cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sustained drag reduction in a turbulent flow using a low-temperature Leidenfrost surface

Skin friction drag contributes a major portion of the total drag for small and large water vehicles at high Reynolds number (Re). One emerging approach to reducing drag is to use superhydrophobic surfaces to promote slip boundary conditions. However, the air layer or “plastron” trapped on submerged superhydrophobic surfaces often diminishes quickly under hydrostatic pressure and/or turbulent pressure fluctuations. We use active heating on a superhydrophobic surface to establish a stable vapor layer or “Leidenfrost” state at a relatively low superheat temperature. The continuous film of water vapor lubricates the interface, and the resulting slip boundary condition leads to skin friction drag reduction on the inner rotor of a custom Taylor-Couette apparatus. We find that skin friction can be reduced by 80 to 90% relative to an unheated superhydrophobic surface for Re in the range 26,100 ≤ Re ≤ 52,000. We derive a boundary layer and slip theory to describe the hydrodynamics in the system and show that the plastron thickness is h = 44 ± 11 μm, in agreement with expectations for a Leidenfrost surface.
Computational Studies of Supramolecular Systems: Resorcinarenes and Pyrogallolarenes

Computational studies can elucidate otherwise ambiguous results from experimental probes of supramolecular systems and yield insight linking observed behavior with specific molecular structural motifs and interactions. Particularly good targets for such studies are the pyrogallolarene and resorcinarene macrocycles, which are large enough to be of practical utility for guest sequestration and encapsulation yet small enough to be computationally tractable. More generally, these examples testify to the potential for electronic structure and molecular dynamics calculations to suggest future research directions leading to improved synthetic strategies and more expansive supramolecular structures.
Nutritional Guidelines and Energy Needs for the Female Athlete

After completing this chapter, you should have an understanding of the following: • The energy availability hypothesis and functional amenorrhea. • Energy and nutritional intake estimations. • Nutritional guidelines for the female athlete. • The importance of hydration before, during, and after exercise.
Development and assessment of a photogrammetry system for rock specimen surface characterization

The use of field and laboratory three-dimensional imaging techniques are commonly used to assess the roughness of planar rock joint surfaces for shear strength estimations. A photogrammetry system for capturing the surface features of cylindrical rock specimens is presented. They system consists of a DSLR camera, photo-turntable, scale block, photogrammetry software and point cloud processing software. The process to develop a cylinder shaped point cloud, unwrap the point cloud, and triangulate the unwrapped point cloud is presented. The photogrammetry system was assessed using a smooth limestone specimen as a benchmark. Increasing the number of digital images used to generate the point cloud increased the number of points in the point cloud. However the increase in the number of point significantly decreased when using more than eight digital images. A minimum of six digital images are required to fully capture the surface of the specimen. The computing time ranged between ten and twenty-four minutes to generate a point cloud consisting of approximately twenty million data points using twenty-four digital images.
Bias and ignorance in demographic perception

When it comes to knowledge of demographic facts, misinformation appears to be the norm. Americans massively overestimate the proportions of their fellow citizens who are immigrants, Muslim, LGBTQ, and Latino, but underestimate those who are White or Christian. Previous explanations of these estimation errors have invoked topic-specific mechanisms such as xenophobia or media bias. We reconsidered this pattern of errors in the light of more than 30 years of research on the psychological processes involved in proportion estimation and decision-making under uncertainty. In two publicly available datasets featuring demographic estimates from 14 countries, we found that proportion estimates of national demographics correspond closely to what is found in laboratory studies of quantitative estimates more generally. Biases in demographic estimation, therefore, are part of a very general pattern of human psychology-independent of the particular topic or demographic under consideration-that explains most of the error in estimates of the size of politically salient populations. By situating demographic estimates within a broader understanding of general quantity estimation, these results demand reevaluation of both topic-specific misinformation about demographic facts and topic-specific explanations of demographic ignorance, such as media bias and xenophobia.
Coalition Quality and Multinational Dispute Outcomes1

ABSTRACTMultinational military coalitions are an increasingly common phenomena in international conflict, presumably because coalitions are more likely to secure their conflict aims than single sta...
The potential of KDM3A as a therapeutic target in Ewing Sarcoma and other cancers.

