cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A more reflective form of joint problem solving

This paper explores the emergence of joint problem solving in online environments where the participants work together but at different times and from different places. Collaborations of this sort have been referred to as loosely coupled collaborations. The focus is on venue which is the virtual substitute for physical copresence under these conditions. Venue is fundamentally a social construct. It functions to “localize” participation dynamics, communication and register, the creation and sharing of domain objects, and situation-dependent knowledge. Within venue, the reflective parts of joint problem solving become more prominent. Within venue, small teams of students align their views, coordinate their efforts, share their understanding and work, and jointly problem solve.
PhaseNet: a deep-neural-network-based seismic arrival-time picking method

As the number of seismic sensors grows, it is becoming increasingly difficult for analysts to pick seismic phases manually and comprehensively, yet such efforts are fundamental to earthquake monitoring. Despite years of improvements in automatic phase picking, it is difficult to match the performance of experienced analysts. A more subtle issue is that different seismic analysts may pick phases differently, which can introduce bias into earthquake locations. We present a deep-neural-network-based arrival-time picking method called "PhaseNet" that picks the arrival times of both P and S waves. Deep neural networks have recently made rapid progress in feature learning, and with sufficient training, have achieved super-human performance in many applications. PhaseNet uses three-component seismic waveforms as input and generates probability distributions of P arrivals, S arrivals, and noise as output. We engineer PhaseNet such that peaks in probability provide accurate arrival times for both P and S waves, and have the potential to increase the number of S-wave observations dramatically over what is currently available. This will enable both improved locations and improved shear wave velocity models. PhaseNet is trained on the prodigious available data set provided by analyst-labeled P and S arrival times from the Northern California Earthquake Data Center. The dataset we use contains more than seven million waveform samples extracted from over thirty years of earthquake recordings. We demonstrate that PhaseNet achieves much higher picking accuracy and recall rate than existing methods.
Information Important to Metazoans

The word information is commonly used simply to mean acquired knowledge. A more rigorous use of the term in formal information theory, as was described by Claude Shannon in 1948, includes additional factors such as error-correcting codes. Information relevant to the nervous system falls somewhere between these two and is a representation of objects, events, and conditions in the world at a level comparable to a verbal description.
The Ontogenetic Bonding Perspective

Overview: In this chapter we introduce the construct of the ontogenetic bonding system, a suprasystem that consists of an overlapping set of four neurally-based systems, each of which operates to promote social bonding during the individual’s development across the life course. The succorant, affiliative, sexual, and nurturant systems respectively serve to bond child to parent, friend to friend, mate to mate, and parent to child. Each of these has an affectional and a security subsystem. We then analyze the ontogenetic bonding system with the Darwinian heuristic used in the last chapter, relating each system to the three disciplinary perspectives previously considered.
Understanding the context of neighborhood parks: a method for public space classification

Neighborhood parks are recognized as key urban public spaces that serve the social, economic, and environmental needs of adjacent neighborhoods. However, relevant studies primarily focus on the con...
Reforming the Law of Will Execution: The Real Property Commissioners’ Reports

The paper is an introductory chapter of a book length study on the Wills Act of 1837. It focuses on the discussion of wills in the First Report made to by the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Law of England respecting Real Property (1829) and the Fourth Report made to His Majesty by the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Law of England respecting Real Property (1833). The Report demonstrates wide-spread disquiet over the substantive law of wills and significant dissatisfaction with the process of probate. But the enquiry also looks to other issues on inheritance, the exercise of ‘illusory appointments’ and the problem of proof of death, areas which have hither to been ignored by historians.
Identifying Preferences for Everyday Living in Home Health Care: Recommendations From an Expert Panel:

Research needs to further understand care preferences in home health care. The present quality improvement (QI) study convened an expert panel with key stakeholders. Methods included a modified Del...
Polypharmacy in African American Adults: A National Epidemiological Study

Background: Despite the association between polypharmacy and undesired health outcomes being well established, very little is known about epidemiology of polypharmacy in the African American community. We are not aware of any nationally representative studies that have described the socioeconomic, behavioral, and health determinants of polypharmacy among African Americans. Aims: We aimed to investigate the socioeconomic and health correlates of polypharmacy in a national sample of African American adults in the US. Methods: The National Survey of American Life (NSAL, 2003–2004) included 3,570 African American adults. Gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES; education attainment, poverty index, and marital status), access to the healthcare system (health insurance and having a usual source of care), and health (self-rated health [SRH], chronic medical disease, and psychiatric disorders) in addition to polypharmacy (5 + medications) as well as hyper-polypharmacy (10 + medications) were measured. Logistic regressions were applied for statistical analysis. Results: that About 9% and 1% of all African American adults had polypharmacy and hyper-polypharmacy, respectively. Overall, higher age, higher SES (education and poverty index), and worse health (poor SRH, more chronic medical disease, and psychiatric disorders) were associated with polypharmacy and hyper-polypharmacy. Individuals with insurance and those with a routine place for healthcare also had higher odds of polypharmacy and hyper-polypharmacy. Conclusions: Given the health risks associated with polypharmacy, there is a need for systemic evaluation of medication use in older African Americans with multiple chronic conditions. Such policies may prevent medication errors and harmful drug interactions, however, they require effective strategies that are tailored to African Americans.
Correction to: Toward an ecological aesthetic

