cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Prescriptivism, creativity and world Englishes

: Relatively recently, Quirk (1990) discussed non-native varieties of English, such as Indian English and Nigerian English, as ‘locally acquired deviations from the standard language’ and argued that the standard (British) English is the only pedagogically acceptable model for teaching of English in these non-native contexts. This paper, first critiques some fundamental assumptions of Quirk's (1990) argument by presenting the logic of Indian English and then discusses the implications of using world Englishes as pedagogical models in the classroom. The main argument of this paper is that successful English language teaching in normative contexts must address the relationship between the forms that English manifests and its speakers’ perception of reality and the nature of their cultural institutions. Implicit in this argument is the premise that language use is constrained both by the ‘grammar of culture’(Bright, 1968; D'souza, 1988) and ‘cognitive economy’(Sridhar, 1992; Hancin-Bhatt and Bhatt, 1992). Selected aspects of phonology and syntax of Indian English are discussed to develop the argument.
Strain effect analysis on the electrical conductivity of Si/Si1−xGex nanocomposite thin films

Abstract In this work, the effect of various externally applied strains on the electrical conductivity of Si/Si 1− x Ge x nanocomposite thin films is studied. A degenerate two-band k ⋅ p theory is utilized to calculate the variation of the electronic band structure in the semiconductor nanocomposite thin films as a function of externally applied strains. The strain-dependent electrical conductivity of the material is computed by using a two dimensional real-space Non-Equilibrium Green’s Function (NEGF) self-consistently coupled with the Poisson equation. In the analysis, [1 0 0] uniaxial, [1 0 0]/[0 0 1] and [1 0 0]/[0 1 0] biaxial strains are considered for the through-thickness electron transport in [1 0 0] direction. Numerical results demonstrate that the external strains have a significant influence on the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposite thin films. We show that the electrical conductivity variation can be attributed to combined effects of strain-induced splitting of the conduction band edges and change in band offset, electron quantum confinement, and size of the inclusion material in the thin films.
The effects of early hypophysectomy and hormone therapy on brain development.

Summary Littermate, male, Long-Evans rats were paired, with one of each pair being hypophysectomized at 6 days of age by a surgical parapharyngeal approach. Histological examinations were made of brains from hypophysectomized rats and their intact controls, from hypophysectomized rats injected with 30 μg of thyroxine and their uninjected controls, and from hypophysectomized rats injected with 21 μg of growth hormone and their uninjected controls. Body weights were recorded weekly. All animals were autopsied at 27 days of age under ether anesthesia. The brains were perfused with formol-saline. Utilizing subcortical landmarks to obtain identical overlying cortical samples, frozen, transverse sections were cut (20 μ) and stained with thionin. Cortical depth and diencephalic measures were taken on sections cut at the anterior and posterior commissure levels. Results showed that even though the body weights of the hypophysectomized animals were 81% less than the controls, there were no significant differences in the visual and somesthetic cortical depths between the two groups. The visual cortex increased in depth with thyroxine, whereas the somesthetic cortex did not. Growth hormone had no significant effect on the cortical depth. The depth of the diencephalon increased more with hypophysectomy than did the width. Thyroxine increased the survival rate of the hypophysectomized animals to a greater extent than did growth hormone.
Early heterogeneous enhancement of the liver: Magnetic resonance imaging findings and clinical significance

Purpose To investigate and assess the radiologic, serological, and histopathologic findings in patients who presented with early heterogeneous enhancement (EHE) on gadolinium-enhanced early-phase magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the liver. Materials and Methods We searched our radiologic records of MRI of the liver from July 1999 to April 2002 to identify patients with EHE. Three investigators retrospectively evaluated in consensus the MR images in each patient for intensity and characteristic of EHE blinded to clinical information. Serological laboratory values and clinical information were obtained in all patients, and histologic findings were available in 19. Results We identified 67 patients with EHE. Of them, 62 patients (93%) had underlying chronic liver disease. Twenty-seven patients had viral hepatitis, 13 had alcohol abuse, 6 had primary sclerosing cholangitis, and the others had miscellaneous etiologies. The five patients without chronic liver disease had the following clinical histories: concurrent chemotherapy for extrahepatic malignancy (two patients), concurrent intraabdominal infection (one), and no known associated disease (two). Intensity of EHE was intense in 6 (9%), moderate in 22 (33%), and mild in 39 (58%). Pattern of EHE was geographic in 15 patients (22%), patchy in 37 (55%), and miliary in 15 (22%). All EHE showed rapid fading on postcontrast late-phase images. EHE showed mild to moderate hyperintensity on T2-weighted images in 30 patients (45%). In the 19 patients with histological correlation, 19 (100%) had hepatocellular necrosis, 19 (100%) had fibrosis, 18 (95%) had inflammatory cell infiltration, 17 (89%) had capillary-size vessels within fibrous septa, and 16 (84%) had ductal proliferation. No statistical correlation was found between the intensity or pattern of EHE on MR images and the extent of elevation of serological laboratory values or severity of histologic findings. Conclusion Several different types of underlying chronic liver disease were observed in most of the patients with EHE. Hepatocyte necrosis, fibrosis, or inflammatory processes were found in all patients with EHE who had histopathological correlation. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2004;20:242–249. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Information Literacy--Making It Real!.

