bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Incidence of lymphohaematopoietic malignancies in a petrochemical industry cohort: 1983–94 follow up
Authors: Huebner Wendy W , Chen Vivien W , Friedlander Barry R , Wu Xiao C , Jorgensen Gail , Bhojani Faiyaz A , Friedmann Craig H , Schmidt Beth A , Sales Eugene A , Joy Javed A , Correa Catherine N 
Published: July 2002

OBJECTIVESIn response to a previous finding of increased mortality from lymphohaematopoietic (LH) malignancies, this study examines incidence of LH malignancy in a petrochemical industry cohort. Emphasis is on chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and on comparisons by period of first employment.METHODThe study cohort consists of 8942 employees who were active in the period 1970–92 and alive on 31 December 1982. Record linkage with the Louisiana tumour registry (LTR) provided information on cancer for cases occurring between 1983 and 1994. Standardised incidence ratios (SIR), with the south Louisiana population as a comparison, were computed for all cancers, all LH malignancies and specific LH subtypes. Analyses were conducted for sex and race categories, and by period of first employment, job type, duration of employment, and latency.RESULTS672 Cases of cancer were identified, including 59 LH malignancies. Women (n=1169) had an overall cancer SIR below unity and four LH malignancies versus 2.28 expected. Among the 7773 men, those first employed before 1950 had no overall cancer excess, a significant 1.4-fold increase in overall LH malignancies (43 observed versus 30.78 expected), and four CLL cases versus 3.27 expected. Findings for men first employed after 1950 are based on fewer cases, but there was no indication of excesses of overall cancer or LH malignancy. Numbers were too small in the group first employed after 1950 for meaningful analysis of LH malignancy subtypes such as CLL (one case).CONCLUSIONThese findings do not suggest a continuing excess of CLL but do suggest a small increase in incidence of overall LH malignancy for workers first employed before 1950. This may reflect associations with earlier workplace conditions, although work related patterns are mixed. Interpretation is limited by the diverse group of diseases within LH malignancies, and the lack of control for non-work factors other than sex, age, race, and period of diagnosis. This study has a major advantage of more complete and reliable cancer ascertainment compared with the mortality investigation, and shows the feasibility and benefits of using cancer registry incidence data in an occupational cohort study.
Gallstones and cholecystectomy in modern Britain
Authors: Bateson M C 
Published: July 2002

Abstract

Background
It has been suggested that gallstone disease is now commoner, and that this might explain an increase in cholecystectomy rates, though conclusive evidence has been lacking.

Methods
All the non-forensic necropsy results for Dundee 1953–98 were examined to assess the prevalence of gallstone disease. The NHS Scotland annual cholecystectomy figures were extracted from their earliest availability in 1961 up to the present. The subgroup of patients from Dundee was analysed separately, as were laparoscopic procedures, which were recorded from 1991.

Results
Gallstone disease was much commoner in 1974–98 than in 1953–73. Increasing age was the main determinant of gallstone disease. Though gallstone disease was commoner in women than men aged 40–89, there was no sex difference under 40 or over 90 years. Cholecystectomy became much commoner in the 1960s when frequency of gallstone disease did not change. It increased further in the 1970s, peaking in 1977–8. There was a gradual fall in rates in the 1980s when gallstone prevalence remained high. There was a further moderate rise in the 1990s after the wide introduction of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Cholecystectomy is now much commoner in young women and this change started in the 1960s. By contrast, cholecystectomy in men has become more prevalent in the older age group.

Conclusions
Gallstones were definitely more common in both sexes at all ages over 40 in the last 25 years. Changes in the cholecystectomy rates are only partly explained by changes in gallstone prevalence, and are more determined by surgical practice.
Mitochondrial cytopathy presenting with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, hypoparathyroidism, sensorineural deafness, and progressive neurological disease
Authors: Hameed R , Raafat F , Ramani P , Gray G , Roper H P , Milford D V 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
A 6 year old boy who presented with steroid unresponsive nephrotic syndrome is reported. He was found to have focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and associated hypoparathyroidism and sensorineural deafness. The child progressed to end stage renal failure and was successfully managed by dialysis and cadaveric renal transplantation. He later developed progressive neurological deterioration and mitochondrial myopathy and neuropathy was diagnosed.
THE HAUSDORFF DIMENSION OF SOME SNOWFLAKE-LIKE RECURSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
Authors: JACKA S. D. , CROFT J. C. 
Published: July 2002

Fractal subsets of ℝn with a highly regular structure are often constructed as a limit of a recursive procedure based on contractive maps. The Hausdorff dimension of recursively constructed fractals is relatively easy to find when the contractive maps associated with each recursive step satisfy the Open Set Condition (OSC). We present a class of random recursive constructions which resemble snowflake structures and which break the OSC. We calculate the associated Hausdorff dimension and conjecture that an a.s. deterministic exact Hausdorff function does not exist.
An experimental comparison of RGB, YIQ, LAB, HSV, and opponent color models
Authors: Schwarz Michael W. , Cowan William B. , Beatty John C. 
Published: July 2002

The increasing availability of affordable color raster graphics displays has made it important to develop a better understanding of how color can be used effectively in an interactive environment. Most contemporary graphics displays offer a choice of some 16 million colors; the user's problem is to find the
right
color.

