cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Recovering from a yield excursion: A simulated case study

Deciding when to update parameter file or floorplan yield assumptions is key to minimizing the cost impact associated with a yield excursion. Applying a yield degrade too soon creates excess inventory and applying a yield degrade too late increases the probability of missing shipments. A simulated case study is presented to aid product engineers, manufacturing engineers, and program managers in the determination of supply impacts as a function of when the yield degrade is applied. Impact is explored for both high volume and low volume products.
Secure Smart Parking at James Madison University via the Cloud Environment (SPACE)

Parking at James Madison University has been a challenge for years. With the increase of enrollment, this continues to be a more difficult problem. Currently at JMU, a few parking garages (e.g. Champions Drive Parking Deck & Grace Street Parking Deck) have some capability of counting how many vehicles are entering or leaving the garage, but the technology has not been widely embraced across campus. JMU is in need of a smart system that allows a student/faculty/staff/visitor to know how many available parking spaces are in a particular lot at any given time. With this information, users are given a suggestion for a place to park. The JMU Secure Smart Parking via the Cloud Environment initiative aims to address this parking problem. Using a Radio-frequency identification scanner, our system is able to count the number of vehicles entering and leaving each parking lot on campus. The current decal that is provided to each vehicle will be replaced with a smart decal with an embedded tag inside of it. We also developed a secure, mobile-friendly web application and mobile apps (both on an iOS and Android platforms) that can inform the driver of the number of available spots in a desired parking lot. By harnessing the power of the MEAN stack (Mongo, Express, Angular, and Node) and cloud-based computing, the JMU community will gain a near real-time perspective of the parking situation on-campus.
Computer Graphics Tools for Rendering Algebraic Surfaces and for Geometry of Order

New developments in interactive computer graphics make it possible for mathematicians to approach old subjects in fresh ways. Occasionally the new approaches reveal additional insights into things already well understood from other viewpoints. This note give several examples of projects developed in collaboration with undergraduate students at Brown University in courses related to differential geometry. In each case, computer graphics techniques are used to investigate some geometric phenomenon, and in each case the difficulties encountered by the program reveal some feature of geometric interest.
Mining the oral mycobiome: Methods, components, and meaning.

ABSTRACTResearch on oral fungi has centered on Candida. However, recent internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-based studies revealed a vast number of fungal taxa as potential oral residents. We review DNA-based studies of the oral mycobiome and contrast them with cultivation-based surveys, showing that most genera encountered by cultivation have also been detected molecularly. Some taxa such as Malassezia, however, appear in high prevalence and abundance in molecular studies but have not been cultivated. Important technical and bioinformatic challenges to ITS-based oral mycobiome studies are discussed. These include optimization of sample lysis, variability in length of ITS amplicons, high intra-species ITS sequence variability, high inter-species variability in ITS copy number and challenges in nomenclature and maintenance of curated reference databases. Molecular surveys are powerful first steps to characterize the oral mycobiome but further research is needed to unravel which fungi detected by DNA are true...
Examination of cardiovascular risk factors and rurality in Appalachian children.

Introductoin The prevalence of childhood cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors often increases in more rural geographic regions in the USA. However, research on the topic often has conflicting results. Researchers note differences in definitions of rurality and other factors that would lead to differences in inference, including appropriate use of statistical clustering analysis, representative data, and inclusion of individual-level covariates. The present study's objective was to examine CVD risk factors during childhood by geographic distribution in the US Appalachian region as a first step towards understanding the health disparities in this area. Methods Rurality and CVD risk factors (including blood pressure, body-mass index (BMI), and cholesterol) were examined in a large, representative sample of fifth-grade students (N=73 014) from an Appalachian state in the USA. A six-category Rural-Urban Continuum Codes classification system was used to define rurality regions. Mixed modeling analysis was used to appropriately cluster individuals within 725 unique zip codes in each of these six regions, and allowed for including several individual-level socioeconomic factors as covariates. Results Rural areas had better outcomes for certain CVD risk factors (lowest low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and blood pressure (BP) and highest high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)) whereas mid-sized metro and town areas presented with the worst CVD risk factors (highest BMI% above ideal, mean diastolic BP, LDL-C, total cholesterol, triglyceride levels and lowest HDL-C) outcomes in children and adolescence in this Appalachian state. Conclusions Counter to the study hypothesis, mid-sized metro areas presented with the worst CVD risk factors outcomes in children and adolescence in the Appalachian state. This data contradicts previous literature suggesting a straightforward link between rurality and cardiovascular risk factors. Future research should include a longitudinal design and explore some of the mechanisms between cardiovascular risk factors and rurality.
Inexact MDL for linear manifold clusters

We present a regularization technique based on the minimum description length (MDL) principle for the linear manifold clustering. We suggest an inexact minimum description length method based on describing the data structure as linear manifold clusters. We examine the behavior of the proposed method and compare it performance against simulated clustering results of various dimensionality and structure. Finally, we empirically evaluate the proposed technique on a climate data.
Depressive Symptoms in Recipients of Home- and Community-Based Services in the United States: Are Older Adults Receiving the Care They Need?