Cancer is the consequence of a complex interplay of cell autonomous and nonautonomous processes ultimately resulting in runaway accumulation of abnormal cells in the body. Cell autonomous processes...
Context-invariant encoding of reward location in a distinct hippocampal population

The hippocampus plays a critical role in goal-directed navigation. Across different environments, however, the hippocampal map seems to be randomized, making it unclear how goal locations might be encoded. To address this question, we trained mice to seek reward at several locations on virtual linear tracks, and optical recordings of calcium activity were made at cellular resolution from two major hippocampal output structures, CA1 and the subiculum. These experiments revealed a population of neurons that were consistently active near reward locations. Their pattern of activity sharply contrasted with simultaneously-recorded place cells and even persisted across environments, when other cells remapped randomly. Their timing was closely correlated with reward anticipation behaviors, yet could not be explained by the behaviors themselves, raising the possibility that reward-associated cell signals were used by mice to identify the reward location. These results demonstrate that the hippocampus employs a context-invariant marker of goal locations, and reveal a novel target for studying how the hippocampus contributes to navigation.
Ventriculocisternal Perfusion as a Technique for Studying Transport and Metabolism Within the Brain

Ventriculocisternal (VC) perfusions were first performed by Leusen (1948, 1950) in work on the influence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cations on the vasomotor system of anesthetized dogs. Feldberg and his group in London modified Leusen’s procedure and used it to examine the effects of drugs on cerebrospinal fluid flow and composition in cats (Bhattacharya and Feldberg, 1958a, b; Feldberg and Sherwood, 1954). In the first quantitative studies with the VC perfusion technique, Pappenheimer and co-workers (Heisey et al., 1962; Pappenheimer et al, 1961, 1962) examined the dynamics of CSF formation and the molecular exchange of material in the cerebrospinal fluid system of unanesthetized goats. Their application of the technique and equations for the kinetics of transport in the perfused ventricular system were subsequently adopted by many other investigators interested in CSF physiology and pharmacology. In an attempt to determine the size of the brain extracellular space (ECS), Rall et al. (1962) performed VC perfusions on dogs and, at the conclusion of the perfusion, serially sampled the periventricular tissue. Their results demonstrated that there is a sizable ECS in the brain and suggested that a more accurate assessment of CSF-brain exchange could be made by including tissue sampling as a part of the technique. Since the work of Rall et al., there have been no basic changes or additions to the VC perfusion methodology.
From a Pin-up Girl to Star Trek’s Holodeck: Artificial Intelligence and Cyborgs

Sometime between 1956 and 1958, an anonymous IBM programmer rendered a glowing image of a pin-up girl on a cathode ray tube screen of a $ 238 million U.S. military computer at Fort Lee, Virginia . “The pin-up image itself was programmed as a series of short lines, or vectors, encoded on a stack of about 97 Hollerith type punched cards,” recalled Airman First Class Lawrence A. Tipton who took the Polaroid photo shown in Fig. 1.1 that somewhat resembles a hybrid of Betty Boop and Esquire’s December 1956 calendar pin-up by George Petty.
Temperature Dependence of the Rate of Intramolecular Electron Transfer.

Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical simulations are used to explore the temperature dependence of intramolecular electron-transfer rates in systems that represent both the “normal” and the “inverted” regions of the Marcus curve. The treatment uses an approach that includes effects of vibrational relaxations and dephasing and is largely free of adjustable parameters. Effects of temperature on the distribution of the energy gap between the reactant and product (P(xo)), the electronic-interaction matrix element, and the rates of dephasing and vibrational relaxations are considered. The simulations reproduce the measured rate constant and temperature dependence well for photochemical charge separation in a porphyrin–benzoquinone cyclophane and for a ground-state charge-shift reaction in a biphenylyl-androstane–naphthylyl radical. They overestimate the rate of the charge-shift reaction in a biphenylyl-androstane–benzoquinone adduct but are in accordance with the observation that this reaction is almost ind...
A histidine kinase gene is required for large radius root tip circumnutation and surface exploration in rice

The intricate growth patterns that accompany plant organ elongation have long intrigued biologists. Circumnutation refers to the circular or elliptical growth of the tip of a plant organ around a central axis. While the utility of circumnutation for climbing plants is clear, its function in roots is less obvious. Additionally, the genetic requirements for root circumnutation are not known. Here we show that mutations in a gene encoding a histidine kinase abolish large radius root tip circumnutation in rice. Using a gel-based imaging system and a whole genome sequenced mutant population, we identified three different mutant alleles of the gene OsHK1 that exhibit increased seedling root depth. Time-lapse imaging indicated that this phenotype is likely due to a lack of large radius root tip circumnutation in OsHK1 mutants. Treatment of mutant roots with the plant hormone zeatin rescues circumnutation, indicating that OsHK1 functions in a cytokinin-related signaling pathway. We found that OsHK1 mutants are impaired in their ability to explore flat surfaces, suggesting that circumnutation facilitates root exploration at the interface of compacted soil horizons.
Ab Initio Study of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Properties of Ternary Chromium Chalcogenides

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the magnetic order in the ground state of several ternary chromium chalcogenide compounds. Electronic band structure calculations indicate that these compounds are either metallic or semiconductors with relatively low bandgap energies. The large optical absorption coefficients, predicted by our calculations, suggest that some of these compounds may be useful as light harvesters in solar cells or as infrared detectors.
Cognitive Processes in Anxiety and Comorbid Physical Illness and Health Behavior: Introduction to the Special Issue

