cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Two-phase models of quasar emission line regions

It is demonstrated that the emitting gas in clouds of quasar emission line regions must be confined by a hot intercloud medium, provided only that the heating mechanisms are strong enough to drive the low-density intercloud gas above a few tens of millions degrees K. The study of the thermal properties of the gas presented includes heating by photoionization, Compton scattering, suprathermal particles, absorption of radio frequency radiation, cloud friction, thermal conduction, and shocks. Cooling curves for photoionized gases are presented, and phase diagrams analogous to the pressure-temperature diagrams used in studying the interstellar medium are constructed for various conditions. It is shown that two-phase equilibria occur over a wide range of mean density, but over a much narrower range of pressure. The implications of these results for the emission line region are discussed, and it is shown that the emission clouds may be short-lived.
Optical scanning extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer for absolute microdisplacement measurement.

We report an optical-scanning, dual-fiber, extrinsic Fabry–Perot interferometer system for absolute measurement of microdisplacement. The system involves two air-gapped Fabry–Perot cavities, formed by fiber end faces, functioning as sensing and reference elements. Taking the scanning wavelength as an interconverter to compare the gap length of the sensing head with the reference-cavity length yields the absolute measurement of the sensing-cavity length. The measurement is independent of the wavelength-scanning accuracy, and the reference-cavity length can be self-calibrated simply by one’s changing the sensing-head length by an accurate value.
Early prediction of acute pancreatitis: Prospective study comparing computed tomography scans, ranson, glasgow, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II scores, and various serum markers

The aim of this study was to assess the predictability of the outcome of acute pancreatitis using the Ranson, Glasgow, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores, the computed tomography (CT) scan, and several serum markers. Altogether, 137 consecutive patients with acute pancreatitis confirmed by CT scan were prospectively included. Blood samples were obtained daily for 6 days. The predictive value of each parameter was studied by univariate and multivariate analyses comparing mild and severe pancreatitis. A total of 111 attacks were graded as mild (81%) and 26 as severe (19%). Ranson (p=0.3) and APACHE II (p=0.049) scores appeared insufficiently predictive in the univariate analysis. Pancreatic imaging by CT scan was insufficiently predictive (p>0.05), whereas the presence of extrapancreatic fluid collections was more indicative of outcome (p<0.05). With the univariate analysis, the four most reliable serum markers were pancreatic amylase (p<0.001), neutrophil elastase (p<0.05), albumin (p<0.002), and C-reactive protein (p<0.001). Results became homogeneous when the CT results were added; serum albumin plus extrapancreatic fluid collections (negative predictive value 92%–96% and positive predictive value 67%–100%) comprised the best indicator of severity. None of the parameters tested achieved sufficient predictability when used alone. Serum albumin plus extrapancreatic fluid collections comprise the best indicator of severity at the time of admission.
Doctor of Audiology (AuD) Program at the University of South Florida

This article describes the doctor of audiology (AuD) program at the University of South Florida (USF). The USF AuD program has been operational since the fall of 1999 and, to date, 47 students have graduated from either the postbaccalaureate track or the post-master's track. The faculty consists of 9 full-time and 8 part-time adjunct members who provide a curriculum that covers the audiology scope of practice. Being located in a major metropolitan area allows for diverse clinical practicum experiences that result in students being prepared to become autonomous professional practitioners.
Experience-driven ossiculoplasty

This article reviews the causes of ossicular impairment, interpretations of chronic ear disease, and provides a structured approach to the surgical correction of conductive hearing loss. It discusses reasons for inadequate air bone gap closure following ossicular chain reconstruction. The article reviews the Austin-Kartush classification of ossicular impairment, which allows for classification of nearly any defect in the ossicular chain. Using the Austin-Kartush classification, our most common ossicular chain reconstruction techniques are presented. Alternatives to ossicular chain reconstruct are discussed. A surgical video of transcanal Vibroplasty is included and available for viewing online.
Radioimmunoassay of Plasma 17-Hydroxypregnenolone

Abstract This report describes a radioimmunoassay method for the measurement of unconjugated 17-hydroxypregnenolone (17-5δ-P) in plasma. Utilizing a highly specific 17-5δ-P antiserum combined with a one step celite microcolumn chromatographic system, we have measured this steroid accurately in small aliquots of plasma from both male and female subjects. The plasma levels of 17-5δ-P obtained by this method agreed well with levels observed in adult men and women, using two other techniques. Compared with the latters, however, the present method offered a tenfold greater sensitivity and a better precision.
Optically generated kinoforms

Abstract A method for direct optical generation of kinoforms of a certain highly restricted class of objects is given. One useful application of this method is the production of kinoform diffusers.
NMR Investigation of the Behavior of an Organothiophosphate Pesticide, Methyl Parathion, Sorbed on Clays

