cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A High Dynamic Range CMOS-MEMS Accelerometer Array with Drift Compensation and Fine-Grain Offset Compensation

This paper presents a high dynamic range CMOS-MEMS capacitive accelerometer. An array of small masses enables the accelerometer to survive and measure high-G (kG) acceleration. A fine-grain offset compensation technique suppresses the offset due to sense capacitance mismatch. The key idea is to employ two out of 184 accelerometer cells to tune out the charge imbalance, which ensures 90X improved tuning resolution (sub-aF offset). Multiple temperature sensors are integrated on the same accelerometer chip to improve the accelerometer long-term bias instability. The prototype is fabricated in standard 0.18 μm CMOS process and then post-processed to release the accelerometer sensing structures. Measurement results demonstrate that the accelerometer achieves 5.06μV/G transducer scale factor, sub-aF offset, 4.4 μG√hr velocity random walk (VRW), and 5.2 mG bias instability. The sensor array gun-launched at 50 kG and has demonstrated high-shock survivability. Offset measurement results demonstrate 90X better offset tuning resolution than conventional technique.
Climate exceeded human management as the dominant control of fire at the regional scale in California’s Sierra Nevada

The societal impacts of recent, severe fires in California highlight the need to understand the long-term effectiveness of human fire management. The relative influences of local management and climate at centennial timescales are controversial and poorly understood. This is the case in California's Sierra Nevada, an actively managed area with a rich history of Native American fire use. We analyzed charcoal preserved in lake sediments from Yosemite National Park and spanning the last 1,400 years to reconstruct local and regional area burned. Warm and dry climates promoted burning at both local and regional scales. However, at local scales fire management by Native Americans before 850 and between ca. 1350 and 1600 CE and, subsequently, Yosemite park managers from ca. 1900 to 1970 CE, decoupled fire extent dictated by regional climate scenarios. Climate acts as a top-down, broader scale control of fire, but human management serves a bottom-up, local control. Regional area burned peaked during the Medieval Climate Anomaly and declined during the last millennium, as climate became cooler and wetter and Native American burning declined. This trend was accentuated by 20th century fire suppression policies, which led to a minimum in burned area relative to the last 1,400 years. In light of projected anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and predicted climate changes in California, our data indicate that although active management can mitigate local fire activity, broader regional burning may become more spatially extensive than has been observed in the last century.
Work Design for Older Adults

Abstract Current demographic trends underscore the need to understand the implications of an aging population for job and workplace design. The aging of the population coupled with the declining birthrate implies that organizations will need to utilize older adults to perform work activities. Also high rates of unemployment among older people would create a significant increase in the economic dependency burden thus it is important to identify strategies which delay early retirement and encourage active labor force participation among older adults. This chapter will present an overview of the aging process and provide specific examples of the potential impacts for job performance. In addition, examples will be given to illustrate how Human Factors Engineering can make contributions towards successfully integrating older workers into organizational settings. These examples, will encompass job and workplace design and retraining.
Aromatic N-heterocycles in Mn-mediated radical additions to N-acylhydrazones

Abstract Manganese-mediated radical addition reactions to chiral N-acylhydrazones produces amines with excellent stereocontrol, but prior work showed an incompatibility with aromatic N-heterocycles. Control reactions with various aromatic heterocycles as additives led to modified reaction conditions that permit improved radical additions to N-acylhydrazones in the presence of heteroaromatic compounds. The method was applied to a revised approach to tubuvaline utilizing radical addition to a chiral N-acylhydrazone bearing a thiazole moiety.
Cryptosporidium Infection in Bangladesh Children

In humans in addition to diarrheal disease and sub-clinical infections the Cryptosporidium parasite can cause developmental delays and growth failure in malnourished infants. We hypothesized that genetic variants may be responsible for the differences in pathogen phenotypes. Resequencing thirty-two Bangladesh C. hominis isolates identified both polymorphic regions and evidence of frequent genetic recombination. This increased the genetic diversity of the parasites. Additional studies are now needed to identify the genetic changes predisposing the parasite to the different phenotypes.
Bombus Species Image Classification.

Entomologists, ecologists and others struggle to rapidly and accurately identify the species of bumble bees they encounter in their field work and research. The current process requires the bees to be mounted, then physically shipped to a taxonomic expert for proper categorization. We investigated whether an image classification system derived from transfer learning can do this task. We used Google Inception, Oxford VGG16 and VGG19 and Microsoft ResNet 50. We found Inception and VGG classifiers were able to make some progress at identifying bumble bee species from the available data, whereas ResNet was not. Individual classifiers achieved accuracies of up to 23% for single species identification and 44% top-3 labels, where a composite model performed better, 27% and 50%. We feel the performance was most hampered by our limited data set of 5,000-plus labeled images of 29 species, with individual species represented by 59 -315 images.
Benchmarking Graph Neural Networks on Link Prediction.

