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The question of whether it is possible to compute scattering resonances of Schrödinger operators - independently of the particular potential - is addressed. A positive answer is given, and it is shown that the only information required to be known a priori is the size of the support of the potential. The potential itself is merely required to be C. The proof is constructive, providing a universal algorithm which only needs to access the values of the potential at any requested point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To establish accurate action-outcome associations in the environment, individuals must refrain from assigning value to outcome-irrelevant features. However, studies have largely ignored the role of attentional control processes on action value updating. In the current study, we examined the extent to which working memory—a system that can filter and block the processing of irrelevant information in one's mind—also filters outcome-irrelevant information during value-based learning. For this aim, 174 individuals completed a well-established working memory capacity measurement and a reinforcement learning task designed to estimate outcome-irrelevant learning. We replicated previous studies showing a group-level tendency to assign value to tasks' response keys, despite clear instructions and practice suggesting they are irrelevant to the prediction of monetary outcomes. Importantly, individuals with higher working memory capacity were less likely to assign value to the outcome-irrelevant response keys, thus suggesting a significant moderation effect of working memory capacity on outcome-irrelevant learning. We discuss the role of working memory processing on value-based learning through the lens of a cognitive control failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of whether there exists an approximation procedure to compute the resonances of any Helmholtz resonator, regardless of its particular shape, is addressed. A positive answer is given, and it is shown that all that one has to assume is that the resonator chamber is bounded and that its boundary is C 2 . The proof is constructive, providing a universal algorithm which only needs to access the values of the characteristic function of the chamber at any requested point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that schools can promote academic success and higher grades by reducing the negative effect of socioeconomic disadvantage through the mediation of a positive climate. However, a critical question largely remains unanswered: Does the mediation of positive school climate on the link between socioeconomic background and academic achievement remain similar for all schools in all cultures and among all ethnic groups? Using a nationally representative database with school climate and language arts test scores of primary and secondary Hebrew and Arabic language schools in Israel (N = 1188), we examined the contribution of both internal (i.e., school climate and grade level) and external (i.e., ethnocultural and socioeconomic backgrounds) influences on schools' language arts test scores. Using multilevel analyses, findings indicated that the magnitude of the mediation of positive school climate, as manifested by a greater sense of security and decreased school violence, in the link between socioeconomic status and test scores was significant only for elementary schools educating Arabic language minority populations and not for nonminority elementary Hebrew language schools. However, this was not the case for secondary schools, where evidence of higher test scores in schools with positive school climate did not emerge. Despite the many socioeconomic obstacles that ethnocultural minority students face, these results indicate that schools prioritizing a positive climate can increase academic opportunities and level the playing field for students from vulnerable cultures and backgrounds. School professionals are encouraged to invest resources that improve school climate to support underprivileged students' prosperity, especially in schools educating students from minoritized backgrounds, where more significant contributions likely exist. Implications for educational policy and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wavelet denoising is a classical and effective approach for reducing noise in images and signals. Suggested in 1994, this approach is carried out by rectifying the coefficients of a noisy image, in the transform domain, using a set of shrinkage functions (SFs). A plethora of papers deals with the optimal shape of the SFs and the transform used. For example, it is widely known that applying SFs in a redundant basis improves the results. However, it is barely known that the shape of the SFs should be changed when the transform used is redundant. In this paper, we introduce a complete picture of the interrelations between the transform used, the optimal shrinkage functions, and the domains in which they are optimized. We suggest three schemes for optimizing the SFs and provide bounds of the remaining noise, in each scheme, with respect to the other alternatives. In particular, we show that for subband optimization, where each SF is optimized independently for a particular band, optimizing the SFs in the spatial domain is always better than or equal to optimizing the SFs in the transform domain. Furthermore, for redundant bases, we provide the expected denoising gain that can be achieved, relative to the unitary basis, as a function of the redundancy rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let L 0 = ∑ j = 1 n M j 0 D j + M 0 0 , D j = 1 i ∂ ∂ x j , x ∈ ℝ n , be a constant coefficient first-order partial differential system, where the