cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Children are in control

We argue on the basis of recent experimental results that modular principles of universal grammar (UG) play a continuous role in the first language acquisition of control. Our results involve both comprehension and production data from 108 3- to 8-year old children who are acquiring English. The results provide evidence against the hypothesis that there is a "stage" at which children do not know fundamental grammatical principles of control, or fail to apply the basic structural analysis relevant to control. We suggest that previous proposals for this hypothesis have been misled by (1) attention to only one aspect of the knowledge of control, namely choice of antecedent in comprehension of the embedded null subject in these structures and (2) misinterpretation of the nature of the principle by which children overgeneralize the choice of object as antecedent in control structures. Although the new results do replicate delay in acquisition with the unique subject-control verb "promise", they suggest that this delay is caused by a need to integrate modular principles of UG with language-specific principles by which the lexicon and syntax (constituent structure and case) are related. The overgeneralization of choice of object as antecedent is shown to reflect a continuous principle of syntactic minimality.
Possible Contribution of PTSD to Altered Cortisol Activity in Young Adult Obese African-American Women.

Objective African-Americans have been found to experience increased rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obesity, and flatter diurnal cortisol slopes compared to other demographic groups. Further exploration, however, is needed to understand how PTSD impacts diurnal cortisol activity in obese African-American women. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between salivary cortisol levels and PTSD in a sample of obese young adult African-American women and to examine how depression and insomnia influence the relationship.
Self-Reported Home Environmental Risk Factors for Childhood Asthma: A Cross-Sectional Study of Children in Buffalo, New York

We present prevalence estimates of indoor and outdoor environmental risk factors for asthma from a cross-sectional study of children 1 to 17 years of age living in Buffalo, New York. A child's primary caretaker completed a questionnaire about the household's demographics, lifestyle habits, housing, indoor and outdoor environment, and the child's activity patterns, family history of asthma, asthma symptoms and treatment, and medical care access. Significant environmental risk factors were presence of smokers in the household, humidifier or vaporizer use, chemical odors indoors, frequent truck traffic, and chemical odors outdoors. Most of these risk factors can be mitigated or controlled.
Computation of turbulent, separated, unswept compression ramp interactions

Examination of the literature shows that the comparison between experiment and computation for highly separated unswept compression ramp flows is generally poor, irrespective of the turbulence model used. In general, the upstream influence is not correct, the wall pressure rise through separation is too steep, and the pressures under the separated shear layer are too high. In the current study, the objective is to determine if these discrepancies might be attributed more to other factors such as flowfield unsteadiness or three-dimensionality, rather than to inadequate turbulence modeling. To examine this possibility, multichannel wall pressure fluctuations were measured under the unsteady separation shock wave in a 28-deg unswept compression ramp flow at Mach 5. The results show that the large scale, low frequency separation shock unsteadiness controls the distribution of time-averaged surface properties and that neglect of the unsteadiness is probably the primary cause of the discrepancy between experiment and computation.
Response selection in operant learning.

We show that simple, contiguity-based, nonassociative response-selection process provides a qualitative account for both anomalous and nonanomalous properties of operant conditioning. The process can easily be extended to permit associative effects; it may therefore represent the initial processing stage for all conditioning in higher vertebrates.
Diagnosis and management of malignant pleural effusions

Approximately half of all patients with metastatic cancer develop malignant pleural effusions. Because the patients are already terminally ill, these effusions can present significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Symptoms are either present at the time of diagnosis or develop subsequently in virtually all cases. The diagnosis is based on chest radiography followed by thoracentesis or thoracoscopy. Most malignant effusions are exudative and about one third are bloody. Cytology is positive for cancer cells in the initial pleural fluid specimens from 60% of patients who are ultimately shown to have malignant effusions. The remaining 40% require a repeat thoracentesis, pleural biopsy, thoracoscopy, or multiple procedures to prove the presence of cancer. Because the average life expectancy of a patient with a malignant pleural effusion is about 6 months, it is important to obtain a diagnosis expeditiously and formulate a treatment plan that optimizes quality of life. Tube thoracostomy with chemical pleurodesis using doxycycline or bleomycin is the mainstay of current treatment and is about 85% effective.
Friends in the 'hood: Should peer-based health promotion programs target nonschool friendship networks?

