cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sleep deprivation as a probe of homeostatic sleep regulation in primary alcoholics

Abstract Background: Alcoholic patients show prominent disturbances of sleep electroencephalograms (EEGs) with a marked loss of slow wave sleep that is even more profound in African American alcoholics as compared to European Americans. Using partial sleep deprivation, this study examined the extent to which abnormal sleep is reversible in alcoholic subjects. Methods: In a sample stratified on ethnicity, polysomnographic and spectral sleep EEG measures were compared in male primary alcoholic in patients ( n =46) and age-matched comparison controls ( n =32) at baseline—and recovery sleep following a night of partial sleep deprivation. Results: As compared to controls, alcoholic patients showed a loss of slow wave sleep and more spectral power in beta frequencies. Following sleep deprivation, slow wave sleep and delta power differentially changed between the groups. European American controls showed increases of slow wave sleep that were more robust than responses found in African American controls, whereas both alcoholic groups failed to show increases of slow wave sleep from baseline to recovery. Spectral EEG analyses revealed similar results; sleep deprivation induced significant increases of delta power during NREM-1 in the controls, but not in the alcoholics. Conclusions: Alcohol dependence compromises the augmentation of slow wave sleep and delta power seen in healthy adults following sleep deprivation. The differential effect of alcoholism on sleep stage physiology suggests a defect in the regulation or plasticity of slow wave sleep with implications for theories linking sleep depth to morbidity and outcome in alcoholics.
Data interpretation for spectral sensors with correlated bands

New classes of spectral sensors are emerging that have significant overlap in the band spectral response functions. While conventional sensors such as the Multispectral Thermal Images (MTI) or Landsat may have responses with a few percent overlap between adjacent bands, some of the emerging sensors can have more than 50% correlation among all spectral bands. The traditional geometrical models used to describe spectral data fail when such high levels of correlation exist. In this paper we present a generalized geometrical model that relies on functional analysis. We define a sensor space and a scene space that can be used to characterize the suitability of a sensor for a particular spectral sensing task. We demonstrate that classifiers based on first-order distance and angle metrics fail for sensors with highly correlated bands unless appropriate preprocessing is carried out. We further show that second-order statistical classifiers are largely immune to many of the problems introduced by the correlated band responses.
Inhibition of Enamel Solubility in a Highly Mineralized Water

There was a significant reduction in synthetic hydroxyapatite and enamel dissolution for acidogenic streptococci in a medium made with a highly mineralized water from a low caries area in northwest Ohio, when compared with media made with distilled water and water that contained 1.5 ppm fluoride.
Virtual Third Places: A Case Study of Sociability in Massively Multiplayer Games

Georg Simmel [American Journal of Sociology 55:254---261 (1949)] is widely credited as the first scholar to have seriously examined sociability --- "the sheer pleasure of the company of others" and the central ingredient in many social forms of recreation and play. Later Ray Oldenburg [The Great Good Place. New York: Marlowe & Company (1989)] extended Simmel's work by focusing on a certain class of public settings, or "third places," in which sociability tends to occur, such as, bars, coffee shops, general stores, etc. But while Simmel and Oldenburg describe activities and public spaces in the physical world, their concepts may apply as well to virtual or online worlds. Today Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are extensive, persistent online 3D environments that are populated by hundreds of thousands of players at any given moment. The sociable nature of these online spaces is often used to explain their success: unlike previous video games, MMOGs require players to exchange information and collaborate in real-time to progress in the game. In order to shed light on this issue, we critically examine player-to-player interactions in a popular MMOG (Star Wars Galaxies). Based on several months of ethnographic observations and computerized data collection, we use Oldenburg's notion of "third places" to evaluate whether or not the social spaces of this virtual world fit existing definitions of sociable environments. We discuss the role online games can play in the formation and maintenance of social capital, what they can teach us about the evolution of sociability in an increasingly digitally connected social world, and what could be done to make such games better social spaces.
Process-Based Decomposition of the Global Surface Temperature Response to El Niño in Boreal Winter

AbstractThis paper reports an attribution analysis that quantifies addible contributions to the observed temperature anomalies from radiative and nonradiative processes in terms of both amplitude and spatial pattern for the two most prominent surface temperature patterns in an El Nino winter. One is the El Nino SST pattern consisting of warming SST anomalies over the eastern equatorial Pacific basin surrounded by cooling SST anomalies in the western and subtropical Pacific, and the other is a tripole surface temperature anomaly characteristic of a positive Pacific–North American (PNA) teleconnection pattern. The decomposition of the observed temperature anomalies is achieved with the coupled atmosphere–surface climate feedback-responses analysis method (CFRAM), which is formulated utilizing energy balance in the atmosphere–surface columns and linearization of radiative energy perturbation.Out of the mean amplitude of 0.78 K of the El Nino SST pattern, the oceanic dynamics and heat storage term alone contr...
Preliminary performance measurements of bolometers for the Planck high-frequency instrument