The decomposition of methyl parathion (an organothiophosphate pesticide) sorbed on partially hydrated kaolin and montmorillonite clays (in Ca2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, and Al3+ forms) at high concentration (typically 1-10 wt %) has been examined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), using solid-state 31P NMR (based on magic-angle spinning and cross polarization or direct polarization) and liquid-state 31P NMR of DMSO and acetone extracts. The results indicate that methyl parathion is initially physisorbed, appearing by solid-state 31P NMR to exhibit substantial molecular-level motion. The signals due to unreacted methyl parathion diminish and are replaced by new 31P NMR peaks resulting from hydrolysis, isomerization, and oxidation reactions over periods ranging from hours to years. 31P NMR characteristics indicate that these decomposition products are much more tightly bound to the clay than is methyl parathion. Methyl parathion decomposition is most effectively catalyzed by partially hydrated Cu(II)- and Al-montmorillonites (but with different product distributions); Ca-montmorillonite and kaolin were least effective.
Guidelines for social services grants

Guidelines for spending federal grants to the states for social services changed repeatedly between 1962 and 1975. The process of preparing guidelines changed, and so did their content. These changes are described and explained. Guidelines at all stages failed to provide intelligible and useful instructions to federal and state administrators. In part this was because the contextual supports that normally help to give effect to grant-in-aid guidelines—explicit antecedents in the law, and implicit understandings among administrators at different levels of the federal system—were lacking or seriously defective. Beyond that, in each of their different phases the guidelines proved untenable because of dysfunctions that may have been peculiar to the respective processes by which they were prepared.
Community Structure and Science Framing of News About Local Environmental Risks

When newspapers cover stories about environmental pollution, the nature of the community they serve can indirectly influence the contents of that coverage. This article describes research showing t...
National Cancer Data Base report on cancer of the head and neck: acinic cell carcinoma.

Background Management of acinic cell carcinoma is based on reports of small numbers of cases accrued over several decades. Methods The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) identified 1353 cases of acinic cell carcinoma of the head and neck for the years 1985 to 1995. Chi square analyses of selected contingency tables and Wilcoxon regression analyses of selected survival stratifications are presented. Results Five-year survival was 83.3% (observed) and 91.4% (disease specific). Worse survival was associated with high grade (p < .0001), age greater or equal to 30 years (p = .0055), and the presence of metastatic disease (p < .0001). Conclusions An aggressive subset of acinic cell carcinoma which is characterized by high grade and advanced stage rarely occurs in patients younger than 30 years old. Although better outcome was not statistically demonstrated for combined therapy, surgery with irradiation is the most common management in the United States for cases with regional metastases, high grade, and microscopic positive margins. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Head Neck 21: 297–309, 1999.
Rapid middle Miocene collapse of the Mesozoic orogenic plateau in north-central Nevada

The modern Sierra Nevada and Great Basin were likely the site of a high-elevation orogenic plateau well into Cenozoic time, supported by crust thickened during Mesozoic shortening. Although crustal thickening at this scale can lead to extension, the relationship between Mesozoic shortening and subsequent formation of the Basin and Range is difficult to unravel because it is unclear which of the many documented or interpreted extensional episodes was the most significant for net widening and crustal thinning. To address this problem, we integrate geologic and geochronologic data that bear on the timing and magnitude of Cenozoic extension along an ∼200 km east–west transect south of Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, and Elko, Nevada. Pre-Cenozoic rocks in this region record east–west Palaeozoic and Mesozoic compression that continued into the Cretaceous. Little to no tectonism and no deposition followed until intense magmatism began in the Eocene. Eocene and Oligocene ash-flow tuffs flowed as much as 200 km down...
Fully dispersion-compensated ~500 fs pulse transmission over 50 km single-mode fiber

We demonstrate essentially distortionless 50?km fiber transmission for ?500?fs pulses, using dispersion-compensating fiber and a programmable pulse shaper as a spectral phase equalizer. This distance is approximately five times longer than previously achieved at similar pulse widths.
Foreign Languages for Singers

Author's summary.— The author planned a course of foreign languages for singers. Objectives of the course: The teaching of vocabulary and pronunciation. Textbooks and their use. The music students showed greater achievement than the freshmen in acquiring vocabulary and skill in reading.
Modeling of geometric properties of loblolly pine tree and stand characteristics for use in radar backscatter studies

