrating conservation-like abilities in 3and 4-year-
Observations on the gastral digestive tract in the male Carpenter ant,Camponotus Pennsylvanicus degeer (Formicidae, Hymenoptera)

The anatomy and histology of the digestive organs in the gaster ofCamponotus pennsylvanicus males are described for those taken from nests during the month of May and for those captured when they were swarning for the nuptial flight in July. The arrangement of the organs and their histology are similar to that which has already been described for theCamponotous workers. In the male ventriculus, however, the epithelial cells are taller and their shapes somewhat different from those in the worker. There is food in all themale gastral digestive organs. Most males dissected had 18 Malpighian tubules, some had 20, and one had 23; in this latter case, one was branched. In the swarming males most of the gastral digestive organs are collapsed or reduced in diameter. The crop, proventriculus, and ventriculus are practically lying on the floor of the first three gastral segments; this condition leaves large spaces in the dorsal anterior end of the gaster. The system is empty of food. The epithelial cells of the ventriculus are degenerating, and the lumen of this organ is filled with basophilic-staining granules. There are differences between the midguts ofC. pennsylvanicus, here described, and ofAnergates atratulus, described byMeyer (1955).
Microbiology of high-sodium-nitrite-wastewater treatment

A microbiological study conducted as a complement to kinetic studies of biological denitrification as a process for treating high-sodium-nitrite wastewaters generated from ship-boiler-tube cleaning is described. The number, genera, and denitrifying capabilities of the organisms inhabiting anoxic suspended-growth reactors used in the kinetic studies were evaluated for four experimental phases. The results regarding the enumeration of bacteria supported the findings of the kinetic studies as follows: (i) the better nitrite-removal efficiencies observed in the nitrification/denitrification system as compared with direct denitrification were confirmed by the presence of larger populations of organisms capable of completely reducing nitrate or nitrite; (ii) the presence of metals in concentrations associated with boiler-tube wastewater did not affect removal performance in the nitrification/denitrification systems, nor did it affect the density of complete denitrifiers; (iii) increasing sludge ages resulted in increasing nitrite-removal efficiencies as well as populations of complete denitrifiers; and (iv) a decrease in nitrate-removal efficiencies when the actual wastewater was introduced to a system that had been acclimated to the synthetic wastewater coincided with a reduction in the number of complete denitrifiers. Regarding the types of organisms found in this study, denitrifying strains of Alcaligenes and Pseudomonas were always present in the anoxic reactors along with other denitrifying and non-denitrifying bacteria of the same genera, or other genera such as Acinetobacter and Flavobacterium. However, members of the genus Alcaligenes were the only complete denitrifiers found in the anoxic reactors, and hence they are likely to play a key role in the denitrification process.
Design and methods for testing a simple dietary message to improve weight loss and dietary quality

Background The current food pyramid guidelines have been criticized because of their complexity and the knowledge required for users to understand the recommendations. Simplification of a dietary message to focus on a single key aspect of dietary quality, e.g., fiber intake, may make the message much easier to comprehend and adhere, such that respondents can achieve greater weight loss, better dietary quality and overall metabolic health.
The Empress of Babylon's 'carbuncles and rich stones': The Metaphorizing of the Pox in Thomas Dekker's The Whore of Babylon

Written in the intense religious and political period following the Powder Treason, Thomas Dekker's anti-catholic and anti-Spanish propaganda play, The Whore of Babylon , bodies forth England's political, social, and religious ills through the image of an alien, pox-riddled female who is depicted repeatedly as an infected and infecting wetnurse and whore. Dekker's provocative rendering of the Empress of Babylon and those she contaminates reflects early modern beliefs that syphilis was first generated and transmitted by women, as evidenced by the treatise The Hunting of the Pox , for example. This article argues that through the pathologizing and gendering of anxieties and fears of the strange existing both from within and from beyond England's shorelines, the play performs the role of social physician as it diagnoses and recommends treatment for that which corrupts national health. Dekker's persistent metaphorizing of the Empress's body and those she contaminates directs audiences to the unsettling idea that immunity from alien penetration and contagion and the careful balance of health and stability are not as easily achieved as his contemporary audience would like to believe.
Use of principal axes as the floating reference frame for a moving deformable body

