cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
HDMI-Watch: Smart Intrusion Detection System Against HDMI Attacks

The High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is the backbone and the de-facto standard for Audio/Video connections between video-enabled devices. Today, nearly ten billion HDMI devices are used to distribute A/V signals in homes, offices, concert halls, and sporting events. An important component in HDMI is the Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) protocol, which allows HDMI devices to share an HDMI distribution to communicate and interact with each other. In this work, we identify security and privacy issues in HDMI networks by taping into CEC protocol vulnerabilities, using them to implement realistic proof-of-work attacks on HDMI distribution networks. We study how current insecure CEC protocol practices and carelessly implemented HDMI distributions may grant an adversary a novel attack surface for HDMI devices, otherwise thought to be unreachable through traditional network means. We first present HDMI-Walk , a novel attack vector, that can be used by an attacker to gain arbitrary control of HDMI devices and perform malicious analysis of devices, eavesdropping, Denial-of-Service attacks, targeted device attacks, and even facilitate other well-known existing attacks through HDMI. To defend against these new HDMI-based threats on a smart network system, we further propose HDMI-Watch, a novel intrusion detection system to detect unexpected CEC-based activity within an HDMI distribution. HDMI-Watch operates as a standalone smart intrusion detection framework within an HDMI distribution, passively monitoring and thus imposing no additional overhead to CEC communication. To test HDMI-Watch 's performance, we evaluated our system in a realistic HDMI testbed with a variety of consumer HDMI-enabled devices. Our extensive evaluation results show that the proposed system achieves an average 98% accuracy in classifying unexpected CEC behavior and identifies attacks occurring without any form of modification required to existing devices in an HDMI distribution.
The Grauert–Oka principle in a Banach space

Abstract Let M be a Stein Banach manifold modeled on a separable Banach space with the bounded approximation property, Γ → M a (locally trivial) holomorphic Banach Lie group bundle over M, and O Γ → M ( C Γ → M ) the sheaf of germs of holomorphic (continuous) sections of Γ. We show that the natural map H 1 ( M , O Γ ) → H 1 ( M , C Γ ) of first cohomology sets is bijective.
Before One Takes Empirical or Transcendental Positions

Trish Glazebrook and Dana Belu both think I spend too much time criticizing the Cartesianism that both empirical and transcendental philosophies of technology quite obviously oppose. They argue that I would have been better off if I had instead considered how these two philosophies “converge on the thesis of crisis” in technoscientific life (Glazebrook) and/or “made wider use of Feenberg’s work” (Belu). While I am sympathetic to both Glazebrook’s thesis and Feenberg’s work, I argue that their recommendations raise precisely the “pre-philosophical” issue I discuss in my paper. The issue, addressed directly by both Nietzsche and the young Heidegger, is how such recommendations can be carried forward as productive, life-driven articulations of our current needs in technoscientific times and not just become two more in a long string of chosen (and thus very Cartesian) “turns” in a history of philosophical “positions.”
Scissors Require Two Blades: Central Bank Independence with (Principled) Central Bank Allocation

I critique the contemporary doctrine of central bank independence and its implicit correlate, the dogma that central banks can and must engage only in what I call credit modulation without engaging in what I call credit allocation. This thought-complex is wrong-headed as to both premise and conclusion. The premise is faulty in that macro-allocation in favor of productive as distinguished from merely speculative credit flows is no more difficult to manage, technically and politically, than is the distinction between modulation and allocation itself. The conclusion is faulty both for its grounding in a false premise and for its overlooking that sound modulation is impossible without sound allocation. This impossibility is in turn rooted in the nature of endogenous Wicksellian credit-money, which through the dynamics of what I call recursive collective action problems inevitably fuels inescapable bubbles and busts. Privately ordered production, I conclude, requires publicly ordered finance.
Hypersensitivity responses in monkeys: III. The influence of various tranquilizers and other drugs on immediate skin reactions

Abstract The common use of "tranquilizers" in experimental hypersensitivity studies in monkeys, involving immediate skin reactions, posed the problem of the possible influence of these agents on skin reactivity. Acepromazine, a phenothiazine, was suspected as particularly likely to suppress skin reactivity. With the aid of Evans blue or Coomassie blue dye, the end point of skin reaction was determined from intradermal injections of serial dilutions of histamine, compound 48–80, Ascaris and human serum (in animals allergic to these antigens), Ascaris in monkeys passively sensitized with monkey Ascaris-reaginic serum, and ragweed in animals sensitized to human ragweed-reaginic serum. The titrations were then repeated at the same sitting after the animal was given an injection of either phencyclidine (Sernylan), acepromazine, reserpine, or pentobarbital. Pentobarbital caused no inhibitory effect on the skin test but was regarded as generally unsafe and unreliable. Reserpine gave inconsistent but long tranquilization and some diminution in skin reactions. Acepromazine resulted in consistent and sometimes profound decrease in skin response and not always good tranquilization. Phencyclidine made the monkeys very easy to handle and had no suppressive effect on the skin test.
Synthesis and Cleavage of Influenza Virus Proteins