Objective To understand unmet depression needs of older adults, the current study investigates depressive symptoms, psychiatric treatment, and home- and community-based service (HCBS) use in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the United States. Methods Participants included 5,582 adults aged 60 and over from the 2010–2012 waves of the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. Weighted bivariate analyses were used to examine the frequency of depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale) and psychiatric treatment among HCBS recipients compared with non-HCBS recipients. Weighted logistic regression models were used to evaluate the effect of depressive symptoms on HCBS use. Results HCBS recipients had a higher frequency of depressive symptoms compared with nonrecipients (27.5% versus 10.4%, respectively). In particular, transportation service recipients had the highest frequency of depressive symptoms (37.5%). HCBS recipients with depressive symptoms were no more likely than nonrecipients to receive psychiatric services. Depressive symptoms were associated with HCBS use, above and beyond sociodemographic and health risk factors. Conclusion Depressive symptoms are more frequent among HCBS recipients compared with nonrecipients; however, depressed HCBS recipients are no more likely to receive psychiatric services, suggesting unmet depression needs. HCBS may be a key setting for depression detection and delivery of mental health interventions.
Seasonal and animal farm size influences on in-stream phosphorus transport in an agricultural watershed

Excess phosphorus (P) is generally responsible for the eutrophication of Midwestern surface waters and causes algal blooms, fish kills, and other detrimental ecological effects. In-stream transport of dissolved and particulate P (PP), under both stormflow and baseflow conditions, was studied in an agricultural Wisconsin watershed with diverse sizes of animal farm operations. Trends in P losses were compared both on an individual event and seasonal (spring, summer, fall) basis. In-stream P transport was characterized by high PP losses in the spring during periods of relatively little crop cover and high dissolved P losses in the fall, when surface coverage was still present. The majority of P (64–71%) was transported in the spring season during periods of high flow. Presence of high animal density at lower portions of the watershed resulted in increasing downstream P concentration and load (i.e., concentration dilution effects with increasing drainage area were absent). The baseflow TP concentrations were always above the USEPA eutrophication threshold [Ecoregion VII, level III-53: 0.08 mg L−1; (USEPA in Ambient water quality criteria recommendations. Information supporting the development of state and tribal nutrient criteria. Rivers and stream in nutrient ecoregion VII. EPA 822-B-00-018. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/rivers7.pdf , 2000)]. While upland conservation practices are necessary for non-point source pollution control, it is important to ensure that these practices afford protection during the spring time periods when agricultural fields are most vulnerable for offsite movement of sediments and associated constituents.
Direct thrombolytic therapy for superior sagittal sinus thrombosis.

We report a case of DVST that was successfully managed by direct puncture of the superior sagittal sinus and infusion of urokinase, resulting in clot lysis over 12 hr
Advanced paleontological extraction system using data fusion informed overburden removal

This paper outlines a concept in which advanced data and sensor techniques can be applied to removing rock overburden from jacketed paleontological samples. These samples often are brought back to museums only to sit on shelves. We will combine CT scanning, x-ray fluorescent spectroscopy, and laser surface mapping to determine the location of the specimen within the sample along with various automated removal methods to separate the bone from matrix.
Exploring the Utility of Developer Exhaust

Using machine learning to analyze data often results in developer exhaust -- code, logs, or metadata that do not define the learning algorithm but are byproducts of the data analytics pipeline. We study how the rich information present in developer exhaust can be used to approximately solve otherwise complex tasks. Specifically, we focus on using log data associated with training deep learning models to perform model search by predicting performance metrics for untrained models. Instead of designing a different model for each performance metric, we present two preliminary methods that rely only on information present in logs to predict these characteristics for different architectures. We introduce (i) a nearest neighbor approach with a hand-crafted edit distance metric to compare model architectures and (ii) a more generalizable, end-to-end approach that trains an LSTM using model architectures and associated logs to predict performance metrics of interest. We perform model search optimizing for best validation accuracy, degree of overfitting, and best validation accuracy given a constraint on training time. Our approaches can predict validation accuracy within 1.37% error on average, while the baseline achieves 4.13% by using the performance of a trained model with the closest number of layers. When choosing the best performing model given constraints on training time, our approaches select the top-3 models that overlap with the true top-3 models 82% of the time, while the baseline only achieves this 54% of the time. Our preliminary experiments hold promise for how developer exhaust can help learn models that can approximate various complex tasks efficiently.
Alternative State Variables for Graphene Transistors

