cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
We should pay more attention to student curiosity.

Abstract Introduction Educators sometimes become frustrated when students appear interested only in learning the “right answers for the exam” versus being truly engaged and taking initiative to develop their own questions that add to the learning process. Some have suggested that because information is so readily accessible in today's digital environment that the desire to undertake scholarly inquiry may gradually be lost. Commentary Curiosity is a trait that drives people to ask exploratory questions and find creative ways to solve problems. It has been linked with a variety of desired academic and professional outcomes, but is a construct rarely addressed within educational literature. This commentary suggests that curiosity is a characteristic to which pharmacy educators should pay more attention. A series of questions are posed for pharmacy educators to consider with regard to screening for, promoting, and developing curiosity within our student population. Implications Pharmacy educators need to be intentional about designing programs and instructional practices in ways that promote and incentivize student curiosity. The questions posed to the Academy are intended to evoke discussion and further study of curiosity within pharmacy education.
Analytic transport from weak to strong coupling in the O(N) model

In this work, a second-order transport coefficient (the curvature-matter coupling $\ensuremath{\kappa}$) is calculated exactly for the $O(N)$ model at large $N$ for any coupling value. Since the theory is ``trivial'' in the sense of possessing a Landau pole, the result for $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ only is free from cutoff artifacts much below the Landau pole in the effective field theory sense. Nevertheless, this leaves a large range of coupling values where this transport coefficient can be determined nonperturbatively and analytically with little ambiguity. Along with thermodyamic results also calculated in this work, I expect exact large $N$ results to provide good quantitative predictions for $N=1$ scalar field theory with ${\ensuremath{\phi}}^{4}$ interaction.
Sustainable Management of Remanufacturing in Dynamic Supply Chains

Closed-loop production systems encompass all processes for returning, remanufacturing, recycling, discarding, and repackaging products. These elements form the core of sustainable manufacturing by managing what otherwise would be waste to enable reuse and by controlling its associated pollution. This paper presents the general management model of sustainable remanufacturing within a dynamic closed-loop supply chain. Our specification encompasses agents positioned at key stages in the supply chain, e.g., manufacturers, retailers, and customers, and considers both profitability and environmental performance of their decentralized decisions. We cast the problem to allow for interdependence of agents through a Nash game. These salient features simultaneously render the mathematical model more realistic and computationally challenging. To proceed, our model is formalized by using variational inequalities, which in turn are converted to a fixed point problem that we solve using a computationally tractable algorithm. Decision rules for strategic remanufacturing and recycling are provided to complement the numerical solution in an illustrative example.
Unifying principles of bifunctional, proximity-inducing small molecules

Nature uses a variety of tools to mediate the flow of information in cells, many of which control distances between key biomacromolecules. Researchers have thus generated compounds whose activities stem from interactions with two (or more) proteins simultaneously. In this Perspective, we describe how these 'bifunctional' small molecules facilitate the study of an increasingly wide range of complex biological phenomena and enable the drugging of otherwise challenging therapeutic targets and processes. Despite their structural and functional differences, all bifunctional molecules employ Nature's strategy of altering interactomes and inducing proximity to modulate biology. They therefore exhibit a shared set of chemical and biophysical principles that have not yet been appreciated fully. By highlighting these commonalities-and their wide-ranging consequences-we hope to chip away at the artificial barriers that threaten to constrain this interdisciplinary field. Doing so promises to yield remarkable benefits for biological research and therapeutics discovery.
Temporal rise in the proportion of both younger adults and older adolescents among COVID-19 cases in Germany: evidence of lesser adherence to social distancing practices?

