cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
DANCING WITH THE SACRED: EXCERPTS

. In excerpts from my Dancing with the Sacred (2002), I use ideas from modern science, our world's religions, and my own experience to highlight three themes of the book. First, working within the framework of a scientific worldview, I develop a concept of the sacred (or God) as the creative activity of nature, human history, and individual life. Second, I offer a relational understanding of human nature that I call our social-ecological selves and suggest some general considerations about what it means to live meaningfully and morally in an evolutionary world. Third, I explore how we might be at home in a universe that is constantly changing and in which suffering and death are interwoven with life and new creation.
Can initial hematocrit concentration predict pseudocyst formation in acute pancreatitis

Purpose: Several studies suggest that the initial hematocrit (Hct) concentration is an indicator of severity in acute pancreatitis. Pseudocyst formation, a complication of acute pancreatitis, occurs more frequently in the severe cases. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether initial Hct concentration can be used as a predictor of pseudocyst formation.
Exploring copyright knowledge in relation to experience and education level among academic librarians in Kenya

Since the year 2001, Kenya’s copyright regime has extensively been shaped by Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement; World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty; Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA); and The Cotonou Agreement, which have advocated for effective copyright administration and management structures in addition to stiffer penalties for those who violate copyright laws. Despite better administrative structures being put in place, copyright infringement in Kenya has persisted. Being able to balance the needs of rights owners and information consumers becomes a critical role librarians have to play. Knowledge about copyright, thus, becomes critical. Despite the fact that librarians in Kenya are not a homogenous group, how knowledgeable the different librarian cadres are concerning copyright issues is least understood. The raison d’etre for this study is to find out whether different cadres of librarians based on academic qualifications differ in the ...
Bandpass delta-sigma class-S amplifier

A class-S amplifier with a bandpass delta-sigma modulated input is demonstrated using CMOS devices at 10 MHz. With a two-tone modulated input, third-order intermodulation products below –40 dBc were measured, with an output power of 26 dBm and a drain efficiency of 33%. This new amplifier topology demonstrates promising performance for simultaneously achieving high linearity and efficiency.
Addiction Technology Transfer Centers (ATTCs)

Abstract In response to a perceived shortage in the public sector of well-trained addiction treatment professionals and a Congressional mandate, CSAT initiated the ATTC program (1) to increase the number of health and allied health practitioners in nonprofit alcohol and other drug abuse treatment (AODA) programs, (2) to link publicly funded AODA programs with institutions that train health and allied health care practitioners in order to improve the competency of practitioners who presently practice in those programs, and (3) to strengthen addiction treatment curricula used to train health and allied health care practitioners. The ATTCs are multidisciplinary in scope, encompassing addictions counseling and a minimum of three other substance abuse-related disciplines such as medicine, nursing, social work, marriage and family therapy, psychology, and criminal justice. The ATTC program supports faculty, training needs assessments, curricula refinement, internships, preceptorships, and other activities relat...
Forces in Aharonov─Bohm optical setting

The Aharonov–Bohm effect is usually associated with a path-dependent phase accumulated by a charged matter wave and determined by an effective vector potential. In a more general geometrical framework, such phase alterations have been the hallmark of a host of related phenomena in many different fields. However, besides phase changes, it was suggested that for finite wave-packets there is also an additional deflection leading to observable changes in the wave’s canonical momentum. In this paper, we create an optical scattering situation that permits observing nonconservative reaction forces, which result from the conservation of canonical momentum. We demonstrate experimentally, for the first time, the presence of such mechanical forces with the magnitude and direction determined by the phase dislocation of the vortex state. Our experimental results offer insights into essentially untested phenomena, where forces act on vortex fields, and allow examining the role of conservation laws and symmetries in complex interacting systems.
Stroke and active life expectancy in the United States, 1999–2009

Abstract Background Stroke reduces active life expectancy, both years lived and their proportion without disability. However, active life expectancy studies have provided limited information about strokes in the United States, those occurring throughout older life, or those affecting African Americans. Objective To measure associations between strokes throughout older life and active life expectancy for African American and White women and men. Methods Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1999–2009 (n = 1862, 13,603 person-years), we estimated monthly probabilities of death and disability in activities of daily living with multinomial logistic Markov models adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, stroke in the past two years, earlier stroke, and education. A random effect accounted for the panel data repeated measures. Microsimulation created large populations with stroke incidence throughout older life, identifying life expectancy and the proportions of remaining life with and without disability. We matched individuals with strokes with randomly selected persons without strokes by age at first stroke, sex, ethnicity, and previous disability. Results Average age at first stroke was higher for women, lower for African Americans. African American and White women were disabled for about two-thirds of life after stroke; results for men were 61.8% for African Americans and 37.2% for Whites. Compared to matched participants, those with strokes lived 33% fewer remaining years (95% confidence interval, CI 30.9%–34.7%) with a 31.6% greater proportion of remaining life with disability (CI 14.4%–55.6%). Conclusions Stroke greatly reduces both life expectancy and the proportion of life without disability, particularly for women and African Americans.
Effects of maternal deprivation and incubator rearing on adrenocortical activity in the adult rat

