cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Simulation results for the impact of users' locations and distribution characteristics on the performance of downlink WCDMA/TDD in fading channels

Wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) is a next generation wireless communications air interface technology proposed by the European standardization entities. One of the most important performance measures for WCDMA is the throughput achieved by the users within the coverage area as well as the spectral efficiency. In this paper, we present simulation results for the impact of users' locations and distribution characteristics on the obtained throughput and spectral efficiency of downlink WCDMA in the time division duplexing (TDD) mode under lognormal shadowing. Different scenarios are considered depending on the choice of the frequency reuse factor, whether or not cell sectorization is used and the type of antennas used.
Non-sterol metabolism of mevalonate in vitro: Artifacts and realities☆

Abstract Commercial [5-14C]mevalonate is shown to contain several radioactive impurities, which give artifactually high amounts of Hyamine bound, volatile acidic radioactivity when incubated with killed or living rat renal cortex slices, as compared with [5-14C]mevalonate purified either by liquid-liquid partition chromatography or through the enzymically generated R -5-phospho-[5- 14 C]mevalonate by ion-exchange chromatography. The artifactual 14 CO 2 results were not diluted by incubation with increasing amounts of unlabelled mevalonate, whereas the 14 CO 2 and [ 14 C ]cholesterol produced by rat renal cortex slices incubated with purified [5-14C]mevalonate were both diluted to the same extent by unlabelled mevalonate. It is concluded that R [5- 14 C]mevalonate is genuinely oxidized to 14 CO 2 in vitro , and that purification of substrate before its use is necessary. Production of 14 CO 2 and various [ 14 C ]lipids from purified [5-14C]mevalonate, as a function of time and substrate concentration, by renal cortex and liver slices, is described.
Science Signaling Podcast for 29 November 2016: Pre-B cell receptor signaling in leukemia

Abstract This Podcast features an interview with Bridget Wilson, author of a Research Article that appears in the 29 November 2016 issue of Science Signaling , about pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR) signaling in B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL). Signaling through the pre-BCR, an immature form of the BCR, promotes the survival of B cell progenitors and has been implicated in the pathology of BCP-ALL. Erasmus et al . found that pre-BCRs formed transient homomeric complexes that correlated with pro-survival signaling. Preventing homotypic interactions between pre-BCRs sensitized B cells to chemotherapeutic agents, suggesting that interfering with such interactions may improve the efficacy of existing chemotherapies for BCP-ALL. Listen to Podcast
The Association Between Electronic Bullying and School Absenteeism Among High School Students in the United States

BACKGROUND We examined the relationship between exposure to electronic bullying and absenteeism as a result of being afraid. METHODS This multivariate, multinomial regression analysis of the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data assessed the association between experiencing electronic bullying in the past year and how often students were absent in the last month due to feeling unsafe at/in transit to school. The model controlled for other predictors of school absence including demographics, physical/behavioral health, and risk factors. Missing data were multiply imputed. RESULTS Electronic bullying was significantly associated with absences. Controlling for model covariates, the relative risk of missing 1 day of school was 1.77 times higher, the relative risk of missing 2 to 3 days of school per month increased by a factor of 2.08, and the relative risk of missing 4 or more days of school per month increased by a factor of 1.77 for those who experienced electronic bullying in the past year compared with those who were not electronically bullied. CONCLUSIONS Electronic bullying's association with absenteeism places it among already recognized negative influences such as depression and binge drinking, necessitating schools to implement policies to mediate the resulting harmful effects.
Beyond the Carrot and the Stick: A Behavioral Rejoinder to Rakos

In a rejoinder to Rakos (1989), I discuss three inter-related problems : scientifically inappropriate reductionism, a culturally biased concept of human nature, and a bourgeois view of capitalism and socialism . I argue that these three problems result from the Cartesian (positivistic) world outlook in which the part is held to be ontologically prior to the whole, a pervasive philosophical perspective which has also retarded the development of a natural science of human behavior . In response to Rakos' pronouncement that socialism is contrary to human nature, I offer as counter evidence the revolutionary achievements of Cuba's current reform program called rectification.
Dilated Thoracic Esophagus Presenting with Painful Progressive Persistent Dysphagia and Leukocytosis of Unknown Origin

