cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The utility of essential functions in clinical laboratory science programs.

OBJECTIVE: Essential functions (EF) define the nonacademic criteria used to determine an individual9s qualifications for admission and capabilities of performing in the classroom and laboratory with or without reasonable accommodations. Directors of NAACLS approved and accredited programs were surveyed to investigate their knowledge and perceptions of EF and associations with disabilities and student behaviors. DESIGN: This was a non-experimental survey consisting of questions related to the use of essential functions (EF) and student behaviors in NAACLS laboratory programs. SurveyMonkey was used to electronically provide the survey of 33 questions to 564 NAACLS programs. RESULTS: Descriptive statistics were reported as aggregate data with a response rate of 267 (47.3%). EF are utilized in 95.5% of the programs; however, only 38.6% of the participants responded that EF are required by both the ADA and NAACLS. A student had never been dismissed based on EF in 80.0% of the programs. Many programs have been successful in mentoring students with disabilities to successful completion. Hearing impairment was the most reported disability (30.0%). Participants felt most comfortable referring students for academic coaching (96.2%) when compared to medical concerns (86.5%), and psychological concerns (82.7%). CONCLUSIONS: While most programs utilized EF, many program directors were not aware that EF are required by both NAACLS and the ADA. Programs have successfully instructed and graduated students with a variety of disabilities and generally feel comfortable in referring students for assistance. Concerns with inappropriate behaviors present unique, generational challenges to faculty. ABBREVIATIONS: EF-Essential Functions, ADA-American with Disabilities Act, NAACLS-National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences
Design considerations for an optimized FPGA implementation of space-vector PWM for a two-level inverter

The design considerations for implementing an optimized fixed-point space-vector pulse-width modulation (SVPWM) for a two-level inverter is presented. Most of the design simulations currently available are specified in floating-point precision to accelerate the process of verifying their functionality. However, area-optimized hardware implementation of these algorithms requires fixed-point precision. A generic function is formulated the precision required for each signal to get the desired precision. A non-convex optimization function is solved for the number of required bit-widths for the signals. This design has been implemented on an FPGA using the obtained solution in order to verify the resulting accuracy. The device utilization summary of this design is also compared to a floating-point precision design.
DARK FIRE-CURED TOBACCO RESPONSE TO POTASSIUM RATE AND APPLICATION METHOD

Field experiments were conducted in 2012, 2013, and 2014 near Murray, KY to evaluate response of dark fire-cured tobacco to potassium rate and application method. Treatments included 4 rates of potassium based on soil test K values with potassium sulfate (0–0–50) at 0%, 50%, 100%, and 150% of the recommended potassium rate in each year. All potassium treatments were either manually broadcast applied and incorporated 1 day prior to transplanting or manually band applied and incorporated 7 days after transplanting. Based on soil tests for the location of the 2012–13 tests, a higher rate of potassium fertilizer was recommended, compared to the 2014 location. Potassium rate and application method did not have a significant effect on yield components (lug, second, and leaf) in any year; however, there was a response in 2012–13 for total yield. Within the 100% recommended rate in 2012–13, broadcast (3,367 kg ha−1) application of potassium resulted in significantly higher yield than banded application (3,001 kg ...
Change in Neighborhood Characteristics and Change in Coronary Artery Calcium: A Longitudinal Investigation in the MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) Cohort.

Background:Although some evidence shows that neighborhood deprivation is associated with greater subclinical atherosclerosis, prior studies have not identified what aspects of deprived neighborhood...
Drugs and Alcohol in Pregnancy and the Affected Children

Over the past three decades, the use of alcohol and illicit drugs during pregnancy has become a major public health concern. A number of studies have found poor pregnancy outcomes among women who used alcohol or illegal drugs during pregnancy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and effects on their newborns also have been documented (6, 7, 8, 9). Recent publications have begun to track the long-term impact of prenatal alcohol or illicit drug exposure on the development and behavior of the exposed child (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16).
Sumptuary Labor: How Liberal Market Economies Regulate Consumption

Liberal market states promote the responsible consumption of potentially dangerous commodities. But the work of enforcing sumptuary law is in fact delegated to service employees in the private sect...
On the Bombieri numbers for the class S

We derive a second variation formula of the Koebe function developed by Bombieri by using a linear version of the Loewner differential equation. We then express the formula in terms of classical orthogonal polynomials to consider the Bombieri numbers obtained by Greiner and Roth (Proc Am Math Soc 129(12):3657–3664, 2001) and by Prokhorov and Vasil’ev (Georgian Math J 12(4):743–761, 2005). We show a question raised by Bombieri on these numbers has a negative answer in the low order cases.
The role of infection and antibiotics in chronic rhinosinusitis.

