cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A supermartingale characterization of sets of stochastic integrals and applications

A supermartingale characterization of sets of stochastic integrals is given along with its applications to control and diffusion approximation. The characterization is convenient for passing to the limit. Under natural conditions it is proved that the set of distributions of controlled diffusion processes is convex and compact.
Chromatographic and kinetic properties of acid- and pepsin-activated inactive renin from human amniotic fluid.

Abstract The Chromatographic and kinetic properties of acid- and pepsin-activated inactive renin from human amniotic fluid were determined. Acid-activated inactive renin, like inactive renin, was found to be bound to an Affi-Gel Blue affinity column. Pepsin-activated inactive renin, on the other hand, did not bind to such a column. The K m values of endogenous active renin, acid-activated inactive renin, and pepsin-activated inactive renin with bovine substrate were 0.11, 0.12 and 0.05 μM respectively. With hog substrate, the K m values were 0.16,0.19 and 0.10 μM respectively. These results suggest that there is a difference between the active form of renin obtained from acid activation of inactive renin and the active renin obtained after pepsin treatment.
Pharmacological protection of hearing loss in the mouse model of endolymphatic hydrops

Objectives/Hypothesis: Excitotoxic and related inflammatory injury are implicated in the spiral ganglion degeneration seen with Meniere's disease and endolymphatic hydrops (ELH). Excitotoxicity is initiated with glutamate elevation and associated with downstream increases in reactive oxygen species resulting in inflammation-mediated neuronal degeneration. This study tests the hypothesis that interruption of the initial and/or downstream aspects of excitotoxicity should provide hearing protection in ELH-associated hearing loss. Study Design: This study tests whether riluzole, a glutamate release inhibitor, and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant solvent with favorable properties at the level of glutamate receptors, can protect against early-stage hearing loss in a mouse model of ELH. Methods: The PhexHyp-Duk mouse spontaneously develops ELH and postnatal hearing loss. Starting at postnatal day 6 (P6), daily injections of riluzole + DMSO or just DMSO were administered. Untreated mutants served as controls. At P21, P25, and P30, hearing function was assessed by recording auditory brainstem responses. A cochlear function index was developed to assess global cochlear function at each time point. Results: Compared to no treatment, DMSO provided significant hearing protection (P < .05). The riluzole + DMSO also showed protection, but it was statistically indistinguishable from DMSO alone; a synergistic increase in protection with riluzole was not observed. Conclusions: This study demonstrates pharmacological hearing protection in an animal model of ELH. The results support the assertion that inflammatory (reactive oxygen species) injury, which is part of the excitotoxic pathway, contributes to the development of ELH-associated hearing loss. Laryngoscope, 2010
Unnecessary Imaging for the Staging of Low-risk Prostate Cancer Is Common

Objective To quantify the rate of overuse of preoperative imaging procedures in a referral cohort of low-risk patients. International evidence-based best practice guidelines discourage routine imaging for staging purposes in low-risk patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. Material and Methods An institutional database comprised of all patients undergoing robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy was queried for “low-risk” patients between May 2005 and January 2010. “Low-risk” was defined by the most inclusive criteria for imaging recommendations: prostate-specific antigen ≤10 ng/mL and Gleason score ≤6. We defined staging imaging as a bone scan, computed tomography (CT) of the pelvis or endorectal magnetic resonance imaging performed after the diagnosis of prostate cancer and before prostatectomy for the indication of “prostate cancer.” Six-hundred seventy-seven patients were identified as having low-risk disease and comprised our study population. Results Of the 677 patients identified as low risk, 328 (48%) underwent at least one preoperative imaging procedure despite the guideline recommendations. Two-hundred two of 677 (30%) patients were administered at least 2 of the 3 modalities, and 18/677 (3%) patients received all 3 imaging examinations before prostatectomy. Suspicious results from the CT (7/265%, 2.7%) or bone scan (21/241%, 8.7%) resulted in 27 patients undergoing additional radiographic imaging, none of which resulted in suspicious lesions requiring intervention or biopsy. Conclusions Despite international evidence-based guidelines for the staging of newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients, many urologists continue to refer low-risk patients for unnecessary imaging studies. This may place the patient at increased risk from radiation or contrast exposure and places an unnecessary financial burden on the patient and health care system.
Economic Justice and the 2003-2010 Recession: Lessons Learned for Multi-Level Social Work Practice

The pursuit of social justice is a defining value of the social work profession, and its economic component is widely perceived to be an essential component of this quest. Consequently, social workers will practice to their fullest capacities if they understand the contemporary economic phenomena needed to promote social justice on all levels of practice, and discipline-specific knowledge in an accessible format is required to do so. In response, this paper provides a social work perspective on the world-wide recession of 2003-2010 along with implications for micro, mezzo and macro practice.
Quantity and quality: unifying food web and ecosystem perspectives on the role of resource subsidies in freshwaters.