Abstract The NWS strain of influenza virus grows rapidly in and kills the MDCK dog kidney cell strain. Within 1 to 2 hr, the virus inhibits host cell protein synthesis and for 3 to 4 hr more it directs the synthesis of influenza virus proteins at a rate about twice that of uninfected cell synthesis. The rates of virus ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein synthesis reach a maximum within the first few hours after infection and then drop. Plaque assays exhibit a linear dose-response, indicating that only one virion is necessary for productive infection. We have confirmed earlier reports regarding the fragmented nature of the RNA genome of purified influenza virions. However, high resolution gel electrophoresis indicated that each size class of viral RNA is heterogenous, so that there are at least 10 and probably more fragment sizes of RNA in these virions. Repeated attempts to detect infectivity in preparations of extracted viral RNA were completely negative (over a 108-fold loss of infectivity after extraction). Even infection of the “infectious” RNA-treated cells with intact, related, influenza viruses failed to support infectivity of the isolated RNA or to rescue a host range genetic marker of the RNA. Purified influenza virions exhibit only three major protein peaks based on separation according to molecular weights. These three major virion proteins are the only major virion proteins synthesized in infected cells. This is true throughout the infectious cycle from several hours after infection until the cells are dying. However, the molecular weight of these virion proteins differs slightly depending upon the cell type in which the virus is grown. No host membrane proteins are incorporated into the virions as they bud through the cell membrane. Pulse-chase labeling early after infection or prolonged chase experiments indicate that influenza virus proteins are cleaved from one or more precursor polypeptides. In fact, each of the three major peaks seems to be a heterogeneous mixture of polypeptides in various stages of cleavage. Peptide analysis confirms that the three major peaks share common peptides, but the exact precursor product relationships are not clear. There may be one or several precursor proteins. Also there could be overlapping messenger RNA molecules of varying length giving rise to polypeptides of various sizes and overlapping sequences. Late in infection, amino acid labeling shows a preponderance of internal nucleocapsid protein synthesis, indicating that either this protein is much more stable to cleavage in infection or it is made from a more stable messenger. There is no obvious relationship between virion RNA fragments and viral protein sizes, so these fragments may be artifacts.
Matching Many Identical Features of Planar Urban Facades Using Global Regularity

Reasonable computation and accurate camera calibration require matching many interest points over long baselines. This is a difficult problem requiring better solutions than presently exist for urban scenes involving large buildings containing many windows since windows in a facade all have the same texture and, therefore, cannot be distinguished from one another based solely on appearance. Hence, the usual approach to feature detection and matching, such as use of SIFT, does not work in these scenes. A novel algorithm is introduced to provide correspondences for multiple repeating feature patterns seen under significant viewpoint changes. Most existing appearance-based algorithms cannot handle highly repetitive textures due to the match location ambiguity. However, the target structure provides a rich set of repeating features to be matched and tracked across multiple views, thus potentially improving camera estimation accuracy. The proposed method also exploits the geometric structure of regular grids of repeating features on planar surfaces.
Exhumational history of the north central Pamir

[1] The Pamir plateau forms a prominent tectonic salient along the western end of the Tibet-Tarim margin. Despite its tectonic significance, relatively little is known about the timing of major Cenozoic tectonic events in the Pamir. Here we present new apatite and zircon (U/Th)-He ages, bulk rock geochemistry, and Al-in-hornblende barometry results from the Karakul graben, a prominent north-south oriented rift basin located ∼50 km south of the Main Pamir Thrust. Although cooling ages do not record the onset of extension, graben-bounding normal faults provide exposures of otherwise slowly eroding rocks which record two Cenozoic thermal events. Existing geochronology and new results suggest that granitic rocks in the Karakul region were shallowly emplaced, cooled very quickly through ∼300°C, and have experienced less than 10 km of exhumation since the late Triassic. A long period of relatively slow exhumation throughout much of the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic was punctuated by two periods of accelerated exhumation during the middle Eocene (∼50–40 Ma) and early Miocene (∼25–16 Ma). We interpret the first period of accelerated exhumation as a result of tectonic uplift and subsequent erosion due to the northward propagation of the India-Asia collision. We attribute the second period of rapid exhumation to a renewed phase of tectonism and plateau uplift in the Pamir, perhaps related to a break off event along the down-going Indian plate at ∼25 Ma or to the onset of slip along the nascent Karakoram fault.
Production and Level of Genetic Stability of an Influenza A Virus Temperature-Sensitive Mutant Containing Two Genes with ts Mutations