The article Toward an ecological aesthetic, written by Frederick Steiner, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 2 January 2019 with open access.
Charlie Hebdo and French Collective Memory: Origins of the Right to Caricature

The Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack was a blow to the French body politic. In order to make sense of the unprecedented event and to reaffirm its faith in its secular republican institutions, the rule of law, freedom of expression, and especially the right to caricature, the French establishment sought refuge in its republican collective memory. This chapter focuses on the philosophical foundations and milestones of French collective memory, which underpins and explains French reaction to the terrorist attacks. The premise is that the contemporary regime of freedom of expression in France is a hard-earned positive right that emerged from negative collective memory—centuries-long political, religious, and ideological struggles—whose turning point was the French Revolution of 1789. That Revolution spawned the national dogma of secular republicanism and anti-clericalism, erected blasphemy into a sacred right/rite, and ultimately led to the unique French counter-establishmentarian regime of separation of church and state. Under this Catho-secular system, the State is a counter-church that owns and maintains more than 80 historic cathedrals and other iconic religious edifices.
Environmental urgency versus the allure of RCT empiricism

Abstract Environmental impact mitigation and conservation projects have also come under the ambit of Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) usage by economists to ascertain the efficacy of specific interventions. However, there are several concerns about the usage of this technique for environmental decision-making which go beyond the usual methodological critiques raised within economic discourse. Environmental planning has established methods of gauging behavioral effectiveness through deliberative processes and collective policy design such as participatory GIS and charrettes. Given the expediency of environmental action when dealing with ecological degradation as well as a normative need to infuse learning about natural resource scarcity and quality, such deliberative methods are far more cost-effective and help to build community relationships and social capital as well. RCT application in environmental policy thus deserves more critical appraisal and should be applied in concert with deliberative planning techniques.
SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Development: Current Status

In the midst of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic and its attendant morbidity and mortality, safe and efficacious vaccines are needed that induce protective and long-lived immune responses. More than 120 vaccine candidates worldwide are in various preclinical and phase 1 to 3 clinical trials that include inactivated, live-attenuated, viral-vectored replicating and nonreplicating, protein- and peptide-based, and nucleic acid approaches. Vaccines will be necessary both for individual protection and for the safe development of population-level herd immunity. Public-private partnership collaborative efforts, such as the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines mechanism, are key to rapidly identifying safe and effective vaccine candidates as quickly and efficiently as possible. In this article, we review the major vaccine approaches being taken and issues that must be resolved in the quest for vaccines to prevent coronavirus disease 2019. For this study, we scanned the PubMed database from 1963 to 2020 for all publications using the following search terms in various combinations: SARS, MERS, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, vaccine, clinical trial, coronavirus, pandemic, and vaccine development. We also did a Web search for these same terms. In addition, we examined the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other public health authority websites. We excluded abstracts and all articles that were not written in English.
Ichnology and sedimentology of the Coniacian non-marine Frontier Formation, western Centennial Mountains, southwestern Montana, USA

The Coniacian non-marine portion of the Frontier Formation in southwestern Montana has been primarily studied stratigraphically, whereas its trace fossil record and relative sedimentological signif...
Extreme weather experience and climate change opinion

Climate change continues to expose more of the global population to more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Recent research shows that these changes in extreme weather have not, as yet, consistently motivated changes in opinions about climate change or changes in climate-related behavior. Extreme weather may reinforce opinions among people who are already worried about climate change, yet be misattributed or misperceived by those who are unconcerned. However, the characteristics and severity of personal experience may influence its impacts on climate opinions. Future research should consider appropriate research designs, such as matching or panel data, to disentangle the effects of experience from other factors, while also respecting ethical considerations for research among disaster survivors. As the impacts of climate change become increasingly evident at the local level, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these experiences interact with other factors to shape mitigation and adaptation decisions.
Estrogen depletion on In vivo osteocyte calcium signaling responses to mechanical loading.

