cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Newton’s Immobility Arguments and the Holism of Spatial Ontology

For those philosophers of space and time inclined towards a structuralist, third-way approach to ontology, Newton’s defense of the immobility of the parts of space is often regarded as a powerful historical precedent, prompting a host of structuralist-leaning commentary over the past several decades. Newton’s arguments, which appear in his early De grav and the Principia’s scholium on space and time, have been analyzed by Stein, DiSalle, Healey, Torretti, and many others committed to a more nuanced spatial ontology than traditional substantivalism and relationism offer. Recently, however, there have appeared two important assessments, by Nerlich and Huggett, that question whether Newton’s structuralist or holistic conception of the identity of spatial parts ultimately undermines his overall conception of space, a problem that, interestingly, does not appear to be a connected with his espoused absolutism or alleged substantivalism. Since Newton bases the identity of the parts of space on their structural relationships, and since all the parts of his infinite Euclidean space manifest the same structural relationships with one another, do these parts thereby lack the necessary identity criterion for a coherent theory of space? In order to better grasp Newton’s arguments and his general conception of these issues, this chapter will explore the background of, and the possible sources of influence on, Newton’s theory of the identity of spatial parts, as well as critique several important interpretations and arguments put forward by commentators. Yet, this chapter is not limited to an historical examination of seventeenth century theories alone, since a contemporary analogue of the problems associated with Newton’s treatment of the identity of spatial parts finds a home in contemporary spacetime debates. The goal of this chapter, consequently, is two-fold: first, we will rebut the problems raised by both Nerlich and Huggett by means of a more intricate historical and philosophical analysis of the spatial holism intrinsic to Newton’s theory; second, we will argue that modern debates on the ontology of spacetime, some of which have been motivated by similar puzzles, have either unwittingly followed, or could benefit from, Newton’s holistic conception of spatial ontology.
An outgroup advantage in discriminating between genuine and posed smiles

AbstractIngroup memberships are an important component of the self-concept and people favor their ingroups on a variety of evaluative and behavioral dimensions. Recent research has extended these ingroup favoritism effects to face processing, including an ingroup advantage in emotion identification. The current research was designed to extend these past demonstrations of ingroup favoring biases in face processing to a novel domain: discriminating between genuine and posed smiles. However, across two experiments an unexpected finding emerged: perceivers were better at discriminating between real/fake smiles displayed by outgroup than ingroup members. Experiment 2 also finds that participants are not only more accurate, but also faster to make real/fake judgments for outgroup than ingroup targets. Explanations for these unexpected findings are discussed.
Multi-decadal analysis of root-zone soil moisture applying the exponential filter across CONUS

Abstract. This study applied the exponential filter to produce an estimate of root-zone soil moisture (RZSM). Four types of microwave-based, surface satellite soil moisture were used. The core remotely sensed data for this study came from NASA's long-lasting AMSR-E mission. Additionally, three other products were obtained from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (CCI). These datasets were blended based on all available satellite observations (CCI-active, CCI-passive, and CCI-combined). All of these products were 0.25° and taken daily. We applied the filter to produce a soil moisture index (SWI) that others have successfully used to estimate RZSM. The only unknown in this approach was the characteristic time of soil moisture variation (T). We examined five different eras (1997–2002; 2002–2005; 2005–2008; 2008–2011; 2011–2014) that represented periods with different satellite data sensors. SWI values were compared with in situ soil moisture data from the International Soil Moisture Network at a depth ranging from 20 to 25 cm. Selected networks included the US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program (25 cm), Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN; 20.32 cm), SNOwpack TELemetry (SNOTEL; 20.32 cm), and the US Climate Reference Network (USCRN; 20 cm). We selected in situ stations that had reasonable completeness. These datasets were used to filter out periods with freezing temperatures and rainfall using data from the Parameter elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM). Additionally, we only examined sites where surface and root-zone soil moisture had a reasonably high lagged r value (r > 0. 5). The unknown T value was constrained based on two approaches: optimization of root mean square error (RMSE) and calculation based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) value. Both approaches yielded comparable results; although, as to be expected, the optimization approach generally outperformed NDVI-based estimates. The best results were noted at stations that had an absolute bias within 10 %. SWI estimates were more impacted by the in situ network than the surface satellite product used to drive the exponential filter. The average Nash–Sutcliffe coefficients (NSs) for ARM ranged from −0. 1 to 0.3 and were similar to the results obtained from the USCRN network (0.2–0.3). NS values from the SCAN and SNOTEL networks were slightly higher (0.1–0.5). These results indicated that this approach had some skill in providing an estimate of RZSM. In terms of RMSE (in volumetric soil moisture), ARM values actually outperformed those from other networks (0.02–0.04). SCAN and USCRN RMSE average values ranged from 0.04 to 0.06 and SNOTEL average RMSE values were higher (0.05–0.07). These values were close to 0.04, which is the baseline value for accuracy designated for many satellite soil moisture missions.
Sexualized images in professional contexts: Effects on anticipated experiences and perceived climate for women and men

