cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Promoting Cross-Culturalism in the EFL Context: A Teacher’s Perspective

Promoting cross-culturalism in the EFL context is imperative in today’s global society. EFL teachers should be prepared not only to raise cultural awareness and promote cross-cultural learning, but also to develop tools that evaluate cross-cultural competency and analyze student attitudes toward cross-culturalism. Due to a lack of interaction and exposure to diversified cultures within the EFL context, cross-cultural learning is explained as a major component that must be facilitated by Native English Teachers (NETs). NETs are noted as key sources to promoting cross-cultural learning and helping students gain cultural awareness through cross-cultural interaction. Cross-cultural competency is mentioned as a learning process that can be attained through consistent exposure and interaction with a dissimilar culture. It is suggested that NETs incorporate interactive lessons aimed to incite cultural awareness, promote cross-cultural learning, and enhance cross-cultural competency, as a means of fostering growth and helping students quickly adapt to environments that are culturally differentiated. The implementation of assessing student cross-cultural competency levels based upon interactions with NETs is highly recommended. Cross-cultural assessments that are created based upon interactions between the student and NETs are highlighted as an essential element to solidifying cross-cultural competency. Cross-cultural assessments are also noted as a consequential component that is often overlooked or disregarded as trivial within the EFL context. The implications for teaching cross-culturalism in the EFL classroom are essentialized, along with the ramifications of cross-cultural assessments.
SiAlON–SiC Sandwich Structures with Tailored Surface Compression

The feasibility of producing high-hardness ceramic sandwich structures, with compressive residual stresses in the faces, was evaluated in this study. The faces were originally chosen to be SiAlON with an SiC core. To produce structures that did not crack during processing, however, it was necessary to hybridize the faces by adding SiC particles to the SiAlON. This modification resulted in a composite face that reduced the thermal expansion mismatch with the core. The residual stresses in the face were measured with an indentation technique and these values agreed well with those measured by X-ray diffraction and calculated from the theory using experimental values.
Ankle Accelerometry for Assessing Physical Activity Among Adolescent Girls: Threshold Determination, Validity, Reliability, and Feasibility

Purpose: Ankle accelerometry allows for 24-hr data collection and improves data volume/integrity versus hip accelerometry. Using Actical ankle accelerometry, the purpose of this study was to (a) develop sensitive/specific thresholds, (b) examine validity/reliability, (c) compare new thresholds with those of the manufacturer, and (d) examine feasibility in a community sample (low-income, urban adolescent girls). Method: Two studies were conducted with 6th- through 7th-grade girls (aged 10–14 years old): First was a laboratory study (n = 24), in which 2 Actical accelerometers were placed on the ankle and worn while measuring energy expenditure (Cosmed K4b2, metabolic equivalents [METs]) during 10 prescribed activities. Analyses included device equivalence reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC], activity counts of 2 Acticals), criterion-related validity (correlation, activity counts and METs), and calculations of sensitivity, specificity, kappa, and receiver-operating characteristic curves for...
From Managing the Car to Managing the Road: The Development of Driving Skills

Skilled driving requires complex cognitive and recognitional abilities. We used a Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) and a low tech simulation to study experience linked differences in these abilities. Inexperienced (n=18) and experienced (n=17) drivers participated. The inexperienced drivers struggled with control. They worked to keep their car between the lines and execute turns. In time, automatized performance replaced conscience control. Some situations, like icy roadways, were automatized later than others. As driving reached automaticity, drivers began attending to a wider range of cues. They predicted and avoided problems. A broader view of the roadway emerged in parallel with the development of anticipation. We also observed that experienced drivers were more likely to know their limits and adopted effective compensatory strategies. The Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1986) model of expertise is used to describe these systematic changes. Protocol analysis suggested guidelines for training novice drivers and for up...
Data dictionaries as a tool to greater productivity

Abstract Data dictionaries are becoming increasingly useful to DP departments because of their valid and up-to-date information on the state of data. Benefits include increased programmer productivity, less data redundancy and greater security of information.
The Amino Acid Requirement of Laying Hens: 6. The Absolute Daily Protein Requirement for Peak Production

Abstract INTRODUCTION THE protein requirement for egg production has been studied extensively during the past two decades. Although 15% crude protein (nitrogen×6.25) has generally been accepted as satisfactory for laying rations, considerable variation from this level has been reported. In part the variation in recommended protein allowances is due to the difficult problem of integrating the maintenance, growth and production requirements of the hen. On the other hand, much of the variability may be attributed to differences in protein intake resulting from differences in dietary energy concentrations. It is generally accepted that feed intake of poultry is governed under most conditions by the dietary caloric density (Hill and Dansky, 1954). Since protein requirements are commonly expressed as a function of diet weight (i.e. percentage of diet) they are dependent upon the amount of feed consumed. The limitations of expressing protein requirements as a percentage of the diet have been noted…
Integrating specimen databases and revisionary systematics

