cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
OPERANT CONDITIONING OF MENTAL RETARDATES- VISUAL MONITORING

Summary.-To study improvement of visual monitoring of retardates, specialized training methods backed up by incentives were used. The extent to which these training techniques might be expected to produce results which would generalize to those situations in which the retardate was required to monitor without the increased signal rate and knowledge of results was explored. Subjects were 8 female mental retardates with IQs from 38 to 69. Detection of an aperiodic pattern change during pre-training was compared with final performance after 4 training sessions. During training, the task difficulty was increased until during the final training session it approximated the test conditions. Immediate knowledge of results was given for correct detections and false positive responses. Tokens were given to the subjects, based on the score at the end of the session. After the final session these tokens were exchanged for prizes. As predicted, training under these conditions significantly enhanced the retardates' performance and transferred to the condition with no knowledge of results. The advances of science and technology have produced an ever increasing need for human monitors of automated systems. Paradoxically, some critical monitoring jobs are relatively simple and considered by some employees to be boring. Within the field of mental retardation a salient theme is the need for vocational training and placement for retarded individuals in order that they may become economically self-sufficient. Previous research (Clarke & Hermelin, 1955; Gordon, O'Connor, & Tizard, 1955; Loos & Tizard, 1955) has shown that retarded individuals can be successfully trained and perform well on sustained, simple tasks. Therefore, the question of whether mental retardates could be trained and perform successfully as monitors would seem to have both practical and theoretical importance. Although research on visual monitoring performance has been extensive during the last two decades (Hakomb & Blackwell, 1969; Stroh, 1971), only a few studies of the monitoring performance of mentally retarded individuals have appeared in the literature. Ware, Baker, and Sipowicz (1962) investigated the visual monitoring ability of mentally retarded and normal young adults. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in the monitoring performance of the normals and retardates. Semmel (1965) carried out a study to compare visual monitoring and arousal in groups of educable mentally retarded and normal children matched on chronological age (CA). The mean correct detections of Semmel's (1965) retarded subjects were signifi'Currently employed by the U.S. Navy Equipment and Training Center, Orlando, Florida.
Properties of the Core in Finite Economies

The Edgeworthian concept of the core is based on recontracting by all formable trade coalitions in the economy. In a finite exchange system with sovereign agents \(\mathbb{E}{_f}\) this is assumed to be the collection of all coalitions 2A ≡ { E|E ⊂ A}. Hence, any E ⊂ A is potentially able to improve upon a proposed allocation f ∈ L(f, ℝ + l ). The main aspect of the Edgeworthian recontracting process is that it describes a system of coordinated economic trade activities. Hildenbrand (1974), Anderson (1986 and 1992), and Hildenbrand and Kirman (1988) are among those who recognize these Edgeworthian trade processes to be the most plausible description of economic interaction in the setting of a finite exchange system. Thus, the core C \(\mathbb{E}{_f}\) is recognized as the proper equilibrium concept for the description of economic behavior in a finite exchange system \(\mathbb{E}{_f}\). On the other hand we recognize the collection of Walrasian equilibrium allocations W\(\mathbb{E}{_f}\) resulting from an ideal, perfectly competitive market system as a benchmark regarding the core, in particular since Walrasian equilibrium allocations have very appealing efficiency and equity properties. This forms the basis for an investigation of the relation between the core as a description of actual results of trade processes in \(\mathbb{E}{_f}\) and the Walrasian equilibrium allocations as desirable outcomes of these trade processes. This investigation is the subject of this chapter.
Facemail: showing faces of recipients to prevent misdirected email

Users occasionally send email to the wrong recipients -- clicking Reply To All instead of Reply, mistyping an email address, or guessing an email address and getting it wrong - and suffer violations of security or privacy as a result. Facemail is an extension to a webmail system that aims to alleviate this problem by automatically displaying pictures of the selected recipients in a peripheral display, while the user is composing an email message. We describe techniques for obtaining faces from email addresses, and discovering mailing list memberships from existing web data sources, and a user interface design that keeps important faces recognizable while scaling up to hundreds or thousands of recipients. Preliminary experiments suggest that faces significantly improve users' ability to detect misdirected emails with only a brief glance.
Comment on “Evaluating Interactions between Groundwater and Vadose Zone Using the HYDRUS-Based Flow Package for MODFLOW” by Navin Kumar C. Twarakavi, Jirka Šimůnek, and Sophia Seo

[Twarakavietal. (2008)][1] compared four packages that can be used to estimate recharge for regional-scale groundwater flow simulations using MODFLOW ([Harbaugh, 2005][2]). This comment is focused on the comparisons made between two of these packages, namely, UZF1 ([Niswonger et al., 2006][3]) and a
The Role of Dairy Foods in Weight Management

