cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An approval plan vendor review: The organization and process

AbstractA review of five domestic approval plan vendors was organized and conducted during 1986 and 1987 to meet several objectives. These objectives were: (1) to respond to some staff dissatisfaction with the vendor’s service; (2) to determine if the budget was being utilized effectively; and (3) to decide if another vendor could provide better service. After completing a literature review, the Collection Development Resource Allocation Subcommittee developed a checklist which was sent to vendors to guide their onsite presentations. Members of the Acquisitions Department, the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, the Science and Technology Department and the subcommittee completed an evaluation form following each vendor’s presentation. Staff also had the opportunity to provide an open-ended written response after all vendor visits were completed. The evaluation forms were tabulated and telephone evaluations were conducted with other libraries currently using one or more of the vendors. The Subcommi...
Cloning and expression of the gene cluster encoding key proteins involved in acetyl-CoA synthesis in Clostridium thermoaceticum: CO dehydrogenase, the corrinoid/Fe-S protein, and methyltransferase

Acetogenic bacteria fix CO or CO2 by a pathway of autotrophic growth called the acetyl-CoA (or Wood) pathway. Key enzymes in the pathway are a methyltransferase, a corrinoid/Fe-S protein, a disulfide reductase, and a carbon monoxide dehydrogenase. This manuscript describes the isolation of the genes that code for the methyltransferase, the two subunits of the corrinoid/Fe-S protein, and the two subunits of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase. These five genes were found to be clustered within an approximately 10-kilobase segment on the Clostridium thermoaceticum genome. The proteins were expressed at up to 5-10% of Escherichia coli cell protein, and isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside had no effect on the levels of expression, implying that the C. thermoaceticum inserts contained transcriptional and translational signals that were recognized by E. coli. The methyltransferase is expressed in E. coli in a fully active dimeric form with a specific activity and heat stability similar to the enzyme expressed in C. thermoaceticum. However, both the corrinoid/Fe-S protein and carbon dioxide dehydrogenase, although expressed in high amounts and with identical subunit molecular weights in E. coli, are inactive and less heat stable than are the native enzymes from C. thermoaceticum.
Regression of a Descending Thoracoabdominal Aortic Dissection following Staged Deployment of Thoracic and Abdominal Aortic Endografts

PURPOSE: To describe the successful endovascular repair and regression of an extensive descending thoracoabdominal aortic dissection associated with thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms. CASE REPORT: An 83-year-old man presented with acute chest pain and shortness of breath. A descending thoracoabdominal aortic dissection that extended from near the left subclavian artery (LSA) to the right common iliac artery was found on computed tomography. Separate aneurysms in the thoracic and abdominal aorta were also identified. Staged endovascular procedures were undertaken to (1) close the single entry site and exclude the aneurysm in the thoracic aorta with an AneuRx thoracic stent-graft, (2) exclude the abdominal aneurysm and distal re-entry site with a bifurcated AneuRx endograft, and (3) treat a newly dilated thoracic segment between the LSA and first thoracic stent-graft. At 1 year, the false lumen had completely disappeared, the thoracic aneurysm had collapsed onto the endograft, and the abdominal aneurysm had shrunk by 30%. CONCLUSIONS: The potential to treat extensive aortic dissections with the hope that they might regress is promising, but repair of highly complex lesions involving one or more aneurysms in addition to the dissection requires meticulous imaging studies both preoperatively and intraprocedurally.
Perceptual Cues in Pure Alexia

This study provides evidence that pure alexia, or letter-by-letter reading, may be attributed to a general perceptual de® cit that extends beyond an orthographic disorder. The perceptual problem may be unmasked when appropriate perceptual cues are not available to aid in the derivation of an integrated structural description. Four pure alexic patients and eight nonbrain-damaged controls participated in this study. In the ® rst two experiments, subjects’ reading abilities were assessed on a naming latency and a lexical decision task. Experiment 3 replicated Farah and Wallace’s (1991) results that the pure alexia de® cit was not speci® c to orthography. Experiments 4 and 5 further explored the nature of the perceptual disorder using nonorthographic stimuli. In Experiment 4, patient performance on a target detection task was unaŒ ected by the number of parts comprising the object but was impaired when the perceptual cue of good continuation was absent. Patient performance also declined when the perceptual cue of symmetry was not available to aid in the integration of occluded object parts in Experiment 5. Overall, the results imply that pure alexia is most likely to arise from a more general, nonorthographic de® cit, and that the nature of the disorder is revealed when the perceptual context lacks strong perceptual cues.
Association between altered taste perceoption and nutritional outcomes among hemodialysis patients

