On the need for domain communication knowledge

Much research in text planning has been oriented towards identifying the rhetorical component of communication knowledge that allows for the structuring of coherent multi-sentential or even multi-paragraph text. However, several researchers have recently found rhetoric-based top-down approaches to be inadequate for their particular needs. In this paper, we explore the issue by introducing the concept of "domain communication knowledge" as a new analytical tool. By analyzing two existing rhetoric-based text planners, and by closely analyzing a particular genre, namely reports, we conclude that domain-specific knowledge about communication is pervasive and should be represented explicitly for the text planning task.
La plupart des travaux de recherche dans la planification de textes ont été orientés vers ľ identification de la composante rhétorique de la connaissance de la communication, qui permet de structurer de manière cohérente un texte à phrases ou à paragraphes multiples. Ďautre part, plusieurs chercheurs ont récemment constaté que les approches descendantes basées sur la rhétorique ne convenaient pas à leurs besoins particuliers. Dans cet article, les auteurs examinent la question en utilisant un nouvel outil analytique, soit le concept de 〈〈 connaissance du domaine reliée à la communication 〉〉 En étudiant deux planificateurs de textes existants et an analysant de très près un genre particulier, soit des rapports, les auteurs concluent que la connaissance spécifique du domaine à propos de la communication est subtile et devrait faire ľobjet ďune representation explicite pour la planification de textes.     

The 1994 North American Interagency Intercomparison of Ultraviolet Monitoring Spectroradiometers

Concern over stratospheric ozone depletion has prompted several government agencies in North America to establish networks of spectroradiometers for monitoring solar ultraviolet irradiance at the surface of the Earth. To assess the ability of spectroradiometers to accurately measure solar ultraviolet irradiance, and to compare the results between instruments of different monitoring networks, the first North American Intercomparison of Ultraviolet Monitoring Spectroradiometers was held September 19–29, 1994 at Table Mountain outside Boulder, Colorado, USA. This Intercomparison was coordinated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Participating agencies were the Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and Atmospheric Environment Service, Canada. Instruments were characterized for wavelength accuracy, bandwidth, stray-light rejection, and spectral irradiance responsivity, the latter with a NIST standard lamp calibrated to operate in the horizontal position. The spectral irradiance responsivity was determined once indoors and twice outdoors, and demonstrated that, while the responsivities changed upon moving the instruments, they were relatively stable when the instruments remained outdoors. Synchronized spectral scans of the solar irradiance were performed over several days. Using the spectral irradiance responsivities determined with the NIST standard lamp, and a simple convolution technique to account for the different bandwidths of the instruments, the measured solar irradiances agreed within 5 %.     

Enrolling and retaining mothers of substance-exposed infants in drug abuse treatment.

This study provided an experimental test of a drug abuse treatment enrollment and retention intervention in a sample of 103 Black mothers of substance-exposed infants. Significantly more women assigned to the Engaging Moms Program enrolled into drug abuse treatment than did women assigned to the control condition (88% vs. 46%). Sixty-seven percent of participants in the Engaging Moms Program received at least 4 weeks of drug abuse treatment compared with 38% of the control women. However, there were no differences between the groups 90 days following treatment entry. Logistic regressions revealed that readiness for treatment predicted both short-term and long-term treatment retention. The Engaging Moms Program has considerable promise in facilitating treatment entry and short-term retention, but it did not influence long-term retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Curriculum-based measurement in reading: A comparison of similar versus challenging material.

Although research has demonstrated that long-term goals based on the student's instructional match are most sensitive to student gains, there have been few studies investigating whether probe material should be selected from material in which the student is currently instructed or from material in which the student is expected to be instructional after 1 year. The purpose of this study was to determine whether similar material or challenging material would be the most sensitive for progress monitoring of student oral reading fluency. The oral reading fluency of 20 students reading on a 2nd grade level was monitored concurrently with similar and challenging material. The results of this study suggested that the measures were equally sensitive. However, both types of measurement appear to have significant error associated with the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Being bad isn't always good: Affective context moderates the attention bias toward negative information.

Research has demonstrated that people automatically devote more attention to negative information than to positive information. The authors conducted 3 experiments to test whether this bias is attenuated by a person's affective context. Specifically, the authors primed participants with positive and negative information using traditional (e.g., subliminal semantic priming) and nontraditional (e.g., social interactions) means and measured the amount of attention they allocated to positive and negative information. With both event-related brain potentials (Experiment 1) and the Stroop task (Experiments 2 and 3), results suggest that the attention bias to negative information is attenuated or eliminated when positive constructs are made accessible. The implications of this result for other biases to negative information and for the self-reinforcing nature of emotional disorders are discussed (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methods to mitigate injury to toddlers in near-side impact crashes

