cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cabin location and the likelihood of motion sickness in cruise ship passengers.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of motion sickness approaches 100% on rough seas. Some previous studies have reported a strong association between location on a ship and the risk of motion sickness, whereas other studies found no association. This study was undertaken to determine if there is a statistical association between the location of the passenger cabin on a ship and the risk of motion sickness in unadapted passengers. METHODS: Data were collected on 260 passengers on an expedition ship traversing the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, during rough sea conditions. A standard scale was employed to record motion sickness severity. RESULTS: The risk of motion sickness was found to be statistically associated with age and sex. However, no association was found with the location of the passenger cabin. CONCLUSIONS: Previous research reporting a strong association of motion sickness and passenger location on a ship, studied passengers in the seated position. Passengers who are able to lie in a supine position are at considerably reduced risk of motion sickness. Expedition or cruise ships that provide ready access to berths, allow passengers to avoid the most nauseogenic positions. The location of the passenger cabin does not appear to be related to the likelihood of seasickness. Language: en
Homogeneus models of thiophene HDS reactions. Selectivity in thiophene CS cleavage and thiophene reactions with dinuclear metal complexes

Abstract The reactive 16 e − metal fragment [C 5 Me 5 )Rh(PMe 3 )] inserts into a wide variety of thiophene CS bonds. The structures of the thiophene, benzothiophene and dibenzothiophene insertition complexes have been determined. While the thiophene complex adopts a planar six-membered ring structure the other metallacycles are bent and all molecules posses localized diene structures. The mechanism of CS cleavage was found to proceed by way of initial sulfur coordination. 2-Methylbenzothiophene gives a kinetic product resulting from cleavage of the sulfur-vinyl bond, but then rearranges to cleave the sulfur-aryl bond. A number of substituted dibenzothiophenes were examined, showing little electronic effect of substituents, but showing a large steric effect of substituents at the 4 and 6 positions. 4,6-Dimethyldibenzothiophene does not undergo cleavage, but instead forms an S-bond complex. Reactions of a cobalt analog, (C 5 Me 5 )Co(C 2 H 4 ) 2 with thiophenes also lead to CS cleaved products and the use of a dinuclear iridium system produces a butadiene complex in which both CS bonds have been cleaved.
The short lived small lymphocyte as a mediator of cellular immunity.

THE development of acquired resistance to facultative intracellular parasites such as Listeria monocytogenes involves two cytologically distinct but functionally related events: the formation of immunologically committed lymphoid cells and activation of the infected animal's macrophages1. The committed lymphoid cells can immunize adoptively by enhancing macrophage activity in normal recipients. Their strong inhibition by heterologous antilymphocyte globulin2, their ability to pass through cotton that retains preformed macrophages and their presence in the spleens and thoracic duct lymph of Listeria-immune mice3 suggest that they are lymphocytes. Our experiments with the rat complement and extend these observations by showing that Listeria-committed cells belong to a class of lymphocytes that has a rapid turnover rate and a short circulating life span.
Obscenity and Indecency on the Usenet: The Legal And Political Future of Alt.Sex.Stories

This paper discusses the emerging prevalence of erotica and pornography on the Internet (in particular on the Usenet) and addresses legal and political questions raised in light of news events such as: University of Michigan cyber-stalker Jake Baker; convicted BBS-porn operators Robert and Carleen Thomas; and the passage of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (the “CDA”). In particular, one of the most popular Usenet discussion groups, “alt.sex.stories,” has come under recent fire. However, the Usenet is not an easily regulatable zone and evades many contemporary legal notions of jurisdiction and agency. In turn, this paper discusses: (1) legal standards under the First Amendment, (2) the regulation of BBSs, (3) the regulation of the Usenet, (4) specific activities on alt.sex.stories, (5) the CDA, and (6) market-based alternatives to legislation. Ultimately, the author concludes that software products such as “SurfWatch” present better alternatives to federal legislation that infringe upon the First Amendment.
April sea ice extent in the Barents Sea, 1850–2001

Three observational data sets are used to construct a continuous record (1850–2001) of April ice edge position in the Barents Sea: two sets of Norwegian ice charts (one from 1850 to 1949 and the other from 1966 to 2001) and Soviet aircraft reconnaissance ice extent charts from 1950 to 1966. The 152-year April ice extent series is subdivided into three sub-periods: 1850–1899, 1900–1949 and 1950–2001. For each of these study sub-periods, a mean April ice edge and a set of anomalies (differences in position between a given April and the mean April ice edge) are computed. The calculations show the mean ice edge position retreated north-eastward over the 152-year period, with the greater retreat seen in the changes from the 1850–1899 sub-period to the 1900–1949 sub-period. The distribution of the standard deviation of the ice edge anomaly over the linear distance along the mean ice edge shows no substantial difference between any of the three periods of the study. Within each study period, the maximum variation is observed in the sector bounded by the 25° E and 49° E meridians, which covers the main pathway of the warmer water flow from the Norwegian Sea.
Fractal Image Compression

