cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Early outcomes and patterns of failure following proton therapy for nonmetastatic intracranial nongerminomatous germ cell tumors.

Background Although dosimetric comparisons demonstrate the advantage of proton therapy (PT) over conventional radiotherapy for nongerminomatous germ cell tumors (NGGCT), clinical outcome data for this rare tumor are lacking. We sought to evaluate outcomes for children with NGGCT treated with PT. Methods Between 2007 and 2016, 14 children (median age 11, range, 5-19 years) with nonmetastatic NGGCT were treated with PT after induction chemotherapy. Most (8/14) were mixed germ cell. Five of 14 patients had complete resection of their primary tumor before radiation. Off study, eight patients received 36 Gy (RBE [relative biological effectiveness]) craniospinal irradiation (CSI). On study, two patients received 30.6 Gy (RBE) whole-ventricle irradiation and four received focal radiation alone. All patients received a total dose of 54 Gy (RBE) to the tumor/tumor bed. Results At a median follow-up of 2.8 years, all patients were alive with no local recurrences. Three-year progression-free survival was 86%. Both metastatic recurrences occurred in patients treated with focal radiation alone; one with an immature teratoma developed an isolated spinal recurrence 5 months after treatment. Another with a mixed germ cell tumor developed a multifocal ventricular and shunt tract recurrence 7 months after treatment. Serious toxicity was minimal, including cataracts and hormone deficiency, and limited to children who received CSI. Conclusion Early outcomes in children treated for NGGCT suggest the high conformality of PT does not compromise disease control and yields low toxicity. This pattern of failure data adds to growing evidence suggesting chemotherapy followed by focal radiotherapy alone is inadequate in controlling localized NGGCT.
Sound Transmission Through the Human Body

During the 200 years that have elapsed since Laennec’s invention of the stethoscope and publication of his groundbreaking book Treatise on the Diagnosis of the Diseases of the Lungs and Heart, the stethoscope has become an irreplaceable diagnostic tool. Yet for most of that time, doctors have simply been taught to associate certain sounds with the absence or presence of certain diseases. Only during the last 50 years or so have scientists attempted to discover the underlying mechanisms of lung sound production and transmission. This has turned out to be a difficult task as the sounds had not been accurately described in acoustic terms and locating the sources in a noisy, complex, living biologic system was often daunting and difficult to prove. At least as hard has been the task of tracking the paths taken by lung sounds to the site where they are detected. This is due to the constant background noise, probable multiple sound paths, different media, and the intense filtering by the inflated lung of higher-frequency components. Yet there has been progress, and some of the findings may lead to new diagnostic techniques. This chapter reviews the more significant discoveries about how sound travels through the respiratory system.
Gender and HIV: Evidence from Anthropological Demography in Nigeria

In Africa, and arguably more widely, the AIDS epidemic has heightened the stakes of normative gendered practice and sexual intimacy. As the spread of the disease has magnified the risk of infection, sickness, and death, the moral discourses HIV has generated have made behaviors related to gender and sexuality—whether it is how people dress, whom they have sex with, or how they negotiate relationships with their partners—the object of increased social scrutiny. Even as changes associated with modern, urban social life in Africa have provided people—perhaps especially women—with new liberties and opportunities, gender inequality is reproduced in novel and powerful ways. In this chapter, I examine how unmarried young women in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, navigate the complicated landscape of migration, work, sex, and social relationships in the era of AIDS, as their strategies to survive and to improve their lives are often judged through moral lenses shaped by the epidemic. I then examine the reverse side of the gendered dynamic, focusing specifically on married men and their extramarital sexual behavior. The analysis links economic and gender inequality to powerful moral economies that undergird gendered disparities and also influence people’s understandings of and responses to AIDS and the social changes associated with it.
The Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics of Model Bacteriocin Communities

The use of model laboratory communities, model organisms, and mathematical models has deeply enriched our understanding of the causes and consequences of toxin production in bacteria. In particular, such models have provided much insight into the dynamics of microbial communities with toxin producers. Both experimental and theoretical approaches have suggested that population structure can be critical to the initial invasion of a toxinproducing strain. Furthermore, spatial structure may play a central role in the maintenance of diverse assemblages of toxic and non-toxic strains. Models have also revealed some counter-intuitive predictions, such as the evolution of competitive restraint in communities with toxin-sensitive, toxinresistant, and toxin-producing bacteria. Toxin production itself is a dramatic form of niche construction, where producing strains alter the chemical nature of their surroundings. Such modification feeds back to affect the ecology and evolution of all community members. Models have helped greatly to clarify the effects of this feedback.
Evaluation of Statistical Designs for Experiments Involving Noise Variables

In studies of process robustness, it is advantageous to both reduce the influence of noise factors on the system and to identify the levels of controllable factors that favorably influence the overall response or outcome. A methodology is described for ..
The Concept of Objective Value

When philosophers, and many non-philosophers, wish to claim that a value is well-founded, that it is a value which should be accepted, they describe it as an objective value. As widely used as this terminology is, I think that it is unfortunate. Calling a value objective is not very informative, since it does not give the grounds on which the value is commended. Also the concept of objectivity in knowledge and in values suffers from significant confusion. The concern that values be understood as grounded in something much stronger than individual opinion or liking is legitimate. I certainly sympathize with the concern. My interest in this topic is motivated by a firm belief that subjectivism in ethics and value theory is mistaken, but talk about objective value can be replaced with description of value which is sounder and more instructive.
Genetic parameters for carcass traits estimated from Angus field records.

