cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Carbon Sequestration for Linking Conservation and Rural Development in Madagascar: The Case of the Vohidrazana-Mantadia Corridor Restoration and Conservation Carbon Project

The carbon market recently appeared as a new way to finance conservation programs in Madagascar. Based on an analysis of a pioneer carbon sequestration project co-financed by the Biocarbon Fund of the World Bank, I contend in this article that this new approach will fail to contribute to the protection of Malagasy biodiversity. A first argument is that carbon projects will inherit rural development practices and discourses that did not lead to successful agricultural intensification until now. For this reason, they will fail to compensate farmers for the land lost by reforestation. A second argument is that the potential profits generated by carbon sale provide a supplementary motive for the appropriation of resources by the state and other actors, to the detriment of local communities. I conclude that in order to make carbon sequestration an effective tool for conservation, it is necessary to implement successful agricultural development activities, to guarantee the use rights of local communities, and t...
The breath-by-breath assessment of the response to bronchodilator

Abstract A method is presented for the continuous breath-by-breath assessment of airway resistance. This method is uniquely suitable for following the response to the administration of bronchodilator in patients with bronchial asthma. The method produces no discomfort and requires no special maneuvers on the part of the subject. The method consists of breathing into a nonobstructive flowmeter in series with a resistance of low value that is rapidly added and removed. The change in flow with the intrusion of the resistor permits calculation of the subject's respiratory resistance (the largest component of this being airway resistance). Sixteen studies were carried out on 8 subjects. In those subjects with a response to bronchodilator, this response was evident in 10 to 30 seconds following the administration of the bronchodilator.
Omni-directional hovercraft design as a foundation for MAV education

Quad-rotor Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) are used widely in research and increasingly in commercial applications as the cost of these platforms has dropped. The cost of entry, however, is still high in large part due to the time and effort involved in repairing vehicles after crashes while learning about the system design and dynamics. In this paper, we present an omni-directional hovercraft, which has dynamics similar to MAVs and can be used as an educational platform to teach students about the behavior and control of MAV-like platforms with minimal cost and effort. Teaching students about the capabilities and challenges associated with MAVs is critical for educating future engineers and scientists that will develop and use the next generation of MAVs. In addition, the hovercraft provides a safe platform for researchers to test control and coordination algorithms before trying them on higher-cost MAVs.
Dealing with uncertainty in early software architecture

Changing early architectural decisions of a system is both difficult and costly. It is very important for the architect to get them "right". However, in early design, the architect is often forced to make these decisions under uncertainty, i.e., not knowing the precise impact of those decisions on system's properties (e.g., scalability) as well as stakeholder concerns (e.g., cost). In this paper, we provide an overview of GuideArch, a framework aimed at systematic exploration of the architectural solution space under uncertainty to help with making early architectural decisions.
Prostaglandins and bone: physiology and pathophysiology

Prostaglandins (PGs) are potent stimulators of bone formation and resorption and are produced by bone cells. PGs also have inhibitory effects on fully differentiated osteoblasts and osteoclasts. This complex, multifunctional regulation is probably mediated by different PG receptors. Endogenous PGs in bone are produced largely by induction of COX-2, which is highly regulated by hormones and local factors. The development of specific agonists and antagonists for PG receptors and for COX-2 should allow us to define the physiologic and pathophysiologic roles of PGs more precisely and develop new therapeutic approaches to metabolic and inflammatory disorders of the skeleton.
Oxygen Abundances in the Milky Way Using X-Ray Absorption Measurements toward Galaxy Clusters

We present measurements of the oxygen abundance of the Milky Way's ISM by observing the K-shell X-ray photoionization edge toward galaxy clusters. This effect is most easily observed toward objects with Galactic columns (nH) of a few times 1021 cm-2. We measure X-ray column densities toward 11 clusters and find that at high Galactic columns above approximately 1021 cm-2 the X-ray columns are generally 1.5-3.0 times greater than the 21 cm H I columns, indicating that molecular clouds become an important contributor to nH at higher columns. We find the average ISM oxygen abundance to be (O/H) = (4.85 ± 0.06) × 10-4, or 0.99 solar when using the most recent solar photospheric values. Since X-ray observations are sensitive to the total amount of oxygen present (gas+dust), these results indicate a high gas to dust ratio. Also, the oxygen abundances along lines of sight through high Galactic columns (nH) are the same as abundances through low columns, suggesting that the composition of denser clouds is similar to that of the more diffuse ISM.
Tourist holiday options: timeshare versus competition

Abstract The timeshare industry's success has been limited by an unenthusiastic reception from consumers, governments, investors, and the media. The everincreasing world population, increasing GDP, and improved communications resulting from the technological revolution, all indicate an expanding tourism market. Although timeshare's market share is currently increasing more rapidly than most other tourism sectors, to achieve its full growth potential the industry must improve its imagemarketing and products must be tailored to the requirements of consumers. Timeshare must demonstrate a significant social and economic contribution in order to obtain publicsector support and government incentives made available to traditional tourism industry.
Steganography obliterator: an attack on the least significant bits

