cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
It’s all about control: how giving kids control over access, content, and format of their media production advances social and emotional learning

While the literature on kids’ media practices has grown, few studies connect this knowledge with media pedagogy and children’s emotional learning. This case study of four third grade students in a ...
Sensor Selection and Optimal Precision in $\mathcal{H}_2/\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ Estimation Framework: Theory and Algorithms

We consider the problem of sensor selection for designing observer and filter for continuous linear time invariant systems such that the sensor precisions are minimized, and the estimation errors are bounded by the prescribed $\mathcal{H}_2/\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ performance criteria. The proposed integrated framework formulates the precision minimization as a convex optimization problem subject to linear matrix inequalities, and it is solved using an algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). We also present a greedy approach for sensor selection and demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithms using numerical simulations.
Sino-Soviet Ideological Conflict

Contrary to the general opinion, Mao and Liu have never advocated a world war as the method of completing the proletarian revolution or flatly denounced the policy of peaceful coexistence with the West as counter-revolutionary. In fact, they have both stated the possibility of establishing normal relations with the capitalist countries and initiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as early as 1954.1 These principles are: mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence.
Scheduling data broadcast in asymmetric communication environments

With the increasing popularity of portable wireless computers, mechanisms to efficiently transmit information to wireless clients are of significant interest. The environment under consideration is asymmetric in that the information server has much more bandwidth available, as compared to the clients. In such environments, often it is not possible (or not desirable) for the clients to send explicit requests to the server. It has been proposed that in such systems the server should broadcast the data periodically. One challenge in implementing this solution is to determine the schedule for broadcasting the data, such that the wait encountered by the clients is minimized. A broadcast schedule determines what is broadcast by the server and when. In this paper, we present algorithms for determining broadcast schedules that minimize the wait time. Broadcast scheduling algorithms for environments subject to errors, and systems where different clients may listen to different number of broadcast channels are also considered. Performance evaluation results are presented to demonstrate that our algorithms perform well.
Incubation history prior to the canonical thermosensitive period determines sex in the American alligator.

Despite the widespread occurrence of environmental sex determination (ESD) among vertebrates, our knowledge of the temporal dynamics by which environmental factors act on this process remains limited. In many reptiles, incubation temperature determines sex during a discrete developmental window just prior to and coincident with the differentiation of the gonads. Yet, there is substantial variation in sex ratios among different clutches of eggs incubated at identical temperatures during this period. Here, we test the hypothesis that temperatures experienced prior to the reported thermosensitive period for alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) can impact how the sex determination system responds to thermal cues later in development. Temperature shift experiments on eggs collected from the field within 24 h of oviposition were employed to decouple various maternal influences from thermal effects, and results demonstrate a previously undefined window of thermosensitivity occurring by stage 15 of embryonic development, six stages earlier than previously reported. We also examine the intrasexual expression of several male- and female-biased genes and show that while male-biased genes display no intrasexual differences, ovarian CYP19A1 (aromatase) transcript abundance differs by approximately twofold depending on thermal exposures experienced at early stages of embryonic development. These findings expand our understanding of the ESD in the alligator and provide the rationale for reevaluation of the temporal dynamics of sex determination in other crocodilians.
Selective Advantage for IIIM Males over YM Males in Cage Competition, Mating Competition, and Pupal Emergence in Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae)

ABSTRACT In the house fly, Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae), sex is usually determined by a dominant factor, M, located on the Y chromosome. However, there are autosomal male (AM) populations in which the M factor is located on one or more of the five autosomes (I-V), most commonly on the third chromosome. Herein we report the use of isogenic strains to determine the relative fitness of YM versus IIIM males in three different experiments. First, cages were started with 50% YM and 50% IIIM males, and the frequencies of YM and IIIM males were evaluated across generations. Second, mating competition studies were preformed with these isogenic strains. Third, the relative emergence rates of IIIM versus YM male pupae held at three temperatures for 3 d were examined. All three studies indicate that IIIM males have a greater fitness than YM males. In the cage competition studies, >90% of the males were IIIM after seven generations. IIIM males were more likely to mate than YM males, and a higher percent of I...
Design of Cross-Packet Channel Coding with Low-Density Parity-Check Codes

We describe a new mechanism that extends the notion of current hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) schemes. Unlike other H-ARQ methods, if a retransmission for a packet is required, the retransmission jointly embeds the original information of the first packet as well as additional information from a second packet. In fading channels, this approach introduces diversity gain for the first packet without decreasing the overall code rate. This concept is demonstrated with an implementation based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, and simulations show that this H-ARQ scheme provides a significant increase in coding gain for the first packet, and incurs negligible loss of coding gain for the second packet.
The Function of Parental Communication Patterns: Reflection-Enhancing and Reflection-Discouraging Approaches