Abstract Purpose To examine the characteristics of inner city African-American adolescents nonschool-based and school-based friendship networks and to explore the influence of these networks on health risk behavior. Methods We assessed close friendships networks in a probability sample of inner city African-American youth living in a single neighborhood and describe the networks and health risk behavior of network members. The initial probability sample was obtained via telephone (Random Digit Dialing [RDD] sampling) and followed up with in-person interviews with telephone respondents (seeds). Subsequently, seeds' friends were recruited and completed an in-person interview. Results A majority of friendship networks included some nonschool friends (57%) and 24% of networks were composed exclusively of nonschool friends. As expected, youth were more likely to spend time with school-based friends on weekdays. On weekends, youth were equally likely to spend time with both school and nonschool networks. Youth in the same friendship group tended to engage in similar behaviors. Health risk behaviors were high regardless of whether networks were nonschool based, mixed, or school based. Conclusions The high proportion of nonschool friendships suggests that out-of-school networks may be an important influence in this population. Youth spend time with their friends, regardless of network type, on weekends, and weekends are a high-risk period for health-damaging behaviors. Levels of experience with health risk behaviors suggest that both school and nonschool environments require intervention. Future social influence prevention efforts that are broad-based are likely to have maximal impact.
Laccase-catalyzed oxidation of oxybenzone in municipal wastewater primary effluent

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are now routinely detected in raw and treated municipal wastewater. Since conventional wastewater treatment processes are not particularly effective for PPCP removal, treated wastewater discharges are the main entry points for PPCPs into the environment, and eventually into our drinking water. This study investigates the use of laccase-catalyzed oxidation for removing low concentrations of PPCPs from municipal wastewater primary effluent. Oxybenzone was selected as a representative PPCP. Like many other PPCPs, it is not recognized directly by the laccase enzyme. Therefore, mediators were used to expand the oxidative range of laccase, and the efficacy of this laccase-mediator system in primary effluent was evaluated. Eight potential mediators were investigated, and 2,2'-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6sulphonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS), a synthetic mediator, and acetosyringone (ACE), a natural mediator, provided the greatest oxybenzone removal efficiencies. An environmentally relevant concentration of oxybenzone (43.8 nM, 10 μg/L) in primary effluent was completely removed (below the detection limit) after two hours of treatment with ABTS, and 95% was removed after two hours of treatment with ACE. Several mediator/oxybenzone molar ratios were investigated at two different initial oxybenzone concentrations. Higher mediator/oxybenzone molar ratios were required at the lower (environmentally relevant) oxybenzone concentration, and ACE required higher molar ratios than ABTS to achieve comparable oxybenzone removal. Oxybenzone oxidation byproducts generated by the laccase-mediator system were characterized and compared to those generated during ozonation. Enzymatic treatment generated byproducts with higher mass to charge (m/z) ratios, likely due to oxidative coupling reactions. The results of this study suggest that, with further development, the laccase-mediator system has the potential to extend the treatment range of laccase to PPCPs not directly recognized by the enzyme, even in a primary effluent matrix.
Correlation between reduction of metastasis in the MDA-MB-435 model system and increased expression of the Kai-1 protein

Using microcell-mediated transfer of a normal chromosome 11 into the highly metastatic MDA-MB-435 human breast carcinoma cell line, we previously showed that human chromosome 11 contains a metastasis-suppressor gene for breast cancer. A known metastasis-suppressor gene, kai-1, and a related family member, tapa-1, have been mapped to chromosome 11p11.2 and 11p15.5, respectively. To determine if these genes are responsible for the metastasis suppression seen in our microcell hybrids, we examined their expression by western blot analysis. Although tapa-1 expression did not significantly correlate with metastasis suppression, kai-1 production was dramatically increased in the metastasis-suppressed chromosome 11 microcell hybrids and unchanged in the metastatic chromosome 6 controls. Transfection of full-length kai-1 cDNA into MDA-MB-435 cells resulted in clones that did not have a significantly decreased in vivo incidence of lung metastases. However, western blot analysis showed that the primary tumors and the metastatic lesions of the transfectants had decreased levels of kai-1 protein compared with the inoculated cells. Furthermore, several of the transfectant clones expressed heavily modified kai-1 protein compared with that of the microcell hybrids. Our data indicate that protein modification may affect the normal function of kai-1 in vivo and that a threshold level of kai-1 protein expression may be necessary for suppression of the metastatic phenotype.
Outsourcing in the IT industry: The case of the Philippines

Outsourcing of labor, especially in area of the Information Technology (IT) sector, has grown rapidly in recent years. This article further defines what is meant by outsourcing, and examines the opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurs to outsource in the Philippines. This emerging economy has been cited as one of the most attractive destinations for outsourcing, despite the lack of information. The article offers historical, business, and cultural insights and identifies strategies for outsourcing success in the Philippine environment.
Regulation of Exercise Intensity Using Ratings of Perceived Exertion during Passive Visual Distraction

