cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and structural studies of layered aluminum phenylphosphonate

Abstract A new aluminum phenylphosphonate compound with the formula AlH(C 6 H 5 PO 3 ) 2 · H 2 O was obtained by refluxing a mixture of aluminum nitrate and excess phenylphosphonic acid in water. The compound was characterized by elemental analysis, thermal gravimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, and 27 Al nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. It has a pillared layered structure containing only octahedrally coordinated aluminum atoms, with an interlayer Spacing Of ~15 A.
Memory-based in situ learning for unmanned vehicles

The ultimate goal of our research is to provide teams of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) some of the abilities of animals to adapt to their environment using their memories, without requiring exhaustive trial-and-error testing or complex modeling of the environment. We focus on UUVs because they offer the promise of making dangerous tasks such as searching for underwater hazards or surveying the ocean bottom more safe and economical for government and commercial operations. We adopt a team concept to reduce overall mission cost using several low-cost subordinate UUVs to augment the sensor capabilities of a higher-capability lead UUV. Our goal is to develop a team of robots that would have the capability to learn their roles and improve team strategies so that the team can meet its overall goals in dynamic unstructured. Our research uses a sensor-input-based metric for success combined with a training regimen based on recently collected memories - a temporal series of sensor/action relationships - in which robots with "ears" listen for a leader robot and attempt to follow, and where the ensuing formations are a result of emergent behavior.
Design of a Novel Device to Provide Assured Seating of Bone Implanted Fiducial Markers

Microstereotactic frames are a subset of stereotactic frames. They are smaller than traditional frames, and they employ small discrete anchors that are screwed into a patient’s bony anatomy, typically the skull. These anchors provide points of attachment for the frame and also serve as markers that provide a bridge between image space and physical space. Both these markers and the anatomy of interest are imaged in a CT or MRI scanner, and their positions are established relative to one another. The microstereotactic frame is then custom made so that, when it is attached to the anchors, it will guide a surgical instrument to an anatomical target. These frames offer advantages over stereotactic frames, including increased targeting accuracy and patient comfort. Firm placement of these anchors is critical as any movement will cause errors in the imaging localization, frame design, or frame attachment. Anchor placement is complicated by the variation in bone density and by the obscuring tissue and bleeding that make visual confirmation of seating very difficult. A novel device called the PosiSeat™ is presented that provides assured seating for bone-implanted anchors.
Analytical model for rates of electron attachment and intramolecular electron transfer in electron transfer dissociation mass spectrometry.

A new physical model is put forth to allow the prediction of electron transfer rates and distances for (i) intramolecular transfer from an n > or = 3 Rydberg orbital on a positive site to a disulfide or amide bond site and (ii) intermolecular transfer from an anion donor to an n > or = 3 Rydberg orbital of a positively charged polypeptide. Although ab initio methods have proven capable of handling such electron transfer events when the Rydberg orbital has principal quantum number n = 3, they have proven to be incapable of handling Rydberg states having quantum number n > 3, so having a new tool capable of handling n > 3 Rydberg states is important. The model (i) focuses on each Rydberg orbital's large peak of high amplitude, (ii) approximates the electron density within this peak as constant within a radial shell characterized by a radius and thickness T both of which depend on the quantum number n, and (iii) assumes that strong coupling (either with an orbital of an anion donor or to a disulfide sigma* or a backbone amide pi* orbital) occurs when the valence orbital penetrates fully within the radial shell of the Rydberg orbital. These assumptions permit a derivation of the ratios of rates of electron transfer for n > 3 to those for n = 3. Combining these ratios with ab initio rates for n = 3 allows one to make rate predictions for inter- and intramolecular electron transfer involving Rydberg orbitals appropriate to the electron transfer dissociation process. One important prediction of this model is that the combination of large-penetration and Landau-Zener surface-crossing conditions places very severe limitations on which Rydberg levels can initially be populated in electron transfer dissociation. Another prediction is that a Rydberg orbital of a given principal quantum number n has a limited range of distances over which it can transfer an electron; sigma* or pi* orbitals either too far from or too close to a given Rydberg orbital cannot accept an electron from that orbital.
The three-dimensional structure of an intact monoclonal antibody for canine lymphoma.

