cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Additive noise models for photoacoustic spatial coherence theory

Directly displaying the spatial coherence of photoacoustic signals (i.e., coherence-based photoacoustic imaging) remarkably improves image contrast, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and imaging depth when compared to conventional amplitude-based reconstruction techniques (e.g., backprojection, delay-and-sum beamforming, and Fourier-based reconstruction). We recently developed photoacoustic-specific theory to describe the spatial coherence process as a function of the element spacing on a receive acoustic aperture to enable photoacoustic image optimization without requiring experiments. However, this theory lacked noise models, which contributed to significant departures in coherence measurements when compared to experimental data, particularly at higher values of element separation. In this paper, we develop and implement two models based on experimental observations of noise in photoacoustic spatial coherence measurements to improve our existing spatial coherence theory. These models were derived to describe the effects of incident fluence variations, low-energy light sources (e.g., pulsed laser diodes and light-emitting diodes), averaging multiple signals from low-energy light sources, and imaging with light sources that are > 5mm from photoacoustic targets. Results qualitatively match experimental coherence functions and provide similar contrast, SNR, and CNR to experimental SLSC images. In particular, the added noise affects image quality metrics by introducing large variations in target contrast and significantly reducing target CNR and SNR when compared to minimal-noise cases. These results provide insight into additional requirements for optimization of coherence-based photoacoustic image quality.
Botulinum Toxin Treatment in Children

Over the past 25 years, botulinum toxin therapy in adults has been established as a major mode of treatment for a variety of medical conditions. Several of these conditions including involuntary movements, spasticity, chronic migraine, excessive sweating/ drooling, and bladder dysfunction have been discussed in previous chapters. In this chapter, major indications of botulinum toxin therapy in childhood including stiffness of muscles with increased reflexes (spasticity), involuntary movements, strabismus (squint) and excessive sweating/ drooling will be addressed.
Offspring gender rates in active duty fighter pilots and flight officers

Abstract Introduction It has been reported in small studies that fighter pilots have a higher likelihood of producing female offspring secondary to job-related exposures. No large-scale study has investigated this potential gender disparity. Methods This retrospective study utilized electronic medical record systems to identify men with flight-related occupations within the U.S. military from September 2012 to January 2018. The gender of offspring born to those men at least one year after entry into the flight community were compared to gender rates of children born to the U.S. general population during the same time period. Results 10,879 and 62,624 children born to fighter pilots and pilots of non-fighter type aircraft respectively were compared. The gender distribution of children born to both communities was similar to U.S. general population trends. Conclusions This large-scale study provides social reassurances that the degree of risk imposed on our nation’s air defense force does not influence the gender balance of the subsequent generation.
Native American Lands and the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has been instrumental in defining legal rights and obligations pertaining to Indian lands since its first path-making decision in the field in Johnson v. McIntosh in 1823. But the groundwork for the Court's contemplation of such cases predates Supreme Court jurisprudence, and it in fact predates the formation of the Court and the United States itself. When Europeans first made contact with this continent, they encountered hundreds of indigenous, sovereign nations representing enormous diversity in terms of language, culture, religion, and governance. For those indigenous groups -- as is a common attribute of indignity of similarly situated indigenous groups around the world -- this land was and is holy land. Indigenous creation stories root Indian people in this continent -- Turtle Island to many -- as the focal point of life, creation, religion, culture, and language. In the settlement of the country, the colonial powers initially -- and the United States subsequently -- treated with Indian nations to negotiate the transfer of lands from Indians to Europeans, often in exchange for peace or protection.
Generative Adversarial Attacks Against Deep-Learning-Based Camera Model Identification

Recently, deep learning techniques have gained popularity in multimedia forensics research designed to accomplish tasks such as camera model identification. However, despite the success of deep learning techniques, research has shown that they are vulnerable to adversarial perturbations. These adversarial perturbations can cause deep learning classifiers to misclassify images even though the perturbations are imperceptible to human eyes. To understand the vulnerabilities of deep-learning-based forensic algorithms, we propose a novel anti-forensic framework inspired by generative adversarial networks that is capable of falsifying an image’s source camera model. To accomplish this, we design a generator to anti-forensically falsify camera model traces in an image without introducing visually perceptible changes or artifacts. We propose two techniques to adversarially train this generator depending on the knowledge available to the attacker. In a white-box scenario when complete knowledge of an investigator’s camera model identification network is available to an attacker, we directly incorporate the network into our generator’s adversarial training strategy. In a black-box scenario when no internal details of the camera model classifier are available to the attacker, we construct a substitute network to mimic its decisions, then utilize this substitute network to adversarially train our generator. We conduct a series of experiments to evaluate the performance of our attack against several well-known CNNbased camera model classifiers. Experimental results show that our attack can successfully fool these CNNs in both white-box and black-box scenarios. Furthermore, our attack maintains high image quality and can be generalized to attack images from arbitrary source camera models.
Age ≤40 is an independent predictor of anastomotic urethroplasty and successful repair of bulbar urethral strictures.