We report on the characterization of bolometers fabricated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) of the joint ESA/NASA Herschel/Planck mission to be launched in 2007. The HFI is a multicolor focal plane which consists of 48 bolometers operated at 100mK. Each bolometer is mounted to a feedhorn-filter assembly which defines one of six frequency bands centered between 100-857GHz. Four detectors in each of six bands are coupled to both linear polarizations and thus measure the total intensity. In addition, eight detectors in each of 3 bands (143, 217, and 353GHz)couple only to a single linear polarization and thus provide measurements of the Stokes parameters, Q and U, as well the total intensity. The detectors are required to achieve a Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) at or below the background limit (formula available in paper)for the telescope and time constants of a few ms, short enough to resolve point sources as the 5 to 9 arc-minute beams move across the sky in great circles at 1 rpm. The bolometers are tested at 100mK in a commercial dilution refrigerator with a custom built thermal control system to regulate the heat sink with precision (formula available in paper). The 100mK tests include dark electrical characterization of the load curves, optical and electrical measurement of the thermal time constants and measurement of the noise spectral density from 0.01 to 10Hz for up to 24 bolometers simultaneously.
The risk of cytogenetic abnormalities in the late first trimester of pregnancies conceived through assisted reproduction

Objective To determine if pregnancies conceived through infertility treatment are at increased risk of cytogenetic abnormalities in the late first trimester compared with spontaneously conceived pregnancies, or if there is increased risk when comparing less invasive infertility treatment (in vivo group) to in vitro fertilization (in vitro group). Design Retrospective case-controlled study. Setting University hospital. Patient(s) A total of 1,606 women who spontaneously conceived and 559 women who conceived through infertility treatment undergoing chorionic villus sampling (CVS). Intervention(s) None. Main Outcome Measure(s) Cytogenetic abnormalities diagnosed by CVS. Result(s) No difference in cytogenetic abnormalities was found when comparing spontaneously conceived pregnancies to those conceived through infertility treatment (7.0% versus 5.4%). We also found no difference in the prevalence of cytogenetic abnormalities when comparing in vivo and in vitro fertilization subgroups (4.7% versus 5.8%). Finally, no difference was found when comparing the prevalence of different types of cytogenetic abnormalities between groups. Conclusion(s) Infertility treatment does not increase the risk of carrying a cytogenetically abnormal fetus in the late first trimester, nor does it increase the preponderance for any specific type of abnormality.
Adaptive learning for relevance feedback: Application to digital mammography

Purpose: With the rapid growing volume of images in medicaldatabases, development of efficient imageretrieval systems to retrieve relevant or similar images to a query image has become an active research area. Despite many efforts to improve the performance of techniques for accurate image retrieval, its success in biomedicine thus far has been quite limited. This article presents an adaptive content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system for improving the performance of image retrieval in mammographicdatabases. Methods: In this work, the authors propose a new relevance feedback approach based on incremental learning with support vector machine (SVM) regression. Also, the authors present a new local perturbation method to further improve the performance of the proposed relevance feedback system. The approaches enable efficient online learning by adapting the current trained model to changes prompted by the user’s relevance feedback, avoiding the burden of retraining the CBIR system. To demonstrate the proposed imageretrieval system, the authors used two mammogramdata sets: A set of 76 mammograms scored based on geometrical similarity and a larger set of 200 mammograms scored by expert radiologists based on pathological findings. Results: The experimental results show that the proposed relevance feedback strategy improves the retrieval precision for both data sets while achieving high efficiency compared to offline SVM. For the data set of 200 mammograms, the authors obtained an average precision of 0.48 and an area under the precision-recall curve of 0.79. In addition, using the same database, the authors achieved a high pathology matching rate greater than 80% between the query and the top retrieved images after relevance feedback. Conclusions: Using mammographicdatabases, the results demonstrate that the proposed approach is more accurate than the model without using relevance feedback not only in image retrieval but also in pathology matching while maintaining its effectiveness for online relevance feedback applications.
Cloning, Chromosomal Location, and Transcriptional Regulation of the Human Galanin-1 Receptor Gene (GALN1R)

Abstract Galanin is a neuroendocrine peptide that modulates many different normal physiological effects including memory, weight, and pain perception. To better understand galanin receptor function, we cloned and characterized the galanin-1 receptor (GALN1R) gene isolated from a human P1 library. We determined that this gene contains 2 introns of ∼2.1 and 2.9 Kb, both of which are located in the 3rdintracellular loop. We identified transcriptional initiation sites 61 and 63 bp upstream of the translation initiation codon ATG. Sequencing of the GALN1R gene 5′ flanking region revealed it to be GC rich and devoid of TATA or CCAAT boxes, features of houskeeping genes. To identify potential sites regulating promoter activity, variable lengths of the 5′ flanking region were fused to a CAT gene and studied in Bowes human melanoma cells. Significant losses in CAT activity were observed only with the elimination of 2 NF-κB sites, located −269 and −809 bp upstream from the translational start site, respectively. These findings suggest the novel possibility that GALN1R gene expression may be regulated as a consequence of inflammatory conditions. Finally fluorescentin situhybridization (FISH) assigned this gene to chromosome 15q24.
A Review of the Thermal Decomposition Pathways in RDX, HMX and Other Closely Related Cyclic Nitramines.

