cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Every Action Based Sensor

In studying robots and planning problems, a basic question is what is the minimal information a robot must obtain to guarantee task completion. Erdmann’s theory of action-based sensors is a classical approach to characterizing fundamental information requirements. That approach uses a plan to derive a type of virtual sensor which prescribes actions that make progress toward a goal. We show that the established theory is incomplete: the previous method for obtaining such sensors, using backchained plans, overlooks some sensors. Furthermore, there are plans, that are guaranteed to achieve goals, where the existing methods are unable to provide any action-based sensor. We identify the underlying feature common to all such plans. Then, we show how to produce action-based sensors even for plans where the existing treatment is inadequate, although for these cases they have no single canonical sensor. Consequently, the approach is generalized to produce sets of sensors. Finally, we show also that this is a complete characterization of action-based sensors for planning problems and discuss how an action-based sensor translates into the traditional conception of a sensor.
Improving Power Quality and Power Sharing in Unbalanced Multi-Microgrids Using Energy Storage System

The integration of single-phase distributed generations (DG) and unbalanced loads to three-phase DGs brings challenges to the operating system of the microgrids (MGs). These challenges include unbalanced voltage and unequal power flow at the point of common coupling (PCC) of the MGs. The aim of this paper is to develop an Energy Storage System (ESS) with multi-function control for islanded multi-microgrids (MMG) consisting of single and three PV-DGs to enhance its power quality and power sharing of the MMGs. The proposed multifunction control consists of a reactive power compensation (RPC), a PCC power balance regulator (PBR) and a reactive power sharing algorithm (RPSA). The RPC and the PBR improve the three-phase PCC voltage and power unbalance of the MMG and the RPSA regulates the reactive power sharing among the MMGs. The proposed strategy is experimentally validated on the Opal-RT OP5600 real-time simulator. The voltage unbalance factor (VUF) at the PCC is reduced from 4.3 percent to 0.03 percent, while the three phase and the single phase reactive powers are shared proportionally between different rated DGs.
ALPS: A Unified Framework for Modeling Time Series of Land Ice Changes

Modeling time series (TS) is a research focus in cryospheric sciences because of the complexity and multiscale nature of events of interest. Highly nonuniform sampling of measurements from different sensors with different levels of accuracy, as is typical for measurements of ice sheet elevations, makes the problem even more challenging. In this article, we propose a spline-based approximation framework (ALPS—Approximation by Localized Penalized Splines) for modeling TS of land ice changes. The localized support of the B-spline basis functions enable robustness to nonuniform sampling, a considerable improvement over other global and piecewise local models. With features like discrete-coordinate-difference-based penalization and two-level outlier detection, ALPS further guarantees the stability and quality of approximations. ALPS incorporates rigorous model uncertainty estimates with all approximations. As demonstrated by examples, ALPS performs well for a variety of data sets, including TS of ice sheet thickness, elevation, velocity, and terminus locations. The robust estimation of TS and their derivatives facilitates new applications, such as the reconstruction of high-resolution elevation change records by fusing sparsely sampled TS of ice sheet thickness changes with modeled firn thickness changes, and the analysis of the relationship between different outlet glacier observations to gain new insights into processes and forcing.
Measuring Automated Influence: Between Empirical Evidence and Ethical Values

Automated influence, delivered by digital targeting technologies such as targeted advertising, digital nudges, and recommender systems, has attracted significant interest from both empirical researchers, on one hand, and critical scholars and policymakers on the other. In this paper, we argue for closer integration of these efforts. Critical scholars and policymakers, who focus primarily on the social, ethical, and political effects of these technologies, need empirical evidence to substantiate and motivate their concerns. However, existing empirical research investigating the effectiveness of these technologies (or lack thereof), neglects other morally relevant effects-which can be felt regardless of whether or not the technologies "work" in the sense of fulfilling the promises of their designers. Drawing from the ethics and policy literature, we enumerate a range of questions begging for empirical analysis-the outline of a research agenda bridging these fields---and issue a call to action for more empirical research that takes these urgent ethics and policy questions as their starting point.
On cross-validated Lasso in high dimensions

In this paper, we derive nonasymptotic error bounds for the Lasso estimator when the penalty parameter for the estimator is chosen using K-fold cross-validation. Our bounds imply that the cross-validated Lasso estimator has nearly optimal rates of convergence in the prediction, L2, and L1 norms. For example, we show that in the model with the Gaussian noise and under fairly general assumptions on the candidate set of values of the penalty parameter, the estimation error of the cross-validated Lasso estimator converges to zero in the prediction norm with the slogp/n×log(pn) rate, where n is the sample size of available data, p is the number of covariates and s is the number of nonzero coefficients in the model. Thus, the cross-validated Lasso estimator achieves the fastest possible rate of convergence in the prediction norm up to a small logarithmic factor log(pn), and similar conclusions apply for the convergence rate both in L2 and in L1 norms. Importantly, our results cover the case when p is (potentially much) larger than n and also allow for the case of non-Gaussian noise. Our paper therefore serves as a justification for the widely spread practice of using cross-validation as a method to choose the penalty parameter for the Lasso estimator.
1.1 J Yb:YAG Picosecond Laser at 1 kHz Repetition Rate

We demonstrate the generation of 1.1 J pulses with a duration of 4.5 ps at 1 kHz repetition rate (1.1 kW average power) from a diode-pumped cryo-cooled chirped pulse amplification Yb:YAG laser.
Cryptography from Compression Functions: The UCE Bridge to the ROM.

