cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Experimentation in the operating system: the windows experimentation platform

Online controlled experiments are the gold standard for evaluating improvements and accelerating innovations in online and app worlds. However, little is known about applicability, implementation, and efficacy of experimentation for operating systems (OS), where many features are non-user-facing. In this paper, we present the Windows Experimentation platform (WExp), and insights from implementation and execution of real-world experiments in the OS. We start by discussing the need for experimentation in OS, using real experiments to illustrate the benefits. We then describe the architecture of WExp, focusing on unique considerations in its engineering. Finally, we discuss learnings and challenges from conducting real-world experiments. Our experiences and insights can motivate practitioners to start experimenting as well as to help them to successfully build their experimentation platforms. The learnings can also guide experimenters with best-practices and highlight promising avenues for future research.
Applicability of 3D Spectral Element Method for Computing Close-Range Underwater Piling Noises

Pile driving is used for constructing foundation supports for offshore structures. Underwater noise, induced by in-water pile driving, could adversely impact marine life near the piling location. M...
From Autonomous Vehicles to Vehicular Clouds: Challenges of Management, Security and Dependability

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to enhance road safety, reduce traffic pressure and improve the driving experience. With the on-board sensors, compute units, storage devices, and communication modules, autonomous vehicles are becoming integrated information systems. Compared to conventional centralized approaches and traditional clouds, the emerging vehicular clouds (v-clouds) technology is a more promising solution for utilizing such rich resources. In v-clouds, vehicles can communicate with one another, form self-organized vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), collect real-time sensing data, conduct intensive computation, and disseminate information. However, the highly dynamic and heterogeneous nature of autonomous vehicles raises many issues when designing v-cloud systems. In this paper, we focus on the challenges in designing v-cloud computing architectures, providing effective routing protocols, securing v-cloud environments and enhancing the dependability of v-clouds. We review the state of the art and discuss open research issues.
Activin A Modulates Inflammation in Acute Pancreatitis and Strongly Predicts Severe Disease Independent of Body Mass Index.

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a healthcare challenge with considerable mortality. Treatment is limited to supportive care, highlighting the need to investigate disease drivers and prognostic markers. Activin A is an established mediator of inflammatory responses, and its serum levels correlate with AP severity. We hypothesized that activin A is independent of body mass index (BMI) and is a targetable promoter of the AP inflammatory response. METHODS: We assessed whether BMI and serum activin A levels are independent markers to determine disease severity in a cohort of patients with AP. To evaluate activin A inhibition as a therapeutic, we used a cerulein-induced murine model of AP and treated mice with activin A-specific neutralizing antibody or immunoglobulin G control, both before and during the development of AP. We measured the production and release of activin A by pancreas and macrophage cell lines and observed the activation of macrophages after activin A treatment.
Efficacy of Liposomal Bupivacaine versus Ropivacaine in Adductor Canal Block for Total Knee Arthroplasty

Adductor canal block (ACB) is advantageous for postoperative analgesia in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) because it results in minimal motor block. Liposomal bupivacaine (LB) is Food and Drug Administration-approved extended-release formulation of bupivacaine for interscalene peripheral nerve blocks. Its use is increasing in the TKA setting, mainly as a local infiltration agent. We compared the efficacy of ACB using LB versus ropivacaine in TKA. Two cohorts of patients were retrospectively analyzed at a single institution receiving ropivacaine and LB ACB for TKA. Duration of LB ACB, time to first opioid use postrecovery room, amount of opioid use postrecovery room, length of stay (LOS), and average and highest pain scores were collected. A total of 91 and 142 TKA patients received ropivacaine and LB for ACB, respectively. At 8 hours postrecovery room, more patients in the LB group required no opioids compared with the ropivacaine group (p = 0.026). Mean opioid consumption was lower in the LB group than in the ropivacaine group at 8 and 24 hours postrecovery room, although statistical significance was only observed at 8 hours (p = 0.022). The highest pain score for patients in the two groups was not statistically different. The average pain score for patients with a 2-day LOS was higher in the LB group, but average pain scores were similar for patients with 1- and 3-day LOS. Median LOS for the LB and ropivacaine groups was 1 and 2 days, respectively (p
Late cardiac events and their impact on overall survival in patients receiving an allogeneic stem cell transplant.

12070Background: There is limited data on the impact of cardiac disease on long term outcomes of allogeneic stem cell transplant (alloSCT). We sought to describe the importance of adverse cardiac e...
Breast adipose regulation of premenopausal breast epithelial phenotype involves interleukin 10.

