cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A PROCEDURE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ULTRA-PURE PRECURSORS FROM COAL FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF VALUE-ADDED CARBON PRODUCTS - TREATMENT OF THE RESIDUE

ABSTRACT Solvent extraction of coal results in a coal-derived extract containing the solvent-soluble organic portion of coal free of almost all mineral matter. A residue is also produced and consists of most of the mineral matter. Although a procedure has been developed to manufacture ultra-pure coke precursors for value-added carbon products from coal-derived extracts, treatment/rc-usc of the residue is necessary to make the process economically attractive and environmentally friendly. In this study, a technique has been developed to beneficiate the residue by specific gravity fractionation. It is found that nearly 70 % of the residue can be separated into a fraction containing less than 3.5% ash for a typical WV bituminous coal using an organic liquid having a specific gravity of 1.5. This treatment enables the residue to serve as a low-ash boiler fuel or a suitable precursor for the manufacture of materials such as activated carbons. Consequently, the potential for coal-derived precursors leading to ne...
3 Tesla MR neurography—technique, interpretation, and pitfalls

MRI has been used for almost two decades for the evaluation of peripheral nerve disorders. This article highlights the relative advantages and disadvantages of 3T MR neurography in the evaluation of peripheral neuropathies. The authors also describe the high-resolution MR neurography technique on 3T MRI, along with the approach to its interpretation that has evolved at one institution.
Sovereignty–Security Nexus, Domestic Constraints, and the Taiwan Independence Policy (1988–2010)

Abstract This article explains the rise and fall of the so-called Taiwan independence policy during the period of 1988–2010. It defines the Taiwan independence policy as an internal political move by the Taiwanese government to establish Taiwan as a separate and sovereign political entity on the world stage. It reviews two existing prevailing theses – electoral politics and shifting identity – and points out their weaknesses, the former's being its indeterminacy and unfalsifiability, and the latter's being its inadequacy to explain policy change. A new explanation focusing on relative power shift (military balance, alliance strength, and diplomatic standing) and domestic constraints (resource and political constraints) is then proposed to explain the rise and fall of the Taiwan independence policy. A brief examination of the 1988–2010 cross-strait history lends strong support to the theory.
The Ontological Commitments of Relational Philosophy

The author clarifies some of his previous comments on Ken Gergen's (2009) Relational Being and continues to argue against the possibility of ontological neutrality. The author also clarifies and reaffirms the importance of an ontological commitment to the lived relation, and not to any of its abstract representations.
Essential Structural and Functional Roles of the Cmr4 Subunit in RNA Cleavage by the Cmr CRISPR-Cas Complex

The Cmr complex is the multisubunit effector complex of the type III-B clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas immune system. The Cmr complex recognizes a target RNA through base pairing with the integral CRISPR RNA (crRNA) and cleaves the target at multiple regularly spaced locations within the complementary region. To understand the molecular basis of the function of this complex, we have assembled information from electron microscopic and X-ray crystallographic structural studies and mutagenesis of a complete Pyrococcus furiosus Cmr complex. Our findings reveal that four helically packed Cmr4 subunits, which make up the backbone of the Cmr complex, act as a platform to support crRNA binding and target RNA cleavage. Interestingly, we found a hook-like structural feature associated with Cmr4 that is likely the site of target RNA binding and cleavage. Our results also elucidate analogies in the mechanisms of crRNA and target molecule binding by the distinct Cmr type III-A and Cascade type I-E complexes.
Modeling and Simulation of Assembly in a Free-floating Work Environment by a Free-floating Robot

Freely moving systems in space conserve linear and angular momentum. As moving systems collide, the velocities get altered due to transfer of momentum. The development of strategies for assembly in a free-floating work environment requires a good understanding of primitives such as self motion of the robot, propulsion of the robot due to onboard thrusters, docking of the robot, retrieval of an object from a collection of objects, and release of an object in an object pool. The analytics of such assemblies involves not only kinematics and rigid body dynamics but also collision and impact dynamics of multibody systems. This paper presents analytical models of assembly, built from the models of primitives, and some possible strategies for overall assembly.
A comparison of psychosocial outcomes in elderly Alzheimer caregivers and noncaregivers.

