cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of trapping on interstitial cluster nucleation at the onset of irradiation

Abstract Kinetic calculations have been carried out to study heterogeneous nucleation of interstitial clusters at solute trapping sites during the transient period from the onset of irradiation until the vacancy and interstitial concentrations approach their “quasi” steady-state values. The irradiation rate, temperature, and interstitial-solute binding energy were the primary parameters varied. It has been reported earlier that, for reasonable cluster binding energies, interstitial clusters nucleate homogeneously in high concentrations at the lower temperature range of void swelling and their concentration decreases with increasing temperature. In the present calculations it is found that the decrease in the free interstitial concentration due to trapping reduces the homogeneous nucleation but, except at very high interstitial-solute binding energies, this decrease is more than offset by heterogeneous nucleation, yielding a net increase in nucleated interstitial clusters. These effects are greater at lower temperatures and lower irradiation rates.
KL-One-basierte, hybride Repräsentationssysteme

Aufbauend auf den von Brachman entwickelten Wissensreprasentationsformalismus KL-ONE entstand eine Familie von hybriden Reprasentationssystemen, die fur verschiedene KI-Anwendungen eingesetzt wurden (Analyse und Generierung naturlicher Sprache, Information Retrieval, Konfiguration, Planung, usw.). In diesen Systemen wird ein an KL-ONE orientierter terminologischer Formalismus zur Reprasentation der Bedeutung der in einem Anwendungsgebiet wichtigen Terminologie und ein assertionaler Formalismus zur Reprasentation von Beziehungen zwischen Objekten der Anwendnung benutzt.
A nonviral minicircle vector for deriving human iPS cells

Owing to the risk of insertional mutagenesis, viral transduction has been increasingly replaced by nonviral methods to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We report the use of 'minicircle' DNA, a vector type that is free of bacterial DNA and capable of high expression in cells, for this purpose. Here we use a single minicircle vector to generate transgene-free iPSCs from adult human adipose stem cells.
Preparing for effective communications during disasters: lessons from a World Health Organization quality improvement project

One hundred ninety-four member nations turn to the World Health Organization (WHO) for guidance and assistance during disasters. Purposes of disaster communication include preventing panic, promoting appropriate health behaviors, coordinating response among stakeholders, advocating for affected populations, and mobilizing resources. A quality improvement project was undertaken to gather expert consensus on best practices that could be used to improve WHO protocols for disaster communication. Open-ended surveys of 26 WHO Communications Officers with disaster response experience were conducted. Responses were categorized to determine the common themes of disaster response communication and areas for practice improvement. Disasters where the participants had experience included 29 outbreaks of 13 different diseases in 16 countries, 18 natural disasters of 6 different types in 15 countries, 2 technical disasters in 2 countries, and ten conflicts in 10 countries. Recommendations to build communications capacity prior to a disaster include pre-writing public service announcements in multiple languages on questions that frequently arise during disasters; maintaining a database of statistics for different regions and types of disaster; maintaining lists of the locally trusted sources of information for frequently affected countries and regions; maintaining email listservs of employees, international media outlet contacts, and government and non-governmental organization contacts that can be used to rapidly disseminate information; developing a global network with 24-h cross-coverage by participants from each time zone; and creating a central electronic sharepoint where all of these materials can be accessed by communications officers around the globe.
Integrating life-cycle assessment and choice analysis for alternative fuel valuation

This study monetizes the environmental damage and human health risk externalities associated with the life-cycle production and use of ethanol biofuels from corn-based and cellulosic feedstocks. An integrated economic-environmental assessment framework couples the measured emission impacts from the fuels with individuals' preferences regarding each fuel's externalities. This framework allows the welfare values associated with gasoline and ethanol's externalities to be derived and compared. The results of the study reveal that the production and consumption of corn starch ethanol produce declines in environmental and health outcomes of $1.23 per gallon relative to gasoline for an 85% blend. Depending on the feedstock source, cellulosic based ethanol blends produce modest gains in environmental and health outcomes valued at between $0.04 and $0.06 per gallon relative to gasoline.
Alcoholic pancreatitis: mechanisms of viral infections as cofactors in the development of acute and chronic pancreatitis and fibrosis

Acute and chronic pancreatitis is associated with alcohol abuse, but symptomatic pancreatitis develops in only a small proportion of persons (10-20%) who abuse alcohol. This apparent paradox has led to the notion that additional cofactors are involved in the development of alcoholic pancreatitis. Potential cofactors, such as diet and smoking, have been suggested, but there are no compelling epidemiologic data to support this idea. A number of viruses and some bacteria have been shown to infect the pancreas and produce pancreatitis. One important mediator of pancreatitis in persons with a compromised immune system is a viral infection. The increased susceptibility of immunocompromised persons to viral pancreatitis led to the hypothesis, described in this paper, that the well-known immunosuppression associated with alcohol abuse would result in a more severe viral pancreatitis in mice, which are provided ethanol, than in control animals. To test this hypothesis, C57BL/6 mice were infected with a virulent strain of coxsackievirus B3, which preferentially induces pancreatitis, or with a strain that is naturally avirulent. The study findings presented in this paper show that ethanol consumption alone does not produce pancreas damage but results in a more severe and prolonged pancreatitis after infection with a virulent virus and interestingly, after infection with the avirulent strain of virus. This was associated with an increased number of viruses in the pancreas and spleen, which correlated with decreased humoral immune responses to the virus.
Vesnarinone and amrinone reduce the systemic inflammatory response syndrome

