cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multi-aspect target discrimination using hidden Markov models and neural networks

This paper presents a new multi-aspect pattern classification method using hidden Markov models (HMMs). Models are defined for each class, with the probability found by each model determining class membership. Each HMM model is enhanced by the use of a multilayer perception (MLP) network to generate emission probabilities. This hybrid system uses the MLP to find the probability of a state for an unknown pattern and the HMM to model the process underlying the state transitions. A new batch gradient descent-based method is introduced for optimal estimation of the transition and emission probabilities. A prediction method in conjunction with HMM model is also presented that attempts to improve the computation of transition probabilities by using the previous states to predict the next state. This method exploits the correlation information between consecutive aspects. These algorithms are then implemented and benchmarked on a multi-aspect underwater target classification problem using a realistic sonar data set collected in different bottom conditions.
Connections between surface complexation and geometric models of mineral dissolution investigated for rhodochrosite

Mineral dissolution rates have been rationalized in the literature by surface complexation models (SCM) and morphological and geometric models (GM), and reconciliation of these conceptually different yet separately highly successful models is an important goal. In the current work, morphological alterations of the surface are observed in real time at the microscopic level by atomic force microscopy (AFM) while dissolution rates are simultaneously measured at the macroscopic level by utilizing the AFM fluid cell as a classic flow-through reactor. Rhodochrosite dissolution is studied from pH 2 to 11 at 298 K, and quantitative agreement is found between the dissolution rates determined from microscopic and macroscopic observations. Application of a SCM model for the interpretation of the kinetic data indicates that the surface concentration of CO3H regulates dissolution for pH 7 while the surface concentration of MnOH2 regulates dissolution for pH 7. A GM model explains well the microscopic observations, from which it is apparent that dissolution occurs at steps associated with anisotropic pit expansion. On the basis of the observations, we combine the SCM and GM models to propose a step-site surface complexation model (SSCM), in which the dissolution rates are quantitatively related to the surface chemical speciation of steps. The governing SSCM equation is as follows: R 1/2(kco kca)(CO3H) 1/2(kmo kma)(MnOH2 ), where R is the dissolution rate (mol m 2 s 1 ), 21/2 is the fraction of surface sites located at steps, (CO3H) and (MnOH2 ) are surface concentrations (mol m 2 ), and kco, kca, kmo, and kma are the respective dissolution rate coefficients (s 1 ) for the CO3H and the MnOH2 surface species on obtuse and acute steps. We find kco 2.7 s 1 , kca 2.1 10 1 s 1 , kmo 4.1 10 2 s 1 , kma 3.7 10 2 s 1 , and 1/2 0.015 0.005. The rate coefficients quantify the net result of complex surface step processes, including double-kink initiation and single-kink propagation. We propose that the SSCM model may have general applicability for dissolution far from equilibrium of flat mineral surfaces of ionic crystals, at least those that dissolve by step retreat. Copyright © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd
Intermittent heterochronic plasma exchange as a modality for delaying cellular senescence—A hypothesis

The population of baby boomers (age 60-65) is rapidly increasing globally. The aging of the human body is associated with the decline of cellular function which leads to the development of a variety of diseases. The increased demand for health care for the aging population creates significant financial burden to any healthcare system. Developing strategies and health intervention methods to ameliorate this situation is paramount. Experiments utilizing heterochronic parabiosis in mice have demonstrated that replacing the aging cellular milieu with the plasma of a young experimental animal leads to reversal of cellular senescence. This article describes a hypothetical model of intermittent heterochronic plasma exchange in humans as a modality for heterochronic parabiosis in an attempt to delay cellular senescence.
Intercultural Communication Between Patients and Health Care Providers: An Exploration of Intercultural Communication Effectiveness, Cultural Sensitivity, Stress, and Anxiety

Cultural diversity is becoming increasingly more important in the workplace. This is particularly true in health care organizations facing demographic shifts in the patients served and their families. This study serves to aid the development of intercultural communication training programs for health care providers by examining how cultural sensitivity and effective intercultural communication, besides helping patients, personally benefit health care providers by reducing their stress. Effective intercultural communication and cultural sensitivity were found to be related. Health care providers' levels of intercultural anxiety also were found to correlate with effective intercultural communication.
The formation of massive, quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon

The cosmic noon (z ∼ 1.5–3) marked a period of vigorous star formation for most galaxies. However, about a third of the more massive galaxies at those times were quiescent in the sense that their observed stellar populations are inconsistent with rapid star formation. The reduced star formation activity is often attributed to gaseous outflows driven by feedback from supermassive black holes, but the impact of black hole feedback on galaxies in the young Universe is not yet definitively established. We analyse the origin of quiescent galaxies with the help of ultrahigh resolution, cosmological simulations that include feedback from stars but do not model the uncertain consequences of black hole feedback. We show that dark matter haloes with specific accretion rates below ∼0.25–0.4 Gyr^(−1) preferentially host galaxies with reduced star formation rates and red broad-band colours. The fraction of such haloes in large dark matter only simulations matches the observed fraction of massive quiescent galaxies (∼10^(10)–10^(11) M⊙). This strongly suggests that halo accretion rate is the key parameter determining which massive galaxies at z ∼ 1.5–3 become quiescent. Empirical models that connect galaxy and halo evolution, such as halo occupation distribution or abundance matching models, assume a tight link between galaxy properties and the masses of their parent haloes. These models will benefit from adding the specific accretion rate of haloes as a second model parameter.
An Executive's Guide to Information Technology: e-Commerce/e-business to European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Commerce 2002

Definition: e-Commerce/e-business are business models that utilize the internet as a mechanism through which companies, vendors, and customers interact. Overview e-Commerce originated with the deregulation of the internet in 1995. It was originally conceived as a business-to-customer (B2C) model of commerce, and corporations were formed to provide services and products over the internet without having any physical retail presence (e.g., Amazon.com, the well-known online book seller). The term e-Business was coined by Lou Gerstner, then CEO of IBM, who looked beyond the B2C model to use the internet for delivering services and supporting physical business channels. The start-up companies that adopted pure B2C commerce, for which there is no physical retail store, together with startup business-to-business (B2B) organizations, which also owned no physical retailing or warehousing capacity, aimed to “disintermediate” the established companies by having lower internal and distribution-channel costs. Unfortunately, this model proved to be very expensive to support as the businesses attempted to scale up and reach profitability, and the majority ran out of capital following the decline in the US stock market of 2000 and closed down. Those that survived the stock-market crash endured a market consolidation and continue to attempt to build market share, drive down costs, and become profitable or maintain profitability.
Abstract 5140: Individual patient cancer profiles in the cBio Cancer Genomic Portal.

The most prominent or most interesting genomic alteration events from an individual tumor sample can now be browsed and analyzed in the cBio Cancer Genomics Portal. With the rapid accumulation of detailed and comprehensive genomic maps of thousands of tumors in The Cancer Genome Atlas and other projects it has now become feasible to nominate the functionally most significant events affecting a tumor from an individual patient. The cBio Cancer Genomics Portal (http://cbioportal.org) allows interactive exploration of multidimensional cancer genomics data sets, currently for more than 6,000 tumor samples from 20 cancer genomics studies, including all TCGA projects. This information gateway significantly lowers the barrier between complex genomic data and their efficient use by cancer researchers for the development of biologic insights and clinical applications. In addition to gene-by-gene alteration maps across many samples and across diverse tumor types, one can now view genomic alterations in individual tumor samples. As there are potentially hundreds or thousands of genomic alterations in any single tumor sample, it is crucially important to select, for inspection and analysis, alteration events most likely to contribute to oncogenesis or affect the response to therapy. In the cBio portal patient view, this selection is done making use of recurrence statistics, background functional knowledge and predicted functional impact, under the control of the cancer researcher. All relevant data about a tumor are displayed on a single page, including clinical characteristics, summaries of the extent of mutations and copy-number alterations, as well as details about mutated, amplified, and deleted genes. Genomic alterations are filtered by the following criteria: recurrence of mutations or copy-number alterations across the tumor cohort (MutSig and GISTIC), mutation occurrence in COSMIC, and by cancer gene annotation (via the Sanger Cancer Gene Census and other sources). The patient view also provides information about drugs that target the altered genes and lists relevant clinical trials. The patient view is fully interactive and enables quick and easy assessment of all relevant genomic events in individual tumor samples. All data can be viewed in the context of the other tumors in the cohort, which facilitates classification of tumor samples by genomic criteria and can supplement standard pathology. Once characterization of genomic alterations in tumor samples becomes standard practice in patient care, this tool could be used to assess prognosis and guide treatment decisions, ideally the personalized choice of targeted therapies. Citation Format: Jianjiong Gao, Selcuk Onur Sumer, Gideon Dresdner, Bulent Arman Aksoy, Chris Sander, Nikolaus Schultz. Individual patient cancer profiles in the cBio Cancer Genomic Portal. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5140. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-5140
The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon and Our Gamble over Earth's Future

Paul Sabin's The Bet addresses some of the most important economic, social, and political issues of the last two centuries and, arguably, the next two centuries. The Bet is well written, based on c...
Scanning and transmission electron micrographs of the same frozen fractured surface.

