cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
CO2 enrichment of soybeans. Effects of leaf/pod ratio

The effect of varying leaf number on response of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr. cv. Fiskeby V) to CO2 enrichment was studied. Plants were trimmed at pod set to 15 pods and 1 or 3 leaves (15:1 and 5:1 pod/leaf ratio) and placed in 350 or 1000 μl/l CO2 growth chambers. Photosynthetic rates and dry weights were measured 6 times in all plants at each CO2 concentration over a period of 39 days. Measured at treatment CO2 concentration, photosynthetic rates deelined rapidly in enriched plants, but remained higher than those of non-enriched plants. When all plants were measured at the same CO2 concentration, for most sampling dates, neither growth, CO2 concentration or pod/leaf ratio significantly affected rates of photosynthesis per unit area of comparable leaves. CO2 enrichment significantly increased total weights and pod weights in 15:1 but not 5:1 pod/leaf ratio plants. Plants with a 5:1 pod/leaf ratio had significantly higher total and pod weights than 15:1 ratio plants. Both the photosynthesis and dry weight data suggest that plants in the 5:1 ratio enriched treatment were sink-limited, but plants in all other treatments were source limited.
AP-2α modulates human corticotropin-releasing hormone gene expression in the placenta by direct protein–protein interaction

Abstract Since AP-2α induces the expression of hPL, hCG and other syncytiotrophoblast-specific marker genes in cytotrophoblast cells during in vitro differentiation, we have examined whether AP-2α also induces hCRH gene expression during differentiation of cytotrophoblast cells. Infection of human cytotrophoblast cells in vitro with an adenovirus expressing AP-2α resulted in a twofold increase in hCRH mRNA levels, while infection with an adenovirus expressing a dominant/negative mutant of AP-2α inhibited basal hCRH mRNA levels by 40% and completely blocked the induction of hCRH mRNA by AP-2α. Transient transfection studies in AtT-20 and HepG2 cells indicated that the induction of hCRH mRNA levels was due, at least in part, to transcriptional activation of the hCRH gene. Gel mobility shift and immunoprecipitation assays strongly suggest that AP-2α induces hCRH gene expression by interacting with CREB and not by binding directly to the hCRH promoter.
Linking sleep to hypertension: greater risk for blacks.

Background. Evidence suggests that insufficient sleep duration is associated with an increased likelihood for hypertension. Both short ( 8 hour) sleep durations as well as hypertension are more prevalent among blacks than among whites. This study examined associations between sleep duration and hypertension, considering differential effects of race and ethnicity among black and white Americans. Methods. Data came from a cross-sectional household interview with 25,352 Americans (age range: 18–85 years). Results. Both white and black short sleepers had a greater likelihood of reporting hypertension than those who reported sleeping 6 to 8 hours. Unadjusted logistic regression analysis exploring the race/ethnicity interactions between insufficient sleep and hypertension indicated that black short ( 8 hours) sleepers were more likely to report hypertension than their white counterparts (OR = 1.34 and 1.37, resp.; ). Significant interactions of insufficient sleep with race/ethnicity were observed even after adjusting to effects of age, sex, income, education, body mass index, alcohol use, smoking, emotional distress, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Conclusion. Results suggest that the race/ethnicity interaction is a significant mediator in the relationship between insufficient sleep and likelihood of having a diagnosis of hypertension.
A review of vasomotor responses of arterioles on the surface of the mouse brain: the necessary prelude to studies using genetically manipulated mice.

Objective: To review the published data concerning the vasomotor responses of arterioles on the surface of the mouse brain. This information is essential to the planning of studies using genetically manipulated mice to investigate the control of cerebral vascular resistance. Results: Cerebral vasomotor responses of mice have been reported using a wide variety of vasoactive agents. The responses are usually like those of other laboratory animals. Some agents are capable of elicting opposing dilating and constricting responses. The initial tone of the arteriole is one of several factors that can determine the direction of the response elicited by such agents. Endothelium-dependent dilators and constrictors have been described. There are a variety of endothelium-derived relaxing factors (EDRFs). Only one of these is synthesized by nitric oxide synthase (NOS). Antisense data suggests that both the endothelial and the neuronal isoforms of NOS may exist in the endothelial cells of these vessels. Several diseases can be modeled in mice and cerebrovascular responses studied. Studies of genetically modified mice suggest that the endothelial form of NOS contributes to microvascular events, which limit ischemic damage to brain parenchyma. However, during and following ischemia there may be loss of this NOS or inability to mobilize a storage form of the EDRF, which it produces. Conclusions: Data available from studies of mice provide a good basis for planning further studies, examining cerebrovascular control mechanisms in health and disease, by workers now using genetically modified mice. The latter represent a powerful and increasingly popular tool for this purpose.
An NQR study of yellow HgI2 and the mercuric halide dioxanates