Abstract Objective: The systemic inflammatory response is an important cause of organ dysfunction. The present study tested the hypothesis that 2 clinically used agents, amrinone and vesnarinone, would decrease inflammation and cardiac dysfunction in a relevant model of systemic inflammatory response activation. Methods: Rabbits received intravenous endotoxin, alone or in conjunction with amrinone or vesnarinone. Systemic effects were assessed by death, fever, behavior, and acidosis. Measures of inflammatory signaling were (1) plasma tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1 β production, (2) lung tissue myeloperoxidase activity, and (3) myocardial inducible nitric oxide synthase activity. Indices of systolic and diastolic myocardial function were measured in Langendorff-perfused hearts. Results: Vesnarinone, in particular, reduced mortality rates (19% vs 61% for lipopolysaccharide alone, P = .01) and acidosis in lipopolysaccharide-treated rabbits. Both agents markedly reduced systemic tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-1 concentrations, lipopolysaccharide-mediated effects on myocardial systolic and diastolic function and on myocardial inducible nitric oxide synthase activity. Vesnarinone, but not amrinone, (1) decreased fever and lethargy, consistent with decreased central nervous system effects of endotoxin, and (2) decreased lung leukocyte infiltration. Conclusions: Vesnarinone and amrinone, which are used clinically for their inotropic and vasodilating properties, may be useful to limit inflammatory activation and consequent organ dysfunction. Structure-activity and/or pharmacokinetic between the compounds may be important, particularly in preventing inflamatory signaling within certain tissues. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1999;117:375-82)
Isothermal sorption from finite baths: Effect of the boundary layer on sorption of diffusants by solids of various geometrical shapes

The literature reveals no equation that expresses the influence of the diffusional boundary layer on diffusion-controlled sorption of dyes or other material by polymeric substrates from finite baths. In view of this mathematical void, a technique is proposed that approximates dimensionless sorption time as a function of fractional equilibrium uptake of diffusant by polymer, dimensionless dye bath exhaustion, and dimensionless boundary layer. The computational technique is based on relationships found in transitional kinetics and is shown to be applicable for sorption systems involving polymeric material of different geometrical shapes. To illustrate the technique, dimensionless half-times of sorption are computed for the case of diffusant uptake by a cylinder.
Bad stories: narrative, identity, and the state's materialist pedagogy

How do state actors teach citizen-subjects collective identities? In this article, the author argues that one important way they do so is by teaching subjects to weave into their personal stories of ‘who I am’ shared or public narratives of ‘who we are’. But, although story-telling is an important part of how states produce identities, it is not the only way they help reproduce them. States help reproduce identity narratives by institutionalizing them: by building them into laws and norms and policies. States help reproduce identity narratives by objectifying them, as well: by building them into material forms. Illustrating with the example of racial identities in the twentieth century United States, the author argues that when states institutionalize and objectify identity-narratives, they lend them a resilience they would not otherwise enjoy.
Phase relations of high albedo asteroids: The unusual opposition brightening of 44 Nysa and 64 Angelina☆

The present photoelectric lightcurve observations of 44 Nysa at one aspect, and 64 Angelina at both polar aspects, indicate the presence of an opposition spike or brightening of approximately 0.25 mag within several deg of zero-phase angle. Since the three curves are identical within the bounds of observational scatter, the opposition spike cannot be judged anomalous within the asteroid taxonomic class E. The general similarity of the observed phase curves to those of the Uranian satellites and the rings of Saturn supports the status of the spike as an ordinary property of moderate-to-high albedo atmosphereless surfaces.
Human swarm interaction for radiation source search and localization

This study shows that appropriate human interaction can benefit a swarm of robots to achieve goals more efficiently. A set of desirable features for human swarm interaction is identified based on the principles of swarm robotics. Human swarm interaction architecture is then proposed that has all of the desirable features. A swarm simulation environment is created that allows simulating a swarm behavior in an indoor environment. The swarm behavior and the results of user interaction are studied by considering radiation source search and localization application of the swarm. Particle swarm optimization algorithm is slightly modified to enable the swarm to autonomously explore the indoor environment for radiation source search and localization. The emergence of intelligence is observed that enables the swarm to locate the radiation source completely on its own. Proposed human swarm interaction is then integrated in a simulation environment and user evaluation experiments are conducted. Participants are introduced to the interaction tool and asked to deploy the swarm to complete the missions. The performance comparison of the user guided swarm to that of the autonomous swarm shows that the interaction interface is fairly easy to learn and that user guided swarm is more efficient in achieving the goals. The results clearly indicate that the proposed interaction helped the swarm achieve emergence.
Electrophysiology and pharmacology of cardiac arrhythmias. VIII. Cardiac effects of diphenylhydantoin. B.