Academic conferences are important settings for socialization, scholarly engagement, and networking. Two studies explore the effects of ambient cues in such settings on women's and men's climate perceptions. Participants (undergraduates in Study 1, graduate students in Study 2) viewed a flyer advertising a professional mixer that included an eroticized image or a control image. Women and men expected a sexualized atmosphere, and women in particular anticipated lower feelings of competence and greater discomfort and objectification at the event advertised with the erotic image. The negative effect of erotic flyer exposure on competence was mediated by discomfort (Study 1) and objectification (Study 2), particularly in women. Results are interpreted in light of pipeline leakage and women's success in the Academy.
Preconditioning with the BKCa channel activator NS-1619 prevents ischemia-reperfusion-induced inflammation and mucosal barrier dysfunction: roles for ROS and heme oxygenase-1

Antecedent treatment with the large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel opener NS-1619 24 h before ischemia-reperfusion limits postischemic tissue injury by an oxidant-dependent mechanism. The pr...
In Defense of the Questionable: Defining the Basis of Research Scientists' Engagement in Questionable Research Practices

National Institutes of Health principal investigators reported their perceptions of the ethical defensibility, prevalence in their field, and their personal willingness to engage in questionable re...
Longitudinal pixel averaging for improved compensation in backscattering interferometry.

Longitudinal averaging of the interference pattern in a compensated backscattering interferometer provides improved compensation for temperature induced refractive index perturbations. Fringe pattern likeness between two discrete detection regions of an off-the-shelf microfluidic chip illuminated by an inexpensive diode laser scales with interrogation length. Averaging the intensity distribution along a 2.75 mm length of the channel results in a 750-fold reduction in sensitivity to temperature and a baseline noise level of 3×10-8 refractive index units (RIU). These observations enable nanoliter-volume interferometric measurements at a level of 10-7 RIU in the presence of a 2°C temperature variation without the need for temperature control.
Third Year of Survey Data Shows Continuing Benefits of Medicaid Expansions for Low-Income Childless Adults in the U.S.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 incentivized states to expand eligibility for their Medicaid programs. Many did so in 2014, and there has been great interest in understanding the effects of these expansions on access to health care, health care utilization, and population health. To estimate the longer-term (three-year) impact of Medicaid expansions on insurance coverage, access to care, preventive care, self-assessed health, and risky health behaviors. A difference-in-differences model, exploiting variation across states and over time in Medicaid expansion, was estimated using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for 2010–2016. Low-income childless adults aged 19–64 years in the BRFSS. Outcomes included insurance coverage, access to care, several forms of preventive care (e.g., routine checkups, flu shots, HIV tests, dental visits, and cancer screening), risky health behaviors (e.g., smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity), and self-assessed health. The previously documented benefits of Medicaid expansions on insurance coverage, access to care, preventive care, and self-assessed health have persisted 3 years after expansion. There was no detectable effect on risky health behaviors. The Affordable Care Act was motivated in part by a desire to increase health insurance coverage, improve access to care, and increase use of preventive care. The Medicaid expansions facilitated by the ACA are helping to achieve those objectives, and the benefits have persisted 3 years after expansion.
Innovating in the MIS Core Course – Bridging Business and Technology

The challenge of teaching the MIS core course is markedly different from that of more advanced courses taken by MIS majors. In the MIS core course, the goals of bringing knowledge to non-MIS majors that they will find relevant yet grounding that knowledge in the core of the IS discipline, which to a significant degree is inescapably technical, have to be reconciled. Non-MIS majors typically want to know only about the business implications of IS, yet the business aspects of IS cannot be so neatly separated from the technology dimension of IS. This paper describes a pilot offering of the MIS core course where business majors had to work with software technology at a hands-on level. A survey was administered to the students and the data analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and logistic regression techniques to assess learning outcomes in both the business and technology dimensions of IS.
Source Coding with a Distortion Measure

Many of the sources encountered in communication theory produce waveforms, pictures, or a sequence of analogue variables as their output. These can not be recreated exactly at the destination and often much of the detail in the source output is irrelevant. Thus, in defining how effective the communication is, it is necessary to define a distortion measure between the source output and the received message and to evaluate the effectiveness of the communication in terms of the expected value of that distortion.
Walsh-Hadamard Transform

This chapter is devoted to the study of the Walsh-Hadamard transform (WHT), which is perhaps the most well-known of the nonsinusoidal orthogonal transforms. The WHT has gained prominence in various digital signal processing applications, since it can essentially be computed using additions and subtractions only. Consequently its hardware implementation is also simpler.
Airway Industrial Partners: A Case Study for Seller Financing