Steganography is the art of concealing messages through hidden data that is embedded in a carrier medium. Current steganalysis practices focus on detecting and recovering these pieces of hidden data. This paper focuses on instances when neither detecting nor recovering data is desirable, but on proactively cleansing the cover media from possible steganographic data. To support this need, a proof-of-concept steganography obliterator is designed and implemented to partially or completely remove the hidden message from possible media carriers such as image, video, and audio files.
Effects of weight and body mass index on bone mineral density in men and women : the Framingham study

We evaluated the association of weight and bone mass in elderly male and female subjects of the Framingham osteoporosis study, a subset of the Framingham study cohort. By examining the differences in the correlations of weight with bone mass among men and women in weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing sites and weight change since early adulthood, we attempted to understand different ways in which weight or body mass index affects bone mass. During biennial examination 20 of the Framingham cohort (1988–1989), 693 women and 439 men (mean age 76 years) had proximal femur bone mineral density assessed by dual-photon absorptiometry (DPA) and radius bone mass assessed by single-photon absorptiometry. The majority of these subjects also had spine measurements by DPA. Subjects had been weighed repeatedly over 40 years. After adjusting for other factors affecting bone density, we found that both recent weight and body mass index explained a substantial proportion of the variance in bone mineral density for all sites in women (8.9–19.8% of total variance, all p < 0.01) and for only weight-bearing sites (femur and spine) in men (2.8–6.9% of total variance, all p < 0.01). For bone mineral density at the proximal radius, weight and body mass index accounted for < 1% of variance in men (p NS). Weight change since biennial examination 1 (1948–1951) was the strongest explanatory factor for bone mineral density among women at all sites, but weight change did not affect radius bone mineral density in men. The effect of weight and of weight change on bone mineral density was in general much less in men than in women. Our results suggest that the strong effect of weight on bone mineral density is due to load on weight-bearing bones in both sexes. The sex difference is unexplained but may be due to adipose tissue production of estrogen in women after menopause.
Rapid Attainment of Successively Higher Steady-State Plasma Levels Using the Wagner Two-step Infusion Method

The Wagner equation describing the plasma concentration-time relationship for the two-step infusion method is presented in general form for application to both the fast and slow infusion phases of single- and multiple-cycle infusions. The generalized parameters C (steady-state concentration), Q (infusion rate), A (amount of drug), and t′ (time) are defined for each case. Plasma concentrations are simulated for a hypothetical two-compartment drug, X, to illustrate the uses of the equat.ion and to examine error effects in the QF/QS ratio, T, and kel. For the single-cycle case, it is shown that positive or negative (±) errors in QF/QS and T delay the approach to the steady-state plasma value, Clss, but such errors would not be of clinical importance when they are ≤ ± 2.5%. Errors in kel prevent attainment of Clss and more greatly affect the plasma concentration at the end of the dose cycle, ClT, than do the same errors in QF/QS or T. Therefore, the use of an average population value for kel instead of the actual patient value is more likely to produce large deviations from Clss than experimental errors in flow rate and T. The utility of the two-step infusion method in reaching successively higher steady-state values, Cl,(n)ss, for drugs with a high therapeutic index is also demonstrated for drug X over a range of multiple cycles. The examination of error effects for the multiple-cycle case revealed that errors in QF/QS and T yield Cl,(n)T values that tend to converge toward the desired value of Cl,(n)ss as the dose cycle increases, while such errors in k0 yield Cl,(n)T values that increasingly diverge from Cl,(n)ss as dosing increases. Thus, individual patient differences as reflected in kel become increasingly more important as a source of error in Cl,(n)T with successively higher dosing, while experimental errors in QF/QS become less important.
Modular memory model using state-variable approach

A simple time-discrete state-variable model is presented for the modular memory system. The concepts of state and output controllability and observability are used to eliminate the memory interference problems. An analysis of the model using the ergodic Markov chain and the Cayley-Hamilton theorem is provided.
On a levene type test for equality of two variances

Among the many tests for the equality of two population variances, a modified Levene test W50 stands out as very robust and reasonably efficient, and thus recommended in several published comparison studies. This paper points out a hidden structural problem of this test. More specifically, the power of test W50 is bounded above by a value that can be considerably smaller than 1 for some underlying distributions, no matter how different the two population variances are. In terms of the confidence set corresponding to test W50, noninformative intervals such as (0, + ∞) may occur with non-negligible probabilities for some distributions. The above problem exists for normal distributions, but is especially severe for contaminated normal distributions. Several intuitive remedies are investigated in an attempt to correct the flaw of test W50, but retain its good features such as robustness, efficiency, simplicity and asymptotic distribution-freeness. It is found that a proposed confidence interval and its corres...
Wx intron variations support an allohexaploid origin of the sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam]