The freeze-etch technique was applied to scanning and transmission electron-microscopy by freezing samples of tissue from 3-wk-old laboratory white mice in Freon 12 cooled with liquid nitrogen. The samples were fractured and placed into a rotary stage cold-block device and rotary shadowed with platinum and then carbon at a 45° angle. They were dried overnight in a vacuum at approximately 5 × 10-6 torr and then exposed to OsO4 vapors for 48 hr. After being viewed in a scanning electron microscope, the carbon-platinum replica was removed from the sample by dissolving away the tissue with Clorox. The replica was mounted on a grid and viewed in a transmission electron microscope.
Role of von Willebrand factor in mediating platelet-vessel wall interaction at low shear rate; the importance of perfusion conditions

We have previously observed that von Willebrand factor (vWF) plays an important role in platelet deposition on subendothelium at low values of wall shear rate (200 to 400 seconds-1). In the present study, we have investigated the mechanism responsible for such a defect in platelet deposition at low shear rates in the absence of vWF. Blood from both normal and von Willebrand9s disease (vWD) animals was exposed to de-endothelialized aorta from normal pigs for a range of shear rates (200 to 3,000 seconds-1) and exposure times (three to 30 minutes) in a tubular perfusion chamber. Variations in the method of inhibiting coagulation (none, heparin, citrate, hirudin, and EDTA) and of perfusing blood (in vitro v ex vivo) were compared by determining the influence of wall shear rate and vWF on the deposition of 111In-labeled platelets on subendothelium. Whereas platelet deposition was reduced in the absence of vWF for all experimental variations at high shear rates (greater than 850 seconds-1), a defect was observed at low shear rates only when heparinized blood was exposed by means of an ex vivo perfusion system. Maximum sensitivity of the measurement occurs under ex vivo perfusion conditions due to the reduced ability of platelets to deposit in normal blood when recirculated in vitro. Our results indicate that vWF mediates platelet-vessel wall interaction even at low shear rates and that such effect can only be observed in systems where platelet function is minimally affected by the experimental conditions.
A Simultaneous Model for Simulating the Propagation of Hydraulic Head in Aquifers with Leakage Pathways

A three-dimensional simultaneous solution model was developed for analysis of variable transient flows, specifically leakage associated with arbitrary groundwater aquifers. The model simultaneously calculates leakage rates using the hydraulic gradients between coupled leakage points at two leaky aquifers and evaluates the propagation of hydraulic heads in multiple aquifers resulting from that leakage. Important considerations for leakage simulation are variant leakage rates with time and leakage starting time. Two types of leakage pathways are specified in terms of the generated time, including (1) pre-existing leakage pathways and (2) abruptly-induced leakage pathways at specific times. The governing equation with a leakage term is composed of three finite difference equations, and its form depends on whether leakage pathways pre-exist or are induced at specified times according to known or assumed aquifer histories. The developed numerical code was validated by comparison with the results of the TOUGH2/EOS1 program for a three-dimensional conceptual domain.
Mobile Controls On-The-Fly: An Abstraction for Distributed NIMEs.

Designing mobile interfaces for computer-based musical performance is generally a time-consuming task that can be exasperating for performers. Instead of being able to experiment freely with physical interfaces’ affordances, performers must spend time and attention on non-musical tasks including network configuration, development environments for the mobile devices, defining OSC address spaces, and handling the receipt of OSC in the environment that will control and produce sound. Our research seeks to overcome such obstacles by minimizing the code needed to both generate and read the output of interfaces on mobile devices. For iOS and Android devices, our implementation extends the application Control to use a simple set of OSC messages to define interfaces and automatically route output. On the desktop, our implementations in Max/MSP/Jitter, LuaAV, and SuperCollider allow users to create mobile widgets mapped to sonic parameters with a single line of code. We believe the fluidity of our approach will encourage users to incorporate mobile devices into their everyday performance practice.
Boarding school influence on self-reported concern for perceived body and face morphology in Taiwan

Abstract To determine the influence of boarding school on self-perceived body and facial morphology, the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) and exploratory questions about the orofacial area (OFA) were administered to female boarding (B) and nonboarding (NB) students at two Catholic schools in Taiwan. The mean total BSQ scores of Bs were significantly higher than NBs, with both being significantly higher than the published normative score but lower than probable bulimics with no significant B vs. NB difference in mean total OFA scores. Because the Bs were significantly taller and reported more orthodontic treatment than NBs, the possible confounding by the higher economic status of the Bs was minimized by finding similar significantly higher BSQ scores for the small number of Bs (5%) than the remaining NBs (95%) in the documented lower socio-economic school. In summary, the experience of boarding in religion-dominated schools significantly increases body image concerns of adolescent females.
Group-Based Trajectory Modeling of Healthcare Financial Charges in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Comprehensive Phenotype

Group-Based Trajectory Modeling of Healthcare Financial Charges in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Comprehensive Phenotype
Effects of Hyperthermia on Patterns of Eicosanoid Synthesis; Potential Roles in Altered Cell Behaviour and Gene Expression

Hyperthermia causes widespread changes in cellular behaviour in both in vitro and in vivo. We have shown in the present study that heat shock leads to activation of membrane enzyme phospholipase A2, leading to increases in concentrations of arachidonic acid and products metabolized through the cyclooxygenase and 5-lipoxygenase pathways. The eicosanoids are extremely pleiotropic agents and may mediate many of the effects of hyperethermia on cells and tissues. We have shown in this study that the cyclopentanone prostaglandin A2 induces the synthesis of heat shock proteins 70 and 90. The synthesis of hsps was correlated with activation of the cell cycle dependant E2F transcription factor.
Smoking, alcohol and caffeine in relation to two hormonal indicators of ovarian age during the reproductive years.