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if passive visual distraction altered ability to regulate exercise intensity as, assessed by ratings of perceived exertion during a 30-min. treadmill run. 10 trained females (VO2max, 52.7 ml.kg-1.min.-1) performed a graded exercise test on a treadmill to assess maximal aerobic power and rating of perceived exertion, oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate, and running velocity at the 2.5 mmol.L-1 blood lactate concentration. Subjects then used the target rating of perceived exertion to regulate exercise intensity during a control condition, and two treatment runs with passive visual distractions. During the treatment sessions, the subjects ran on a treadmill while viewing a high-action or a low-action video with no audio. The subjects were allowed to adjust the treadmill speed throughout the run to maintain the target rating of perceived exertion; however, subjects were not allowed to view the speed setting. There were no significant differences in blood lactate concentration among the conditions for the control, low action, high action, or graded exercise test (p < or = .05). No significant differences in VO2 or running velocity were found within or among the 30-min. treatment runs and the graded exercise test. Heart rate at 5 min. of exercise during control (158 +/- 3 b.min.-1), low action (158 +/- 3 b.min.-1), and high action (159 +/- 2 b.min.-1) was significantly lower than the graded exercise test (169 +/- 3 b.min.-1). Based on the data collected, visual passive distraction did not alter regulation of intensity using ratings of perceived exertion during a 30-min. treadmill run.
Electro-optic polymer prism beam deflector

In this paper, the design and fabrication of a prism shape optical beam deflector utilizing a thermoplastic electro-optic polymer are presented. Experimental results of deflection angles versus various applied electric fields are investigated.
Simplified placement of a silicone tracheal Y stent

Abstract Current methods of insertion of silicons tracheal Y stents can be technically challenging. A simplified method of catinal stent insertion is presented. This method is easy to learn and takes only a few seconds to accomplish.
The Geography of Law Enforcement Malpractice: National Patterns of Official Misconduct in the United States, 1989–1999

One of the darkest aspects of U.S. history and culture is encapsulated in crime perpetrated by law enforcement officials. In fact, police abuse of power has long been a footnote in analyses of governments' monopoly on legitimated violence. The history of modern policing itself indicates long-standing concern with excessive, sometimes brutal, control over citizens by law enforcement agents. Such concerns have been articulated variously over time by the public, academics, the press, and within law enforcement ranks. Much of this concern turns on perception, for police malfeasance is notoriously shrouded behind a “blue wall,” well-meaning law enforcement officials are genuinely interested in public perceptions of their services, and news of police malpractice flares selectively and variously across time.
Influence of freezing rate on pore structure in freeze-dried collagen-GAG scaffolds.

Abstract The cellular structure of collagen-glycosaminoglycan (CG) scaffolds used in tissue engineering must be designed to meet a number of constraints with respect to biocompatibility, degradability, pore size, pore structure, and specific surface area. The conventional freeze-drying process for fabricating CG scaffolds creates variable cooling rates throughout the scaffold during freezing, producing a heterogeneous matrix pore structure with a large variation in average pore diameter at different locations throughout the scaffold. In this study, the scaffold synthesis process was modified to produce more homogeneous freezing by controlling of the rate of freezing during fabrication and obtaining more uniform contact between the pan containing the CG suspension and the freezing shelf through the use of smaller, less warped pans. The modified fabrication technique has allowed production of CG scaffolds with a more homogeneous structure characterized by less variation in mean pore size throughout the scaffold (mean: 95.9 μm, CV: 0.128) compared to the original scaffold (mean: 132.4 μm, CV: 0.185). The pores produced using the new technique appear to be more equiaxed, compared with those in scaffolds produced using the original technique.
Dichotomy and stability by frequency-domain methods

In the last two decades, the frequency-domain criteria of stability have continuously progressed, overcoming previous limitations. In quest of a more complete meaning of these criteria, this paper shows that (if one renounces the auxiliary assumptions which were required in the past) they imply a property of conditional stability (or dichotomy) for a special type of relations. When applied to conventional systems, the obtained results give a general and flexible approach to the problem of stability (the auxiliary assumptions which were previously required, are eliminated). The paper is self-contained and does not assume any previous training in the theory of stability. Therefore, it can be also used as an introduction, which starts almost from scratch and leads to a branch of contemporary research in this field.
Internal vacuum-assisted closure device in the swine model of severe liver injury