Abstract The NQR spectra of 127 I in yellow HgI 2 and of the halogen atoms in mercuric halide-dioxane 1 : 1 donor-acceptor adducts have been recorded. By comparing the halogen resonance frequencies in the addition compounds to those of the pure mercuric halides, an indication of the relative donor-acceptor strengths may be gotten. Previous thermochemical and far i.r. studies conflict on this prediction. The interpretation of the halogen NQR data indicate that the HgO interaction decreases according to HgCl 2 > HgBr 2 > HgI 2 . This concurs with the i.r. study.
Corrosion Behaviour Inconel 617 in VHTR Environment

As it was observed in the past Gas Cooled Reactors, it is expected that the VHTR’s cooling gas will be polluted by air ingresses, in-leakages or the degassing of adsorbed species out of the large amount of graphite. These impureties are reactive and may interact with the core graphite and with the metallic materials and may cause some loss or damage of their properties.Copyright © 2006 by ASME
A Critique of Human Capital Formation in the U.S. and the Economic Returns to Sub-Baccalaureate Credentials.

This article explores the history of human capital in the United States in relation to scholarly study of the private economic returns to higher education. The focus of this study is the private economic returns to subbaccalaureate education in two-year community and technical colleges. This article argues that although there are some beneficial private rates of return to a subbaccalaureate credential in relation to having no higher education, the benefits are small and often insignificant, especially in relation to the rates of return to a baccalaureate degree. Thus, subbaccalaureate credentials are devalued economic commodities that perpetuate the inequality of U.S. society and the labor market and, therefore, subbaccalaureate education should not be seen as a means to democratize higher educational access, but more as an advanced type of secondary schooling.
Teaching Instructional Design in a Computer Literacy Course

Knowledge of instructional design principles can help teachers integrate technology such as computers into their classroom instruction. This article describes a required computer literacy course for preservice teachers which was redesigned to include substantial components to teach instructional design. Also described are the results of a study conducted to examine the effectiveness of the instructional design training. End-of-course measures indicated that the preservice teachers learned the essential principles of instructional design and believed that the instruction would help them develop better lesson plans for effective use of computers in their classroom instruction.
SCIENCE AND DECISION MAKING FOR WATER RESOURCES

Many water-resource controversies are couched in scientific terms, although often they are not scientific disputes. Scientific information can help resolve such issues when it sheds light on the likely effects and effectiveness of policy options, but sometimes even the best scientific information is not relevant to the basic issues in dispute. I discuss several controversial topics recently studied by the National Research Council, including the Mono basin ecosystem, wetlands delineation, anadromous salmon in the northwestern United States, and the science underlying the Endangered Species Act. In each case, the controversies had scientific and nonscientific aspects. Clarifying the science helped decision making in some cases but never provided a complete resolution of the problem. Common barriers to resolving the controversies included varying policy goals among the parties, mutual mistrust, the amount of money and time needed to solve the problem, the lack of a coherent management authority or multiple jurisdictions, scientific uncertainties, and the nonscientific nature of the issues in dispute. Science is only a part of the solution to water-resource problems, although it is an essential part. Decisions to protect endangered species, to protect wetlands, or to maintain Mono Lake at a particular level are policy decisions. Those policy decisions are sometimes mistaken for scientific issues. Much of resource management lies outside science, involving economics, values, politics, and other factors. Scientists can and should ensure that science is understood and not misrepresented. It is often appropriate for decision makers to weigh other factors as heavily as science, but never to claim scientific support for a decision when there is none. To be most likely to influence actions, science should be clear and reliable when that is possible. It is essential that participants’ goals and values be made explicit and that scientific arguments not be used as surrogates for the goals and values that are really in dispute.
Postal Transport of Sputa from Cystic Fibrosis Patients Does Not Decrease the Microbiological Yield

Summary Ambulatory cystic fibrosis patients often submit sputum specimens by post. This study addressed the question if and how postal transport affects the microbiological resultf sputum cultures from these patients. Thirty-two fresh sputa and 32 next-day sputa posted from home were cultured qualitatively and quantitatively. The numbers of isolates of potentially pathogenic species and the mean numbers of colony-forming units of these isolates grown from parallel specimens were statistically not different. It is concluded that — under the conditions of this study - postal transport of sputa from cystic fibrosis patie does not decrease the microbiological yield.
Voltammetric extraction of heparin and low-molecular-weight heparin across 1,2-dichloroethane/water interfaces.

Heparin and low-molecular-weight heparin are voltammetrically extracted across 1,2-dichloroethane/water interfaces for the detection of these highly sulfated polysaccharides widely used as anticoagulants/antithrombotics in many medical procedures. A new heparin ionophore, 1-[4-(dioctadecylcarbamoyl)butyl]guanidinium, is the first to enable the voltammetric extraction of various polyanionic heparins with average molecular weights of up to ∼20 kDa including those in commercial preparations (i.e., Arixtra (1.5 kDa), Lovenox (4.5 kDa), and unfractionated heparin (15 kDa), as well as chromatographically fractionated heparins (7, 9, 15, and 20 kDa)). Facilitated Arixtra extraction is fully and quantitatively characterized by micropipet voltammetry to propose that cooperative effects from strong heparin-binding capability and high lipophilicity of this ionophore are required for the formation of an electrically neutral and highly lipophilic complex of a heparin molecule with multiple ionophore molecules to be ex...
Experimental Infection of the Rabbit with Duval's Chromogenic B. leprae Culture