This paper begins by presenting a simple explanation of the main ideas in fractal image compression. It then presents a brief discussion of the current state of the art along with some results comparing fractal encoding, JPEG, and a wavelet scheme. The conclusion contains references to many of the latest theoretical and implementation results.
Frizzled Fissure to Improve Central Nervous System Drug Delivery

Delivery of therapeutics to the brain is challenging because of efflux pumps located in the vascular endothelium. A detailed analysis of Wnt signaling in a human brain endothelial cell line indicates that expression and function of P-glycoprotein, a major efflux transporter, is controlled by non-canonical Wnt signaling. Inhibition of this pathway leads to downregulation of P-glycoprotein and increased transcellular drug transport and reveals a potential strategy for improving drug delivery for treatment of neurologic diseases.
An instrumented search for extraterrestrial life

Since man realized that there were planets other than his own he has asked whether life occurred or occurs on these planets. With the coming of the space age, the answer to these questions can be obtained. Within the next ten years or even less, information should be gathered by instrumented landers to settle the matter to everyone's satisfaction. The search for extraterrestrial life brings up the question of what to look for, or in other words, what are our objectives in this search. The author would like to suggest nine objectives and is certain that others may have additional ones to be included. These objectives can be applied to the planet Mars (which is the most likely candidate) or to other celestial bodies. 1. Demonstrate if there is, or was life on Mars or other extraterrestrial bodies. 2. Demonstrate if life is found, what forms, metabolisms and ecology it has assumed. 3. Demonstrate what was life's origin on Mars or other extraterrestrial planets, if it is present.
Slip zones for discontinuities parallel to circular tunnels or shafts

Abstract General analytical solutions are presented for calculating the slip zone boundaries around circular tunnels or shafts parallel to sets of weakness planes. The stress distribution for a circular hole in an isotropic linearly elastic material is used. The shear strength of the weakness planes is described by a linear slip criterion. Slip zones are defined as the areas where the strength is exceeded pointwise along weakness planes with given dip and strength and arbitrary location. The maximum slip zone depth in a hydrostatic stressfield is expressed as a function of cohesion, friction, field stress and support pressure. The orientation of the slip zone is determined by the dip and friction of the weakness planes. Zones within which tensile stresses develop across weakness planes—for highly anisotropic stresses or for high internal pressures—strongly depend on the orientation of weakness systems. Examples of slip zones are given to illustrate the influence of discontinuity orientation and strength (cohesion and friction, eventually affected by roughness), virgin stressfield and internal pressure. The analysis complements kinematic stability evaluation, and can assist in the design of rock reinforcement. Slip zones for ubiquitous discontinuity sets that have an arbitrary orientation with respect to a circular excavation are discussed in an Appendix, for the case of an isotropic stressfield.
The Gibbs-Thomson effect during cellular and dendritic solidification

The relative importance of the various contributions to the total tip undercooling depends on the details of the assumptions made to characterize the diffusion field in the immediate vicinity of a dendrite or cell tip. ΔTG represents a major component of the total dendrite or cell tip undercooling, according to the Flemings-Hunt-Laxmanan models. With 1/32 ⩽ λ ⩽ 1/16, the G-T effect becomes very important, since the ATn contribution, which is directly proportional to λ, is much smaller than that assumed in all other growth models.
Multi-agent persistent monitoring in stochastic environments with temporal logic constraints

In this paper, we consider the problem of generating control policies for a team of robots moving in an environment containing elements with probabilistic behaviors. The team is required to achieve an optimal surveillance mission, in which a certain proposition needs to be satisfied infinitely often. The goal is to minimize the average time between satisfying instances of the proposition, while ensuring that the mission is accomplished. By modeling the robots as Transition Systems and the environmental elements as Markov Chains, the problem reduces to finding an optimal control policy satisfying a temporal logic specification on a Markov Decision Process. The existing approaches for this problem are computational intensive and therefore not feasible for a large environment or a large number of robots. To address this issue, we propose an approximate dynamic programming framework. Specifically, we choose a set of basis functions to approximate the optimal cost and find the best parameters for these functions based on the least-square approximation. We develop an approximate policy iteration algorithm to implement our framework. We provide illustrative case studies and evaluate our method through simulations.
Direct instruction vs. discovery: The long view

D. Klahr and M. Nigam (2004) make a case for the superiority of direct instruction over discovery learning in students' mastery of the control-of-variables strategy central to the scientific method. In the present work, we examine acquisition of this strategy among students of the same age as those studied by Klahr and Nigam, as well as follow central features of their design in directly comparing the two methods. In contrast to their design, however, we follow progress over an extended time period and a range of equivalent tasks. Three groups of 15 fourth-grade students, of diverse socioeconomic background, were compared. One group engaged in 12 sessions over 10 weeks working on problems that required the control-of-variables strategy for effective solution. Another group engaged in the same activity, preceded by a session involving direct instruction on the control-of-variables strategy. A third group received only the initial direct instruction, without subsequent engagement and practice. In this longer term framework, direct instruction appears to be neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for robust acquisition or for maintenance over time. The patterns of attainment observed here point instead to a gradual and extended process of acquisition and consolidation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed91:384–397, 2007
Intelligence and the assassination of John F. Kennedy

