bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A porting symbolic dedicated machine by micro program translation
Authors: Amagai Yoshiji 
Published: June 2003

AbstractA well‐known technique for inheriting the software resources of computers that were used in the past is to emulate the relevant computer's instructions on a modern computer. One method of using this technique is the static translation method in which the relevant program's binary code is translated in advance and executed. Although this method provides good posttranslation execution performance, each application program must be individually translated. In this paper, the computer's hardware itself is reproduced by statically translating the micro program part of the symbolic processing dedicated machine that had provided the micro program control CPU to the C language, enabling all programs on that dedicated machine to be executed on a UNIX computer. In addition to providing powerful emulation capabilities, translating to the C language enables emulations to be easily executed on computers having different architectures. This paper describes the static translation technique and shows the effectiveness of static micro program translation through static and dynamic performance evaluations of the system that was obtained. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 34(9): 105–114, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.1213
Evaluating factors associated with STD infection in a study with interval‐censored event times and an unknown proportion of participants not at risk for disease
Authors: Taylor Douglas J. , Weaver Mark A. , Roddy Ronald E. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractSexually transmitted diseases (STD) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality world‐wide. Because of their association with an increased risk of infection with human immunodeficiency virus, the prevention and control of STD are particularly important. Studies designed to evaluate factors associated with the transmission of STD can pose a number of statistical challenges, however. Two such concerns are the interval‐censored event times that result from spacing between follow‐up test visits, and an unknown proportion of study participants who are not at risk for infection. Researchers in various fields of study have used parametric mixture models to account for individuals not at risk. Owing to non‐identifiability concerns within the mixture model framework, however, it is not always possible to distinguish between effects of explanatory variables on the distribution of event times for at‐risk individuals and their effects on the probability of being at risk. We address these issues using data from a clinical trial designed to investigate the effectiveness of an intravaginal microbicide in preventing male‐to‐female transmission of STD. Factors associated with time to infection among at‐risk women are initially identified by fitting right‐truncated models to the interval‐censored event times of participants who tested positive for STD, and hence are known to have been at risk. Subsequently, factors associated with the probability of being at risk are evaluated using mixture models that incorporate information contributed by the right‐censored event‐free times of uninfected study participants. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Estimating the stenosis probabilities in arteriosclerosis obliterans using generalized estimating equations
Authors: Nakashima Eiji , Tsuji Shuichi , Fukuoka Haruhito , Ohtaki Megu , Ito Katsuhide 
Published: June 2003