To clarify the polyploid origin of the sweetpotato, we analyzed retentions of three distinctive types of Waxy intron 2 (Wx-In2) variants among 27 sweetpotato lines and 24 selected relatives and their phylogenetic relationships with Wx-In2 from 11 closest relatives. The three types of Wx-In2 effectively distinguish three diploid constituent genomes of very close homeology in the sweetpotato: Type I is characteristic of some loci in Genome I and III, and Types II and III are specific to loci in Genome II and III. The Type I Wx-In2 variation was found to be retained in 19 sweetpotato lines, Ipomoea littoralis Blume (4×), I. tabascana (4×), and I. tenuissima (2×); Type II to be retained in all 27 sweetpotato lines, I. littoralis Blume, and two I. trifida accessions; Type III to be retained in 13 sweetpotato lines, I. tenuissima, and four distantly related species. Because of the nature of independent random divergence of orthologous intronic sequences, these highly selective retentions of genome-specific or characteristic sweetpotato Wx-In2 variations among four diploid or tetraploid sweetpotato relatives are consistent only with separate lineages of diploid genomes of the sweetpotato. Such an allohexaploid origin of the sweetpotato probably occurred via hybridization between I.tenuissima and I.littoralis Blume, derived earlier from I. trifida and an unidentified species sibling to I. tenuissima. However, neither the involvement of I. tabascana nor a multiple origin of the sweetpotato can be ruled out. The inference is supported by maximal likelihood relationships between the three types of Wx-In2 from the sweetpotato and Wx-In2 from its 11 closest relatives.
Reproductive biology of rhesus and japanese macaques

This paper offers a comparison of the reproductive biology of the Japanese macaques of Arashiyama, Japan and the free-ranging rhesus macaques of Silver Springs, Florida, U.S.A. The data indicate that rhesus macaques of Silver Springs have a higher reproductive rate than the Japanese macaques of Arashiyama. The reproducive rate of the rhesus monkeys over three birth seasons is 82% and that for the Japanese macaque is 53%. The higher reproductive rate of rhesus monkeys is accomplished through an earlier onset of sexual maturation (4 and 5 years for the rhesus and 5 and 6 years for the Japanese monkeys) and a shorter interbirth interval (14.27±5.54 months for rhesus and 18.00±6.57 months for Japanese monkeys). It is suggested that, because of the relatively harsh winters experienced by Japanese macaques, the slower reproductive rate of the Japanese monkeys has been selected for in order to enable females to lengthen the time in which maternal care is extended to their offspring.
Efficient parallel testing and diagnosis of digital microfluidic biochips

Microfluidics-based biochips consist of microfluidic arrays on rigid substrates through which movement of fluids is tightly controlled to facilitate biological reactions. Biochips are soon expected to revolutionize biosensing, clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and drug discovery. Critical to the deployment of the biochips in such diverse areas is the dependability of these systems. Thus robust testing and diagnosis techniques are required to ensure adequate level of system dependability. Due to the underlying mixed technology and mixed energy domains, such biochips exhibit unique failure mechanisms and defects. In this article efficient parallel testing and diagnosis algorithms are presented that can detect and locate single as well as multiple faults in a microfluidic array without flooding the array, a problem that has hampered realistic implementation of several existing strategies. The fault diagnosis algorithms are well suited for built-in self-test that could drastically reduce the operating cost of microfluidic biochip. Also, the proposed alogirthms can be used both for testing and fault diagnosis during field operation as well as increasing yield during the manufacturing phase of the biochip. Furthermore, these algorithms can be applied to both online and offline testing and diagnosis. Analytical results suggest that these strategies that can be used to design highly dependable biochip systems.
Four new species of musci from the andes of Ecuador and Colombia

Eobruchia ecuatoriana sp. nov. (Bruchiaceae) has the aspect of a diminutiveTrematodon, but is distinctive in having a mitrate calyptra and flexuous seta;Macromitrium perreflexum sp. nov. (Orthotrichaceae) has ramarkably reflexed leaves, unlike any known species;Lepidopilum pulcherrimum sp. nov. (Hookeriaceae) is distinguished by its large size and beautifully undulate leaves;Symphyodon americanus sp. nov. (Symphyodontaceae) is remarkable in being the first American representative of a genus and family previously known only from Asia; it is most closely related toS. echinatus (Mitt.) Jaeg. of the Himalayas and Thailand.
Redistributing leadership in online creative collaboration

In this paper, we integrate theories of distributed leadership and distributed cognition to account for the roles of people and technology in online leadership. When leadership is distributed effectively, the result can be success stories like Wikipedia and Linux. However, finding a successful distribution is challenging. In the online community Newgrounds, hundreds of collaborative animation projects called "collabs" are started each year, but less than 20% are completed. We suggest that many collabs fail because leaders are overburdened and lack adequate technological support. We introduce Pipeline, a collaboration tool designed to support and transform leadership, with the goal of easing the burden on leaders of online creative projects. Through a case study of a six-week, 30-artist collaboration called Holiday Flood, we show how Pipeline supported redistributed leadership. We conclude with implications for theory and the design of social computing systems.
Soft Computing and Learning Techniques in the Modeling of Humanistic Systems