Rats were reared during the first 3 weeks of life in a group or singly, with the mother rat or in an incubator with no maternal contact. Variations in early experience were assessed in terms of adrenal steroid functioning when the animals were 1-yr old. Whether they were reared in a group or individually, incubator-reared animals were found to have significantly higher basal and stress levels of plasma corticosterone. In addition, their corticosterone response to stress was greater regardless of initial levels.
Effect of distributed practice upon initial solution to a jigsawlike puzzle.

In the few studies performed on the distribution of practice in problem solving, concern has been primarily with the effect upon retention of introducing rests berween successive solutions to the same problem (1 , 2 ) . A somewhat related question involves the influence of distributed practice upon the initial emergence of a solution which was studied by Shaklee and Jones ( 4 ) . They reported no clear superiority for massed or distributed practice in achieving the solution to a verbal reasoning problem. The present study was designed to pursue this question, utilizing a relatively nonverbal, problemsolving task. Three groups, of 2 0 undergraduate Ss each, were given the "T" puzzle, a relatively difficult four-piece jigsawlike problem, the solution of which consists of fitting the parts together to form a block "T." Each S was randomly assigned to, and individually tested under, one condition. In Condition I the puzzle was presented for a maximum of 25 2-min. trials with 15-sec. rests (intertrial intervals). Rehearsal was prevented during the rests. Condition I1 was identical to Condition I except that it provided for a maximum of 1 0 5-min. work periods ( 5 0 min.) , with 15-sec. rests berween trials. In Condition 111 the puzzle was presented for a maximum of 50 rnin. during which S worked continuously. An experimental session for a condition lasted until the solution was achieved or until 50 min. elapsed. Four, 9, and 1 4 Ss reached solution under Conditions I , 11, and 111, respectively, indicating a direct, positive relationship berween the duration of work and number of Ss who reach solution (x" 10.10, d f = 2, p = .01). Since there were relatively few solving Ss in both distributed conditions, no reliable comparisons of time scores could be made. These data permit the conclusion that massed practice facilitates solution of this task. This finding seems consistent with the hypothesis that massed practice favors problem solving due to the enhanced variability of attack associated with increase in accumulation of reactive inhibition ( 3 ) . Since Shaklee and Jones ( 4 ) did not obtain similar results with a verbaI problem, the current finding may be peculiar to nonverbal tasks.
The Family as a Looking Glass: Interpreting Family Influences on Adolescent Self-Esteem from a Symbolic Interaction Perspective:

This study examined why investigations into the family influences on adolescent self-esteem have either not used data from parents, or, when such data was used, have found very weak correlations. G...
A fast diffusion-driven photodetector: theory and experiment

A high-speed photodetector has been demonstrated. Prototype silicon devices have detection bandwidths of 5 GHz and are limited by neither the saturation-velocity transit time nor the carrier lifetime. These detectors use a combination of the Dember effect and the east of generating fine photocarrier gratings, and scale to bandwidths of several hundred gigahertz. >
Design and Construction for Sustainable Industrial Construction

AbstractThis article summarizes the results of a research project that was funded by the Construction Industry Institute that addressed design and construction for sustainable industrial construction. The research project included a global literature review of articles related to sustainable industrial construction and a survey investigation of industrial construction firms that was used to determine the viability of utilizing sustainable practices in the industrial construction industry. Members of the industrial construction industry provided information on the utilization of sustainable practices in their firms and numerous examples of the types of sustainable practices that they have already implemented in their firms. The research project also developed several implementation resources that are discussed, such as a quick start guide for implementing sustainability practices, two maturity models that could be used to help evaluate the level of sustainability on projects, and a checklist for sustainabi...
Systematic expansion for infrared oscillator basis extrapolations

Recent work has demonstrated that the infrared effects of harmonic oscillator basis truncations are well approximated by a partial-wave Dirichlet boundary condition at a properly identified radius $L$. This led to formulas for extrapolating the corresponding energy ${E}_{L}$ and other observables to infinite $L$ and thus infinite basis size. Here we reconsider the energy for a two-body system with a Dirichlet boundary condition at $L$ to identify and test a consistent and systematic expansion for ${E}_{L}$ that depends only on observables. We also generalize the energy extrapolation formula to nonzero angular momentum, and apply it to the deuteron. Formulas given previously for extrapolating the radius are derived in detail.
Scientific personae in American psychology: three case studies.