Abstract Objective To examine whether or not cigarette smoking, alcohol and caffeine intake are related to two indicators of ovarian age–anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Study design Cross-sectional study of 477 women with a recent index spontaneous abortion (SA) (105 trisomic, 93 non-trisomic) or livebirth (LB) (279) with hormones measured on days 2–4 of an apparently normal menstrual cycle after the index pregnancy. Results Current smoking is associated with about a 15% increase in median FSH (β for ln(FSH) = 0.14, 95% CI 0.03,0.25). It is not significantly related to AMH (β for ln(AMH) = −0.25, 95% CI −0.56,0.06). Neither alcohol 2–7 days per week nor caffeine 122– Conclusions The observation that current smoking is associated with FSH, but not with AMH, suggests that current smoking either impairs the development of antral follicles or dysregulates the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis. The absence of an association with AMH argues against mechanisms related to accelerated follicle atresia.
The effect of felt compression on the performance and pressure drop of all-vanadium redox flow batteries

The compression of carbon felt electrodes for redox flow batteries leads to changes in the electrochemical performance and has a large effect on the pressure drop of electrolyte flow through the system. In this investigation, the authors have characterised the electrochemical performance of all-vanadium redox flow batteries by studying the effect of compression on the contact resistance, polarisation behaviour and efficiency. Contact resistance was seen to reduce from ca. 2.0 Ω cm2 to 1.2 Ω cm2 and an energy efficiency of 85% was obtained from a felt compressed to 75%. Moreover, X-ray computed tomography (CT) has been employed to study the microstructure of felt electrodes at compressions up to 70%, showing a linear decrease in porosity and a constant fibre surface area-to-volume ratio. The pressure drop was modelled using computational fluid dynamics and employing the 3D structure of the felts obtained from CT, revealing that a 60% increase in compression related to a 44.5% increase in pressure drop.
Phosphor: Illuminating Dynamic Data Flow in the JVM

Dynamic taint analysis is a well-known information flow analysis problem with many possible applications. Taint tracking allows for analysis of application data flow by assigning labels to inputs, and then propagating those labels through data flow. Taint tracking systems traditionally compromise among performance, precision, accuracy, and portability. Performance can be critical, as these systems are typically intended to be deployed with software, and hence must have low overhead. To be deployed in securityconscious settings, taint tracking must also be accurate and precise. Dynamic taint tracking must be portable in order to be easily deployed and adopted for real world purposes, without requiring recompilation of the operating system or language interpreter, and without requiring access to application source code. We present PHOSPHOR, a dynamic taint tracking system for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that simultaneously achieves our goals of performance, accuracy, precision, and portability. Moreover, to our knowledge, it is the first portable general purpose taint tracking system for the JVM. We evaluated PHOSPHOR’s performance on two commonly used JVM languages (Java and Scala), on two versions of two commonly used JVMs (Oracle’s HotSpot and OpenJDK’s IcedTea) and on Android’s Dalvik Virtual Machine, finding its performance to be impressive: as low as 3% (53% on average), using the DaCapo macro benchmark suite. This paper describes the approach that PHOSPHOR uses to achieve portable taint tracking in the JVM.
A Multistep Mechanism for Assembly of the SRP–SR Complex

Two GTPases in the signal recognition particle (SRP) and its receptor (SR) control the delivery of newly synthesized proteins to the ER or plasma membrane. During the protein targeting reaction, the 4.5S SRP RNA accelerates the association between the two GTPases by 400-fold. Using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), we demonstrate here that formation of a stable SRP–SR complex involves two distinct steps: a fast initial association between SRP and SR to form an early, GTP-independent complex, followed by a GTP-dependent conformational rearrangement to form the stable, final complex. We also found that the 4.5S SRP RNA significantly stabilizes the early, GTP-independent intermediate. Further, mutational analyses show that there is a strong correlation between the ability of the mutant SRP RNAs to stabilize the early intermediate and their ability to accelerate SRP–SR complex formation. We propose that the SRP RNA, by stabilizing the transient early intermediate, can give this intermediate a longer dwell time and therefore a higher probability to rearrange to the final, stable complex. This provides a coherent model that explains how the 4.5S RNA exerts its catalytic role in SRP–SR complex assembly.
Learning about Voice Search for Spoken Dialogue Systems