Esophageal cancer is the eighth-most common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The most common presenting symptom in advanced distal esophageal cancer is the sensation of sticking food, but it may sometimes present with bleeding and related complications, or asymptomatic leukocytosis. We present the case of a 77-year-old afebrile man with chronic alcoholism and a dilated thoracic esophagus with painful, progressive, and persistent dysphagia and leukocytosis of unknown origin. A 77-year-old man with a past medical history of hypertension and colonic cancer status post right hemicolectomy (surveillance negative) presented to the emergency department with painful, progressive, persistent, and worsening dysphagia for the past three weeks. It was associated with an unintentional weight loss of ten pounds in one month and nausea with non-bilious and non-bloody vomiting for several days. He denied fever, diarrhea, hoarseness of voice, change in bowel movement, hematemesis, hematochezia, melena, orthopnea, dyspnea at rest, palpitation, and abdominal pain. A chest x-ray (lateral view) showed debris in a dilated thoracic esophagus with fluid. An esophagogram showed a 10 x 3 cm obstructive mass with irregular mucosa within the proximal esophagus from the thoracic vertebra levels four to ten. A computed tomography scan of the chest with contrast showed long segment dilatation of the upper and mid-thoracic esophagus with generalized circumferential thickening of the distal esophagus. He was empirically on cefazolin and metronidazole but later switched to piperacillin, tazobactam, and fluconazole. Cardiac risk stratification was done for an esophagogastroduodenoscopy. However, the patient and the family opted for palliative care and agreed to a do-not-resuscitate/do-not-intubate status. In esophageal cancers, tumor-related leukocytosis and neutrophilia are common presentations. However, there is no standardized routine screening test for esophageal cancers. Thus, when asymptomatic afebrile elderly patients present with leukocytosis of unknown origin, clinicians should have suspicions of occult malignancy such as esophageal cancers, gastric cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
Suicide clusters among young Kenyan men

Suicide is a leading cause of global mortality. Suicide clusters have recently been identified among peer networks in high-income countries. This study investigates dynamics of suicide clustering w...
Long-term outcomes in cancer patients who did or did not pursue fertility preservation.

Objective To compare long-term outcomes of cancer patients who pursued fertility preservation (FP) with those who did not and compare random-start (RS) and menstrual cycle–specific (CS) protocols for FP. Design Retrospective cohort. Setting Single urban academic institution. Patient(s) Oncology patients who contacted the FP patient navigator, 2005–2015. Intervention(s) None. Main Outcome Measure(s) Time to cancer treatment, disease-free survival, and reproductive outcomes in FP versus no-FP patients and cycle outcomes for RS versus CS protocols. Data were analyzed by χ 2 and logistic regression. Result(s) Of 497 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 41% elected FP. The median number of days to cancer treatment was 33 and 19 days in the FP and no-FP groups, respectively. There was no difference in cancer recurrence or mortality. There were no differences in stimulation parameters, outcomes, or days to next cancer treatment in RS versus CS protocols. Twenty-one patients returned to use cryopreserved specimens, resulting in 16 live births. Eight of 21 returning patients used a gestational carrier. Thirteen FP (6.4%) and 16 no-FP (5.5%) patients experienced a spontaneous pregnancy. Conclusion(s) FP is both safe and efficacious for eligible cancer patients. Only 10% of patients returned to use cryopreserved specimens, and almost half used a gestational carrier, suggesting the need for further research into reproductive decision-making in cancer survivors.
Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT): The Role of Corrective Saccades in Identifying Patients With Vestibular Loss

The video head impulse test (vHIT) is an objective test of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). The vHIT outcome parameter receiving most attention to-date has been vHIT gain, the ratio of eye movement to head movement. In normal controls, age has little impact on vHIT gain up to the 8th or 9th decades (1-3). In patients, vHIT gain cut-offs of 0.68 and 0.8 and below have been recommended for diagnosing vestibular loss (4;5). In spite of the stability of gain across the age spectrum, the correlation between the caloric test and vHIT is less than 100%. While there is better agreement between these measures for caloric weaknesses greater than 40% (6), these two clinical tests are not consistently in agreement. Several factors are proposed to account for the difference between vHIT and calorics for diagnosing vestibular loss. These factors include type of pathology (7;8), the frequencies tested with each exam (high frequency with vHIT; low frequency with calorics), and ensuring adequate head velocity above 150°/s during head impulses (1). Another outcome of vHIT is the presence of corrective saccades (CS). With vHIT, both gain and CS can be objectively measured. CS can be characterized by their amplitude (velocity), latency and frequency. The amplitude of CS increases with decreasing vHIT gain (9;10); in the horizontal canal, patients with gain below 0.8 generate CS that are greater than 110 degrees/s in amplitude (11). CS are affected by age, whereas normal adults over 75.9 years demonstrate significantly larger CS amplitudes (12). Similarly, in a patient group with complaint of dizziness, but with vHIT gain above 0.8 (n = 899), the frequency of CS was shown to increase with age (11). These findings demonstrate that higher amplitude and greater CS frequency are indicators of vestibular loss. While age related changes occur with respect to vHIT gain and CS, age has not been shown to significantly affect interpretation (11). What is unknown, and what has been speculated by others (13;14), is whether repeatable CS indicate small VOR deficits even with normal gain, suggesting that vHIT could be considered abnormal when coupled with a repeatable CS regardless of the gain value. We hypothesize that interpreting vHIT using gain and/or the presence of a CS could increase the sensitivity of vHIT as a tool for identifying vestibular loss. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to characterize CS in a control group and then compare this data to individuals with vestibular loss, examining the sensitivity of vHIT for identifying vestibular loss using both gain and/or CS.
SOFT COMPUTING: AN INTRODUCTION