Taste impairment is prevalent among patients with end-stage renal disease and may compromise nutritional status. There have been no studies examining altered taste perception and nutritional outcomes. We performed a post-hoc analysis of data from the HEMO Study (n=1745). Taste perception was assessed at baseline and then updated annually. Time-updated linear and logistic regression models were used to examine the nutritional impact of altered taste perception and to evaluate predictors of altered taste perception. At baseline, 34.6% reported altered taste perception, which was associated with poorer nutritional indices. On longitudinal analysis, altered taste perception was independently associated with a persistently greater need for nutritional supplementation and subsequent reductions in serum albumin (-0.03 g/dL; p=0.02), serum creatinine (-0.22 mg/dL; p=0.009), normalized protein catabolic rate (-0.05; p Among prevalent hemodialysis patients, altered taste perception was found to be associated with poorer indices of nutritional status at baseline as well as subsequent decline in nutritional indices over time
Beyond Discourse to Emancipatory Action: Lessons From an Undergraduate

One undergraduate's transformational story of self-discovery and personal development frames this discussion of the importance of undergraduate involvement in social justice research.
Effective-Mass Approximation for Electrons in Crossed Electric and Magnetic Fields

A criterion of applicability of the effective-mass approximation to the dynamics of a Bloch electron in crossed electric and magnetic fields is derived based on a treatment of Luttinger and Kohn. The requirements necessary for the diagonalizability of the Hamiltonian for an electron in a periodic crystal field in the presence of a perturbing magnetic field and an electric potential are examined. These requirements lead to a restriction on the ratio of the electric and magnetic fields. The validity of the effective-mass approximation is also considered for higher Landau states in a magnetic field as well as for lowest states of an impurity ion.
Anterior thalamic discriminative neuronal responses enhanced during learning in rabbits with subicular and cingulate cortical lesions

Abstract The neuronal discharge that develops in the anterior ventral thalamic nucleus (AVN) in response to a task-relevant stimulus during learning is enhanced in rabbits with damage in the cingulate and subicular (hippocampal) cortical areas that project to this nucleus. These results indicate that the corticothalamic projections limit the anterior thalamic response but they do not appear to contribute casually to its development. Thus, the discriminative neuronal response is owed to interactions that occur wholly within the subcortical domain of the AVN. The production of this neural code for significant stimuli may be the principal function of the AVN. The enhanced thalamic discharges may be a neural cause of behavioral hyperactivity in animals and amnesia in humans with hippocampal damage.
Greek word segmentation using minimal information

Several computational simulations have been proposed for how children solve the word segmentation problem, but most have been tested only on a limited number of languages, often only English. In order to extend the cross-linguistic dimension of word segmentation research, a finite-state framework for testing various models of word segmentation is sketched, and a very simple cue is tested in this framework. Data is taken from Modern Greek, a language with phonological patterns distinct from English. A small-scale simulation shows using this cue performs significantly better than chance. The utility and flexibility of the finite-state approach is confirmed; suggestions for improvement are noted and directions for future work outlined.
Immunity to Brugia pahangi in athymic nude and normal mice: eosinophilia, antibody and hypersensitivity responses.

Summary Congenitally athymic nude (nu/nu) mice, immunologically reconstituted by thymus grafting before inoculation with infective larvae, and mice heterozygous for the nu gene (nu/+), mounted potent protective humoral and cellular immune responses to Brugia pahangi. Although responses were not identical, both groups of mice produced IgM, IgG and IgE antibodies specific for adult worm antigen (S-Ag) present in a crude aqueous extract, made immediate and delayed hypersensitivity footpad swelling responses when challenged with S-Ag and eliminated their infection in the early larval stages. Heterozygotes also exhibited a marked eosinophilia which peaked coincident with larval killing. In contrast, thymus grafting of patent nudes had no effect upon microfilaraemias or adult worm burdens and did not completely protect against a challenge larval inoculum although antibodies specific for S-Ag were produced. With the occasional exceptions of moderate immediate footpad swelling and very low titres of IgM specific for S-Ag, no specific immune responses to B. pahangi were found in ungrafted nude mice which allowed full development of adult worms and supported patent infections.
Heterology: A postmodern theory of foundations

Epistemology has traditionally sought to discover the foundations of knowledge. Recently, anti-foundational philosophers have construed epistemo-logy's failure to discover an ultimate ground to indicate the bankruptcy of foundational theory. On closer examination, however, the history of epistemology reveals the aim of foundational theory to be different both from the reductive ideal of its traditional defenders and from the unsystematic relativism that its recent critics offer instead. An alternative history of foundational theory reveals a progress toward multiple necessary foundations which is the task of epistemology to articulate.
Thin plate spline feature point matching for organ surfaces in minimally invasive surgery imaging