Epidemiological studies inversely associate body mass index (BMI) with breast cancer risk in premenopausal women, but the pathophysiological linkage remains ill-defined. Despite the documented relevance of the 'local' environment to breast cancer progression and the well-accepted differences in transcriptome and metabolic properties of anatomically distinct fat depots, specific breast adipose contributions to the proliferative potential of non-diseased breast glandular compartment are not fully understood. To address early breast cancer causation in the context of obesity status, we compared the cellular and molecular phenotypes of breast adipose and matched breast glandular tissue from premenopausal non-obese (mean BMI=27 kg/m2) and obese (mean BMI=44 kg/m2) women. Breast adipose from obese women showed higher expression levels of adipogenic, pro-inflammatory and estrogen synthetic genes, than from non-obese women. Obese breast glandular tissue displayed lower proliferation and inflammatory status and higher expression of anti-proliferative/pro-senescence biomarkers TP53 and p21, than from non-obese women. Transcript levels for T-cell receptor and co-receptors CD3 and CD4 were higher in breast adipose of obese cohorts, coincident with elevated adipose Interleukin 10 (IL10) and FOXP3 gene expression. In human breast epithelial cell lines MCF10A and HMEC, recombinant human IL10 reduced cell viability and CCND1 transcript levels, increased those of TP53 and p21, and promoted (MCF10A) apoptosis. Our findings suggest that breast adipose-associated IL10 may mediate paracrine interactions between non-diseased breast adipose and breast glandular compartments and highlight how breast adipose may program the local inflammatory milieu, partly by recruiting FOXP3+ T regulatory cells, to influence premenopausal breast cancer risk.
Application of machine learning classifiers for microcomputed tomography data assessment of mouse bone microarchitecture

Abstract The current standard approach for analyzing cortical bone structure and trabecular bone microarchitecture from micro-computed tomography (microCT) is through classic parametric (e.g., ANOVA, Student's T-test) and nonparametric (e.g., Mann-Whitney U test) statistical tests and the reporting of p-values to indicate significance. However, on their own, these univariate assessments of significance fall prey to a number of weaknesses, including an increased chance of Type 1 error from multiple comparisons. Machine learning classification methods (e.g., unsupervised, k-means cluster analysis and supervised Support Vector Machine classification, SVM) simultaneously utilize an entire dataset comprised of many cortical structure or trabecular microarchitecture measures, thus minimizing bias and Type 1 error that are generated through multiple testing. Through simultaneous evaluation of an entire dataset, k-means and SVM thus provide a complementary approach to classic statistical analysis and enable a more robust assessment of microCT measures.
Reachability and Safety in Queue Systems

We look at a model of a queue system M that consists of the following components: 1. Two nondeterministic finite-state machines W and R, each augmented with finitely many reversal-bounded counters (thus, each counter can be incremented or decremented by 1 and tested for zero, but the number of alternations between nondecreasing mode and nonincreasing mode is bounded by a fixed constant). W or R (but not both) can also be equipped with an unrestricted pushdown stack. 2. One unrestricted queue that can be used to send messages from W (the "writer") to R (the "reader"). There is no bound on the length of the queue. When R tries to read from an empty queue, it receives an "empty-queue" signal. When this happens, R can continue doing other computation and can access the queue at a later time. W and R operate at the same clock rate, i.e., each transition (instruction) takes one time unit. There is no central control. Note that since M is nondeterministic there are, in general, many computation paths starting from a given initial configuration. We investigate the decidable properties of queue systems. For example, we show that it is decidable to determine, given a system M, whether there is some computation in which R attempts to read from an empty queue. Other verification problems that we show solvable include (binary, forward, and backward) reachability, safety, invariance, etc. We also consider some reachability questions concerning machines operating in parallel.
Perceptually meaningful image editing: Manipulating perceived depth and creating the illusion of motion in 2D images

We introduce a novel concept called perceptually meaningful image editing and present techniques for manipulating the apparent depth of objects and creating the illusion of motion in 2D images. Our techniques combine principles of human visual perception with approaches developed by traditional artists. For our depth manipulation technique, the user loads an image, selects an object and specifies whether the object should appear closer or further away. The system automatically determines luminance or color temperature target values for the object and/or background that achieve the desired depth change. Our approach for creating the illusion of motion exploits the differences between our peripheral vision and our foveal vision by introducing spatial imprecision to the image.
Modeling and Analysis of Ultrasonic Echoes Reflected from a Surface under Two Layers

Fat and muscle layers in the human soft-tissue causes degradation of resolution and distortions of shape in ultrasound images of organs. Novel ultrasonic applications such as registration between CT and ultrasound images, requiring comparable levels of accuracies between modalities could suffer from the distortions in ultrasound images. In this work, we describe a possible method to compensate or correct for these distortions in ultrasound images. This can be used as a pre-processing step before registration with other modalities. We derived a model of ultrasound field after reflection from an interface embedded in two layers. Experiments were performed using single-element transducers and custom made tissue mimicking phantoms of fat and muscle and a steel-block. We fit the model to the experimental data using Levenberg-Marquardt inversion.
Thymic microenvironment induces HIV expression. Physiologic secretion of IL-6 by thymic epithelial cells up-regulates virus expression in chronically infected cells.