Background: Among men with bulbar strictures, we aimed to analyze stricture characteristics, repair type, and treatment success in younger versus older patient cohorts. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our single surgeon database with patients undergoing bulbar urethroplasty from 2007 to 2017. This population was then age-stratified into ≤40 and >40-year-old cohorts. Exclusion criteria included patients with penile strictures and those with history of hypospadias. Patient characteristics, surgical approach, and outcome were compiled by medical record and database review. Criterion for success included functional emptying and lack of repeat surgical intervention. Parameters associated with failure were included in multivariate logistic regression models. Results: Eight hundred and fifty-three patients with bulbar strictures were identified, 231 patients (27.1%) ≤40 years old and 622 patients (72.9%) >40 years old. Mean stricture length was significantly longer in older men (2.3 vs . 2.7 cm, P=0.005). Excision and primary anastomosis (EPA) were more commonly utilized when managing younger compared to older patient groups (87% in ≤40 group, 77% in >40, P=0.0009). Younger men underwent significantly fewer endoscopic stricture treatments than older men (2.1 vs . 4.9, P=0.001). Traumatic etiology was more commonly attributable in the younger group (48% vs .17%, P vs . 21.7%, P vs . 19.1%, P vs . 29.2%, P 40 cohort (87.3%, P Conclusions: Although men ≤40 years old have a higher incidence of traumatic etiology, bulbar urethroplasty has a higher success rate when compared to patients >40 years old. Bulbar strictures are more amenable to EPA in the younger population, likely due to fewer endoscopic treatments and favorable tissue characteristics.
Convective Invigoration Traced to Warm-Rain Microphysics

Aerosols are postulated to alter moist convection by increasing cloud droplet number concentration. Cloud-resolving model simulations of radiative-convective equilibrium show that increased cloud d...
Impact of part thickness and drying conditions on saturation limits in binder jet additive manufacturing

Abstract Binder jetting (BJ) is a high build-rate additive manufacturing process with growing commercial interest. Growth in BJ applications is driven by the use of finer powders and improved post-processing methods that can produce dense, homogenous final parts. However, understanding of the basic droplet/powder interaction is relatively limited. This paper considers the impact of in-process drying, part geometry, and droplet size on a key printing parameter: binder saturation. Parts of varying thicknesses are printed with a range of saturation levels under various heating conditions. The ratio of the printed part mass to the theoretical part mass is used to detect bleeding. In unheated powder beds, part mass increases linearly with printing saturation levels across the range tested (30 %–130 %). However, when the powder is heated between layers, there is a wide range of print saturation levels (30–80 %) over which increasing binder saturation or droplet volume does not increase the part mass. This stable part mass corresponds to accurate part geometries without bleeding and is likely due to enhanced evaporation of the binder solvent between layers. Smaller droplet volume (42 pl) was also shown to decrease saturation levels in unheated powder bed and in single layer parts. The differences in part mass with print saturation and droplet volume are most pronounced in thin parts. These observations lead to a simple method for determining an appropriate print saturation parameter for a powder/binder combination in thick parts.
LGBTQ Research in physical education: a rising tide?

Background: LGBTQ scholarship in physical education has a history tracing back to 1982. Recently, however, there has been a ‘rising tide’ in LGBTQ studies in physical education. Despite this recent...
Mid-infrared dual frequency comb spectroscopy for combustion analysis from 2.8 to 5 µm

Abstract We demonstrate the application of mode-locked mid-infrared dual frequency comb spectroscopy for combustion analysis. With two settings of the same dual-comb system, the measurement spans 1500 cm−1 from 2.8 to 5 µm with 0.0067 cm−1 (200 MHz) point spacing, or almost a quarter-million discrete comb modes. Using this broadband spectrometer, we quantify the pyrolysis and smoldering combustion of wood samples. Specifically, we measure 20-second time-resolved mole fractions of CH4, H2O, two isotopologues of CO2 (12C16O2, 13C16O2), two isotopologues of CO (12C16O, 13C16O), ethane, formaldehyde, methanol, formic acid, as well as gas temperature directly above radiatively heated wood samples. The combination of the fine spectral resolution and the broad bandwidth of the dual-comb spectrometer allows for precise separation of absorption signatures of individual molecules from the congested spectra.
Preparing Legal Frameworks for Environmental Disasters: Practical Considerations for Host States