Objective To review the current understanding of the role of infection and antibiotics in chronic rhinosinusitis. Review methods PubMed literature search Results Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) in adults is an inflammatory condition and the role of infection is unclear. Biofilms are present in both CRS and normal patients so their role in CRS is unknown. Sinus cultures in CRS demonstrate a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria but may be hard to interpret due to contaminating nasal flora. Staphylococcus aureus is common in CRS patients but also present in 20-30% of nasal cultures in the normal population; eradicating this organism did not lead to symptom improvement versus placebo in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). In CRS patients who develop an episode of acute rhinosinusitis (ARS), bacteria typical of ARS can generally be cultured and require short-course treatment. For CRS, topical antibacterial or antifungal agents have shown no benefit over placebo in RCTs, although RCTs of topical antibacterial agents have been small. Oral macrolides and doxycycline, antibiotics with anti-inflammatory properties, are the only systemic antibiotics that have been evaluated in RCTs. One RCT found 3 weeks of doxycycline beneficial in patients with polyps but follow up was short (<3 months); RCTs of prolonged macrolide therapy have produced mixed results, and most show no benefit after cessation of therapy. Long-term antibiotic therapy may produce side effects and select increasingly resistant flora. The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery guidelines recommend against treatment of CRS with antifungal agents but do not comment on the role of antibacterial treatment. Conclusion The role of infection in CRS is unknown, and the only well-defined role for antibiotics is for treatment of ARS episodes or their infectious complications. Level of Evidence N/A.
Writing (as) Africans — French Fiction Between Empathy and Orientalism

This article examines the impact colonial ideology and discursive practices have on French writing about Africa. I begin by examining the constitution and reiteration of a series of defining scenes...
Recent advances in phosphate laser glasses for high-power applications

Recent advances in Nd-doped phosphate laser glasses for high-peak-power and high-average-power applications are reviewed. Compositional studies have progressed to the point that glasses can be tailored to have specific properties for specific applications. Non-radiative relaxation effects can be accurately modeled and empirical expressions have been developed to evaluate both intrinsic (structural) and extrinsic (contamination induced) relaxation effects. Losses due to surface scattering and bulk glass absorption have been carefully measured and can be accurately predicted. Improvements in processing have lead to high damage threshold (e.g. Pt inclusion free) and high thermal shock resistant glasses with improved edge claddings. High optical quality pieces up to 79 x 45 x 4cm{sup 3} have been made and methods for continuous melting laser glass are under development.
Generation of complement membrane attack complex in normal human corneas.

Purpose To determine whether complement-derived SC5b-9, the soluble nonlytic-fluid phase of the membrane attack complex, can be generated in normal human corneas when they are injured with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), ribitol teichoic acid (RTA) immune complexes, acid, or alkali. Methods The experimental cornea of each donor pair was injected with 50 microliters of sterile saline containing 0.5 mg of LPS or 50 microliters of sterile saline containing 250 micrograms of RTA immune complexes. Other experimental corneas were treated topically for 35 seconds with either 200 microliters of 1N HCl or 2N NaOH. The control cornea of each donor pair was injected with 50 microliters of sterile saline or was treated topically for 35 seconds with 200 microliters of sterile saline. After injury, all corneas were incubated in medium 199 for 6 hours at 37 degrees C in 5% CO2, then eluted for 24 hours in phosphate-buffered saline with 10 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Each corneal eluate was collected and stored at -70 degrees C until assayed for SC5b-9 by an enzyme immunoassay. Results Compared with control corneas, SC5b-9 levels were increased significantly in corneas injected with LPS or RTA immune complexes. However, when compared with controls, SC5b-9 levels were decreased significantly in corneas treated with HCl or NaOH. Conclusions Normal human corneas injured immunologically with LPS or RTA immune complexes activate the classical or alternate pathway and generate SC5b-9. Corneas injured chemically with acid or alkali do not produce SC5b-9.
A Taxonomy for Neural Memory Networks

An increasing number of neural memory networks have been developed, leading to the need for a systematic approach to analyze and compare their underlying memory structures. Thus, in this paper, we first create a framework for memory organization and then compare four popular dynamic models: vanilla recurrent neural network, long short-term memory, neural stack, and neural RAM. This analysis helps to open the dynamic neural networks’ black box from the memory usage prospective. Accordingly, a taxonomy for these networks and their variants is proposed and proved using a unifying architecture. With the taxonomy, both network architectures and learning tasks are classified into four classes, and a one-to-one mapping is built between them to help practitioners select the appropriate architecture. To exemplify each task type, four synthetic tasks with different memory requirements are selected. Moreover, we use some signal processing applications and two natural language processing applications to evaluate the methodology in a realistic setting.
A Case for Interval Hardware on Superscalar Processors

Interval arithmetic provides an efficient method for monitoring errors in numerical computations, and can provide solutions to problems that cannot be efficiently solved with traditional floating point arithmetic. Although several software tools for interval arithmetic have been developed, these tools have performance limitations due to a lack of hardware support for interval arithmetic.
Social and geographical disparities in Twitter use during Hurricane Harvey