Objectives: The authors present a novel approach to nonresectional therapy in major hepatic trauma utilizing intraabdominal perihepatic vacuum assisted closure (VAC) therapy in the porcine model of Grade V liver injury. Methods: A Grade V injury was created in the right lobe of the liver in a healthy pig. A Pringle maneuver was applied (4.5 minutes total clamp time) and a vacuum assisted closure device was placed over the injured lobe and connected to suction. The device consisted of a perforated plastic bag placed over the liver, followed by a 15 cm by 15cm VAC sponge covered with a nonperforated plastic bag. The abdomen was closed temporarily. Blood loss, cardiopulmonary parameters and bladder pressures were measured over a one-hour period. The device was then removed and the animal was euthanized. Results: Feasibility of device placement was demonstrated by maintenance of adequate vacuum suction pressures and seal. VAC placement presented no major technical challenges. Successful control of ongoing liver hemorrhage was achieved with the VAC. Total blood loss was 625 ml (20ml/kg). This corresponds to class II hemorrhagic shock in humans and compares favorably to previously reported estimated blood losses with similar grade liver injuries in the swine model. No post-injury cardiopulmonary compromise or elevated abdominal compartment pressures were encountered, while hepatic parenchymal perfusion was maintained. Conclusion: These data demonstrate the feasibility and utility of a perihepatic negative pressure device for the treatment of hemorrhage from severe liver injury in the porcine model.
Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms During Treatment in Parents of Children With Cancer

Purpose The conceptualization of childhood cancer and its treatment as traumatic has gained increasing support in the growing literature on medically related posttraumatic stress. Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) such as intrusive thoughts, physiologic arousal, and avoidance have been documented in mothers and fathers of childhood cancer survivors. In this study we investigated the presence of PTSS in parents of children currently in treatment and their association with treatment intensity and length of time since diagnosis. Methods Mothers (N = 119) and fathers (N = 52) of children currently in treatment for a childhood malignancy completed questionnaire measures of PTSS. Outcomes on these measures were compared with a sample of parents of childhood cancer survivors from our hospital. Oncologist ratings of treatment intensity were obtained based on diagnosis, treatment modalities, and protocol number. Results All but one parent reported PTSS. Mean scores indicated moderate PTSS for both mothers and f...
THE INFLUENCE OF ACORN CROPS ON ANNUAL VARIATION IN RODENT AND BIRD POPULATIONS

I recorded mast production by oaks (Quercus sp.) at 12 forested sites in western Virginia for 6–12 yr and measured its impact on the abundance of small mammals, understory vegetation, and artificial-nest predation. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were excluded from half the 4-ha sites after at least one season of data collection. My hypothesis was that annual variation in acorn crops affected multiple species and that the strength of those interactions is mediated by white-tailed deer. The acorn crop was variable across sites and year, with some of the between-site variability explained by differences in elevation. All sites experienced at least one mast failure, and mast failure years were generally consistent across sites. White-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus), and gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) populations were significantly correlated with annual fluctuations in the acorn crop. The exclusion of deer had a significant impact on P. leucopus and T. striatus populations by increasing the number of animals captured following low acorn mast years. Annual fluctuations in the acorn crop, but not in rodent densities, were significantly correlated with the rates of predation on artificial nests the next summer. There was no significant interaction between predation rates and the exclusion of deer. An index from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) for Virginia was used to measure regional numbers for 11 common species captured at the sites. The index for two understory species was significantly negatively correlated with the mean acorn crop measured 2 yr previously. The effect of white-tailed deer on the forest community was not consistent across all conditions, as sites with large acorn crops were not strongly influenced by deer. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that mast crops from oaks serve as important determinants of community function within Appalachian forests.
Image-guided spatial localization of heterogeneous compartments for magnetic resonance.

Purpose: Image-guided localization SPectral Localization Achieved by Sensitivity Heterogeneity (SPLASH) allows rapid measurement of signals from irregularly shaped anatomical compartments without using phase encoding gradients. Here, the authors propose a novel method to address the issue of heterogeneous signal distribution within the localized compartments. Methods: Each compartment was subdivided into multiple subcompartments and their spectra were solved by Tikhonov regularization to enforce smoothness within each compartment. The spectrum of a given compartment was generated by combining the spectra of the components of that compartment. The proposed method was first tested using Monte Carlo simulations and then applied to reconstructing in vivo spectra from irregularly shaped ischemic stroke and normal tissue compartments. Results: Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the proposed regularized SPLASH method significantly reduces localization and metabolite quantification errors. In vivo results show that the intracompartment regularization results in ∼40% reduction of error in metabolite quantification. Conclusions: The proposed method significantly reduces localization errors and metabolite quantification errors caused by intracompartment heterogeneous signal distribution.
Emotion knowledge in economically disadvantaged children: Self-regulatory antecedents and relations to social difficulties and withdrawal

We examined the relations of verbal ability and self-regulation in preschool to emotion knowledge in first grade, and concurrent relations between emotion knowledge and indexes of social functioning in 143 children from low-income families. After controlling for children's verbal ability in preschool, teacher reports of attentional control and caregiver reports of behavioral control in preschool predicted children's emotion expression knowledge and emotion situation knowledge 2 years later. After controlling for verbal ability and attentional and behavioral control, children's emotion knowledge predicted concurrent teacher-reported social problems and social withdrawal. Results suggest that low levels of emotion knowledge co-occur with many important aspects of children's early social adaptation.
Characterization of a phenotypically unique population of CD13+ dendritic cells resident in the spleen.