Abstract This paper studies the constellations of attitudes––sentimental, moral, epistemological, and social––that three leading psychologists active in turn-of-the-twentieth-century America took to be essential to the production of scientific knowledge. William James, G. Stanley Hall, and Edward Titchener located the virtues and traits proper to the scientific frame of mind, and combined them into normative images of the man of science, or, ‘scientific personae’ as I use the term here. I argue that their competing formulations of the scientific ethos informed their psychological practice and epistemological commitments. James, Hall, and Titchener mobilized their representations of the man of science in order to reconfigure the field of psychology and redefine its boundaries, as well as to promote forms of sociability and define the proper role of scientists both within the academy and in the wider polity.
Exploring the potential of pulmonary vein recordings: can they help elucidate mechanisms of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation?

Most episodes of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) in structurally normal human hearts are triggered by ectopic beats arising from the left atrium (LA) in the vicinity of pulmonary veins (PVs).1,2 Despite development of a rich experimental and clinical literature on PVs, the anatomy and electrophysiology of these complex structures are still incompletely understood. During embryological development, the primordial common PV shows expression of an antigen associated with the developing conduction system.3 Autopsy studies have shown that the majority of human PVs (68–96%) contain sleeves of left atrial myocardium extending beyond the LA–PV junction, with highly variable architecture.4–8 Recent studies have shown that an anatomical distinction between the PVs and the LA can be difficult to discern. Indeed, the smooth-walled LA body can be seen to have vessel wall tissue (from incorporation of PVs).9 When compared with normal controls, PVs from patients with a history of AF show only minor histopathological differences, including longer extensions of muscle sleeves into the veins. Overlapping venoatrial tissue and complex fibre geometry are thought to provide the heterogeneity and slowed conduction required for initiation and maintenance of localized re-entry.10,11 Enhanced automaticity and triggered activity may also play a part in spontaneous PV ectopy.12 Pharmacological therapy for AF has been …
Intrinsic ductility of Ni3Al with and without boron at 77K

Tensile ductilities of Ni{sub 3}Al with and without boron were examined at liquid nitrogen temperature and at room temperature. The ductility of boron-free Ni{sub 3}Al significantly increased at liquid nitrogen temperature. This is believed to be due to the relatively moisture free condition attained at 77 K. In contrast to this, the ductility of boron-doped Ni{sub 3}Al was insensitive to the test temperature as well as environment, and fracture mode remained predominantly transgranular. Ductilizing boron effect observed at liquid nitrogen temperature can be regarded as an intrinsic one. Combining these results, it is very likely that boron had dual role, intrinsically improving grain boundary properties and suppressing moisture-induced embrittlement. Further work is required to study details of the beneficial boron effect in moist environment.
Therapeutic efficacy of aldoxorubicin in an intracranial xenograft mouse model of human glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive primary brain tumor with a median survival of 12 to 15 months after diagnosis. Acquired chemoresistance, high systemic toxicity, and low penetration of the blood brain barrier by many anticancer drugs contribute to the failure of anti-GBM therapies. To circumvent some of these obstacles, we tested a novel prodrug approach to evaluate anti-GBM efficacy by utilizing serum albumin-binding doxorubicin (Doxo), aldoxorubicin (Aldoxo), which is less toxic, is released from albumin in an acidic environment and accumulates in tumor tissues. A human GBM cell line that expresses a luciferase reporter (U87-luc) was stereotactically injected into the left striatum of the brain of immunodeficient mice. Following initial tumor growth for 12 days, mice were injected once a week in the tail-vein with Aldoxo [24 mg/kg or 18 mg/kg of doxorubicin equivalents—3/4 maximum tolerated dose (MTD)], Doxo [6 mg/kg (3/4 MTD)], or vehicle. Aldoxo-treated mice demonstrated significantly slower growth of the tumor when compared to vehicle-treated or Doxo-treated mice. Five out of eight Aldoxo-treated mice remained alive more than 60 days with a median survival of 62 days, while the median survival of vehicle- and Doxo-treated mice was only 26 days. Importantly, Aldoxo-treated mice exhibited high levels of Doxo within the tumor tissue, accompanied by low tumor cell proliferation (Ki67) and abundant intratumoral programmed cell death (cleaved caspase-3). Effective accumulation of Aldoxo in brain tumor tissues but not normal brain, its anti-tumor efficacy, and low toxicity, provide a strong rationale for evaluating this novel drug conjugate as a treatment for patients afflicted with GBM.
Role of Teaching Programs