Background: There is uncertainty about the role of different age groups in propagating the SARS-CoV-2 epidemics in different countries, particularly under current social distancing practices. Methods: We used the Robert Koch Institute data on weekly COVID-19 cases in different age groups in Germany. To minimize the effect of changes in healthcare seeking behavior (e.g. for older adults) and testing practices, we included the following eight 5-year age groups in the analyses: 10-14y through 45-49y. For each age group g, we considered the proportion PL(g) of individuals in age group g among all detected cases aged 10-49y during weeks 13-14, 2020 (later period), as well as corresponding proportion PE(g) for weeks 10-11, 2020 (early period), and defined the relative risk RR(g) for the age group g to be the ratio RR(g)=PL(g)/PE(g). For each pair of age groups g1,g2, a higher value of RR(g1) compared to RR(g2), or, alternatively, a value above 1 for the odds ratio OR(g1,g2)=RR(g1)/RR(g2) for a COVID-19 case to be in group g1 vs. g2 for the later vs. early periods is interpreted as the relative increase in the population incidence of SARS-Cov-2 in the age group g1 compared to g2 for the later vs. early period. Results: The relative risk RR(g) was highest for individuals aged 20-24y (RR=1.4(95% CI (1.27,1.55))), followed by individuals aged 15-19y (RR=1.14(0.99,1.32)), aged 30-34y (RR= 1.07(0.99,1.16)), aged 25-29y (RR= 1.06(0.98,1.15)), aged 35-39y (RR=0.95(0.87,1.03)), aged 40-44y (RR=0.9(0.83,0.98)), aged 45-49y (RR=0.83(0.77,0.89)) and aged 10-14y (RR=0.78(0.64,0.95)). For the age group 20-24y, the odds ratio relative to any other age group for a case to be during the later vs. early period was significantly above 1. For the age group 15-19y, the odds ratio relative to any other age group either above 35y or 10-14y for a case to be during the later vs. early period was significantly above 1. Conclusions: The observed relative increase with time in the prevalence of individuals aged 15-34y (particularly those aged 20-24y) among detected COVID-19 cases in Germany is unlikely to be explained by increases in the likelihood of seeking medical care or the likelihood of being tested for individuals in those age groups compared to individuals aged 35-49y or 10-14y, and should be indicative of the actual increase in the prevalence of individuals aged 15-34y among SARS-CoV-2 infections in the German population. That increase likely reflects elevated mixing among individuals aged 15-34y (particularly those aged 20-24y) compared to other age groups, possibly due to lesser adherence to social distancing practices.
Delayed Development of Spinal Subdural Hematoma Following Cranial Trauma: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Background Spinal subdural hematomas (SDHs) have been reported secondary to direct trauma or iatrogenic causes associated with coagulopathies. Spinal SDHs found after the development of acute intracranial SDHs, without any evidence of trauma to the spine, are extremely rare. In addition to this rare presentation, there is a lack of consensus regarding whether surgical decompression is the ideal treatment strategy. Depending on the extent of SDH within the spinal canal, surgical decompression may be difficult where diffuse hematoma within the intradural space requires multilevel decompression for treatment. Case Description A 46-year-old man initially presented with an acute cranial SDH following isolated head trauma. After a period of full recovery, he developed delayed lower extremity paraparesis secondary to the formation of a thoracolumbar SDH. This hematoma coincided with resolution of the cranial SDH and likely was due to redistribution of blood from the cranial subdural space into the spinal canal. Given the diffuse multilevel nature of the spread of hematoma and lack of a focal area of compression, he was managed conservatively. He demonstrated small signs of neurologic improvement over several days and regained considerable strength over the following several weeks. Conclusions This report demonstrates a very rare occurrence of a traumatic intracranial SDH migrating into the thoracic and lumbar spine. This case also highlights that despite acute neurologic deficits, conservative management may be a feasible strategy that can result in recovery of neurologic function.
Dynamic multicoil technique (DYNAMITE) MRI on human brain.

Purpose Spatial encoding for MRI is generally based on linear x, y, and z magnetic field gradients generated by a set of dedicated gradient coils. We recently introduced the dynamic multicoil technique (DYNAMITE) for B0 field control and demonstrated DYNAMITE MRI in a preclinical MR environment. In this study, we report the first realization of DYNAMITE MRI of the in vivo human head. Methods Gradient fields for DYNAMITE MRI were generated with a 28-channel multicoil hardware arranged in 4 rows of 7 coils on a cylindrical surface (length 359 mm, diameter 344 mm, maximum 5 A per coil). DYNAMITE MRIs of a resolution phantom and in vivo human heads were acquired with multislice gradient-echo, multislice spin-echo, and 3D gradient-echo sequences. The resultant image fidelity was compared to that obtained with conventional gradient coil technology. Results DYNAMITE field control enabled the realization of all imaging sequences with average gradient errors ≤ 1%. DYNAMITE MRI provided image quality and sensitivity comparable to conventional gradient technology without any obvious artifacts. Some minor geometric deformations were noticed primarily in the image periphery as the result of regional field imperfections. The imperfections can be readily approximated theoretically through numerical integration of the Biot-Savart law and removed through image distortion correction. Conclusion The first realization of DYNAMITE MRI of the in vivo human head has been presented. The obtained image fidelity is comparable to MRI with conventional gradient coils, paving the way for full-fledged DYNAMITE MRI and B0 shim systems for human applications.
miR-7 Regulates GLP-1-Mediated Insulin Release by Targeting β-Arrestin 1

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) has been shown to potentiate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion binding GLP-1 receptor on pancreatic β cells. β-arrestin 1 (βARR1) is known to regulate the desensitization of GLP-1 receptor. Mounting evidence indicates that microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) are fundamental in the regulation of β cell function and insulin release. However, the regulation of GLP-1/βARR1 pathways by miRs has never been explored. Our hypothesis is that specific miRs can modulate the GLP-1/βARR1 axis in β cells. To test this hypothesis, we applied a bioinformatic approach to detect miRs that could target βARR1; we identified hsa-miR-7-5p (miR-7) and we validated the specific interaction of this miR with βARR1. Then, we verified that GLP-1 was indeed able to regulate the transcription of miR-7 and βARR1, and that miR-7 significantly regulated GLP-1-induced insulin release and cyclic AMP (cAMP) production in β cells. Taken together, our findings indicate, for the first time, that miR-7 plays a functional role in the regulation of GLP-1-mediated insulin release by targeting βARR1. These results have a decisive clinical impact given the importance of drugs modulating GLP-1 signaling in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Resisting Despair: Narratives of Disruption and Transformation Among White Working-Class Women in a Declining Coal-Mining Community:

In this article, we examine how white working-class women reimagine gender in the face of social and economic changes that have undermined their ability to perform normative femininity. As blue-col...
GenQu: A Hybrid System for Learning Classical Data in Quantum States

Deep neural network-powered artificial intelligence has rapidly changed our daily life with various applications. However, as one of the essential steps of deep neural networks, training a heavily-weighted network requires a tremendous amount of computing resources. Especially in the post Moore's Law era, the limit of semiconductor fabrication technology has restricted the development of learning algorithms to cope with the increasing high-intensity training data. Meanwhile, quantum computing has exhibited its significant potential in terms of speeding up the traditionally compute-intensive workloads. For example, Google illustrates quantum supremacy by completing a sampling calculation task in 200 seconds, which is otherwise impracticable on the world's largest supercomputers. To this end, quantum-based learning becomes an area of interest, with the promising of a quantum speedup. In this paper, we propose GenQu, a hybrid and general-purpose quantum framework for learning classical data through quantum states. We evaluate GenQu with real datasets and conduct experiments on both simulations and real quantum computer IBM-Q. Our evaluation demonstrates that, comparing with classical solutions, the proposed models running on GenQu framework achieve similar accuracy with a much smaller number of qubits, while significantly reducing the parameter size by up to 95.8\% and converging speedup by 66.67% faster.
Persistence of crystal orientations across sub-micron-scale “super-grains” in self-organized Cu-W nanocomposites

Abstract We use precession electron diffraction to investigate the crystallographic character of copper (Cu)-tungsten (W) nanocomposites fabricated via physical vapor co-deposition at 400 °C. We observe sub-micron-scale regions, where apparently disconnected Cu and W grains have near-identical crystallographic orientations. This persistence of grain orientations suggests Cu and W grains within these regions are interconnected in 3-D when they first form and may be considered as intercalated, sub-micron-scale “super-grains”. Indeed, atom probe tomography provides direct evidence of 3-D interconnectivity of W domains. Our findings shed light on the structure and self-organization mechanisms of nanocomposites formed by spontaneous phase separation of co-deposited metals.
Using smart speakers to contactlessly monitor heart rhythms

Heart rhythm assessment is indispensable in diagnosis and management of many cardiac conditions and to study heart rate variability in healthy individuals. We present a proof-of-concept system for acquiring individual heart beats using smart speakers in a fully contact-free manner. Our algorithms transform the smart speaker into a short-range active sonar system and measure heart rate and inter-beat intervals (R-R intervals) for both regular and irregular rhythms. The smart speaker emits inaudible 18–22 kHz sound and receives echoes reflected from the human body that encode sub-mm displacements due to heart beats. We conducted a clinical study with both healthy participants and hospitalized cardiac patients with diverse structural and arrhythmic cardiac abnormalities including atrial fibrillation, flutter and congestive heart failure. Compared to electrocardiogram (ECG) data, our system computed R-R intervals for healthy participants with a median error of 28 ms over 12,280 heart beats and a correlation coefficient of 0.929. For hospitalized cardiac patients, the median error was 30 ms over 5639 heart beats with a correlation coefficient of 0.901. The increasing adoption of smart speakers in hospitals and homes may provide a means to realize the potential of our non-contact cardiac rhythm monitoring system for monitoring of contagious or quarantined patients, skin sensitive patients and in telemedicine settings. Anran Wang et al. present a contact-free method of monitoring individual heart beats by converting smart-speakers into active sonar systems. Their approach is capable of measuring heart rhythms with high accuracy in both healthy participants and hospitalized patients, and may be a useful healthcare tool for remote diagnosis or patient monitoring.
Diagnostic Utility of a Novel Point-of-Care Test of Calprotectin for Periprosthetic Joint Infection After Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background Despite several synovial fluid biomarkers for the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) having been investigated, point-of-care (POC) tests using these biomarkers are not widely available. Synovial calprotectin has recently been reported to effectively exclude the diagnosis of PJI. Thus, the objective of this study was to test the value of a calprotectin POC test for PJI diagnosis in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using the 2013 Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) PJI diagnosis criteria as the gold standard. Methods Synovial fluid samples were prospectively collected from 123 patients who underwent revision TKA at 2 institutions within the same health-care system from October 2018 to January 2020. The study was conducted under institutional review board approval. Data collection comprised demographic, clinical, and laboratory data in compliance with the MSIS criteria. Synovial fluid samples were analyzed by calprotectin POC tests in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Revisions were categorized as septic or aseptic using MSIS criteria by 2 independent reviewers blinded to the calprotectin results. Calprotectin test performance characteristics with sensitivities, specificities, positive predictive values, negative predictive values, and areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated for 2 different PJI diagnosis scenarios: (1) a threshold of ≥50 mg/L, and (2) a threshold of ≥14 mg/L. Results According to the MSIS criteria, 53 revision TKAs were septic and 70 revision TKAs were aseptic. In the ≥50-mg/mL threshold scenario, the calprotectin POC performance showed a sensitivity of 98.1%, a specificity of 95.7%, a positive predictive value of 94.5%, a negative predictive value of 98.5%, and an AUC of 0.969. In the ≥14-mg/mL threshold scenario, the sensitivity was 98.1%, the specificity was 87.1%, the positive predictive value was 85.2%, the negative predictive value was 98.4%, and the AUC was 0.926. Conclusions The calprotectin POC test has excellent PJI diagnostic characteristics, including high sensitivity and specificity in patients undergoing revision TKA. This test could be effectively implemented as a rule-out test. However, further investigations with larger cohorts are necessary to validate these results. Level of evidence Diagnostic Level I. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Food insecurity partially mediates the association between drug use and depressive symptoms among men who have sex with men in Los Angeles, California