Although modern computer is the most revolutionary and most powerful tool developed in the twenty's century, it is almost useless for the application of this tool to the not well defined humanistic systems such as politics, law, or even the many hour-to-hour small decisions people make routinely and daily. This is in spite of the fact that the human action of the cognitive band, which is of the order of seconds, is much slower than the speed of the modern computer. In this paper, the author shall first examine the basic differences between the scientific systems and the humanistic systems. Then based on these resulting differences, the author shall propose a neural-soft-computing combined approach, which is naturally suited for the vague and difficult to define humanistic systems. These combined systems are developed during the last approximately twenty years. Yet, it has not applied to the humanistic systems in a systematic and extensive manner. Some of the neural-soft-computing systems, also known as neural-evolutionary operational systems are the combined use of neural network, or support vector machine, with fuzzy system or fuzzy logic and evolutionary operational techniques such as genetic algorithm. Several of these systems are summarized and discussed as to why these systems seem more promising for the handling of humanistic systems. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches, several initial applications in the literature are summarized.
Relative effects of plaque control and instrumentation on the clinical parameters of human periodontal disease

The healing events of 7 patients with generalized chronic periodontitis were monitored clinically during 3 consecutive phases of treatment: 1) tooth brushing and flossing, 2) subgingival use of the Perio-Aid, and 3) supra and subgingival instrumentation. The clinical parameters evaluated were plaque score, bleeding score, probing pocket depth, probing attachment level, and gingival recession. Each phase continued until maximum effects were achieved (5, 3, and 9 months respectively) determined by minimal or no changes in bleeding scores and probing pocket depths between 3 successive examinations. The results showed limited improvement in the bleeding scores and probing pocket depths with tooth brushing and flossing only (Phase 1). During use of the Perio-Aid (Phase 2), there was no additional improvement, but the initial limited gains made during Phase 1 were maintained. By the end of Phase 2, however, a slight loss of probing attachment level was noticeable. After instrumentation (Phase 3), there was further and more pronounced improvement in bleeding scores and probing pocket depths, as well as a reversal of the probing attachment loss. The results of this study indicate that significant improvement in periodontal pockets should not be expected following home care procedures alone, and that instrumentation may account for the bulk of improvement seen following a combined therapy of plaque control and instrumentation.
Self-Paced Economics Instruction: A Large-Scale Disaggregated Evaluation.

There is a growing interest in various schemes for individualizing instruction in economics, and at least 50 studies have been made of some aspect of this approach. Soper and Thornton report on a study that constitutes a valuable addition to the literature in this subject. Perhaps more important than the results of their experiment, however, is the experimental design they used. Their model is one that should be examined carefully by everyone interested in research in economic education.
Alcohol consumption and type 2 diabetes among older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.

Objective: The objective was to examine the role of total and beverage-specific alcohol consumption on the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) among elderly men and women. Research Methods and Procedures: We studied prospectively 4655 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study who were free of DM at baseline. Alcohol consumption was obtained at baseline and during follow-up examinations. DM was defined using fasting glucose and/or use of hypoglycemic medications. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate adjusted relative risks of diabetes across alcohol categories. Results: During a mean follow-up of 6.3 years, 234 incident cases of DM were documented. Compared with never drinkers, hazard ratios [95% confidence interval (CI)] for DM were 0.7 (0.3 to 1.4), 0.5 (0.3 to 0.9), 0.6 (0.4 to 1.1), and 0.8 (0.4 to 1.3) for former drinkers and current drinkers of <1, 1 to 6, and 7+ drinks per week, respectively, for men after adjustment for age, BMI, education, and smoking. Corresponding values for women were 1.2 (0.6 to 2.3), 0.7 (0.4 to 1.1), 0.6 (0.3 to 1.1), and 0.4 (0.2 to 1.0), respectively. A reduced risk of DM was observed with all types of beverage consumed. Similar findings were observed when we repeated the above analyses using simple or weighted cumulative alcohol update and covariates over time. Discussion: Light to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a lower incidence of DM among elderly people, irrespective of the type of beverage consumed.
Deletion of the loop region of Bcl-2 completely blocks paclitaxel-induced apoptosis