Anxiety symptoms and disorders are the most common psychiatric problems world-wide and are vastly overrepresented among individuals with chronic illness and poor health behavior. The purpose of the current special series is to bolster attention and highlight new research on cognitive processes as a basic element that may undergird the association between anxiety and chronic illness and health behavior. Findings in this issue highlight cognitive-based risk and resilience factors related to anxiety in individuals with various chronic conditions and problematic health behavior.
Gli avori di Cartagine

The repertoire offered by Lilia Khelifi on the Phoenician and Punic ivory athyrmata found in the necropolises of Carthage represents a panorama of artistic craftsmanship and a useful tool for identifying and studying the magical-religious beliefs present in the religiosity and superstition of the African metropolis, whose reflections are widely attested in the Punic world of the central Mediterranean.
Outcome based accountability: Theory and evidence

Abstract A firm's payoffs can often depend on whether it exceeds a threshold of performance. In a principal-agent setting, we demonstrate that the optimal contract induces efficient effort by basing firing decisions solely on whether the agent was successful, even though the absolute level of performance is more informative. We test the predictions of our model using thirty seasons of NFL data. We find that a coach is 6 percentage points more likely to be fired after a close loss; beyond this, the margin of victory has no significant impact on firing probabilities despite being more informative about future success. Also consistent with the predictions of our model, coaches maximize team effort (by playing their best players) when doing so has the largest impact on the probability of winning.
Pan-Cancer Exploration of mRNA Mediated Dysregulated Pathways in the Cancer Genomics Cloud

We performed a comprehensive pan-cancer analysis in the Cancer Genomics Cloud of HTSeq-FPKM normalized protein coding mRNA data from 17 cancer projects in the Cancer Genome Atlas, these are Adrenal Gland, Bile Duct, Bladder, Brain, Breast, Cervix, Colorectal, Esophagus, Head and Neck, Kidney, Liver, Lung, Pancreas, Prostate, Stomach, Thyroid and Uterus. The PoTRA algorithm was applied to the normalized mRNA protein coding data and detected dysregulated pathways that can be implicated in the pathogenesis of these cancers. Then the PageRank algorithm was applied to the PoTRA results to find the most influential dysregulated pathways among all 17 cancer types. Pathways in cancer is the most common dysregulated pathway, and the MAPK signaling pathway is the most influential (PageRank score = 0.2034) while the purine metabolism pathway is the most significantly dysregulated metabolic pathway.
No differences in effectiveness and safety between pipeline embolization device and stent-assisted coiling for the treatment of communicating segment internal carotid artery aneurysms.

BackgroundAneurysms arising from the communicating segment (C7) of the internal carotid artery (ICA) are one of the most frequent locations of intracranial aneurysms. Stent-assisted coiling (SAC) a...
Stable Tetra‐ and Penta‐Anions in the Gas Phase

The quest for stable gas-phase anions in highly negative charge states has been a great challenge. While multiply charged anions are stabilized in solids and liquids by compensating cations and solvation cells, respectively, stable anions containing less than a hundred atoms in the gas phase and capable of carrying charge beyond -3 is unknown. Here, we report the discovery of thermodynamically stable tetra- and penta-anions, containing less than 50 and 80 atoms, respectively, in the gas phase. A universal model is developed that explains their stability in terms of the synergy between closed shell, high electron affinity, and size and predicts new highly-charged anions by using the known charged clusters as building blocks. Synthesis of these species can open a new chapter in materials chemistry.
Functional network connectivity changes in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A resting-state fMRI study

The study aimed to investigate the pathologic mechanism of functional brain regions in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients through making comparisons of normal and ADHD children from the perspective of the network nodes of brain network and the intensity of functional connection between bilateral of hemispheres by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thirty-five ADHD and forty-two children were examined by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. Data analysis was done via the degree centrality (DC) and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) approaches. Compared with healthy subjects, the ADHD group exhibited significantly decreased DC values in the right posterior cingulate gyrus, left medial superior frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus and right superior frontal gyrus. Children with ADHD also exhibited some areas with increased DC values compared with healthy children. These regions included the cerebellar anterior lobe, right middle occipital cortex, left middle cingulate gyrus and right middle cingulate gyrus. VMHC analysis all revealed positive activation in a range of brain regions when comparing ADHD and normal children, suggesting that the VMHC scores of children with ADHD were higher in the bilateral superior frontal lobe, bilateral middle occipital lobe, and bilateral cerebellar anterior lobes. This work provides a new approach for examining the neural mechanisms underlying ADHD, demonstrating that the DC and VMHC methods enabled more comprehensive analysis that can be cross-checked.
VARIATION IN MEDIAL AND LATERAL GASTROCNEMIUS MUSCLE ACTIVITY WITH FOOT POSITION.