Robust feature point matching for images with large view angle changes in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a challenging task due to low texture and specular reflections in these images. This paper presents a new approach that can improve feature matching performance by exploiting the inherent geometric property of the organ surfaces. Recently, intensity based template image tracking using a Thin Plate Spline (TPS) model has been extended for 3D surface tracking with stereo cameras. The intensity based tracking is also used here for 3D reconstruction of internal organ surfaces. To overcome the small displacement requirement of intensity based tracking, feature point correspondences are used for proper initialization of the nonlinear optimization in the intensity based method. Second, we generate simulated images from the reconstructed 3D surfaces under all potential view positions and orientations, and then extract feature points from these simulated images. The obtained feature points are then filtered and re-projected to the common reference image. The descriptors of the feature points under different view angles are stored to ensure that the proposed method can tolerate a large range of view angles. We evaluate the proposed method with silicon phantoms and in vivo images. The experimental results show that our method is much more robust with respect to the view angle changes than other state-of-the-art methods.
Constraint damping in first-order evolution systems for numerical relativity

A new constraint suppressing formulation of the Einstein evolution equations is presented, generalizing the five-parameter first-order system due to Kidder, Scheel, and Teukolsky (KST). The auxiliary fields, introduced to make the KST system first order, are given modified evolution equations designed to drive constraint violations toward zero. The algebraic structure of the new system is investigated, showing that the modifications preserve the hyperbolicity of the fundamental and constraint evolution equations. The evolution of the constraints for perturbations of flat spacetime is completely analyzed, and all finite-wavelength constraint modes are shown to decay exponentially when certain adjustable parameters satisfy appropriate inequalities. Numerical simulations of a single Schwarzschild black hole are presented, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new constraint-damping modifications.
Modeling Tumor Growth in an Evolving Tissue Structure: A Diffuse Domain Approach

While cancer has been one of the leading causes of human death, predicting and thwarting cancerous tumor development are challenging because of interacting multiscale processes coupled with emerging spatiotemporal patterns that lead to microenvironmental heterogeneity and further to infiltration tendency of tumors. Built upon decades of knowledge toward the biological processes involved in tumor progress, mathematical modeling and analysis have been employed to decipher key mechanisms underlying the sophisticated emerging phenomena in tumor growth observed experimentally and clinically. Among the efforts, we have recently developed a Cahn-Hilliard model of tumor growth at tissue scale, where the Cahn-Hilliard energy described cell aggregation and phase separation due to differentiated cell-cell adhesion. Various nontrivial emerging patterns resembling observed tumor morphology were identified over the parameter space of our model. However, the previous development and analysis of our model have been implicitly based on the assumption of a homogeneous microenvironmental background and unrestricted boundaries. Most clinically relevant tumors are constrained by particular organ tissue structures that may co-evolve with the progressing tumors and have profound impact on tumor-microenvironment interactions. Here we adopt a recently developed diffuse-domain approach, utilizing the Cahn-Hilliard equation framework we have previously established, to adapt partial-differential-equation models of tumor growth to a co-evolving tissue geometry. We will demonstrate this approach by modeling the growth of lymphoma within a lymph node and ductal carcinoma in situ within mammary ducts.
Advantages of the use of Čerenkov counting for determination of P32 in photophosphorylation research

Abstract The technique described involves the use of a liquid scintillation spectrometer to assay Cerenkov radiation generated in the aqueous media by the high energy β-emissions of P32. This technique is insensitive to a wide range of representative compounds frequently used in photophosphorylation research. In addition, the less expensive polyethylene vials are superior to glass vials in counting efficiency. Cerenkov counting also offers other advantages, including increased counting efficiency, simplicity of sample preparation, and automatic sample handling. This counting method does have the drawback that the counting efficiency is lowered by substances producing a yellow color in the samples. It is possible, however, partially to alleviate this problem by using organic compounds to shift the wavelength of the emitted light.
Natural history of atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis associated with aortic disease

The natural history of atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis has not been well defined, particularly when discovered in conjunction with aortic disease requiring correction. To better define the natural history of such lesions, 194 sequential aortograms in 48 patients were studied to define predictive criteria for stenoses at risk for progression. Sixty-six unsuspected atherosclerotic renal arterial stenoses were identified on the initial aortograms. Disease progressed in 42 arteries (53%), 14 bilateral and 28 unilateral. Seven arteries developed occlusion. All had stenoses averaging 80% (range 61% to 94%) noted on the most recent aortogram preceding occlusion. Risk factors including smoking, diabetes mellitus, elevated serum lipids, coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, or change in blood pressure or creatinine, did not correlate with degree or rate of progression of the renal artery stenosis. A difference in kidney size, although varying inversely with degree of stenosis, was not a statistically significant marker of disease progression. This analysis suggests that identification of renal arterial stenoses that will progress is best determined by sequential aortography. Highly stenotic vessels are more prone to occlude than those less stenotic. Consequently, individuals with preocclusive lesions should benefit from prophylactic renal revascularization during aortic reconstruction.
A Review of Acute Cyanide Poisoning With a Treatment Update