Social media such as Twitter is increasingly being used as an effective platform to observe human behaviors in disastrous events. However, uneven social media use among different groups of populati...
Abstract 1094: Lipopolysaccharide-induced chronic inflammation promotes lung tumorigenesis in the context of an immunosuppressive microenvironment

Clinical and epidemiological evidence suggest that chronic infection and inflammation increase risk of lung cancer. Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is frequently found in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is associated with increased lung inflammation and acute exacerbations. However, the mechanism of chronic bacterial infection-induced lung inflammation in promoting lung tumorigenesis remains unclear. To elucidate this mechanism, we established a murine lung cancer model by treating mice with or without recurrent lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa in combination with nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). Interestingly, combined LPS and NNK exposure significantly increased tumor number, tumor incidence, and tumor area compared to NNK treatment alone. In addition, the inflammatory cell counts in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) including macrophages, neutrophils, and lymphocytes were significantly increased in the LPS/NNK treatment group. The BAL fluid of chemokines/cytokines, as analyzed by luminex assays, revealed higher levels of IL-17, CXCL10, GM-CSF, G-CSF, MIP-1a, and KC in LPS/NNK than in NNK treatment group. Flow cytometry analysis of the mouse lung tissue revealed that combined LPS and NNK exposure significantly increased CD4+ T cells including Th1, Th17, and Tregs and myeloid-derived suppressor cells recruitment in the lung. Real-time polymerase chain reaction of mouse lung tissue showed T cell exhaustion related genes, including Pdcd1, Ctla-4, Tim-3, Lag-3, and Foxp3, were significantly upregulated in the LPS/NNK treatment than NNK treatment. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining of LPS/NNK-exposed lung tumors showed higher PD-L1 expression than NNK-exposed lung tumors. Our data suggest that chronic LPS exposure-promoted and NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis is associated with immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The changes include recruitment of Tregs and MDSCs, increased T cell exhaustion, and upregulated PD-1/PD-L1 pathway, which may be used as the therapeutic target for chronic inflammation-associated lung cancer treatment. Citation Format: Chia-Hsin Liu, Kong Chen, Yuanpu Di. Lipopolysaccharide-induced chronic inflammation promotes lung tumorigenesis in the context of an immunosuppressive microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1094.
Activation Of Akt Enhances Ribosomal RNA Synthesis In AML Cells Through a Novel Isoform Of TIF-1A and Inhibition Of Filamin A Cleavage

PI3Kinase/Akt signaling is frequently activated in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and inhibitors of this pathway have shown some promise in both pre-clinical and early clinical studies. In particular, much attention has been focused on components of the mTOR complex as downstream effectors of Akt activation that promote cell proliferation and survival in AML and other malignancies. We have discovered a direct effect of activated and phosphorylated Akt in increasing ribosomal RNA (rRNA) synthesis in both leukemic cell lines and primary AML cells by a novel pathway that is independent of mTOR. We have defined TIF-90 as a splice variant of TIF-1A, a molecule that tethers RNA Polymerase I to the ribosomal DNA promoter and is required for rRNA synthesis. TIF-90 is localized in the nucleolus and directly co-locates with Pol I in imaging, pull down, and rDNA promoter occupancy studies. Activation and phosphorylation of Akt correlates with high levels of TIF-90 expression and increased TIF-90 occupancy of the rDNA promoter in primary AML cells, while overexpression of constitutively activated Akt (Akt-Myr) increases rRNA synthesis in a TIF-90-dependent fashion in cell lines. Activation of Akt increases the expression of TIF-90 by inhibiting its ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation by the p53 ubiquitin ligase, Mdm2. Furthermore, activated Akt directly inhibits the cleavage of the actin-binding protein, Filamin A, into a 90 kDa fragment that interacts with TIF-90 and prevents it from occupying the rDNA promoter. Expression of the 90 kDa Filamin A cleavage fragment alone is sufficient to inhibit rRNA synthesis by binding to TIF-90. Thus, inhibition of Filamin A cleavage by Akt is associated with increased rRNA synthesis. The Akt inhibitor AZD8055, but not the mTORC1 inhibitor Rapamycin, promotes the cleavage of filamin A, decreasing both TIF-90 occupancy of the rDNA promoter and rRNA synthesis. Examination of 21 primary AML samples reveals an inverse correlation between the phosphorylation of Akt and the cleavage of Filamin A; conversely, AZD8055 inhibits both Akt phosphorylation and rRNA synthesis in these samples while promoting the cleavage of Filamin A. These data demonstrate a novel pathway by which Akt directly enhances rRNA synthesis. This pathway is active in primary AML cells and in cell lines that have high levels of phosphorylated Akt. Inhibition of rRNA synthesis has been shown to result in nucleolar disruption, cell cycle arrest, and ultimately cell death. Our data support an mTOR-independent effect of Akt activation on cell proliferation that would require direct targeting of PI3Kinase or activated Akt to have a major therapeutic effect in AML. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Can Latin America learn from India’s efforts at fighting poverty? The case of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