This study provides a survey of the housing and mortgage market policies applied between 1976 and 1994 in Chile.
Firm Boundaries and Production Capabilities: Endogenizing Transaction Costs

We propose a theory of firm boundaries where transaction costs are endogenous and vary with the level of production capabilities. Our framework develops a better understanding of the institutional structure of production by outlining how transaction costs differ between related and unrelated inputs, apart from production costs. Thus it extends theories of why firms exist to explain what activities they perform compared to markets, and why economic activity is conducted mainly within related firms rather than in conglomerate enterprises. In addition the framework offers two unique testable implications compared to received theory (1) rather than a monotonically increasing relationship, there will be a U shaped relationship between production capabilities and the firm's propensity to choose internal organization over markets (2) since transaction costs are endogenous, the optimal point of asset specifity when internal organization becomes attractive is determined in part by the level of production capabilities, and varies in an inverted U shaped manner with these capabilities.
A Sour World: Life and Death at Low pH

I discussed the origin of acidic environments in Chapter 1. As noted, a solfatara is a location where elemental sulfur is precipitating out, due to surficial oxidation of H2S rising with steam from within the earth. Solfataras are generally areas with minimum amounts of ground water, and the circulation of water through the habitat is very shallow. Thus, except for the acidity and high-sulfate content, the chemistry of acidic geothermal waters is often closer to normal ground water than to deep geothermal water. A typical solfatara, Roaring Mountain, is shown in Figure 12.1a and an acid lake associated with another solfatara is shown in Figure 12.1b. Many solfataras are characterized by crumbling rock, hollow ground, and bleached color, due to acid attack on the rock-forming minerals and to leaching of color-forming components such as iron. The rate at which rocks disintegrate in solfatara areas is amazingly high. During the 10 years that I was in Yellowstone, I actually watched several large rocks disintegrate, and the boulder shown in Figure 12.2a, about the size of an automobile, split into two and collapsed. The power of acid is even more dramatically illustrated by the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River (Figure 12.2b), which is riddled with solfataric ground in the area where it is the deepest.
Fairness Enhancement Based on Virtual PRB Allocation in MIMO-OFDMA Systems

This paper presents a new resource allocation problem in Long Term Evolution (LTE) down-link transmission. It aims at maximizing the total system capacity with fairness consideration. The optimization problem is divided into sub-optimal ones for complexity mitigation. Firstly, a recursive Physical Resource Block (PRB) allocation scheme is introduced. After PRB allocation, the Evolved Node B (eNodeB) aggregates the unused sub-carriers by each User Equipment (UE) to construct a virtual PRB which is allocated to the UE with the highest current throughput to the past average throughput ratio for fairness improvement. Secondly, a power allocation procedure is performed. Finally, a more appropriate Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) is selected. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm provides better performance than other existing ones such as Min-MCS, Max-SINR and PF.
Children with Neutrophil-Predominant Severe Asthma Have Proinflammatory Neutrophils With Enhanced Survival and Impaired Clearance.

Background Airway neutrophils are abundant in some children with severe asthma, but their functions are poorly understood. Objective To characterize that the inflammatory airway environment of children with neutrophil-predominant severe asthma promotes neutrophil survival and disrupts neutrophil-associated innate immune defenses. Methods Sixty-seven children with severe asthma refractory to high-dose inhaled corticosteroid treatment undergoing bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) for clinical indications were stratified into neutrophil "high" versus "low" groups on the basis of BAL differential counts. Neutrophil activation markers, functional assays, and phenotyping studies were performed, as well as airway macrophage functional assays. Results were compared with those from children with moderate asthma treated with inhaled corticosteroids. Results Children with neutrophil-predominant severe asthma had increased markers of neutrophil activation/degranulation and a greater magnitude of airway proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine release. Primary neutrophils exposed to BAL of these children exhibited greater phagocytic capability and greater neutrophil extracellular trap formation, but a more impaired respiratory burst. Despite greater abundance of airway TGF-β1, the neutrophils were not more apoptotic. Instead, neutrophils had a highly proinflammatory phenotype associated with a number of surface markers that regulate neutrophil activation, recruitment/migration, and granule release. Airway macrophages from children with neutrophil-predominant severe asthma were also more proinflammatory with impaired phagocytosis and increased apoptosis. Conclusions Children with neutrophil-predominant severe asthma have proinflammatory neutrophils with enhanced survival. Airway macrophages are also proinflammatory and dysfunctional and may contribute to global innate immune impairment. Therapies that target neutrophils and related inflammation may be warranted in this subset of children.
"A World To Win":China, the Afro-Asian Writers' Bureau, and the Reinvention of World Literature