Objective: To understand the relationship between drug use, food insecurity (FI) and mental health among men who have sex with men (MSM). Design: Cohort study (2014–2019) with at least one follow-up. Setting: Visits at 6-month intervals included self-assessment for FI and depressive symptoms. Urine testing results confirmed drug use. Factors associated with FI were assessed using multiple logistic regression with random effects for repeated measures. General structural equation modelling tested whether FI mediates the relationship between drug use and depressive symptoms. Participants: Data were from HIV-positive and high-risk HIV-negative MSM in Los Angeles, CA (n 431; 1192 visits). Results: At baseline, FI was reported by 50·8 % of participants, depressive symptoms in 36·7 % and 52·7 % of urine screening tests were positive for drugs (i.e. marijuana, opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy). A positive drug test was associated with a 96 % increase in the odds of being food insecure (95 % CI 1·26, 3·07). Compared to those with high food security, individuals with very low food security have a nearly sevenfold increase in the odds of reporting depressive symptoms (95 % CI 3·71, 11·92). Findings showed 14·9 % of the association between drug use (exposure) and depressive symptoms (outcome) can be explained by FI (mediator). Conclusion: The prevalence of FI among this cohort of HIV-positive and high-risk HIV-negative MSM was high; the association between drug use and depressive symptoms was partially mediated by FI. Findings suggest that enhancing access to food and nutrition may improve mood in the context of drug use, especially among MSM at risk for HIV transmission.
Localized Augmentation of Net Precipitation to Shrubs: A Case Study of Stemflow Funneling to Hummocks in a Salinity-Intruded Swamp

The interception of precipitation by plant canopies can alter the amount and spatial distribution of water inputs to ecosystems. We asked whether canopy interception could locally augment water inputs to shrubs by their crowns funneling (freshwater) precipitation as stemflow to their bases, in a wetland where relict overstory trees are dying and persisting shrubs only grow on small hummocks that sit above mesohaline floodwaters. Precipitation, throughfall, and stemflow were measured across 69 events over a 15-month period in a salinity-degraded freshwater swamp in coastal South Carolina, USA. Evaporation of intercepted water from the overstory and shrub canopies reduced net precipitation (stemflow plus throughfall) across the site to 91% of gross (open) precipitation amounts. However, interception by the shrub layer resulted in increased routing of precipitation down the shrub stems to hummocks – this stemflow yielded depths that were over 14 times larger than that of gross precipitation across an area equal to the shrub stem cross-sectional areas. Through dimensional analysis, we inferred that stemflow resulted in local augmentation of net precipitation, with effective precipitation inputs to hummocks equaling 100-to-135% of gross precipitation. Given that these shrubs (wax myrtle, Morella cerifera) are sensitive to mesohaline salinities, our novel findings prompt the hypothesis that stemflow funneling is an ecophysiologically important mechanism that increases freshwater availability and facilitates shrub persistence in this otherwise stressful environment.
A Software Framework for Comparing Training Approaches for Spiking Neuromorphic Systems

There are a wide variety of training approaches for spiking neural networks for neuromorphic deployment. However, it is often not clear how these training algorithms perform or compare when applied across multiple neuromorphic hardware platforms and multiple datasets. In this work, we present a software framework for comparing performance across four neuromorphic training algorithms across three neuromorphic simulators and four simple classification tasks. We introduce an approach for training a spiking neural network using a decision tree, and we compare this approach to training algorithms based on evolutionary algorithms, back-propagation, and reservoir computing. We present a hyperparameter optimization approach to tune the hyperparameters of the algorithm, and show that these optimized hyperparameters depend on the processor, algorithm, and classification task. Finally, we compare the performance of the optimized algorithms across multiple metrics, including accuracy, training time, and resulting network size, and we show that there is not one best training algorithm across all datasets and performance metrics.
Equitable education and the language ideological work of academic language (Introduction to special issue on academic language)