In a Wizard-of-Oz experiment with multiple wizard subjects, each wizard viewed automated speech recognition (ASR) results for utterances whose interpretation is critical to task success: requests for books by title from a library database. To avoid non-understandings, the wizard directly queried the application database with the ASR hypothesis (voice search). To learn how to avoid misunderstandings, we investigated how wizards dealt with uncertainty in voice search results. Wizards were quite successful at selecting the correct title from query results that included a match. The most successful wizard could also tell when the query results did not contain the requested title. Our learned models of the best wizard's behavior combine features available to wizards with some that are not, such as recognition confidence and acoustic model scores.
The History and Prehistory of Natural-Language Semantics

I show some of the ways in which the trajectory of work during the recent history of natural-language semantics has been shaped by its prehistory, by which I mean the period when the formal methods of semantics developed for the purposes of studying formal languages. Due to their primarily mathematical and philosophical aims, the key prehistoric figures—I focus on Frege, Carnap, and Tarski—idealized away from aspects of sentence meaning other than truth conditions. After Davidson and Montague transformed semantics from a set of tools for doing philosophy and mathematics into an empirical discipline in its own right, a long and gradual process of lifting these idealizations began, with the result that a sentence’s meaning is now often thought of not as its truth condition but as its communicative potential.
Career and Technical Education, Inclusion, and Postsecondary Outcomes for Students With Learning Disabilities:

We used longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate the relationships among career and technical education (CTE) enrollment, inclusion in general education, and high school and postsecondary outcomes for students with learning disabilities. We replicated earlier findings that students with learning disabilities who were enrolled in a "concentration" of CTE courses had higher rates of employment after graduation than observably similar students with learning disabilities who were enrolled in fewer CTE courses. We also found that students with learning disabilities who spent more time in general education classrooms in high school had higher rates of on-time graduation, college attendance, and employment than observably similar students with learning disabilities who spent less time in general education classrooms in these grades.
Iron Salvage Pathways

Heme catabolism by heme oxygenases (HOs) in macrophages and liver cells allows the heme–iron from red blood cell hemoglobin to be recycled, i.e., to undergo reuse. Mammalian HOs generate Fe(II) in the cytosol from where it is distributed for biochemical and regulatory needs (e.g., heme synthesis, DNA synthesis, and ferritin induction), or stored safely on ferritin, or exported via ferroportin 1 (FPN1) to transferrin for delivery to cells throughout the body. This whole body cycle of iron reclamation is also maintained by several sources of heme in addition to the phagocytosis of effete red blood cells by macrophages. Intravascular hemolysis, whether from the normal wear and tear of circulating erythrocytes or during disease and trauma, provides both hemoglobin–haptoglobin (Hb–Hp) and heme (derived from Hb) in the circulation and within cells. Hb–heme is rapidly oxidized and heme then dissociates.
Online Sexual Experiences Predict Subsequent Sexual Health and Victimization Outcomes Among Female Adolescents: A Latent Class Analysis.

Adolescents’ online sexual experiences (e.g., pornography use, sexual chatting, sexualized social media use, and nude image exchange) provide a new context for sexual socialization. Traditionally, online sexual experiences are often aggregated averages, which neglect their complexity and fail to identify individual differences in the experience. Moreover, the lack of longitudinal research in this area has failed to determine if these experiences predict later offline sexual health and violence outcomes. An analysis of two waves of surveys completed by ethnically and socioeconomically diverse female adolescents (N = 296; 49% maltreated; aged 14–16 years) participating in a larger cross-sequential study was conducted to address these gaps. Established latent classes from the prerequisite study of online sexual experiences at Time 1 were Online Abstinent (low probability of any online sexual experiences), Online Inclusive (high probability of all online sexual experiences), Attractors (high probability of attracting attention from others), and Seekers (high probability of seeking out sexual content and interaction). Class membership uniquely predicted HIV risk, number of physically violent romantic partners, and the occurrence of sexual assault at Time 2. Although membership in risker online sexual experience classes predicted later offline risk and victimization, this was especially true for maltreated participants. These findings demonstrate the advantages of examining online sexual experiences in a way that emphasizes their complexity and individual differences in influential susceptibility.
Optimizing inland waterway port management decisions considering water level fluctuations

Abstract This study presents a multi-commodity, multi-period mixed-integer linear programming model to efficiently manage the inland waterway port operations while minimizing the overall supply chain cost. An accelerated Benders decomposition algorithm is developed to solve this challenging NP-hard problem. Proposed algorithm can produce high-quality solutions consistently within a reasonable amount of time. Numerical results show that considering water level fluctuations the test region is required to use an additional 81.5% barges and 39.7% towboats. Further, managerial insights are drawn for different key input parameters that impact port operations.
Abstract TP368: The Impact of Hospital Based Specialist Physicians Conducting Post-Discharge Follow-Up Phone Calls at a Comprehensive Stroke Center