Arguments are presented for the merit of integrating specimen databases into the practice of revisionary systematics. Work flows, data connections, data outputs, and data standardization are enumerated as critical aspects of such integration. Background information is provided on the use of “barcodes” as unique specimen identifiers and on methods for efficient data capture. Examples are provided on how to achieve efficient workflows and data standardization, as well as data outputs and data integration.
The Christiansen Filter Effect in the Infrared

A brief discussion is given of the history, construction, and applications of Christiansen light filters for use in the visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. These filters, which consist of a powder of some crystalline or glassy substance suspended in a transparent medium, depend for their action upon the equality of refractive indices of powder and medium for some one wave-length of light. The theory of the effect in the infrared is briefly discussed, and methods are given for preparing and mounting the powders. The principal factors affecting the shape and size of the transmission peak, namely, the angle at which the two dispersion curves cross, the size of particle used, the thickness of the powder layer, and the solid angle included by the light striking and leaving the filter are discussed. Experimental results include transmission curves and wave-lengths of the transmission maxima for the following crystalline powders dispersed in air: quartz, MgO, calcite, marble, CaS${\mathrm{O}}_{4}$, eleven alkali halides, and three monovalent thallium halides. Curves are also given for quartz, MgO, and NaCl dispersed in organic liquids. The transmission peaks measured lie between $3\ensuremath{\mu}$ and $90\ensuremath{\mu}$. In conclusion are discussed possible applications of the Christiansen effect in the infrared.
TH-C-141-10: Error of Template Matching for Tracking Tumor Motion Is No Larger Than Inter-Operator Variability

Purpose: Recently, template matching has been proposed to track tumor motion using cine‐MRI images. However, the technique has been tested primarily on blood vessels in healthy subjects. In this work, we demonstrate the utility of automated template matching in patients with thoracic tumors. We also compare the variability in predicting tumor position using template matching and 3 human operators. Methods: Five patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were recruited in a prospective study. Cine‐MRI imaging was performed while the patients were instructed to breathe normally. True FISP (fast imaging in steady state) cine‐images were obtained in the sagittal plane. The centroids of the tumors were determined manually by 3 operators and also by the automatic template matching technique. The differences both in the AP and SI directions between the automatic and manual methods and the inter‐operator variability were calculated respectively and compared. Results: For all patients the variability between automatic and human operators in the SI direction was less than the inter‐operator variability. For 4 out of 5 patients the variability between automatic and human operators in the AP direction was less than the inter‐operator variability. However, the variability in 1 patient was higher by 14%. This is attributed to out‐of‐plane motion that currently is not captured using the cine‐MRI imaging. Conclusion: The effectiveness of template matching to estimate tumor position during respiratory motion was tested in patients with lung cancer. Results show that, the difference between the automatic and manual methods was comparable to the inter‐operator variability. Future efforts to integrate on‐board MRI imaging with linear accelerators can benefit from automated tumor tracking with template matching. Furthermore, the technique can also be utilized to replace the laborious manual tracking process necessary to establish the ground‐truth when evaluating external surrogates of tumor motion. NIH/NCICA 122403
Differential effect of membrane depolarization on levels of tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine β-hydroxylase mRNAs in PC12 pheochromocytoma cells

Membrane depolarization has been widely used to elucidate the response of the nervous system to prolonged neuronal activity or stress. We studied the effect of treating PC12 cells with membrane depolarizing stimuli, 50 mM KCl, or 150 microM veratridine, and the subsequent changes in the mRNA levels of the catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH). TH mRNA levels were found to increase 2- to 5-fold after continuous treatment for 1-12 h with 50 mM KCl. Depolarization with 150 microM veratridine had a similar effect on TH mRNA. In contrast, DBH mRNA levels were unchanged by either KCl or veratridine treatment. The role of calcium in the increase of TH mRNA levels elicited by depolarization was examined. The increase in TH mRNA was inhibited by the chelation of calcium with 3 mM EGTA. However, in contrast to their effect on phosphorylation of TH elicited by acute depolarization, the calcium channel blockers, nitrendipine and verapamil, and the calmodulin antagonists, W7 and trifluoperazine, did not prevent the increase in TH mRNA levels subsequent to several hours exposure to depolarizing stimuli. The calcium ionophore, A23187, alone was unable to induce TH mRNA levels. Thus, the increase in TH mRNA elicited by depolarization is mediated differently than the acute phosphorylation of the enzyme.
Are Greenhouse Gases Changing ENSO Precursors in the Western North Pacific

AbstractUsing multiple observational and model datasets, the authors document a strengthening relationship between boreal winter sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the western North Pacific (WNP) and the development of the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the following year. The increased WNP–ENSO association emerged in the mid-twentieth century and has grown through the present, reaching correlation coefficients as high as ~0.70 in recent decades. Fully coupled climate experiments with the Community Earth System Model, version 1 (CESM1), replicate the WNP–ENSO association and indicate that greenhouse gases (GHGs) are largely responsible for this observed increase. The authors speculate that shifts in the location of the largest positive SST trends between the subtropical and tropical western Pacific impact the low-level circulation in a manner that reinforces the link between the WNP and the development of ENSO. A strengthened GHG-driven relationship with the WNP provides an example of ho...
Dilinoleoylphosphatidylcholine decreases ethanol-induced cytochrome P4502E1.

