cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A model-based systems approach to radar design utilizing multi-attribute decision analysis techniques

This paper proposes an innovative system software solution for developing ground-based phased array radar architectures. Specifically, the paper looks at developing and integrating initial functional and analytical component and sub-system models into a system model that can be used for trade space exploration and optimization. This system software solution is implemented through a Python based suite of models that encapsulates the features and functions of standard phased array radars. Initial software design models create an integrated system model using classic systems engineering modeling and simulation techniques, which in turn allows a systems engineer to evaluate system level trade-offs and optimization for key radar performance parameters like signal-to-noise ratio, effective radiated power, and effective aperture size. By combining these system design models while using decision making algorithms such as non-dominated Pareto optimization and multi-attribute decision analysis, this tool optimizes different radar architectures. It then orders them by rank based on implicitly and explicitly derived system requirements and user-inputted preferences. Preliminary radar system design tests of the software suite show that the tool excels at taking system level technical requirements and breaking them down into functional and analytical models. This allows a trade space to be created containing all possible radar architectures, giving the systems engineer the ability to evaluate the potential architectures and view the optimization ranks given to them.
Weak branches in 42Sc, 35Ar, and 27Si beta + decay.

The weak nonanalog Fermi branch to the 1.837 MeV level of $^{42}\mathrm{Ca}$ and several weak branches in $^{35}\mathrm{Ar}$ and $^{27}\mathrm{Si}$ ${\ensuremath{\beta}}^{+}$ decay have been remeasured in order to reduce statistical uncertainties and reconcile discrepancies in the literature. The weak branches were detected by measuring subsequent cascade gamma rays with a Ge detector surrounded by a NaI anti-Compton shield. Fast transport of thin, self-supporting targets was provided by a magnetically driven rabbit system. For $^{42}\mathrm{Sc}$ the ratio of the weak branch relative to the superallowed ground state to ground state transition was found to have a value of (7.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.2)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}5}$. This value is in good agreement with two of the three earlier, less precise, measurements. It is at the low end of theoretical estimates. The new results for the weak branches in $^{35}\mathrm{Ar}$ and $^{27}\mathrm{Si}$ have reduced uncertainties and agree well with a previous determination.
The People as Subject Matter of History: Fortuna and Virtù in the Discourses on Livy

The problem of the Ghiribizzi reappears in the Discourses on Livy, where it is a question of the people’s encounter (riscontro) with the times. The theory of the riscontro between action and circumstances receives an explicit political articulation afforded by the idea that there is an analogy between the circumstances as the “subject” of action and the people as the “matter” of political life.
Pharmacologic Activation of Expression of Immunodominant Viral Antigens: A New Strategy for the Treatment of Epstein-Barr-Virus-Associated Malignancies

Although many B-cell malignancies are sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy and some may be cured, the majority relapse and prove fatal. Even at the extremes of dose escalation requiring bone marrow transplantation or peripheral blood stem cell rescue, there are resistant cells in many tumors that will ultimately lead to relapse. Immunotherapeutic approaches to the destruction of tumors have attracted interest because resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy probably does not confer resistance to immune-mediated killing. In addition, a highly selective attack on tumor cells might avoid the morbidity associated with more conventional approaches. Immunotherapy is not yet a standard part of the approach to malignancy because of the difficulties identifying antigens that are truly tumor specific and inducing a host response to these antigens. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphomas present some interesting opportunities in this regard.
Slums: the history of a global injustice

Slums: The History of a Global Injustice by Alan Mayne, who teaches urban history and public policy in Australia and the United Kingdom, is a sweeping survey of middle-class and elite perceptions o...
Perineurial fibroblastomas: their fine structure and biology.

1. 25 tumors of cranial nerve, spinal nerve root, brachial plexus, and peripheral nerve were studied under the electron microscope. 2. The fine structure and function of the neoplastic cells in all of these tumors were identical. 3. We concluded that these tumors belong to the fibroblastic and not to the Schwann series of cells.
Higher Neural Correlates in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Neurogenic Overactive Bladder Following Treatment with Intradetrusor Injection of OnabotulinumtoxinA.

Purpose:OnabotulinumtoxinA is a well described treatment of neurogenic overactive bladder. While motor effects on the detrusor muscle have been extensively studied, the sensory effects have not. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injection on brain activity in female patients with multiple sclerosis and neurogenic overactive bladder.Materials and Methods:We prospectively studied 12 women with stable multiple sclerosis and neurogenic overactive bladder using concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging and urodynamic studies prior to and 6 to 10 weeks following onabotulinumtoxinA injection. Individual functional magnetic resonance imaging activation maps at the time of strong urgency were averaged before and after onabotulinumtoxinA injection where areas of significant activation were identified.Results:After onabotulinumtoxinA injection functional magnetic resonance imaging activation increased in the right cingulate body (p = 0.0012), the left posteri...
Placement and Sizing of Inverter-Based Renewable Systems in Multi-Phase Distribution Networks