Soft computing (SC) is a newly emerging multidisciplinary field. It is a collection of computational techniques, such as expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and evolutionary algorithms, which provide information processing capabilities to solve complex practical problems. The major benefit of SC lies in its ability to tolerate imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth, and approximation in processing imprecise and inaccurate information and simulating human decision making at low cost. This paper provides a brief introduction on soft computing.
Treatment for Advanced and Recurrent Carcinoma: Combined Modalities

The use of chemotherapy has provided new opportunities for exploring the combination of local and systemic modalities in the treatment of both early and advanced stages of endometrial carcinoma. The following circumstances are discussed: (1) radiation therapy for locally recurrent endometrial cancer; (2) surgery for stage IV and recurrent endometrial cancer; and (3) advanced stage endometrial cancer consolidating with postoperative and post-chemotherapy radiation therapy. Integration of hormones is also discussed.
Using natural language to manage NPC dialog

In this document, we describe our work applying natural language (NL) technologies to improve non-player character (NPC) dialog interactions in games, specifically role-playing games (RPGs). Our approach is to adapt the standard dialog menu interaction so that the menu items are dynamically-generated during game runtime rather than scripted during development time. In our system, menu items are constructed by manipulating abstract semantic representations stored in the NPC knowledgebase, converting them into NL text, and then ranking them so that the most relevant items are placed at the top of the menu. We demonstrate our approach in the context of a small RPG.
Direct measurement of building transient and residual drift using an optical sensor system

Abstract Interstory drift (ID) is a key response parameter for buildings subjected to lateral loads and is used to define performance-based limit states, allowable deformations and damage states in a number of seismic design codes and standards. An ability to rapidly and accurately measure both transient and residual ID during an earthquake would provide important observables for understanding the seismic demands and post-earthquake condition of a building. Accurate retrieval of ID from accelerometer-based instrumentation systems can be very challenging, if not impossible, as a result of instrumentation limitations and the post-processing associated with strong motion accelerometer data. This is particularly true for the case in which residual drifts occur during inelastic building response. In the study presented herein, a newly developed optical sensor system, designed specifically for directly measuring both transient and residual ID, was experimentally evaluated through shake table testing and computational simulations. The ability of the sensor to accurately measure ID is demonstrated and key operational considerations for sensor system deployment are examined through a model-based investigation.
Debt Burden after College: The Effect of Student Loan Debt on Graduates' Employment, Additional Schooling, Family Formation, and Home Ownership.

This paper measures the effects of undergraduate student loan debt on graduates’ post-college outcomes: employment, additional enrollment, family formation, home ownership, and net worth. The analy...
gridPULSE: Public User Library for Systems Evaluation to Accelerate Grid Modernization

The method for creating synthetic high-frequency sola simulations with unique profiles for each interconnection point on a distribution system feeder using low-frequency input data ispresented, including recent improvements which have made it more accurate at matching measuredirradiance statistics. These synthetic cloud fields can them be implemented into distribution grid simulations to model irradiance profiles for locations around the feeder. Without unique PV inputs at each interconnection point the number of voltage regulator tap change operations is significantly overestimated. In the final paper, we will present several implementations ofthe cloud fields into distribution grid simulations, showing the impact of using cloud fields in various scenarios such as different amounts of solar variability, different PV penetrations, and different clustering of PV installations.
Short wavelength free electron lasers in 1998

Abstract A table is presented that describes the characteristics of 58 short wavelength free electron lasers, operating and proposed, around the world.
Food for Thought: Analyzing Public Opinion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

ABSTRACTThis project explores public opinion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in news and social media outlets, and tracks elected representatives’ voting records on issues relating to SNAP and food insecurity. We used machine learning, sentiment analysis, and text mining to analyze national and state level coverage of SNAP in order to gauge perceptions of the program over time across these outlets. Results indicate that the majority of news coverage has negative sentiment, more partisan news outlets have more extreme sentiment, and that clustering of negative reporting on SNAP occurs in the Midwest. Our final results and tools will be displayed in an online application that the ACFB Advocacy team can use to inform their communication to relevant stakeholders.
CidR and CcpA Synergistically Regulate Staphylococcus aureus cidABC Expression.

