cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Multiple Filament Geometry in the Hot Filament Deposition of Diamond Films

Abstract Scaleup of hot filament chemical vapor deposition of diamond films requires knowledge of how filament geometry affects the deposition process. The effect of multiple filament geometry on the growth rate and surface morphology of diamond films is presented. Three factors were varied: the number of helical turns in a filament - 5, 10 or 15; the number of filaments present – 1 or 2; and the CH 4 fraction in the CH 4 -H 2 feed gas mixture – 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% or 1.0%. Other depositions parameters were 750 °C substrate temperature, 52 standard cm 3 /m total feed gas flow rate, and 5300 Pa deposition pressure. The deposition chamber volume was 1.9 liters. Increasing the CH 4 concentration in the feed gas results in higher growth rates. However, increasing the number of filament turns in dual filaments systems resulted in lower than expected growth rates for dual 10 and 15 turn filaments. Those films that grew at lower than expected growth rates also display morphologies typical of films produced at lower CH 4 concentrations. These effects may be due to saturation of those species participating in diamond formation with increase in filament surface area and CH 4 gas fraction. The substrate surface area coverage of dual filament depositions was double that of the single filament depositions.
The critique of domination in the Frankfurt School

The role of philosophy in ‘critical thinking’ is found in its social function. That social function is to be critical of prevailing modes of thought and patterns of life. Horkheimer said it well in one of his early essays: Today… the whole historic dynamic has placed philosophy in the center of social actuality, and social actuality in the center of philosophy…. By criticism, we mean that intellectual, and eventually practical, effort which is not satisfied to accept the prevailing ideas, actions, and social conditions unthinkingly and from mere habit; effort which aims to coordinate the individual sides of social life with each other and with the general ideas and aims of the epoch, to deduce them genetically, to distinguish the appearance from the essence, to examine the foundations of things, in short, really to know them.1.
E-sourcing: 21st Century Purchasing

The days of pushing paper are swiftly drawing to a close in the world of procurement. As E-business transforms the market for goods and services globally, it is redefining the way companies manage their supply chains. E-sourcing is emerging as one of the quickest and least painful ways for companies to boost their bottom line in an increasingly competitive economy.
WHIM syndrome: Immunopathogenesis, treatment and cure strategies

WHIM syndrome is a rare, autosomal dominant immunodeficiency which is named for the four key manifestations: Warts, Hypogammaglobulinemia, Infections, and Myelokathexis. It results from heterozygous gain-of-function mutations in the chemokine receptor CXCR4 which is widely expressed on leukocytes and has profound influences on immune system homeostasis and organogenesis. New treatments for the disease using drugs to reduce CXCR4 function are excellent examples of precision medicine. Since CXCR4 and its ligand CXCL12 play an important role in a variety of infectious, inflammatory, autoimmune, and malignant diseases, the study of WHIM syndrome provides important insights into both the physiologic and disease roles of these molecules.
Gender Differences in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurologic condition, manifests itself differently in women than in men. Women are less likely to develop the disease and, when they do develop it, have a later onset than men. This chapter looks at a number of factors that may impact how the disease affects women differently than men including how genetic and hormonal differences may play a role. The expression of the disease, both motor and nonmotor symptoms, tends to be different in men and women also and treatment may be impacted by these differences. Finally, the data regarding pregnancy in Parkinson’s disease patients is reviewed.
Performance of a glass ionomer luting cement over 5 years in a general practice

Over a 5-year period, 1435 teeth in patients under recall in a general dental practice have received cast restorations luted with a glass ionomer cement. The material has demonstrated an exceptionally low rate of secondary caries, excellent retention of castings, and acceptable compatability with the dental pulp.
Air-Toxic Clusters Revisited: Intersectional Environmental Inequalities and Indigenous Deprivation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regions