BACKGROUND The gastrocnemius has two heads, medial gastrocnemius (MG) and lateral gastrocnemius (LG); little is known how they contract with different foot positions. The MG is more frequently strained than the LG; and gastrocnemius activation pattern altered by foot position may play a role in injury. Leg exercises often use a toe-in versus toe-out foot position to isolate one gastrocnemius head over another. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the electromyographic gastrocnemius muscle activity in the toe-out and toe-in foot positions during weight bearing and non-weight bearing activities. The hypothesis was that a toe-out foot position would elicit greater MG than LG activity; while the toe-in position would elicit greater activity in LG than MG in both weight bearing and non-weight bearing (NWB) positions. STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional study of young adults. METHODS Thirty-three participants were recruited. Surface electrodes were placed on the bellies of the MG and LG. The gastrocnemius muscle was tested in toe-in and toe-out foot positions using two different tests: a standing heel-rise and resisted knee flexion while prone. Electromyographic activity was normalized against a MVIC during a heel raise with a neutral foot position. A 2x2x2 (Foot Position x Test Position x Muscle) ANOVA was used to determine if differences exist in activity between the MG and LG for toe-in versus toe-out standing and prone test positions. RESULTS Significant test position main effect (F [1,32] = 86.9; p < .01), significant muscle main effect (F [1,32]=5.5; p < .01), and significant foot position x muscle interaction (F [1,32] = 14.58; p < .01) were found. Post hoc tests showed differences between MG and LG in toe-out position (t = 3.10; p < .01) but not in the toe-in for both test positions (t = 1.27; p = 0.21). CONCLUSIONS With toe-out, the MG was more active than LG in standing and prone; no difference was noted between MG and LG in toe-in for either position. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level 2.
Role of CD98 in liver disease

CD98 is a multifunctional glycoprotein that is involved in various biological processes such as amino acid transport, cell adhesion, diffusion, adhesion, and proliferation. The role of CD98 in liver disease has not thoroughly been examined and is limited reports in the literature. Among these reports, direct association for CD98 in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been reported. Our lab has reported that targeting CD98 in high fat diet mice reduced steatosis and inflammation in NAFLD. Other reports associate CD98 in HCC due in part to the role of CD98 in activating integrin signaling. Herein, we present CD98 staining on liver biopsies from NAFLD, chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis, and 3 stages of HCC to demonstrate the upregulation of CD98 expression throughout liver disease progression. In addition, we analyze current literature to elucidate roles and potential roles of CD98 with each stage of liver disease.
Labor Epidural for a Patient with Scoliosis

A 27-year-old woman, G2P1 and at term, is having her second baby. Her cervix has dilated to 3 cm when she presents to L&D with regular painful contractions. When she meets the anesthesiologist, she tells her that she is in excellent health—except for her back. She says she has scoliosis and wants to know if it will prevent her from having an epidural this time—and if there is any increased danger of the epidural causing more back problems later on if she does decide to have one. She had an epidural with her first baby but reports that it took the anesthesiologist a long time to get it in, and even then that it seemed to work mostly on the right side (L-1).
Risky Situations: Sources of Racial Disparity in Police Behavior

Swencionis & Goff identified five situations that tend to increase the likelihood that an individual police officer may behave in a racially disparate way: discretion, inexperience, salience of cri...
A Phase I Study of Ribociclib Plus Everolimus in Patients with Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Refractory to Chemotherapy.

Purpose: Metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (mPC) has a poor prognosis. CDK4/6 is often deregulated in mPC due to CDKN2A loss, resulting in the loss of p16INK4a that inhibits CDK4/6. CDK4/6 inhib...
Techniques for Connecting IGBT Modules and Loss Mitigation: A Survey

The circuit elements which are able to handle high power play a pivotal role in power electronics industry. By connecting these devices in series or parallel, high power ratings may be achieved based upon their application. The ability of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) to handle high power is well known, however, they might experience losses during switching. Another challenge in this regard is the aspect of voltage and current balancing in series and parallel connections, respectively. Various techniques have been proposed in literature to achieve this voltage/current balance in IGBTs. Most commonly used techniques for voltage balancing are active gate control method, snubber circuits and clamping circuits. Moreover, widely used approaches to achieve current balancing are active gate control, impedance balancing and derating factor. In this work, we discuss the major failure mechanisms and the techniques to handle such failures. Furthermore, we also dilate upon the open circuit and short circuit fault detection methods. With an aim of minimizing the IGBT connection problems we explain the viable approaches, the methods to reduce the switching losses and the techniques to handle failures in series and parallel combinations.
Arab women as instructional leaders of schools: Saudi and Qatari female principals’ preparation for and definition of instructional leadership

This qualitative study examined how female principals from two nations that recently opened up new avenues for women in educational leadership defined instructional leadership and what they did to ...
Thermal Management of β -Ga₂O₃ Current Aperture Vertical Electron Transistors