CRYSTAL structures of Fab antibody fragments determined by X-ray diffraction characteristically feature four-domain, β-barrel arrangements1–3. A human antibody Fc fragment has also been found to have four β-barrel domains4. The structures of a few intact antibodies have been solved5–8: in two myeloma proteins, the flexible hinge regions that connect the Fc to the Fab segments were deleted5,6 so the molecules were non-functional, structurally restrained, T-shaped antibodies; a third antibody, Kol, had no hinge residues missing but the Fc region was sufficiently disordered that it was not possible to relate its disposition accurately with respect to the Fab components7,8. Here we report the structure at 3.5 A resolution of an IgG2a antitumour monoclonal antibody which contains an intact hinge region and was solved in a triclinic crystal by molecular replacement using known Fc and Fab fragments. The antibody is asymmetric, reflecting its dynamic character. There are two local, apparently independent, dyads in the molecule. One relates the heavy chains in the Fc, the other relates the constant domains of the Fabs. The variable domains are not related by this 2-fold axis because of the different Fab elbow angles of 159° and 143°. The Fc has assumed an asymmetric, oblique orientation with respect to loosely tethered yet almost collinear Fabs. Our study enables the two antigen-binding segments as well as the Fc portion of a functional molecule to be visualized and illustrates the flexibility of these immune response proteins.
Differential effects of familiarity on judgments of sameness and difference

Ss indicated whether pairs of simultaneously presented objects were “same” or “different.” In Experiments 1, 2, and 3 the stimuli were pairs of letters, and familiarity was manipulated by showing the letters in either an upright or an upside-down orientation. In Experiments 4 and 5 the stimuli were pairs of trigrams, and familiarity was manipulated either by rotation or by selection according to rated meaningfulness. Analysis of reaction times indicated that familiar pairs were responded to more quickly than were unfamiliar pairs; however, this was true only for “same” judgments, not for “different” judgments. In addition, Experiment 3 indicated that familiarity influenced discrimination accuracy under conditions of tachistoscopic exposure. Finally, in Experiment 6 an effort was made to disentangle the effects of meaningfulness from the effects of pronounceability. The present results stand in contrast to previous research using perceptual comparison tasks, since the earlier work failed to indicate any effect of familiarity.
Counteraction between two kinds of conditioned inhibition training

In a Pavlovian fear-conditioning preparation, we investigated the effects of combining Pavlovian and explicitly unpaired inhibition treatments. A summation test for inhibition suggested a strong tendency toward unpaired inhibition when that treatment was administered alone and found robust Pavlovian inhibition when that treatment was administered alone, but detected little behavior indicative of inhibition in subjects that experienced both treatments during training. The retardation test showed reliable unpaired and Pavlovian inhibition when these treatments were administered alone but no indication of inhibition in subjects that experienced both treatments. These counterintuitive results suggest that in some circumstances the effects of two inhibitory treatments are not additive but rather counteractive. The present results provide some information about the nature of conditioned inhibition and, more generally, cue interaction.
Electrochemical Polishing Applications and EIS of a Vitamin B4-Based Ionic Liquid

Modern particle accelerators require minimal interior surface roughness for Niobium superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities. Polishing of the Nb is currently achieved via electrochemical polishing with concentrated mixtures of sulfuric and hydrofluoric acids. This acid-based approach is effective at reducing the surface roughness to acceptable levels for SRF use, but due to acid-related hazards and extra costs (including safe disposal of used polishing solutions), an acid-free method would be preferable. This study focuses on an alternative electrochemical polishing method for Nb, using a novel ionic liquid solution containing choline chloride, also known as Vitamin B{sub 4} (VB{sub 4}). Potentiostatic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was also performed on the VB4-based system. Nb polished using the VB4-based method was found to have a final surface roughness comparable to that achieved via the acid-based method, as assessed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). These findings indicate that acid-free VB{sub 4}-based electrochemical polishing of Nb represents a promising replacement for acid-based methods of SRF cavity preparation.
Learning in tandem: professional development for teachers and students as inquirers

This study explores the first year of a grant-funded professional development program that utilized collaborative inquiry to develop teachers’ capacities to enact inquiry learning with secondary students in a variety of content areas. Guided by a vision of inquiry as a complex endeavor, located along a continuum of decisions about authentic disciplinary tasks and student autonomy, as well as a situated view of teacher learning, researchers examined surveys, reflective writing and teacher work samples to explore the relationship between developing capacity for both student and teacher inquiry. Teachers reported satisfaction with their learning about teacher and student inquiry while exhibiting capacity at mostly beginning levels. Ultimately, these results led to discussion of the practical and conceptual dilemmas for facilitating teacher learning when the two inquiry processes for teachers and students are developed in tandem. While conceptual shifts in planning and assessment were noted, practical capacit...
First observation of self-amplified spontaneous emission at 1.064 μm

Abstract We report evidence of self-amplified spontaneous emission at 1064 nm. Single pass, on-axis microwiggler emissions into a 25 nm bandwidth have been recorded as a function of beam charge, and show a clear enhancement over spontaneous emission after threshold. These are the first measurements of SASE at such a short wavelength, and employ the smallest period wiggler used to date in a successful SASE experiment. The experiment has been performed with the MIT microwiggler at the Accelerator Test Facility at BNL. A single micropulse at 34 MeV with a variable charge of 0–1 nC and
Multilanguage programming: an automatic-type-mapping approach

