cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Small Air Turbine Driven Step Sector

The small air turbine driven step sector which is to be described in this paper was developed in order to meet a need arising in a research problem involving microspectoscopy. A general discussion of microspectroscopy has been published by Loofbourow (1). In the course of our study it was desired to obtain absorption spectrograms of small elements (1 - 10μ diam.) of biological tissues. The procedure followed was to place the object on a microscope slide on the stage of a microscope and, by means of the microscope optical system, to project an enlarged image of the object in the image plane of a photomicrographic camera. A series of photographs of the object was then made. Each photograph was taken with the object illuminated with a different wavelength, a wavelength being selected for each of the points which was to be experimentally determined for the absorption spectrogram. The developed photographic image of the object in question was then photometered and compared to a set of known reference densities on the same plate. A value for d, (log10 Io/I) could thus be obtained. The small step sector discs described here were used to obtain the reference densities which served as calibrations.
On the expansion of ribosomal proteins and RNAs in eukaryotes

While the ribosome constitution is similar in all biota, there is a considerable increase in size of both ribosomal proteins (RPs) and RNAs in eukaryotes as compared to archaea and bacteria. This is pronounced in the large (60S) ribosomal subunit (LSU). In addition to enlargement (apparently maximized already in lower eukarya), the RP changes include increases in fraction, segregation and clustering of basic residues, and decrease in hydrophobicity. The acidic fraction is lower in eukaryote as compared to prokaryote RPs. In all eukaryote groups tested, the LSU RPs have significantly higher content of basic residues and homobasic segments than the SSU RPs. The vertebrate LSU RPs have much higher sequestration of basic residues than those of bacteria, archaea and even of the lower eukarya. The basic clusters are highly aligned in the vertebrate, but less in the lower eukarya, and only within families in archaea and bacteria. Increase in the basicity of RPs, besides helping transport to the nucleus, should promote stability of the assembled ribosome as well as the association with translocons and other intracellular matrix proteins. The size and GC nucleotide bias of the expansion segments of large LSU rRNAs also culminate in the vertebrate, and should support ribosome association with the endoplasmic reticulum and other intracellular networks. However, the expansion and nucleotide bias of eukaryote LSU rRNAs do not clearly correlate with changes in ionic parameters of LSU ribosomal proteins.
Femoral hypoplasia-unusual facies syndrome, from another viewpoint

A female infant with the "femoral hypoplasia-unusual facies" syndrome is presented. Most of the findings observed in this child have also been described in the "caudal regression syndrome". The similarity and probable identity between these two syndromes is discussed on the basis of our patient and others from the literature.
Characterizing the mean flow field in rivers for resource and environmental impact assessments of hydrokinetic energy generation sites

Abstract The use of hydrokinetic technology in rivers for energy generation is an area of active research with potential applications in urban and rural settings. Negating the need for a physical barrier to the flow, in-stream hydrokinetic devices are viewed as having less environmental impact than conventional hydropower. The introduction of any device that alters the flow field, however, has the potential to affect both the river morphology and the ecosystem it supports. Characterizing the pre-installation flow conditions and monitoring changes following device installation are necessary to evaluate the ecological costs associated with this developing technology. This study presents techniques for quantifying the mean flow field throughout a study reach using an acoustic Doppler current profiler. Employing two survey procedures that provide flexibility in terms of the resolution and extent of measurements, quantities ranging from bulk flow features, such as discharge, to mean three-dimensional velocity profiles can be obtained. Results of the different survey procedures are demonstrated using data collected on the lower Roanoke River, USA. Recommendations are given to aid in the design of field data collection to best match the stage of the project. These measurements contribute to resource assessment at the site scale, designing turbines and planning installation, and environmental impact studies.
Using neural networks to aid the diagnosis of breast implant rupture

Abstract From a database consisting of 78 inplants that were surgically removed, ultrasound findings and surgical results were used to train and test backpropagation and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks using the round-robin or leave-one-out method. Receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was applied to compare the performance of the different neural networks with that of the radiologists involved in the ultrasound evaluations. The neural networks outperformed the radiologists involved. RBF networks performed better in this classification problem than did backpropagation networks. The best performing network utilized, in addition to the findings, the (unaided) diagnosis of the radiologist. Thus, the ‘team’ approach appears to provide the best results. Also, the network performed particularly well in those cases in which the radiologist classified the implant as indeterminate. The results suggest that a neural network using findings extracted from sonograms by experienced sonographers can be of great assistance to physicians with the diagnosis of implant rupture.
Synthesis and characterization of 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoroacetylacetonato-(1,5-cyclooctadiene)silver(I) dimer. An unusual β-diketonate coordination mode