In this paper, we benchmark several existing graph neural network (GNN) models on different datasets for link predictions. In particular, the graph convolutional network (GCN), GraphSAGE, graph attention network (GAT) as well as variational graph auto-encoder (VGAE) are implemented dedicated to link prediction tasks, in-depth analysis are performed, and results from several different papers are replicated, also a more fair and systematic comparison are provided. Our experiments show these GNN architectures perform similarly on various benchmarks for link prediction tasks.
Can the Macula be Attached if View Is Obscured by a Bullous Retinal Detachment? A Mathematical Consideration.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine if it is possible for the macula to remain attached if a bullous retinal detachment blocks the examiner's view to the macula. Methods A mathematical analysis compared the arc length of the attached retina versus the length of a detached retina necessary to obscure the macula (hang over the visual axis). The shape (oblate ellipsoid) and dimensions of the retina were based on a published study. The complete path of the hanging retina was calculated as a static catenary so as to depict the lowest possible position ("worst case scenario"). Results The measured and calculated angle between the fovea and ora serrata was 105 degrees. When considering a catenary shape of the hanging retina, the macula could, mathematically, still be attached despite the retina hanging down 1.03 mm below the visual axis for an emmetropic eye. The maximal distance calculated was 1.095 mm for a -12 diopter (D) myopic eye. Conclusions If the macular center cannot be viewed due to a bullous superior retinal detachment hanging into the examiner's view, it is unlikely but possible that the macula remains attached. If the view is obscured by at least 1 mm below the fovea, it is not mathematically possible for the fovea to be attached. Translational relevance The status of the macula being detached is subject to mathematical constraints, which, explored herein, offer a higher certainty of clinical decision making that could inform management for better clinical results.
Evaluation of Reproductive Tract Cytokines in Post-partum Beef Cows Relating to Reproductive Microbiota and Fertility Outcomes

The activity of the immune system in the reproductive tract has been proven to be crucial in the response to uterine diseases, normal reproductive functions, and tolerance to the allogeneic fetus during pregnancy. The objectives of the current study were to 1) evaluate uterine and vaginal cytokine concentrations in postpartum cows undergoing estrus synchronization followed by timed artificial insemination (TAI) and 2) correlate bacterial communities with cytokine concentrations. Postpartum Angus cows (n = 20) were subjected to a 7-Day Co-Synch protocol with pre-synchronization beginning 21 days prior (d -21) to TAI (d 0). Uterine and vaginal flushes were collected on d -21 and -2. Pregnancy was determined by transrectal ultrasound on d 30. Cytokines include interleukin (IL)-1b, IL-6, IL-10, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), and immunoglobin A (IgA) and concentrations were determined by commercial ELISA kits. No differences by day or pregnancy status in cytokine concentrations were detected in vaginal samples. No differences by day or pregnancy status in IgA, IL-10, or IL-1b concentrations were detected in uterine samples. Overall TGF-β concentrations in the uterus were greater in resulting pregnant than non-pregnant cows (44.0 ± 13.4 pg/mL vs 14.7 ± 4.9 pg/mL; P = 0.047). Uterine TGF-β was correlated with the relative abundance of genera Treponema (r = -0.668; P = 0.049) in resulting non-pregnant cows on d -21 and with the relative abundance of genera Ureaplasma (r = 0.901; P = 0.0004) in resulting pregnant cows on d -2. In resulting pregnant animals, a tendency for a strong correlation was detected between d -2 progesterone concentrations and uterine TGF-β concentrations (r = 0.591, P = 0.07). Overall IL-6 concentrations in the uterus were greater in resulting non-pregnant than pregnant cows (198.7 ± 21.8 pg/mL vs 144.3 ± 16.1 pg/mL; P = 0.045). A correlation was also detected between uterine IL-6 concentrations and the relative abundance of genera Butyrivibrio (r = 0.742; P = 0.022) in resulting non-pregnant cows on d -21. These results suggest possible relationships between different bacterial communities and cytokine concentrations within the uterus of beef cattle prior to TAI that may ultimately affect fertility outcomes.
Optical Properties of Liquid Phase Exfoliated Transition Metal Dichalcogenide MoS2

Two-Dimensional (2D) monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) enable distinct quantum optical properties compared to bulk analogs. The pervasive appeal of 2D TMDs is underpinned by the nascent ability to scalably isolate mono to few layer TMDs from bulk constituents via exfoliation strategies. To-date, the optical characterization of films from exfoliated TMDs has been scarce, especially in relation to the quality of the optical response (i.e., refractive index, n, and extinction coefficient, k) and associated physical material tolerances. In this work, we report the optical properties of representative liquid phase exfoliated MoS2 films and identify important considerations toward maximizing associated low-dimensional optical performance. Understanding processing impact on material quality post-exfoliation and on the resulting optical performance of such films is expected to further enable application-ready quantum nanophotonic technologies.
Analysis of Native Microflora and Selection of Strains Antagonistic to Human Pathogens on Fresh Produce