Abstract Cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1) induction by ethanol contributes to alcoholic liver disease and we found that a mixture of polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholines (PPC), which protects against alcohol-induced liver injury, also decreases CYP2E1. Since dilinoleoylphosphatidylcholine (DLPC) is the major component of PPC, we assessed here whether it is responsible for the protection of PPC by feeding rats for 8 weeks our liquid diet containing ethanol (36% of energy) or isocaloric carbohydrates, with either DLPC (1.5 g/1000 cal), PPC (3 g/1000 cal), or linoleate. CYP2E1 was assessed by Western blots and by two of its enzyme activities: the microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system (MEOS) and p-nitrophenolhydroxylase (PNP). With ethanol, CYP2E1 increased 10-fold, with corresponding rises in PNP and MEOS activities. Compared to linoleate, DLPC significantly decreased cytochrome b5, total cytochromes P450, CYP2E1 content and its corresponding activities. DLPC decreases ethanol-induced CYP2E1 and should be considered for the prevention of alcoholic liver disease.
Water-Vapor Adsorption on Clays

The distinctive response of clay minerals to water indicated that it should be possible to determine the water sensitivities of sedimentary rock samples directly by water- vapor adsorption measurements. Therefore, the adsorption of water-vapor by standard clay samples and by core samples from oil-producing formations has been investigated. Water-vapor adsorption isotherms of the montmorillonite and kaolinite samples are characteristic of the clay type and serve as an aid in their identification. The illite isotherm was intermediate between those of the other two types. Water-vapor adsorption by core samples from oil-producing formations varied with the contents of swelling clays and with water-sensitivities as indicated by previous x-ray analyses and permeability studies. Core samples containing montmorillonite clay adsorbed water vapor strongly and exhibited typical adsorption—desorption hysteresis. Correlations of nitrogen and water-vapor adsorption studies with clay analyses and permeability measurements show that the water-vapor adsorption method is a promising means for the direct measurement of the water sensitivities of sedimentary formations.
Fluoride in ground water.

Abstract Water from 72 domestic wells in northeast Ohio was examined to determine the nature and extent of variation in fluoride content. The sedimentary terrain of about 230km 2 includes aquifers characterized as unconsolidated sediments, shales, and sandstones. Data prior to this study reported the groundwater as containing 0.4 ppm fluoride or less. Our results show considerable variation, which is related to lithology of the aquifer, spatial location of the well, and chemical character (sodium content) of the groundwater. These results suggest that considerable variation in fluoride content among domestic wells is likely in sedimentary terrain, especially when several aquifers are involved. Further, such data should be made available to health professionals, in order to avoid possible overmedication through use of children's vitamins and other dental caries prevention programs.
Microdetermination of nucleic acid phosphate

Abstract This paper describes a simple procedure for the determination of ribonucleic acid-deoxyribonucleic acid phosphate. The destruction step is rapid, the color reaction sensitive, and the process reproducible and accurate. The final color is stable, a phenomenon made possible by masking the excess molybdate by a citrate-arsenite mixture. Since there is no available molybdate after the masking step occurs, no color can form after that produced by the phosphate originally present.
The Internet and sex industries: partners in global sexual exploitation

The author argues that the expansion of the global sex industry, especially on the Internet, has intensified the harm to the victims, and normalized and globalized the victimization and exploitation. Two components of globalization, rapid development and deployment of information technology and the industrialized commodification of women and children have become linked to expand and truly internationalize sexual exploitation. The lack of regulation of the Internet and prevailing uncritical views on the sex industry are contributing to the escalation of the global sexual exploitation of women and children through global advertising of prostitution tours and online marketing. The United States is the founder and leader of both of these industries, but their impact is felt profoundly all over the world, especially by women and children.
Information technology enabled meta-management for virtual organizations

Abstract Virtual organizations (VO) have recently evolved as a new paradigm of organization design in pursuit of competitive advantages, and in response to electronic commerce (EC) requirements. The management of VO, called meta-management, provides a systematic approach to the exploitation of competitive economic advantages for a VO. It consists of basic activities including analyzing and tracking requirements, allocating satisfiers to requirements, and adjusting the optimality criteria. Information technology (IT) is the essential foundation for the formation and management of VO. A framework that describes the enabling role of IT at the three responsibility levels of meta-management is presented, and future research is suggested.
Average mass approach to stable isotope dilution mass spectrometry

The application of the fundamental equation for isotopic dilution mass spectrometry to real samples often requires using approximations which can lead to significant errors. A new approach relating the composition of isotopic mixtures to the average mass of the mass spectral pattern is presented. The fundamental equations are completely general; they should be applicable to a wide range of problems and may provide improved accuracy and precision in some cases.
Synthesis, electronic structure, and electron transfer dynamics of (Aryl)ethynyl-bridged donor-acceptor systems.