SummaryDuval's chromogenic acid-fast culture recovered from the tissues of human leprosy produced lesions in the rabbit that microscopically are identical to those of the human disease. The infection is progressive over a period of 6 to 8 months. It is significant that the causal microorganism steadily increases in number throughout this period.The chromogenic acid-fast bacillus of Duval was recoverable from the experimental lesions as late as 8 months after the last inoculation. In vitro cultivation was more difficult in direct ratio to its residence in the host animal.In the control animals (B. phlei and B. smegmatis) no gross or microscopic lesions were observed one month after the last injection. No culture was obtained or acid-fast bacilli observed in the tissues of the control animals which were sacrificed 3 months after the last injection.The results of the experiments herein reported show that Duval's chromogenic acid-fast bacillus induces a chronic form of infection in the rabbit with characteris...
“Bargaining Power” in Price and Wage Determination

Misunderstanding in the use of the concept: explicit definitions, 396; implicit definitions, 397; criticism of these, 398. — Bargaining power and its effect on price: perfect competition, 400; agreement, 401; major determinants of power, 402; difficulties of definition, 403. — False antithesis between bargaining power and competitive market forces: the bargaining theory of wages, 408; theoretical indeterminateness, 410. — Inequality in power relative to time, direction and magnitude of price movement, 411. — Critique of alternative treatments of bargaining power: Dunlop, 413; Slichter, 414; Shister, 414. — Conclusions, 417.
Realtime affine-photometric KLT feature tracker on GPU in CUDA framework

Feature tracking is one of fundamental steps in many computer vision algorithms and the KLT (Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi) method has been successfully used for optical flow estimation. There has been also much effort to implement KLT on GPUs to increase the speed with more features. Many implementations have chosen the translation model to describe a template motion because of its simplicity. However, a more complex model is demanded for appearance change especially in outdoor scenes or when camera undergoes roll motions. We implement the KLT tracker using an affine-photometric model on GPUs which has not been in a popular use due to its computational complexity. With careful attention to the parallel computing architecture of GPUs, up to 1024 feature points can be tracked simultaneously at a video rate under various 3D camera motions. Practical implementation issues will be discussed in the NVIDIA CUDA framework. We design different thread types and memory access patterns according to different computation requirements at each step of the KLT. We also suggest a CPU-GPU hybrid structure to overcome GPU limitations.
Integrated management strategies of bean root rot with Bacillus subtilis and Rhizobium in Minnesota

Abstract Dry bean root rot, caused by Fusarium solani f. sp. phaseoli , in association with Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum is an increasing problem in Minnesota. A standard seed treatment (SST) ( Captan 400+ Streptomycin + Lorsban 50) has failed to effectively control the disease and resistant cultivars are unknown. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of the biocontrol agents Bacillus subtilis strain GBO3 (Kodiak), MBI600 (Epic) and Trichoderma harzianum (T-22) on the incidence and severity of bean root rot; to compare conventional and granular formulations of B. subtilis , and to determine effectiveness of root rot control with co-inoculations of B. subtilis and Rhizobium . Greenhouse studies evaluated the effect of B. subtilis GBO3 and T. harzianum T-22 alone or in combination with Captan 400 and Vitavax 200 as biocontrol treatments in contrast to the SST. Seed application of both B. subtilis GBO3 and T. harzianum T-22 ( P >0.05) increased plant biomass and decreased disease severity (DS) under greenhouse conditions. Field experiments were conducted in 1997, 1998 and 1999 in naturally root rot infested fields at Staples and Verndale, MN. In 1997, seed treated with B. subtilis GBO3 reduced bean root rot and increased yield 31%, when compared to untreated plants. Bean seed inoculated with Rhizobium tropici UMR 1899 also increased yield 13% over the untreated control, though neither treatment eliminated disease. In 1998 in a grower’s field with favorable conditions for disease, three of the four treatments that included B. subtilis GBO3 outyielded the untreated control, and SST by 300–800 kg/ha, but in only one treatment were these results statistically significant ( P B. subtilis MBI600 (Epic) and R. tropici significantly reduced DS and enhanced yield relative to the control and SST treatments. Application of B. subtilis with Rhizobium is a promising approach for the improvement of bean root rot control.
The outcome of unintentional pediatric bupropion ingestions: a NPDS database review.