An approach is presented to physically describe the tree and canopy components within loblolly pine forests in studies of microwave backscattering from forested canopies. The approach is based on a set of algorithms which describe the biomass characteristics of individual trees using measurements of tree diameter, height, and canopy depth. These algorithms predict bole, branch, and needle biomass; number, sizes, and orientations of primary and smaller branches; and number and density of needle clumps. Methods are discussed to aggregate the individual tree measurements into stand measurements (i.e., measurements per unit area). The results of the model clearly show how biomass distribution between tree components and canopy layers varies as a function of stand age for loblolly pines. The results also show the approach can be used to predict changes in the branch size and orientation within the canopy as a function of stand age, both on an individual tree basis as well as an entire stand basis. >
Computing stereo disparity and motion with known binocular cell properties

Many models for stereo disparity computation have been proposed, but few can be said to be truly biological. There is also a rich literature devoted to physiological studies of stereopsis. Cells sensitive to binocular disparity have been found in the visual cortex, but it is not clear whether these cells could be used to compute disparity maps from stereograms. Here we propose a model for biological stereo vision based on known receptive field profiles of binocular cells in the visual cortex and provide the first demonstration that these cells could effectively solve random dot stereograms. Our model also allows a natural integration of stereo vision and motion detection. This may help explain the existence of units tuned to both disparity and motion in the visual cortex.
Subclinical Scurvy in the Guinea Pig

Twenty-eight guinea pigs from nine episodes of subclinical scurvy had diarrhea, weight loss and dehydration. The classical signs of scurvy were not seen. Microscopically the epiphyses were attenuated and irregular. The amount of osteoid was less than normal. Many guinea pigs had acute enteritis. In some there were many hemosiderin-laden macrophages in the intestinal lamina propria. All episodes were associated with either autoclaving food without adequate supplementation or other inadequate feed management practices. Of the common laboratory species, the guinea pig and primate require a continuous exogenous source of ascorbic acid for maintenance of good health. The overt classical lesions of ascorbic acid deficiency are readily recognized and consist of hemorrhage in the subperiosteum, skeletal muscles, joints and intestine. Microscopically, there is altered dentin formation and deranged epiphyseal growth centers of long bones with osteoid formation greatly reduced (5, 61. We report a more occult or subclinical form of scurvy ( 10) that is not heralded by the gross hemorrhage in the periosteum, joints or intestinal tract. The syndrome has appeared frequently at our institution in the past 2 to 3 years for a variety of reasons related to food management. We therefore believe it may occur elsewhere and may go unrecognized as the initial cases did here. Overt lesions eventually did appear, and histologic examination then revealed the characteristic bone lesions and others typical of scorbutic enteropathy.
Oversampling invariance of wavelet frames

It is shown that for all wavelet frames that have filter banks associated with them, oversampling by a factor of N preserves the frame property with the same dual frame (oversampled by N) iff (N, M)=1. In particular, tight frames are preserved by oversampling by N, with (N, M)=1. The results are sharper for the case of filter bank (FB) wavelet frames. It is conjectured that all compactly supported wavelet frames are FB wavelet frames. >
Molecular beams of macroions. 3. Zein and polyvinylpyrrolidone

A 95% ethanol solution of the prolamin zein and of the synthetic polymer polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP) can be successfully electrosprayed and a molecular beam, containing ions of these substances in nitrogen carrier gas, formed. Similarly to polystyrene in benzene–acetone solvent, negative beams of zein and PVP have more substructure than beams containing positive ions. The results indicate considerable aggregation in the beam, possibly of six molecular units per aggregate, in addition to the singly charged single molecules.
A 2-year-old girl with co-inherited cystic fibrosis and sickle cell-β+ thalassemia presenting with recurrent vaso-occlusive events during cystic fibrosis pulmonary exacerbations: a case report

This is the first published report of a young girl with co-inherited sickle cell-β+ thalassemia and cystic fibrosis. Although a small subset of patients with co-inherited cystic fibrosis and other hemoglobinopathies have been reported, this patient developed early hematologic and pulmonary complications that were more severe than the previous cases. To assess pulmonary co-morbidities, we used infant pulmonary function testing through the raised volume rapid thoracoabdominal compression technique as both an established study of early cystic fibrosis and also as a newer study of mechanism for early sickle cell lung disease. This further serves as the first report of the raised volume rapid thoracoabdominal compression technique to determine raised volume forced expiratory flows and fractional lung volumes in a patient with a hemoglobinopathy. A 2-year-old African-American girl with co-inherited cystic fibrosis and sickle cell-β+ thalassemia developed severe hematologic complications (recurrent vaso-occlusive events, hepatic sequestration, and acute chest syndrome) during periods of cystic fibrosis pulmonary exacerbations and weight loss. Because cystic fibrosis and sickle cell-β+ thalassemia both confer distinct patterns of pulmonary disease, infant pulmonary function testing with the raised volume rapid thoracoabdominal compression technique was used to define respiratory pathophysiology and guide treatment options. Infant pulmonary function testing data demonstrated moderate-to-severe lower airways obstruction, moderate air trapping, and no evidence of restrictive lung disease. Infant pulmonary function testing with the raised volume rapid thoracoabdominal compression technique guided therapy in this patient with cystic fibrosis and sickle cell-β+ thalassemia. Although this is an original case report on a unique patient, this case highlights the need to evaluate early respiratory pathophysiology in a broader population of young patients with hemoglobinopathies and screen those at risk for early pulmonary co-morbidities.
Novel fluorescence resonance energy transfer optical sensors for vitamin B12 detection using thermally reduced carbon dots