Objective To conduct an analysis of the stress, coping, and mood consequences of Alzheimer caregiving. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Community-based study. Participants Sample included 125 Alzheimer caregivers and 60 demographically similar older adults with nondemented spouses (i.e., noncaregivers). Measurements We compared caregivers and noncaregivers on stress, coping, and mood outcomes. We also examined antidepressant use within the caregiver sample. An emphasis was placed upon effect size differences, including Cohen's d as well as more clinically meaningful effect sizes. Results Caregivers were significantly more likely to endorse depressive symptoms and to meet clinically significant cutoff for depression (40% for caregivers; 5% for noncaregivers). Approximately 25% of caregivers reported taking antidepressant medication, although 69% of these continued to experience significant symptoms of depression. Caregivers also utilized fewer positive coping and greater negative coping strategies than noncaregivers. Conclusion The number of caregivers will increase dramatically over the next two decades, and caregivers will likely seek care from primary care providers. We provide an overview of the psychological issues facing caregivers so that effective screening and treatment may be recommended.
Efficacy of autologous fresh whole blood or platelet‐rich plasma in adult cardiac surgery

BACKGROUND: Transfusing fresh autologous blood during cardiac surgery may improve hemostasis and decrease the need for transfusion. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A prospective randomized study was performed with fresh whole blood (WB) obtained by intraoperative hemodilution (IH) and with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) obtained by perioperative apheresis from adult cardiac surgery patients. RESULTS: Seventy patients were randomly assigned to three arms: 24 to the PRP arm, 18 to the IH arm, and 28 to serve as controls. A mean of 924 +/− 130 mL of WB was collected from the IH group, and a mean of 650 +/− 124 mL of PRP was collected from the PRP group (mean, 1.42 +/− 0.74 × 10(11) platelets); these components were transfused after bypass. Preoperative measures were similar among groups. Intraoperatively, the groups did not differ in bypass time, estimated blood loss, number of transfusions, or proportion receiving transfusion(s). Postoperatively, control patients had more mediastinal drainage (736 mL vs. 476 mL [IH] and 463 mL [PRP]; p = 0.014), but there was no difference in the proportion of patients requiring red cell transfusion (p = 0.87), the hemoglobin at discharge (p = 0.20), or the length of hospitalization (p = 0.57). CONCLUSION: Although a hemostatic benefit manifested as reduced postoperative bleeding was observed, this study does not support the use of fresh blood components obtained by IH or PRP collection during low-risk cardiac surgery. Additional studies are needed to assess whether more aggressive component collection or the use of these techniques in high- risk cases may have a greater impact on clinical outcome variables, including transfusion.
Propensity score techniques and the assessment of measured covariate balance to test causal associations in psychological research

There is considerable interest in using propensity score (PS) statistical techniques to address questions of causal inference in psychological research. Many PS techniques exist, yet few guidelines are available to aid applied researchers in their understanding, use, and evaluation. In this study, the authors give an overview of available techniques for PS estimation and PS application. They also provide a way to help compare PS techniques, using the resulting measured covariate balance as the criterion for selecting between techniques. The empirical example for this study involves the potential causal relationship linking early-onset cannabis problems and subsequent negative mental health outcomes and uses data from a prospective cohort study. PS techniques are described and evaluated on the basis of their ability to balance the distributions of measured potentially confounding covariates for individuals with and without early-onset cannabis problems. This article identifies the PS techniques that yield good statistical balance of the chosen measured covariates within the context of this particular research question and cohort.
Real-time enveloping with rotational regression

Enveloping, or the mapping of skeletal controls to the deformations of a surface, is key to driving realistic animated characters. Despite its widespread use, enveloping still relies on slow or inaccurate deformation methods. We propose a method that is both fast, accurate and example-based. Our technique introduces a rotational regression model that captures common skinning deformations such as muscle bulging, twisting, and challenging areas such as the shoulders. Our improved treatment of rotational quantities is made practical by model reduction that ensures real-time solution of least-squares problems, independent of the mesh size. Our method is significantly more accurate than linear blend skinning and almost as fast, suggesting its use as a replacement for linear blend skinning when examples are available.
Ret 1, a cis-acting element of the rat opsin promoter, can direct gene expression in rod photoreceptors.

: The Ret 1 element, located at −136 to −110 in the rat opsin promoter, binds developmentally regulated retinal nuclear proteins. A similar sequence is found upstream of opsin genes, from humans to Drosophila, as well as many other photoreceptor-specific genes. The function of the Ret 1 element was tested both in vitro and in two sets of transgenic mice. A mutated Ret 1 element did not bind retinal nuclear proteins in vitro. The same mutations in an otherwise normal 1.9-kb rat opsin promoter failed to drive expression of a lacZ reporter gene in nine of 12 lines. In the three other lines, expression in photoreceptors was very faint. Four tandem copies of the Ret 1 element maintained the Ret 1 binding specificity in vitro and were able to direct expression of a lacZ transgene in photoreceptors of all nine mouse lines obtained. In two lines, expression was also detected in the ganglion cell layer and the ciliary epithelium. In three lines, a characteristic pattern of expression was found in the nervous system in addition to the normal retinal expression. These results indicate that Ret 1 can and is necessary to drive gene expression in rod photoreceptors. Furthermore, our results suggest that Ret 1-like elements may also be important in the developing nervous system.
Lamb wave assessment of fiber volume fraction in composites

Among the various techniques available, ultrasonic Lamb waves offer a convenient method of examining composite materials. Since the Lamb wave velocity depends on the elastic properties of a material, an effective tool exists to evaluate composites by measuring the velocity of these waves. Lamb waves can propagate over long distances and are sensitive to the desired in-plane elastic properties of the material. This paper discusses a study in which Lamb waves were used to examine fiber volume fraction variations of approximately 0.40-0.70 in composites. The Lamb wave measurements were compared to fiber volume fractions obtained from acid digestion tests. Additionally, a model to predict the fiber volume fraction from Lamb wave velocity values was evaluated.
Hypothalamic dopamine may play a role in inducing prolactin in pituitary cells.