This chapter provides an outlook of some important state variables used to enable graphene based nanoelectronic devices. State variables are physical representations of information used to perform information processing via memory, logic and transmission functionality. Recent advances in scalable graphene and controllable nanoribbons has provided hope for graphene based nanodevices, including more exotic devices that employ alternative state variables. This chapter will discuss a few such devices including electron charge as used in FET devices, electron spin as used in Spin FET devices, pseudospin as used in BiSFET devices, phonons as used in thermal logic and molecular charge as used in atomic mechanical switches.
Solutioning of Highly-Valued IT Service Contracts

Information technology (IT) service providers typically compete in a tender kind of process to win highly valued service contracts. The process starts with the client submitting a request for proposal (RFP) document. The service providers prepare s solution that would fulfill the requirements from the RFP. However, this solution is typically prepared manually, requiring intensive resource preparation that can take weeks or months. In this work-in-progress paper, we propose a two-step automated end-to-end solution methodology to prepare a competitive solution. The first step involves taking the client's requirements and mapping them to the optimal set of the provider's offerings and their attribute values that cover such client requirements at a minimum cost. In the second step, market benchmarks are applied to compute the pricing of chosen offerings. Sometimes these benchmarks are unknown for particular offerings provided in some geographies world-wide. Therefore, we propose an approach for inferring these unknown benchmarks along with a confidence score. We apply our overall methodology to real data of one of the world's largest IT service providers and show that it is both more efficient and more effective than manual solutioning, thus increasing win rates for the provider.
Weeding a shared e-book collection: Collaboration across a consortium

Collection weeding is an important function of any library operation. At its simplest, the process of deciding what to remove, and implementing it, is controlled by a library or system serving a single mission and set of objectives. This becomes more complicated when the collection is shared by a group of libraries, such as those within a consortium, that have separate governing structures. The difficulty of such an undertaking is further compounded for collections of electronic resources with varying licensing terms and technical configurations. This paper describes just such a weeding project of an e-book collection shared by members of a large library consortium.
Botox Nation: Changing the Face of America, by Dana Berkowitz

Autoethnography, an audacious approach to any academic writing, requires an author to walk a carefully constructed line between reflecting on the ethnographic process and superfluous personal comme...
A comparison of irrigation system, basal temperature and auxin concentration on rooting of stem cuttings of Ilex glabra L

Abstract Basal stem temperature and auxin treatment effects on rooting percentage, root number, length of the longest root, and basal stem necrosis of hardwood stem cuttings of Ilex glabra L. (inkb...
Existence, Non-existence, Uniqueness of solutions for semilinear elliptic equations involving measures concentrated on boundary

The purpose of this paper is to study the weak solutions of the fractional elliptic problem \begin{equation}\label{000} \begin{array}{lll} (-\Delta)^\alpha u+\epsilon g(u)=k\frac{\partial^\alpha\nu}{\partial \vec{n}^\alpha}\quad &{\rm in}\quad\ \ \bar\Omega,\\[3mm] \phantom{(-\Delta)^\alpha +\epsilon g(u)} u=0\quad &{\rm in}\quad\ \ \bar\Omega^c, \end{array} \end{equation} where $k>0$, $\epsilon=1$ or $-1$, $(-\Delta)^\alpha$ with $\alpha\in(0,1)$ is the fractional Laplacian defined in the principle value sense, $\Omega$ is a bounded $C^2$ open set in $R^N$ with $N\ge 2$, $\nu$ is a bounded Radon measure supported in $\partial\Omega$ and $\frac{\partial^\alpha\nu}{\partial \vec{n}^\alpha}$ is defined in the distribution sense, i.e. $$ \langle\frac{\partial^\alpha\nu}{\partial \vec{n}^\alpha},\zeta\rangle=\int_{\partial\Omega}\frac{\partial^\alpha\zeta(x)}{\partial \vec{n}_x^\alpha}d\nu(x), \qquad \forall\zeta\in C^\alpha(R^N), $$ here $\vec{n}_x$ denotes the unit inward normal vector at $x\in\partial\Omega$.
Obstruction and the Politics of Civilian Nominations

Conflict over presidential nominations has grown more acrimonious in recent decades. Senators have increasingly exploited their procedural prerogatives to block or delay nominations that they oppos...
Implementation of advanced methods for reproductive pharmacovigilance in autism: A meta-analysis of the effects of prenatal antidepressant exposure

Objective:Observational studies of prenatal antidepressant safety are hindered by methodological concerns, including susceptibility to surveillance bias. Some studies address potential bias by usin...
Commentary: Regulating Health Care Prices with One Hand Tied Behind Your Back: A Critical Evaluation of a Market-Oriented Proposal:

Last year in this journal, I offered an explanation for America’s high health care costs rooted in the concept of “supply-side moral hazard,” and advocated for an all-payer system of price regulati...
Universal Screening and Education: A Client-Centered Protocol for Normalizing Intimate Partner Violence Conversation in Clinical Practice

Researchers, therapists, and advocates have examined the advantages and disadvantages of intimate partner violence (IPV) universal screening in health care settings. This article describes the IPV ...
Medical Gender Affirmation and HIV and Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention in Transgender Youth: Results from the Survey of Today's Adolescent Relationships and Transitions, 2018.