At high concentrations, the tubule poison paclitaxel is able to kill cancer cells that express Bcl-2; it inhibits the antiapoptotic activity of Bcl-2 by inducing its phosphorylation. To localize the site on Bcl-2 regulated by phosphorylation, mutant forms of Bcl-2 were constructed. Mutant forms of Bcl-2 with an alteration in serine at amino acid 70 (S70A) or with deletion of a 60-aa loop region between the α1 and α2 helices (Δloop Bcl-2, which also deletes amino acid 70) were unable to be phosphorylated by paclitaxel treatment of MDA-MB-231 cells into which the genes for the mutant proteins were transfected. The Δloop mutant completely inhibited paclitaxel-induced apoptosis. In cells expressing the S70A mutant, paclitaxel induced about one-third the level of apoptosis seen with wild-type Bcl-2. To evaluate the role of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in Bcl-2 phosphorylation, the activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and p38 was examined. Paclitaxel-induced apoptosis was associated with phosphorylation of Bcl-2 and activation of ERK and JNK MAPKs. If JNK activation was blocked by transfections with either a stress-activated protein kinase kinase dominant-negative (K→R) gene (which prevents the activation of a kinase upstream of JNK) or MAPK phosphatase-1 gene (which dephosphorylates and inactivates JNK), Bcl-2 phosphorylation did not occur, and the cells were not killed by paclitaxel. By contrast, neither an ERK inhibitor (PD098059) nor p38 inhibitors (SB203580 and SB202190) had an effect on Bcl-2 phosphorylation. Thus, our data show that the antiapoptotic effects of Bcl-2 can be overcome by phosphorylation of Ser-70; forms of Bcl-2 lacking the loop region are much more effective at preventing apoptosis than wild-type Bcl-2 because they cannot be phosphorylated. JNK, but not ERK or p38 MAPK, appear to be involved in the phosphorylation of Bcl-2 induced by paclitaxel.
Does Gravitation Resolve the Ambiguity among Supersymmetric Vacua

Globally supersymmetric theories often have several degenerate supersymmetric vacua. Gravitation splits this degeneracy in such a way that at most one of these vacuum solutions has energy density and cosmological constant equal to zero, while all the rest have negative energy density. Nevertheless, the vacuum with vanishing energy density is stable against decay into the others.
Blind channel estimation, equalisation and CRB for OFDM with unmodelled interference

A blind channel estimation and equalisation scheme is given for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems with unmodelled interference. The approach uses a generalised multichannel minimum variance principle to design an equalising filterbank that preserves the desired signal components and suppresses the overall interference. A channel estimate is then obtained by deriving an asymptotically tight lower bound of the filterbank output power, which reduces the problem to a quadratic minimisation. By imposing a special structure on the received signal, the performance is shown to be significantly increased. To assess the performance of the proposed scheme, an unconditional Cramer–Rao bound (CRB) is derived which, similar to the proposed blind channel estimator, does not assume knowledge of the transmitted information symbols. The CRB serves as a lower bound for all unbiased blind channel estimation schemes. Numerical examples show that the proposed scheme approaches the CRB as the SNR increases. It also exhibits low sensitivity to unknown narrowband interference and compares favourably with a subspace blind channel estimator.
Adaptation of Chinese Design in Western Contemporary Dress

Recently, Asian immigrants have become the largest of the minority groups in some areas of the United States. Increased contact with people from other cultures often influences consumers' behavior. For this reason, it may be important for some firms to adjust their marketing direction to suit the unique shopping behavior of ethnic groups The purpose of this study required adapting Chinese style characteristics into Western contemporary dress. The objectives of the study were to examine whether ethnic identity and cultural experiences influenced subjects' evaluation of Chinese design adapted to contemporary garments. 43 Chinese women and 43 non-Chinese women were shown 4 garments ranging from no ethnic influence to traditional Chinese dress. Increased cultural contact did indeed influence subjects' evaluation of the garments, but ethnic identity was not significantly related to subjects' evaluations of the garments.
Integration of a piezoelectric transformer and an ultrasonic motor.

Ultrasonic motors are usually operated at an AC voltage higher than a regular battery. This implies the need of a voltage step-up transformer. In this paper, we report the integration of a piezoelectric transformer (PT) with an ultrasonic motor and a simple drive circuit. The stator of the ultrasonic motor and the PT were operated in the same radial vibration mode. Their dimensions were very close to each other yielding nearly matching resonance frequencies. Consequently, they could be combined together without inductor. The drive circuit was designed by using a 555 timer as an astable multivibrator, and high-speed dual MOSFET drivers as a class D half-bridge switching amplifier. This integrated PT-ultrasonic motor performed reasonably without the use of electromagnetic transformer or inductor.
Radiation from Ferrite-Filled Apertures

The properties of ferrites at microwave may be used in antennas to produce some interesting effects. A rectangular waveguide termininating in the plane of an infinite ground screen and radiating into a half space has a ferrite slab located at the aperture. With a TE10 mode of 9365 mc sent through the waveguide the far-zone radiation pattern in the H plane has been measured as a function of a transversely applied static magnetic field. It was discovered that for certain thicknesses of the ferrite slab the radiation lobe deviated considerably from the normal to the infinite screen with only small changes in the applied magnetic field. For some of these resonance points and their neighborhoods more detailed investigations were carried out in order to determine: a) the amplitude and phase distributions of the electric field in the aperture; b) reciprocity relationships. Small holes backed with a ferrite slab also exhibit a pattern shift with applied magnetic field. When an axial magnetic field is applied to a ferrite rod protruding from an open circular guide, the radiation pattern of the rod antenna may be shifted considerably. This effect has cylindrical symmetry.
Poly[[(μ-2,2'-bipyrimidine-κN,N:N,N)(μ-sulfato-κO:O')zinc(II)] monohydrate].