Abstract DPH is highly effective against both atrial and ventricular arrhythmias resulting from digitalis toxicity and should be considered one of the primary antiarrhythmic drugs in this clinical situation. Clinical studies have indicated that DPH, for the most part, is ineffective against atrial arrhythmias and not markedly effective against ventricular arrhythmias associated with acute or chronic cardiac disease. For the latter ventricular arrhythmias, DPH is usually considered only after other antiarrhythmic drug therapy has failed. Studies on the mechanisms responsible for the antiarrhythmic effects of DPH are, as yet, inconclusive. There is good evidence that its actions differ from those of the commonly used drugs with local anesthetic effects. The extent to which it exerts direct effects on the heart which are therapeutically relevant remains to be demonstrated; further, there is solid evidence that its effects on the central nervous system may be of prime importance in its antiarrhythmic efficacy.
Time functions in numerical relativity: Marginally bound dust collapse

We explore the problem of the existence of global maximal ($K=0$) and constant-mean-curvature ($K={K}_{0}$) time functions in general relativity. We attempt a rigorous definition of numerical relativity so as to bridge the gap between the field and mathematical relativity. We point out that numerical relativity can in principle construct any globally hyperbolic solution to Einstein's equations. This involves the construction of Cauchy time functions. Therefore we review what is known about the existence and uniqueness of such functions when their mean curvature is specified to be a constant on each time slice. We note that in strong-field solutions which contain singularities the question of existence is intimately connected to the nature of the singularity. Defining the class of "crushing singularities" we prove new theorems showing that $K=0$ or $K={K}_{0}$ time functions uniformly avoid such singularities (which include both Cauchy horizons and some curvature singularities). We then study the inhomogeneous generalizations of the Oppenheimer-Snyder spherical-dust-collapse spacetimes. These Tolman-Bondi solutions are classified as to their causal structure and found to contain naked singularities of a new type if the collapse is sufficiently inhomogeneous. We calculate the $K=0$ and $K={K}_{0}$ time slices for a variety of these spacetimes. We find that since some extreme dust collapses lead to noncrushing singularities, maximal time slicing can hit the singularity before covering the domain of outer communications of the resulting black hole. Furthermore, the use of $K={K}_{0}$ slices in the presence of a naked singularity is discussed.
Vascular endothelial growth factor-A signaling in bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells exposed to hypoxic stress

Bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (BM-EPCs) are stimulated by vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) and other potent proangiogenic factors. During angiogenesis, an increase in VEGF-A expression stimulates BM-EPCs to enhance endothelial tube formation and contribute to an increase in microvessel density. Hypoxia is known to produce an enhanced angiogenic response and heightened levels of VEGF-A have been seen in oxygen deprived epithelial and endothelial cells, yet the pathways for VEGF-A signaling in BM-EPCs have not been described. This study explores the influence of hypoxia on VEGF-A signaling in rat BM-EPCs utilizing a novel proteomic strategy to directly identify interacting downstream components of the combined VEGF receptor(s) signaling pathways, gene expression analysis, and functional phenotyping. VEGF-A signaling network analysis following liquid chromatographic separation and tandem mass spectrometry revealed proteins related to inositol/calcium signaling, nitric oxide signaling, cell survival, cell migration, and inflammatory responses. Alterations in BM-EPC expression of common angiogenic genes and tube formation in response to VEGF-A during hypoxia were measured and combined with the proteomic analysis to enhance and support the signaling pathways detected. BM-EPC tube formation assays in response to VEGF-A exhibited little tube formation; however, a cell projection/migratory phenotype supported the signaling data. Additionally, a novel assay measuring BM-EPC incorporation into preformed endothelial cell tubes indicated a significant increase of incorporated BM-EPCs after pretreatment with VEGF-A during hypoxia. This study verifies known VEGF-A pathway components and reveals several unidentified mechanisms of VEGF-A signaling in BM-EPCs during hypoxia that may be important for migration to sites of vascular regeneration.
The BpeAB-OprB Efflux Pump of Burkholderia pseudomallei 1026b Does Not Play a Role in Quorum Sensing, Virulence Factor Production, or Extrusion of Aminoglycosides but Is a Broad-Spectrum Drug Efflux System

