Sole Influence Research Articles

Reconsidering the Auricular Surface as an Indicator of Age at Death

Using standards established by Lovejoy et al. to estimate age at death from auricular surface morphology, 266 individuals of documented age, sex, and ancestry from the Terry and Bass Donated Collections were scored. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicates that for the factors that could be controlled, age is the sole influence on auricular surface morphology. Ancestry and sex had no significant effect on auricular phase expression. No evidence of secular changes was detected when comparing the Terry Collection (early 20th century) to the Bass Collection (later 20th century). Pearson correlations reveal that several of the subcomponents of the auricular surface (superior and inferior demifaces, left and right sides, transverse organization, texture) correspond with age equally well, although a combined scoring of all features performs slightly better than any one indicator taken alone. Not surprisingly, only 33% of the sample was correctly aged when using the 5-year age ranges provided by Lovejoy et al., suggesting that the published ranges are much too narrow to be used in forensic contexts. To assess the variation in age per phase, standard descriptive statistics and error ranges were calculated and can be employed by forensic anthropologists when estimating the age of an unidentified decedent. Because the mean ages of some of the eight phases did not differ significantly from one another, a modified six-phase system is presented. The auricular surface performs as well as any other single skeletal indicator of adult age. This research suggests that a statistically-informed approach should be taken in order to fully understand the drawbacks and limitations of any aging method.

Factors influencing solvent adduct formation by calixarenes in the solid state.

Structural studies of seven very differently functionalised derivatives of calix[4]arene have been used to provide an analysis of the numerous factors which may influence solvent adduct formation by calixarenes. Evidence is presented that even where a solvent guest is included within the calixarene cavity, interactions solely within the cavity cannot be seen as the sole influences upon the guest position and orientation.

The influence of hormitic clay on the time dependent properties of formulated gypsum plaster pastes

When a new product is in development or an existing product is being improved, unforeseen complications may arise in terms its rheological performance. The objective of the work was to determine the cause of an unwanted rheological phenomenon that will be referred to as 'viscosity drift.' The work involved experimental design, viscosity as a function of time at a constant shear rate, and pH as a function of time. Organically modified hormitic clay was the sole influence on the viscosity drift exhibited by the plaster pastes. It was determined that setting was not the mechanism by which the clay caused the viscosity to drift. It was, however, established that a structure was being developed within the plaster paste, specifically a clay network.

Investigating Greek Students' Ideas about Forces and Motion

Educational research has shown that high school and university students also follow the Aristotelian idea about motion; for example, a continuous action of a force is necessary to keep an object in motion. The survey presented in this article aims at a deeper investigation of secondary education students' ideas about the forces involved in objects moving under the sole influence of gravity. The main objectives are: (1) to investigate other ideas or difficulties, which intervene and determine students' mental models about motion and force, and (2) to reveal how the students in the sample are grouped according to their alternative conceptions. Our study has been mainly determined by the revision in Science Curriculum established in Greece three years ago. A survey has been administered to a total of 146 students (15–16 years old) attending six typical public high schools in Greece. The results presented show that the traditional instruction is pertinent while the approaches of the New Physics Curriculum have not been effectively expanded to the schools. The majority of the students exhibited the idea that “the original force is continuously exerted to the ball during its motion.” On the other hand, multivariate analysis has identified three discernible groups of students which have exhibited a persistent and rather consistent approach: (1) An extended group of students having the above misconception, (2) a second group of students which, generally, responded correctly to the tasks, and (3) a third group of students, which ignored the presence of the gravitational force and/or believe that the action-reaction forces are both exerted to the ball during its motion.

On the generation of thixotropic structures during melting of Mg-9%Al-1%Zn alloy

The microstructural evolution of Mg-9%Al-1%Zn alloy in the form of mechanically comminuted chips and rapidly solidified granules under the sole influence of external heat was investigated. The mechanisms governing phase and morphological transformations in solid and semisolid states were assessed and verified by a comparison with the behaviour of both conventionally cast and cold-deformed ingots, subjected to similar thermal exposures. It was revealed that the cold deformation introduced during the mechanical fragmentation of chips and chemical microsegregation inherited from a rapid solidification by granules, represent key features which control the generation of equiaxed structures during the very initial stages of melting. Ostwald ripening and coalescence were operative in the semisolid mixture within the entire range of the liquid fraction. As a result, an increase in a volume fraction of the liquid was primarily accompanied by the reduction in the number of solid particles, while the reduction in the particle size was significantly lower than anticipated from a change in the solid/liquid ratio. Some implications for engineering the microstructure during semisolid processing are discussed.