In the title compound, {[Zn(SO4)(C8H6N4)]·H2O}n, the ZnII atom is in a distorted octa­hedral environment. The ZnII atoms are bridged by both 2,2′-bipyrimidine and sulfate ligands, thus forming a three-dimensional polymeric metal–organic solid that contains uncoordinated water mol­ecules in the inter­stitial space. O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding consolidates the crystal structure.
Can computing professionals be the unintentional architects of evil information systems

While computing professionals are admonished to do no harm, the technical-rational paradigm that is the foundation of organizational problem solving frames the context of practice and separates computing professionals from the ultimate action created by the information systems that they design. This paper discusses how the technical rational paradigm supports the creation of systems that embody administrative evil. Unlike the typical notions of harm created by malevolent and unethical individuals, the processes and structures that create administrative evil rely on good people acting within their professional roles to design the systems [1]. This is a research-in-progress to determine if information systems can harm or be evil, the frequency of harm, and response to harm by designers and users.
The Effect of Axial Magnetic Fields on Gas Lasers

An expression is obtained for the intensity of polarized light transmitted through a laser amplifier and linear polarizer, as a function of the strength of an axial magnetic field. The result is compared with an experiment reported by Hotz in which it was claimed that the natural width of the laser transition was measured. The effect of applying a magnetic field parallel to the axis of a laser having plane-parallel windows is also considered. The variation in the frequency of beats between oppositely circularly polarized modes, as a function of magnetic field, is obtained. The result shows that an experiment performed by Culshaw and Kannelaud cannot be interpreted as a level-crossing effect as was previously supposed.
Lasing droplets in a microfabricated channel

Lasing from spherical microdroplets ejected into a liquid medium with a lower refractive index is observed in a microchannel. A microfabricated device that combines droplet production and excitation/detection has been utilized. Droplets of 50 μm diameter containing a fluorescent dye were first detected and then excited through multimode fibers after their production at a T-junction. Images show intense lasing emission around the droplet rim. Spectra from the droplets exhibit morphology-dependent resonances that are redshifted relative to the bulk fluorescence emission from the dyes. The dependence of resonant peak intensities on the pump beam power is nonlinear.
‘Alii discunt–pro pudor!–a feminis’: Jerome, Epist. 53.7.1

In the letter which initiated his correspondence with Paulinus of Nola Jerome deplores the propensity of the inexpert to pontificate on scripture. Three kinds of incompetence are denounced. The second takes the following form: ‘alii discunt – pro pudor!–a feminis, quod viros doceant’ ( Epist . 53.7.1). As in the other two denunciations, Jerome has chosen to express himself in general terms; scholars have nonetheless assumed that here a specific individual is meant. Nautin argued that with these words Jerome was attacking Rufinus, who is here represented as being intellectually dependent on his patroness Melania. More recently Testard has maintained that Jerome's criticism is in fact directed against Ambrose. However Nautin's view that Rufinus is the target has now been re-affirmed by Rebenich. The purpose of the present note is to draw attention to a piece of evidence which has hitherto been overlooked; it would seem to indicate that the object of Jerome's attack cannot be Rufinus.
Eliminating thermal effects in z-scan measurements of thin PTCDA films

We investigate the two-photon absorption (TPA) and nonlinear refraction of a micrometer thick 3,4,9,10-perylentetracarboxyl-dianhydride (PTCDA) film using z-scans with tightly focused 100 fs laser pulses. The PTCDA film was grown by organic molecular beam deposition on a Pyrex substrate. To study the influence of sample heating, the pulse repetition rate was varied between 4 MHz and 50 kHz with an acousto-optic pulse selector. We find that thermal effects diminish for pulse repetition times longer than 5 and 0.75 µs when using a 10x or 20x microscope lens, respectively, resulting in a TPA coefficient of 6 cm/GW and a nonlinear refractive index of 1.2 x 10⁻¹³ cm²/W at a wavelength of 820 nm.
Studies on the excystment of tapeworms.