Understanding the complex physicochemical processes involved in the combustion and decomposition of energetic materials is essential to the development of reliable models for the performance. stability and hazards analysis of propellants and explosives and to provide a basis for improvement of ignition and sensitivity properties of their formulations. Since the nitramines RDX and HMX are important materials as propellants and explosives, we have undertaken a comprehensive; in-depth study, over the years, of their thermal decomposition kinetics and mechanisms using unusual sophisticated techniques, namely, simultaneous thermogravimetric modulated beam mass sf.ectrometry (STMBMS). time-of-flight velocity spectra analysis, isotope labeling (ISN, (3e, 2H and ( 0), isotope scrambling techniques and deuterium kinetic isotope effects (DKIE). In this paper, the results of the condensed and gas phase decomposition studies of RDX and HMX are reviewed in terms of the reaction pathways, bond-breaking steps and some bond-forming reactions. A comparison is made with the decomposition of six other cyclic nitramines and the common and contrasting modes of decomposition are highlighted. In particular, it is shown that the formation of a mononitroso analogue from RDX and HMX, respectively, as intermediates, represents an important thermal degradation pathway in each and probably also in four other nitramines studied. The cyclic nitramine1.3,5-trinitro-I,3.5-triaza-cyclo-heptane exhibits the potential to be a new useful nitramine with valuable application.
BitBlender: light-weight anonymity for BitTorrent

We present BitBlender, an efficient protocol that provides an anonymity layer for BitTorrent traffic. BitBlender works by creating an ad-hoc multi-hop network consisting of special peers called "relay peers" that proxy requests and replies on behalf of other peers. To understand the effect of introducing relay peers into the BitTorrent system architecture, we provide an analysis of the expected path lengths as the ratio of relay peers to normal peers varies. A prototype is implemented and experiments are conducted on Planetlab to quantify the performance overhead associated with the protocol. We also propose protocol extensions to add confidentiality and access control mechanisms, countermeasures against traffic analysis attacks, and selective caching policies that simultaneously increase both anonymity and performance. We finally discuss the potential legal obstacles to deploying an anonymous file sharing protocol. This work is among the first to propose a privacy enhancing system that is designed specifically for a particular class of peer-to-peer traffic.
Passive trans-chorionic transport of toxicants in topically treated Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) eggs

Seven chemicals were evaluated for their trans-chorionic permeability or permeability factor (PF) using the medaka embryo-larval assay (MELA) topical treatment procedure. Eggs were treated employing the standard MELA protocol, but were immediately extracted following treatment. Extraction was carried out through homogenization, and subsequent filtration or centrifugation, with non-polar solvent. Analysis was performed employing gas chromatographic techniques with multiple specific detectors. The PF values for the seven chemicals ranged from 10.5% to 82.9%. These results indicate that even in the presence of membrane permeable DMSO carrier, passive transport is taking place. The amount of toxicant penetrating the egg is apparently controlled by the lipid solubility of the chemical, which is established by the properties of that chemical, and not by the solubility in, or penetrability of, the DMSO. The PF data were regressed against the n-octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow) for each chemical to determine if there was a relationship between the PF and this physico-chemical coefficient of lipid affinity. The data correlated well, with an R2 of 0.96 for the regression line PF = 11.1 log Kow + 3.97. These findings suggest that, using this or a similar equation, it may be possible to predict an appropriate MELA topical dose to represent a given ambient water concentration.
Membrane (Na+ + K+)-ATPase of canine brain, heart and kidney. Tissue-dependent differences in kinetic properties and the influence of purification procedures.

Abstract Effects of commonly used purification procedures on the yield and specific activity of (Na+ + K+)-ATPase (Mg2+-dependent, Na+ + K+-activated ATP phosphohydrolase, EC 3.6.1.3), the turnover number of the enzyme, and the kinetic parameters for the ATP-dependent ouabain-enzyme interaction were compared in canine brain, heart and kidney. Kinetic parameters were estimated using a graphical analysis of non-steady state kinetics. The protein recovery and the degree of increase in specific activity of (Na+ + K+)-ATPase and the ratio between (Na+ + K+)-ATPase and Mg2+-ATPase activities during the successive treatments with deoxycholate, sodium iodide and glycerol were dependent on the source of the enzyme. A method which yields highly active (Na+ + K+)-ATPase preparations from the cardiac tissue was not suitable for obtaining highly active enzyme preparations from other tissues. Apparent turnover numbers of the brain (Na+ + K+)-ATPase preparations were not significantly affected by the sodium iodide treatment, but markedly decreased by deoxycholate or glycerol treatments. Similar glycerol treatment, however, failed to affect the apparent turnover number of cardiac enzyme preparations. Cerebral and cardiac enzyme preparations obtained by deoxycholate, sodium iodide and glycerol treatments had lower affinity for ouabain than renal enzyme preparations, primarily due to higher dissociation rate constants for the ouabain enzyme complex. This tissue-dependent difference in ouabain sensitivity seems to be an artifact of the purification procedure, since less purified cerebral or cardiac preparations had lower dissociation rate constants. Changes in apparent association rate constants were minimal during the purification procedure. These results indicate that the presently used purification procedures may alter.
Concentrations of some ionic species in Central Long Island, New York precipitation in relation to meteorological variables