Immature dendritic cells (DCs) resident in bovine spleens represent a distinct CD11a + CD11c + CD13 + CD172 + CD205 + population compared to those circulating in peripheral blood or trafficking via afferent lymph. Upon cytokine-induced maturation, splenic DCs both efficiently present antigen in the stimulation of allogeneic lymphocyte proliferation and recall antigen-specific responses.
Controller design for an ill-conditioned plant using /spl mu/ and l/sub 1/

The focus of this paper is a comprehensive case study of the fundamental limitations to controller design for the ill-conditioned high purity distillation column problem. As a result of the work on this problem, general ideas are presented concerning the design of robust controllers using norm based methods. >
The Nobel Peace Prize in Cyberspace: A Research Note

This research note designates and describes some of the most important Internet sites for the Nobel Peace Prize. It includes the most comprehensive sites, including access to all categories of awards and to the Peace Prize specifically: the Nobel Foundation, the Nobel Channel, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Irwin Abrams, and Norbert’s Bookmarks for a Better World. It also includes a few web sites related to specific Nobel awards: the American Friends Service Committee, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, regarding East Timor, regarding Tibet, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Power law distribution of pressure drops in dust devils: Observation techniques and Earth-Mars comparison

Abstract Data from the Pathfinder and Phoenix landers on Mars show transient pressure drops (∼1–4 per day) attributed to nearby encounters with dust devils or dust-free vortices. The distribution of pressure drop amplitudes is consistent with a truncated power law distribution with a slope of −2, similar to that suggested previously for the optical diameters of dust devils. Comparable data from terrestrial field observations are very sparse: the only published dataset is half a century old and lists only 19 pressure drops. That dataset is too small to permit a robust comparison with Mars and likely suffers from a low detection efficiency at small dust devil sizes. Observed pressure drops in these fixed-station Mars datasets (30–300 μbar) are 10× lower than those typically observed on Earth (0.3–3 mbar): some higher drops have been reported for large terrestrial devils sampled by pursuing vehicles. The needed terrestrial data for comparison with Mars in-situ data (soon to be augmented, we hope, by the Mars Science Laboratory mission) is noted. Prospects for obtaining such data via field campaigns using new data acquisition technology, and with microbarographs for nuclear test monitoring, are discussed.
Gunshot injuries in children served by emergency services.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence, injury severity, resource use, mortality, and costs for children with gunshot injuries, compared with other injury mechanisms. METHODS: This was a population-based, retrospective cohort study (January 1, 2006–December 31, 2008) including all injured children age ≤19 years with a 9-1-1 response from 47 emergency medical services agencies transporting to 93 hospitals in 5 regions of the western United States. Outcomes included population-adjusted incidence, injury severity score ≥16, major surgery, blood transfusion, mortality, and average per-patient acute care costs. RESULTS: A total of 49 983 injured children had a 9-1-1 emergency medical services response, including 505 (1.0%) with gunshot injuries (83.2% age 15–19 years, 84.5% male). The population-adjusted annual incidence of gunshot injuries was 7.5 cases/100 000 children, which varied 16-fold between regions. Compared with children who had other mechanisms of injury, those injured by gunshot had the highest proportion of serious injuries (23%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 17.6–28.4), major surgery (32%, 95% CI 26.1–38.5), in-hospital mortality (8.0%, 95% CI 4.7–11.4), and costs ($28 510 per patient, 95% CI 22 193–34 827). CONCLUSIONS: Despite being less common than other injury mechanisms, gunshot injuries cause a disproportionate burden of adverse outcomes in children, particularly among older adolescent males. Public health, injury prevention, and health policy solutions are needed to reduce gunshot injuries in children.
A dynamic game with recourse

A variation of the Colonel Blotto game is addressed. In this game, the number of defenders at each target is known to the aggressor, and he or she is allowed to attack sequentially. The defendant at each target is not told the aggressor's strategy, but only that the target is under attack. At each target the defendant must decide on an allocation to the first (and any subsequent) attacker. The approach presented allows for imperfect attackers and defenders, and allows the defendant a single second change if the first effort is unsuccessful. A dynamic programming recursion is set up and solved to compute the defendant's allocations. >
The Effect of Previous Alcohol Abuse on Cognitive Function in HIV Infection