The hallmark of infection with HIV-1 is progressive depletion and qualitative dysfunction of the CD4+ Th cell population in infected individuals. Clinical trials of antiretroviral agents have shown that, despite suppression of virus replication, regeneration of the T cell pool does not occur. One proposed explanation for the defective regenerative capacity of the CD4+ T cell pool is infection of early T lymphocyte progenitors or stem cells. An additional explanation could be failure of cells of the intrathymic microenvironment (thymic epithelial (TE) cells) to carry out critical nurturing functions for developing thymocytes, i.e., secretion of thymocyte-trophic cytokines and expression of adhesion molecules. This study examines the effect of HIV on cultured TE cells and determines the role of TE cells in the regulation of viral expression in chronically HIV-infected cells. We found no evidence of infection of TE cells after exposure to HIV-1. However, normal human serum induced secretion of IL-6 by TE cells; induction of TE IL-6 was partially blocked by anti-IFN-gamma antibodies. Moreover, supernatants from TE cells maintained in normal human serum up-regulated HIV replication in chronically HIV-1-infected cells. Because intrathymic T cell precursors can be infected with HIV and T cell precursors come into close contact with TE cells in the thymus, IL-6 secreted by TE cells during normal intrathymic development may induce HIV expression in infected thymocytes in vivo and promote the intrathymic spread of HIV.
Multiracial Americans: Racial Identity Choices and Implications for the Collection of Race Data

In 2010, approximately nine million Americans self-identified with more than one race on the U.S. Census – a 32 percent increase since 2000. In this paper, I review the growing body of research on this population, with a particular focus on identifying and describing factors important in shaping their racial identities. Factors explored include: social norms regarding racial classification, socioeconomic status, racial composition of one’s neighborhood and community, region, socialization by family, age, cohort, genealogical locus of multiracial ancestry, nativity, and phenotype. I discuss the broader implications of findings to-date, with a particular focus on the ongoing scholarly discourse regarding the collection of race data in the United States.
Challenging the Consensus on the Oil Curse

Oil Is Not a Curse: Ownership Structure and Institutions in Soviet Successor States. By Pauline Jones Luong, Erika Weinthal . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 425 pp., $29.99 paperback (ISBN-13 9780521148085). Pauline Jones Luong and Erika Weinthal pair up once again, in Oil Is Not a Curse , to examine the Soviet successor states, this time offering an explanation for how states are not cursed by their oil reserves, but rather by the ownership structure of these reserves. Their conceptualization of ownership structure is a set of relations among claimants, following Baldwin (2002) and Zurn (2002). Who owns and controls the mineral sector is the key intervening variable between wealth and the institutional outcome. They posit that weak fiscal regimes are not necessarily endogenous to mineral wealth, but are nonetheless prevalent. Thus, they ask, if weak fiscal regimes are exogenous to mineral wealth, then under what conditions are mineral-rich states that inherit weak fiscal regimes likely to develop strong ones? The authors employ qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including hypotheses of ownership, country case studies based on mass survey and polling data, and the authors' own interviews and surveys, as well as a large-N data set. The book contains several introductory chapters, which serve to explain the overall framework and to justify the focus on fiscal regimes. The book is then divided into two parts, beginning with a theoretical discussion of types of ownership followed by several case study chapters. The final …
SU-E-T-72: A Retrospective Correlation Analysis On Dose-Volume Control Points and Treatment Outcomes

Purpose: To quantify correlation between dose-volume control points and treatment outcomes. Specifically, two outcomes are analyzed: occurrence of radiation induced dysphagia and target complications. The results inform the treatment planning process when competing dose-volume criteria requires relaxations. Methods: 32 patients, treated with whole-field sequential intensity modulated radiation therapy during 2009–2010 period, are considered for this study. Acute dysphagia that is categorized into 3 grades is observed on all patients. 3 patients are observed in grade 1, 17 patients in grade 2, and 12 patients in grade 3. Ordinal logistic regression is employed to establish correlations between grades of dysphagia and dose to cervico-thoracic esophagus. Particularly, minimum (Dmin), mean (Dmean), and maximum (Dmax) dose control points are analyzed. Additionally, target complication, which includes local-regional recurrence and/or distant metastasis, is observed on 4 patients. Binary logistic regression is used to quantify correlation between target complication and four dose control points. Namely, ICRU recommended dose control points, D2, D50, D95, and D98 are analyzed. Results: For correlation with dysphagia, Dmin on cervico-thoracic esophagus is statistically significant (p-value = 0.005). Additionally, Dmean on cervico-thoracic esophagus is also significant in association with dysphagia (p-value = 0.012). However, no correlation was observed between Dmax and dysphagia (p-value = 0.263). For target complications, D50 on the target is a statistically significant dose control point (p-value = 0.032). No correlations were observed between treatment complications and D2 (p-value = 0.866), D95 (p-value = 0.750), and D98 (p-value = 0.710) on the target. Conclusion: Significant correlations are observed between radiation induced dysphagia and Dmean (and Dmin) to cervico-thoracic esophagus. Additionally, correlation between target complications and median dose to target (D50) is observed. Quantification of these correlations can inform treatment planners when any competing objectives requires relaxation of target D50 or Dmean (or Dmin) to cervico-thoracic esophagus.
Behavior Models to Express and Share Threat Information