Abstract Temperature-sensitive (ts) reassortant vaccine strains derived from the A/Udorn/72 ts-1A2 donor virus were not sufficiently stable genetically in humans. We therefore sought to produce a new, more stable donor virus. We had previously identified a stable ts virus with a ts P3 gene and in the current study identified another relatively stable single-lesion ts virus with a ts mutation in the NP gene. A new ts reassortant virus was constructed by mating these two single mutants and by isolating three reassortant progeny, clones 20, 53, and 55, that contained both a ts P3 and a ts NP gene. These reassortant progeny possessed a 37 to 38°C shutoff temperature and were as restricted in their replication in hamster lungs as the A/Udorn/72 ts-1A2 virus. All isolates from the lungs and nasal turbinates of hamsters were temperature sensitive. An in vitro stress test was used to determine whether the new ts P3 ts NP reassortant virus would undergo loss of its ts phenotype after replication at semipermissive temperature. Clone 20 and 55 reassortants underwent progressive loss of their ts phenotype in vitro, although at a rate slightly less than that of the A/Udorn/72 ts-1A2 virus. The level of genetic stability after replication in vivo was assessed in cyclophosphamide-treated hamsters in which virus replication continued for up to 15 days. Again, both the A/Udorn/72 ts-1A2 and the new ts P3 ts NP reassortant clone 55 manifested a progressive loss of temperature sensitivity after 7 days of replication. Clone 55 virus lost temperature sensitivity significantly less rapidly than the A/Udorn/72 ts-1A2 virus. These results indicated that, although the new ts P3 ts NP reassortant virus was more stable than the A/Udorn/72 ts-1A2 virus, it nevertheless underwent progressive loss of temperature sensitivity after replication in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, it does not appear to be a satisfactory donor virus. This experience plus that gained earlier with other ts mutants of influenza A virus suggest that influenza A virus mutants that rely solely upon their ts phenotype for attenuation are unlikely to exhibit the phenotypic stability required of a vaccine virus. Other genetic techniques are needed to produce more stable influenza A virus strains.
BeRM: bioelectric response monitor

Automated biomonitoring has evolved into a useful method for water quality assessment. A novel biomonitoring system was designed and built. The main objective of the system was to provide the facilities necessary to apply advanced signal processing techniques to the analysis of bioelectric signals. The system has been shown to provide excellent results. A description of the system is given, along with the results. >
Lack of Evidence for Plague or Anthrax on the New York City Subway.

Ackelsberg et al. point out a lack of evidence in the dataset of Afshinekoo et al. for the presence of plague and anthrax on the New York City subway.
When your friends matter: The effect of White students' racial friendship networks on meta-perceptions and perceived identity contingencies☆

article i nfo Prior research suggests that people expect to be perceived negatively in interracial interactions but positively in intraracial interactions. The present research demonstrates that an interaction partner's racial network of friends can moderate these expectations in interracial interactions but not intraracial interactions. Across two experiments, we led Black and White college students to believe they would have conversation with a White student on campus. The results revealed that Black students expected to be perceived more positively and anticipated a less challenging conversation, when their interaction partner had a racially diverse network of friends compared to a racially homogeneous network of friends. In contrast, White students expected to be perceived positively and anticipated few challenges in the conversation, regardless of their interaction partner's racial network of friends. The implications of racial friendship diversity are discussed.
Visual evaluation of the larynx and hypopharynx during esophagogastroduodenoscopy: a safety and feasibility study.

The larynx and hypopharynx are common sites for head and neck cancer, which shares many risk factors with upper digestive tract disease. Patient survival with malignancies depends on stage at the time of diagnosis. Endoscopic screening of the hypopharynx is neither routinely performed in clinical practice nor has it been evaluated in a formal study. This is a prospective pilot study of patients undergoing routine EGD. Demographic data were collected from patients prior to the procedure. All patients in the study underwent an EGD and prior to performing the standard portion of the EGD procedure, the endoscopist evaluated the larynx and hypopharynx with both white light endoscopy (WLE) and narrow band imaging (NBI). Details of the procedure, including ability to see all anatomic structures, time spent, complications, and findings, were recorded. A total of 111 patients were included in the study. The exam of the laryngopharynx was completed in 87 % of patients (97/111). Reasons for incomplete exam included intubated patients (2/14), inadequate sedation (9/14), and inability to see the entire hypopharynx (3/14). The mean time of the WLE was 20.2 s, while the NBI evaluation took 15.6 s for a mean and 35.8 s for the entire exam of the larynx and hypopharynx. Minor procedural complications occurred in 3/11 (2.7 %) of the patients and included hypotension, tachycardia, and hypoxia. There were 6 patients who had hypopharyngeal abnormalities seen on both WLE and NBI (5.4 %) and were subsequently referred to otolaryngology. Of the six referrals, one patient had a vocal cord biopsy showing leukoplakia, while the others were deemed normal anatomic variants. Evaluation of the hypopharynx can be accomplished by gastrointestinal endoscopists at the time of EGD in the vast majority of patients in a safe manner while adding only about 35 s to the overall exam time.
Systemic chimerism in human female recipients of male livers.