Combining multiple models of parental communication under one guiding theoretical framework, this project employed Burleson, Delia, and Applegate's (1995) theory of position-centered versus person-centered parenting to examine the extent to which different methods of parental communication help foster adult children's confidence in their functional competencies. The findings revealed that person-centered parental strategies (e.g., conversation orientation and emotion coaching) were positively linked, and the position-centered parenting technique of emotion dismissing was negatively associated with adult children's perceived development of specific social competencies. Overall, people's perceptions of their parents' communication seem to have long-lasting implications on individuals' own levels of perceived interpersonal savoir faire.
Procedure over substance

The Supreme Courts of Canada and the US have both adjudicated cases concerning the rights claims of suspected terrorists. While the Canadian Supreme Court adjudicates these cases asking whether the government actions violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the US Supreme Court, in the American tradition, does not look to its Bill of Rights for answers, but rather adjudicates such claims based on a separation of powers framework. This article examines the judicially-created reasoning used to decide security cases in a post-9/11 world in Canada and the United States. I show that while the Canadian experience looks like it is more rights-based, the Canadian Supreme Court, like its American counterpart, looks at the procedure of how the law goes about limiting rights over the substance of the legitimacy of the limit in the first place. I conclude that the two courts end up using similar legal reasoning, despite differing approaches, resulting in each state providing a delicate balance between security and...
A Rhinovirus Outbreak among Residents of a Long-Term Care Facility

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of and clinical findings associated with a rhinovirus outbreak that occurred among institutionalized elderly persons. Design: Retrospective review of medical...
Samuel Torrey Orton award to Jack M. Fletcher: Citation acceptance of the Samuel Torrey Orton award November 14, 2003, San Diego, California

In recognition of your commitment to effective reading instruction through your dedicated research into language development and other cognitive skills in children and adults with learning and attention difficulties.
A note on the asymptotic distribution of the parameter estimates for the harmonic regression model

SUMMARY The harmonic regression signal plus noise model is used extensively in applied statistics. This note establishes the joint asymptotic normality of the generalized least squares estimates of the harmonic regression parameters and gives an explicit expression for the limiting covariance matrix. It also clarifies misstatements concerning the model's properties that have appeared in the literature.
Mitral valve commissurotomy versus replacement

Among 164 patients who underwent mitral valve replacement because of mitral stenosis (with or without mitral regurgitation) and had radiographs taken of their operatively excised mitral valves, 20 had absent or minimal calcific deposits in the excised valves and absent or minimal mitral regurgitation as determined, except for one patient, by left ventricular angiography preoperatively. This report focuses on these 20 patients to ask if mitral valve replacement was preferable to mitral valve commissurotomy. Although in the pre-valve replacement era, all 20 patients almost surely would have been considered good candidates for mitral commissurotomy, other factors, namely, the need to replace one or more other cardiac valves (13 patients), the utilization of cardiopulmonary bypass allowing visual inspection rather than simple palpation of the diseased mitral valve (all 20 patients), relatively little experience with mitral commissurotomy in four of the five surgeons (17 patients), displeasure with attempted commissurotomy (three patients), previous mitral commissurotomy (11 patients), and incorrect identification of mitral calcific deposits (two patients), each contributed in one or more patients to the final decision of replacement versus commissurotomy. Even though mitral commissurotomy has been in use for 30 years, the mere alternative of valve replacement may have altered somewhat the definition of the stenotic mitral valve previously considered ideal for mitral commissurotomy.
Product differentiation and market performance in producer goods industries

Abstract We examine the relationship between product differentiation strategies and profitability for different categories of producer goods industries classified according to the extent of buyer search. Models developed using the structure-conduct-performance paradigm of industrial economies are estimated with FTC Line of Business data. The results indicate that product differentiation is based on “custom services” (technical and information services) provided by manufacturers for high-search producer goods and on “intermediate services” (assortment and inventory services) provided by merchant wholesalers for low-search producer goods.
Development of a Dynamic Knee Simulator

Dynamic knee simulators use muscle analogs to incite motion at the knee joint [1–5]. There is a great variation between simulators in choice of powering of muscle analog systems, what movements are fixed, controlled, or unconstrained, as well as whether or not the system is open or closed kinetic chain. The objective of this work is to develop a portable dynamic knee simulator that allows simulation of knee joint motions when it is maximally flexed during a large range of activities involving the lower limb in both a vertical (e.g. deep squat) as well an horizontal position (e.g. rowing).Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Sleep Quality and Duration Before and After Bariatric Surgery