After briefly describing some of the contributions academic language proponents have made in advancing educational equity for language-minoritized students, I point to the central question of this ...
MEAN BEHAVIOR OF BUOYANT JETS IN A CROSSFLOW

A general theory to predict time-average trajectories and dilutions for turbulent buoyant jets in a crossflow is presented. The flow is analyzed by presenting simplified descriptions of the jet behavior combined with dimensional analysis. Assumptions for the entrainment of ambient fluid are not required. Four different flow regimes are proposed and a general buoyant jet is composed of several of these depending upon the relative magnitude of the various jet and ambient flow variables. The predictions of the proposed model are compared to results presented by other authors. Experiments were performed to verify the model for each flow regime. Data on both trajectories and dilutions are presented. The experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical predictions for each flow regime.
Contribution of B and T Lymphocytes to in Vitro Chicken Proliferative Spleen Cell Reactions to Antigens

Antigen stimulated cultures of spleen cells from normal chickens immunized with Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH) and Brucella abortus antigen (BA) show significantly increased proliferative responses in comparison with unstimulated cultures. In contrast, antigen stimulated spleen cell cultures from bursectomized-irradiated (Bx-X) agammaglobulinemic (Aγ) chickens immunized with both KLH and BA, react significantly to KLH, but not to BA (1). Spleens of Aγ chickens are depleted of bursal dependent (B) lymphocytes and contain predominantly thymic-dependent (T) lymphocytes (2). This suggests that the reaction to BA is dependent on intact B cell function.
Adaptive Control of a Continuous Polymerization Reactor

In this study, an adaptive control strategy is applied to a digital simulation describing the continuous polymerization of MMA. The reactor model illustrates unusual process dynamics such as multiple steady states, limit cycles, and steady state instabibilities. This dissipative behavior results from the autocatalytic nature of polymerization reactions owing primarily to the "gel effect." The MIMO self-tuning regulator of Vogel and Edgar is applied to this model. The controller is based upon pole-zero placement and includes dead time compensation for variable and multiple delays. Parameter estimation for the controller is performed by recursive least squares. Initiator concentration in the feed and the reactor jacket temperature are used effectively to control the monomer concentration and temperature in the reactor.
Proving stability of delta-sigma modulators using invariant sets

An invariant set, S, is a set of points in state space having the property that all trajectories emanating from points in S remain in S. Such sets are useful in the context of delta-sigma modulators since an invariant set yields rigorous theoretical bounds on the state variables and so establishes the stability of the modulator. This paper extends previously reported work for the second-order modulator with a constant input to higher-order modulators and time-varying inputs. An invariant set for a 3/sup rd/-order delta-sigma modulator is given which definitively proves that this modulator is stable.
“Forms” of the Principal Series for GLn

I am very grateful to the organizers of the conference in honor of I.M. Gelfand’s 80th birthday. Professor Gelfand has built a remarkable school of mathematics and I am proud to belong to this school. I have learned the theory of group representations from the works of I.M. Gelfand and his collaborators. One of the papers which made the strongest impression was the paper of Gelfand and Graev Representations of the real unimodular group (Isvestia Academy of USSR, 17, 1953, 189–248) which teaches us that the series of representations of real semisimple groups can be obtained from the principal series by a kind of “analytic continuation”. This point of view was extended to the group of p-adic 2 × 2 matrices in the book [G-G-PS] of Gelfand, Graev and Piatetsky-Shapiro. This paper is an attempt to construct the notion of “forms” of representations for the group of p-adic n × n matrices for n > 2.
Multigenerational contaminant exposures produce non-monotonic, transgenerational responses in Daphnia magna

Generally, ecotoxicologists rely on short-term tests that assume populations to be static. Conversely, natural populations may be exposed to the same stressors for many generations, which can alter tolerance to the same (or other) stressors. The objective of this study was to improve our understanding of how multigenerational stressors alter life history traits and stressor tolerance. After continuously exposing Daphnia magna to cadmium for 120 days, we assessed life history traits and conducted a challenge at higher temperature and cadmium concentrations. Predictably, individuals exposed to cadmium showed an overall decrease in reproductive output compared to controls. Interestingly, control D. magna were the most cadmium tolerant to novel cadmium, followed by those exposed to high cadmium. Our data suggest that long-term exposure to cadmium alter tolerance traits in a non-monotonic way. Because we observed effects after one-generation removal from cadmium, transgenerational effects may be possible as a result of multigenerational exposure.
Developing and Evaluating an Open Source Network: Laboratory and Curriculum

This study focused on developing and evaluating an open source software (OSS) network laboratory and curriculum for information technology (IT) program students. A review of literature revealed that to date there have been very few published studies on the development of the labs with clear and specific learning outcomes mapping the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) IT computing curriculum recommendations. In addition, very few efforts have been taken to develop the lab and curriculum by using instructional design and learning theory from a pedagogical perspective. The goals of the research were to (a) analyze current computer networking education in the higher education system and the IEEE/ACM IT computing curriculum recommendation, (b) map the labs to the learning outcomes recommended by IEEE/ACM IT computing curriculum, (c) create and implement the OSS-based network laboratory and curriculum, and (d) evaluate the effectiveness of the laboratory and curriculum. The dissertation followed a developmental research model for the development of the lab and curriculum.
Wage Theory, New Deal Labor Policy, and the Great Depression: Were Government and Unions to Blame?