Background: As a Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC), The Joint Commission requires post-discharge follow-up phone calls to be conducted within 7 days of discharge for all complex stroke patients. Pu...
Motion Displacement Field Estimation using Time-of-Flight PET Histoimages

Subject motion including cardiac and respiration motion during data acquisition can cause degraded image reconstruction. Time-of-flight (TOF) in PET provides additional useful information, which can be utilized for motion estimation. We aim to develop accurate motion field estimation and motion compensation from TOF PET data fully utilizing TOF information for improved quantitative PET imaging. In this work, we develop a new motion displacement field estimation method using TOF PET histoimages. The TOF list-mode data can be efficiently deposited into a TOF histoimage, and radioactive tracer distribution can be efficiently reconstructed using the DIRECT (Direct Image REConstruction for TOF) approaches since TOF histoimage has the same spatial coordinates and geometry as the reconstructed image. First we derive the optical flow equation for TOF histoimage, from which we formulate the global energy function including the total squared error of data consistency based on the optical flow equation and a displacement regularizer. We then obtain Euler–Lagrange equation of TOF histoimage by minimizing the global energy function based on the principle of least action. Inspired by Horn–Schunck method, we obtain an iterative algorithm for motion displacement field estimation, and displacement smoothness regularization is naturally included. We simulate a generic 2D TOF PET scanner using XCAT phantom with cardiac motion, and show accurate motion displacement field can be obtained from both noise-free and noisy TOF histoimages using the proposed method. In summary, we present a motion displacement field estimation method directly using TOF histoimages, which can be important for motion compensation and improved dynamic image reconstructions.
Force and Translation; Or, The Polymorphous Body of Language

It is generally accepted that Hume has dealt a decisive blow to the Argument from Design. In recent times however a new, probabilistic version of the argument has been put forward. This argument is no longer based on the assumption that it is an objective fact that the universe exhibits design but rather on the assumption that the actual state of the universe represents a very rare kind of state among all the possible states. In Section I I I shall explain a simple but very important point about the application of inverse probabilities, a point which has escaped a number of writers on the subject and which is essential for the understanding of the argument. In Section III I describe the contemporary version of a probabilistic argument for the existence of Divine Design. In Section IV I explain what seems to me a fatal objection to the argument. In the subsequent sections I put forward two probabilistic arguments that are not vulnerable to these objections and try to exhibit clearly the assumptions upon which they are based.
A Comparison of Musculoskeletal Exam Documentation in Two Electronic Health Record Systems

Introduction Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems have changed the way physicians record their exams. Several studies have reviewed the quality of these transcribed exams; some of which have found with regard to arthritic and musculoskeletal conditions significant omissions in the recorded exam. Methods Inpatients charts for patients receiving rheumatology consultations at 2 different Indiana hospital systems, both employing unique EHRs, were reviewed. Notes were evaluated for the presence of four major musculoskeletal criteria: axial skeleton, upper extremity, lower extremity, and muscular exams. Exam completeness was assessed by evaluating more specific examination documentation within these major groups. Simple two sided Pearson Chi Square tests were used to assess all other individual patient and management dependent variables for the significance of the effect on exam documentation. Results 44 study patient cases were reviewed. Of the management dependent variables, the most significant one in affecting the likelihood of a thorough MSK examination being recorded was the location of the patient (p=0.017). Patients admitted through the Emergency room compared to direct admits or ICU transfers were more likely to have an MSK exam recorded. The more detailed exams were recorded by the neurology services and rheumatology fellows. In comparing the two different EHR systems, more detailed examinations were found with users who free typed examinations versus those who used templated exams. Conclusions` This study demonstrated the need for optimization of EHR practices with regard to managing patients with arthritic and musculoskeletal conditions. Several patient cases where joint conditions were key components of the patient care had marked omissions of MSK exam documentation. This may likely reflect a disconnect between what occurs during the examination and what is actually transcribed. Various factors may foster these oversights including use of templated notes, copy and paste features, and click fatigue.
Survey of the experience of head and neck cancer patients with a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube.

e18501Background: Many patients with advanced head and neck cancer become unable to obtain enough nutrition and hydration orally, leading to considerable weight loss and compromised clinical outcom...
The Future Is Queer: New Developments in Intelligence Activity

This chapter argues that US foreign policy has been and will continue to be “queer” due to tensions between diplomacy, military, and intelligence as well as between the presidency, the legislature, and intelligence. The “wall of separation” which is purported to exist between the intelligence community and other players like the presidency, the State Department, and the military is in fact an illusion or a construct, rather than reality. Furthermore, we suggest that this wall will continue to further erode, as new technologies and forces of globalization inevitably lead to a blurring between official and unofficial (or covert) foreign policy, as well as the ability to hide state activities, through new types of transparency and surveillance.
Ultrastructure of Conidia of the Plant Pathogenic Fungus Entomosporium Mespili