G. Robert Blakey and Richard Billings, Fatal Hour. The Assassination of President Kennedy by Organized Crime (New York: Berkeley Books, 1992). Pp.432, biblio., index. $6.50. Norman Mailer, Oswald's Tale. An American Mystery (New York: Random House, 1995). Pp.791, $30. ISBN 0–679–42535–7. John Newman, Oswald and the CIA (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1995). Pp.516, index. $28. ISBN 0–7867–0131–5. Ray and Mary La Fontaine, Oswald Talked. The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Books, 1996). Pp.398, biblio., index. NP. ISBN 1–56557–029–80. James P. Hosty Jr, with Thomas Hosty, Assignment: Oswald (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1996), biblio., index. NP. ISBN 5–597–311–3.
Independence of macrophage activation and expression of the alleles of the Ity (immunity to typhimurium) locus.

These studies demonstrate that alleles at the Ity locus do not affect T cell-dependent activation of macrophages by Corynebacterium parvum. Using a genetic analysis involving mice expressing various combinations of the Ityr, Itys, Lpsd, and Lpsn alleles we also show that the expression of the Ity alleles is not dependent on the ability of LPS to active macrophages. Since macrophage activation is thought to be important in the killing of salmonella, these findings favor a mechanism of action of the Ity locus that does not involve bacterial killing.
Consideration of molecular weight during compound selection in virtual target-based database screening.

Virtual database screening allows for millions of chemical compounds to be computationally selected based on structural complimentarity to known inhibitors or to a target binding site on a biological macromolecule. Compound selection in virtual database screening when targeting a biological macromolecule is typically based on the interaction energy between the chemical compound and the target macromolecule. In the present study it is shown that this approach is biased toward the selection of high molecular weight compounds due to the contribution of the compound size to the energy score. To account for molecular weight during energy based screening, we propose normalization strategies based on the total number of heavy atoms in the chemical compounds being screened. This approach is computationally efficient and produces molecular weight distributions of selected compounds that can be selected to be (1) lower than that of the original database used in the virtual screening, which may be desirable for sele...
Sex Differences in Variability in Intellectual Abilities: A New Look at an Old Controversy

Contemporary research on sex differences in intellectual abilities has focused on male-female differences in average performance, implicitly assuming homogeneity of variance. To examine the validity of that assumption, this article examined sex differences in variability on the national norms of several standardized test batteries. Males were consistently more variable than females in quantitative reasoning, spatial visualization, spelling, and general knowledge. Because these sex differences in variability were coupled with corresponding sex differences in means, it was demonstrated that sex differences in variability and sex differences in central tendency have to be considered together to form correct conclusions about the magnitude of cognitive gender differences.
Lack of chemical defense in two species of stalked crinoids: support for the predation hypothesis for mesozoic bathymetric restriction

Abstract Methanol/dichloromethane extracts of (1) the arms and pinnules, and (2) the stalk and cirri of the deep water stalked crinoids Endoxocrinus parrae (Gervais) and Neocrinus decorus (Carpenter) were imbedded at ecologically relevant volumetric concentrations in alginate food pellets containing 2% krill as a feeding stimulant and presented in situ to an assemblage of shallow-water reef fish. Experimental pellets were highly palatable to reef fish; no significant differences in pellet consumption occurred between experimental pellets containing extracts from either species of stalked crinoid or control pellets. Small pieces of cirri, stalks, calyx, arms and pinnules of both species were also tested in in situ feeding assays. While immediate consumption by fish was not apparent, Blue Headed Wrasse ( Thalassoma bifasciatum (Block)) and Dusky Damselfish ( Stegastes fuscus (Cuvier)) bit at pieces of each body component. Similar fish biting behaviors were also observed when two living Endoxocrinus parrae were deployed on the shallow reef. Observations indicate that neither species of stalked crinoid is chemically defended from predation by a natural assemblage of reef fish. This supports the predation hypothesis that restriction of stalked crinoids in deep-water habitats may have resulted from the Mesozoic radiation of durophagous fishes in shallow seas, resulting in a reduction of stalked crinoids from shallow water.
Systemic Polarization and the Occurrence and Duration of War