Dietary calcium appears to play a pivotal role in the regulation of energy metabolism and obesity risk. High calcium diets attenuate body fat accumulation and weight gain during periods of over-consumption of an energy-dense diet and to increase fat breakdown and preserve metabolism during caloric restriction, thereby markedly accelerating weight and fat loss. This effect is mediated primarily by circulating calcitriol, which regulates adipocyte intracellular Ca2+. Studies of human adipocyte metabolism demonstrate a key role for intracellular Ca2+ in regulating lipid metabolism and triglyceride storage, with increased intracellular Ca2+ resulting in stimulation of lipogenic gene expression and lipogenesis and suppression of lipolysis, resulting in adipocyte lipid filling and increased adiposity. Moreover, the increased calcitriol produced in response to low calcium diets stimulates adipocyte Ca2+ influx and, consequently, promotes adiposity, while higher calcium diets inhibit lipogenesis, promote lipolysi...
Electrochromic and optical waveguide studies of corona-poled electro-optic polymer films

Real-time monitoring of the corona-poling process that is used to create a bulk second-order nonlinear-optical susceptibility was accomplished by observing electrochromic shifts and intensity decreases of charge-transfer absorption bands in both dye-doped and covalently functionalized polymer films. By measuring small changes in the refractive-index anisotropy, the optical waveguiding technique was demonstrated to be a sensitive measure of the poling-induced order and its relaxation. The guest–host systems were formed from the dyes N,N-dimethylaminonitrostilbene, N,N-dimethylindoaniline (Phenol Blue), and 4-(N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-N-ethyl)-amino-4′-nitroazobenzene (Disperse Red 1), each dissolved in a poly(methyl methacrylate) matrix. The covalently functionalized polymers contained pendant para-nitroaniline (PNA) moieties. The first, poly(N-(4-nitrophenyl)allylamine), was formed from a poly(allylamine) derivative and is called PPNA. The second was based on poly(hydroxystyrene), with PNA attachment occurring between the phenol group and the PNA hydroxyethyl group; this polymer is named PHS-MENA. The final polymer is a linear epoxy (bisphenol A) with the PNA amino N atoms forming a link in the main chain; it is called Bis A-NA. A sample calculation demonstrated the use of experimental electrochromic spectral data to estimate the electro-optic coefficients.
Microglia During Development and Aging

Microglia are critical nervous system-specific cells influencing brain development, maintenance of the neural environment, response to injury, and repair. They contribute to neuronal proliferation and differentiation, pruning of dying neurons, synaptic remodeling and clearance of debris and aberrant proteins. Colonization of the brain occurs during gestation with an expansion following birth with localization stimulated by programmed neuronal death, synaptic pruning, and axonal degeneration. Changes in microglia phenotype relate to cellular processes including specific neurotransmitter, pattern recognition, or immune-related receptor activation. Upon activation, microglia cells have the capacity to release a number of substances, e.g., cytokines, chemokines, nitric oxide, and reactive oxygen species, which could be detrimental or beneficial to the surrounding cells. With aging, microglia shift their morphology and may display diminished capacity for normal functions related to migration, clearance, and the ability to shift from a pro-inflammatory to an anti-inflammatory state to regulate injury and repair. This shift in microglia potentially contributes to increased susceptibility and neurodegeneration as a function of age. In the current review, information is provided on the colonization of the brain by microglia, the expression of various pattern recognition receptors to regulate migration and phagocytosis, and the shift in related functions that occur in normal aging.
Effect of cold preservation on intracellular calcium concentration and calpain activity in rat sinusoidal endothelial cells

Abstract This study was performed to determine the role of intracellular calcium concentration and calpain activity on the cellular events that occur in rat sinusoidal endothelial cells (SEC) in the cold. Intracellular calcium concentrations were measured in isolated cold preserved rat SEC. Dantrolene or 1,2-bis(o-Aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid tetra(acetoxymethyl) ester (BAPTA-AM) was added in some studies. In other studies, calpain activity and m-calpain and μ-calpain expression were measured during cold preservation in the presence or absence of calpain inhibitors. The effect of addition of dantrolene to preservation solutions on function of whole livers after preservation was determined. Cold preservation caused an increase in intracellular calcium concentration first detected at 1 hour of preservation. This was associated with cell rounding and actin disassembly. Dantrolene and BAPTA-AM prevented the increase in intracellular calcium concentration and reduced cell rounding and actin disassembly. Cold preservation also resulted in increased calpain activity and expression on SEC. Calpain expression was reduced by dantrolene. Calpain inhibitors N-acetyl-leu-leu-norleucinal (ALLN) and N-acetyl-leu-leu-methioninal (ALLM) reduced calpain activity and expression and restored SEC cell shape and actin morphology. Dantrolene improved function of livers preserved in Eurocollins (EC) solution when tested on the isolated perfused rat liver (IPRL). In conclusion, exposure of SEC to cold results sequentially in elevated intracellular calcium concentration, increased calpain activity, and actin disassembly. (H EPATOLOGY 2003;37:313-323.)
EFFECTS OF SEQUENTIAL HE+ AND AR+ IMPLANTATION ON SURFACE PROPERTIES OF POLYMERS