Abstract The effects of hypothalamic dopamine on the functional differentiation of prolactin cells was investigated in the developing rat brain. The treatment of pregnant rats with α -methyl- p -tyrosine (tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor) resulted in a noticeable decrease of dopamine concentration in the hypothalamus at birth and at 5 days of age of offspring. Moreover, treatment with this regimen caused a marked decrease in the population of prolactin cells and in the production of prolactin at birth and at 5 days of age of offspring. It seems, then, that hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons precede the functional differentiation of prolactin cells in the developing brains and that hypothalamic dopamine may play an important role in producing prolactin in the anterior pituitary during development.
Harvesting weakly tagged images for computer vision tasks

To crawl large amounts of weakly-tagged images for computer vision tasks such as object detection and scene recognition, it is very important to develop new techniques for tag cleansing and word sense disambiguation (i.e., removing irrelevant images from the crawled results). Based on this observation, a topic network is first generated to characterize both the semantic similarity contexts and the visual similarity contexts between the image topics more sufficiently. The topic network is used to represent the classes of objects and scenes of interest. Second, both the visual similarity contexts between the images and the semantic similarity contexts between their tags are integrated for tag cleansing and word sense disambiguation. By addressing the issues of polysemes and synonyms more effectively, our word sense disambiguation algorithm can determine the relevance between the images and the associated tags more precisely, and thus it can allow us to crawl large-scale weakly-tagged images for computer vision tasks.
Reduction of blood trauma in roller pumps for long-term perfusion.

As part of an attempt to develop a roller pump for long-term (2 weeks) cardiac assist, factors generating blood trauma in roller pumps were re-examined. Fresh human blood was pumped for 4 hr in a simple closed circulatory loop. Samples drawn at regular intervals were examined for plasma hemoglobin, lactate dehydrogenase, platelet function, and activation of coagulation factors. Experiments were performed in which tubing diameters were varied (polyvinyl chloride, 1/2- and 3/8-inch internal diameters), roller diameters were varied (3/4, 1 1/8, and 1 3/4 inches), and roller occlusion was varied from total occlusion to 0.020-inch underocclusion. The results showed more hemolysis when the roller diameters and the tubing diameters were smaller and when the rollers were more occlusive. Changes in platelet function and activation of coagulation factors were observed, but were not correlated with occlusion. These results suggest that when roller pumps are used for long-term cardiac support, the diameter of the rollers should be as large as possible, the tubing diameter should be as large as practical, and the occlusion setting should be as open as possible while still maintaining required flow rates. New techniques for setting occlusion are suggested.
Trends in Stroke Mortality

To the Editor: The AHA Scientific Statement on improving cardiovascular health at the community level published in the February 4 issue of Circulation contains the following misleading statement on trends in stroke mortality: “The rate of stroke has not declined since 1990, for the first time in 100 years.”1 The source cited for …
‘Aprendemos A Convivir’: Conjugal Relations, Co-parenting, and Family Life Among Ecuadorian Transnational Migrants in New York and The Ecuadorian Andes

The aim of this article is to examine conjugal relations, co-parenting and family life among Ecuadorian transnational migrants in New York and the Azuayo- Canari highlands of Ecuador. It counters two commonly-held views of trans- migration. Officials and academics often stress the negative impacts of male migration to the USA, arguing that it leads to spousal abandonment. In addition, studies of gender in transnational relationships generally concentrate on women's experiences and lack a more nuanced understanding of men's lives in migration. Based on interviews with both male migrants in New York and women in Ecuador, this research focuses instead on how intact couples work to redefine roles, relation- ships and family life; how they learn to live side-by-side (aprender a convivir). The article begins with an account of men's adjustment to single life in the city, which is then juxtaposed to women's experiences in the sending villages. The main section presents a narrative of one couple, revealing how they handle remittances, com- munication, child-raising and their own relationship. Their experiences highlight the tensions and problems faced by young couples starting to form their own autonomous households in a setting increasingly different from that of previous generations. But, despite hardships, such couples often state that their relationship improved after migration.
Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300–1500