The literature concerned with the relationship between polarity and war generally focuses on decision maker responses to uncertainty. That literature assumes, implicitly, that foreign-policy decision makers are generally risk-acceptant or risk-avoidant under uncertainty. I suggest several alternative formulations, based on the assumptions that (a) uncertainty is promoted by change in the structure of the international system, rather than by the actual structure itself; and (b) risk-taking orientations are normally distributed among decision makers. Using data on the occurrence and duration of war during the past century and a half, and defining polarity as consisting of three attributes—the number of poles, and their tightness and discreteness—I find no support for the hypotheses found in the literature. Considerable support, however, emerges for the hypotheses derived from the assumptions proposed here. Most significantly, the occurrence and duration of wars during the twentieth century are found to be c...
The modified CORDIC algorithm

A Modified CORDIC Algorithm (MCA) has been developed for the evaluation of elementary arithmetic functions. MCA incorporates increased parallelism over the original CORDIC algorithm, thus, resulting in an enhanced speed of computation. This has been accomplished by decoupling the CORDIC interation equations and transforming the sequential nature of these equations, n-bit fixed point data operands are assumed and the parameter k relates to the level of parallelism in the algorithm. The modified algorithm employs a [k+1]n2 n-bit ROM for lookup tables that enable elementary arithmetic functions to be evluated in no more than [3n+2] and no less than 2 time steps. The two bounds correspond to a pipelined and a parallel implementation, respectively. The formulation of the MCA can be manipulated to obtain implementations with various speed/cost characteristics. This compares to n(3n+1)/2 time steps for the original CORDIC algorithm. For example, 32-bit ALU has k=12 and n=32; so, a 13,312-bit ROM is required to store the lookup tables, and the computation requires 98 time steps for a pipelined implementation.
A group-technology-coded literature review of semiconductor manufacturing operations publications: the MASMLAB bibliography web site

Modeling and simulation of semiconductor manufacturing operations is a rapidly developing area with a supporting published literature that is exploding in size. In this paper, we present a study of that literature which we use to build a searchable database that is implemented as an Internet site (http://www.eas.asu.edu/masmlab/Biblio.html). The semiconductor manufacturing modeling community needs a focused, electronically accessible, and better structured bibliographic resource. To accomplish this, we have developed a database that uses a group technology coding of articles based upon index searching. The importance of this database is not only in collecting many pertinent articles for users, but also in classifying them. The objectives of this site are to be useful to industrial practitioners, faculty members, students, and software developers, and to be widely available, economically feasible, and easily managed. The user can search the database by problem type, measurement metric, modeling technique, organization decision level, publication year, and publication type to find desirable article lists within a short time. The Modeling and Analysis of Semiconductor Manufacturing Laboratory (MASMLAB) database currently contains 559 coded articles relevant to the modeling and analysis of semiconductor manufacturing.
A Direct Comparison of Anti-microRNA Oligonucleotide Potency

Purpose Cataloguing endogenous miRNA targets by inhibiting miRNA function is fundamental to understanding the biological importance of each miRNA in gene regulatory pathways. Methods to down-regulate miRNA activity may help treat diseases where over-expression of miRNAs relates to the underlying pathophysiology. This study objectively evaluates the in vitro potency of different anti-miRNA oligonucleotides (AMOs) using various design and modification strategies described in the literature as well as some novel modification strategies.
The Molecular Pathogenesis of Pituitary Adenomas: An Update

Pituitary tumors represent the most common intracranial neoplasms accompanying serious morbidity through mass effects and inappropriate secretion of pituitary hormones. Understanding the etiology of pituitary tumorigenesis will facilitate the development of satisfactory treatment for pituitary adenomas. Although the pathogenesis of pituitary adenomas is largely unknown, considerable evidence indicates that the pituitary tumorigenesis is a complex process involving multiple factors, including genetic and epigenetic changes. This review summarized the recent progress in the study of pituitary tumorigenesis, focusing on the role of tumor suppressor genes, oncogenes and microRNAs.
FEM simulation to characterize wireless electric power transfer elements

Wireless power transfer systems are expected to be a new mean for power distribution in the non-distant future for household electronics and handheld devices. However, even with the progress achieved to date, it is difficult to find literature that address the Federal Communications Commission, the Comite Europeen or Military Standards compliance for electromagnetic emissions. This paper provides further insight for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) compliance and coupling characterization considerations by performing Finite Element Method simulations. It was demonstrated by model simulation that Finite Element Method (FEM) provides adequate design insight for possible EMC compliance concerns before proceeding to the prototype phase. In addition, it was also demonstrated that FEM simulation provides adequate coupling characterization to determine the range of the wireless power transfer element as well as its optimal frequency of operation based on the separation distance between the transmitter element and the receiver element.
133Cs NMR study of cesium on the surfaces of kaolinite and illite