Three important polymers: polystyrene (PS), poly ether ether ketone (PEEK), and polyimide Kapton, were irradiated separately with 1 MeV He{sup +}, 1 MeV Ar{sup +}, and 1 MeV He{sup +} followed by 1 MeV Ar{sup +} sequentially, to a fluence of 3{times}10{sup 19} ions/m{sup 2} for each ion. The specimens were characterized for changes in surface hardness using a nanoindentation technique, and wear resistance using a reciprocating sliding wear apparatus with a steel ball counterface. Results indicated that while all polymers showed higher hardness values after ion irradiation, the dual irradiation resulted in the largest hardness increase, greater than for the single ion-irradiated specimens. Wear test results also indicated that the dual He{sup +}+Ar{sup +} irradiation resulted in the best improvement in wear resistance of the polymers. These improvements in properties are a consequence of cross-linking of the polymer material caused by the ion irradiation. Linear energy transfer considerations showed that the dual He{sup +}+Ar{sup +} implantation was better because it combined a deeper implant, in the form of He, along with Ar irradiation which resulted in a shallower but more highly cross-linked layer at the near-surface. Thus a deeper and graded cross-linked surface region was formed. The study showsmore » that there is greater flexibility for tailoring surface properties of polymers by using a judicious combination of ion species, ion energies, and fluences. {copyright} {ital 1996 Materials Research Society.}« less
Reverse engineering of force integration during mitosis in the Drosophila embryo

The mitotic spindle is a complex macromolecular machine that coordinates accurate chromosome segregation. The spindle accomplishes its function using forces generated by microtubules (MTs) and multiple molecular motors, but how these forces are integrated remains unclear, since the temporal activation profiles and the mechanical characteristics of the relevant motors are largely unknown. Here, we developed a computational search algorithm that uses experimental measurements to ‘reverse engineer' molecular mechanical machines. Our algorithm uses measurements of length time series for wild-type and experimentally perturbed spindles to identify mechanistic models for coordination of the mitotic force generators in Drosophila embryo spindles. The search eliminated thousands of possible models and identified six distinct strategies for MT–motor integration that agree with available data. Many features of these six predicted strategies are conserved, including a persistent kinesin-5-driven sliding filament mechanism combined with the anaphase B-specific inhibition of a kinesin-13 MT depolymerase on spindle poles. Such conserved features allow predictions of force–velocity characteristics and activation–deactivation profiles of key mitotic motors. Identified differences among the six predicted strategies regarding the mechanisms of prometaphase and anaphase spindle elongation suggest future experiments.
Modeling the Budgeting Process: Enriching the Learning Environment Using Monte Carlo Simulations

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the development and use of a budgeting case study and an object-oriented modeling tool to introduce the concept of uncertainty and risk in financial analysis to students in upper-division accounting information systems classes. The emphasis is on teaching the concepts involving probabilistic budgeted financial statements using an object-oriented, discrete event, Monte Carlo simulation model of a simplified business environment. Teaching materials have been developed and tested in an advanced AIS course typically taught to senior or graduate-level students. Assignments are designed to assist students in understanding probabilistic models of business planning, and specifically, in development of budgeted financial statements, to create a stronger understanding of the interrelation of business processes and to expose students to business modeling via simulations.
eHealth and Privacy in U.S. Employer Wellness Programs

This paper summarizes privacy, autonomy and ethical issues raised by employer-sponsored wellness programs in the United States, with emphasis on the increasing use of technology for collecting data and shaping participant behavior. After providing some background on wellness programs, the paper looks at the types of personal information collected in these programs through health risks assessments , biometric screenings and, increasingly, wearable fitness trackers and mobile apps, at ways in which this personal information is combined with public data and healthcare data, and how it is used to monitor and influence program participants. The paper examines legal protections available to employees in areas of informational privacy , physical integrity, and decisional autonomy . It concludes with recommendations for further research.
Benefit-cost analysis of selected agroforestry systems in Northeastern Thailand

Potential productivity and financial returns from selected agroforestry systems and traditional monocrops located in the Phu Wiang watershed were estimated from limited trials of cropping alternatives using cost-benefit analysis. The agroforestry systems studied consisted of combinations of Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), or Acacia (Acacia auriculiformis) inter-cropped with cassava (Manihot esculenta) or mungbean (Vigna radiata). Evidence from trials at short, 3-year rotations, demonstrate that early supplementary and complementary relationships between some system components can imply synergistic financial gains. Although these biological interactions turn competitive over time, in this case, the gains should be sufficient to make early adopters consider the agroforestry systems financially preferable to traditional monocrops.
Allograft replacement of all or part of the end of a long bone following excision of a tumor.