A growing number of economists blame the length and severity of the Great Depression on factors that rigidified wage rates, raised production costs, and interfered with the market allocation of labor. The target of their critique is President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal labor program, which they portray as creating a series of large negative supply shocks through encouragement of unions, minimum wages, unemployment insurance, and other anticompetitive industrial relations practices. The author uses a combination of institutional and Keynesian theory to present the other side of the story. Drawing principally from the works of J. R. Commons and J. M. Keynes, he develops both a spending and productivity rationale for stable wages during the Great Depression and demonstrates that the New Deal's interventionist labor program was on balance necessary and beneficial. He also highlights the neglected macroeconomic dimension of industrial relations theory and policy.
Protection against 3'-to-5' RNA decay in Bacillus subtilis.

A 320-nucleotide RNA with several characteristic features was expressed in Bacillus subtilis to study RNA processing. The RNA consisted of a 5′-proximal sequence from bacteriophage SP82 containing strong secondary structure, a Bs-RNase III cleavage site, and the 3′-proximal end of the ermC transcriptional unit. Comparison of RNA processing in a wild-type strain and a strain in which the pnpA gene, coding for polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase), was deleted, as well as in vitro assays of phosphate-dependent degradation, showed that PNPase activity could be stalled in vivo and in vitro. Analysis of mutations in the SP82 moiety mapped the block to PNPase processivity to a particular stem-loop structure. This structure did not provide a block to processivity in the pnpA strain, suggesting that it was specific for PNPase. An abundant RNA with a 3′ end located in the ermC coding sequence was detected in the pnpA strain but not in the wild type, indicating that this block is specific for a different 3′-to-5′ exonuclease. The finding of impediments to 3′-to-5′ degradation, with specificities for different exonucleases, suggests the existence of discrete intermediates in the mRNA decay pathway.
Computers and urban problems

The recent focus of interest on urban problem solutions has progressed from early enthusiasm to the realization of the enormous difficulties awaiting the problem solver. The social and political problems attending problem perception and definition, priority establishment, cost and benefit distribution, information and program control seem to overwhelm the potentially available technological solutions to the manifestations of present urban ills.
Pattern of basic life support ambulance use in an urban pediatric population

Abstract To evaluate the pattern of use of basic life support (BLS) ambulances in a pediatric population, emergency medical service (EMS) and pediatric emergency department (PED) records from an urban hospital PED for all children transported to PED by ambulance during a 1-month study period were retrospectively reviewed. Excluded were: (1) advanced life support transport, (2) transport from other medical facility, (3) patients with chronic medical disability without acute decompensation, and (4) patients in police custody. BLS transport was considered inappropriate if: (1) no intervention by BLS technicians, (2) minimal to no intervention in the PED, and (3) discharge without prescription medication. Of 376 ambulance transports evaluated, 238 (63%) met entry criteria, and 105 (44%) transports met criteria for being inappropriate. The mean charge for appropriate transport was $240.68, and for inappropriate, $237.12 (P = .2). The total charge for inappropriate transports was $26,523.20. Patients on federal assistance had a significantly higher rate of inappropriate transport (51%) compared with patients who had commercial insurance (30%) and those who self payed (42%). Trauma was the most common cause for transport, 48% of which was inappropriate. It was concluded that inappropriate BLS transport of pediatric patients is common. This use is costly and may disrupt the delivery of EMS care to the remainder of the community. Efforts aimed at public education and providing alternative means of transport may significantly reduce charges and improve the delivery of EMS care.
Consumer Attitudes Toward Milk Substitutes

milks into the fluid market. These products are new in terms of market availability, even though the technical development took place in the fifties. Marketing substitute milks introduces the butter-margarine controversy in a new form. Substitute milks have been sold at lower prices than regular milk because butterfat has been replaced by relatively low cost vegetable oils. The product is available in approximately 20 states and sales are expanding. The rapid growth in the relative market share of filled milk in Arizona, to 10 percent of Class I producer milk since its introduction in October 1966, has drawn the attention of those people particularly concerned with evaluating the competitive potential of fluid milk substitutes. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study of factors that may explain the acceptance of filled milk in terms of consumer attitudes and, alternatively, in terms of the different characteristics of consumers and nonconsumers of filled milk. The results of our study are compared with a study made by the Milk Industry Foundation [1]. These two studies were completely independent; the investigators had no knowledge of the other until the field work was finished. Information was obtained on consumption, price, and place of purchase for 56 food products. Respondent households were selected at random from the Phoenix area during June 1968. Attitudes toward milk products were investigated by using 30 polar statements with a seven-unit intensity scale. To facilitate discussion, these results have been divided into three
In vivo and in vitro lung reactivity in elastase-induced emphysema in hamsters.