A decade of high economic growth (2003–2013) in Latin America accompanied with high social spending, produced a significant improvement in the living conditions of the region’s population. Household incomes grew, poverty and inequality rates fell, and job opportunities increased. However, beginning in 2013 the economic situation of Latin America experienced a downwards trend. The effects have been felt in reduced income due to the fewer labour opportunities afforded by a decrease in demand and investment, particularly in infrastructure. Moreover, investment in infrastructure has remained stagnant since the late 1990s. The present article is intended as a preliminary study regarding the feasibility of transferring the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to the Latin American region. The paper contends that such a policy transfer could greatly improve the adverse employment conditions affecting large segments of the Latin American rural workforce and contribute to bridge the area’s rural-urban infrastructure gap.
Chapter 13 – Early Anthropoids

: The earliest anthropoids (monkeys, apes and humans), or higher primates, appear in the Eocene. The features characterizing extant anthropoids, including large brains, postorbital closure and a fused mandibular symphysis, evolved in a mosaic fashion. The best record of early anthropoid evolution comes from the Fayum region of Egypt where there are important fossil sites from the late Eocene and early Oligocene. They have yielded many species and genera attributed to several families, including parapithecids, oligopithecids and propliopithecids. Many of the species are known from skulls and parts of the skeleton as well as teeth and jaws. Eosimiids and amphipithecids are earlier, more poorly known, and more controversial, families from Asia that are commonly recognized as early anthropoids, or stem anthropoids. There is debate over both the geographical and phylogenetic origin of anthropoids, but it seems most likely that they originated in Asia from either an omomyoid or tarsier-like ancestor.
Stochastic Percolation Network Model for Hybrid Nanocomposites

Agglomeration is a common occurrence in polymer nanocomposites with carbon nanotubes (CNT) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) as fillers and usually leads to a reduction of electrical and mechanical properties of the composites. While the conductive nanocomposites exhibit remarkable electromechanical properties and have potential applications in sensing and actuation, their performance mainly depends on the polymer matrix and the dispersed nanofillers. In this paper, we use a two-dimensional Monte Carlo percolation model for monofiller and hybrid nanocomposites to examine the effect of CNT agglomeration, GNP geometry, CNT-to-GNP volume ratio and polymer matrix properties on the strain sensing behavior of the nanocomposites. We generate microstructures of tunneling network with different size, aspect ratio, alignment and content of GNP fillers. Agglomeration parameters such as agglomerate content, morphology (equiaxed to rope-like), and agglomerate filler density are also modelled to generate realistic microstructure. The Poisson's ratio and the tunneling barrier height of the polymer matrix are also parametrized. Our results indicate that high level of agglomeration leads to a systematic decrease of piezoresistivity, while low agglomeration level with low filler density within agglomerates improves the electromechanical behavior. The addition of GNP as second filler to the CNT composites leads to a better piezoresistive behavior of the nanocomposites. Increasing the content, aspect ratio and size of the GNP also leads to an improvement of the piezoresistivity. GNPs uniformly aligned in the direction of electrical conductivity measurements lead to a significantly higher piezoresistive behavior, up to 6 times greater than that of nanocomposites based on only CNT. Higher values of the polymer matrix Poisson's ratio lead to an improved piezoresistivity.
Mitral Valve Surgery in Pulmonary Hypertension Patients: Is Minimally Invasive Surgery Safe?

BACKGROUND Compared with conventional full sternotomy (FS) approaches, minimally invasive mitral valve surgery (MIMVS) offers improved cosmesis, decreased pain and bleeding, and faster recovery without compromising repair or survival rates. However, little is known about outcomes in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH), an independent risk factor for morbidity and mortality. METHODS Retrospective review was performed between 2002 and 2019 for all adult patients undergoing isolated mitral valve surgery. Patients with PH (mean pulmonary artery pressure ≥25 mm Hg) were stratified by FS or MIMVS, and nearest-neighbor propensity score matching was performed to adjust for differences in baseline characteristics. RESULTS Overall, 591 operations (317 MIMVS, 274 FS) met inclusion criteria during the study period. Nearest-neighbor propensity matching generated 112 well-matched pairs. Cardiopulmonary bypass (137 vs 89.5 minutes, P < .001), cross-clamp (102 vs 63 minutes, P < .001), and total operative times (241 vs 178.5 minutes, P < .001) were longer for the MIMVS group. Postoperatively, MIMVS was associated with shorter initial ventilator times (6 vs 9.6 hours, P < .001) and hospital lengths of stay (7 vs 8 days, P = .049), as well as blood product usage rates (26.8% vs 41.1%, P = .03). Survival at 30 days (0.0% vs 2.7%, P = .12) and 10 years (log-rank, P = .661) were similar between groups. CONCLUSIONS MIMVS is safe in patients with PH and provides traditional benefits of minimally invasive surgery, including shorter initial ventilator times and hospital length of stay, without compromising on long-term survival.
Best and Brightest of His Generation