In eleven years twenty-one patients with large tumors of the end of a long bone were treated by excision of the end of the bone with replacement by homologous deep-frozen cadaveric bone including an articular surface. The replacement was sterilized by bacitracin and neomycin. Fourteen tumors were giant-cell tumors, six were sarcomas, and one a fibroma. Sixteen patients still have their limbs, three had amputations, one died, and one was lost to follow-up. The functional status of the limbs varied extensively and several patients needed one or more re-operations.
Longitudinal assessment of medical student attitudes toward older people.

AbstractDelivering adequate care to older people requires an increasing number of physicians competent in the treatment of this expanding subpopulation. Attitudes toward older adults are important as predictors of the quality of care of older people and of medical trainee likelihood to enter the geriatrics field. This study assessed the attitudes of 404 US medical students (MS) from the start of medical school to graduation using the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Geriatrics Attitude Scale. It is the first study to utilize a longitudinal design to assess attitudes among students in a medical school with a longitudinal geriatrics clinical experience in the first two years and a required geriatrics clerkship in the third year. Participants’ attitude scores toward older people were found to significantly decrease from 3.9 during the first two years to 3.7 during the final two. Significant differences existed between MS1 and MS3, MS1 and MS4, MS2 and MS3, and MS2 and MS4. Women and older student...
Hotel guests’ perception of best green practices: A content analysis of online reviews

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate guests’ perception of green hotels through a content analysis of online hotel reviews. A total of 7370 comments were collected, and 737 green com...
Understanding the Joint Behavior of Temperature and Precipitation for Climate Change Impact Studies

The multiple downscaled scenario products allow us to assess the uncertainty of the variations of precipitation and temperature in the current and future periods. Probabilistic assessments of both climatic variables help better understand the interdependence of the two and thus, in turn, help in assessing the future with confidence. In the present study, we use ensemble of statistically downscaled precipitation and temperature from various models. The dataset used is multi-model ensemble of 10 global climate models (GCMs) downscaled product from CMIP5 daily dataset using the Bias Correction and Spatial Downscaling (BCSD) technique, generated at Portland State University. The multi-model ensemble of both precipitation and temperature is evaluated for dry and wet periods for 10 sub-basins across Columbia River Basin (CRB). Thereafter, copula is applied to establish the joint distribution of two variables on multi-model ensemble data. The joint distribution is then used to estimate the change in trends of said variables in future, along with estimation of the probabilities of the given change. The joint distribution trends vary, but certainly positive, for dry and wet periods in sub-basins of CRB. Dry season, generally, is indicating a higher positive change in precipitation than temperature (as compared to historical) across sub-basins with wet season inferring otherwise. Probabilities of changes in future, as estimated from the joint distribution, indicate varied degrees and forms during dry season whereas the wet season is rather constant across all the sub-basins.
The Slave Trader, the White Slave, and the Politics of Racial Determination in the 1850s

In January of 1857 Jane Morrison was sold in the slave market in New Orleans. The man who bought her was James White, a longtime New Orleans slave trader, who had recently sold his slave pen and bought land just up the river from New Orleans, in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. ' Morrison, apparently, was to be one of his last speculations as a trader or one of his first investments as a planter. Sometime shortly after her sale, however, Morrison ran away. By the time White saw her again, in October 1857, they were in a courtroom in Jefferson Parish where Morrison had filed suit against him. Before it was settled, that suit would be considered by three different juries, be put before the Louisiana Supreme Court twice, and leave a lasting record of the complicated politics of race and slavery in the South of the 1850s. The reason for the stir would have been obvious to anyone who saw Morrison sitting in court that day: the fifteen-year-old girl whom White claimed as his slave had blond hair and blue eyes. Morrison began her petition to the Third District Court by asking that William Dennison, the Jefferson Parish jailer, be appointed her legal representative and that she be sequestered in the parish prison to keep White from seizing and selling her.
Inflectional Paradigms: Content and Form at the Syntax-Morphology Interface

Sometimes dismissed as linguistically epiphenomenal, inflectional paradigms are, in reality, the interface of a language's morphology with its syntax and semantics. Drawing on abundant evidence from a wide range of languages (French, Hua, Hungarian, Kashmiri, Latin, Nepali, Noon, Old Norse, Sanskrit, Turkish, Twi and others), Stump examines a variety of mismatches between words' content and form, including morphomic patterns, defectiveness, overabundance, syncretism, suppletion, deponency and polyfunctionality. He demonstrates that such mismatches motivate a new grammatical architecture in which two kinds of paradigms are distinguished: content paradigms, which determine word forms' syntactic distribution and semantic interpretation, and form paradigms, which determine their inflectional realization. In this framework, the often nontrivial linkage between a lexeme's content paradigm and its stems' form paradigm is the nexus at which incongruities of content and form are resolved. Stump presents clear and precise analyses of a range of morphological phenomena in support of this theoretical innovation.
Communication Practices of Followers, Members, and Protégés: The Case of Upward Influence Tactics