Most Burkholderia pseudomallei strains are intrinsically aminoglycoside resistant, mainly due to AmrAB-OprA-mediated efflux. Rare naturally occurring or genetically engineered mutants lacking this pump are aminoglycoside susceptible despite the fact that they also encode and express BpeAB-OprB, which was reported to mediate efflux of aminoglycosides in the Singapore strain KHW. To reassess the role of BpeAB-OprB in B. pseudomallei aminoglycoside resistance, we used mutants overexpressing or lacking this pump in either AmrAB-OprA-proficient or -deficient strain 1026b backgrounds. Our data show that BpeAB-OprB does not mediate efflux of aminoglycosides but is a multidrug efflux system which extrudes macrolides, fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, acriflavine, and, to a lesser extent, chloramphenicol. Phylogenetically, BpeAB-OprB is closely related to Pseudomonas aeruginosa MexAB-OprM, which has a similar substrate spectrum. AmrAB-OprA is most closely related to MexXY, the only P. aeruginosa efflux pump known to extrude aminoglycosides. Since BpeAB-OprB in strain KHW was also implicated in playing a major role in export of acylated homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum-sensing molecules and in expression of diverse virulence factors, we explored whether this was also true in the strain 1026b background. The results showed that BpeAB-OprB was not required for AHL export, and mutants lacking this efflux system exhibited normal swimming motility and siderophore production, which were severely impaired in KHW bpeAB-oprB mutants. Biofilm formation was impaired in 1026b Δ(amrRAB-oprA) and Δ(amrRAB-oprA) Δ(bpeAB-oprB) mutants. At present, we do not know why our BpeAB-OprB susceptibility and virulence factor expression results with 1026b and its derivatives are different from those previously published for Singapore strain KHW.
Global Positioning System, Theory and Practice, 5th Edition

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is rapidly becoming as much a part of our daily lives as the Internet, and it is now being used to navigate and locate cars, commercial and private aircraft, military vehicles, ships, spacecraft, recreational vehicles, hikers, and wildlife. In addition, GPS is becoming our primary system for precision timing and an important tool for active microwave remote sensing. Finally, in the geophysics community, GPS is the primary geodetic tool for monitoring crustal deformation. Hundreds of receivers have already been installed in areas subject to seismic and volcanic risk in the United States alone, with many more worldwide. Therefore, interest in the technical details of how the system works has rapidly increased, as evidenced by the proliferation of GPS courses in academia and professional workshops.
Carnivore co‐existence and habitat use in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Belize

To protect and manage an intact neotropical carnivore guild, it is necessary to understand the relative importance of habitat selection and intraguild competition to the ecology of individual species. This study examined habitat use of four carnivores in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, Belize. We calculated photographic trap success (TS) rates for jaguars Panthera onca, pumas Puma concolor, ocelots Leopardus pardalis, grey foxes Urocyon cinereoargenteus, potential prey and humans at 47 remote camera stations spaced along roads and trails within the 139 km 2 study site. At each station, we used manual habitat sampling in combination with geographic information systems to estimate habitat characteristics pertaining to vegetation cover. We used negative binomial models to analyse species-specific TS as a response to habitat (including vegetation and landscape variables, prey activity and human activity) and co-predator activity rates. Jaguars [TS= 7.56 1.279 (SE) captures per 100 trap-nights (TN)] and grey foxes (31.5 6.073 captures per 100 TN) were commonly captured by cameras, while pumas (0.66 0.200 captures per 100 TN) and ocelots (0.55 0.209 captures per 100 TN) were rare. Model selection via Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) revealed that models including habitat variables generally performed better than models including co-predator activity. Felid captures were positively associated with small bird TS and with the width or length of surrounding roads, while fox counts showed few habitat associations. Ocelot activity was positively related to jaguar captures, an effect probably explained by their shared preference for areas with more roads. Pumas were negatively related to human activity and jaguars showed a similar, though non-significant, trend, suggesting that these felids may be sensitive to human disturbance even within protected areas. Results suggest that these predators do not spatially partition habitat and that the jaguar could function as an umbrella species for smaller sympatric carnivores.
Electronics and Sensor Cooling with a Stirling Cycle for Venus Surface Mission

The inhospitable ambient surface conditions of Venus, with a 450 C temperature and 92 bar pressure, may likely require any extended-duration surface exploratory mission to incorporate some type of cooling for probe electronics and sensor devices. A multiple-region Venus mission study was completed at NASA GRC in December of 2003 that resulted in the preliminary design of a kinematically-driven, helium charged, Stirling cooling cycle with an estimated over-all COP of 0.376 to lift 100 watts of heat from a 200 C cold sink temperature and reject it at a hot sink temperature of 500 C. This paper briefly describes the design process and also describes and summarizes key features of the kinematic, Stirling cooler preliminary design concept.
Citation analysis and discoverability: a critical challenge for disability studies

Disability is an identity, a culture/community/cause/power struggle; a rights movement demanding civil, ethical, political and social positions at tables of power, equality and social justice. This perspective forms the core of changes in the past 50 years in legal, social and political arenas that have taken place and is essential to understanding the growth, depth and nature of Disability Studies as a separate and legitimate field of inquiry. This study focuses primarily on studying the evolving literature in the core aspects of Disability Studies, using citation and text analyses to study trends in publishing patterns and the field’s impact on the wider academic enterprise. Lack of thorough indexing to key journals made traditional citation analysis impossible, leading to the use of dissertations as a means to tease out useful information on the state of Disability Studies today. The most significant finding of the study is the lack of adequate indexing of key journals in standard scholarly databases, ...
Use of blind deconvolution de-noising scheme in failure prognosis