The ET dynamics of a series of donor−spacer−acceptor (D−Sp−A) systems featuring (porphinato)zinc(II), (aryl)ethynyl bridge, and arene diimide units were investigated by pump−probe transient absorption spectroscopy. Analysis of these data within the context of the Marcus−Levich−Jortner equation suggests that the π-conjugated (aryl)ethynyl bridge plays an active role in the charge recombination (CR) reactions of these species by augmenting the extent of (porphinato)zinc(II) cation radical electronic delocalization; this increase in cation radical size decreases the reorganization energy associated with the CR reaction and thereby attenuates the extent to which the magnitudes of the CR rate constants are solvent dependent. The symmetries of porphyrin-localized HOMO and HOMO-1, the energy gap between these two orbitals, and D−A distance appear to play key roles in determining whether the (aryl)ethynyl bridge simply mediates electronic superexchange or functions as an integral component of the D and A units.
Effect of Triticum monococcum glutenin loci on cookie making quality and on predictive tests for bread making quality

The effects of Triticum monococcum glutenin loci on cookie making quality and predictive tests for bread making quality were evaluated in recombinant substitution lines (RSLs) between chromosome 1Am from T. monococcum and chromosome 1A from Chinese Spring. All four combinations of high molecular weight (HMr-GS) and low molecular weight glutenin alleles (LMr-GS) were studied in a factorial design to evaluate their interactions. Grain protein content was used as a covariable to evaluate the effect of these loci independently of the variation in protein content among lines. No significant interactions were detected indicating an additive effect. RSLs carrying the HMr-GS from T. monococcum showed a 13.6% increase in SDS sedimentation volume (p=0.004) and a significant reduction in cookie diameter (-5.2%, p=0.02), and cookie quality (-6.8%, p=0.02). RSLs carrying the LMr-GS from T. monococcum showed a significant decrease in the proportion of polymeric protein (-2.8%, p<0.0001), SDS sedimentation volume (-8.1%, p=0.03) and gluten strength (-16.5%, p=0.01), and a significant increase in cookie quality (5.9%, p=0.05). The T. monococcum LMr-GS allele has potential value to be used in soft wheat breeding programs. These results suggest that diploid T. monococcum could be a valuable source for new allelic variation for storage proteins loci and new quality characteristics. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Radionuclide angiocardiography in evaluation of patients after repair of transposition of the great arteries

The ability of first pass radionuclide angiocardiography to detect and quantitate residual intracardiac shunts and systemic venous obstruction after repair of transposition of the great arteries was evaluated in 29 children. Information from radionuclide scans was compared with data obtained during cardiac catheterization. Three children had a residual right to left shunt detected with both methods. There was good agreement between radionuclide and catheterization quantitation of left to right shunt in the nine patients with a residual defect, five of whom had significant shunting. Nineteen patients with signs suggesting superior vena caval obstruction were evaluated with both radionuclide and catheterization methods. In eight, complete obstruction was detected with both techniques; in one additional patient, partial obstruction was found on catheterization only. One of six patients evaluated for possible inferior vena caval obstruction was identified with both techniques. In the group as a whole, information obtained with radionuclide angiography correlated well with cardiac catheterization data in evaluation of residual shunts and obstruction to systemic venous return.
Wind tunnel testing of yawed and inclined circular cylinders in the context of field observations of stay-cable vibrations

Abstract To assist the understanding of wind- and rain–wind-induced stay-cable vibrations observed in a field, sectional cable models were tested in the wind tunnel. Circular cylinders with different spatial orientations were tested to investigate the effects of cable inclination and wind direction on the excitation mechanism. The dynamic responses of the cylinders over different reduced velocity ranges were compared. In conjunction with the response measurement, the fluctuation of the pressure in the near wake of the cylinders was measured to provide an indication of the flow structure that is responsible for the excitation mechanism. This paper also compares wind tunnel observations with the corresponding characteristics of field prototype stay-cable vibrations.
A set of nonconstant mean curvature solutions of the Einstein constraint equations on closed manifolds

We prove that a certain class of conformal data (open in the set of all conformal data) maps to solutions of the Einstein constraint equations with nonconstant mean curvature. The method of proof is constructive, and it should apply to larger classes of conformal data as well.
Integrating Technology into School Programs

Responses to a questionnaire that were previously reported (McRay & Fitch, 1996) were examined to determine the primary factors that affect computer use by public school speech-language pathologists. It was found that the primary factors could be grouped into three areas: motivation, training, and opportunity. An analysis of the questionnaire responses is presented and suggestions for planning for the integration of computers into public school settings are included.
The impact of u.s. Energy policy on international health: alternate paths into the future.