This paper develops a tractable formulation for optimal placement and sizing of inverter-based renewable systems in multi-phase distribution networks. The goal of the formulation is to minimize the cost of inverter installation, average power import, and average distributed generation curtailment. Three-phase and single-phase inverter models are presented that preserve the underlying mappings between renewable uncertainty to power injection. The uncertainty of distributed generators (DGs) and loads are characterized by a finite set of scenarios. Linear multi-phase power flow approximations are used in conjunction with scenario reduction techniques to arrive at a tractable two-stage stochastic formulation for optimal DG placement and sizing. First-stage decisions are locations for DG deployment and capacity sizes, and second-stage decisions include DG real power curtailment, reactive power support, as well as feeder voltage profile. The resulting formulation is a mixed-integer second-order cone program and can be solved efficiently either by existing optimization solvers or by relaxing the binary variables to the [0,1] interval. Simulation studies on standard multi-phase IEEE test feeders promise that optimal stochastic planning of DGs reduces costs during validation, compared to a scheme where uncertainty is only represented by its average value.
Joint Discrete and Continuous Emotion Prediction Using Ensemble and End-to-End Approaches

This paper presents a novel approach in continuous emotion prediction that characterizes dimensional emotion labels jointly with continuous and discretized representations. Continuous emotion labels can capture subtle emotion variations, but their inherent noise often has negative effects on model training. Recent approaches found a performance gain when converting the continuous labels into a discrete set (e.g., using k-means clustering), despite a label quantization error. To find the optimal trade-off between the continuous and discretized emotion representations, we investigate two joint modeling approaches: ensemble and end-to-end. The ensemble model combines the predictions from two models that are trained separately, one with discretized prediction and the other with continuous prediction. On the other hand, the end-to-end model is trained to simultaneously optimize both discretized and continuous prediction tasks in addition to the final combination between them. Our experimental results using the state-of-the-art deep BLSTM network on the RECOLA dataset demonstrate that (i) the joint representation outperforms both individual representation baselines and the state-of-the-art speech based results on RECOLA, validating the assumption that combining continuous and discretized emotion representations yields better performance in emotion prediction; and (ii) the joint representation can help to accelerate convergence, particularly for valence prediction. Our work provides insights into joint discrete and continuous emotion representation and its efficacy for describing dynamically changing affective behavior in valence and activation prediction.
Can the Public Trust Doctrine Save the High Seas

AbstractThe high seas is one of the last remaining commons on the planet, but comprehensive efforts to save this area beyond national jurisdiction have not been successful. This article examines th...
Biodiversity? Yes, But What Kind? A Critical Reassessment in Light of a Challenge from Microbial Ecology

Biodiversity has become one of the most important conservation values that drive our ecological management and directly inform our environmental policy. This paper highlights the dangers of strategically appropriating concepts from ecological sciences and also of uncritically inserting them into conservation debates as unqualified normative landmarks. Here, I marshal evidence from a cutting-edge research program in microbial ecology, which shows that if species richness is our major normative target, then we are faced with extraordinary ethical implications. This example challenges our well-received beliefs about biodiversity and it invites us to critically rethink the nature of this concept so that a more robust understanding of biodiversity and of its role in conservation policy could emerge.
Large-margin determinantal point processes

Determinantal point processes (DPPs) offer a powerful approach to modeling diversity in many applications where the goal is to select a diverse subset from a ground set of items. We study the problem of learning the parameters (i.e., the kernel matrix) of a DPP from labeled training data. In this paper, we develop a novel parameter estimation technique particularly tailored for DPPs based on the principle of large margin separation. In contrast to the state-of-the-art method of maximum likelihood estimation of the DPP parameters, our large-margin loss function explicitly models errors in selecting the target subsets, and it can be customized to trade off different types of errors (precision vs. recall). Extensive empirical studies validate our contributions, including applications on challenging document and video summarization, where flexibility in balancing different errors while training the summarization models is indispensable.
Implementation Matters in Deep RL: A Case Study on PPO and TRPO

We study the roots of algorithmic progress in deep policy gradient algorithms through a case study on two popular algorithms, Proximal Policy Optimization and Trust Region Policy Optimization. We investigate the consequences of "code-level optimizations:" algorithm augmentations found only in implementations or described as auxiliary details to the core algorithm. Seemingly of secondary importance, such optimizations have a major impact on agent behavior. Our results show that they (a) are responsible for most of PPO's gain in cumulative reward over TRPO, and (b) fundamentally change how RL methods function. These insights show the difficulty, and importance, of attributing performance gains in deep reinforcement learning.
Sexy-Clothing Behavior of High School Girls: Sexual Self-Congruity and Parental and Popular Girls’ Influences:

The present study focused on the sexy-clothing behavior of high school girls. Specifically, we examined whether high school girls wear sexy clothes to express their actual sexual self-concepts and ...
Unmet Needs in Mixed States