The Explorer King . Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax--Clarence King in the Old West. By Robert Wilson . Scribner, New York, 2006. 317 pp. $26, C$36. ISBN 0-743-26025-2. King of the 40th Parallel . Discovery in the American West. By James G. Moore . Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 2006. 411 pp. $55. ISBN 0-8047-5222-2. Paper, $21.95. ISBN 0-8047-5223-0. The adventures and accomplishments of Clarence King\---|geologist, explorer, mountaineer, and first director of the U.S. Geological Survey\---|are the subject of two recent books.
XPS Study of Polyimide H-Film After Heat Treatment and Laser Processing

An x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study of laser treated and heat treated Kapton ® indicates that both the treatments result in depleting the carbonyl groups from the sample and leave behind a conducting residue that still contains significant amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. The rapid changes in surface composition coincide with a substantial decrease in the electrical resistivity of the polyimide samples.
Phylodynamic insights on the early spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of intervention measures

We performed phylodynamic analyses of all available SARS-CoV-2 genomes from the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic--combined with a novel dataset on contemporary global air-travel volume--to assess the efficacy of public-health measures on viral geographic spread. Globally, viral dispersal rates are significantly correlated with air-travel volume, and widespread international air-travel bans imposed against China by early February coincide with a significant reduction in geographic viral spread. In North America, the efficacy of this travel ban was temporary, possibly due to the lack of both containment measures against other infected regions and domestic mitigation measures. By contrast, in China, domestic mitigation measures were correlated with a long-term reduction in viral spread, despite repeated international introductions. Our study supports a role for both targeted international containment and domestic mitigation measures as critical components of a more comprehensive public-health strategy to mitigate future outbreaks caused by the emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants. One sentence summaryPhylodynamic analyses reveal that variation in rates of early geographic spread of COVID-19 are correlated with intervention measures.
Sensitivity of Psychosocial Distress Screening to Identify Cancer Patients at Risk for Financial Hardship During Care Delivery

PURPOSE:Patients with cancer frequently encounter financial hardship, yet systematic strategies to identify at-risk patients are not established in care delivery. We assessed sensitivity of distres...
Mo1260 OUTCOMES OF RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION VS ENDOSCOPIC SURVEILLANCE FOR BARRETTS ESOPHAGUS WITH LOW-GRADE DYSPLASIA: A SYTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

BACKGROUND Endoscopic therapy using radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a recommended treatment for Barrett's esophagus with high-grade dysplasia (BE-HGD) without a visible lesion which is managed by resection. However, currently, there is no consensus on the management of BE with low-grade dysplasia (BE-LGD) - RFA versus endoscopic surveillance. Hence, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of these comparative studies to compare the risk of progression to HGD or esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) among patients with BE-LGD treated with RFA versus endoscopic surveillance. METHODS The primary outcome was to compare the risk of progression to HGD or EAC among patients with BE-LGD treated with RFA versus endoscopic surveillance. RESULTS Four comparative studies reporting a total of 543 patients with BE-LGD were included in the meta-analysis (234 in RFA and 309 in endoscopic surveillance). The progression of BE-LGD to either HGD or EAC was significantly lower in patients treated with RFA compared to endoscopic surveillance (OR: 0.17, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.04-0.65, p = 0.01). The progression to HGD alone was significantly lower in patients treated with RFA versus endoscopic surveillance (OR: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.08-0.61, p = 0.003). The progression to EAC alone was numerically lower in RFA than endoscopic surveillance without statistical significance (OR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.17-1.16, p = 0.09). Moderate heterogeneity was noted in the analysis. CONCLUSIONS Based on our meta-analysis, there was a significant reduction in the risk of progression to HGD or EAC among patients with BE-LGD treated with RFA compared with those undergoing endoscopic surveillance. Endoscopic eradication therapy with RFA should be the preferred management approach for BE-LGD.
Earnings management and the performance of seasoned private equity placements: Evidence from Japanese issuers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Japanese private placement issuers manipulate their earnings around the time of issuance and the relationship between earnings management and the post‐issue stock underperformance.Design/methodology/approach – Cross‐sectional modified Jones model is used to measure earnings management proxy – discretionary accruals. Control firms are developed to mitigate the impact of other factors on the measurement of earnings management. Different set of control firms is also developed to calculate abnormal stock returns.Findings – It is found that managers of Japanese private placement issuers tend to engage in income‐increasing earnings management around the time of the issuance. It is further speculated that earnings management serves as a likely source of investor overoptimism at the time of private placements. To support this speculation, evidence is found suggesting that the income‐increasing accounting accruals made at the time of private placements pred...
Social Structure for Open Source Software Projects