Projects in the extractives sector carry risks of lasting, and sometimes irreversible, damage to the environment. Nonetheless, these projects are important for accelerating the economic development of host countries. Governments seeking to mitigate the adverse effects of foreign investment often face push-back from investors that are unwilling to change their practices in order to avert environmental disaster. This report sets forth certain steps that host-governments can take during the pre-investment, operation, and enforcement phases of extractives projects to provide financial and other protection in the context of environmental disasters associated with private sector investments. Upon comparative review of five Case Study Countries (Canada, Chile, the UAE, Indonesia, and Uganda), the authors of this report found that the most important factor impacting a host government’s ability to hold developers accountable for environmental harm is a gap between applicable environmental legislation and the enforcement of this legislation. The report then provides several recommendations for addressing this discrepancy, with an emphasis on the role of planning and robust legal and regulatory frameworks, as well as an analysis of a variety of safeguards (including, but not limited to, impact assessments, stakeholder engagement, and financial penalties) to be deployed at each of the three phases of a project. It also discusses the role of financial institutions in promoting best practices and mitigating risks and minimizing the fallout from investment-related environmental disasters.
Addressing Youth-Focused Research Questions in a Community Context: Collecting and Integrating Mixed Methods Data at Multiple Ecological Levels With the PhotoStories Project:

Research seeking to understand and improve social conditions for marginalized youth would benefit from merging complex mixed methods research designs emphasizing multilevel data and participatory s...
Redesigning the Central Eight: Introducing the M-PACT Six:

Since their seminal work, Andrews and Bonta outlined the Central Eight assessment domains. As the landscape and utility of criminal justice assessments extended, tool developers expanded upon their...
Charging Coordination Paradigms of Electric Vehicles

The Smart Grid enables bidirectional communication between distributed actors and resources in the power system. In particular Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PEVs) are a new type of load that has a considerable (time) flexibility in its demand. In order to integrate and harvest this flexibility within a DSM (Demand Side Management) program, the charging of PEVs needs to be coordinated. The coordination must occur with respect to a given objective. In addition, the coordination of demand requirements can be performed within different communication and control architectures. The main architectural concepts that can be distinguished are decentralised and centralised control architectures. These categories refer to the level on which the charging decision is made, given an objective and constraints that need to be met given a certain user scenario. This work reviews in detail the recent work with respect to different charging coordination paradigms and distinguishes between the following main objectives: grid integration and technical implications, explicit integration and direct utilization and balancing of renewable energy sources and finally, economic driven decisions. The discussion performed in this chapter shows that in the category with a predominantly technical focus, V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) and grid load (regional and system-wide) impacts are the main research areas. Work looking into the integration ability of renewable energy sources enabled by PEV demand flexibility is in particular focused on the reduction of imbalances stemming from fluctuating generators, e.g. wind power, on a system and also on regional scales under consideration of grid constraints. Short term storage applications are also discussed, but the coordination of PEV demand flexibility by dynamic price incentives is not covered very extensively. Work from the economic domain focuses on the assessment of regulation market participation and day-ahead wholesale market oriented charging. These approaches in turn do not intensively investigate the effect of cost minimizing charging strategies with respect to the utilization of fluctuating renewable energy sources. By consistently discussing recent work from various areas looking into the versatile facets of charging coordination paradigms of electric vehicles, this work provides an anchor for further investigations that help to harvest the demand side flexibility of Electric Vehicles.
Interface Chemistry of Silicon Carbide Platelets During Alumina Coating

Coating of reinforcing agents with an appropriate material is effective to minimize reactions between the matrix and the environment during processing and subsequent use of the composite. In this study, characterization of interfacial chemistry of silicon carbide platelets was examined by acoustophoretic mobility analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). For interface chemistry control, the platelets were surface-cleaned and coated with ultrafine particles of alumina. Suitable parameters of suspensions were identified, the use of which can enhance the surface coating of alumina. Surface sensitive XPS was used to confirm the surface coating. 4 refs.
A simplified aeronautical telecommunication network (ATN) avionics architecture

It would seem to be advantageous for countries that desire to provide air traffic services via mobile networking to profile a set of ATN options that allow aircraft to operate without an ATN router. Such a profile should also allow for simplification of the OSI transport layer by substituting a connectionless transport for a connection-oriented transport. These changes would be applicable only to aircraft that have one air/ground data link installed and consequently do not need the power of an ATN router in the aircraft. A large majority of such aircraft would be start-up commercial carriers and general aviation aircraft.
In-place rsync: file synchronization for mobile and wireless devices

The open-source rsync utility reduces the time and bandwidth required to update a file across a network. Rsync uses an interactive protocol that detects changes in a file and sends only the changed data [18, 19]. We have modified rsync so that it operates on space constrained devices. Files on the target host are updated in the same storage the current version of the file occupies. Space-constrained devices cannot use traditional rsync because it requires memory or storage for both the old and new version of the file. Examples include synchronizing files on cellular phones and handheld PCs, which have small memories. The in-place rsync algorithm encodes the compressed representation of a file in a graph, which is then topologically sorted to achieve the in-place property. We compare the performance of in-place rsync to rsync and conclude that in-place rsync degrades performance minimally.
Analysis of doctoral production in educational technology: 1960—1970