Although patients with chronic obstructive lung disease often show airway hyperresponsiveness to constrictor challenge, the mechanisms underlying this hyperreactivity are unknown. In this study, we tested whether the elastase-induced hamster model of emphysema and bronchial secretory cell metaplasia shows a similar hyperreactivity. Four weeks after intratracheal administration of 0.2 mg/100 g body weight porcine pancreatic elastase, the animals were anesthetized and ventilated with a constant tidal volume of 5 ml/kg. Changes in airway pressure (Paw) were monitored before and after intravenous challenge with 0.7 mg/kg acetylcholine (ACh). There was a significant decrease in baseline Paw from 5.7 ± 0.6 cm H2O in control animals (n = 6) to 4.0 ± 0.6 cm H2O in emphysematous animals (n = 6). The peak Paw response to the intravenous challenge, normalized to the baseline Paw, was 2.9 ± 0.4 in control animals, but it was significantly increased in the emphysematous animals to 4.4 ±1.1. Trachea, bronchi, and paren...
CoolAir: Temperature- and Variation-Aware Management for Free-Cooled Datacenters

Despite its benefits, free cooling may expose servers to high absolute temperatures, wide temperature variations, and high humidity when datacenters are sited at certain locations. Prior research (in non-free-cooled datacenters) has shown that high temperatures and/or wide temporal temperature variations can harm hardware reliability. In this paper, we identify the runtime management strategies required to limit absolute temperatures, temperature variations, humidity, and cooling energy in free-cooled datacenters. As the basis for our study, we propose CoolAir, a system that embodies these strategies. Using CoolAir and a real free-cooled datacenter prototype, we show that effective management requires cooling infrastructures that can act smoothly. In addition, we show that CoolAir can tightly manage temperature and significantly reduce temperature variation, often at a lower cooling cost than existing free-cooled datacenters. Perhaps most importantly, based on our results, we derive several principles and lessons that should guide the design of management systems for free-cooled datacenters of any size.
Generalization of the Azzam effect for magnetic media

Azzam recently described [ Opt. Commun.41, 223 ( 1982)] an optical 0 ↔ 1 switching device for two media in which the incident light is totally reflected in one orientation while there is no reflection (for the parallel polarization at Brewster’s angle) in the other orientation. He showed that this phenomenon could exist only when the incidence angle is 51.8° and the ratio of refractive indices is 1.272. Here we show that, for the generalized case when magnetic media are considered, the same phenomenon can occur for any angle of incidence and either polarization, provided that the proper media permittivity and permeability ratios are chosen.
Trends in Followup Imaging after Adult Pyeloplasty

Purpose: Although success rates are reported to be high, radiographic followup after pyeloplasty to correct ureteropelvic junction obstruction varies in intensity and modality. We characterized postoperative care after pyeloplasty to identify imaging trends.Materials and Methods: Using the MarketScan® database we identified patients 17 to 65 years old treated with pyeloplasty from 2007 to 2010. Followup imaging was classified as functional (diuretic renogram or excretory urogram) and nonfunctional (ultrasound, computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging). The postoperative period was divided into intervals of less than 6, 6 to 12, 12 to 24, 24 to 36 and greater than 36 months. We excluded from study patients with less than 24 months of postoperative enrollment in MarketScan. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine associations between demographic variables and imaging utilization patterns.Results: We identified 742 patients with a mean ± SD followup of 36.8 ± 3.7 months, of whom 6...
Re‐entry into the cell cycle is required for bFGF‐induced oligodendroglial dedifferentiation and survival

Remyelination in the CNS following demyelinating disease may be accomplished by surviving mature oligodendrocytes that dedifferentiate, proliferate, migrate, and finally regenerate myelin. We previously reported that basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) induces oligodendrocytes in primary mixed glial cultures to dedifferentiate and synthesize DNA (Grinspan et al.: J Neurosci Res 36:672-680, 1993). We now show that this effect is direct and not mediated through the effects of bFGF on other cell types, because we were able to demonstrate similar changes in oligodendrocyte phenotype in enriched oligodendrocyte cultures prepared by immunopanning. The bFGF-induced reversion to the precursor stage of the oligodendroglial lineage can be blocked by agents that inhibit entry to the cell cycle; thus oligodendroglial dedifferentiation is dependent on proliferation. We also report that 2 days of bFGF treatment inhibits oligodendroglial apoptosis. However, when oligodendroglia are prevented from entering the cell cycle in the presence of bFGF, apoptotic cell death is increased. Thus, bFGF induces oligodendroglial dedifferentiation if oligodendroglial DNA synthesis can occur but causes oligodendoglial apoptosis when oligodendroglial DNA synthesis is prevented. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Augmenting multi-touch with commodity devices