The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate's Linebacker technology is a behavior-model approach that lets defenders express events and behaviors in terms of deviation from baseline models--for example, a characteristic change in entropy that's indicative of a particular bad event. Linebacker leverages bio-inspired techniques to analyze individual actors and create models of cyber behavior.
Intracellular and Extracellular Degranulation of Human Polymorphonuclear Azurophil and Specific Granules Induced by Immune Complexes

The nature of the phagocytic stimulus determines the degree of degranulation. Specifically, immune complexes induced more degranulation than did antigen or antibody alone. The release of constituents from the two granule classes represented independent phenomena. Relatively more of the specific granule proteins were released into the medium during phagocytosis, whereas more of the azurophil proteins were associated with the phagosomes.
Psoriasis and Pityriasis Rubra Pilaris

Psoriasis and pityriasis rubra pilaris (PRP) are both chronic skin disorders characterized by well-demarcated, scaly papules and plaques. Lesions can range from few and circumscribed to diffuse and distressing. Although psoriasis is more common with known comorbidities, PRP likely places a similar psychological burden on patients. The two conditions, their features, and management, particularly the use of systemic therapies, will be discussed here.
A novel seven transmembrane receptor induced during the early steps of astrocyte differentiation identified by differential expression

The rat glial progenitor cell line CG-4 can be induced to differentiate into either oligodendrocytes or type-2 astrocytes. In order to identify genes whose expression varies coincident with such phenotypic differentiation, we employed representational difference analysis (RDA) of mRNA. Here, we report 38 cDNAs induced in type-2 astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, or both differentiated states. Among these were known transcription factors, membrane receptors, extracellular matrix proteins, secreted signaling modulators, chromatin regulators and myelin sheath components. In addition several novel genes were identified; among these was a gene induced during the very early stages of astrocyte differentiation that we have named Ieda (induced early in differentiating astrocytes). Several Ieda transcripts were detected by RT-PCR, and appeared to be produced by alternative splicing and promoter usage. The protein deduced from the longest Ieda mRNA exhibited sequence features characteristic of G-protein coupled receptors, including seven putative transmembrane domains, while the shorter Ieda transcripts encoded proteins that lacked several transmembrane segments. In the adult rat, Ieda transcripts were found exclusively in brain and testis. In the developing rat brain, Ieda expression was first detected at embryonic day 16, that is two days before the first appearance of mature astrocytes. Thus, this approach has yielded a potential source of markers for differentiation states of these two cellular types as well as genes predicted to be functionally involved in the differentiation process itself.
The New Knowledge Management and Online Research and Publishing in the Humanities

In his article, "The New Knowledge Management and Online Research and Publishing in the Humanities," Steven Totosy de Zepetnek discusses the problematics of new media scholarship and technology and online publishing in the humanities today. He argues that while there are legitimate questions about scholarly material in the humanities online, the reality is that most undergraduate as well as graduate students today use the web for at least the initial stages of their research. In order to increase the quality of content of scholarship on the world wide web, scholars in the humanities ought to get involved with new media scholarship and, consequently, publish new work online. However, as obvious this may be, scholars in the humanities tend to be suspicious of online publishing and are slow to adopt new media technology. In his paper, Totosy de Zepetnek discusses aspects of both theory with regard to the information highway and new media technology and practical matter such as online research. Totosy de Zepetnek hopes that while a radical change in thinking and practices is not likely to happen too soon, humanities scholars would employ, increasingly, the possibilities and the advantages -in both content and form -new media technology offers for knowledge management and scholarship in the
Subambient applications of differential thermal analysis for the determination of vapor pressure

Abstract Differential thermal analysis (DTA) has been shown to be a useful technique for determining the vapor pressure of pure liquids. Incorporation of a subambient cooling accessory into existing commercial instrumentation allows rapid determination (in less than 2 h) of vapor pressure curves of pure liquids over wide pressure (5–760 Torr) and temperature (−180–450°C) ranges using a small amount (less than 1 ml) of sample. Vapor pressure curves of several compounds, for which only atmospheric pressure boiling points were available, have been established with this technique.
Frequency discrimination in the auditory system: Place or periodicity mechanisms?

