cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Beyond AB 32: Post-2020 Climate Policy for California

California is beginning the process of considering possible next steps for the State’s climate policy beyond the 2020 emission target mandated in the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (“AB 32”). As it proceeds along this path, it is very important for the State to consider the international, national, and in-state realities and consequences of its actions.Internationally, California’s intent to address global climate change should be considered in the context of three key factors. First, California, currently representing less than one percent of global GHG emissions, an amount that will surely decline with time, itself can do very little directly to address the problem. Meaningful action will require the participation of all major emitting countries, including more meaningful action nationally by the United States. Second, current negotiations are seriously fragmented due to severe challenges reaching consensus. Nations are pursuing domestic policies of greatly varied stringency and credibility. These efforts are less than needed to address the climate problem, in part, due to a basic challenge of the “global commons”: although the costs of actions are incurred by the jurisdiction taking action, the benefits of those actions – the reduced risk of climate change – are spread globally. Third, the Air Resources Board (ARB) has indicated that the State should aim to reduce GHG emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels, a level of reductions that is consistent with scientific guidance on the actions needed to stabilize atmospheric GHG concentrations if achieved throughout the world. Within the State, the changes in infrastructure, equipment, and behavior that would be needed to meet this 2050 goal would be both broad and deep. The costs to achieve such targets are unknown, given the many technology uncertainties, but would likely be very significant. Thus, pursuing these targets, without reciprocal commitments from other nations, would likely impose large costs without achieving comparable benefits.
THE EXPERIMENTS OF BLEULER AND BRADT, WU AND SHAKNOV, OF LANGHOFF, AND OF KASDAY, ULLMANN, AND WU

This chapter discusses the experiments in which polarization correlations are observed for pairs of photons traveling in opposite directions, where this time the source of the photon pair is an annihilating positronium atom at rest. Because no effective polarization filters are available for photons as hard as annihilation radiation, the polarization is measured indirectly through the effectiveness of Compton scattering at chosen angles. The annihilation of positronium might be described crudely as a transition of a positive-energy electron at rest into a hole in the negative-energy states at rest. The initial state of the positronium is assumedly the ground level S -state, so that the total angular momentum is j = 1 or 0 depending upon whether the spins of the positon and the negaton line up or not. The final state has all of this angular momentum, so that the odd final photon state has j = 0 if it arises from annihilation of positronium in the singlet state, and has j = 1 when it arises from annihilation of positronium in the triplet state.
Nature and The Supernatural: Pynchon's Ecological Ghost Stories

It has long been recognized that the novels of Thomas Pynchon are filled with ghosts and revenants of all kinds, but few critics have ventured to offer an explanation of this fact. To fill the lack, Douglas Fowler has recently devoted an entire book to an investigation of this supernatural phenomenon; he argues that Pynchon s ghosts "adumbrate the malignant incursion into our world by a mysterious 'They,'" and he links Pynchon with writers like Ann Radcliffe and Bram Stoker whose main goal is to create an "effect" of "supernatural terror." Throughout his book, Fowler argues against those critics who would naturalize Pynchon's ghosts into "metaphors" for "merely psychological" fears; he insists that the ghosts be seen as real embodiments of an evil supernatural force, as emissaries from an "Other Kingdom" whose mission is to destroy the human world.
Power System Stability: New Opportunities for Control

The electric power generation-transmission-distribution grid in developed countries constitutes a large system that exhibits a range of dynamic phenomena. Stability of this system needs to be maintained even when subjected to large low-probability disturbances so that the electricity can be supplied to consumers with high reliability. Various control methods and controllers have been developed over time for this purpose. New technologies in the area of communications and power electronics, however, have raised the possibility of developing much faster and more wide-area stability control that can allow safe operation of the grid closer to its limits. This chapter presents a conceptual picture of these new stability control possibilities.
Effect of route of administration on the metabolism of quinolinic acid-6*-14C in animals.

After a study of quinolinic acid metabolism in patients with pellagra (Hankes et al., 1992), a study was done to determine the effect of route of administration of the labeled compound on its metabolism in an animal species which had an intestinal synthesis in a ceacum.
Inferring Transcriptional Regulatory Network

Genes are coordinately regulated and expressed as forming various transcriptional modules or networks to carry out complex and condition-specific biological functions in living cells. In this chapter, we describe a series of new methodologies for identifying transcriptional modules and regulatory networks and examining their evolutionarily conserved and divergent patterns from gene expression and transcription factor data. The methods are based on a two-stage matrix decomposition model consisting of a nonlinear independent component analysis followed by a sparse matrix analysis. The methods take into account the nonlinear structure in gene expression data, particularly in the TF–target gene interactions, capable of capturing transcriptional modularity that might result from highly nonlinear interactions among genes. The methods model gene expression as a linear weighted combination of a small number of regulatory prototypes such as transcription factors, underscoring the fact that a small number of regulatory genes have predominant impact to the expression of most of genes and function in a combinatorial manner. The methods allow partitioning genes into mutually non-exclusive transcriptional modules, underlying the fact that one gene may have multiple functions or participate in multiple biological processes. In comparison with other methods, the new methods show a significant improvement in identifying biologically more meaningful transcriptional modules and regulatory network.
A New Conception of Human Rights