Abstract Information literacy initiatives on community college campuses are key to a student's academic success. Information literate students who can identify, evaluate, and use information are better able to compete in the professional world. Community college libraries who communicate and collaborate with faculty forge key relationships that benefit all stakeholders.
A sequential implicit algorithm of chemo-thermo-poro-mechanics for fractured geothermal reservoirs

We describe the development of a sequential implicit formulation and algorithm for coupling fluid-heat flow, reactive transport, and geomechanics. We consider changes in pore volume from dissolution caused by chemical reactions, in addition to coupled flow and geomechanics. Moreover, we use the constitutive equations for the multiple porosity model for fractured geothermal reservoirs, employing failure-dependent permeability dynamically and updating it every time step. The proposed sequential algorithm is an extension of the fixed-stress split method to chemo-thermo-poro-mechanics, facilitating the use of existing flow-reactive transport and geomechanics simulators.We first validate a simulator that employs the proposed sequential algorithm, matching the numerical solutions with the analytical solutions such as Terzaghi's and Mandel's problems for poro-mechanics and the reference solutions of chemo-poro-mechanics and chemo-thermo-poro-mechanics in the 1D elastic problems. We also perform convergence test, and the proposed algorithm shows fast convergence, when full iteration is taken, and first order accuracy in time for the staggered approach.We then investigate two test cases: 2D multiple porosity elastic and 3D single porosity elastoplastic problems, and explore the differences in coupled flow and geomechanics with and without reactive transport. We find that the change in pore-volume induced by mineral dissolution can impact on fluid pressure and failure status, followed by significant changes in permeability and flow variables, showing strong interrelations between flow-reactive transport and geomechanics. HighlightsIntegration of flow-reactive transport-geomechanics simulators.A fast and convergent sequential implicit algorithm.Practical coupling between reactive transport and thermoporomechanics.Simulation of geochemistry in coupled flow and geomechanics.
Administration of daniplestim and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for the mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor cells in nonhuman primates.

Abstract We investigated the effects of administering a high-affinity interleukin-3 receptor agonist (daniplestim) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) on the mobilization of primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells into peripheral blood (PB). Groups of five rhesus monkeys were treated with 100 mg/kg of daniplestim for 5 days followed by 10 microg/kg of G-CSF for 5 days (D/G), daniplestim and G-CSF administered concurrently for 10 days (D+G), or G-CSF alone for 10 days. Phenotypic PB analysis indicated that the number of CD34+ cells in the G-CSF group had increased to 28 x 10(6)/L by Day 3 and then declined. In contrast, CD34+ cell counts of up to 68 x 10(6)/L were maintained until Day 10 in both the D/G and D+G groups. On Day 5, the total number of colony-forming cells in the PB had increased 15-fold in the D+G group and eightfold in both the D/G group and the G-CSF groups. By Day 7, the numbers of colony-forming units granulocyte/macrophage were comparable in all three groups, and 45-fold increases in the numbers of burst-forming units-erythroid and 12-fold increases in the numbers of multipotent colony-forming units were seen in both the D+G and the D/G groups. The frequency of circulating primitive progenitor cells in long-term stromal cultures was highest with D+G and lowest with G-CSF alone. These results indicate that the combination of daniplestim and G-CSF produces higher and more sustained levels of circulating stem cells than does G-CSF alone. D+G may offer advantages over D/G because it generates more long- and short-term clonogenic cells. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 1999;5(1):8-14.
Resilency reconsidered: Contemporary MMPI normative data for Barron's ego strength scale

Although it is more than 30 years old, Es remains one of the most frequently scored of the MMPI supplemental scales. However, there have been significant changes in MMPI response patterns among adults since the Es scale was first developed. New normative tables for the Es scale based on a contemporary census-matched sample of normal adults are presented along with figures that illustrate changes associated with age and sex.
Blurring the Color Line1

work that was too clearly about food itself risked being confined to the gen der-ghetto of home economics. In recent years, however, we have seen the emergence of a new, exciting if still loosely defined, interdisciplinary subfield of "Food Studies" in which sociologists are now playing a prominent role. The work of two 01 these sociologists is discussed in this issue. Thomas Lyson has been particularly influential in the study of sustainable agriculture. An overview of his work is provided here by our reviewer, Ethan Schoolman. As in many emerging areas in the social sciences, Lyson's work has one foot in the world of political advocacy and one in critical social science. How he navigates this blurry boundary is one of the themes in Schoolman's account. Finally, Jay (Koby) Oppenheim reviews Free for All: Fixing School Food in America by another of the leading figures in food studies, Jan Poppendeick. As in her previous work, Poppendeick combines her interest in the social importance of food with her analysis of social policy in this study of Amer ica's school lunch program.
Abstract 4681: Urothelial gene expression signatures aid bladder cancer detection

Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC Bladder cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed malignancy in the United States and one of the most prevalent worldwide. It harbors a probability of recurrence of >50%, thus rigorous, long-term surveillance of patients is advocated, so improvements in non-invasive urinalysis assessment strategies would benefit patients. We applied gene expression microarray analysis to exfoliated urothelia recovered from bladder washes obtained prospectively from 102 patients with subsequently confirmed presence or absence of bladder cancer. Data from microarrays containing 56,000 targets was subjected to a panel of statistical analyses to identify bladder cancer-associated gene signatures. Hierarchical clustering and supervised learning algorithms were used to classify samples on the basis of tumor burden. A differentially expressed set of 323 gene probes was associated with the presence of bladder cancer (P 75%. Our results show that it is possible to achieve the detection of bladder cancer using molecular signatures present in exfoliated tumor urothelia. Further investigation and validation of the cancer-associated profiles may reveal important biomarkers for the non-invasive detection and surveillance of bladder cancer. Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4681.
Percutaneous needle biopsy of goiter in childhood.

Abstract Needle biopsy of the thyroid is an effective and practical means of establishing the histologic diagnosis of goiter in children. The procedure was performed using a Franklin-Silverman needle in 87 consecutive patients ranging in age from three-17 years. A specimen adequate for histologic interpretation was obtained in 82 of the patients. No significant complications occurred.
Predicting the lifetime of fluorosilicone O-rings.

Abstract Long-term (up to 1000 days) accelerated oven-aging studies on a commercial fluorosilicone o-ring seal are used to predict the sealing lifetime at room temperature (23 °C). The study follows force decay (relaxation) on squeezed o-ring material using isothermal compression stress relaxation (CSR) techniques. The relaxation is normally a complex mix of reversible physical effects and non-reversible chemical effects but we utilize an over-strain approach to quickly achieve physical equilibrium. This allows us to concentrate the measurements on the chemical relaxation effects of primary interest to lifetime assessment. The long-term studies allow us to access a fairly broad temperature range (80–138 °C) which results in improved modeling of the temperature dependence of the accelerated data. Non-Arrhenius behavior is observed with evidence of a significant lowering of the activation energy at the lowest accelerated aging temperature (80 °C). This observation is consistent with numerous recent accelerated aging studies that probed temperature ranges large enough to observe similar non-Arrhenius behavior. The extrapolated predictions imply that significant loss of sealing force requires on the order of 50–100 years at 23 °C. Field aging results out to ∼25 years at 23 °C are shown to be in reasonable accord with the significant change in Arrhenius slope observed from the accelerated aging study.
Short answer question case series: abnormal first-trimester pregnancy

A 31-year-old woman, gravida 3 para 2, at about 8 weeks pregnant presents with lower abdominal pain. On examination, her vitals are stable and she has adnexal tenderness (left > right). Her urinalysis is normal but her urine pregnancy test is positive. Her β-hCG is 1189. An ultrasound is done with the figures below. 1. What is your reading of this ultrasound? 2. How does the quantitative β-hCG affect your interpretation? 3. What are her treatment options? 4. What should her disposition be? 1. Figure 1A is a transabdominal longitudinal view showing free fluid in the posterior cul-de-sac behind the uterus with no evidence of an intrauterine pregnancy (IUP). This is an overall good view since it shows you the related anatomy of the bladder, cervix/vagina, uterus and both cul-de-sacs. Figure 1B is a transvaginal transverse view of the uterus. Once again, we can see free fluid behind the uterus with no evidence of an IUP (no gestational sac, yolk sac or fetal pole). Figure 1C is a transvaginal view of the left adnexa showing the ovary to the left of the screen and …
Collective excitations and spectral function in the Fermi-liquid state of the t-J model.

We analyze the nature of the single-particle excitations and the collective modes in the nonmagnetic phase of a generalized t-J model to next to leading order in 1/N. We discuss the essential features of the spectral function of the t-J model and we evaluate it numerically for values of the parameters t,J, and of the doping level relevant to the copper-oxide planes.
The calcium pump of the endoplasmic reticulum plays a role in midline signaling during early zebrafish development

During early vertebrate development, a signaling network is activated along the midline of the embryo. This signaling network induces the neural tube floor plate and ventral brain regions. In turn, induction of the ventral brain region is important for bilateral division of the forebrain and bilateral separation of the eyes. The present study provides direct evidence for a role of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+) pump in zebrafish midline signaling. The endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+) pump was inhibited in zebrafish embryos using thapsigargin or cyclopiazonic acid. Inhibition of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+) pump during early gastrulation induces cyclopia, mimicking defects observed in cyclops, squint, one-eyed pinhead, and silberblick mutant embryos. In contrast, inhibition of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+) pump during mid-gastrulation does not induce cyclopia, but does induce tail defects, mimicking defects observed in no-tail mutant embryos. This study is the first to relate thapsigargin and cyclopiazonic acid with induction of cyclopia. In addition, obtained results provide new information on the roles of Ca(2+) in embryonic development and may lead to new insights on the mechanisms underlying holoprosencephaly, a relatively common brain defect in human development.
Degradation of homogeneous polymer solutions in high shear turbulent pipe flow