The American Angus Association has sponsored a carcass evaluation since 1974. The carcass data collected as a part of this program are used by the association to conduct a biannual sire evaluation for carcass merit. This paper presents age-adjustment factors and genetic parameter estimates for carcass traits to be used in the Angus carcass genetic evaluation program. Because of the large range in slaughter ages, age classes were defined as all those animals slaughtered at an age of 480 d. Linear and quadratic partial regressions on slaughter age for hot carcass weight (HCW), USDA marbling score (MS), 12th rib longissimus muscle area (LMA), and 12th-rib fat thickness (FT) were estimated within sex and age class. Quadratic age regressions were not significant, nor was the linear age regression coefficient for FT in steers in the > 480-d age class. Heritability estimates for age-constant HCW, MS, LMA, and FT were .31, .26, .32, and .26, respectively. The estimated genetic correlation (rg) between HCW and LMA was .47. The estimated rg between HCW and FT was .38 and between MS and FT was -.13. The linear genetic trends for CWT and LMA were significantly positive at .414 kg/yr and .075 cm2/yr, respectively. The genetic trends for FT and MS were very small but significantly negative at -.004 cm/yr and -.003 units/yr, respectively.
A new approach to discovery of S100 protein heterodimers

S100 proteins are a sub-family of EF-hand calcium binding proteins that form very similar, unique dimer structures. Although the possibility has been known for many years, no systematic study of the formation of S100 protein heterodimers has been reported. Shaw and coworkers demonstrate the application of a new approach that provides an in-depth evaluation of the distribution of S100 protein homo- and heterodimer and show that the prevalence of heterodimers may be much higher than previously anticipated.
Network Congestion-aware Online Service Function Chain Placement and Load Balancing

Emerging virtual network functions (VNFs) introduce new flexibility and scalability into traditional middlebox. Specifically, middleboxes are virtualized as software-based platforms running on commodity servers known as network points of presence (N-PoPs). Traditional network services are therefore realized by chained VNFs, i.e., service function chains (SFCs), running on potentially multiple N-PoPs. SFCs can be flexibly placed and routed to reduce operating cost. However, excessively pursuing low cost may incur congestion on some popular N-PoPs and links, which results in performance degradation or even violation of the service level of agreements. In this paper, we first propose an optimization problem for joint SFC placement and routing. Given the problem is NP-hard, we design an approximation algorithm named candidate path selection (CPS) with a theoretical performance guarantee. We then propose an online optimization problem for placement of SFCs with fast demand fluctuation. The problem concerns migration costs of VNFs between time slots, and we design an online candidate path selection (OCPS) algorithm to handle it. Extensive simulation results highlight that the CPS and OCPS algorithms provide efficient placement and routing of SFCs comparable to the optimal solution.
Extensive Coronary Artery Calcifications: No Longer Primary Prevention!

![Figure][1] ![Figure][1] It is well established that the overall amount of coronary plaque—which can be estimated by measuring the coronary artery calcium score (CAC)—directly correlates with the risk of future cardiovascular events, myocardial infarction, and stroke ([1][2],[2
Responses to my critics

Section 1 of Raz’s contribution to this symposium, which has his characteristic combination of subtlety and directness, concerns the relation between: T1: PR is reasoning whose conclusion is an act...
Adaptive and Dark Personality in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Predicting Health-Behavior Endorsement and the Appeal of Public-Health Messages

Who embraces directions to socially distance, boost hygiene, and protect others during a pandemic of contagious respiratory disease? Do differently phrased public-health messages appeal to differen...
Meperidine pharmacokinetics and effects on physiologic parameters and thermal threshold following intravenous administration of three doses to horses.