Unintentional bupropion pediatric exposures uncommonly report severe clinical effects such as seizures. We sought to determine the clinical effects and case outcomes for unintentional bupropion ingestions in children age ≤6 years. The National Poison Data System was queried for unintentional, acute, single substance bupropion ingestions in children age ≤6 years for the time period January 1, 2000 to February 27, 2007 for cases followed to a known outcome. If exposure amount was reported, a mg/kg dose was determined; when weight was absent, it was interpolated from the available data set. An adverse neurological effect (ANE) was defined as seizure (single, multi/discrete, and status) or coma. For analysis, the outcomes of no effect and mild outcome were grouped, and the outcomes of moderate outcome, major outcome, and death were grouped. A subset of case notes were reviewed for accuracy. Seven thousand one hundred eighteen cases met the inclusion criteria, with 1,154 cases excluded because of multiple substances and coding errors, resulting in 5,964 cases. A total of 4,557 cases (76.4%) were managed at or sent to a HCF. The most common clinical effects reported were nausea/vomiting (4.3%), tachycardia (3.9%), agitated/irritable (3.1%), drowsiness/lethargy (2.4%), and seizure (1.4%). There were no deaths. Overall, there was a 3.3% rate of moderate/major outcomes. A mg/kg dose was calculable in 76.1% of cases; the average amount for the no effect/minor cases and moderate/major effect was 13.8 ± 18.8 and 38.8 ± 44.0 mg/kg, respectively (p < 0.0001). Average time until development of seizures was 4.2 ± 3.2 h with a maximum of 14 h. Few children develop toxicity from unintentional reported bupropion ingestions, with about 1.5% of patients developing an ANE.
Prediction of classical fracture initiation toughness

Abstract Initiation of crack growth in ductile materials has long been a concern to the manufacturing and design community. The current analysis considers a definition of fracture at the continuum scale to determine the onset of fracture. The strain energy density associated with fracture at the continuum scale is used as the fracture criterion. The critical strain energy density and the scale invariant continuum stress-strain curve were determined from a hybrid computational-experimental analysis of the deformation of a series of tensile tests performed on cylindrical specimens of HY-100 steel. Computational simulation of fracture initiation in a compact specimen of HY-100 steel containing a crack was performed using two-and three-dimensional nonlinear finite element techniques and continuum toughness concepts. Predicted values of classical fracture toughness parameters are within 3.5% of experimentally determined values.
A Case of Irinotecan-Induced Pneumonitis

We report a case of pneumonitis caused by irinotecan (CPT-11). A 55-year-old man was admitted for further evaluation and treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). After irradiation for a focal brain metastatic lesion, irinotecan was administered intravenously. Three weeks after the chemotherapy, he had a high fever with diffuse patchy attenuation on a chest computed tomography (CT) scan. A significant increase in the number of mast cells in his bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was also found. The pneumonitis was subsequently controlled by steroid therapy, with a decrease in the number of mast cells in the BAL fluid.
Two-wave-mixing dynamics and nonlinear hot-electron transport in transverse-geometry photorefractive quantum wells studied by moving gratings

The photorefractive response to an applied electric field is measured in a photorefractive quantum well, providing evidence in favor of the nonlinear transport in the device due to the hot electrons. The reduced mobility of the hot electrons limits the drift length, and thereby limits fringe overshoot. Thus the nonlinear transport prevents the slowing down of the grating writing rate for increasing fields which is common in bulk photorefractives. The photorefractive phase shift in transverse-field photorefractive quantum wells is measured as a function of the frequency offset between two laser writing beams that generate moving gratings. The two-wave mixing passes through a maximum at an optimum frequency which depends on the magnitude and the sign of the applied dc electric field. The phase shift associated with the moving grating adds or subtracts from the static phase shift induced by hot-electron transport in the semiconductor quantum wells, depending on the sign of the field and the sign of the dominant photocarriers. We observe a linear relationship between the roll-off frequency and the power of the writing beams.
Potential molecular mechanism for rodent tumorigenesis: mutational generation of Progression Elevated Gene-3 (PEG-3)

Progression Elevated Gene-3 (PEG-3) was cloned using subtraction hybridization as an upregulated transcript associated with transformation and tumor progression of rat embryo fibroblast cells. PEG-3 is a unique gene facilitating tumor progression by modulating multiple pathways in transformed cells, including genomic stability, angiogenesis and invasion. PEG-3 originates from mutation in the growth arrest and DNA damage inducible gene GADD34. A one base deletion in rat GADD34 results in a frame-shift and premature appearance of a stop-codon resulting in a C-terminally truncated molecule that is PEG-3. We now document that mutation in the GADD34 gene is a frequent event during transformation and/or immortalization of rodent cells. Sequencing of the GADD34 gene in a number of independent rat tumor cell lines revealed that in a majority of these the GADD34 gene is mutated to either PEG-3 or a PEG-3-like gene with similar C-terminal truncations. An important function of GADD34 is to inhibit cell growth, predominantly by apoptosis, and we demonstrate that PEG-3 or C-terminal truncations of human GADD34 resembling PEG-3 prevent growth inhibition by both human and rat GADD34. Phosphorylation of p53 by GADD34 is one mechanism by which it inhibits growth and PEG-3 could prevent GADD34-induced p53 phosphorylation. In contrast, PEG-3 was unable to block other GADD34-induced changes, including eIF2α dephosphorylation, indicating that its effects on GADD34 may be related more to its effect on cell growth rather than a global inhibitor of all GADD34 functions. We hypothesize that mutational generation of PEG-3 or a similar molecule is a critical event during rodent carcinogenesis. The inherent property of PEG-3 to function as a dominant negative of the growth inhibitory property of GADD34 might rescue cells from DNA damage-induced apoptosis leading to growth independence and tumorigenesis.
Polycyclic pyridazines. II [3]. Synthesis of pyrazolo[4′,3′:5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]pyrid-azine derivatives from dimethyl pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrid-azine-5,6-dicarboxylates as the key intermediates