Abstract The poultry programs of the future will need to emphasize reviewing and updating of their curricula, to determine what courses need to be offered and course content. Extra effort is needed to bridge the gap between business and science. Poultry science graduates need to understand both the scientific and business aspects of the poultry industry. This gap can be bridged by requiring more courses in the business area and by stressing problem solving, projections, and case studies in poultry courses. The formation of industry advisory boards can help poultry science departments strengthen their industry relationships by developing a stronger curriculum and by recruiting students. Student recruitment should be the goal of every faculty member. Resources need to be directed towards the recruitment effort, with the poultry science departments taking direct responsibility for their recruitment programs.
Skyfarer: a mixed reality shoulder exercise game

Skyfarer is a mixed reality shoulder exercise game developed for prevention and treatment of shoulder pain for individuals aging with spinal cord injury. We are adapting a shoulder exercise protocol that has been evaluated in a randomized clinical trial [Mulroy et al. 2011]. This demonstration will showcase a second-generation integrated exercise hardware and software system. The system consists of an adjustable metal rig outfitted with GameTrak sensors that are attached to interchangeable Thera-Bands and free weights. The rig can accommodate individuals with various types of manual wheelchairs and can be adjusted for arm length. The GameTrak sensors provide three-dimensional movement data to the calibration and exercise software application that was developed in Unity Engine 3.5.Skyfarer has emerged after iterating numerous prototypes that incorporated individual elements of a shoulder exercise protocol using a first-generation metal rig [Gotsis et al. 2012]. Skyfarer requires calibration of the game to the physical dimensions and muscle strength of individual players. Player profiles can be stored and the number of required repetitions per exercise can be manually adjusted before playing.Skyfarer 0.5a incorporates the following parts of the exercise protocol: external rotation, rowing, diagonal pull-down and vertical lift exercises. This version has been evaluated in a biomechanical study conducted at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. The virtual environment immerses players into an adventure inspired by Pre-Colombian mythology inspired by the landscapes of South America. With each exercise, players prepare, propel and lift their vessel into water or air, collecting energy that can be used during breaks between exercise sets. Skyfarer 0.5b includes Microsoft Kinect as input for free-form movement segments of the game, such as drawing and improved calibration, animation and movement cuing.
Non-invasive measurement of long bone cross-sectional moment of inertia by photon absorptiometry

The use of the Norland-Cameron Bone Mineral Analyzer (BMA) to measure the cross-sectional moment of inertia of the mineral in a long bone is described and data regarding the usefulness and precision of the method are presented. The correlation coefficients between BMA-measured CSMI and that obtained from cross-sectional geometry were 0.99 both for a series of aluminum tubes and five bones of different sizes. The BMA-measured CSMI was linearly correlated with the CSMI digitized from cross-sections of a series of human ulnas at the r = 0.92 and 0.95 level in the AP and ML directions, respectively. The BMA-measured CSMI also correlated well with the torsional and bending behavior of ulnar specimens. Finally, a method for estimation the CSMI of a long bone section from BMA readings of mineral content and bone width is described. A linear correlation of r = 0.98 with the CSMI digitized from sections of human radii is demonstrated.
Ecological niche shifts and environmental space anisotropy: a cautionary note

The anisotropic structure of climatic space may cause significant (and to a large extent unappreciated) nonevolutionary niche shifts. This can be seen mostly in the context of spatial transferability of ecological niche models. We explore this effect using a virtual species in the United States. We created a simple virtual species by postulating its fundamental niche as an ellipse in a two-dimensional realistic climatic space. The climatic combinations defined by the ellipse were projected in the geography of the United States and 2 regions of equal area were selected. The structure of niche in the 2 areas is compared. It is shown that the 2 regions have differently positioned subsets of the environmental space, which creates “shifts” in the realized niches despite the fact that no evolution and no biotic interactions are present. The most parsimonious hypothesis when ecological niche modeling reveals shifts in the realized niche is that environmental space is heterogeneous. Without considering differences in the structure of environmental space no speculation about niche evolution or the role of competitors should be attempted.
Applications of microwave imaging to three-dimensional biological tissues

The conventional X-ray mammography measures the attenuation of the breast tissue. The low attenuation contrast between tumor and background results in a high false alarm rate at clinically accepted detection rates. Microwave breast imaging techniques have been proposed over the past few years because of their potentially high specificity for breast cancer diagnosis due to the high contrast in electrical properties between normal and malignant human breast tissues. For example, at 800 MHz, the contrast is 3.75 for the relative permittivity, and 6.75 for the electrical conductivity. This high contrast gives rise to a large electromagnetic scattering signal when electromagnetic waves are applied to a malignant tumor embedded in normal tissue. We develop a nonlinear inverse scattering algorithm to unravel multiple scattering effects for 3D microwave imaging. This algorithm is applied to form high resolution three-dimensional images to simulate an experimental prototype of a microwave breast imaging system.
The Impact of the 1996 SSI Childhood Disability Reforms: Evidence from Matched SIPP-SSA Data