The pattern of all-or-none firings in many sensory nerves can usefully be modeled as a set of sample functions from non-stationary random processes whose parameters are determined by the sensory stimulus. Given such a description, one can compare the parameter estimation, discrimination, or detection performance of a human observer (as measured behaviorally) with the computed limiting performance of an ideal observer operating on the same neural input. Such a comparison is carried out in detail for the discrimination in frequency of an auditory sinusoidal tone burst. The results suggest that the human listener behaves as if he ignored (at least for this class of sounds) the periodicity information in the auditory nerve pattern (resulting from the phase-locking of the firings to the stimulus), but made full effective use of the place information (resulting primarily, although not entirely, from the mechanical tuning of the inner ear). On the other hand, it is known that the auditory system can discriminate certain more complicated stimuli on the basis of periodicity information if that is the only cue available. A modification of the structure of an optimum sinusoidal frequency discrimination system is conjectured that seems to be, at least qualitatively, consistent with the available evidence.
On the Substrate Specificity of Dehydration by Lacticin 481 Synthetase

Dehydroamino acids are valuable building blocks that are a challenge to incorporate synthetically into unprotected peptides. Lantibiotic synthetases possess dehydration activity that converts Ser and Thr residues in their peptide substrates into dehydroalanine and dehydrobutyrine residues, respectively. We show here that lacticin 481 synthetase can convert the Thr analogues (R)-3-EtSer, (R)-3-vinylSer, (R)-3-ethynylSer, (R)-3-[(E)-propenyl]Ser, and (R)-3-propynylSer into the corresponding dehydroamino acids when incorporated into its peptide substrate. This relaxed substrate specificity holds promise for using the enzyme for synthetic purposes and for lantibiotic engineering. On the other hand, (R)-3-PrSer, (R)-3-iPrSer, and allo-Thr are not substrates for the enzyme.
Resident-Performed evaluation for deep venous thrombosis reduces time to diagnoses “After-Hours”

Study objectives: The vascular laboratory may not be available 24 hours a day to evaluate patients with suspected lower extremity deep venous thrombosis (DVT). We assess the impact of resident-performed compression ultrasonography on the time to diagnosis for patients treated “after hours” with suspected DVT. Methods: This was a prospective study of patients treated after hours with suspected DVT during a 6-month period in an urban, academic emergency department (ED). Patients were enrolled only when a study physician was available in the ED. Informed consent and compression ultrasonography without color Doppler were done by 1 of 8 participating resident sonographers not responsible for the care of the patient. Treating clinicians were blinded to the results of this examination and determined treatment course with private physicians when available. Results: Forty-eight patients were enrolled with suspected DVT and underwent resident-performed compression ultrasonography for DVT before evaluation by the vascular laboratory. There were 23 true positives, 1 equivocal examination considered a “false positive” for the sake of analysis, 24 true negatives, and no false negatives, corresponding to a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval [CI] 82% to 100%) and specificity of 96% (95% CI 78% to 100%) for lower extremity DVT. Eleven patients were admitted, presumptively anticoagulated, and had inpatient evaluation by the vascular laboratory an average of 23 hours (95% CI 14.2 to 32) after compression ultrasonography in the ED. Thirty-seven patients were held overnight in the ED and underwent vascular laboratory evaluation an average of 7.7 hours (95% CI 5.3 to 10.2) after compression ultrasonography in the ED. Discussion: Our only equivocal examination occurred in a patient with tender lymphadenopathy caused by unilateral cellulitis, preventing the resident from performing adequate compression pressure for an adequate examination. Conclusion: Resident-performed compression ultrasonography for DVT was accurate and associated with a decrease in time to diagnosis for patients treated after hours.
Studies on bacterial photophosphorylation I. Kinetics of photophosphorylation inRhodospirillum rubrum chromatophores by flashing light

By means of the flashing-light technique, it was shown that photochemical process and dark process can be separated in photophosphorylation ofR. rubrum chromatophores. The first is a rapid process which occurs only during illumination, and this reaction proceeds proportionally to the amount of light given during flash. The second is a slower reaction which occurs both in the dark and during illumination. Owing to the second process, delayed photophosphorylation was observed between flashes. Half-life of decay of the delayed photophosphorylation and the yield of this process per single flash, depend on the light intensity used for flashing illumination.
Preparation of aqueous latices with N-isopropylacrylamide

The preparation and characterization of monodisperse aqueous latex dispersions prepared from mixtures of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), acrylamide and N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide are described. Latices were prepared with solid contents up to 2.5%; the maximum acrylamide concentration which gave a good latex was about 1%. Absorbance (i.e. light scattering) of the latices increased when the temperature was raised above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of poly(NIPAM). Electron microscopic evidence suggested the latices were swollen to about 1μm in diameter at low temperature but were contracted by about a factor of 10, in volume, when the temperature was raised above the LCST. In 0.1 M CaCl2 the latices had critical coagulation temperatures ranging from 33 to 44°C when the acrylamide charge in the preparation was increased from 0 to 1.24 g l−1.
Escherichia coli O86 O-Antigen Biosynthetic Gene Cluster and Stepwise Enzymatic Synthesis of Human Blood Group B Antigen Tetrasaccharide