It has been shown that: 1) In vitro, the larvae of Hymenolepis diminuta, H. nana, H. citelli and O. symmetrica require bile salts for activation and excystment. 2) The larvae of Taenia taeniaeformis evert in the absence of bile salts. 3) The larvae of T. taeniaeformis, H. diminuta, H. citelli and H. nana require the presence of a proteolytic enzyme to dissolve their cysts. 4) Pretreatment of the hymenolepid species in a pepsin solution enhances the rate of excystment upon subsequent treatment in a solution of bile salts and trypsin.
Two 1993 Kamchatka earthquakes

Two earthquakes occurred in 1993 off southern Kamchatka. They have similar surface wave magnitudes, focal mechanisms, and depths, but have distinctly different characteristics. The November earthquake is a standard or “impulsive” M7 underthrusting event. The June earthquake is a tsunamigenic or “low-stress-drop” event with several unusual characteristics, including a large, diffuse aftershock zone, directivity, and a long source time function. The 1993 earthquakes ruptured a segment of the Kamchatka Arc which has not ruptured since 1904. The 1993 earthquakes seem to signal the midpoint in the southern Kamchatka seismic cycle.
Generation of tunable near-infrared amplified femtosecond laser pulses and time-correlated white-light continuum

We report the generation of kilohertz-rate, amplified, sub-100-fsec-duration laser pulses tunable from 785 to 825 nm. A novel two-stage amplification scheme is used to produce amplified, tunable optical pulses, with microjoule energies. Diffraction-limited focusing of the amplified laser pulses in ethylene glycol to peak intensities greater than 1013 W/cm2 results in the efficient generation of white-light continuum pulses with a bandwidth extending from 0.4 to 1.0 μm. This tunable laser system is well suited for sensitive femtosecond spectroscopic measurements in the near infrared, and its tunability may easily be extended to cover the wavelength range 600–900 nm.
Using Permuted States and Validated Simulation to Analyze Conflict Rates in Optimistic Replication

Optimistic replication provides high data availability in the presence of network outages. Although widely deployed, this relaXed consistency model introduces concurrent updates, whose behavior is poorly understood due to the vast state space. This paper introduces the notion of permuted states to eliminate system states that are redundant and unreachable, which can constitute the majority of states (4069 out of 4096 for four replicas). With the aid of permuted states, we are for the first time able to construct analytical models beyond the two-replica case. By eXamining the analysis for 2 to 4 replicas, we can demystify the process of forming identical conflicts—the most common conflict type at high replication factors. Additionally, we have automated and optimized the generation of permuted states, which allows us to eXplore higher replication factors (up to 10 replicas) using hybrid techniques. It also allows us to validate our results with eXisting simulations based on actual replication mechanisms, which previously were analytically validated with only one pair of replicas. Finally, we have discovered that update locality and bimodal access patterns are the primary factors contributing to the formation of identical conflicts.
Conducting an efficient proactive risk assessment prior to CPOE implementation in an intensive care unit.

Purpose To develop, conduct, and evaluate a proactive risk assessment (PRA) of the design and implementation of CPOE in an ICU.
Effects of user similarity in social media

There are many settings in which users of a social media application provide evaluations of one another. In a variety of domains, mechanisms for evaluation allow one user to say whether he or she trusts another user, or likes the content they produced, or wants to confer special levels of authority or responsibility on them. Earlier work has studied how the relative status between two users - that is, their comparative levels of status in the group - affects the types of evaluations that one user gives to another.Here we study how similarity in the characteristics of two users can affect the evaluation one user provides of another. We analyze this issue under a range of natural similarity measures, showing how the interaction of similarity and status can produce strong effects. Among other consequences, we find that evaluations are less status-driven when users are more similar to each other; and we use effects based on similarity to provide a plausible mechanism for a complex phenomenon observed in studies of user evaluation, that evaluations are particularly low among users of roughly equal status.Our work has natural applications to the prediction of evaluation outcomes based on user characteristics, and the use of similarity information makes possible a novel application that we introduce here - to estimate the chance of a favorable overall evaluation from a group knowing only the attributes of the group's members, but not their expressed opinions.
Temporal and spatial correlation of platelet-activating factor-induced increases in endothelial [Ca2+]i, nitric oxide, and gap formation in intact venules

We have previously demonstrated that platelet-activating factor (PAF)-induced increases in microvessel permeability were associated with endothelial gap formation and that the magnitude of peak endothelial intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and nitric oxide (NO) production at the single vessel level determines the degree of the permeability increase. This study aimed to examine whether the magnitudes of PAF-induced peak endothelial [Ca2+]i, NO production, and gap formation are correlated at the individual endothelial cell level in intact rat mesenteric venules. Endothelial gaps were quantified by the accumulation of fluorescent microspheres at endothelial clefts using confocal imaging. Endothelial [Ca2+]i was measured on fura-2- or fluo-4-loaded vessels, and 4,5-diaminofluorescein (DAF-2) was used for NO measurements. The results showed that increases in endothelial [Ca2+]i, NO production, and gap formation occurred in all endothelial cells when vessels were exposed to PAF but manifested a spatial heterogeneity in magnitudes among cells in each vessel. PAF-induced peak endothelial [Ca2+]i preceded the peak NO production by 0.6 min at the cellular level, and the magnitudes of NO production and gap formation linearly correlated with that of the peak endothelial [Ca2+]i in each cell, suggesting that the initial levels of endothelial [Ca2+]i determine downstream NO production and gap formation. These results provide direct evidence from intact venules that inflammatory mediator-induced increases in microvessel permeability are associated with the generalized formation of endothelial gaps around all endothelial cells. The spatial differences in the molecular signaling that were initiated by the heterogeneous endothelial Ca2+ response contribute to the heterogeneity in permeability increases along the microvessel wall during inflammation.
IL-4 receptor expression on CD8+ T cells is required for the development of protective memory responses against liver stages of malaria parasites