In this paper, a novel thermally-reduced carbon dot (t-CD) based fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor for the determination of vitamin B12 (VB12) in aqueous solutions is reported. Carbon dots (CDs) have attracted great attention due to their excellent tunable optical properties, low cost, easy fabrication and low toxicity, which make them ideal candidates for optical sensors. Through esterification reactions, blue luminescent t-CDs were prepared by the carbonization of citric acid and thermally reduced by a thermogravimetric analyzer. After thermal reduction, the quantum yield of the t-CDs demonstrated a 5-fold increase, which makes t-CDs excellent donors in the FRET process. The t-CDs were used to detect VB12 with concentrations ranging from 1 to 12 μg ml−1 and their limit of detection (LOD) was as low as 0.1 μg ml−1. The as-synthesized t-CD based optical probing technique is demonstrated to be simple, cost-effective, sensitive and selective for the detection of biologically significant VB12.
Glial Contribution to Glutamate Uptake at Schaffer Collateral–Commissural Synapses in the Hippocampus

Astrocytes in the hippocampus express high-affinity glutamate transporters that are important for lowering the concentration of extracellular glutamate after release at excitatory synapses. These transporters exhibit a permeability to chaotropic anions that is associated with transport, allowing their activity to be monitored in cell-fee patches when highly permeant anions are present. Astrocyte glutamate transporters are highly temperature sensitive, becausel-glutamate-activated, anion-potentiated transporter currents in outside-out patches from these cells exhibited larger amplitudes and faster kinetics at 36°C than at 24°C. The cycling rate of these transporters was estimated by using paired applications of either l-glutamate or d-aspartate to measure the time necessary for the peak of the transporter current to recover from the steady-state level. Transporter currents in patches recovered with a time constant of 11.6 msec at 36°C, suggesting that either the turnover rate of native transporters is much faster than previously reported for expressed EAAT2 transporters or the efficiency of these transporters is very low. Synaptically activated transporter currents persisted in astrocytes at physiological temperatures, although no evidence of these currents was found in CA1 pyramidal neurons in response to afferent stimulation. l-glutamate-gated transporter currents were also not detected in outside-out patches from pyramidal neurons. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that astrocyte transporters are responsible for taking up the majority of glutamate released at Schaffer collateral–commissural synapses in the hippocampus.
OGSI.NET: OGSI-compliance on the .NET framework

The Open Grid Service Infrastructure (OGSI) has been designed to facilitate the creation of multiple, interoperable Grid service hosting environments, but to date only one fully OGSI-compliant hosting environment exists, Globus Toolkit version 3 (GT3). This paper describes the design and implementation of OGSI.NET, which is the second, independent hosting environment that is fully compliant with the OGSI specification. While the Microsoft suite of Visual Studio, Internet Information Services (IIS), and the Web Services Enhancements (WSE) provide a robust foundation upon which we implemented OGSI.NET, the challenges included constructing the Grid service container, parsing OGSI WSDL ("gwsdl"), and supporting Grid service handles (GSH). By describing our approach to these challenges, and by describing the unique Grid attribute programming. model we are developing as part of OGSI.NET, we contribute an early evaluation of OGSI and the broader Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA).
MARKED DIFFERENCES IN SURVIVORSHIP AMONG APPLE ROOTS OF DIFFERENT DIAMETERS

Fine roots are responsible for a substantial fraction of terrestrial net primary productivity, and a better understanding of fine root production and turnover is crucial to improving global carbon and nutrient cycling models. In most studies, roots less than 1 or 2 mm in diameter (“fine roots”) have been treated as structurally and physiologically identical individuals. We used minirhizotron data from 16-yr-old apple (Malus domestica) trees to investigate differences in life span and life history among fine roots whose diameters differed by tenths of a millimeter. We also introduced the use of Cox proportional hazards regression models to assess the effects of multiple covariates on root mortality. Overwinter survivorship differed markedly among diameter classes in both years: 3–12% for roots 0.5 mm in diameter and brown, and these roots gave rise to new white laterals during the spring root flush. Based on the considerable differences in morphology and life history within the class of roots <1 mm in diameter, we advocate the use of a functional definition for the fine root whenever possible.
Efficient Stereo Algorithm using Multiscale Belief Propagation on Segmented Images