Historical, sociological, and epidemiological research shows that international health and mortality levels are determined primarily not by health sector policies but, instead, by national and international policies that shape the broader sociopolitical and economic systems within which health sectors are embedded. Such policies have traditionally been considered to lie outside the domain of the health sector and, therefore, not of concern to health educators. One such national policy with the potential to powerfully influence international health and mortality levels is the looming choice between alternate American energy paths: the capital-intensive, large-scale, and centralized "hard" path of non-renewable energy resources; and the labor-intensive, small-scale, and decentralized "soft" path of renewable energy sources. Substantial effort has been directed to projecting the physical environmental impacts in the United States for both paths. But the social environmental impacts of each path and their implications for international health have been ignored. This article reviews links between alternate U.S. energy paths and alternate international health futures, and their implications for health educators around the world.
Stress concentration at slightly undulating surfaces

Abstract T his paper presents a first-order perturbation analysis of the stress concentration effects caused by slightly undulating surfaces. The perturbation approach that we use treats the undulating surfaces as being perturbed from a reference state in which the surface is perfectly flat. The magnitude of the perturbation is assumed to be sufficiently small compared to other length scales of the bulk material so that a half-plane model can be used for simplification. First-order-accurate perturbation solutions have been derived for the stress distribution along a sinusoidally wavy surface and for the attenuation of the stress concentration away from the undulating surface. The interactions among different surface perturbation waves are investigated by comparing the result of stress concentration factor at the trough of a single wave perturbation along an otherwise flat surface to that for periodically wavy surface. We also examine some of the 3-D effects by using the perturbation algorithm to calculate the stress concentration at undulating surfaces of elastic half-spaces. In all cases, it is found that wavy surfaces can magnify the bulk stress easily by a factor of 2 or 3 when the surface profile does not deviate substantially from flatness. This stress concentration effect is significant especially for already highly stressed heteroepitaxial semiconductor thin films, suggesting that the surface morphology of the film surfaces can play an important role in nucleating dislocations and crack-like surface flaws before the bulk stress reaches a critical level.
The Role of Dismissal in the American Criminal Court: Court Theories Revisited

This is an inquiry into the role of dismissal in criminal adjudication, a neglected area of study in the modern criminal court literature. The article presents a historical review of the relevant literature that underscores the prevalence of dismissal as a principal criminal case disposition in American courts. Moving into an explorative direction, the essay examines the utility for understanding dismissal of several theoretical perspectives that more generally have been proposed to explain criminal adjudication and court operations. These are: (a) the public safety perspective, in which dismissals are explained by defendants’ risk attributes; (b) the courtroom-as-workgroup perspective, in which dismissals are the product of the organization of the courtroom workgroups; (c) the process-as-punishment perspective, in which dismissals represent the outcome of a process which itself represents the punishment; (d) and the legal or due process perspective, in which legal, procedural-based explanations account f...
Physiological cyclic strain promotes endothelial cell survival via the induction of heme oxygenase-1

Endothelial cells (ECs) are constantly subjected to cyclic strain that arises from periodic change in vessel wall diameter as a result of pulsatile blood flow. Application of physiological levels of cyclic strain inhibits EC apoptosis; however, the underlying mechanism is not known. Since heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is a potent inhibitor of apoptosis, the present study investigated whether HO-1 contributes to the antiapoptotic action of cyclic strain. Administration of physiological cyclic strain (6% at 1 Hz) to human aortic ECs stimulated an increase in HO-1 activity, protein, and mRNA expression. The induction of HO-1 was preceded by a rise in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Nrf2 protein expression. Cyclic strain also stimulated an increase in HO-1 promoter activity that was prevented by mutating the antioxidant responsive element in the promoter or by overexpressing dominant-negative Nrf2. In addition, the strain-mediated induction of HO-1 and activation of Nrf2 was abolished by the antioxidant N-acetyl-l-cysteine. Finally, application of cyclic strain blocked inflammatory cytokine-mediated EC death and apoptosis. However, the protective action of cyclic strain was reversed by the HO inhibitor tin protoporphyrin-IX and was absent in ECs isolated from HO-1-deficient mice. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that a hemodynamically relevant level of cyclic strain stimulates HO-1 gene expression in ECs via the ROS-Nrf2 signaling pathway to inhibit EC death. The ability of cyclic strain to induce HO-1 expression may provide an important mechanism by which hemodynamic forces promote EC survival and vascular homeostasis.
Promoting Moral Judgment of Elementary School Children: The Influence of Direct Reinforcement and Cognitive Disequilibrium