Abstract The compound (hfac)Ag(1,5-cod) was synthesized by the reaction of 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoroacetylacetone (hfacH) with Ag2O and 1,5-cyclooctadiene (1,5-cod) and characterized in the solid state by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. In contrast to the corresponding copper(I) compound (hfac)Ag(1,5-cod) exhibited lower volatility and was found to be dimeric in the solid state, containing the two unusual β-diketonate coordination modes, namely, μ4-η2-hfac and μ2-hfac. The deterioration of the crystal and extensive disorder precluded a detailed comparison of the metrical parameters of this compound with other literature data. However, the solid-state FTIR data showed substantial differences in the ν(CO) and ν(CC) stretching regions compared with the chelated hfac ligand in (hfac)Cu(1,5-cod). These data will be useful in assigning the coordination mode of β-diketonate ligands in metal-organic β-diketonate complexes by FTIR.
Willow Garage Retrospective [ROS Topics]

During its seven-year history, Willow Garage assembled a remarkable community of scientists and engineers to address some of the most pressing challenges in realizing the effective use of robotics in society. Cognizant of the need to accelerate robotics research in the United States, the Willow Garage team made substantial contributions to the global robotics community by conducting fundamental research, training the next generation of robotics researchers, developing open software and hardware platforms for the research community, and creating both for profit and nonprofit organizations. These contributions allowed researchers, developers, and commercial organizations to advance their robotics initiatives both in the United States and across the globe. Because of its philanthropic culture and fairly unrestricted research environment, the Willow Garage community was able to address fundamental research issues and enable a broader range of universities, research organizations, and commercial firms to accelerate their own research and development agenda.
A Preliminary Model for Spacecraft Propulsion Performance Analysis Based on Nuclear Gain and Subsystem Mass-Power Balances

A preliminary model for spacecraft propulsion performance analysis based on nuclear gain and subsystem mass-power balances are presented in viewgraph form. For very fast missions with straight-line trajectories, it has been shown that mission trip time is proportional to the cube root of alpha. Analysis of spacecraft power systems via a power balance and examination of gain vs. mass-power ratio has shown: 1) A minimum gain is needed to have enough power for thruster and driver operation; and 2) Increases in gain result in decreases in overall mass-power ratio, which in turn leads to greater achievable accelerations. However, subsystem mass-power ratios and efficiencies are crucial: less efficient values for these can partially offset the effect of nuclear gain. Therefore, it is of interest to monitor the progress of gain-limited subsystem technologies and it is also possible that power-limited systems with sufficiently low alpha may be competitive for such ambitious missions. Topics include Space flight requirements; Spacecraft energy gain; Control theory for performance; Mission assumptions; Round trips: Time and distance; Trip times; Vehicle acceleration; and Minimizing trip times.
Monte Carlo simulation of ion transport of the high strain ionomer with conducting powder electrodes

The transport of charge due to electric stimulus is the primary mechanism of actuation for a class of polymeric active materials known as ionomeric polymer transducers (IPT). At low frequency, strain response is strongly related to charge accumulation at the electrodes. Experimental results demonstrated using conducting powder, such as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT), polyaniline (PANI) powders, high surface area RuO 2 , carbon black electrodes etc. as an electrode increases the mechanical deformation of the IPT by increasing the capacitance of the material. In this paper, Monte Carlo simulation of a two-dimensional ion hopping model has been built to describe ion transport in the IPT. The shape of the conducting powder is assumed to be a sphere. A step voltage is applied between the electrodes of the IPT, causing the thermally-activated hopping between multiwell energy structures. Energy barrier height includes three parts: the energy height due to the external electric potential, intrinsic energy, and the energy height due to ion interactions. Finite element method software-ANSYS is employed to calculate the static electric potential distribution inside the material with the powder sphere in varied locations. The interaction between ions and the electrodes including powder electrodes is determined by using the method of images. At each simulation step, the energy of each cation is updated to compute ion hopping rate which directly relates to the probability of an ion moving to its neighboring site. Simulation ends when the current drops to constant zero. Periodic boundary conditions are applied when ions hop in the direction perpendicular to the external electric field. When an ion is moved out of the simulation region, its corresponding periodic replica enters from the opposite side. In the direction of the external electric field, parallel programming is achieved in C augmented with functions that perform message-passing between processors using Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard. The effects of conducting powder size, locations and amount are discussed by studying the stationary charge density plots and ion distribution plots.
Effect of temperature and inoculum concentration on prediction of both gelation time and cutting time. Cottage cheese-type gels