Three years of hourly sequential precipitation data from central Long Island, New York were analyzed to determine the concentrations of major anions and cations and their relationships to each other and to meteorological conditions. Findings with respect to sulfate, nitrogen in nitrate plus nitrite, nitrogen in ammonium, chloride and sodium ions and selected ratios are reported here. Concentrations of each of the first three species were highly correlated with concentrations of the others and with hydrogen ions. Little correlation was found between these species and either sodium or chloride ions but the latter two were highly correlated with each other. Concentrations of the first three species are highest in summer and lowest in winter. High concentrations were also found with cold front and squall line precipitation and with rain showers and thundershowers. Concentrations of these species are high with both low and high precipitation rates. Concentrations are highest with west and northwest winds due to the presence of major source regions in those directions. They are high with both low and high temperatures but lower in the moderate temperature range. Concentrations are high with low (3.0 to 3.9) and with high (6.0 to 6.9) pH but less at intermediate levels. Thus, concentrations of these species in precipitation are determined by complex chemical and meteorological interactions and relationships. Chloride and sodium were found to be largely of marine origin. Highest concentrations occur in the fall and with hurricanes, strong winds, and onshore wind directions. Concentrations decrease with increasing precipitation rate. At low concentrations, the chloride/sodium ratio is above the seawater ratio and excess chloride is present. At high concentrations the ratio is below the seawater ratio and a chloride deficit exists.
Potential Errors and Error Propagation in Methods Used to Determine Particle Removal Efficiency

AbstractThere are many formulas that can be applied under field and laboratory conditions to determine the percent particle removal efficiency (PPRE). A lack of understanding of the limitations of each formula leads to improper application and thus the obtained results can be inconsistent and unreliable. A systematic study is required to understand the applicability of and relationship among these commonly used formulas for the purpose of identifying and possibly reducing the large variations often encountered in these applications. Towards this end, the common methods for calculating the PPRE were compared and analyzed; a controlled laboratory test was also carried out to illustrate the extent of the potential errors. The results showed that (1) when the calculated PPRE is positive, the error in this calculation represents only a fraction of the measurement errors in the sampled inlet and outlet data, but the error in the calculated PPRE will be amplified if the PPRE is negative; it is therefore importan...
P-TERPHENYL-SENSITIZED PHOTOREDUCTION OF CO2 WITH COBALT AND IRON PORPHYRINS. INTERACTION BETWEEN CO AND REDUCED METALLOPORPHYRINS

Iron and cobalt porphyrins (FeP and CoP) are utilized as electron-transfer mediators to effect photochemical reduction of CO2 in homogeneous solutions. The species that activate and reduce CO2 are the Fe0P and Co0P formed by reduction of the starting materials. Reduction of the metalloporphyrins (MP) is achieved by photolysis in dimethylformamide or acetonitrile solutions containing triethylamine (TEA) as a reductive quencher. The photoreduction is efficient for the MIIIP → MIIP stage and probably occurs by an intramolecular electron transfer from an axially bound TEA. However, TEA does not bind to the reduced metal complexes, and the quantum efficiency is much lower for the subsequent reduction steps. Considerably higher quantum yields are obtained by adding p-terphenyl (TP) as a sensitizer. TP is very effectively photoreduced by TEA to form the radical anion, TP•-, which has a sufficiently negative reduction potential to reduce CoIP and FeIP rapidly to their M0P state. The rate constants for these react...
Implantation in the Nine-banded Armadillo: How Does a Single Blastocyst Form Four Embryos?

In the course of a study on reproduction in the nine-banded armadillo, conceptuses between the beginning of implantation and primitive streak formation were examined to determine the manner of trophoblast differentiation during invasion of the endometrium and the sequence involved in formation of four identical quadruplets. The armadillo blastocyst implants in the fundic recess of the uterus. A single amnion and cup-shaped epiblastic plate are formed, and an exocelom develops between the amnion and trophoblast of the implantation site. Loss of the abembryonic trophoblast exposes both visceral and parietal endoderm to the uterine lumen, inverting the yolk sac. Continued expansion of the exocelom facilitates the intrusion of the forming conceptus into the uterine lumen and is accompanied by enlargement of the epiblastic plate. Separate areas of condensations of epiblast cells are the first indication of formation of the four identical quadruplets. The single layer of microvillous trophoblast with basal infoldings (designated absorptive trophoblast) is most likely to contribute extensively to movement of fluid into the exocelom. The resulting expansion of the exocelom not only enlarges the implantation site but also displaces the collapsing common amnion, limiting the amnion to the areas of the forming embryos.
Center-to-center analysis and flow fabric characterization in ash-flow tuffs