AbstractFor each of 211 arteriosclerosis obliterans patients, the degree of stenosis of arteries at four sites were examined at Hiroshima University Hospital to analyse the relationship between the degree of stenosis and age, sex and site. The generalized estimating equations using a proportional odds model for the stenosis probability with exchangeable correlation was applied to this clustered, ordered polytomous data. Since the correlations between the responses were quite small, we could apply the independence estimating equations. The best mean model selected by Akaike information criterion suggested that age dependency of the stenosis probability was not observed in the central sites but was observed in the peripheral sites, and symmetry of the risk of stenosis was seen in the left and right sites. Details of the analysis will be described. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An evaluation of methods for the stratified analysis of clustered binary data in community intervention trials
Authors: Song James X. , Ahn Chul W. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractA simulation study is conducted in a community intervention setting. Several methods of stratified analysis of clustered binary data are compared in terms of empirical significance and empirical power levels. They are the Mantel–Haenszel test statistic (χ2MH), the adjusted Mantel–Haenszel test statistic of Donald–Donner (χ2DD), Rao–Scott (χ2RSN and χ2RSP), and Zhang–Boos (χ2ZBN and χ2ZBP), Wald (χ2W), robust Wald (χ2RW), score (χ2S), robust score (χ2RS), and the test statistic based on generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) (χ2GLMM). When ρ ≠ 0, χ2MH has inflated type I error, and it should not be used when observations are correlated. The results also warn of the use of χ2RSN and χ2RW due to their poor performance in terms of empirical significance level. χ2ZBP and χ2GLMM have better empirical significance levels as compared to other statistics; however, χ2ZBP tends to have lower empirical powers than other statistics when the number of clusters (N) is less than 24. χ2RSP provides the highest empirical powers when ρ ≥ 0.1 and N ≤ 12. When ρ ≤ 0.01, we recommend the use of χ2RS and χ2GLMM since they have better overall performance in terms of empirical significance levels and empirical power levels. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluating medical diagnostic tests at the subunit level in the presence of verification bias
Authors: Barnhart Huiman X. , Kosinski Andrzej S. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractWe advocate that medical diagnostic tests should be evaluated at the subunit level instead of the patient level if a disease can occur in multiple parts/units within a patient, for example, vessels, segments, ears, eyes etc. When a non‐invasive test is compared to an invasive gold standard test, often not all of the subunits receive the gold standard test and verification bias is present if the subunits without the gold standard test are discarded. Here we address estimation and inference issues in assessing the performance of medical diagnostic tests at the subunit level while accounting for verification bias and the correlation among subunits. We present a weighted least squares approach and demonstrate how the method can be implemented by using the procedure PROC CATMOD from the popular SAS software. A cardiology example is presented and we discuss application of the method to the case of multiple tests and a single gold standard test. Copyright© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A methodology for modeling VVT risks and costs
Authors: Engel Avner , Barad Miryam 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThe cost of large systems' Verification, Validation, and Testing (VVT) is in the neighborhood of 40% of the total life cycle cost. The cost associated with systems' failures is even more dramatic, often exceeding 10% of industrial organizations turnover. There is a great potential benefit in streamlining and optimizing the VVT process. The first step in accomplishing this aim is to define a VVT strategy and then to quantify the cost and risk associated with carrying it out. This paper provides an overview of the methodologies for risk and cost monitoring for VVT and proposes a novel approach for modeling VVT strategies as decision problems. A quantitative VVT process and risk model is proposed. Due to the nondeterministic nature of risk, simulation is used to generate distributions of possible costs, schedules, and risk outcomes. These distributions represent a probabilistic approach and are analyzed in relation to impact events. The model provides means to explore different VVT strategies for optimizing relevant decision parameters. To demonstrate the proposed procedure the paper describes a case study depicting a planned avionics suite upgrade program for a fighter aircraft. Some simplified partial quantitative results are also presented. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 6: 135–151, 2003
From a single discipline product to a multidisciplinary system: Adapting the right style to the right project
Authors: Dvir Dov , Shenhar Aaron J. , Alkaher Shlomo 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThe premise of this paper is that systems engineering, and project management as well, are all but universal and that different projects should employ different management and organizational styles. While this idea is not new and many managers use their own ways for identifying project differences, this paper offers to use a more formal, research‐based framework for distinction among projects and adapting management style. Using a recently developed conceptual framework for project classification, this study demonstrates that a proper identification of project characteristics and adaptation of a suitable style is critical for success. To illustrate this concept, we analyzed the evolution and lessons learned from a complex high‐tech defense system development project. The project, seen a priori as an extension of previous experience, turned out to be a completely new kind of effort, particularly in terms of complexity and the use of new technology. Management was not ready for this type of task, and it had initially chosen a traditional style that was successfully used by the company in previous projects. It turned out that what worked in the past, does not necessarily apply to all projects. When the project went into serious trouble, it had to be “saved,” by significant reconstruction and changing of management style. The result was extensive budget overrun and substantial delay in delivery. Using the classification framework for distinction among projects, we show that an early and careful analysis of project characteristics during the project conceptual and planning phases could have led management to a different style from inception, and might have helped avoiding many of the difficulties encountered later. We conclude by a set of implications and recommendations to management at large, and system house organizations in particular. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 6: 123–134, 2003 DOI 10.1002/sys.10041