Meperidine is a synthetic opioid that belongs to the phenylpiperidine class and is a weak mu receptor agonist. In horses there are a limited number of published studies describing the analgesic effects of systemically administered meperidine in horses. The objective of this study was to describe the pharmacokinetics, behavioral and physiologic effects and effect on thermal threshold of three doses of intravenously administered meperidine to horses. Eight University owned horses (four mares and four geldings, aged 3–8 years were studied using a randomized balanced 4-way cross-over design. Horses received a single intravenous dose of saline, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg meperidine. Blood was collected before administration and at various time points until 96 hours post administration. Plasma and urine samples were analyzed for meperidine and normeperidine by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and plasma pharmacokinetics determined. Behavioral and physiologic data (continuous heart rate, step counts, packed cell volume, total plasma protein and gastrointestinal sounds) were collected at baseline through 6 hours post administration. The effect of meperidine administration on thermal nociception was determined and thermal excursion calculated. Meperidine was rapidly converted to the metabolite normeperidine. The volume of distribution at steady state and systemic clearance (mean ± SD) ranged from 0.829 ± 0.138–1.58 ± 0.280 L/kg and 18.0 ± 1.4–22.8 ± 3.60 mL/min/kg, respectively for 0.5–1.0 mg/kg doses. Adverse effects included increased dose-dependent central nervous excitation, heart rate and cutaneous reactions. Significant effects on thermal nociception were short lived (up to 45 minutes at 0.5 mg/kg and 15 minutes at 1.0 mg/kg). Results of the current study do not support routine clinical use of IV meperidine at a dose of 1 mg/kg to horses. Administration of 0.5 mg/kg may provide short-term analgesia, however, the associated inconsistent and/or short-term adverse effects suggest that its use as a sole agent at this dose, at best, must be cautiously considered.
The effect of subscription-based direct-to-consumer channel additions on firm value

Abstract Technological advancements have made it easier for firms to bypass traditional distribution networks and establish subscription-based direct-to-consumer (SBDTC) channels. Despite their growing popularity, little is known about the effectiveness of these channels. However, pursuing these new channels may not be the best decision for firms even though technology allows it and, in some instances, consumers demand it. Results from an event study of SBDTC channel additions in the cable television industry show that they complicate channel relationships and can lead to conflict, which reduce firm value. Further analysis reveals that firm-specific characteristics and strategic execution factors operate to mitigate the loss in firm value. Specifically, the study results show that channel power diminishes the negative impact of channel conflict, suggesting that firms with greater channel power benefit from adding SBDTC channels. The study also finds that firms marketing high-quality, differentiated offerings are rewarded with more favorable firm valuations.
A deep learning based approach to iris sensor identification

An efficient iris sensor identification algorithm can be used in certain forensic applications, i.e. detecting mislabeled iris data at large scale iris datasets, and verifying the validity of the data origin of collected iris datasets that are available to be shared. Such knowledge can potentially increase the overall iris recognition system accuracy by offering the operator the option to match same-sensor or cross-sensor iris images. In either case the knowledge of the origin of the sensor used to collect these data, when not available, or the correction of mislabeled data, is expected to result in higher iris matching accuracy. Another benefit of iris sensor identification is that it can assist in improving the detection of fake iris data, i.e. when knowing the iris sensor, we can apply more appropriate models for fake detection that are tuned for a specific iris sensor. In this paper we propose an efficient deep learning-based iris recognition algorithm that is sensor inter-operable. Our approach utilizes a moderate amount of data and is adaptable to learning rate variations as well as variations of the amount of data used for training per class. Our proposed approach uses a set of iris datasets that include iris images captured at different standoff distances. We are using the original captured, dual eye, or periocular images rather than the iris itself, after detecting, segmenting, and normalizing the iris. Thus, the algorithm is efficient, fast, and less depended on additional algorithmic processes that can add computational complexity. Our proposed process includes transfer learning using iris images of higher quality via the utilization of a set of image quality metrics and achieves close to a hundred percent accuracy after cross-validation.
Computational Simulation of Matrix Microslip Bands in SiC/Ti-15 Composite

Computational simulation procedures are used to identify the key deformation mechanisms for a [0]8 and a [90]8 SiC/Ti-15 metal matrix composite. The computational simulation procedures employed consist of a three-dimensional finite-element analysis and a micromechanics-based computer code METCAN. The interphase properties used in the analysis have been calibrated using the METCAN computer code with the [90]8 experimental stress-strain curve. Results of the simulation show that although shear stresses are sufficiently high to cause the formation of some slip bands in the matrix concentrated mostly near the fibers, the nonlinearity in the composite stress-strain curve in the case of the [9018 composite is dominated by interfacial damage, such as microcracks and debonding rather than microplasticity. The stress-strain curve for the [0]8 composite is largely controlled by the fibers and shows only slight nonlinearity at higher strain levels that could be the result of matrix microplasticity.
Effect of bundle set interventions on physiologic alarms and alarm fatigue in an intensive care unit: A quality improvement project.