The death and lysis of a subpopulation of Staphylococcus aureus cells during biofilm development benefit the whole bacterial population through the release of an important component of the biofilm matrix, extracellular DNA. Previously, we have demonstrated that these processes are affected by the gene products of the cidABC operon, the expression of which is controlled by the LysR-type transcriptional regulator, CidR. In this study, we characterized cis- and trans-acting elements essential for the induction of the cidABC operon. In addition to a CidR-binding site located within the cidABC promoter region, sequence analysis revealed the presence of a putative catabolite responsive element (cre box), suggestive of the involvement of the catabolite control protein A (CcpA) in the regulation of cidABC expression. This was confirmed using electrophoretic mobility shift assays and real-time reverse transcriptase PCR analysis demonstrating the direct positive control of cidABC transcription by the master regulator of carbon metabolism. Furthermore, the importance of CcpA and the identified cre site for the induction of the cidABC operon was demonstrated by examining the expression of P cidABC-lacZ reporter fusions in various mutant strains in which the genes involved in carbon metabolism and carbon catabolite repression were disrupted. Together the results of this study demonstrate the necessity of both transcriptional regulators, CidR and CcpA, for the induction of the cidABC operon and reveal the complexity of molecular interactions controlling its expression.IMPORTANCE This work focuses on the characterization of cis- and trans-acting elements essential for the induction of the cidABC operon in S. aureus The results of this study are the first to demonstrate the synergistic control of cidABC expression by transcriptional regulators CidR and CcpA during carbohydrate metabolism. We established that the full induction of cidABC expression depends on the metabolic state of bacteria and requires both CidR and CcpA. Together, these findings delineate regulatory control of cidABC expression under different metabolic conditions and provide important new insights into our understanding of cell death mechanisms during biofilm development in S. aureus.
Digital Dating Abuse Among a National Sample of U.S. Youth

Digital dating abuse is a term used to describe physical, sexual, or psychological/emotional violence that occurs between romantic partners through the use of texting, social media, and related online mediums. Survey data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 2,218 American middle and high school students (12-17 years old) who have been in a romantic relationship. About 28% of students in a relationship in the previous year had been the victim of digital dating abuse. Males were more likely to report having experienced it (32% compared to 24%), though no other demographic differences emerged. Several covariates did emerge as significantly related to experience with digital dating abuse, including depressive symptoms, sexual intercourse, sexting, and being the victim of cyberbullying. Experiencing offline dating abuse was by far the strongest correlate. Implications for prevention and policy within schools and the community are discussed, along with considerations for future research in this important area.
A Quasipolynomial Time Approximation Scheme for Euclidean Capacitated Vehicle Routing

In the capacitated vehicle routing problem we are given the locations of customers and depots, along with a vehicle of capacity $$k$$k. The objective is to find a minimum length collection of tours covering all customers such that each tour starts and end at a depot and visits at most $$k$$k customers. The problem is a generalization of the traveling salesman problem. We present a quasipolynomial time approximation scheme for the Euclidean setting of the problem when all points lie in $$\mathbb {R}^d$$Rd for constant dimension $$d$$d.
Setting the Context: Educational Challenges in Northeastern Nigeria

In this chapter, we shall describe the nature of some of the educational challenges we faced in Northeastern Nigeria, and the social and educational measures taken to respond to those challenges. These set the stage for our increasingly sophisticated and increasingly successful use of technology for instructional purposes, culminating in our Technology Enhanced Learning for All (TELA) program.
Beyond the headlines: perspectives of charter school music teachers

Public debate surrounds the success of charter schools in serving students and providing a generative environment for teacher innovation. Through semi-structured interviews with eleven (N = 11) K-1...
Computationally assisted design and selection of maneuverable biological walking machines

ABSTRACT The intriguing opportunities enabled by the use of living components in biological machines have spurred the development of a variety of muscle-powered bio-hybrid robots in recent years. Among them, several generations of bio-hybrid walkers have been established as reliable platforms to study untethered locomotion. However, despite these advances, such technology is not mature yet, and major challenges remain. This study takes steps to address two of them: the lack of systematic design approaches, common to bio-hybrid robotics in general, and in the case of bio-hybrid walkers specifically, the lack of maneuverability. We then present here a dual-ring biobot, computationally designed and selected to exhibit robust forward motion and rotational steering. This dual-ring biobot consists of two independent muscle actuators and a 4-legged scaffold asymmetric in the fore/aft direction. The integration of multiple muscles within its body architecture, combined with differential electrical stimulation, allows the robot to maneuver. The dual-ring robot design is then fabricated and experimentally tested, confirming computational predictions and turning abilities. Overall, our design approach based on modeling, simulation, and fabrication exemplified in this robot represents a route to efficiently engineer biological machines with adaptive functionalities.
Internal Medicine Residents' Perceptions of Writing and Presenting Case Reports.