Although the study of resource subsidies has emerged as a key topic in both ecosystem and food web ecology, the dialogue over their role has been limited by separate approaches that emphasize either subsidy quantity or quality. Considering quantity and quality together may provide a simple, but previously unexplored, framework for identifying the mechanisms that govern the importance of subsidies for recipient food webs and ecosystems. Using a literature review of >90 studies of open-water metabolism in lakes and streams, we show that high-flux, low-quality subsidies can drive freshwater ecosystem dynamics. Because most of these ecosystems are net heterotrophic, allochthonous inputs must subsidize respiration. Second, using a literature review of subsidy quality and use, we demonstrate that animals select for high-quality food resources in proportions greater than would be predicted based on food quantity, and regardless of allochthonous or autochthonous origin. This finding suggests that low-flux, high-quality subsidies may be selected for by animals, and in turn may disproportionately affect food web and ecosystem processes (e.g., animal production, trophic energy or organic matter flow, trophic cascades). We then synthesize and review approaches that evaluate the role of subsidies and explicitly merge ecosystem and food web perspectives by placing food web measurements in the context of ecosystem budgets, by comparing trophic and ecosystem production and fluxes, and by constructing flow food webs. These tools can and should be used to address future questions about subsidies, such as the relative importance of subsidies to different trophic levels and how subsidies may maintain or disrupt ecosystem stability and food web interactions.
Adolescents' Attributions for Delinquent Behavior

This studs' examines adolescents' causal attributions for their own and others' delinquent behavior and the relationship between those attributions and delinquent involvement. In addition, the impact of living in a state school for delinquents on attributions is examined. Seventy institutionalized adolescents and 69 ninth-graders completed measures of attributions and delinquent involvement. Multivariate analyses of these data indicate the following: (1) adolescents attribute both their own and others' behavior to situational over dispositional causes; (2) adolescents use both situational and dispositional attributions to a greater degree when explaining others' behavior than when explaining their own behavior; (3) institutionalization effects attributions; and (4) there is no relationship between attributions for one's own behavior and degree of involvement in that behavior.
Adversarial Jurisprudence: Legal Education and the Demise of the Consensual Norm

This paper examines the rise in Supreme Court dissent and concurrence rates, testing whether modern legal education contributes to the abandonment of the consensual norm. Scholars have pointed out that changing external conditions, changing enforcement mechanisms, and changing values may alter the conceptualization of a norm. Modern legal education trains lawyers to apply case law to conflicting arguments creatively in pursuit of desired outcomes. This paper tests the hypothesis that modern legal education has indoctrinated judges to freely pursue adversarial positions, supported by differing interpretations of precedent. This behavior would manifest itself in greater rates of dissents and special concurrences. Statistical tests examining Supreme Court decisions from 1801 through 1991 strongly support the hypothesis.
Electron Transfer Contact Maps

An exact approach is introduced to establish and compare quantitative structure−function relationships in electron transfer proteins. The strategy is based on the idea of an electron transfer contact map and is motivated by reduced descriptions of 3D protein structure that emphasize the folded conformation (ribbon drawings, distance contact maps, and Ramachandran plots). Electron transfer contact maps render the protein-mediated electronic coupling information in a compact and transferable form. The method includes all contributions of multiple interfering tunneling pathways to the tunneling propagation and can be implemented at many levels of electronic structure theory. Contact maps are used to interpret the influence of mutations on electronic propagation in model peptides.
Rates of heat-induced dna purine alterations in synthetic polydeoxyribonucleotides

Summary Damage to DNA by heat can occur at physiological conditions. The effects of the varying conformational states adopted by double-stranded DNA on the incidences and distributions of thermally induced hydrolytic purine alterations are unknown. The possible role of conformational changes on damage by heat to purines in DNA polymers was therefore investigated. Model compounds used were the synthetic alternating copolymer poly(dG-dC):poly(dG-dC) and the homopolymer poly(dG):poly(dC). Base damages were assayed by high performance liquid chromatography using polymers radioactively labeled in guanine. Conformational states were assayed by circular dichroic spectral changes. Incubation and heating of the polymers in 1 mM Mn2+ caused the spectral shift reported for the left-handed Z-DNA conformation in the alternating copolymer and the change reported for the triple helix in the homopolymer. After incubation at 85 °C., incidences of base damages were compared between the polymers. No deamination of guanine to xanthine was observed under any conditions. The presence of manganese reduced depurination in both polymers. Rates of guanine imidazole ring openings to yield 2,6-diamino-4-hydroxy-5-formamidopyrimidine were increased in the presence of the cation and constituted the chief form of purine damage in the homopolymer. Therefore, the distribution of heatinduced DNA alterations within the genome may be determined by DNA conformational states. This observed opening of purine imidazole rings in the presence of manganese ions may have mutagenic consequences and may be involved in carcinogenesis by metals.
Hope More, Worry Less: Hope as a Potential Resilience Factor in Mothers of Very Young Children With Type 1 Diabetes