Shortened sleep duration causes hormonal and metabolic changes that favor fat accumulation and weight gain. Obesity, in turn, may reduce sleep quality and contribute to sleep loss. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sleep durations of individuals with morbid obesity, compared to their nonobese counterparts, and to determine the effects of surgical weight reduction on sleep duration and sleep quality. The study population included 45 bariatric (BA) surgical patients (mean body mass index [BMI] = 49) and 45 gender-matched nonobese controls (NC; BMI = 24). Self-reported sleep durations were obtained and overall sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The data show that average sleep durations of the preoperative BA patients were significantly (p < 0.0001) less than those of the NC, i.e., 6.0 and 7.2 h, respectively. Sleep loss for the BA patients was associated with poor sleep quality, along with an increased frequency of conditions that interfere with sleep, including coughing and snoring, difficulty breathing, feeling too hot, and experiencing pain. Overall, 78% of the BA patients, compared to 36% of the NC, had PSQI scores indicative of poor sleep quality. Surgery after 3 to 12 months resulted in significant (p < 0.0001) weight loss (percentage total change in BMI = 34) and improved sleep quality, i.e., PSQI = 8.8 preoperatively vs. 4.6 postoperatively. Sleep durations increased significantly (p < 0.0001) post-surgery from 6.0 to 6.8 h. Individuals with extreme obesity, compared to the nonobese, obtain less sleep and experience poorer sleep quality. Bariatric surgery improves sleep duration and quality.
MISE: Providing performance predictability and improving fairness in shared main memory systems

Applications running concurrently on a multicore system interfere with each other at the main memory. This interference can slow down different applications differently. Accurately estimating the slow down of each application in such a system can enable mechanisms that can enforce quality-of-service. While much prior work has focused on mitigating the performance degradation due to inter-application interference, there is little work on estimating slow down of individual applications in a multi-programmed environment. Our goal in this work is to build such an estimation scheme. To this end, we present our simple Memory-Interference-induced Slowdown Estimation (MISE) model that estimates slowdowns caused by memory interference. We build our model based on two observations. First, the performance of a memory-bound application is roughly proportional to the rate at which its memory requests are served, suggesting that request-service-rate can be used as a proxy for performance. Second, when an application's requests are prioritized over all other applications' requests, the application experiences very little interference from other applications. This provides a means for estimating the uninterfered request-service-rate of an application while it is run alongside other applications. Using the above observations, our model estimates the slowdown of an application as the ratio of its uninterfered and interfered request service rates. We propose simple changes to the above model to estimate the slowdown of non-memory-bound applications. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model by developing two new memory scheduling schemes: 1) one that provides soft quality-of-service guarantees and 2) another that explicitly attempts to minimize maximum slowdown (i.e., unfairness) in the system. Evaluations show that our techniques perform significantly better than state-of-the-art memory scheduling approaches to address the above problems.
Effective Elastic Constants of Particulate Composites with Inhomogeneous Interphases

We consider a composite material reinforced with spherical inclusions, which are arranged in a matrix in a statistically isotropic way and they are bonded to the matrix via an interphase. We represent the interphase as an inhomogeneous region (a functionally graded material) and consider an idealized model in which the interphase is linear elastic and isotropic and has the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio varying in radial direction. We predict effective elastic constants of such a composite and study the influence of the spatial inhomogeneity of interphase on these constants. In the analysis we use the composite spheres assemblage method [1] to evaluate the effective bulk modulus and the generalized self-consistent method [21 to obtain the effective shear modulus. We show that the radial variation in the Young's modulus of interphase has an influence on the effective elastic moduli as compared with the corresponding uniform interphase case when particles are stiffer than the matrix and the effect is n...
Tales of two women: the narrative construal of Porfirian reality.

It was the perfect murder, really. Illicit passions: two beautiful women-of-the-night feuding over a dashing young rake, a masked ball, casual taunts, thwarted assaults, escalating threats. Heinous crime: the lover's borrowed gun, midnight bordello visit, fighting words, a gun shot, a maid's scream, a young woman's tragic death. Cruel punishment: suicidal remorse (by some accounts), humiliating public trial, twenty lost years (the maximum sentence for a woman) in Mexico City's squalid Belem jail. The Tarasquillo Street murder had it all! And so it happened that, in an era enamored of all things French, Mexico City had its very own cause celebre. A scant twelve years earlier, professional francophile and amateur criminologist Rafael Zayas de Enriquez had devoted an entire volume of his Fisiologia del crimen to notorious foreign criminals like Alfonse Dupont, the hunchbacked wife-killer, and Charles Guiteau, the deranged assassin of President Garfield. Now, Mexico too could claim a prominent place in the international annals of infamous crime.
Inhibition of Uridine Phosphorylase. Synthesis and Structure−Activity Relationships of Aryl-Substituted 1-((2-Hydroxyethoxy)methyl)-5-(3-phenoxybenzyl)uracil