Beta-gallium oxide ( $\beta $ -Ga2O3) has attracted considerable attention for power devices due to its superior properties and the availability of device-quality native substrates compared to gallium nitride (GaN) technologies. In particular, devices such as the current aperture vertical electron transistor (CAVET) have a higher breakdown voltage compared to lateral transistors made from $\beta $ -Ga2O3. However, because of the low thermal conductivity of $\beta $ -Ga2O3, thermal management strategies at the device level are required in order to achieve high power operation. Here, we present a thermal modeling study of CAVET power transistors and analyze the impact of thermal management strategies on their thermal performance. Among the various cooling strategies, double-side cooling has the largest impact on device cooling. Double-side cooling in combination with a heat spreader can suppress the device’s thermal resistance from 24.5 to 4.86 mm $\cdot ^{\circ }\text{C}$ /W, allowing for a high-power-density CAVET device. The modeling and analysis results presented in this work can be utilized as a guide for improvement of the vertical $\beta $ -Ga2O3 device performance for future power electronics applications.
Close agreement between deterministic vs. stochastic modeling of first-passage time to vesicle fusion

Abstract Ca2+-dependent cell processes such as neurotransmitter or endocrine vesicle fusion are inherently stochastic due to large fluctuations in Ca2+ channel gating, Ca2+ diffusion and Ca2+ binding to buffers and target sensors. However, prior studies revealed closer-than-expected agreement between deterministic and stochastic simulations of Ca2+ diffusion, buffering and sensing, as long as Ca2+ channel gating is not Ca2+-dependent. To understand this result more fully, we present a comparative study complementing prior work, focusing on Ca2+ dynamics downstream of Ca2+ channel gating. Specifically, we compare deterministic (mean-field / mass-action) and stochastic simulations of vesicle exocytosis latency, quantified by the probability density of the first-passage time (FPT) to the Ca2+-bound state of a vesicle fusion sensor, following a brief Ca2+ current pulse. We show that under physiological constraints, the discrepancy between FPT densities obtained using the two approaches remains small even if as few as ∼50 Ca2+ ions enter per single channel-vesicle release unit. Using a reduced two-compartment model for ease of analysis, we illustrate how this close agreement arises from the smallness of correlations between fluctuations of the reactant molecule numbers, despite the large magnitude of the fluctuation amplitudes. This holds if all relevant reactions are heteroreaction between molecules of different species, as is the case for the bimolecular Ca2+ binding to buffers and downstream sensor targets. In this case diffusion and buffering effectively decorrelate the state of the Ca2+ sensor from local Ca2+ fluctuations. Thus, fluctuations in the Ca2+ sensor’s state underlying the FPT distribution are only weakly affected by the fluctuations in the local Ca2+ concentration around its average, deterministically computable value. Statement of Significance Many fundamental Ca2+-dependent cell processes are triggered by local Ca2+ elevations involving only a few hundred Ca2+ ions. Therefore, one expects large Ca2+ concentration fluctuations, which are ignored by deterministic reaction-diffusion modeling approaches. However, more accurate stochastic approaches require tracking trajectories of individual Ca2+ ions and its binding targets, which is very computationally expensive. This study reveals conditions under which Ca2+-dependent processes like secretory vesicle fusion can be modeled using efficient deterministic approaches, without sacrificing significant accuracy. We find that deterministic methods can accurately predict the delay to the fusion of a neurotransmitter-containing vesicle, as long as the number of Ca2+ ions is above about 50. We reveal factors that explain the limited impact of stochastic fluctuations in this case.
The Effectiveness of Capital Controls: Implications for Monetary Autonomy in the Presence of Incomplete Market Separation

The long-run ineffectiveness of quantitative capital controls is demonstrated with a model in which economic agents can evade controls by incurring costs at the time that capital is transferred. Differentials between domestic and off-shore interest rates, as well as expectations about future yield differentials, provide incentives for capital flows, which in turn feed back to eliminate the differentials in the long run. Consequently, under fixed exchange rates the proportion of a change in domestic credit that is "offset" by capital flows is a function of time; quantitative capital controls can provide only temporary autonomy for national monetary policy.
Porin Regulon of Escherichia coli

In Escherichia coli, the two porin proteins OmpF and OmpC form pores in the outer membrane that allow for the passive diffusion of small hydrophilic molecules across this hydrophobic barrier. Studies using gene and operon fusions to both ompF and ompC revealed that regulation of porin expression occurs at the transcriptional level. This work, combined with additional genetic analysis, led to the proposal of an early model to explain porin regulation. Importantly, strains merodiploid for envZ473 and either envZ247 or envZ250 exhibit intermediate levels of porin expression that are comparable with that normally seen in low osmolarity. OmpR can activate transcription of both the ompF and ompC genes and can also repress transcription of ompF. To regulate expression of the porin genes, OmpR must interact with regulatory regions of the ompF and ompC promoters in a manner that results in the activation and/or repression of transcription. Much study has been focused on elucidating the following: the regions of DNA to which OmpR binds and the nucleotide sequence of these regions; how OmpR recognizes these regions; and finally, how these OmpR-promoter interactions affect DNA topology, functional interactions with the polymerase, and ultimately transcriptional activation and/or repression. Importantly these conditions mimic those found within the bodies of animals. In external environment surroundings, nutrients are scarce, and the slightly wider OmpF channel enables their more efficient uptake. The smaller, more protective OmpC porin is no longer required in this very dilute environment.
Improving Assessment in Child Clinical and Pediatric Psychology

