cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multivariate Temporal Point Process Regression

Point process modeling is gaining increasing attention, as point process type data are emerging in a large variety of scientific applications. In this article, motivated by a neuronal spike trains ...
Stern and Diffuse Layer Interactions during Ionic Strength Cycling

Second harmonic generation amplitude and phase measurements are acquired in real time from fused silica:water interfaces that are subjected to ionic strength transitions conducted at pH 5.8. In conjunction with atomistic modeling, we identify correlations between structure in the Stern layer, encoded in the total second-order nonlinear susceptibility, chi(2)tot, and in the diffuse layer, encoded in the product of chi(2)tot and the total interfacial potential, phi(0)tot. chi(2)tot:phi(0)tot correlation plots indicate that the dynamics in the Stern and diffuse layers are decoupled from one another under some conditions (large change in ionic strength), while they change in lockstep under others (smaller change in ionic strength) as the ionic strength in the aqueous bulk solution varies. The quantitative structural and electrostatic information obtained also informs on the molecular origin of hysteresis in ionic strength cycling over fused silica. Atomistic simulations suggest a prominent role of contact ion pairs (as opposed to solvent-separated ion pairs) in the Stern layer. Those simulations also indicate that net water alignment is limited to the first 2 nm from the interface, even at 0 M ionic strength, highlighting water's polarization as an important contributor to nonlinear optical signal generation.
Learning in Games with Cumulative Prospect Theoretic Preferences

We consider repeated games where the players behave according to cumulative prospect theory (CPT). We show that, when the players have calibrated strategies and behave according to CPT, the natural analog of the notion of correlated equilibrium in the CPT case, as defined by Keskin, is not enough to capture all subsequential limits of the empirical distribution of action play. We define the notion of a mediated CPT correlated equilibrium via an extension of the stage game to a so-called mediated game. We then show, along the lines of the result of Foster and Vohra about convergence to the set of correlated equilibria when the players behave according to expected utility theory that, in the CPT case, under calibrated learning the empirical distribution of action play converges to the set of all mediated CPT correlated equilibria. We also show that, in general, the set of CPT correlated equilibria is not approachable in the Blackwell approachability sense. We observe that a mediated game is a specific type of a game with communication, as introduced by Myerson, and as a consequence, we get that the revelation principle does not hold under CPT.
Tissue-specific heteroplasmy dynamics is accompanied by a sharp drop in mtDNA copy number during development

Mitochondrial mutation phenotypes are highly unpredictable as they depend on 3 variables; mutant-to-wildtype ratio (heteroplasmy level), total number of mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA), and the tissue affected. The exact phenotype experienced is governed by the combination of these variables, but current models lack the capability to examine the three variables simultaneously. We have established a C. elegans muscle and neuron system to overcome this challenge. Using this system, we measure heteroplasmy level and mtDNA copy number throughout development. Our results show that neurons accumulate significantly higher heteroplasmy level than muscles. These tissue-specific differences arise late in development, and are dependent on AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Importantly, we find that somatic tissues lose more than half of their mtDNA content during development. These findings show that heteroplasmy levels can remain stable, or even increase, despite acute mtDNA losses.
Development of a Compton telescope based on single-crystal diamond detectors and fast scintillators

Observing cosmic sources in the medium-energy gamma-ray regime (~0.4 - 10 MeV) requires highly efficient instruments with high angular resolution and robust background rejection. Artificial single-crystal diamond detectors (SCDDs) are comparable to traditional silicon solid-state detectors (SSDs) in terms of energy range, energy resolution, and threshold levels. However, they exceed SSD performance with faster rise times, improved radiation hardness, and insensitivity to light and temperature. CeBr3 scintillator is a high density, high Z material with fast rise times and good energy resolution ( 4% FWHM at 662 keV) make it a promising gammaray calorimeter. Here, we outline ongoing work by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to develop readout and data acquisition electronics to characterize SCDDs. Additional work is ongoing at Los Alamos National Laboratory to characterize CeBr3 scintillator detectors that are read out with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). Currently, an off the shelf ASIC system from PETsys Electronics (TOFPET2 ASIC),1 developed for time-of-flight (ToF) positron emission tomography (PET), is used to record the CeBr3 data. After characterization of the CeBr3 and SCDDs, we plan to bring them together to form a prototype Compton telescope. Performance of the prototype will benchmark simulations of a functional Compton Telescope to predict the sensitivity of an optimized instrument for a satellite platform.
The Willingness to Pay for Flood Insurance

Flooding is the natural disaster that causes the most damage. Postflood, many families are not insured and do not have sufficient savings for rebuilding, and governmental aid can be limited. We undertake, using a stated preference survey, the first willingness-to-pay (WTP) elicitation for flood insurance in the United States. WTP increases with modeled flood risk and flood-risk perceptions. WTP for residents in our study area’s 100-year floodplain is 47% to 59% of the median flood insurance premium, which suggests the need for financial assistance for families who are at risk of flood damage and are unable to afford risk-based premiums.
Efficient simulation of ultrafast quantum nonlinear optics with matrix product states