The data type correspondence problem arises when one tries to interconnect, within a single program, modules written in different languages and therefore within the framework of different type systems. An interconnection model is proposed which hides details such as interlanguage data type mappings and low level communications, which are irrelevant or confusing to most programmers. Using this model, the authors develop an automated solution to the problem of finding, for a given type in a given programming language, the corresponding type in another programming language. They compare this approach with others which have been proposed in the literature, and discuss a prototype implementation in detail. >
A validated security policy modeling approach

The paper presents a security policy modeling approach that can be applied to many types of systems, including networks and distributed systems. The approach is driven by security requirements and by system architecture. It is compatible with the modeling principles offered by recent modeling guidelines and the TCSEC modeling requirements at the B1-A1 assurance levels. The approach has been validated through its application to various development, certification and research projects, including tactical systems, secure gateways, and C/sup 3/I systems. The approach presented here has been favorably reviewed by security evaluation teams for government agencies. The paper illustrates the approach by applying it to an example tactical system. >
A Note on the Optimality of Variant-I Permutation Modulation Codes

In this correspondence, the optimality of variant-I permutation codes initially proposed by Slepian [see proc. IEEE, vol. 53, no. 3, p. 228-236, Mar. 1965] is shown in a simple way.
Dissecting the conditioned pecking response: an integrated system for the analysis of pecking response parameters.

Abstract The conventional pecking response key, although an excellent transducer of response rate, can provide minimal information on the topography, coordination, or localization of conditioned pecking. We describe the hardware and software components of a system that, in addition to recording response rates, permits simultaneous "on-line" monitoring of head acceleration, jaw movement, terminal peck location, and duration of pecking response. Head movements are monitored with a miniature accelerometer, jaw movements with a magnetosensitive transducer, and peck location with modified touch screen technology. Initial experiments with the system suggest that it will be useful in studies of response differentiation, acquisition and maintenance of complex discriminations, and interaction of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli in the control of pecking response probability and response topography.
Criterion validity of the financial skills subscale of the direct assessment of functional status scale

Among the severely mentally ill, some individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder can manage their finances independently, while others depend upon a court-appointed guardian or a representative payee. The present study examined the criterion validity of the financial skills subscale of the Direct Assessment of Functional Status (DAFS) scale in classifying those who manage their finances independently from those who do not. Scores on the financial skills subscale of the DAFS scale of 25 severely mentally ill outpatients without a guardian/payee were compared to scores of 24 severely mentally ill outpatients with a guardian/payee; 25 non-mentally ill participants served as controls. Logistic regression analyses, Bayesian statistics, and Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses revealed moderate classification accuracy in a sample with mild cognitive impairment. These analyses were also conducted on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores and revealed generally lower accuracy than the DAFS financial skills subscale. The DAFS financial skills subscale can inform the clinician's opinion about the financial capacity of the severely mentally ill.
The influence of environmental conditions on kinetics of arsenite oxidation by manganese-oxides

Manganese-oxides are one of the most important minerals in soil due to their widespread distribution and high reactivity. Despite their invaluable role in cycling many redox sensitive elements, numerous unknowns remain about the reactivity of different manganese-oxide minerals under varying conditions in natural systems. By altering temperature, pH, and concentration of arsenite we were able to determine how manganese-oxide reactivity changes with simulated environmental conditions. The interaction between manganese-oxides and arsenic is particularly important because manganese can oxidize mobile and toxic arsenite into more easily sorbed and less toxic arsenate. This redox reaction is essential in understanding how to address the global issue of arsenic contamination in drinking water. The reactivity of manganese-oxides in ascending order is random stacked birnessite, hexagonal birnessite, biogenic manganese-oxide, acid birnessite, and δ-MnO2. Increasing temperature raised the rate of oxidation. pH had a variable effect on the production of arsenate and mainly impacted the sorption of arsenate on δ-MnO2, which decreased with increasing pH. Acid birnessite oxidized the most arsenic at alkaline and acidic pHs, with decreased reactivity towards neutral pH. The δ-MnO2 showed a decline in reactivity with increasing arsenite concentration, while the acid birnessite had greater oxidation capacity under higher concentrations of arsenite. The batch reactions used in this study quantify the impact of environmental variances on different manganese-oxides’ reactivity and provide insight to their roles in governing chemical cycles in the Critical Zone. The reactivity of manganese-oxides investigated was closely linked to each mineral’s crystallinity, surface area, and presence of vacancy sites. δ-MnO2 and acid birnessite are thought to be synthetic representatives of naturally occurring biogenic manganese-oxides; however, the biogenic manganese-oxide exhibited a lag time in oxidation compared to these two minerals. Reactivity was clearly linked to temperature, which provides important information on how these minerals react in the subsurface environment. The pH affected oxidation rate, which is essential in understanding how manganese-oxides react differently in the environment and their potential role in remediating contaminated areas. Moreover, the contrasting oxidative capacity of seemingly similar manganese-oxides under varying arsenite concentrations reinforces the importance of each manganese-oxide mineral’s unique properties.
Environmental and Life-style Risk Factors for Lyme Disease in Children