Abstract Objective To determine if the implementation of an evidence-based bundle designed to reduce the number of physiologic monitor alarms reduces alarm fatigue in intensive care nurses. Design This quality improvement project retrospectively reviewed alarm data rates, types, and frequency to identify the top three problematic physiologic alarms in an intensive care unit. An alarm management bundle was implemented to reduce the number of alarms. The Nurses’ Alarm Fatigue Questionnaire was used to measure nurses’ alarms fatigue pre- and post-implementation of the bundle. Setting A combined medical surgical intensive care unit at an accredited hospital in the United States. Results The top three problematic alarms identified during the pre-implementation phase were arrhythmia, invasive blood pressure, and respiration alarms. All three identified problematic physiologic alarms had a reduction in frequency with arrhythmia alarms demonstrating the largest decrease in frequency (46.82%). When measuring alarm fatigue, the overall total scores increased from pre- (M = 30.59, SD = 5.56) to post-implementation (M = 32.60, SD = 4.84) indicating no significant difference between the two periods. Conclusion After implementing an alarm management bundle, all three identified problematic physiologic alarms decreased in frequency. Despite the reduction in these alarms, there was not a reduction in nurses’ alarm fatigue.
A longitudinal study of predictors of serious psychological distress during COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of serious psychological distress (SPD) was elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, but the relationships of SPD during the pandemic with pre-pandemic SPD, pre-pandemic socioeconomic status, and pandemic-related social stressors remain unexamined. METHODS: A probability-based sample (N = 1751) of the US population age 20 and over was followed prospectively from February 2019 (T1), with subsequent interviews in May 2020 (T2) and August 2020 (T3). Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess prospective relationships between T1 SPD with experiences of disruption of employment, health care, and childcare at T2. Binary logistic regression was then used to assess relationships of T1 SPD, and socioeconomic status and T2 pandemic-related stressors with T3 SPD. RESULTS: At T1, SPD was associated with age, race/ethnicity, and household income. SPD at T1 predicted disruption of employment (OR 4.5, 95% CI 1.4-3.8) and health care (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.4-7.1) at T2. SPD at T1 (OR 10.2, 95% CI 4.5-23.3), low household income at T1 (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1-6.4), disruption of employment at T2 (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.4-7.6), and disruption of healthcare at T2 (OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.5-7.2) were all significantly associated with elevated risk for SPD at T3. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated risk for SPD during the COVID-19 pandemic is related to multiple psychological and social pathways that are likely to interact over the life course. Policies and interventions that target individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions as well as those experiencing persistent unemployment should be high priorities in the mental health response to the pandemic.
Enhancement of the Shaker B Δ6-46 current by fatty acids depends on the activation of the lipoxygenase metabolic pathway

Voltage-gated K+ channels are modulated by extracellular free unsaturated fatty acids. Both increases and attenuations of K+ channel activities have been observed. We studied the effect of cis-unsaturated fatty acids onShaker B Δ6–46 and the endogenous outward rectifier K+ channels expressed in COS cell line, using the whole cell recording technique. For both K+ channels, exogenously applied unsaturated fatty acids dramatically increased the outward K+ currents. This enhancement was not mediated by cylooxygenase or epoxygenase (P450) enzymes. However, nordihydroguaiaretic acid, a lipoxygenase metabolic pathway blocker, did prevent the arachidonic acid-inducedShaker current enhancement.
The Power of Ethnography

This paper reviews the theoretical perspectives at the root of ethnography and suggests analytic approaches that yield high-value information for product marketing and communications decisions. It also offers a critique of prevailing epistemologies in marketing research. An overview is given of several market research applications in the areas of niche marketing to regional and ethnic subcultures, retail environment planning and user interface design for computer technologies.
Empathy, Altruism, and Justice: Another Perspective on Partiality

As children, our first encounter with the concept of justice was almost certainly secondhand. A sibling or friend was scolded for “not being fair,” and we were given a turn with the toy (but too brief) or the candy was redivided so that we got more (but not enough). At times, we were the one chided and forced to give up part of our hoard. What did we learn from this primordial experience with fairness? Likely, we learned that appeals to justice can be a powerful lever for prying people and goodies apart. By the time we reached the playground, we knew that “Not fair!” was a potent accusation, one that almost always led to redress, justification (rationalization?), fight, or flight (Solomon, 1989).
Revista Direito Ambiental e Sociedade - V.1 N.2

A revista DIREITO AMBIENTAL E SOCIEDADE do Programa de Mestrado em Direito da Universidade de Caxias do Sul pretende constituir-se num espaco garantidor de importantes discussoes acerca do bem ambiental. Representa, tambem, a trajetoria desenvolvida pelo Curso de Mestrado em Direito Ambiental da Universidade de Caxias do Sul, em seus dez anos de existencia, reunindo temas de profunda relevância a questao ambiental. Assim, se apresentam proficuas discussoes acerca da natureza do bem ambiental; da afirmacao da saude como direito da pessoa; do espaco da ecopedagogia na sociedade de risco; da compreensao do hiperconsumo, numa perspectiva sistemica; do embate entre a previsao orcamentaria e a execucao de politicas publicas, a partir do controle do Tribunal de Contas; da analise da teoria dos direitos humanos e sua conexao com a questao ambiental; da crise politica contemporânea e a inter-relacao com o Direito Ambiental; dos reflexos da sociedade de risco no meio ambiente do trabalho; da responsabilidade civil por danos causados ao patrimonio ambiental cultural; da responsabilizacao da pessoa juridica em face dos crimes ambientais; da construcao da ideia de justica ambiental como um referencial necessario no debate acerca das questoes ambientais; da funcao socioambiental da propriedade; dos incentivos fiscais concedidos em operacoes com agrotoxicos e do principio da precaucao em face das tecnologias genetica e nanotecnologica. Que esse espaco que se inaugura represente um novo alento na defesa do bem ambiental, que oportunize um canal de comunicacao e debate cientifico voltado a protecao do ambiente e que permita que realizemos, juntos, a defesa desse bem, que, afinal, e de todos nos. Carlos Alberto Lunelli Coordenador
Effect of corticosteroid therapy on the phagocytosis of antibody-coated platelets by human leukocytes

Patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a disorder in which antibody coated platelets are cleared from the circulation by phagocytic cells, are often treated with glucocorticoids. The effect of corticosteroids on the recognition and ingestion of sensitized platelets by phagocytes can be quantified in these patients and compared to changes in platelet levels. Six patients with ITP were treated with 96 mg daily of methylprednisolone for 5 days. This treatment raised their platelet count and simultaneously decreased the ability of their granulocytes to phagocytize antibody-coated platelets and C3-coated paraffin oil droplets. Corticosteroid treatment did not affect the binding of antibody to platelets or the quantity of antibody in the patients' serum. The ingestion defect was present in isolated, washed leukocytes and persisted for 3–5 days after the corticosteroids were discontinued. Granulocytes and purified monocytes obtained from patients with other medical disorders receiving corticosteroids also ingested paraffin oil droplets and opsonized platelets at a slower rate. These studies provide direct evidence that corticosteroids induce a generalized phagocytic defect and that this may be the mechanism by which corticosteroids raise the platelet count in patients with ITP.
Omar al-Hammami: A Case Study in Radicalization

This article presents a case study on the radicalization of Omar al-Hammami, aka Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, an American who joined al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group. There are a limited number of in-depth case studies that help to inform the fragmented discussions in the literature about the radicalization process of Islamic terrorists. Hammami received quite a bit of attention from the government and media due to his “homegrown” status, as well as his prolific use of social media to inform the world of his views and exploits. Hammami did not fully commit to the group, his sense of self-importance taking precedent over the norms of the group. He left al-Shabaab, was publicly critical of the group, and was ultimately killed by them. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Distributed Self-Stabilizing Algorithm for Minimum Spanning Tree Construction

Minimal Spanning Tree (MST) problem in an arbitrary undirected graph is an important problem in graph theory and has extensive applications. Numerous algorithms are available to compute an MST. Our purpose here is to propose a self-stabilizing distributed algorithm for the MST problem and to prove its correctness. The algorithm utilizes an interesting result of [MP88]. We show the correctness of the proposed algorithm by using a new technique involving induction.
Loss of right hemisphere due to natural causes; absence of functioning right thalamus with related thalamic syndrome and continued recognition of painful stimuli on the hemiplegic side.

Abstract A brief survey is given of the clinical history and of the principal anatomical findings in a woman who had survived 11 years following the loss of a right hemisphere from natural causes. The case has particular neurophysiological interest because of a thalamic syndrome of unremitting pain upon her hemiplegic left side, and other evidence that she could recognize painful stimuli there. In the absence of thalamic relay and association nuclei, and with no appreciable remainder of the midline thalamus, it is hypothecated that the recognition of pain could only have occurred by paths leading to the homolateral thalamus, or alternatively in the brain stem reticular substance.
Hybrid S-parameters for analysis of mixed RF-digital circuits subject to external electromagnetic interference

We extend the port analysis technique to accommodate external plane wave coupling. In other words, we propose a frequency domain method which overcomes the CPU bottleneck of time domain techniques and concurrently yields increased accuracy as compared to MTLT. As part of this formalism we introduce additional hybrid S-parameters to establish a link between the existing board ports and external plane waves. Thus, we can handle both on-board and off-board EMI problems simultaneously. This approach can be easily integrated into circuit solvers such as HSPICE and Advanced Design System (ADS, Agilent Technologies). This is achieved by exporting new hybrid S-parameters. The method allows both time domain simulations via broadband network characterization and harmonic balance simulation of nonlinear RF components.
Fault Diagnosis of Nonlinear Analog Circuits Using Neural Networks with Wavelet and Fourier Transforms as Preprocessors