Abstract We have previously reported data from clinical and laboratory animal observations which suggest that organ tolerance after transplantation depends on a state of balanced lymphodendritic cell chimerism between the host and donor graft. We have sought further evidence to support this hypothesis by investigating HLA-mismatched liver allograft recipients. 9 of 9 female recipients of livers from male donors had chimerism in their allografts and extrahepatic tissues, according to in-situ hybridisation and molecular techniques 10 to 19 years post-transplantation. In 8 women with good graft function, evidence of the Y chromosome was found in the blood (6/8), skin (8/8), and lymph nodes (7/8). A ninth patient whose transplant failed after 12 years from recurrent chronic viral hepatitis had chimerism in her lymph nodes, skin, jejunum, and aorta at the time of retransplantation. Although cell migration is thought to take place after all types of transplantation, the large population of migratory cells in, and the extent of their seeding from, hepatic grafts may explain the privileged tolerogenicity of the liver compared with other organs.
Exact percentage points of the dsitribtuion of the race of a multivariate beta matrix

(1975). Exact percentage points of the dsitribtuion of the race of a multivariate beta matrix. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation: Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 331-345.
Detecting spectrum misuse in wireless networks

In contrast to conventional static fixed-width channel allocation, on-demand dynamic variable-width channel allocation has shown that it can effectively improve the fairness, throughput, and spectrum efficiency of wireless networks. Air-time utilization (the percentage of time spent on transmissions) is often used to characterize the spectrum demand of networks. The higher the airtime utilization of a network is, the more spectrum the network should be allocated to. Normally, if all wireless devices in a network utilize spectrum effectively, the airtime utilization can faithfully reflect the spectrum usage. In practice, however, spectrum can be ineffectively used due to the misconfiguration of wireless devices, such as inappropriate bit rate configuration, conservative transmit power setting, or mismatch between channel-width and bit rate. The misconfiguration not only degrades the performance of its local network, but also causes the inflation of local network's airtime utilization and thus results in an unfair spectrum allocation. To address the problem, we present Pinokio, a system that monitors spectrum usage at access points, detects spectrum misuse and improves spectrum efficiency. Our extensive evaluations suggest that Pinokio can accurately detect spectrum misuse, and limit the inflation of airtime utilization from more than 730% to less than 20%.
A Brief Temporal Gradient of Retrograde Amnesia Independent of Situational Change

Rats were given a single electroconvulsive shock at varying intervals after receiving a punishing shock to the feet immediately after stepping into a compartment. Significant amounts of retrograde amnesia for the memory of the punishment was shown when electroconvulsive shock was administered up to and including 30 seconds after the punishment but not at 60 seconds. This brief temporal gradient cannot be explained in ternis of changed stimulus cues or learned interference analogouS to retroactive inhibition.
Knowledge of God in the Fourth Gospel

ARLY Christianity had its roots in a religious heritage which extended back into the distant past. Its main roots were in Palestinian Judaism. In historic Judaism as reflected in the Old Testament, knowledge of God in a personal sense does not appear as a problem of thought, since his existence is not doubted, and that he communicates his will to his people is taken for granted. This heritage played its part in the religious life and thought of early Christianity, and is never transcended in the New Testament.
Anesthetic efficacy of intrauterine lidocaine for endometrial biopsy: a randomized double-masked trial.

Abstract Objective: To determine the efficacy of intrauterine lidocaine for decreasing pain associated with endometrial biopsy using the Pipelle instrument (Unimar; Wilton, CT). Methods: Forty-one premenopausal and postmenopausal women had 5 mL of either 2% lidocaine or saline instilled in their uteri before endometrial biopsies. Subsequently, each woman completed a 20-cm visual analogue scale for subjective pain experience. We compared histologic findings in endometrial specimens. Results: Before the study, analysis of specimens (n = 6) found no histologic effect on ability to interpret endometrial biopsies by pathologists who were masked to lidocaine or saline. There was no statistically significant difference in age, parity, race, history of chronic pelvic pain, menopausal status, use of tenaculum, or prior endometrial biopsy. The procedure was easy, with no clinically significant side effects. On the visual pain scale, the median (range) score for the lidocaine group (4.7, 0–19.7) compared with the placebo group (9.9, 1.6–20) showed significant reduction in pain corresponding with a decrease from moderate to mild (P Conclusion: Intrauterine lidocaine is simple and effective for decreasing pain associated with the Pipelle endometrial biopsy.
Anodic amperometry and kinetics of 2–4-carbon glycols at the nickel electrode