Cyanide causes intracellular hypoxia by reversibly binding to mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase a(3). Signs and symptoms of cyanide poisoning usually occur less than 1 minute after inhalation and within a few minutes after ingestion. Early manifestations include anxiety, headache, giddiness, inability to focus the eyes, and mydriasis. As hypoxia progresses, progressively lower levels of consciousness, seizures, and coma can occur. Skin may look normal or slightly ashen, and arterial oxygen saturation may be normal. Early respiratory signs include transient rapid and deep respirations. As poisoning progresses, hemodynamic status may become unstable. The key treatment is early administration of 1 of the 2 antidotes currently available in the United States: the well-known cyanide antidote kit and hydroxocobalamin. Hydroxocobalamin detoxifies cyanide by binding with it to form the renally excreted, non-toxic cyanocobalamin. Because it binds with cyanide without forming methemoglobin, hydroxocobalamin can be used to treat patients without compromising the oxygen-carrying capacity of hemoglobin.
Spontaneous neurodegeneration in transgenic mice with mutant prion protein.

Transgenic mice were created to assess genetic linkage between Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome and a leucine substitution at codon 102 of the human prion protein gene. Spontaneous neurologic disease with spongiform degeneration and gliosis similar to that in mouse scrapie developed at a mean age of 166 days in 35 mice expressing mouse prion protein with the leucine substitution. Thus, many of the clinical and pathological features of Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome are reproduced in transgenic mice containing a prion protein with a single amino acid substitution, illustrating that a neurodegenerative process similar to a human disease can be genetically modeled in animals.
Self and Society in Popular Social Criticism 1920–1980

Since the tumult of the 1960s, sociologists and cultural historians have suggested that a “new sensibility” has become more prominent in the United States and other advanced capitalist democracies. In most accounts, the core of the change is an increase in expressive individualism, popularly justified by discourse very much indebted to the language of academic and clinical psychology. Among symbolic interactionists, Ralph Turner's proposal that there has been a shift from “institutional” to “impulsive” anchorage of the self has been the single most influential contribution to this debate. Turner's analysis is placed in the larger context of his work and considered in the light of changes in social criticism and the rhetoric of self in popular “conduct-of-life” literature published between 1920 and 1980. Three relatively distinct waves of social criticism are found in that literature during that period, with each one more firmly based on individualistic and psychologistic views of self and society than its predecessor.
Application of on-line neuro-fuzzy controller to AUVs

Abstract This paper describes a neuro-fuzzy controller for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) of which the dynamics are highly nonlinear, coupled, and time-varying. The neuro-fuzzy controller is based on the fuzzy membership function-based neural networks (FMFNNs) with advantages of fuzzy logics and neural networks, such as inference capability and adoption of human operators’ experience with fuzzy logics, and universal approximation and learning capability with neural networks. Unlike other conventional control approaches, the presented FMFNN controller does not require any information about the system, off-line learning procedures, or human intervention to adjust parameters. On-line learning of the FMFNN controller is achieved by using an inner-loop learning scheme and simplified derivatives of the vehicle system. Simulation results show effectiveness of the FMFNN controller for AUVs.
Lanthanide-induced phosphorus-31 NMR downfield chemical shifts of lysophosphatidylcholines are sensitive to lysophospholipid critical micelle concentration

Lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC) monomers or micelles in water give rise to a narrow, isotropic phosphorus-31 NMR signal (40.6 ppm; v1/2 1.7 Hz; 32.2 MHz). Upon addition of praseodymium ions, the phosphorus signals are shifted downfield. However, the downfield shifts for the longer-chain lysophosphatidylcholines, which exist in the aggregated state, are far greater than those for the shorter-chain homologues, which exist as monomers. At a Pr3+/lysoPC molar ratio of 0.5, the signals of C12lysoPC through C18lysoPC were shifted by 12.1 ppm, whereas the signals of C6lysoPC and C8lysoPC were shifted by only 2.26 ppm. This very pronounced difference in lanthanide-induced downfield shifts between micelles and monomers can be utilized to determine with accuracy lysoPC critical micelle concentrations (CMC) from downfield shift-vs.-concentration plots. The CMC values we determined were 57 mM for C8lysoPC, 5.7 mM for C10lysoPC, and 0.6 mM for C12lysoPC. The shift reagent phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance technique particularly lends itself to the measurement of CMC values in the millimolar and high micromolar range. The method can equally be used for measuring critical micelle concentrations of short-chain phosphatidylcholines.
Relationship of Frontal Plane Rotation of First Metatarsal to Proximal Articular Set Angle and Hallux Alignment in Patients Undergoing Tarsometatarsal Arthrodesis for Hallux Abducto Valgus: A Case Series and Critical Review of the Literature