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 changed the definition of disability used to determine eligibility for disabled children under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and made other changes in the program. The law required the redetermination of eligibility status for children potentially affected by the new definition of disability. As a result, an estimated 100,000 children were expected to lose SSI benefits. The goal of this paper is to understand the impact of benefit loss on affected children and their families. The analysis draws on data from the 1992, 1993 and 1996 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation matched with Social Security Administration records on SSI program participation. The data are used to analyze the impact of the loss of SSI income as a result of the 1996 legislation on family labor supply, welfare program participation, and income and poverty. Compared with families that lost SSI benefits due to normal attrition from the program, the excess benefit loss due to the 1996 childhood disability reforms is associated with lower levels of family labor supply, higher levels of participation in AFDC/TANF and food stamps, and lower levels of family income relative to poverty. For some outcomes, these effects - measured one month after benefit loss - persist for up to 12 months.
Round window gentamicin application: an inner ear hair cell damage protocol for the mouse.

It is important to develop an inner ear damage protocol for mice that avoids systemic toxicity and produces damage in a relatively rapid fashion, allowing for study of early cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for hair cell death and those that underlie the lack of hair cell regeneration in mammals. Ideally, this damage protocol would reliably produce both partial and complete lesions of the sensory epithelium. We present a method for in vivo induction of hair cell damage in the mouse via placement of gentamicin-soaked Gelfoam in the round window niche of the inner ear, an adaptation of a method developed to study hair cell regeneration in chicks. A total of 82 subjects underwent the procedure. Variable doses of gentamicin were used (25, 50, 100 and 200 μg). Saline-soaked Gelfoam, sham-operations and the contralateral, non-operated cochlea were used as controls. Survival periods were 1, 3 and 14 days. Damage was assessed on scanning electron microscopy. We found that this method produces relatively rapid hair cell damage that varies with dose and can extend the entire length of the sensory epithelium. In addition, this protocol produces no systemic toxicity and preserves the contralateral ear as a control.
Psychotherapy with Hallucinogenic Adjuncts from a Learning Perspective

A number of well-controlled studies have indicated that hallucinogen-assisted psychotherapy is both safe and effective. Following an historical overview, psycholytic and psychedelic therapy approaches are reviewed in terms of rationale, technique, applications, and outcomes. A new theoretical approach stemming from a learning orientation is offered as a conceptual basis for beneficial use of hallucinogens in psychotherapy. As a technology, the hallucinogens have not yet found acceptance as a useful therapeutic adjunct in the United States.
Remote sensing of forest change using artificial neural networks

A prolonged drought in the Lake Tahoe Basin in California has resulted in extensive conifer mortality. This phenomenon can be analyzed using (multitemporal) remote sensing data. Prior research in the same region used more traditional methods of change detection. The present paper introduces a third approach to change detection in remote sensing based on artificial neural networks. The neural network architecture used is a multilayer feedforward network. The results of the study indicate that the artificial neural network (ANN) estimates conifer mortality more accurately than the other approaches. Further, an analysis of its architecture reveals that it uses identifiable scene characteristics-the same as those used by a Gramm-Schmidt transformation. ANN models offer a viable alternative for change detection in remote sensing.
Species richness and soil properties in Pinus ponderosa forests: A structural equation modeling analysis

Question: How are the effects of mineral soil properties on understory plant species richness propagated through a network of processes involving the forest overstory, soil organic matter, soil nitrogen, and understory plant abundance? Location: North-central Arizona, USA. Methods: We sampled 75 0.05-ha plots across a broad soil gradient in a Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine) forest ecosystem. We evaluated multivariate models of plant species richness using structural equation modeling. Results: Richness was highest at intermediate levels of understory plant cover, suggesting that both colonization success and competitive exclusion can limit richness in this system. We did not detect a reciprocal positive effect of richness on plant cover. Richness was strongly related to soil nitrogen in the model, with evidence for both a direct negative effect and an indirect non-linear relationship mediated through understory plant cover. Soil organic matter appeared to have a positive influence on understory richness that was independent of soil nitrogen. Richness was lowest where the forest overstory was densest, which can be explained through indirect effects on soil organic matter, soil nitrogen and understory cover. Finally, model results suggest a variety of direct and indirect processes whereby mineral soil properties can influence richness. Conclusions: Understory plant species richness and plant cover in P. ponderosa forests appear to be significantly influenced by soil organic matter and nitrogen, which are, in turn, related to overstory density and composition and mineral soil properties. Thus, soil properties can impose direct and indirect constraints on local species diversity in ponderosa pine forests.
Color-Space CAD: Direct Gamut Editing in 3D