Changing forms of organization and evolving conceptions of leadership have created the potential for followers to exert increased influence in American organizations. This chapter reviews research ...
Abstract 4652: Effects of anti-DLL4 treatment on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) human xenograft tumors

Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for the vast majority of lung cancers, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Notch signaling has been shown to play an important role in lung cancer initiation and progression. Delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4) activates the Notch pathway and is important for cancer stem cell (CSC) survival. Demcizumab (OMP-21M18) is a humanized IgG2 anti-DLL4 antibody currently being tested in a Phase 2 trial in combination with pemetrexed and carboplatin for first-line treatment of patients with NSCLC. Previously, OMP-21M18 in combination with its mouse anti-DLL4 surrogate has been shown to inhibit tumor growth, decrease cancer stem cell frequency, and cause dysfunctional sprouting of new vessels resulting in an anti-angiogenic effect in patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX) models in breast, colon, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers. Here we show results from NSCLC PDX models. Methods and Results: Anti-DLL4 treatment was tested in a series of NSCLC PDX models. Because DLL4 inhibition has been shown to have effects on the tumor as well as the vasculature, the combination of OMP-21M18 (targeting human DLL4) and 21R30 (antibody targeting mouse DLL4) treatment in the PDX models was used to model demcizumab treatment in humans. Treatment with anti-DLL4 in combination with chemotherapy inhibited tumor growth in a series of NSCLC PDX models. Additionally, a tumorigenicity assay showed a decrease in the frequency of tumor-initiating cells following treatment with anti-DLL4 and chemotherapy. Gene expression analysis of tumor samples provided insights into the mechanism of action. Conclusions: Anti-DLL4 treatment in a panel of NSCLC PDX tumor models in vivo showed inhibition of tumor growth and a decrease in the frequency of tumor-initiating cells. Mechanism of action and gene expression analysis of these models treated with anti-DLL4 will be presented. These findings provide additional evidence supporting demcizumab as an effective treatment for NSCLC patients. Citation Format: Alayne Brunner, Fiore Cattaruzza, Wan-Ching Yen, Pete Yeung, Marcus Fischer, Belinda Cancilla, Gilbert O’Young, Raymond Tam, Yu-Wang Liu, Austin Gurney, John Lewicki, Tim Hoey, Min Wang, Ann M. Kapoun. Effects of anti-DLL4 treatment on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) human xenograft tumors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4652.
Using a Design Workshop To Explore Accessible Ideation

Although a critical step in the technology design process, ideation is often not accessible for people with disabilities. We present findings from a design workshop facilitated to brainstorm accessible ideation methods. Groups, mostly engineers, ideated on a design challenge and documented access barriers encountered by participants with disabilities. They then ideated and prototyped potential solutions for decreasing access barriers. We offer suggestions for more accessible communication and ideation on a design team and insights from using a workshop as a site for rethinking ideation.
Adaptation of Pixelated CdZnTe gamma-ray imaging technology for in situ planetary science applications

It is important for planetary sciences to find a gamma-ray spectrometer that is compact, light and provides good energy resolution in an energy range that varies from ∼ 30 keV to 10 MeV. Pixelated CdZnTe detector is a good candidate for this application due to its small volume, light weight and it has demonstrated good energy resolution below ∼2–3 MeV. At higher energies, charge sharing effect becomes a problem due to the size of the pixel. In this paper, the electron cloud diameter as a function of energy has been studied using the MCNPX Monte Carlo code. In the energy range studied, the electron cloud size increases linearly with energy. The effect of charge sharing in a 2×2×1.5 cm3 pixelated CdZnTe detector at 662 keV, 2.614 MeV and 7.631 MeV is shown. The anode is an 11 × 11 pixelated array with 1.72 mm pitch. The simulation reveals that the electron cloud size is about three times the size of the pixel pitch for an 8 MeV event. As the energy of the source increases, charge sharing effect is dominant and the charge cloud is collected by multiple pixels which reduces the spectral performance of the detector.
Commentary: Mapping the young, resilient brain - reflections on Burt et al. (2016).