Risk factors for Lyme disease and/or infection with Borrelia burgdorferi in children are not defined. A case-control study was performed using Lyme disease patients from our Lyme Clinic population. Age- and sex-matched controls from the same neighborhood were identified by the Lyme patients' families. A site visit was made to each case/control neighborhood. Twenty-four environmental variables, especially the ecologic characteristics of the home environment were examined. Forty-five items were surveyed by parent questionnaire, including certain "high-risk" activities and behaviors, whether ticks or certain animals were present on the property, and whether antitick measures were used. Control subjects had serologic assays for antibodies to B. burgdorferi. Forty-four Lyme disease patients and 44 well-matched control subjects participated; 2 controls were seropositive. Significant associations with Lyme disease were found for deer ticks in the home environment, ground cover containing moist humus, and leaf litter in the yard. Among the 45 items related to life-style, there was no correlation with Lyme disease for the use of any antitick measures or for any childhood activities; in fact, an inverse correlation was observed for camping and fishing. We conclude that conditions in the immediate home environment, including certain ecologic factors that favor the presence of Ixodes ticks, are associated with an increased risk for Lyme disease in children.
Wide Voltage Power Device implementation in O.25&#956;m SOI BiC-DMOS

In this paper, a new SOI BiC-DMOS process based on the 0.25mum CMOS process is introduced. SOI and dielectric isolation enables implementation of wide voltage and various types of lateral power devices. For Nch devices, 40V/60V/ 80V/100V/170V LDMOS and 170V/200V lateral IGBT were developed. The drift layers of LDMOS are optimized respectively. The 0.25mum CMOS process helps not only to shrink low voltage class devices such as 40V LDMOS but also to improve the SOA characteristics of high voltage devices
One of several ‘toys’ for smoking: young adult experiences with electronic cigarettes in New York City

Objective This qualitative research explores the use of electronic cigarettes and other similar ‘vapor’ delivery devices among young adults in New York City. Methods We employed 17 focus groups followed by 12 semistructured interviews to understand the beliefs, opinions and practices related to the use of electronic cigarettes among young adult smokers (N=87). Results Participants were mainly daily (52%) and non-daily (41%) smokers. While experimentation with electronic cigarette devices was frequently reported, participants related an overall lack of information about the devices and what they did know often reflected messages in e-cigarette marketing campaigns. Participants also used their own bodily sensations as a way to gauge potential risks and benefits of the products. Finally, young adults, steeped in a culture of personal technologies, perceived e-cigarettes as one more ‘toy’ among other technologies integrated into their everyday lives. Discussion E-cigarettes were also frequently used with other tobacco products, including conventional cigarettes. Our research indicates that public health campaigns may be needed to counter current industry marketing and inform the public that electronic cigarettes are currently unregulated, understudied and contain toxicants and carcinogens.
Endurance exercise attenuates ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction

Controlled mechanical ventilation (MV) is a life-saving measure for patients in respiratory failure. However, MV renders the diaphragm inactive leading to diaphragm weakness due to both atrophy and contractile dysfunction. It is now established that oxidative stress is a requirement for MV-induced diaphragmatic proteolysis, atrophy, and contractile dysfunction to occur. Given that endurance exercise can elevate diaphragmatic antioxidant capacity and the levels of the cellular stress protein heat shock protein 72 (HSP72), we hypothesized that endurance exercise training before MV would protect the diaphragm against MV-induced oxidative stress, atrophy, and contractile dysfunction in female Sprague-Dawley rats. Our results confirm that endurance exercise training before MV increased both HSP72 and the antioxidant capacity in the diaphragm. Importantly, compared with sedentary animals, exercise training before MV protected the diaphragm against MV-induced oxidative damage, protease activation, myofiber atrophy, and contractile dysfunction. Further, exercise protected diaphragm mitochondria against MV-induced oxidative damage and uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. These results provide the first evidence that exercise can provide protection against MV-induced diaphragm weakness. These findings are important and establish the need for future experiments to determine the mechanism(s) responsible for exercise-induced diaphragm protection.
Concurrent workload mapping for multicore security systems

Multicore based network processors are promising components to build real-time and scalable security systems to protect the networks and systems. The parallel nature of the processing system makes it challenging for application developers to concurrently program security systems for high performance. In this paper we present an automatic programming methodology that considers application complexity, traffic variation, and attack signatures update. In particular, our mapping algorithm concurrently takes advantage of parallelism in the level of tasks, applications, and packets to achieve optimal performance. We present results that show the effectiveness of the analysis, mapping, and the performance of the model methodology. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Value of the Tip-Apex Distance in Predicting Failure of Fixation of Peritrochanteric Fractures of the Hip