Little research has explored potential resilience factors in parenting a child with a chronic illness—or factors that help protect against the experience of psychological distress. This study explored the relation between hope (a resilience factor) and anxiety (a distress factor) in mothers of very young children with type 1 diabetes. Seventy-five mothers of children aged 2 through 5 years diagnosed with type 1 diabetes completed a self-report assessment battery, including well-standardized measures of hope and anxiety. As expected, analyses indicated an inverse relation between mothers' hope and anxiety. In addition, after controlling for significant medical and demographic covariates, hope remained a negative contributor to maternal anxiety (p < .001). This suggests that having an individual disposition that includes high hope may serve as a protective factor against psychological distress in mothers of very young children with diabetes. Examining levels of hope in this population may identify parents l...
On the uniform complete convergence of estimates for multivariate density functions and regression curves

Let (X1,Y1),...(Xn,Yn) be a random sample from the (k+1)-dimensional multivariate density functionf*(x,y). Estimates of thek-dimensional density functionf(x)=∫f*(x,y)dy of the form $$\hat f_n (x) = \frac{1}{{nb_1 (n) \cdots b_k (n)}}\sum\limits_{i = 1}^n W \left( {\frac{{x_1 - X_{i1} }}{{b_1 (n)}}, \cdots ,\frac{{x_k - X_{ik} }}{{b_k (n)}}} \right)$$ are considered whereW(x) is a bounded, nonnegative weight function andb1(n),...,bk(n) and bandwidth sequences depending on the sample size and tending to 0 asn→∞. For the regression function $$m(x) = E(Y|X = x) = \frac{{h(x)}}{{f(x)}}$$ whereh(x)=∫y(f)*(x, y)dy , estimates of the form $$\hat h_n (x) = \frac{1}{{nb_1 (n) \cdots b_k (n)}}\sum\limits_{i = 1}^n {Y_i W} \left( {\frac{{x_1 - X_{i1} }}{{b_1 (n)}}, \cdots ,\frac{{x_k - X_{ik} }}{{b_k (n)}}} \right)$$ are considered. In particular, unform consistency of the estimates is obtained by showing that\(||\hat f_n (x) - f(x)||_\infty \) and\(||\hat m_n (x) - m(x)||_\infty \) converge completely to zero for a large class of “good” weight functions and under mild conditions on the bandwidth sequencesbk(n)'s.
Triacontanol and Its Second Messenger 9-β-l(+)-Adenosine as Plant Growth Substances

Triacontanol (TRIA), a common constituent of plant waxes, was first shown in 1977 to be an active growth substance which at nanomolar concentrations increased the growth and yield of crops. TRIA is used to increase crop yields on millions of hectares, particularly in Asia. Many investigators have shown that it affects several basic metabolic processes including photosynthesis, nutrient uptake, and enzyme activity. However, the initial site of action has not been elucidated. TRIA rapidly elicits a second messenger (TRIM) in rice (Oryza sativa L.), which at nanomolar concentrations causes plants to respond in a manner similar to TRIA. TRIM has been identified as 9-β-l(+)-adenosine (9H-purin-6-amine, 9-β-l-ribofuranosyl). During the process of isolating and identifying 9-β-l(+)-adenosine, it was shown that this enantiomer, which previously has not been reported as occurring in nature, made up about 1% of the total adenosine pool in roots from untreated rice seedlings.
Correlated intensity, counter party risks, and dependent mortalities

Abstract In this paper we use an intensity-based framework to analyze and compute the correlated default probabilities, both in finance and actuarial sciences, following the idea of “change of measure” initiated by Collin-Dufresne et al. (2004) . Our method is based on a representation theorem for joint survival probability among an arbitrary number of defaults, which works particularly effectively for certain types of correlated default models, including the counter-party risk models of Jarrow and Yu (2001) and related problems such as the phenomenon of “flight to quality”. The results are also useful in studying the recently observed dependent mortality for married couples involving spousal bereavement. In particular we study in details a problem of pricing Universal Variable Life (UVL) insurance products. The explicit formulae for the joint-life status and last-survivor status (or equivalently, the probability distribution of first-to-default and last-to-default in a multi-firm setting) enable us to derive the explicit solution to the indifference pricing formula without using any advanced results in partial differential equations.
Etomidate for pediatric sedation prior to fracture reduction.