The research on quantitative intersectional environmental inequality outcomes examines how the spatial concentration of individuals occupying multiply marginalized social identities is associated with unequal exposure to environmental hazards. One recent exemplar study analyzed racialized and “intercategorical” environmental inequality outcomes in cancer-causing air pollution exposures for Whites, Blacks, Latinxs, and Asian/Pacific Islanders (APIs) at the census tract level in the continental United States. That study found that—net of region, urban-industrial context, and other intercategorical variables—a variable representing elevated concentrations of economically deprived and foreign-born Latinxs, Latina single-mother families, and primarily Spanish-speaking households was the most consistent intercategorical predictor of tract exposure to spatial clusters of carcinogenic air pollution in 2005. The present study reproduces that nationwide analysis while being the first to include disadvantaged Indigenous peoples in the examination of intercategorical environmental inequality outcomes in the continental United States and for the ten U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions. Logistic regression analyses indicate that the spatial concentration of disadvantaged Indigenous peoples was not a significant nationwide predictor of tract exposure to the carcinogenic air pollution clusters. However, the regional analyses revealed eight new patterns of intercategorical environmental inequality outcomes across the U.S. EPA regions, and the spatial concentration of disadvantaged Indigenous peoples was a significant positive predictor of tract exposure to carcinogenic air pollution clusters in the Mid-Atlantic region. These findings have implications for future environmental justice research, policy, and activism.
Investor-State Dispute Settlement in NAFTA, TPP, and T-TIP: Back to the Future?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) are both slated to contain investor protections similar to those contained in the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These measures, as included in NAFTA, allowed businesses to seek compensation from members for actions – whether by national or subnational political units – for any action tantamount to expropriation through a supranational arbitration. In practice, this allowed companies to both (1) force countries to roll-back human health and environmental protections and (2) receive payments for alleged or even potential losses. This article will consider the origins and development of this mechanism, now called Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS cases have recently become more common, even before the fates of TPP and T-TIP are known. In particular, it will highlight that the original intent of such treaty provisions. In doing so, the authors intend to clarify the context for which such ISDS procedures were imagined. Namely, such arbitral proceedings were meant to remedy a lack of ability to seek redress for interference or outright seizure of physical assets, and not intended to effectively allow foreign business interests to veto and seek remuneration for government actions intended to protect society and the environment. The authors join others who suggest common sense safeguards against ISDS abuse, assuming that such provisions and trade treaties are deemed desirable and ratified by the party governments.
A Programming Model for Reliable and Efficient Edge-Based Execution under Resource Variability

Edge computing applications use the computational, sensor, and networking resources of nearby mobile and stationary computing devices. Because dissimilar devices can provide these resources, one cannot predict which exact combinations of resources will be available at runtime. The resulting variability hinders the development of edge computing applications. To address this problem, we present a new programming model that employs a domain-specific language (DSL), through which the developer declaratively specifies a collection of microservices and how they invoke each other. Given a concise declarative service suite specification, the DSL compiler automatically generates an execution plan, carried out by our distributed runtime. The resulting programming model is both reliable and efficient. The reliability is achieved by enabling the developer to provide equivalent microservices as switch-over recovery strategies. The efficiency is achieved by the DSL compiler orchestrating the speculatively parallel execution of certain equivalent microservices. Our evaluation demonstrates the reliability, efficiency, and expressiveness of the programming model, which can help developers who need to cope with variable resources at the edge.
AI in the headlines: the portrayal of the ethical issues of artificial intelligence in the media

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become increasingly prominent in our daily lives, media coverage of the ethical considerations of these technologies has followed suit. Since previous research has shown that media coverage can drive public discourse about novel technologies, studying how the ethical issues of AI are portrayed in the media may lead to greater insight into the potential ramifications of this public discourse, particularly with regard to development and regulation of AI. This paper expands upon previous research by systematically analyzing and categorizing the media portrayal of the ethical issues of AI to better understand how media coverage of these issues may shape public debate about AI. Our results suggest that the media has a fairly realistic and practical focus in its coverage of the ethics of AI, but that the coverage is still shallow. A multifaceted approach to handling the social, ethical and policy issues of AI technology is needed, including increasing the accessibility of correct information to the public in the form of fact sheets and ethical value statements on trusted webpages (e.g., government agencies), collaboration and inclusion of ethics and AI experts in both research and public debate, and consistent government policies or regulatory frameworks for AI technology.
Chapter 5 – Detonation