Failure of fixation of peritrochanteric fractures that have been treated with a fixed-angle sliding hip-screw device is frequently related to the position of the lag screw in the femoral head. A simple measurement has been developed to describe the position of the screw. This measurement, the tip-apex distance, is the sum of the distance from the tip of the lag screw to the apex of the femoral head on an anteroposterior radiograph and this distance on a lateral radiograph, after controlling for magnification. To determine the value of this measurement in the prediction of so-called cutout of the lag screw, 198 peritrochanteric fractures (193 patients) were studied. The minimum duration of follow-up was three months (average, thirteen months), during which period all of the fractures either healed or had failure of the fixation. Of the nineteen failures that were identified, sixteen were due to the device cutting out of the femoral head. The average tip-apex distance was twenty-four millimeters (range, nine to sixty-three millimeters) for the successfully treated fractures compared with thirty-eight millimeters (range, twenty-eight to forty-eight millimeters) for those in which the screw cut out (p = 0.0001). None of the 120 screws with a tip-apex distance of twenty-five millimeters or less cut out, but there was a very strong statistical relationship between an increasing tip-apex distance and the rate of cutout, regardless of all other variables related to the fracture.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A novel approach to soft-mask estimation and Log-Spectral enhancement for robust speech recognition

This paper describes a technique for enhancing the Mel-filtered log spectra of noisy speech, with application to noise robust speech recognition. We first compute an SNR-based soft-decision mask in the Mel-spectral domain as an indicator of speech presence. Then, we exploit the known time-frequency correlation of speech by treating this mask as an image, and performing median filtering and blurring to remove the outliers and to smooth the decision regions. This mask constitutes a set of multiplicative coefficients (ranging in [0,1]) that are used to discard the unreliable parts of the Mel-filtered log-spectrum of noisy speech. Finally, we apply Log-Spectral Flooring [1] on the liftered spectra of both clean and noisy speech so as to match their respective dynamic ranges and to emphasize the information in the spectral peaks. The noisy MFCCs computed on these modified log-spectra show an increased similarity with their corresponding clean MFCCs. Evaluation on the Aurora-2 corpus shows that the proposed approach competes with state-of-the-art front-ends, like ETSI-AFE, MVA or PNCC.
A Wideband Aperture-Coupled Microstrip Patch Antenna Employing Spaced Dielectric Cover for Enhanced Gain Performance

A dielectric cover is used to enhance the gain of an aperture-coupled microstrip patch antenna. The cover is spaced off of the patch antenna by air and, as expected, is found to significantly increase antenna broadside directivity in some configurations. A parametric study on the effects of spacing height, cover size, and thickness of the cover are presented. This study uses a finite element method (FEM) based, commercial analysis tool to perform these parametric searches, and so accounts for finite size ground planes and dielectrics. The previous research work reported in literature considered infinite-area ground planes and dielectrics. The wide impedance matching bandwidth of the aperture-coupled microstrip patch also allows observation of the narrow-bandwidth effects of the added dielectric cover. Finally, a proposed design methodology is outlined, and a prototype of the antenna was fabricated and experimentally verified with a peak gain of 13.9 dBi. The measured results agree reasonably well with the simulated ones.
Circuits for a VLSI-based standalone backpropagation neural network

Three circuits are described as an initial step toward implementing an analog VLSI-based backpropagation neural network. One of these circuits is the connectivity matrix for a fully connected five-input perceptron. The second is a summer circuit that immediately computes total backpropagated error. The third is a triggerable processor that optimizes a given synaptic weight with respect to backpropagated error. Performed in hardware, the operations performed by these circuits will take place in parallel, and in real time. As such, they will allow the neural network to converge at a higher speed than software-based counterparts. The circuitry for this network has been implemented in 2-micron CMOS technology, and will form the bases for truly parallel and simultaneous standalone neural networks that operate in real time without intervention from digital computers. >
On Presuppositions of Theological Ethics

Once the need to reform Catholic ethics became manifest with the Second Vatican Council, revision and adaptation of moral theology, the science that had served since the Council of Trent as official Catholic ethics, was often presented as the theological path to renewal. Scrutiny of philosophical, ethical, and theological presuppositions, however, discloses that the foundations of moral theology differ radically from those on which contemporary theological ethics must be based and that, accordingly, the way to true reform is not revision and adaptation of moral theology but the replacement of this self-contained science through construction of a fundamentally different kind of ethics, theological relational ethics as an essential, integral part of a reconstituted holistic theology.
Tunable work function in fully nickel-silicided polysilicon gates for metal gate MOSFET applications