Ultrashort pulses propagating in nonlinear nanophotonic waveguides can simultaneously leverage both temporal and spatial field confinement, promising a route towards single-photon nonlinearities in an all-photonic platform. In this multimode quantum regime, however, faithful numerical simulations of pulse dynamics naively require a representation of the state in an exponentially large Hilbert space. Here, we employ a time-domain, matrix product state (MPS) representation to enable efficient simulations by exploiting the entanglement structure of the system. To extract physical insight from these simulations, we develop an algorithm to unravel the MPS quantum state into constituent temporal supermodes, enabling, e.g., access to the phase-space portraits of arbitrary pulse waveforms. As a demonstration, we perform exact numerical simulations of a Kerr soliton in the quantum regime. We observe the development of non-classical Wigner-function negativity in the solitonic mode as well as quantum corrections to the semiclassical dynamics of the pulse. A similar analysis of χ(2) simultons reveals a unique entanglement structure between the fundamental and second harmonics. Our approach is also readily compatible with quantum trajectory theory, allowing full quantum treatment of propagation loss and decoherence. We expect this work to establish the MPS technique as part of a unified engineering framework for the emerging field of broadband quantum photonics.
Gang Homicide: The Road so Far and a Map for the Future:

Gang research has spanned nearly a century. In that time, we have learned that gang membership increases the chances of involvement in homicide as a victim or offender. The violence that embroils g...
Repeated engagement in misconduct by executives involved with financial restatements

Abstract Recidivism, or repeated engagement in misconduct despite being sanctioned, among top executives has received limited attention in the literature on organizational misconduct. Based on insights from fairness theory, supplemented by insights from attribution theory, we argue that the likelihood of an executive recidivating is associated with the perceived fairness of the sanctions he/she faces following the initial misconduct. We examine one consequence of a common managerial labor market sanction – lower compensation – on the likelihood of recidivism. Using a sample of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) who left their positions following financial misconduct at their firms and subsequently migrated to another public firm in the same capacity, we test and find support for our prediction. A number of robustness and endogeneity tests add support to our recidivism model.
Radically Old Way of Computing Spectra: Applications in End-to-End ASR

We propose a technique to compute spectrograms using Frequency Domain Linear Prediction (FDLP) that uses all-pole models to fit the squared Hilbert envelope of speech in different frequency sub-bands. The spectrogram of a complete speech utterance is computed by overlap-add of contiguous all-pole model responses. A long context window of 1.5 seconds allows us to capture the low frequency temporal modulations of speech in the spectrogram. For an end-to-end automatic speech recognition task, the FDLP spectrogram performs on par with the standard mel spectrogram features for clean read speech training and test data. For more realistic speech data with train-test domain mismatches or reverberations, FDLP spectrogram shows up to 25% and 22% relative WER improvements over mel spectrogram respectively.
On optimal relay placement in directional networks

In this paper, we study the problem of optimal topology design in wireless networks equipped with highly-directional transmission antennas. We use the 1-2-1 network model to characterize the optimal placement of two relays that assist the communication between a source-destination pair. We analytically show that under some conditions on the distance between the source-destination pair, the optimal topology in terms of maximizing the network throughput is to place the relays as close as possible to the source and the destination.
Shearing mechanisms of co-precipitates in IN718

Abstract The Ni-base superalloy 718 is the most widely used material for turbomachinery in the aerospace industry and land-based turbines. Although the relationship between processing and the resulting properties is well known, an understanding of the specific deformation mechanisms activated across its application temperature range is required to create more mechanistically accurate property models. Direct atomic-scale imaging observations with high angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy, complemented by phase-field modeling informed by generalized stacking fault surface calculations using density functional theory, were employed to understand the shear process of γ″ and γ′/γ″ co-precipitates after 1% macroscopic strain at lower temperature (ambient and 427 °C). Experimentally, intrinsic stacking faults were observed in the γ″, whereas the γ′ was found to exhibit anti-phase boundaries or superlattice intrinsic stacking faults. Additionally, the atomically flat γ′/γ″ interfaces in the co-precipitates were found to exhibit offsets after shearing, which can be used as tracers for the deformation events. Phase-field modeling shows that the developing fault-structure is dependent on the direction of the Burgers vector of the a 2 〈 110 〉 matrix dislocation (or dislocation group) due to the lower crystal symmetry of the γ″ phase. The interplay between γ′ and γ″ phases results in unique deformation pathways of the co-precipitate and increases the shear resistance. Consistent with the experimental observations, the simulation results indicate that complex shearing mechanisms are active in the low-temperature deformation regime and that multiple a 2 〈 110 〉 dislocations of non-parallel Burgers vectors may be active on the same slip plane.
The geometry of groups containing almost normal subgroups