OBJECTIVE: The authors’ goal was to study the potential effect on cognitive function of an interaction of HIV infection and a history of alcohol abuse. METHOD: The subjects were 30 HIV-negative and 50 HIV-positive men with and without a past history of alcohol abuse. Thirty-three of the men (12 HIV negative and 21 HIV positive) had a past history of alcohol abuse, and 47 (18 HIV negative and 29 HIV positive) had never abused alcohol. Each subject’s history of alcohol use was obtained by using a syndromal approach based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R and a quantitative approach. Each subject was given a battery of neuropsychological tests assessing verbal reasoning, reaction time, intelligence, memory, and dexterity. The subjects were then compared on a summary neuropsychological impairment rating. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in CD4 level, age, education, depression, anxiety, or other drug abuse history between the HIV-positive and HIV-negative groups with and without...
Active Learning from Multiple Noisy Labelers with Varied Costs

In active learning, where a learning algorithm has to purchase the labels of its training examples, it is often assumed that there is only one labeler available to label examples, and that this labeler is noise-free. In reality, it is possible that there are multiple labelers available (such as human labelers in the online annotation tool Amazon Mechanical Turk) and that each such labeler has a different cost and accuracy. We address the active learning problem with multiple labelers where each labeler has a different (known) cost and a different (unknown) accuracy. Our approach uses the idea of {\em adjusted cost}, which allows labelers with different costs and accuracies to be directly compared. This allows our algorithm to find low-cost combinations of labelers that result in high-accuracy labelings of instances. Our algorithm further reduces costs by pruning under performing labelers from the set under consideration, and by halting the process of estimating the accuracy of the labelers as early as it can. We found that our algorithm often outperforms, and is always competitive with, other algorithms in the literature.
Periodic Trends in Lanthanide and Actinide Phosphonates: Discontinuity between Plutonium and Americium

The hydrothermal reactions of trivalent lanthanide and actinide chlorides with 1,2-methylenediphosphonic acid (C1P2) in the presence of NaOH or NaNO3 result in the crystallization of three structure types: RE[CH2(PO3H0.5)2] (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm; Pu) (A type), NaRE(H2O)[CH2(PO3)2] (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy; Am) (B type), or NaLn[CH2(PO3H0.5)2]·(H2O) (Ln = Yb and Lu) (C type). These crystals were analyzed using single crystal X-ray diffraction, and the structures were used directly for detailed bonding calculations. These phases form three-dimensional frameworks. In both A and B, the metal centers are found in REO8 polyhedra as parts of edge-sharing chains or edge-sharing dimers, respectively. Polyhedron shape calculations reveal that A favors a D2d dodecahedron while B adopts a C2v geometry. In C, Yb and Lu only form isolated MO6 octahedra. Such differences in terms of structure topology and coordination geometry are discussed in detail to reveal periodic deviations between the lanthanid...
Conditional importance sampling estimators

We give a unified presentation of the conditional importance sampling estimators. We show that they are always better than their nonconditional counterparts. We then present the large deviation theory associated with these estimators. In particular, we give conditional simulation distributions that are optimal in the sense that they are efficient. Interestingly enough, these distributions will not in general be the usual exponential shifts. We give examples showing how to use the theory developed
A Generalized Bitonic Sorting Network

The bitonic sorting network will sort N-2^m keys in O(log^2N) time with 0(Nlog^2N) comparators. Developments on the sorter enable the network to sort N-pq keys, a composite number. However, there has been no general method for sorting a bitonic sequence of N keys, N a prime, or N a composite that decomposes into primes larger than 3. The oddmerge method removes this constraint while maintaining the same cost and delay, using a uniform and efficient decomposition.
Vulvar squamous cell carcinoma in situ within viral papillomas in an aged Quarter Horse mare

Summary This report describes the diagnosis and treatment of vulvar papillomatosis with carcinoma in situ in a 25-year-old mare. Papillomavirus was demonstrated via immunohistochemical staining of biopsies of the lesion. The papillomas were removed via laser excision and the surrounding vulvar tissue injected with 5-fluorouracil. Additional more extensive laser excisions were required due to recurrence.
Predicting hearing loss in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) has an estimated prevalence of 4–7 per 100,000 population, making it the third most common type of muscular dystrophy. The classic form of FSHD is characterized by weakness that is slowly progressive and often asymmetric in the face, scapulae, upper arms, lower legs, and abdomen. The age at onset of symptoms varies from infancy to middle age, and life expectancy is normal or almost normal. Aside from muscle weakness, other manifestations include chronic pain, hearing loss, retinal telangiectasias and exudation (Coats syndrome) that can progress to retinal detachment and vision loss, cardiac arrhythmias, cognitive impairment, and epilepsy.1 There seems to be an increased prevalence of hearing loss in FSHD compared with the general population. Hearing loss has been described particularly in patients with infantile-onset FSHD but also in typical cases.2 In severe infantile-onset cases, the hearing loss can be profound, and if not detected may lead to delayed language development and even the false perception of cognitive impairment. Consensus-based recommendations suggest routine hearing testing in infants and preschool-age children diagnosed with FSHD.3
Surface segregation: A comparison of models and results