The work function of fully nickel-silicided polysilicon was investigated. The midgap work function (4.7 eV) was obtained for undoped mononickel-silicide (NiSi). It was shown that the implantation of both arsenic and antimony into the polysilicon before silicidation reduces the NiSi work function, and the change in work function is greater for antimony than for arsenic. The pile-up of these species at the oxide interface during the nickel silicidation is demonstrated to be the physical mechanism responsible for the work function shift. Both species activations before silicidation and silicidation conditions were found to affect the NiSi work function shift significantly. The nonactivated species have minimum effect and incomplete silicidation can have maximum work function shift. The doping effect of indium on the NiSi work function is reported for the first time. A shift of /spl sim/0.14 eV toward the valence band was obtained for 2.6-nm oxide capacitors. It was found that the work function shift caused by the indium doping is saturated at a relatively low dose, which may be related to the low solid solubility of indium in polysilicon.
A Comparative Study on Capital Structure of Cashew Processing Cooperative Society

This study Conducted in Cashew Processing Cooperative society , Dharampur taluk in Gujarat state’s to analyze the financial Capital Structure by using the data in Six years
A universal upper bound on the performance of the Lempel-Ziv algorithm on maliciously-constructed data

We consider the performance of the Lempel-Ziv (1978) algorithm on finite strings and infinite sequences having unbalanced statistics. We show that such strings and sequences are compressed by the Lempel-Ziv algorithm. We show that the converse does not hold, i.e., that there are sequences with perfectly balanced asymptotic statistics that the Lempel-Ziv algorithm compresses optimally.
A Natural Language to Component Term Methodology: Towards a Form Based Concept Generation Tool

Over the last few decades design researchers have put forward theories and proposed methodologies that increase the chance that a design team will reliably arrive at the optimal solution to a given design problem. Studies, however, bear out that theories and methodologies alone will not guarantee an optimal or even good design solution. Instead, a breadth of knowledge across multiple engineering domains and the time and tools to thoroughly evaluate the design space are as important as any prescriptive design method. This work presents one of the underlying engineering technologies needed to leverage artificial intelligence approaches to thoroughly search the design space and synthesize concept solutions. Artificial intelligence methods are employed to generate a natural language to formal component terms thesaurus as part of a novel form-initiated concept generation approach. With this fundamental natural language interpretation algorithm, designers may now suggest an initial solution to a problem, expressed in everyday terms, and then rely on a machine to abstract the underlying functionality and conduct a thorough search of the solution space.© 2009 ASME
THE LANGUAGE OF RIGHTS AND CONCEPTUAL HISTORY

The historical problem about the origins of the language of rights derives its importance from the conceptual problem: of "two fundamentally different ways of thinking about justice," which is basic? Is justice unitary or plural? This in turn opens up a problem about the moral status of human nature. A narrative of the origins of "rights" is an account of how and when a plural concept of justice comes to the fore, and will be based on the occurrence of definite speech-forms - the occurrence of the plural noun in the sense of "legal properties." The history of this development is currently held to begin with the twelfth-century canonists. Later significant thresholds may be found in the fourteenth, sixteenth, and eighteenth centuries. WolterstorfFs attempt to find the implicit recognition of rights in the Scriptures depends very heavily on what he takes to be implied rather than on what is stated, and at best can establish a pre-history of rights-language.
Simplifying Ajax-style Web development

Conventional browser-based Web applications require the user to submit a request to the server, wait for the server to process the request and generate a response, and then wait for the browser to update the interface with the results. This request-wait-response-wait pattern is extremely disruptive and lowers productivity. High network latency and interface complexity and slow server responsiveness can further impair the user experience, resulting in decreased customer satisfaction, shorter and less frequent Web site visits, and, ultimately, reduced revenue to e-businesses. In this article the author describes asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a standards-based programming technique designed to make Web-based applications more responsive, interactive, and customizable - in short, to recreate the seamless user experience of most other desktop applications.
Experimental evaluation of a new transcatheter vascular embolization device in the swine model.

PURPOSE To evaluate a new transcatheter device suitable for arterial embolization in an animal model. MATERIALS AND METHODS A new prototype self-expanding braided embolic device (Embolizor), consisting of nitinol wire strands fixed at either end with platinum-iridium bands and covered with a film of polyethylene, was deployed through 5-F diagnostic catheters into renal artery branches in five swine. Standard stainless-steel spring coils were deployed in other renal branches and served as controls. The animals underwent follow-up selective renal arteriography to determine presence or absence of vessel recanalization or device migration 15–23 days after device deployment. Histopathologic evaluation of target vessels and peripheral renal parenchyma was also performed. RESULTS Ten Embolizors and 10 stainless-steel coils were deployed in arteries ranging in size from 1.8 to 3.0 mm in diameter. The Embolizor was easily and precisely deployed. Angiographic evidence of vascular occlusion in the Embolizor group was noted within 30 seconds in eight device deployments and within 5 minutes in two. No early or delayed device migration was noted on follow-up arteriography. In the control group, seven of 10 previously occluded arteries were recanalized. No recanalization was noted in the Embolizor group. Light microscopy revealed evidence of infarction in all specimens examined. Whereas three specimens in the Embolizor group contained occasional giant cells, there were numerous multinucleated giant cells present within the interstices of all control spring coils. CONCLUSION The Embolizor was easily, precisely, and successfully deployed through standard selective diagnostic angiographic catheters. Short-term follow-up demonstrated no recanalization or migration of the device. The Embolizor was shown on histopathologic analysis to have no significant foreign body reaction.
Risk for a Price: Sexual Activity Solicitations in Online Male Sex Worker Profiles