Rotation of the first metatarsal, as a component of hallux abducto valgus, is rarely discussed and is not addressed as a component of most hallux valgus corrective procedures. We believe frontal plane rotation of the first metatarsal to be an integral component of hallux abducto valgus deformity (the “third plane of deformity”) and believe de-rotation is necessary for complete deformity correction. We observed the change in angular measurements commonly used in the evaluation of hallux valgus deformity in patients who underwent a modified lapidus procedure. We measured the intermetatarsal angle, hallux abductus angle, proximal articular set angle, and tibial sesamoid position on weightbearing radiographs of 25 feet in 24 patients who had undergone tarsal metatarsal corrective arthrodesis and lateral capsular release. Specific attention was given to reduction of the frontal plane rotation of the first metatarsal during correction. Our results showed a change in the angular measurements observed by 4 investigators as follows. The mean change in the intermetatarsal angle was 10.1 (p < .0001). The mean change in the hallux abductus angle was 17.8 (p < .0001). The mean change in the proximal articular set angle was 18.7 (p < .0001). The mean change in the tibial sesamoid position was 3.8 (p < .0001). Also, a consistent valgus, or everted position of the first metatarsal, was noted as a component of the hallux abducto valgus deformity in our patient population and was corrected by varus rotation or inversion of the metatarsal. We also reviewed the current literature related to anatomic changes in the first ray in the patient with hallux valgus deformity and reviewed our hypothesis regarding the reduction in the proximal articular set angle, which we believe to be related to frontal plane rotation of the first metatarsal, resulting in a radiographic artifact.
Failure analysis of process-induced particle contamination acting as masks that block implantation using C-AFM and chemical etching

Ion implantation is one of the most common steps in the manufacture of integrated circuits. The characterization and visualization of process-induced particle contamination acting as masks that block implantation especially when the defects are not in a specific area of a chip takes a lot of effort. This paper describes the use of a Conductive Atomic Force Microscope (C-AFM) technique coupled with wet chemical etching analysis to quickly make different implants visible at low cost.
Endoglucanases: insights into thermostability for biofuel applications

Obtaining bioethanol from cellulosic biomass involves numerous steps, among which the enzymatic conversion of the polymer to individual sugar units has been a main focus of the biotechnology industry. Among the cellulases that break down the polymeric cellulose are endoglucanases that act synergistically for subsequent hydrolytic reactions. The endoglucanases that have garnered relatively more attention are those that can withstand high temperatures, i.e., are thermostable. Although our understanding of thermostability in endoglucanases is incomplete, some molecular features that are responsible for increased thermostability have been recently identified. This review focuses on the investigations of endoglucanases and their implications for biofuel applications.
Histocompatibility and in vivo signal throughput for PEDOT, PEDOP, P3MT, and polycarbazole electrodes.

Stimulation and recording of the in vivo electrical activity of neurons are critical functions in contemporary biomedical research and in treatment of patients with neurological disorders. The electrodes presently in use tend to exhibit short effective lifespans due to degradation of signal transmission resulting from the tissue response at the electrode–brain interface, with signal throughput suffering most at the low frequencies relevant for biosignals. To overcome these limitations, new electrode designs to minimize tissue responses, including conducting polymers (CPs) have been explored. Here, we report the short-term histocompatibility and signal throughput results comparing platinum and CP-modified platinum electrodes in a Sprague–Dawley rat model. Two of the polymers tested elicited significantly decreased astrocyte responses relative to platinum. These polymers also showed improved signal throughput at low frequencies and comparable signal-to-noise ratios during targeted intracranial electroencephalograms. These results suggest that CP electrodes may present viable alternatives to the metal electrodes that are currently in use. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 100A:3455–3462, 2012.
Effects of high-dose inhaled fluticasone propionate via spacer on cell-mediated immunity in healthy volunteers.

Background: Systemic corticosteroids are known to altercell-mediated immunity (CMI). However, the effects of inhaled steroidson CMI are unclear. We therefore sought to assess CMI followinghigh-dose inhaled steroids in healthy subjects. Methods: Ten healthy nonasthmatic subjectsself-administered fluticasone propionate (FP), 440 μg bid, with aspacer device. CMI was assessed by delayed hypersensitivity skintesting to multiple antigens and in vitro byphytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation of peripheral blood T lymphocytes. Percentages of CD3 + , CD4 + , andCD3 + CD8 + cells expressing CD69 + were determined by three-color flow cytometry. Studies were conductedbefore and after 4 weeks of FP treatment. Results: After 4 weeks of FP treatment, two of ninesubjects became anergic, whereas six of nine subjects had reduced skinresponses (one subject was excluded). Mean total skin test score fellfrom 18.4 ± 10.9 to 9.1 ± 7.2 mm (p = 0.02). There was adecline in tuberculin responses in all four subjects who were positiveprior to FP treatment. Following FP treatment, the percentage of unstimulated (from control subjects receiving saline solution)CD3 + CD4 + CD69 + cells declined from14.8 ± 4.2% to 8.5 ± 4.6% (p = 0.02) and the CD3 + CD8 + CD69 + cells decreased from29.7 ± 12.7% to 17.1 ± 5.0% (p = 0.007). PHA stimulationproduced significant increases in the percentage of CD3 + CD4 + CD69 + cells before andafter FP treatment (67.0 ± 9.1%, p + CD8 + CD69 + cells before andafter treatment (79.7 ± 9.3%, p Conclusions: High doses of FP suppress the proportion of activated circulating Tcells but do not affect the ability of T cells to respond to directstimulation with PHA. However, depression of skin test responses toantigens following treatment with FP suggests an impairment of in vivo clinical manifestations of T-cell activation bya mechanism that requires further investigation.
Explaining the Weak Relationship Between Job Performance and Ratings of Job Performance