The resilience of many children in the face of adversity has long been a research focus. The study by Burt et al. delineates the neuroanatomy of resilience, using in vivo magnetic resonance images acquired on 1,800 youth. They find that resilient youth had a larger right lateral prefrontal cortex compared to youth who either lacked resilience or did not experience adversity. The size of the right lateral prefrontal cortex was further associated with a likelihood of a maladaptive problem of alcohol use. These findings implicate high-order regulatory processes supported by the right lateral prefrontal cortex as pivotal in resilience. The study also sets the stage for exploring how neuroimaging data, combined with behavioral and genomic information might be used to assess treatment efficacy and identify children who need therapeutic interventions to boost their resilience.
Tragedy of the Commons

Prior to the mid-1750s, the villages of England had large nearby areas that belonged to the village. These common areas were not held in private ownership. But many members of the village raised sheep on their land and often released their extra sheep on the commons. They reasoned that even if their animals on the commons did not grow well due to overconsumption of the grass, any growth was a benefit that would have otherwise not materialized. So the villagers kept putting out sheep until these sheep overconsumed the grass, resulting in the collapse of the commons and the death of the sheep. This process is called the tragedy of the commons and we see it in many issues today, such as air and water pollution. The air and water are still generally thought of as “free” dumping places for the pollutants of utilities, industries, and autos, though the regulators and the economists are catching up!
FlashBlox: achieving both performance isolation and uniform lifetime for virtualized SSDs

A longstanding goal of SSD virtualization has been to provide performance isolation between multiple tenants sharing the device. Virtualizing SSDs, however, has traditionally been a challenge because of the fundamental tussle between resource isolation and the lifetime of the device - existing SSDs aim to uniformly age all the regions of flash and this hurts isolation. We propose utilizing flash parallelism to improve isolation between virtual SSDs by running them on dedicated channels and dies. Furthermore, we offer a complete solution by also managing the wear. We propose allowing the wear of different channels and dies to diverge at fine time granularities in favor of isolation and adjusting that imbalance at a coarse time granularity in a principled manner. Our experiments show that the new SSD wears uniformly while the 99th percentile latencies of storage operations in a variety of multi-tenant settings are reduced by up to 3.1x compared to software isolated virtual SSDs.
Outcomes after mitral valve repair: A single-center 16-year experience

Abstract Objective To evaluate outcomes after mitral valve repair. Methods Between May 1999 and June 2015, 446 patients underwent mitral valve repair. Isolated mitral valve annuloplasty was excluded. A total of 398 (89%) had degenerative valve disease. Mean follow-up was 5.5 ± 3.8 years. Postoperative echocardiograms were obtained in 334 patients (75%) at a mean of 24.3 ± 13.7 months. Results Survival was 97%, 96%, 95%, and 94% at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years. Risk factor analysis showed age >60 years and nondegenerative etiology predict death (hazard ratio, 2.91; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-8.02, P = .038; and hazard ratio, 1.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-3.02, P = .010, respectively). Considering competing risks due to mortality, the cumulative incidence of reoperation was 2.8%, 4.2%, 5.1%, and 9.6% at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years. Competing risk proportional hazard survival regression identified nondegenerative etiology and previous cardiac surgery as predictors of reoperation, and posterior repair was protective (all P P P = .038). On multivariate analysis diabetes, previous coronary artery bypass grafting and concurrent tricuspid valve intervention predicted MR progression. Conclusions Mitral valve repair has excellent outcomes. Our results demonstrate failures appear to occur less in those who undergo posterior leaflet repair.
The Drosophila hnRNP F/H Homolog Glorund Uses Two Distinct RNA-Binding Modes to Diversify Target Recognition

Summary The Drosophila hnRNP F/H homolog, Glorund (Glo), regulates nanos mRNA translation by interacting with a structured UA-rich motif in the nanos 3′ untranslated region. Glo regulates additional RNAs, however, and mammalian homologs bind G-tract sequences to regulate alternative splicing, suggesting that Glo also recognizes G-tract RNA. To gain insight into how Glo recognizes both structured UA-rich and G-tract RNAs, we used mutational analysis guided by crystal structures of Glo's RNA-binding domains and identified two discrete RNA-binding surfaces that allow Glo to recognize both RNA motifs. By engineering Glo variants that favor a single RNA-binding mode, we show that a subset of Glo's functions in vivo is mediated solely by the G-tract binding mode, whereas regulation of nanos requires both recognition modes. Our findings suggest a molecular mechanism for the evolution of dual RNA motif recognition in Glo that may be applied to understanding the functional diversity of other RNA-binding proteins.
Effect of machined feature size relative to the microstructural size on the superelastic performance in polycrystalline NiTi shape memory alloys