Abstract 133Cs MAS NMR of Cs-exchanged illite, kaolinite, boehmite, and silica gel is shown to be a powerful tool to investigate the adsorption sites and atomic dynamics of Cs on mineral surfaces. Cesium is adsorbed on these mineral surfaces in primarily two ways: at sites relatively tightly bonded to the surface (Stern layer, Cs1) and at more loosely bonded sites in the diffuse (Gouy) layer (Cs2). For illite, both edge sites and crystallite basal surfaces are important adsorption sites. For kaolinite, edge sites, expandable layers, and probably crystallite basal surfaces are important. The 133Cs NMR chemical shifts for the Cs1 site become more shielded (more negative) as the Si Al ratio of the substrate phase increases, paralleling the chemical shift variations of other cations and consistent with this site being relatively tightly bonded to the surface. The 133Cs NMR chemical shifts of Cs2 do not vary systematically with solid composition due to the larger distance of these sites from the surface and weaker electrostatic attraction to the surface compared to Cs1. Rather, the Cs2 chemical shifts are significantly influenced by relative humidity (R. H.) and Cs population ( Cs H 2 O ratio) on the surface. The Cs1 chemical shifts vary less with these parameters. Cs2 is removed by washing with 1–5 mL of deionized water due to its weak attraction to the surface. The Cs1 chemical shifts become less shielded after washing and with decreasing solution concentration due to a decrease in the Cs surface density. At 100% R. H., Cs in the two sites undergoes motional averaging at frequencies > 100 kHz. With decreasing R. H., peaks for Cs on the two sites are resolved due to decreasing exchange frequencies related to a decreasing number of adsorbed water layers. Motional averaging at 100% R. H. is verified by low temperature experiments with illite.
Water as a trophic currency in dryland food webs

Water is essential for life on Earth, yet little is known about how water acts as a trophic currency, a unit of value in determining species interactions in terrestrial food webs. We tested the relative importance of groundwater and surface water in riparian food webs by manipulating their availability in dryland floodplains. Primary consumers (crickets) increased in abundance in response to added surface water and groundwater (contained in moist leaves), and predators (spiders and lizards) increased in abundance in response to added surface water, in spite of the presence of a river, an abundant water source. Moreover, the relative magnitude of organism responses to added water was greatest at the most arid site and lowest at the least arid site, mirroring cricket recruitment, which was greatest at the least arid site and lowest at the most arid site. These results suggest that water may be a key currency in terrestrial dryland food webs, which has important implications for predicting ecosystem response...
Effects of surface active agents on mass transfer during droplet formation, fall, and coalescence

This experimental study shows effects of anionic and cationic surface active agents on mass transfer during drop formation, fall, and coalescence for both continuous and disperse phase-controlled systems. Three dispersion nozzles, mounted with 1.906 cm equilateral pitch, and a 5.08 cm I.D. extraction column were used to simulate certain conditions in commercial liquid-liquid extraction units. The surfactant effects on extraction were pronounced, frequently reducing transfer to 10% of that in uncontaminated systems, with marked minima at intermediate concentrations of surfactant. In contrast, the continuous phase coefficient during coalescence was substantially increased by surfactants, with maxima in some cases.
INNOVATIONS IN SAMPLING AND CULTURING METHODS FOR BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF BROILER CARCASSES

Broiler carcasses were sampled by excision of the neck skin with the aid of a special clamp, and by swabbing of the breast skin. Samples from both methods were compared for bacteriological evaluation of carcasses by standard plate counts and by two commercial miniature systems (Millipore and Easicult-TTC). In experiment 1, the excised neck skin method showed higher counts than the breast swab method on carcasses stored at 1.5°C for 7–18 days, but not on day of processing; counts did not differ significantly as a function of culturing and counting system (only standard plating and Millipore were compared) on carcasses stored 7–18 days, but were higher by standard plating than by Millipore on day of processing. In experiment 2, counts did not differ significantly as a function of the two sampling methods or three culturing methods, or between counts on 0 and 7 days of storage of carcasses at 1.5°C. The neck skin excise method combined with a miniaturized culturing system was the fastest means to measure the general bacteriological condition of fresh or stored broiler carcasses.
Block Data Processing Using Commercial Processors

This paper presents an approach to using commercial digital signal processors to develop a high performance multiprocessing system for block data processing. We use a restricted dataflow multiprocessor architecture and block data processing to achieve high performance. We call this architecture the Block Data Flow Architecture (BDFA). Block data processing algorithms for many applications have been developed by other researchers. Although many of these algorithms were developed for single processor systems, the algorithms can be mapped onto the BDFA because of its inherent support for block data processing. This paper highlights a few of these algorithms and presents the BDFA as a high performance architecture to implement these algorithms. In addition, we evaluate the potential of using Texas Instruments' TMS320C40 (C40) as a node processor in the BDFA.
A comparative study for orthogonal subspace projection and constrained energy minimization