This paper suggests and explores the use of UCE security for the task of turning VIL-ROM schemes into FIL-ROM ones. The benefits we offer over indifferentiability, the current leading method for this task, are the ability to handle multi-stage games and greater efficiency. The paradigm consists of (1) Showing that a VIL UCE function can instantiate the VIL RO in the scheme, and (2) Constructing the VIL UCE function given a FIL random oracle. The main technical contributions of the paper are domain extension transforms that implement the second step. Leveraging known results for the first step we automatically obtain FIL-ROM constructions for several primitives whose security notions are underlain by multi-stage games. Our first domain extender exploits indifferentiability, showing that although the latter does not work directly for multi-stage games it can be used indirectly, through UCE, as a tool for this end. Our second domain extender targets performance. It is parallelizable and shown through implementation to provide significant performance gains over indifferentiable domain extenders. 1 Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. Email: mihir@eng.ucsd.edu. URL: http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~mihir/. Supported in part by NSF grants CNS-1116800 and CNS-1228890. 2 Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. Email: vth005@eng.ucsd.edu. URL: http://csiflabs.cs.ucdavis.edu/~tvhoang/. Supported in part by NSF grant CNS-1116800. 3 Email: sriramkr@cs.ucsd.edu. URL: http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~skeelvee/. This work was done when Keelveedhi was a Ph.D. student at the University of California San Diego, supported in part by NSF grants CNS-1116800 and CNS-1228890.
Restating Internal Control Reports following Financial Statement Restatements: Determinants and Consequences†

After restating their financial statements, companies may voluntarily restate their previously issued internal control (IC) reports for the financial statement (FS) misstatement periods, changing them from “effective” to “ineffective.” This paper examines the determinants and consequences of IC restatements, which have been of concern to financial statement users. When announcing these IC restatements, companies often provide a detailed explanation of the IC problems and a discussion of their plans to remediate these problems. We find that companies with less severe IC problems which can be remediated more quickly are more likely to restate their IC reports. Moreover, these results are driven by companies with a higher need for external financing, suggesting that IC restaters voluntarily restate their IC reports in order to inform investors about their less severe IC material weaknesses and their plans to improve IC quality. Finally, we find that, relative to other FS restatement companies, IC restaters have a lower likelihood of CFO turnover and auditor resignation following the FS restatement. Taken together, our results suggest that voluntary IC restatements are used by IC restaters as a means to separate themselves from other FS restatement companies with more severe control problems and slower remediation plans. Our findings also indicate that studies investigating IC quality and related disclosures need to distinguish between IC restaters and other FS restatement companies because of the different characteristics and consequences between the two groups.
Optical dispersion relations for diamondlike carbon films

Ellipsometric measurements on plasma deposited “diamondlike” amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films were taken in the visible, (E = 1.75 to 3.5 eV). The films were deposited on Si and their properties were varied using high temperature (up to 750 °C) anneals. The real (n) and imaginary (k) parts of the complex index of refraction N were obtained simultaneously. Following the theory of Forouhi and Bloomer (Phys. Rev. B34, 7018 (1986)), a least squares fit was used to find the dispersion relations n(E) and k(E). Reasonably good fits were obtained, showing that the theory can be used for a-C:H films. Morever, the value of the energy gap Eg obtained in this way was compared to the Eg value using conventional Tauc plots and reasonably good agreement was obtained.
Redefining Wireless Communication for 6G:Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning with Deep Unfolding

The year 2019 witnessed the rollout of the 5G standard, which promises to offer significant data rate improvement over 4G. While 5G is still in its infancy, there has been an increased shift in the research community for communication technologies beyond 5G. The recent emergence of machine learning approaches for enhancing wireless communications and empowering them with much-desired intelligence holds immense potential for redefining wireless communication for 6G. The evolving communication systems will be bottlenecked in terms of latency, throughput, and reliability by the underlying signal processing at the physical layer. In this position paper, we motivate the need to redesign iterative signal processing algorithms by leveraging deep unfolding techniques to fulfill the physical layer requirements for 6G networks. To this end, we begin by presenting the service requirements and the key challenges posed by the envisioned 6G communication architecture. We outline the deficiencies of the traditional algorithmic principles and data-hungry deep learning (DL) approaches in the context of 6G networks. Specifically, deep unfolded signal processing is presented by sketching the interplay between domain knowledge and DL. The deep unfolded approaches reviewed in this article are positioned explicitly in the context of the requirements imposed by the next generation of cellular networks. Finally, this article motivates open research challenges to truly realize hardware-efficient edge intelligence for future 6G networks.
Distinct gene expression dynamics in germ line and somatic tissue during ovariole morphogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster.