Amperometric measurements were made at +0.550 V vs. SCE in 0.1 M NaOH with the flow- injection technique. A useful current vs. concentration relationship was observed from 1 μM to 1 mM concentrations. The upper limit of linearity was 0.25 mM and the lower detection limit 0.2 μM. Typical relative standard deviations were 15%. Values of n were determined coulometrically and used to determine rate constants and reaction products. Considering the compounds as R CH2OH, a direct relationship was observed for logarithmic rate constants (log k) vs. inductive substituent constant (σII) for R. The anodic products are carboxylate from primary hydroxy and ketone from secondary hydroxy groups, without carbon-carbon cleavage. The proposed reaction mechanism entails the abstraction of a hydrogen from the α-carbon by hydroxide attack in the rate-determining step.
On the use of a radioactive‐tracer method in measurements of water

In spite of the great variety of known methods for measuring the flow of water, there are situations in which for one reason or another all of them fail to offer the hydraulic engineer, or the hydrologist, a satisfactory solution. Specifically, there are limitations as to the amounts of water that can be diverted for direct measurement either by volume or by weight; space and the necessary head may not permit the use of a weir; shortness of the water-passage and lack of sufficiently simple geometric form may preclude measurement by water-hammer (Gibson method) or by salt velocity (Allen method); while turbulence may make measurements by current-meter or by pitot-tube entirely unreliable. In some cases even a measuring section of readily determinable area cannot be found, as for example in underground channels. Consequently, for many years the measurement of large volumes of water used by low-head hydroelectric plants has been a difficult but most important problem.
Cuticle chirality and body handedness in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Caenorhabditis elegans adult animals exhibit an inherent chirality of fiber orientation in the basal layer of the cuticle, as well as a naturally invariant but experimentally reversible handedness in the left-right (L-R) asymmetry of the body plan. We have examined the relationship between cuticle chirality and body handedness in normal and L-R reversed animals, using Roller (Rol) mutants and transmission electron microscopy to monitor cuticle properties. Rol phenotypes, several of which have been shown to result from mutations in cuticle collagen genes, are characterized by an invariant, allele-specific handedness in their direction of rolling. We show for several alleles that this direction is not affected by L-R reversal of the body plan. We further show, by electron microscopy, that the chiral orientation of cuticle fibers in animals with normal cuticle is not reversed by L-R body-plan reversal. We conclude that cuticle chirality must be established independently of body-plan handedness. The cues that establish cuticle chirality are still unknown, as are the causes for different rolling directions in different Roller mutants. We discuss the question of how cuticle chirality maintains its independence, and how the orientations of the fiber layers may be determined. Dev. Genet. 23:164–174, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Passivity gains and the “secant condition” for stability

A generalization of the classical secant condition for the stability of cascades of scalar linear systems is provided for passive systems. The key is the introduction of a quantity that combines gain and phase information for each system in the cascade. For linear one-dimensional systems, the known result is recovered exactly. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Experimental production of the pulmonary hyaline membrane syndrome.

Summary Eighty-seven adult guinea pigs receivedintratracheal injections of a mixture of human amniotic fluid and human plasma. Ten of them developed the thoracic retraction which is seen in newborn infants who have the pulmonary hyaline membrane syndrome, and post-mortem examination of their lungs revealed findings similar to those in the human disease. The lungs were firm, deep red, and sank in formalin solution; they showed extensive atelectasis, vascular engorgement, and eosinophilic hyaline membrane which lined occasional dilated aveolar ducts and alveoli. One hundred seventeen control animalsreceived intratracheal injections of human amniotic fluid, human plasma, or cold normal saline. In general, the amniotic fluid produced extensive atelectasis and pulmonary vascular engorgement; the plasma produced pulmonary edema and hemorrhage and, in one animal, scattered areas of eosinophilic hyaline membrane without accompanying atelectasis; the saline produced patchy atelectasis, emphysema, and hemorrhage. The present experiments suggestthat the injected plasma caused an intrapulmonary exudation of fluid and pulmonary vascular engorgement. The injected amniotic fluid created atelectasis. Its thromboplastin-like activity may have aided in clotting the exudate to form a membrane although one animal accomplished this with massive pulmonary edema due to plasma alone. It is suggested that the pulmonary hyaline membrane syndrome in the human infant may be the result of a similar mechanism when aspirated amniotic fluid mixes with a pulmonary exudate. The etiologies of the exudate are probably diverse and future investigation into the pathogenesis of the human syndrome might well endeavor to elucidate the etiologies of pulmonary edema in the neonatal period.
P-Regular Convergence Spaces

A generalized notion of regularity is introduced which enables one to study locally compact spaces, sequential spaces, ω-regular spaces, and other diverse types of spaces as special wises of p-regular spaces.
The effect of exercise on plasma high density lipoproteins.