On the sole influence of plane gravitational waves on the magnitude of the gradient of a scalar field

The sole influence of plane gravitational waves (PGW) on the magnitude of the gradient of a scalar field (MGSF) defined inside a medium, is calculated. The conditions on the relations between the fluctuations in the gradient of the scalar field (GSF) and PGW leading to increase or decrease of the GSF due to the sole influence of PGW, are given. Two special cases of laser interferometers and cryogenic bar detectors are presented as an application of the proposed approach.

Book Review: Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America's Youth

Book Review: Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America's Youth

Hydraulic properties of two‐dimensional random fracture networks following a power law length distribution: 1. Effective connectivity

Natural fracture networks involve a very broad range of fractures of variable lengths and apertures, modeled, in general, by a power law length distribution and a lognormal aperture distribution. The objective of this two‐part paper is to characterize the permeability variations as well as the relevant flow structure of two‐dimensional isotropic models of fracture networks as determined by the fracture length and aperture distributions and by the other parameters of the model (such as density and scale). In this paper we study the sole influence of the fracture length distribution on permeability by assigning the same aperture to all fractures. In the following paper [de Dreuzy et al., this issue] we study the more general case of networks in which fractures have both length and aperture distributions. Theoretical and numerical studies show that the hydraulic properties of power law length fracture networks can be classified into three types of simplified model. If a power law length distributionn(l) ∼l−ais used in the network design, the classical percolation model based on a population of small fractures is applicable for a power law exponentahigher than 3. Foralower than 2, on the contrary, the applicable model is the one made up of the largest fractures of the network. Between these two limits, i.e., forain the range 2–3, neither of the previous simplified models can be applied so that a simplified two‐scale structure is proposed. For this latter model the crossover scale is the classical correlation length, defined in the percolation theory, above which networks can be homogenized and below which networks have a multipath, multisegment structure. Moreover, the determination of the effective fracture length range, within which fractures significantly contribute to flow, corroborates the relevance of the previous models and clarifies their geometrical characteristics. Finally, whatever the exponenta, the sole significant scale effect is a decrease of the equivalent permeability for networks below or at percolation threshold.

Spin transfer into an inhomogeneous magnetization distribution

Based on specific examples, we examine the consequence of spin-polarized current injection into confined model micromagnetic configurations, namely a high remanence state known as the S state and a low, though nonzero, remanence state called the Leaf state. Magnetization dynamics is solved in the space and time domain owing to the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. It is shown that, within model bounds, the S state is not propitious to fast switching under the sole influence of a polarized current, even if disregarding the current induced field, whereas Leaf state switching characteristics become extremely complex as soon as due account is made for the latter.

Why Do Men Get More Heart Disease Than Women? An International Perspective

Biological, behavioral, and psychosocial contributions to the gender gap in coronary heart disease (CHD) are discussed. Although CHD is the Number 1 cause of death for both sexes in the industrialized world, CHD mortality rates between these countries are larger than those between men and women, suggesting that biological factors are not the sole influences on the gender gap in CHD. Traditional coronary risk factors cannot explain the rapid increase in CHD mortality among middle-aged men in many of the newly independent states of eastern Europe. However, eastern European men score higher on stress-related psychosocial coronary risk factors (eg, social isolation, vital exhaustion) than men living in the West. Comparisons between the sexes also reveal gender differences in psychosocial and behavioral coronary risk factors, including excessive alcohol consumption and smoking, favoring women. Overall, it appears that men's coping with stressful events may be less adaptive physiologically, behaviorally, and emotionally, contributing to their increased risk for CHD.