This study quantifies degradation of polyethylene oxide (PEO) and polyacrylamide (PAM) polymer solutions in large diameter (2.72 cm) turbulent pipe flow at Reynolds numbers to 3 × 105 and shear rates greater than 105 1/s. The present results support a universal scaling law for polymer chain scission reported by Vanapalli et al. (2006) that predicts the maximum chain drag force to be proportional to Re 3/2, validating this scaling law at higher Reynolds numbers than prior studies. Use of this scaling gives estimated backbone bond strengths from PEO and PAM of 3.2 and 3.8 nN, respectively. Additionally, with the use of synthetic seawater as a solvent the onset of drag reduction occurred at higher shear rates relative to the pure water solvent solutions, but had little influence on the extent of degradation at higher shear rates. These results are significant for large diameter pipe flow applications that use polymers to reduce drag.
Failure of perturbation theory in nonlinear field theories

Perturbative solutions of the field equations of a class of nonlinear field theories do not exist. The cases studied include SU2 gauge theories with specific gauge assumptions.
Increased Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 in the Thickened Intima of Aged Rats

Abstract—To characterize remodeling of elastic arteries with aging and to investigate its potential mechanisms, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), intracellular adhesive molecule-1 (ICAM-1), trans...
Probabilistic guidance of distributed systems using sequential convex programming

In this paper, we integrate, implement, and validate formation flying algorithms for a large number of agents using probabilistic guidance of distributed systems with inhomogeneous Markov chains and model predictive control with sequential convex programming. Using an inhomogeneous Markov chain, each agent determines its target position during each iteration in a statistically independent manner while the distributed system converges to the desired formation. Moreover, the distributed system is robust to external disturbances or damages to the formation. Once the target positions are assigned, an optimal control problem is formulated to ensure that the agents reach the target positions while avoiding collisions. This problem is solved using sequential convex programming to determine optimal, collision-free trajectories and model predictive control is implemented to update these trajectories as new state information becomes available. Finally, we validate the probabilistic guidance of distributed systems and model predictive control algorithms using the formation flying testbed.
High-energy ultra-small-angle X-ray scattering instrument at the Advanced Photon Source

This paper reports recent tests performed on the Bonse–Hart-type ultra-small-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) instrument at the Advanced Photon Source with higher-order reflection optics – Si(440) instead of Si(220) – and with X-ray energies greater than 20 keV. The results obtained demonstrate the feasibility of high-energy operation with narrower crystal reflectivity curves, which provides access to a scattering q range from ∼2 × 10−5 to 1.8 A−1 and up to 12 decades in the associated sample-dependent scattering intensity range. The corresponding size range of the scattering features spans about five decades – from less than 10 A to ∼15 µm. These tests have indicated that mechanical upgrades are required to ensure the alignment capability and operational stability of this instrument for general user operations because of the tighter angular-resolution constraints of the higher-order crystal optics.
I. Simple pulsatile flow in an artery with a constriction

Abstract A smooth isolated, axisymmetric occlusion in a straight vascular tube is a tractable problem for pulsatile flow calculations via finite-difference approximations to the Navier-Stokes equation. Steady flow depends on the Reynolds number and two geometric parameters which describe the stenosis. The mere addition of a simple harmonic to the mean flow adds two more parameters. One is the reduced frequency, or Stokes number, and the other e, the ratio of unsteady to steady flux. After describing steady stenosis flow examples, the dynamic patterns of pulsatile flow are illustrated indicating the inadequacy of basing hypotheses of atherosclerosis on mean (steady) flow.
Cumulative Experiences of Violence Among High-Risk Urban Youth:

This study examines type-specific and cumulative experiences of violence among a vulnerable population of youth. Sixty high-risk, shelter-dwelling, urban youth were interviewed regarding their history of childhood maltreatment, exposure to community violence (ECV), and experience with intimate partner violence (IPV). Results show a high prevalence and high degree of overlap among multiple types of violence exposure. Childhood physical, sexual (CSA), and emotional (CEA) abuse were interrelated and were associated with ECV. Cumulative experiences of childhood abuse (CCA) had a graded association with IPV victimization. In multivariate analyses, CCA and ECV were independently associated with IPV victimization. Gender moderated the effect of one association: CEA raised the risk of IPV victimization for girls but not for boys. Only CSA predicted IPV perpetration. Findings suggest that cumulative exposures to violence create cumulative risk for experiencing more violence. Shelter-dwelling, urban youth may be particularly vulnerable to this additive effect.
Glutathione S-transferase T1- and M1-null genotypes and coronary artery disease risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Introduction: Since long-term exposure to oxidative stress is strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications, polymorphic genes of detoxifying enzymes must be involved in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). We assessed the potential glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene–gene (GSTM1null–GSTT1null) and gene–smoking interactions on the development of CAD in patients with Type 2 diabetes. Materials & methods: In a case-only design, we enrolled 231 patients with Type 2 diabetes (147 male, 66.1 ± 9.7 years) referred to our institute for coronary angiography investigation. CAD was diagnosed if there was over 50% obstruction of one or more major vessels. Results: Coronary angiography revealed significant CAD in 184 patients (80%). Male gender (p < 0.001), smoking habits (p = 0.003) and GSTT1null genotype (p = 0.003) were significantly correlated with the increasing extent of the coronary atherosclerosis. Case-only analysis revealed that patients with both Mnull–Tnull genotypes had ...
Core mantle boundary topography from short period PcP, PKP, and PKKP data

Abstract We use a total of 839,369 PcP, PKPab, PKPbc, PKPdf, PKKPab, and PKKPbc residual travel times from [Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 88 (1998) 722] grouped in 29,837 summary rays to constrain lateral variation in the depth to the core–mantle boundary (CMB). We assumed a homogeneous outer core, and the data were corrected for mantle structure and inner-core anisotropy. Inversions of separate data sets yield amplitude variations of up to 5 km for PcP, PKPab, PKPbc, and PKKP and 13 km for PKPdf. This is larger than the CMB undulations inferred in geodetic studies and, moreover, the PcP results are not readily consistent with the inferences from PKP and PKKP. Although the source–receiver ambiguity for the core-refracted phases can explain some of it, this discrepancy suggest that the travel-time residuals cannot be explained by topography alone. The wavespeed perturbations in the tomographic model used for the mantle corrections might be too small to fully account for the trade off between volumetric heterogeneity and CMB topography. In a second experiment we therefore re-applied corrections for mantle structure outside a basal 290 km-thick layer and inverted all data jointly for both CMB topography and volumetric heterogeneity within this layer. The resultant CMB model can explain PcP, PKP, and PKKP residuals and has approximately 0.2 km excess core ellipticity, which is in good agreement with inferences from free core nutation observations. Joint inversion yields a peak-to-peak amplitude of CMB topography of about 3 km, and the inversion yields velocity variations of ±5% in the basal layer. The latter suggests a strong trade-off between topography and volumetric heterogeneity, but uncertainty analyses suggest that the variation in core radius can be resolved. The spherical averages of all inverted topographic models suggest that the data are best fit if the actual CMB radius is 1.5 km less than in the Earth reference model used (i.e. the average outer core radius would be 3478 km).
“Have a good one”: For a U of I transplant from New Delhi, Moscow, Idaho, was as confusing as Moscow, Russia

Culture shock runs deep for this teacher from India. Sayantani Dasgupta's musings on education in New Delhi and Idaho reminds us of what we love (and love to hate!) about American higher education.
Changes in crustal fluid flow over geologic time

Abstract Important changes in the physical drives for crustal fluid flow may have occurred when substantial organic matter began to be buried in post-Proterozoic time, when continental glaciers grew and melted, and when continents assembled or broke up.
Alternative Molecular Mechanisms of Preterm Labor: Differential Effects of Lipopolysaccharide and Onapristone on Oxytocin Receptor Expression in the Pregnant Mouse. † 298

Alternative Molecular Mechanisms of Preterm Labor: Differential Effects of Lipopolysaccharide and Onapristone on Oxytocin Receptor Expression in the Pregnant Mouse. † 298
A constructive proof of the Cartan-Dieudonné-Scherk Theorem in the real or complex case

Abstract The Cartan–Dieudonne–Scherk Theorem states that for fields of characteristic other than 2, every orthogonality can be written as the product of a certain minimal number of reflections across hyperplanes. The earliest proofs are not constructive, and constructive proofs either do not achieve minimal results or have been restricted to special cases. This paper presents a constructive proof in the real or complex field of the decomposition of a generalized orthogonal matrix into the product of the minimal number of generalized Householder matrices.
A nonstandard characterization of sequential equilibrium, perfect equilibrium, and proper equilibrium

New characterizations of sequential equilibrium, perfect equilibrium, and proper equilibrium are provided that use nonstandard probability. It is shown that there exists a belief system μ such that $${(\vec{\sigma},\mu)}$$ is a sequential equilibrium in an extensive game with perfect recall iff there exist an infinitesimal $${\epsilon}$$ and a completely mixed behavioral strategy profile σ′ (so that $${\sigma_i'}$$ assigns positive, although possibly infinitesimal, probability to all actions at every information set) that differs only infinitesimally from $${\vec{\sigma}}$$ such that at each information set I for player i, σ i is an $${\epsilon}$$ -best response to $${\vec{\sigma}'_{-i}}$$ conditional on having reached I. Note that the characterization of sequential equilibrium does not involve belief systems. There is a similar characterization of perfect equilibrium; the only difference is that σ i must be a best response to $${\vec{\sigma}'_{-i}}$$ conditional on having reached I. Yet another variant is used to characterize proper equilibrium.
Static performance of power-augmented ram vehicle model on water