A variety of approaches using BP and image segmentation have been proposed for the stereo correspondence problem. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach, based on a combination of segmentation and BP. Our method inherits the idea of Multiscale BP, however at each level of the hierarchy, each graph node corresponds to an image segment, which we call superpixel, instead of a fixed rectangular block of pixels. The resulting de pth map at the coarser level is used to initialize the depths at the finer lev el. At the lowest level, we perform loopy BP on the four-connected pixel subgrid within each superpixel. The proposed method is applied to stereo images in the standard Middlebury dataset, and to real outdoor stereo images and car sequences. Experimental results show quite acceptable accuracy of depth inference, with running time fast enough for practical use.
Urinary Bladder Function and Somatic Sensitivity in Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP)-/- Mice

Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) is an immunomodulatory neuropeptide widely distributed in neural pathways that regulate micturition. VIP is also an endogenous anti-inflammatory agent that has been suggested for the development of therapies for inflammatory disorders. In the present study, we examined urinary bladder function and hindpaw and pelvic sensitivity in VIP−/− and littermate wildtype (WT) controls. We demonstrated increased bladder mass and fewer but larger urine spots on filter paper in VIP−/− mice. Using cystometry in conscious, unrestrained mice, VIP−/− mice exhibited increased void volumes and shorter intercontraction intervals with continuous intravesical infusion of saline. No differences in transepithelial resistance or water permeability were demonstrated between VIP−/− and WT mice; however, an increase in urea permeability was demonstrated in VIP−/− mice. With the induction of bladder inflammation by acute administration of cyclophosphamide, an exaggerated or prolonged bladder hyperreflexia and hindpaw and pelvic sensitivity were demonstrated in VIP−/− mice. The changes in bladder hyperreflexia and somatic sensitivity in VIP−/− mice may reflect increased expression of neurotrophins and/or proinflammatory cytokines in the urinary bladder. Thus, these changes may further regulate the neural control of micturition.
Adoption and focus: practical linear types for imperative programming

A type system with linearity is useful for checking software protocols andresource management at compile time. Linearity provides powerful reasoning about state changes, but at the price of restrictions on aliasing. The hard division between linear and nonlinear types forces the programmer to make a trade-off between checking a protocol on an object and aliasing the object. Most onerous is the restriction that any type with a linear component must itself be linear. Because of this, checking a protocol on an object imposes aliasing restrictions on any data structure that directly or indirectly points to the object. We propose a new type system that reduces these restrictions with the adoption and focus constructs. Adoption safely allows a programmer to alias objects on which she is checking protocols, and focus allows the reverse. A programmer can alias data structures that point to linear objects and use focus for safe access to those objects. We discuss how we implemented these ideas in the Vault programming language.
Bacteriologic characterization of 36 strains of Roseomonas species and proposal of Roseomonas mucosa sp nov and Roseomonas gilardii subsp rosea subsp nov.

We used a polyphasic approach (sequencing analysis of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene and phenotypic analyses) to characterize 36 strains of Roseomonas species isolated from blood. Five strains, represented by strain MDA5176 (M.D. Anderson Cancer Center), were identified as Roseomonas gilardii. One strain belonged to Roseomonas genomospecies 4. The 22 strains represented by strain MDA5527 showed significant differences genotypically and phenotypically with R gilardii and other Roseomonas species and represented a new Roseomonas species; Roseomonas mucosa sp nov was proposed to denote its prominent mucoid, almost runny colonies. Eight strains, represented by strain MDA5605, had minor differences with R gilardii and displayed obvious pink to red colonies; Roseomonas gilardii subsp rosea subsp nov was proposed. For subspecies differentiation, R gilardii was proposed to be R gilardii subsp gilardii subsp nov. Unique patterns of biochemical reactions were established for these Roseomonas species, which may assist routine identification of these organisms. All 36 strains and 2 American Type Culture Collection strains were susceptible to amikacin and ciprofloxacin but resistant to cefepime and ceftazidime. They also were frequently susceptible to imipenem and ticarcillinclavulanate but far less susceptible to ceftriaxone, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ampicillin. R mucosa strains were most resistant, whereas R gilardii subsp gilardii strains were most susceptible. The genus Roseomonas was established in 1993 by Rihs et al 1 based on studies of the morphologic features, phenotypes, and genome similarity of 42 strains of pinkpigmented, aerobic, and slow-growing gram-negative bacteria. This genus includes 6 species: Roseomonas gilardii (or genomospecies 1, the type species), Roseomonas cervicalis (genomospecies 2), Roseomonas fauriae (genomospecies 3), and 3 unnamed Roseomonas genomospecies 4, 5, and 6. These organisms have been isolated from the aquatic environment and various clinical samples, such as blood and wound. Since then, many clinical studies of various Roseomonas infections have been reported, from several single case reports 2-9 to 2 series of multiple cases. 10,11 However, most clinical microbiology laboratories are unable to confidently identify these organisms owing to lack of expertise and lack of commercially available kits that offer positive identification. In addition, further microbiologic characterizations of these organisms are few, and the 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of these organisms have not been sequenced, which hampers research activity and makes identification impossible by the increasingly popular sequencing methods. Therefore, a Canadian group and we independently sequenced the 16S rDNA of all 6 Roseomonas genomospecies (GenBank accession numbers AF533352-56 and AY150045-50, respec
New ureteral access sheaths: a double standard.