Folklore has it that the RGB color space arising naturally from color display hardware is user-hostile and that other color models such as the HSV scheme are preferable. Until now there has been virtually no experimental evidence addressing this point.
We describe a color matching experiment in which subjects used one of two tablet-based input techniques, interfaced through one of five color models, to interactively match target colors displayed on a CRT.

The data collected show small but significant differences between models in the ability of subjects to match the five target colors used in this experiment. Subjects using the RGB color model matched quickly but inaccurately compared with those using the other models. The largest speed difference occurred during the early
convergence phase
of matching. Users of the HSV color model were the slowest in this experiment, both during the convergence phase and in total time to match, but were relatively accurate. There was less variation in performance during the second
refinement phase
of a match than during the convergence phase.

Two-dimensional use of the tablet resulted in faster but less accurate performance than did strictly one-dimensional usage.
Significant learning occurred for users of the Opponent, YIQ, LAB, and HSV color models, and not for users of the RGB color model.
Some contributions to the metatheory of the situation calculus
Authors: Pirri Fiora , Reiter Ray 
Published: July 2002

We focus on a rich axiomatization for actions in the situation
calculus that includes, among other features, a solution to the frame problem for deterministic actions. Our work is foundational in nature, directed at simplifying the entailment problem for these axioms. Specifically, we make four contributions to the metatheory of situation calculus axiomatizations of dynamical systems:
(1) We prove that the above-mentioned axiomatization for actions has a relative satisfiability property; the full axiomatization is satisfiable iff the axioms for the initial state are.
(2)We define the concept of regression relative to these axioms, and prove a soundness and completeness theorem for a regression-based approach to the entailment problem for a wide class of queries.
(3) Our formalization of the situation calculus requires certain foundational axioms specifying the domain of situations. These include an induction axiom, whose presence complicates human and automated reasoning in the situation calculus. We characterize various classes of sentences whose proofs do not require induction, and in some cases, some of the other foundational axioms.
(4)We prove that the logic programming language GOLOG never requires any of the foundational axioms for the evaluation of programs.
A Machine-Independent Theory of the Complexity of Recursive Functions
Authors: Blum Manuel 
Published: July 2002

The number of steps required to compute a function depends, in general, on the type of computer that is used, on the choice of computer program, and on the input-output code. Nevertheless, the results obtained in this paper are so general as to be nearly independent of these considerations.
A function is exhibited that requires an enormous number of steps to be computed, yet has a “nearly quickest” program: Any other program for this function, no matter how ingeniously designed it may be, takes practically as many steps as this nearly quickest program.
A different function is exhibited with the property that no matter how fast a program may be for computing this function another program exists for computing the function very much faster.
Numerical Inversion of Laplace Transforms by Relating Them to the Finite Fourier Cosine Transform
Authors: Dubner H. , Abate J. 
Published: July 2002

In this paper the problem of readily determining the inverse Laplace transform numerically by a method which meets the efficiency requirements of automatic digital computation is discussed. Because the result inverse function is given as a Fourier cosine series, the procedure requires only about ten FORTRAN statements. Furthermore, it does not require the use of involved algorithms for the generation of any special functions, but uses only cosines and exponentials.
The basis of the method hinges on the fact that in evaluating the inverse Laplace transform integral there exists a freedom in choosing the contour of integration. Given certain restrictions, the contour may be any vertical line in the right-half plane. Specifying a line, the integral to be evaluated is essentially a Fourier integral. However, the method is concerned with determining the proper line, so that when the integral (along this line) is approximated, the error is as small as desired by virtue of having chosen the particular contour.
Implementing Clenshaw-Curtis quadrature, I methodology and experience
Authors: Gentleman W. Morven 
Published: July 2002

Clenshaw-Curtis quadrature is a particularly important automatic quadrature scheme for a variety of reasons, especially the high accuracy obtained from relatively few integrand values. However, it has received little use because it requires the computation of a cosine transformation, and the arithmetic cost of this has been prohibitive.
This paper is in two parts; a companion paper, “II Computing the Cosine Transformation,” shows that this objection can be overcome by computing the cosine transformation by a modification of the fast Fourier transform algorithm. This first part discusses the strategy and various error estimates, and summarizes experience with a particular implementation of the scheme.
A formal system for information retrieval from files
Authors: Hsiao David , Harary Frank 
Published: July 2002