The demand that individual privacy be respected is becoming more common and more insistent in our age. This probably reflects a rapidly increasing need for privacy arising from converging ecological, cultural, technical and social changes. The population explosion together with modern urbanization have made it much more difficult for the individual to get away, physically and psychologically, from the crowd of strangers around him. The growing allegiance to political individualism and moral autonomy have caused the individual to resent and resist legal regulation and social interference more intensely. At a time when bugging and other techniques of surveillance have been perfected to an alarming degree, the development of computers enables us to store and retrieve vastly increased amounts of information about any specified individual in even very large populations. Finally, as organizations have grown larger in size and more bureaucratic in structure, their tendency to invade the life of the individual has grown apace.
Energy of periodic discrete dislocation networks

Abstract We present an approach to compute the stored energy associated with arbitrary discrete dislocation networks subjected to periodic boundary conditions. To circumvent the issue of conditional convergence while keeping the computational cost tractable, we develop a regularization procedure that involves two equivalent measures of the dislocation network energy. Taking advantage of the non-singular formulation, the energy is first evaluated by explicitly calculating the conditionally convergent sum of all interactions between dislocation segments. Regularization constants are then determined by volume integral of the smooth elastic stress fields produced for large values of the dislocation core radius. The approach is employed to investigate the stored energy of a series of idealized dislocation configurations and large-scale networks generated by discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) simulations. It is found that (1) the stored energies predicted by DDD simulations are in good agreement with experimental measurements of about 5% of the work done, and (2) Taylor lattice configurations provide surprisingly good energetics models for complex DDD networks, thereby confirming the screening of long-range stresses in work-hardened dislocation structures.
Reply to Li et al: Late 20th-century drought in northern China reflects influence of global warming, aerosols, and natural variability.

Day et al. (1) present a lens for understanding the rainfall climatology of eastern China. Frontal rainfall occurs year-round due to a unique juxtaposition of continental configuration and orography. By creating an algorithm to identify frontal rain events (FREs), we are able to identify changes in properties, such as their frequency, position, and daily intensity. In our conclusion, we suggest that climate forcings, such as global warming and aerosol loading, together with … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jessed{at}berkeley.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
The interactive Physical and Cognitive Exercise System (iPACES™): effects of a 3-month in-home pilot clinical trial for mild cognitive impairment and caregivers.

Background Alzheimer's and related dementias are on the rise, and older adults and their families are seeking accessible and effective ways to stave off or ameliorate mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Aim This pilot clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: 03069391) examined neuropsychological and neurobiological outcomes of interactive physical and mental exercise. Participants and methods Older adults (MCI and caregivers) were enrolled in a 3-month, in-home trial of a portable neuro-exergame (the interactive Physical and Cognitive Exercise System [iPACES™]), in which they pedaled and steered along a virtual bike path to complete a list of errands (Memory Lane™). Neuropsychological function and salivary biomarkers were measured at pre-, mid-, and posttrial. Ten older adults complied with the recommended use of iPACES (complete dose; ≥2×/wk, 67% of the 15 who also had pre- and postevaluation data). Statistical analyses compared change over time and also change among those with a complete dose vs inadequate dose. Correlations between change in neuropsychological and biomarker measures were also examined. Results Executive function and verbal memory increased after 3 months (p = 0.01; no significant change was found with an inadequate dose). Change in salivary biomarkers was moderately associated with increasing cognition (cortisol, r = 0.68; IGF-1, r = 0.37). Conclusion Further research is needed, but these pilot data provide preliminary indications to suggest neuro-exergaming can impact cognitive function, perhaps via neurobiological mechanisms, and as such may provide an effective and practical way to promote healthy aging.
Addressing Family Homelessness in Pediatrics: Progress and Possibility.