This article reports on doctoral programs in educational technology during the period 1960-70. Included are figures on degrees granted by the 26 universities that offered such programs in 1970, by sex of recipient and degree awarded (EdD or PhD). The author looks at faculty:doctorate and facultyistudent ratios and concludes with a plea for standards, guidelines, and accreditation of programs.
“Probability Blindness” and Last-minute Booking of Hotel Rooms: The Case of Bayesian Updating

The assessment by deal-seeking hotel customers on the probability that a hotel will sell out determines their propensity to book. Interestingly though, recent research reveals that customers’ assessment of this probability violates the Bayesian theorem. Exploring this conundrum, this study outlines the formal proof on how these expectations should change over time, and provides empirical evidence to support the hypothesized “Probability Blindness” explanation. From a revenue management perspective this finding represents an opportunity to curtail deal-seeking behavior and to increase propensity to book among the growing segment of Internet savvy, last-minute deal-seeking shoppers of hospitality services.
Unwanted photon and neutron radiation resulting from collimated photon beams interacting with the body of radiotherapy patients

Monte Carlo calculations have been made to determine the energies delivered by photons and neutrons to the human body irradiated by collimated photon beams. The beams were monoenergetic and ranged from 100 keV to 40 MeV. The energy deposition in the body was sorted into two regions: inside and outside the irradiated volume. Most of the results obtained were for a beam size of 100 cm/sup 2/ although some calculations were also made for 600 cm/sup 2/ beams. The effect of beam size on energy deposition in the two regions was investigated for /sup 60/Co gamma rays. Graphs are presented which give the integral doses delivered by neutrons and photons to the two regions for therapy beams of various energies. These graphs can be used to calculate the integral doses which are delivered inside and outside the treatment volume for photon spectra from most medical accelerators. Calculations of energy deposition were also made for the spectra from two particular accelerators. These were done using Monte Carlo as well as by simply ''folding'' the spectra into the results for monoenergetic photons. The results obtained by both methods were in good agreement and indicated that the integral doses deposited outside the treatmentmore » volume by neutrons are more than two orders of magnitude smaller than those deposited by scattered photons.« less
Present at the beginning: a personal reminiscence on the history of teriparatide.

The ability of parathyroid glandular extracts to stimulate bone acquisition in rodents was established in the 1920s, but interest in this action lay dormant for almost 50 years until application of contemporary laboratory methods permitted the large-scale production of an amino-terminal fragment of PTH, (1–34) hPTH (teriparatide), which was capable of carrying out all known actions of the full-length (1–84) PTH molecule. In the 1970s, largely stimulated by the efforts of a British pharmacologist, Dr. John Parsons, the scientific community began to revisit these anabolic actions and showed that single daily injections of teriparatide dramatically increased bone mass in several mammalian species and restored bone in oophorectomized rats. Shortly thereafter, human studies confirmed a striking increase in trabecular bone mass and showed also that an important part of teriparatide’s action is to increase cortical bone. Eli Lilly and Company conducted a formal registration trial in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The unexpected occurrence of osteosarcomas in Fisher 344 rats treated long-term with teriparatide provoked an abrupt cessation of that trial, but ambiguity concerning the relevance of this rat finding to human disease, combined with significant anti-fracture efficacy, led to FDA approval of teriparatide for men and postmenopausal women with osteoporosis “at high risk for fracture” in 2002. Subsequently, teriparatide has been approved also for treatment of patients with glucocorticoid-associated osteoporosis, and papers indicating utility of this agent for dental and orthopedic applications have begun to appear.
Nanoscale modules with full spin-wave interconnectivity

In this paper, we present two nanoscale architectures with full spin-wave interconnectivity. The first architecture is a fully interconnected cluster in which each node can simultaneously broadcast to all other nodes, and can concurrently receive and process multiple data. The second architecture is a crossbar interconnected with ferromagnetic buses that, while requiring the same number of switches and buses as the standard crossbar, is capable of simultaneously transmitting multiple waves at different frequencies on each of the spin-wave buses. The significance of these designs is that the communication between the nodes can be done in constant time, which is a noteworthy improvement considering the Ω(log N) lower-bound on the time delay for implementing such networks in VLSI using traditional electrical interconnects. In these architectures, unlike traditional spin-based architectures that transmit charge, the information is encoded into the phase of spin waves. As a result of this, the presented nanosc...
Radiation Dosimetry Study of [(89)Zr]rituximab Tracer for Clinical Translation of B cell NHL Imaging using Positron Emission Tomography.