The native microflora of three types of produce (green bell peppers, Romaine lettuce, and prepeeled baby carrots) and two types of sprouting seeds (alfalfa and clover) were investigated. Aerobic plate count (APC) for each produce or seed type as determined on Pseudomonas agar F (PAF) with incubation at 28 degrees C was in the range of 4 to 7 log CFU per g of tissue or seed. There was no significant difference (P > or = 0.05) in APC when the determinations were made with three agar media including PAF, brain heart infusion agar, and plate count agar. However, the APC as determined from plates that were incubated at 28 degrees C was significantly (P < or = 0.05) higher than with incubation at 37 degrees C. Fluorescent pseudomonads accounted for 23 to 73% of APC and 6 to 18% of APC recovered from carrots, pepper, and lettuce were pectolytic. Forty-eight strains of pectolytic bacteria were randomly isolated and identified, respectively, as members of the genera of Pseudomonas, Erwinia, Bacillus, Xanthomonas, or Flavobacterium. Lactic acid bacteria and/or yeast were consistently isolated from baby carrots, lettuce, and sprouting seeds (alfalfa or clover) but not from green bell peppers. Approximately 120 strains of indigenous microflora were tested for their ability to inhibit the growth of Salmonella Chester, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, or Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora on PAF. Six isolates capable of inhibiting the growth of at least one pathogen were isolated and identified, respectively, as Bacillus spp. (three strains), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (one strain), Pseudomonas fluorescens (strain A3), and yeast (strain D1). When green pepper disks were inoculated with strains A3 and D1, the growth of Salmonella Chester and L. monocytogenes on the disks was reduced by 1 and 2 logs, respectively, over a period of 3 days. Application of strains A3 and D1 as potential biopreservatives for enhancing the quality and safety of fresh produce is discussed.
Detecting experts on Quora: by their activity, quality of answers, linguistic characteristics and temporal behaviors

Quora is a fast growing social QA (2) propose user activity features, quality of answer features, linguistic features and temporal features to identify distinguishing patterns between experts and non-experts; and (3) develop statistical models based on the features to automatically detect experts. Our experimental results show that our classifiers effectively identify experts in general topics and a specific topic, achieving up to 97 % accuracy and 0.987 AUC.
Disruption of Radiologist Workflow.

The effect of disruptions has been studied extensively in surgery and emergency medicine, and a number of solutions—such as preoperative checklists—have been implemented to enforce the integrity of critical safety-related workflows. Disruptions of the highly complex and cognitively demanding workflow of modern clinical radiology have only recently attracted attention as a potential safety hazard. In this article, we describe the variety of disruptions that arise in the reading room environment, review approaches that other specialties have taken to mitigate workflow disruption, and suggest possible solutions for workflow improvement in radiology.
Bridging the gap between vulnerabilities and threats in electronic voting (transcript of discussion)

First of all, I apologise for having a talk on the theme (remodelling the attacker), which I never do, but I’m making up for that by not actually having any answers, only some questions. This is joint work with Sandy Clark, who’s here. As designers and implementers, we would probably agree in practice that in spite of our best efforts, it’s easier to deploy insecure systems, and design insecure protocols, or build horribly insecure cryptosystem algorithms, than it is to build secure ones. That’s what history seems to suggest, even if we think we’re very smart, in practice what we deploy first tends to be really horrible in retrospect. But there is at least some lag between the time that we give attackers an opportunity to attack us, and the time that they realise that this is the case. We tend to deploy an insecure system and then add the security later. So one question that seems relevant to the practice of security is precisely how long this honeymoon period lasts, between the time we throw out a terribly insecure system, and the time we are going to be required by the attackers to fix it. How long do we get to get away with the insecurity, what does this curve look like.
Long-Term Effects of Neutron Absorber and Fuel Matrix Corrosion on Criticality

Proposed waste package designs will require the addition of neutron absorbing material to prevent the possibility of a sustained chain reaction occurring in the fuel in the event of water intrusion. Due to the low corrosion rates of the fuel matrix and the Zircaloy cladding, there is a possibility that the neutron absorbing material will corrode and leak from the waste container long before the subsequent release of fuel matrix material. An analysis of the release of fuel matrix and neutron absorber material based on a probabilistic model was conducted and the results were used to prepare input to KENO-V, an neutron criticality code. The results demonstrate that, in the presence of water, the computed values of k{sub eff} exceeded the maximum of 0.95 for an extended period of time.
Is ratio of the maximum to the minimum of two normal sample variance a viable alternative to F-ratio test?