The synthesis of the novel pyrazolo[4′,3′:5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]pyridazine ring system and some of its derivatives has been accomplished such as 4-amino-1-phenyl-5,8-dioxo-, 4-amino-5,8-dioxo-, 1-phenyl-5,8-dioxo-, 5,8-dioxo-, 5,8-dichloro-1-phenyl-, 5-ethoxy-1-phenyl- and 8-ethoxy-1-phenylpyrazolo[4′,3′:5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]pyrid-azines.
Science Communication in a Café Scientifique for High School Teens

The authors’ adaptation of the popular Cafe Scientifique model has proven to be effective for communicating science to a high school teen audience. Their process for achieving effective science com...
Mechanisms of visual threat detection in specific phobia

People with anxiety or stress-related disorders attend differently to threat-relevant compared with non-threat stimuli, yet the temporal mechanisms of differential allocation of attention are not well understood. We investigated two independent mechanisms of temporal processing of visual threat by comparing spider-phobic and non-fearful participants using a rapid serial visual presentation task. Consistent with prior literature, spider phobics, but not non-fearful controls, displayed threat-specific facilitated detection of spider stimuli relative to negative stimuli and neutral stimuli. Further, signal detection analyses revealed that facilitated threat detection in spider-phobic participants was driven by greater sensitivity to threat stimulus features and a trend towards a lower threshold for detecting spider stimuli. However, phobic participants did not display reliably slowed temporal disengagement from threat-relevant stimuli. These findings advance our understanding of threat feature processing that might contribute to the onset and maintenance of symptoms in specific phobia and disorders that involve visual threat information more generally.
Transient Analysis of Dispersive, Periodic Structures for Oblique Plane Wave Incidence Using Laguerre Marching-on-in-Degree (MoD)

Transient analysis of dispersive, periodic structures in the case of obliquely incident plane wave is presented in this work. The Laguerre marching-on-in-degree (MoD) is used for the development of an unconditionally stable algorithm. Due to the unconditional stability, Courant-Freidrich-Levy (CFL) temporal discretization limit can be circumvented resulting in less simulation time compared to the conventional dispersive finite difference time domain (FDTD). This is particularly advantageous for multiscale, dispersive structures. The uniaxial perfectly matched layer (UPML) is implemented in the Laguerre domain. By virtue of the Laguerre decomposition, the presented method can simulate general dispersive media compared to conventional dispersive FDTD which can simulate only standard dispersion models such as Debye, Lorentz and Drude. The formulations are validated by estimating the transmission spectra of an infinite double pole Debye slab and comparing the results with analytical results. Further confirmation is obtained by estimating the transmission spectra of zeroth order Floquet mode of a 1D periodic array of dispersive, square cylinders and comparing the results with periodic method of moments solution.
The P Histo-Blood Group-Related Glycosphingolipid Sialosyl Galactosyl Globoside as a Preferred Binding Receptor for Uropathogenic Escherichia coli: Isolation and Structural Characterization from Human Kidney†

The P histo-blood group-related glycosphingolipid, sialosyl galactosyl globoside (SGG), has recently been implicated as a preferred binding receptor for uropathogenic Escherichia coli [Stapleton, A. E., Stroud, M. R., Hakomori, S., and Stamm, W. E. (1998) Infect. Immun. 66, 3856-3861]. We report here the purification and complete structural characterization of SGG from normal human kidney. Using metabolically [35S]-labeled E. coli as a probe, a monosialylated glycosphingolipid was isolated to homogeneity. The glycosphingolipid was purified by a combination of high-performance liquid chromatography and preparative high-performance thin-layer chromatography and its structure unambiguously elucidated by 1H NMR, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, and methylation analysis. Its primary structure was shown to be identical to a previously characterized, developmentally regulated, globo-series glycolipid thought to be unique to human teratocarcinoma. The significance of this structure as a unique receptor in human kidney for uropathogenic E. coli and its role in the pathogenesis of urinary tract infections are discussed.
Laser cooling in anisotropic traps

The temperature and phase space density of dense, cylindrical atomic clouds is investigated in a 2D magneto-optic trap (MOT). As the atom cloud is deformed to reduce the radial optical density, the temperature decreases due to suppression of photon rescattering, leading to an increase in phase space density. Phase space densities of 2 times 10-4 have been achieved in a MOT containing 2 times 108 atoms
Soil Characterization in Centrifuge Models through Measurement of Shear Wave Velocities Using Bender Elements