Abstract This study demonstrates a transition from a structure-dominated response to a microstructure-dominated response around machined features in a polycrystalline NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA), as the size of the features relative to the mean grain size is varied. The specific structural features considered are a pair of holes of varying separation and size in the 100–500 micrometer range. The local deformation around the holes is experimentally characterized during superelastic loading and compared with the predictions of a macro-scale phenomenological model for phase transformation. This comparison, coupled with a microstructural analysis reveals two key results. In the case when the holes are much larger than the grains, the local strain fields are predominantly determined by the stress concentrations around the structural features, and they are adequately predicted by the phenomenological model. However, when the holes and the grains are of comparable size, microstructural heterogeneity and fine-scale microstructural features such as precipitates determine the local superelastic response. The prediction of the macro-scale model in this case significantly deviates from the experimental observation. A key outcome of this work is a criterion in terms of the microstructure and the relative structural feature size in SMAs for determining the applicability of macro-scale models vs. micromechanical models of phase transformation for predicting the local deformation response.
K-nearest neighbor smoothing for high-throughput single-cell RNA-Seq data

High-throughput single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) methods can efficiently generate expression profiles for thousands of cells, and promise to enable the comprehensive molecular characterization of all cell types and states present in heterogeneous tissues. However, compared to bulk RNA-Seq, single-cell expression profiles are extremely noisy and only capture a fraction of transcripts present in the cell. Here, we describe an algorithm to smooth scRNA-Seq data, with the goal of significantly improving the signal-to-noise ratio of each profile, while largely preserving biological expression heterogeneity. The algorithm is based on the observation that across platforms, the technical noise exhibited by UMI-filtered scRNA-Seq data closely follows Poisson statistics. Smoothing is performed by first identifying the nearest neighbors of each cell in a step-wise fashion, based on variance-stabilized and partially smoothed expression profiles, and then aggregating their UMI counts. For multiple datasets, the application of our algorithm resulted in more stable cell type-specific expression profiles, and recovered correlations between co-expressed genes. More generally, smoothing improved the results of commonly used dimensionality reduction and clustering methods, greatly facilitating the identification of cell subsets and clusters of co-expressed genes. Our work implies that there exists a quantitative relationship between the number of cells profiled and the potential accuracy with which individual cell types or states can be characterized, and helps unlock the full potential of scRNA-Seq to elucidate molecular processes in healthy and disease tissues.
Sixeonotopsis crassicornis Carvalho and Schaffner (Hemiptera: Miridae): New Distribution Records and First Host-Plant Association

Sixeonotopsis crassicornis Carvalho and Schaffner has remained obscure since its 1974 description from Texas and has been known only from the type locality. It is newly recorded from Arkansas (two locales) on branched foldwing (Dicliptera brachiata [Pursh] Spreng.; Acanthaceae), the first plant documented as a host of this bryocorine mirid of the tribe Eccritotarsini. Branched foldwing, known from the type locality of S. crassicornis (Palmetto State Park, Gonzales County, TX), is suggested to have been the source of specimens used in the original description. Collection data are given for a recently identified specimen of the plant bug collected in 1906 from Victoria, Texas. Notes on the bug's habits, habitat, and seasonality are included, as well as a diagnosis, redescription, and discussion of its taxonomic relationship to other North American eccritotarsine Bryocorinae.
Raymond B. Cattell: Bequeathing a Dual Inheritance to Life History Theory

Raymond Cattell distinguished crystallized intelligence, akin to stored knowledge, from fluid intelligence, akin to raw reasoning abilities. Likewise, he delineated personality into component parts. Though intelligence and personality each qualify as subdisciplines within psychology, both are subsumed, along with other traits, under the meta-theory of life history evolution. The relationship is profound, though not straightforward. As described in this chapter, both intelligence and personality vary along a life history continuum, such that, as life history slows, population mean intelligence increases, as do personality traits like risk aversion, conscientiousness, anxiety, and agreeableness. Nevertheless, this effect occurs on average, and there is strategic variation occurring, which obscures the relationship between population-mean intelligence, personality, and life history. Once understood, these relationships color and clarify Cattell’s life’s work.
Multiscale Image Processing on the Sphere

We present linear filters for image processing in the case that the image data is given on the sphere rather than on a plane. Such spherical images occur in various situations in computer vision and computer graphics. The class of filters we present is derived from the spherical Gaussian kernel defined as the Green's function of the spherical diffusion equation. The derived filters include Laplacian of Gaussian, directional Gaussian derivatives, and their Hilbert transform. All computations are directly performed on the sphere without ever switching to a planar domain. These filters allow spherical image processing on multiple scales. We present results on images obtained from an omnidirectional camera.
Leadership in American Indian Communities: Winter Lessons