Pandey and Bhattacharya (1986) derived the distribution of the ratio of the maximum to the minimum of two independent normal sample variances for testing the equality of their population variances. However, the usual test statistic is the F-ratio —the ratio of the two sample variances. In real applications of the F-ratio test, it is customary to use the larger sample variance in the numerator (McClave and Dietrich, II (1988), p. 460). In this short note, we show that if, instead of using the F-ratio test, one uses the ratio of the maximum to the minimum of two sample variances as a test statistic, the power of the test is very small questioning the viability of the test as an alternative to the F-ratio test.
Passing Resultsets Between Layers

After your query is done, the various query techniques discussed in the last chapters (such as ADO Command objects and the ODBC API) still need to pass back the results to the routines that initiated the query in the first place. More and more developers are choosing architectures that run queries at remote locations and transport the results back to another layer or tier. While this might sound like the traditional client-server rigs I’ve discussed before, the difference here is that the client is not opening a connection and managing a query using ADO. In many cases, the client is making a DCOM call to an out-of-process COM component running on a remote server. To do this, the remote COM component opens a connection, runs the query, and returns the data. In other situations, as in Web architectures, the client is simply a browser accessing an ASP page that uses ADO to run the query and return the data in the form of HTML, XML, and XSL or combinations of the above.
Secondary Structure Determination of Peptides and Proteins After Immobilization

The presentation of immobilized peptides and other small biomolecules attached to surfaces can be greatly affected by the attachment chemistry and linking moieties, resulting in altered activity and specificity. For this reason, it is critical to understand how the various aspects of surface immobilization-underlying substrate properties, tether structure, and site of linkage-affect the secondary and quaternary structures of the immobilized species. Here, we present methods for attaching cysteine-containing peptides to quartz surfaces and determining the secondary structure of surface-immobilized peptides. We specifically show that, even when covalently immobilized, changes in peptide conformation can still occur, with measurement occurring in real time.
Binding of Selected Drugs to a Treated Inline Filter

The binding of several drugs to an inline i.v. filter that had been treated to inhibit drug-binding was studied. Solutions of mithramycin, vincristine sulfate, digitoxin, insulin, dactinomycin, and nitroglycerin in both 5% dextrose injection and 0.9% sodium chloride injection were allowed to flow through an i.v. administration set containing a 0.22-micron cellulose ester filter that had been treated with a proprietary agent. Actual administration conditions were simulated by using drug concentrations and flow rates commonly employed in clinical practice. The amount of each drug retained by the filter was determined by assaying aliquots of the solutions sampled before and after the solution passed through the filter membrane. In a second experiment, drug binding to the filter membrane was measured by incubating small pieces of the treated membrane in drug solutions and determining concentrations periodically until equilibrium was reached. Untreated filter membrane pieces were used as a control. In the experiment simulating actual i.v. administration, cumulative binding of mithramycin, vincristine sulfate, dactinomycin, and nitroglycerin to the treated filter was less than 6% of the initial dose infused; approximately 8-12% of the initial amounts of digitoxin and insulin were bound to the filter. In the equilibrium binding studies, the untreated filters bound twice as much digitoxin, 5-7 times as much mithramycin, vincristine sulfate, and dactinomycin, and 20 times as much insulin as the treated filters. The amount of nitroglycerin bound to the treated and untreated filters was not substantially different. Insulin had a greater binding tendency in 5% dextrose injection than in 0.9% sodium chloride injection in both experiments regardless of the filter treatment. Treatment of a cellulose ester i.v. filter with the proprietary agent used in this study facilitates drug delivery through this filter.
Applying analytical hierarchy process to system quality requirements prioritization

The order in which design decisions or tactics are incorporated within a system architecture has a significant impact on how well quality requirements are addressed in the architecture solution. Quality attributes are most often correlated; attempts to achieve one quality attribute can help or hinder the achievement of another quality relevant for the system. Thus, prioritization of quality requirements and design tactics to address these quality requirements is a useful guide for system architects. Conventional techniques of quality attribute prioritization are qualitative in nature and trade-off among design tactics are not addressed during prioritization. In this paper, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique is proposed to quantitatively rank design decisions and tactics while at the same time taking into consideration the interrelationships between system quality requirements and design tactics and principles. The approach is demonstrated on remote monitoring system for medical patients. The approach facilitates an objective ranking of tactics and design principles and eliminates inconsistencies between business and technical stakeholder valuation.
An uncertainty principle in electromagnetic homogenization

Nontrivial magnetic response of periodic structures composed of intrinsically nonmagnetic constituents is now a well-established but still intriguing phenomenon; it plays a critical role in negative refraction, cloaking and other unusual effects. Much attention has been devoted to optimal (in some sense) design, whereby the magnetism would be enhanced and engineered to fall in a desirable range for specific applications - absorption, cloaking, lensing, etc. However, we show both analytically and numerically that this artificial magnetism has limitations: the stronger the magnetic response (as measured by the deviation of the effective permeability tensor from identity), the less accurate (“certain”) predictions of the effective medium theory are. We call this the uncertainty principle for the effective parameters of metamaterials. In practice, there is still room for engineering design, but the trade-offs between magnetic response and the accuracy of homogenization must be noted.
The Membrane Anchor R7BP Controls the Proteolytic Stability of the Striatal Specific RGS Protein, RGS9-2