The survival and evolution of a species is a function of the number of offspring it can produce. In insects the number of eggs that an ovary can produce is a major determinant of reproductive capacity. Insect ovaries are made up of tubular egg-producing subunits called ovarioles, whose number largely determines the number of eggs that can be potentially laid. Ovariole number is directly determined by the number of cellular structures called terminal filaments, which are stacks of cells that assemble in the larval ovary. Elucidating the developmental and regulatory mechanisms of terminal filament formation is thus key to understanding the regulation of insect reproduction through ovariole number regulation. We systematically measured mRNA expression of all cells in the larval ovary at the beginning, middle and end of terminal filament formation. We also separated somatic and germ line cells during these stages and assessed their tissue-specific gene expression during larval ovary development. We found that the number of differentially expressed somatic genes is highest during late stages of terminal filament formation and includes many signaling pathways that govern ovary development. We also show that germ line tissue, in contrast, shows greater differential expression during early stages of terminal filament formation, and highly expressed germ line genes at these stages largely control cell division and DNA repair. We provide a tissue-specific and temporal transcriptomic dataset of gene expression in the developing larval ovary as a resource to study insect reproduction.
Emergent spatiotemporal population dynamics with cell-length control of synthetic microbial consortia.

The increased complexity of synthetic microbial biocircuits highlights the need for distributed cell functionality due to concomitant increases in metabolic and regulatory burdens imposed on single-strain topologies. Distributed systems, however, introduce additional challenges since consortium composition and spatiotemporal dynamics of constituent strains must be robustly controlled to achieve desired circuit behaviors. Here, we address these challenges with a modeling-based investigation of emergent spatiotemporal population dynamics using cell-length control in monolayer, two-strain bacterial consortia. We demonstrate that with dynamic control of a strain’s division length, nematic cell alignment in close-packed monolayers can be destabilized. We find that this destabilization confers an emergent, competitive advantage to smaller-length strains—but by mechanisms that differ depending on the spatial patterns of the population. We used complementary modeling approaches to elucidate underlying mechanisms: an agent-based model to simulate detailed mechanical and signaling interactions between the competing strains, and a reductive, stochastic lattice model to represent cell-cell interactions with a single rotational parameter. Our modeling suggests that spatial strain-fraction oscillations can be generated when cell-length control is coupled to quorum-sensing signaling in negative feedback topologies. Our research employs novel methods of population control and points the way to programming strain fraction dynamics in consortial synthetic biology.
Firm listing status and the investment home bias

Abstract Are public firm investment rates more sensitive than private firm rates to new investment opportunities? We offer a new explanation for differences in public and private firm investment sensitivities: investment sensitivities differ because the type of investments favored by firms varies with their listing status. Specifically, we consider the geography of investment opportunities and find that private firms have a much stronger investment home-bias than similar public firms which makes their investment decisions more sensitive to local investment opportunities than public firms. Controlling for local investment opportunities explains four-fifths of the differential sensitivity between public and private firms not explained by more traditional measures of investment opportunities.
Rationalizing forecast inefficiency

We show analysts’ own earnings forecasts predict error in their own forecasts of earnings at other horizons, which we argue provides a measure of the extent to which analysts inefficiently use information. We construct our measure by exploiting two sources of variation in analysts’ incentives: (i) more recent forecasts have greater salience at the time of the earnings release so accuracy incentives are higher (lower) at shorter (longer) forecast horizons and (ii) analysts have greater incentives for optimism (pessimism) at longer (shorter) horizons. Consistent with these incentives affecting the incorporation of information into forecasts, we document (i) current year forecasts underweight (overweight) information in shorter (longer) horizon forecasts and (ii) the mis-weighting is more pronounced when recent news is negative—when analysts have greater (weaker) incentives to incorporate the news into shorter (longer) horizon forecasts. Finally, returns tests suggest that forecasts adjusted for the inefficiency we document better represent market expectations of earnings.
On infinitesimal generators and Feynman–Kac integrals of adelic diffusion

For each prime p, a Vladimirov operator with a positive exponent specifies a p-adic diffusion equation and a measure on the Skorokhod space of p-adic paths. The product, P, of these measures with a fixed exponent is a probability measure on the product of the p-adic path spaces. The adelic paths have full measure if and only if the sum, σ, of the diffusion constants is finite. Finiteness of σ implies that there is an adelic Vladimirov operator, ΔA, and an associated diffusion equation whose fundamental solution gives rise to the measure induced by P on an adelic Skorokhod space. For a wide class of potentials, the dynamical semigroups associated with adelic Schrodinger operators with free part ΔA have path integral representations.
Model-Dependent Prosthesis Control with Interaction Force Estimation