The DSM-5 versus DSM-IV mixed bipolar symptom approach is considered more inclusive, partially addressing unmet needs related to the over-exclusivity of DSM-IV. Thus, DSM-5 now includes manic, hypomanic, and major depressive episodes with mixed features. However, some authors still view even the current DSM-5 approach as overly exclusive. For example, DSM-5 major depressive episodes with mixed features (mixed depressions) require not only syndromal major depressive episodes, but also ≥3 opposite pole symptoms that do not overlap with those seen in depression (i.e., excluding distractibility, irritability, and psychomotor agitation, i.e., “dip” symptoms), making DSM-5 mixed depression more exclusive than if these symptoms were permitted to count towards mixed depression. Hence, an important unmet need for DSM-5 is to determine how to address the potential use of such opposite pole symptoms. DSM-IV bipolar mixed symptoms, clinical correlates and treatment responses have been reasonably well-characterized, although there remain clear unmet needs for better characterization of DSM-5 clinical correlates and treatment responses.
Political ecologies of time and temporality in resource extraction

This article introduces a Special Section on time and temporality in natural resource extraction. The Special Section illuminates the importance of both resource temporalities and temporal strategies around resource extraction, including nostalgia and identity, political strategies to delay projects, and contested attempts at predicting and managing the future. In addressing these themes, contributors highlight divergent spatio-temporalities and memories of extractive landscapes, local people's anticipation of future effects from mining, and governmental and corporate practices to speed up project implementation. We suggest that various temporal aspects – such as history, memory, velocity, delay, and epistemologies of time – play a central role in how struggles and controversies over extractive development manifest in particular places. We also offer additional avenues for research on contested understandings of time and temporality in political ecology. Keywords : natural resources, extractive industry, temporality, political ecology
High-Order Approximation Rates for Neural Networks with ReLU k Activation Functions.

We study the approximation properties of shallow neural networks (NN) with activation function which is a power of the rectified linear unit. Specifically, we consider the dependence of the approximation rate on the dimension and the smoothness of the underlying function to be approximated. Like the finite element method, such networks represent piecewise polynomial functions. However, we show that for sufficiently smooth functions the approximation properties of shallow ReLU$^k$ networks are much better than finite elements or wavelets, and they even overcome the curse of dimensionality more effectively than the sparse grid method. Specifically, for a sufficiently smooth function $f$, there exists a ReLU$^k$-NN with $n$ neurons which approximates $f$ in $L^2([0,1]^d)$ with $O(n^{-(k+1)}\log(n))$ error. Finally, we prove lower bounds showing that the approximation rates attained are optimal under the given assumptions.
The Jurisdictional Heritage of the Grand Jury Clause

For the first 150 years of our constitutional history, a valid grand jury indictment was deemed to be a mandatory prerequisite to a federal court's exercise of criminal subject matter jurisdiction. Under that view of the Grand Jury Clause, a defendant in a federal felony case could neither waive nor forfeit the right to grand jury indictment. A critical examination of the historical evidence reveals that the legal realist criminal procedure reform project of the early twentieth century advanced a pragmatic critique of the usefulness of the grand jury that culminated in a provision of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure allowing for waiver of grand jury indictment for the purpose of facilitating a pre-indictment guilty plea, a procedural efficiency mechanism still used with regularity in federal courts today. The reformers were able to secure the waiver provision - despite serious constitutional concerns - by shaping a pro-efficiency modern understanding of the grand jury that obscured - but did not disprove - the grand jury's jurisdictional significance. This Article argues that the reformers prompted the subversion of the mandate of the Grand Jury Clause, and burdened our legal consciousness with a diminished respect for the grand jury that affects our understanding of the grand jury's place in the constitutional structure to this day. This Article recovers the "jurisdictional heritage" of the grand jury and criticizes the modern understanding for its unjustified dismissal of the grand jury's jurisdictional significance. The Article places blame for the continued confusion in the federal courts regarding the relationship of grand jury and jurisdiction squarely on the weak historical and logical underpinnings of the modern understanding. The Article also contextualizes the grand jury's jurisdictional heritage within the broader contemporary discussion of "pro-defendant" formalist or originalist approaches to defining criminal procedural rights recently applied by the Supreme Court. Finally, the Article argues that the failure to account properly for the jurisdictional heritage of the grand jury frustrates the grand jury's fulfillment of its role in the constitutional design.
Regarding: "Hydroxychloroquine: a comprehensive review and its controversial role in coronavirus disease 2019".