This article analyzes Chinese contributions to the Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau’s efforts to reinvent World Literature from an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist perspective. The Afro-Asian Writers...
Cyber Threat Analysis

In cyber threat analysis, knowledge of internal and external vulnerabilities related to a particular system or organization is analyzed and matched against real-world cyber-attacks relevant to that system or organization. Figure 9.1 shows a model that describes threat analysis components:
High‐fat diet in a mouse insulin‐resistant model induces widespread rewiring of the phosphotyrosine signaling network

Obesity-associated type 2 diabetes and accompanying diseases have developed into a leading human health risk across industrialized and developing countries. The complex molecular underpinnings of how lipid overload and lipid metabolites lead to the deregulation of metabolic processes are incompletely understood. We assessed hepatic post-translational alterations in response to treatment of cells with saturated and unsaturated free fatty acids and the consumption of a high-fat diet by mice. These data revealed widespread tyrosine phosphorylation changes affecting a large number of enzymes involved in metabolic processes as well as canonical receptor-mediated signal transduction networks. Targeting two of the most prominently affected molecular features in our data, SRC-family kinase activity and elevated reactive oxygen species, significantly abrogated the effects of saturated fat exposure in vitro and high-fat diet in vivo. In summary, we present a comprehensive view of diet-induced alterations of tyrosine signaling networks, including proteins involved in fundamental metabolic pathways.
Political competition in judge and prosecutor elections

The United States is unique in that important actors within the criminal justice system, namely judges and prosecutors, are selected in popular election. Several states are currently adjusting whether political party affiliation is listed on the ballot. Additionally, states differ by how easy it is for candidates from non-dominant parties to gain access to the ballot. We use a laboratory experiment to investigate how these two important policy changes to political competition affect campaign spending and outcomes. Using asymmetric contests designed to capture the institutional change, we find that subjects spend beyond both the socially optimal level and the amount predicted by theory. This over-competition is not uniform, but rather concentrated in those subjects who have the strategic advantage (either dominant-party affiliation or restricted ballot access of competitors). Opening up the election process, therefore, leads to reductions in the wasteful, rent-seeking spending (contrary to theory). Disadvantaged subjects are less likely to exit the race when the election process is opened, as well. Thus, a level playing field promotes participation. Furthermore, we explore heterogeneous treatment effects, finding less campaign spending for risk-loving, non-ambiguity averse, strategically sophisticated, and pro-social subjects. Therefore, elections disproportionately select individuals without these characteristics. Additionally, the mix of those who win the election adjust with changes in the electoral rules as well.
Examining the relationship between U.S. incarceration rates and population health at the county level.

Abstract A collateral consequence of mass incarceration in the United States is its negative effects on population health. Using data from 2015, this study examines the relationship between incarceration rates and population health for a national sample of U.S. counties. To obtain unbiased estimates of the effect of incarceration on health, we use multivariate models which account for the endogeneity of incarceration rates when determining their effect on population health by employing an instrumental variable approach where the robust instrumental (exogenous) variable per capita corrections expenditures is used to predict incarceration rate. We then estimate population health outcomes as a function of predicted incarceration rate alongside factors such as public health spending, indicators of health behavior and control variables in models explaining county-level population health. Consistent with findings from prior research on individuals, families and at the state level, results of our analyses indicate that higher levels of incarceration are associated with higher levels of both morbidity (percentage reporting fair or poor health) and mortality (life expectancy). Implications of these findings for health and criminal justice policy, as well as research, are considered.
Subphase Material Stabilizes Films of Pulmonary Surfactant

ABSTRACT When compressed by the shrinking alveolar surface area during exhalation, films of pulmonary surfactant in situ reduce surface tension to levels, at which surfactant monolayers collapse from the surface in vitro. Vesicles of pulmonary surfactant added below these monolayers slow collapse. X-ray scattering here determined the structural changes that improve stability. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction on monolayers of extracted calf surfactant detected an ordered phase. Mixtures of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol, but not the phospholipid alone, mimic that structure. At concentrations that stabilize the monolayers, vesicles in the subphase had no effect on the unit cell, and the film remained monomolecular. The added vesicles, however, produced a concentration-dependent increase in the diffracted intensity. These results suggest that the enhanced resistance to collapse results from components of an ordered interfacial phase which partition from subphase to the surface, increasing the area of the ordered structure. SIGNIFICANCE Low alveolar surface tensions are essential for maintaining the integrity of the pulmonary air-sacks during normal breathing. Films of pulmonary surfactant cause the low tensions. The interfacial structures required for the low surface tensions remain uncertain. These studies used X-ray scattering to determine the initial structure of pulmonary surfactant monolayers, and to establish how vesicles of pulmonary surfactant enhance the ability of those initial monolayers to sustain low tensions. The initial monolayers contained ordered structures that differ from the crystalline forms widely speculated to occur in alveolar films. The added vesicles had no effect on the local structure of the initial monolayer, but substantially increased the area of the ordered regions. This structural change reasonably explains the functional improvement.
Day-Ahead Electricity Market State-Space Model and Its Power Production, Demand and Price Forecasting Algorithm Using H-infinity Filter