Current lower-limb prosthesis control methods are primarily model-independent — lacking formal guarantees of stability, relying largely on heuristic tuning parameters for good performance, and neglecting use of the natural dynamics of the system. Model-dependence for prosthesis controllers is difficult to achieve due to the unknown human dynamics. We build upon previous work which synthesized provably stable prosthesis walking through the use of rapidly exponentially stabilizing control Lyapunov functions (RES-CLFs). This paper utilizes RES-CLFs together with force estimation to construct model-based optimization-based controllers for the prosthesis. These are experimentally realized on hardware with onboard sensing and computation. This hardware demonstration has formal guarantees of stability, utilizes the natural dynamics of the system, and achieves superior tracking to other prosthesis trajectory tracking control methods.
Out-of-Distribution Robustness with Deep Recursive Filters

Accurate state and uncertainty estimation is imperative for mobile robots and self driving vehicles to achieve safe navigation in pedestrian rich environments. A critical component of state and uncertainty estimation for robot navigation is to perform robustly under out-of-distribution noise. Traditional methods of state estimation decouple perception and state estimation making it difficult to operate on noisy, high dimensional data. Here, we describe an approach that combines the expressiveness of deep neural networks with principled approaches to uncertainty estimation found in recursive filters. We particularly focus on techniques that provide better robustness to out-of-distribution noise and demonstrate applicability of our approach on two scenarios: a simple noisy pendulum state estimation problem and real world pedestrian localization using the nuScenes dataset [1]. We show that our approach improves state and uncertainty estimation compared to baselines while achieving approximately 3× improvement in computational efficiency.
Verifying concurrent multicopy search structures

Multicopy search structures such as log-structured merge (LSM) trees are optimized for high insert/update/delete (collectively known as upsert) performance. In such data structures, an upsert on key k, which adds (k,v) where v can be a value or a tombstone, is added to the root node even if k is already present in other nodes. Thus there may be multiple copies of k in the search structure. A search on k aims to return the value associated with the most recent upsert. We present a general framework for verifying linearizability of concurrent multicopy search structures that abstracts from the underlying representation of the data structure in memory, enabling proof-reuse across diverse implementations. Based on our framework, we propose template algorithms for (a) LSM structures forming arbitrary directed acyclic graphs and (b) differential file structures, and formally verify these templates in the concurrent separation logic Iris. We also instantiate the LSM template to obtain the first verified concurrent in-memory LSM tree implementation.
Trust-aware Control for Intelligent Transportation Systems

Many intelligent transportation systems are multiagent systems, i.e., both the traffic participants and the subsystems within the transportation infrastructure can be modeled as interacting agents. The use of AI-based methods to achieve coordination among the different agents systems can provide greater safety over transportation systems containing only human-operated vehicles, and also improve the system efficiency in terms of traffic throughput, sensing range, and enabling collaborative tasks. However, increased autonomy makes the transportation infrastructure vulnerable to compromised vehicular agents or infrastructure. This paper proposes a new framework by embedding the trust authority into transportation infrastructure to systematically quantify the trustworthiness of agents using an epistemic logic known as subjective logic. In this paper, we make the following novel contributions: (i) We propose a framework for using the quantified trustworthiness of agents to enable trust-aware coordination and control. (ii) We demonstrate how to synthesize trust-aware controllers using an approach based on reinforcement learning. (iii) We comprehensively analyze an autonomous intersection management (AIM) case study and develop a trust-aware version called AIM-Trust that leads to lower accident rates in scenarios consisting of a mixture of trusted and untrusted agents.
Extracellular Vesicle Molecular Signatures Characterize Metastatic Dynamicity in Ovarian Cancer