Fault diagnosis and failure prognosis are essential techniques to improve the safety of many mechanical systems. However, vibration signals are often corrupted by noise and, therefore, the performance of diagnostic/prognostic routines is degraded. In this paper, a novel de-noising structure is proposed and applied to vibration signals collected from a seeded-fault testbed of the main gearbox of a helicopter. The proposed structure integrates a de-noising algorithm, feature extraction, failure prognosis, and vibration modeling into a synergistic system. Performance indexes associated with quality of the extracted features and failure prognosis are addressed, before and after de-noising, for validation purposes.
Properties of Soda Aluminosilicate Glasses: I, Refractive Index, Density, Molar Refractivity, and Infrared Absorption Spectra

The density, refractive index, molar refractivity, and infrared absorption spectra of soda aluminosilicate glasses containing up to 34.8 wt% alumina have been determined. Changes in these properties with composition can be explained by existing theories which assume that the aluminum ions form only A104 tetrahedra when the Al/Na ratio of the glass is equal to or less than 1. The aluminum ions in glasses having an Al/Na ratio larger than 1 are in both fourfold and sixfold coordination.
Field validation of water-use efficiency of the CAM plantOpuntia ellisianain south Texas

Abstract In single plant studies, at time scales less than a growing season, the conversion efficiency of water to dry matter has been shown to be, in general, greater for CAM plants than either C3or C4plants. The objective of this work was to determine if this high conversion efficiency would occur at the field level over an entire growing season. Thus,Opuntia ellisianawater-use efficiency values were obtained under field conditions in the third and fourth year of growth of a plantation. AlthoughO. ellisianais the slowest growing of all the spinelessOpuntias, it was used because it is the only spinelessOpuntiathat is completely cold hardy in Texas. Above-ground dry matter production was obtained by complete harvest and by estimating above-ground biomass with regression techniques. Evapo-transpiration was estimated as the precipitation minus runoff, deep drainage, change in soil water content and water stored in the plant. In the fourth year, surface runoff was captured and measured in below-ground tanks. Based on the measurements, surface runoff in the third year was estimated using the regression technique. Soil evaporation was directly measured over a 2-week period, four times per year using microlysimeters. Using these direct soil evaporation measurements and companion meteorological data, yearly transpiration was computed using a Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network. This yearly soil evaporation estimate allowed the separation of transpiration from evapo-transpiration. At the beginning of the fourth years growthOpuntia ellisianaachieved a leaf area index (LAI) of 2·02. In the fourth year, 662 mm rainfall occurred. Soil evaporation (214 mm) and runoff (143 mm) were the major losses. A significant quantity of water (17 mm = 170,000 kg ha−1) was stored in the cactus that could be of use for animal drinking water. The cactus transpired 285 mm of water producing 17,670 kg dry matter ha−1for a transpiration water-use efficiency of 162 kg H2O kg−1dry matter. This is among the greatest water-use efficiency of any plant species (including C3and C4) that has been measured under long-term field conditions. While this species is not particularly useful, other less cold hardy opuntias are widely used for fruit, vegetable and forage. Given water shortages on arid lands, much more development attention needs to be given to usefulOpuntiaspecies.
Autonomous safety and reliability features of the K-1 avionics system ☆

Abstract Kistler Aerospace Corporation is developing the K-1, a fully reusable, two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. Both stages return to the launch site using parachutes and airbags. Initial flight operations will occur from Woomera, Australia. K-1 guidance is performed autonomously. Each stage of the K-1 employs a triplex, fault tolerant avionics architecture, including three fault tolerant computers and three radiation hardened Embedded GPS/INS units with a hardware voter. The K-1 has an Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) system on each stage residing in the three vehicle computers based on similar systems in commercial aircraft. During first-stage ascent, the IVHM system performs an Instantaneous Impact Prediction (IIP) calculation 25 times per second, initiating an abort in the event the vehicle is outside a predetermined safety corridor for at least 3 consecutive calculations. In this event, commands are issued to terminate thrust, separate the stages, dump all propellant in the first-stage, and initiate a normal landing sequence. The second-stage flight computer calculates its ability to reach orbit along its state vector, initiating an abort sequence similar to the first stage if it cannot. On a nominal mission, following separation, the second-stage also performs calculations to assure its impact point is within a safety corridor. The K-1's guidance and control design is being tested through simulation with hardware-in-the-loop at Draper Laboratory. Kistler's verification strategy assures reliable and safe operation of the K-1.
An efficient scheme for authenticating public keys in sensor networks