matrices M j 0 are Hermitian. It is assumed that the homogeneous part is strongly propagative. In the non-homogeneous case it is assumed that the operator is isotropic. The spectral theory of such systems and their potential perturbations is expounded, and a Limiting Absorption Principle is obtained up to thresholds. Special attention is given to a detailed study of the Dirac and Maxwell operators. The estimates of the spectral derivative near the thresholds are based on detailed trace estimates on the slowness surfaces. Two applications of these estimates are presented: Global spacetime estimates of the associated evolution unitary groups, that are also commonly viewed as decay estimates. In particular, the Dirac and Maxwell systems are explicitly treated. The finiteness of the eigenvalues (in the spectral gap) of the perturbed Dirac operator is studied, under suitable decay assumptions on the potential perturbation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper incorporates new methods of numerical linear algebra for the approximation of the biharmonic equation with potential, namely, numerical solution of the Dirichlet problem for ddx4u(x)+c(x)u(x)=ϕ(x),0c(x). Numerical examples corroborate the claim of high order accuracy of the algorithm, with optimal complexity O(N). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the three concepts of consistency, stability and convergence in the context of compact finite volume schemes for systems of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws. The treatment utilizes the framework of ''balance laws''. Such laws express the relevant physical conservation laws in the presence of discontinuities. Finite volume approximations employ this viewpoint, and the present paper can be regarded as being in this category. It is first shown that under very mild conditions a weak solution is indeed a solution to the balance law. The schemes considered here allow the computation of several quantities per mesh cell (e.g., slopes) and the notion of consistency must be extended to this framework. Then a suitable convergence theorem is established, generalizing the classical convergence theorem of Lax and Wendroff. Finally, the limit functions are shown to be entropy solutions by using a notion of ''Godunov compatibility'', which serves as a substitute to the entropy condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For generators of Markov semigroups which lack a spectral gap, it is shown how bounds on the density of states near zero lead to a so-called weak Poincaré inequality (WPI), originally introduced by Liggett (Ann Probab 19(3):935–959, 1991). Applications to general classes of constant coefficient pseudodifferential operators are studied. Particular examples are the heat semigroup and the semigroup generated by the fractional Laplacian in the whole space, where the optimal decay rates are recovered. Moreover, the classical Nash inequality appears as a special case of the WPI for the heat semigroup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution equation ∂∂tu=−∂∂x4u+Ax∂∂x2u+A′x∂∂xu−Bxu+f,x∈Ω=0,1,t≥0, is considered. A discrete parabolic methodology is developed, based on a discrete elliptic (fourth‐order) calculus. The main ingredient of this calculus is a discrete biharmonic operator (DBO). In the general case, it is shown that the approximate solutions converge to the continuous one. An "almost optimal" convergence result (O(h4 − ϵ)) is established in the case of constant coefficients, in particular in the pure biharmonic case. Several numerical test cases are presented that not only corroborate the theoretical accuracy result, but also demonstrate high‐order accuracy of the method in nonlinear cases. The nonlinear equations include the well‐studied Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation. Numerical solutions for this equation are shown to approximate remarkably well the exact solutions. The numerical examples demonstrate the great improvement achieved by using the DBO instead of the standard (five‐point) discrete bilaplacian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the cultural component of social resilience as the State of Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary. It highlights the issue of preservation of the Israeli heritage, including buildings and sites of cultural, historical and architectural value. Also discussed are the state's readiness to advance toward maturity and the roles of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Nature Conservation and National Parks Authority in the preservation.

We study smooth, global-in-time solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson system in the plasma physical case that possess arbitrarily large charge densities and electric fields. In particular, we construct two classes of solutions with this property. The first class consists of spherically sym- metric solutions that initially possess arbitrarily small density and field values but attain arbitrarily large values of these quantities at some later time. Additionally, we construct a second class of spherically symmetric solutions that possess any desired mass and attain arbitrarily large density and field values at any later prescribed time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the central Ottoman archive in Istanbul has been gradually releasing and computerizing thousands of maps stored in its collections. Our study introduces 137 maps already available to researchers that focus either directly or indirectly as part of broader presentations of imperial domains on the Ottoman Empire’s Arab provinces. These maps, which all date to between the middle of the nineteenth century and the First World War, differ widely in character, content and function. The maps are briefly described