Structure-activity relationship studies on a series of 1-((2-hydroxyethoxy)methyl)-5-(3-(substituted-phenoxy)benzyl)uracils as inhibitors of murine liver uridine phosphorylase have led to compounds with IC50s as low as 1.4 nM. The two most potent compounds, 10j (3-cyanophenoxy) and 11f (3-chlorophenoxy) were tested in vivo for effects on steady-state concentrations of circulating uridine in mice and rats. Both compounds were substantially more efficacious than BAU (5-benzylacyclouridine) both in vitro and in vivo.
Creating a Successful CRO-Sponsor Relationship through Alignment of Goals and Values

A pharmaceutical sponsor that contracts out a clinical trial entrusts a contract research organization (CRO) and its employees with a significant part of its drug development program. The outcome of this decision can have far-reaching consequences for the sponsor's future business success. To guarantee that the CRO will complete the project as the sponsor wishes, an alignment of goals and values between the two corporations must be created and maintained. This process can begin through contracts and strategic alliances but is only fully developed through project management interactions.A contract is a legal instrument that provides the framework for alignment but has little motivational impact on project team members, many of whom are unaware of the specific contents of the contract. Strategic alliances, which can take the form of short-term or long-term financial incentives, and established team programs, are more likely to motivate alignment. As team programs are put in place, the CRO's employees are in...
Fluorescence of normal and cancerous brain tissues: the excitation/emission matrix

This project investigates the use of fluorescence to discriminate cancerous margins from surrounding normal tissues during neurosurgery. This paper presents a study of the excitation/emission matrix for in vivo rat brain tissue and ex vivo human brain tissue. Measurements were made with an optical fiber fluorimeter, consisting of excitation with a nitrogen/dye laser and detection with a spectrograph and optical multichannel analyzer. The ex/em pair of wavelengths (nm) for excitation and emission of fluorescence are summarized for three types fluorophores. Measurements of these fluorophores types were measured in ex vivo human normal and cancerous tissues, in vivo rat normal brain and glioma, and cell culture aggregates (GBM cells). In general, the magnitude of fluorescence decreases in cancerous tissues. The ratio F`flavin'/F`NADH' is an indicator of metabolic activity and a potential assay for normal vs cancerous tissues. Pilot studies with in vivo rat glioma model and with ex vivo human samples tested the use of this ratio for discriminating tissue types. The results did not show obvious trends but more work is still needed.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The influence of ovarian hormones on the enzymic activities of tissues.

ANUMBER of years ago Fishman (1944, 1947a) reported that ovariectomy in the mouse resulted in a marked decrease in the β-glucuronidase activity of the uterus and that this effect could be reversed by subsequent treatment of the animals with estrogens. On the basis of these observations Fishman proposed that the β-glucuronidase of the uterus was concerned with the metabolism of estrin in this organ and suggested that the enzyme might be involved in “metabolic conjugation” of this hormone. Kerr, Levvy and Campbell (1947) reported a relationship between mitosis and glucuronidase activity in a wide variety of tissues and suggested that the glucuronidase activity of a tissue was a reflection of growth in that tissue. In accord with this theory Levvy, Kerr and Campbell (1948) have attributed the increased β-glucuronidase activity in the liver, kidney and spleen of animals fed menthol or borneol (Fishman, 1940) as associated with growth changes following the damaging effects of these agents.
Effectiveness of an Internet-Based Graduate Engineering Management Course

This research provides engineering educators analytical evidence as to the effectiveness of Internet-based course instruction. The research examined the University of Missouri-Rolla's Internet-based Advanced Production and Operations Management course, with a focus on determining the effectiveness of the Internet-based education tools used. Over 100 students in five Internet-based classes and one traditional, in-class control group were given three sets of surveys, learning style assessments, a course pre-test, and a course final examination. Multiple conclusions were drawn from this study based on analyses of the data collected. First, the Internet-based students performed equally as well as the control group as measured by the difference between pre-test and post-test scores. Second, the Internet-based students were found to have had exaggerated time requirement expectations for taking a course in the Internet environment. Third, the students rated the effectiveness and satisfaction positively for the Internet classroom format. Initially, the Internet-based students were skeptical of electronic lectures but their experiences were positive.
Anti-DNA autoantibodies: the other DNA-binding proteins.