Abstract Microstructural adaptation of bone in response to mechanical stimuli is diminished with estrogen deprivation. Here we tested in vivo whether ovariectomy (OVX) alters the acute response of osteocytes, the principal mechanosensory cells of bone, to mechanical loading in mice. We also used super resolution microscopy (Structured Illumination microscopy or SIM) in conjunction with immunohistochemistry to assess changes in the number and organization of “osteocyte mechanosomes” - complexes of Panx1 channels, P2X7 receptors and CaV3 voltage-gated Ca2+ channels clustered around αvβ3 integrin foci on osteocyte processes. Third metatarsals bones of mice expressing an osteocyte-targeted genetically encoded Ca2+ indicator (DMP1-GCaMP3) were cyclically loaded in vivo to strains from 250 to 3000 μe and osteocyte intracellular Ca2+ signaling responses were assessed in mid-diaphyses using multiphoton microscopy. The number of Ca2+ signaling osteocytes in control mice increase monotonically with applied strain magnitude for the physiological range of strains. The relationship between the number of Ca2+ signaling osteocytes and loading was unchanged at 2 days post-OVX. However, it was altered markedly at 28 days post-OVX. At loads up to 1000 μe, there was a dramatic reduction in number of responding (i.e. Ca2+ signaling) osteocytes; however, at higher strains the numbers of Ca2+ signaling osteocytes were similar to control mice. OVX significantly altered the abundance, make-up and organization of osteocyte mechanosome complexes on dendritic processes. Numbers of αvβ3 foci also staining with either Panx 1, P2X7R or CaV3 declined by nearly half after OVX, pointing to a loss of osteocyte mechanosomes on the dendritic processes with estrogen depletion. At the same time, the areas of the remaining foci that stained for αvβ3 and channel proteins increased significantly, a redistribution of mechanosome components suggesting a potential compensatory response. These results demonstrate that the deleterious effects of estrogen depletion on skeletal mechanical adaptation appear at the level of mechanosensation; osteocytes lose the ability to sense small (physiological) mechanical stimuli. This decline may result at least partly from changes in the structure and organization of osteocyte mechanosomes, which contribute to the distinctive sensitivity of osteocytes (particularly their dendritic processes) to mechanical stimulation.
Molten-salt-mediated carbon dioxide capture and superequilibrium utilization with ethane oxidative dehydrogenation

Summary Existing CO2-mediated oxidative dehydrogenation (CO2-ODH) of ethane has yet to demonstrate >60% single-pass CO yield due to the intrinsic equilibrium limitations. We report a unique approach with mixed molten carbonates as a reaction medium for CO2-ODH, which strategically partitions the CO2-ODH reactions into gas and molten-salt phases and facilitates integrated CO2 capture from power plant flue gases. An 89% CO yield was achieved at 770°C, doubling the equilibrium limitation of conventional CO2-ODH. The high CO yield in turn enhances ethylene formation. Further characterizations confirmed that molten-salt mediated ODH (MM-ODH) proceeds through a gas-phase cracking and molten-salt mediated reverse water-gas-shift reaction pathway. Based on this understanding, thermodynamic analysis and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations were conducted to develop general principles to optimize the molten-salt reaction medium. Process analyses confirm that MM-ODH has the potential to be significantly more efficient for CO2 capture and utilization than conventional CO2-ODH.
Sequence detection for high-density storage channels

List of Figures. Abbreviations. Preface. 1: Introduction. 1.1. Motivation. 1.2. Background. 2: Fixed-Delay Tree Search. 2.1. Derivation. 2.2. Computational Efficiency. 2.3. Performance Analysis. 2.4. Effect of d-Constraint on Performance. 2.5. Effect of d-Constraint on Complexity. 2.6. Summary and Conclusions. 3: Applications to Digital Magnetic Recording. 3.1. Channel Model. 3.2. Detection Schemes. 3.3. Performance Comparison. 3.4. Summary and Conclusions. 4: Effects of Transition Noise. 4.1. Channel Model. 4.2. Detection Performance. 4.3. Channel Shaping. 4.4. Numerical Examples. 4.5. Summary. 5: Summary. Appendix. References. Index.
Molecular Beam Epitaxial Growth Kinetics, Mechanism(s) and Interface Formation: Computer Simulations and Experiments

When, during the early phase of organizing this research workshop, Dr. Robin Farrow approached me, not only was I supportive of the idea and its timeliness in bringing together a disparate community of researchers in the area of thin film epitaxial growth, but also was pleased to have the opportunity to present some of the work undertaken at University of Southern California in the area of molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) growth of III–V compound semiconductors. Judging by the level of interest and discussions, often quite spirited, that occurred during the workshop, it is quite clear that the organizers succeeded in their objective quite well. In writing this article I am therefore mindful of capturing some of the spirit, excitement, and controversies, real or imagined.
Shopping and Work Trips in the Black Ghetto