This research focuses on the injury potential of children seated in forward-facing child safety seats during side impact crashes in a near-side seated position. Side impact dynamic sled tests were conducted by NHTSA at Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC) using a Hybrid III 3-year-old child dummy seated in a convertible forward/rearward child safety seat. The seat was equipped with a LATCH and a top tether and the dummy was positioned in forward-facing/near-side configuration. The test was completed using an acceleration pulse with a closing speed of 24.1 km/h, in the presence of a rigid wall and absence of a vehicle body. A fully deformable finite element model of a child restraint seat, for side impact crash investigations, has been developed which has also been previously validated for frontal and far side impacts. A numerical model utilizing a Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy, employing a similar set-up as the experimental sled test was generated and simulated using LS DYNA. The numerical model was validated by comparing the head and the chest accelerations, resultant upper and lower neck forces and moments from the experimental and numerical tests. The simulation results were observed to be in good agreement to the experimental observations. A numerical model of the near-side laboratory tests, utilizing a Q3s child dummy, was also created for parametric studies regarding different ISOFIX configurations. Further, numerical simulations were completed for both the dummy models with rectangular and cross-shaped sections of rigid ISOFIX systems. In addition, studies were conducted to confine lateral movement of the dummy's head by adding energy absorbing foam on the side wings in the vicinity of the contact region of the CRS. It was observed that the use of rigid ISOFIX system reduced the lateral displacement of the CRS and different injury parameters. Addition of energy absorbing foam blocks was effective in further reducing the lateral displacement of the dummy's head. The lateral displacement of the head was reduced by 68 mm by using cross-shaped section ISOFIX with energy absorbing foam near the vicinity of the head of the Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy compared to the flexible LATCH configuration without foam. For the Q3s dummy, the lateral displacement of the head was reduced by 48 mm by utilizing a cross-shaped section rigid ISOFIX system with the addition of energy absorbing foam compared to the flexible LATCH configuration.     

Assessing the effect of surface chemistry on gold nanorod uptake, toxicity, and gene expression in mammalian cells

Through the use of various layer-by-layer polyelectrolyte (PE) coating schemes, such as the common poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)-poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid) (PDADMAC-PSS) system, the mammalian cellular uptake of gold nanorods can be tuned from very high to very low by manipulating the surface charge and functional groups of the PEs. The toxicity of these nanorods is also examined. Since the PE coatings are individually toxic, the toxicity of nanorods coated in these PEs is measured and cells are found to be greater than 90% viable in nearly all cases, even at very high concentrations. This viability assay may not be a complete indicator of toxicity, and thus gene-expression analysis is used to examine the molecular changes of cells exposed to PDADMAC-coated nanorods, which enter cells at the highest concentrations. Indicators of cell stress, such as heat-shock proteins, are not significantly up- or down-regulated following nanorod uptake, which suggests that PDADMAC-coated gold nanorods have negligible impact on cell function. Furthermore, a very low number of genes experience any significant change in expression (0.35% of genes examined). These results indicate that gold nanorods are well suited for therapeutic applications, such as thermal cancer therapy, due to their tunable cell uptake and low toxicity.     

Long-Chain Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in the Blood of Children and Adolescents with Juvenile Bipolar Disorder

Reduced long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCn-3PUFA), including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have been reported in adult patients suffering from depression and bipolar disorder (BD). LCn-3PUFA status has not previously been examined in children and adolescents with BD compared with healthy controls. Fifteen children and adolescents (9-18 years, M +/- SD = 14.4 +/- 3.48) diagnosed with juvenile bipolar disorder (JBD) and fifteen healthy age and sex-matched controls were assessed for dietary intake and fasting red blood cell (RBC) membrane concentrations of LCn-3PUFA. Fatty acid concentrations were compared between participants diagnosed with JBD and controls after controlling for dietary intake. RBC membrane concentrations of EPA and DHA were not significantly lower in participants diagnosed with JBD compared with healthy controls (M +/- sem EPA = 3.37 +/- 0.26 vs. 3.69 +/- 0.27 microg/mL, P = 0.458; M +/- sem DHA = 22.08 +/- 2.23 vs. 24.61 +/- 2.38 microg/mL, P = 0.528) after controlling for intake. Red blood cell DHA was negatively (r = -0.55; P = 0.044) related to clinician ratings of depression. Although lower RBC concentrations of LCn-3PUFA were explained by lower intakes in the current study, previous evidence has linked reduced LCn-3PUFA to the aetiology of BD. As RBC DHA was also negatively related to symptoms of depression, a randomised placebo-controlled study examining supplementation with LCn-3PUFA as an adjunct to standard pharmacotherapy appears warranted in this patient population.     

Spectroscopic investigation of the uptake of arsenite from solution by synthetic mackinawite

As(III) uptake from solution by synthetic mackinawite is examined as a function of pH and initial As(III) concentration using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). XAS data indicate that when mackinawite is reacted at pH 5, 7, and 9 with 5 x 10(-4) M As(III), arsenic is reduced from its original +3 valence state and is primarily coordinated as As-S (approximately 2.26 angstroms) and As-As (approximately 2.54 angstroms), which is consistent with the formation of a realgar-like phase in agreement with XRD data. At 5 x 10(-5) M As(III), samples are markedly different from those collected at an order of magnitude higher concentration and differ at each pH value. The XAS analysis of mackinawite samples reacted with 5 x 10(-5) M As(III) shows a transition from As-O coordination to As-S coordination as pH decreases, with the sample reacted at pH 5 resembling realgar. Under alkaline conditions, arsenic retains its original valence state of +3 and is primarily coordinated to oxygen at a distance of 1.75 angstroms. This may be attributed to uptake by adsorption as an As(III) oxyanion. These results provide the basis for selecting the reactions needed for modeling and are beneficial in understanding the mechanisms of arsenite uptake by mackinawite under anoxic sulfidic conditions.     

Natural gas & electricity pricing: Price impacts of regulating the worldwide fracking frenzy

On August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Policy Act of 2005. 1 The act included an exemption that prohibited regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act of any hydraulic fracturing used for the purpose of oil, natural gas, and geothermal production. 2 This regulatory relief, combined with technological advances in shale extraction, led to significant increases in shale gas production and dramatic reductions in natural gas prices.