An experimental parametric study of a novel air-assisted platform-type model called power-augmented ram vehicle is described. The zero-speed regimes of the model over the water are investigated. The recovered thrust, pressure underneath the platform, and the model attitude are recorded for variable system geometry, loading conditions, and propulsor thrust. The stern flap under the model platform provides an effective mechanism for controlling the thrust recovery and the air-jet-induced lift. Unstable behavior of the model is found at sufficiently high levels of the propulsor thrust.
Prairie grass phytolith hardness and the evolution of ungulate hypsodonty

Silica phytoliths in grasses are thought to serve as a defence mechanism against grazing ungulates by causing excessive tooth wear. It is posited that they contributed to the evolution of hypsodonty in these animals. However, some have questioned whether grass phytoliths can abrade enamel. Here Mohs hardness testing was conducted on Blue Grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis) to determine phytolith hardness. Microindentation was performed on horse and American bison molars to establish dental constituent hardness values. To infer the phytoliths' abrasion capacity, the hardness values were contrasted. Phytolith hardness ranged from 18.0 to 191.5 HV. This is considerably softer than the values obtained for ungulate enamel, which range from 332.6 to 363.4 HV, but harder than the other dental constituents. Although Blue Grama phytoliths are incapable of directly abrading enamel, when viewed in conjunction with other data on phytolith hardness, there is considerable variation across grass species and some phytoliths...
A carbon-13 NMR study of some metal carbonyl compounds containing one-electron ligands

Carbon-13 NMR spectral data for complexes having the general formula CpM(CO)nX (Cp = η5-C5H5; M = Mo or W, n = 3; M = Fe, n = 2; X = halogen, methyl or acetyl) and their phosphine and isocyanide substitution products are reported. For CpM(CO)3X complexes two carbonyl resonances (1 : 2 ratio) are observed in all cases, consistent with the retention of the “piano-stool” geometries observed in the solid state. Substituted complexes CpM(CO)2(L)X (M = Mo or W; L = PR3 or cyclohexyl isocyanide) are unequivocally assigned cis or trans geometries on the basis of the number of observed carbonyl resonances and values of 2J(PC) for the phosphine substituted derivatives. Spectral data for [M(CO)5X]− (M = Cr, Mo or W; X = Cl, Br or I) and η7-C7H7Mo(CO)2X and the halide derivatives above generally show an increase in the shielding for carbonyls adjacent to the halide ligand in the order Cl < Br < I. Carbonyl resonances are more shielded in isostructural complexes in the order Cr < Mo < W (triad effect).
Dental anxiety is considerably associated with pain experience during dental procedures.

Article Title and Bibliographic Information Predictors of pain associated with routine procedures performed in general dental practice. Tickle M, Milsom K, Crawford FI, Aggarwal VR. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 2012 Aug;40(4):343-50. Reviewer Mike T. John, DDS, MPH, PhD Purpose/Question In patients attending general dental practices, is dental anxiety associated with pain experienced during dental procedures? Source of Funding Government Type of Study/Design Cross-sectional study Level of Evidence Level 1: Good-quality, patient-oriented evidence Strength of Recommendation Grade Not applicable
A provably passive and cost-efficient model for inductive interconnects

To reduce the model complexity for inductive interconnects, the vector potential equivalent circuit (VPEC) model was introduced recently and a localized VPEC model was developed based on geometry integration. In this paper, the authors show that the localized VPEC model is not accurate for interconnects with nontrivial sizes. They derive an accurate VPEC model by inverting the inductance matrix under the partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) model and prove that the effective resistance matrix under the resulting full VPEC model is passive and strictly diagonal dominant. This diagonal dominance enables truncating small-valued off-diagonal elements to obtain a sparsified VPEC model named truncated VPEC (tVPEC) model with guaranteed passivity. To avoid inverting the entire inductance matrix, the authors further present another sparsified VPEC model with preserved passivity, the windowed VPEC (wVPEC) model, based on inverting a number of inductance submatrices. Both full and sparsified VPEC models are SPICE compatible. Experiments show that the full VPEC model is as accurate as the full PEEC model but consumes less simulation time than the full PEEC model does. Moreover, the sparsified VPEC model is orders of magnitude (1000/spl times/) faster and produces a waveform with small errors (3%) compared to the full PEEC model, and wVPEC uses less (up to 90/spl times/) model building time yet is more accurate compared to the tVPEC model.
Functionality distribution of hydroxyl‐terminated polybutadienes using gel permeation chromatography. II. Measurements for commercial polymers