Abstract Prediction of gelation and cutting times were investigated under conditions used in cottage cheese processing. Effect of temperature and inoculum concentration on predictions was analyzed using a factorial design. Culture growth was monitored using a pH-meter, an oscillatory rheometer and a light (880 nm) backscatter sensor. Gelation time determined by oscillatory rheometry was predicted by the equation t gel = β 1 t 2 min (determination coefficient, R 2 = 0.988 and standard error of prediction, SEP=11.3 min), where β 1 was the regression coefficient and t2 min was the time to the first minimum of the second derivative of the light backscatter ratio. Cutting time was set as the time when gel pH reached 4.8 and predicted using the equation t cut * = β 0 + β 1 t 2 max 2 ( R 2 = 0.987 , SEP = 14.7 min ) , where β 0 and β 1 were regression coefficients and t2 max 2 was the second maximum of the second derivative of the light backscatter ratio. The inclusion of an acidification term in the cutting time prediction model reduced the SEP to 7.9 min. These results demonstrated that, when the acidification rate varied, accurate cutting time prediction of cottage cheese required the inclusion of reference pH values.
Gender Inequality in the Welfare State: Sex Segregation in Housework, 1965―2003

National context may influence sex segregation of household tasks through both pragmatic decision making and the normative context in which decision making is embedded. This study utilizes 36 time use surveys from 19 countries (spanning 1965–2003) combined with original national‐level data in multilevel models to examine household task segregation. Analyses reveal that men do less and women do more time‐inflexible housework in nations where work hours and parental leave are long. Women do less of this work where there is more public child care and men are eligible to take parental leave. National context affects the character of gender inequality in the home through individual‐ and national‐level pathways.
A robust numerical method for self-polarization energy of spherical quantum dots with finite confinement barriers.

Abstract By utilizing a novel three-layer dielectric model for the interface between a spherical quantum dot and the surrounding matrix, a robust numerical method for calculating the self-polarization energy of a spherical quantum dot with a finite confinement barrier is presented in this paper. The proposed numerical method can not only overcome the inherent mathematical divergence in the self-polarization energy which arises for the simplest and most widely used step-like model of the dielectric interface, but also completely eliminate the potential numerical divergence which may occur in the Bolcatto–Proetto's formula [P.G. Bolcatto, C.R. Proetto, Partially confined excitons in semiconductor nanocrystals with a finite size dielectric interface, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 13 (2001) 319–334], an approximation method commonly employed for more realistic three-layer dielectric models such as the linear and the cosine-like models frequently mentioned in the literature. Numerical experiments have demonstrated the convergence of the proposed numerical method as the number of the steps used to discretize the translation layer in a three-layer model goes to infinity, an important property that the Bolcatto–Proetto's formula appears not necessarily to possess.
Abstract 3715: Zoledronic acid inhibits cancer growth and cancer stem cell phenotypes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Zoledronic acid (ZA), a third generation of bisphosphonates, is known to have both anti-osteolytic and anti-tumor activities. It exerts anti-osteolytic function by interfering with mevalonate pathway and preventing protein prenylation required for growth and survival in osteoclast cells. Also, similar function has been found to induce cancer apoptosis and inhibit cancer growth in bone-related cancer, but its effect on other cancer types, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is still unclear. In this study, we first monitored the effect of ZA on cancer growth in HNSCC cell lines in vitro. ZA significantly suppressed cancer growth, shown by decreased anchorage independent growth in soft agar assay and diminished cell growth in organotypic raft culture. Because cancer stem cell (CSC; also called tumor-initiating cell) plays a significant role in cancer growth, we further investigated the effect of ZA on CSC in HNSCC. ZA-treated HNSCC cells significantly decreased CSC phenotypes such as sphere forming ability and migratory ability. In SCC4, a tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell line, side population and expression of pluripotency marker genes were significantly decreased by ZA. Also, ZA inhibited the CSC-related Sonic Hedgehog pathway in SCC4 as demonstrated by decreased mRNA expression of transcriptional factor, Gli-1. Taken together, our data suggest that ZA targets CSC and hence inhibits cancer growth in HNSCC. Citation Format: Sung Hee Lee, Reuben Kim, Mo Kang, No-Hee Park, Ki-Hyuk Shin. Zoledronic acid inhibits cancer growth and cancer stem cell phenotypes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3715. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3715
General method for purification of α-amino acid-n-carboxyanhydrides using flash chromatography.

We describe the application of flash column chromatography on silica gel as a rapid and general method to obtain pure α-amino acid-N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) monomers, the widely used precursors for the synthesis of polypeptides, without the need for recrystallization. This technique was effective at removing all common impurities from NCAs and was found to work for a variety of NCAs, including those synthesized using different routes, as well as those bearing either hydrophilic or hydrophobic side chains. All chromatographed NCAs required no further purification and could be used directly to form high molecular weight polypeptides. This procedure is especially useful for the preparation of highly functional and low melting NCAs that are difficult to crystallize and, consequently, to polymerize. This method solves many long-standing problems in NCA purification and provides rapid access to NCAs that were previously inaccessible in satisfactory quality for controlled polymerization. This method is also pract...
The Statistics of Urban Scaling and Their Connection to Zipf’s Law