With the advance of technology, Public Key Cryptography (PKC) will sooner or later be widely used in wireless sensor networks. Recently, it has been shown that the performance of some public-key algorithms, such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), is already close to being practical on sensor nodes. However, the energy consumption of PKC is still expensive, especially compared to symmetric-key algorithms. To maximize the lifetime of batteries, we should minimize the use of PKC whenever possible in sensor networks.This paper investigates how to replace one of the important PKC operations--the public key authentication--with symmetric key operations that are much more efficient. Public key authentication is to verify the authenticity of another party's public key to make sure that the public key is really owned by the person it is claimed to belong to. In PKC, this operation involves an expensive signature verification on a certificate. We propose an efficient alternative that uses one-way hash function only. Our scheme uses all sensor's public keys to construct a forest of Merkle trees of different heights. By optimally selecting the height of each tree, we can minimize the computation and communication costs. The performance of our scheme is evaluated in the paper.
On the Reading of Tables of Contents

This paper presents a framework for understanding tables of contents (TOC) of books, journals, and magazines. We propose a universal logical structure representation in terms of a hierarchy of entries, each of which may contain a descriptor and a locator. We enumerate graphical and perceptual cues that provide cues to parsing of tables of contents in terms of this formalism. We make initial suggestions about the form of evaluation metrics for comparing ground truthed tables of contents with the output of recognition algorithms. Typical and a typical tables of contents are used throughout to illustrate significant phenomena that must be dealt with in principled ways in any general TOC interpretation scheme. Finally we discuss implications of our observations on the design of recognition algorithms.
Suppression of colon carcinogenesis by bioactive compounds in grapefruit

This study evaluated the hypothesis that untreated and irradiated grapefruit as well as the isolated citrus compounds naringin and limonin would protect against azoxymethane (AOM)-induced aberrant crypt foci (ACF) by suppressing proliferation and elevating apoptosis through anti-inflammatory activities. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 100) were provided one of five diets: control (without added grapefruit components), untreated or irradiated (300 Gy, 137Cs) grapefruit pulp powder (13.7 g/kg), naringin (200 mg/kg) or limonin (200 mg/kg). Rats were injected with saline or AOM (15 mg/kg) during the third and fourth week and colons were resected (6 weeks post second injection) for evaluation of ACF, proliferation, apoptosis, and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) protein levels. Experimental diets had no effect on the variables measured in saline-injected rats. However, in AOM-injected rats, the experimental diets suppressed (P < or = 0.02) aberrant crypt and high multiplicity ACF (HMACF; P < or = 0.01) formation and the proliferative index (P < or = 0.02) compared with the control diet. Only untreated grapefruit and limonin suppressed (P < or = 0.04) HMACF/cm and expansion (P < or = 0.008) of the proliferative zone that occurred in the AOM-injected rats consuming the control diet. All diets elevated (P < or = 0.05) the apoptotic index in AOM-injected rats, compared with the control diet; however, the greatest enhancement was seen with untreated grapefruit and limonin. Untreated grapefruit and limonin diets suppressed elevation of both iNOS (P < or = 0.003) and COX-2 (P < or = 0.032) levels observed in AOM-injected rats consuming the control diet. Although irradiated grapefruit and naringin suppressed iNOS levels in AOM-injected rats, no effect was observed with respect to COX-2 levels. Thus, lower levels of iNOS and COX-2 are associated with suppression of proliferation and upregulation of apoptosis, which may have contributed to a decrease in the number of HMACF in rats provided with untreated grapefruit and limonin. These results suggest that consumption of grapefruit or limonin may help to suppress colon cancer development.
Sentinel Node Biopsy for Melanoma

Thin melanoma with ulceration/involved deep margin/other high-risk features. Intermediate thickness melanoma with clinically negative nodes. Thick melanoma with clinically negative nodes.
Using readers’ and organizations’ goals to guide assessment of success in information websites

Informational and reference websites benefit readers without providing their publishing organizations with any direct or immediate financial benefit; however, organizations do expect return on their investment. We propose two website stakeholder taxonomies: one about the goals of readers when they use informational websites and the other about the goals of organizations when they produce sites. These taxonomies should help organizations measure readers’ success with their sites and understand how well their sites support the organizations’ goals, and in turn help them author and design better web content to meet their readers’ goals.
“Nocturnal” Noninvasive Ventilation: An Overview

Noninvasive ventilation represents a ventilatory support strategy employed without the use of endotracheal intubation or tracheostomy, which should be considered in several clinical settings: Patients with chronic awake hypoventilation and/or breathing control disorders or diatheses Patients with acute, or acute on chronic, awake hypoventilation and/or breathing control disorders or diatheses Patients with awake hyperventilation disorders; most importantly, heart failure and cerebrovascular disorders with associated Hunter–Cheyne–Stokes breathing Patients with primary sleep apnea (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea, and certain types of central sleep apnea) not typically or clinically associated with awake ventilatory disorders
Central Banks, Partisan Politics, and Macroeconomic Outcomes