Development of an electricity market model is very important step of forecasting power of generators and client demand. This paper proposes a day-ahead state-space power system model which is obtained by a set of partial differential equations. After simplifications, the 4th order user-friendly state-space power system model is obtained where the measurements are obtained by a set of sensors. Secondly, we proposed an H-infinity based power system states forecasting algorithm where process and measurement noise covariances are not need to know. In each iteration, the residual error between true and forecasted states are minimised lead to an accurate forecasted system states. Numerical simulation illustrates that the proposed scheme can able to forecast the system states within 1–12 seconds.
Developing a quantitative model to evaluate power plants based on their environmental impact

Abstract This article presents a quantitative model for evaluating different power plant systems based on their economic perspective and environmental impact. The quantitative model uses major factors impacting different stages of a power plant’s life cycle. It incorporates environmental impact costs of electric power plants as part of the expense to measure and evaluate the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the lifecycle to determine the overall cost of building and managing a power plant. This will aid in building power plants that are sufficiently reliable, environmentally sustainable, and cost-effective.
Median rhomboid glossitis: Not a misnomer

Abstract A series of twenty-eight cases of median rhomboid glossitis were studied histologically. Of these twenty-eight cases, 85 percent showed fungal hyphae in the parakeratin layer. The literature is reviewed, and additional evidence is presented to support the theory that median rhomboid golssitis is not a developmental condition but the clinical expression of a localized chronic fungal infection.
In It Together: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis of Common and Unique Psychosocial Stressors and Adaptive Coping Strategies of Persons With Young-Onset Dementia and Their Caregivers.

Background and objectives The common and unique psychosocial stressors and adaptive coping strategies of people with young-onset dementia (PWDs) and their caregivers (CGs) are poorly understood. This meta-synthesis used the stress and coping framework to integrate and organize qualitative data on the common and unique psychosocial stressors and adaptive coping strategies employed by PWDs and CGs after a diagnosis of young-onset dementia (YOD). Research design and methods Five electronic databases were searched for qualitative articles from inception to January 2020. Qualitative data were extracted from included articles and synthesized across articles using taxonomic analysis. Results A total of 486 articles were obtained through the database and hand searches, and 322 articles were screened after the removal of duplicates. Sixty studies met eligibility criteria and are included in this meta-synthesis. Four themes emerged through meta-synthesis: 1) common psychosocial stressors experienced by both PWDs and CGs, 2) unique psychosocial stressors experienced by either PWDs or CGs, 3) common adaptive coping strategies employed by both PWDs and CGs, and 4) unique adaptive coping strategies employed by either PWDs or CGs. Within each meta-synthesis theme, subthemes pertaining to PWDs, CGs, and dyads (i.e., PWD and CG as a unit) emerged. Discussion and implications The majority of stressors and adaptive coping strategies of PWDs and CGs were common, supporting the use of dyadic frameworks to understand the YOD experience. Findings directly inform the development of resiliency skills interventions to promote adaptive coping in the face of a YOD diagnosis for both PWDs and CGs.
Effects of Curcumin and Its Different Formulations in Preclinical and Clinical Studies of Peripheral Neuropathic and Postoperative Pain: A Comprehensive Review.

Lesion or disease of the somatosensory system leads to the development of neuropathic pain. Peripheral neuropathic pain encompasses damage or injury of the peripheral nervous system. On the other hand, 10–15% of individuals suffer from acute postoperative pain followed by persistent pain after undergoing surgeries. Antidepressants, anticonvulsants, baclofen, and clonidine are used to treat peripheral neuropathy, whereas opioids are used to treat postoperative pain. The negative effects associated with these drugs emphasize the search for alternative therapeutics with better efficacy and fewer side effects. Curcumin, a polyphenol isolated from the roots of Curcuma longa, possesses antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Furthermore, the low bioavailability and fast metabolism of curcumin have led to the advent of various curcumin formulations. The present review provides a comprehensive analysis on the effects of curcumin and its formulations in preclinical and clinical studies of neuropathic and postoperative pain. Based on the positive outcomes from both preclinical and clinical studies, curcumin holds the promise of mitigating or preventing neuropathic and postoperative pain conditions. However, more clinical studies with improved curcumin formulations are required to involve its use as adjuvant to neuropathic and postoperative drugs.
Unsterile Subcutaneous Insulin Injections Causing Psoas and Spinal Epidural Abscesses.