A neural-network based analog fault diagnostic system is developed for nonlinear circuits. This system uses wavelet and Fourier transforms, normalization and principal component analysis as preprocessors to extract an optimal number of features from the circuit node voltages. These features are then used to train a neural network to diagnose soft and hard faulty components in nonlinear circuits. Our neural network architecture has as many outputs as there are fault classes where these outputs estimate the probabilities that input features belong to different fault classes. Application of this system to two sample circuits using SPICE simulations shows its capability to correctly classify soft and hard faulty components in 95% of the test data. The accuracy of our proposed system on test data to diagnose a circuit as faulty or fault-free, without identifying the fault classes, is 99%. Because of poor diagnostic accuracy of backpropagation neural networks reported in the literature (Yu et al., Electron. Lett., Vol. 30, 1994), it has been suggested that such an architecture is not suitable for analog fault diagnosis (Yang et al., IEEE Trans. on CAD, Vol. 19, 2000). The results of the work presented here clearly do not support this claim and indicate this architecture can provide a robust fault diagnostic system.
Profiling the Research Productivity of Tenured Information Systems Faculty at U.S. Institutions

In how many highly rated journal articles do IS research faculty publish to earn tenure? Which journals are highly rated outlets? Tenure candidates, promotion and tenure committees, and those who are asked to write external letters are frequently called upon to answer such questions. When Dennis et al. (2006) examined all IS Ph.D. graduates entering academic careers, few faculty had published enough articles in 20 “elite” journals in six years to meet tenure research expectations at research-extensive schools. Our study builds on the dialog started by Dennis et al. In our study, we counted the number of journal articles at the point of tenure of faculty who earned tenure within five to seven years after their Ph.D. graduation date. We also examined the effect of acknowledging different sets of journals as highly rated on the publication rates of faculty who earned tenure. Specifically, we examined the effects of expanding on Dennis et al. by including MISQ, ISR, JMIS, JAIS, ISJ, EJIS, JIT, and JSIS in the journal basket. We also looked at the effect of acknowledging highly rated non-IS business journals and highly rated computer science and engineering journals. Finally, we present journal publication benchmarks based on these findings for different types of research institutions.
Real-Time Transaction Scheduling: A Framework for SynthesizingStatic and Dynamic Factors

Real-time databases are poised to be an important component of complex embedded real-time systems. In real-time databases (as opposed to real-time systems), transactions must satisfy the ACID properties in addition to satisfying the timing constraints specified for each transaction (or task). Although several approaches have been proposed to combine real-time scheduling and database concurrency control methods, to the best of our knowledge, none of them provide a framework for taking into account the dynamic cost associated with aborts, rollbacks, and restarts of transactions. In this paper, we propose a framework in which both static and dynamic costs of transactions can be taken into account. Specifically, we present: i) a method for pre-analyzing transactions based on the notion of branch-points for data accessed up to a branch point and predicting expected data access to be incurred for completing the transaction, ii) a formulation of cost that includes static and dynamic factors for prioritizing transactions, iii) a scheduling algorithm which uses the above two, and iv) simulation of the algorithm for several operating conditions and workload. Our dynamic priority assignment policy (termed the cost conscious approach or CCA) adapts well to fluctuations in the system load without causing excessive numbers of transaction restarts. Our simulations indicate that i) CCA performs better than the EDF-HP algorithm for both soft and firm deadlines, ii) CCA is more fair than EDF-HP, iii) CCA is better than EDF-CR for soft deadline, even though CCA requires and uses less information, and iv) CCA is especially good for disk-resident data.
The effect of environment on the behavior of youthful offenders: A randomized experiment

This study was conducted in a county jail in Maryland. It used a randomized experimental design to test the effect of environmental change enacted to decrease disciplinary violations among youthful offenders (N=256). Subjects, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-two, were randomized into treatment and control groups. Those randomized into the treatment group resided in the Youthful Offender Unit (YOU). Subjects assigned to the control group resided in the general population. In the YOU inmates were exposed to a number of potentially therapeutic activities that provided many opportunities for personal development and advancement. Adjustment was quantified using the frequency and prevalence of disciplinary violations. Treatment and control groups were not significantly different with regard to disciplinary violations. Increasing amounts of time in program were, however, associated with significant decreases in disciplinary violations.
The Straight Scoop on the Passive Voice

Lawyers are often advised to avoid the passive voice, but some may be uncertain about what the passive voice is and how to avoid it. This article identifies the passive voice, discusses situations where it may be appropriate, and provides examples of how to change it to the active voice.
The Peace of Westphalia (1648) as a Secular Constitution

"Westphalia" is often used as shorthand for a system of equal and sovereign states; and the peace treaties of Westphalia are sometimes said to have established the modern concept of sovereign statehood. This paper seeks to shift the focus from this popular conception of the Westphalian treaties, and instead to treat them as constitutional documents. I argue that the Westphalian constitutional treaties successfully solved the problem of deep religious disagreement by imposing proto-liberal religious liberties on the estates of the Holy Roman Empire, which left the subjects with exclusively secular duties towards their authorities. The Westphalian constitution also addressed the issue of compliance with its religious provisions by establishing a secular procedure to adjudicate religious disputes that excluded religious reasoning from the courts. This account of Westphalia yields important implications for our view of sovereignty in the Holy Roman Empire. It is argued that Westphalia established a secular order by taking sovereignty over religious affairs away from the discretion of territorial princes and by establishing a proto-liberal legal distinction between private and public affairs. Westphalia must thus be seen as a very successful constitutional experiment in dealing with deep religious disagreements.
Observer efficiency in discrimination tasks Simulating Malignant and benign breast lesions imaged with ultrasound