Purpose: We assessed the association of receipt of medical gender affirmation services (e.g., hormones, surgery) with HIV and other sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention and knowledge indic...
Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management of Coronary No-Reflow Phenomenon

Coronary no-reflow phenomenon is a lethal mechanism of ongoing myocardial injury, following successful revascularization of an infarct-related coronary artery. Incidence of this phenomenon is high following percutaneous intervention, and is associated with adverse in-hospital and long-term outcomes. Several mechanisms such as ischemia-reperfusion injury and distal microthromboembolism in genetically susceptible patients and those with preexisting endothelial dysfunction have been implicated. However, the exact mechanism in humans is still poorly understood. Several investigative and treatment strategies within and outside the cardiac catheterization laboratory have been proposed, but have not uniformly shown success in reducing mortality or in preventing adverse left ventricular remodeling resulting from this condition. The aim of this article is to provide a brief and concise review of the current understanding of the pathophysiology, clinical predictors, and investigations and management of coronary no-reflow phenomenon.
Race and Perceived Immorality in Stereotypes of Criminal Subtypes

In past research on criminal stereotypes, individuals of different races have been stereotyped as being more likely to commit certain types of crimes. In this article, we draw on the “bad is Black”...
Creep behavior and failure mechanisms of CVI and PIP SiC/SiC composites at temperatures to 1650 °C in air

Abstract Creep properties of 2D woven CVI and PIP SiC/SiC composites with Sylramic™-iBN SiC fibers were measured at temperatures to 1650 °C in air and the data was compared with the literature. Batch-to-batch variations in the tensile and creep properties, and thermal treatment effects on creep, creep parameters, damage mechanisms, and failure modes for these composites were studied. Under the test conditions, the CVI SiC/SiC composites exhibited both matrix and fiber-dominated creep depending on stress, whereas the PIP SiC/SiC composites displayed only fiber-dominated creep. Creep durability in both composite systems is controlled by the most creep resistant phase as well as oxidation of the fibers via cracking matrix. Specimen-to- specimen variations in porosity and stress raisers caused significant differences in creep behavior and durability. The Larson-Miller parameter and Monkman-Grant relationship were used wherever applicable for analyzing and predicting creep durability.
Comparing in-Person and Telepractice Service Delivery for Spoken Language Production and Comprehension Using the National Outcomes Measurement System.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) developed the National Outcomes Measurement System for aggregating standardized patient outcomes. Outcomes are standardized using Functional Communication Measures (FCM), scales designed to describe communicative function across specific areas of clinical need. This investigation compared in-person and telepractice service delivery for children in elementary school settings who received treatment targeting the FCM categories of either “spoken language production” or “spoken language comprehension.” De-identified cases were secured from ASHA’s NOMS database and the database of a private e-learning provider that implemented the NOMS format. There were minimal significant differences in the median change scores between the traditional and telepractice interventions. These results support comparable treatment outcomes between in-person service delivery and telepractice for treatment of children exhibiting impaired spoken language production or spoken language comprehension in an elementary school setting
Music intervention pilot study: Assessing teaching methods of group marimba classes designed to train spatial skills of older adults experiencing changes in cognition

Older adults facing cognitive challenges may face a decline in spatial skills and as a result may become less confident in navigating their environment. Spatial training has been shown to help ease this decline, and engaging in music has been shown to benefit the spatial skills of musicians. There is a paucity of research investigating ways that music might serve as spatial training for older adults. This study explored music classes as a means of spatial training for older adults across three domains; 1. improving their success rates in staying spatially oriented on the instrument; 2. enhancing their ability to read written music and 3. in reaching better outcomes on a spatial orientation test taken at pre- and post-intervention. Our team developed and tested a 6-week marimba class that targeted spatial training principles for older adults with predementia or early dementia. We assessed the spatial skills with the Orientation Test from the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills pre- and post-intervention. Scores increased an average of 0.71, a clinically meaningful change (d = 0.3). Participants also demonstrated high frequencies of remaining oriented on the instrument. There was also higher incidence of participants’ self-selecting to read music without notes (p < 0.01) over the course of the intervention. Future research might benefit from music-based training as a means to support spatial skills during cognitive decline.
Child Exemptions or Child Allowances

Eliminating Child exempitons and replacing them with a European style child allowance program would be an effective and costless antipoverty policy The distributional and poverty reducing effects of three potentral child allowance programs are examined These include a fixed dollar tax credit a dollar tax credit a tax credit that declines with income, and a taxable allowance of the some dollar amount for each child
Solidification of Sodium Bearing Waste Using Hydroceramic and Portland Cement Binders.