As we approach the end of the 20th century, the field of psychology, as both a science and profession, is facing new challenges. Funding for research has been shrinking at the federal and state levels, resulting in demands for greater accountability and clearer communication with the public about how psychological research can address larger societal problems (Leviton, 1996). The national shift toward managed care is bringing similar pressures to bear on those in clinical practice who are being asked to “prove” that their treatments work (Johnstone et al., 1995; Lipsey & Wilson, 1993). Although these changes have caused significant turmoil in the research and practice communities and some real hardships (e.g., loss of income), they also may serve to redirect our energies to an area of psychology in which we have made significant and lasting contributions, namely, the development of reliable and valid measures (Applebaum, 1997). In fact, the key to addressing issues of accountability and “relevance” for both researchers and clinicians may lie in a critical examination of our approaches to assessment, with greater efforts directed toward the development of measures that elucidate important psychological processes and provide stronger links to intervention and health outcomes (O’Keefe, Quittner, & Melamed, 1996; Sechrest, McKnight, & McKnight, 1996).
The hot and cold interstellar matter of early type galaxies and their radio emission

In order to understand the relationship between the different phases of the ISM and the role of the ISM in fueling radio continuum sources and star formation, we have compared observational data from a wide range of wavelengths.
Fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease: regional variability and factors predicting operative approach.

Summary We have recently shown that the majority of patients undergoing fundoplication in the United States are women. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that nonbiological factors contribute to the decisions on surgical reflux therapy. Using State Inpatient Databases of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, we extracted annual fundoplication rates, sex distribution, age cohorts, racial background, and insurance coverage. To account for potential differences in state populations, the results were normalized and correlated with Census data, adult obesity rates, median income, poverty rates, and physician workforce within the state. Fundoplication rates varied fivefold between states, ranging from 4.1 ± 0.1 per 100 000 in New Jersey to 21.8 ± 0.4 per 100 000 in Oregon. Higher poverty rates and a higher fraction of Caucasians within a state independently predicted higher fundoplication rates. While the majority of operations were performed laparoscopically, surgical approaches also differed between states with rates of laparoscopic ranging from 52.3 ± 1.8% in Oklahoma to 87.4 ± 1.7% in Hawaii. A lower number of pediatric and Medicaid-insured patient and a higher fraction of privately insured patients best predicted higher rates of laparoscopic surgery. Our study shows significant regional variation in surgical reflux management, which cannot be explained by differences in disease mechanisms. Insurance coverage and racial background influenced the likelihood of surgery, suggesting a role of financial incentives.
Food competition and social experience effects on V1a receptor binding in the forebrain of male Long-Evans hooded rats.

The present study investigated the effect of social status in Long–Evans hooded rats established during food competition on V1a vasopressin receptor (V1aR) binding in the lateral septum (LS), medial preoptic area (MPOA), bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), anterior hypothalamus (AH), and central/basolateral amygdala (CeB). Serum concentration of testosterone (T) and corticosterone (CORT) was also measured. In Experiment 1, thirty-two lever-trained weight-matched rat pairs were placed in operant chambers where a single bar press provided access to milk reinforcement. A dominant–subordinate relationship, determined by the duration of drinking, was evident in 88% of the pairs. Sixteen rats were lever-trained but did not interact and served as no-treatment (NT) controls. In the LS, V1aR binding in the subordinate (SUB) group was significantly higher than in the dominant (DOM) group. V1aR binding was significantly higher in the LS, BNST, CeB, and AH in the NT group than in the other groups. The levels of CORT and T were not affected significantly by group membership. Experiment 2 investigated whether the binding effect in the LS was related to differences in fluid consumption. The results did not indicate a significant effect of fluid consumption. In the rat, V1aR binding in several forebrain areas seems to be affected by brief periods of social interactions, and, in the LS, it also appears to be related to dominance status.
Montane speciation patterns in Ithomiola butterflies (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae): are they consistently moving up in the world?