A member of the RGS (regulators of G protein signaling) family, RGS9-2 is a critical regulator of G protein signaling pathways that control locomotion and reward signaling in the brain. RGS9-2 is specifically expressed in striatal neurons where it forms complexes with its newly discovered partner, R7BP (R7 family binding protein). Interaction with R7BP is important for the subcellular targeting of RGS9-2, which in native neurons is found in plasma membrane and its specializations, postsynaptic densities. Here we report that R7BP plays an additional important role in determining proteolytic stability of RGS9-2. We have found that co-expression with R7BP dramatically elevates the levels of RGS9-2 and its constitutive subunit, Gbeta5. Measurement of the RGS9-2 degradation kinetics in cells indicates that R7BP markedly reduces the rate of RGS9-2.Gbeta5 proteolysis. Lentivirus-mediated RNA interference knockdown of the R7BP expression in native striatal neurons results in the corresponding decrease in RGS9-2 protein levels. Analysis of the molecular determinants that mediate R7BP/RGS9-2 binding to result in proteolytic protection have identified that the binding site for R7BP in RGS proteins is formed by pairing of the DEP (Disheveled, EGL-10, Pleckstrin) domain with the R7H (R7 homology), a domain of previously unknown function that interacts with four putative alpha-helices of the R7BP core. These findings provide a mechanism for the regulation of the RGS9 protein stability in the striatal neurons.
Age, Education, and Changes in the Mini-Mental State Exam Scores of Older Women: Findings from the Nun Study

OBJECTIVE: To describe the relationship of Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) scores and changes over time in MMSE scores to age and education in a population of older women. DESIGN: A prospective study of a defined population. SETTING: Various motherhouses and church-run health care facilities in the Eastern, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Catholic sisters (nuns) participating in the Nun Study, a study of aging and Alzheimer's Disease. The 678 participants were 75 to 102 years old (mean 83.3, standard deviation 5.5, median 82.3) at the time of the first functional assessment. Second assessments were obtained an average of 1.6 years later on 575 survivors. MEASUREMENTS: The outcome variables were MMSE scores at the first assessment (Time-one), and MMSE scores at the second assessment (Time-two). The independent variables were age at Time-one, and education (bachelor's degree or no bachelor's degree). RESULTS: Time-one MMSE scores decreased with age at Time-one. The decrease in MMSE scores with age was less in sisters with bachelor's degrees than in sisters without bachelor's degrees. The changes in MMSE scores had a “U-shaped” relationship with Time-one score, where the greatest declines occurred in sisters with intermediate Time-one scores. Stratified analysis by age, education, and Time-one MMSE score was feasible only in sisters with Time-one MMSE scores of 20 or greater because of the small numbers of sisters with Time-one scores less than 20. In sisters with Time-one MMSE scores in the categories 20 to 23, 24 to 26, or 27 to 30, older ages at Time-one were associated with greater decline in those with bachelor's degrees, but not in those without bachelor's degrees. Also, lower education was associated with greater decline in sisters aged 75 to 84 years at Time-one, but this education effect disappeared or reversed in sisters who were 85 years of age or older at Time-one. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive function as measured by the MMSE decreased with age at Time-one, most steeply as a function of age in those without bachelor's degrees. Cognitive function declined over 1.6 years within individuals, and the extent of decline increased with age in the sisters with bachelor's degrees. The extent of decline varied with age and education in an interactive manner, which may have been attributable to a hardy survivor effect in lower educated sisters. It may be necessary to consider such interactions whenever changes in function are studied, particularly when analyses are stratified by the initial level of function.
On an urn problem of Paul and Tatiana Ehrenfest

A short solution is given for the urn problem proposed by Paul and Tatiana Ehrenfest in 1907.In 1907 P. and T. Ehrenfest(3) proposed an urn model for the resolution of the apparent discrepancy between irreversibility and recurrence in Boltzmann's theory of gases (2). In this model it is assumed that m balls numbered 1, 2, …, m are distributed in two boxes. We perform a series of trials. In each trial we choose a number at random among 1, 2, …, m in such a way that each number has probability 1/m. If we choose j, then we transfer the ball numbered j from one box to the other. Denote by ξn the number of balls in the first box at the end of the nth trial. Initially there are ξ0 balls in the first box. If the trials are independent, then the sequence {ξn;n = 0, 1, 2,…} forms a homogeneous Markov chain with state space I = {0, 1, 2,…, m} and transition probabilities pi,i+1 = (m − i)/m for i = 0, l,…, m − 1, Pi,i−1 = i/m for i = 1, 2,…, m, and pi,k = 0 otherwise. The problem is to determine the transition probabilitiesfor i∈I, k∈I and n = 0,1, 2,….
Death Educator as Deacon