We conduct a comparative study and investigate the relationship between two well-known techniques in hyperspectral image detection and classification: orthogonal subspace projection (OSP) and constrained energy minimization. It is shown that they are closely related and essentially equivalent provided that the noise is white with large SNR. Based on this relationship, the performance of OSP can be improved via data-whitening and noise-whitening processes.
Absence of VLDL secretion does not affect α-tocopherol content in peripheral tissues

alpha-Tocopherol is a lipid-soluble antioxidant that helps to prevent oxidative damage to cellular lipids. alpha-Tocopherol is absorbed by the intestine and is taken up and retained by the liver; it is widely presumed that alpha-tocopherol is then delivered to peripheral tissues by the secretion of VLDL. To determine whether VLDL secretion is truly important for the delivery of alpha-tocopherol to peripheral tissues, we examined alpha-tocopherol metabolism in mice that lack microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (Mttp) expression in the liver and therefore cannot secrete VLDL (Mttp(Delta/Delta) mice). Mttp(Delta/Delta) mice have low plasma lipid levels and increased stores of lipids in the liver. Similarly, alpha-tocopherol levels in the plasma were lower in Mttp(Delta/Delta) mice than in controls, whereas hepatic alpha-tocopherol stores were higher. However, alpha-tocopherol levels in the peripheral tissues of Mttp(Delta/Delta) mice were nearly identical to those of control mice, suggesting that VLDL secretion is not critical for the delivery of alpha-tocopherol to peripheral tissues. When fed a diet containing deuterated alpha-tocopherol, Mttp(Delta/Delta) and control mice had similar incorporation of deuterated alpha-tocopherol into plasma and various peripheral tissues. We conclude that the absence of VLDL secretion has little effect on the stores of alpha-tocopherol in peripheral tissues, at least in the mouse.
Time of flight measurement of recoil energy distributions from vibrational predissociation of van der Waals clusters

A velocity-resolved time-of-flight technique is used to quantify the recoil energy released in the vibrational predissociation of triplet state mixed van der Waals dimers which contain ∽2000 to ∽8000 cm−1 of vibrational energy. The clusters consist of an aromatic molecule (pyrazine, pyrimidine, methylpyrazine, benzene, aniline, or toluene) and a partner molecule (rare gas atom, diatomic, or polyatomic molecule). The resulting recoil energy distributions peak near zero energy and are monotonically decreasing functions of energy. The fraction of initially available vibrational energy that appears as recoil energy is small. The average recoil energy is not strongly dependent on the initial vibrational energy or the density of states of the aromatic donor. The results are discussed in relationship to cluster partner dependence, statistical models, classical trajectory calculations, and collisional energy transfer experiments.
Regenerative French Urbanism: Sustainable Planning Strategies in Lille, Lyon, and Montpellier

Abstract Sustainability engages a complex and nuanced spectrum of issues when it shifts from the realm of architecture to that of urbanism. Individual building compliance is typically measured by objective physical design traits and performance criteria. By contrast, sustainable urban design must respond to historical, political and cultural contexts while simultaneously addressing overarching concerns such as land use and energy efficiency. The resulting urban mandate is neither formulaic nor nostalgic. Rather, it is grounded in the natural alignment of established urban design criteria—emphasizing concentrated, vital city centers as the physical, economic and social focus of urban life—with sustainable principles of compact development and controlled growth. This paper explores the adaptability of these principles to a range of urban contexts, through case studies of several French cities that have experienced significant new development in the past several decades. Planning for recent growth in Lille, ...
Multi-echelon supply chain network design in agile manufacturing

Abstract In this paper, we consider a supply chain network design problem in an agile manufacturing scenario with multiple echelons and multiple periods under a situation where multiple customers have heavy demands. Decisions in our supply chain design problem include selection of one or more companies in each echelon, production, inventory, and transportation. We formulate the problem integrating all decisions to minimize the total operational costs including fixed alliance costs between two companies, production, raw material holding, finished products holding, and transportation costs under production and transportation capacity limits. A Lagrangian heuristic is proposed in this paper. Optimizing a Lagrangian relaxation problem provides a lower bound, while a feasible solution is generated by adjustment techniques based on the solution of subproblems at each iteration. Computational results indicate the high quality solutions with less than 5% optimality gap are provided quickly by the approach in this paper. Further, compared to initiative managerial alternatives, an improvement of 15% to 25% is not unusual in certain cases for the proposed approach.
Implied volatility forecasts in the grains complex

This article finds that the implied volatilities of corn, soybean, and wheat futures options 4 weeks before option expiration have significant predictive power for the underlying futures contract return volatilities through option expiration from January 1988 through September 1999. These implied volatilities also encompass the information in out-of-sample seasonal Glosten, Jagannathan, and Runkle (GJR;1993) volatility forecasts. Evidence also demonstrates that when corn-implied volatility rises relative to out-of-sample seasonal GJR volatility forecasts, implied volatility substantially overpredicts realized volatility. However, simulations of trading rules that involve selling corn option straddles when corn-implied volatility is high relative to out-of-sample GJR volatility forecasts indicate that none of the trading rules would have been significantly profitable. This finding suggests that these options are not necessarily overpriced. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:959–981, 2002
Investigation of Fault-Tolerant Adaptive Filtering for Noisy ECG Signals