Objective While etomidate is reported as a procedural sedative in adults, its use in children has not been extensively reported. The authors describe their experience with etomidate for procedural sedation in children with extremity fractures and major joint dislocations. Methods This was a retrospective descriptive chart review. The setting was a university-based emergency department (ED) that follows national guidelines for procedural sedation. Subjects were children less than 18 years old who received etomidate prior to fracture reduction or major joint dislocations. Standardized data were abstracted from the medical records, including patient demographics, diagnosis, weight, types and doses of sedative and analgesic agents used, number of boluses of etomidate, attempts at reduction, complications encountered, vitals signs before, during, and after the reduction, disposition, and the time from procedure to discharge. Descriptive statistics calculated included means and proportions with 95% confidence intervals. Results Fifty-three children received etomidate for fracture reduction. Their mean age was 9.7; 41.5% were females. Indications for reduction included forearm fractures (38), ankle fractures (12), upper arm fractures (2), and hip dislocations (1). In most cases (83%) reduction was successful after one attempt only. The mean initial and total doses of etomidate were 0.20 mg/kg (range, 0.1 to 0.4) and 0.24 mg/kg (range, 0.13 to 0.52), respectively. Thirteen patients required a second bolus of etomidate or midazolam. Thirty-four patients (64%) were discharged from the ED after a mean observation of 94 minutes (range, 35 to 255). There were no major adverse events (95% CI = 0% to 5.7%). One patient reported nausea and one required a fluid bolus for hypotension. One patient receiving multiple sedatives and opioid analgesics was admitted for observation due to prolonged sedation. No patient required assisted ventilation or intubation. Conclusions These results suggest that etomidate is a safe and effective agent for procedural sedation in children requiring fracture and major joint reductions.
Latent heterogeneity in long-term trajectories of body mass index in older adults.

Objectives: To evaluate latent heterogeneity in long-term trajectories of body weight in older adults. Methods: We analyzed 14-year longitudinal data on 10,314 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study. Semiparametric mixture models identified latent subgroups of similar trajectories of body mass index (BMI). Results: Five distinct trajectory subgroups emerged: normal starting-BMI with accelerated increase over time (trajectory #1), overweight and increasing (trajectory #2), borderline-obese and increasing (trajectory #3), obese and increasing (trajectory #4), and morbidly obese with decelerating gain (trajectory #5). Blacks and Hispanics had greater risk of membership in ascending high-BMI trajectory groups. Females had approximately half the risk of following overweight and obese increasing BMI trajectories compared with males. Discussion: Distinct latent subgroups of BMI trajectories and significant racial/ethnic and gender trajectory heterogeneity exist in the older adult population. The prope...
Integrating research competencies in massage therapy education

Abstract The massage therapy profession is currently engaged in a competency-based education movement that has as one of its several focal points an emphasis on promoting massage therapy research competencies (MTRCs) at an introductory or entry level. One of several dimensions that must be seriously considered in advancing MTRCs in the profession is that of the curricular and instructional contexts for teaching these skills (see J. Bodywork Movement Ther. 2003, 7(3), 194). It is precisely this dimension to which this paper speaks in proposing a systems-based model for integrating research competencies in massage therapy education. Specifically, basic guidelines are suggested for preparing, implementing, and evaluating instruction at the unit or module level. An illustrative unit titled “The Experimental Research Process” is provided as an exemplar that could serve any one or more of the following functions: (a) an initial unit among several constituting a foundational core research course in a massage therapy school's curriculum; (b) a self-contained unit as part of a continuing education workshop or mini-course; and (c) a generic unit for a networking educational seminar among diverse health care professionals.
Oxygen and hydrogen isotope evidence for meteoric water infiltration during mylonitization and uplift in the Ruby Mountains-East Humboldt Range core complex, Nevada

Stable isotope analyses of rocks and minerals associated with the detachment fault and underlying my- lonite zone exposed at Secret Creek gorge and other localities in the Ruby-East Humboldt Range metamor- phic core complex in northeastern Nevada provide con- vincing evidence for meteoric water infiltration during mylonitization. Whole-rock 6180 values of the lower plate quartzite mylonites (>95% modal quartz) have been lowered by up to 10 per rail compared with struc- turally lower, compositionally similar, unmylonitized material. Biotite from these rocks has 6D values ranging from -125 to -175, compared to values of -55 to -70 in biotite from unmylonitized rocks. Mylonitized leucogranites have large disequilibrium oxygen isotope fractionations (Aquartz_felaspa r up to "-,8 per mil) relative to magmatic values (Aquartz_feldspa r ~ 1 to 2 per mil). Me- teoric water is the only major oxygen and hydrogen res- ervoir with an isotopic composition capable of generat- ing the observed values. Fluid inclusion water from un- strained quartz in silicified breccia has a 6D value of -119 which provides a plausible estimate of the 6D of the infiltrating fluid, and is similar to the isotopic composition of present-day and Tertiary local meteoric water. The quartzite mylonite biotites would have been in equilibrium with such a fluid at temperatures of 480- 620 ~ C, similar to independent estimates of the tempera- ture of mylonitization. The relatively high temperatures required for isotopic exchange between quartz and water, the occurrence of fluid inclusion trails and de- formed veins in quartzite mylonites, and the spatial asso- ciation of the low-180, low-D rocks with the shear zone all constrain isotopic exchange to the mylonitic (plastic) deformation event. These observations suggest that a significant amount of meteoric water infiltrated the shear zone during mylonitization to depths of at least 5 to 10 km below the surface. The depth of penetration
High Hydrostatic Pressure Processing of Fruit and Vegetable Products