Open source software (OSS) has drawn increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers in recent years. However, few empirical studies have investigated the interaction process of OSS teams during OSS development. This dissertation has two primary objectives. First, the research studies the social structure of OSS teams. Second, the research investigates the factors impacting the social structure of OSS project teams (e.g., group size, group composition and group task) as well as the effects of social structure on OSS performance. Based on the theory of social structure, social network, and group-related theories, the dissertation discusses a general research framework and a planned two-phase study to achieve the research goals. The first phase of the research is to understand the social structure of OSS projects, especially the interaction pattern during the development process. Research hypotheses are proposed at the end of this stage. The second phase aims to test the hypotheses on the causes and effects of social structure on OSS development. Social network analysis, which focuses on investigating the relationships between a set of actors, will be employed as the primary research methodology for this study. Data will be collected from websites such as SourceForge that host OSS projects. By understanding the relationships between group characteristics, social network, and OSS performance, this research contributes to the enhancement of knowledge on OSS development from the social network perspective.
Conductivity enhancement in single-walled carbon nanotube bundles doped with K and Br

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), prepared by metal-catalysed laser ablation of graphite, form close-packed bundles or ‘ropes;1. These rope crystallites exhibit metallic behaviour above 50K (ref. 2), and individual tubes behave as molecular wires, exhibiting quantum effects at low temperatures3,4. They offer an all-carbon host lattice that, by analogy with graphite5 and solid C60 (ref. 6), might form intercalation compounds with interesting electronic properties, such as enhanced electrical conductivity and superconductivity. Multi-walled nanotube materials have been doped with alkali metals7 and FeCl3 (ref. 8). Here we report the doping of bulk samples of SWNTs by vapour-phase reactions with bromine and potassium—a prototypical electron acceptor and donor respectively. Doping decreases the resistivity at 300K by up to a factor of 30, and enlarges the region where the temperature coefficient of resistance is positive (the signature of metallic behaviour). These results suggest that doped SWNTs represent a new family of synthetic metals.
Using Spectropolarimetry to Determine Envelope Geometry and Test Variability Models for Hot Star Circumstellar Envelopes

A survey and monitoring of the spectropolarimetric characteristics of hot stars over the entire visible wavelength range has been carried out over the past 8 years using the HPOL instrument at the Pine Bluff Observatory. Data from these projects is being used to derive physical characteristics of circumstellar envelopes. Quantitative modeling of the polarization, in combination with optical interferometry, has shown that the circumstellar disks of classical Be stars are geometrically thin, consistent with either the wind-compressed disk model or with hydrostatically supported Keplerian disks. Furthermore, spectropolarimetric variability, which is significant in a large fraction of the hot stars observed, provides information about changes occuring in the circumstellar envelope. For example, polarimetric changes provide a critical test of the one-armed density wave models proposed to explain observed V/R variations.
Immunophenotyping using fixed cells

Publisher Summary This chapter describes methods for the use of fixed leukocytes for immunophenotyping with a variety of commonly used monoclonal antibodies. The fixation of cells used for immunophenotyping by flow cytometric analysis has traditionally been employed after the cells are reacted with the antibody (postfixation) especially when monoclonal antibodies are used. The most commonly used fixation method for leukocytes that are to be analyzed by flow cytometry is that reported by Lanier and Warner for murine lymphocytes. This procedure ultilizes 1% paraformaldehyde in saline for postfixation. This procedure was not useful when employed as a prefixation method. It is possible that the lack of buffering in the solution could, at least in part, account for the loss of antigenicity. The stability of antigens to fixation, including several major T cell antigens, are dependent upon the fixation procedure occurring at neutral pH. Jones et al. obtained similar results for the preservation of human T cell antigens using prefixation with paraformaldehyde. Paraformaldehyde containing fixatives have also been shown to be superior for the preservation of T cell, B cell, and accessory cell antigens in paraffin-embedded human tissues.
The Sentimental Self

Etude des structures de la perception, de la pensee et de l'emotion qui constituent la sentimentalite du moi, a la lumiere des exemples litteraires empruntes a W. Thackeray, H. Lee, Disckens et Tolstoi. Examinant les rapports entre fiction, imagination et affectivite, l'A. denonce les idealisations simplistes de la sentimentalite et leur impact sur le moi
Tag recommendation for social bookmarking: Probabilistic approaches

Tagging has become increasingly popular with the explosion of user-created content on the web. A 'tag' can be defined as a group of keywords that makes organizing, browsing and searching for content more efficient. Users apply tags to a variety of web-based, shareable content including photos, videos, news articles, bookmarks, friends, etc. Tag suggestions for blog posts or web-pages have changed the focus of the tagging process from generation to recognition, thus making it less time and effort intensive. In this paper an intelligent tag recommendation agent is proposed, that recommends tags for bookmarks stored in one of the popular social bookmarking websites, Del.ici.ou. We develop various probabilistic approaches to recommend tags to be used by users while adding new bookmarks. We have developed content-based and collaborative filtering mechanism that are used by these recommendation agents. Additionally, these tag recommender agents learn to classify the tags according to their semantic similarity based on collaborative tagging by the users. This approach can therefore be used to facilitate folksonomy formation for social networks. We also empirically verify the hypothesis that similar web pages are tagged with similar tags. We also present a comparison between the proposed recommendation approaches for the agents.
Turkish Women Divided by Politics