Studies shows that electrocardiogram (ECG) computer programs perform at least equally well as human observers in ECG measurement and coding, and can replace the cardiologist in epidemiological studies and clinical trials (Kors and Herpen, 2001). However, in order to also replace the cardiologist in clinical settings, such as for out-patients, better systems are required in order to reduce ambient noise while maintaining signal sensitivity. Therefore the objective of this work was to develop an adaptive filter to remove the contaminating signal in order to better obtain and interpret the electrocardiogram (ECG) data. To achieve reliability, the real-time computing systems must be fault-tolerant. This paper proposed a fault-tolerant adaptive filter for noise cancellation of ECG signals. Comparison of the performance and reliability of non-fault-tolerant and fault-tolerant adaptive filters are performed. Experimental results showed that the fault-tolerant adaptive filter not only successfully extract the ECG signals, but also is very reliable
Incentive Compatibility of Large Centralized Matching Markets

We study the manipulability of stable matching mechanisms. To quantify incentives to manipulate stable mechanisms, we consider markets with random cardinal utilities, which induce ordinal preferences over match partners. We show that most agents in large matching markets are close to being indifferent of overall stable matchings. In one-to-one matching, the utility gain by manipulating a stable mechanism does not exceed the gap between utilities from the best and worst stable partners. Thus, most agents in a large market would not have significant incentives to manipulate stable mechanisms. The incentive compatibility extends to many-to-one matching when agents employ truncation strategies and capacity manipulations in a Gale—Shapley mechanism.
Thing Talk Moonlighting

It is controversial whether the truth conditions of attitude sentences are opaque. It is not, or shouldn't be controversial, however, that conditions of apt or unexceptionable usage are opaque. A framework for expressing such uncontroversial claims of opacity is developed, and within this framework it is argued that opacity resides at a “locutionary” level — that it is a matter of expressed content (which might not be truth-conditional). The same claim is made for a related pattern in attitude talk which is labeled the “moonlighting” use of thing-talk.
Is a Successful High-K Fitness Strategy Associated with Better Mental Health?:

This study examined the associations between a high-K fitness strategy and mental health. These associations were tested on a sample of 1400 disaster workers who had exposure to a singular traumati...
El Gato’s Fruta Loco

This brief article proves to be a cautionary tale about applying (and not applying) for trademark protection for your business's name. A Maryland business owner was expanding his business by opening new stores in different locations, and didn't think that applying for trademark protection for his business's name was that important. However, a competing business with pretty much the same product applied for trademark protection using a business name in a different language but with the same meaning as the Maryland business. This piece discusses the ensuing developments and litigation, and how it was resolved.
A 3D, fully Eulerian, VOF-based solver to study the interaction between two fluids and moving rigid bodies using the fictitious domain method

We present a three-dimensional (3D) and fully Eulerian approach to capturing the interaction between two fluids and moving rigid structures by using the fictitious domain and volume-of-fluid (VOF) methods. The solid bodies can have arbitrarily complex geometry and can pierce the fluid-fluid interface, forming contact lines. The three-phase interfaces are resolved and reconstructed by using a VOF-based methodology. Then, a consistent scheme is employed for transporting mass and momentum, allowing for simulations of three-phase flows of large density ratios. The Eulerian approach significantly simplifies numerical resolution of the kinematics of rigid bodies of complex geometry and with six degrees of freedom. The fluid-structure interaction (FSI) is computed using the fictitious domain method. The methodology was developed in a message passing interface (MPI) parallel framework accelerated with graphics processing units (GPUs). The computationally intensive solution of the pressure Poisson equation is ported to GPUs, while the remaining calculations are performed on CPUs. The performance and accuracy of the methodology are assessed using an array of test cases, focusing individually on the flow solver and the FSI in surface-piercing configurations. Finally, an application of the proposed methodology in simulations of the ocean wave energy converters is presented.
Modified wideband 3D late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) MRI for patients with implantable cardiac devices

Background Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiac MRI is the clinical gold standard for non-invasive assessment of myocardial viability and plays an important role in guiding catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT). The majority of VT patients have implanted cardiac devices such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). The presence of ICDs gives rise to strong off-resonance within the myocardium. This produces hyper-intensity (HI) artifacts in LGE, which can mask scar tissue, compromising the diagnostic value of LGE. Recent studies show that HI artifacts can be eliminated by using a wideband inversion recovery (IR) pulse in the LGE sequence. However, the current wideband LGE is a 2D sequence, which limits spatial resolution, especially slice thickness (8 mm). This is problematic for using LGE to guide catheter ablation of VT. High resolution LGE is feasible using a 3D LGE sequence. However, no prior studies have explored 3D LGE under the influence of strong off-resonance imposed by ICDs.
Advanced modulation schemes for an Antarctic Long Haul HF Link