Background The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires all residents participate in scholarly activity during residency. Case reports provide trainees an opportunity to engage in scholarly activities. This study assesses internal medicine residents' perceived benefits of writing and presenting case reports and barriers to this process. Methods A survey was disseminated to internal medicine residents at a tertiary academic center. The survey questionnaire aimed to assess residents' perceptions about benefits and barriers to writing and presenting case reports. Responses were obtained on a 5-point Likert scale, and the data were analyzed as respective frequencies and percentages. Results Forty-three (34%) of the 125 eligible internal medicine residents completed the survey. Fifty-eight percent reported never having presented a case report. Ninety-six percent believed that finding an interesting case was an important factor in facilitating writing a case report, while 81% perceived finding a good mentor as equally important. Perceived barriers to case report writing included lack of training in reviewing scientific literature (59%), lack of adequate time (58%), lack of formal training in identifying and writing case reports (56%), and lack of a mentor (54%). Conclusions Our study showed that the majority of residents had not written or presented case reports. While case reports provide a myriad of educational value, various barriers exist that include lack of proper training, adequate time, and a mentor. Our findings suggest that additional institutional resources should be dedicated to designing a curriculum to address these perceived barriers.
Ergodic Opinion Dynamics Over Networks: Learning Influences From Partial Observations

In this article, we address the problem of inferring direct influences in social networks from partial samples of a class of opinion dynamics. The interest is motivated by the study of several complex systems arising in social sciences, where a population of agents interacts according to a communication graph. These dynamics over networks often exhibit an oscillatory behavior, given the stochastic effects or the random nature of the local interactions process. Inspired by recent results on estimation of vector autoregressive processes, we propose a method to estimate the social network topology and the strength of the interconnections starting from partial observations of the interactions, when the whole sample path cannot be observed due to limitations of the observation process. Besides the design of the method, our main contributions include a rigorous proof of the convergence of the proposed estimators and the evaluation of the performance in terms of complexity and number of sample. Extensive simulations on randomly generated networks show the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Selective detection of the inorganics NOx, SO2, and H2S in the presence of volatile BTEX contaminants toluene, benzene, and xylene

We demonstrate the highly selective detection of the inorganics NOx (NO, NO2), SO2, and H2S in the presence of toluene, benzene, and xylene using nanostructure metal-oxide-decorated interfaces. This selectivity can be obtained for sensors whose sensitivities are varied for a diversity of nanostructured metal oxides which are applied to a porous silicon (PS) interface. We focus on NOx and SO2 and include additional new evaluations for the response to H2S. In all cases, the response to these inorganic analytes strongly dominates that for toluene, benzene, and xylene. The responses are also consistent with the recently developing inverse hard/soft acid/base concept. The nanostructure metal-oxide-decorated PS conductometric sensors are found to have selectivity ratios well in excess of 104:1 for toluene and benzene and well in excess of 103:1 for xylene. The dominance of the response of these small inorganic sulfur and nitrogen compounds has important implications for the monitoring of significant contaminants associated with the venting and flaring of natural gas pits, as they can be present in oil and gas formations.
Something's Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountain Top Removal

Although half of the U.S. electricity comes from coal energy, many Americans know precious little about an earth-ravaging mining practice called mountain top removal (MTR) used to extract coal in S...
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Neoplasia of the lymphatic system and its precursor cells, with genetically disturbed regulation of proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Morphologically and cytogenetically heterogeneous disorders with difficult, variable classification.
Chapter 5 Virus Occurrence and Survival in the Environmental Waters

Publisher Summary Critical to the assessment of the risks from waterborne transmission of viruses is determining their occurrence and survival in the environment. There are number of factors controlling virus survival in aquatic environments, such as temperature, light, pH, salts, organic matter, suspended solids or sediments, and air–water interfaces. Most, if not all, viruses are released into the environment by excretion or secretion of bodily fluids or skin and hair. The viruses that infect the gastrointestinal tract are the most suited for transmission through the aquatic environment because they are released in large numbers in the stools of infected persons and have a prolonged survival in water. However, many respiratory viruses are excreted in the feces and many viruses are excreted in the urine. Respiratory adenoviruses have been shown to be transmitted by recreational waters; thus, there is the potential for viruses that may not primarily replicate in the intestinal tract to be transmitted by water.
Variational Calculation of Channel Interaction Parameters

The ability to calculate the short-range parameters used by multichannel quantum defect theory to describe electronic channel interactions has increased remarkably in the last few years. This improved capability derives more from simplifications in the underlying theoretical description than from the faster computational hardware that has become available. This lecture reviews some of these newer conceptual advances, and the manner in which they interface with more established tools such as quantum defect theory. As examples, recent small-scale calculations are described which have nearly eliminated the longstanding discrepancies between experimental and theoretical cross sections for photoabsorption by atomic calcium and strontium in the energy range up to ten electron volts. Prospects for extracting the dynamical origin of intriguing regularities observed in atomic valence-shell spectra throughout the periodic system are also discussed.
Learning Curves: What Do Dental Students Learn from Repeated Practice of Clinical Procedures?