Urban scaling relations characterizing how diverse properties of cities vary on average with their population size have recently been shown to be a general quantitative property of many urban systems around the world. However, in previous studies the statistics of urban indicators were not analyzed in detail, raising important questions about the full characterization of urban properties and how scaling relations may emerge in these larger contexts. Here, we build a self-consistent statistical framework that characterizes the joint probability distributions of urban indicators and city population sizes across an urban system. To develop this framework empirically we use one of the most granular and stochastic urban indicators available, specifically measuring homicides in cities of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, three nations with high and fast changing rates of violent crime. We use these data to derive the conditional probability of the number of homicides per year given the population size of a city. To do this we use Bayes’ rule together with the estimated conditional probability of city size given their number of homicides and the distribution of total homicides. We then show that scaling laws emerge as expectation values of these conditional statistics. Knowledge of these distributions implies, in turn, a relationship between scaling and population size distribution exponents that can be used to predict Zipf’s exponent from urban indicator statistics. Our results also suggest how a general statistical theory of urban indicators may be constructed from the stochastic dynamics of social interaction processes in cities.
Multi-camera Pedestrian Tracking using Group Structure

Pedestrian tracking has been a popular research topic and application in the field of computer vision. Recently group information has been receiving increasing attention for pedestrian tracking, especially in highly occluded scenarios that make traditional vision features unreliable. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-camera pedestrian tracking system which incorporates a pedestrian grouping strategy and an online cross-camera model. The new cross-camera model is able to take the advantage of the information from all camera views as well as the group structure in the inference stage, and can be updated based on the learning approach from structured SVM. The experimental results demonstrate the improvement in tracking performance when grouping stage is integrated.
NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL WEST NILE VIRUS INFECTION IN FIVE RAPTOR SPECIES

We studied the effects of natural and/or experimental infections of West Nile virus (WNV) in five raptor species from July 2002 to March 2004, including American kestrels (Falco sparverius), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), barn owls (Tyto alba), and great horned owls (Bubo virginianus). Birds were infected per mosquito bite, per os, or percutaneously by needle. Many experimentally infected birds developed mosquito-infectious levels of viremia (>105 WNV plaque forming units per ml serum) within5 days postinoculation (DPI), and/or shed virus per os or per cloaca. Infection of organs 15–27 days postinoculation was infrequently detected by virus isolation from spleen, kidney, skin, heart, brain, and eye in convalescent birds. Histopathologic findings varied among species and by method of infection. The most common histopathologic lesions were subacute myocarditis and encephalitis. Several birds had a more acute, severe disease condition represented by arteritis and ass...
The Use and Abuse of Scientific Studies

In response to Evelyn Pluhar'sWho Can Be Morally Obligated to Be a Vegetarian? in this journal issue, the author has read all of Pluhar's citations for the accuracy of her claims and had these read by an independent nutritionist. Detailed analysis of Pluhar's argument shows that she attempts to make her case by consistent misappropriation of the findings and conclusions of the studies she cites. Pluhar makes sweeping generalizations from scanty data, ignores causal explanations given by scientists, equates hypothesis with fact, draws false cause conclusions from studies, and in one case claims a conclusion opposite of what the scientist published. Such poor reasoning cannot be the basis of an argument for moral vegetarianism. A broader search of the literature and attention to reviews and textbooks in nutrition shows that each of Pluhar's claims is suspect or incorrect. Pluhar has not undermined my central claims: even if animals have certain rights and well-planned vegetarian diets are safe in complex industrialized societies, these diets cannot be so regarded if the presuppositions of high levels of wealth, education, and medical care do not exist; and, women, children, the aged and some ill persons are at greater risk on restrictive vegan diets. Thus, any duty of moral vegetarianism is not categorical but provisional in nature.
Mineralogical implications of high ratios of 1500 kPa water content to percent measured clay for two soils of western Nebraska

Abstract Tripp (coarse-silty, mixed, mesic Aridic Haplustolls), and Mitchell (coarse-silty, mixed (calcareous), mesic Ustic Torriorthents) soils of western Nebraska have frequently exhibited high ratios of 1500 kPa water content to percent measured clay. Both soils were known to contain considerable amounts of volcanic glass. The objective of the study was to determine if the anomalous ratios were related to the presence of volcanic glass or associated minerals. Allophane was not present as determined by differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, elemental analysis of acidoxalate extractions, or pH dependent CEC. The separate particle size fractions were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (oriented mounts), SEM, optical mineralogy and tested for CEC and specific surface. These tests and observations suggested the high ratios were related to the presence of nondispersing smectite coatings on particle surfaces within the sand and silt fractions of the Tripp and Mitchell soils.
Ultraviolet B-Induced Apoptosis of Keratinocytes in Murine Skin Is Reduced by Mild Local Hyperthermia