Presented herein is information on the willingness of autoless workers to travel lengthy journeys to work and trends, over a 16-yr period, in the access to jobs via bus and via car in the Buffalo, NY area. The frequency and mode of shopping trips as a function of neighborhood characteristics such as access to bus lines, types of stores and their distribution, car ownership and age is presented. The results of a survey in the inner city show that in 1968 bus commuters were willing to travel 2 to 3 times longer to have a choice of jobs 90% as great as that available to their neighbors who commuted by car. Use of a bus decreased by half, as the distance from house to bus stop increased from 0.1 miles to 0.25 miles. Latent demand for shopping trips among the elderly was limited to about 10% of the shoppers who would shop more frequently if travel were more convenient.
Techniques for Locating Burials, with Emphasis on the Probe

The search for buried remains frequently includes visual assessment of surface features, trained dogs, and sophisticated geophysical remote sensing techniques. Nonintrusive, electronic survey equipment, such as the proton magnetometer, ground penetrating radar, and electrical resistivity, have yielded good results. However, under certain field conditions a simple, less expensive, relatively noninvasive tool—the probe—is effective. The probe, when used by an experienced investigator, provides a variety of information in a short amount of time, facilitates excavation, and minimizes damage to a burial. This paper offers examples of the application of a probe in forensic cases in urban and rural settings and in the detection of historic burials. Examples include the location of four individuals killed during the raid on the Branch Davidian Compound in Mount Carmel, Texas, and the search for burials in cemeteries that had been desecrated.
Inhibition of fatty acid synthase with C75 decreases organ injury after hemorrhagic shock

Background Hemorrhagic shock is the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in the intensive care units in patients under the age of 35. Several organs, including the lungs, are seriously affected by hemorrhagic shock and inadequate resuscitation. Excess free fatty acids have shown to trigger inflammation in various disease conditions. C75 is a small compound that inhibits fatty acid synthase, a key enzyme in the control of fatty acid metabolism that also stimulates fatty acid oxidation. We hypothesized that C75 treatment would be protective against hemorrhagic shock. Methods Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were cannulated with a femoral artery catheter and subjected to controlled bleeding. Blood was shed to maintain a mean arterial pressure of 30 mm Hg for 90 minutes, then resuscitated over 30 minutes with a crystalloid volume equal to twice the volume of shed blood. Fifteen minutes into the 30-minute resuscitation, the rats received either intravenous infusion of C75 (1 mg/kg body weight) or vehicle (20% dimethyl sulfoxide). Blood and tissue samples were collected 6 hours after resuscitation (ie, 7.5 hours after hemorrhage) for analysis. Results After hemorrhage and resuscitation, C75 treatment decreased the increase in serum free fatty acids by 48%, restored adenosine triphosphate levels, and stimulated carnitine palmitoyl transferase-1 activity. Administration of C75 decreased serum levels of markers of injury (aspartate aminotransferase, lactate, and lactate dehydrogenase) by 38%, 32%, and 78%, respectively. Serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen were also decreased significantly by 38% and 40%, respectively. These changes correlated with decreases in neutrophil infiltration in the lung, evidenced by decreases in Gr-1–stained cells and myeloperoxidase activity and improved lung histology. Finally, administration of C75 decreased pulmonary mRNA levels of cyclooxygenase-2 and interleukin-6 by 87% and 65%, respectively. Conclusion Administration of C75 after hemorrhage and resuscitation decreased the increase in serum free fatty acids, decreased markers of tissue injury, downregulated the expression of inflammatory mediators, and decreased neutrophil infiltration and lung injury. Thus, the dual action of inhibiting fatty acid synthesis and stimulating fatty acid oxidation by C75 could be developed as a promising adjuvant therapy strategy to protect against hemorrhagic shock.
Partnering Through Science: Developing Linguistic Insight to Address Educational Inequality for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in U.S. STEM Education

Linguists must build and strengthen research partnerships with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educators to further investigate linguistic and cultural diversity and academic inequality in STEM education in the U.S. We review key issues and themes from literature on the role of language in U.S. STEM education and the linguistic and ideological roots of barriers to STEM achievement for culturally and linguistically diverse students. We assess ways that linguists have engaged with educators and teachers, learning from humanities- and social science-based partnerships and adapting them to STEM contexts. We then examine specific and significant challenges that culturally and linguistically diverse student populations in STEM areas often face, with a focus on structural, sociocultural, and ideological barriers. Finally, we advocate for forging partnerships with STEM educators that establish a well-defined rationale for collaboration across linguistics and STEM, yielding basic and applied research benefits.
Zinc telluride films by photoenhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Polycrystalline films of zinc telluride (ZnTe) have been deposited on glass and conducting semiconductor coated glass substrates at 270°-350° C by photoenhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using the reaction of dimethylzinc (DMZn) or diethylzinc (DEZn) and diisopropyltellurium (DIPTe) in hydrogen under atmospheric pressure. The deposited films are always ofp-type conductivity. Their properties are affected by the DMZn/DIPTe or DEZn/DIPTe molar ratio in the reaction mixture. The optimum DMZn/DIPTe ratio has been found to be approximately 0.9 on the basis of the open-circuit voltage of ZnTe/CdS heterojunctions and photoconductivity measurements. Without intentional doping, the deposited films are of high resistivity (>107 ohm-cm) at room temperature, and the resistivity of these films has been controlled by using arsine as a dopant. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of ZnTe films have been characterized.
Upper-Ocean Inertial Currents Forced by a Strong Storm. Part II: Modeling