In this paper a method to adopt the principal axes of a deformable body as its body-attached frame is presented. The deformable body in a multibody setting is allowed to deform while it undergoes rigid-body motion. The fundamental concepts of imposing the principal axes as a moving reference frame are that the origin of the frame must remain at the instantaneous mass center and that the three products of inertia must remain zero as the body deforms. These conditions require the construction of several auxiliary matrices that are used in the constraint equations at the position, velocity, and acceleration levels. These auxiliary matrices are constructed only once and remain unchanged through the motion of the deformable body. The presented formulation does not depend on the type of finite element and multibody formulations or any associated assumptions.
Evapotranspiration Estimation from Diurnal Water Table Fluctuations: Implementing Drainable and Fillable Porosity in the White Method

Diurnal water table fluctuations (DWTFs), normally observed in shallow unconfined aquifers, are commonly used to estimate groundwater evapotranspiration (ET g ) by applying the soil water balance pioneered by W.N. White in 1932. A key element of White-based methods is the drainable porosity (or specific yield), a soil water storage parameter that significantly depends on both the vadose-zone soil moisture fluxes and water table (WT) elevation. However, it has traditionally been treated as either a constant or a function of the WT under hydrostatic soil moisture conditions. Recent research has shown that, at any given shallow WT position, vadose zone fluxes cause the drainable porosity to behave hysteretically, hence requiring estimation of two distinct parameters, drainable (λ d ) and fillable porosity (λ f ), during ET g estimation from DWTFs. We present a White-based method to estimate ET g that implements separate λ d and λ f parameters and hence accounts for both WT elevation and unsaturated zone moisture fluxes. The modified method not only improves the ET g estimates but also extend the applicability of the White method to periods during rainfall, unlike most previous implementations, which have been limited to omitting such periods. The modified method is demonstrated here for estimation of ET g from two crop fields in Northeast Florida for two growing seasons, each approximately 50 d, in 2010 and 2011, and the ET g estimates are compared with the standard Penman–Monteith method. The modified method significantly improved ET g estimates compared with the hydrostatic λ d based method, reducing the root mean square error by 94 and 96% at hourly and daily resolutions, respectively.
Identification and classification of forest landscape pattern: fuzzy modeling and processing of remote sensing image

Much information from remote sensing image is fuzzy and uncertain, which greatly influences the recognition and monitoring of landscape pattern. It is more difficult to identify the types of forest landscape, due to its relative homogeneity compared to larger scale landuse type. Moreover, the categories and process of forest landscape classification, in fact, are fuzzy. In this paper, I use a fuzzy modeling approach to deal with the fuzzy phenomena during the process of identification and classification of forest landscape image. This approach also incorporates the knowledge of vegetation ecology and expert experiences into classification model. Using supervised classification of pixel-by-pixel and group-by-group, I classified a tropical forest landscape. The results indicate that the fuzzy modeling approach can effectively deal with fuzzy information from remote sensing image.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Repairing COTS Router Firmware without Access to Source Code or Test Suites: A Case Study in Evolutionary Software Repair

The speed with which newly discovered software vulnerabilities are patched is a critical factor in mitigating the harm caused by subsequent exploits. Unfortunately, software vendors are often slow or unwilling to patch vulnerabilities, especially in embedded systems which frequently have no mechanism for updating factory-installed firmware. The situation is particularly dire for commercial off the shelf (COTS) software users, who lack source code and are wholly dependent on patches released by the vendor. We propose a solution in which the vulnerabilities drive an automated evolutionary computation repair process capable of directly patching embedded systems firmware. Our approach does not require access to source code, regression tests, or any participation from the software vendor. Instead, we present an interactive evolutionary algorithm that searches for patches that resolve target vulnerabilities while relying heavily on post-evolution difference minimization to remove most regressions. Extensions to prior work in evolutionary program repair include: repairing vulnerabilities in COTS router firmware; handling stripped MIPS executables; operating without fault localization information; operating without a regression test suite; and incorporating user interaction into the evolutionary repair process. We demonstrate this method by repairing two well-known vulnerabilities in version 4 of NETGEAR's WNDR3700 wireless router before NETGEAR released patches publicly for the vulnerabilities. Without fault localization we are able to find repair edits that are not located on execution traces. Without the advantage of regression tests to guide the search, we find that 80% of repairs of the example vulnerabilities retain program functionality after minimization. With minimal user interaction to demonstrate required functionality, 100% of the proposed repairs were able to address the vulnerabilities while retaining required functionality.
Effects of Photochemically Activated Alkylating Agents of the FR900482 Family on Chromatin