according to their content and set in their historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relativistic Vlasov--Maxwell system describes the evolution of a collisionless plasma. The problem of linear instability of this system is considered in two physical settings: the so-called one and one-half dimensional case, and the three dimensional case with cylindrical symmetry. Sufficient conditions for instability are obtained in terms of the spectral properties of certain Schrödinger operators that act on the spatial variable alone (and not in full phase space). An important aspect of these conditions is that they do not require any boundedness assumptions on the domains, nor do they require monotonicity of the equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Clinical swollen joint examination of the obese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient can be difficult. Musculoskeletal Ultrasound (MSUS) has higher sensitivity than physical examination for swollen joints (SJ). The purpose of this study was to determine the joint-specific association between power Doppler (PDUS) and clinical SJ in RA across body mass index (BMI) categories.Methods: Cross-sectional clinical and laboratory data were collected on 43 RA patients. PDUS was performed on 9 joints (wrist, metacarpalphalangeal 2-5, proximal interphalgeal 2/3 and metatarsalphalangeal 2/5). DAS28 and clinical disease activity index (CDAI) were calculated. Patients were categorized by BMI: <25, 25-30, and >30. Demographic and clinical characteristics were compared across BMI groups with Kruskal-Wallis test and chi-square tests. Joint-level associations between PDUS and clinically SJ were evaluated with mixed effects logistic regression models.Results: While demographics and clinically-determined disease activity were similar among BMI groups, PDUS scores significantly differed (p = 0.02). Using PDUS activity as the reference standard for synovitis and clinically SJ as the test, the positive predictive value of SJ was significantly lower in higher BMI groups (0.71 in BMI < 25, 0.58 in BMI 25-30 and 0.44 in BMI < 30) (p = 0.02). The logistic model demonstrated that increased BMI category resulted in decreased likelihood of PDUS positivity (OR 0.52, p = 0.03).Conclusions: This study suggests that in an obese RA patient, a clinically assessed SJ is less likely to represent true synovitis (as measured by PDUS). Disease activity in obese RA patients may be overestimated by CDAI/DAS28 calculations and clinicians when considering change in therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the corrector equation from the stochastic homogenization of uniformly elliptic finite difference equations with random, possibly non symmetric coefficients. Under the assumption that the coefficients are stationary and ergodic in the quantitative form of a logarithmic Sobolev inequality (LSI), we obtain optimal bounds on the corrector and its gradient in dimensionsd≥2. Similar estimates have recently been obtained in the special case of diagonal coefficients making extensive use of the maximum principle and scalar techniques. Our new method only invokes arguments that are also available for elliptic systems and does not use the maximum principle. In particular, our proof relies on the LSI to quantify ergodicity and on regularity estimates on the derivative of the discrete Green’s function in weighted spaces. In the critical cased = 2, our argument for the estimate on the gradient of the elliptic Green’s function uses a Calderón–Zygmund estimate in discrete weighted spaces, which we state and prove. As applications, we provide a quantitative two-scale expansion and a quantitative approximation of the homogenized coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study investigated true and false memory manifestations of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism using the DRM (Deese-Roediger-McDermott) word lists paradigm. Ninety-seven college students were administered the DRM paradigm and completed the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (Slaney, Rice, Mobley, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001). Signal detection analyses revealed that perfectionism strivings was associated with more accurate memory, whereas perfectionistic concerns was associated with higher levels of false memories and higher confidence ratings about the accuracy of these memories. Moreover, individuals high in perfectionistic concerns manifested a lower memory discriminative ability, suggesting poor working memory capacity. These findings corroborate previous studies suggesting a working memory involvement in false memories and call for further investigation into the cognitive and emotional processes underlying false memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of approximating the discrete spectra of families of self-adjoint operators that are merely strongly continuous is addressed. It is well-known that the spectrum need not vary continuously (as a set) under strong perturbations. However, it is shown that under an additional compactness assumption the spectrum does vary continuously, and a family of symmetric finite-dimensional approximations is constructed. An important feature of these approximations is that they are valid for the entire family uniformly. An application of this result to the study of plasma instabilities is illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using dozens of Ottoman maps from the Central Ottoman Archives in Istanbul, the article challenges the prevailing standpoint regarding the historical-geographic process that took place on both sides of the Bay of Acre/haifa during the last decades of the Ottoman period, and led to Haifa's emergence as one of the most important port towns