Abstract Using the methods developed to study protein DNA complexes, a small number of workers has begun to characterize the interactions of lupus anti-DNA antibodies with their DNA antigens. These studies indicate that anti-ssDNA generally possess a high affinity for poly(dT) and use aromatic side-chains on complex formation, in common with many previously reported anti-ssDNA, and several DNA-binding proteins. We find that our anti-ssDNA differ from these latter two species in that they are not cross-reactive with non-nucleic acid antigens, unlike many other anti-ssDNA, and their complexation does not appear to be accompanied by significant cation release, as for some DNA-binding proteins. Moreover, in some cases our anti-ssDNA are apparently sequence-specific. Due to the small number of anti-dsDNA mAbs studied, our current understanding of these proteins is limited. However, we have recently obtained a high-resolution crystal structure of 4B2, that reacts with both ss- and dsDNA. This structure should enable us to facilitate mutagenesis experiments to identify the molecular features of dsDNA recognition. One can envisage several practical benefits of applying a systematic biophysical approach to studying lupus anti-DNA·DNA. For example, once the molecular basis of anti-DNA·DNA interactions has been defined, it may be possible to use anti-DNA as biochemical reagents such as repressors of protein-DNA binding or as catalysts that manipulate DNA. Indeed, the enormous diversity of the immune repertoire and the case with which anti-DNA can be customized by site-directed and random mutagenesis provides the potential to generate anti-DNA with a wide range of properties. Alternatively, by understanding the molecular basis of anti-DNA·DNA interactions it may be possible to identify molecules that disrupt the specific interaction between anti-DNA and their DNA antigens. Such molecules could eventually form the basis of new agents to treat immune-complex mediated kidney damage and have fewer complications than the nonspecific agents currently used to treat lupus. In fact, by screening combinatorial small molecule libraries, we have already identified several promising anti-DNA antagonists.58 Thus, we believe that the next few years will be an exciting period in anti-DNA research. We review some common approaches that have been used to examine the specificity, affinity, and mode of binding of lupus anti-DNA for DNA antigens, We highlight the recent use of biophysical methods that have been used to study DNA-binding proteins, such as transcription factors, and demonstrate their utility when used in the study of lupus anti-DNA. ga]473|The application of set theory to combinatorial processes provides valuable tools for the planning, description, execution, and evaluation of combinatorial events.
New stereo laser triangulation device for specular surface inspection

A laser stereo triangulation device is described which permits easier observation of objects with specular surfaces. The device's two cameras are first calibrated with the light pattern. The calibration data are used to compute the unique and reversible function to mapping the image sensed by the second camera within the image plane of the first camera. Simple correlation techniques are used to extract the originally projected light pattern from the numerous artifacts. Because of its simplicity, the algorithm can be computed in real time at video rates to produced a clean image representative of the surface geometry. Experiments conducted using a laboratory prototype produce reliable results wih promise for practical applications.
Comments on “absence of decay and eigenvector localization in a soluble one-dimensional system”☆

Abstract The localized states near E = 0 found by Stey and Gusman for the one-dimensional Weaire-Thorpe tight-binding model are found to be surface states, which disappear if the system has translational invariance or satisfies periodic boundary condition.
An interlingua for electronic interchange of medical information: Using frames to map between clinical vocabularies

Abstract The proliferation of medical knowledge has led to the development of extensive dictionaries for electronically accessing information resources. The task of standardizing terminology used for electronic hospital records and for knowledge bases for medical expert systems and indexing the medical literature cannot easily be met by developing a single, monolithic “official” medical vocabulary. Developing a monolithic vocabulary would require a massive effort, and its existence would not guarantee its use by third-party payors, by practicing clinicians, or by developers of electronic medical information systems. Recognizing this, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has begun to develop the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) as a means of promoting electronic information exchange among systems with controlled vocabularies. The authors describe a frame-based system developed as an experimental approach to mapping between controlled clinical vocabularies.
The water content and humidity ranges of dodecamolybdophosphoric acid and dodecatungstophosphoric acid crystals

Abstract The water content of dodecamolybdophosphoric acid H 3 Mo 12 PO 40 ·29H 2 O and dodecatungstophosphoric acid H 3 W 12 PO 40 ·29H 2 O crystals were redetermined to be 29 molecules per formula unit. Also, these crystals were found to be stable between 70 and 95% and between 80 and 95% relative humidity in the above order from 15 to 80°C. 13- and 18-hydrates of dodecamolybdophosphoric acid and 6- and 20-hydrates of dodecatungstophosphoric acid were also found to be stable in the lower humidity levels.
Replisome Assembly at oriC, the Replication Origin of E. coli, Reveals an Explanation for Initiation Sites outside an Origin

This study outlines the events downstream of origin unwinding by DnaA, leading to assembly of two replication forks at the E. coli origin, oriC. We show that two hexamers of DnaB assemble onto the opposing strands of the resulting bubble, expanding it further, yet helicase action is not required. Primase cannot act until the helicases move 65 nucleotides or more. Once primers are formed, two molecules of the large DNA polymerase III holoenzyme machinery assemble into the bubble, forming two replication forks. Primer locations are heterogeneous; some are even outside oriC. This observation generalizes to many systems, prokaryotic and eukaryotic. Heterogeneous initiation sites are likely explained by primase functioning with a moving helicase target.
Finite element simulation of dynamic fracture and fragmentation of glass rods