Abstract The study of molecular weight and functionality parameters of telechelic hydrocarbon-based prepolymers has received much attention in recent years owing to the influence that these parameters exert on the vulcanization and product properties. An excellent review of these systems has been presented by French. Previous work has been limited to the determination of the average functionality of the whole polymer or of fractions obtained by some appropriate fractionation procedure. Muenker and Law, for instance, used extensive column elution techniques for separating the various species and then determined the average functionality of the fractions. In the previous paper, we described a dual-detector gel permeation chromatography (GPC) method for simultaneously determining the molecular weight averages, molecular weight distribution, hydroxyl equivalent weight, functionality averages, and functionality distributions of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadienes. The method is based on the simultaneous use of ...
Clinical Predictors of Severe Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy and Influence of APOE Genotype in Persons With Pathologically Verified Alzheimer Disease

Importance Although cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) has important clinical implications, our understanding of it and ability to diagnose it are limited. Objective To determine pathological correlates and clinical factors identifiable during life that predict the presence of severe CAA in persons with pathologically confirmed Alzheimer disease (AD). Design, Setting, and Participants We compared demographic and clinical variables at the earliest visit during life at which participants were found to have cognitive impairment and compared pathological variables between persons ultimately found to have no or severe CAA at autopsy using logistic regression. Analyses were repeated separately for carriers and noncarriers of theAPOEe4 allele. Data were obtained from the Uniform Data Set, which comprises longitudinal clinical assessments performed in the Alzheimer’s Disease Centers funded by the National Institute on Aging. Participants included 193 persons with AD and severe CAA and 232 persons with AD and no CAA. All participants had cognitive impairment and met National Institute on Aging–Reagan Institute neuropathological criteria for AD. Main Outcomes and Measures Prevalence of demographic characteristics and theAPOEe4 allele and odds ratios (ORs) of clinical variables for the prediction of severe CAA. Results Persons with severe CAA compared with those without CAA were more likely to carry anAPOEe4 allele (64.9% vs 42.8%, respectively;P Conclusions and Relevance Being Hispanic and having had a transient ischemic attack–like episode were predictors of CAA in persons with AD. Less diffuse parenchymal amyloid pathology in persons with severe CAA suggests a difference in β-amyloid trafficking.
Development of Multi-Chip Module-D technology-testchip

Multi-Chip Modules enable combining different integrated circuits with passive components leading to advantages in size, performance and cost. This paper presents the design of a testchip which was planned to extend the characterization of the process parameters for the development of MCM-D technology. It was made using Virtuoso Cadence Software, with minimum dimension of 20 μm, resulting in four mask layers.
The library beyond the walls on the walls

Purpose – This article aims to describe the process of documenting outdoor murals of a metropolitan community in the Midwest and disseminating the information through a library hosted web publication.Design/methodology/approach – The outdoor murals are surveyed and photographed by an academic fine arts librarian, the author. Access is created via a web publication, supported and developed through library resources.Findings – The project not only increases access to works by local artists, but serves as a resource for historical images when, or if, a work becomes damaged or is removed.Originality/value – This new pathway to public art serves as a bridge between the campus and the community.
Examining the impact of news attention and education on political tolerance in Hong Kong

This study examines the interrelationships amongst and between news attention, education, and political tolerance. Based on the theoretical presumption that the mainstream news media tend to reflect the prejudices and ideologies of the dominant groups in a society, news portrayal of groups regarded as deviant and/or controversial can be expected to be negative in valence. Hence, news attention is expected to lead to more negative attitudes toward such groups, which in turn breeds intolerance toward them. Meanwhile, education may moderate the relationship between news attention and tolerance. Research questions and hypotheses are examined through analyzing the data from a representative survey conducted in Hong Kong. The findings confirm the negative, indirect effect of news attention on tolerance through attitude toward deviant groups. Education is also found to relate to tolerance in a complicated and contradictory manner: while education has a direct positive effect on tolerance, it also strengthens the...
Pathologic models to predict outcome for women with endometrial adenocarcinoma: The importance of the distinction between surgical stage and clinical stage - A Gynecologic Oncology Group Study

BACKGROUND Numerous pathologic factors have been identified as important in predicting outcome for women with endometrial adenocarcinoma. However, most patients have a mixture of good and bad factors. For these women, the prognosis is uncertain, and it is often unclear whether postoperative therapy is indicated. METHODS Using univariate and multivariate analysis, we investigated the pathologic factors commonly reported to be of prognostic significance, using data from 819 patients with clinical Stages I and II endometrial adenocarcinoma from a Gynecologic Oncology Group study. Since the clinical stage frequently underestimated the surgical stage, models that designate the relative risk associated with each of the variables were created for both clinical and surgical Stage I and II patients. RESULTS We confirmed the importance of age, depth of myometrial invasion, and to a lesser degree, histologic grade, and cell type, as independent prognostic variables. CONCLUSIONS The relative risk of death can be determined using a simple multiplicative calculation, and the absolute risk can be estimated by inspection of the accompanying figures. These data can be used to provide patients with prognostic information and to help determine the need for postoperative adjuvant therapy. Cancer 1996;77:1115-21.
Local synchronous capacity allocation schemes for guaranteeing message deadlines with the timed token protocol