Tropical lowland areas have often been seen as the centres of terrestrial species proliferation, but recent evidence suggests that young species may be more frequent in montane areas. Several montane speciation modes have been proposed, but their relative frequencies and predominant evolutionary sequence remain unclear because so few biogeographic and phylogenetic studies have tested such questions. I use morphological data to generate a phylogenetic hypothesis for all 11 species of the riodinid butterfly genus Ithomiola (Riodininae: Mesosemiini: Napaeina). These species are shown here to be all strictly geographically and elevationally allo- or parapatrically distributed with respect to their closest relatives in lowland and montane regions throughout the Neotropics. The overwhelming pattern in Ithomiola is of repeated upward parapatric speciation across an elevational gradient, and the genus appears to provide the clearest example to date of vertical montane speciation. All of the young derived species are montane and all of the old basal species are confined to the lowlands, supporting the hypothesis of montane regions largely as ‘species pumps’ and lowland regions as ‘museums’. Possible reasons for the post-speciation maintenance of parapatric ranges in Ithomiola are discussed.
Brief Communication: MASIC: A software program for fast quantitation and flexible visualization of chromatographic profiles from detected LC-MS(/MS) features

Quantitative analysis of liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) data is essential to many proteomics studies. We have developed MASIC to accurately measure peptide abundances and LC elution times in LC-MS/MS analyses. This software program uses an efficient processing algorithm to quickly generate mass specific selected ion chromatograms from a dataset and provides an interactive browser that allows users to examine individual chromatograms with a variety of options.
Query processing and inverted indices in shared: nothing text document information retrieval systems

The performance of distributed text document retrieval systems is strongly influenced by the organization of the inverted text. This article compares the performance impact on query processing of various physical organizations for inverted lists. We present a new probabilistic model of the database and queries. Simulation experiments determine those variables that most strongly influence response time and throughput. This leads to a set of design trade-offs over a wide range of hardware configurations and new parallel query processing strategies.
Optimization of Muscle Activity for Task-Level Goals Predicts Complex Changes in Limb Forces across Biomechanical Contexts

Optimality principles have been proposed as a general framework for understanding motor control in animals and humans largely based on their ability to predict general features movement in idealized motor tasks. However, generalizing these concepts past proof-of-principle to understand the neuromechanical transformation from task-level control to detailed execution-level muscle activity and forces during behaviorally-relevant motor tasks has proved difficult. In an unrestrained balance task in cats, we demonstrate that achieving task-level constraints center of mass forces and moments while minimizing control effort predicts detailed patterns of muscle activity and ground reaction forces in an anatomically-realistic musculoskeletal model. Whereas optimization is typically used to resolve redundancy at a single level of the motor hierarchy, we simultaneously resolved redundancy across both muscles and limbs and directly compared predictions to experimental measures across multiple perturbation directions that elicit different intra- and interlimb coordination patterns. Further, although some candidate task-level variables and cost functions generated indistinguishable predictions in a single biomechanical context, we identified a common optimization framework that could predict up to 48 experimental conditions per animal (n = 3) across both perturbation directions and different biomechanical contexts created by altering animals' postural configuration. Predictions were further improved by imposing experimentally-derived muscle synergy constraints, suggesting additional task variables or costs that may be relevant to the neural control of balance. These results suggested that reduced-dimension neural control mechanisms such as muscle synergies can achieve similar kinetics to the optimal solution, but with increased control effort (≈2×) compared to individual muscle control. Our results are consistent with the idea that hierarchical, task-level neural control mechanisms previously associated with voluntary tasks may also be used in automatic brainstem-mediated pathways for balance.
Estimation of the variance components for dermal ridge count.

SUMMARY Refinements of the scoring algorithm to estimate variance components from pedigree data are developed. Subsequent to these modifications, heritability estimates were readily obtained from data for over 50 traits, including total finger ridge count reported here. A significant contribution to the total variance of ridge count could be attributed to the effects of dominance, a finding not previously reported for this dermatoglyphic trait.
The efficiency of electric powered machinery, especially fans

Abstract A mathematical model for the efficiency of electric powered machinery, proposed by Murgatroyd and Wilkins, is compared with both handbook and field data for fans and is found to correlate the data reasonably well. This success substantiates their conclusion that a great deal of energy is wasted in such systems due to over-design and improper operating practices.
Design of fuzzy knowledge based systems with multi-set confidence models

In many application domains, the use of AI has been restrained due to the lack of viable models and tools for dealing with evaluations of uncertainties of domain knowledge. One of the feasible alternatives is based on fuzzy algebras of strict monotonic operations with multisets. Nevertheless the implementation of such a model in knowledge engineering tools is a challenging issue since many traditional approaches do not work for such model. In the paper, the multiset-based model of uncertainty is proposed and associated specifics of the construction and validation of such knowledge-based systems is discussed. The underlying model and engineering tools have been used in applications for petroleum engineering, which illustrate the proposed approach.
Effect of Vitamin K Supplementation on Bone Loss in Elderly Men and Women

Context: Vitamin K has been implicated in bone health, primarily in observational studies. However, little is known about the role of phylloquinone supplementation on prevention of bone loss in men and women. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of 3-yr phylloquinone supplementation on change in bone mineral density (BMD) of the femoral neck bone in older men and women who were calcium and vitamin D replete. Design, Participants, and Intervention: In this 3-yr, double-blind, controlled trial, 452 men and women (60–80 yr) were randomized equally to receive a multivitamin that contained either 500 μg/d or no phylloquinone plus a daily calcium (600 mg elemental calcium) and vitamin D (400 IU) supplement. Main Outcome Measures: Measurements of the femoral neck, spine (L2–L4), and total-body BMD, bone turnover, and vitamins K and D status were measured every 6–12 months. Intent-to-treat analysis was used to compare change in measures in 401 participants who completed the trial. Re...
Diagnostic and therapeutic impact of double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) in a series of 100 patients with suspected small bowel diseases.