Heating of Intergalactic Gas and Cluster Scaling Relations

X-ray observations of galaxy groups and clusters are inconsistent with the predictions of the simplest hierarchical clustering models, wherein nonbaryonic and baryonic components are assembled together under the sole influence of gravity. These departures are in the sense that the intergalactic medium is hotter and more extended than expected, and become increasingly strong for less massive systems. I model these effects by constructing baseline sequences of hydrostatic polytropic models normalized to observations of high-temperature clusters and numerical simulations, and then transforming them by adding proscribed amounts of heat per particle at the cluster center. I present sequences with a universal value of this heating parameter that simultaneously reproduce recently published observed (gas and total gravitational) mass-temperature and entropy-temperature relations. The required amount of energy injection is consistent with constraints on the number of supernovae needed to account for observed intracluster silicon abundances, provided that energy injection is centrally concentrated. I argue that most of the heating occurred during or after the assembly of the cluster, and not exclusively in precollapse protocluster fragments.

From Fat Falstaff to Francophile Fop: Russian Nationalism in Catherine the Great's Merry Wives

Over the course of her reign (1762-1796) Catherine wrote over two dozen comedies, historical dramas, and operas, the majority of which, like most Russian drama of the period, was modeled on French neoclassicism. French dramaturgy, however, was not the sole influence on Catherine's writing style. Not only was she reading Shakespeare in 1786 as Sinclair notes, but she also wrote four plays influenced by Shakespearean aesthetic that same year. Catherine humbly subtitled This 'tis to Have Linen and Buck-Baskets, her version of Merry Wives of Windsor, as a free but feeble adaptation. With this comedy, the first Russian play to credit Shakespeare's influence, Catherine contributed to growing Russian trend of the 1780s: lively interest in English fashion, language, and literature to replace the former domination of French culture.2 As literary historian Marcus Levitt has noted, The question to consider is not how eighteenth-century writers misunderstood or corrupted Shakespeare but how they adapted him to meet specific needs of their own.3 By imitating Shakespeare rather than Moliere or Racine, Catherine probably rejected the French model, an act with both cultural and political connotations. approbation of Shakespeare had the potential to express simultaneously pro-English and anti-French senti-

Linguistic Influences on the Emergence of Written Word Decoding in First Grade

This longitudinal investigation examined the linguistic influences on the emergence of written word decoding in a group of typically developing first-grade children. Sixty children were administered tasks that measured phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic abilities as well as literacy and alphabet knowledge during the first quarter of their kindergarten year. Subjects were then given measures of written word decoding in the fourth quarter of the first-grade year. Fixed-order regression analyses indicated that the phonological and orthographic factors contributed the most variance to written word decoding. A meaning factor also contributed significant variance to written word decoding. This latter finding challenges previous research that identifies phonological and orthographic variables as the sole influence on written word decoding. It is argued that, in teaching written word decoding skills, a focus on only form (i.e., phonological and orthographic knowledge) to the exclusion of meaning may result in less efficient decoding and subsequently may result in less competent reading comprehension.

Entry and exit: a county-level analysis

A simultaneous model of firm entry and exit is estimated for the counties of Great Britain. This is based on a simple model of entrepreneurial choice augmented by labour market and local economic infrastructure influences. A formal test of recursiveness is carried out and the system is found to be non-recursive. The rate of exit is found to be the sole influence on the entry rate, while exit is influenced by entry, the rate of change of unemployment, and the availability of managerial skills in the local area. The results are compared with an estimation which fails to allow properly for simultaneity, and policy implications are discussed.

Impact of Different Classes of Antimicrobial Agents on Plasma Endotoxin Activity

To investigate the influence of different classes and doses of antibiotics on endotoxin release in gram-negative infection in a rat model of intra- abdominal infection. Immediately after intraperitoneal inoculation of Escherichia coli (5 x 10(7) colony-forming units/kg), anesthetized Wistar rats were treated with a single intravenous dose of an antimicrobial agent: cefotaxime (40 mg/kg), ciprofloxacin (3 mg/kg or 6 mg/kg), imipenem (7 mg/kg or 14 mg/kg), or gentamicin (5 mg/kg). An untreated control group received 0.9% sodium chloride instead of antibiotic. Plasma endotoxin activity, blood bacteria count, and mean arterial pressure were monitored at 60-minute intervals for 5 hours. At the end of the experiment, lavage was performed to determine the bacteria count in the peritoneal cavity. In the untreated group, the blood bacteria count increased rapidly. Five hours after therapy, the plasma endotoxin activity in the cefotaxime group was higher by a factor of 3.6 than in the untreated group. Compared with the cefotaxime group, endotoxin activity was approximately 26% lower in the ciprofloxacin (3 mg/kg) group, 35% lower in the imipenem groups, and 38% lower in the gentamicin group. The lowest endotoxin levels were in the high-dose ciprofloxacin group. Bacteria counts in the peritoneal cavity were lowest in the gentamicin and high-dose ciprofloxacin groups. Except in the high-dose ciprofloxacin group, the endotoxin increase in the therapy groups was associated with a significant (P < .05) decrease in mean arterial pressure. In the early phase of therapy, antibiotic-induced endotoxin release is influenced by the mode of action of the agent class. This is not the sole influence in every class. With quinolones, this effect is also influenced considerably by dosage, ie, by pharmacodynamics.