What are the implications of the trend toward granting central bank independence for partisan theories of the macroeconomy? The conventional view is that parties of the Left and Right strive to achieve distinctive macroeconomic outcomes when in government. However, when faced with an independent central bank, parties of the Left may prove unable to produce their preferred partisan outcomes, whereas Right parties may be privileged in their ability to pursue their goals. Moreover, granting the central bank independence can be expected to have differing effects depending on whether Left or Right parties prevail in government. These issues are explored with a pooled time-series model of inflation and unemployment in 16 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries from 1961 through 1991. The results support the claim that the effects of partisan government and central bank organization are mutually contingent. The pattern of results anticipated by partisan theory only arises where central b...
The Dot Immunobinding Technique in Detection of Antibodies to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1)

The GENIE HIV-1/2 test (GHIV) is a rapid “dot blot” assay for detecting antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2. Antigens used are synthetic peptides comprised of immunodominant portions of the gp41 and gp36 antigens of, respectively, HIV-1 and HIV-2. We compared GHIV with a reference HIV-1 enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and the HIV-1 Western blot (WB). Of 1,108 serum specimens tested, 358 (32.3%) were EIA-reactive and WB-positive. Of these, 357 (99.7%) were GHIV-positive. All 738 of the EIA nonreactive specimens were GHIV-negative. Twelve specimens were EIAreactive and WB-indeterminate (9 specimens) or WBnegative (3 specimens). All 12 were HIV-1 indirect fluorescent antibody-negative and GHIV-negative. The sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of positive and negative GHIV tests were, respectively, 99.7%, 100%, 100%, and 99.9%.
POLLINATION IN FLORAL SCENT MORPHS OF POLEMONIUM VISCOSUM: A MECHANISM FOR DISRUPTIVE SELECTION ON FLOWER SIZE

Plants of Polemonium viscosum have flowers that are either sweet or skunky in scent. The two morphs are preferentially pollinated by insects of strongly contrasting body size: bumblebee queens specialize on sweet flowers, flies on skunky ones. In this study 13 characters were examined in plant specimens from five populations to identify major components of intraspecific variation in flower and inflorescence morphology and test their correlation with floral scent. Factor analysis identified four major axes of morphological variation. The first explained 22% of the variance among specimens and correlated strongly with four flower size characters: sepal length, corolla tube length, corolla lobe width, and corolla lobe length. Floral scent morphs differed significantly in the multivariate representation of flower size defined by these characters. Sweet flowers had wider corolla lobes, longer corolla tubes, and longer sepals than skunky ones. Corolla lobe width accounted for the greatest amount of intermorph divergence. Divergence in flower size between morphs was maintained in mixed populations at four locations in alpine Colorado, with corollas of sweet flowers significantly broader or more flared than those of skunky flowers. Patterns of pollen receipt suggest that this difference is adaptive. In the sweet morph, pollination intensity and purity increased significantly with corolla flare. Conversely, in the skunky morph, corolla flare had little influence on pollination intensity and had a strong negative effect on purity. These findings suggest that selection for effective pollination should favor intraspecific divergence in flower size in Polemonium viscosum.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders

Recent conceptualizations of CBT for anxiety disorders have focused on common core features of the disorders as a target of treatment. In the current chapter, we present a case of a patient treated at our clinic who met diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), and social anxiety disorder (SAD). This case was specifically chosen to illustrate the application of a transdiagnostic treatment approach in which the core features of each disorder (e.g., cognitive distortions, physiological arousal, maladaptive avoidance) were targeted for change. The treatment interventions discussed in the chapter include psychoeducation, self-monitoring, cognitive restructuring, mindfulness, interoceptive exposures, and situational exposure with response prevention.
A Cluster Configuration Scheme of Undervoltage Load Shedding Based on P-V Curves

Undervoltage load shedding(UVLS),one of the stability control means in the third line of grid defense system,can effectively and economically prevent voltage from collapsing.Taking Xuancheng area grid in Anhui province as an example,the paper studies a scheme of UVLS based on P-V curves.By stability calculation and analysis,the scheme finds the potential voltage collapse status of the grid,calculates the P-V curves of its certain load nodes and divides these nodes into different configuration clusters according to the quantitative relationship between load growth and voltage reduction,and effectively prevents the voltage from deterioration.In this way,the UVLS schemes can be drafted for each node or area according to their sensitivity of voltage to load,and thus are better in favor of the recovery of system voltage than an unified configuration schem.
The Justification Hypothesis

On June 11, 1963, an elderly Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc calmly walked to the center of a circle of protesters, sat down on a cushion, and meditated in the lotus position as he was doused by his religious brothers in a specially concocted mix of gasoline and diesel fuel. He then proceeded to light a match. Although he reportedly grimaced in agony, he did not move, scream, or cry out as his body was incinerated.
Spatial imaging using a communication system's channel state information