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) as a minimal thermal technology is a valuable tool for microbiologically safe and shelf-stable fruit and vegetable production. Microorganisms and deteriorative enzymes can be inhibited or inactivated depending on the amount of pressure and time applied to the product. The resistance of microorganisms and enzymes to pressure in fruit and vegetable products also is dependent on both the type and the amount of enzymes or microorganisms as well as food composition. While on one hand, microorganisms (other than spores) can be inactivated at mild pressures (< 300 MPa), on the other, enzymes can be very resistant to pressure and their resistance may increase when isolated forms are pressurized. Nevertheless, microbiologically safe fruit and vegetable products can be obtained without change in flavor if temperature is not increased beyond pasteurization temperatures. The remaining enzyme activity in HHP processed fruit and vegetable products can be delayed if a combination of obsta...
The Impact of Security Issues on Willingness-to-Share in Community Wireless Networks

Several business models have been proposed to create “wireless cities”, municipalities with complete wireless connectivity throughout. These business models are for-profit, non-profit, or public-private enterprises, but none has proven to be completely successful. Community wireless networks, wherein members of the community provide the wireless infrastructure, are one possible solution to this problem. For this type of model to succeed, however, end-users must have confidence in the security of the wireless infrastructure. 168 residents of a U.S. West Coast city responded to an on-line survey asking them their attitudes about networks, security, and willingness to “share” their home wireless computer network. A surprisingly large number were willing to share their network for no compensation. An even larger number of residents would be willing to share their networks for some type of compensation. This result bodes well for this mode if communities are willing to compensate their residents and secure their networks.
Bridging the gap between medical settings and specialty addiction treatment.

Keywords: Alcohol misuse; care linkage; medical settings; specialty addiction treatment
An experimental study of electric field pulses produced by cloud and ground lightning discharges

Measurements of electric fields produced by cloud and ground lightning discharges were performed in Gainesville, Florida, in the summer of 2006. Microsecond- and submicrosecond-scale pulses in both cloud and cloud-to-ground discharges associated with the initial breakdown process were recorded and analyzed. In addition to ldquoclassicalrdquo preliminary breakdown pulses with durations of some tens of microseconds, pulses with durations an order of magnitude smaller were also detected. A total of 12 cloud and 12 cloud-to-ground discharges were analyzed in detail. We estimated that 26% of the pulses in the 12 cloud discharges and 22% of the pulses in the 12 cloud-to-ground discharges had total durations less that 1 mus. Further, we documented (apparently for the first time) pulse trains that were characteristic of initial (preliminary) breakdown in negative cloud-to-ground flashes but were not followed by return-stroke pulses.
Navigational task-planning of distributed cooperative robotic vehicles

Real time obstacle avoidance is one of the intelligent tasks for intelligent mobile robots. Mobile robots should possess the ability to act autonomously in the presence of uncertainty and to adjust their action based on sensed information. They also should be capable of accepting high level mission oriented commands, integrate several kinds of data, including task specification, able to handle information about their own state and the state of the environment too, and be capable of reasoning under uncertainty without human intervention. The proposed technique is a behavior-based approach that blends subset navigational behaviors such as reflexive, potential field and wall following techniques. We discuss each approach separately and present a technique for adaptive navigational behavior switching that is conditional based on the availability of sensory information locally and globally. Our navigation control strategies are developed fully in the FMCell environment. We present some simulation results from FMCell software.
Influence of Caponization on Skin Pigmentation of Male Broilers

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of caponization on skin pigmentation. Male broiler chicks were divided into caponized, sham-operated, and intact treatment groups with surgery performed at 3 weeks of age (Experiment 1) or 1 week of age (Experiment 2). All chicks were provided with corn-soy broiler diets ad libitum. In Experiment 2, an additional 37.4 mg of total xanthophyll was added per kilogram of finisher diet. At 7 weeks of age, birds were processed, comb size was scored, and the gonadal area was examined to identify partially caponized or improperly sexed birds. Caponized, sham-operated, and intact carcasses for analysis totaled, respectively, 28, 25, and 18 in Experiment 1 and 59, 33, and 30 in Experiment 2. Skin pigmentation was measured by reflectance colorimetry on the anterior portion of the lateral feather tract, on the same area of breast skin after removal from the carcass, and on shank skin removed from the leg. No differences were found in skin lightness (L), redness (a), or yellowness (b) between the treatment groups. These results indicate that pigmentation differences between male and female broilers are not likely to be due to differences in testicular activity.
Negotiation of Outcome and Negotiation of Meaning in ESL Classroom Interaction