A subgroup H≤G is said to be almost normal if every conjugate of H is commensurable to H. If H is almost normal, there is a well-defined quotient space G∕H. We show that if a group G has type Fn+1 and contains an almost normal coarse PDn subgroup H with e(G∕H)=∞, then whenever G′ is quasi-isometric to G it contains an almost normal subgroup H′ that is quasi-isometric to H. Moreover, the quotient spaces G∕H and G′∕H′ are quasi-isometric. This generalises a theorem of Mosher, Sageev and Whyte, who prove the case in which G∕H is quasi-isometric to a finite-valence bushy tree. Using work of Mosher, we generalise a result of Farb and Mosher to show that for many surface group extensions ΓL, any group quasi-isometric to ΓL is virtually isomorphic to ΓL. We also prove quasi-isometric rigidity for the class of finitely presented ℤ-by-(∞–ended) groups.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance.

Summary Background The impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major concern. Aim To compare the number of patients and isolation rate of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria before and after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic using the comprehensive national surveillance data. Methods We utilized comprehensive surveillance data, collected in the Japan Nosocomial Infections Surveillance programme, which included a total of 16.7 million samples of 5.9 million tested patients from >1300 hospitals. We compared the number of patients and isolation rate of five bacteria between 2019 and 2020, including antimicrobial-susceptible and -resistant bacteria of Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Findings The number of patients and isolation rate of S. aureus and meticillin-resistant S. aureus decreased slightly; those of S. pneumoniae and penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae decreased by 60%; and those of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant K. pneumoniae increased. The isolation rate of the remaining bacteria apparently increased, although the number of patients decreased. This was due to a substantial decrease in the total number of tested patients (the denominator of the isolation rate), which was larger than that of the number of patients (the numerator of the isolation rate). Consistent results were obtained when the same data were re-aggregated using the procedure of the World Health Organization Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System, demonstrating the general importance of this problem. Conclusion Surveillance data during the COVID-19 pandemic must be carefully interpreted based on examination of the numerator, denominator and background factors that affect the denominator.
COMBO: Conservative Offline Model-Based Policy Optimization

Model-based algorithms, which learn a dynamics model from logged experience and perform some sort of pessimistic planning under the learned model, have emerged as a promising paradigm for offline reinforcement learning (offline RL). However, practical variants of such model-based algorithms rely on explicit uncertainty quantification for incorporating pessimism. Uncertainty estimation with complex models, such as deep neural networks, can be difficult and unreliable. We overcome this limitation by developing a new model-based offline RL algorithm, COMBO, that regularizes the value function on out-of-support state-action tuples generated via rollouts under the learned model. This results in a conservative estimate of the value function for out-of-support state-action tuples, without requiring explicit uncertainty estimation. We theoretically show that our method optimizes a lower bound on the true policy value, that this bound is tighter than that of prior methods, and our approach satisfies a policy improvement guarantee in the offline setting. Through experiments, we find that COMBO consistently performs as well or better as compared to prior offline model-free and model-based methods on widely studied offline RL benchmarks, including image-based tasks.
The Uncanny Swipe Drive: The Return of a Racist Mode of Algorithmic Thought on Dating Apps

As algorithmic media amplify long-standing social oppression, they also seek to colonize every last bit of sociality where that oppression could be resisted. Swipe apps constitute prototypical exam...
Determining quantum phase diagrams of topological Kitaev-inspired models on NISQ quantum hardware

Topological protection is employed in fault-tolerant error correction and in developing quantum algorithms with topological qubits. But, topological protection intrinsic to models being simulated, also robustly protects calculations, even on NISQ hardware. We leverage it by simulating Kitaev-inspired models on IBM quantum computers and accurately determining their phase diagrams. This requires constructing conventional quantum circuits for Majorana braiding to prepare the ground states of Kitaev-inspired models. The entanglement entropy is then measured to calculate the quantum phase boundaries. We show how maintaining particle-hole symmetry when sampling through the Brillouin zone is critical to obtaining high accuracy. This work illustrates how topological protection intrinsic to a quantum model can be employed to perform robust calculations on NISQ hardware, when one measures the appropriate protected quantum properties. It opens the door for further simulation of topological quantum models on quantum hardware available today.
Modeling and Evaluation of Clustering Patient Care into Bubbles