in the eastern Mediterranean, and concomitantly to Acre's demise and negligence. To date, the few researchers who have dealt with this process, especially from the viewpoint of Haifa's local history, have viewed the Ottoman regime as a passive force that did not act to preserve the status or economic strength of Acre, the regional headquarters, the province's capital city and the region's most important town for many years. We argue that the central Ottoman government in Istanbul did not perceive the process of Acre's demise and Haifa's rise as a deterministic process. Official Ottoman maps drawn at the request of the imperial centre as early as the 1880s show that plans existed to develop Acre and its region. These plans, even if only partially implemented, would have clearly contributed to preserving Acre's status over Haifa. The Ottomans attempted to preserve the geo-strategic status of Acre and its importance and made plans to upgrade various infrastructures in the town's vicinity, which might have changed processes related to physical conditions and powerful technological advances. This approach, which is based on the belief in the human ability to confront and deal with deterministic geographic and physical conditions, seems to have been the foundation of Ottoman planning in the case of Acre. The Ottomans' capacity to implement these plans was very limited, however, and they eventually had to acknowledge this reality. Thus, Acre was reduced to its formal status as the capital of an Ottoman administrative district until the end of the Ottoman rule in Palestine. In a way, its fate was not very different from that of other traditional centres of Ottoman rule along the eastern Mediterranean coast, whose importance diminished at that time, while new centres that were more cosmopolitan and connected to developments overseas came to power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Akko 1 shipwreck was an Egyptian armed vessel, built at the beginning of the 19th century. A wooden saw handle and a box containing iron nails and two split pins were discovered towards the stern. Given their function, location and context, these were part of the ship's carpenter's tools and accessories. A methodology was developed for conducting systematic metallurgical analysis in order to understand the manufacturing process of the surviving ironwork items, as well as to enlarge our knowledge regarding ironworking technologies during the early 19th century. Such methodology may assist in the future understanding of the technological evolution of similar wrought-iron objects. The results demonstrated that the artefacts have a wrought-iron heterogeneous microstructure and were manufactured by hot-working prior to surface hardening by pack carburization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on new barriers in the theory of computations. These barriers show that the standard theory of computations and complexity theory is insufficient for many core problems in computational theory. Thus we are in need for a new extended complexity theory. The new theory settles the long-standing computational spectral problem and also provides new fundamental algorithms for quantum mechanics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the historical and cartographical understanding of the creation of the border between Egypt and Ottoman Palestine – Israel's current southern border – by examining Ottoman maps from the period between the mid nineteenth century and World War I. These maps deal with different stages of the border's definition and demarcation, and shed light on the Ottoman view of the region and its borders, which differs considerably from the more widely known British perspective. Most of these maps were not produced to deal directly with the issue of the border, but when embedded within the broader Ottoman cartographic and geopolitical framework, provide crucial information which allows us to trace the process of border definition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted comparative assessment of friendship in preschoolers with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD, n = 29) versus preschoolers with typical development ( n = 30), focusing on interactions with friends versus acquaintances. Groups were matched on SES, verbal/nonverbal MA, IQ, and CA. Multidimensional assessments included: mothers' and teachers' reports about friends' and friendship characteristics and observed individual and dyadic behaviors throughout interactions with friends versus non-friends during construction, drawing, and free-play situations. Findings revealed group differences in peer interaction favoring the typical development group, thus supporting the neuropsychological profile of HFASD. However, both groups' interactions with friends surpassed interactions with acquaintances on several key socio-communicative and intersubjective capabilities, thus suggesting that friendship may contribute to enhancement and practice of social interaction in HFASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The spectra of parallel flows (that is, flows governed by first-order differential operators parallel to one direction) are investigated, on both spaces and weighted- spaces. As a consequence, an example of a flow admitting a purely singular continuous spectrum is provided. For flows admitting more regular spectra the density of states is analyzed, and spaces on which it is uniformly bounded are identified. As an application, an ergodic theorem with uniform convergence is proved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Previous studies suggest that whereas the left hemisphere (LH) is involved in fine semantic processing, the right hemisphere (RH) is uniquely engaged in coarse semantic coding including the comprehension of distinct types of language such as figurative language, lexical ambiguity and verbal humor (e.g., Chiarello, 2003; Faust, 2012). The present study examined the patterns of hemispheric involvement in fine/coarse semantic processing in native and non-native languages using a split visual field priming paradigm. Thirty native Hebrew speaking students made lexical decision judgments of Hebrew and English target words preceded by strongly, weakly, or unrelated primes. Results indicated that whereas for Hebrew pairs, priming effect for the weakly-related word pairs was obtained only for RH presented target words, for English pairs, no priming effect for the weakly-related pairs emerged for either LH or RH presented targets, suggesting that coarse semantic coding is much weaker for a non-native than native language. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective Mutations in LMNA encoding the A-type lamins cause several diseases, including those with features of premature aging and skeletal abnormalities. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of lamin A in cartilage from patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and the effects of its overexpression on chondrocyte senescence and apoptosis. Methods Human chondrocyte-like cells (SW-1353) were used. RNA isolated from human OA and non-OA cartilage was used for profiling messenger RNA expression, using Affymetrix microarray analysis. The effects of lamin A overexpression on mitochondrial function and apoptosis were examined by assessing mitochondrial membrane potential, ATP levels, and cytochrome c release, and with a TUNEL assay. Western blotting was performed to determine protein expression. Results Lamin A expression was markedly elevated in OA cartilage samples compared with non-OA control samples. Western blot analysis confirmed increased expression of lamin A in OA compared with non-OA cartilage. Interleukin-1β treatment inhibited lamin A accumulation, whereas treatment with prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) caused a marked increase in lamin A accumulation. These effects of exogenous PGE2 on lamin A expression were mediated via the EP2/EP4 receptors. Transfected chondrocytes that expressed lamin A displayed markers of early senescence/apoptosis. Conclusion The results of this study suggest that lamin A is up-regulated in OA chondrocytes, and that increased nuclear accumulation of lamin A in response to catabolic stress may account for the premature aging phenotype and apoptosis of OA chondrocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the 112-dimensional relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system that describes the time-evolution of a plasma. We find a relatively simple criterion for spectral instability of a wide class of equilibria. This class includes non-homogeneous equilibria that need not satisfy any additional symmetry properties (as was the case in previous results), nor should they be monotone in the particle energy. The criterion is given in terms of the spectral properties of two Schrödinger operators that arise naturally from Maxwell's equations. The spectral analysis of these operators is quite delicate, and some general functional analytic tools are developed to treat them. These tools can be applied to similar systems in higher dimensions, as long as their domain is finite or periodic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let $H = -\sum_{j, k = 1}^n \frac{\partial}{\partial x_j} a_{j, k}(x)\frac{\partial}{\partial x_k}$ be a formally self-adjoint (elliptic) operator in L2 (ℝn), n ≥ 2. The real coefficients aj, k(x) = ak, j(x) are assumed to be bounded and to coincide with -Δ outside of a ball. The paper deals with two topics: (i) An eigenfunction expansion theorem, proving in particular that H is unitarily equivalent to -Δ, and (ii) Global spacetime estimates for the associated inhomogeneous wave equation, proved under suitable ("nontrapping") additional assumptions on the coefficients. The main tool used here is a Limiting Absorption Principle (LAP) in the framework of weighted Sobolev spaces, which holds also at the threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial-boundary value problem for the (viscous) nonlinear scalar conservation law is considered, \[ \begin{array}{ccc} u^\varepsilon_t +f(u^\varepsilon)_x=\varepsilon u^\varepsilon_{xx},\quad x\in\mathbb{R}_+= (0,\infty), \quad 0\leq t\leq T, \quad \varepsilon>0,\\ u^\varepsilon(x,0)=u_0(x),\\ u^\varepsilon(0,t)=g(t).\\ \end{array} \] The flux f(ξ) ∈ C2(ℝ) is assumed to be convex (but not strictly convex, i.e. f″(ξ)≥ 0). It is shown that a unique limit u = lim∊ → 0 u∊ exists. The classical duality method is used to prove uniqueness. To this end parabolic estimates for both the direct and dual solutions are obtained. In particular, no use is made of the Kružkov entropy considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We consider entropy solutions to the initial value problem associated with scalar nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws posed on the two-dimensional sphere. We propose a finite volume scheme which relies on a web-like mesh made of segments of longitude and latitude lines. The structure of the mesh allows for a discrete version of a natural geometric compatibility condition, which arose earlier in the well-posedness theory established by Ben-Artzi and LeFloch. We study here several classes of flux vectors which define the conservation law under consideration. They are based on prescribing a suitable vector field in the Euclidean three-dimensional space and then suitably projecting it on the sphere’s tangent plane; even when the flux vector in the ambient space is constant, the corresponding flux vector is a non-trivial vector field