Bioreductive alkylating agents are an important class of clinical antitumor antibiotics that crosslink and monoalkylate DNA. Here, we use a synthetic, photochemically activated derivative of FR400482 to investigate the molecular mechanism of this class of drugs in a biologically relevant context. We find that the organization of DNA into nucleosomes effectively protects it against drug-mediated crosslinking, while permitting monoalkylation. This modification has the potential to lead to the formation of covalent crosslinks between chromatin and nuclear proteins. Using in vitro approaches, we found that interstrand crosslinking of free DNA results in a significant decrease in basal and activated transcription. Finally, crosslinked plasmid DNA is inefficiently assembled into chromatin. Our studies suggest pathways for the clinical effectiveness of this class of reagents.
SRp30a (ASF/SF2) regulates the alternative splicing of caspase-9 pre-mRNA and is required for ceramide-responsiveness.

Two splice variants are derived from the caspase-9 gene, proapoptotic caspase-9a and antiapoptotic caspase-9b, by either the inclusion or exclusion of an exon 3, 4, 5, and 6 cassette. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that the alternative splicing of caspase-9 and the phosphorylation status of SR proteins, a conserved family of splicing factors, are regulated by chemotherapy and ceramide via the action of protein phosphatase-1. In this study, a link between ceramide, SR proteins, and the alternative splicing of caspase-9 was established. The downregulation of SRp30a in A549 cells by RNA interference technology resulted in an increase in the caspase-9b splice variant, with a concomitant decrease in the caspase-9a splice variant, thereby significantly decreasing the caspase-9a/9b ratio from 1.67 ± 0.11 to 0.56 ± 0.08 (P
Digital manipulatives: new toys to think with

In many educational settings, manipulative materials (such as Cuisenaire Rods and Pattern Blocks) play an important role in children’s learning, enabling children to explore mathematical and scientific concepts (such as number and shape) through direct manipulation of physical objects. Our group at de MJT Media Lab has developed a new generation of “digital manipulatives”-computationallyenhanced versions of traditional children’s toys. These new manipulatives enable children to explore a new set of concepts (im particular, “systems concepts” such as feedback and emergence) that have previously been considered “too advanced” for children to learn. In this paper, we discuss four of our digital manipulatives-computationallyaugmented versions of blocks, beads, balls, and badges.
Ara-G Fas L–itates T-cell death

Irreversible DNA damage is the hallmark of traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy. Antimetabolites exert their impact through interrupting the DNA replication and repair processes that are required for normal cellular function. Unfortunately, these processes are necessary for both normal and malignant
Physiological and behavioral evidence of a capsaicin-sensitive TRPV-like channel in the medicinal leech

Transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV) channels are found throughout the animal kingdom, where they play an important role in sensory transduction. In this study, we combined physiological studies with in vivo behavioral experiments to examine the presence of a putative TRPV-like receptor in the medicinal leech, building upon earlier studies in this lophotrochozoan invertebrate. The leech polymodal nociceptive neuron was activated by both peripheral and central application of the TRPV1-activator capsaicin in a concentration-dependent manner, with 100 μmol l−1 being the lowest effective concentration. Responses to capsaicin were inhibited by the selective TRPV1 antagonist SB366791. The polymodal nociceptive neuron also responded to noxious thermal stimuli (>40°C), and this response was also blocked by SB366791. Capsaicin sensitivity was selective to the polymodal nociceptor with no direct response being elicited in the mechanical nociceptive neuron or in the non-nociceptive touch- or pressure-sensitive neurons. Capsaicin also elicited nocifensive behavioral responses (withdrawals and locomotion) in a concentration-dependent manner, and these behavioral responses were significantly attenuated with SB366791. These results suggest the presence of a capsaicin-sensitive TRPV-like channel in the medicinal leech central nervous system and are relevant to the evolution of nociceptive signaling.
Sustained vegetable production for three years using composted animal manures

Intensive vegetable production trials were conducted for three years at Windsor (sandy terrace soil) and Mt. Carmel Connecticut (loamy upland soil) following yearly applications of spent mushroom compost (SMC) and chicken manure compost (CMC) applied at two rates (56 or 112 t/ha) as the sole source of nutrients. Yields of seven crops from these amended plots were compared to yields from control plots fertilized with NPK fertilizer. Yields of all vegetables increased as the rate of compost increased. Average yields of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), peppers (Capsicum annuum L.), and spring and fall broccoli (Brassica oleracea L.) on all CMC-amended plots at both rates and sites in all years equaled or were greater than fertilized controls. Yields of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) from all compost-amended plots at both sites in all years equaled or were greater than fertilized controls. Cauliflower (spring and fall) (Brassica oleracea L.) yields from CMC-amended plots (both rates) equaled or exce...
Why is learning American Sign Language a challenge