Introduction 1. Kadijustiz or Qadi-justice? A paternity dispute from fourteenth-century Morocco 2. From Almohadism to Malikism: the case of al-Haskuri, the Mocking Jurist, c. 712-16/1312-16 3. A riparian dispute in the Middle Atlas mountains, c. 683-824/1285-1421 4. Conflicting conceptions of property in Fez, 741-826/1340-1423 5. Preserving the Prophet's honor: Sharifism, Sufism and Malikism in Tlemcen, 843/1439 6. On modes of judicial reasoning: two fatwas on Tawlij, c. 880/1475 Conclusion: the Mufti.
PERSPECTIVES OF HIGH SPEED RAIL TRANSPORT IN SHORT-MEDIUM PERIOD

Abstract In this paper an analytic method to evaluate technical and economic conditions of convenience for new high speed lines in guided transport systems, is described. In particular it answers the following main questions: what are the conditions to construct a new high speed line; what is the optimal operational speed of a new line; which is the better between two systems, differing in costs structure and quality of performance? It is shown that a modern railway, able to reach a speed up to 300 km/h, is in short-medium period better than contactless systems so far tested. In the last part of the paper a hypothesis of a new generation contactless system is outlined. A comparison with high speed railway shows that, from a theoretical point of view, this new system called “synthesis solution,” could be in the future the real competitor of the railway.
Life event dimensions of loss, humiliation, entrapment, and danger in the prediction of onsets of major depression and generalized anxiety.

Background Although substantial evidence suggests that stressful life events predispose to the onset of episodes of depression and anxiety, the essential features of these events that are depressogenic and anxiogenic remain uncertain. Methods High contextual threat stressful life events, assessed in 98 592 person-months from 7322 male and female adult twins ascertained from a population-based registry, were blindly rated on the dimensions of humiliation, entrapment, loss, and danger and their categories. Onsets of pure major depression (MD), pure generalized anxiety syndrome (GAS) (defined as generalized anxiety disorder with a 2-week minimum duration), and mixed MD-GAS episodes were examined using logistic regression. Results Onsets of pure MD and mixed MD-GAS were predicted by higher ratings of loss and humiliation. Onsets of pure GAS were predicted by higher ratings of loss and danger. High ratings of entrapment predicted only onsets of mixed episodes. The loss categories of death and respondent-initiated separation predicted pure MD but not pure GAS episodes. Events with a combination of humiliation (especially other-initiated separation) and loss were more depressogenic than pure loss events, including death. No sex differences were seen in the prediction of episodes of illness by event categories. Conclusions In addition to loss, humiliating events that directly devalue an individual in a core role were strongly linked to risk for depressive episodes. Event dimensions and categories that predispose to pure MD vs pure GAS episodes can be distinguished with moderate specificity. The event dimensions that preceded mixed MD-GAS episodes were largely the sum of those that preceded pure MD and pure GAS episodes.
On-module power converter incorporating embedded inductors

Summary form only given, as follows. Distributed power architectures require high-density, low-profile, low-cost "on-module" converters to improve regulation and fault tolerance while reducing interconnect weight. Raytheon is developing VHF resonant power converters that are ideally suited for such applications. A key feature of this technology is the integration of all the circuit magnetic components into the circuit substrate.
Just a spoonful of humanities makes the medicine go down: introducing literature into a family medicine clerkship

BACKGROUND This project introduced medicinerelated poetry and prose to a Year 3 family medicine clerkship with the purpose of determining students’ perception of the usefulness of such materials to enhance empathy, improve patient management, and reduce stress. Although humanities are represented in the curricula of many medical schools, we need more information on how best to incorporate them during the clinical
Improving the understandability of speech synthesis by modeling speech in noise

Although the quality of synthetic speech has increased dramatically in the past several years, many people still have difficulty understanding speech produced by even the highest quality synthesizers. We describe an approach to improve understandability of synthetic speech using speech in noise. Natural speech in noise is a change in the style of speech that is used by people to improve the understandability to the listener when speaking in poor channel conditions. We show that altering the presentation of synthetic speech in similar ways also improves understandability. Further, we discuss methods of obtaining speech in noise for use in speech synthesis, as well as the results of an evaluation of several synthetic voices that "speak in noise".
Blindness, Prick Writing, and Canonical Waste Paper: Reimagining Dickens in Harriet and Letitia

This contribution to the forum discusses Dickens’s representations and use of embossed systems of print for readers who were blind or visually impaired, explains the controversy surrounding the choice of system for such readers, and examines the disability rights issues involved in the debate. Noting the personal stake that Dickens had in the matter, the article outlines my own response to his position - in the fictional portrait of Harriet Dickens, the novelist’s blind sister-in-law, in Harriet and Letitia, my novel-in-progress. My work suggests how one of Dickens’s female dependents might have contested his power and control: by using a typograph to write over - or, rather, through - his own manuscripts and publications, transforming text into subtext and challenging his gendered concept of disabled expression.
On the duality of data-intensive file system design: reconciling HDFS and PVFS