Abstract It is well established that the surface composition of a metal alloy may differ markedly from that of the bulk. Theoretical treatments of this phenomenon have been mostly based on models for regular or related solutions. Experimentalists have reported a large body of surface composition data, mostly from the electron spectroscopies. Comparison of these results with the predictions of the models is appropriate to indicate potentially fruitful directions for future work. Though general agreement between theory and experiment is good, quantitative correlation has been hampered by inadequate model calculations, clouded experimentation, and difficult-to-interpret experimental results. Extension of the quasichemical model and inclusion of strain effects improves correlations with previously reported data. Comparing the results of such improved calculations with the sampling capability of surface elemental analysis techniques shows that the relationship between the two is not simple and can be fully elucidated only in some instances.
Unraveling human cancer in the mouse: recent refinements to modeling and analysis

The ability to manipulate the mouse genome has made the mouse the primary mammalian genetic model organism. It has been possible to model human cancer in the mouse by overexpressing oncogenes or inactivating tumor suppressor genes, and these experiments have provided much of our in vivo understanding of cancer. However, these transgenic approaches do not always completely and accurately model human carcinogenesis. Recent developments in transgenic and knockout approaches have improved the accuracy of modeling somatic cancer in the mouse and analyzing the genomic instability that occurs in murine tumors. It is possible to use retroviral gene delivery, chromosome engineering and inducible transgenes to selectively manipulate the genome in a more precise spatial and temporal pattern. In addition, the development of powerful cytogenetic tools such as spectral karyotyping, fluorescence in situ hybridization and comparative genome hybridization have improved our ability to detect chromosomal rearrangements. Finally, global patterns of gene expression can be determined by microarray analysis to decipher complex gene patterns which occur in cancers. Several of these advances in mouse modeling of human cancer are discussed in this review.
Assessment and pruning of hierarchical model based clustering

The goal of clustering is to identify distinct groups in a dataset. The basic idea of model-based clustering is to approximate the data density by a mixture model, typically a mixture of Gaussians, and to estimate the parameters of the component densities, the mixing fractions, and the number of components from the data. The number of distinct groups in the data is then taken to be the number of mixture components, and the observations are partitioned into clusters (estimates of the groups) using Bayes' rule. If the groups are well separated and look Gaussian, then the resulting clusters will indeed tend to be "distinct" in the most common sense of the word - contiguous, densely populated areas of feature space, separated by contiguous, relatively empty regions. If the groups are not Gaussian, however, this correspondence may break down; an isolated group with a non-elliptical distribution, for example, may be modeled by not one, but several mixture components, and the corresponding clusters will no longer be well separated. We present methods for assessing the degree of separation between the components of a mixture model and between the corresponding clusters. We also propose a new clustering method that can be regarded as a hybrid between model-based and nonparametric clustering. The hybrid clustering algorithm prunes the cluster tree generated by hierarchical model-based clustering. Starting with the tree corresponding to the mixture model chosen by the Bayesian Information Criterion, it progressively merges clusters that do not appear to correspond to different modes of the data density.
Array processing for nonstationary interference suppression in DS/SS communications using subspace projection techniques

Combined spatial and time-frequency signatures of signal arrivals at a multisensor array are used for nonstationary interference suppression in direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS/SS) communications. With random PN spreading code and deterministic nonstationary interferers, the use of antenna arrays offers increased DS/SS signal dimensionality relative to the interferers. Interference mitigation through a spatio-temporal subspace projection technique leads to reduced DS/SS signal distortion and improved performance over the case of a single antenna receiver. The angular separation between the interference and desired signals is shown to play a fundamental role in trading off the contribution of the spatial and time-frequency signatures to the interference mitigation process. The expressions of the receiver signal-to-interference-noise ratio (SINR) implementing subspace projections are derived, and numerical results are provided.
Upper Ordovician peralkalic granites from the Gulf of Maine

Specimens from fourteen outcrops of bedrock in the Gulf of Maine were collected with the submersible Alvin and include one felsic aphanitic pyroclastic rock, two calc-alkalic granites, and eleven peralkalic granites. The peralkalic granites range from hypersolvus to subsolvus varieties and exhibit slightly different textures and mineralogical features that reflect minor differences in their local crystallization and subsolidus histories. Similar chemistry and zircon ages of 400 to 450 m.y. indicate that all of these peralkalic granites from the gulf are genetically related. On the basis of similar mineralogy, texture, rock chemistry, and primary radiometric ages, these granites are interpreted to have been intruded during the same igneous episode as the subaerial alkalic granites of eastern Massachusetts. The Gulf of Maine lies within the Avalon Platform province. The local occurrences of Upper Ordovician–Lower Silurian alkalic granites may indicate an igneous-tectonic episode that accompanied intraplate epeirogenic doming following the major compressional phase of the Taconic orogeny which more severely deformed rocks farther west. Emplacement of alkalic granite probably was completed before renewed plate convergence and the final phase of Acadian plate collision during Devonian and throughout much of the rest of Paleozoic time.
COMMUNITY AND THE MARKET IN MICHAEL POLANYI'S PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE*

The chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891–1976) is today recognized as one of the most important twentieth-century thinkers about scientific knowledge and scientific community. Yet Polanyi's philosophy of science exhibits an unresolved tension between science as a traditional community and science as an intellectual marketplace. Binding together these different models was important for his overall intellectual and political project, which was a defense of bourgeois liberal order. His philosophy of science and his economic thought were mutually supporting elements within this political project. Polanyi's intellectual corpus formed a contradictory unity, the tensions within which were manageable only under particular historical conditions. His attempt to hold together traditional authority and the free market fit with, and derived plausibility from, the social conditions under which his philosophical work came to maturity: Keynesian class compromise and surviving habits of social deference within postwar Britain.
Reading Stories Activates Neural Representations of Visual and Motor Experiences

To understand and remember stories, readers integrate their knowledge of the world with information in the text. Here we present functional neuroimaging evidence that neural systems track changes in the situation described by a story. Different brain regions track different aspects of a story, such as a character's physical location or current goals. Some of these regions mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities. These results support the view that readers understand a story by simulating the events in the story world and updating their simulation when features of that world change.
Estimation of Feeding Threshold for Homalodisca vitripennis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) and Its Application to Prediction of Overwintering Mortality

ABSTRACT The glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar), vectors the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa that induces Pierce's disease of grape. This study determined the effect of temperature on the feeding activity of H. vitripennis adults and the resulting production of excreta. The Logan type I model described a nonlinear pattern that showed excreta production increased up to an optimal temperature (33.1°C), followed by an abrupt decline near an estimated upper threshold (36.4°C). A temperature threshold for feeding, at or below which adults cease feeding, was estimated to be 10°C using a linear regression model based on the percentage of adults producing excreta over a range of constant temperatures. A simulated winter-temperature experiment using fluctuating thermal cycles confirmed that a time period above the temperature threshold for feeding was a critical factor in determining adult survival. Using data from the simulated temperature study, a predictive model was constructed by quanti...
Motivating prevention: from carrots and sticks to "carrots" and "sticks".

Incentives used by private and public wellness promotion programs should offer unnecessary extras as “carrots” and should employ “sticks” that do not deprive individuals of needed services or resources. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
Healthy Gardens/Healthy Lives: Navajo perceptions of growing food locally to prevent diabetes and cancer

Poor access to nutritious foods, departure from traditional diets, and reduced physical activity are associated with a rise in type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancers among the Navajo. Diabete...
Curve sampling and geometric conditional simulation

The main objective of this thesis is the development and exploitation of techniques to generate geometric samples for the purpose of image segmentation. A sampling-based approach provides a number of benefits over existing optimization-based methods such as robustness to noise and model error, characterization of segmentation uncertainty, natural handling of multi-modal distributions, and incorporation of partial segmentation information. This is important for applications which suffer from, e.g., low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or ill-posedness. We create a curve sampling algorithm using the Metropolis-Hastings Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) framework. With this method, samples from a target distribution it (which can be evaluated but not sampled from directly) are generated by creating a Markov chain whose stationary distribution is π and sampling many times from a proposal distribution q. We define a proposal distribution using random Gaussian curve perturbations, and show how to ensure detailed balance and ergodicity of the chain so that iterates of the Markov chain asymptotically converge to samples from π. We visualize the resulting samples using techniques such as confidence bounds and principal modes of variation and demonstrate the algorithm on examples such as prostate magnetic resonance (MR) images, brain MR images, and geological structure estimation using surface gravity observations. We generalize our basic curve sampling framework to perform conditional simulation: a portion of the solution space is specified, and the remainder is sampled conditioned on that information. For difficult segmentation problems which are currently done manually by human experts, reliable semi-automatic segmentation approaches can significantly reduce the amount of time and effort expended on a problem. We also extend our framework to 3D by creating a hybrid 2D/3D Markov chain surface model. For this approach, the nodes on the chain represent entire curves on parallel planes, and the slices combine to form a complete surface. Interaction among the curves is described by an undirected Markov chain, and we describe methods to sample from this model using both local Metropolis-Hastings methods and the embedded hidden Markov model (HMM) algorithm. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)