Summary The separate and combined effectiveness of direct reinforcement and cognitive disequilibrium in promoting moral judgment of elementary school children was evaluated. Forty elementary school boys and girls (primarily first graders), matched on relevant variables (including level of moral judgment and intelligence), were assigned randomly to one of four conditions: (a) direct reinforcement (DR); (b) cognitive disequilibrium (CD); (c) combination (COM) of both DR and CD; or (d) control. DR, CD, and COM groups were trained on moral judgment items adapted from Piaget's studies of intentionality. Following training, moral judgment was assessed through administration to all groups of an immediate posttest, switch items (a variant of the training items), a generalization test, and a two week follow-up on the original training items. Findings suggested that DR was most effective in promoting change in moral judgment initially, but that effects of CD were more enduring and generalized. The COM condition, pe...
Toward safe navigation in urban environments

This paper presents a complete system for autonomous navigation of a mobile robot in urban environments. An urban environment is defined as one having hard surface and comprising curbs, ramps, and obstacles. The robot is required to traverse flat ground surfaces and ramps, but avoid curbs and obstacles. The system employs a 2-D laser rangefinder for terrain mapping. In order to filter erroneous sensor data (mixed pixels and noises), an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is used to segment the laser range data into straight-line segments and isolated points. The isolated points are then compared with those points at their neighboring straight-line segments to detect discontinuity in received energy (called reflectivity value in this work). The points exhibiting discontinuity of reflectivity are identified as erroneous data and removed. A so-called "Polar Traversability Index" measure is proposed to evaluate terrain traversal property. A PTI dictates the level of difficulty for a robot to move along the corresponding direction. It enables the robot to traverse wheelchair ramps and avoid curbs when negotiating sidewalks in urban environment. The advantage of using PTI over the conventional traversability index is that the robot's yaw angle is taken into account when computing the terrain traversal property at the corresponding direction. This allows the robot to snake up a steep ramp that may be too steep for the robot to climb if the conventional traversibility index were used. The efficacies of the PTI and the entire system have been verified by simulation and experiments with a real robot.
Extended Shenoy--Shafer architecture for inference in hybrid bayesian networks with deterministic conditionals

The main goal of this paper is to describe an architecture for solving large general hybrid Bayesian networks (BNs) with deterministic conditionals for continuous variables using local computation. In the presence of deterministic conditionals for continuous variables, we have to deal with the non-existence of the joint density function for the continuous variables. We represent deterministic conditional distributions for continuous variables using Dirac delta functions. Using the properties of Dirac delta functions, we can deal with a large class of deterministic functions. The architecture we develop is an extension of the Shenoy-Shafer architecture for discrete BNs. We extend the definitions of potentials to include conditional probability density functions and deterministic conditionals for continuous variables. We keep track of the units of continuous potentials. Inference in hybrid BNs is then done in the same way as in discrete BNs but by using discrete and continuous potentials and the extended definitions of combination and marginalization. We describe several small examples to illustrate our architecture. In addition, we solve exactly an extended version of the crop problem that includes non-conditional linear Gaussian distributions and non-linear deterministic functions.
Intracranial vasospasm with subsequent stroke after traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage in a 22-month-old child

Clinical and radiographic evidence of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)-related vasospasm is rare in children and has not been reported in infants. In this report the authors present the case of a 22-month-old child who developed clinically symptomatic, radiographically identifiable vasospasm after traumatic SAH. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of vasospasm associated with SAH in a child this young. This 22-month-old boy fell and had a dense SAH. He had a history of surgically corrected craniosynostosis and nonsymptomatic ventriculomegaly. The boy was evaluated for occult vascular lesions using imaging; none were found and normal vessel caliber was noted. Ten days later, the child developed left-sided weakness and a right middle cerebral artery infarct was identified. Evaluation disclosed significant intracranial vasospasm. This diagnosis was supported by findings on CT angiography, transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, MR imaging, and conventional angiography. The child was treated using intraarterial verapamil with a good result, as well as with conventional intensive care measures to reduce vasospasm. This report documents the first known case of intracranial vasospasm with stroke after SAH in a patient under the age of 2 years. This finding is important because it demonstrates that the entity of SAH-associated vasospasm can affect the very young, widening the spectrum of ages susceptible to this condition. This case is also important because it demonstrates that even very young children can respond to conventional therapeutic interventions such as intraarterial verapamil. Thus, clinicians need to be alert to the possibility of vasospasm as a potential diagnosis when evaluating young children with SAH.
Identifying vowels in CVC syllables: Effects of inserting silence and noise