AM-S19-39 A hydroceramic is a monolithic solid produced by a hydration driven reaction that occurs after mixing metakaolin with concentrated NaOH solution. The chemistry of the starting materials is optimized to encourage the formation of tectosilicates (zeolites, feldspathoids) during curing. Furthermore, the process is forgiving enough so that a variety of caustic waste streams can be accommodated without sacrificing performance. This characteristic makes a hydroceramic perfectly suited to solidify low activity sodium bearing waste (SBW) now in storage at Hanford, Savannah River and INEEL. SBW normally contains three main ingredients, NaOH, NaNO3 and NaNO2. Depending upon the level of nitrate and nitrite salts in the SBW the SBW can be solidified by direct mixing and curing (low concentrations) or alternately must first be heat treated in some manner to decompose its nitrate/nitrite inventory. Two procedures, both using approximately the same blend of aluminosilicate, carbonaceous materials and SBW are being evaluated by the DOE. The first is a calcine formed by heating the blended materials in air at 525°C. The second is a granular product produced during steam reforming in a Studsvik reactor at 725°C. In both cases, nitrate and nitrite are reduced and the nacent Na ions that form react with the metakaolinite forming X-ray amorphous precursors and crystalline zeolites (zeolite A, hydroxysodalite) and feldspathoids (cancrinite) rather than Na2CO3. Although the products have low leachabilities in their own right, they can be further solidified and made into a hydroceramic using the approach outlined above for liquid SBW. Performance data for hydroceramics made from a simulated low nitrate/nitrite Savannah River SBW solidified by direct solidification and also via intermediate calcination and then solidification suggest that leachabilities are nearly the same. Thus direct solidification is recommended for this type of SBW. Performance data for a heavily nitrated and nitrited Hanford SBW that was calcined at 525°C with metakaolin and sucrose and then solidified using a hydroceramic binder and a Portland cement binder are compared. The hydroceramic exhibited superior performance vis a vis a more convention grout formulation. INTRODUCTION Radioactive waste produced during DOE’s active weapons production program has been stored in tanks at the Hanford, Savannah River and INEEL sites for more than 50 years. In all cases nitric acid was used to dissolve nuclear fuel rods during reprocessing. After extracting fissile materials and other elements of interest the remaining waste liquid was placed into storage. Of the three sites only INEEL decided to calcine its acid waste directly using a fluidized bed calciner. Their calcines are now in storage on site in bins (bin sets) 1 . Savannah River and Hanford chose to neutralize their waste streams with an excess of NaOH to facilitate their storage in underground steel tanks. Once the pH was changed, a significant amount of insoluble
Synthesis and characterization of low work function stable Li-based alloy coatings for field emission cathodes

We have demonstrated that Li-based alloy coatings can provide enhanced electron emission from field emission arrays. These coatings can be deposited at room temperature by physical vapor deposition techniques and result in stable electron emission even under poor vacuum conditions.
A Scheduling Scheme for Controlling Allocation of CPU Resources for Mobile Programs

There is considerable interest in developing runtime infrastructures for programs that can migrate from one host to another. Mobile programs are appealing because they support efficient utilization of network resources and extensibility of information servers. In this paper, we present a scheduling scheme for allocating resources to a mix of real-time and non real-time mobile programs. Within this framework, both mobile programs and hosts can specify constraints on how CPU should be allocated. On the basis of the constraints, the scheme constructs a scheduling graph on which it applies several scheduling algorithms. In case of conflicts between mobile program and host specified constraints, the schemes implements a policy that resolves the conflicts in favor of the host. The resulting scheduling scheme is adaptive, flexible, and enforces both program and host specified constraints.
Crystal structure of the transcription activator BmrR bound to DNA and a drug.

The efflux of chemically diverse drugs by multidrug transporters that span the membrane1 is one mechanism of multidrug resistance in bacteria. The concentrations of many of these transporters are controlled by transcription regulators, such as BmrR in Bacillus subtilis2, EmrR in Escherichia coli3 and QacR in Staphylococcus aureus 4. These proteins promote transporter gene expression when they bind toxic compounds. BmrR activates transcription of the multidrug transporter gene, bmr, in response to cellular invasion by certain lipophilic cationic compounds (drugs)2,5,6. BmrR belongs to the MerR family, which regulates response to stress such as exposure to toxic compounds or oxygen radicals in bacteria7,8,9,10,11,12. MerR proteins have homologous amino-terminal DNA-binding domains but different carboxy-terminal domains, which enable them to bind specific ‘coactivator’ molecules. When bound to coactivator, MerR proteins upregulate transcription by reconfiguring the 19-base-pair spacer found between the -35 and -10 promoter elements to allow productive interaction with RNA polymerase7,9,10,11,12. Here we report the 3.0 A resolution structure of BmrR in complex with the drug tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP) and a 22-base-pair oligodeoxynucleotide encompassing the bmr promoter. The structure reveals an unexpected mechanism for transcription activation that involves localized base-pair breaking, and base sliding and realignment of the -35 and -10 operator elements.
Land‐Atmosphere Models for Water and Energy Cycle Studies