A generalized file structure is provided by which the concepts of keyword, index, record, file, directory, file structure, directory decoding, and record retrieval are defined and from which some of the frequently used file structures such as inverted files, index-sequential files, and multilist files are derived.
Two algorithms which retrieve records from the generalized file structure are presented.
A Crosslinguistic PET Study of Tone Perception
Authors: Gandour Jack , Wong Donald , Hsieh Li , Weinzapfel Bret , Lancker Diana Van , Hutchins Gary D. 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
In studies of pitch processing, a fundamental question is whether shared neural mechanisms at higher cortical levels are engaged for pitch perception of linguistic and nonlinguistic auditory stimuli. Positron emission tomography (PET) was used in a crosslinguistic study to compare pitch processing in native speakers of two tone languages (that is, languages in which variations in pitch patterns are used to distinguish lexical meaning), Chinese and Thai, with those of English, a nontone language. Five subjects from each language group were scanned under three active tasks (tone, pitch, and consonant) that required focused-attention, speeded-response, auditory discrimination judgments, and one passive baseline as silence. Subjects were instructed to judge pitch patterns of Thai lexical tones in the tone condition; pitch patterns of nonspeech stimuli in the pitch condition; syllable-initial consonants in the consonant condition. Analysis was carried out by paired-image subtraction. When comparing the tone to the pitch task, only the Thai group showed significant activation in the left frontal operculum. Activation of the left frontal operculum in the Thai group suggests that phonological processing of suprasegmental as well as segmental units occurs in the vicinity of Broca's area. Baseline subtractions showed significant activation in the anterior insular region for the English and Chinese groups, but not Thai, providing further support for the existence of possibly two parallel, separate pathways projecting from the temporo-parietal to the frontal language area. More generally, these differential patterns of brain activation across language groups and tasks support the view that pitch patterns are processed at higher cortical levels in a top-down manner according to their linguistic function in a particular language.
Impaired Processing of Complex Auditory Stimuli in Rats with Induced Cerebrocortical Microgyria: An Animal Model of Developmental Language Disabilities
Authors: Clark Matthew G. , Rosen Glenn D. , Tallal Paula , Fitch R. Holly 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
Individuals with developmental language disabilities, including developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI), exhibit impairments in processing rapidly presented auditory stimuli. It has been hypothesized that these deficits are associated with concurrent deficits in speech perception and, in turn, impaired language development. Additionally, postmortem analyses of human dyslexic brains have revealed the presence of focal neocortical malformations such as cerebrocortical microgyria. In an initial study bridging these research domains, we found that male rats with induced microgyria were impaired in discriminating rapidly presented auditory stimuli. In order to further assess this anatomical-behavioral association, we designed two experiments using auditory-reflex modification. These studies were intended to assess whether auditory processing deficits in microgyric male rats would be seen in threshold detection of a silent gap in white noise, and in oddball detection of a two-tone stimulus of variable duration. Results showed no differences between sham and microgyric subjects on gap detection, but did show that microgyric subjects were impaired in the discrimination of two-tone stimuli presented in an oddball paradigm. This impairment was evident for stimuli with total duration of 64 msec or less, while both groups were able to discriminate stimuli with duration of 89 msec or greater. The current results further support the relationship between malformations of the cerebral cortex and deficits in rapid auditory processing. They also suggest that the parameters characterizing rapid auditory processing deficits for a specific task may be influenced by stimulus features and/or cognitive demand of that particular task.
Encoding of Categories by Noncategory-Specific Neurons in the Inferior Temporal Cortex
Authors: Thomas Elizabeth , Van Hulle Marc M. , Vogel Rufin 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
In order to understand how the brain codes natural categories, e.g., trees and fish, recordings were made in the anterior part of the macaque inferior temporal (IT) cortex while the animal was performing a tree/nontree categorization task. Most single cells responded to exemplars of more than one category while other neurons responded only to a restricted set of exemplars of a given category. Since it is still not known which type of cells contribute and what is the nature of the code used for categorization in IT, we have performed an analysis on single-cell data. A Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM), which uses an unsupervised (competitive) learning algorithm, was used to study the single cell responses to tree and nontree images. Results from the Kohonen SOM indicated that the collected neuronal data consisting of spike counts was sufficient to account for a good level of categorization success (approximately 83%) when categorizing a group of 200 trees and nontrees. Contrary to intuition, the results of the investigation suggest that the population of category-specific neurons (neurons that respond only to trees or only to nontrees) was unimportant to the categorization. Instead, a large majority of the neurons that were most important to the categorization was found to belong to a class of more broadly tuned cells, namely, cells that responded to both categories but that favored one category over the other by seven or more images. A simple algebraic operation (without the Kohonen SOM) between the above-mentioned noncategory-specific neurons confirmed the contribution of these neurons to categorization. Thus, the modeling results suggest (1) that broadly tuned neurons are critical for categorization, and (2) that only one additional layer of processing is required to extract the categories from a population of IT neurons.
When Keeping in Mind Supports Later Bringing to Mind: Neural Markers of Phonological Rehearsal Predict Subsequent Remembering
Authors: Davachi Lila , Maril Anat , Wagner Anthony D. 
Published: July 2002