The center-to-center method of strain analysis can be used to estimate flow lineation in high-silica ash-flow tuffs. It can be used as an alternative or supplement to other techniques for flow lineation identification, such as the examination of flow textures in thin sections and the measurement of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility. The center-to-center method is a modification of a technique described by Fry (1979) and by Ramsay and Huber (1983) for determination of finite strain based on the spacing of particles within a deformed rock. In the present study, application of the method to an anticlustered array of phenocrysts in the flattening plane of an ash-flow tuff produces an ellipse with center to edge distances representative of the minimum distance between centers of phenocrysts in all directions within the flattening plane. The long axis of the ellipse corresponds to the maximum axis of finite strain; this direction is suggested to correspond to the flow lineation. The orientation of the stretching lineation was chosen both by eye and by least-squares analysis from center-to-center plots. The calculated orientation of the long ellipse axis can be varied by choice of a maximum distance between digitized objects which are included in the calculation. Comparison is made between late-stage flow lineations identified using the center-to-center method, and the AMS (anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility) method on samples of the high-silica Oligocene Bloodgood Canyon Tuff from the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field of southwestern New Mexico. Flow lineations based on center-to-center analyses of flattening plane-parallel rock slabs and thin sections agree well with AMS-derived flow lineations on most samples from which high-quality AMS lineations were obtained. Center-to-center analuses from flattening plane-perpendicular, lineation-parallel planes of ash-flow tuff produce ellipses inclined from 15° to 85° to the flattening plane, despite compaction of the ash, which should cause angles of inclination to be very low. The inclined ellipses may result from heterogeneities in grain size and distribution of phenocrysts in vertical sections of tuff, or from fragmentation of phenocrysts which occurred during the final stages of emplacement and compression. Center-to-center analyses on rock slabs rather than thin sections helps to avoid the effects of either textural heterogeneity and fragmentation of phenocrysts. With flow lineation identified by center-to-center analysis, petrographic examination of thin sections cut perpendicular to the flattening plane and parallel to the flow lineation allow for the identification of flow direction.
An Examination of Push-Pull Theory Applied to Process Innovation in Knowledge Work

Because many organizations have not been successful in introducing new task and managerial methods into the workplace, considerable attention has been directed toward developing a more complete understanding of organizational innovation. Three separate literatures organizational science, engineering/RD however, surprisingly little integration among the three has occurred. This paper reports on a study which examined a key tenet from each of these literatures in an effort to construct a robust model of innovative behavior. Specifically, the study utilized survey data in examining the validity of "push-pull" theory i.e., that innovation is most likely to occur when a need and a means to resolve that need are simultaneously recognized as well as the importance of top management attitude toward an innovation and of organizational receptivity toward change. The research context involved the diffusion of six modern software practices into 47 software development groups. While the model's independent variables explained a rather large amount of the variance in the use of these modern software practices, "push-pull" theory was not validated. A number of explanations are offered for the apparent failure of "push-pull" theory. Top management attitude and organizational receptivity toward change, however, were generally found to influence organizational innovation. As hypothesized, significant differences emerged in the factors influencing administrative and technical innovations with organizational receptivity toward change important only for the technical innovations. This suggests that organizational processes facilitating innovation should vary depending on the nature of the innovation involved.
The relationship between the synthesis of DNA and the synthesis of phage lysozyme in Escherichia coli infected by bacteriophage T4

Abstract In Escherichia coli cells infected by bacteriophage T4, lysozyme synthesis may occur in the absence of DNA synthesis. The rate of lysozyme synthesis that is observed to occur in the absence of DNA synthesis is a function of the multiplicity of infection. In experiments where the level or the time of initiation of DNA synthesis was affected, the rate of lysozyme synthesis again showed a dependence on the number of phage DNA present in the infected cells.
Thrombocythemia and neurologic effects.

Excerpt To the editor: Jabaily and colleagues have (1) attributed neurologic manifestations in patients with essential thrombocythemia to elevated platelet levels. However, their conclusion is not ...
Polarized Infrared Absorption Spectra of Matrix-Isolated Allyl Radicals