Background: Late-stage diagnosis of ovarian cancer, a disease that originates in the ovaries and spreads to the peritoneal cavity, lowers 5-year survival rate from 90% to 30%. Early screening tools that can: i) detect with high specificity and sensitivity before conventional tools such as transvaginal ultrasound and CA-125, ii) using non-invasive sampling methods and iii) longitudinally will significantly increase survival rates in ovarian cancer. Studies that employ blood-based screening tools using circulating tumor-cells, -DNA, and most recently tumor-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) have shown promise in non-invasive detection of cancer before standard of care. Our findings in this study show the promise of a sEV-derived signature as a non-invasive longitudinal screening tool in ovarian cancer. Methods: Human serum samples as well as plasma and ascites from a mouse model of ovarian cancer were collected at various disease stages. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) were extracted using a commercially available kit. RNA was isolated from lysed sEVs, and quantitative RT-PCR was performed to identify specific metastatic gene expression. Conclusion: This paper highlights the potential of sEVs in monitoring ovarian cancer progression and metastatic development. We identified a 7-gene panel in sEVs derived from plasma, serum, and ascites that overlapped with an established metastatic ovarian carcinoma signature. We found the 7-gene panel to be differentially expressed with tumor development and metastatic spread in a mouse model of ovarian cancer. The most notable finding was a significant change in the ascites-derived sEV gene signature that overlapped with that of the plasma-derived sEV signature at varying stages of disease progression. While there were quantifiable changes in genes from the 7-gene panel in serum-derived sEVs from ovarian cancer patients, we were unable to establish a definitive signature due to low sample number. Taken together our findings show that differential expression of metastatic genes derived from circulating sEVs present a minimally invasive screening tool for ovarian cancer detection and longitudinal monitoring of molecular changes associated with progression and metastatic spread.
Provably Faster Algorithms for Bilevel Optimization

Bilevel optimization has been widely applied in many important machine learning applications such as hyperparameter optimization and meta-learning. Recently, several momentum-based algorithms have been proposed to solve bilevel optimization problems faster. However, those momentum-based algorithms do not achieve provably better computational complexity than $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^{-2})$ of the SGD-based algorithm. In this paper, we propose two new algorithms for bilevel optimization, where the first algorithm adopts momentum-based recursive iterations, and the second algorithm adopts recursive gradient estimations in nested loops to decrease the variance. We show that both algorithms achieve the complexity of $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^{-1.5})$, which outperforms all existing algorithms by the order of magnitude. Our experiments validate our theoretical results and demonstrate the superior empirical performance of our algorithms in hyperparameter applications. Our codes for MRBO, VRBO and other benchmarks are available $\text{online}^1$.
Via Machinae: Searching for Stellar Streams using Unsupervised Machine Learning

We develop a new machine learning algorithm, Via Machinae, to identify cold stellar streams in data from the Gaia telescope. Via Machinae is based on ANODE, a general method that uses conditional density estimation and sideband interpolation to detect local overdensities in the data in a model agnostic way. By applying ANODE to the positions, proper motions, and photometry of stars observed by Gaia, Via Machinae obtains a collection of those stars deemed most likely to belong to a stellar stream. We further apply an automated line-finding method based on the Hough transform to search for line-like features in patches of the sky. In this paper, we describe the Via Machinae algorithm in detail and demonstrate our approach on the prominent stream GD-1. A companion paper contains our identification of other known stellar streams as well as new stellar stream candidates from Via Machinae. Though some parts of the algorithm are tuned to increase sensitivity to cold streams, the Via Machinae technique itself does not rely on astrophysical assumptions, such as the potential of the Milky Way or stellar isochrones. This flexibility suggests that it may have further applications in identifying other anomalous structures within the Gaia dataset, for example debris flow and globular clusters.
the effect of Residual Stresses Induced by Strain-Peening upon Fatigue Strength

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the role of residual stresses in .fatigue strength independent of other factors usually involved when residual stresses are introduced. It consisted of an investigation of the influence of residual stresses introduced by shot peening on the fatigue strength of steel (Rockwell C hardness 48) in unidirectional bending. Residual stresses were varied by peening under various conditions of applied strain. This process introduced substantially the same amount and kind of surface cold working with residual stresses varying over a wide range of values. Good correlation was found between residual stresses and fatigue strength'tending to' substantiate ,the concept of superpositioning of residual stresses and load stresses. It was also found that shot peening of steel of this hardness is beneficial primarily because of the nature of the macro residual stresses introduced by the process. There is no gain attributable to "strain hardening" for this material. An effort was made to explain the results on the basis of three failure criteria: distortion energy, maximum shear stress, and maximum stress.
Answering the Call: Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors

Despite the growing debate about the complex global role of intellectual property over the past decade, and the diversity of policy initiatives and academic studies spawned by (and contributing to) this debate, little has been done to meet the practical demands of developing countries and public interest organizations for access to intellectual property expertise on a case-by-case basis. Wealthier organizations and private industry have access to such expertise, by paying for the services of the intellectual property professionals that are concentrated in developed countries. In contrast, in developing countries, there are few intellectual property professionals and many organizations cannot afford to pay for their services. Moreover, many intellectual property professionals are ill equipped to meet the needs of public interest clients. Society benefits when all people have access to good information and competent advice, and fairness dictates that when poor and excluded people are confronted with the very complicated issues involving intellectual property, they should have access to expert advice and representation. Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors (PIIPA) was established as an independent international service and referral organization that can help fill the need for assistance by making the know-how of intellectual property professionals available to developing countries. PIIPA’s services are intended to be practical, not policy-oriented. PIIPA’s goal is to provide balance and information that may help harness the power of informed debate to solve problems, and combat the fear and ignorance that make solutions impossible and lead to protracted disputes. PIIPA expects its beneficiaries will find new ways to solve problems in such contentious and difficult fields as traditional knowledge, biodiversity, health, and agriculture. * * * * * In recent years, the impacts of intellectual property laws and practices on developing countries have increased dramatically. Globalization has increased the contacts between developing countries and governments and organizations within countries with well-developed intellectual property legal regimes (mostly, the industrialized nations of the Northern Hemisphere, especially the European Union and the United States). Numerous international conventions and trade agreements that affect developing countries expand or involve intellectual property rights. These include the a Partner, Venable LLP, Washington, D.C. and founding member of Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors, Inc. (PIIPA). Acknowledgments are due to Venable for its steady support of PIIPA, and to the many PIIPA colleagues who contributed heavily to the ideas reflected here. Responsibility for how these ideas are expressed rests with the author. Thanks, too, to David Farnum, and Lisa Kattan, for their assistance in writing the paper.
HEATING OF DENSE PLASMA BY INTENSE RELATIVISTIC BEAMS