Purpose We evaluated the dosimetry of [89Zr]rituximab, an anti-CD20 immunoPET tracer to image B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) using a humanized transgenic mouse model that expresses human CD20 transgenic mice (huCD20TM).
An ascorbate-reduced medium for nitrogen metabolism studies with Selenomonas ruminantium

Abstract A basal medium for the growth of rumen selenomonads in nitrogen metabolism studies is presented. Mercaptoethanol, thioglycolate and ascorbate were inititally considered as nonnitrogenous reductants to replace cysteine in anaerobic media commonly used for rumen bacterial growth studies. Unlike media containing mercaptoethanol and thioglycolate, media reduced with 1.4–4.2 mM ascorbate were found to support growth rates of Selenomonas ruminantium HD 4 which were consistently similar to growth rates obtained when this strain was grown in conventional medium containing 1.4 mM cysteine. Strains D, PC18 and GA192 also grew well in media reduced with 4.2 mM ascorbate. Ascorbate appeared to be nonmetabolizable since no growth occurred in ascorbate-reduced medium in the absence of NH 4 Cl or glucose. The ability to achieve nitrogen-limited growth with this reductant was confirmed with a defined medium containing graded levels of NH 4 Cl. Growth in the ascorbate medium allowed for formation of the typical fermentation products of this strain as well as redox balances (0.98±0.10) which were similar to those obtained with a medium containing cysteine.
Indoor air pollution

Abstract As national trends accelerate towards the reduction of ventilation and infiltration rates in buildings, coupled with an increased use of synthetic chemicals in the indoor environment, a new phenomenon has arisen: the “sick building” syndrome. Traditional approaches to environmental health developed for the outdoor air, or for the industrial occupational setting, are inadequate to deal with this problem. It is argued that a comprehensive approach to the problem of indoor air pollution is necessary to protect public health.
OXIDATION OF IRON AND MANGANESE BY OZONE

Abstract The oxidation of iron and manganese by ozone was studied in the laboratory. Model waters both with and without organic matter were used. Results showed iron to be very rapidly oxidized to an insoluble form in the absence of organic matter. However, in the presence of organic matter the iron was protected from oxidation by ozone and precipitation. The degree to which this occurred depended on the nature of the organic matter and the chemical environment at the time of mixing the iron stock and the dissolved organic matter. Experiments with manganese allowed the determination of second order rate constants for the reaction of ozone with manganese at various pH values. The oxidation of manganese in the presence of organic matter occurred in competition with oxidation of the organic matter. As a result, high ozone doses were required to achieve the same degree of removal of manganese. An increase in bicarbonate alkalinity from 50 mg/L to 200 mg/L did not result in an acceleration of the manganese oxi...
On Misunderstanding Government: an Analysis of the Art of Policy Advice

In the traditional economics literature government is treated as an agent exogenous to the economy. When economists confront situations where individuals cannot sign binding contracts, they invoke government as the “third party” that can enforce the contracts; after studying the macroeconomic problems of a country, economists frequently go on to tell what government should do to improve the outcome. It is argued in this paper that this is an erroneous view of government and is the reason why the advice of economists and other social scientists have had so little impact on government behavior. The difficulties of advising an endogenous government are highlighted by developing a new game, the Cheater's Roulette. It demonstrates that even when the adviser and the politician have very similar objectives, there may be no straightforward way to transmit the knowledge of the adviser to the politician. Having analysed the subject of advising government, the paper goes on to discuss, more speculatively, some general issues concerning the modeling of an endogenous government.
Control and shape design of an electrically damped comb drive for digital switches

A novel shape design of the comb drive to achieve digital switches while avoiding the unstable pull-in is presented. The statics and dynamics of switching are discussed and the voltage- displacement-transfer characteristic is demonstrated. The degradation of the transfer characteristic can be caused by either the overshoot of actuators in the transient switching or the actuator geometry. An optimal design of the actuator geometry is proposed to improve the quality of the transfer characteristic. On the other hand, the settling time of the comb drive's transient response to a step excitation will be minimized for high-speed switches. To achieve this, two non-dimensional control parameters are identified and physically interpreted. Then a transient optimization is carried out by introducing an optimal electrical damping and choosing a zero static comb overlap. The optimal transient response is obtained by analytically solving the linearized force/moment and electric equations. Finally numerical simulation is performed to verify the analytic solution and extend the analysis to the nonlinear regime.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Amino acid paleothermometry of Quaternary ostracodes from the Bonneville Basin, Utah