The Energetics of Tarr: The Vortex-Machine Kreisler

The Energetics of Tarr:The Vortex-Machine Kreisler Michael Wutz (bio) "What, after all, does Kreisler mean? Satisfy my curiosity." -Tarr The formulation of an explicit aesthetics of the machine is constitutive of the turn-of-the-century European Zeitgeist and is generally encapsulated in the activities of Filippo Tomasso Marinetti, the galvanic maestro of the Italian Futurists. His manifestoes and his entourage announced the creed of speed and steel throughout Europe as early as 1910, and their triumphant celebration of airplanes and automobiles had a crucial impact on the artistic reception of technology, the way it was recuperated as an objet d'art. To attribute this love of machines to the sole influence of Italian Futurism, however, would be a misrepresentation of the historical situation. Rather, as Renato Poggioli and, more recently, Marjorie Perloff have argued, the voguish reception and reformulation of the Futurist program corresponded to a strong predisposition within the avant-garde to recognize the artistic potential of the machine. The barrage of Futurist pronouncements only awakened the dormant sensibilities of artistic circles that had been forming under the crust of dated aesthetic beliefs (Avant-Garde 68-74; Futurist Moment xvii-xxi). Wyndham Lewis, the founder of English Vorticism, contributed his share to this new aesthetic. While Lewis quickly recognized his affinities [End Page 845] with the Futurists, indeed formulated part of the Vorticist platform in the wake of Marinetti (such as the valorization of contemporary technology and motion and speed), he soon spelled out the differences between the Italian and the British version of this modernist sensibility. Chief among his dislikes was what he called the "Futurist gush over machines," a lack of intellectual detachment that did not allow the Italian Futurists to recognize the machine's form (Blast 1:41). In Lewis's view, the Futurists were not endowed with "a rational enthusiasm for the possibilities that lie in this new spectacle of machinery; of the technical uses to which it can be put in the arts." The Vorticists, by contrast, did recognize in the machine "a new pictorial resource" with suggestive formal possibilities and always "sought out machine-forms" (On Art 150, 340)1 This preoccupation with machine-generated form is apparent in Lewis's early paintings, but emerges with particular clarity in his first novel Tarr. Lewis in this novel translates the Vorticist fascination with machinery into the domain of narrative form and dynamic. The figure of Otto Kreisler, the novel's protagonist and the major character is conceived as a machine, and it is through him that Lewis signifies the momentum and the form of the narrative. Kreisler moves through the novel in a series of vortical gyrations that functions as his principal mode of engagement with others and that generates a force field surrounding him. By discharging the energy of his force field into the novelistic space and by drawing other characters into his orbit, Kreisler produces activity in the novel, and thus energizes the textual event. This event comes to a standstill the moment Kreisler, the rotating vortex-machine, can no longer charge himself, and he begins to run down. Equally significant, the vortex provided Lewis with a suggestive figure to encode the protofascist misogynism of his protagonist. Kreisler "naturally" gravitates toward voluptuous women that hold the promise of sexual (and financial) gratification, a form of attraction that points to the parasitic nature of his relationships. Beyond the momentary fulfillment of this physical desire, however, lies Kreisler's meta-physical desire: namely to dominate, and eventually to obliterate, the women of his involvement, and to derive strength from this very obliteration. For while Kreisler will always need women to induce his field of force-their presence helps him to generate the initial spark-he is always intent upon swallowing, that is, subsuming, these women into his widening energy field following its moment of female-male ignition. Kreisler's fantasy is one of male self-empowerment, the generation of his force field becomes his form of male self-generation; and the visual suggestiveness of the vortex, with its drilling motion and its conical protrusion, associates Kreisler with a self-sustaining phallus. Lewis thus encodes in Kreisler's vortical rotations the myth...