Previous study showed that some Gram-negative bacteria possess human blood group activity. Among them, Escherichia coli O86 has high blood group B activity and weak blood group A activity. This is due to the cell surface O-antigen structure, which resembles that of human blood group B antigen. In this study, we sequenced the entire E. coli O86 antigen gene cluster and identified all the genes responsible for O-antigen biosynthesis by sequence comparative analysis. The blood group B-like antigen in E. coli O86 O-polysaccharide was synthesized by sequentially employing three glycosyltransferases identified in the gene cluster. More importantly, we identified a new bacterial glycosyltransferase (WbnI) equivalent to human blood group transferase B (GTB). The enzyme substrate specificity and stepwise enzymatic synthesis of blood group B-like antigen revealed that the biosynthetic pathway of B antigen is essentially the same in E. coli O86 as in humans. This new finding provides a model to study the specificity and structure relationship of blood group transferases and supports the hypothesis of anti-blood group antibody production by bacterial stimulation.
Human leukocyte antigen-haploidentical stem cell transplantation using T-cell-replete bone marrow grafts.

Purpose of reviewOnce considered too dangerous for all but the sickest of patients, partially human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-mismatched, or HLA-haploidentical, related donor bone marrow transplantation (haploBMT) has seen a revival, thanks to the reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) regimens and graf
Self-dual variables, positive-semidefinite action, and discrete transformations in four-dimensional quantum gravity

A positive-semidefinite Euclidean action for arbitrary four-topologies can be constructed by adding appropriate Yang-Mills and topological terms to the Samuel-Jacobson-Smolin action of gravity with (anti-)self-dual variables. Moreover, on shell, the (anti-)self-dual sector of the new theory corresponds precisely to all Einstein manifolds in four dimensions. The Lorentzian signature action and its analytic continuations are also considered. A self-contained discussion is given on the effects of discrete transformations C, P, and T on the Samuel-Jacobson-Smolin action, and other proposed actions which utilize self- or anti-self-dual variables as fundamental variables in the description of four-dimensional gravity.
Rheological behavior of FM-9 solutions and correlation with flammability test results and interpretations

The rheological behavior of progressively shear thickening FM-9 solutions, a time-dependent shear thickening material with characteristics of threshold behavior, is investigated as part of a study of the rheological properties of antimisting jet fuel. Flammability test results and test configurations from various sources are evaluated. A correlation is obtained between the rheological behavior and the flammability tests such that, for a given system, such as a fixed solvent system and the FM-9 polymer system, the flammability criterion can be applied to a wide range of concentrations and temperatures.
Partial inverse compensation techniques for linear control design in magnetostrictive transducers

This paper focuses on the development of partial inverse compensation techniques for linear control design in systems employing magnetostrictive transducers operating in nonlinear and hysteretic regimes. At low drive levels, linear models can be used to characterize strains and forces generated by magnetostrictive transducers with reasonable accuracy. However, at the moderate to high drive levels where transducer performance is optimal, inherent constitutive nonlinearities and hysteresis must be accommodated to achieve the accuracy and speed requirements for high performance applications. Appropriate nonlinear and hysteretic modeling techniques are reviewed and an inverse compensator based on the nonlinear kernel of the model is developed. The performance of the technique is illustrated through numerical examples.
Nonrigid motion estimation of ultrasound image sequences using an adaptive deformable mesh

By exploiting the correlation of ultrasound speckle patterns that result from scattering by underlying tissue elements, 2D tissue motion can be theoretically recovered by tracking the apparent movement of the speckle patterns. Speckle tracking, however, is an ill-posed inverse problem because of temporal decorrelation of the speckle patterns and the inherent low signal-to-noise ratio of medical ultrasonic images. This paper investigates the use of an adaptive deformable mesh for non-rigid tissue motion recovery from ultrasound images. The nodes connecting the mesh elements are allocated adaptively to stable speckle patterns that are less susceptible to temporal decorrelation. We use the approach of finite element analysis in manipulating the irregular mesh elements. A novel deformable block matching algorithm, making use of a Lagrange element for higher-order description of local motions, is proposed to estimate a non- rigid motion vector at each node. In order to ensure that the motion estimates are admissible to a physically plausible solution, the nodal displacements are regularized by minimizing the strain energy of the mesh deformations. Experiments based on ultrasound images of muscle contraction and on computer simulations have shown that the proposed algorithm can successfully track non-rigid displacement fields.
Identification and control of intrinsic bias in a multiscale computational model of drug addiction