Abstract Unlike many other proxy climate recorders, temperature-dependent chemical reactions that take place in fossils are independent of paleoprecipitation changes, and therefore allow paleotemperatures to be calculated uniquely. In this study, I use the extent of amino acid racemization in fossil ostracode shells to reconstruct the temperature history of the Bonneville Basin, Utah. The enantiomeric composition ( D / L ratios) of 64 ostracode samples, each comprising an average of 18 subsamples, from 25 sites were analyzed by reverse phase HPLC. The effective diagenetic temperature (EDT) for five intervals of the Quaternary, including the last full-glacial period, was calculated for two amino acids (aspartic and glutamic acids). Errors associated with the EDT calculations were derived using a Monte Carlo procedure. Age control was provided by both new and previously published AMS 14 C, luminescence, tephra, and amino acid geochronology. The EDT for the southern Bonneville Basin during the middle Pleistocene interval from 620–150 ka (oxygen-isotope stages (OIS) 16–6) was 5.7±1.5°C. This compares with an EDT of 10.9±1.3°C for the late Holocene (last 5.8 cal ka), and a current mean annual temperature of about 9.4°C at nearby sites (40°N latitude). The EDT then decreased to 3.3±1.3°C for the interval from OIS 6–2 (150–12 cal ka). During the last full-glacial period (24–12 cal ka=OIS 2), the EDT was 1.1±2.5°C, or about 10±3°C lower than during the late Holocene. Paleotemperatures this low suggest that reduced evaporation rather than increased precipitation could have accounted for the increased effective moisture and the growth of Lake Bonneville.
Channel Coding Optimization Based on Slice Visibility for Transmission of Compressed Video over OFDM Channels

Optimization of multimedia transmissions over wireless channels should be aimed at maximizing the video quality perceived by the final user. For transmission of video sequences over an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system in a slowly varying Rayleigh faded environment, we develop a cross-layer technique, based on a slice loss visibility (SLV) model used to evaluate the visual importance of each slice. In particular, taking into account the visibility scores available from the bitstream, depending on the scenario, we optimize the mapping of video slices within a 2-D time-frequency resource block and/or the channel code rates, in order to better protect more visually important slices. The proposed algorithm is investigated for several scenarios, with different levels of information about the channel available in the optimization process. Results demonstrate that, for different physical environments and different video sequences, the proposed algorithm outperforms baseline ones which do not take into account either the SLV or the CSI in the video transmission.
Species recognition and sexual dimorphism in Proconsul and Rangwapithecus

The taxonomy of the early Miocene hominoid genera Proconsul and Rangwapithecus is re-examined. The recognition of sexual dimorphism and the identification of sex dimorphs among canine specimens is made an important element in the sorting of specimens into phena and the allocation of these to species hypodigms. I propose that specimens from Rusinga and Mfwangano previously identified as Proconsul africanus , including the well known 1948 skull, are actually females of P. nyanzae. P. africanus specimens from Songhor and the type site of Koru differ from Rusinga and Mfwangano specimens formerly placed in P. africanus . Accordingly, P. africanus sensu stricto is restricted to Koru and Songhor and Proconsul nyanzae is restricted to Rusinga and Mfwangano. Previous characterizations of P. africanus were based almost entirely upon specimens from Rusinga, and should therefore now be applied to female P. nyanzae instead; the paleobiology of P. africanus and P. nyanzae must now be reconsidered. As a result of the reassignment of the Rusinga Proconsul specimens, P. nyanzae exhibits degrees of postcanine metric variability exceeding those of living catarrhines. It is suggested that this reflects in part a true species characteristic, perhaps related to an exceptional amount of size dimorphism, and in part a preservational artifact relating to the time-accumulated nature of the fossil sample. These results have implications for the systematics of other Miocene hominoid species.
Reinforcement learning for long-run average cost

Abstract A large class of sequential decision-making problems under uncertainty can be modeled as Markov and semi-Markov decision problems (SMDPs), when their underlying probability structure has a Markov chain. They may be solved by using classical dynamic programming (DP) methods. However, DP methods suffer from the curse of dimensionality and break down rapidly in face of large state-spaces. In addition, DP methods require the exact computation of the so-called transition probabilities, which are often hard to obtain and are hence said to suffer from the curse of modeling as well. In recent years, a simulation-based method, called reinforcement learning (RL), has emerged in the literature. It can, to a great extent, alleviate stochastic DP of its curses by generating ‘near-optimal’ solutions to problems having large state-spaces and complex transition mechanisms. In this paper, a simulation-based algorithm that solves Markov and SMDPs is presented, along with its convergence analysis. The algorithm involves a step-size based transformation on two-time scales. Its convergence analysis is based on a recent result on asynchronous convergence of iterates on two-time scales. We present numerical results from the new algorithm on a classical preventive maintenance case study of a reasonable size, where results on the optimal policy are also available. In addition, we present a tutorial that explains the framework of RL in the context of long-run average cost SMDPs.
Community Consultation Methods in a Study Using Exception to Informed Consent