Objective To investigate the functional characteristics of the traditional and new single-wire ureteral access sheath (UAS) configurations relating to insertion, positioning, tissue injury, and durability. Materials and Methods Four UAS were tested: Navigator HD (11/13F, Boston Scientific), Re-Trace (10/12F, Coloplast), Flexor-Parallel (P), and Flexor-Regular (R; 9.5/11.5F, Cook Medical). UASs were evaluated for sharpness—(1) foil perforation, (2) tissue skiving (advancing sheath/dilator against fixed foil or bologna models); rigidity—(3) tip bending, (4) sheath buckling; (5) lubricity (dynamic friction through bologna), (6) dilator removal force, (7) kinking forces (side wall compressive forces), and (8) radiopacity. New UASs were used for each trial. A motorized sliding stage was used, and continuous force measurements were recorded with a Mark-10 digital force gauge. Results The Navigator HD had the largest external diameter (13.02F). Re-Trace had the longest (51 mm) and most flexible tip (0.942 lb, P Conclusion The Navigator HD was the most slippery and rigid sheath, whereas the single-wire systems had lower buckling forces and required more force to remove their dilators. Cook sheaths appeared the least traumatic.
Knowledge Extraction from Survey Data Using Neural Networks

Abstract Surveys are an important tool for researchers. It is increasingly important to develop powerful means for analyzing such data and to extract knowledge that could help in decision-making. Survey attributes are typically discrete data measured on a Likert scale. The process of classification becomes complex if the number of survey attributes is large. Another major issue in Likert-Scale data is the uniqueness of tuples. A large number of unique tuples may result in a large number of patterns. The main focus of this paper is to propose an efficient knowledge extraction method that can extract knowledge in terms of rules. The proposed method consists of two phases. In the first phase, the network is trained and pruned. In the second phase, the decision tree is applied to extract rules from the trained network. Extracted rules are optimized to obtain a comprehensive and concise set of rules. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, it is applied to two sets of Likert scale survey data, and results show that the proposed method produces rule sets that are comparable with other knowledge extraction techniques in terms of the number of rules and accuracy.
Called to Make a Difference: The Experiences of Students Who Thrive on Faith-Based Campuses.

Research on the contribution of psychosocial factors to holistic student success in the context of the distinctive mission of Christian colleges and universities remains limited despite increased attention given to such factors in broader studies of student success. In recent years, the study of thriving has added to the measurement of psychosocial factors that contribute to student success. Thriving is conceptualized as levels of intellectual, interpersonal, and psychological vitality that result in student success. This article presents the results of the qualitative phase of a longitudinal sequential explanatory mixed-methods study of changes in thriving over the course of one semester from interviews with 23 students on five faith-based campuses. The study explored the experiences, programs, and psychological processes that influenced increases and decreases in thriving. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) engaged learning as an outcome of faculty and student commitment, (b) relationships ...
Implications of depleted flux tubes in the Jovian magnetosphere

A rare but persistent phenomenon in the jovian magnetosphere is the occurrence of apparently depleted flux tubes, whose magnetic pressures are significantly above ambient levels. These flux tubes occur about 0.25% of the observing time in the region of the Io torus in the Galileo high resolution data. The importance of these tubes is that they can return to the inner magnetosphere the magnetic flux that has been convected radially outward with the iogenic plasma to the tail. The paucity of these tubes is consistent with the expected flux return rates if the tubes are moving inward at an average rate of about 5-10 km/s in the torus. Depleted flux tubes have yet to be observed inside of the lo orbit where the plasma beta is lower than in the hot torus. Estimates of the plasma density outside the tube from plasma wave measurements enable the average perpendicular temperature to be obtained from the magnetic field change. Extrapolating this temperature back to lo, we obtain an average ion temperature of approximately 60 eV. These values are generally consistent with earlier Voyager observations but on the low side of their range of uncertainty, and agree quite well with contemporaneous Galileo measurements where these are available.
Variations on the bilingual advantage? Links of Chinese and English proficiency to Chinese American children's self-regulation.