Detonation phenomena are introduced by differentiation between explosions, deflagrations, and detonations followed by a discussion of the onset or transition of deflagration to detonation. The Hugoniot relationships are derived and the detonation velocity calculated. Experimental results are compared with theory and the effects of pressure and temperature discussed. The structure of the detonation wave is analyzed and concepts of a cellular detonation front and detonation limits presented. A brief description of detonations in nongaseous media is also presented.
How do Quiz and Homework Submission Times Affect Students' Performance in a Flipped CS1 Class?

This poster presents an analysis of students' quiz and homework submission times in a flipped introductory programming course (CS1) using MATLAB. A total of 145 engineering students were divided into three sections where every week they were expected to watch the prerecorded content videos and complete a quiz before the class on Monday. During the class, students practiced short programming problems while after the class students were expected to submit a homework assignment by the end of the week. We studied their quiz and homework submission times to gauge and categorize their behavior. Four major categories of submission time clusters were analyzed based on when the weekly quizzes and homeworks were due. We found that students who submitted the quizzes and homeworks 24 hours prior to the submission deadline had significantly higher exam scores as compared to students who submitted during the last 24 hours. Additionally, we found that this difference was only significant for students who did not have prior programming experience. This indicates that early submission of assignments can help students who do not have prior programming experience in improving their overall course performance.
Antibody-Mediated Protection against Staphylococcus aureus Dermonecrosis: Synergy of Toxin Neutralization and Neutrophil Recruitment.

The staphylococcal α-hemolysin is critical for the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus skin and soft tissue infection. Vaccine and infection-elicited α-hemolysin–specific antibodies protect against S. aureus‒induced dermonecrosis, a key feature of skin and soft tissue infection. Many interactions between α-hemolysin and host cells have been identified that promote tissue damage and modulate immune responses, but the mechanisms by which protective adaptive responses cross talk with innate responses at the tissue level are not clear. Using an established mouse model of skin and soft tissue infection and a newly developed histopathologic scoring system, we observed pathologic correlates early after infection, predicting protection against dermonecrosis by anti–α-hemolysin antibody. Protection was characterized by robust neutrophilic inflammation and compartmentalization of bacteria into discrete abscesses, which led to the attenuation of dermonecrosis and enhancement of bacterial clearance later in the infection. The ultimate outcome of infection was driven by the recruitment of neutrophils within the first day after infection but not later. Antibody-mediated protection was dependent on toxin neutralization rather than on enhanced opsonophagocytic killing by neutrophils or protection against toxin-mediated neutrophil lysis. Together, these findings advance our understanding of the mechanisms by which the early synergism between antibody-mediated toxin neutralization and tissue-specific neutrophilic inflammation preserve tissue integrity during infection.
A Novel Topology for an Extendable Isolated DC-DC Multi-port Power Converter with a Multipurpose Hybrid Energy Storage System

There has been a growing interest in multi-port converters (MPCs) over the last several years. Applications such as solar and traction are prime candidates for employing MPCs. This paper presents a novel extendable DC-DC MPC which benefits from a uniquely designed hybrid energy storage system (HESS). Compared to the baseline converter, this proposed MPC reduces the number of active switches by 43 percent (from 21 to 12) while reducing the overall number of components by 26 percent. This is accomplished without sacrificing any functionality. The HESS provides the system with a faster response while reducing the main battery’s size and enhancing its lifetime. Mathematical analysis and simulation results for this MPC are presented and a prototype of the HESS part is built, and its test results verify mathematical and simulation results.
Characterization of pregnancy-associated glycoproteins and progesterone as a predictor of twins and conceptus loss in high-risk-pregnancy Holstein cows