Spinal epidural and psoas abscesses have been found to occur together. Most cases described in the literature have been secondary to either hematogenous spread or direct invasion. Risk factors include intravenous drug use and immunosuppression. This case highlights the risk of the use of unsterile subcutaneous insulin injections leading to psoas abscess, which can be complicated by a spinal epidural abscess.
The jugular vein of empire : the imperial attachment to the Suez Canal from 1875 to 1956.

This thesis is examines the imperial attachment to the Suez Canal from 1875 to 1956. It begins with the canal share purchase by the Disraeli Government and ends with the Suez Crisis. Traditional scholarship views relations between the Britain and the Suez Canal as disjointed and highlighted by sporadic significant events. This thesis aims to evaluate the history of these relations. The thesis is divided into five chapters with the imperial attachment to the canal is divided into three chronological periods. In each phase of attachment there is at least one distinct policy shift and re-evaluation of the importance of the Suez Canal. While canal importance fluctuated, the continued re-strengthening of the attachment demonstrates a continuous attachment to the canal. These findings disprove traditional view of Anglo-Suez relations being disjointed. Summarily, this thesis proved the existence of a continuous imperial attachment to the Suez Canal from 1875 to 1956.
DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF ICE UNDER CYCLIC AXIAL LOADING

Dynamic Young's modulus and damping ratio were determined for axial strain amplitudes from 3 x 10 - ³% to 2 x 10 - ²%, temperatures from 30.2°F to 14°F (-1°C to -10°C), frequencies from 0.05 cps to 5.0 cps, and confining pressures from 0 to 200 psi (0 kN/m² to 1,380 kN/m²). The value of dynamic Young's modulus over the range of test conditions was from 340 x 10³ psi to 900 x 10³ psi (2,350 x 10³ kN/m² to 6,200 x 10³ N/m²); the value of damping ratio was from 0.02 to 0.11. The test results indicate the dynamic Young's modulus of ice increases with increasing confining pressure and frequency and decreases with ascending temperature and strain amplitude. The damping ratio of ice appears to deecrease as frequency increases from 0.05 cps to 1.0 cps and increases as frequency increases from 1.0 cps to 5.0 cps. The damping ratio appears to decrease with descending temperature and increase with increasing strain amplitude. There appears to be no well-defined relationship between the damping ratio of ice and confining pressure.
Properties of a formal method for prediction of emergent behaviors in swarm-based systems

Autonomous intelligent swarms of satellites are being proposed for NASA missions that have complex behaviors and interactions. The emergent properties of swarms make these missions powerful, but at the same time more difficult to design and assure that proper behaviors will emerge. This paper gives the results of research into formal methods techniques for verification and validation of NASA swarm-based missions. Multiple formal methods were evaluated to determine their effectiveness in modeling and assuring the behavior of swarms of spacecraft. The NASA ANTS mission was used as an example of swarm intelligence for which to apply the formal methods. This paper will give the evaluation of these formal methods and give partial specifications of the ANTS mission using four selected methods. We then give an evaluation of the methods and the needed properties of a formal method for effective specification and prediction of emergent behavior in swarm-based systems.
Temporal trends in sleep apnea surgery: 1993–2010

Objectives/Hypothesis Growing evidence supports the use of multilevel surgery to effectively address obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We sought to characterize changes in the patterns of surgical sleep care over time. Study Design Repeated cross-sectional study. Methods Discharge data from the US Nationwide Inpatient Sample for 232,470 patients who underwent nasal, palatal, or hypopharyngeal procedures for sleep disordered breathing or OSA from 1993 to 2010 were analyzed using cross-tabulations and multivariate regression modeling. Results Inpatient sleep surgical procedures increased from 97,363 performed in 1993–2000 to 135,107 in 2001–2010. Sleep surgery in 2001–2010 was associated with increased hypopharyngeal surgery (relative risk ratio [RRR] = 3.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.6–4.9, P 23 cases/yr) in the top-volume quintile were more likely to perform hypopharyngeal procedures (RRR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.7–3.4, P < .001,) and to be associated with teaching hospitals (RRR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.0–2.2, P = 0.034) and less likely to perform tracheostomy (RRR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.18–0.40, P < .001). However, they represented only 17% of surgeons performing sleep surgery in contrast to surgeons in the bottom-volume quintile, who performed 35% of cases. Conclusions These data reflect changing trends in the surgical management of OSA, with meaningful differences in the type of surgical care provided by high-volume surgeons and a significant increase in surgical sleep procedures, particularly nasal and hypopharyngeal surgery. Level of Evidence 2c Laryngoscope, 124:1251–1258, 2014
Realization of FGAC model using XACML policy specification