The problem of guaranteeing synchronous message deadlines in communication networks using the timed token medium access control protocol is studied. To ensure the transmission of synchronous messages before their deadlines, synchronous capacities must be properly allocated to individual nodes. A class of local synchronous capacity allocation schemes, which allocate the synchronous capacity to a node without using information about messages on the other nodes, is developed, analyzed, and evaluated in terms of the ability of the schemes to guarantee message deadlines. It is shown that one of the local allocation schemes proposed can achieve the same performance as that of the best global allocation scheme known to date. >
Employing patterns and layers for early-stage design and prototyping of cross-device user interfaces

Designing UIs that run across multiple devices is increasingly important. To address this, we have created a prototyping tool called Damask, which targets web UIs that run on PCs and mobile phones, and prompt-and-response style voice UIs. In Damask, designers sketch out their design for one device while using design patterns to specify higher-level concepts within their design. Damask's patterns include pre-built UI fragments that are already optimized for each device. Designers also use layers to specify which UI parts are common across devices and which are specific to one device. Damask uses the sketches and patterns to generate designs for the other devices, which the designers can refine. A study performed with 12 professional UI designers found that, in the early stages, designers using patterns and layers in Damask created cross-device UIs that are rated at least as good as those created without patterns and layers, without more time.
The Employment Effects of New Business Formation: A Regional Perspective

This paper seeks to examine spatially varying relationships between new firm formation and employment growth across U.S counties. The existing empirical evidence does not provide consistent conclusions of the effect of new business formation on employment growth. The regional effects of new firm formation on employment growth are examined and emphasized in this paper. It is hypothesized and tested that there are different relationships between new firm formation and employment growth across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. Geographically Weighted Regression model is calibrated with countylevel data to identify the spatially varying relationships across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties.
Leukotriene Modifiers to Prevent Aspirin-Provoked Respiratory Reactions in Asthmatics

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the use of leukotriene modifiers in preventing aspirin-provoked respiratory reactions in asthmatics.DATA SOURCES:Clinical literature accessed through MEDLINE (1965–February 2001). Key search terms included aspirin, asthma, leukotriene, and treatment.DATA SYNTHESIS:Aspirin-sensitive asthmatics experience a wide variety of symptoms, ranging from rhinitis to life-threatening bronchospasms, after the ingestion of aspirin or nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The relationship between aspirin sensitivity, asthma, and nasal polyps was first reported in 1922. The exact mechanism of these reactions is not clearly understood. Four studies investigated the use of leukotriene modifiers to prevent aspirin-provoked respiratory reactions. The efficacy of these agents ranged from complete inhibition to no blockade.CONCLUSIONS:Patients who experience aspirin-sensitive asthma should be cautious when taking aspirin and NSAIDs, despite treatment with leukotriene inhibitors.
Nearest neighbor sampling for better defect prediction

An important step in building effective predictive models applies one or more sampling techniques. Traditional sampling techniques include random, stratified, systemic, and clustered. The problem with these techniques is that they focus on the class attribute, rather than the non-class attributes. For example, if a test instance's nearest neighbor is from the opposite class of the training set, then it seems doomed to misclassification. To illustrate this problem, this paper conducts 20 experiments on five different NASA defect datasets (CM1, JM1, KC1, KC2, PC1) using two different learners (J48 and Naive Bayes). Each data set is divided into 3 groups, a training set, and "nice/nasty" neighbor test sets. Using a nearest neighbor approach, "Nice neighbors" consist of those test instances closest to class training instances. "Nasty neighbors" are closest to opposite class training instances. The "Nice" experiments average 94 percent accuracy and the "Nasty" experiments average 20 percent accuracy. Based on these results a new nearest neighbor sampling technique is proposed.
Radiation-Induced Formation of Chlorine Oxides and Their Potential Role in the Origin of Martian Perchlorates

Carbon dioxide (CO2) rich chlorine-bearing ices were exposed to energetic electrons in laboratory simulation experiments to investigate the formation of chlorine oxides (ClxOy) in the condensed phase on Mars. The radiolysis-induced synthesis of chlorine oxides (ClxOy) was complementarily monitored online and in situ via infrared spectroscopy (IR) and quadrupole mass spectrometry (QMS). Three discrete chlorine oxides were identified: chorine dioxide (OClO), dichlorine monoxide (ClOCl), and chloryl chloride (ClClO2). Higher irradiation doses support the facile production of ClO3- and ClO2-bearing high-order chlorine oxides. We attribute manifolds of chlorine oxides, as invoked herein, to the potential origin of perchlorates as found on Mars.