Personalized medicine is rapidly evolving with the objective of providing a patient with medications based on the "use of genetic susceptibility or pharmacogenetic testing to tailor an individual's preventive care or drug therapy" [1]. It is reasonable to foresee that this domain will incorporate sources of biological knowledge other than genetics including computational modeling of diseases. For this purpose, a critical issue is how to identify and control systematic biases that may arise. In this paper, a multiscale computational model of drug addiction is presented and the interpretations of the simulated behavioral profiles of a virtual subject are discussed. These outcomes are analyzed using mathematical analytical techniques with particular attention directed to minimization of systematic biases. The simulations exemplify how a structural analysis of the model, prior to the actual simulations, may benefit the overall framework in terms of accuracy. While this paper focuses on an equation-based model for drug addiction, a similar methodology could be applied to other types of computational models for other diseases.
Animal Behavior: Fly Flight Moves Forward

A new study has resolved the paradox of how flies maintain reflexive aversion to your approaching swatter, whilst tolerating similar visual signals during normal forward flight.
Major Armed Conflicts 2000

For the period 1990-2000, 56 major armed conflicts were recorded for 44 locations. All but three of the conflicts registered during those 11 years were internal. The three interstate conflicts were Iraq versus Kuwait, India versus Pakistan and Ethiopia versus Eritrea. In 2000 there were 25 major armed conflicts recorded in 23 locations. Both the number of conflicts and the number of locations were lower than in 1999, when 27 major armed conflicts were recorded for 25 locations. The only two interstate conflicts active in 2000 were between India and Pakistan and between Eritrea and Ethiopia. The former persisted at a low level and the latter reached a political settlement by the end of the year. The analysis of the 14 most violent intra-state conflicts and the two interstate conflicts that occurred in 2000 reveals that the ultimate objective of all the diverse antagonistic groups was to secure control over governmental power or territory.
Infant Weight and Gestational Age Effects on Thermoneutrality in the Home Environment

Objective To describe infant temperature in the home environment and explore factors, particularly weight and gestational age at birth, associated with maintenance of thermal neutral temperatures in the home. Design Continuous abdominal skin temperature was recorded at 1‐minute intervals for a 24‐hour period in both full‐term and preterm infants, using a two‐group exploratory design. Setting Infants were studied in the home environment. Patients/Participants Twenty‐four preterm and 16 full‐term infants were studied at approximately 44 weeks postconceptional age. Main Outcome Measures Abdominal skin temperature was coded as within, over, or under the thermal neutral zone, and the percentage of time in these thermal conditions was calculated. Results Regression analysis was conducted, and weight, gestational age, and weight by gestational age interaction were found to be statistically significant predictors of percent of time over and under the thermal neutral zone. Smaller preterm infants were overheated, whereas heavier preterm infants were underheated. Smaller full‐term infants were underheated, and heavier full‐term infants were overheated. Conclusion Thermal care of infants in the home may be influenced by parental perception of thermal vulnerability relative to weight and gestational age at birth.
Viscous hydrodynamics for strongly anisotropic expansion

Abstract A new formulation of second-order viscous hydrodynamics, based on an expansion around a locally anisotropic momentum distribution, is presented. It generalizes the previously developed formalism of anisotropic hydrodynamics ( aHydro ) to include a complete set of dissipative currents for which equations of motion are derived by solving the Boltzmann equation in the 14-moment approximation. By solving the vaHydro equations for a transversally homogeneous, longitudinally boost-invariant system ( ( 0 + 1 ) -dimensional expansion) and comparing with the exact solution of the Boltzmann equation in relaxation-time approximation we show that vaHydro performs much better than all other known second-order viscous hydrodynamic approximations.
Meson-Baryon scattering in Chiral-soliton models

Abstract The unique space-isospin symmetry of the skyrmion leads to relations between meson-baryon partial-wave amplitudes of the same total t-channel isospin. We extract the relations in the isospin t-channel: they are the same for all mesons with the same spin parity as observed by Donohue for the ρ- and ω-mesons. We list the relations for π+ N(Δ) → meson + N(Δ) for all nonstrange light mesons and explore their implications.
Ischemic tolerance induced by cerebral preconditioning: new urologic research area.