This paper presents the comparison of the BER performance between SC-FDE, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDMA) and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing access (SC-FDMA) in a long haul HF data link with low SNR. The goal of the comparison is to define two operation modes for two QoS; a robust mode and a high throughput mode, in order to transmit data from remote sensors in Antarctica through a 12760 km ionospheric link with a power amplifier of only 200 W. Clipping and amplification of the waveforms have been applied to SC-FDMA and OFDMA in order to compensate the PAPR and therefore maximize the SNR. The Antarctic HF link has been studied for 11 years, and we have described the link in terms of availability, SNR, delay and Doppler profile, and also spread spectrum techniques have been tested for data transmission. Based on those previous studies results we have developed a test bed to compare these transmission techniques, providing promising results in our low power ionospheric link from Antarctica.
A NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF A THREE DIMENSIONAL AEROSPIKE

The validation of a computational fluid dynamics code for aerospike nozzle flows is presented. The experimental data used in this effort is a cold flow three dimensional, mixed linear-axisymmetric aerospike nozzle. A series of two-dimension al studies is performed to determine the requirements for grid density, grid adaptation and level of viscous flux to calculate aerospike nozzle flow physics. The turbulence model is limited to an algebraic model. The two-dimensional studies were successful in capturing the significant plume physics both qualitatively and quantitatively. The two-dimensional results are extended to model the three dimensional aerospike nozzle. The three dimensional calculation produces a nozzle thrust efficiency within 0.24 efficiency points of the experimental data. Symbols Symbol
AIRCRAFT COLLISION AVOIDANCE TRAJECTORY GENERATION

This paper presents a new approach to the aircraft collision avoidance problem. This approach gives a recommended avoidance trajectory in both the horizontal and vertical planes of motion based on the geometric relationship between aircraft and threats. A new concept, the "threat map", is introduced to describe moving threats as static threats. Thus, motion planning for dynamic threats is reduced to path planning for stationary threat avoidance. At every time interval, the threat map is updated and the velocity direction of the aircraft is calculated to avoid the threats. The "risk space" is used to model a threat By avoiding the risk space, the aircraft avoids the threat while keeping a safe separation. Some simulation studies show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Nil Algebras and Periodic Groups

(1968). Nil Algebras and Periodic Groups. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 75, No. 6, pp. 611-623.
Hemodynamic and clinical comparison of the Hancock modified orifice and standard orifice bioprostheses in the aortic position.

Bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement in patients with a small aortic root has been associated with postoperative transvalvular gradients. A modified orifice Hancock xenograft bioprosthesis has been developed and is purported to increase significantly the effective orifice area (as evaluated by in vitro testing) compared to the standard orifice Hancock bioprosthesis. To assess the in vivo differences, we compared 481 patients with standard orifice prostheses with 156 patients with modified orifice prostheses. Postoperative catheterization was performed in 24 patients with modified orifice (valve diameters 19 to 25 mm) and 14 with standard orifice valves (valve diameters 21 to 25 mm). Actuarial rates of survival, valve failure, endocarditis, and thromboembolism did not differ significantly between the two subgroups. Peak aortic valve gradients on the whole were less in the modified orifice subgroup than in the standard orifice subgroup (12 ± 1 torr versus 20 ± 6 torr [mean ± SEM]), but the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The calculated in vivo aortic valve areas were slightly, but insignificantly, greater in the modified orifice subgroup than in the standard orifice subgroup (p > 0.05). These in vivo data partially corroborate the in vitro findings of increased effective orifice area and internal-to-external diameter ratio for the modified orifice bioprosthesis. The hemodynamic differences between the two valve types are small, however, and the putative clinical advantages inherent in the use of the modified orifice bioprosthesis remain to be completely defined.
EMBEDDED DEVELOPMENT TOOLS REVISITED: Verification and Generation from the Top Down

We envision a future where any programmer can automatically generate an embedded device from application code. A future in which a professional embedded engineer can "sketch" out a partial device design and automation can complete it, in which a hobbyist can write a program and, in a matter of days, receive a custom hardware in the mail. Building this future requires us to rethink the embedded development process and redesign the tools we use.
A point collocation method for meshless analysis of microelectronic and microelectromechanical devices

The present approach to modeling and design of microelectronic and microelectromechanical devices (MEMS) (hereafter simply referred to as a microdevice) involves the generation of a geometric model for the complicated two or three-dimensional microdevice, the generation of a mesh for the geometric model, a mesh based numerical analysis, and postprocessing steps such as visualization. The time consuming steps in such an approach are the generation of a mesh and mesh-based numerical analysis. Meshless methods, which do not require the generation of a mesh, are very attractive for numerical solution of partial differential equations. In this paper we introduce a new meshless technique, referred to as a point collocation method, for numerical solution of partial differential equations. The effectiveness of the point collocation method is demonstrated by solving the one and two-dimensional Poisson equation, the solution of which is required in the analysis of both electronic and microelectromechanical devices.