The present study examined whether bilingualism-related advantages in self-regulation could be observed: (a) among Chinese American immigrant children with varying levels of Chinese and English proficiencies, and (b) across different domains of self-regulation in laboratory, home, and classroom contexts. A socioeconomically diverse sample of first- and second-generation Chinese American immigrant children between ages 7 and 10 (n = 223) was administered assessments of Chinese and English language proficiencies and a multi-method, multi-informant battery of self-regulation measures. Multiple regression analyses suggested that controlling for covariates (child age, gender, and SES), children’s bilingualism-related advantages were limited to higher performance only on computerized tasks of cognitive flexibility, and only among children with higher degrees of fluency in both Chinese and English. By contrast, proficiencies in one language (either Chinese or English) were uniquely and positively associated with other domains of self-regulation, including parent and teacher-reported effortful control. These results suggest that the bilingual advantage for self-regulation may be observed as a continuous variable among immigrant children with varying levels of bilingual fluency; however, this advantage may not extend across all domains and contexts of self-regulation.
Automatic Beamforming for Blind Extraction of Speech From Music Environment Using Variance of Spectral Flux-Inspired Criterion

This paper addresses the problem of automatic beamforming for blind extraction of speech in a music environment, using multiple microphones. A new criterion is proposed based on the variance of the spectral flux (VSF), which is shown to be a compound measure of the Kurtosis and across-time correlation for the time-frequency domain signals. Spectral flux (SF) had been adopted as a feature that distinguishes speech from other acoustic noises and the VSF of speech tends to be larger than that of other acoustic sounds. Henceforth, maximization of VSF can be employed as one potential criterion to identify the speech direction-of-arrival (DOA), in order to extract speech from the noisy observations. We construct a VSF-inspired cost function and develop a complex-value fixed-point algorithm for the optimization. Then, the stability of the proposed algorithm is analyzed based on the second-order Taylor series expansion. Rather than the DOA identification ambiguity caused by subspace decomposition-based methods or maximization of non-Gaussianity-based approaches, both real and simulated evaluations indicate that the VSF-inspired criterion can effectively extract speech from a music diffuse noise field or a musical interference noise field. A key feature of the proposed approach is that it can operate blindly, i.e., it does not require a priori knowledge about the array geometry, the noise covariance matrix, or the geometrical knowledge of the location of desired speech. Therefore, this study offers a potential perspective for blindly extracting speech from a music environment.
Barriers to Interorganizational Knowledge Transfer in Post-Hospital Care Transitions: Review and Directions for Information Systems Research

AbstractPost-hospital care transitions involve coordination and continuity of care from hospital providers to patients and community providers. These care transitions represent a domain of high-risk interorganizational collaborations. However, a conversation about how health information technology (HIT) can enhance interorganizational knowledge transfer during care transitions is largely absent in the information systems literature. We conducted a review of qualitative studies of post-hospital care transitions to better understand barriers to knowledge transfer in high-risk interorganizational collaborations. Our analysis highlights how time pressures inhibit multilateral knowledge transfers, accommodation of fluctuating absorptive capacity, and reconciliation of knowledge and goal conflicts. We advance research questions that focus on HIT capabilities to ease these barriers.
Jerry L. Mashaw and the Public Law Curriculum

Written for a Yale Festschrift celebrating Professor Jerry Mashaw’s extraordinary life of scholarship, this essay takes his first published teaching materials as the jumping off place for an essay on the impact of early choices about the teaching of public law courses on the materials and issues our students see, and the changes that might be in the wind as new materials on Legislation and the Regulatory State emerge. With Richard Merrill, Jerry 40 years ago designed “The American Public Law System” for the first year of law school, treating legislation and administrative action as subjects worthy of serious study, side by side. It and a few other sets of materials (including, notably, Hart and Sacks’ “The Legal Process”) sought to depart from the strict diet of cases that had characterized American public law teaching from the beginning of the 20th Century, thanks in large part to the dominance of Christopher Columbus Langdell’s Socratic Method, which treated cases as the necessary – and virtually exclusive – medium of classroom instruction.To what extent might students in these new courses now be invited to view legislatures and agencies, both as institutions and through their work, through other than judicial eyes? The law school curriculum endlessly invites attention to courts and the means by which they settle (that is to say, make) law. To be sure, its students do not often see the attending lawyers’ work by which judicial action is usually (one might say preferably) shaped, but the typical first-year curriculum includes not only Civil Procedure and much discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of common law processes, but also an exercise in brief writing, moot court. Has the Langdellian imperative to use cases only as the primary materials of law study been overcome in these new courses? Do they invite similar direct attention to these other institutions and their ways, before which today’s lawyers may so often have to appear? Or do public law and its institutions still appear primarily through the eyes of judges in decided cases, looking backwards over some particular, completed piece of work?After some attention to teaching materials of the 20th Century, the essay turns to an assessment of the more recent works on Legislation and the Regulatory State, finding signs of change in some, but not all of them. The first year of law school remains wedded to the common law and to judges; and these new courses could require understanding of the real world of today’s law. If, of course, they are taught outside the Langdellian model.
New Species and Records of North American Monohelea(Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

The North American species of Monohelea Kieffer are revised. Of the 14 known species that are keyed, 5 are new, namely: obscura (Mass., Mich., N.Y.), knighti (Fla.), jamnbacki (Mich., Que.); bifurcata (Mass., Va.), and floridensis (Fla.).
Design and fabrication of teflon-coated tungsten nanorods for tunable hydrophobicity.