The influence of vigorous activity in man on plasma lipids and lipoproteins is reviewed, with particular emphasis on high density lipoproteins. Both cross sectional and longitudinal (or training) studies have been reported, many of them of less than ideal design. Nonetheless, a consistent pattern emerges in which increased exercise levels lead to lower plasma concentrations of triglycerides and very low density lipoproteins, and of low density lipoproteins. High density lipoprotein levels increase. Sometimes, but not uniformly, plasma total cholesterol level falls as the result of these changes. The increase in plasma high density lipoprotein appears to be the result largely of an increase in the less dense HDL2 subfraction. Plasma apolipoprotein A-I levels (but not apo-A-II levels) seem to increase concomitantly. The precise biochemical mechanism responsible for these changes has not been elucidated; but the recent finding of increased lipoprotein lipase activity in adipose tissue and muscle of endurance runners suggests that increased lipolytic rate of trigly ceride-rich lipoproteins may be an initial step in a sequence of events leading to higher plasma levels of HDL2.
Time-dependent harmonic oscillators

A formalism for a time-dependent harmonic oscillator is presented. The quantum-mechanical solution is developed and the Green's function is derived. Particular examples of runaway and dissipative behavior are considered.
The Case of the "Unfair" Review: Ethical Issues from an Editor's File.

This narrative traces the life and fate of a paper submitted to the journalSocial Problems and ultimately rejected, with the author claiming that the review was “unfair.” It is an editor’s story and seeks to specify various “ethical” dilemmas that help to define such work.
Mama's Boys:

In this narrative, the author compares identical twin brothers—one gay, one straight—to the character Jaromil in Milan Kundera's novel Life Is Elsewhere. He describes in some detail various rebellious experiments that one brother conducted and the way in which mother, Jaynet, managed the two brothers. The essay examines, implicitly, the notion that gay men come from families with a distant father and a strong mother. It is, coincidentally, also a critique of American upper middle-class liberalism, in the same sense as that Betty Freidan advanced in The Feminine Mystique. The methodological assumptions behind this essay agree with what sociologist Richard Sennett proposed in his book Authority, in which he asserted, boldly and perhaps heretically, that when a sociological study can capture the inner life of the individual under historical and psychological stress with the authenticity of a good novel, then the science of sociology might have a valid raison d'etre.
A qualitative study of Ragnarök Online private servers: in-game sociological issues

In the last decade, online games have garnered much attention as more and more players gather on game servers. In parallel, communities of illegal private server players and administrators have spread and might host hundreds of thousands of players. To study the Korean online game Ragnarok Online, we conducted interviews to collect qualitative data on two private servers as well as on the official French server for the game. This paper discusses some of the reasons why Ragnarok Online private servers might attract players and how examining private servers' characteristics could help improve official game servers.
Direct real-time detection of vapors from explosive compounds.

The real-time detection of vapors from low volatility explosives including PETN, tetryl, RDX, and nitroglycerine along with various compositions containing these substances was demonstrated. This was accomplished with an atmospheric flow tube (AFT) using a nonradioactive ionization source coupled to a mass spectrometer. Direct vapor detection was accomplished in less than 5 s at ambient temperature without sample preconcentration. The several seconds of residence time of analytes in the AFT provided a significant opportunity for reactant ions to interact with analyte vapors to achieve ionization. This extended reaction time, combined with the selective ionization using the nitrate reactant ions (NO3– and NO3–·HNO3), enabled highly sensitive explosives detection from explosive vapors present in ambient laboratory air. Observed signals from diluted explosive vapors indicated detection limits below 10 ppqv using selected ion monitoring (SIM) of the explosive-nitrate adduct at m/z 349, 378, 284, and 289 for t...
Socioeconomic status value orientations and fertility behavior in India.

This paper examines the role assumed by value orientations in the explanation of fertility behavior. Specifically the concern is with the extent to which value orientations intervene between, or mediate, the relationship between socioeconomic status and fertility behavior. The relationships between socioeconomic status, four types of value orientations and three aspects of fertility behavior are examined among males in India. In most instances value orientations provide neither the sole nor the partial interpretations of the relationship between socioeconomic status and fertility. The results of this investigation suggest once again the inadequacy of value orientations as predictors of fertility behavior.
Infinite reversible nearest particle systems in inhomogeneous and random environments

Abstract In this paper we prove that an infinite reversible nearest particle system in a random environment determined by i.i.d. random variables λ(x), x ∈ Z , survives almost surely if E log λ (0) > 0 and dies out almost surely if Eλ(0) 1.
Beyond the CPI: An Augmented Cost-of-Living Index

This note examines an augmented cost-of-living index (ACOLI) for the purpose of accounting for “augmented consumption” in real-income measures. Well-being includes not only conventional consumer purchases but also goods and services provided by employers, by mandated social regulations, and by tax-financed public goods. Because augmented consumption is often provided in ways that raise prices but not market incomes, deflating with conventional price indexes may understate real income growth. An exploratory application of the ACOLI approach to the United States during the 1960–1997 period suggests that the Consumer Price Index has grown about 19% faster than the ACOLI. This correction would reduce the estimated cost-of-living increase by .47% per year over the last 37 years.
Modeling programmer navigation: A head-to-head empirical evaluation of predictive models