We investigate and extend the ideal observer methodology developed by Smith and Wagner to detection and discrimination tasks related to breast sonography. We provide a numerical approach for evaluating the ideal observer acting on radio frequency (RF) frame data, which involves inversion of large nonstationary covariance matrices, and we describe a power-series approach to computing this inverse. Considering a truncated power series suggests that the RF data be Wiener-filtered before forming the final envelope image. We have compared human performance for Wiener-filtered and conventional B-mode envelope images using psychophysical studies for 5 tasks related to breast cancer classification. We find significant improvements in visual detection and discrimination efficiency in four of these five tasks. We also use the Smith-Wagner approach to distinguish between human and processing inefficiencies, and find that generally the principle limitation comes from the information lost in computing the final envelope image.
Synthesis of 9-[(3-[18F]-fluoro-1-hydroxy-2-propoxy)methyl]guanine ([18F]-FHPG): A potential imaging agent of viral infection and gene therapy using PET

Abstract A no-carrier-added synthesis of 9-[(3-[ 18 F]-fluoro-1-hydroxy-2-propoxy)methyl]-guanine ([ 18 F]-FHPG) is reported. The 9-[(1,3-dihydroxy-2-propoxy)methyl]guanine (DHPG) was converted to 9-[N 2 , O -bis(methoxytrityl)-3-(tosyl)-2-propoxy-methyl]guanine by treatment with methoxytrityl chloride followed by tosylation. The tosylate was reacted with [ 18 F]-KF in the presence of kryptofix 2.2.2. to produce the 3-fluoro- N 2 - O -bis-(methoxytrityl) derivative. Removal of the methoxytrityl protecting groups by acid hydrolysis produced [ 18 F]-FHPG. The labeled product was purified by HPLC on a reverse-phase C 18 column, and eluted in 9 min with a mobile phase of 5% acetonitrile in water. The radiochemical yield was 7–17%, with an average of 10% in 10 runs (corrected for decay to EOB). The radiochemical purity was >99%, and specific activities with an average of 526 mCi/μmol were obtained. The synthesis time was 70–80 min, including HPLC purification and determination of radiochemical purity and specific activity.
A Subgraph Problem from Restriction Maps of DNA

ABSTRACT Computing the minimum number of edge removals needed to convert a bipartite graph into an interval graph was proposed by Waterman and Griggs in the study of restriction maps of DNA. We show that this problem is N P-complete and we give a polynomial algorithm that finds an edge-maximum interval subgraph for trees. Then various heuristics can be devised using this algorithm.
Histochemical differentiation of peroxidase-mediated from tyrosinase-mediated melanin formation in mammalian tissues. The biologic significance of peroxidase-mediated oxidation of tyrosine to malanin.

Preincubation with the copper-chelator, sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC) and the presence of catalase in the incubation media allowed an accurate and reproducible differentiation of the role of tyrosinase from that of peroxidase in the oxidation of tyrosine and dopa in melanocytes, mast cells and eosinophils. These studies indicated that mammalian peroxidase in melanocytes, mast cells and eosinophils can mediate the conversion of tyrosine to melanin in the presence of dopa co-factor, as well as the conversion of dopa to melanin. With the methods employed, there was no evidence that tyrosinase in the preparations studied had significant ability to mediate the oxidation of tyrosine to melanin (even in the presence of dopa co-factor), although there was abundant evidence that it can mediate the conversion of dopa to melanin. Mammalian peroxidase may have roles in initiating melanin synthesis and catechol amine synthesis in vivo.
Anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) activity of 2'-fluoro-2',3'-dideoxyarabinosyladenine (F-ddA) used in combination with other mechanistically diverse inhibitors of HIV-1 replication.

2′-Fluoro-2'3′-dideoxyarabinosyladenine (F-ddA), a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication, is currently being evaluated in clinical trials. Future monotherapy for the treatment of HIV is unlikely owing to the rapid emergence of drug-resistant viruses, so F-ddA was evaluated in combination with a variety of mechanistically diverse inhibitors of HIV replication. Such in vitro studies provide insights into whether certain drug combinations yield synergistic antiviral activity or, more importantly, antagonistic antiviral activity or synergistic cytotoxicity. F-ddA exhibited synergistic antiviral interactions with representatives of each of the major classes of anti-HIV compounds, including other nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors. Greatest levels of synergistic interaction were detected when F-ddA was used in combination with the nonnucleoside compounds nevirapine and costatol...
Conical focusing crystal spectrometers for cosmic x-ray astronomy.