By viewing the physician as priest, i.e. the individual who provides access to the values of health and long life, the death educator can be seen as deacon, the person who serves the priest as a helper. Physicians and death counselors are primarily healers; clergy and death educators are primarily preachers. The power relationship between physician and death counselor is well-established, with the former maintaining the most significant power; the power relationship between the clergy and the death educator is more egalitarian. Death educators and counselors need to be aware of their role relationships with other relevant professionals, and a theological model can be useful in understanding these relationships.
Tactical Reconnaissance Pod System Development For The F-14

Grumman efforts in the design and study of tactical reconnaissance systems, and particularly studies of the application of pods for such reconnaissance missions, have been conducted over the past several years, as shown in Figure 1. Most of this effort has been done with corporate funds supplemented by some funded studies from the U. S. Navy.
Integrated parallel performance views

The influences of the operating system and system-specific effects on application performance are increasingly important considerations in high performance computing. OS kernel measurement is key to understanding the performance influences and the interrelationship of system and user-level performance factors. The KTAU (Kernel TAU) methodology and Linux-based framework provides parallel kernel performance measurement from both a kernel-wide and process-centric perspective. The first characterizes overall aggregate kernel performance for the entire system. The second characterizes kernel performance when it runs in the context of a particular process. KTAU extends the TAU performance system with kernel-level monitoring, while leveraging TAU's measurement and analysis capabilities. We explain the rational and motivations behind our approach, describe the KTAU design and implementation, and show working examples on multiple platforms demonstrating the versatility of KTAU in integrated system/application monitoring.
Clonidine Extended Release in the Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Introduction: Clonidine extended release (CLON-XR) is a newly developed formulation of clonidine, a central α-2 adrenergic agonist. Clonidine is used primarily in the treatment of hypertension, and in the pediatric population, clonidine has been used to treat Tourette’s syndrome and other tic disorders [1] and attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [2] and ADHDassociated sleep disturbances [3]. Clonidine does not have a US Food and Drug Administration indication for ADHD, but it has been used adjunctively to treat ADHD for many years. There are several limitations to the use of clonidine, including its short half-life (5.5 hours in children), which means it requires multiple daily dosing, as well as potential noncompliance, occurrence of sedation, and hypotension [2]. The current study was prompted by the development of an extended-release formulation of clonidine to gain US Food and Drug Administration approval.
Policy Traps: Consumer Subsidies in Post-Crisis Argentina

Developing countries devote significant resources to lowering consumer prices for basic goods and services such as food and electricity. Theories of the welfare state only partially elucidate why consumer subsidy regimes grow so large and become entrenched. While the welfare state literature stresses how concentrated, organized beneficiary groups push for the expansion and protection of well-known programs such as pensions, the developing world’s consumers are atomized, and subsidies themselves are of low visibility. The size and durability of consumer subsidy regimes stem primarily from political uncertainty and price shocks that provide politicians with strong incentives to avoid blame for repeal. Over time, environmental pressures and fears of political backlash against repeal reinforce one another, increasing the fiscal burden subsidies impose and dramatically raising the political cost of program exit. In this sense, consumer subsidy programs come to form “policy traps”—initially modest policies that quickly grow and become entrenched, thereby greatly reducing politicians’ maneuvering room. We utilize this framework to analyze the meteoric growth and entrenchment of utility subsidies in post-crisis Argentina. In Argentina, subsidies grew despite the private provision of subsidized services—making it difficult for the government to claim credit—even in sectors with weakly organized interests.
A 3×3.8Gb/s four-wire high speed I/O link based on CDMA-like crosstalk cancellation

A signaling technique realizing three differential links over four wires is proposed. The technique uses Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) principles to cancel the crosstalk between the links. A 3×3.8 Gb/s, 10−12 BER, prototype IC built in 90nm CMOS is described and measurement results are presented.
A bayesian logistic regression model for active relevance feedback

Relevance feedback, which traditionally uses the terms in the relevant documents to enrich the user's initial query, is an effective method for improving retrieval performance. The traditional relevance feedback algorithms lead to overfitting because of the limited amount of training data and large term space. This paper introduces an online Bayesian logistic regression algorithm to incorporate relevance feedback information. The new approach addresses the overfitting problem by projecting the original feature space onto a more compact set which retains the necessary information. The new set of features consist of the original retrieval score, the distance to the relevant documents and the distance to non-relevant documents. To reduce the human evaluation effort in ascertaining relevance, we introduce a new active learning algorithm based on variance reduction to actively select documents for user evaluation. The new active learning algorithm aims to select feedback documents to reduce the model variance. The variance reduction approach leads to capturing relevance, diversity and uncertainty of the unlabeled documents in a principled manner. These are the critical factors of active learning indicated in previous literature. Experiments with several TREC datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Protective Grass Endophytes: Where are they from and where are they going?