Two components of sunlight, ultraviolet (UV) B (290-320 nm) and infrared (greater than 700 nm), each cause damage to the skin. However, we recently identified a protective response in which heat reduces UVB-induced killing of cultured keratinocytes. Here, this investigation is extended to the living epidermis. The effects of hyperthermic preconditioning upon UVB-induced apoptosis were studied morphologically with hematoxylin and eosin staining, and biochemically with TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotide transferase nick-end labeling) to measure endonu-cleolytic cleavage of DNA in situ. Anesthetized SKH-1 hairless mice were exposed to UVB light (0 to 120 mJ/cm2), after which their skin was biopsied at 24 h and paraffin sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin or with TUNEL. Apoptotic keratinocytes were found to increase after UVB in a dose-related manner. In contrast, if one flank of the mouse was pretreated at 40°C for 1 h and both flanks subsequently were UVB-irradiated at 6 h, the resulting formation of apoptotic cells was reduced twofold or more in the heated flank. Protection appeared by 3 h, reached a maximum at 6 h, and disappeared by 12 h. In summary, heat induces a transient protective effect that reduces UVB-mediated death of keratinocytes in skin at physiologically attainable doses of heat and UVB.
Exploring latency-power tradeoffs in deep nonvolatile memory hierarchies

To handle the demand for very large main memory, we are likely to use nonvolatile memory (NVM) as main memory. NVM main memory will have higher latency than DRAM. To cope with this, we advocate a less-deep cache hierarchy based on a large last-level, NVM cache. We develop a model that estimates average memory access time and power of a cache hierarchy. The model is based on captured application behavior, an analytical power and performance model, and circuit-level memory models such as CACTI and NVSim. We use the model to explore the cache hierarchy design space and present latency-power tradeoffs for memory intensive SPEC benchmarks and scientific applications. The results indicate that a flattened hierarchy lowers power and improves average memory access time.
Ethics and dilemmas of online ethnography

Using the example of research conducted in the body modification community, this paper considers some of the methodological issues of researching online communities, especially when those communities are marginalized or non-dominant. Drawing on texts that address ethical ethnographies of subcultures, I focus on boundaries between insiders and outsiders issues of recruitment, and measures of validity.
Regulatory Capture and the Monetary Contraction of 1932: A Comment on Epstein and Ferguson

The Great Depression of the 1930s occupies a pivotal position in the history of the American economy. Historians and economists still debate the origins of the Depression and the reasons for its length and severity.' Since the Depression was associated with a 33 percent decline in the stock of money, some conclude that the monetary contraction transformed a normal cyclical downturn into the Great Depression.2 While others advance different explanations, few suggest that the monetary history was unimportant. In any event, students of this episode continue to puzzle over why the Federal Reserve System permitted the contraction. Some recent attempts to explain Federal Reserve behavior draw on the theory of regulatory capture and focus on the relationship between the Fed and its member banks.3 The theory suggests that during the 1930s the Federal Reserve system ignored its broader responsibilities to the public, instead tailoring its policies to benefit the banking industry.4 This comment challenges the notion that the monetary history of 1932 is explained by the regulatory capture hypothesis as suggested by Gerald Epstein and Thomas Ferguson in a 1984 issue of this JOURNAL.' Epstein and Ferguson contended that the Fed initiated and then abandoned an attempt to reverse the Great Contraction because the attempt was perceived to be damaging to the interests of member banks. They pointed out that a program for
Synthesis of the 12 lead electrocardiogram from a 3 lead semi-orthogonal subset using patient-specific linear transformation arrays

Continuous monitoring of the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) could be diagnostically useful, but it is impractical because of the number of electrodes required. To determine if a patient-specific transformation of a 3-lead semiorthogonal subset could be used to synthesize an accurate 12-lead ECG, two patients were monitored for three consecutive days during hospitalizations for myocardial ischemia. Patient-specific transformations produced synthesized ECGs which were highly correlated with the recorded signals. Patient-specificity appeared essential for 12-lead synthesis, since transformation coefficients differed significantly between patients. Segmentation of the waveforms during the transformations improved the accuracy of the synthesized ECGs. A single patient-specific transformation array was used to synthesize 12-lead ECGs for three days in a patient with evolving ECG changes, suggesting that functionally equivalent 12-lead monitoring could be derived from three semiorthogonal leads. >
Excystation of the poultry coccidium, Eimeria acervulina.