In the early phase of its rule in Turkey (2002–4), the pro-Islamic government of the AKP (Justice and Development party) and various branches of the state collaborated in a series of political and economic reforms. The democratization process has gradually moderated and integrated Islamic actors into the secular Turkish Republic. However, it has also had polarizing effects on social groups. Among many, the polarization of two groups of women, ‘pious’ and ‘secularist’, deserves particular attention. Instead of bringing Turkish women together, gender reforms, particularly the lifting of the headscarf ban in universities, have divided women and created disarray and confrontation in society. This article reveals and compares the two dramatically different patterns of political engagement by pious and secularist women in leadership positions in contemporary Turkey. On the one hand, it reveals the increasingly radical backlash of secularist women against the increasing visibility in public spaces of pious women...
Optimal Energy and Catalyst Temperature Management of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles for Minimum Fuel Consumption and Tail-Pipe Emissions

Control of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) poses a different challenge from that of the conventional hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) because the battery energy is designed to deplete throughout the drive cycle. In particular, when the travel distance exceeds the all-electric range (AER) of a PHEV and when tailpipe emissions are considered, optimal operation of the PHEV must consider optimization of the performance over a time horizon. In this paper, we develop a method to synthesize a supervisory powertrain controller (SPC) that achieves near-optimal fuel economy and tailpipe emissions under known travel distances. We first find the globally optimal solution using the dynamic programming (DP) technique, which provides an optimal control policy and state trajectories. Based on the analysis of the optimal state trajectories, a new variable energy-to-distance ratio (EDR), θ, is introduced to quantify the level of battery state-of-charge (SOC) relative to the remaining distance. This variable plays an important role in adjusting both energy and catalyst thermal management strategies for PHEVs. A novel extraction method is developed to extract adjustable engine on/off, gear-shift, and power-split strategies from the DP control policy over the entire state space. Based on the extracted results, an adaptive SPC that optimally adjusts the engine on/off, gear-shift, and power-split strategies under various EDR and catalyst temperature conditions was developed to achieve near-optimal fuel economy and emission performance.
Market design & analysis for a P2P backup system

In this paper we take the problem of a market-based P2P backup application and carry it through market design, to implementation, to theoretical and experimental analysis. While the long-term goal is an open market using real money, here we consider a system where monetary transfers are prohibited. We first describe the design of the P2P resource exchange market and the UI we developed. Second, we prove theorems on equilibrium existence and uniqueness. Third, we prove a surprising impossibility result regarding the limited controllability of the equilibrium and show how to address this. Fourth, we present a price update algorithm that uses daily supply and demand information to move prices towards the equilibrium and we provide a theoretical and experimental convergence analysis. The market design described in this paper is already implemented as part of a Microsoft research project on P2P backup systems and an alpha version of the software has been successfully tested.
Important experimental prerequisites for quantitative clinker phase analysis by SEM-EDS

Abstract The state of the art of quantitative analysis of phases in Portland cement clinkers lies in the selection of the optimal experimental conditions. The important parameters, such as acceleration potential, probe size, sample preparation and software handling are discussed.
Response to Impact of Timber Harvesting on Salamanders

Every field-based study will have its critics because scientists can rarely agree on what constitutes the best approach for analyzing and interpreting data or balancing conflicts in design. Those of us who have sat through countless weekly seminars realize that scientists are remarkably adept at finding fault with others' studies, but surprisingly inept at providing truly fool-proof solutions to perceived problems. Dr. Ash's and Dr. Bruce's critique of our findings is an example of this. Our decisions concerning methods were based on constraints associated with a variety of factors: restrictions on time and labor, the amount of historical data on site conditions, the need to integrate our data with those of other team members, and the difficulty of working in rugged and remote areas in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Armchair critics often assume the
Analysis of Polar Cholesterol Oxidation Products: Evaluation of a New Method Involving Transesterification, Solid Phase Extraction, and Gas Chromatography

Monitoring cholesterol oxidation products is important in the evaluation of the potential health risks associated with lipid oxidation. In the present study, a method allowing quick and reliable analysis of polar cholesterol oxidation products was evaluated. After Soxhlet-lipid extraction, the fat was transesterified under mild conditions, thereby minimizing degradation and allowing determination of the free and esterified cholesterol oxides. Sample fractionation was achieved with aminopropyl solid phase extraction cartridges and a stepwise elution with hexane, hexane/methyl tert-butyl ether, and acetone to separate polar cholesterol oxides from cholesterol and other lipid products. Further analysis of the trimethylsilyl derivatives was performed by gas chromatography with detection by flame ionization or mass spectrometry. A phytosterol oxide such as sitosterol α-epoxide (24α-ethyl-5α,6α-epoxycholestan-3β-ol) was employed for the first time as an internal standard for the quantification of cholesterol ox...
Stress relaxation and creep behaviour of normal and carbon fibre reinforced acrylic bone cement.