The review article by Bansal and co-workers discusses hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which at the moment is the most widely used prophylactic and therapeutic agent for SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) in...
A Brief History of the Editions of the Theory of Moral Sentiments

This essay provides a short sketch of the changes in the editions of Adam Smith's 'Theory of Moral Sentiments.' I begin with a treatment of the first five editions, focusing on Smith's responses to comments from David Hume and Gilbert Elliot and the addition of the "Languages" essay to edition 3. I then dwell on edition 6 of TMS, as it was the last thing Smith published during his lifetime and features a significant set of changes. I conclude with some comments on the arc of Smith’s development and what I take to be his shifting focus away from moral anatomy towards moral painting.
MicroRNA-210 downregulates TET2 and contributes to inflammatory response in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury

Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic (HI) brain injury is a leading cause of acute mortality and chronic disability in newborns. Our previous studies demonstrated that HI insult significantly increased microRNA-210 (miR-210) in the brain of rat pups and inhibition of brain endogenous miR-210 by its inhibitor (LNA) provided neuroprotective effect in HI-induced brain injury. However, the molecular mechanisms underpinning this neuroprotection remain unclear. We made a neonatal HI brain injury model in mouse pups of postnatal day 7 to uncover the mechanism of miR-210 in targeting the ten eleven translocation (TET) methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 that is a transcriptional suppressor of pro-inflammatory cytokine genes in the neonatal brain. TET2 silencing RNA was used to evaluate the role of TET2 in the neonatal HI-induced pro-inflammatory response and brain injury. MiR-210 mimic and inhibitor (LNA) were delivered into the brain of mouse pups to study the regulation of miR-210 on the expression of TET2. Luciferase reporter gene assay was performed to validate the direct binding of miR-210 to the 3′ untranslated region of the TET2 transcript. Furthermore, BV2 mouse microglia cell line was employed to confirm the role of miR-210-TET2 axis in regulating pro-inflammatory response in microglia. Post-assays included chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay, co-immunoprecipitation, RT-PCR, brain infarct assay, and neurobehavioral test. Student’s t test or one-way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis. HI insult significantly upregulated miR-210, downregulated TET2 protein abundance, and increased NF-κB subunit p65 acetylation level and its DNA binding capacity to the interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) promoter in the brain of mouse pups. Inhibition of miR-210 rescued TET2 protein level from HI insult and miR-210 mimic decreased TET2 protein level in the brain of mouse pups, suggesting that TET2 is a functional target of miR-210. The co-immunoprecipitation was performed to reveal the role of TET2 in HI-induced inflammatory response in the neonatal brain. The result showed that TET2 interacted with NF-κB subunit p65 and histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), a co-repressor of gene transcription. Furthermore, TET2 knockdown increased transcriptional activity of acetyl-p65 on IL-1β gene in the neonatal brain and enhanced HI-induced upregulation of acetyl-p65 level and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression. Of importance, TET2 knockdown exacerbated brain infarct size and neurological deficits and counteracted the neuroprotective effect of miR-210 inhibition. Finally, the in vitro results demonstrated that the miR-210-TET2 axis regulated pro-inflammatory response in BV2 mouse microglia cell line. The miR-210-TET2 axis regulates pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in microglia, contributing to neonatal HI brain injury.
Identification of Accessible Hepatic Gene Signatures for Interindividual Variations in Nutrigenomic Response to Dietary Supplementation of Omega-3 Fatty Acids.

Dietary supplementation is a widely adapted strategy to maintain nutritional balance for improving health and preventing chronic diseases. Conflicting results in studies of similar design, however, suggest that there is substantial heterogenicity in individuals’ responses to nutrients, and personalized nutrition is required to achieve the maximum benefit of dietary supplementation. In recent years, nutrigenomics studies have been increasingly utilized to characterize the detailed genomic response to a specific nutrient, but it remains a daunting task to define the signatures responsible for interindividual variations to dietary supplements for tissues with limited accessibility. In this work, we used the hepatic response to omega-3 fatty acids as an example to probe such signatures. Through comprehensive analysis of nutrigenomic response to eicosapentaneoid acid (EPA) and/or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) including both protein coding and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) genes in human hepatocytes, we defined the EPA- and/or DHA-specific signature genes in hepatocytes. By analyzing gene expression variations in livers of healthy and relevant disease populations, we identified a set of protein coding and lncRNA signature genes whose responses to omega-3 fatty acid exhibit very high interindividual variabilities. The large variabilities of individual responses to omega-3 fatty acids were further validated in human hepatocytes from ten different donors. Finally, we profiled RNAs in exosomes isolated from the circulation of a liver-specific humanized mouse model, in which the humanized liver is the sole source of human RNAs, and confirmed the in vivo detectability of some signature genes, supporting their potential as biomarkers for nutrient response. Taken together, we have developed an efficient and practical procedure to identify nutrient-responsive gene signatures as well as accessible biomarkers for interindividual variations.
Nonsurgical Gallbladder Drainage: Percutaneous and Endoscopic Approaches