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in American Sign Language (ASL), the language used by Deaf Americans. As a result, an unprecedented number of schools and agencies now offer ASL classes. This welcome development signals growing awareness of and respect for the American Deaf community and ASL. Unfortunately, misconceptions persist about ASL. One major misconception is that it is an easily learned, picture-like language. This understanding is due partly to the fact that some of the first basic signs learned may be thought of as iconic (e.g., signs for eat, sleep, and drink). This even leads some new ASL learners to believe they can become instructors after one or two classes. This mistake is not made among people learning a spoken language. ASL is a complete and complex language, with all the nuances and subtleties of a spoken language. Like all languages, it is not mastered easily beyond a basic level. Mastery requires extensive exposure and practice. Presently, there is no consensus on where ASL might fall on a learnability continuum for native English speakers. Nonetheless, this article posits that learning ASL should be approached with respect and with the knowledge that mastery only occurs over a substantial period of time.
Cognitive declines precede and predict functional declines in aging and Alzheimer's disease.

Objective To investigate the temporal ordering of cognitive and functional declines separately in older adults with or without Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Impact of Sensory Impairments on Functional Disability in Adults With Arthritis.

Introduction Mobility is reduced in people with sensory impairments and those with arthritis. The combined impact of these conditions may be underappreciated. This study examines the associations between impairments in vision, hearing, and balance and functional ability in adults with versus without arthritis. Methods Using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 1999–2004, arthritis status, functional ability, and sensory impairments (vision, hearing, and balance) were assessed from self-reported responses by 6,654 individuals aged ≥50 years (mean age, 63.4 years; 46.3% male). Multivariable regression analyses, conducted in 2014, assessed the associations between sensory impairment and arthritis on functional ability and mobility. Results Among study participants, 41.8% reported having arthritis; of these, 27.1%, 44.9%, and 35.1% reported impaired vision, hearing, or balance, respectively. Having multiple sensory impairments was significantly associated with reduced functional ability in people with arthritis; individuals with three sensory impairments reported the highest levels of disability for all functional domains (compared with no impairment; lower extremity mobility, 80.2% vs 39.1%; general physical activities, 94.7% vs 75.9%; activities of daily living, 69.7% vs 27.2%; instrumental activities of daily living, 77.2% vs 37.4%; leisure and social activities, 66.3% vs 30.6%; impaired gait speed, 48.1% vs 16.3%; all p Conclusions Addressing sensory deficits, especially difficulties with vision, may improve functional ability, which may be particularly helpful for adults with arthritis.
An evaluation of radioactive iodine in the treatment of hyperthyroidism.

THE use of radioactive isotopes of iodine in the study of thyroid physiology (1, 2, 3,) confirmed the biochemical findings of Marine and his associates (4, 5, 6) that the thyroid has the unique function of concentrating iodine to a level thousands of times that of the blood. The known effectiveness of external radiation therapy in hyperthyroidism combined with this selective deposition of iodine soon led to the use of radioactive iodine in the treatment of patients with thyrotoxicosis. The first thyrotoxic patients treated by this method were reported in 1942 by Hertz and Roberts (7) and Hamilton and Lawrence (8). Subsequent studies (9, 10), published in 1946, confirmed the original observations and permitted a tentative appraisal of radioiodine therapy. Since then, numerous other groups (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) have reported their experiences. Although there is considerable variation in methods employed, the results of treatment have been encouraging and have established a place for radioactive iodine in...
An investigation of solute nucleation in levitated solution droplets

Abstract An experimental technique that involves the use of a single micrometer-sized particle suspended electrodynamically in a laser beam has been developed and shown to have great potential for studying crystal nucleation from aqueous electrolyte solutions. Critical supersaturations required for the onset of solute crystallization have been determined for the NaClH 2 O and the (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 H 2 O systems. The data so obtained are used, in conjunction with nucleation theory and electrolyte solution thermodynamics, to deduce the interfacial free energy, shape, and size of the critical nucleus. For both systems, the critical nucleus is a compact microcrystal composed of only a few unit cells.
Dinosaurs in the Year of Darwin