We have measured the polarized infrared absorption spectrum of the allyl radical, CH2CHCH2 (X) 2A2, in an argon matrix at 10 K. The experimental CH2CHCH2 frequencies (cm-1) and polarizations follow: a1 modes, 3109, 3052, 3027, 1478, and 1242; b1 modes, 983, 801, and 510; b2 modes, 3107, 3020, 1464, 1390, and 1182. Two modes (ν6 and ν18) are very weak and could not be detected; the lowest frequency a1 mode (the CH2−CH−CH2 bending mode ν7) is estimated to be beyond the wavelength range of our MCT infrared detector. Infrared absorption spectra of two deuterated isotopomers, CH2CDCH2 and CD2CDCD2, were recorded in order to compare experimental frequency shifts with calculated [UB3LYP/6-311-G(d,p)] harmonic frequencies. Linear dichroism spectra were measured with photooriented samples in order to establish experimental polarizations of most vibrational bands. True gas-phase vibrational frequencies were estimated by considering the gas-to-matrix shifts and matrix inhomogeneous line broadening. The allyl radic...
An efficient character recognition scheme based on k-means clustering

Handwritten character recognition has been an active area of research. However, because of the recent advancements in mobile devices with limited amount of memory and computational power, efficient and simple algorithms for both online and offline character recognition have become more appealing. In this work, an efficient character recognition systems is proposed using LDA Analysis followed by a Bayesian discriminator function based on the Mahalonobis distance. Since LDA is tailored for Gaussian distributed data and the samples dimensionality is high, a couple of preprocessing steps have been applied to reduce dimensionality and cluster the data into semi-Gaussian subclasses. In the first step, affine transformations are applied to the training samples in order to make the scheme robust against distortion. Scaling and Rotation are among those popular distortions which have been considered in this work. Inactive pixels are cut off using a simple algorithm in the next step. Then, principal component analysis (PCA) and k-means clustering are applied. The results from preprocessing showed a great potential in dimensionality reduction using transformations that can preserve useful information. Numerical results on the MNIST dataset reached 3% error rate which is lower than the other linear approaches. The proposed linear techniques are discussed in a way that make it easier to have a much clearer understanding of the method and why it works compared to the other classification methods.
Nutritional parameters at hospital admission as predictors of pressure ulcer development in elective surgery.

Nutritional parameters obtained at hospital admission were studied to determine whether they would predict which surgical patients would develop pressure ulcers during a period of up to three weeks of hospitalization. Nutrition parameters were serum albumin, total protein, lymphocyte count, mid-arm muscle circumference, triceps skin fold, and weight change. Lymphocyte count was significant (p = 0.007, adjusted r2 = 0.019) in predicting the development of a pressure ulcer during hospitalization. Because lymphocyte count accounted for less than 2% of the variance, it is not a clinically significant predictor. When nonnutritional pressure ulcer risk factors were controlled for in the regression, no nutritional factors were predictive of ulcer development. (Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 11:298-301, 1987)
Multilayer processing for magnetic film memory devices

Planar processing techniques for producing coupled film storage devices are presented. The discussion centers around a process sequence for a coupled easy-axis structure built on a metal substrate, largely by vacuum deposition techniques. The process results in packing density of about 8000 bits/in2. Included is a test of one such element displaying useful memory device characteristics under conditions of a worst case pulse test program.
The effect of hypothalamic hemi-islands on compensatory adrenal growth.

Unilateral hypothalamic disconnections were made with a Halasz knife in young male rats to determine the effects of these lesions on adrenal weight, and the response to unilateral adrenalectomy. Rats were unilaterally adrenalectomized or sham-adrenalectomized 5-7 days after the hypothalamic surgery. No lesion affected adrenal weight in sham-adrenalectomized rats. Compensatory adrenal growth 3 days after unilateral adrenalectomy is prevented by a unilateral hypothalamic hemi-island on the side ipsilateral, not contralateral, to the first removed adrenal (P less than 0.01). Portions of the ipsilateral hemi-island were examined to determine which interrupted the compensatory adrenal growth response. The anterior 90 degrees portion enhanced compensatory adrenal growth (P less than 0.01). The posterior 90 degrees portion only partially inhibited compensatory adrenal growth (P less than 0.05), while the posterolateral portion completely inhibited the response (P less than 0.01). Plasma ACTH and corticosterone levels at the time of sacrifice were unaffected by unilateral adrenalectomy, but were slightly elevated by the hypothalamic cuts. These studies provide further evidence that compensatory adrenal growth is mediated neurally.
Nonexistence of Hyperbolic Excitons

The optical-absorption strength function near a hyperbolic (${M}_{1}$) energy surface is calculated in the effective-mass approximation using three model electron-hole interactions. The models are compared with a treatment of the Coulomb interaction in the adiabatic approximation. The results imply that the concept of a "hyperbolic exciton" as defined within the framework of a simple effective-mass approximation does not provide a satisfactory explanation for peaks in experimental optical-absorption data.
Continuous-wave room temperature operation of bipolar cascade laser

The room temperature, continuous-wave operation of epitaxially-stacked lasers coupled by an Esaki junction (a bipolar quantum cascade laser) is demonstrated for the first time.
Isothermal programming of triple shape memory