Data-intensive applications fall into two computing styles: Internet services (cloud computing) or high-performance computing (HPC). In both categories, the underlying file system is a key component for scalable application performance. In this paper, we explore the similarities and differences between PVFS, a parallel file system used in HPC at large scale, and HDFS, the primary storage system used in cloud computing with Hadoop. We integrate PVFS into Hadoop and compare its performance to HDFS using a set of data-intensive computing benchmarks. We study how HDFS-specific optimizations can be matched using PVFS and how consistency, durability, and persistence tradeoffs made by these file systems affect application performance. We show how to embed multiple replicas into a PVFS file, including a mapping with a complete copy local to the writing client, to emulate HDFS's file layout policies. We also highlight implementation issues with HDFS's dependence on disk bandwidth and benefits from pipelined replication.
Some Immunological Considerations in Liver Transplantation

Immunological considerations of special interest in liver transplantation are examined. It is concluded that liver transplants between human beings generate typical rejection reactions although they may, overall, be somewhat more mild than those encountered in transplanted kidneys and hearts. This is the case in some animals for reasons which are not yet clear. There is evidence that the transplanted liver can suffer immune attack better than other organs. Whether graft-vs.-host activity is of clinical importance is uncertain. The advent of cyclosporin immunosuppression has improved the outlook for liver recipients but multiple complications of immunosuppression will still occur and demand skillful management.
AERODYNAMICS OF ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN FREIGHT PIPELINE SYSTEM

This paper examines the aerodynamic characteristics of a freight pipeline system in which freight capsules are individually propelled by electrical motors. The fundamental difference between this system and the more extensively studied pneumatic capsule pipeline is the different role played by aerodynamic forces. In a driven system the propelled capsules are resisted by aerodynamic forces and, in reaction, pump air through the tube. In contrast, in a pneumatically propelled system external blowers pump air through the tubes, and this provides the thrust for the capsules. An incompressible transient analysis is developed to study the aerodynamics of multiple capsules in a cross-linked two-bore pipeline. An aerodynamic friction coefficient is used as a cost parameter to compare the effects of capsule blockage and headway and to assess the merits of adits and vents. We conclude that optimum efficiency for off-design operation is obtained with long platoons of capsules in vented or adit connected tubes.
Evaluation and Management of Combat-Related Spinal injuries: A Review Based on Recent Experiences

Abstract Background context The current approach to the evaluation and treatment of military casualties in the Global War on Terror is informed by medical experience from prior conflicts and combat encounters from the last 10 years. In an effort to standardize the care provided to military casualties in the ongoing conflicts, the Department of Defense (DoD) has published Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) that deal specifically with the combat casualty sustaining a spinal injury. However, the combat experience with spine injuries in the present conflicts remains incompletely described. Purpose To describe the CPGs for the care of the combat casualty with suspected spine injuries and discuss them in light of the published military experience with combat-related spinal trauma. Study design Literature review. Methods A literature review was conducted regarding published works that discussed the incidence, epidemiology, and management of combat-related spinal trauma. The CPGs, established by the DoD, are discussed in light of actual military experiences with spine trauma, the present situation in the forward surgical teams and combat support hospitals treating casualties in theater, and recent publications in the field of spine surgery. Results In the conventional wars fought by the United States between 1950 and 1991 (Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I), the incidence of spine injuries remained close to 1% of all combat casualties. However, in the Global War on Terror, the enemy has relied on implements of asymmetric warfare, including sniper attacks, ambush, roadside bombs, and improvised explosive devices. The increase in explosive mechanisms of injury has elevated the number of soldiers exposed to blunt force trauma and, consequently, recent publications reported the highest incidence of combat-related spinal injuries in American military history. Wounded soldiers are expeditiously evacuated through the echelons of care but typically do not receive surgical management in theater. The current CPGs for the care of soldiers with combat-related spinal injuries should be re-examined in light of data regarding the increasing number of spine injuries, new injury patterns, such as lumbosacral dissociation and low lumbar burst fractures, and recent reports within the field of spine surgery as a whole. Conclusions American and coalition forces are sustaining the highest spine combat casualty rates in recorded history and previously unseen injuries are being encountered with increased frequency. While the CPGs provide useful direction in terms of the evaluation and management of combat casualties with spine injuries, such recommendations may warrant periodic re-evaluation in light of recent combat experiences and evolving scientific evidence within the spine literature.
Power modeling and characteristics of field programmable gate arrays