The determination of the dynamic properties of the soil is a critical issue in geotechnical engineering. It is of a particular importance in problems involving dynamic excitation of soil systems, such as earthquakes. This research focuses on measuring the velocity of seismic waves, particularly shear waves, in the centrifuge soil models. The high noise during the centrifuge operation, and the need of using a number of bender elements in the same model, makes the use of bender elements in the centrifuge more challenging. The research starts with improving the current bender elements system at RPI Geotechnical Centrifuge Center. This involves solving electric and electromagnetic problems in the system and reducing noise and ghosting effects. The improved bender elements system is then used to determine the shear (S) wave velocities of dry Ottawa sand at different void ratios and different overconsolidation ratios in the centrifuge. The shear wave velocity measurements are also used to estimate the effect of overconsolidation on the coefficient of lateral earth pressure at rest (K₀). A comparison of the results is done with those published in the literature.
Influence of bacterial overgrowth and intestinal inflammation on duration of parenteral nutrition in children with short bowel syndrome

Objectives Massive intestinal resection results in short bowel syndrome and necessitatesprolonged parenteral feeding. The purpose of this work was to assess the impact of late complications of short bowel syndrome, including intestinal bacterial overgrowth and enterocolitis, on the duration of parenteral nutrition (PN) in comparison with factors evident in the neonatal period. Methods Retrospective chart review. Results Of 49 children, 42 were weaned from parenteral nutrition after a treatment course of 17 ±14 months. In these 42, postresection small intestinal length equaled 81 ±65 cm; 45% had an ileocecal valve. Small intestinal length in the seven children who were PN dependent was 31 ±30 cm (p
Pretibial cyst formation after arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Abstract Pretibial cyst formation is a rare occurrence after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. We report this complication after ACL reconstruction using a hamstring autograft. Bone grafting of the original tibial tunnels during revision surgeries after failed ACL reconstruction could prevent this rare complication. Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, Vol 19, No 2 (February), 2003: pp E5–E5
Analysis of cracks in aging aircraft structures, with and without composite-patch repairs

In this paper, the problems of composite-patch repair of (i) center and edge-cracked panels loaded in the far-field; and (ii) cracks emanating from pin-loaded fastener holes, are examined in thorough detail. The effects of various non-dimensional design parameters on the reduction in the stress-intensity factors near the crack-tip are determined, and are presented in the form of design charts. Both analytical and numerical methods are employed in this study. In the analytical method, the cracked metallic plate was considered to be infinitely large, and the composite patch was modeled as a long orthotropic strip of finite height (in the direction perpendicular to the crack axis). Next, by using the Finite Element Alternating Method (FEAM), a more general analysis capability that can treat arbitrary shapes of the cracked metallic sheet, as well as of the composite patches, is developed. This general FEAM is applied to: (i) composite patch repairs of cracks emanating from loaded fastener holes (the MSD problem); (ii) composite patch repairs of semi-elliptical surface flaws in thick plates; and (iii) composite patch repairs of quarter-elliptical surface flaws emanating from fastener holes. Problem (i) is two-dimensional in nature while problems (ii) and (iii) are fully three-dimensional. In all these cases, the effects of various design parameters on the crack-tip (front) stress-intensity factors are fully discussed.
Response to K. Anderson-Levitt’s Rejoinder:

Anderson-Levitt raises several useful issues about our recent article on global versus national cultures, institutionalization, and comparative analysis of teaching in three nations.--In this response, we clarify some of our arguments and illustrate some of our differences in emphasis from Anderson-Levitt.
In brief: meniscal tears.

Meniscal tears can cause considerable symptoms (pain, catching or locking, and effusions) and may subject the knee to premature degeneration of the joint. They also are one of the most common indications for an orthopaedic surgical procedure [3]. As such, although a tear of the meniscus is never life- or limb-threatening, its importance in orthopaedic surgery is undoubted.
Metal accumulation and performance of nestlings of passerine bird species at an urban brownfield site

The use of passerine species as bioindicators of metal bioaccumulation is often underutilized when examining the wildlife habitat value of polluted sites. In this study we tested feathers of nestlings of two common bird species (house wren and American robin) for accumulation of Pb, Zn, As, Cr, Cu, Fe in comparison of a polluted, urban brownfield with a rural, unpolluted site. House wren nestlings at the study site accumulated significantly greater concentrations of all target metals except Zn. At the polluted site we found significant species differences of metal concentrations in feathers, with house wrens accumulating greater concentrations of Pb, Fe, and Zn but slightly lesser accumulations of Cr and Cu than American robins. Although house wren nestlings demonstrated significant accumulation of metals, these concentrations showed little effect on size metrics or fledge rates during the breeding season compared to nestlings from the control site.
Conflict of interest disclosures for clinical practice guidelines in the national guideline clearinghouse.