Ratings of job performance are widely viewed as poor measures of job performance. Three models of the performance–performance rating relationship offer very different explanations and solutions for this seemingly weak relationship. One-factor models suggest that measurement error is the main difference between performance and performance ratings and they offer a simple solution—that is, the correction for attenuation. Multifactor models suggest that the effects of job performance on performance ratings are often masked by a range of systematic nonperformance factors that also influence these ratings. These models suggest isolating and dampening the effects of these nonperformance factors. Mediated models suggest that intentional distortions are a key reason that ratings often fail to reflect ratee performance. These models suggest that raters must be given both the tools and the incentive to perform well as measurement instruments and that systematic efforts to remove the negative consequences of giving honest performance ratings are needed if we hope to use performance ratings as serious measures of job performance.
Weather, storage, and natural gas price dynamics: Fundamentals and volatility

This paper assesses how market fundamentals affect asset return volatility by drawing on evidence from the U.S. natural gas futures market. One of the novel features of this paper is the use of the deviation of temperatures from normal (weather surprise) as a proxy for demand shocks and a determinant of the conditional volatility of natural gas futures returns. I estimate a GARCH model using daily natural gas futures data from January 1997 to December 2000. The empirical result shows that the weather surprise variable has a significant effect on the conditional volatility of natural gas prices and the inclusion of the weather surprise variable in the conditional variance equation reduces volatility persistence. Combined with the evidence that volatility is considerably higher on Monday and the day when natural gas storage report is released, these results show that information about market fundamentals are important determinants of natural gas price volatility. Aside from these findings, I also document that returns of the first month futures are more volatile than those of the second month futures, which is consistent with Samuelson’s (1965) hypothesis that commodity futures price volatility declines with contract horizon.
A unique open reading frame within the comX gene of Streptococcus mutans regulates genetic competence and oxidative stress tolerance.

Streptococcus mutans displays complex regulation of genetic competence, with ComX controlling late competence gene transcription. The rcrRPQ operon has been shown to link oxidative stress tolerance, (p)ppGpp metabolism and competence in S. mutans. Importantly, an rcrR polar (ΔrcrR-P) mutant is hyper-transformable, but an rcrR non-polar (ΔrcrR-NP) mutant cannot be transformed. Transcriptome comparisons of the rcrR mutants using RNA-Seq and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed little expression in the 5′ region of comX in ΔrcrR-NP, but high level expression in the 3′ region. Northern blotting with comX probes revealed two distinct transcripts in the ΔrcrR-P and ΔrcrR-NP strains, and 5′ Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends mapped the 5′ terminus of the shorter transcript to nt +140 of the comX structural gene, where a unique 69-aa open reading frame, termed XrpA, was encoded in a different reading frame than ComX. Two single-nucleotide substitution mutants (comX::T162C; comX::T210A) were introduced to disrupt XrpA without affecting the sequence of ComX. When the mutations were in the ΔrcrR-NP genetic background, ComX production and transformation were restored. Overexpression of xrpA led to impaired growth in aerobic conditions and decreased transformability. These results reveal an unprecedented mechanism for competence regulation and stress tolerance by a gene product encoded within the comX gene that appears unique to S. mutans.
Are False-Positive Rates Leading to an Overestimation of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss?

Purpose To estimate false-positive rates for rules proposed to identify early noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) using the presence of notches in audiograms. Method Audiograms collected from school-age children in a national survey of health and nutrition (the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES III]; National Center for Health Statistics, 1994) were examined using published rules for identifying noise notches at various pass–fail criteria. These results were compared with computer-simulated “flat” audiograms. The proportion of these identified as having a noise notch is an estimate of the false-positive rate for a particular rule. Results Audiograms from the NHANES III for children 6–11 years of age yielded notched audiograms at rates consistent with simulations, suggesting that this group does not have significant NIHL. Further, pass–fail criteria for rules suggested by expert clinicians, applied to NHANES III audiometric data, yielded unacceptably high false-positive rates. Co...
Preferred movement patterns during a simple bouncing task.