Land surface models simulate the temporal evolution of the energy and water balance at and near the land surface. These models can be used coupled to an atmospheric model, in which case feedbacks between the land surface and atmosphere are explicitly represented, or they can be used in a stand-alone, uncoupled mode, in which case observed or simulated atmospheric conditions act as time-varying boundary conditions. This article reviews the basic layout of land surface models, their history, and their uses, specifically in uncoupled simulations. In this context, the challenges of model performance evaluation and the role of model intercomparison projects are discussed. The article ends with a look toward the future and the next series of developments that land surface models are likely to undergo. Keywords: energy balance; land surface – atmosphere interactions; land surface models; macroscale hydrology; model evaluation; water balance
Spin-polarized energy-band structure of YCo/sub 5/, SmCo/sub 5/, and GdCo/sub 5/

The spin-polarized electronic energy bands, densities of states and magnetic moments of the intermetallic compounds YCo/sub 5/, SmCo/sub 5/, and GdCo/sub 5/ are calculated by a self-consistent augmented-plane-wave method. The results are similar in the three cases, with the computed magnetic moments in reasonable agreement with experiment. Only about one electron (of a possible three) is transferred from the rare earth to cobalt, leaving the minority-spin cobalt 3d band unfilled, and the moment high. There is evidence of d-d coupling between cobalt and the rare earth, providing information as to why experiments designed to reverse the antiparallel spin coupling between the two sublattices by manipulation of the electron concentration have been unsuccessful.
Low-Fired Earthenwares in the African Diaspora: Problems and Prospects

Local earthenware associated with enslaved African populations in the Americas, variously called “Colono-Ware,” “Afro-Caribbean Ware.” “Yabbas,” and “Criollo ware,” has received considerable attention from researchers. What unifies this disparate group of ceramics is not method of manufacture, design and decoration, or even form and function but the association or potential association with African diaspora populations. The ceramics incorporate some skills and techniques possibly brought by African potters to the Americas, as well as skills reflecting European and Native American traditions, and local adaptations in form, function, and manufacture. Analogies linking African ceramic traditions to American industries have at times been employed uncritically and have relied on generalized characteristics to infer overly specific meanings. With particular reference to low-fired earthenwares from Jamaica, this paper examines the historical and cultural context of these ceramics and the methodological and theoretical problems faced in their interpretation.
Interpreting drag consequences of ammonoid shells by comparing studies in Westermann Morphospace

Differently-shaped ammonoid shells present varied hydrodynamic properties, but the relevance of shell shape to ammonoid paleoecology is unclear. To examine trends in ammonoid shell shape that relate to hydrodynamic consequences, we project ammonoid shell data into Westermann Morphospace. Operationally similar to other multivariate methods, Westermann Morphospace features a fixed frame and scaling calibrated around the most common planispiral morphotypes. First, results of hydrodynamic experiments are projected into the space, to test for associations between recognized morphotypes and measures of drag force. Discocone shell shapes produce minimal drag at small sizes and/or low speeds, while oxycone shells produce minimal drag at higher sizes and/or faster speeds. If hydrodynamic efficiency was a first-order selective pressure on shell shapes produced by ammonoids, an association is expected between larger adult shells and oxyconic geometry. To assess this, published shape data are shown in Westermann Morphospace to examine intervals of evolutionary interest. A rough analysis of Late Triassic ammonoid shell shapes shows the expected association between larger shells and oxyconic geometry, but the association is completely reversed immediately after the end-Triassic mass extinction, and the association does not return among the “recovered” middle Jurassic ammonoids. This suggests that hydrodynamics suited for high-metabolism rapid locomotion were not a first-order influence on shell shape immediately after the extinction, or that other hydrodynamic influences require assessment by different methods. Lastly, shells of a series of endemic chronospecies of Cretaceous Neogastroplites are compared, showing a shift to inclusion of more discoconic shells at smaller sizes, resulting in minimal drag for more of the ontogenetic series as a whole. Together, these results indicate that size must be considered when interpreting the hydrodynamic efficiency of ammonoid shells. Flank shape, ornament and soft tissue behaviors may be as or more important than first-order shell geometry, and quantification of their importance and influence on varied shell geometries will benefit from further experimental results.
A barrier-type insulator forms a boundary between active and inactive chromatin at the murine TCRβ locus.