Voiding function and dysfunction, bladder physiology and pharmacology covering peripheral and central nerve system (CNS) have been given much attention during the last decades as confirmed by countless researches and clinical articles. In contrast, cerebral preconditioning and associated brain lesions in urologic field generated only a few clinical articles regarding to ischemic stroke [1,2]. This difference is most probably due to the commercial success of detrusor overactivity treatment with antimuscarinics, which currently is a several billion dollar market worldwide, and indifference to the development of new drugs, which directly affect on the CNS. In this issue of the Journal, Bhuiyan and Kim [3] illustrated the likelihood of an overview with ishemic brain lesion associated with voiding dysfunction and possibility of applying cerebral preconditioning to urologic field. In ischemically damaged brain, detrusor overactivity seems to be from a deactivation of prefrontal cortex, but detrusor dysfunction is affected by various parts of brain. Localization of the ischemic lesion is not associated with any specific type of lower urinary tract dysfunction. Furthermore, it is suggested that the changes of neurotransmitters release after ichemic brain damage may affect the voiding dysfunction. Now, in Urology, first-line treatments for voiding dysfunction include lifestyle modification, behavioral therapy and pelvic floor muscle training. Muscarinic receptor antagonists are the first-line drug therapy. However, they are related to the typical anticholinergic side effects of dry mouth, somnolence, constipation and blurred vision, therefore compliance with therapy becomes often poor, and the improvement of quality of life fails. In addition, this issue introduces several neurotransmitters release during ischemic stroke associated with neuronal membrane receptors; excitatory amino acids such as the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionic acid receptors and major inhibitory neurotransmitter system such as pharmacological stimulation of the γ-aminobutyric acid-ergic system. However, agents with this profile and even with these mechanisms applied are not under development currently much more. If the further studies focused on preconditioning strategy and related interventions, such as remote preconditioning and pharmacological preconditioning, revealed the way urologist want them to, they would make a valuable contribution to the treatment of voiding dysfunction for which there is an urgent and the future demands for effective therapy. The efforts of academic and drug industry researchers should be directed toward developing agents with therapeutic effects on CNS and associated preconditioning, as it would be not only scientifically also clinically rewarding.
Using spatial data support for reducing uncertainty in geospatial applications

Widespread use of GPS devices and ubiquity of remotely sensed geospatial images along with cheap storage devices have resulted in vast amounts of digital data. More recently, with the advent of wireless technology, a large number of sensor networks have been deployed to monitor many human, biological and natural processes. This poses a challenge in many data rich application domains now: how to best choose the datasets to solve specific problems? In particular, some of the datasets may be redundant and their inclusion in analysis may not only be time consuming, but also lead to erroneous conclusions. On the other hand, excluding some of the datasets hastily might skew the observations drawn. We propose the concept of data support as the basis for efficient, cost-effective and intelligent use of geospatial data in order to reduce uncertainty in the analysis and consequently in the results. Data support is defined as the process of determining the information utility of a data source to help decide which one to include or exclude to improve cost-effectiveness in existing data analysis. In this paper we use mutual information--a concept popular in information theory as a measure to compute information gain or loss between two datasets--as the basis of computing data support. The flexibility and effectiveness of the approach are demonstrated using an application in the hydrological analysis domain, specifically, watersheds in the state of Nebraska.
Recent progress towards an advanced spherical torus operating point in NSTX

Progress in the development of integrated advanced ST plasma scenarios in NSTX (Ono et al 2000 Nucl. Fusion 40 557) is reported. Recent high-performance plasmas in NSTX following lithium coating of the plasma facing surfaces have achieved higher elongation and lower internal inductance than previously. Analysis of the thermal confinement in these lithiumized discharges shows a stronger plasma current and weaker toroidal field dependence than in previous ST confinement scaling studies; the ITER-98(y, 2) scaling expression describes these scenarios reasonably well. Analysis during periods free of MHD activity has shown that the reconstructed current profile can be understood as the sum of pressure driven, inductive and neutral beam driven currents, without requiring any anomalous fast-ion transport. Non-inductive fractions of 65–70%, and βP > 2, have been achieved at lower plasma current. Some of these low-inductance discharges have a significantly reduced no-wall βN limit, and often have βN at or near the with-wall limit. Coupled m/n = 1/1 + 2/1 kink/tearing modes can limit the sustained β values when rapidly growing ideal modes are avoided. A βN controller has been commissioned and utilized in sustaining high-performance plasmas. 'Snowflake' divertors compatible with high-performance plasmas have been developed. Scenarios with significantly larger aspect ratios have also been developed, in support of next-step ST devices. Overall, these NSTX plasmas have many characteristics required for next-step ST devices.
Collapsing multiple hidden layers in feedforward neural networks to a single hidden layer

Feed forward neural networks are often configured with multiple hidden layers. The relative simplicity of a single hidden layer may allow the use of a broader number of algorithms than could be used with multiple hidden layers. The hardware mapping may also be simplified with all networks implemented in a single hidden layer. An algorithm is presented which will collapse a network to a single hidden layer. The algorithm replaces links between hidden layers with new units whose links bypass hidden layers. These new units have link weights calculated so that the new unit approximates the replaced link's contribution to the network. Trials with a variety of configurations and data sets demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the concept.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Time-frequency analysis for the study of phase synchrony in the brain

The quantification of synchrony is important for the study of large-scale interactions in the brain. Current synchrony measures depend on the energy of the signals rather than the phase, and cannot be reliably used as measures of neural synchrony. Moreover, the current methods are insufficient since they are limited to pairs of signals. These approaches cannot quantify the synchrony across a group of electrodes and over time-varying frequency regions. In this paper, we propose two new measures for quantifying the synchrony between both pairs and groups of electrodes using time-frequency analysis. The proposed measures are applied to electroencephalogram (EEG) data to quantify neural synchrony.