Objective. The most effective means of community consultation is unknown. We evaluated differences in community opinion elicited by varying means of consultation. Methods. We compared responses with a cross-sectional, standardized survey administered as part of the community consultation for the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) hypertonic saline trial. Surveys were obtained from four sources: two sets of random-digit dialing phone surveys, paper surveys from community meetings, andweb-based surveys. Results. Three hundred sixty-one usable surveys were obtained: 186 from phone survey 1; 86 from phone survey 2 (using slightly modified wording); 54 from community meetings (8 from open forums; 46 from existing meetings); and35 from a web site. Demographics were similar between the sets except that the surveys obtained from community meetings had the highest minority representation (63.3% nonwhite). Community meeting respondents were more willing than phone or web respondents to receive experimental tre...
Probing the Characteristic Deformation Behaviors of Transformation-Induced Plasticity Steels

The characteristic micromechanical behaviors of contrasting transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels were investigated under tensile loading by in-situ neutron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy in detail. As demonstrated by the lattice strain development from the neutron diffraction, in the TRIP steel with ∼10 pct RA, microyielding of soft ferrite was responsible for the first stress partition, but a second stress sharing was caused by effective martensitic transformation. In the TRIP steel with less than 5 pct RA, where the contribution from the martensitic transformation was minor, stress partition took place virtually between the ferrite and bainite phase. Probing with systematic transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations, we pin down the inherent correlation between the microstructural evolutions and the stress partition mechanism. Based on the experimental observations, the factors influencing the work-hardening behavior of TRIP steels are discussed.
A dietary supplement containing chlorophytum borivilianum and velvet bean improves sleep quality in men and women.

Background: Impaired sleep quality is commonplace within industrialized societies, as evidenced by the increasing number of prescription sleep aids available. Certain herbal preparations have been suggested to provide a natural benefit to sleep; however, limited controlled data are available documenting this benefit. In the present study we tested the effect of an experimental dietary supplement, containing the active ingredients Chlorophytum borivilianum and Velvet bean, on sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Methods: Eighteen healthy and active men and women, with evidence of impaired sleep quality, consumed the supplement daily for 28 days. The PSQI was administered before and after the intervention period. As indicators of safety, resting heart rate and blood pressure were measured, and a complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, and lipid panel were determined. Results: Sleep quality was influenced by the supplement, as evidenced by an improvement in every category of the PSQI questionnaire (P < 0.05), with most category scores improving approximately 50% from pre to post intervention. No adverse outcomes were noted with use of the supplement, as indicated by no change in resting heart rate, blood pressure, or any bloodborne parameter. Conclusions: An investigational dietary supplement containing the active ingredients Chlorophytum borivilianum and Velvet bean improves sleep quality in men and women. Additional placebo controlled trials are needed to corroborate these findings in individuals with self-reported sleeping difficulty.
Germinal center and activated b-cell profiles separate Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in AIDS and non-AIDS cases.

Morphologic features of Burkitt lymphoma (BL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) overlap. No single phenotypic marker or molecular abnormality is pathognomonic. We tested a panel of 8 germinal center (GC) and activated B-cell (ABC) markers for their ability to separate BL and DLBCL. We diagnosed 16 BL and 39 DLBCL cases from 21 patients with AIDS and 34 without AIDS based on traditional morphologic criteria, Ki-67 proliferative index, and c-myc rearrangement (fluorescence in situ hybridization). After immunohistochemically staining tissue microarrays of BL and DLBCL for markers of GC (bcl6, CD10, cyclin H) and ABC (MUM1, CD138, PAK1, CD44, bcl-2), we scored each case for the percentage of positive cells. Hierarchical clustering yielded 2 major clusters significantly associated with morphologic diagnosis (P < .001). For comparison, we plotted the sum of the GC scores and ABC scores for each case as x and y data points. This revealed a high-GC/low-ABC group and a low-GC/high-ABC group that were associated significantly with morphologic diagnosis (P < .001). Protein expression of multiple GC and ABC markers can separate BL and DLBCL.
The surface chemistry of alkyl phosphoric acids

Abstract The surface characteristics of mono- and dioctadecylphosphoric acid spread at the air/water interface are presented. The influence of bulk pH, inorganic ions, and temperature were investigated. The values of the surface pK, calculated by the surface potential method, are also given.
Long-term redevelopment of resource islands in shrublands of the Great Basin, USA