Background Conflict of interest (COI) is an important potential source of bias in the development of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and high rates of COI among guideline authors have been reported in the past. Our objective was to report current rates of disclosure and specific author COI across a broad range of CPGs and to examine whether CPG characteristics were associated with the presence of disclosures and of conflicts. Methods and findings We selected a random sample of 250 CPGs listed in the National Guideline Clearinghouse on November 22, 2010, representing approximately a 10% sample of guidelines listed in the NGC on that date. We abstracted information on author COI from each CPG and examined predictors of the disclosures and COI using a logistic generalized estimating equation regression model. 87% of organizations developing guidelines had a CPG-specific policy, however, 40% of CPGs did not indicate that they had collected disclosures from guideline authors. In addition, 42% of organizations that did collect author disclosures did not have those disclosures available in the public domain. Of CPGs where we had disclosures for all authors, 60% had one or more authors with a conflict. On average, 28% of the authors of CPGs with available disclosures had a COI. Guidelines that were published in journals with an impact factor greater than 5.0 were more likely to have one or more authors with a COI than guidelines not published in journals. Conclusions Rates of disclosure of author COI and the public availability of that information are unacceptably low, however rates of COI among guideline authors may have decreased in recent years. Continued efforts are needed to establish and enforce optimal COI policies in clinical practice guideline development in order to minimize the risk of bias associated with those conflicts.
“FOR THEIR OWN GOOD”: CLASS INTERESTS AND THE CHILD SAVING MOVEMENT IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, 1900–1917

This paper addresses the question of whether the “child saving” movement, a precursor of the modern juvenile justice system. was a benevolent movement to “save” delinquent youths or, as Platt (1977) contends, a class-based movement to extend social control to the children of the poor. Analysis of the child saving movement in Memphis, Tennessee, using historical data, provides support for the thesis advanced by Platt. The evidence collected here strongly suggests that it was the upper-class citizens who were in the forefront of the movement in Memphis. Also, social control was extended over a wide range of behavior (mostly noncriminal) of children and youths, particularly morals offenses and dependency/neglect cases. In Memphis the juvenile justice system was created to control and regulate the children of the poor, not to save them.
Implications of silvicultural pesticides on forest soil animals, insects, fungi, and other organisms and ramifications on soil fertility and health

Sufficient information is available to show that pesticides can be properly applied and used safely in forest management. However, much of the information on the effects of pesticides on soil organisms is often based on methodologies involving soil processes (i.e., toxicology studies) rather than on individual groups of organisms. Because more than one group of soil organisms may carry out the same function, the effects of pesticides on a particular group can be missed. On the other hand, while laboratory test may show pesticide effects on one group under an array of controlled conditions, the same organism may respond differently in a field setting. Not much information is available on soil organisms resulting from combining various silvicultural herbicides or pesticides. Information is presented to show that with few exceptions, pesticides can affect soil organism populations, but the effects may be short-term with little noticeable long-term affect on soil health and quality.
Conversion of porous anodic Al2O3 into freestanding, uniformly aligned, multi-wall TiO2 nanotube arrays for electrode applications

A combined conformal coating and gas/solid reaction process has been used for the first time to convert porous anodic alumina templates into robust, freestanding, multi-wall titania nanotube (MWTNT) arrays that resist appreciable nanotube bundling upon drying. A sol–gel infiltration process was first used to apply a thin conformal titania coating to the alumina templates. After selective etching to generate a gap between the template and the titania coating, exposed alumina was converted into nanocrystalline titania via reaction with titanium tetrafluoride gas and then with humid oxygen. After selective dissolution of residual aluminum-bearing phases and drying, freestanding, non-agglomerated, well-aligned MWTNT arrays were generated (i.e., with coating-derived inner titania tubes resting inside reaction-derived outer titania tubes). When incorporated as aligned electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells, the dye loading and power conversion efficiencies were higher by factors of 2.2 and 1.8, respectively, than for solar cells with single-wall titania nanotube array electrodes. By controlling the conditions used for alumina template formation, sol–gel coating, and gas/solid reaction, this hybrid process may be used to generate robust, uniformly aligned MWTNT arrays with dimensions and functional chemistries tailored for a variety of electrical, optical, chemical, or biochemical applications.
Protesting Muslim Americans as Patriotic Americans: The All-American Muslim Controversy

The All-American Muslim controversy highlights how even a decade after 9/11, the place of Muslims in the United States remains hotly contested. Muslim Americans still need to be made palatable to o...
Phase II evaluation of VP-16-213 (NSC-141540) in patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma resistant to alkylating agents

Abstract VP-16-213 (NSC-141540) has been studied for antitumor activity in alkylating agent resistant cases of advanced ovarian carcinoma. Among the 14 evaluable patients, six experienced objective progression of disease or symptomatic deterioration following a single 5-week treatment cycle. Four others progressed following two courses. The other four patients experienced disease stability for three, four, five, and eight treatment cycles, respectively. No objective tumor regression occurred. Toxic effects included nausea and vomiting, mild myelosuppression (predominantly leukopenia), and alopecia.
The Use of a Microarc Atomizer for Sample Introduction into an Inductively Coupled Plasma