This paper studies power modeling for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and investigates FPGA power characteristics in nanometer technologies. Considering both dynamic and leakage power, a mixed-level power model that combines switch-level models for interconnects and macromodels for look-up tables (LUTs) is developed. Gate-level netlists back-annotated with postlayout capacitances and delays are generated and cycle-accurate power simulation is performed using the mixed-level power model. The resulting power analysis framework is named as fpgaEVA-LP2. Experiments show that fpgaEVA-LP2 achieves high fidelity compared to SPICE simulation, and the absolute error is merely 8% on average. fpgaEVA-LP2 can be used to examine the power impact of FPGA circuits, architectures, and CAD algorithms, and it is used to study the power characteristics of existing FPGA architectures in this paper. It is shown that interconnect power is dominant and leakage power is significant in nanometer technologies. In addition, tuning cluster and LUT sizes lead to 1.7/spl times/ energy difference and 0.8/spl times/ delay difference between the resulting min-energy and min-delay FPGA architectures, and FPGA area and power are reduced at the same time by tuning the cluster and LUT sizes. The existing commercial architectures are similar to the min-energy (and min-area at the same time) architecture according to this study. Therefore, innovative FPGA circuits, architectures, and CAD algorithms, for example, considering programmable power supply voltage, are needed to further reduce FPGA power.
Larval durations and recruitment patterns of two Caribbean gobies (Gobiidae): contrasting early life histories in demersal spawners

Two demersally-spawning fishes were selected to examine the relationship between adult spawning strategies and the early life histories of larvae and juveniles. Although the Caribbean gobies, Coryphopterus glaucofraenum Gill and Gnatholepis thompsoni Jordan are common, co-occurring constituents of nearshore coral reefs, relatively little is known about the early life history and recruitment of their pelagic larvae to the reef environment. To examine patterns of recruitment, recently settled juveniles (7.5 to 16 mm standard length, SL) were censused and collected biweekly from reefs of Barbados, West Indies, during the spring recruitment peak for 3 yr (March to June 1990 to 1992). Otolith analyses were used to determine larval durations and to back-calculate settlement patterns and spawning dates. G. thompsoni spent more than twice as long in the plankton (60 d) than did C. glaucofraenum (27 d). Variation in larval duration of G. thompsoni [coefficient of variation (CV)=22.4%; durations up to 112 d] was significantly greater than that of C. glaucofraenum (CV=9.4%), which suggests that G. thompsoni has a greater capacity for delaying settlement and metamorphosis. Estimated size at settlement for G. thompsoni (SL=8.4 mm) was significantly larger than for C. glaucofraenum (SL=6.4 mm), but post-settlement growth rates were virtually identical (0.21 to 0.22 mm d−1). Settlement of both gobies occurred predominantly around the third quarter moon (ca. Day 21 to 22), but there was much greater spread in the settlement of C. glaucofraenum. Back-calculated spawning frequency for C. glaucofraenum was not closely linked to the lunar cycle, whereas spawning of G. thompsoni occurred more frequently during the third quarter moon. These observations demonstrate that two confamilial demersal spawners may have larvae with contrasting life history traits which can influence patterns of juvenile recruitment. A secondary peak in larval duration of G. thompsoni approximately 1 mo after the major mode (Day 87) suggests that if settlement does not occur two lunar cycles after hatching, G. thompsoni larvae may delay settlement until the following third quarter moon. This coupling suggests that settlement during a particular lunar phase may be advantageous for new recruits, and the capacity to delay metamorphosis may enable tighter synchronization to the lunar cycle.
Edge-based fault detection in a DiffServ network

The phenomenal growth of QoS-aware applications over the Internet has accelerated the development of key technologies such as differentiated services (DiffServ). Although QoS is provided through class-based service differentiation, the aspect of fault tolerance is not addressed in the DiffServ architecture. For traditional IP networks, the underlying link state protocol provides fault detection and recovery. However for QoS sensitive flows, the recovery times of such protocols may not be adequate. Although such a problem may be solved through fine grain HELLO timers, the underlying core routers may not be able to tolerate the additional CPU and bandwidth burden. The edge-based intelligence of the DiffServ domain represents a unique opportunity to improve the fault detection capability of the link state protocol. We propose a hybrid scheme whereby heartbeat packets are used to detect possible faults coupled with a temporary fine grain HELLO interval for fault location and possible recovery. We analyze our scheme through extensive simulation studies and we examine the tradeoffs and benefits of our scheme.
Compression techniques to simplify the analysis of large execution traces

Dynamic analysis consists of analyzing the behavior of a software system to extract its properties. There have been many studies that use dynamic information to extract high-level views of a software system or simply to help software engineers to perform their daily maintenance activities more effectively. One of the biggest challenges that such tools face is to deal with very large execution traces. By analyzing the execution traces of the software systems we are working on, we noticed that they contain many redundancies that can be removed. This led us to create a comprehension-driven compression framework that compresses the traces to make them more understandable. In this paper, we present and explain its components. The compression framework is reversible that is the original trace can be reconstructed from its compressed version. In addition to that, we conducted an experiment with the execution traces of two software systems to measure the gain attained by such compression.
Thermodynamic limits of work and pressure gain in combustion and evaporation processes