Abstract Room temperature compression creep and stress relaxation behaviour of normal as well as carbon fibre reinforced bone cement was studied and their properties compared. It was observed that increased deformation due to creep in 24 h was about 70% of the initial strain (due to applied constant stress of 10.5 MN/m 2 ) for normal PMMA and this could be reduced to 45% of the initial strain by carbon fibre reinforcement. Surgical grade PMMA, when subjected to 1% constant strain, showed an average stress-relaxation by 24% in eight hours. Percentage of stress-relaxation was somewhat more for carbon fibre reinforced bone cement even though the level of stress was much higher compared to normal PMMA.
Holistic handwritten word recognition using temporal features derived from off-line images

This paper describes an algorithm for holistic recognition of off-line cursive words using temporal stroke information derived from off-line script. Temporal information is extracted by traversing the strokes without explicit segmentation of the word into constituent characters. The word image is then mapped on to a feature vector matrix of uptrends and downtrends of strokes. This feature vector matrix is compared to prestored feature vector of lexicon entries and ranked accordingly. On a test set of images, the temporal feature extraction rate is 80%. Given the correct set of temporal features, the recognition rate of the holistic classifier is 81% on small lexicons.
Approximate solutions to the turbine balancing problem

Abstract The turbine balancing problem (TBP) is an NP-Hard combinatorial optimization problem arising in the manufacturing and maintenance of turbine engines. Exact solution methods for solving the TBP are not appropriate since the problem has to be solved in real time and the input data is itself inaccurate. In this paper the TBP is formulated as a quadratic assignment problem (QAP) and we propose a heuristic algorithm for solving the resulting problem. Computational results on a set of instances provided by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) and from the literature, indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the current methods used for solving the TBP, and has the best overall performance with respect to other heuristic algorithms in the literature.
Modeling and analysis of mixed-material surface evolution and sputtering

Analysis of near-surface compositional changes in materials exposed to ion fluxes is important to a number of technological applications. These applications include preferential sputtering of multi-component materials, ion implantation, plasma contamination, and erosion of plasma facing components in future tokamak devices such as ITER. A model is developed that addresses the dynamics of compositional changes in the near surface region of a plasma facing component where the synergistic effects of sputtering, implantation, and re-deposition are taken into account self consistently. The Monte Carlo binary collision methodology is combined with phenomenological kinetics modeling to study the evolution of the near surface region and the mixing of incident particles with the target material. To show the model capabilities, example model calculations simulated the evolution of beryllium in the sub-surface region of a tungsten divertor that is exposed to multiple fluxes of deuterium, tritium, oxygen, and beryllium. The calculations show that Be can remain in sub-surface region only if the re-deposition fraction is near 1.0 and the confinement of most implanted Be to that region. The calculations also show that the time needed for Be fraction to reach equilibrium is within 1 s after the start of irradiation.
Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865–1896

1. The money debate and American political development 2. Party politics and the financial debate, 1865-1896 3. Greenbacks versus gold: the contest over finance in the 1870s 4. The 'people's money': Greenbackism in North Carolina, Illinois and Massachusetts 5. The battle of the standards: the financial debate of the 1890s 6. Populism and the politics of finance in North Carolina, Illinois and Massachusetts in the 1890s 7. Money, history, and American political development Appendix A. Financial terms of the 1870s and 1890s Appendix B. Major banking and currency legislation, 1860-1900 Appendix C. An antimonopolist reading of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
An experimental remote-controlled helicopter with suspended load

This paper describes a testbed for studying externally-loaded helicopter dynamics in a controlled, indoor environment. A remote-controlled helicopter is attached to a mechanical framework that limits the helicopter motion to pitch rotation and longitudinal translation. The framework allows a load suspended beneath the helicopter to swing freely. The helicopter position, helicopter pitch angle, and load swing angle are measured in real time. This testbed can be used to investigate the dynamic effects of changes in suspended load weight, suspension cable length, and automatic flight control system architecture. The mechanical and electrical systems are described, along with methods to minimize the forces and torques applied by the helicopter in the constrained degrees of freedom. Two example experiments are discussed.
Do local officials know something we don’t? Decentralization of targeted transfers in Albania

Abstract Albania provides a small amount of social assistance to nearly 20% of its population through a system which allows a degree of community discretion in determining distribution. This study indicates that relative to other safety net programs in low-income countries, social assistance in Albania is fairly well targeted to the poor. Moreover, the poverty targeting exceeds that which could be expected on the basis of proxy indicators of targeting alone; communes appear to be using local information unlikely to be obtained on the basis of a questionnaire or formula. This remains the case conditional on the level of funding allocated from the central government.