It is generally accepted that repetition of procedures is necessary to develop clinical skill in dentistry. Although there is a rich empirical research tradition in medicine establishing competency levels for new procedures, investigations of the shape of learning curves for clinical techniques are rare in dental education. Data were reviewed from three classes (n=465) of students at the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in seventeen clinical skills in five departments for which test case (independent performance) data were available. It was hypothesized that a learning curve would be observed with gradually rising scores as a function of amount of repeated test case work and general practice experience. Other factors, such as faculty ratings and clinical GPA, could be expected to modify this curve. No evidence was found that test case performance was affected by number of previous test cases, number of practice (ungraded) procedures previously completed, faculty ratings of technical skill in the discipline by quarter, faculty ratings of patient management and of clinical judgment competencies, overall clinical GPA, and performance on initial licensure examinations. The absence of a pattern showing that amount of prior experience improves clinical performance raises questions about the practice of setting "requirements" for graduation and challenges dental educators to better explain the presumed relationship between practice and performance and the validity of clinical evaluation of performance based exclusively on the objective technical quality of work samples. The literature on learning curves and on competency-based education offer alternative insights into what students are actually learning but schools are failing to measure in the clinical experience.
The Influence of the Reduction Model on the Systematic Accuracy of Adjusted Parameters

Everybody who deals with the numerical determination of parameters from observations is familiar with the phenomenon that the ‘external’ errors of these parameters are invariably larger than their ‘internal’ ones. This phenomenon is traditionally explained by the presence of systematic errors.
Piezoelectric T-Beam Actuators

This paper develops models, fabricates, experimentally tests, and optimizes a novel piezoelectric T-beam actuator. With a T-shaped cross-section, and bottom and top flanges and web electrodes, a cantilevered beam can bend in both in-plane and out-of-plane directions upon actuation. Analytical models predict the tip displacement and blocking force in both directions. Six mesoscale T-beam prototypes are monolithically fabricated by machining and microfabrication techniques and experimentally tested for in-plane and out-of-plane displacements and out-of-plane blocking force. The analytical models closely predict the T-beam displacement and blocking force performance. A nondimensional analytical model predicts that all T-beam designs for both in-plane and out-of-plane actuations, regardless of scale, have nondimensional displacement and blocking force equal to nondimensional voltage. Another form of nondimensional model optimizes the T-beam cross-section for maximum performance. Optimization study shows that a cross-section with width ratio, b * , and thickness ratio, t * , approaching zero produces maximum displacement, b * = t * = 0.381 produces maximum blocking force, and b* ≈ 0.25, t * ≈ 0.33 produces maximum mechanical energy.
Enabling DFM and APC strategies with advanced process metrics

Most semiconductor manufacturers expect 193nm immersion lithography to remain the dominant patterning technology through the 32nm technology node. If this remains the case, the interaction of more complex designs with shrinking process windows will severely limiting parametric yield. The industry is responding with strategies based upon design for manufacturability (DFM) and multi-variate advanced process control (APC). The primary goal of DFM is to enlarge the process yield window, while the primary goal of APC is to keep the manufacturing process in that yield window. In this work, we discuss new and innovative process metrics, including simulation-based virtual metrology, that will be needed for yield at the 32nm technology node.
Pigment preservation and remineralization in oxic coastal marine sediments

Abstract Complex mixtures of sedimentary chlorophyll degradation products were measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in 210 Pb dated box- and piston-core sediments. Sediments were collected from Dabob Bay, Washington, a coastal marine fjord conducive to studies yielding an understanding of the remineralization and diagenesis of organic carbon. Greater than 99% of the pheopigment flux out of the water column does not accumulate in the top 2 cm of sediment. Surface sediment pigment profiles indicate that pheophorbides are the dominant pheopigments observed, with concentrations decreasing rapidly with depth. Concentrations of chlorophyll c derivatives also decrease rapidly, but ratios of a/c pheopigments remain within ranges reported for natural and cultured phytoplankton. Sharp pheopigment concentration decreases within the bioturbated surface sediments (as defined by 210 Pb activities) were modeled using a one dimensional mixing model. The in situ pheopigment decomposition rate, corrected for bioturbation and sediment accumulation, corresponds to an approximate half-life of 40 days. Sedimentary humic acid, fulvic acid, and residual humin associated pheopigments in sediments which had been previously acetone extracted to remove the lipophilic pheopigment fraction were typed by chromic acid oxidation and release of pyrrole derived maleimides. This humic associated pyrrole derived nitrogen, while a small fraction of total sedimentary or humic nitrogen, accounted for 16–75% of the total sedimentary pheopigment accumulation, and may be significant in understanding the diagenetic fate and transformation of pheopigments to petroporphyrins.
Methodology SHAKER and the Capacity Analysis of Five Toll Plazas