Winter lessons, or stories told in the winter, were one of the ways in which tribal elders instructed and directed young men and women in the proper ways to assume leadership responsibilities. Winter lessons stressed the appropriate relationship between the leader and the community. The intent was to remember the power and purpose of that relationship. Hence, leadership in American Indian communities then and now is rooted in culture. Leadership as a cultural activity has been and continues to be a powerful force in shaping tribal communities. The stories remain, and contemporary tribal leaders continue to struggle with the communal responsibilities inherent in their positions. The concept of winter lessons, in this article, illustrates the importance of considering a specific tradition and ways of knowing when studying and developing indigenous leaders. This article, based on an analysis of existing literature, identifies three models of Native leadership: traditional, co-creators, and educational environments. In mainstream American research, leadership is a field of study usually examined independent of cultural realities. Many definitions of leadership consist of a list of qualities or skills such as creativity, judgment, intelligence, integrity, and compassion. For purposes of this discussion, Sharon Daloz Parks’s definition of leadership, from her text Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World, is the most relevant. Parks states, “Leadership is a way to describe the activity of persons engaging in the mobilization of people around them to make progress on the most important challenges of their place and time.”1
Why management professors (should) teach ethics in the classroom

This article explains in comprehensive macro and micro terms why business management professors teach or should be teaching ethics as part of their classroom subject matter. Ten different perspectives, starting with transcendental and global, and ending with departmental and individual, are presented in convincing fashion. Ethics is an extremely popular topic today inside and outside of business schools. This article summarizes why; and it attempts to encourage professors who are not yet a part of the new environmental-ethical era of the 1990s to join the movement.
Using Vanes to Reduce Flow Separation and Head Loss in Warped Transition

AbstractIrrigation and water-supply systems commonly need channel transitions to provide changes of channel section. Warped transition (WT) is an option for transitioning from a narrow rectangular ...
Government Policy and Technological Innovation: Where do we Stand and Where Should we go?

This paper is addressed to two questions: (1) Does the existing state of knowledge within the body of social science research provide an adequate information base for making decisions about public policies that affect technological change, and (2) What additional research might prove especially fruitful in its contribution to understanding the relationships between policy and innovation? In discussing these issues, every attempt will be made to push the existing state of knowledge as far as possible with respect to policy implications. Some of the propositions put forth are reasonably well established theoretically or empirically, but others should be accorded the status of unproved but plausible inferences.
THE MARKET FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY: HOW WILL IT EVOLVE?

This study examines the concept of cryptocurrency and gives a brief history and overview of its characteristics. In an increasingly electronic society, cryptocurrency could be the next step in the ...
Metrology in Microlithography

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the requirements of accuracy and precision in dimensional metrology. Accurate and precise measurements are needed to improve yield, to ensure that lithographic and critical dimension measurement systems meet specifications, and to establish the control of fabrication processes. The chapter discusses primarily distance measurements both (1) across a wafer, photomask, or reticle, such as required for overlay or registration and evaluation of lithographic systems, and (2) feature-size measurements, typically for dimensions less than 10 μm. Before dimensional measurements are analyzed, a discussion of accuracy and precision is needed. Precision, or repeatability, is defined as the spread in values associated with repeat measurements on a given sample. The measurements made to determine precision and accuracy must match the intended use of the system. The difficulty with the longer time period for calculating precision is that long-term precision is generally poorer than the short-term precision. In dimensional measurement systems, more attention must be paid to the environmental control needed.
Chapter 8 – PARAMETRIC EQUATIONS

Publisher Summary A real-valued function of one variable consists of two things: (1) a set of real numbers called the domain of definition and (2) a rule for associating one and only one real number with each number in the domain of definition. The set of number pairs defined by a function ƒ, used as coordinates of points in the plane, constitute the graph of ƒ. Stated otherwise, the graph of ƒ is the graph of the equation: y = ƒ(x). There are many cases in which it is convenient to express the coordinates of points on a curve in terms of a third variable. This third variable is called a parameter. A common situation in which a parametric representation is particularly useful is the one in which the position of a particle moving along a curve depends upon time. This chapter presents two examples in which a parametric representation is derived from the geometric properties of the curve. A cycloid is a curve generated by a fixed point on a circle as it rolls without slipping along a straight line. The chapter discusses the way to derive a parametric representation for it.
"I'll try the veggie burger": Increasing purchases of sustainable foods with information about sustainability and taste.

Abstract Food production--especially raising animals for meat--has a massive negative impact on the environment and contributes to global warming. To address this, we investigated whether information about food sustainability would increase purchases of sustainable foods by patrons of university cafes. In Study 1, patrons were randomly assigned either to see a menu that had sustainability labels indicating the degree of environmental impact of each item, or to see a menu without labels. Women who saw the labels were significantly more likely to purchase sustainable foods, whereas men were not influenced by the labels. In Study 2 we targeted one sustainable menu item (a veggie burger) and, in a 2 (sustainability) x 2 (taste) design, varied whether patrons learned that the veggie burger was especially sustainable or especially tasty. Women were significantly more likely to purchase the veggie burger if they learned it was sustainable or tasty, but again, the manipulations had no effect on men. We discuss why women are more likely to change their food choices to eat more sustainably than are men.