In CD4−CD8− double-negative thymocytes, the murine Tcrb locus is composed of alternating blocks of active and inactive chromatin containing Tcrb gene segments and trypsinogen genes, respectively. Although chromatin structure is appreciated to be critical for regulated recombination and expression of Tcrb gene segments, the molecular mechanisms that maintain the integrity of these differentially regulated Tcrb locus chromatin domains are not understood. We localized a boundary between active and inactive chromatin by mapping chromatin modifications across the interval extending from Prss2 (the most 3′ trypsinogen gene) to Dβ1. This boundary, located 6 kb upstream of Dβ1, is characterized by a transition from repressive (histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation [H3K9me2]) to active (histone H3 acetylation [H3ac]) chromatin and is marked by a peak of histone H3 lysine 4 dimethylation (H3K4me2) that colocalizes with a retroviral long terminal repeat (LTR). Histone H3 lysine 4 dimethylation is retained and histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation fails to spread past the LTR even on alleles lacking the Tcrb enhancer (Eβ) suggesting that these features may be determined by the local DNA sequence. Notably, we found that LTR-containing DNA functions as a barrier-type insulator that can protect a transgene from negative chromosomal position effects. We propose that, in vivo, the LTR blocks the spread of heterochromatin, and thereby helps to maintain the integrity of the Eβ-regulated chromatin domain. We also identified low-abundance, Eβ-dependent transcripts that initiate at the border of the LTR and an adjacent long interspersed element. We speculate that this transcription, which extends across Dβ, Jβ and Cβ gene segments, may play an additional role promoting initial opening of the Eβ-regulated chromatin domain.
The value of the assay of chromosomes in the diagnosis of cervical neoplasia.

Abstract Available studies indicate that if a direct squash technique is used, chromosomal aneuploidy is a very constant finding in invasive and in intraepithelial carcinoma of the cervix. The significance of aneuploidy in cervical epithelium in which the changes are insufficient to justify a diagnosis of cancer is therefore of theoretical and practical importance. To study this problem chromosomes of cervical epithelium were examined by the direct squash technique in 25 patients with normal or nearly normal histopathologic findings in the cervix. Very few spreads were seen in this group of cases but, when present, were diploid. Five of 6 patients with intraepithelial carcinoma had aneuploid chromosomes. Eight of 21 patients with cervical atypia also had aneuploid chromosomes. It is suggested that the present evidence favors the view that cells from a focus of cervical atypia which yield aneuploid chromosomes are malignant.
Polynomial complexity ML sequence and symbol-by-symbol detection in fading channels

The related problems of maximum likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) and symbol-by-symbol soft-decision metric (SbSSDM) generation in complex Gaussian flat-fading channels are considered in this paper. Traditional methods for the exact solution of these problems have exponential complexity with respect to the sequence length. In this paper, it is shown that both these problems can be solved in polynomial complexity with respect to the sequence length. Furthermore, motivated by the polynomial-complexity exact algorithm, an approximate fast algorithm is also derived. Simulation results for a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code transmitted on the aforementioned channel show that the performance of the approximate algorithm is very close to the exact sum-product algorithm.
Path dependence of the J-integral and the role of J as a parameter characterizing the near-tip field

The J-integral has significant path dependence immediately adjacent to a blunted crack tip under small-scale yielding conditions in an elastic-plastic material subject to mode I loads and plane-strain conditions. Since the J-integral, evaluated on a contour remote from the crack tip, can be used as the one fracture-mechanics parameter required to represent the intensity of the load when small-scale yielding conditions exist, J retains its role as a parameter characterizing the crack-tip stress fields, at least for materials modelled by the von Mises flow theory. Some results obtained using both the finite-element method and the slip-line theory are suggestive of a situation in which an outer field parameterized by a path-independent value of J controls the deformation in an inner or crack-tip field in which J is path dependent. The outer field is basically the solution to the crack problem when large deformation effects involved in the blunting are ignored. Thus, the conventional small-strain approaches in which the crack-tip deformation is represented by a singularity have been successful in characterizing such features as the crack-tip opening displacement in terms of a value of the J-integral on a remote contour. An interesting deduction concerns a nonlinear elastic material with characteristics in monotonic stressing similar to an elastic-plastic material. Since J is path independent everywhere in such a material, the stress and strain fields near the crack tip in such a material must differ greatly from those arising in the elastic-plastic materials studied so far. This result is of significance because it is believed that such nonlinear elastic constitutive laws can represent the limited strain-path independence suggested by models for plastic flow of polycrystalline aggregates based on crystalline slip within grains.
Initial Assessment of Reradiation from Power Lines

Commercial AM broadcast transmitters are often required to maintain a directional pattern with no more than a specified level of radiation over a "protected arc". Reradiation from a nearby high voltage power line into the protected arc can give rise to excessive field strengths. When a power line is proposed for construction near an existing broadcast array, an "initial assessment" must be made of the level of possible reradiation at an early stage, while there is the opportunity for intervention.
Police Handling of the Mentally Ill in Domestic Violence Situations