We investigate the use of a communication system's channel state information (CSI) for spatial imaging. The CSI provides the the magnitude and phase of the link between pairs of (transmit and receive) antennas in sub-bands operating in the overall system bandwidth. Since these links are sensitive to the system's electromagnetic environment, information regarding physical objects in that environment are, to some extent, encoded in the CSI. In particular, the time history of objects (such as people) in the environment is partly encoded in the time history of the CSI. Combined with suitable prior information, useful facts regarding the dynamics of moving objects may be extracted using the methods of computational sparse imaging. Prior information can include a detailed characterization of the static electromagnetic environment (or boundary conditions) and the electromagnetic signature of the objects that are to be tracked. Specifically, we perform experiments using an 802.11n Wifi system operating at 2.4GHz, and which has been modified to allow acquisition of the CSI. Experimental results are compared with computational results (using CST Microwave Studio) for comparable electromagnetic environments. Image reconstructions are attempted, both experimentally and computational, to correctly locate a human sized reflective object.
A new concept for anastomosis of the fallopian tube: tissue reconstruction with nonpenetrating, arcuate, legged clips in the rat model.

Objective To evaluate the titanium Kirsch-Zhu microclip microsurgical reanastomoses of the fallopian tubes. Design Compare the reanastomoses of the rat uterine horn between Kirsch-Zhu clips (Cushman Engineering, Albuquerque, NM) (group A) and conventional suture microsurgical techniques (group B). Setting Microsurgery Research Laboratory, Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, California. Patients, Participants Fifteen SD rats Harlan (Harlan Sprague-Dawley Corp., Indianapolis, IN) were done in groups A and B and six in control group (C). Main Outcome Measure Pregnancy rate, litter size, tissue of procedure, and histologic results. Results The clip technique was shorter in procedure time and resulted in equal fertility rate and litter size. Histologically, there were less granulomatous formation and histiocytic inflammation, but muscularis thinning and fibrosis were noted with the clip. Conclusions The Kirsch-Zhu clip has potential for application to human fallopian tube reanastomoses.
Complexin Binding to Membranes and Acceptor t-SNAREs Explains Its Clamping Effect on Fusion

Complexin-1 is a SNARE effector protein that decreases spontaneous neurotransmitter release and enhances evoked release. Complexin binds to the fully assembled four-helical neuronal SNARE core complex as revealed in competing molecular models derived from x-ray crystallography. Presently, it is unclear how complexin binding to the postfusion complex accounts for its effects upon spontaneous and evoked release in vivo. Using a combination of spectroscopic and imaging methods, we characterize in molecular detail how complexin binds to the 1:1 plasma membrane t-SNARE complex of syntaxin-1a and SNAP-25 while simultaneously binding the lipid bilayer at both its N- and C-terminal ends. These interactions are cooperative, and binding to the prefusion acceptor t-SNARE complex is stronger than to the postfusion core complex. This complexin interaction reduces the affinity of synaptobrevin-2 for the 1:1 complex, thereby retarding SNARE assembly and vesicle docking in vitro. The results provide the basis for molecular models that account for the observed clamping effect of complexin beginning with the acceptor t-SNARE complex and the subsequent activation of the clamped complex by Ca2+ and synaptotagmin.
Joel Sawat Selway, Coalitions of the Well-Being: How Electoral Rules and Ethnic Politics Shape Health Policy in Developing Countries

In pointing to the importance of both electoral rules and social structure (read “ethnicity”) in public goods provision, Joel Sawat Selway makes an important contribution aimed at helping understan...
Tangible Collaborative Learning with a Mixed-Reality Game: EarthShake

We explore the potential of bringing together the advantages of computer games and the physical world to increase engagement, collaboration and learning. We introduce EarthShake: A tangible interface and mixed-reality game consisting of an interactive multimodal earthquake table, block towers and a computer game synchronized with the physical world via depth camera sensing. EarthShake helps kids discover physics principles while experimenting with real blocks in a physical environment supported with audio and visual feedback. Students interactively make predictions, see results, grapple with disconfirming evidence and formulate explanations in forms of general principles. We report on a preliminary user study with 12 children, ages 4-8, indicating that EarthShake produces large and significant learning gains, improvement in explanation of physics concepts, and clear signs of productive collaboration and high engagement.
REPRESENTATION AND RECOGNITION OF CARTOGRAPHIC DATA

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on two shape representations—chain codes and polygonal approximations. It discusses shape matching algorithms based on these two shape representations. The chain code is a slope intrinsic representation of a shape. The chain code of a digitized curve represents the sequences of direction changes between adjacent points on the curve. Polygonal approximations provide a representation that supports matching even in the absence of scale and orientation information. The chapter discusses some simple methods used for computing polygonal approximations and presents a matching procedure based on polygonal approximations. It discusses methods for extracting a best association function from the filtered graph. The chapter describes an experiment using cartographic data. A matching experiment was performed by using the coastlines of several islands as the input shapes. The source of the data was World Data Bank I, which is a digital representation of the coastlines and boundaries of the world specifically designed for automated mapping systems.