Software developers frequently need to perform code maintenance tasks, but doing so requires time-consuming navigation through code. A variety of tools are aimed at easing this navigation by using models to identify places in the code that a developer might want to visit, and then providing shortcuts so that the developer can quickly navigate to those locations. To date, however, only a few of these models have been compared head-to-head to assess their predictive accuracy. In particular, we do not know which models are most accurate overall, which are accurate only in certain circumstances, and whether combining models could enhance accuracy. Therefore, we have conducted an empirical study to evaluate the accuracy of a broad range of models for predicting many different kinds of code navigations in sample maintenance tasks. Overall, we found that models tended to perform best if they took into account how recently a developer has viewed pieces of the code, and if models took into account the spatial proximity of methods within the code. We also found that the accuracy of single-factor models can be improved by combining factors, using a spreading-activation based approach, to produce multi-factor models. Based on these results, we offer concrete guidance about how these models could be used to provide enhanced software development tools that ease the difficulty of navigating through code.
Compressive sensing of images with a priori known spatial support

In medical imaging, image background is often defined by zero signal. Moreover, in medical images the background area - or conversely, the spatial support (the extent of the non-zero part of the image) - is often known a priori or can be easily estimated. For example, support information can be estimated from the low-resolution "scout" images typically acquired during pre-scan localization in both MRI and CT. In dynamic scans, object support in a single time-frame is often obtainable from a prior time frame, or from a composite image formed from data from multiple time frames. In this work, incorporation of either complete or partial a priori knowledge of object spatial support into the compressive sensing (CS) framework is investigated. Following development of the augmented reconstruction model, examples of support-constrained CS reconstruction of phantom and MR images under both exact and inexact support definitions are given. For each experiment, the straightforward incorporation of the proposed spatial support constraint into the standard CS model was shown to both significantly accelerate reconstruction convergence and yield a lower terminal RMSE compared to a conventional CS reconstruction. The proposed augmented reconstruction model was also shown to be robust to inaccuracies in the estimated object support.
Factors Affecting Job Performance in Public Agencies

Articles empirically examining job performance in the public sector are scant. As a result, in this article a theoretical research model is developed to examine job performance, and it is subsequently tested on state government workers. The findings are clear: Role ambiguity negatively affects employee job performance; mission contribution is fully validated (i.e., employees who directly contributed to the mission of the agency reported higher performance); government employees reported higher performance levels when they believed agencies received enough funding to fulfill their goals; and individual job performance was higher when employees believed that their agency spent appropriated funds efficiently. The implications these findings have for public agencies and officials are thoroughly discussed.
Microstructural analysis of doped-strontium cerate thin film membranes fabricated via polymer precursor technique

Abstract Nanocrystalline thin film membranes of terbium (Tb)-doped strontium cerate (SrCeO 3 ), which is of interest in the hydrogen (H 2 ) separation and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), was synthesized via polymer precursor technique. Continuous and dense thin film membranes of composition SrCe 0.95 Tb 0.05 O 3 − δ were prepared using spin-coating technique by utilizing ethylene glycol (EG)-based polymeric precursor. The polymeric precursor was deposited on silicon-based substrates, and converted to dense polycrystalline thin film ceramic membranes by sintering at relatively low temperatures. The number of spin-coating cycles and sintering temperatures were systematically varied to study their effect on the film morphology, thickness, and crystallite size within the membranes. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was utilized to study the changes in the polymer chemistry during the membrane processing. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) were used to examine thermal decomposition and thermodynamics of the synthesized precursor, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was used to study the surface morphology and estimate average particle size as a function of number of spin-coating cycles and sintering temperatures. Atomic force microscope (AFM) was utilized to determine the roughness and quality of the spin-coated films. The membrane thickness, crystal structure, and nanocrystallite size were determined using focused ion-beam (FIB) milling and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Furthermore, the surface chemistry of the thin film membranes was studied by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This study demonstrated that by using the EG-based polymeric precursor, dense and continuous Tb-doped SrCeO 3 thin film membranes, having thicknesses in the range of 0.2–2 μm and average nanocrystallite size of 8–70 nm, can be effectively synthesized by controlling the number of spin-coating cycles and sintering temperature.
μ-Opioid Receptors and Regulators of G protein Signaling (RGS) proteins: From a symposium on new concepts in mu-opioid pharmacology