Entomosporium mespili has emerged as a significant pathogen of red tip (Photinia × fraseri), a popular and widely grown ornamental in the southeastern United States. This fungal pathogen produces its distinctive multi-celled, insect-like asexual spores or conidia (Fig. 1) in structures known as acervuli (Fig. 2) that rupture the surfaces of infected leaves. This study examines the fine structure of these conidia using a combination of scanning and transmission electron microscopy. In the case of transmission electron microscopy, conidia were prepared for study using either plunge freezing or high pressure freezing followed by freeze substitution.Each mature conidium of E. mespili consists of four to six cells (Fig. 1). These include one apical cell and one basal cell and two to four small lateral cells attached to the basal cell. The apical and lateral cells each possess a long, slender appendage. Excluding these appendages, the length of a mature conidium is usually 20-24μm while the diameters of the apical and basal cells are 8-11μm and 6-9μm respectively.
Research Facilities and Support

The availability of laboratory materials and equipment is a major determinant of both the amount and kind of research undertaken and the precision with which it is accomplished. A good supply is important not only in the actual prosecution of scientific research; but also in supporting the feeling of freedom to act, so valuable to morale. Yet a majority of the physiologists questioned by the Survey indicated that some or much improvement was needed in their research facilities. Over half (55%) expressed satisfaction with their living materials and other supplies, but about the same proportion felt that some or much improvement was needed in their laboratory equipment (56%) or in their technical facilities (53%). These data, given in detail in Table VIII-1, are fairly representative for all types of physiologists, although central animal physiologists tended to be less satisfied with their living materials and plant physiologists, with other supplies (Q, I, 91-93). These reactions may partly reflect the effectiveness of commercial supply houses in anticipating and meeting the demands of physiologists.
MUNIn (Multiple cell-type UNifying long-range chromatin Interaction detector): a statistical framework for identifying long-range chromatin interactions from multiple cell types

Chromatin spatial organization (interactome) plays a critical role in genome function. Deep understanding of chromatin interactome can shed insights into transcriptional regulation mechanisms and human disease pathology. One essential task in the analysis of chromatin interactomic data is to identify long-range chromatin interactions. Existing approaches, such as HiCCUPS, FitHiC/FitHiC2 and FastHiC, are all designed for analyzing individual cell types. None of them accounts for unbalanced sequencing depths and heterogeneity among multiple cell types in a unified statistical framework. To fill in the gap, we have developed a novel statistical framework MUNIn (Multiple cell-type UNifying long-range chromatin Interaction detector) for identifying long-range chromatin interactions from multiple cell types. MUNIn adopts a hierarchical hidden Markov random field (H-HMRF) model, in which the status (peak or background) of each interacting chromatin loci pair depends not only on the status of loci pairs in its neighborhood region, but also on the status of the same loci pair in other cell types. To benchmark the performance of MUNIn, we performed comprehensive simulation studies and real data analysis, and showed that MUNIn can achieve much lower false positive rates for detecting cell-type-specific interactions (33.1 - 36.2%), and much enhanced statistical power for detecting shared peaks (up to 74.3%), compared to uni-cell-type analysis. Our data demonstrated that MUNIn is a useful tool for the integrative analysis of interactomic data from multiple cell types.
Diagnostic molecular genetics

Publisher Summary Molecular genetics is based on detecting locus-specific differences between individuals. The loci studied may be the single genes of known identity, which necessarily occupy specific chromosome locations, or unique but anonymous chromosomal position markers identified only by their deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences. The latter are more powerful analytically because they frequently show greater inter-individual variations; they are the basis for the best current human and murine linkage maps. Unfortunately, these anonymous markers cannot generally be related directly to specific biologic function(s). By contrast, the former are directly related to—and frequently derived from—specific genes and can be used to identify the precise mutation(s) responsible for specific traits. DNA-based gene analysis can proceed by several established methods. The first method relies on producing site-specific cleavage of chromosomal DNA with restriction enzymes and separating the thousands of resulting fragments by gel electrophoresis. The second approach to DNA-based gene analysis uses the variations of the basic technique of copying any given DNA fragment by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Quantification and composition of microplastics in the Raritan Hudson Estuary: Comparison to pathways of entry and implications for fate

Abstract Comprehensive approaches are needed to understand accumulation patterns and the relative importance of pathways of entry for microplastics in the marine environment. Here, a highly urbanized estuarine environment was sampled along a salinity gradient from the mouth of the Raritan River, (New Jersey, USA) and into the Raritan Bay and the coastal ocean which are further influenced by discharge from the larger Hudson River. Polymers were characterized in two size classes by FTIR and/or Raman spectroscopy. The highest concentration of 500–2000 μm microplastic particles were observed in the mouth of the Raritan during summer low flow conditions, whereas the 250–500 μm microplastic particles were more prevalent in the bay and coastal ocean samples. These results were interpreted using fragmentation and mixing models to provide insight into the sources and fate of microplastics in this estuarine/coastal region. To investigate the potential pathways of entry into the system, samples were collected from various hydraulically connected storm water outfalls and the influent and effluent of wastewater treatment plants and polymer concentrations and types were compared to the estuarine samples. The concentrations of microplastics (500–2000 μm) ranged from 400 to 600 microplastics/m3 in storm water compared to
Gaussian Focused-Cavity Resonator