A crystal spectrometer for rocket and satellite experiments is described. Parallel X rays from a stellar object are reflected at constant angle by Bragg crystals arranged around the sector of a cone so that a single wavelength is brought to a focus onto the axis of the cone. The aberrations produced when this array is tilted to change the wavelength are considered. It is shown that these are minimized by moving cone and detector in a nearly theta to two-theta motion and by using a small-angle sector. In a specific design for a satellite instrument using LiF crystal to observe a spectral region including the iron lines at 1.9 A, a spectral resolution of 3 mA over a spectral range of 1.6-2.1 A can be obtained, with the cosmic-ray background rate, and hence the time to detect a weak line decreased by a factor 80 compared to a flat crystal spectrometer. Examples of performance for a low energy rocket experiment are also given.
The phrase-based vector space model for automatic retrieval of free-text medical documents

Objective: To develop a document indexing scheme that improves the retrieval effectiveness for free-text medical documents. Design: The phrase-based vector space model (VSM) uses multi-word phrases as indexing terms. Each phrase consists of a concept in the unified medical language system (UMLS) and its corresponding component word stems. The similarity between concepts are defined by their relations in a hypernym hierarchy derived from UMLS. After defining the similarity between two phrases by their stem overlaps and the similarity between the concepts they represent, we define the similarity between two documents as the cosine of the angle between their corresponding phrase vectors. This paper reports the development and the validation of the phrase-based VSM. Measurement: We compare the retrieval effectiveness of different vector space models using two standard test collections, OHSUMED and Medlars. OHSUMED contains 105 queries and 14,430 documents, and Medlars contains 30 queries and 1033 documents. Each document in the test collections is judged by human experts to be either relevant or non-relevant to each query. The retrieval effectiveness is measured by precision and recall. Results: The phrase-based VSM is significantly more effective than the current gold standard-the stem-based VSM. Such significant retrieval effectiveness improvements are observed in both the exhaustive search and cluster-based document retrievals. Conclusion: The phrase-based VSM is a better indexing scheme than the stem-based VSM. Medical document retrieval using the phrase-based VSM is significantly more effective than that using the stem-based VSM.
Analysis of electromagnetic wave tunneling through stacked single-negative metamaterial slabs: A microwave filter theory approach

In this paper we present a microwave filter theory treatment for the problem of electromagnetic wave tunneling through a multi-layer structure composed of stacked ∈-negative (ENG) and μ-negative (MNG) metamaterial layers. We demonstrate that a structure composed of N ENG layers separated from each other by N − 1 MNG layers acts as an Nth-order coupled-resonator bandpass filter with capacitive coupling between successive resonators. We present an analytical procedure for synthesizing these mutli-layer structures and demonstrate the validity of this analytical method and the equivalency using full-wave EM simulations.
Sulfanilic acid diazonium salt: a label for the outside of the human erythrocyte membrane.

Abstract 1. 1. The diazonium salt of [ 35 S]sulfanilic acid can be used as a label for outer components of the human erythrocyte membrane; the reagent does not penetrate intact cells. 2. 2. Modified cells become permeable to Na + and K + but not to water-soluble nonelectrolytes. They eventually lyse in isotonic buffer. 3. 3. About 20% of the label bound to intact cells can be recovered in an ethanol-ether membrane extract. Phospholipase D (cabbage) changes the way in which it partitions between ether and water. 4. 4. If the residue left after ethanol-ether extraction is dissolved in 3% sodium dodecyl sulfate and sized by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate, a complex but reproducible pattern is observed on staining with Coomassie brilliant blue. The most intensely labeled material has a molecular weight of about 140 000. Some peaks are free of label. 5. 5. Similar patterns are obtained if intact membranes are dissolved in 3% sodium dodecyl sulfate; sodium dodecyl sulfate dissociates the protein and lipid as effectively as ethanol-ether. 6. 6. If the residue left after ethanol-ether extraction is exposed first to 0.8 M NaCl, a medium in which it is largely insoluble, much of the protein shifts from high to low molecular weight. The most intensely labeled material does not. The membrane contains protein complexes which can be dissociated by sodium dodecyl sulfate after exposure to salt. The dissociation is less extensive when intact membranes are exposed to salt.
IgG4-Related Tubulointerstitial Nephritis With Plasma Cell–Rich Renal Arteritis

Immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related tubulointerstitial nephritis is a newly recognized clinicopathologic entity that may occur as an isolated renal lesion or as part of a multisystem disorder. It is characterized by plasma cell–rich interstitial nephritis with abundant IgG4-positive plasma cells and IgG-dominant tubulointerstitial immune deposits. We report the first case of IgG4-related tubulointerstitial nephritis with multifocal plasma cell–rich renal arteritis presenting as acute kidney injury in a 72-year-old man. Seven weeks of prednisone therapy led to nearly complete recovery of kidney function. This case enlarges the morphologic spectrum of this disorder and emphasizes the need to distinguish it from other causes of renal vasculitis.