FGAC model has been adopted by enterprise applications, for the protection of their databases. Most of these deployments are not only limited in purpose but are dependent upon various other factors including query modification algorithms and software development languages. These factors have not only limited their applicability for distributed computing environments but have also affected their widespread adoption and acceptance. Moreover, due to the absence of standard FGAC profile specification, existing FGAC authorization techniques become unsuitable for advance applications such as web 2.0 and cannot be deployed across various platforms, thus fall short of flexibility and customizability. As a result, there is an increasing demand for standard based FGAC specification that could be easily fit into majority of computing environments. In this paper, we bring forth a policy specification (profile) for FGAC model. Our proposed specification is not restricted to database applications only; rather it is generic and flexible enough to be applied on every type of application. It explicates the ways in which organizations would be able to implement standard based fine-grained access control for nearly every application. We present the case-study — a realization of FGAC model based on the proposed policy specification followed by a complete dry-run of policy evaluation procedure.
Household Savings in Russia during the Transition

We exploit panel data from the second phase of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) to investigate the household characteristics that explain saving during a period of extreme dislocation. Among our more noteworthy findings, we find evidence of short-term consumption smoothing behavior as households respond to temporary income shocks. Conditional on income level, we find that savings rates are higher in households benefiting from non-standard (likely transitory) sources of support such as private transfers and sales of home produced food; savings rates are lower, moreover, in households suffering from unemployment or payment arrears. We also confirm the robustness of an atypical U-shaped age-savings relationship to multivariate specifications. And finally, we turn up strong support for an inverse relationship between the household’s stock of durables and its saving rate.
The effects of creatine monohydrate supplementation on creatine transporter activity and creatine metabolism in resistance trained males.

Background Oral creatine supplementation is known to provide numerous benefits, including increases in lean muscle mass, muscular strength, and enhanced performance in various athletic capacities. The creatine transporter is a transmembrane protein that mediates the entry of creatine from the circulation into the muscle cell. Little is understood about the importance of the creatine transporter in controlling the uptake and regulation of creatine within human skeletal muscle. The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary examination of the effects of a typical creatine monohydrate supplementation regimen on the activity of the creatine transporter at the transcriptional and translational levels in resistance-trained males.
Ab initio electronic transport model with explicit solution to the linearized Boltzmann transport equation

Accurate models of carrier transport are essential for describing the electronic properties of semiconductor materials. To the best of our knowledge, the current models following the framework of the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) either rely heavily on experimental data (i.e., semiempirical), or utilize simplifying assumptions, such as the constant relaxation time approximation (BTE-cRTA). While these models offer valuable physical insights and accurate calculations of transport properties in some cases, they often lack sufficient accuracy---particularly in capturing the correct trends with temperature and carrier concentration. We present here a transport model for calculating low-field electrical drift mobility and Seebeck coefficient of $n$-type semiconductors, by explicitly considering relevant physical phenomena (i.e., elastic and inelastic scattering mechanisms). We first rewrite expressions for the rates of elastic scattering mechanisms, in terms of ab initio properties, such as the band structure, density of states, and polar optical phonon frequency. We then solve the linear BTE to obtain the perturbation to the electron distribution---resulting from the dominant scattering mechanisms---and use this to calculate the overall mobility and Seebeck coefficient. Therefore, we have developed an ab initio model for calculating mobility and Seebeck coefficient using the Boltzmann transport (aMoBT) equation. Using aMoBT, we accurately calculate electrical transport properties of the compound $n$-type semiconductors, GaAs and InN, over various ranges of temperature and carrier concentration. aMoBT is fully predictive and provides high accuracy when compared to experimental measurements on both GaAs and InN, and vastly outperforms both semiempirical models and the BTE-cRTA. Therefore, we assert that this approach represents a first step towards a fully ab initio carrier transport model that is valid in all compound semiconductors.
Exact method for numerically analyzing a model of local denaturation in superhelically stressed DNA

Local denaturation, the separation at specific sites of the two strands comprising the DNA double helix, is one of the most fundamental processes in biology, required to allow the base sequence to be read both in DNA transcription and in replication. In living organisms this process can be mediated by enzymes which regulate the amount of superhelical stress imposed on the DNA. We present a numerically exact technique for analyzing a model of denaturation in superhelically stressed DNA. This approach is capable of predicting the locations and extents of transition in circular superhelical DNA molecules of kilobase lengths and specified base pair sequences. It can also be used for closed loops of DNA which are typically found {ital in vivo} to be kilobases long. The analytic method consists of an integration over the DNA twist degrees of freedom followed by the introduction of auxiliary variables to decouple the remaining degrees of freedom, which allows the use of the transfer matrix method. The algorithm implementing our technique requires O(N{sup 2}) operations and O(N) memory to analyze a DNA domain containing {ital N} base pairs. However, to analyze kilobase length DNA molecules it must be implemented in high precision floating point arithmetic.more » An accelerated algorithm is constructed by imposing an upper bound {ital M} on the number of base pairs that can simultaneously denature in a state. This accelerated algorithm requires O(MN) operations, and has an analytically bounded error. Sample calculations show that it achieves high accuracy (greater than 15 decimal digits) with relatively small values of {ital M} (M{lt}0.05N) for kilobase length molecules under physiologically relevant conditions. Calculations are performed on the superhelical pBR322 DNA sequence to test the accuracy of the method. With no free parameters in the model, the locations and extents of local denaturation predicted by this analysis are in quantitatively precise agreement with {ital in vitro} experimental measurements. Calculations performed on the fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase gene sequence from yeast show that this approach can also accurately treat {ital in vivo} denaturation. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}« less
Sex Chromatin Frequency in the Avian Aminon