i In recent years, a growing number of researchers concerned with first and second language acquisition have indicated that negotiation in interactions between a language learner and a proficient speaker of the language plays a significant role in promoting language acquisition. Since, however, this area of research is a relatively new one, some of the key terms and concepts involved are used in different senses by different authors, and, so far, there has been little indication of how this research could be of use to classroom teachers. The present study was therefore carried out in an attempt 1) to operationalize the concept of negotiation in the context of an ESL classroom, and 2) to investigate which types of classroom activity foster negotiation. One 30-minute ESL lesson taught by a native English-speaking (NS) teacher to a class of 30 non-native English-speaking (NNS) children, between the ages of 11 and 13 and in the first year of an ESL program in an elementary school in Philadelphia, was recorded and analyzed according to the model of classroom discourse proposed by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975). Two 10-minute segments of the lesson involving, respectively, display and open-ended questioning by the teacher based on a reading text were examined in detail according to a number of criteria for negotiation suggested by Long (1983), Hatch (1983), and Wells (1981). According to Long, criteria for negotiation include use by the NS of confirmation checks, comprehension checks, clarification requests, repetitions, and marking of new topics. Hatch's distinction between the NNS's "canned" as opposed to "creative" speech, which she terms "true negotiation," was operationalized in this study as the production by both NS and NNS of utterances containing information known to only one party. Wells' criteria for determining which negotiations in interactions occurring between mothers and their pre-school children will lead to faster language development include encouragement by the mother of initiations by the child. This was
Surface Cloud Forcing in the East Pacific Stratus Deck/Cold Tongue/ITCZ Complex

Abstract Data from the Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate Studies (EPIC) mooring array are used to evaluate the annual cycle of surface cloud forcing in the far eastern Pacific stratus cloud deck/cold tongue/intertropical convergence zone complex. Data include downwelling surface solar and longwave radiation from 10 EPIC-enhanced Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) moorings from 8°S, 95°W to 12°N, 95°W, and the Woods Hole Improved Meteorology (IMET) mooring in the stratus cloud deck region at 20°S, 85°W. Surface cloud forcing is defined as the observed downwelling radiation at the surface minus the clear-sky value. Solar cloud forcing and longwave cloud forcing are anticorrelated at all latitudes from 12°N to 20°S: clouds tended to reduce the downward solar radiation and to a lesser extent increase the downward longwave radiation at the surface. The relative amount of solar radiation reduction and longwave increase depends upon cloud type and varies with latitude. A statistical relationship between sola...
A Predictive Model for Solving Small Linear Algebra Problems in GPU Registers

We examine the problem of solving many thousands of small dense linear algebra factorizations simultaneously on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). We are interested in problems ranging from several hundred of rows and columns to 4 x 4 matrices. Problems of this size are common, especially in signal processing. However, they have received very little attention from current numerical linear algebra libraries for GPUs, which have thus far focused only on very large problems found in traditional supercomputing applications and benchmarks. To solve small problems efficiently we tailor our implementation to the GPUs inverted memory hierarchy and multi-level parallelism hierarchy. We provide a model of the GPU memory subsystem that can accurately predict and explain the performance of our approach across different problem sizes. As a motivating example, we look at space-time adaptive radar processing, a real-time application that requires hundreds of independent QR factorizations of small complex matrices (e.g. 240 × 66). For realistic matrix sizes from a standard radar processing benchmark, our implementation on an NVIDIA Quadro 6000 GPU runs 2.8 × to 25 × faster than Intel's Math Kernel Library (MKL) on an Intel Core i7-2600. For the QR factorizations of 5,000 56 × 56 single-precision matrices, our approach runs 29 × faster than MKL and 140 × faster than the state-of-the-art linear algebra library for GPUs. In each of these cases we are using the GPU's hardwareaccelerated division and square root functions that are accurate up to 22 mantissa bits.
Dynamic Modelling for Planar Extensible Continuum Robot Manipulators

In this paper, a new dynamic model for continuum robot manipulators is derived. The dynamic model is developed based on the geometric model of extensible continuum robot manipulators with no torsional effects. The development presented in this paper is an extension of the dynamic model proposed by Mochiyama and Suzuki (2002) to include a class of extensible continuum robot manipulators. Numerical simulation results are presented for a planar 3-link extensible continuum robot manipulator.
Ultrasonic Gauging for On-Line Inspection of Tubes

A Computerized Ultrasonic Gauging System (CUGS) has been developed to generate a visually useful as well as a quantitative mapping of the outer and inner surfaces of tubes during the various stages of manufacture. Measurements of the outside radius and of the thickness of the tube are performed with a resolution of 0.0025 mm (0.0001 in) as the part is rotating on a lathe with speeds of up to 1000 surface feet per minute. Typically, 500 measurements are made and displayed for each revolution of the part. The transducer is scanned along the axial dimension by the lathe carriage to which it is attached. The axial scan rate is typically 0.25 mm (0.01 inches) per revolution, resulting in very precise topographical maps of all the cylindrical surfaces of the part. The system was developed so that the run-out and the straightness of the part are calculated from the dimensional data obtained. The surface finish of the outside and inside of the part is also available in a post process, color mapped, display, and CUGS is also capable of simultaneously detecting internal flaws in the part. A fluid stream couples the ultrasound to the part, and high speed electronics is employed to perform the measurements. A description of the system is presented with experimental results.
Blacks and television: A review of the research literature

A review of more than thirty years of empirical literature on blacks and television provides support for a number of propositions pertaining to the portrayal of blacks, television as a source of information, viewing behavior and effects.
Data Quality, Issues, and Guidelines for Electrochemical Corrosion Potential Measurement in High-Temperature Water