IL-4 receptor (IL-4R)-deficient CD8+ T cells specific for the circumsporozoite protein of Plasmodium yoelii develop a severely impaired memory response after priming with parasites. Memory CD8+ T cells lacking the IL-4R are unable to establish a stable population residing in nonlymphoid organs, although they develop normally in lymphoid organs. Because memory cells from nonlymphoid organs disappear shortly after immunization, the protective antiparasitic activity of this T cell response also is lost. These results demonstrate that IL-4/IL-4R interactions on CD8+ T cells play a critical role in modulating the development and tissue distribution of memory cells induced by parasite immunization. They also indicate that memory cells residing in nonlymphoid tissues are critical for protective immunity against malaria parasites.
Adolescents dying from cancer.

‘Dying’ and ‘adolescence’ are both transitional periods, characterized by change, loss, separation, along with a search for meaning and identity. It is therefore important for those involved in the care of dying adolescents to possess the necessary skills for understanding the reactions and needs of young people who attempt-through interaction with others-to give meaning to both their life and their approaching death. Effective intervention necessitates the ability to encourage open communication and to interpret the symbolic language that adolescents use to express their feelings, concerns and needs. Examples from clinical experience are presented and discussed in an attempt to enhance appropriate support during those critical moments. Dying is a social and dynamic process and through meaningful interaction and honest communication, it may become an enriching experience for both the adolescent and those involved in hislher care. When cure is no longer a reasonable expectation an adolescent with cancer is not simply dying away, but is fully involved in ‘living experiences’. It is through interaction with others that he or she attempts to give a personal meaning to both life and death. We therefore need to perceive dying, not as an isolated event, but as a social and dynamic process in which we are also involved and have a significant role to play. The period of dying has very much in common with the developmental period of adolescence. Both are transitional periods. Both include a sense of loss and separation from the past (a dying of the old self), and a search for meaning and for a sense of a new identity (6). It could therefore be assumed that seriously ill adolescents experience a double crisis due to their imminent death as well as
Policy Aware Social Miner

There is a wealth of sensitive information available on the Web about any individual that is generated either by her or by others on social networking sites. This information could be used to make important decisions about that individual. The problem is that although people know that searches for their personal information are possible, they have no way to either control the data that is put on the Web by others or indicate how they would like to restrict usage of their own data. We describe a framework called Policy Aware Social Miner (PASM) that would provide a solution to these problems by giving users a way to semantically annotate data on the Web using policies to guide how searches about them should be executed. PASM accepts search queries and applies the user's policies on the results. It filters results over data the user owns and provides the user's refutation link on search results that the user does not own. These usage control mechanisms for privacy allow users to break away from siloed data privacy management and have their privacy settings applied to all their data available on the Web.
Synergistic Effects of New Chemopreventive Agents and Conventional Cytotoxic Agents against Human Lung Cancer Cell Lines

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells have constitutively high expression of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) and cyclooxygenase (COX) 2. These NSCLC cells also have increased prostaglandin expression (PGE2). Many lung cancers also express 12-lipoxygenase RNA and 12-lipoxygenase protein and biosynthesize 12(S)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, which correlates with their metastatic potential. Several studies have demonstrated that COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitors could inhibit the in vitro growth of human lung cancer cell lines. In this report, we evaluated the growth-inhibitory effects of sulindac sulfide, a COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitor; exisulind (sulindac sulfone), a novel proapoptotic agent that does not inhibit COX enzymes; and nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), a lipoxygenase inhibitor on human lung cancer cell lines. We compared these effects with those of 13-cis-retinoic acid, a chemoprevention agent, and with the cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents paclitaxel and cisplatin, alone or in combination. Our goal was to develop new chemoprevention and treatment strategies. Each of the six agents tested inhibited the in vitro growth of three NSCLC and three SCLC cell lines at the highest concentration. Paclitaxel was the most potent agent (IC50 = 0.003-0.150 microM); sulindac sulfide, NDGA, and 13-cis-retinoic acid had intermediate potency (IC50 = 4-80 microM), and cisplatin and exisulind were the least potent (IC50 = 150-500 microM). Combination studies showed synergistic interactions for sulindac sulfide, exisulind, and NDGA with paclitaxel, cisplatin, and 13-cis-retinoic acid, regardless of drug-resistance phenotype. At high concentrations, the combination of 13-cis-retinoic acid and each of the five other drugs resulted in a strong synergistic effect. These studies provide a rationale for chemoprevention (exisulind +/- retinoic acid +/- NDGA) and therapeutic (exisulind +/- paclitaxel +/- cisplatin) studies in patients at risk for, or with, lung cancer.