Homelessness during pregnancy or childhood should be unthinkable in a society that treats children and families with dignity. In this issue of Pediatrics , Sandel et al1 provide new evidence from 5 cities on just how damaging homelessness in pregnancy and early childhood are to child health. Their study, “Timing and Duration of Pre- and Postnatal Homelessness and the Health of Young Children,” included >20 000 child-caregiver dyads, and they found that children who had been homeless were more likely to have previous hospitalizations, developmental delay, and worse health overall.1 The effects were largest in families who were homeless both before and after a child’s birth and in families who were homeless for more than 6 months while their child was an infant or toddler. This study addresses a key … Address correspondence to Adam Schickedanz, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles, 10960 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 960, Los Angeles, CA 90024. E-mail:aschickedanz{at}mednet.ucla.edu
Different forms of household wealth are associated with opposing risks for HIV infection in East Africa

Abstract The relationship between material wealth and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa has been the subject of considerable debate in part because many studies show that wealth is positively associated with infection. Others have critiqued such results, suggesting that the widely used indicators of wealth underlying these results fail to capture the diversity of livelihood portfolios in East Africa. Using population representative data from 35,799 households in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, we estimate household wealth along two different dimensions, associated respectively with success in wage economies and agricultural economies. Regression models for men and women show consistent and opposing associations between type of wealth and HIV infection. Controlling for age, education, and urban dwelling, increasing achievement along the wage economy dimension is positively (often significantly) associated with HIV infection. In contrast, increasing achievement along the agricultural economy dimension is often negatively associated with HIV infection, and is never associated with increased HIV risk. Interestingly, variables to assess risky sexual behaviors do not mediate the relationship between either type of wealth and HIV infection. Our results suggest that future studies on the relationship between HIV and wealth need to take into account the different dimensions of household wealth found in East African countries. Our results also generate new, important questions about why and how different forms of wealth drive HIV infection.
Protein Loop Grafting to Construct a Variant of Tissue-type Plasminogen Activator That Binds Platelet Integrin αIIbβ3

Abstract Protein-protein interactions can be guided by contacts between surface loops within proteins. We therefore investigated the hypothesis that novel protein-protein interactions could be created using a strategy of “loop grafting” in which the amino acid sequence of a biologically active, flexible loop on one protein is used to replace a surface loop present on an unrelated protein. To test this hypothesis we replaced a surface loop within an epidermal growth factor module with the complementarity-determining region of a monoclonal antibody. Specifically, the HCDR3 from Fab-9, an antibody selected to bind the β3-integrins with nanomolar affinity (Smith, J. W., Hu, D., Satterthwait, A., Pinz-Sweeney, S., and Barbas, C. F., III(1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 32788-32795), was grafted into the epidermal growth factor-like module of human tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA). The resulting variant of t-PA bound to the platelet integrin αIIbβ3 with nanomolar affinity, retained full enzymatic activity, and was stimulated normally by the physiological co-factor fibrin. Binding of the novel variant of t-PA to integrin αIIbβ3 was dependent on the presence of divalent cations and was inhibited by an RGD-containing peptide, demonstrating that, like the donor antibody, the novel t-PA binds specifically to the ligand-binding site of the integrin. These findings suggest that surface loops within protein modules can, at least in some cases, be interchangeable and that phage display can be combined with loop grafting to direct proteins, at high affinity, to selected targets. In principle, these targets could include not only other proteins but also peptides, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, or even uncharacterized markers of specific cell types, tissues, or viruses.
Characteristics of Diamond Deposition on Al2O3, Diamond-like Carbon, and Q-Carbon

We have conducted a comparative study on the deposition of diamond thin film on uncoated Al2O3, diamond-like carbon (DLC, grown by pulsed laser deposition) film-coated Al2O3, and Q-carbon (fabricat...
Valvular Heart Disease in the Elderly

Patients with isolated or combined valvular heart disease who reach old age without symptoms or functional impairment can usually be managed with medical therapy. Prevention of infective endocarditis is important. When symptoms impair activities of daily living, surgery should be considered. Aortic stenosis is the most important valvular lesion in the aged and its severity is often underestimated; valve replacement markedly improves the prognosis for symptomatic patients with significant valvular obstruction.
Precision Telemedicine through Crowdsourced Machine Learning: Testing Variability of Crowd Workers for Video-Based Autism Feature Recognition

Mobilized telemedicine is becoming a key, and even necessary, facet of both precision health and precision medicine. In this study, we evaluate the capability and potential of a crowd of virtual workers-defined as vetted members of popular crowdsourcing platforms-to aid in the task of diagnosing autism. We evaluate workers when crowdsourcing the task of providing categorical ordinal behavioral ratings to unstructured public YouTube videos of children with autism and neurotypical controls. To evaluate emerging patterns that are consistent across independent crowds, we target workers from distinct geographic loci on two crowdsourcing platforms: an international group of workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (N = 15) and Microworkers from Bangladesh (N = 56), Kenya (N = 23), and the Philippines (N = 25). We feed worker responses as input to a validated diagnostic machine learning classifier trained on clinician-filled electronic health records. We find that regardless of crowd platform or targeted country, workers vary in the average confidence of the correct diagnosis predicted by the classifier. The best worker responses produce a mean probability of the correct class above 80% and over one standard deviation above 50%, accuracy and variability on par with experts according to prior studies. There is a weak correlation between mean time spent on task and mean performance (r = 0.358, p = 0.005). These results demonstrate that while the crowd can produce accurate diagnoses, there are intrinsic differences in crowdworker ability to rate behavioral features. We propose a novel strategy for recruitment of crowdsourced workers to ensure high quality diagnostic evaluations of autism, and potentially many other pediatric behavioral health conditions. Our approach represents a viable step in the direction of crowd-based approaches for more scalable and affordable precision medicine.
Thermoelectric Oxide Ceramics Outperforming Single Crystals Enabled by Dopant Segregations