Contour mode resonators in suspended AlN films experience performance limitations from anchors and bussing. To mitigate this, we show how confocal acoustical resonators designed with tailored electrode shapes increase quality factor by concentrating the mode energy toward the resonator center, focusing the cavity mode away from anchors, while also maintaining coupling coefficient even with extremely tight focusing. We present a theoretical treatment for electrode design and present an experimental analysis comparing straight fingered vs focused cavity, showing both a Q increase and constant coupling coefficient while the radius of curvature is increased from loose focusing to the diffraction limit.
Milliwatt Threshold Ultra-Low Linewidth Photonic Integrated Si 3 N 4 Brillouin Laser

We report a 1.35 mW threshold Brillouin laser with measured 0.47 Hz fundamental and 525 Hz integral linewidths using a 422 Million intrinsic Q Si 3 N 4 resonator.
ERE: a framework for performance-energy tradeoffs in heterogeneous systems

With the merger of high-performance and low-power requirements, designing efficient parallel and heterogeneous systems is becoming more complex due to the lack of a systematic way to analyze various performance-energy tradeoffs. We propose an analysis framework with a new metric named energy-resource efficiency (ERE), which evaluates and systematically synthesizes performance-energy tradeoffs in a system. We assess our framework by incorporating both performance and energy improvements into a system, and then evaluating the system using our framework. Our experimental results demonstrate that ERE illustratively portrays the overall improvements and the performance energy tradeoffs, in a way not done by traditional evaluation frameworks.
City Quality of Life Dynamics: The Case of Los Angeles Smog

Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs Columbia University andVisiting Assistant Professor of Economics, and Census Research Associate. Address:Harvard University, Department of Economics. Cambridge MA 02138. E-mail:mkahn@harvard.edu. I thank participants at the Buffalo 1997 Regional Science meetingsand Harvard University’s Urban seminar, Dora Costa and Shelby Gerking for helpfulcomments. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authorand do not represent those of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. All papers are screened toensure that they do not disclose confidential information.City Quality of Life Dynamics: The Case of Los Angeles Smog Matthew E. Kahn
Suppression of Monilinia fructicola cutinase production by peach fruit surface phenolic acids

Chlorogenic and caffeic acids are major phenolic acids in the epidermis and subtending cell layers of peach fruit (Prunus persica). Their concentrations are especially high in peach genotypes with a high level of resistance to the brown rot fungus,Monilinia fructicola, and decline as fruit mature with a corresponding increase in disease susceptibility. Chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid at concentrations up to 5 mmdid not inhibitM. fructicolaspore germination or mycelial growth in culture. In cultures amended with either of these phenolic acids, cutinase activity was reduced with a sharp decrease apparent at 0.1 mm. The presence of caffeic acid in cultures during growth on cutin prevented the appearance of two major cutinase isoforms as well as additional esterases in the filtrates. Cutinase activity was not directly inhibited by chlorogenic acid or caffeic acid, nor by oxidized caffeic acid. A series of cinnamic and benzoic acids with various degrees of hydroxylation and methoxylation of the aromatic ring also suppressed cutinase levels in culture, indicating the effect was not specific to the naturally abundant chlorogenic and caffeic acids. Cinnamic acid, with an unsubstituted aromatic ring, was least suppressive, and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid, a known chelating agent that can facilitate iron transport, was most suppressive. We propose that the high concentration of chlorogenic acid present in immature fruit and in fruit from genotypes with high levels of disease resistance may contribute to the brown rot resistance of the tissue by interference with the production of factors involved in degradation of host polymers rather than by direct toxicity to the pathogen. Chlorogenic acid and related phenolics in combination with other factors such as iron could function to arrestM. fructicolain quiescent infections associated with immature and ripening fruit.
Analysis of fluorescence lifetime curves: A new method for correcting raw fluorescence lifetime curves for the parallel contribution by scattered light

Abstract A method is described for estimating the fractional contribution of light scattered from the excitation lamp to the normalized raw fluorescence lifetime curve. The method depends on the ratio of the slope of the normalized light scatter spectrum to the slope of the normalized raw fluorescence spectrum in the vicinity of the intersection of the two spectra. The correction for scattered light is made prior to deconvolution, and hence, has the advantage of being independent of the method selected to calculate the true fluorescence life-time spectrum. It is simple and does not require a computer. Tested against curves synthesized from known additions of scattered light to fluorescence spectra exhibiting mono-, bi-, or triexponential decay, it yielded small absolute errors.