Abstract The evolution of near-inertial frequency currents is often thought to be controlled by the linear, inviscid equations of motion. This hypothesis is tested by simulating the near-inertial currents described in Part I using a two-dimensional, nearly inviscid, nonlinear layer model with realistic wind forcing and stratification. The β effect and mixing of momentum below the mixed layer during the storm are crucial to realistic modeling, whereas the nonlinear terms have only a minor effect. The model fails to simulate the observations in several ways. First, the mixed layer inertial currents decay more rapidly than predicted and propagate into the thermocline with a different pattern. Second, the shear at the base of the mixed layer decays much more rapidly than predicted. Third, mesoscale eddies modulate the evolution of the inertial currents much less than predicted. These differences are much larger than the errors in the observations and cannot be removed by reasonable variations of the forcing o...
Experimental Transmittance and Absorption Cross Sections of Carbon Particles Suspended in a Jet

An experiment was conducted to measure the transmittance of a flowing stream of nitrogen gas that has been seeded with nominal 0.009-μ carbon particles. All measurements were made at 1-atm pressure and room temperature. The measurements were made by passing a beam of light from an external source through the seeded gas stream, and then determining the transmittance with a spectrophotometer. The experimental results show that the absorption cross section decreases as the seed density increases. This is attributed to particle agglomeration. The measurements also show that the transmittance is almost independent of wavelength for wavelengths from 200 to 3500 nm. At a seed density of 10−5 g/cm3, the absorption cross section is between 17 000 and 19 600 cm2/g. At a seed density of 10−4 g/cm3, the absorption cross section is between 10 800 and 13 000 cm2/g.
On a theorem of S. Chowla

Abstract The following theorem was proved. For an arbitrary positive integer k, let Λ = {γ∥ 1 ≤ γ k 2 , (γ,k) = 1} . Then the 1 2 ϕ(k) real numbers { (( d s dx s ) cot (x + γπ k )) x = 0 ∥γ ∈ Λ } are linear independent over Q for all s = 0, 1, 2,…. If k is a prime and s = 0, then this is a theorem of S. Chowla.
Sampling algorithms: lower bounds and applications

We develop a framework to study probabilistic sampling algorithms that approximate general functions of the form \genfunc, where \domain and \range are arbitrary sets. Our goal is to obtain lower bounds on the query complexity of functions, namely the number of input variables x_i that any sampling algorithm needs to query to approximate f(x_1,\ldots,x_n).We define two quantitative properties of functions --- the it block sensitivity and the minimum Hellinger distance --- that give us techniques to prove lower bounds on the query complexity. These techniques are quite general, easy to use, yet powerful enough to yield tight results. Our applications include the mean and higher statistical moments, the median and other selection functions, and the frequency moments, where we obtain lower bounds that are close to the corresponding upper bounds.We also point out some connections between sampling and streaming algorithms and lossy compression schemes.
Diazepam in the management of heroin withdrawal in adolescents: preliminary report.

In a group of mice experimentally addicted to morphine, diazepam eliminated the major manifestation of withdrawal. Diazepam was similarly effective in reducing the duration and severity of withdrawal symptoms in a large group of adolescent heroin addicts. The ideal agent for opiate detoxification is one which is nontoxic, nonaddictive, inexpensive, easily administered, and above all, effective in eliminating the potentially life-threatening consequences of withdrawal. On the basis of the animal experiment and clinical trial in adolescent heroin addicts reported herein, diazepam appears to fulfill these criteria.
World cities as hegemonic projects: the politics of global imagineering in Montreal

Abstract A widespread mania for being or becoming a “world city” dominates urban politics today despite the fact that there is no consensus as to what such a thing is. While the economic aspect of a project to build a world city emphasizes capital accumulation, its political–cultural aspect stresses a cosmopolitan ethos and identity in the city. Through the built environment, spectacle and cosmopolitan culture, global capital “sells” a vision of the world city to local political constituencies towards the end of building a class alliance behind the banner of neoliberalism and free trade. This article analyzes the Montreal world city project through a historical study of class relations in the city and the wider political–economic environment since the 1960s. The rise to power of a francophone capitalist class in the 1980s and the defection of Montreal’s urban new middle class from social democracy and Quebecois nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s to neoliberalism and cosmopolitanism in the 1980s and beyond are the key developments. The city’s small business and working classes have largely been left holding the bag, paying for cost overruns and industrial incentives, suffering increased air and noise pollution and declining public services, and largely failing to benefit at all from the developing global connectivity.
The Impact of Student Activism on Attitudes toward the Female Sex Role Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Perspectives