erhaps the most widely used agents of biological plant protection are endophytic fungal symbionts (endophytes) of forage and turfgrasses. These are fungi of the family Clavicipitaceae, which grow between host cells in vegetative tissues, ovules, and seeds of systemically infected grass plants. The existence of these endophytes was not fully appreciated until recent years, although the protection they provide against insect damage (Fig. 1) and drought contributes to the superior agronomic qualities of favorite pasture grasses in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Unfortunately for livestock farmers, these endophytes also provide a degree of protection from grazing mammals. In 1977, Bacon et al. (2) reported that the grass Festuca arundinacea var. genuina Schreb. (hexaploid tall fescue) had a fungal endophyte related to Epichloe typhina (Pers.:Fr.) Tul., and that this endophyte— now known as Neotyphodium coenophialum (Morgan-Jones & Gams) Glenn, Bacon, & Hanlin—was responsible for toxicosis suffered by livestock grazing the grass. Epichloe species were known for many decades (44), but reports relating that nonpathogenic endophytes could be detrimental to livestock provided new impetus for intensive studies, making the grass–endophyte associations among the best characterized symbioses in biology. Less than two decades of research have yielded a rich body of knowledge about these symbioses: their secondary product chemistry, ecology, evolution, genetics, and molecular biology; their ecological roles as protectants from insect and vertebrate herbivores, pathogenic fungi and nematodes, and drought; and their effects on host growth and competitiveness. The endophytes produce numerous alkaloids, some of which are unrelated to any known from plants or other fungi. Their genetic and evolutionary complexity is extraordinary. They were the first fungi genetically documented as interspecific hybrids (47,53). Meanwhile, molecular genetic techniques were applied to the endophytes of tall fescue and other grasses, bringing us closer to the prospect of reducing or eliminating their toxicosis to livestock while continuing to employ their bioprotective qualities.
High Throughput Screening for Small Molecule Inhibitors of Heparin-induced Tau Fibril Formation

Abstract A library of ∼51,000 compounds was interrogated by high throughput screening (HTS) using a heparin-induced tau fibrillization assay. HTS was conducted with bacterially expressed recombinant tau fragment K18 and the reaction was monitored by thioflavine T fluorescence. Hits meeting criteria set for selection in HTS were further evaluated in a panel of assays designed (a) to confirm the initial results and (b) to identify possible false positives arising from non-specific mechanisms or assay-dependent artifacts. Two 2,3-di(furan-2-yl)-quinoxalines were confirmed as inhibitors of tau fibrillization with IC50s in the low micromolar range (l–3 μM). Among false positive hits, members of the pyrimidotriazines, benzofurans, porphyrins, and anthraquinone, inhibited tau fibrillization by generating peroxides via catalytic redox cycles due to the reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT) in the assay. This study delineates focused strategies for HTS of tau fibrillization inhibitors that are relevant to drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease and related tauopathies.
Surface Properties of Carbon

Abstract Carbon surface chemistry is relatively new as an independent subject of inquiry, and, judging by the volume of publications, is receiving increasing attention throughout the world. Our conception of carbon black and its functional behavior has changed significantly since the pioneering publication by Studebaker in 1957. Within the last few years there have been a number of excellent reviews covering various aspects of carbon chemistry by authors who are presently active in this field. Donnet, Puri, and Boehm discuss reactions of carbon and the characterization of surface functional groups while van der Plas is particularly thorough on the subject of adsorption properties and porosity. Deviney explores the relationship between surface chemistry and carbon-elastomer interactions, as does Studebaker from the point of view of the practical application of carbon black in rubber. Current monographs containing useful background information are collected in “Les Carbones” and in Walker's continuing serie...
Current progress on statistical methods for mapping quantitative trait loci from inbred line crosses

Tremendous progress has been made in recent years on developing statistical methods for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) from crosses of inbred lines. Most of the recent research is focused on strategies for mapping multiple-QTL and associated model selection procedures and criterion. We review the progress of research in this area on one trait and multiple traits by maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods.
Regional differences in the morphology of the goat epididymis: a light microscopic and ultrastructural study.

The goat epididymis, based on morphological differences, was divided into five regions; regions I and II, and the proximal part of region III constituted the head; the distal part of region III and region IV, the body; and region V, the tail. The epithelium of all regions contained principal and basal epithelial cells and intraepithelial lymphocytes and macrophages. In addition, regions II to IV also contained a few apical cells. Clear cells were absent. The epithelium varied in height from the tallest in region I (88 ± 33 μm) to the shortest in region V (38 ± 5 μm). Conversely, the luminal diameter, thickness of smooth muscle wall, and luminal sperm concentration were highest in region V. The irregular epithelial height of regions I and IV accounted for a stellate lumen in contrast to the oval lumen of the other regions. Whereas the lumen of region I contained only a few sperm, those of regions II, III, and IV were filled with sperm. Principal cells were the only cell type that showed striking cytological differences between regions. While they contained absorptive features (canaliculi, pinocytotic and coated vesicles, and subapical vacuoles) in all regions, the principal cells of region II were filled with large, heterogeneous vacuoles (up to 5 μm in diameter), suggesting that they may be preferentially involved in transporting and digesting particulate material. Besides absorptive features, principal cells of all regions contained morphological correlates of protein synthesis such as highly developed Golgi complexes in the supranuclear area and numerous cisternae of RER near the Golgi body and in the infranuclear cytoplasm. The cisternae of RER were more developed in region IV, and in some instances, they were distended with flocculent material resembling newly synthesized protein. Unlike the protein synthesizing organelles, principal cells of all regions lacked morphological correlates of steroid hormone synthesis. These results are compared with previously published data on the regional differences in the epididymis of other species, especially with those of the rat and the bull, in an effort to understand the significance of the epididymis in sperm maturation.
Binding Sites for Epidermal Growth Factor in Human Fetal Membranes