This special issue of The Anatomical Record explores the recent advances in the functional morphology and paleobiology of dinosaurs. Although Darwin did not study dinosaurs because paleontology was in its infancy a century and half ago, he considered both paleontology and anatomy as essential subjects for establishing the validity of evolution. The study of dinosaurs constitutes a vigorous subdiscipline within vertebrate paleontology, and anatomists and evolutionary functional morphologists constitute an especially creative subgroup within dinosaur paleontology. The collection of 17 papers presented in this issue encompass cranial anatomy, postcranial anatomy, and paleobiology of dinosaurs and other archosaurs. Soft tissue subjects include studies of brain structure, jaw adductor muscles, and keratinous appendages of the skull. Taxonomically, it includes four papers with a focus on theropods, including Tyrannosaurus, five papers dealing with ceratopsians, three papers on hadrosaurs, and one on ankylosaurs. Modern anatomical techniques such as CT scanning, finite element analysis, and high resolution histology are emphasized. The visual presentation of results of these studies is spectacular. Results include the first-ever life history table of a plant-eating dinosaur; a determination of the head orientation of Tyrannosaurus and its relatives based on interpretation of the semicircular canals. The claws of Velociraptor appear to best adapted for tree climbing, but not for horrific predatory activities. Pachyrhinosaurus evidently used its massive head for head butting. The tail club of the armored dinosaur Euoplocephalus had the structural integrity to be used as a weapon. The pages abound with insights such as these. Dinosaurs once dead for millions of years live again!
Something Dangerous: Emergent and Changing Illicit Drug Use and Community Health

Something Dangerous: Emergent and Changing Illicit Drug Use and Community Health. Merrill Singer. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2006. vi + 274 pp.
Chronic fluoxetine treatment promotes submissive behavior in the territorial frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui.

Serotonin (5-HT) is an essential neurotransmitter for many physiological and behavioral processes. Clinically and experimentally 5-HT metabolism can be altered using a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). SSRIs such as fluoxetine have proven effective tools for elevating 5-HT activity and are routinely utilized to study the role of 5-HT in aggressive behavior. The Puerto Rican coqui frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui, is a terrestrial amphibian that exhibits territoriality and paternal care. E. coqui have three different male behavioral modes, territorial (calling), non-calling, and paternal. Territorial male E. coqui aggressively maintain and defend territories by emitting advertisement calls. The objective of this study was to determine if the SSRI, fluoxetine, influences the establishment of the dominant (territorial)-subordinate (non-calling) relationship in male E. coqui. Wild captured adult territorial male E. coqui were grouped into 16 pairs in semi-natural terraria. Pharmacological treatment consisted of injecting (IP) experimental frogs with 25 μl (10mg/kg fluoxetine) of a fluoxetine/saline solution while control males received IP injections of saline. Injections were administered every other day for 20 days while observations continued until 40 days. Results indicated significantly higher numbers of advertisement calls emitted from control males after 20, 30, and 40 days. Additional, 13 of 16 control males emitted significantly more advertisement calls and became the territorial male. Fluoxetine treatment significantly reduced advertisement calling and territorial behavior in E. coqui males. These findings demonstrate that in E. coqui the 5-HT system has profound influence on male territorial and social behavior.
Learning to tutor like a tutor: ranking questions in context

Asking questions in a context relevant manner is a critical behavior for intelligent tutoring systems; however even within a single pedagogy there may be numerous valid strategies. This paper explores the use of supervised ranking models to rank candidate questions in the context of tutorial dialogues. By training models on individual and aggregate judgments from experienced tutors, we learn to reproduce individual and average preferences in questioning. Analysis of our models' performance across different tutors highlights differences in individual teaching preferences and illustrates the impact of surface form, semantic and pragmatic features for modeling variations in tutoring styles. This work has implications for dialogue system design and provides a natural starting point towards creating tunable and customizable tutorial dialogue interactions.
Silencers and locus control regions: opposite sides of the same coin.