COVID-19 has caused an enormous burden on healthcare facilities around the world. Cohorting patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) into “bubbles” has been proposed as an infection-control mechanism. In this paper, we present a novel and flexible model for clustering patient care in healthcare facilities into bubbles in order to minimize infection spread. Our model aims to control a variety of costs to patients/residents and HCPs so as to avoid hidden, downstream adverse effects of clustering patient care. This model leads to a discrete optimization problem that we call the BUBBLECLUSTERING problem. This problem takes as input a temporal visit graph, representing HCP mobility, including visits by HCPs to patient/resident rooms. The output of the problem is a rewired visit graph, obtained by partitioning HCPs and patient rooms into bubbles and rewiring HCP visits to patient rooms so that patient-care is largely confined to the constructed bubbles. Even though the BUBBLECLUSTERING problem is intractable in general, we present an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation of the problem that can be solved optimally for problem instances that arise from typical hospital units and long-term-care facilities. We call our overall solution approach Cost-aware Rewiring of Networks (CoRN). We evaluate CoRN using fine-grained-movement data from a hospital-medical-intensive-care unit as well as two long-term-care facilities. These data were obtained using sensor systems we built and deployed. The main takeaway from our experimental results is that it is possible to use CoRN to substantially reduce infection spread by cohorting patients and HCPs without sacrificing patient-care, and with minimal excess costs to HCPs in terms of time and distances traveled during a shift.
An Interpolation From Sol to Hyperbolic Space

We study a one-parameter family of nonisomorphic solvable Lie groups, which, when equipped with their left-invariant metrics, becomes an interpolation from a model of the Sol geometry to a model of Hyperbolic Space, with a stop at $\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{R}$. These Lie groups are also Bianchi groups of Type VI with orthogonal coordinates. As a continuation of joint work with Richard Schwartz on Sol, we primarily analyze those Lie groups in our interpolation with some positive sectional curvature.
Committing to vaccine R&D: a global science policy priority

Abstract The amount of vaccine R&D performed, especially that geared towards health issues affecting the developing world, is relatively modest. Despite immunisation representing the most effective tool for achieving disease eradication, and the general consensus being optimistic about the development of a vaccine capable of fighting AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, neither private nor public entities are investing sufficiently in the field. Reasons can be associated both with a lack of market incentives as well as with the low priority that these diseases are given on Western political agendas. However, seen through a “Global Public Good” lens, it appears to be in the interest of high-income countries, and their governments in particular, to invest public resources – financial and infra-structural – in vaccine R&D for global pandemics. The paper suggests managing international cooperation through the creation of a global fund. It discusses a number of proposals put forward in the existing literature and offers a range of policy options.
Simulation-based algorithm for determining best package delivery alternatives under three criteria: Time, cost and sustainability

Abstract With the significant rise in demand for same-day instant deliveries, several courier services are exploring alternatives to transport packages in a cost- and time-effective, as well as, sustainable manner. Motivated by a real-life case study, this paper focuses on developing a simulation algorithm that assists same-day package delivery companies to serve customers instantly. The proposed recommender system provides the best solution with respect to three criteria: cost, time, and sustainability, considering the variation in travel time and cost parameters. The decision support tool provides recommendations on the best alternative for transporting products based on factors, such as source and destination locations, time of the day, package weight, and volume. Besides considering existing new technologies like electric-assisted cargo bikes, we also analyze the impact of emerging methods of deliveries, such as robots and air taxis. Finally, this paper also considers the best delivery alternative during the presence of a pandemic, such as COVID-19. For the purpose of illustrating our approach, we consider the delivery options in New York City. We believe that the proposed tool is the first to provide solutions to courier companies considering evolving modes of transportation and under logistics disruptions due to pandemic.
Dynamics of ramping bursts in a respiratory neuron model

Intensive computational and theoretical work has led to the development of multiple mathematical models for bursting in respiratory neurons in the pre-Botzinger Complex (pre-BotC) of the mammalian brainstem. Nonetheless, these previous models have not captured the pre-inspiratory ramping aspects of these neurons’ activity patterns, in which relatively slow tonic spiking gradually progresses to faster spiking and a full-blown burst, with a corresponding gradual development of an underlying plateau potential. In this work, we show that the incorporation of the dynamics of the extracellular potassium ion concentration into an existing model for pre-BotC neuron bursting, along with some parameter adjustments, suffices to induce this ramping behavior. Using fast-slow decomposition, we show that this activity can be considered as a form of parabolic bursting, but with burst termination at a homoclinic bifurcation rather than as a SNIC bifurcation. We also investigate the parameter-dependence of these solutions and show that the proposed model yields a greater dynamic range of burst frequencies, durations, and duty cycles than those produced by other models in the literature.
Extended calculation of dark matter-electron scattering in crystal targets

Searches for light dark matter via direct detection rely on a detailed understanding of dark matter/electron scattering in target materials. Here, the authors use density functional theory and semi-analytic approaches to include hitherto neglected effects which are shown to significantly impact detection prospects.
Are Poor Cities Cheap for Everyone? Non-Homotheticity and the Cost of Living Across U.S. Cities