Risk‐based methodology for scenario tracking, intelligence gathering, and analysis for countering terrorism
Authors: Horowitz Barry M. , Haimes Yacov Y. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractDisruption of a terrorist attack depends on having information facilitating the identification and location of those involved in supporting, planning, and carrying out the attack. Such information arises from myriad sources, such as human or instrument surveillance by intelligence or law enforcement agencies, a variety of documents concerning transactions, and tips from a wide range of occasional observers. Given the enormous amount of information available, a method is needed to cull and analyze only that which is relevant to the task, confirm its validity, and eliminate the rest. The risk‐based methodology for scenario tracking, intelligence gathering, and analysis for countering terrorism builds on the premise that in planning, supporting, and carrying out a terrorist plot, those involved will conduct a series of related activities for which there may be some observables and other acquirable evidence. Those activities taken together constitute a threat scenario. Information consistent with a realistic threat scenario may be useful in thwarting an impending attack. Information not consistent with any such scenario is irrelevant. Thus, the methodology requires a comprehensive set of realistic threat scenarios that would form a systemic process for collecting and analyzing information. It also requires a process for judging the validity and usefulness of such information. The key questions for intelligence gathering and analysis are: how to produce a comprehensive set of threat scenarios, how to winnow that set to a subset of most likely scenarios, what supplementary intelligence is worth pursuing, how to judge the relevance of available information, and how to validate and analyze the information. The methodology presented in this paper can serve as a vehicle with which to enable the intelligence community to better: (a) assess the intent and capabilities of terrorist groups, (b) develop and compare terrorist scenarios from different sources and aggregate the set that should guide decisions on intelligence collection, (c) assess the possible distributions of responsibility for intelligence gathering and analysis across various homeland security agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, and (d) establish effective collection priorities to meet the demands of counterterrorism. Some of the critical issues addressed in this paper include: (1) how to create a reasonably complete set of scenarios and filter it down to a more manageable set to establish intelligence collection priorities, (2) how to integrate the wide variety of intelligence sources associated with monitoring for terrorism and analytically account for the corresponding disparities in information reliability, and (3) how to incorporate these new methodologies into existing information management efforts related to protecting our nation's critical infrastructures. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 6: 152–169, 2003 7
Assessing the reliability of socio‐technical systems
Authors: Gregoriades Andreas , Sutcliffe Alistair , Shin Jae‐Eun 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThis article presents a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) approach for socio‐technical system reliability assessment. A human error BBN model quantifies error influences arising from user knowledge, ability, and task environment, combined with factors describing the complexity of user action and user interface quality. System reliability evaluation is achieved by the System Reliability Analyser tool, which enables the iterative manipulation of the human error model according to high‐level scenarios. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 6: 210–223, 2003
Analysis and improvement of product modularization methods: Their ability to deal with complex products
Authors: Holmqvist Tobias K.P. , Persson Magnus L. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractIn recent years, product modularization has attracted increasing interest among both practitioners and academics. To facilitate the decision‐making and management of modularization in the manufacturing industry, tools and methods are needed. The purpose of this paper is to identify existing modularization methods and analyze them regarding their ability to deal with different degrees of product complexity, where complexity has several aspects: many variants, mix of different technologies, and having different solutions for one and the same function. A literature survey results in six different methods for modularization. The results of the analysis show that the modularization methods are useful for products with simple product architecture; i.e., one function is allocated to one physical module. However, concerning higher degrees of product complexity, several functions allocated to several physical modules, or large physical variation of the variants, the methods seem insufficient. Therefore, to make the methods suitable for complex products, areas for further development are suggested and discussed. ©2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 6: 195–209, 2003
Creeping flow past a porous approximate sphere
Authors: Srinivasacharya D. 
Published: June 2003