Preliminary experiments are described that utilize some of the unique properties of intense electron beams to help achieve the necessary conditions of high energy and power density. The experiments are divided into two groups, dealing with the study of beam dynamics and with plasma heating. (MOW)
Identification and Differentiation of Light- and Middle-Distillate Petroleum for NRDA Using Chemical Forensics

ABSTRACT The need for identification, delineation, and differentiation of petroleum-derived contaminants in support of NRDA investigations of chronic or catastrophic release of petroleum is paramou...
Separation of Selected Bile Acids by TLC. IV. Comparison of Separation of Studied Bile Acids by the Use of Cluster Analysis

Abstract Selected bile acids such as cholic acid (C), glycocholic acid (GC), glycolithocholic acid (GLC), deoxycholic acid (DC), chenodeoxycholic acid (CDC), glycodeoxycholic acid (GDC), and lithocholic acid (LC) were separated on both, silica gel and a mixture of silica gel 60 and Kieselguhr F254 by using adsorption thin‐layer chromatography. The similar analyses were used to compare the separations of studied bile acids. Both analyses showed that on the plates precoated with silica gel, the biggest problem was to separate glycocholic acid from glycodeoxycholic acid. In the case of the separation on silica gel 60 and Kieselguhr F254 mixture, the biggest problem was to separate C from GLC. The obtained results indicate that similar analysis can be an alternative method of the estimation of chromatographic separations of studied bile acids.
Use of focus groups in the design of recreation needs assessment questionnaires

In Illinois, community recreation needs are met by Park Districts and Recreation Departments who maintain parks, community centers, and other recreation facilities. For planning purposes, occasionally, the recreation providers seek information about the recreation needs of the community and this requires the design and administration of a mail questionnaire. Focus groups become particularly useful in generating items for these questionnaires. In the studies described here, focus groups were conducted with recreation administrators, special interest groups, and members of the general public to elicit community-specific information about the needs and opinions of the community with respect to current and future recreation and leisure activities. The focus groups assisted in eliciting information about the specific needs, language, and history of the community being studied.
Consistency, multiple monitors, and multiple windows

We present an evaluation of mudibo, a prototype system for determining the position of dialog boxes in a multiple-monitor system. The analysis shows that, when compared to a standard approach, mudibo offered a 24% decrease in time needed to begin interaction in a dialog box. Analysis of participant behavior in the evaluation provides insight into the way users perceive and act in multiple-monitor environments. Specifically, the notion of consistency changes for multiple-monitor systems and the prospect of adaptive algorithms becomes further complicated and intricate, especially for window management.
Smooth muscle releases an epithelial cell scatter factor which binds to heparin

We report that culture bovine calf aorta and human adult iliac artery smooth muscle cells release a soluble factor which causes spreading and separation of cells in normally tight, cohesive epithelial colonies, similar to the morphologic changes induced by the fibroblast-derived scatter factor (SF). Smooth muscle-derived SF was heat sensitive, trypsin labile, and nondialyzable, consistent with a protein (or proteins). Its effects on epithelium were not mimicked by a variety of proteolytic enzymes, growth factors, or hormones, and were not blocked by antiproteases or by antibodies to fibronectin and basic fibroblast growth factor. Epithelial cell proliferation was unaffected or only mildly stimulated by partially purified SF at concentrations that produced cell scattering. Both smooth muscle-and MRC5 human embryo fibroblast-derived SFs could be partially purified with similar elution patterns on a number of different chromatographic columns, including DEAE-agarose, heparin-sepharose, Bio-Rex 70, concanavalin A-sepharose, and MonoQ. SF from both sources bound tightly to heparin-sepharose, requiring 1.3 to 1.4M NaCl for elution. The morphologically obvious cell scattering effect was markedly inhibited by soluble heparin at concentrations down to 5 μg/ml, and this inhibition was prevented by protamine. These data suggest that vascular smooth muscle cells produce an epithelial cell scattering factor with properties similar to the fibroblast-produced factor, including a high affinity for heparin. Such factors are potentially important because they may represent a new class of proteins that primarily regulate cell mobility rather than growth and differentiation.
North Carolina marine algae. VII. New species of Hypnea and Petroglossum (Rhodophyta, Gigartinales) and additional records of other Rhodophyta