Standard cost-of-living indexes assume that preferences are homothetic, ignoring the well-established fact that tastes vary with income. This introduces systematic biases in measures of purchasing power parity across locations. I develop a framework that characterizes non-homothetic preferences across many sectors and use household-level grocery data from Nielsen to structurally estimate the model parameters. I use this model to show that cross-city price indexes vary widely across income groups. Grocery costs are 20 percent lower in a poor city relative to a wealthy city for a low-income household, but they are 20 percent higher in the poor city for a high-income household. I find that homothetic price indexes perform well in predicting the cross-city variation in prices for low- and middle-income households, but poorly for high-income households. These results suggest that using homothetic cost-of-living indexes understate the relative price level in poor locations for rich households.
A Multiscale Environment for Learning by Diffusion

Abstract Clustering algorithms partition a dataset into groups of similar points. The clustering problem is very general, and different partitions of the same dataset could be considered correct and useful. To fully understand such data, it must be considered at a variety of scales, ranging from coarse to fine. We introduce the Multiscale Environment for Learning by Diffusion (MELD) data model, which is a family of clusterings parameterized by nonlinear diffusion on the dataset. We show that the MELD data model precisely captures latent multiscale structure in data and facilitates its analysis. To efficiently learn the multiscale structure observed in many real datasets, we introduce the Multiscale Learning by Unsupervised Nonlinear Diffusion (M-LUND) clustering algorithm, which is derived from a diffusion process at a range of temporal scales. We provide theoretical guarantees for the algorithm's performance and establish its computational efficiency. Finally, we show that the M-LUND clustering algorithm detects the latent structure in a range of synthetic and real datasets.
Decision-Focused Summarization

Relevance in summarization is typically de- fined based on textual information alone, without incorporating insights about a particular decision. As a result, to support risk analysis of pancreatic cancer, summaries of medical notes may include irrelevant information such as a knee injury. We propose a novel problem, decision-focused summarization, where the goal is to summarize relevant information for a decision. We leverage a predictive model that makes the decision based on the full text to provide valuable insights on how a decision can be inferred from text. To build a summary, we then select representative sentences that lead to similar model decisions as using the full text while accounting for textual non-redundancy. To evaluate our method (DecSum), we build a testbed where the task is to summarize the first ten reviews of a restaurant in support of predicting its future rating on Yelp. DecSum substantially outperforms text-only summarization methods and model-based explanation methods in decision faithfulness and representativeness. We further demonstrate that DecSum is the only method that enables humans to outperform random chance in predicting which restaurant will be better rated in the future.
Sample Complexity of Tree Search Configuration: Cutting Planes and Beyond

Cutting-plane methods have enabled remarkable successes in integer programming over the last few decades. State-of-the-art solvers integrate a myriad of cutting-plane techniques to speed up the underlying tree-search algorithm used to find optimal solutions. In this paper we prove the first guarantees for learning high-performing cut-selection policies tailored to the instance distribution at hand using samples. We first bound the sample complexity of learning cutting planes from the canonical family of Chvatal-Gomory cuts. Our bounds handle any number of waves of any number of cuts and are fine tuned to the magnitudes of the constraint coefficients. Next, we prove sample complexity bounds for more sophisticated cut selection policies that use a combination of scoring rules to choose from a family of cuts. Finally, beyond the realm of cutting planes for integer programming, we develop a general abstraction of tree search that captures key components such as node selection and variable selection. For this abstraction, we bound the sample complexity of learning a good policy for building the search tree.
Cyclic Classes in Relative Brauer Groups

Let K be a finitely generated infinite field and let L be a finite algebraic extension of K, L ≠ K. As we- showed in (4), one consequence of the classification of the finite simple groups is that the relative Brauer group B(L/K) must be infinite under these conditions. On the other hand, the fundamental result of Merkurjev-Suslin (6) shows that if K continues appropriate roots of unity then every element of B(L/K) can be expressed as a sum of classes in B(K) represented by cyclic algebras. This raises the following natural question: must B(L/K) contain infinitely many cyclic classes? We show in this note that the arguments of [4] can be modified to yield this stronger result.
Reconstitution of Micrococcus lysodeikticus Reduced Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide and l-Malate Dehydrogenases with Dehydrogenase-Depleted Membrane Residues: a Basis for Restoration of Oxidase Actitivies

Deoxycholate disruption of Micrococcus lysodeikticus protoplast membranes resulted in solubilization of both l-malate and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) dehydrogenase enzymes (substrate: 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol oxidoreductases). Insoluble residues contained cytochromes of the b, c, and a type. Solubilized dehydrogenases were reconstituted with insoluble residues by treatment of disrupted membranes with magnesium ions. Most of the solubilized l-malate and NADH dehydrogenase activities were precipitated by magnesium ions independent of enzyme reconstitution with insoluble residues. Reconstituted dehydrogenases explained the mechanism for restoration of disrupted l-malate and NADH oxidase activities (4). Black light irradiation inhibited oxidase activities of both native and reconstituted membranes. These irradiated membrane oxidases were partially restored by exogenous napthoquinones [K2(20) and K2(50)] but not by CoQ(6). Reconstitution experiments showed that native membrane napthoquinone was retained in the insoluble residues of deoxycholate-disrupted membranes.
Derivation and Implementation of Fuzzy Optimal Climate Control