AbstractThis paper concerns the creeping flow of incompressible viscous fluid past and through a porous approximate sphere. The Brinkman model for the flow inside the porous particle and Stokes model for the flow outside the particle in their stream function formulations are used. The stream function and the pressure distribution, both for the flow inside and outside are obtained in terms of Bessel and Gegenbauer functions of the first kind. The drag force experienced by the particle is determined and its variation with respect to permeability parameter is studied numerically. The special cases of flow past a porous sphere and spheroid are obtained from the present analysis.
Granulocyte colony stimulation factor (G‐CSF) suppresses interleukin (IL)‐12 and/or IL‐2 induced interferon (IFN)‐γproduction and cytotoxicity of decidual mononuclear cells
Authors: Sugita Kenji , Hayakawa Satoshi , Karasaki‐Suzuki Miki , Hagiwara Hiroshi , Chishima Fumihisa , Aleemuzaman Sheikh , Li Jong‐a , Nishinarita Susumu , Yamamoto Tatsuo 
Published: June 2003

Problem: The placenta is one of the few non‐hematopoietic tissues to express granulocyte colony stimulation factor (G‐CSF). Placental G‐CSF production is considered to be one of the major causes of granulocytosis during pregnancy although its physiological role in pregnancy has not yet been examined.Method of study: The effects of G‐CSF on interleukin (IL)‐2 and/or IL‐12 induced interferon (IFN)‐γ production of magnetic cell sorting (MACS) sorted decidual lymphocytes was examined by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent spot‐forming cell assay (ELISPOT). The effect of G‐CSF on cytotoxicity of decidual lymphocytes against the choriocarcinoma cell line JEG‐3 was examined by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay.Results: As previously reported by us, IL‐2 and/or IL‐12 activated decidual mononuclear cells were capable of killing choriocarcinoma cells. We observed that G‐CSF abolished IFN‐γ production and cytotoxicity of decidual mononuclear cells and MACS sorted CD56+ cells.Conclusions: In addition to its well‐known trophic effects on hematopoiesis, our results suggest about new roles of G‐CSF in reproductive immunology.
Concentrations of Interferon‐γ‐Induced Protein‐10 (IP‐10), an Antiangiogenic Substance, are Decreased in Peritoneal Fluid of Women with Advanced Endometriosis
Authors: Yoshino Osamu , Osuga Yutaka , Koga Kaori , Hirota Yasushi , Tsutsumi Osamu , Yano Tetsu , Morita Yutaka , Momoeda Mikio , Fujiwara Toshihiro , Kugu Koji , Taketani Yuji 
Published: June 2003

Problem:  To assess whether interferon‐γ‐induced protein‐10 (IP‐10), a chemokine that has antiangiogenic activities, may be involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.Method of Study:  A total of 120 patients undergoing laparoscopy for pain and/or infertility were recruited, and peritoneal fluid (PF) and bone marrow derived cells in PF were collected. Concentrations of IP‐10 in PF were measured with a specific enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Expression of IP‐10 and IP‐10 receptor, CXCR3, in bone marrow derived cells in PF, peritoneum and endometriotic cells was analyzed by reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction.Results:  All of the PF samples examined contained detectable concentrations of IP‐10. In women with advanced stages of endometriosis, IP‐10 concentrations in PF were significantly lower than those of women in early stages (P = 0.02). The IP‐10 concentrations in women with advanced endometriosis also appeared to be lower than those without endometriosis although the difference was statistically marginal (P = 0.06). The expression of both IP‐10 and CXCR3 was clearly detected in the bone marrow derived cells in PF, peritoneum and endometriotic stromal cells.Conclusions:  Decreased concentrations of IP‐10 in PF from women with advanced stages of endometriosis may imply that the peritoneal environment of these women is permissive to the development of the disease by enhancing angiogenesis and/or modulating inflammatory/immunological responses.
Immunology and Endometriosis
Authors: Berkkanoglu Murat , Arici Aydin 
Published: June 2003

Problem: Accumulating data suggests that aberrant immune responses during retrograde menstruation may be involved in the development of endometriosis.Method of Study: The role of immunology in the etiology of endometriosis is reviewed and summarized from the available literature.Results: Immunologic factors may affect a woman's susceptibility to implantation of exfoliated endometrial cells. Immune alterations include increased number and activation of peritoneal macrophages, decreased T cell reactivity and natural killer cell cytotoxicity, increased circulating antibodies, and changes in the cytokine network.Conclusion: There is substantial evidence that immunologic factors play a role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis and endometriosis‐associated infertility. Decreased natural killer cell cytotoxicity leads to an increased likelihood of implantation of endometriotic tissue. In addition, macrophages and a complex network of locally produced cytokines modulate the growth and inflammatory behavior of ectopic endometrial implants.
Butyrylcholinesterase Activity and Pregnancy‐Associated Differences in Immunologically Relevant Peripheral Blood Leukocyte Populations
Authors: Mahmoud Fadia , Haines David , Abul Habib , Omu Alexander 
Published: June 2003

Problem:  Toxic anticholinesterases (AC) are known contributors to negative pregnancy outcome. Impairment of detoxification mechanisms may correlate with occurrence of pregnancy disorders in Kuwait.Method of Study:  Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), an enzyme which detoxifies AC was evaluated in 18 Kuwaiti women with pregnancy‐induced hypertension (PIH), compared with 15 healthy pregnant and eight healthy non‐pregnant women. T‐lymphocyte subpopulations were measured by flow cytometry, and BuChE activity was measured by spectrophotometry.Results:  Unlike the PIH group, the normal pregnancy group exhibited a significant increase in BuChE activity compared with non‐pregnant control subjects (P = 0.04). Within the PIH cohort, inverse correlations were observed between BuChE activity and percentage of CD4+ CD25+ cells (P = 0.001), and CD8+ CD25+ cells (P = 0.007).Conclusions:  Elevated BuChE activity in normal pregnancy may correlate with better ability to clear pregnancy‐threatening toxins, while lesser ability to do this in PIH women may be a contributor to disease. The fact that PIH subjects with large subpopulations of activated T cells also exhibited low BuChE activity further suggests a correlation between susceptibility to pregnancy loss and decreased activity of the enzyme.