Listeners were asked to identify natural vowels in /d_d/ context under various deletion conditions. Deletion intervals ranged from 60% to 90% of the syllable duration (measured from initial burst to final closure onset) and were centered about the midpoint. The deleted syllable portions were replaced with either silence or broadband noise. In one experiment, the three syllable types used were /did/, /ded/, and /dud/; in the other experiment, the three syllable types were /dΙd/, /ded/, and /dΛd/. To ensure that identification performance was based solely on spectral information, tokens were selected such that, within an experiment, average syllable duration was approximately equal across types. Identification performance in the 60% and 70% deletion conditions was not substantially worse than for full syllables [cf., W. Strange, J. J. Jenkins, and T. R. Edman, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 61, S39 (1977)]. Even the 90% deletion conditions yielded performance well above chance, indicating that significant vowel information is contained in the first and last 10 or 15 ms of the syllable. Results will be discussed in terms of residual acoustic cues.
Inertial migration of rigid spheres in two-dimensional unidirectional flows

The familiar Segre-Silberberg effect of inertia-induced lateral migration of a neutrally buoyant rigid sphere in a Newtonian fluid is studied theoretically for simple shear flow and for two-dimensional Poiseuille flow. It is shown that the spheres reach a stable lateral equilibrium position independent of the initial position of release. For simple shear flow, this position is midway between the walls, whereas for Poiseuille flow, it is 0·6 of the channel half-width from the centre-line. Particle trajectories are calculated in both cases and compared with available experimental data. Implications for the measurement of the rheological properties of a dilute suspension of spheres are discussed.
Bile Salts as Atypical Surfactants and Solubilizers

Recent research has suggested that self-association of bile salts does not follow the micellar pattern of self-association exhibited by typical flexible chain surfactants and detergents. A working model for the self-association of bile salts is proposed. It includes a mild degree of cooperativity in the early stages of the growth of aggregates and coexistence of a number of aggregates of different aggregation numbers. The polydispersity implies an increase in the average aggregation number with increasing concentration of the bile salt. Bile salts can be purified by foam fractionation. Surface tension data for sodium cholate are in agreement with the above qualitative model of self-association. An isoextraction method is useful for estimating monomer activities. Results for sodium deoxycholate suggest little self-association in dilute solutions and a mildly cooperative self-association at higher concentrations. A comparative study of the interactions of the fluorescent probe, 2-p-toluidinyl-naphthalene-6-sulfonate, with sodium alkyl sulfates and sodium deoxycholate indicates that bile salts may differ significantly from classical micellar systems in their solubilization characteristics also. The evidence suggests strongly that a specific adduct formation with an optimum number of bile salt anions may be important in solubilization brought about by the rigidity and the complex shape of the bile salt anions.
Urban Conflict and Social Movements in Poor Countries: Theory and Evidence of Collective Action

This paper evaluates the perennial question of whether the urban poor in developing countries are autonomous political actors or co-opted tools of patronage. I develop a theoretical interpretation of urban politics, arguing that collective action is shaped by changing configurations of state, economy and civil society. Collective action is expressed in struggles over labor, public goods and political rights — issues of varying salience in different periods of development. The theoretical framework generates a set of propositions which I evaluate with reference to a wide range of secondary evidence. At bottom, the data indicate that collective action varies in form and intensity (militance) with specifiable conditions. Illustratively, clientism did predominate during the ‘developmental decades’ (1960–80) that followed earlier (1930–60) experiences of militant labor conflict and yielded in the current period of neoliberalism to struggles for political rights. Cet article evalue l’eternelle question de savoir si les pauvres des villes dans les pays en voie de developpement sont des participants politiques autonomes ou des instruments de patronage cooptes. Je developpe une interpretation theorique des politiques urbaines soutenant que l’action collective est formee par les configurations changeantes de l’etat, de l’economie et de la societe civile. L’action collective s’exprime dans les luttes pour le travail, les biens publics et les droits politiques — des problemes dont l’importance varie suivant les periodes de developpement. Ce modele theorique engendre un ensemble de propositions que j’evalue par rapport a une variete de preuves secondaires. En fin de compte, les donnees indiquent que la forme et l’intensite (activisme) de l’action collective varient selon des conditions qui peuvent etre specifiees. Pour illustrer, le clientisme predominait durant les ‘decennies de developpement’ (1960–1980) qui suivirent les experiences precedentes (1930–1960) de conflits des travailleurs militants et a donne lieu, dans la periode actuelle de neo-liberalisme, aux luttes pour les droits politiques.
GEOMETRICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A COMPUTER-GENERATED THREE-DIMENSIONAL PACKED COLUMN OF EQUAL AND UNEQUAL SIZED SPHERES—WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WALL EFFECTS