The aim of this communication is to provide further illustration of the feasibility of simulating fragmentation explicitly, crack by crack. Cracks are allowed to form and propagate along element boundaries in accordance with a tension-shear cohesive-law model. No topological restrictions are imposed on the cracks, which may nucleate at the surface or in the interior, branch, and link up to form fragments. As the fragments scatter, the complex collisions which they undergo and the attendant frictional interactions are also resolved explicitly by recourse to a contact algorithm. We present a new model of radial cracking which permits the calculation of normal impact to proceed in an axisymmetric mode, without artificially constraining fragment rotation within meridional planes. The scope and versatility of the approach is demonstrated by simulating the propagation of failure waves in glass rods subjected to impact. Key aspects of the observational evidence, such as the failure wave speeds, are correctly predicted by the simulations.
Diseases of the adrenal cortex

The adrenal cortex is functionally a three-dimensional gland that secretes glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, and sex steroids. Of these three classes of steroids only the gluco- and mineralocorticoid hormones are necessary to sustain life. The availability of sensitive and specific radioimmunoassays has permitted accurate measurement of practically every steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex. As in other endocrinopathies, suppression studies are employed when hyperfunction is suspected, while provocative tests are used to detect hypofunction. These dynamic studies enable the clinician to evaluate the functional status of the adrenal cortex. The anatomic configuration of the adrenal cortices is delineated by high-resolution computed tomography (and magnetic resonance imaging), obviating the need for invasive procedures such as venography or arteriography. The disorders of the adrenal cortex can be viewed from the dual perspectives of hyperfunction and hypofunction. Clinical expressions of hyperfunctional adrenocortical syndromes include Cushing's syndrome, primary hyperaldosteronism, and the adrenogenital syndrome. The expressions of hypofunctional syndromes include Addison's disease and selective hypoaldosteronism. The diagnosis and treatment of these disorders are outlined in this issue.
Developing winter flow rating relationships using slope-area hydraulics

Despite recent advances in instrumentation and modelling methods, accurate determination of river discharge under an ice cover still requires direct measurement. Published flows at hydrometric gauging stations are based on interpolation between a few measurements that are carried out during each winter. The feasibility of using slope-area hydraulics to develop discharge-stage rating relationships is explored at two stations, Peace River at Peace Point and Mackenzie River at Arctic Red River. Records at both gauges contain key information for understanding local ice jamming processes, which are known to control the long-term maintenance of the aquatic ecosystems in the respective deltas. For each site, the variations of reach-average hydraulic parameters with stage are first determined from several nearby cross-sections. This information is then used to calculate hydraulic resistance characteristics during the ice season based on archived discharge measurement data, which also include ice cover thickness. The Peace River flow measurements indicate a well-defined seasonal variation in hydraulic resistance, with the exception of years with large slush deposits under the solid-ice sheet. Slush effects are negligible at the Mackenzie River gauge site, but the stage-flow relationship is complicated by a variable water surface slope, a result of downstream control by the Beaufort Sea. This feature is most pronounced during the pre-breakup period when flows are rising sharply and renders flow estimation uncertain. A nearby water-level gauge would help quantify the slope and increase confidence in winter flow estimates. Copyright © 2010 in the right of Canada.
Teasing out monocyte trafficking mechanisms.

In this issue of Blood , Xu and colleagues demonstrate that mechanisms controlling monocyte recirculation through peripheral and lymphoid tissues alter in a systemic fashion during inflammation, with CD62-L and CD44 playing key roles. Monocytes comprise approximately 5% of the blood leukocyte
Extension of a Two-Stage Conditionally Unbiased Estimator of the Selected Population to the Bivariate Normal Case

Cohen and Sackrowitz (1989) derive a uniformly minimum variance conditionally unbiased estimator (UMVCUE) for the mean of a selected population for the univariate normal case with variance known and unknown as well as for the gamma case in a two-stage design. We extend this methodology to the bivariate normal case where the covariance matrix is assumed to be known. The population with the largest sample mean of the first dimension is selected for additional observations in a second stage. The goal of the analysis is to find an unbiased estimate of the mean of the second dimension with all of the data.
Baryon Trajectories without MacDowell Partners

A model is proposed that produces large distortions in the -W region possibly so large as to do away with McDowell partners altogether and is still approximately consistent with the form sigma(W) = a + bW/sup 2/ for W above threshold. As a model for the nucleon trajectory, the form T/sub J//sup +/(W) = T/sub J//sup -/(-W) is taken. (GHT)
The gate still swings both ways in rural Texas.