Modeling traffic at toll collection facilities can assist in computing plaza capacity and performance. It may help planners and operators decide on which lane configurations are appropriate for specific hourly approach volumes and vehicle types. On a network of toll roadways, it can be used to identify bottleneck locations. This is accomplished by comparing a plaza's capacity to the capacity of a highway segment's just downstream. Both the characteristics of the approaching traffic as well as the roadway conditions before and at the plaza come into play. Choosing a lane configuration with an adequate number of dedicated electronic toll collection lanes that match the approaching traffic demand is one key to maximizing the toll plaza throughput. The capacity of a toll lane is simply the lane's average hourly processing rate under queuing conditions as measured in the field. Measurements must take place when there is uniformity in the type of toll collected in the lane as well as uniformity in the type of vehicle being processed. The average hourly processing rates for several categories of traffic and tolling type have been measured in the field and have been collected for this study. Complexity is added to the model when configuring a mixed lane that either provides several methods of toll collection, or provides the same toll collection type to several different categories of customers, or provides toll collection in a manner that is a mixture of these two. SHAKER was developed to address these issues and compute capacities of toll plazas that consist of mixed lanes as well as dedicated lanes. This study also applied the SHAKER methodology to 5 real toll facilities plazas on the Florida Turnpike. The model was both calibrated and validated using these data.
Diophantine inequalities for forms of odd degree

Abstract If F is a form of odd degree k with real coefficients in s variables where s ≥ c1(k), then there are integers x1,… xs not all zero, with | F (x1,… xs)|
Algorithm 592: A FORTRAN Subroutine for Computing the Optimal Estimate of f(x)

In this paper they present a FORTRAN subroutine to computer the solution of the following problem. Given values of an unknown function f at n distinct points, x/sub 1/ < x/sub 2/ < ... < x/sub n-1/ < x/sub n/, and given an integer k, 1 less than or equal to k less than or equal to n, and a finite bound on the kth derivative of f, parallel to f/sup (k)/ parallel to infinity identical with max absolute value of (f/sup (k)/(x)) less than or equal to L < infinity, x/sub 1/ less than or equal to x less than or equal to x/sub n/, determine the rate of possible values of f(a) (and hence the optimal estimate of f(a)), where A is any point in the interval x/sub 1/ less than or equal to x less than or equal to x/sub n/.
Psychophysiology and Psychopathology: A Motivational Approach

The current zeitgeist strongly emphasizes genetic and biochemical approaches to psychopathology over psychological and psychobiological approaches. It is argued that a psychobiological model, involving a theory of motivation derived from the animal learning literature, offers an attractive theoretical bridge between neurochemical influences and the phenotypic features of psychiatric disorders. This model involves separate but interactive appetitive and aversive motivational systems that control behavioral activation (appetitive) and inhibition (aversive). Ways in which these motivational constructs can be relevant to psychopathology are discussed for anxiety, psychopathy, childhood disorders, depression, mania, drug abuse, and schizophrenia. Because of this general application, motivational constructs offer an attractive theoretical framework for understanding psychopathology. Application of the motivational theory to psychophysiology suggested that heart rate may be significantly influenced by appetitive motivation. A series of studies have shown that heart rate during performance of a continuous motor task does respond to appetitive motivation in the form of performance-contingent monetary incentives, but does not respond to aversive stimulation in the form of failure feedback. Nonspecific skin conductance fluctuations have not responded to appetitive motivation in this paradigm, but this failure could possibly be due to ceiling effects. Nonspecific skin conductance fluctuations do respond to aversive stimulation in other contexts. These findings suggest that under the right circumstances appetitive motivation can be assessed via heart rate and aversive motivation via skin conductance.
Complex demodulation of cardiac interbeat intervals: Increased cardiac sympathovagal interaction during human sexual activity

In this study, we analyzed heart rate variability during sexual activity using complex demodulation, which is a useful technique to study continuous changes in different frequency bands over short periods of time. Complex demodulation has the advantage of having higher time resolution compared to spectral analysis. We quantified the low frequency (LF: 0.04-0.15 Hz) and high frequency (HF: 0.15-0.5 Hz) amplitudes, and the LF/HF ratio before, during, and after the occurrence of orgasm. LF power is dually mediated by cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic systems while HF power is mainly influenced by cardiac vagal function. We found a significant increase of cardiac sympathovagal interaction (LF/HF ratios) during the phase of orgasm. These findings are discussed in light of normal sexual physiology and the effect of sex on cardiac autonomic function in patients with heart disease, such as myocardial infarction.
Adjusting for the correspondence bias: Effects of causal uncertainty, cognitive busyness, and causal strength of situational information