Abstract Whether or not genes are in an active or a repressed state in a cell depends on the relative effect of gene silencers and locus control regions (LCRs). Here, we suggest that these elements act as binary switches; the state that prevails (activated or expressed) probably depends on a competition between protein complex formation and the stability of the complexes formed at either of the two elements.
Using divisional history to measure hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal and differentiation

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate cell fates and long-term repopulating potential of a primitive hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) population (i.e., FR25Lin − cells) in vitro. Materials and Methods FR25Lin − cells were isolated by elutriation and cell sorting and cultured with a combination of cytokines for 7 days. Utilizing the membrane dye PKH-26, cultured cells were separated into two subsets based on their proliferation rates and assayed for progenitors and HSC. Results Fresh FR25Lin − cells were mostly quiescent; however, some of this population entered cell cycle after cytokine exposure reaching a peak 4 to 5 days after culture. Two subsets of cultured cells were isolated: 1) cells that had divided several times (PKH dull cells) and 2) cells that remained undivided or divided only once or twice (PKH bright cells). The PKH dull cells accounted for 94% of total viable cells in culture after 5 days. The PKH dull subset contained all the multi-potential in vivo progenitors (CFU-S) and 10 times more committed progenitors (CFU-C). Quantitative analysis of HSC engraftment from the PKH bright subset demonstrated stem cell maintenance. For the PKH dull subset, on day 5, HSC numbers increased. By day 7, increased differentiation in the PKH dull population supports expanding differentiation divisions. Conclusions Our primitive HSC population underwent different types of cell divisions stimulated by cytokines, resulting in subsets with different self-renewal and differentiation potentials. This in vitro/in vivo model provides a useful tool for studies of early events during HSC self-renewal and differentiation.
Hybrid optical inference machines: architectural considerations.

A class of optical computing systems is introduced for solving symbolic logic problems that are characterized by a set of data objects and a set of relationships describing the data objects. The data objects and relationships are arranged into sets of facts and rules to form a knowledge base. The solutions to symbolic logic problems involve inferring conclusions to queries by applying logical inference to the facts and rules. The general structure of an inference machine is discussed in terms of rule-driven and query-driven control flows. As examples of a query-driven inference machine, two hybrid optical system architectures are presented which use matched-filter and mapped-template logic, respectively.
Piezo2 is the principal mechanotransduction channel for proprioception

Proprioception, the perception of body and limb position, is mediated by proprioceptors, specialized mechanosensory neurons that convey information about the stretch and tension experienced by muscles, tendons, skin and joints. In mammals, the molecular identity of the stretch-sensitive channel that mediates proprioception is unknown. We found that the mechanically activated nonselective cation channel Piezo2 was expressed in sensory endings of proprioceptors innervating muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs in mice. Two independent mouse lines that lack Piezo2 in proprioceptive neurons showed severely uncoordinated body movements and abnormal limb positions. Moreover, the mechanosensitivity of parvalbumin-expressing neurons that predominantly mark proprioceptors was dependent on Piezo2 expression in vitro, and the stretch-induced firing of proprioceptors in muscle-nerve recordings was markedly reduced in Piezo2-deficient mice. Together, our results indicate that Piezo2 is the major mechanotransducer of mammalian proprioceptors.
Role of calibration, validation, and relevance in multi-level uncertainty integration

Abstract Calibration of model parameters is an essential step in predicting the response of a complicated system, but the lack of data at the system level makes it impossible to conduct this quantification directly. In such a situation, system model parameters are estimated using tests at lower levels of complexity which share the same model parameters with the system. For such a multi-level problem, this paper proposes a methodology to quantify the uncertainty in the system level prediction by integrating calibration, validation and sensitivity analysis at different levels. The proposed approach considers the validity of the models used for parameter estimation at lower levels, as well as the relevance at the lower level to the prediction at the system level. The model validity is evaluated using a model reliability metric, and models with multivariate output are considered. The relevance is quantified by comparing Sobol indices at the lower level and system level, thus measuring the extent to which a lower level test represents the characteristics of the system so that the calibration results can be reliably used in the system level. Finally the results of calibration, validation and relevance analysis are integrated in a roll-up method to predict the system output.
F/A-18 Twin-Tail Buffet Modeling Using Nonlinear Eddy Viscosity Models

Several fighters suffer from tail buffet problems. The buffet phenomenon is the oscillation of aircraft surface components excited as a result of the interaction between the differential pressures associated with turbulent airflow, aircraft structures, and control surfaces. This paper presents the modeling and simulation of a steady-state one-way and two-way fluid–structure interaction for the tail buffet problem of an F/A−18 fighter. The commercial software ANSYS is used to conduct the simulations. The unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with four turbulent models are used to model the fluid domain. Simulation results of two nonlinear eddy viscosity turbulence models were compared with those of two linear viscosity turbulence models and the experimental data. The two linear turbulence models are standard linear Wilcox k-ω and Spalart–Allmaras. The two nonlinear eddy viscosity models are nonlinear eddy viscosity model and Spalart–Allmaras model with rotation and rotation/curvature correctio...