on the sphere. In particular, we construct here “equatorial periodic solutions”, analogous to one-dimensional periodic solutions to one-dimensional conservation laws, as well as a wide variety of stationary (steady state) solutions. We also construct “confined solutions”, which are time-dependent solutions supported in an arbitrarily specified subdomain of the sphere. Finally, representative numerical examples and test cases are presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Previous research suggests that the right hemisphere (RH) may contribute uniquely to discourse and text processing by activating and maintaining a wide range of meanings, including more distantly related meanings. The present study used the word-lists false memory paradigm [Roediger, H. L., III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803–814.] to examine the hypothesis that difference between the two cerebral hemispheres in discourse processing may be due, at least partly, to memory representations for implicit text-related semantic information. Specifically, we tested the susceptibility of the left hemisphere (LH) and RH to unpresented target words following the presentation of semantically related words appearing in either word lists or short texts. Findings showed that the RH produced more false alarms than the LH for unpresented target words following either word lists or texts. These findings reveal hemispheric differences in memory for semantically related information and suggest that RH advantage in long-term maintenance of a wide range of text-related word meanings may be one aspect of its unique contribution to the construction of a discourse model. The results support the RH coarse semantic coding theory [Beeman, M. (1998). Coarse semantic coding and discourse comprehension. In M. Beeman & C. Chiarello (Eds.), Right hemisphere language comprehension: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience (pp. 255–284). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.] and suggest that hemispheric differences in semantic processing during language comprehension extend also to verbal memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We present a fast direct solver methodology for the Dirichlet biharmonic problem in a rectangle. The solver is applicable in the case of the second order Stephenson scheme [J. W. Stephenson, J. Comput. Phys., 55 (1984), pp. 65-80] as well as in the case of a new fourth order scheme, which is discussed in this paper and is based on the capacitance matrix method ([B. L. Buzbee and F. W. Dorr, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 11 (1974), pp. 1136-1150], [P. Bjørstad, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 20 (1983), pp. 59-71]). The discrete biharmonic operator is decomposed into two components. The first is a diagonal operator in the eigenfunction basis of the Laplacian, to which the FFT algorithm is applied. The second is a low-rank perturbation operator (given by the capacitance matrix), which is due to the deviation of the discrete operators from diagonal form. The Sherman-Morrison formula [G. H. Golub and C. F. Van Loan, Matrix Computations, 3rd ed., John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 1996] is applied to obtain a fast solution of the resulting linear system of equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Despite a lack of clear recommendations to guide decision-making, reductions in enoxaparin sodium dosage in the elderly and in patients with mild and moderate renal dysfunction are common in patients with acute coronary syndrome. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether weight, age and renal function are associated with anti-factor Xa activity and with bleeding in elderly patients treated with enoxaparin sodium. METHOD: This was a prospective observational study of 156 elderly patients admitted consecutively to a general internal medicine ward with creatinine clearance >30 mL/min who were treated with enoxaparin sodium twice daily. Anti-factor Xa activity and bleeding events were documented in all patients. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine the effects of clinical characteristics such as renal dysfunction, age and bodyweight on these parameters. RESULTS: 156 patients (60% males, mean age 71.0 +/- 15.98 years) were studied. Therapeutic anti-factor Xa was observed in 85.3% of patients treated with enoxaparin sodium 0.61-0.8 mg/kg/12h, and in 82.6% of patients treated with enoxaparin sodium 0.81-1.1 mg/kg/12h. Minor or major bleeding was observed in 5.8% of patients, and was associated with a lower mean bodyweight (61.89 +/- 13.35 vs 74.30 +/- 13.24 kg for patients with no bleeding; p = 0.014). Bodyweight

Background: Despite a lack of clear recommendations to guide decision-making, reductions in enoxaparin sodium dosage in the elderly and in patients with mild and moderate renal dysfunction are common in patients with acute coronary syndrome. Objective: To evaluate whether weight, age and renal function are associated with anti-factor Xa activity and with bleeding in elderly patients treated with enoxaparin sodium. Method: This was a prospective observational study of 156 elderly patients admitted consecutively to a general internal medicine ward with creatinine clearance >30 mL/min who were treated with enoxaparin sodium twice daily. Anti-factor Xa activity and bleeding events were documented in all patients. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine the effects of clinical characteristics such as renal dysfunction, age and bodyweight on these parameters. Results: 156 patients (60% males, mean age 71.0 ± 15.98 years) were studied. Therapeutic anti-factor Xa was observed in 85.3% of patients treated with enoxaparin sodium 0.61-0.8 mg/kg/12h, and in 82.6% of patients treated with enoxaparin sodium 0.81-1.1 mg/kg/12h. Minor or major bleeding was observed in 5.8% of patients, and was associated with a ower mean bodyweight (61.89 ± 13.35 vs 74.30 ± 13.24 kg for patients with no bleeding; p = 0.014). Bodyweight ⩽55 kg was associated with bleeding with an odds ratio of 5.63 (95% CI 1.2, 25, p = 0.025). Conclusion: Low bodyweight is associated with a greater risk of bleeding despite a reduction in enoxaparin sodium dose according to weight. This finding supports the possibility that low bodyweight is an independent risk factor for enoxaparin sodium-related bleeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous research suggests that the left hemisphere (LH) focuses on strongly related word meanings; the right hemisphere (RH) may contribute uniquely to the processing of lexical ambiguity by activating and maintaining a wide range of meanings, including subordinate meanings. The present study used the word-lists false memory paradigm [Roediger, H. L. III., & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803–814.] to examine whether these differences between the two cerebral hemispheres in semantic processing also affect memory representations for different meanings of ambiguous words. Specifically, we tested the differences between the LH and RH in recollecting unpresented, semantically related, ambiguous words following the presentation of lists of words all related to either the dominant or the subordinate meanings of these ambiguous words. Findings showed that for the unpresented ambiguous words, the LH made more false alarms than the RH for the dominant lists, whereas the opposite pattern emerged for subordinate lists. Moreover, d′ analyses showed that, whereas the LH was more sensitive to subordinate than dominant meanings, the RH showed no differences in sensitivity for the two types of word–lists. Taken as a whole, these results support the RH coarse semantic coding theory [Beeman, M. (1998). Coarse semantic coding and discourse comprehension. In Beeman & M., Chiarello, C. (Eds.), Right hemisphere language comprehension: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience (pp. 255–284). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; Jung-Beeman, M. (2005). Bilateral brain processes for comprehending natural language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 512–518.] indicating that during word recognition, the RH activates and maintains a broader and less differentiated range of related meanings than the LH, including both dominant and subordinate meanings of ambiguous words. Furthermore, the findings suggest that hemispheric differences in ambiguity resolution during language processing extend also to verbal memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Motivated by many applications (geophysical flows, general relativity), we attempt to set the foundations for a study of entropy solutions to non-linear hyperbolic conservation laws posed on a (Riemannian or Lorentzian) manifold. The flux of the conservation laws is viewed as a vector-field on the manifold and depends on the unknown function as a parameter. We introduce notions of entropy solutions in the class of bounded measurable functions and in the class of measure-valued mappings. We establish the well-posedness theory for conservation laws on a manifold, by generalizing both Kruzkov''s and DiPerna''s theories originally developed in the Euclidian setting. The class of geometry-compatible (as we call it) conservation laws is singled out as an important case of interest, which leads to robust estimates independent of the geometry of the manifold. On the other hand, general conservation laws solely enjoy the contraction property and leads to a unique contractive semi-group of entropy solutions. Our framework allows us to construct entropy solutions on a manifold via the vanishing diffusion method or the finite volume method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

After its transfer to British rule in 1878, Cyprus became an object of Jewish settlement. The island was seen as a reasonable alternative at a time when aliyah and land purchase in Eretz-Israel were problematic. Three attempts were made by different groups to settle Jews in rural sites between 1882 and 1935. The first, near Pathos, was initiated by a millenarian British association. It lasted barely a year and focused on helping immigrants from Russia. The second, in the years 1892–1898, fostered by a pre-Zionist group of London Jews, and with the assistance of JCA, led to the purchase of Margo, an agricultural site located between Larnaka and Nicosia. The third attempt, the longest, between 1898 and 1935, was sponsored by the JCA itself, which settled about 35 families and offered continuing professional assistance. Ultimate failure was assured, nonetheless, by the proximity of Eretz-Israel, which exerted an irresistible allure on the younger, second, generation. For a short time, Cyprus was thought by some to be a political alternative to Eretz-Israel. The so-called “Trietsch Project” of 1898 interested even Herzl himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a family of filter kernels—the Gray-Code Kernels (GCK) and demonstrate their use in image analysis. Filtering an image with a sequence of Gray-Code Kernels is highly efficient and requires only two operations per pixel for each filter kernel, independent of the size or dimension of the kernel. We show that the family of kernels is large and includes the Waish-Hadamard kernels, among others. The GCK can be used to approximate any desired kernel and, as such forms, a complete representation. The efficiency of computation using a sequence of GCK filters can be exploited for various real-time applications, such as, pattern detection, feature extraction, texture analysis, texture synthesis, and more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A direct Eulerian generalized Riemann problem (GRP) scheme is derived for compressible fluid flows. Riemann invariants are introduced as the main ingredient to resolve the generalized Riemann problem (GRP) directly for the Eulerian formulation. The crucial auxiliary Lagrangian scheme in the original GRP scheme is not necessary in the present framework. The delicate sonic cases can be easily treated and the extension to multidimensional cases is obtained using the dimensional splitting technique. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study compared characteristics of combatant and non-combatant Israeli soldiers (ages 18–21), who committed suicide ( N = 429) with others who did not commit suicide ( N = 499). Measures of pre-military psychological characteristics and data reflecting adjustment to service were culled from army records. Findings indicated that, in comparison to non-suicide soldiers (NS-soldiers), soldiers who committed suicide (S-soldiers) had greater behavioral adjustment and motivation to serve. In addition, as compared to non-combatant S-soldiers, combatant S-soldiers had fewer referrals for psychological evaluation, higher sense of duty and autonomy scores and fewer unit changes. Excessive motivation to excel in the army, and the tendency to be autonomous and independent, may account for suicide among combatant S-soldiers, whereas personality weaknesses may have an impact on suicide among non-combatants. Practical implications for the disclosure of suicide risk and for preventive efforts in both groups are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A pure-streamfunction formulation is introduced for the numerical simulation of the two-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The idea is to replace the vorticity in the vorticity-streamfunction evolution equation by the Laplacian of the streamfunction. The resulting formulation includes the streamfunction only, thus no inter-function relations need to be invoked. A compact numerical scheme, which interpolates streamfunction values as well as its first order derivatives, is presented and analyzed. A number of numerical experiments are presented, including driven and double driven cavities, where the Reynolds numbers are sufficiently large, leading to symmetry breaking of asymptotic solutions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The main debate concerning dyslexia focuses on the question of whether dyslexia is a language-specific disorder or a general nervous system dysfunction manifested in deficits of temporal processing. According to the temporal-order deficit hypothesis, dyslexia manifests difficulty in discriminating the temporal order of stimuli. Evidence has usually involved testing the ability to discriminate series of phonemes or pure tones whose components are separated by very short intervals. One of the difficulties in interpreting the data is the confound of changes in the spectrum with changes in temporal order. Two experiments are reported. In the first experiment, we verified the difficulty by adult dyslexics in judging the temporal order of two tones differing in frequency and presented diotically. The second experiment was designed to isolate temporal-order judgment (TOJ) from holistic frequency-based pattern discrimination processes. We tested temporal-order judgments with 15ms duration tones of equal frequency presented dichotically (left–right, right–left) with ISI intervals ranging from 8 to 400ms. Dichotic temporal threshold was significantly lower for adult normal readers than for the adult dyslexics. The results support the claim that adult dyslexics have difficulty in discriminating temporal order even when no spectral changes are involved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article deals with the development of the idea of the Mediterranean as a geographical region in German geography from the end of the eighteenth century until the eve of World War II. It surveys and discusses the works of the main German researchers who, long before Braudel, contributed to the creation and conceptualization of the Mediterranean as a unique region and as a major field of interest. The discussion also confronts these developments against the background of changes in German geographical methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed dysphoric and clinically distressed individuals' ability to ignore the emotional aspects of facial expressions using the Garner speeded-classification task. Garner's paradigm tests the ability to selectively focus on a single relevant dimension while ignoring variations on other, irrelevant, ones. In the present task, the stimuli were faces of men and women expressing happy, angry, and neutral emotions. In Experiments 1 and 2, dysphoric and nondysphoric participants performed the Garner task, focusing on gender and ignoring emotion (Experiment 1) and focusing on emotion and ignoring gender (Experiment 2). Results suggest that dysphoric individuals exhibited more difficulty ignoring the emotional dimension of social stimuli even under specific instructions to do so than nondysphoric individuals. In Experiments 3 and 4, we replicated these results in clinically distressed and nondistressed individuals. The results of Experiment 3 further suggested that depression was more closely associated with the inability to selectively ignore emotion than was social anxiety. Experiment 4 confirmed that this failure of selective attention was specific to processing emotional, and not gender features. The implications of these findings for cognitive and interpersonal theories of depression are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]