Abstract Acute cholecystitis is a common condition affecting 500,000 Americans per year. Although the gold standard treatment is cholecystectomy, some patients are poor surgical candidates requiring alternative treatment. Alternative treatment usually involves gallbladder drainage through a percutaneous or endoscopic approach. One common endoscopic approach is the transpapillary approach which involves cannulating the common bile duct and cystic duct sequentially and inserting a stent into the gallbladder. This technique can be technically challenging as the cystic duct can be difficult to cannulate and has a risk of postprocedure pancreatitis. However, this technique can be advantageous as it preserves a patient's anatomy for possible surgery in the future. The other common endoscopic approach is the transmural approach. This involves using an echoendoscope to determine an appropriate place to puncture the gallbladder and then using a needle and guidewire to create an opening to place a stent connecting the gallbladder and GI lumen. Use of a needle and guidewire can be obviated if an electrocautery method is used. This technique has an exceptionally high technical and clinical success rate but there is concern for stent occlusion and tissue overgrowth in long term stent placement. Technical and clinical success rates are similar between the percutaneous and transmural approaches which are higher than those in the transpapillary approach. Taken together, the endoscopic approaches are associated with shorter hospital stays and readmissions. Mortality rates are similar in all the approaches.
Ion-Pairing Effects in Carbanion Reactions

Publisher Summary This chapter explores the correlation of ion pairs with chemical behavior in a variety of carbanion systems. An understanding of the various factors determining the extent and type of ionic association is indispensible in describing ion pair effects. The chapter discusses these factors, focusing on the effect of carbanion structure. It reflects that ion pairing effects are often similar from one reaction to another, provided that the reactions are like one another in terms of the degree of charge dispersion in going from reactants to products. An understanding of the various factors determining the extent and type of ionic association is indispensible in describing ion pair effects. The chapter illustrates that the role of the counter-ion in many carbanion systems is important, sometimes even dominant, and should be studied carefully before the reactive behavior of carbanions may be evaluated. Moreover, such effects, when properly identified, may serve to probe changes in charge delocalization in carbanion reactions and may lead to a better understanding of carbanion chemistry.
Bacterial Sporulation and Regulation of Dihydrodipicolinate Synthase in Ribonucleic Acid Polymerase Mutants of Bacillus subtilis

The activity of dihydrodipicolinate synthase increased late in sporulation in Bacillus subtilis. Mutants blocked at several stages of sporulation due to having an altered ribonucleic acid polymerase failed to exhibit this increase.
Historical Accuracy and the IRA Over 70 Years of Cinema

This Open Access Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in CGU Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact scholarship@cuc.claremont.edu. Recommended Citation Elliott, Eric Scott, "Historical Accuracy and the IRA Over 70 Years of Cinema" (2012). CGU Theses & Dissertations. Paper 23. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/23
Predictive Cloud Computing with Big Data: Professional Golf and Tennis Forecasting [Application Notes]

Major Golf and Grand Slam Tennis tournaments such as Australian Open, The Masters, Roland Garros, United States Golf Association (USGA), Wimbledon, and United States Tennis Association (USTA) United States (US) Open provide real-time and historical sporting information to immerse a global fan base in the action. Each tournament provides realtime content, including streaming video, game statistics, scores, images, schedule of play, and text. Due to the game popularities, some of the web servers are heavily visited and some are not, therefore, we need a method to autonomously provision servers to provide a smooth user experience. Predictive Cloud Computing (PCC) has been developed to provide a smart allocation/deallocation of servers by combining ensembles of forecasts and predictive modeling to determine the future origin demand for web site content. PCC distributes processing through analytical pipelines that correlate streaming data, such as scores, media schedules, and player brackets with a future-simulated tournament state to measure predicted demand spikes for content. Social data streamed from Twitter provides social sentiment and popularity features used within predictive modeling. Data at rest, such as machine logs and web content, provide additional features for forecasting. While the duration of each tournament varies, the number of origin website requests range from 29,000 to 110,000 hits per minute. The PCC technology was developed and deployed to all Grand Slam tennis events and several major golf tournaments that took place in 2013 and to the present, which has decreased wasted computing consumption by over 50%. We propose a novel forecasting ensemble that includes residual, vector, historical, partial, adjusted, cubic and quadratic forecasters. In addition, we present several predictive models based on Multiple Regression as inputs into several of these forecasters. We conclude by empirically demonstrating that the predictive cloud technology is able to forecast the computing load on origin web servers for professional golf and tennis tournaments.
Semen Donor Selection by In Vitro Sperm Mobility Increases Fertility and Semen Storage in the Turkey Hen