Conflicting results have been reported on the incidence of sex chromatin in avian cells. In this study the sex chromatin frequencies are explored in the ammotic cells from two .Leghorn varieties of domestic fowl, a species which is reported to possess an heterochromatic and late leplicating W sex chromosome. The incidence of sex chromatin was also examined in the ammotic epithelium of the Japanese quail throughout the incubation period. This species of quail possesses a W sex chromosome that is euchromatic at metaphase When the sex chromatin frequencies in the domestic fowl were compared with the gonadal sex of the embryos, a nuclear sexual dimorphism was apparent with the high frequencies corresponding to embryos of the female sex. No such nuclear sexual dimorphism was found in the quail, both male and female embryos had approximately the same incidence of sex chromatin in their ammotic cells These findings are interpreted in support of the idea that the cytological entity identified as sex chiomatin in the domestic fowl represents the W sex chromosome in the interphase nucleus
Abstracts of theses in the field of speech and drama, VI∗

(1949). Abstracts of theses in the field of speech and drama‐IV. Speech Monographs: Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 290-363.
Preliminary Results of the Effect of Prophylactic Vertebroplasty on the Incidence of Proximal Junctional Complications After Posterior Spinal Fusion to the Low Thoracic Spine

Abstract Study Design Prospective cohort study. Objective To evaluate, in adults undergoing posterior spinal fusions, 1) the effect of prophylactic vertebroplasty on the incidence of proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) and proximal junctional failure (PJF), and 2) the difference in outcomes between those who did and did not develop PJK or PJF. Summary of Background Data Proximal junctional kyphosis occurs in 20% to 39% of adults after posterior spinal fusions; a subset develops PJF. Methods From 2005 through 2008, we treated 41 consecutive patients (40 years old or more) with spinal deformity with 2-level prophylactic vertebroplasty (at the upper instrumented vertebrae and the supra-adjacent vertebrae) during posterior spinal fusion. The 38 patients with 24 months' follow-up formed our study group. We measured patient outcomes with the Scoliosis Research Society–24 questionnaire, the Oswestry Disability Index, and the 12-item Short Form Survey. All patients completed each assessment preoperatively, and 89% or more did so postoperatively. We compared postoperative and final follow-up radiographs to identify the PJK incidence (ie, a PJK angle change of 10° or more), and analyzed the PJK, PJF, and non-PJK/PJF groups for outcome scores with Student t test and chi-square test (significance, p Results Three patients (8%) developed PJK and 2 (5%) developed PJF, markedly lower incidences than those previously reported. At final follow-up, patients with PJK or PJF reported statistically significant lower pain and satisfaction Scoliosis Research Society–24 scores than did patients in the non-PJK/PJF group, but there were no significant differences in Scoliosis Research Society–24 mental health or function scores between groups. All patients had significant improved Oswestry Disability Index and 12-item Short Form Survey scores. Conclusions Prophylactic vertebroplasty in long posterior spinal fusions for adult spinal deformity resulted in a low incidence of PJF and PJK, with only small differences in outcome scores between those who did and did not develop PJK and PJF.
PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF 1?2 NM DENDRIMER-ENCAPSULATED GOLD NANOPARTICLES HAVING VERY NARROW SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS

Highly monodisperse, 1−2-nm diameter Au nanoparticles were prepared using poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers as templates. The synthesis is carried out in water, takes less than 30 min, and requires no subsequent purification. Au nanoparticles having diameters of 1.3 ± 0.3 and 1.6 ± 0.3 nm were obtained when 55 and 140 equiv, respectively, of HAuCl4 per dendrimer were used. For unpurified Au nanoparticles in this size range, this represents more than a 200% improvement in size distribution compared to previous reports. The high monodispersity is a function of the template synthesis, which avoids size variations arising from random nucleation and growth phenomena, and the use of magic number equivalent ratios of AuCl4-/dendrimer. When a nonmagic number of AuCl4- equivalents per dendrimer was used, a significantly more polydisperse distribution of Au nanoparticles was obtained.