The use of a microarc atomizer as a device for microsample introduction into the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is described. The microarc, a high-voltage, low-current, pulsating dc discharge, efficiently vaporizes desolvated, discrete microvolumes of sample solution into the plasma. The microarc-ICP combination exhibits relative detection limits and working curves comparable to those of other methods of sample introduction but functions with sample volumes in the 0.5 to 1.0 μl range. Matrix and ionization interference effects are absent or trivially overcome. Computer control of the instrument adds simplicity of operation.
Strength and conductivity ofin situ Cu-Fe alloys

Alloys of Cu-Fe with iron contents from 10 to 30 wt % have been prepared by casting plus mechanical reduction. A series of heat treatments was done at various stages of the mechanical reduction to promote precipitation of the iron from the copper matrix with the hope of optimizing electrical conductivity at a given strength level. A curve of optimum tensile strength against electrical conductivity was determined. It was found to lie significantly below the available data for Cu-Nb alloys and it is suggested that further improvements may be possible in Cu-Fe alloys by improved thermal mechanism processing.
Elasticity and the Landau-Peierls instability in the smectic twist-grain-boundary phase.

The elasticity theory of the twist-grain-boundary phase in chiral smectic liquid crystals for the case of \ensuremath{\alpha} (where 2\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\alpha} is the twist-grain-boundary angle) irrational is developed. It implies that fluctuations destroy long-ranged translational order, leading to algebraic (rather than \ensuremath{\delta}-function) singularities in the x-ray scattering near both a cylinder in reciprocal space and isolated Bragg peaks along its axis. These results, which could be experimentally tested through high-resolution x-ray scattering, also apply to ``nearly irrational'' \ensuremath{\alpha}=J/s, with J and s integers and s\ensuremath{\gg}1, out to length scales exponentially large in s.
Vector Quantization Used To Reduce SAR Data Rates

There has been much work ih Vibe area of data compression since the fundamental source coding theories were defined by Shannon. ' Most of the work has been done on speech with a growing percent on optical imagery. Only recently has work on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data compression begun to mature. With the high data rate of a typical SAR system, methods for compression have become important. In this paper, we focus on the source coding technique of Vector Quantization (VQ) for use in a SAR imaging environment. Several types of vector quantizers are presented and discussed. It is shown that VQs can achieve a minimum of 2:1 compression on SAR phase history data without any loss of quality.
Bystander Behavior and Kinesics: The Interaction Between the Helper and Victim

One hundred eighty subjects participated in a factorial field experiment designed to study the effects of body orientation, eye contact, and sex upon helping behavior in a situation where a male victim fell. An eye-contact X body-orientation interaction and a sex X body-orientation interaction were found. Eye contact raised the rate of help; and women helped more often than men, but only when the victim and subject were approaching each other. A severe fall produced more help than did a mild fall. The cue value of the front side of a person, eye contact acting as a plea for help, and the salience of responsibility norms were discussed. The study was interpreted as indicating the necessity of accounting for the effects of the interaction between bystanders and victims. Language: en
Oxidation Resistance of Ultrathin Silicon Nitride Passivation Layers on Si(100)

The oxidation resistance of ultrathin (5–15A) thermally grown silicon nitride (Si3N4), in conditions relevant to the deposition/annealing of Tantalum Pentoxide (Ta2O5) in a Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) environment, has been non destructively examined using X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). This has been carried out with a view to establishing a process window for the deposition of Ta2O5 on a Rapid Thermally Nitrided (RTN) Si(100) surface, with negligible oxidation of the Si(100) substrate. A physical model of the oxidation process of these films is also proposed.
Children's skin cancer prevention: A systematic review of parents' psychosocial measures

Context Parents' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs may be influenced through intervention to increase children's sun protection. Little is known about measures of these psychosocial characteristics, including psychometric properties. This paper systematically reviews parents' psychosocial measures in children's skin cancer prevention studies. Evidence acquisition A search of standard databases conducted in 2008, updated in 2011, yielded 5797 unique citations. A study was eligible if (1) it was published between January 1980 and March 2011; (2) it was published in English; (3) it reported a psychosocial measure relevant to children's skin cancer prevention; and (4) the psychosocial measure was administered to parents, the majority of whom had children aged ≤12 years. Screening yielded 57 eligible studies. Data were analyzed in 2008 and 2011. Evidence synthesis Most studies measured one ( n =24) or two ( n =18) psychosocial constructs; few ( n =7) measured more than three. The most frequently measured constructs were knowledge ( n =41); attitudes ( n =22); perceived susceptibility/risk ( n =11); self-efficacy ( n =9); and perceived barriers ( n =9). Most studies did not mention theory. Theoretic mechanisms underlying interventions were not examined. There was little description of measure validity. Reliability, usually internal consistency, was reported more often ( n =19). Conclusions Few studies assessed more than two parent-related psychosocial constructs, so it was not possible to test theoretic models of parental influences on children's sun protection. Validated measures were lacking. There was conceptual overlap of measures because of the presence of analogous constructs across theories and assessment of multiple constructs within a single measure.