Calcium cobaltite Ca3Co4O9+δ in a single-crystal form was reported with an extrapolated dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit of 0.87 in the year 2003. Regardless of the intensive effort dur...
The Effect of Competition on Trade Patterns: Evidence from the Collapse of International Cartels

How do changes in competitive intensity affect trade patterns? Some cartels may find it advantageous to eliminate cross-hauling and divide markets geographically. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment associated with increased antitrust enforcement to determine if market division strategies were used in seven recently-prosecuted international cartels. Since antitrust activity is unlikely to affect spatial patterns of demand and supply (other than through its effect on the competitive environment), enforcement-induced changes are ideally suited to study the effect of competition on trade patterns. Analyzing the cartels individually and as a group, we find no significant change in spatial patterns of trade following cartel breakup; in particular, there is no significant change in the effect of distance on trade. These results suggest that cross-hauling is not uncommon under collusion and hence that the existence of cross-hauling by itself does not provide evidence of effective competition.
Imaging Inflammatory Disorders of the Jaw: Simple Osteitis to Generalized Osteomyelitis

SUMMARY The treatments for osteitis, apical periodontitis, proliferative periostitis, and osteomyelitis are all different. Proper treatment depends upon establishing an accurate diagnosis. Plain radiography and advanced imaging modalities such as CT and MRI are necessary in evaluating suspected cases of osteomyelitis to determine the extent of the disease if cortical perforation is present and if periosteal remodeling has occurred. Physiologic study of suspected areas by nuclear scan (scintigraphy) also plays a role in establishing the “activity” of the infection. Further reporting of the radiographic features of acute and chronic osteomyelitis is necessary to help the clinician in making decisions regarding treatment.
20-month-olds Use Social Categories to Make Inductive Inferences about Agents’ Preferences

Adults use social-group membership to make inductive inferences about the properties of novel individuals, and this tendency is well established by the preschool years. Recent evidence suggests tha...
Mitigating SARS-CoV-2 in the Deployed Environment.

Introduction Unlike other communal living environments (universities, boarding schools, and camps) that have been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, the deployed military force must continue its mission. Early challenges in the 2020 deployed environment included limited availability of living and quarantine space and limited testing capacity. This is a brief report of stringent quarantine strategies employed to newly arriving cohorts at a NATO and U.S. military base to prevent release of SARS-CoV-2 into a larger base population. Methods With awareness of the worldwide pandemic, beginning in late February 2020, all personnel arriving to the Hamid Karzai International Airport NATO base were quarantined for 14 days to prevent interaction with the wider base population. Testing capacity was limited. Names, locations, and dates of those within quarantine were tracked to improve contact tracing. Between February and April 2020, the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 were diagnosed on a military base in Afghanistan within quarantine. Results Within quarantine, 11 males became PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2 during April 2020. Five of the 11 were PCR tested for symptoms of fever, cough, or loss of taste. A sixth individual, who had been asymptomatic upon leaving the base after completion of quarantine, later developed symptoms and tested positive. Another five asymptomatic individuals were found with antibody testing just before planned release from 14 days of quarantine post-exposure and confirmed with PCR testing. All PCR-positive individuals were diagnosed before being released into the general population of the base because of strict screening, quarantine, and exit criteria. Conclusion Quarantine creates significant strain on resources in a deployed environment. Group quarantine facilities where social distancing is limited allow for the possibility for intra-quarantine transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Ideally, PCR testing is done upon entry into quarantine and upon exit. With the possibility of false-negative PCR or limited PCR testing, we recommend daily symptom screening, pulse oximetry, temperature checks, and small quarantine groups that must "graduate" together-all meeting exit criteria. Any introduction of new individual, even with negative testing, to a group increases risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.Upon exit of quarantine, testing should be performed, regardless of entry testing. If PCR is limited, serology testing should be done, followed by PCR, if positive. Serology testing can be combined with clinical judgment to conserve PCR testing for quarantine release of asymptomatic individuals.
SPORTS SPECIALIZED YOUTH ATHLETES EXHIBIT LOWER RISK QUALITY OF MOTION THAN NON-SPECIALIZED ADOLESCENTS:

Background:Quality of motion and neuromuscular balance are noted predictors of acute injury risk. Early sports specialization and extremely high activity levels have been linked to high risk of inj...
Synthesis and styrene copolymerization of novel trisubstituted ethylenes: 4. Halogen ring-substituted octyl phenylcyanoacrylates

Novel trisubstituted ethylenes, halogen ring-substituted octyl phenylcyanoacrylates, RPhCH=C(CN)CO2CH2(CH2)6CH3 (where R is 4-bromo, 2-chloro, 3-chloro, 4-chloro, 2-fluoro, 3-fluoro, 4-fluoro, 2-iodo, 3-iodo, 4-iodo) were prepared and copolymerized with styrene. The ethylenes were synthesized by the piperidine catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation of ring-substituted benzaldehydes and octyl cyanoacetate, and characterized by CHN analysis, IR, 1H and 13C NMR. All the ethylenes were copolymerized with styrene in solution with radical initiation (ABCN) at 70C. The compositions of the copolymers were calculated from nitrogen analysis.
Community Effectiveness of Masks and Vaccines

Recent controversies about wearing masks and getting vaccinated to slow the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 highlight the potential for individual rights and decision making to create widespread...
Thermal runaway avoidance using Hamilton-Jacobi reachability and model predictive control

Abstract This work investigates application of Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) reachability and model predictive control (MPC) to exothermic batch processes with the aim of preventing thermal runaway while also improving process efficiency. First the set of unsafe states is identified and the avoid set, the set of states that inevitably become unsafe, is computed using HJ reachability. A novel MPC based scheme incorporating the avoid set as a constraint is then presented. Simulations demonstrate that it results in improved safety and process efficiency when compared to MPC schemes without the avoid set. The results indicate that HJ reachability and MPC can be used to achieve safe process intensification of exothermic batch processes.
FPIN's Clinical Inquiries. Treatments for sciatica.

Surgical diskectomy can be offered to patients with refractory sciatica, but there is only modest, short-term improvement in leg pain and disability scores. Epidural steroid injections may be offered to patients with sciatica of more than six months' duration.
Religion and Rehabilitation: Humanitarian Biopolitics, City Spaces and Acts of Religion

Episodes of urban violence, particularly those inflected by religious sectarianism, have a particular dynamic of ordering urban spaces and identity publics, not just during the episodes themselves but long after. Using sketches of urban violence in Lebanon (Beirut) and India (Delhi and Ahmedabad), this article focuses on an emerging phenomenon associated with such episodes — one that orders city spaces around rehabilitative activities in such a way that these spaces, in both material and experiential terms, bear an integral relationship with aspects of religious activity. Religiously motivated aid practices, channeled through faith-based relief organizations, enumerate vulnerable populations and circumscribe their continued survival within bounded spatial entities, especially in those contexts where long-term ‘secular’ or state-sponsored rehabilitative effort is lacking. These processes of emplacing religiously marked populations in urban environments suggest the potential for a religiously coded bio-politics, or a practice of governmentality that puts agents other than the state in a position of exerting power over continued social life. The three sketches variously illustrate how the intertwining of religion with survival within contemporary urban socio-spatial formations suggest powerful intimacies between religion and individual or community life, which at the same time make place for alternative claims of governance, security and citizenship.
Political Ideology and Constitutional Decision-Making: The Coming Example of the Affordable Care Act

Under current constitutional doctrines, the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act is an easy question; it is clearly constitutional. Congress has the authority to adopt this under its commerce power, its spending power, or under the necessary and proper clause. It is its role in the political debate which makes it difficult and which likely will make it a close question before the Supreme Court. At any point in time, there are issues that are used to define people politically and that people use to define themselves ideologically. The Second Amendment and abortion have been examples of this in recent years. Focusing on these issues solely in terms of constitutional argument and constitutional doctrine loses sight of the role of such issues as people – including justices – define themselves, and others, politically and ideologically. A person who sees himself or herself as politically liberal or conservative will want to take positions similar to others with that orientation and have his or her views defined, in large part, by the dominant view of that political orientation. It is no less so for justices than others. Justices, to be sure, at times deviate from this, as do other in society. But it is a mistake to look at the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act apart from this reality or to see constitutional doctrine apart from the political climate which influences the views that people hold.Sometimes decisions on such issues have little effect on overall constitutional law. Bush v. Gore, for example, had no apparent effect on constitutional doctrines; no Supreme Court cases have cited it and rarely has it been relied on by lower courts. The Second Amendment decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago, so far have had little effect outside of the gun control area. But the ideological orientation as to abortion rights has had a profound effect on views on other constitutional issues. I suggest that if the Court invalidates the individual mandate, the long-term implications will be significant.
Analysis of osteon morphotype scoring schemes for interpreting load history: evaluation in the chimpanzee femur