SUMMARY Elastic tissues in the human body can store and return mechanical energy passively, reducing the metabolic cost of cyclical movements. However, it is not clear whether humans prefer movement patterns that optimize this storage and return. We investigated the preferred movement pattern during a bouncing task for which non-invasive techniques can identify the resonant frequency, which is the least metabolically costly. We quantified the preferred and resonant bounce frequencies for three mechanical conditions. During 9normal9 trials, subjects bounced while reclined on a sled that moves along a track. During 9added mass9 trials, mass was added to the sled. During 9added stiffness9 trials, a spring was attached between the sled and the supporting frame, parallel to the track. Subsequently, we quantified the preferred bounce frequencies during ischemia, a technique that disrupts the available sensory feedback. Mechanical condition had a significant effect on both the preferred and resonant frequencies. Changes in preferred frequency scaled with resonant frequency, but the preferred frequency was significantly lower than the resonant frequency. These results indicate that humans adapt their preferred bouncing pattern in response to changes in mechanical condition. Humans may prefer a lower than resonant frequency because of an inability to sense metabolic cost during our relatively short trials. In contrast, during ischemia the preferred bounce frequency remained constant even when mechanical condition was varied, indicating that feedback is necessary to adapt the preferred frequency to changes in mechanics. These findings suggest that disrupted sensory feedback may prevent humans from choosing the optimal movement pattern.
Good practices for quantitative bias analysis

Quantitative bias analysis serves several objectives in epidemiological research. First, it provides a quantitative estimate of the direction, magnitude and uncertainty arising from systematic errors. Second, the acts of identifying sources of systematic error, writing down models to quantify them, assigning values to the bias parameters and interpreting the results combat the human tendency towards overconfidence in research results, syntheses and critiques and the inferences that rest upon them. Finally, by suggesting aspects that dominate uncertainty in a particular research result or topic area, bias analysis can guide efficient allocation of sparse research resources. The fundamental methods of bias analyses have been known for decades, and there have been calls for more widespread use for nearly as long. There was a time when some believed that bias analyses were rarely undertaken because the methods were not widely known and because automated computing tools were not readily available to implement the methods. These shortcomings have been largely resolved. We must, therefore, contemplate other barriers to implementation. One possibility is that practitioners avoid the analyses because they lack confidence in the practice of bias analysis. The purpose of this paper is therefore to describe what we view as good practices for applying quantitative bias analysis to epidemiological data, directed towards those familiar with the methods. We focus on answering questions often posed to those of us who advocate incorporation of bias analysis methods into teaching and research. These include the following. When is bias analysis practical and productive? How does one select the biases that ought to be addressed? How does one select a method to model biases? How does one assign values to the parameters of a bias model? How does one present and interpret a bias analysis?. We hope that our guide to good practices for conducting and presenting bias analyses will encourage more widespread use of bias analysis to estimate the potential magnitude and direction of biases, as well as the uncertainty in estimates potentially influenced by the biases.
Dromions of flexural-gravity waves

Here we show that weakly nonlinear flexural-gravity wave packets, such as those propagating on the surface of ice-covered waters, admit three-dimensional fully localized solutions that travel with a constant speed without dispersion or dissipation. These solutions, that are formed at the intersection of line-soliton mean-flow tracks, have exponentially decaying tails in all directions and are called dromions in contrast to lumps that decay only algebraically. We derive, by asymptotic expansion and assuming multiple scales for spatial and temporal variations, the three-dimensional weakly nonlinear governing equations that describe the coupled motion of the wavepacket envelope and the underlying mean current. We show that in the limit of long waves and strong flexural rigidity these equations reduce to a system of nonlinear elliptic–hyperbolic partial differential equations similar to the Davey–Stewartson I (DSI) equation, but with major differences in the coefficients. Specifically, and contrary to DSI equations, the elliptic and hyperbolic operators in the flexural-gravity equations are not canonical resulting in complications in analytical considerations. Furthermore, standard computational techniques encounter difficulties in obtaining the dromion solution to these equations owing to the presence of a spatial hyperbolic operator whose solution does not decay at infinity. Here, we present a direct (iterative) numerical scheme that uses pseudo-spectral expansion and pseudo-time integration to find the dromion solution to the flexural-gravity wave equation. Details of this direct simulation technique are discussed and properties of the solution are elaborated through an illustrative case study. Dromions may play an important role in transporting energy over the ice cover in the Arctic, resulting in the ice breaking far away from the ice edge, and also posing danger to icebreaker ships. In fact we found that, contrary to DSI dromions that only exist in water depths of less than 5 mm, flexural-gravity dromions exist for a broad range of ice thicknesses and water depths including values that may be realized in polar oceans.
Controller assigned airborne separation (CAAS) result of initial pairwise study