Commercial turkey production relies on the artificial insemination (AI) of pooled semen. However, semen quality ultimately depends on the quality of individual ejaculates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate semen from individual toms by means of an objective sperm-mobility assay. Semen was then pooled by mobility phenotype and inseminated into hens, and the percentages of fertile and hatched eggs were determined after egg incubation. To indirectly evaluate hens' sperm storage, we determined the number of sperm holes in the perivitelline layer (PL) of freshly laid eggs. Semen from individual ejaculates (two trials, total of 169 toms) was evaluated by use of the sperm-mobility test (SMT). Semen was diluted to 1 x 10(9) sperm/ml, in prewarmed N-tris-[hydroxymethyl] methyl-2-amino-ethanesulfonic acid (TES)-buffered saline, and was placed over 3 ml of a 2% (w/v) Accudenz solution at 41degrees C. After a 5-minute incubation period, the cuvette was placed in a densimeter, and percentage transmission was recorded after 1 minute. Semen samples from toms ranked, according to sperm mobility, in the highest 10% and the lowest 10%, after three evaluations, were pooled by group and were used to inseminate hens weekly (trial 1: n = 20 hens/group, for 10 weeks, AI dose 150 x 10(6) spermatozoa inseminated fresh and after 24-hour in vitro storage at 5 degrees C; trial 2: n = 60 hens/group, for 16 weeks, AI dose = 75 x 10(6) spermatozoa inseminated fresh). Each week, eggs from day 6 post-AI were evaluated for holes in the PL, vestiges of acrosomal induced hydrolysis. Spermatozoa from toms of different mobility phenotypes were also evaluated individually, for sperm chromatin structure and motility variables, by use of the Hobson Sperm Tracker. Toms characterized by high and low in vitro sperm-mobility phenotype were categorized as "high mobility" and "low mobility," respectively. The percentage of fertile eggs from hens inseminated with semen from the high-mobility toms was higher than the percentage of fertile eggs from the low-mobility group, in each trial (95.8+/-1.3% vs. 90.4+/-2.2%, and 88.7+/-4.0% vs. 82.4+/-0.4%, trials 1 and 2, respectively; P < 0.05). More sperm holes were observed in the PL of eggs fertilized by the high-mobility toms than in the PL of eggs fertilized by the low-mobility toms (P < 0.05). No differences in susceptibility of sperm nuclear DNA to denature in situ, as measured by the flow-cytometric sperm chromatin-structure assay, were detected between toms of differing mobility phenotypes. Sperm-motility variables, straight-line velocity, and average-path velocity were significantly greater for high-mobility toms compared to low-mobility toms (P < 0.05). Sperm-mobility differences between toms (detected by means of the SMT) influenced sperm storage, as indicated by the number of sperm in the PL and by the percentage of fertile eggs produced.
Short Signatures with Short Public Keys from Homomorphic Trapdoor Functions

We present a lattice-based stateless signature scheme provably secure in the standard model. Our scheme has a constant number of matrices in the public key and a single lattice vector (plus a tag) in the signatures. The best previous lattice-based encryption schemes were the scheme of Ducas and Micciancio (CRYPTO 2014), which required a logarithmic number of matrices in the public key and that of Bohl et. al (J. of Cryptology 2014), which required a logarithmic number of lattice vectors in the signature. Our main technique involves using fully homomorphic computation to compute a degree \(d\) polynomial over the tags hidden in the matrices in the public key. In the scheme of Ducas and Micciancio, only functions linear over the tags in the public key matrices were used, which necessitated having \(d\) matrices in the public key.
The Impact of Leadership Removal on Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

Has the Mexican government’s policy of removing drug-trafficking organization (DTO) leaders reduced or increased violence? In the first 4 years of the Calderon administration, over 34,000 drug-related murders were committed. In response, the Mexican government captured or killed 25 DTO leaders. This study analyzes changes in violence (drug-related murders) that followed those leadership removals. The analysis consists of cross-sectional time-series negative binomial modeling of 49 months of murder counts in 32 Mexican states (including the federal district). Leadership removals are generally followed by increases in drug-related murders. A DTO’s home state experiences more subsequent violence than the state where the leader was removed. Killing leaders is associated with more violence than capturing them. However, removing leaders for whom a $30m peso bounty was offered is associated with a smaller increase than other removals. DTO leadership removals in Mexico were associated with an estimated 415 additional deaths during the first 4 years of the Calderon administration. Reforming Mexican law enforcement and improving career prospects for young men are more promising counter-narcotics strategies. Further research is needed to analyze how the rank of leaders mediates the effect of their removal.
Synapsis and crossing over within a paracentric inversion in the grasshopper, Camnula pellucida

A male grasshopper, Camnula pellucida (Scudder), was found to be heterozygous for a paracentric inversion occupying approximately 10% of the length of one of the two longest chromosomes. Analysis of 297 cells in pachytene revealed inversion loops, suspected inversion loops, asynapsis, and straight pairing in 1.0, 2.7, 8.4, and 87.9% of the analyzable cells, respectively. The frequency of straight pairing (87.9%) indicated a high degree of non-homologous pairing. Analysis of 603 cells in anaphase I and II, and in telophase I and II for the presence of acentric fragments and dicentric chromatid bridges indicated that crossing over within the inversion region occured in about 8% of the cells. The difference between the frequency of the observed plus suspected inversion loops in pachytene and that of the dicentric chromatid bridges and acentric fragments in anaphase I or subsequent stages was not statistically significant. The correspondence between the presence of inversion loops and crossovers within the region of the inversion is thus similar to that observed by Maguire (1966) for a short paracentric inversion in maize. The reasons for this correspondence are considered.
Visual and tactual interaction in judgments of the vertical