Color-space CAD is an interactive image-processing framework that lets users manipulate colors directly in 3D perceptual color space. Unlike traditional 2D color- manipulation tools, which often require multiple iterations, color-space CAD allows direct 3D navigation of the solution space. The framework uses graphics hardware to accelerate the computation-intensive mapping operations.
Prevention of Pediatric Drowning and Near-drowning: A Survey of Members of the American Academy of Pediatrics

Objective. To assess pediatricians9 knowledge about the epidemiology of childhood drowning, their opinions and current practices regarding its prevention, and their interest in taking on more responsibility for its prevention. Design. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 800 pediatricians in the United States, randomly selected from the American Academy of Pediatrics9 approximately 18 000 full fellows. Results. A total of 560 completed surveys were returned, a response rate of 70.1%. Although 85% of respondents believe it is the responsibility of pediatricians to become involved in community and/or legislative efforts to prevent childhood drowning, only 4.1% were involved in such efforts. Only a minority of respondents provided written materials and anticipatory guidance on drowning prevention to their patients. Women were more likely than men to discuss drowning prevention with their patients. Younger physicians were more likely than older physicians to discuss drowning prevention with their patients. Physicians who received formal education on drowning prevention during their pediatric residency training were more likely to provide written materials and anticipatory guidance on drowning prevention to their patients. However, only 17.9% of respondents received formal education on drowning prevention during their pediatric residency training. Seventy-four percent of all respondents felt that further education on the prevention of childhood drowning and near-drowning would be useful to them. Conclusion. Although drowning is the second leading cause of death by unintentional injury in the pediatric population (aged 0 to 19 years), most pediatricians do not routinely provide information to their patients, or to their patients9 parents, on drowning prevention. Implication. Pediatricians have been effective child advocates in many areas of injury prevention. If the prevention of drowning is made a priority in pediatric practice, many more children9s lives will be saved.
A graph theoretic method for identifying implicit two-time-scale problems

In nonlinear problems of a physical origin it is not unusual to derive system equations in coupled differential and algebraic subsets. A manifestation of the uncooperative nature of these systems is that frequently an explicit solution of the algebraic equation is not obtainable. Since the algebraic problem is imbedded in a larger dynamics problem, we have chosen to recast the system in two-time-scale form. This reformulation is obtained by using a graph-based approach, which allows the identification of local algebraic constraints prior to derivation of the system equations. An attribute of the approach is its flexibility, in that it permits a variety of two-time-scale formulations. The somewhat complementary nature of this approach and that of singular perturbations is remarked.
Changes in fuelbed characteristics and resulting fire potentials after fuel reduction treatments in dry forests of the Blue Mountains, northeastern Oregon

Abstract In many fire-prone forests in the United States, changes occurring in the last century have resulted in overstory structures, conifer densities, down woody structure and fuel loads that deviate from those described historically. With these changes, forests are presumed to be unsustainable. Broad-scale treatments are proposed to reduce fuels and promote stand development on trajectories toward more sustainable structures. Yet little research to date has identified the effects of these treatments, especially in low elevation dry ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests. We report initial fuelbed conditions and changes immediately and 4–6 years after fuel reduction treatments in an operational-scale, replicated (N = 4), completely randomized experiment in northeastern Oregon. Treatments included a single entry thin from below conducted in 1998, a late season burn conducted in 2000, a thin followed by burning (thin + burn), and a no action treatment which served as a control. Between 1998 and 2004, litter mass declined about 4.4 Mg ha−1 in thin units, about 4.1 Mg ha−1 in thin + burn units, and about 1.5 Mg ha−1 in burn units. Duff mass did not change with treatment. Mass of woody fuels in the 1 and 10 h timelag classes increased in thin units immediately after treatment, but fell to nearly pre-treatment levels by 2004. Mass of woody fuels in the 100 h timelag class increased about 1.6 Mg ha−1 in thin units, and decreased about 0.7 Mg ha−1 in burn units and about 0.1 Mg ha−1 in thin + burn units. There was no difference in the change in total woody fuel mass among all treatments. About 62% of the residual trees in the burn and the thin + burn units were charred; charring extended up the bole about 1.1 m. About 50% of the residual trees in the burn and thin + burn units had scorched lower crowns. Mean scorch height was 4.3 m. Log density was greater in control units compared to actively treated units and greater in the thin units compared to burn or thin + burn units. We used the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) to construct a representative fuelbed for each unit from inventoried data and to calculate three indices of fire potential as measures of the change in fire hazard resulting from our treatments: surface fire behavior, crown fire behavior, and fuels available for consumption. Projected flame length, rate of spread, and reaction intensity are derived as metrics of future surface fire behavior. These results are discussed in the context of management options for restoration of ecosystem health in similar low elevation dry ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests.
Using Monodromy to Decompose Solution Sets of Polynomial Systems into Irreducible Components