The present study demonstrates that human fetal membranes bind 125I-epidermal growth factor (125I-EGF), with chorion binding more than amnion. The chorion binding was also higher than that by decidua, but lower than in placenta. The lower binding by chorion compared to placenta was entirely attributable to a lower number of available EGF receptors and not to lower affinity. Chorion and placenta , but not amnion or decidua, from Cesarean section bound significantly more 125I-EGF when compared to tissues obtained after vaginal delivery. The binding of 125I-EGF to chorion exhibited dependency on time, temperature of incubation, pH of the incubation media, and amount of chorion protein. The 125I-EGF was not degraded during the binding reaction with chorion. The binding was specific in that unlabeled EGF inhibited 125I-EGF binding in a dose-dependent manner, whereas very high concentrations of other unlabeled hormones and growth factors had minimal effects on 125I-EGF binding. When some of these other hormones were tested for binding as tracers (125I-hCG, [3H]prostaglandin E1 and F2 alpha), neither chorion, amnion, decidua, nor placenta specifically bound these ligands. The 125I-EGF specific binding to chorion was saturable and a Scatchard plot of this data was curvilinear, which appears to be due to negative cooperativity. The apparent dissociation constant calculated from the initial slope of the plot was 0.20 nM, which is in excellent agreement with the concentration of unlabeled EGF required for half maximal inhibition of 125I-EGF binding, 0.26 nM. Autoradiography at the light microscope level revealed the presence of silver grains in amnion and chorion only when excess unlabeled EGF addition was withheld. The quantification of grains revealed the presence of a significantly (P less than 0.01) greater number of grains in chorion than in amnion, supporting the conclusion of the binding data. The physiological significance of EGF binding to fetal membranes and decidua is not known, but the considerable amount of EGF binding reported here suggests that they are target tissues for EGF.
Critic, Deconstruct Thyself: A Rejoinder to Koch's Nonsense of Snow

In his recent essay ‘‘The Map as Intent: Variations on the Theme of John Snow,’’ Tom Koch (2004, 1) claims to demonstrate ‘‘the close relation between authorial intent and mapped result irrespective of the data.’’ While map readers must indeed be wary of ‘‘authorial intent,’’ Koch’s rhetoric demonstrates that this caveat applies equally well, and perhaps more so, to expository writing in general. As one of several authors critiqued by Koch for an ‘‘appropriation and transformation of Snow’s mapping to serve interests Snow himself would not have recognized as legitimate’’ (2004, 2), I offer a close reading of what I said and what Koch says I said.
Are expectancies based upon different positive reinforcing events discriminably different

Abstract Two experiments are reported which bear upon the question of whether the expectancy aroused by a signal for solid food is discriminably different from that aroused by a signal for sucrose. The first experiment demonstrated in a response choice task that rats will learn to make R 1 (pressing one of two bars) to S 1 and R 2 to S 2 faster if correct S 1 -R 1 occurrences are reinforced with food and correct S 2 -R 2 occurrences with sucrose, than if both S-R chains are reinforced with the same agent. The second experiment demonstrated that rats learn the S 1 -R 1 -S 1 R , S 2 -R 2 -S 2 R problem faster if they have received pretraining in which S 1 is simply paired with S 1 R and S 2 with S 2 R than if the pretraining is the reverse of the stimulus-reinforcer pairings encountered in the choice task. These results are interpreted as indicating that different reinforcers establish distinctively different expectations which can function as part of the discriminative stimulus complexes for the correct responses.
Digital correction of keystoning caused by image translation

Translating rectangular 2D images in planes perpendicular to the line of sight can create image distortion known as keystoning or projection warp. This can occur when viewing several images on a plane from a fixed position, when cross viewing, or when using non-parallel mirrors to view stereo pairs. In the latter case, vertical disparity can become a problem. The projection warp and its inverse are derived as functions of the viewing and translation parameters. It is shown that vertical disparity can be significant, even in small image translations. The inverse transformation applied to the original image corrects the keystoning caused by the translation. Rendering of the inverse image is also discussed.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.