Carbon isotope composition and geochemistry of particulate organic matter in the Congo River (Central Africa): Application to the study of Quaternary sediments off the mouth of the river

Organic carbon isotopes and the geochemistry of organic matter have been studied in suspended material from the Congo River and some of its tributaries and in a core located at 2000-m depth, off the mouth of the river.The organic carbon isotopic composition of suspended material from the Congo tributaries identifies the floral cover and the lithologic and pedologic characteristics of their watersheds. Suspended material from the Congo River in the Stanley Pool emphasizes the sole influence of organic matter derived from C3-rich plants. Outside the Congo estuary, differences of isotopic composition between suspended material near the surface and that near the bottom emphasize the respective marine or continental origin of particulate organic carbon.The carbon isotopic composition of the marine deposits records biozonal fluctuations of the recent Quaternary. Shifts in the isotopic composition of organic matter may be explained by an increase of terrigenous organic matter derived from C3 type plants during the wet biozones Z and X whereas during the drier biozone Y the associated organic matter shows a greater influence of the productivity of the oceanic biomass. However, a possible contribution of C4 plant-derived particulate organic matter can be assumed for the very top of the Y biozone, introducing a 13C-enriched signal, indicative of marine planktonic input.

Genscher and what lies behind ‘Genscherism’

This article analyses the factors which have contributed to West Germany's decision to oppose the modernisation of short‐range nuclear missilesin 1989 and focuses on the likely impact Hans‐Dietrich Genscher had on this decision. By considering both West German domestic conditions (value changes, mass perceptions of detente, and party‐political consensus on Ostpolitik) and external factors (changing superpower relations, reforms in Eastern Europe, and European Community progress), it is argued that Genscher is neither the single architect of, nor the sole influence on, West Germany's security policy‐making.

Investigation of gas particle flow in an erosion wind tunnel

Trajectories of small particles approaching the test specimen in an erosion tunnel are analytically determined. The two-dimensional equations of motion are solved for a spherical particle under the sole influence of aerodynamic drag. The two-dimensional gradients of gas properties in the flow field are determined by a numerical solution of the equations describing a compressible inviscid fluid. At one inlet condition, the trajectories are computed for coal ash particles of various sizes approaching test specimens at several orientations. Trends are identified in the approaching characteristics that may be related to the observed erosion. The results indicate that, for ash particles with diameters less than 10 μm, significant numbers are deflected away from the specimen. These particles would otherwise impact with the specimen if they had more inertia to resist the turning effect of the flow field. Ash particles with diameters less than 30 μm which do impact with the specimen do so over a wide range of incident angles quite different from the angle between the specimen surface and the tunnel axis and at lower velocities than those at the test section inlet. The importance of fluid mechanics in erosion studies is presented in this paper.

Identification of recycled continental material in the mantle from Sr, Nd and Pb isotope investigations

Pb, Nd and Sr isotope compositions of oceanic basalts have been used to identify recycled components of continent derivation in the mantle. The isotopic compositions of Sr, Nd and Pb, together with U, Pb, Sm, Nd, Rb, and Sr abundances have been determined for back-arc basalt glasses from the Scotia Sea and Parece Vela and West Philippine Basins, in addition to basalts from South Sandwich Islands, Ascension, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha. Comparisons made between the isotopic compositions of South Sandwich Islands basalts and Atlantic MORB glasses permit the identification of recycled components of continent derivation in the source of the island arc basalts. Recycled Sr of continent derivation is also recognisable in back-arc basalt glasses from the Scotia Sea and Parece Vela and West Philippine Basins. However, contemporary reinjection of material with the isotopic structures similar to those identified as a component of island arc and back-arc regions cannot be the sole or dominant influence on the fine structure observed in MORB glasses from the Atlantic Ocean, nor the isotopic compositions of Tristan da Cunha, St. Helena and Ascension basalts. Recycled materials are likely to have been responsible for the generation of these heterogeneities only if they have been stored in the mantle for periods of time exceeding 10 9 years.