Combustion and evaporation processes occurring in a closed chamber can result in signie cant pressurerise and direct work transfer. The pressure and volumetric changes that accompany such processes allow substantial work potential to be achieved in cyclic nonsteady devices, such as internal combustion engines and pulsed combustion or detonation engines. The ideal pressure gain or work production is a function of the prescribed ine ow and oute ow conditions, volumetric cone nement, e uid properties, and other parameters. The generalized thermodynamic limits of pressure gain and work production in such devices are investigated. Analytic and iterative methods are provided to evaluate cyclic combustion and evaporation processes for enhancing airbreathing combustion engine performance.
Is the β-cell the key for remission of diabetes after bariatric surgery?

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a major complication of obesity and an important global health problem, because of its high prevalence, causal relationship with serious medical complications, adverse effects on quality-of-life and economic impact due to increased health care costs and loss of productivity. The pathogenesis of T2D involves multi-organ insulin resistance, particularly insulin-resistant glucose metabolism in skeletal muscle (impaired insulin-mediated stimulation of glucose uptake) and the liver (impaired insulin-mediated suppression of glucose production), in conjunction with inadequate insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells. Even though a large number of effective medications are available to treat T2D, approximately half of patients fail to achieve adequate glycaemic control, defined by the American Diabetes Association as HbA1c < 7%.
The multiplicity of thought.

Many writers have distinguished two types of mental processes. One kind of thinking is conscious, straightforward, predictable, and rather pedestrian; the other is confused, rich, productive of novelty, emotionally charged, and generally outside of consciousness. It is suggested that the latter arises from a multiplicity of processes going on together, while the former represents a single sequence among the crowd. These concepts are clarified by showing that sequence and multiplicity arise as alternative modes of organizing computer programs for pattern recognition. Even in the computer, multiple processing exhibits a superior ability to deal with novel or irregular input, while sequential processing appears less wasteful, and better adapted to fully predictable situations. The properties that have been said to distinguish primary and secondary process, autistic and realistic thinking, creativity and constraint, insightful and rote activity, and the like, are shown to follow from the multiplicity of thought. Relevant experimental findings are discussed.
Design and control of a three-link serial manipulator for lessons in particle dynamics

Design, control and performance of a ball-throwing robot are examined in this paper. The objective of this project is to provide an interactive ball-throwing robotic arm for illustrating the roles of engineers and computer scientists in the design and usage of such a system to high school or pre-engineering students. Activities in particle dynamics and trajectory calculation will provide basic hands on engineering experience and the opportunity to interact with the robot. In order to effectively provide this activity, the robot must consistently throw the ball from a known point with a desired velocity. This requires a minimum of a two-link manipulator with control strategies sufficient to converge two joint positions and velocities simultaneously. Due to limited microcontroller computational resources, feedforward torques are calculated off-line based on 3/sup rd/ order cubic spline trajectories. Feedback compensation for position and velocity error is then examined and compared for ball throwing accuracy and precision to a technique supplementing the previous controller with acceleration error compensation. Experimental results are presented that illustrate the improved accuracy and reduced repeatability of the later technique. Gripper design providing consistent hold on the ball and rapid release is also examined.
Modeling and practical design issues for average current control

This paper addresses modeling and practical design issues for PWM converters with average current control. A straight-forward averaged modeling method is proposed, and the resulting models are shown to be accurate enough for practical design purpose. Limitations of previously published models that incorporate sampling effect are discussed. The proposed averaged model is then applied for stability analysis and control design. In particular, conditions under which switching instability may occur are identified, and design method that avoids the instability problem is presented. The proposed modeling and design methods are demonstrated and further validated by a prototype synchronous-switch buck converter with 5 V input and 2 V output.
Cross-adaptation and bitterness inhibition of L-Tryptophan, L-Phenylalanine and urea : further support for shared peripheral physiology

A previous study investigating individuals' bitterness sensitivities found a close association among three compounds: L-tryptophan (L-trp), L-phenylalanine (L-phe) and urea (Delwiche et al., 2001, Percept. Psychophys. 63, 761-776). In the present experiment, psychophysical cross-adaptation and bitterness inhibition experiments were performed on these three compounds to determine whether the bitterness could be differentially affected by either technique. If the two experimental approaches failed to differentiate L-trp, L-phe and urea's bitterness, then we may infer they share peripheral physiological mechanisms involved in bitter taste. All compounds were intensity matched in each of 13 subjects, so the judgments of adaptation or bitterness inhibition would be based on equal initial magnitudes and, therefore, directly comparable. In the first experiment, cross-adaptation of bitterness between the amino acids was high (>80%) and reciprocal. Urea and quinine-HCl (control) did not cross-adapt with the amino acids symmetrically. In a second experiment, the sodium salts, NaCl and Na gluconate, did not differentially inhibit the bitterness of L-trp, L-phe and urea, but the control compound, MgSO4, was differentially affected. The bitter inhibition experiment supports the hypothesis that L-trp, L-phe and urea share peripheral bitter taste mechanisms, while the adaptation experiment revealed subtle differences between urea and the amino acids indicating that urea and the amino acids activate only partially overlapping bitter taste mechanisms.
Identifying Various Kinds of Event Mentions in K-Parser Output