Aims To give nurse managers a perspective of what it is like to practice in a frontier or rural setting without the resources of the metropolitan centres. Background I grew up in rural Texas and more recently had the opportunity to work with rural hospitals seeking to be designated as Nurse Friendly by the Texas Nurses Association. This renewed my interest in and great respect for nurses on the frontier and other rural areas. Key issues This article summarizes some characteristics of rural nursing in relation to their practices that address patient safety and quality of care, nurse satisfaction and balanced life style, community service, and teamwork/relationships. Conclusions I conclude that there are many advantages and satisfactions in rural nursing that are different from but equally as meaningful and challenging as metro nursing practice. Implications for nursing management This article is important because there is a shortage of nurses everywhere; however, direct care nurses and nurse managers in rural areas may have greater challenges in meeting their patient’s needs while balancing their personal lives.
Are Chinese Cities Too Small

This paper models and estimates net urban agglomeration economies for cities. Economic models of cities postulate an inverted U shape of real income per worker against city employment, where the inverted U shifts with industrial composition across the urban hierarchy of cities. This relationship has never been estimated, in part because of data requirements. China has the necessary data and context. We find that urban agglomeration benefits are high—real incomes per worker rise sharply with increases in city size from a low level. They level out nearer the peak and then decline very slowly past the peak. We find that a large fraction of cities in China are undersized due to nationally imposed, strong migration restrictions, resulting in large income losses.
Village size and forest disturbance in Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats, India

Abstract Habitat fragmentation, land cover change and biodiversity loss are often associated with village communities in protected areas, but the extent and intensity of such impacts are often inadequately assessed. We record resource use and depletion by human inhabitants by conducting ecological surveys in six villages and social surveys in all 13 villages of varying sizes in India’s Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary (492 km2). We examined the occurrence of 10 regionally-specific ecological indicators that encompassed several aspects of human activities. Thirty transects with 180 total sampling locations recorded the occurrence of these specific habitat disturbance variables. High correlations between the variables led to the use of principal component analysis to derive an effective summary index that reflected disturbance intensity and determined village ecological impacts spatially. A generalized linear model was fit to determine the rate at which disturbance decreases as we move away from village centers. Our model indicates that village size class, distance from the village and proximity to other villages were significant predictors of the disturbance index. The index distinguished each village’s spatially explicit ecological impact. We estimated that an average area of 23.7 km2 of the forest surrounding the six focal villages was altered by human activities. These six villages have directly impacted 8–10% of this protected area.
PARANORMAL BELIEFS AND BELIEFS ABOUT LUNAR EFFECTS

The Belief in Lunar Effects scale and the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale were given to 102 college students and 87 crisis center workers. Similar patterns of correlations between these scales were recorded for both samples. Belief in Lunar Effects scale scores showed significant direct correlations with belief in Psi, Extraordinary Life Forms, Witchcraft, Spiritualism, and Precognition.
Case-based Reasoning and Multiple-agent Systems for Accounting Regulation Systems with Extensions

One of the areas of judgment research in accounting and financial applications is that of accounting regulation. Previously, artificial intelligence efforts at modeling human judgment in accounting regulation systems have concentrated on rule-based expert systems. In those systems, general heuristic knowledge was captured using 'if ' then '' rules in order to model particular decision processes. Recent developments in artificial intelligence have focused on case-based reasoning CBR and multiple-agent intelligent systems MAIS. The ideas behind CBR are that 'if it worked once then remember to use it again' and 'if it did not work before, then remember to not use it again'. MAIS assumes that many organizational systems can be treated as computational models of multiple-interacting intelligent agents. Typically, solutions may be derived using some form of negotiations between agents to accomplish single global or separate individual interacting goals. This paper argues that many accounting regulation judgment processes can be modeled using CBR and MAIS. As a result, it summarizes some examples of both CBR and MAIS useful in accounting regulation and extends those to other accounting applications. In addition, it describes the results of some previously developed systems that employ CBR or MAIS.
Cyclic AMP in Female Mouse Brain is Altered by the Adrenocorticotropic Hormone(4–9) Analogue Organon 2766

: Cyclic AMP content was determined in 12 brain regions of young adult female mice at 30 min and at 24 h following an intraperitoneal injection of the tri-substituted adrenocorticotropic hormone(4–9) [ACTH(4–9)] analogue Organon 2766 [ORG 2766]. Animals were killed by focused 3.5 kW microwave radiation applied for 350 ms. Unlike previously reported responses in male mice, at 30 min post-injection there were no detectable differences in cyclic AMP content between the placebo and ORG 2766-treated animals. By contrast, 24 h after injection, the content of cyclic AMP was changed significantly in 8 of the 12 brain regions examined: medulla-pons, septal area, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, olfactory bulb, and parietal and occipital cortices. In most of the regions examined, differences consisted of 50% or greater reductions of tissue cyclic AMP content. The changes were unrelated to the estrus cycle of these animals
Network-Aware Scheduling for Data-Parallel Jobs: Plan When You Can