ABSTRACT The use of social- and sexual networking-based Web sites designed to provide easy and more anonymous access to sexual partners is rising. The popularity of the use of Web sites by male sex workers to promote their services and find clients is also rising. To date, very little inquiry has been devoted to studying the sexual behaviors solicited within online advertisement profiles of male sex workers and men who have sex with men. This study utilized a widely used popular Internet site designed to advertise to clients and gathered demographic, advertised sexual and nonsexual behaviors, pricing, and safety risk category data from profiles within the state of Florida (n = 163). Pearson chi-square analyses indicated that location and several sexual behaviors were significantly related to how often the men reported the degree to which they had safer sex with clients. These findings suggest some male sex workers do not consistently maintain safer-sex behaviors and that some of these men are engaging in ...
Top quark mass measurements at D0

We present the most recent measurements of the mass of the top quark at D0 using proton-antiproton collisions at p s = 1:96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The world average for the mass of the top quark is 170:9 1:8 GeV/c 2 .
Runtime verification of traces under recording uncertainty

We present an on-line algorithm for the runtime checking of temporal properties, expressed as past-time Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) over the traces of observations recorded by a "black box"-like device. The recorder captures the observed values but not the precise time of their occurrences, and precise truth evaluation of a temporal logic formula cannot always be obtained. In order to handle this uncertainty, the checking algorithm is based on a three-valued semantics for past-time LTL defined in this paper. In addition to the algorithm, the paper presents results of an evaluation that aimed to study the effects of the recording uncertainty on different kinds of temporal logic properties.
Preoperative PSA Velocity Predicts for Relapse After Radical Prostatectomy

Materials/Methods: We reviewed the outcomes of 202 men with available preoperative annual PSAV data who underwent RP between 1989 and 2001. No patient received adjuvant androgen suppression prior to RP and all patients were pN0. Biopsy and surgical specimens were reviewed by a single pathologist: JEM. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed for all clinical and biopsy variables with respect to relapse-free survival after RP.
METROPOLITAN GOVERNANCE: INSTITUTIONAL ROLES AND INTERJURISDICTIONAL COOPERATION

ABSTRACT:Theories of metropolitan governance tend to underemphasize the salience of jurisdictional politics and jurisdictional institutions. This paper uses a one-shot prisoner’s dilemma experiment...
ASCO-CAP guidelines for breast predictive factor testing: an update.

This brief report compares and contrasts the American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guidelines for breast cancer predictive factor testing including the American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists human epidermal growth factor receptor, type
DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSE OF THE DOG QUADRICEPS MUSCLE TO EXTERNAL SKELETAL FIXATION OF THE KNEE

The change in muscle fiber size and fiber percentage was studied in three heads of the dog quadriceps following 10 weeks of immobilization using an external skeletal fixator. Muscle biopsy morphometric analysis revealed that muscle fiber atrophy was greatest for the vastus medialis and least for the rectus femoris. The atrophic response for type 1 fibers was, in order from most to least atrophied: VM greater than VL greater than RF, whereas for type 2 fibers the corresponding order was VM = VL greater than RF. An increase in connective tissue was also observed for all muscles. These results are discussed in terms of skeletal muscle architecture, initial fiber-type distribution, and level of use. As a result, predictions are made as to the muscles that are most vulnerable to disuse atrophy, namely the postural muscles that contain a relatively large proportion of slow muscle fibers and cross a single joint. Conversely, those that are least susceptible to atrophy are those that are not used as postural muscles, that cross multiple joints, and that are predominantly composed of fast muscle fibers.
Key Factors for Shortening Response Time in the Strategic Issues Diagnosis Process

Strategic Issue Diagnosis research focused on the complexity of decision making in a turbulent environment; the cognitive processes associated with interpretation; and, political issues embedded in strategic decision making. However, speed has been ignored. Information gathering and sense making of data through competitive intelligence processes affects the speed associated with interpretation, analysis, and decision making. Through a questionnaire administered in the Pittsburgh region, we identified within organizational factors that assist in counteracting the recursiveness and redundancy inherent in the process hastening strategic decision making. Analysis based on Partial Least Squares regression techniques with bootstrapping enabled generalization of previous research includes the role of speed.
An Expert System for Assigning Investment Quality Ratings Using the AHP