Osteon morphotype scores (MTSs) allow for quantification of mechanically important collagen/lamellar variations between secondary osteons when viewed in circularly polarized ight (CPL). We recently modified the 6-point MTS method of Martin et al. (Martin RB, Gibson VA, Stover SM, Gibeling JC, Griffin LV (1996a) Osteonal structure in the equine third metacarpus. Bone 19, 165-71) and reported superiority of this modified method in correlating with ‘tension’ and ‘compression’ cortices of both chimpanzee proximal femoral diaphyses and diaphyses of other non-anthropoid bones that are loaded in habitual bending (Skedros et al. 2009, 2011). In these studies, the ‘tension’ and ‘compression’ cortices differed significantly in predominant collagen fiber orientation (CFO) based on weighted-mean gray levels (CFO/WMGLs) in CPL images. In chimpanzee femora, however, some osteons were difficult to score with the 6-point method; namely, ‘hybrids’ with peripherally bright ‘hoops’ and variability in alternating rings within the osteon wall. We hypothesized that some of these hybrids would be more prevalent in regions subject to torsion than bending. In this perspective the present study was aimed at expanding our 6-point scoring method (S-6-MTS) into two 12-point methods with six additional morphotypes that considered these hybrids. Three- and 4-point methods were also evaluated. We hypothesized that at least one of these other methods would out-perform the S-6-MTS in terms of accuracy, reliability, and interpreting torsion vs. bending load histories. Osteon morphotypes were quantified in CPL images from transverse sections of eight adult chimpanzee femora (neck, proximal diaphysis, mid-diaphysis), where the mid-diaphysis and base- and mid-neck locations have relatively more complex loading (e.g. torsion + bending) than the proximal diaphysis, where bending predominates. Correlation coefficients between CFO/WMGL and MTSs showed that the S-6-MTS method was either stronger or equivalent to the 12-point methods, and typically stronger than the 3- and 4-point methods for all load environments. In nearly all instances the S-6-MTS is more reliable and accurate when it is applied to cases where interpreting load history requires distinguishing habitual bending from torsion. Consequently, in studies of osteonal adaptations for these load histories the 3- and 4-point methods are not stronger correlates, and the extra time required to assign additional scores in the 12-point methods is both unnecessary and can be highly unreliable.
CNS Control of the Pituitary

In this chapter I should like to describe the saga of the discovery of the hypothalamic neurohormones that regulate the secretion of anterior pituitary hormones, discuss the current status of their chemistry and the factors that influence their release, and allude briefly to some possible clinical applications of these neurohormones. I shall try to present the current status of this rapidly advancing field but shall not document all statements with references. Instead, I shall provide key references, mostly to reviews, that should enable the interested student to delve further into the literature.
Design, fabrication, and test of a 125 Mb/s transimpedance amplifier using MOSIS 1.2 /spl mu/m standard digital CMOS process

A front-end transimpedance amplifier for an optical receiver is designed, fabricated through MOSIS 1.2 /spl mu/m digital CMOS Foundry, and tested. The amplifier meets the specification of FDDI physical layer. Test shows that the bandwidth of the circuit is more than 100 MHz and overall transimpedance gain is about 10,000 /spl Omega/ with 50 /spl Omega/ load resistor. Power dissipation is about 20 mW.
Laboratory accreditation of the acoustical standards program at the institute for national measurement standards

A summary of the external accreditation of the acoustical standards program at the Institute for National Measurement Standards was presented. The institute had standard procedures which covered the relatively mundane part of the requirements such as how to handle the instruments when they arrive. The importance of the time spent in preparing for the accreditation was found to be essential for international recognition. It was also found that each program needs to be loaded from a separate disk every time to identify the correct version of the program.
Aggregation queries in the database-as-a-service model

In the Database-As-a-Service (DAS) model, clients store their database contents at servers belonging to potentially untrusted service providers. To maintain data confidentiality, clients need to outsource their data to servers in encrypted form. At the same time, clients must still be able to execute queries over encrypted data. One prominent and fairly effective technique for executing SQL-style range queries over encrypted data involves partitioning (or bucketization) of encrypted attributes. However, executing aggregation-type queries over encrypted data is a notoriously difficult problem. One well-known cryptographic tool often utilized to support encrypted aggregation is homomorphic encryption; it enables arithmetic operations over encrypted data. One technique based on a specific homomorphic encryption function was recently proposed in the context of the DAS model. Unfortunately, as shown in this paper, this technique is insecure against ciphertext-only attacks. We propose a simple alternative for handling encrypted aggregation queries and describe its implementation. We also consider a different flavor of the DAS model which involves mixed databases, where some attributes are encrypted and some are left in the clear. We show how range queries can be executed in this model.
Propagation and Ambient Noise Studies for Ocean Acoustics Applications