Abstract The electrochemical corrosion potential (ECP) of a metal is influenced by a large number of variables, such as oxygen, hydrogen, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentrations, the surface chemistry, impurities, hydrodynamic flow conditions, type of reference electrode, etc. The state of reference electrode development and qualification, water chemistry conditioning procedures, surface history, etc. is such that achieving total agreement from all international investigators is difficult. However, identification of key factors, preferred techniques, and sensible ranges in potentials for several standard conditions is possible. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that influence ECP measurements in high-temperature water, propose recommended techniques, and characterize the expected range of corrosion potentials for specific materials, dissolved gas chemistries, water chemistry/pH, and temperature associated with boiling water reactor (BWR), pressurized water reactor (PWR), and related hig...
Sleep leads to changes in the emotional memory trace: Evidence from fmri

After information is encoded into memory, it undergoes an off-line period of consolidation that may occur optimally during sleep. The consolidation process not only solidifies memories but also changes them in useful and adaptive ways. Here, we provide evidence for a shift in the neural structures used to retrieve emotional memories after a night of sleep compared to a day of wakefulness. Although the hippocampus was activated during successful retrieval of negative objects regardless of whether participants slept during a delay, sleep led to a shift from engagement of a diffuse memory retrieval network-including widespread activity in the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices-to a more refined network of regions-including the amygdala and ventromedial pFC. Effective connectivity analyses revealed stronger connections among limbic regions after sleep versus wake. Although circadian effects may have contributed to these findings, our data strongly suggest that a night of sleep is sufficient to evoke qualitative changes in the emotional memory retrieval network.
A Two-Step Penalized Regression Method with Networked Predictors

Penalized regression incorporating prior dependency structure of predictors can be effective in high-dimensional data analysis (Li and Li in Bioinformatics, 24:1175–1118, 2008). Pan et al. (Biometrics, 66:474–484, 2010) proposed a penalized regression method for better outcome prediction and variable selection by smoothing parameters over a given predictor network, which can be applied to analysis of microarray data with a given gene network. In this paper, we develop two modifications to their method for further performance enhancement. First, we employ convex programming and show its improved performance over an approximate optimization algorithm implemented in their original proposal. Second, we perform bias reduction after initial variable selection through a new penalty, leading to better parameter estimates and outcome prediction. Simulations have demonstrated substantial performance improvement of the proposed modifications over the original method.
Clast-based kinematic vorticity gauges: The effects of slip at matrix/clast interfaces

Clast-based methods for estimating the mean kinematic vorticity number Wm are compromised by strain localization at the clast margins. Localization increases with modal matrix mica content as determined with samples from the Sandhill Corner mylonite zone – a crustal-scale, high-strain, strike-slip shear zone in Maine. Using these samples, we estimate Wm with the oblique quartz shape-preferred orientation and rigid-clast rotation methods. The rigid-clast rotation method yields much lower values for Wm than the quartz method. To investigate whether or not slip at the matrix/clast interface can explain the discrepancy in calculated Wm, we conducted numerical modeling of rigid clasts enveloped by a low viscosity layer, both embedded within a shearing viscous matrix. Within this dynamic framework, we carried out numerical sensitivity analyses in which we varied the viscosity ratio between the lubricating layer and the surrounding matrix, the thickness of the lubricating layer, and the kinematic vorticity number of the bulk flow. Our data and numerical results succeed in explaining why Wm estimates from clast-based rotational methods are typically lower than estimates from other methods, and this has implications for testing hypotheses related, for example, to vorticity partitioning in oblique convergent settings, crustal-scale extrusion or channel flow, and exhumation of ultra-high pressure rocks, all of which rely on robust estimates of Wm. The relation between the shape preferred orientations of clasts and modal mica content lead to the hypothesis that mica is the cause of the lubrication at clast/matrix interfaces. If so, then we surmise that mica fish should be self-lubricating and would therefore form an end-member shape preferred orientation, regardless of matrix modal mica content. The unique role of mica allows us to speculate about the bounds on viscosity contrast between the matrix and lubricated clast interfaces.
Review Essay: A Prescription for Perilous Times

It seldom happens that a scholar makes a lasting contribution both to legal history and to the most pressing constitutional issues of the day in the same work. It is more rare that an academic does so in a book accessible to a general audience. Perilous Times accomplishes that feat. For these reasons, and for another as well, the book should be regarded as a triumph.
Superficial zone cellularity is deficient in mice lacking lubricin: a stereoscopic analysis.