Four field-dependent and four field-independent Ss set a comparison bar to the apparent vertical while receiving either veridical or nonveridical reference information. Two intranodal and two inter modal conditions were used. Visual settings were significantly more accurate than tactual settings regardless of the reference modality used. The visual reference significantly increased the error of the tactual setting over that using a tactual reference. The differences between the groups were not statistically significant. The nature of the intermodal interaction needs further clarification.
Reality‐Testing a Vocational Choice: Congruence Between Self, Ideal, and Occupational Percepts Among Student Nurses

A total of 168 student nurses (24 each at 7 levels of vocational experience and preparation) Q-sorted 50 self-relevant, socially neutral statements to measure self-concept, ideal self-concept, and occupational role percept. Mean r's for congruence between ideal and occupational percepts tended to exceed and to reach higher levels of significance than corresponding r's for congruence between either self and ideal or self and occupational percepts. Congruences between self, ideal, and occupational percepts reach significance at p = .01 for graduate students, who have attained “adult” professional status. However, no significant relationship appears to obtain between either pre-professional or professional nursing experience and congruence between self and ideal, self and occupational role, or ideal and occupational role percepts. Results are interpreted in terms of a self-concept theory of vocational development.
cMR in acute myocardial infarction: correlation between myocardial scar and echocardiographic strain

Summary Global longitudinal and circumferential strain was assessed by echo in 15 patients after acute MI. MRI parameters including ventricular volumes, scar, and area at risk were assessed 3+/-2 days post STEMI and at 30 day follow up. Echo strain measures correlated most strongly with LVEF (r=0.81 and 0.88 longitudinal ad circumferential strain, p<0.0001) and infarct size (r=-0.68 and r=-0.69, p<0.001). There were moderate correlations between longitudinal strain and change in LVEDV (r=0.61, p<0.05). Background Cardiac MR (CMR) is a powerful tool in the evaluation myocardial scar and volumes. Speckle tracking by echo is used to evaluate myocardial strain. The correlation between strain measures and MR measures of scar is not well defined. Hypothesis CMR parameters, area at risk (AAR), infarct size (IS), and salvage area (SA), correlate with global echo strain in patients with a ST elevation MI (STEMI). Methods Contrast enhanced(CE) CMR and 2-D echocardiography imaging were performed in patients within 3+/-2 days post STEMI. CMR-derived IS was measured from the late CE images and AAR was measured from T2 black blood images. SA was calculated as AAR/IS. Global longitudinal (LS) and circumferential (CS) strain were assessed from standard apical (16 segment model for LS) or midventricular short axis views using 2-D speckle-tracking software (2D CPA, TomTec, Germany). Results 15 patients with STEMI completed the protocol. Age was 50.8+/-12.6 years (86.7% male). Baseline LVEDV was 203.4 +/- 51.7ml and EF was 51.1% +/- 14.7% with follow up LVEDV 219.9 +/- 72.2ml (p=0.15) and EF 50.8% +/- 13.8% (p=0.8). Average IS was 16.4+/-10.4%, AAR was 23.4+/-12.2%, and SA was 7.0+/-5.7% at baseline. Baseline LS was -13.5 +/- 4.1 and CS was -19.4 +/6.3. Global longitudinal strain was associated with peak troponin I levels (r=-0.74, P<0.001). Correlating LS and CS to baseline MRI parameters showed a strong correlation to LVEF (r=0.81 and 0.88 respectively, p<0.0001) and IS (r=-0.68 and r=-0.69, p<0.001). There was moderate correlation of LS and CS to LVEDV (r=-0.55 and -0.57), p<0.05) and AAR (r=-0.61 and r=-0.57, p<0.05). There was no correlation between strain and SA. There were modest correlations between initial LS and change in LVEDV but not with CS and change in LVEDV (r=0.61, p<0.05 and r=-0.48, p=0.07). Conclusions Echo strain measurements correlated most strongly with LVEF and IS. There were modest associations between strain at baseline and early LV remodeling. Funding None.
Wood and bark anatomy of Gnetum gnemon L.

Abstract Quantitative and qualitative data are presented for seven collections representing two varieties (unlike in habit) of Gnetum gnemon . Tracheids are present, but abundant and intermixed with them are septate fibre-tracheids rich in starch. Axial parenchyma has been reported only once previously for the species. Axial parenchyma is in strands of 4-10 cells, is rich in starch, is primarily vasicentric (paratracheal) in distribution, less commonly diffuse. About equally common are simple and compound perforation plates; the latter are composed of from two to about ten bordered foraminate perforations, the shape of which may be altered by crowding or coalescence, but is clearly still foraminate. Lateral walls of vessels bear pits that are vestured around pit cavities, not facing the pit membrane. Rays are composed mostly of procumbent cells; the tangential walls bear bordered pits. Crystals, present in ray cells and (rarely) axial parenchyma vary widely in size. Crystalliferous sclereids with layered walls, starch-rich parenchyma, and gelatinous secondary phloem fibres are the main components of bark. Early stages in origin of successive vascular cambia in bark are newly described. When representative conditions are derived from study of large numbers of slides, the classical view that Gnetum vessels are unlike those of angiosperms is supported. Features of Gnetum gnemon wood are discussed in the light of ecology and conductive physiology.
Alkane dehydrogenation with silica supported platinum and platinum–gold catalysts derived from phosphine ligated precursors