To decompose solution sets of polynomial systems into irreducible components, homotopy continuation methods generate the action of a natural monodromy group which partially classifies generic points onto their respective irreducible components. As illustrated by the performance on several test examples, this new method achieves a great increase in speed and accuracy, as well as improved numerical conditioning of the multivariate interpolation problem.
Numerical methods for the migration of constant-offset sections in homogeneous and horizontally layered media

This paper describes schemes for the frequency‐domain migration of constant‐offset sections in homogeneous and horizontally layered media. Their main advantage is that individual constant‐offset sections can be processed in isolation. The basis for these schemes is a generalization of the following plane‐wave analysis of migration for the zero‐offset case. Migration can be viewed in the time domain as a process whereby the plane waves echoed from a source to a geophone by a reflecting point are shifted in time to a common intersection. The shift applicable to each plane wave can be derived from the knowledge of the diffraction curve for the reflecting point in a neighborhood of the geophone abscissa. This time shift in turn determines the phase shift applicable in the frequency domain to the associated Fourier component of the seismic section. The central part of our methods is the construction of those elements of the diffraction curve pertinent to the shifts from the velocity map of the time section. Th...
Light field compression using disparity-compensated lifting

We propose a novel approach for light field compression that incorporates disparity compensation into 4-D wavelet coding using disparity-compensated lifting. With this approach, we obtain the benefits of wavelet coding, including compression efficiency and scalability in all dimensions. Additionally, our proposed approach solves the irreversibility limitations of previous wavelet coding approaches. Experimental results show that the compression efficiency of the proposed technique outperforms current state-of-the-art wavelet coding techniques by a wide margin.
Multichannel digital magnetic recording

The authors examine multiple-head magnetic recording in the context of multichannel communication system theory. An equivalent discrete-time channel model for the multiple-head system is derived, and a simple algorithm for computing the performance of an infinite-length decision feedback equalizer is presented. The results show that the multiple-head system performs better than a single-head system when the heads are offtrack. This improvement leads to an increase in radial density by a factor of approximately 2.4 for a fixed servo tolerance. >
Decreased Sprint Speed as a Cost of Reproduction in the Lizard Sceloporus Occidentalis: Variation among Populations

Summary Decreased mobility of gravid females is thought to be an important cost of reproduction in lizards. We measured sprint speeds of female western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis Baird and Girard) before and after they had oviposited. Females from two California populations were about 20% slower when gravid, females from an Oregon population were about 30% slower, and females from a Washington population were about 45 % slower, compared to their speeds after recovering from reproduction. The decrease in sprint speed persisted for several weeks after oviposition, suggesting that reproduction impairs sprint performance by affecting body condition in addition to the burdening effect of eggs. Oregon and Washington females carried more mass (both somatic and clutch mass) per unit body length than California females. On the shorter bodies of Oregon and Washington lizards, eggs may interfere with the mechanics of running, in addition to their effect on the total mass of the female. In addition, gravid females from Washington had significantly higher reproductive investment (mass of clutch relative to the mass of the female after oviposition) than Oregon and California populations. Greater reproductive investment by Washington females increases, the burden carried per unit of body length; we suggest this further impairs sprint performance. Decrements in sprint speed were not significantly correlated with level of reproductive investment (per unit body mass) among females within any of the study populations. However, the burden carried per unit body length was
Practices of Preservice Teachers Related to Gifted and Other Academically Diverse Learners

Preservice teachers face formidable tasks of planning and management as they enter the classroom for the first time as professionals. They also bring with them mental imprints of what teaching and ...
High Thrust-to-Power Annular Engine Technology

Gridded ion engines have the highest efficiency and total impulse of any mature electric propulsion technology, and have been successfully implemented for primary propulsion in both geocentric and heliocentric environments with excellent ground/in-space correlation of performance. However, they have not been optimized to maximize thrust-to-power, an important parameter for Earth orbit transfer applications. This publication discusses technology development work intended to maximize this parameter. These activities include investigating the capabilities of a non-conventional design approach, the annular engine, which has the potential of exceeding the thrust-to-power of other EP technologies. This publication discusses the status of this work, including the fabrication and initial tests of a large-area annular engine. This work is being conducted in collaboration among NASA Glenn Research Center, The Aerospace Corporation, and the University of Michigan.
Medical marijuana Between a plant and a hard place