Soil resource availability in semi-arid and arid shrubland ecosystems is highly heterogeneous and includes patterns of accumulation primarily beneath shrubs as opposed to shrub interspaces. These resource islands contribute to ecosystem resilience after natural disturbances such as fire, yet very little is known regarding their redevelopment following soil disturbance and shrub re-colonization. Cultivation involves the removal of native vegetation and mixing of soils both vertically and horizontally. The old fields in this study offered a unique look at the long-term redevelopment of resource islands under shrubs where cultivation was abandoned nearly a century ago. Using adjacent pairs of previously cultivated and native shrubland from three soil series, we sampled surface soils (0–5 cm) in microsites under shrubs and in the interspaces between them to examine if the soil fertility in old fields (C, N, P, Ca, Mg, K) had regained similar microsite patchiness to the native shrubland, if the values of each soil fertility measure in old fields were different from native shrubland, and if the overall microsite fertility under shrubs in old fields was different from non-disturbed microsites. We found that while most of the resource island patterning had redeveloped, the content of each fertility measure had not recovered to pre-disturbance levels. Further, the recovery was different between the soil series and between sites with different dominant shrub species. There were also differences between sites within the same soil series, suggesting that historical cultivation practices may influence resource island recovery in multiple ways. Overall, under-shrub microsite fertility in previously cultivated areas was distinct from comparable under-shrub microsites in native areas in two out of the three soil series. These findings suggest that while patterning may redevelop within 90 years, it may take over a century for resource island fertility to fully re-establish in some formerly cultivated soils.
Is functional capacity related to left atrial contractile function in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

The mechanisms underlying reduced exercise capacity in patients with nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (NHCM) could include perturbations of ventricular relaxation, diastolic compliance, or compensatory atrial systolic function. We hypothesized that a loss of atrial contractility in NHCM patients leads to reduced functional capacity. To test this hypothesis, we compared resting noninvasive left atrial ejection phase indices in 49 consecutive patients with NHCM (ages 36±10 years; 41% female) and normal left ventricular ejection fraction (mean, 68%±8%) with objective metabolic exercise parameters. Left atrial active emptying fraction, ejection force, and kinetic energy failed to predict exercise capacity. Only left atrial total and active emptying volumes correlated weakly with minute volume/CO2 production slope (r=0.31 and r=0.33; p<0.05 for both). Furthermore, when subjects were stratified by New York Heart Association symptomatology, exercise parameters—but not atrial contractility—differed between groups. These data, obtained at rest, fail to suggest that NHCM-related heart failure symptoms are due to an atrial myopathy.
A Broadband Gyro-TWTA Experiment

A tapered reflection-type gyrotron amplifier(33kV, 1.2A) has been designed and built. The amplifier incorporates precise axial tapering of both the magnetic field and the interaction circuit for stable broadband operation(27-34 GHz). Cold test results show that the tube presents an excellent RF match over the entire operating band. This device will be used to explore the performance characteristics of low voltage operation.
Role of bile acids in splanchnic hemodynamic response to chronic portal hypertension

Previous studies from our laboratory suggest that humoral factors, namely glucagon, can account for approximately 30% of the splanchnic vasodilation in rats with prehepatic portal hypertension. A reduced vascular sensitivity to norepinephrine, vasopressin, and angiotensin II may contribute to the splanchnic vasodilation. However, neither glucagon nor an altered vasoconstrictor sensitivity can fully account for the splanchnic vasodilation observed in portal hypertensive subjects. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine the role of bile acids in the splanchnic hyperemia of portal hypertension since (1) serum bile acids are elevated in portal hypertensive subjects and (2) bile acids are potent intestinal vasodilators. Prehepatic portal hypertension was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by surgical constriction of the portal vein. Ten to 14 days after the induction of portal hypertension, the enterohepatic circulation of control and portal hypertensive rats was surgically interrupted. The animals were placed in Bollman restraint cages and allowed to recover. Eighteen to 24 hr later, the rats were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital and regional blood flow measured with radiolabeled microspheres. Normal and portal hypertensive animals without bile fistula served as controls. Plasma bile acid levels measured by radioimmunoassay were approximately 3.8 times higher in portal hypertensive animals than in control. Bile duct cannulation effectively depleted both normal and portal hypertensive animals of their circulating bile acid pool and significantly reduced portal venous inflow in portal hypertensive but not in control rats. A role for bile acids as partial mediators of the splanchnic hyperemia of portal hypertension is suggested since bile acid depletion did not completely abolish the gastrointestinal hyperemia.
Art Therapy Strategies to Raise Self-Esteem in Female Juvenile Offenders: A Comparison of Art Psychotherapy and Art as Therapy Approaches

This exploratory, quasi-experimental study compared the impact of 2 art therapy approaches on the self-esteem of 27 female juvenile offenders. Participants took part in an art psychotherapy or an art as therapy group intervention. Self-esteem was measured with a questionnaire designed by the authors and the Harter Adolescent Self-Perception Profile. There were no significant differences on the questionnaire postintervention, with both groups reporting increased feelings of mastery, connection, and self-approval. On Harter's Profile, administered pre and post, both showed an increase in global selfworth. However, the art psychotherapy group showed a significant increase in domains of close friendship and behavioral conduct whereas the art as therapy group did so in the domain of social acceptance. This implies an approach can be selected to build greater trust and self-disclosure or to foster general group cohesion, based on client needs.