A vast majority of security issues in financial markets are evaluated by rating agencies and assigned quality ratings. These ratings provide investors with an indication of default risk associated with the securities. Ratings are assigned to numerous types of financial assets including commercial paper, bonds, sovereign government debt, common and preferred stock, and securities offered on euromarkets such as eurobonds and eurocommercial paper.
Program-object Level Data Flow Analysis with Applications to Data Leakage and Contamination Forensics

We introduce a novel Data Flow Analysis (DFA) technique, called PoL-DFA (Program-object Level Data Flow Analysis), to analyze the dynamic data flows of server programs. PoL-DFA symbolically analyzes every instruction in the execution trace of a process to keep track of the data flows among program objects (e.g., integers, structures, arrays), and concatenates these pieces of data flows to obtain the overall data flow graph of the execution. We leverage PoL-DFA to identify malicious data flows in data leakage and contamination forensics. In two mocked digital forensic scenarios, for data leakage and contamination respectively, we tested the ability of PoL-DFA to identify data flows among multiple inputs and outputs of server programs. Our results show that PoL-DFA can accurately determine whether the data (or the processed results) from a source file or socket flow to a certain output channel. Based on this information, security administrators can pinpoint the path of data leakage or data contamination. Different from existing dynamic DFA techniques that require excessive amount of instrumentation, PoL-DFA only requires logging the execution traces of the processes being monitored. The measured performance overhead for server programs is 4.24%, on average. The results indicate PoL-DFA is a lightweight DFA solution for data leakage and contamination forensics.
Long-Term Results of Pro Re Nata Regimen of Aflibercept Treatment in Persistent Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose To determine the 24-month results of patients who had pro re nata (PRN) aflibercept treatment owing to recurrent or resistant neovascular macular degeneration. Design Retrospective, interventional, consecutive case series. Methods Eighty-one eyes of 78 patients with resistant or multiple recurrences of intraretinal or subretinal fluid while receiving monthly bevacizumab or ranibizumab injections and were switched to strict, as-needed aflibercept treatment with every-8-weeks spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT)-guided monitoring were included. If there was a persistence of fluid despite this treatment, more frequent aflibercept injections were considered. Anatomic outcomes including maximum retinal thickness, central macular thickness, maximum pigment epithelial detachment height, maximum fluid height, and visual acuity (VA) were assessed at given follow-ups. Results All anatomic endpoints significantly improved following 3 consecutive aflibercept injections, which were maintained through 24 months ( P Conclusion Aflibercept injection with an as-needed regimen was effective in many eyes previously treated with monthly bevacizumab or ranibizumab injections that had persistent or recurrent fluid. Despite significant improvement in anatomic outcomes, vision remained stable throughout the 2-year follow-up, likely because this cohort of patients had advanced choroidal neovascular membrane upon enrollment (recurrent or resistant).
An improved multi-directional local search algorithm for the multi-objective consistent vehicle routing problem

ABSTRACTThis article presents a multi-objective variant of the Consistent Vehicle Routing Problem (MoConVRP). Instead of modeling consistency considerations such as driver consistency and time consistency as constraints as in the majority of the ConVRP literature, they are included as objectives. Furthermore, instead of formulating a single weighted objective that relies on specifying relative priorities among objectives, an approach to approximate the Pareto frontier is developed. Specifically, an improved version of multi-directional local search (MDLS) is developed. The updated algorithm, IMDLS, makes use of large neighborhood search to find solutions that are improved according to at least one objective to add to the set of nondominated solutions at each iteration. The performance of IMDLS is compared with MDLS and five other multi-objective algorithms on a set of ConVRP test instances from the literature. The computational study validates the competitive performance of IMDLS. Furthermore, results of ...
Geographic Variation in the Use of Breast-Conserving Treatment for Breast Cancer

Abstract Background. In the past decade there has been an increase in the use of treatment designed to conserve the breast for women with breast cancer. The extent to which such treatment has been adopted in various regions of the country and whether characteristics of hospitals and patients predict its use are not known, however. Methods. We used national data on Medicare claims for inpatient care provided in 1986 to study 36,982 women 65 to 79 years of age, who had local or regional breast cancer and underwent either mastectomy or breast-conserving treatment (local excision, quadrantectomy, or subtotal mastectomy). Information about the hospitals at which these women were treated was obtained from an American Hospital Association survey. Results. Of the 36,982 women, 12.1 percent had breast-conserving surgery and 87.9 percent had a mastectomy. The frequency of breast-conserving surgery ranged from 3.5 percent to 21.2 percent in various states. The highest rate of use was in the Middle Atlantic states (2...