In this paper we show how our semantic parser (Knowledge Parser or K-Parser) identifies various kinds of event mentions in the input text. The types include recursive (complex) and non recursive event mentions. KParser outputs each event mention in form of an acyclic graph with root nodes as the verbs that drive those events. The children nodes of the verbs represent the entities participating in the events, and their conceptual classes. The on-line demo of the system is available at http://kparser.org
Convex analysis of generalized flow networks

This paper is concerned with the generalized network flow (GNF) problem, which aims to find a minimum-cost solution for a generalized flow network. The objective is to determine the optimal injections at the nodes as well as optimal flows over the lines of the network. In this problem, each line is associated with two flows in opposite directions that are related to each other via a given nonlinear function. Under some monotonicity and convexity assumptions, we have shown in our recent work that a convexified generalized network flow (CGNF) problem always finds optimal injections for GNF, but may fail to find optimal flows. In this paper, we develop three results to explore the possibility of obtaining optimal flows. First, we show that CGNF yields optimal flows for GNF if the optimal injection vector is a Pareto point. Second, we show that if CGNF fails to find an optimal flow vector, then the graph can be decomposed into two subgraphs, where the lines between the subgraphs are congested at optimality and CGNF finds correct optimal flows over the lines of one of these subgraphs. Third, we fully characterize the set of all optimal flow vectors. In particular, we show that this non-convex set is a subset of the boundary of a convex set, and may include an exponential number of disconnected components.
CONCOMITANT CORONARY CT ANGIOGRAPHY ON TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE IMPLANTATION PLANNING CT

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) requires pre-procedural CT angiography to evaluate the geometry of the aortic root & the patency of the aortoiliofemoral system. TAVI candidates are at high-risk for CAD, & thus require pre-TAVI invasive coronary angiography (ICA). Successful dual-
Analysis of a Vibrating-Beam-Based Micromixer

The mixing of two or more streams in microscale devices is a slowly molecular diffusion process due to the unique laminar flows, and some ‘turbulence’ based mixing technologies which are effective in macroscales become hard to implement in such small dimensions. The chaotic advection based mixing, depending on the stretching and folding of interface, has been proved to be effective for low Reynolds numbers (Re) and is a very promising technology for micro mixing. We propose a new mixing concept based on a vibrating micro-beam in microfluidic channels to generate chaotic advection to achieve an efficient mixing. The simplicity of the proposed mixer design makes microfabrication process easy for practical applications. The feasibility of the concept is evaluated computationally and moving mesh technique (ALE) is utilized to trace the beam movement. The simulation shows that the mixing quality is determined by parameters such as flow velocities, amplitudes and frequencies of vibrating beam. The Reynolds number (Re) is less than 2.0, Pelect number (Pe) ranges from 5 to 1000, and Strohal number (St) 0.3 to 3.0. It was found that vortex type of flows were generated in microchannel due to the interaction between beam and channel wall. The mixing efficiency with this design is well improved comparing with the flows without beam vibration.© 2007 ASME
Support vector machine based classification and mapping of atherosclerotic plaques using fluorescence lifetime imaging (Conference Presentation)

The progression of atherosclerosis in coronary vessels involves distinct pathological changes in the vessel wall. These changes manifest in the formation of a variety of plaque sub-types. The ability to detect and distinguish these plaques, especially thin-cap fibroatheromas (TCFA) may be relevant for guiding percutaneous coronary intervention as well as investigating new therapeutics. In this work we demonstrate the ability of fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm) derived parameters (lifetime values from sub-bands 390/40 nm, 452/45 nm and 542/50 nm respectively) for generating classification maps for identifying eight different atherosclerotic plaque sub-types in ex vivo human coronary vessels. The classification was performed using a support vector machine based classifier that was built from data gathered from sixteen coronary vessels in a previous study. This classifier was validated in the current study using an independent set of FLIm data acquired from four additional coronary vessels with a new rotational FLIm system. Classification maps were compared to co-registered histological data. Results show that the classification maps allow identification of the eight different plaque sub-types despite the fact that new data was gathered with a different FLIm system. Regions with diffuse intimal thickening (n=10), fibrotic tissue (n=2) and thick-cap fibroatheroma (n=1) were correctly identified on the classification map. The ability to identify different plaque types using FLIm data alone may serve as a powerful clinical and research tool for studying atherosclerosis in animal models as well as in humans.