We describe two approaches to augment multi-touch user input with commodity devices (Kinect and wiiMote).
Computational bifurcation and stability studies of the 8: 1 thermal cavity problem

Stability analysis algorithms coupled with a robust Newton-Krylov steady-state iterative solver are used to understand the behavior of the 2D model problem of thermal convection in a 8:1 differentially heated cavity. Parameter continuation methods along with bifurcation and linear stability analysis are used to study transition from steady to transient flow as a function of Rayleigh number. To carry out this study the steady-state form of the governing PDEs is discretized using a Galerkin/least-squares finite element formulation, and solved on parallel computers using a fully coupled Newton method and preconditioned Krylov iterative linear solvers. Linear stability analysis employing a large-scale eigenvalue capability is used to determine the stability of the steady solutions. The boundary between steady and time-dependent flows is determined by a Hopf bifurcation tracking capability that is used to directly track the instability with respect to the aspect ratio of the system and with respect to mesh resolution. The effect of upwinding stabilization terms in the finite element formulation on the computed value of critical Rayleigh number is investigated
Measurement of hydrogen-broadened methane lines in the ν4 band at 296 and 200 K

Abstract Hydrogen-broadening of a large number of methane lines in the v 4 band has been measured at room temperature and 200 K (determined from the rotational temperature). The measurements were obtained using the KPNO McMath FTS with spectral resolution of 0.005 cm -1 and a signal-to-noise ratio of 100 or more. Hydrogen pressures between 250 and 600 torr and methane pressures up to 2 torr were utilised. The spectra were analyzed using a parametrised least-squares fitting procedure.
Radionuclide imaging study of long-term pulmonary function after lobectomy in children with congenital cystic lung disease

Abstract Purpose We evaluated the long-term pulmonary function after lobectomy for congenital cystic lung disease, in both infants and children, using radionuclide imaging (RI). Methods We performed a retrospective review of 93 patients who underwent resection of cystic lung lesions between 1974 and 2001. The results of postoperative lung volume/perfusion scintigraphy at 1 (n = 64), 5 (n = 32), and 10 years (n = 18) after surgery (V1, 5, 10/Q1, 5, 10) and mean transit time (MTT—a marker for air-trapping) at 1, 5, and 10 years after surgery (MTT1, 5, 10) were compared with respect to age at operation, preoperative infection, underlying disease, and type of surgery. Results Patients who were younger than 1 year at the time of surgery showed a significantly lower MTT5 (1.09 ± 0.08) and MTT10 (1.15 ± 0.11) than patients who were older than 1 year at the time of surgery (MTT5, 1.49 ± 0.67; MTT10, 1.54 ± 0.33). The noninfected group had significantly higher Q10 and lower MTT10 values ( P Conclusions The optimal age for surgery in patients with congenital cystic lung disease appears to be less than 1 year.
Immigrant Volunteering: A Stepping Stone to Integration?

This article investigates volunteering by immigrants. It examines if and how volunteering experiences can attenuate the effects of relocation for immigrants as they seek to regain social and human capital lost in the migration process. Based on analysis of 754 surveys, 33 focus groups, and 34 in-depth interviews, the authors explore the volunteering experiences of immigrants in ethnic congregations in four Canadian cities. Using a grounded theory approach, they propose a conceptual framework that delineates factors at the individual and organizational levels. Although individual-level factors are useful determinants of volunteer participation, for immigrants organizational factors are also an important part of the picture. These factors influence immigrants’ volunteer participation rates and the intensity of their participation. The benefits of volunteering include the enhancement of social and human capital, which provides a stepping stone for the integration of immigrants into the host society.
Comparing Teachers' Literacy-Related Knowledge to Their State's Standards for Reading

This study compared elementary and special education teachers' knowledge of when K–3 students develop key reading competencies, their knowledge of who is responsible for teaching K–3 students key reading competencies, and teachers' perceptions of their own instructionally relevant competencies to those standards articulated within their state's blueprint for reading achievement. Results reveal a disconnect between teacher-held beliefs and state-articulated grade-level student literacy competencies. Results also suggest that teacher preparation programs are not preparing candidates to achieve mastery of essential teacher competencies articulated within their state's reading blueprint. Strengthening the accountability of teacher preparation practices to states' reading blueprint standards is recommended.
The distribution of the likelihood ratio for additive processes

Let {X(t), 0 ≤ t ≤ T} and {Y(t), 0 ≤ t ≤ T} be two additive processes over the interval [0, T] which, as measures over D[0, T], are absolutely continuous with respect to each other. Let μX and μY be the measures over D[0, T] determined by the two processes. The characteristic function of ln(dμXdμY) with respect to μY is obtained in terms of the determining parameters of the two processes.