Inclusion of a human as part of the system introduces a major fuzzy element, since human behavior is qualitative in nature. human behavior. In an office space the reference point of the closed loop climate control is the comfort level of human living in that space. Since comfort is not described in a crisp manner, then it seems more appropriate to apply fuzzy control techniques to the problems of climate control. Two major concerns associated with fuzzy controllers, namely, its overly conservative results and an analytical method for derivation of the rules are considered in this paper. Modeling approach to rule generation and integration of fuzzy and optimal control are discussed. Implementation results are presented.
Grids and Solutions from Residual Minimisation

In this paper, a least-squares method that incorporates node movement is presented. For nonlinear hyperbolic problems with bilinear flux functions, a class of quadrature formulae for fluctuation computation is proposed which allows a stable structure of discrete shocks, yet preventing nonphysical shocks. Computational results for Burgers’ equation are shown to demonstrate its sharp shock capturing ability.
Measuring banking efficiency in the pre- and post-liberalization environment : evidence from the Turkish banking system

The authors examine banking efficiency before and after liberalization, drawing on Turkey's experience. They also investigate the scale effect on efficiency by type of ownership. Their findings suggest that liberalization programs were followed by an observable decline in efficiency, not an improvement. During the study period Turkish banks did not operate at the optimum scale. Another unexpected result was that efficiency was no different between state-owned and privately owned banks. Banks that were privately owned or foreign owned had been expected to respond better to liberalization, because they were smaller and more dynamically structured, but they were no more efficient than state-owned banks. One reason for the systemwide decline in efficiency might have been the general increase in macroeconomic instability during the period studied.
A moment in human development: Legal protection, ethical standards and social policy on the selective non-treatment of handicapped neonates

Selective non-treatment decisions involving severely handicapped neonates have recently come under renewed judicial and legislative scrutiny. In this Article, the Author examines the legal, ethical and social considerations attendant to the non-treatment decision. In Part II of this Article the Author discusses the predominant ethical viewpoints relating to this issue and proposes a new moral standard based on personal interests. Part III presents a survey of the jurisprudence relating to selective non-treatment decisions. Parts IV and V of this Article provide a critical examination of the recently enacted Child Abuse Amendments of 1984, a federal legislative initiative designed to regulate treatment decisions relating to handicapped infants. The Author suggests that the ethical standards and treatment criteria proposed in this Article may prove useful to courts seeking to balance the handicapped neonate's constitutional right to privacy with the requirements of the new federal law.
Laboratory studies of air stripping of VOC‐contaminated soils

Abstract Bench‐scale laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of air stripping for in situ remediation of benzene‐contaminated soils. Several parametric studies were performed to evaluate the effect of soil grain size, air injection flow rate, and air inlet temperature on the benzene recovery efficiency. An increase in soil grain size produced a significant increase in benzene recovery efficiency especially during the early stages of air injection. After 2 h of treatment, an increase in soil grain size from D50 = 0.31 mm to D50 = 1.20 mm resulted in an increase in benzene recovery efficiency from 49 to 65%. When the air‐flow rate was increased from 5 l/min to 10 l/min, the benzene recovery efficiency increased from 56 to 70% after 4 h of venting operation. Maximum recovery of benzene was reached after approximately 37 h of soil venting at a flow rate of 5 l/min and after approximately 24 h at a flow rate of 10 l/min. Preheating the air to 45°C at the inlet resulted in an increas...
Verteporfin photodynamic therapy retreatment of normal retina and choroid in the cynomolgus monkey.