A study of the controller-assigned airborne separation (CAAS) pairwise crossing application has been completed by the MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD). The CAAS procedure permits delegation of separation authority from the air traffic controller to the aircrew in specific situations. The application relies on advanced aircraft avionics to perform "electronic" visual separation. Seven former air traffic controllers worked various simulated air traffic scenarios both with and without CAAS. Controller performance measures and subjective responses were collected and analyzed. Overall, results indicate that the concept of CAAS is promising. Further research is planned in four areas: (1) additional controller applications for CAAS, (2) pilot evaluations, (3) integrated pilot-controller experiments, and (4) analysis of benefits and costs.
Chinese Ecocriticism: A Survey of the Landscape

Over the last decade, ecocriticism – defined broadly as the study of the relationship between language or art and the physical environment1 – has come to the fore in China, particularly in humanities departments, leading to an outpouring of critical articles, books, and specialized studies. Possible reasons for why ecocriticism has gained traction within the university are as follows: (i) the increasing hybridization and cross-disciplinarity within literature departments, where media/film, social science, literature, and philosophy increasingly interact, and (ii) increased anxiety over environmental issues as amplified in the media. By cutting across several disciplines and media platforms, in only a few short years, ecocriticism has developed into a legitimate, and powerful, school of thought. The first section of this paper provides a brief overview of the recent history of the ecocritical “movement” in China – focusing on ways in which literary critics have developed ecocriticism into a vibrant discourse. The second half addresses social ecology, a specific branch of ecocriticism, and its relevance to themes of alienation and modernization active in the work of avant-garde directors and ecological activists. While Chinese academics have been reluctant to address social and political themes through an ecocritical lens, in the coming years, we should find greater attention paid, both on the left and on the right, to issues of environmental justice and ecological community.
Acoustic fall detection using one-class classifiers

Falling represents a major health concern for the elderly. To address this concern we proposed in a previous paper an acoustic fall detection system, FADE, composed of a microphone array and a motion detector. FADE may help the elderly living alone by alerting a caregiver as soon as a fall is detected. A crucial component of FADE is the classification software that labels an event as a fall or part of the daily routine based on its sound signature. A major challenge in the design of the classifier is that it is almost impossible to obtain realistic fall sound signatures for training purposes. To address this problem we investigate a type of classifier, one-class classifier, that requires only examples from one class (i.e., non-fall sounds) for training. In our experiments we used three one-class (OC) classifiers: nearest neighbor (OCNN), SVM (OCSVM) and Gaussian mixture (OCGM). We compared the results of OC to the regular (two-class) classifiers on two datasets.
Single L‐type calcium channel conductance with physiological levels of calcium in chick ciliary ganglion neurons.

1. Single L-type calcium channels in chick ciliary ganglion neurons were studied at high current resolution in cell-attached patch recordings using quartz-glass micropipettes. 2. A single open-channel current amplitude was observed when Ba2+ was the charge carrier with a conductance of 26 pS at 110 mM barium. However, with 110 mM calcium two current fluctuation amplitudes were observed. These were termed low and high fluctuation amplitudes, CaL and CaH, and had conductances of 8.8 and 12 pS, respectively. These two levels probably reflect two different channel species. CaL was identified as an L-type calcium channel on the basis of resistance to inactivation, conductance, and dihydropyridine sensitivity. 3. Single-channel current fluctuations could be detected with calcium concentrations as low as 1.0 mM. Although the unitary conductance (gamma) was much greater with barium than calcium at every concentration tested, the concentration dependence of conductance was similar for gamma Ba, gamma CaH and gamma CaL. Fitting the concentration dependencies of these conductances with a Langmuir isotherm gave KD estimates of 4.7, 5.6 and 5.0 mM for barium, CaL and CaH, respectively 4. The single-channel conductance of the L-type channel (gamma L) can be described by the relation: conductance (in pS) = 9.2/(1 + 5.6/[Ca]) where [Ca] is the external calcium concentration in the 1.0-110 mM range. Thus, at a physiological external calcium concentration of 2 mM the conductance is 2.4 pS. 5. Ca2+ transport through the L-type calcium channel is particularly sensitive to changes in external calcium concentration in the physiological range but approaches saturation at about 10 mM. this characteristic may optimize the responsiveness of the cell to small changes in ambient calcium concentrations while limiting excess entry in the presence of abnormally high calcium levels.
Electronic Cash In E-Commerce: Comparative Analysis Of Views Of Hispanic And African-American Business Owners

Based on a survey of 1000 Hispanic and 1000 African-American business owners on the impacts e-commerce and e-cash are expected to have upon business practices, there were significant discrepancies between perceptions of these two groups regarding their ability to track and retain customers and to authenticate the source of e-cash payments. In addition, while both groups of owners agreed that e-cash will likely replace traditional currency used in commercial transactions between consumers and business, they both are uncertain as to what degree central banks of countries should regulate and how much freedom the private sector should have for developing new forms of e-cash. Hispanic business owners generally are more receptive to e-commerce viewing it as not making marketing strategies more difficult while African-American owners generally perceive enhanced issues to be resolved.