Abstract Here we present a new strategy for enabling triple shape memory (TSM), in which different shapes may be programmed at one constant fixation temperature during isothermal crystallization of a poly(octylene adipate) elastomer. Unlike traditional TSM programming techniques that utilize separate thermal transitions to encode each distinct shape, here we report that multiple shapes may be encoded independently at different time stages of the same isothermal crystallization process, and then recovered sequentially at different temperatures upon heating. As such, the new method extends TSM capabilities to conventional semicrystalline elastomers that exhibit a single and narrow thermal transition. Unexpectedly, shape fixation does not depend on crystallinity acquired prior to sample deformation, which suggests that different shapes are secured by an individual crystalline scaffold with minor contribution of the pre-existing crystals. To that end, the isothermal protocol for TSM programming was utilized to demonstrate a “one-way reversible” shape memory transformation controlled by fixation time.
Anti-Viral and Anti-Inflammatory Mechanisms of the Innate Immune Transcription Factor Interferon Regulatory Factor 3: Relevance to Human CNS Diseases

Interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) is a transcription factor critical in the induction of antiviral immunity. IRF3 is activated following stimulation of cell membrane or cytosolic nucleic acid sensors and is essential in the induction of the IFNβ gene. Most cells constitutively express IRF3 in vitro, but little is known about the regulation of expression of IRF3 in vivo. Immunohistochemical analysis of selected human and mouse tissues demonstrated that IRF3 expression is highly organ- and cell-type specific, showing high expression in certain epithelial cells. In the CNS, while ependymal cells are strongly positive, brain parenchyma has little detectable IRF3 immunoreactivity. The importance of IRF3 in antiviral immunity has been demonstrated by the requirement for IRF3 in suppressing viral replication, but also by the demonstration that virus degrades IRF3 protein in infected cells. Furthermore, HIV-infected microglia in human CNS show abnormal IRF3+ aggregates, indicative of aberrant protein processing in vivo. In addition to antiviral immunity, IRF3 also plays a critical role in the modulation of neuroinflammation. A combination of dominant-negative and over-expression strategies in vitro as well as transgenic expression of IRF3 in vivo demonstrated that IRF3 plays a major role in modulating glial cytokine expression, i.e., suppression of proinflammatory cytokines and promotion of anti-inflammatory or immunoregulatory cytokines. These observations together suggest that IRF3 is a crucial regulator of immune responses against pathogen- and damage-associated molecules. We review recent literature on the molecular pathways of IRF3 activation and function of IRF3 and discuss their implications for CNS diseases.
Students’ stereotypes of professors: an exploration of the double violations of ethnicity and gender

This study examined students’ stereotypes of professors based on professor ethnicity, gender, teaching style, and course taught. An ethnically diverse sample of undergraduates (N = 594) rated hypothetical professors on several dimensions including perceived warmth, professional competence, and difficulty. Evidence consistent with response amplification and expectancy violation theories was found. Women professors were viewed as more warm than men professors even though their course syllabuses were identical. Students’ ratings of women and Latina/os were, in some cases, based on their teaching style and the courses they taught, whereas ratings of Anglo men were not. Implications for women and Latina/os in the academy are discussed.
Multilocus ordering strategies based on sperm typing.

SUMMARY Sperm typing is a promising new approach for fine-structure human gene mapping. We examine three-locus sperm typing and its implications for the estimation of recombination fractions and for locus ordering. In particular, we compare some sequential stopping rules for three-locus order assignment and develop methods for approximating their mean stopping times and error probabilities. A stopping rule recently described by Thompson and Boehnke et al. appears to be nearly optimal. Under this rule, one stops sampling as soon as the number of sperm of the least frequent recombinant type is s fewer than the number of sperm of the next least frequent type. We develop a random-walk algorithm and some heuristic formulas for assessing the performance of this rule. Since the broader goal of linkage analysis is to order many more than three loci, we propose a trisection strategy for ordering a new locus relative to an existing ordered set of loci. The crux of the trisection strategy is to restrict attention to the smallest block of ordered loci among which the new locus can fall and to divide this block into thirds for the next comparison. This trisection strategy is optimal in the sense that it has the best worst-case performance of any strategy. When it is applied sequentially to order a collection of loci, it is only nearly optimal, as we demonstrate by specific counter-example. However, it does become asymptotically optimal as the size of the collection increases.
Critical sulfhydryls regulate calcium release from sarcoplasmic reticulum.

Rapid Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) can be triggered by either binding of heavy metals to a sulfhydryl (SH) group or by catalyzing the oxidation of endogenous groups to a disulfide. Ca2+ release has been monitored directly using isolated vesicle preparations or indirectly by monitoring phasic contractions in a skinned fiber preparation. SH oxidation triggered by addition of Cu2+ /mercaptans, phthalocyanine dyes, reactive disulfides, and various anthraquinones appears to involve a direct interaction with the Ca2+ release protein from the SR. A model is presented in which reversible oxidation and reduction of endogenous SH groups results in the opening and closing of the Ca2+ release channel from the SR.
Difficult intubation associated with the foetal alcohol syndrome.