Abstract Seven marine Rhodophyta are added to the flora of Onslow Bay, North Carolina, four of which were also dredged from Long Bay, South Carolina. Two new species in the Gigartinales are described, Hypnea volubilis Searles sp. nov. and Petroglossum undulatum Schneider sp. nov. The remaining five taxa are new records for the Carolinas, with two, Sarcodiotheca divaricata Taylor and Rhodymenia divaricata Dawson, also reported for the first time from the Atlantic Coast of North America. Evidence is presented for the synonomy of Sarcodiotheca tenuis Taylor with S. divaricata Taylor. The cystocarpic structure of Rhodymenia divaricata is reported for the first time.
A computer-controlled time-of-flight atom-probe field-ion microscope for the study of defects in metals

A time-of-flight (TOF) atom-probe field-ion microscope (FIM) specifically designed for the study of defects in metals is described. This atom probe features (i) a variable-magnification internal image-intensification system based on a channel electron multiplier array for viewing the FIM image; (ii) a liquid-helium-cooled goniometer stage which allows the specimen to be maintained at a temperature anywhere in the range 13-450K; (iii) a low-energy (<or=3 keV) gas ion gun for in situ irradiations; (iv) an ultra-high-vacuum (about 4*10-8 Pa) chamber to minimize specimen contamination; (v) a high-vacuum (about 1.33*10-4 Pa) specimen-exchange device; (vi) a Chevron ion detector; and (vii) an eight-channel digital timer with +or-10 ns resolution for measuring the TOFS of the pulsed-field-evaporated ions. The entire process of applying the evaporation pulse to the specimen, measuring the DC and pulse voltages and analysing the TOF data is controlled by a Nova 1220 computer.
Dyadic decomposition: a unified perspective on predictive, subband, and wavelet transforms

A decomposition method generalized from Haar transform has been derived. This general form can exactly describe dyadic doublet-type transforms such as orthogonal wavelets. Another general form based on the binomial filter can describe dyadic triplet-type transforms such as biorthogonal wavelets. Both systems can be unified by the delta function basis decomposition system. In this paper, (a) the relationship between various types of dyadic transforms are shown; (b) methods of filter design to produce low entropy are suggested; and (c) adaptive decomposition using different transformation kernels is derived through the doublet and triplet systems. The property of low entropy in the decomposed data sequence is used as a major criterion for comparing various methods. Although we provide substantial derivations regarding the predictive approaches, detailed methods are given both in theoretical development and on implementation of dyadic decomposition methods.
Western North Atlantic Paleogene and Cretaceous Paleoceanography, Geological Society Special Publication No. 183

Many of us who have been associated with ocean drilling for a long time possess shelf after shelf of thick, meaty Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Blue Books and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) volumes. At least one volume was produced to describe the results of each 2-month drilling leg, and these were followed by papers and data reports on post-cruise research. These treasure troves of data and descriptions have been extensively plundered by enterprising synthesizers of ocean history. Their beauty lies in the collective wisdom accumulated in a single volume. Stratigraphic details and myriads of measurements tied to downhole lithology provide unlimited possibilities for interesting interpretation and speculation. Lamentably, to some, publication of these volumes ceased several years ago and electronic archives in the form of CD-ROMs and Internet-accessible publications took their place, in part. As a result, the ODP publications now contain primarily shipboard results, and the post-cruise scientific papers have migrated to outside journals.
Motor rehabilitation after stroke, traumatic brain, and spinal cord injury: common denominators within recent clinical trials.

Purpose of reviewExperimental studies and clinical trials that aim to improve motor function for use of the upper extremity and walking are traditionally separated by the category of neurological disease. This boundary may deter investigators from finding common denominators in the conceptual basis
Pilot study of organ preservation multimodality therapy for locally advanced resectable oropharyngeal carcinoma