The nature of water interaction with tungsten nanorods (WNRs) fabricated by the glancing-angle deposition technique (GLAD)—using RF magnetron sputtering under various Ar pressures and substrate tilting angles and then subsequent coating with Teflon—has been studied and reported. Such nanostructured surfaces have shown strong water repellency properties with apparent water contact angles (AWCA) of as high as 160°, which were found to depend strongly upon the fabrication conditions. Variations in Ar pressure and the substrate tilting angle resulted in the generation of WNRs with different surface roughness and porosity properties. A theoretical model has been proposed to predict the observed high AWCAs measured at the nanostructure interfaces. The unique pyramidal tip geometry of WNRs generated at low Ar pressure with a high oblique angle reduced the solid fraction at the water interface, explaining the high AWCA measured on such surfaces. It was also found that the top geometrical morphologies controlling ...
Controlling Nanoscale Properties of Supported Platinum Catalysts through Atomic Layer Deposition

Platinum nanoparticles were grown on alumina by atomic layer deposition using either H2 or O2 as the second half-reaction precursor. Particle diameters could be tuned between ∼1 and 2 nm by varying between use of H2 and O2 and by changing the number of ALD cycles. The use of H2 as the second precursor led to smaller Pt particle sizes. Differences in particle size were found to be related to the availability of surface hydroxyl groups, which were monitored via in situ infrared spectroscopy during Pt ALD. Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) of CO and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) for adsorbed CO were used to characterize sites and coordination numbers of the nanoparticles. As expected, smaller nanoparticles had sites with lower average coordination numbers. The catalysts were evaluated for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propylene. Catalysts having the smallest Pt particles with the lowest coordination number (synthesized by one cycle of Pt ALD with H2) had...
The Power of Extrapolating Basic Laboratory Principles: The Behavioural-Cognitive Approach of Implosive Therapy

The purpose of this article is to emphasise the importance of basic research in the advancement of theory and clinical technique. To illustrate the power of such a strategy the theory and imagery technique of Implosive (Flooding) Therapy will be briefly described along with a recent modification that has resulted in the development of a new technique which is capable of reactivating all past traumatic memories responsible for the development and maintenance of psychopathology. This new approach has resulted in a number of important discoveries that challenge many currently held beliefs.
Photoaffinity Labeling of Pentameric Ligand-Gated Ion Channels: A Proteomic Approach to Identify Allosteric Modulator Binding Sites

Photoaffinity labeling techniques have been used for decades to identify drug binding sites and to study the structural biology of allosteric transitions in transmembrane proteins including pentameric ligand-gated ion channels (pLGIC). In a typical photoaffinity labeling experiment, to identify drug binding sites, UV light is used to introduce a covalent bond between a photoreactive ligand (which upon irradiation at the appropriate wavelength converts to a reactive intermediate) and amino acid residues that lie within its binding site. Then protein chemistry and peptide microsequencing techniques are used to identify these amino acids within the protein primary sequence. These amino acid residues are located within homology models of the receptor to identify the binding site of the photoreactive probe. Molecular modeling techniques are then used to model the binding of the photoreactive probe within the binding site using docking protocols. Photoaffinity labeling directly identifies amino acids that contribute to drug binding sites regardless of their location within the protein structure and distinguishes them from amino acids that are only involved in the transduction of the conformational changes mediated by the drug, but may not be part of its binding site (such as those identified by mutational studies). Major limitations of photoaffinity labeling include the availability of photoreactive ligands that faithfully mimic the properties of the parent molecule and protein preparations that supply large enough quantities suitable for photoaffinity labeling experiments. When the ligand of interest is not intrinsically photoreactive, chemical modifications to add a photoreactive group to the parent drug, and pharmacological evaluation of these chemical modifications become necessary. With few exceptions, expression and affinity-purification of proteins are required prior to photolabeling. Methods to isolate milligram quantities of highly enriched pLGIC suitable for photoaffinity labeling experiments have been developed. In this chapter, we discuss practical aspects of experimental strategies to identify allosteric modulator binding sites in pLGIC using photoaffinity labeling.