A 1973 readministration of sex role items used by Kammeyer in 1961 shows a dramatic shift away from traditional attitudes toward the female sex role among college women. Cross-sectional analyses of 1973 data on both sexes reveals that attitudes toward the female sex role are significantly related to personal participation in protest activities. The greater strength of this relationship among women than among men supports previous discussions of the special impact of feminist activism on the attitudes of college
Effects of Surfactants on the Thermal and Fire Properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)/Clay Nanocomposites

Nanocomposites of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with layered silicates and with polyhedral oligosilsesquioxanes (POSS) were prepared by bulk polymerization. The thermal and fire stabilities of the various organically-modified clay and POSS nanocomposites were evaluated using both thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and cone calorimetry. Thermogravimetric analysis is not a good criteria for evaluating nanocomposite formation but cone calorimetry can be. For montmorillonite systems, when more than 4% clay is present, the expected reduction in peak heat release rate is observed. For hectorite, a minimum of 6% clay concentration is required to achieve the same reduction in peak heat release rate. POSS has the potential to reduce the peak heat release rate but one must be careful in selecting the POSS material to be evaluated.
The effect of grammatical complexity upon disfluency behavior of nonstuttering preschool children

Abstract The effect of grammatical complexity on the disfluency behavior of nonstuttering 3- and 4-yr-old children was examined. Thirty normal children repeated after the examiner 30 sentences which represented six different grammatical constructions. These grammatical constructions represented a range of grammatical complexity. The total number of disfluencies that occurred in each sentence type was compared. The occurrence of specific disfluency categories in each sentence type was also examined. Subjects produced significantly more disfluencies on passive sentences than on any other sentence type. The passive elicited significantly more interjections, word repetitions, and revisions than the other sentence types. The effect of sentence type on imitation performance was also examined. The auxiliary Have and negative sentence types elicited significantly more imitation errors than other sentence types. Initiation and fluency performance for individual subjects were also examined. The results of the present investigation suggest that when grammatical complexity is controlled, the relationship between disfluencies and grammatical complexity is complicated. When grammatical constructions were relatively difficult for children, complexity affected the occurrence of disfluencies. However, factors other than grammatical complexity affect the occurrence of disfluencies in pre-school children.
A student’s initial perception of value when selecting a college: an application of value added

Higher education customers can be defined as either the faculty, students or administration. The key stakeholder often has been identified as the student. Selecting a college is the first step the student undertakes in the educational process of a higher education. The educational value perception to be earned has an important impact on the student’s choice of a particular college. The value‐added concept of an organized activity originated in Europe. Applying the concept was difficult in manufacturing operations and it is even more difficult to apply it to a service operation such as higher education. Working through the application difficulties should provide valuable insights into why a student chooses a particular college over another similar institution. The out‐of‐pocket costs to attend a college may be a useful surrogate for the perceived value for the student in valuing the education from individual colleges.
Development of anuran calling circuits: Effect of testosterone propionate injections

Abstract Shortly after metamorphosis, juvenile leopard frogs were injected several times with either testosterone propionate or vehicle alone. An attempt was then made to evoke mating calling correlates from the isolated brain by electrical stimulation of the anterior preoptic nucleus. Calling correlates were obtained in one-half of the hormone-injected, but none of the vehicle-injected juveniles. Therefore, it was the hormone treatment that made it possible to record calling correlates at this early age.
Remembrance of war in South Africa

“We in South Africa have a war going on. Those who have not realized it are foolish.” Thus spoke Frank Chikane, cleric and anti‐apartheid leader, assessing the political situation in the mid‐1980s. This view was shared not only by black opponents of apartheid but also by many white supporters of the system. Some white South Africans appeared oblivious to the history of violence in South Africa—not altogether surprising given the nation's severe censorship laws and the violence's confinement in the black townships. But as violence accelerated in the 1980s, the militarization of society became obvious to all, and South Africa was virtually a country at war with itself. In the 1980s the concept of “total war,” involving the entire population, was developed under the administration of National Party president P.W. Botha. The government argued that whites were under “total onslaught” by communist‐inspired black terrorists seeking to bring down the government, thus necessitating the total commitment of the Sout...
MRI and associated clinical characteristics of EV71-induced brainstem encephalitis in children with hand-foot-mouth disease.