The purpose of this study was to determine the early efficacy and toxicity of a new multimodality organ-preservation regimen for locally advanced, resectable oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Patients with T3-4N0-3M0 or T2N2-3M0 oropharyngeal SCC were eligible for this Phase II study. Patients needed the physiologic reserve for surgery and technically resectable tumors. Induction carboplatin (area under the curve = 6) and paclitaxel (200 mg/m2) x 2 cycles (q21 days) were given. Objective responders received definitive radiotherapy (XRT), 70 Gy/7 weeks with concurrent weekly paclitaxel. Initially, the dose of paclitaxel was 50 mg/m2/week; because of mucosal toxicity it was reduced to 30 mg/m2/week. Patients with N2-3 disease received post-XRT neck dissection and 2 more cycles of "adjuvant" chemotherapy. In the first 22 patients, the neutropenic fever rate was 27%. Although there has been no grade IV-V toxicity from induction therapy, grade II-III toxicity resulted in an unacceptable delay in starting XRT in 14% of patients. The response rate to induction chemotherapy was 91%. Grade III mucositis occurred in all patients during concurrent chemoradiotherapy. One patient died of pneumonia during concurrent chemoradiotherapy after receiving 26 Gy and 3 doses of paclitaxel 50 mg/m2. No dose-limiting toxicity occurred in 15 patients treated with concurrent paclitaxel 30 mg/m2/week. Actuarial overall survival at 18 months is 82%; local-regional control is 86%. To date, distant metastases have not developed in any patients. This regimen has intense but acceptable acute toxicity. The maximum tolerated dosage of weekly paclitaxel during standard continuous-course XRT is confirmed to be 30 mg/m2/week. The treatment efficacy of this regimen (response rate and short-term local-regional and distant control) is encouraging. Accrual continues to obtain long-term toxicity, efficacy, and quality-of-life data.
Effects of temperature and aerial exposure on the BOD of waste zebra mussels removed from navigational locks.

Abstract This laboratory study evaluated the effects of temperature and aerial exposure on BOD5 (5-day BOD) of waste zebra mussels of the type generated by maintenance operations on dams and navigational locks. The term waste zebra mussels includes the mussels and their associated debris with the latter including sediment, feces, pseudofeces and other small aquatic organisms. The BOD5 of waste zebra mussel was evaluated after aerial exposure of 3 and 10 days at temperatures of 5, 10, and 20°C. The mean BOD5 values for waste zebra mussels in this study ranged from 18,500 to 30,600 mg O2/l. Factorial ANOVA analysis revealed that both temperature and aerial exposure had a negative effect on waste zebra mussel BOD5 (P
Strain-induced change in the elastically soft direction of epitaxially grown face-centered-cubic metals

The theory of epitaxial strain energy is extended beyond the harmonic approximation to account for large film/substrate lattice mismatch. We find that for fcc noble metals (i) directions 〈001〉 and 〈111〉 soften under tensile biaxial strain (unlike zincblende semiconductors) while (ii) 〈110〉 and 〈201〉 soften under compressive biaxial strain. Consequently, (iii) upon sufficient compression 〈201〉 becomes the softest direction (lowest elastic energy), but (iv) 〈110〉 is the hardest direction for large tensile strain. (v) The dramatic softening of 〈001〉 in fcc noble metals upon biaxial tensile strain is caused by small fcc/bcc energy differences for these materials. These results can be used in selecting the substrate orientation for effective epitaxial growth of pure elements and ApBq superlattices, as well as to explain the shapes of coherent precipitates in phase separating alloys.
The effect of temperature, stress and microstructure on the creep of compact bovine bone

Creep tests of 117 compact bovine bone specimens were conducted at three temperatures (25, 37, and 43 degrees C), with applied stresses between 71 and 115 MPa. Following testing, the amount of secondary haversian bone in the gage region of the specimens was estimated. The resulting steady-state creep rates (epsilon) were fit to an Arrhenius (e-Qc/RT) model (where Qc is the activation energy for the mechanism(s) controlling creep, R is the gas constant, and T is the absolute temperature) of the type used to describe the classic steady-state creep behavior of metals, ceramics, and metamorphic rocks. The empirical model developed was epsilon = 5.6 x 10(-9) e4.6F sigma 5.2 e-5330/T, where epsilon is the estimated mean steady-state creep rate, F is the volume fraction of secondary haversian bone, sigma is the applied stress, and T is the absolute temperature. There was a positive, significant association between the estimated mean steady-state creep rate and F, sigma, and T. Qc was determined to be 44.3 kJ mol-1, a reasonable value when compared to activation energies for creep in ceramics. It is hypothesized that permanent deformation during creep of compact bovine bone is primarily due to damage mechanisms associated with dislocations in the hydroxyapatite mineral lattice structure.
Fever and a solitary papule on the foot

A woman in her 30s presented to a tertiary care Boston hospital with a 5-day history of fevers, malaise, headaches, and nausea with a concurrent asymptomatic solitary papule on her right foot. At the time, she was living in a house infested with mice but did not recall any rodent or insect bite. Physical examination revealed a round dusky papule 5 mm in diameter with surrounding erythema on the dorsal aspect of the right foot (Figure, A). No other cutaneous lesions or regional lymphadenopathy were identified. All laboratory tests had normal results except for an elevated monocyte count. Two sterile punch biopsy specimens were sent for culture and histopathologic examination, respectively. Routine hematoxylin-eosin–stained sections are shown in Figure, B and C. What is your diagnosis?