Mu-opioid receptors (MOR) are the therapeutic target for opiate analgesic drugs and also mediate many of the side-effects and addiction liability of these compounds. MOR is a seven-transmembrane domain receptor that couples to intracellular signaling molecules by activating heterotrimeric G proteins. However, the receptor and G protein do not function in isolation but their activities are moderated by several accessory and scaffolding proteins. One important group of accessory proteins is the regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) protein family, a large family of more than thirty members which bind to the activated Gα subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein and serve to accelerate signal termination. This action negatively modulates receptor signaling and subsequent behavior. Several members of this family, in particular RGS4 and RGS9-2 have been demonstrated to influence MOR signaling and morphine-induced behaviors, including reward. Moreover, this interaction is not unidirectional since morphine has been demonstrated to modulate expression levels of RGS proteins, especially RGS4 and RGS9-2, in a tissue and time dependent manner. In this article, I will discuss our work on the regulation of MOR signaling by RGS protein activity in cultured cell systems in the context of other in vitro and behavioral studies. In addition I will consider implications of the bi-directional interaction between MOR receptor activation and RGS protein activity and whether RGS proteins might provide a suitable and novel target for medications to manage addictive behaviors.
Modeling of liquid hydrogen flows and heat transfer in leading edge coolant systems

The results of a numerical model analogous to the flow of liquid hydrogen coolant within the leading edge of the NASP engine structure is presented. The model involves the marching of the finite difference representation of the two dimensional reduced Navier-Stokes equations down a coolant passage. The model includes consideration of the effects of the variable thermophysical properties of hydrogen, axial conduction within the leading edge material, and the coupling of the energy and momentum equations in the flow. It predicts that the maximum temperature experienced in the simplified system described would be excessive under the worst-case heat transfer loads.
Potocytosis of small molecules and ions by caveolae

Abstract Potocytosis is an endocytic process for concentrating and taking up small molecules and ions. The vehicle for internalization is the caveola, a membrane specialization that has previously been implicated in membrane internalization. Within closed caveolae, the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored class of membrane proteins generate high concentrations of small molecules or ions either by releasing receptor-bound species, by enzymatically converting abundant extracellular molecules, or by releasing them from a sequestered, soluble carrier protein. This pathway may also be involved in novel signal-transducing devices.
The Pythagorean Theorem: The Story of Its Power and Beauty, by Alfred S. Posamentier

The Pythagorean Theorem: The Story of Its Power and Beauty, by Alfred S. Posamentier, Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2010, 320 pp., Hardback, US $27.00, ISBN: 978-1-61614-181-3. In the introduction...
Transport and spectroscopic studies of the effects of fullerene structure on the efficiency and lifetime of polythiophene-based solar cells

Abstract Time-dependent measurements of both power conversion efficiency and ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy have been observed for solar cell blends containing the polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) with two different functionalized C 60 electron acceptor molecules: commercially available [6,6]-phenyl C 61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) or [6,6]-phenyl C 61 butyric acid octadecyl ester (PCBOD) produced in this laboratory. Efficiency was found to decay with an exponential time dependence, while spectroscopic features show saturating exponential behavior. Time constants extracted from both types of measurements showed reasonable agreement for samples produced from the same blend. In comparison to the PCBM samples, the stability of the PCBOD blends was significantly enhanced, while both absorption and power conversion efficiency were decreased.
A laboratory comparison of emergency percutaneous and surgical cricothyrotomy by prehospital personnel.

Objective. To compare the speeds and success rates of placement for percutaneous cricothyrotomy versus surgical or open cricothyrotomy. Methods. Twenty-two paramedics (mean 9.7 years of experience), with training in both methods, were timed using a pig trachea in a crossover model. An emergency physician performed timing and documentation of success; timing commenced after the equipment was ready and the membrane was identified. Paramedics were randomly assigned by a coin toss to start in either group. All were actively employed by a municipal third-service emergency medical services (EMS) agency. Paramedics who did not complete one of the methods correctly were excluded from speed analysis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a t-test of paired samples, and confidence intervals for matched samples. Results. Placement of a surgical cricothyrotomy was significantly faster (mean 28 seconds, range 10-78 seconds) than the percutaneous method (mean 123 seconds, range 58-257 seconds) (p < 0.001). M...
A case study of the Foxconn suicides An international perspective to framing the sweatshop issue

This study used an international perspective to analyze how newspapers in the United States and China framed a specific global sweatshop issue: a continuous spate of suicides at the Foxconn Technology Group, a major supplier to Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 92 newspaper articles appearing in US and Chinese newspapers, this study found Chinese newspapers framed the suicides mainly as the psychological problems of a young generation rather than a sweatshop issue. Newspapers in the US used a traditional human rights abuser frame to portray the suicides. Foxconn was the main social actor cited in most news coverage. Both the US and Chinese newspapers framed the case as a China-specific problem, ignoring global social justice and world economy aspects. This study contributes more broadly to framing research by developing an approach that is distinctly used for cross-cultural framing studies about a global issue.