Abstract In this paper we describe the preparation, catalysis of hexane and propane conversion, and characterization results of several phosphorus containing Pt and Pt–Au catalysts on silica supports. The catalysts were prepared by adsorption from solution of mono- and bi-metallic molecular precursors that are ligated by triphenylphosphine. The effects of phosphorus in the calcined and activated catalysts are much greater than that of gold and lead to remarkable changes in selectivity and stability compared with conventional, non-phosphorus containing Pt/SiO2 and co-deposited Pt–Au/SiO2 catalysts. All catalysts derived from triphenylphosphine precursors showed high selectivity and activity towards dehydrogenation products. Other reactions, namely cyclization, isomerization and cracking, were severely inhibited. Preliminary results for propane conversion show that phosphorus containing catalysts are excellent catalysts for propane dehydrogenation (90% selectivity to propylene at 35% conversion, 550°C, SV=0.5 h−1). The phosphorus containing catalysts also have much greater stability on stream than the non-phosphorus containing catalysts. DRIFTS data on adsorbed CO show that the presence of phosphorus in the catalysts has a significant effect on the CO stretching frequency and causes an upward (blue) shift of about 10 cm−1. TPD of adsorbed CO showed that desorption of CO from a phosphorus containing Pt catalyst had a maximum at ca. 140°C while CO desorption from a conventional Pt/SiO2 catalyst peaked between 240–270°C. These results are consistent with a phosphorus ligand effect on Pt. Preliminary TEM data with a phosphorus containing Pt catalyst showed very small Pt particles estimated to be less than 1 nm.
Multi-Dimensional Transfer Functions for Tissue Selection in Computed Tomography

Computed Tomography (CT) is a widely used 3-D imaging technique. A 3-D volumetric grid is obtained from 2-D crosssectional images. In order to be useful as a diagnostic tool, voxel-based numerical values that represent X-ray absorption in each voxel must be interpreted and combined to form an image that depicts tissue composition at a particular location. Transfer functions are used to translate measured X-ray absorption data into Hounsfield units, and Hounsfield units into intensities, colors and transparency values. Gradient-based transfer functions are used to highlight material boundaries and interfaces between different tissues. Multi-dimensional transfer functions combine the advantages of regular and gradientbased transfer functions, facilitating a wide spectrum of visual representations. Transfer functions are usually under user control and often difficult to find. Improper transfer functions can create misleading visualizations and may lead to erroneous diagnoses. This article discusses how multi-dimensional transfer functions can be derived that are clinically relevant and meaningful. INTRODUCTION X-ray absorption is usually measured in Hounsfield units, which can be attributed to various substances or tissue types (table 1). CT data files are commonly stored in a 12-bit format (DICOM-3). This means that the values are scaled and stored with a positive offset in a range from 0 to 4095. For practical purposes, the least significant four bits are often ignored so that the values can be displayed as 8-bit intensity values (256 shades of gray). This method of data reduction is often inappropriate, because values for similar materials, such as bone or teeth, are often close together. Therefore, we will use the full scanner intensity resolution of 12-bits and an appropriate, non-linear 12-bit transfer function to map the original X-ray absorption values to 8-bit intensity values. Alternatively, another 12-bit transfer function can be used to compute three 8-bit color channels, resulting in 24 bits of color information (16.7 million colors). In addition to intensity or color transfer functions, we also use a 12-bit opacity transfer function, which maps the original X-ray absorption values to 8-bit opacity values suitable for rendering. The constraint for 8-bit values is given by a requirement of modern computer graphics cards, which usually operate with 32 bits (24-bit color and 8-bit opacity). This is equivalent to four bytes (3 bytes for color and 1 byte for opacity) per pixel. Each byte represents an integer value between 0 and 255. On top of using the X-ray absorption values to feed the intensity or color and opacity transfer functions, gradients of Xray absorption values can be used to detect material interfaces. These boundaries between two substances or tissue types are characterized by a difference in two neighboring X-ray absorption values. Substance Hounsfield unit
Reduction of Dissolved Oxygen in Model Salad Dressing by Glucose Oxidase-Catalase Dependent on pH and Temperature

As the pH increased from 3, 4, 5, to 6, the amount of dissolved oxygen of the dressing decreased (α= 0.05). When the temperature increased from 10, 20 to 30 °C, the amount of dissolved oxygen decreased (α= 0.05). With the temperature increase from 30 to 40, 50 °C, the amount of dissolved oxygen increased. As the concentration of glucose increased from 0 to 0.5%, the amount of dissolved oxygen decreased (α= 0.05). There was no difference (α= 0.05) in dissolved oxygen reduction among the samples containing 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0% glucose.