Abstract Background Double-balloon enteroscopy is a newly developed endoscopic method allowing non-surgical full-length exploration of the small bowel, biopsies sample and endoscopic treatment of previously inaccessible lesions. Aim To prospectively assess the diagnostic and therapeutical impact of double-balloon enteroscopy in patients with suspected or documented small bowel disease. Patients and methods One hundred consecutive patients referring to our centre for suspected small bowel disease underwent double-balloon enteroscopy. Starting insertion route (anal or oral) of double-balloon enteroscopy was chosen according to the estimated location of the suspected lesions basing on the clinical presentation and on the findings, when available, of previous endoscopic or radiological investigations. Major indications for the procedures were acute recurrent or chronic mid-gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 71), suspected gastrointestinal tumours (n = 10), suspected Crohn's disease (n = 6), chronic abdominal pain and/or chronic diarrhoea (n = 8), refractory celiac disease (n = 5). Results One hundred and eighteen double-balloon enteroscopy procedures were carried out. Oral and anal route double-balloon enteroscopies were performed in 54 and 28 patients, respectively, while 18 patients underwent a combination of both approaches. Overall diagnostic yield of double-balloon enteroscopy resulted 69%. Most common pathological findings included angiodysplasias (n = 39), ulcerations and erosions of various aetiologies (n = 21), tumours (n = 7) and ileal stenosis in patients with Crohn's disease suspicion (n = 2). In the 65% of the patients examined, double-balloon enteroscopy findings influenced the subsequent clinical management (endoscopic, medical or surgical treatment). No major complications related to the procedure occurred. Conclusions Our prospective analysis shows that double-balloon enteroscopy is a useful, safe and well-tolerated new method with a high diagnostic and therapeutic impact for the management of suspected or documented small bowel diseases.
An investigation of the impact of posttraumatic stress disorder on physical health.

In a large sample of Gulf War veterans (N = 2301) we examined the relations between PTSD symptoms assessed immediately upon returning from the Gulf War and self-reported health problems assessed 18–24 months later. PTSD symptomatology was predictive of self-reported health problems over time for both men and women veterans, even after the effects of combat exposure were removed from the analysis. Female veterans reported significantly more health problems than male veterans, however, there was no interactive effect of gender and PTSD on health problems. These findings provide further support for the theory that psychological response to stressors impacts health outcome.
Large-area diamond film growth in a low-pressure flame

Abstract Chemical vapor deposition of a large-area (13 cm 2 ) polycrystalline diamond film by a low-pressure combustion technique has been demonstrated. Good film quality and uniformity are observed, and the technique offers several advantages over other large-area deposition methods, including simple scalability up to arbitrarily large substrates.
“... in vari pensier divide e parte / l’incerto animo suo”: simbologia del doppio e dinamiche sospensive nel VI canto della Gerusalemme Liberata

AbstractL’articolo propone una dettagliata lettura del VI canto della Gerusalemme Liberata, nel quale si perfezionano le modalita espressive della coscienza dei personaggi, attraverso l’estrinsecazione di una topica ossimorica e alternante. Quest’ultima emerge puntualmente all’analisi del canto, che si mostra in apparenza bipartito in due grandi, inconciliabili sezioni: una di carattere militare (incentrata sullo spettacolare duello Tancredi-Argante), che si svolge in pieno giorno; l’altra effusivamente notturna, ove campeggia Erminia, infelice principessa d’Antiochia. Invero, i due macrotemi ‒ amore e guerra ‒ si allacciano e si intersecano facilmente, in un gioco spastico, che alterna pause e movimenti dei rispettivi codici verbali, i quali si confondono di continuo, collaborando a un rinnovamento del canonico materiale (cavalleresco e lirico) che adottano. Il filtro attraverso cui il saggio affronta la lettura di questi versi e pertanto proprio la dinamica binaria confuso vs distinto, duplicabile in in...
Particle size determination of soft latices by electron microscopy

Abstract A general technique is reported by which the size distribution of soft, deformable latex preparations can be examined directly by electron microscopy with a minimum of shape distortion. By this technique a frozen specimen of the latex preparation between thin polyimide sheets is examined directly using a cold stage, without the use of shadowing or chemical modification of the latex. The method is illustrated with a polystyrene latex plasticized with benzene.
A note on threshold theorems for epidemics with bunching

This note begins by reviewing the Kermack-McKendrick and Whittle Threshold Theorems for the general epidemic. It then extends these results to the case of the general epidemic with bunching where theβxy homogeneous mixing term is replaced byβxy/(x+y)α, 0≤α≤1.