Abstract : Ocean ambient noise has been studied for decades. Much of the interest has been on determining the impact of noise on sonar performance. In this context, noise has generally been considered a nuisance and the research focus has been on methods to measure and predict ocean noise. In this project, the emphasis has been shifted to how ocean noise can be exploited. Results over the past several years have shown that breaking wave noise can be used for remote sensing the environment. There are several advantages to passive remote sensing including simple measurement requirements and the minimal environmental impact. Advancements in the noise-based remote sensing methodologies will be described in this annual report. In particular, one of the techniques being investigated uses noise as a type of passive fathometer or sub-bottom profiler and another uses noise to estimate the seabed reflectivity (i.e., bottom loss). Both techniques lead to better characterization of the seabed. Knowing the seabed properties is important to predict sound propagation in the ocean (and therefore predicting sonar system performance). Eventually, these methods can lead to new surveying techniques that might be used to update the Low Frequency Bottom Loss (LFBL) or High Frequency Bottom Loss (HFBL) databases. LFBL and HFBL are databases that the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO) maintains and updates and are used for sonar performance prediction as part of the navy s tactical decision aids.
Age-Structured Core Group Model and Its Impact on STD Dynamics

The recruitment of new suceptibles into a core group of sexually-active individuals may depend on the current levels of infection within a population. We extend the formalism of Hadeler and Castillo-Chavez (1995), that includes prevalence dependent recruitment rates, to include age structure within core and noncore populations. Some mathematical results are stated but only a couple of proofs are included since our objetives are to highlight the modeling process and the dynamic possibilities. This paper concludes with an example where endemic distributions can be supported when the basic reproductive number R0 is less than one. Systems that are capable of supporting multiple attractors are more likely to support disease re-emergence. This model is likely to support stable multiple attractors when R0 < 1.
Where Are the Accounting Professors

Accounting education is facing a crisis of shortage of accounting faculty. This study discusses the reasons behind the shortage and offers suggestions to increase the supply of accounting faculty. Our suggestions are as followings. First, educators should begin promoting accounting academia as one of the career choices to undergraduate and graduate students. Second, schools should provide adequate financial support to Ph.D. students. Third, academic administers should encourage faculty’s involvement in mentoring Ph.D. students. Finally, the tenure and promotion system needs to be reevaluated to facilitate success in faculty development.
ChoiceNet: Network innovation through choice

Computer networks, in particular the Internet, represent essential infrastructure for business, government, military, and personal communication. Several recent trends in technology and network use have pushed the capabilities required of the Internet beyond what can be provided by the currently deployed infrastructure. To address these limitations, the network community has developed a variety of technologies to adapt the functionality of network protocols and services. A critical question that remains unanswered is how to integrate these technologies into an ecosystem that involves users, service providers, and developers in such a way that new ideas can be deployed and used in practice. In this work, we discuss how to design a network architecture where choices at different layers of the protocol stack are explicitly exposed to users. Our ChoiceNet system is based on three tightly coupled principles in that it aims to (1) encourage alternatives to allow users to choose among a range of services, (2) let users vote with their wallets to reward superior and innovative services, and (3) provide the mechanisms to stay informed on available alternatives and their performance. This approach ensures that innovative technical solutions can be deployed and rewarded, which is essential to encourage wide deployment of this architecture. Overall, our work does not aim at reinventing technical solutions to networking problems, but at developing a comprehensive system where these solutions can be incorporated and compete to allow the network to adapt to current and future challenges.
A theory of fuzzy uniformities with applications to the fuzzy real lines

Abstract For each completely distributive lattice L with order-reversing involution, the fuzzy real line R (L) is uniformizable by a uniformity which both generates the canonical (fuzzy) topology and induces a pseudometric generating the canonical topology. If L is also a chain, the usual addition and multiplication defined on R  R ({0, 1}) extend jointly (fuzzy) continuously to ⊕ and ⊙ on R (L). Three fundamental questions in fuzzy sets until now are: Question A. If L1≅L2, is R (L1) uniformly isomorphic to R (L2) in some sense? Question B. For each chain L, is ⊕ (jointly) uniformly continuous in a sense which guarantees its (joint) continuity on R (L)? Question C. Is R (L) a complete pseudometric space in some sense? We construct categories QU and U using the [quasi-] uniformities of B. Hutton which enable us to answer these questions in the affirmative. These results enhance the canonical standing of the fuzzy real lines and so give additional justification for answering in the affirmative: Question D. Does fuzzy topology have deep, specific, canonical examples?
Polyhedral water clusters, II: correlations of connectivity parameters with electronic energy and hydrogen bond lengths