To reduce the impact of network congestion on big data jobs, cluster management frameworks use various heuristics to schedule compute tasks and/or network flows. Most of these schedulers consider the job input data fixed and greedily schedule the tasks and flows that are ready to run. However, a large fraction of production jobs are recurring with predictable characteristics, which allows us to plan ahead for them. Coordinating the placement of data and tasks of these jobs allows for significantly improving their network locality and freeing up bandwidth, which can be used by other jobs running on the cluster. With this intuition, we develop Corral, a scheduling framework that uses characteristics of future workloads to determine an offline schedule which (i) jointly places data and compute to achieve better data locality, and (ii) isolates jobs both spatially (by scheduling them in different parts of the cluster) and temporally, improving their performance. We implement Corral on Apache Yarn, and evaluate it on a 210 machine cluster using production workloads. Compared to Yarn's capacity scheduler, Corral reduces the makespan of these workloads up to 33% and the median completion time up to 56%, with 20-90% reduction in data transferred across racks.
Pathological changes in rats fed the crambe meal-glucosinolate hydrolytic products, 2S-1-cyano-2-hydroxy-3,4-epithiobutanes (erythro and threo) for 90 days

Abstract 2 S -1-Cyano-2-hydroxy-3,4-epithiobutanes ( erythro and threo ) isolated from the seed of Crambe abyssinica , were fed to groups of six weanling rats at levels of 0, 75, 150 or 300 ppm in the diet for 90 days. The higher dose groups showed poor growth and increased serum levels of alkaline phosphatase, total bilirubin, glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, glutamic-pyruvic transaminase and ornithine carbamyl transferase. The severity and occurrence of renal and hepatic lesions were dose-dependent. Renal alterations consisted of hypertrophy of proximal tubular epithelial cells with prominent karyomegaly. Hepatic lesions consisted primarily of megalocytosis of the hepatocytes and bile-duct hyperplasia with disruption of the normal hepatic architecture. Half of the rats in the high-dose group had karyomegaly of pancreatic acinar cells.
Simultaneous classification of motor imagery and SSVEP EEG signals

Increased demands for applications of brain computer interface (BCI) have led to growing attention towards their more practical paradigm design. BCIs can provide motor control for spinal cord injured patients. BCIs based on motor imagery (MI) and steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) tasks are two well-established tasks that have been studied extensively. These two tasks can be combined in order for the users to realize more sophisticated paradigms. In this paper, a novel system is introduced for simultaneous classification of the MI and SSVEP tasks. It is an effort to inspire BCI systems that are more practical, especially for effective communication during more complex tasks. In this study, subjects performed MI and SSVEP tasks both individually and simultaneously (combining both tasks) and the electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded across three conditions. Subjects focused on one of the three flickering visual stimuli (SSVEP), imagined moving the left or right hand (MI), or performed neither of the tasks. Accuracy and subjective measures were assessed to investigate the capability of the system to detect the correct task, and subsequently perform the corresponding classification method. The results suggested that with the proposed methodology, the user may control the combination of the two tasks while the accuracy of task recognition and signal processing is minimally impacted.
Ian Foster and the Globus Project

Ian Foster describes how the Globus project helps move large amounts of data efficiently and safely, allowing scientists to focus on their research and not on IT problems. The first Web extra at http://youtu.be/Z7NWk8QpQWQ is a video interview in which author Charles Severance interviews Ian Foster about how the Globus project helps move large amounts of data efficiently and safely, allowing scientists to focus on their research and not on IT problems. The second Web extra at http://youtu.be/6Bplhl2QClI is an audio recording of author Charles Severance reading his Computing Conversations column, in which he discusses his interview with Ian Foster about how the Globus project helps move large amounts of data efficiently and safely, allowing scientists to focus on their research and not on IT problems.
Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease and congenital hepatic fibrosis (ARPKD/CHF)

ARPKD/CHF is an inherited disease characterized by non-obstructive fusiform dilatation of the renal collecting ducts leading to enlarged spongiform kidneys and ductal plate malformation of the liver resulting in congenital hepatic fibrosis. ARPKD/CHF has a broad spectrum of clinical presentations involving the kidney and liver. Imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis and follow-up of ARPKD/CHF. Combined use of conventional and high-resolution US with MR cholangiography in ARPKD/CHF patients allows detailed definition of the extent of kidney and hepatobiliary manifestations without requiring ionizing radiation and contrast agents.
Intracerebral Saline: Effect on Memory of Trained Mice Treated with Puromycin

It was shown that puromycin administered to mice 1 or more days after maze-learning blocks expression of memory; the blockage can be removed by intracerebral injections of saline. We present evidence that intracerebral injections of saline are relatively ineffective in restoring memory when puromycin is administered either before or immediately after training; in these two situations puromycin appears to interfere with consolidation of memory.