Abstract Objective This study evaluated the effect of repeated photodynamic therapy (PDT) applications on normal primate retina and choroid using an intravenous infusion of liposomal benzoporphyrin derivative (verteporfin). Design This was an experimental study in a primate model. Animals/controls Six cynomolgus monkeys were used as experimental subjects and one monkey was used as a control subject. Intervention Three consecutive PDT treatments at 2-week intervals were applied over the center of the fovea or the optic nerve of each eye. Verteporfin was delivered by intravenous infusion at a dose of 6 mg/m 2 , 12 mg/m 2 , or 18 mg/m 2 . Laser irradiation was then applied using a diode laser (689 nm) with light doses and spot sizes kept constant. Main outcome measures Findings were documented by fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, and light and electron microscopy. Results A cumulative dose response was seen angiographically and histologically with more severe damage to the retina and choroid noted at higher dye doses. Photodynamic therapy applied to the macula using the 6-mg/m 2 verteporfin dose showed recovery of choriocapillaris, with mild retinal pigment epithelium and outer photoreceptor damage at 6 weeks. At this dose, the optic nerve showed few focal sites of axon atrophy and capillary loss. Treatments over the macula using the 12-mg/m 2 and 18-mg/m 2 doses led to chronic absence of choriocapillaris and photoreceptors at 6 weeks. One of two optic nerves became atrophic after PDT applications using dye doses of 12 mg/m 2 , and both optic nerves became atrophic in the 18-mg/m 2 dye dose group. Conclusion Limited damage to the retina, choroid, and optic nerve was present in primates treated with multiple PDT sessions using 6 mg/m 2 verteporfin with light doses and the timing of irradiation kept constant. However, PDT using higher dye doses of 12 mg/m 2 and 18 mg/m 2 led to significant chronic damage to the normal retina, choroid, and optic nerve.
HAPADEP: Human-Assisted Pure Audio Device Pairing

The number and diversity of personal electronic gadgets have been steadily increasing but there has been fairly little progress in secure pairing of such devices. The pairing challenge revolves around establishing on-the-fly secure communication without any trusted (on- or off-line) third parties between devices that have no prior association. One basic approach to counter Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) attacks in such setting is to involve the user in the pairing process. Previous research yielded some interesting secure pairing techniques, some of which ask too much of the human user, while others assume availability of specialized equipment (e.g., wires, photo or video cameras) on personal devices. Furthermore, all prior methods assumed an established insecure channel over a common digital (human-imperceptible) communication medium, such as infrared, 802.11 or Bluetooth. In this paper we introduce a very simple technique called HAPADEP (Human-Assisted Pure Audio Device Pairing). HAPADEP uses the audio channel to exchange both data and verification information among devices without requiring any other means of common electronic communication. Despite its simplicity, a number of interesting issues arise in the design of HAPADEP. We discuss design and implementation highlights as well as usability features and limitations.
The treatment of malignant effusions with radioactive colloidal gold (Au198); a review of sixty-six cases.

Abstract 1.1. In our survey 66 patients were observed. Good palliation was achieved in 63.6 per cent of the patients, moderate palliation was achieved in 21.2 per cent, and no palliation was achieved in 15.1 per cent (Figs. 1 and 2). 2.2. Approximately 70 per cent of the patients experienced relief from the subjective symptoms. 3.3. There is no correlation between survival time and administration of Au 198 .
Exercise-stimulated glucose transport in skeletal muscle is nitric oxide dependent

It has been suggested that there are separate insulin-stimulated and contraction-stimulated glucose transport pathways in skeletal muscle. This study examined the effects of nitric oxide on glucose transport in rat skeletal muscle by use of an isolated sarcolemmal membrane preparation and the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), administered in the drinking water (1 mg/ml). Female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups: control, acute exercise, acute exercise+L-NAME, insulin stimulated, and insulin stimulated+L-NAME. Exercise (45 min of exhaustive treadmill running) increased glucose transport (37 +/- 2 to 76 +/- 5 pmol.mg-1.15 s-1) and this increase was completely inhibited by L-NAME (40 +/- 4 pmol.mg-1.15 s-1). A maximum dose of insulin increased glucose transport (87 +/- 10 pmol.mg-1.15 s-1), and adding L-NAME had no effect (87 +/- 11 pmol.mg-1.15 s-1). In addition, exercise, but not exercise+L-NAME, increased sarcolemma GLUT-4 content. This study confirms that there are separate pathways for contraction- and insulin-stimulated glucose transport. More importantly, although exercise and insulin both significantly increased glucose transport, L-NAME had no effect on insulin-stimulated glucose transport but blocked the exercise-stimulated transport. We conclude that nitric oxide is involved in the signal transduction mechanism to increase glucose transport during exercise.
The effect of electron correlation on atomic properties

The object of this paper is threefold, (a) to establish how nonrelativistic correlation theories may be applied to any atom of the periodic table; (b) to formulate a procedure based on a definition of the “Fermi sea” for predicting the importance of correlation effects on atomic properties other than total energies; and (c) to present new results on Is binding energies in C, F, F−, Ne, Na, and Na+, KL1L1 Auger energies in C and O, lifetimes in the Si 3s3p33D° 3s23p23P isoelectronic sequence, and the hyperfine structure of Be and B 1s22p2P° states, which not only are of interest in themselves but illustrate points (a) and (b) above.
Low-cost production testing of wireless transmitters