Abstract Polyhedral water clusters (PWCs) are (H 2 O) n clusters in which every oxygen is three-coordinated. Four polyhedral geometries on which water clusters can be based are the cube ( n =8), pentagonal prism ( n =10), hexagonal prism ( n =12), and 4 4 5 4 octahedron ( n =12). For each of these geometries, a database was obtained of PWCs optimized at the B3LYP/6-311++G ∗∗ level. The total database contained 1311 hydrogen bonds in 82 optimized PWCs. Using linear regression, correlations were sought linking aspects of the clusters' H-bonding pattern with their electronic energies and with the lengths of their H-bonds. Excluding six very high-energy clusters whose H-bonding pattern included a motif called a cyclic component, 98.9% or more of the variance in clusters' electronic energy could be accounted for by just three connectivity parameters, for each of the geometries. Five families of H-bonds were distinguished based on the presence or absence of a pendent H on the acceptor and donor O and on the layout of adjacent H's. Within each family, the presence or absence of pendent H's on first and second neighbor O's accounted for 86–95% of the variance in H-bond length, and could be used to predict H-bond length with an RMS error≤2.4 pm.
When to treat ocular hypertension

Ocular hypertension (intraocular pressure greater than or equal to 21 mm Hg, normal visual fields, normal optic discs, open angles, and the absence of any contributing ocular disease) occurs in 4-10% of the population over age 40. The question of whether to treat ocular hypertensive patients remains controversial. The author recommends prophylactic treatment for selected ocular hypertensive individuals who are at high risk of developing primary open angle glaucoma. The primary risk factors are high intraocular pressure, optic disc abnormality, increasing age, a family history of glaucoma, and systemic vascular disease. In addition, certain features of the patient's personality or medical condition favor treatment; for instance, treatment would probably be indicated in (1) a young patient, (2) a one-eyed patient, (3) an unreliable patient, (4) a patient who cannot do reliable visual fields or in whom the optic disc cannot be visualized, (5) a patient who prefers to be treated, and (6) a patient who has suffered a retinal vascular occlusion.
An event-driven distributed processing architecture for image-guided cardiac ablation therapy

Medical imaging data is becoming increasing valuable in interventional medicine, not only for preoperative planning, but also for real-time guidance during clinical procedures. Three key components necessary for image-guided intervention are real-time tracking of the surgical instrument, aligning the real-world patient space with image-space, and creating a meaningful display that integrates the tracked instrument and patient data. Issues to consider when developing image-guided intervention systems include the communication scheme, the ability to distribute CPU intensive tasks, and flexibility to allow for new technologies. In this work, we have designed a communication architecture for use in image-guided catheter ablation therapy. Communication between the system components is through a database which contains an event queue and auxiliary data tables. The communication scheme is unique in that each system component is responsible for querying and responding to relevant events from the centralized database queue. An advantage of the architecture is the flexibility to add new system components without affecting existing software code. In addition, the architecture is intrinsically distributed, in that components can run on different CPU boxes, and even different operating systems. We refer to this Framework for Image-Guided Navigation using a Distributed Event-Driven Database in Real-Time as the FINDER architecture. This architecture has been implemented for the specific application of image-guided cardiac ablation therapy. We describe our prototype image-guidance system and demonstrate its functionality by emulating a cardiac ablation procedure with a patient-specific phantom. The proposed architecture, designed to be modular, flexible, and intuitive, is a key step towards our goal of developing a complete system for visualization and targeting in image-guided cardiac ablation procedures.
The flexibility of alternating dA-dT sequences.

Abstract The flexibility of alternating poly (dA—dT) has been investigated by the technique of transient electric dichroism. Rotational relaxation times, which are very sensitive to changes in the end-to-end length of flexible polymers, are determined from the field free dichroism decay curves of four, well defined fragments of poly (dA—dT) ranging in size from 136 to 270 base pairs. Persistence lengths, calculated from the results of Hagerman and Zimm (Biopolymers (1981) 29, 1481–1502), are in the range 200–250 A. This makes alternating dA—dT sequences about twice as flexible as naturally occurring, “random” sequence DNA. Considering a bend around a nucleosome, for example, this difference in persistence length translates to an energy difference between poly (dA—dT) and random sequence DNA of 0. 17 kT/base pair or 1 kcal per 10 base pair stretch. This energy difference is sufficiently large to suggest that dA—dT sequences could serve as markers in DNA packaging, for example, at sites where DNA must tight...