Lubricin, a mucinous glycoprotein secreted by synoviocytes and chondrocytes plays an important role in reducing the coefficient of friction in mammalian joints. Elevated cartilage surface friction is thought to cause chondrocyte loss; however, its quantification and methodological approaches have not been reported. We adapted a stereological method and incorporated vital cell staining to assess cellular loss in superficial and upper intermediate zones in lubricin deficient mouse cartilage. The femoral condyle cartilage of the intact knees from lubricin wild type (Prg4 +/+), heterozygote (Prg4 +/-), and knockout (Prg4 -/-) mice was imaged using fluorescein diacetate (FDA), propidium iodide (PI), and Hoechst staining, and confocal microscopy. Three dimensional reconstructions of confocal images to a depth of 14 μm were analyzed using Matlab to determine the volume fraction occupied by chondrocytes in cartilage of both medial and lateral femoral condyles. Living chondrocyte volume fraction was defined as FDA stained chondrocyte volume/total volume of superficial + upper intermediate zone. Living and dead (total) chondrocyte volume fraction was defined as FDA + PI stained chondrocyte volume/total volume of superficial + upper intermediate zone. MicroCT provided an orthogonal measure of cartilage thickness. Immunohistology for activated caspase-3 and TUNEL staining were performed to evaluate the presence of apoptotic chondrocytes in Prg4 mutant mice. Living chondrocyte volume fraction of the medial femoral condyle was significantly lower in Prg4 -/- mice compared to Prg4 +/+ (p = 0.002) and Prg4 +/- (p = 0.002) littermates. There was no significant difference in medial condyle chondrocyte volume fraction between Prg4 +/+ and Prg4 +/- mice (p = 0.82). No significant differences were observed for the chondrocyte volume fraction for the lateral condyle (p > 0.26). Cartilage thickness increased in the medial condyle for Prg4 -/- mice compared to Prg4 +/+ (p = 0.02) and Prg4 +/- (p = 0.03) littermates, and the lateral condyle for Prg4 -/- mice compared to Prg4 +/+ (p < 0.0001) and Prg4 +/- (p < 0.0001) littermates, indicating that a multi-dimensional increase in cartilage volume did not artifactually lower the chondrocyte volume fraction in the medial condyle. Significantly higher number of caspase-3 positive cells were observed in the superficial and upper intermediate zone cartilage of the medial femoral condyle of Prg4 -/- mice compared to Prg4 +/+ (p = 0.01) and Prg4 +/- (p = 0.04) littermates, and the lateral femoral condyle of Prg4 -/- mice compared to Prg4 +/+ (p = 0.02) and Prg4 +/- (p = 0.02) littermates. There were no significant differences in TUNEL staining among different Prg4 genotypes in both condyles (p > 0.05 for all comparisons). Increased Caspase-3 activation is observed in Prg4 deficient mice compared to Prg4 sufficient littermates. Absence of Prg4 induces loss of chondrocytes in the superficial and upper intermediate zone of mouse cartilage that is quantifiable by a novel image processing technique.
Reassessing Tinto's Concepts of Social and Academic Integration in Student Retention:

The purpose of this article is to trace the development of the Tinto framework for student integration and to critically analyze the application of the framework with nontraditional student populations. Specifically, the terms academic and social integration have become synonymous with student retention and, by extension, categories by which to differentiate certain predicator variables. However, outside the residential 4-year context, commuter, distance and online, community college, and other 2-year institutions, as well as nontraditional, racial, and ethnic minorities have proven that this terminology is not sufficient and even harmful to gaining further clarity to student retention. Future research might clarify the distinctions between academic and social integration for nontraditional students. Nonetheless, the literature is clear that campus relationships matter to student persistence. This replicated finding has important implications for practitioners at institutions with large nontraditional pop...
Convergence of Volatile Power Markets With Price-Based Demand Response

Price-based demand response (DR) program is a mechanism for encouraging electricity consumers to dynamically manage their energy consumptions in response to time-varying electricity prices, and thereby reduce peak electricity demands and alleviate the pressure to power systems. However, it brings additional dynamics and new challenges to the real-time supply and demand balance. Specifically, if real-time price based DR programs are widely deployed in the future, price-sensitive DR load levels would constantly change in response to dynamic real-time prices, which will impact the economic dispatch (ED) schedule and in turn affect electricity market clearing prices. This paper adopts two methods for examining the impacts of different DR price elasticity characteristics and DR participation levels on the convergence of volatile power market: a closed-loop iterative simulation method and a non-iterative method based on the contraction mapping theorem. In this paper, convergence refers to the fact that load and/or price values will finally converge to a fixed point after a finite number of iterations between the ED problem and the price-sensitive DR load adjustment. Five price-sensitive DR performance function categories are used to simulate different nonlinear price elasticity characteristics of DR loads. Numerical studies illustrate how the convergence status of power markets will be affected by the nonlinear price elasticity DR curves, the DR penetration levels, and the capacity limits of generating units.
A computational model of visual attention based on intensity distribution

A visual attention mechanism based on approach of regions of interest detection is analyzed.Colors,intensity,and orientations of image features,are combined into a single topographical saliency map.To improve the attention mechanism,it adds a intensity distribution method.The proposed method is based on searching image regions whose intensity values are more accurately described by the intensity distribution of the object compared to the distribution of the surrounding area.The experimental results show that the model corresponds with the procedure of visual attention.Besides,it has low complexity and high utility value.