Medical marijuana (MMJ) is a multifaceted and complicated issue involving far too much information to convey in a single review article. In this article, we touch on points that we hope will help the practitioner make more informed decisions about the use of MMJ in the field of neurology. In particular, we discuss the systematic review published in Neurology® and describe the 2 agents that have been approved for general use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In addition, we address quality assurance, prescribing, and legal concerns and provide information about the use of Epidiolex, a liquid formulation of highly purified cannabidiol (CBD) extract, as a treatment for various orphan pediatric epilepsy syndromes.
Father Involvement in Feeding Interactions with Their Young Children.

A growing body of literature highlights the important role and influence that fathers can have in shaping eating and physical activity patterns of their children. Paternal practices and parenting styles have been shown to be associated with highly controlling feeding practices and overweight status in children.1,2 Alternatively, encouragement and modeling of healthy behaviors by fathers has been associated with a lower BMI among their adolescent daughters.3 Fathers’ use of fast food restaurants also has been associated with school-aged children’s use of fast food restaurants.4 There is overwhelming evidence that parents play a critical role in shaping early dietary and sedentary and physical activity patterns in their young children5–10 through their own behaviors, role-modeling, parenting styles, and feeding practices.11–13 Much of this knowledge, however, has been learned by largely studying mothers and their young children. There is a need for more research on fathers as previous studies involving fathers and children have grouped multiple child age groups together such as preschoolers, school-aged children, and adolescents; moreover, studies too often are limited by the small and non-representative samples of fathers in the United States (US). Determining the extent of involvement and influence that fathers have in their young children’s feeding and sedentary and physical activity patterns is important because early childhood represents a key developmental window to shape healthy behaviors into late childhood and adulthood.14–17 Furthermore, the high and increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among US men, currently estimated at 60% and 30% respectively,18 makes this knowledge crucial as overweight and obese men place their young children at increased risk for unhealthy weight outcomes through a genetic susceptibility and exposure to obesity-promoting behaviors and environments.3,19,20 In addition, furthering the knowledge on the relationships between fathers and their young children can provide critical information about an often overlooked group of care-givers and offer new strategies to promote healthy weight in children. To that end, the focus of this study was to (1) use a nationally representative sample of US households to describe paternal involvement in the following eating and physical activity practices with their young children: preparation of food with child; playing outside with child; eating out with child; assisting child to eat; eating breakfast or dinner with child; and perceived influence over child’s nutrition; and (2) examine the relationship of these paternal practices with child intake of fruits, vegetables, sweetened beverages, and fast food; child patterns of daily physical activity and television viewing; and the frequency of family meals.
Finding local experts on twitter

We address the problem of identifying local experts on Twitter. Specifically, we propose a local expertise framework that integrates both users' topical expertise and their local authority by leveraging over 15 million geo-tagged Twitter lists. We evaluate the proposed approach across 16 queries coupled with over 2,000 individual judgments from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our initial experiments find significant improvement over a naive local expert finding approach, suggesting the promise of exploiting geo-tagged Twitter lists for local expert finding.
Ultrastructure of Dormant and Germinated Basidiospores of a Species of Psilocybe

The ultrastructure of dormant and germinated basidiospores of a species of Psilocybe was studied using standard thin sectioning and freeze-etching techniques. The results obtained with freeze-etchi...
Controlled Pd(0)/t-Bu3P-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling polymerization of AB-type monomers with PhPd(t-Bu3P)I or Pd2(dba)3/t-Bu3P/ArI as the initiator.

Controlled Pd(0)/t-Bu3P-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling polymerizations of AB-type monomers via the chain-growth mechanism with an ArPd(t-Bu3P)I complex as the initiator are described. ArPd(t-Bu3P)I complexes, either prepurified or generated in situ from Pd2(dba)3/t-Bu3P/ArI (dba = dibenzylideneacetone) without separation/purification, were found to be efficient initiators in general for the controlled Suzuki cross-coupling polymerization, with narrow polydispersity indexes (PDIs) of 1.13–1.35 being observed. The Pd2(dba)3/t-Bu3P/p-BrC6H4I combination was identified as a highly robust initiator system, with PDIs of ≤1.20 in general and as low as 1.13 being obtained. Higher number-average molecular weights (Mn) were achieved without a significant increase in the PDI (from 1.14 for a polymer with a Mn = 9500 to 1.20 for a polymer with Mn = 31 400) by using a smaller amount of the Pd2(dba)3/t-Bu3P/p-BrC6H4I initiator in the polymerization.