This study was conducted to investigate MRI and associated clinical characteristics of brainstem encephalitis induced by enterovirus 71 (EV71) in children with hand–foot–mouth disease (HFMD). We analyzed clinical and imaging data from 42 HFMD cases with EV71-induced brainstem encephalitis. All patients underwent plain and enhanced MRI cranial scans and were placed into one of two groups according to MRI enhancement results, an enhanced group or a nonenhanced group. Thirty-two cases were positive on MRI exam. The primary location of the lesion for brainstem encephalitis was the dorsal pons and medulla oblongata (32 cases), followed by the cerebellar dentate nucleus (8 cases), midbrain (5 cases), and thalamus (2 cases). Plain T1-weighted images showed isointense or hypointense signals, and T2-weighted images showed isointense and hyperintense signals. Enhanced MRI scans showed that 12 cases had slight to moderate enhancement; 4 of these were normal on plain scan. The time from MRI examination to disease onset was statistically different between the enhanced (n = 12) and nonenhanced (n = 21) groups with a mean of 7.67 days (SD = 1.07) vs 11.95 days (SD = 5.33), respectively. The most common neurological symptoms for brainstem encephalitis were myoclonus and tremor. The greater the area of affected brain, the more severe the clinical symptoms were. The locations of EV71-induced HFMD-associated brainstem encephalitis lesions are relatively specific. Enhanced MRI scans could also identify the lesions missed by early plain scans. MRI scans can provide important information for clinical evaluation and treatment.
Cystinuria in the maned wolf of South America

Of 42 maned wolves in zoos or live-trapped in Brazil, 34 had excessive cystine in their urine. Renal clearance studies of five of the affected wolves revealed a variable defect for the reabsorption of cystine and dibasic amino acids. The renal tubular handling of other solutes including glucose, phosphate, sodium, potassium, and uric acid was considered normal. Urinary calculi composed of cystine were found in four wolves and proved fatal in three of them. With the exception of the high incidence in this species, this hereditary disease resembles the disorder described in dogs and humans.
Autophagy in cancer

Autophagy is a catabolic degradation process in which cellular proteins and organelles are engulfed by double-membrane autophagosomes and degraded in lysosomes. Autophagy has emerged as a critical pathway in tumor development and cancer therapy, although its precise function remains a conundrum. The current consensus is that autophagy has a dual role in cancer. On the one hand, autophagy functions as a tumor suppressor mechanism by preventing the accumulation of damaged organelles and aggregated proteins. On the other hand, autophagy is a key cell survival mechanism for established tumors; therefore autophagy inhibition suppresses tumor progression. Here, we summarize recent progress on the role of autophagy in tumorigenesis and cancer therapy.
Experience-dependent changes in neuronal processing in the nucleus accumbens shell in a discriminative learning task in differentially housed rats

Environmental enrichment is associated with enhanced learning of complex tasks, attenuated seeking of natural and drug rewards, and altered function of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a brain region involved in goal-directed behavior. For example, during acquisition of a discriminative learning task, neurons in the NAcc core subregion are more responsive to discrete, goal-directed movements in rats raised in an enriched condition (EC) relative to an isolated condition (IC), but as learning materialized, this enhanced responsiveness shifts to the cues that predict these movements. Here, we report that these results do not extend to NAcc shell: neuronal responses in this subregion are similar in EC and IC rats during goal-directed movement and the presentation of associative cues both during and after task acquisition. With experience in this task, however, the overall proportion of task-related neuronal responses in NAcc shell decreases. The response pattern of shell neurons is also sensitive to the presence of contextual cues: shell neuronal firing reveals a significant shift from a predominant excitatory to a predominant inhibitory profile in probe trials when the cue that predicts sucrose availability is absent. Collectively, these data suggest that NAcc shell neurons encode cues associated with natural reward, are less responsive during appetitive behavior in familiar conditions, and are insensitive to appetitive learning differences expressed in rats reared in different environmental conditions.
Neuroblastoma: A multiple biological disease

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a paediatric tumour showing an appreciable variability in clinical evolution. Localised tumours (especially stage 1) can be mildly treated with good success while metastatic tumours (stage 4) are highly aggressive. This suggests a great biological diversity. In fact, molecular and genetic studies have revealed distinct abnormalities in localised and non-localised tumours. Loss of heterozigosity for the short arm of chromosome 1, lp deletion, and MYCN amplification are present in stages 3 and 4 but rarely in stages 1 and 2. Metastatic stage 4S in infants is peculiar and does not show the same genetic and molecular abnormalities found in advanced metastatic tumours. Considering the biological alterations associated with NB, it would appear that advanced stage NB conforms to the multistep model of tumour development while stage 4S can be divided into two groups: one arising from a lack of cellular differentiation and the other as a consequence of an additional ‘one hit’ mutation.
Identification of Functional Domains within the RAD1·RAD10 Repair and Recombination Endonuclease of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Saccharomyces cerevisiae rad1 and rad10 mutants are unable to carry out nucleotide excision repair and are also defective in a mitotic intrachromosomal recombination pathway. The products of these genes are subunits of an endonuclease which recognizes DNA duplex/single-strand junctions and specifically cleaves the 3′ single-strand extension at or near the junction. It has been suggested that such junctions arise as a consequence of DNA lesion processing during nucleotide excision repair and the processing of double-strand breaks during intrachromosomal recombination. In this study we show that the RAD1·RAD10 complex also cleaves a more complex junction structure consisting of a duplex with a protruding 3′ single-strand branch that resembles putative recombination intermediates in the RAD1·RAD10-mediated single-strand annealing pathway of mitotic recombination. Using monoclonal antibodies, we have identified two regions of RAD1 that are required for the cleavage of duplex/single-strand junctions. These reagents also inhibit nucleotide excision repair in vitro, confirming the essential role of the RAD1·RAD10 endonuclease in this pathway.
Precipitate coarsening, redistribution and renucleaton during irradiation of Ni-6.35 wt.% Al