SYNOPSIS. Using intervals up to 5 hours, attempts to excyst sporozoites of Eimeria acervulina from intact oocysts in vitro were unsuccessful. Examination of crop, gizzard, and intestinal contents of chicks fed large numbers of sporulated oocysts indicated that (1) no obvious change in the oocysts occurred in the crop, (2) a high percentage of the sporocysts were quickly released from the oocysts in the gizzard, (3) the sporozoites escaped from the liberated sporocysts in the duodenum and jejunum, and (4) the action of the digestive juice was apparently on the sporocysts rather than on the oocysts. In vitro attempts to excyst sporozoites from free sporocysts with various pancreatic preparations in the absence of bile produced low or insignificant percentages of excystation. In the presence of bile, bile salts, and other surface-active agents, the action of the pancreatic preparations was greatly increased. The heaviest suspension of motile, nonaggregating sporozoites was obtained with 0.25% trypsin 1–300 in 5% chicken bile at pH 7.6.
The Growth and Determinants of Literacy in China

In China, as in other nations, reading skills depend mainly on the level of education attained. But reading skills in China depend on other factors as well: the quality of schooling; the cultural capital of the family of origin–parental education, of course, but also such measures of cultural capital as the number of books in the household and the reading behavior of parents; gender; and the extent to which literacy is used over the life course. I exploit data from a 1996 national probability sample of Chinese Adults (N=6,090) that includes information on literacy (the number of characters identified from a list of 10 characters), measures of family cultural capital, and the usual socioeconomic data on both respondents and their families of origin, to study the determinants of the number of characters recognized. My analysis includes three components: (1) An overall assessment of the determinants of literacy in the adult population of China In addition to years of schooling, a number of factors positively affect literacy: father’s years of schooling; the “cultural capital” of parents, manifest in their reading behavior; urban residence at age 14; and male gender. Further, the effect of father’s education is entirely mediated by the effect of family cultural capital. (2) The effect of occupational experience on literacy. Net of education, those with non-manual jobs gain in literacy over the life course whereas the literacy of those with manual jobs declines. The fact that the two trends go in opposite directions suggests an age as opposed to period interpretation of the results. (3) An assessment of the effect of the Cultural Revolution on literacy. Net of years of schooling, those educated during the Cultural Revolution (especially the first years) are less literate than those educated before or after the Cultural Revolution, and the effect of the Cultural Revolution is larger in magnitude than the effect of an additional year of schooling.
Diagnostic biomarkers of Parkinson's disease: what gain at what cost?

Two articles in previous, recent issues of this journal, reported the impact of biomarkers on the differential diagnosis of early Parkinson's disease (PD) by using two complementary tools. Kupsch et al 1 reported that DaTscan single photon emission computed tomographhy imaging resulted in a change of diagnosis of clinically uncertain parkinsonian syndromes at 4 weeks in 45% of the patients versus 9% of the controls who did not receive the DaTscan, resulting in an increase in confidence of the diagnosis. This study adds credence to similar conclusions from previous studies2 ,3 by using an excellent design with prospective follow-up and inclusion of randomised control subjects who did not receive the DaTscan. However, there are several caveats in using this diagnostic test in routine …
The In-Home Worker: Serving the Frail Elderly

Little attention has been paid to the special tasks facing the many unskilled in-home workers who serve the frail elderly. With the assistance of the Community Care Training Project at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, the authors studied the needs in-home workers have for interpersonal skills. A typology of problematic interpersonal situations is presented, along with suggestions for training, assessment, and supervision of clients and workers.
Interdomain interactions in the tumor suppressor discs large regulate binding to the synaptic protein GukHolder

Multidomain scaffolding proteins are central components of many signaling pathways and are commonly found at membrane specializations. Here we have shown that multiple interdomain interactions in the scaffold Discs Large (Dlg) regulate binding to the synaptic protein GukHolder (GukH). GukH binds the Src homology 3 (SH3) and guanylate kinase-like (GK) protein interaction domains of Dlg, whereas an intramolecular interaction between the two domains inhibits association with GukH. Regulation occurs through a PDZ domain adjacent to the SH3 that allows GukH to interact with the composite SH3-GK binding site, but PDZ ligands inhibit GukH binding such that Dlg forms mutually exclusive PDZ ligand and GukH cellular complexes. The PDZ-SH3-GK module is a common feature of membrane associate guanylate kinase scaffolds such as Dlg, and these results indicate that its supramodular architecture leads to regulation of Dlg complexes.
Discrete multi-material interface reconstruction for volume fraction data

Material interface reconstruction (MIR) is the task of constructing boundary interfaces between regions of homogeneous material, while satisfying volume constraints, over a structured or unstructured spatial domain. In this paper, we present a discrete approach to MIR based upon optimizing the labeling of fractional volume elements within a discretization of the problem's original domain. We detail how to construct and initially label a discretization, and introduce a volume conservative swap move for optimization. Furthermore, we discuss methods for extracting and visualizing material interfaces from the discretization. Our technique has significant advantages over previous methods: we produce interfaces between multiple materials that are continuous across cell boundaries for time-varying and static data in arbitrary dimension with bounded error.
Emerging N-Face GaN HEMT Technology: A Cellular Monte Carlo Study