A simulation code is developed to generate three-dimensional, square columns with rigid walls and packed with equal or unequal spheres. Geometrical characteristics of these columns such as porosity variations, coordination number, surface area per unit volume, etc. which are of interest for chemical engineering applications are studied. Emphasized is the wall effect, that is, the relatively high porosity near a wall, on the geometrical characteristics.
Axle Spacing and Load Equivalency Factors

Weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems measure the axle spacings and axle loads for every vehicle in the traffic stream. There is a great need to estimate load equivalency factors (LEFs) from these WIM data. LEFs are approximately a fourth-power relation relative to a standard axle load. However, this ignores axle spacings, which have a significant effect. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials derived LEFs for single and tandem axles, and these were extended to triple axles. Some have extended LEFs to quadruple axles, though there is no common agreement about this. However, larger axle groups also occur. Moreover, WIM data from the United States reveal a great variety of irregular and unusual axle spacings, and procedures to estimate LEFs for them are completely lacking. An attempt is made to rectify this and to estimate LEFs for vehicles with any axle spacing. An LEF adjustment method is developed, and examples are given of its use.
Physical dormancy in seeds of Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindales, Sapindaceae) from Hawaii

Dormancy in seeds of Dodonaea viscosa is due to a water-impermeable seed coat (physical dormancy, PY). Thus, mechanically scarified seeds imbibed water (c. 95% increase in mass) and germinated to high percentages over a wide range of temperature regimes in both white light and darkness, whereas non-scarified seeds did not take up water. Dry heat at 80‐160°C and dipping in boiling water for 1‐60 s also broke dormancy in a high percentage of the seeds, and continuous far-red light was not inhibitory to germination. However, dry storage in the laboratory for >1 year did not overcome dormancy. Seeds made water-permeable by boiling imbibed water, and thus germinated, at a much slower rate than those made water-permeable by mechanical scarification. We suggest that boiling opened the ‘water gap’ in the seed coat (not yet described in Sapindaceae but present in other taxa with PY) and that water entered the seed only through this small opening, thereby accounting for the slow rate of imbibition and subsequent germination. Physical dormancy has now been shown to occur in seeds of this polymorphic, worldwide species from Australia, Brazil, Hawaii, Mexico and New Zealand. The low level of dormancy reported for seed lots of D. viscosa in China, India and Pakistan is probably due to collection of seeds before they dried to the critical moisture content for development of water-impermeability of the seed coat. Germination of non-dormant seeds over a wide range of temperatures and in white light, far-red (leaf-canopy shade) light and darkness are part of the germination strategy of D. viscosa and of other taxa whose seeds have PY at maturity.
Photooxidations of sulfenic acid derivatives 2. A remarkable solvent effect on the reactions of singlet oxygen with disulfides

Abstract Photooxidations of a series of 9 disulfides reveal that the thiosulfinate/thiosulfonate product ratios can be dramatically influenced by the nature of the solvent. The unique ability of methanol to influence this ratio is attributed to nucleophilic addition to a thiopersulfoxide intermediate.
Point mutations at the local anesthetic receptor site modulate the state-dependent block of rat Nav1.4 sodium channels by pyrazoline-type insecticides

Pyrazoline-type insecticides (PTIs) selectively block sodium channels at membrane potentials that promote slow sodium channel inactivation and are proposed to interact with a site that overlaps the local anesthetic (LA) receptor site. Mutagenesis studies identified two amino acid residues in the S6 segment of homology domain IV (Phe-1579 and Tyr-1586 in the rat Na(v)1.4 sodium channel) as principal elements of the LA receptor. To test the hypothesis that PTIs bind to the LA receptor, we constructed mutated Na(v)1.4/F1579A and Na(v)1.4/Y1586A cDNAs, expressed native and mutated channels in Xenopus oocytes, and examined the effects of these mutations on channel block by three PTIs (indoxacarb, its bioactivation product DCJW, and RH3421) by two-electrode voltage clamp. DCJW and RH3421 had no effect on Na(v)1.4 channels held at -120mV but caused a slowly developing block upon depolarization to -30mV. Estimated IC(50) values following 15min of exposure were 1 and 4muM for DCJW and RH3421, respectively. Indoxacarb failed to block Na(v)1.4 channels under all experimental conditions. Sensitivity to block by DCJW and RH3421 at -30mV was significantly reduced in Na(v)1.4/F1579A channels, a finding that is consistent with the impact of this mutation on drug binding. In contrast to its effect on drug binding, the Y1586A mutation increased the sensitivity of Na(v)1.4 channels held at -30mV to all three compounds, conferring modest sensitivity to indoxacarb and increasing sensitivity to DCJW and RH3421 by 58- and 16-fold, respectively. These results provide direct evidence for the action of PTIs at the LA receptor.