Abstract Precipitation during irradiation was investigated using 3.2-MV 58Ni+ ions incident on Ni-6.35 wt.% Al at 650°C. The resultant γ' precipitate morphologies were observed using TEM. A radiation-enhanced coarsening regime is quantitatively demonstrated at doses ≲20 dpa. The enhanced coarsening regime terminates by preferential interaction of dislocations with larger precipitates. Segregation of nickel to dislocations causes these large particles to dissolve and leads to renucleation of precipitates and un increase in the density of small particles. Consistent with this, maxima of γ' size as a function of dose are observed at 650 and 550°C. Biconvex lens shape, precipitate-free zones were observed and their growth kinetics were followed to 15 dpa. The zone diameter grows linearly at a rate of 0.21 nm/s which is consistent with dislocation loop growth. The precipitate-free zones are also caused by nickel segregation to dislocations, increase in size until maxima γ' mean size occurs, and then are obliterated due to γ' renucleation within the zone. The presence of a precipitate-free zone at the irradiated surface is confirmed. Mechanisms for the various phenomena are described.
Effect of video game practice on spatial skills in girls and boys

A study of the effect of video game practice on spatial abilities in girls and boys was carried out. Spatial performance, measured using two subtests of a computerized spatial skills battery, was significantly better in boys than in girls during pretest assessment. Subjects then practiced on an action video game, Marble Madness, or a computerized word game, Conjecture. Video game practice was significantly more effective than the word game in improving spatial performance on the posttest assessment; there was no significant interaction of gender with experimental treatment. However, video game practice was more effective for children who started out with relatively poor spatial skills. The pattern of results suggests that video games may be useful in equalizing individual differences in spatial skill performance, including those associated with gender.
Size dependence of the solid-solid phase transition in CdSe nanocrystals

High pressure optical absorption spectra are presented for CdSe nanocrystals as a function of size. The spectra show a transition to a high pressure Rock Salt type phase at pressure greatly elevated from the bulk. The size dependence of the transition pressure can be explained in part by an increased surface tension in the Rock Salt phase relative to the low pressure tetrahedral phase.
Effects of feedback filtering on nasalization and self-perception of nasality.

The effects of feedback filtering on nasality perception were investigated by having speakers produce sentences while hearing their voices unfiltered and low-pass filtered with cut-off frequencies ...
Aeolian processes on the terrestrial planets Recent observations and future focus

Aeolian dune fields have been described on Earth, Mars, Venus, and Titan. The amount and fidelity of data being returned from orbiting spacecraft and landers have enabled a new era in aeolian studi...
Relation between synergism and metabolism of dimethoate in mammals and insects

Summary EPN synergizes the toxicity of dimethoate profoundly in female mice, mildly in female guinea pigs, and not at all in female house flies (Wilson and G strains) or milkweed bugs. These findings parallel the observations that EPN blocks dimethoate metabolism profoundly (80%) in mice, less in guinea pigs (60%), and not at all in house flies and milkweed bugs. The data give strong support to the view that synergism in this pair of compounds is caused by blockade of metabolism. However, the ability of EPN to distinguish between the amidase and phosphatase pathways is not so clear-cut as in the corresponding carboxyesterase and phosphatase pathways for malathion, whose toxicity is also synergized by EPN.
Living Polymerization of 1-Hexene by Cationic Zirconium and Hafnium Complexes that Contain a Diamido/Donor Ligand of the Type [H3CC(2-C5H4N)(CH2NMesityl)2]2-. A Comparison of Methyl and Isobutyl Initiators

Addition of [Ph3C][B(C6F5)4] to [MesNpy]Hf(i-Bu)2 (1a; [MesNpy]2- = [H3CC(2-C5H4N)(CH2N-2,4,6-Me3C6H2)2]2-) yields {[MesNpy]Hf(i-Bu)}[B(C6F5)4] (2a) quantitatively. Compound 2a decomposes in a firs...
The Rationale, Construction, and Preliminary Try-Out of the Synonym Vocabulary Test

(1955). The Rationale, Construction, and Preliminary Try-Out of the Synonym Vocabulary Test. The Journal of Psychology: Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 215-225.