Production testing of wireless transmit systems incurs high test cost primarily due to the need for using lengthy bit-sequences for testing critical specifications, such as adjacent-channel-power ratio (ACPR) and error-vector-magnitude (EVM). Given the production test sequence for measuring multiple specifications of a transmitter-under-test, switching from one test hardware setup to the next, impacts test time. In this paper, a new test methodology for wireless transmitters is demonstrated, in which a single stimulus is used to test multiple frequency-domain and modulation-domain transmitter specifications in a significantly short test time. In the proposed test method, a multi-tone stimulus is applied at the baseband of the transmitter-under-test; the corresponding spectral test response at the RF output of the transmitter is analyzed for predicting the transmitter specifications using an alternate testing framework. Pass/fail decisions are made using the predicted specification values. Experimental data for a 1.575 GHz digital-IF transmitter prototype is presented.
Fallout from the Nuclear Explosion of 16 October 1964

Measurements of the concentrations of 20 fission products in a sample of rain collected at Fayetteville, Arkansas, on 26 October 1964, yielded two "mass-yield" curves; one for fresh debris from the Chinese nuclear explosion, and another for older debris. The former curve resembled the mass-yield curve for neutron-induced fission of uranium-235.
Analysis Techniques for SIMD Machine Interconnection Networks and the Effects of Processor Address Masks

Various techniques for evaluating and comparing interconnection networks for SIMD machines are presented. These techniques are demonstrated by using them to analyze the networks that have been proposed in the literature. The model of SIMD machines used in the first part of the paper requires all data transfers between processing elements to be representable as permutations on the processing element addresses. We use the theory of permutation groups to aid in the analysis of the cycle structures of the different interconnection networks and discuss the importance of the cycle structure to the SIMD machine architect. A processing element address masking scheme, to determine which processing elements will be active, is introduced. The effects of this masking system when used with different networks are examined. Model independent techniques for proving lower bounds on the time required for a network to simulate a particular interconnection are presented. These techniques are used to prove a lower time bound on the simulation of each network by each of the other networks.
Can p53 help select patients with invasive bladder cancer for bladder preservation

Abstract Purpose We evaluated whether the p53 status of invasive bladder cancer may help to select patients for treatment strategies aimed at bladder preservation. Materials and Methods A total of 111 patients with muscle invasive (T2 to 3N0M0) transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder received neoadjuvant methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin and cisplatin (M-VAC) chemotherapy. Of these patients 60 (54%) had a complete clinical response (T0) to M-VAC. We report the 10-year outcome for these 60 patients, stratified by p53 status (positive versus negative) and stage (T2 versus T3) of the primary bladder neoplasm, and type of surgery (bladder sparing versus cystectomy) after M-VAC. Results All 19 patients with T2 (organ confined) p53 negative tumors survived (16 after bladder sparing surgery and 3 after cystectomy) compared with 47% of 19 with T2 p53 positive tumors, 67% of 12 with T3 (extravesical) p53 negative tumors and 60% of 10 with T3 p53 positive tumors. Conclusions Our study suggests that the bladder may be preserved for up to 10 years in patients with tumors confined to the bladder (stage T2) who lack detectable p53 if they respond completely to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Patients with T3 bladder tumors or T2 p53 positive tumors are best treated currently with cystectomy.
Lysophospholipid-containing membranes modulate the fibril formation of the repeat domain of a human functional amyloid, pmel17.

Pmel17 is an important protein for pigmentation in human skin and eyes. Proteolytic fragments from Pmel17 form fibrils upon which melanin is deposited in melanosomes. The repeat domain (RPT) derived from Pmel17 only forms fibrils under acidic melanosomal conditions. Here, we examined the effects of lipids on RPT aggregation to explore whether intramelanosomal vesicles can facilitate fibrillogenesis. Using transmission electron microscopy, circular dichroism, and fluorescence spectroscopy, we monitored fibril formation at the ultrastructural, secondary conformational, and local levels, respectively. Phospholipid vesicles and lysophospholipid (lysolipid) micelles were employed as membrane mimics. The surfactant-like lysolipids are particularly pertinent due to their high content in melanosomal membranes. Interestingly, RPT aggregation kinetics were influenced only by lysolipid-containing phospholipid vesicles. While both vesicles containing either anionic lysophosphatidylglycerol (LPG) or zwitterionic lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) stimulate aggregation, LPG exerted a greater effect on reducing the apparent nucleation time. A detailed comparison showed distinct behaviors of LPG versus LPC monomers and micelles plausibly originating from their headgroup hydrogen bonding capabilities. Acceleration and retardation of aggregation were observed for LPG monomers and micelles, respectively. Because a specific interaction between LPG and RPT was identified by intrinsic W423 fluorescence and induced α-helical structure, it is inferred that binding of LPG near the C-terminal amyloid core initiates intermolecular association, whereas stabilization of α-helical conformation inhibits β-sheet formation. Contrastingly, LPC promotes RPT aggregation at both submicellar and micellar concentrations via non-specific binding with undetectable secondary structural change. Our findings suggest that protein–lysolipid interactions within melanosomes may regulate amyloid formation in vivo.