This research examined the conditions under which people who have more chronic doubt about their ability to make sense of social behavior (i.e., are causally uncertain; Weary and Edwards, 1994 and Weary and Edwards, 1996) are more likely to adjust their dispositional inferences for a target’s behaviors. Using a cognitive busyness manipulation within the attitude attribution paradigm, we found in Study 1 that higher causal uncertainty predicted increased correction of dispositional inferences, but only when participants had sufficient attentional resources to devote to the task. In Study 2, we found that higher-causal uncertainty predicted greater inferential correction, but only when the additional information provided a more compelling alternative explanation for the observed behavior. Results of this research are discussed in terms of their relevance to the Causal Uncertainty (Weary & Edwards, 1994) and dispositional inference models. Copyright © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Galilean invariance in the lattice-Boltzmann method and its effect on the calculation of rheological properties in suspensions

Abstract The lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) provides an efficient simulation technique for the study of particle suspensions. These simulations provide an important tool in elucidating the effect of suspended particles on the rheology of suspensions. The most common solid–fluid boundary condition used in the LBM is the bounce-back operation, and as such, the errors introduced by this operation to the dynamics of the particles and the calculation of relevant rheological quantities must be quantified. This paper derives the Galilean invariant term in the standard bounce-back operation and shows the effect of this error on the calculation of particle dynamics and stresslet. In particular, an error is found in the calculation of normal stresses that may be significant in magnitude compared with typical values found in suspensions of rigid spherical particles. A correction is proposed, and simulation results are shown that verify the original assessment and show the reduction of error when using the proposed correction.
Designing and implementing a family of intrusion detection systems

Intrusion detection systems are distributed applications that analyze the events in a networked system to identify malicious behavior. The analysis is performed using a number of attack models (or signatures) that are matched against a specific event stream. Intrusion detection systems may operate in heterogeneous environments, analyzing different types of event streams. Currently, intrusion detection systems and the corresponding attack modeling languages are developed following an ad hoc approach to match the characteristics of specific target environments. As the number of systems that have to be protected increases, this approach results in increased development effort. To overcome this limitation, we developed a framework, called STAT, that supports the development of new intrusion detection functionality in a modular fashion. The STAT framework can be extended following a well-defined process to implement intrusion detection systems tailored to specific environments, platforms, and event streams. The STAT framework is novel in the fact that the extension process also includes the extension of the attack modeling language. The resulting intrusion detection systems represent a software family whose members share common attack modeling features and the ability to reconfigure their behavior dynamically.
Wrist motions in industry

Cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) are disorders of the body's tendons and nerves due to repeated exertions and excessive movements. Workers in industrial tasks who have to move their hands and wrists repeatedly and/or forcefully are susceptible to CTDs. One of the major research voids in the study of occupational wrist CTDs is the lack of quantification of the relationship between the known kinematic risk factors, such as wrist angle and repetition, and CTD risk. A quantitative surveillance study was performed in industry in which workers' three-dimensional wrist motions were monitored on the factory floor. A total of 40 subjects from eight industrial plants participated in this study (20 workers in each of two risk groups, low and high). The wrist motion parameters that were monitored for each subject were position, angular velocity, and angular acceleration measures in each plane of movement (radial/ulnar, flexion/extension, and pronation/supination). Descriptive analyses of these measures indicated that generally the mean of the high-risk subjects was larger in magnitude than that of their low-risk counterparts. However, only the velocity and acceleration parameters resulted in significant differences between low- and high-risk groups. These results demonstrate the importance of dynamic components in assessing CTD risk.
Hepatic lesions in woodchucks (Marmota monax) seronegative for woodchuck hepatitis virus.

Livers from 128 captive woodchucks (Marmota monax) that were negative for serological markers of woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) were examined grossly and histologically. Livers from 19 additional seronegative woodchucks were examined only grossly. The most common finding (61% of histological specimens) was mononuclear cells in portal areas. Moderate to severe portal infiltrates in association with similar scattered mononuclear cell aggregates and extramedullar hematopoiesis, were present in woodchucks that had extrahepatic inflammatory lesions. We concluded that these changes represent a response to a variety of chronic infections and are not specific for WHV infection. Other findings included parasitic granulomas, focal and diffuse lipidosis, bile duct proliferation, lesions secondary to cardiovascular compromise, and vasculitis. Two woodchucks had neoplastic lesions.