This article provides a systematic test of the reasoning underlying officers' decisions to civilly commit or arrest hallucinating suspects of domestic violence. Police officers (N = 257) read hypothetical scripts that manipulated three conditions (the suspect's mental state, antagonism or cooperativeness between disputants, and presence or absence of victim injury) and responded to questions about their inferences and responses. Findings indicate that mentally ill husbands were not more likely to be arrested, but officers who blamed the victim or held stereotypic views supportive of the use of violence were less likely to arrest. Police officers who believed that mental hospitals typically accepted violent persons, perceived that severe harm to the victim was likely if the suspect remained in the home, and regarded the suspect as cooperative with them were more likely to seek civil commitment.
Selegiline attenuates cardiac oxidative stress and apoptosis in heart failure: association with improvement of cardiac function ☆

We have shown recently that selegiline exerts a cardiac neuroprotective effect in chronic heart failure. Since selegiline has an antioxidant antiapoptotic effect, we proposed to determine whether selegiline attenuates cardiac oxidative stress and myocyte apoptosis in chronic heart failure by modulating Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression, and whether the effects are associated with the improvement of cardiac function. Rabbits with rapid cardiac pacing (360 beats/min) and sham operation without pacing were randomized to receive oral selegiline (1 mg/day) or placebo for 8 weeks. Echocardiography was used to measure left ventricular fractional shortening. After 8 weeks of treatment, animals were studied for arterial norepinephrine and left ventricular systolic function (fractional shortening and dP/dt), and were then sacrificed for measuring the stable oxidative product of myocardial mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG), myocyte apoptosis by monoclonal antibody to single stranded DNA, and Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. Rapid cardiac pacing increased plasma norepinephrine, cardiac oxidative stress and myocyte apoptosis, reduced Bcl-2 and the Bcl-2 to Bax ratio. These changes were associated with decreased left ventricular fractional shortening and dP/dt. Selegiline treatment in chronic heart failure animals reduced plasma norepinephrine, cardiac oxidative stress and myocyte apoptosis, prevented the changes of Bcl-2 and Bcl-2 to Bax ratio, and improved left ventricular fractional shortening and dP/dt. The findings suggest that the reduction by selegiline of myocyte apoptosis is related to the decrease of cardiac oxidative stress and the modulation of apoptotic and antiapoptotic proteins. The antioxidant antiapoptotic effects of selegiline are potentially beneficial in the improvement of cardiac function in chronic heart failure.
Effect of a Drug Allergy Educational Program and Antibiotic Prescribing Guideline on Inpatient Clinical Providers’ Antibiotic Prescribing Knowledge

Background Inpatient providers have varying levels of knowledge in managing patients with drug and/or penicillin (PCN) allergy. Objectives Our objectives were (1) to survey inpatient providers to ascertain their baseline drug allergy knowledge and preparedness in caring for patients with PCN allergy, and (2) to assess the impact of an educational program paired with the implementation of a hospital-based clinical guideline. Methods We electronically surveyed 521 inpatient providers at a tertiary care medical center at baseline and again 6 weeks after an educational initiative paired with clinical guideline implementation. The guideline informed providers on drug allergy history taking and antibiotic prescribing for inpatients with PCN or cephalosporin allergy. Results Of 323 unique responders, 42% (95% CI, 37-48%) reported no prior education in drug allergy. When considering those who responded to both surveys (n = 213), we observed a significant increase in knowledge about PCN skin testing (35% vs 54%; P P P = .03). Other areas, including understanding absolute contraindications to receiving a drug again and PCN cross-reactivity with other antimicrobials, did not improve significantly. Conclusions Inpatient providers have drug allergy knowledge deficits but are interested in tools to help them care for inpatients with drug allergies. Our educational initiative and hospital guideline implementation were associated with increased PCN allergy knowledge in several crucial areas. To improve care of inpatients with drug allergy, more research is needed to evaluate hospital policies and sustainable educational tools.
Myeloperoxidase Gene Expression in Infant Leukemia: A Pediatric Oncology Group Study

A high incidence of co-expression of myeloid-associated antigens in infant B-precursor Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (B-ALL) has been reported, but the significance of this finding is uncertain. To further assess myeloid differentiation and its prognostic significance in this disease, we investigated the frequency of myeloperoxidase (MPO) gene expression in the blast cells from 43 infants with B-ALL registered in a Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) Pilot Study for Treatment of Infant ALL, utilizing a molecular probe for detection of MPO messenger RNA (mRNA) by Northern blot hybridization and a monoclonal antibody to detect MPO-protein by immunohistochemical staining. Sufficient RNA for Northern blot was extracted from 32 bone marrow or blood samples. In two cases, MPO mRNA was determined by a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay and was negative in both cases. MPO-specific transcripts (MPO+) were present in 19 of 34 (56%) samples analyzed. Immunoreactive MPO protein was positive in 13 of the 20 (65%) patients studied. No correlation was found between MPO gene expression and clinical or laboratory features, karyotypic patterns or clinical outcome. The high frequency of MPO gene expression demonstrated in this study suggests that leukemogenic events in many cases of infant B-ALL appear to involve a pluripotent stem cell not yet fully committed to lymphoid differentiation.