Two case reports are presented in which trachael intubation proved to be extremely difficult. Both of these patients had the distinctive characteristics of the foetal alcohol syndrome. The informed anaesthetist should be aware of this syndrome and its accompanying problems.
Partner abuse in physically disabled women: a proposed model for understanding intimate partner violence

PROBLEM. Physically disabled women are a population at significant risk for intimate partner violence. METHOD. This study used a qualitative research design to address the abuse experience of physically disabled women. FINDINGS. The participants identified multiple incidences of abuse, focusing on how the abuse began, proceeded, and terminated. A model was constructed to depict the abuse experience. The progression of abuse triggers, responses of the women, the abuse episode, the after-effects, and the slow return to usual routines were identified. CONCLUSIONS. A model, which is different from Walker's Cycle of Violence (Walker, 1979; 2000), was constructed to demonstrate the journey of women with disabilities through the abuse.
A Software and System Modeling Facility for Vehicle Environment Interactions

This paper describes an advanced modeling facility for system and software design that is being constructed at the Ford Research and Innovation Center. This facility is intended to address the growing complexity of automotive embedded software and the resulting issues for vehicle development. Software complexity is expected to grow at a significantly higher rate in the near future as vehicle systems begin to interact with external software based systems to provide significant new capabilities in both the infotainment and the safety areas. Increased complexity will require a broader range of modeling capabilities than just functional/behavioral modeling. Our recent experience with the latter has shown substantial benefits for the product development process, and we expect that the more comprehensive modeling process described here will bring even greater benefits.
Rorty on the literalization of metaphor

In his recent writings, Richard Rorty has sketched a theory of cultural change. He finds that metaphor is at the leading edge of culture, and that the gains of metaphor are consolidated in literalization. Yet his understanding of meaning and metaphor requires him to draw a sharp "line" between metaphorical and literal uses - a line that has some unfortunate implications for the study of religion. As it turns out, however, Rorty's line is difficult to discern in actual cases of literalization. By examining his account of one of his own acts of literalization, I argue that the problem lies not merely in the application of Rorty's theory but in the theory itself.
Scientific method for ecological research

Preface Acknowledgements 1. Component processes of ecological research Part I. Developing an Analytical Framework: 2. Five processes of research planning 3. Conceptual and propositional analysis for defining research problems 4. Development of a research plan 5. How theories develop and how to use them 6. The art of measurement and experiment 7. Methods of reasoning in research 8. Assessment of postulates 9. Individual philosophies and their methods Part II. Making a Synthesis for Scientific Inference: 10. Properties and domains of ecological concepts 11. Strategies of scientific research in ecology 12. Use of mathematical models for constructing explanations in ecology Part III. Working in the Research Community: 14. Scientific research as a social process 14. Values and standpoints and their influence on research Part IV. Defining a Methodology for Ecological Research: 15. The methodology of progressive synthesis 16. Criticisms and improvements for the scientific method in ecology Appendix for instructors Glossary List of references Author index Subject index.
Shifts from competition to facilitation between a foundation tree and a pioneer shrub across spatial and temporal scales in a semiarid woodland.

Summary • Theoretical and empirical research has supported the hypothesis that plant–plant interactions change from competition to facilitation with increasing abiotic stress. However, the consistency of such changes has been questioned in arid and semiarid ecosystems. • During a drought in the semiarid south-western USA, we used observations and a field experiment to examine the interactions between juveniles of a foundation tree (Pinyon pine, Pinus edulis) and a common shrub (Apache plume, Fallugia paradoxa) in replicated areas of high and low stress. • The presence of F. paradoxa reduced P. edulis performance at low-stress sites, but had the opposite effect at high-stress sites. However, the intensity of the interactions depended on temporal variation in climate and age of P. edulis. Both above- and below-ground factors contributed to competition, while only above-ground factors contributed to facilitation. • These results support the hypothesis that interactions can change from competition to facilitation as abiotic stress increases in semiarid environments. A shift from competition to facilitation may be important for the recovery of P. edulis and other foundation species that have experienced large-scale mortality during recent droughts.
HIGH LINEAGE DIVERSITY AND HOST SHARING OF MALARIAL PARASITES IN A LOCAL AVIAN ASSEMBLAGE

Bird populations often have high prevalences of the haemosporidians Haemoproteus spp. and Plasmodium spp., but the extent of host sharing and host switching among these parasite lineages and their avian hosts is not well known. While sampling within a small geographic region in which host individuals are likely to have been exposed to the same potential parasite lineages, we surveyed highly variable mitochondrial DNA from haemosporidians isolated from 14 host taxa representing 4 avian families (Hirundinidae, Parulidae, Emberizidae, and Fringillidae). Analyses of cytochrome b sequences from 83 independent infections identified 29 unique haplotypes, representing 2 well-differentiated Haemoproteus spp. lineages and 6 differentiated Plasmodium spp. lineages. A phylogenetic reconstruction of relationships among these lineages provided evidence against host specificity at the species and family levels, as all haemosporidian lineages recovered from 2 or more host individuals (2 Haemoproteus and 3 Plasmodium line...