This paper aims to investigate the potential of the emerging N-face technology with respect to both the direct current and radio frequency performance of GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices. High-frequency high-power state-of-the-art HEMTs were investigated with our full-band cellular Monte Carlo simulator, which includes the full details of the band structure and the phonon spectra. A complete characterization of these devices was performed using experimental data to calibrate the few adjustable parameters of the simulator. The effect of scaling the device dimensions, such as the gate length and the access region lengths, on the device performance was analyzed. In addition, the enhancement-mode configuration of the N-face structure was investigated. Our simulations showed that N-face devices represent an important step in engineering HEMT devices for delivering high power density and efficiency at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies.
Relative Release of lnterleukin-1β and lnterleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist by Alveolar Macrophages: A Study in Asbestos-Induced Lung Disease, Sarcoidosis, and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

We examined the influence of untreated interstitial lung disease (ILD) on the in vitro release of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) from alveolar macrophages (AM); AM were harvested from normal volunteers, ILD patients, and patients with asbestos-related pleural disease but no ILD. AM were cultured for 24 h and assays for IL-1β and IL-1ra were done using sensitive and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A greater amount of IL-1β was detected in AM supernatants from asbestosis, sarcoidosis, and IPF patients than in those from normal subjects. The IL-1β: IL-1ra ratio (IL-1β activity index [IL-1AI]) was significantly lower in supernatants of normal macrophages compared with macrophage supernatants from individuals with ILD. The IL-1AI correlated with bronchoalveolar lavage cellularity, a marker of disease activity. Current smoking was associated with lower IL-1β and IL-1ra release in ILD. The IL-1AI is a convenient method for comparison of IL-1β activity between patient populations.
The temperature dependence of the redox potential of horse heart cytochrome c in sodium chloride solutions.

The E0′ values for the conversion of horse heart cytochrome c from the oxidized to the reduced form as a function of temperature have been measured in 0.10 M NaCl, 0.10 M sodium phosphate, pH 7.0 solutions in H2O and D2O. In H2O, the decrease in the E0′ value is linear with increasing temperature up to 42°C. Above this temperature, the decrease is again linear but with a much greater slope. In D2O solutions, however, this biphasic behavior was not observed but instead a single line was obtained over the temperature range studied (25°C to 50°C). These results are interpreted in terms of the ability of NaCl to cause a destructuring of the bulk H2O above 42°C but not in the more stable D2O (Kreishman, Foss, Inoue and Leifer (1976) Biochemistry, 15, 5431–5435). This decrease in water structure results in a shift in the equilibrium to the larger oxidized form as indicated by the decrease in E0′.
The relative body weights of Bornean and Sumatran orangutans

Although original field data suggested that the average Bornean orangutan weighed twice as much as the Sumatran ones, this is shown to be an error. The only statistically significant difference in weight is between males and females, regardless of geographical area or data source.
A Modular Microcomputer Development System

A modular evaluation/development system suitable for different microprocessors is described. The major sources of hardware expense in an evaluation system are the support hardware such as RAM, PROM, and I/O interfaces and devices, which are duplicated in each different evaluation system. Additionally, although most systems contain some software in the form of a simple operating system or monitor, familiarization with the use of each can be very time-consuming. A modular approach to the design of both the hardware and software of an evaluation/development system is presented.
Development of a self-assessment instrument to determine daily intake and variability of dietary vitamin K.

Objective: To develop and validate a brief, self-assessment instrument (K-Card) to determine daily variations in dietary vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) intake for use in patients receiving oral warfarin anticoagulant therapy.Methods: The K-Card was designed to include a checklist of selected common foods and beverages providing ≥ 5 μg vitamin K per serving in American diets and items with lower vitamin K content typically consumed in quantities which contribute significantly to total vitamin K intake. The K-Card was validated against records of weighed food intake from thirty-six healthy volunteers, 20 to 40 and 60 to 80 years of age, whose phylloquinone intakes and plasma concentrations had been previously measured by the Metabolic Research Unit, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA USA. Future use of the K-Card by patients was simulated by a single investigator using 108 one-day weighed food records to estimate phylloquinone intakes. Dietary phylloquinone ca...
Reaping the Benefit of Temporal Silence to Improve Communication Performance