Abstract
The ability to bring to mind a past experience depends on the cognitive and neural processes that are engaged during the experience and that support memory formation. A central and much debated question is whether the processes that underlie rote verbal rehearsal—that is, working memory mechanisms that keep information in mind—impact memory formation and subsequent remembering. The present study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the relation between working memory maintenance operations and long-term memory. Specifically, we investigated whether the magnitude of activation in neural regions supporting the on-line maintenance of verbal codes is predictive of subsequent memory for words that were rote-rehearsed during learning. Furthermore, during rote rehearsal, the extent of neural activation in regions associated with semantic retrieval was assessed to determine the role that incidental semantic elaboration may play in subsequent memory for rote-rehearsed items. Results revealed that (a) the magnitude of activation in neural regions previously associated with phonological rehearsal (left prefrontal, bilateral parietal, supplementary motor, and cerebellar regions) was correlated with subsequent memory, and (b) while rote rehearsal did not—on average—elicit activation in an anterior left prefrontal region associated with semantic retrieval, activation in this region was greater for trials that were subsequently better remembered. Contrary to the prevalent view that rote rehearsal does not impact learning, these data suggest that phonological maintenance mechanisms, in addition to semantic elaboration, support the encoding of an experience such that it can be later remembered.
A Systematic and Effective Supervised Learning Mechanism Based on Jacobian Rank Deficiency
Authors: Zhou Guian , Si Jennie 
Published: July 2002

Most neural network applications rely on the fundamental approximation property of feedforward networks. Supervised learning is a means of implementing this approximate mapping. In a realistic problem setting, a mechanism is needed to devise this learning process based on available data, which encompasses choosing an appropriate set of parameters in order to avoid overfitting, using an efficient learning algorithm measured by computation and memory complexities, ensuring the accuracy of the training procedure as measured by the training error, and testing and cross-validation for generalization. We develop a comprehensive supervised learning algorithm to address these issues. The algorithm combines training and pruning into one procedure by utilizing a common observation of Jacobian rank deficiency in feedforward networks. The algorithm not only reduces the training time and overall complexity but also achieves training accuracy and generalization capabilities comparable to more standard approaches. Extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.
The Sounds of Physical Shapes
Authors: Doel Kees van den , Pai Dinesh K. 
Published: July 2002

We propose a general framework for the simulation of sounds produced by colliding physical objects in a virtual reality environment. The framework is based on the vibration dynamics of bodies. The computed sounds depend on the material of the body, its shape, and the location of the contact. This simulation of sounds allows the user to obtain important auditory clues about the objects in the simulation, as well as about the locations on the objects of the collisions. Specifically, we show how to compute (1) the spectral signature of each body (its natural frequencies), which depends on the material and the shape, (2) the “timbre” of the vibration (the relative amplitudes of the spectral components) generated by an impulsive force applied to the object at a grid of locations, (3) the decay rates of the various frequency components that correlate with the type of material, based on its internal friction parameter, and finally (4) the mapping of sounds onto the object's geometry for real-time rendering of the resulting sound. The framework has been implemented in a Sonic Explorer program which simulates a room with several objects such as a chair, tables, and rods. After a preprocessing stage, the user can hit the objects at different points to interactively produce realistic sounds.
Sexual Morality at the Egyptian Bar: Female Circumcision, Sex Change Operations, and Motives For Suing
Authors: Dupret Baudouin 
Published: July 2002

AbstractThis essay focuses on the ways in which social actors produce morality and moral boundaries within the framework of Egyptian tribunals. I first examine how public and sexual morality emerge as topics and are treated in the legal and judicial arena. After summarizing three Egyptian cases dealing with sex-change operations and female circumcision, I attempt to deduce some of the motivations—egoistic, ethical, and political—that impel actors to use the judiciary. I argue that legal rules interact with moral principles within the judge's work and that many standards, including that of Islamic normativity, emerge in the course of the adjudicative process. It is up to professional jurists to interpret the content of these moral principles, and, as a result, legal actors have the final word with regard to their definition and implementation.