Communication misses - those serviced by dirty data in remote caches - are a pressing performance limiter in shared-memory multiprocessors. Recent research has indicated that temporally silent stores can be exploited to substantially reduce such misses, either with coherence protocol enhancements (MESTI); by employing speculation to create atomic silent store-pairs that achieve speculative lock elision (SLE); or by employing load value prediction (LVP). We evaluate all three approaches utilizing full-system, execution-driven simulation, with scientific and commercial workloads, to measure performance. Our studies indicate that accurate detection of elision idioms for SLE is vitally important for delivering robust performance and appears difficult for existing commercial codes. Furthermore, common datapath issues in out-of-order cores cause barriers to speculation and therefore may cause SLE failures unless SLE-specific speculation mechanisms are added to the microarchitecture. We also propose novel prediction and silence detection mechanisms that enable the MESTI protocol to deliver robust performance for all workloads. Finally, we conduct a detailed execution-driven performance evaluation of load value prediction (LVP), another simple method for capturing the benefit of temporally silent stores. We show that while theoretically LVP can capture the greatest fraction of communication misses among all approaches, it is usually not the most effective at delivering performance. This occurs because attempting to hide latency by speculating at the consumer, i.e. predicting load values, is fundamentally less effective than eliminating the latency at the source, by removing the invalidation effect of stores. Applying each method, we observe performance changes in application benchmarks ranging from 1% to 14% for an enhanced version of MESTI, -1.0% to 9% for LVP, -3% to 9% for enhanced SLE, and 2% to 21% for combined techniques
1913. “On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules”: Quantum Jumps and Epistemological Leaps

I think in your endeavour to be clear you have a tendency to make your papers much too long, and a tendency to repeat your statements in different parts of the paper. I think that your paper really ought to be cut down, and I think this could be done without sacrificing anything to clearness. I do not know if you appreciate the fact that long papers have a way of frightening readers, who feel that they have not time to dip into them.
Intein Reporter and Selection Systems

Three aspects of intein biology suggest a wide variety of uses in biotechnology. The first, described in this volume by Dassa and Pietrokovski, is that inteins are genetically mobile, and a characteristic exhibited by many inteins is the retention of splicing activity when artificially moved to foreign contexts. The second is that inteins can be used to reversibly inactivate non-native host proteins through internal and external gene fusions, allowing inteins to be used as molecular triggers in various reporter systems. This aspect of intein biology forms the foundation for this chapter and the systems described within. Finally, as explained by Mills and Paulus in this volume, the splicing reaction itself is fairly well understood and several intein structures have been solved (see Moure and Quiocho, this Vol.). This has allowed inteins to be modified for new biological applications, including those described in chapters by Chong and Xu; Tavassoli, Naumann and Benkovic; Ozawa and Umezawa; and Wood, Harcum and Belfort. The repertoire of available inteins has recently been augmented with examples of split inteins that can assemble and splice in trans, enabling the development of additional strategies for gene assembly and activation. The ability of inteins to function in non-native contexts initially facilitated the development of several convenient model systems for intein study and characterization (Davis et al. 1991; Cooper et al. 1993; Xu et al. 1993; Chong et al. 1996). In time, however, it became clear that the flexibility and robustness of inteins suggested a wide variety of potential applications (Perler and Adam 2000). In pursuit of these applications, a number of additional systems have been developed to link intein activity to readily detectable or selectable
Moving Objects in Databases and GIS: State-of-the-Art and Open Problems

The field of moving objectsmoving object databases (Guting and Schneider 2005) has received a lot of research interest in recent years. This technology enables the user to model, store, retrieve, and query the movements of spatial objects over time, called moving objects, and to ask queries about such movements in a database context. A moving object represents the continuous evolution of a spatial object over time. In some cases, only the time-dependent locations are of interest, and we speak of moving pointsmoving point. Examples are mobile phone users, whales, ships, planes, terrorists, cars, spacecrafts, satellites, and missiles. In other cases, also the time-dependent shape and/or areal extent, which can grow or shrink, need to be handled, and we speak of moving regions.
On the photoionization spectrum of propyne: a fully ab initio simulation of the low-energy spectrum including the Jahn-Teller effect and the spin-orbit interaction.

The low energy photoionization spectrum of propyne (CH3–CCH), which reveals the vibronic structure of the propyne cation, is simulated using vibronic coupling theory. The spin–orbit interaction is included using an intensity borrowing approach, enabling determination of the (X2E1/2,3/2, v = 0) splitting and the relative photoionization intensity of these closely spaced levels. The results are compared with recent experimental studies and misstatements are corrected.
Effect of adsorption nonlinearity on the pH-adsorption profile of ionizable organic compounds.

Solution pH is an important factor in the adsorptive behavior of ionizable organic compounds (IOCs) in many industrial, commercial, and environmental contexts. A linear speciation model (LSM) that assumes the concentration-independent adsorption of charged and neutral species is often employed to model the pH–adsorption profile (edge). Deviations from that model—including the shift of the adsorption edge from its expected inflection point at pH = pKa and the appearance of an adsorption maximum (“hump”) near the pKa—are sometimes used to infer the mechanism. We investigated the adsorption of six organic acids and bases on the nonfunctionalized, extremely low variable-charge surface of graphite. Isotherms at constant pH of both charged and neutral species were usually highly nonlinear, and the adsorption edges typically showed a shift, hump, or both. We postulate that this behavior is due to the gradual extinction of the dissolved neutral or charged species as the pH approaches and then crosses the pKa. Thi...