The objective of this study was to characterize plasma concentrations of pregnancy-associated glycoprotein (PAG) and progesterone (P4) as predictors of twins and pregnancy loss in Holstein cows with high-risk pregnancies. High-risk pregnancy was characterized using transrectal ultrasonography 37 d after artificial insemination (AI) based on the following criteria: small embryo size <15 mm, n = 10), slow heartbeat (<60 beats per minute, n = 11), and extra-amniotic membrane (additional amniotic membrane, n = 3). A cohort of twins (n = 41) diagnosed at d 37 post-AI was also enrolled. Each high-risk and twin pregnancy cow was paired with a cow of the same parity carrying a normal singleton at d 37 post-AI (control, n = 65). Blood samples were collected to measure PAG and P4 at d 37, 44, and 51 post-AI. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA, logistic regression, and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve with JMP software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Pregnancy loss at d 51 post-AI was greater in high-risk pregnancies than in controls and twins (control = 1.5%; high-risk = 87.5%; twins = 12.2%). Concentration of PAG at d 37 post-AI did not differ among groups (control = 5.3 ± 0.7; high-risk = 4.8 ± 1.2; twins = 4.0 ± 0.9 ng/mL). Concentration of P4 at d 37 post-AI was greater in twins than in high-risk pregnancies and control, and lesser in high-risk pregnancies than in controls (control = 7.0 ± 0.3; high-risk = 5.9 ± 0.4; twins = 8.4 ± 0.3 ng/mL). Regression and ROC analysis for PAG at d 37 post-AI did not find a threshold to predict pregnancy loss or twins. Regression and ROC analysis for P4 at d 37 post-AI found that a threshold of 6.5 ng/mL predicted pregnancy loss with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.64, and a threshold of 7.2 ng/mL predicted twins with AUC of 0.71. In summary, pregnancy loss and twins were predicted with only moderate accuracy by P4 concentration at d 37 post-AI, and the variability in PAG concentrations at d 37 post-AI was not sufficient to generate a threshold to predict pregnancy loss and twins in Holstein lactating cows.
Initial Experience in Monitoring QT Intervals Using a Six-lead Contactless Mobile Electrocardiogram in an Inpatient Setting

Mobile electrocardiograms (ECGs) (mECGs) using smartphone applications are an emerging technology. In the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era, minimizing patient contact has gained increasing importance. Additionally, increased QT/corrected QT (QTc) monitoring has concurrently been required. The KardiaMobile 6L ECG device, cleared by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for recording ECGs, along with the KardiaStation tablet application is a platform (AliveCor, Mountain View, CA, USA) that addresses these two issues. A team of residents, fellows, hospitalists, and cardiologists identified inpatients in need of QT/QTc interval monitoring to pilot the adoption of a system composed of a KardiaMobile 6L ECG device with the accompanying KardiaStation tablet application. Concurrent standard ECGs provided validation. Adoption and performance issues were recorded. Four patients agreed to participate in QT/QTc interval monitoring, three of whom were positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 viral infection. After basic instructions were given to the patients and their clinical nurses, all patients recorded mECGs successfully. Patients were able to record their own mECG tracings at least once without any assistance. The 12-lead ECGs and mECGs each showed the correct rhythm, and the measured QTc intervals on each modality were consistently acceptable (< 500 ms). Contactless ECGs were successfully uploaded to KardiaStation for QT/QTc interval measurement and archiving. In this study, we showed that an FDA-cleared product, KardiaMobile 6L, has the ability to provide high-quality contactless ECGs for reliable QT/QTc interval measurements. Hospitalized patients were able to perform recordings when requested after receiving simple instructions at the time of first use. This technology has applications during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Students’ Reasoning About Whether to Report When Others Cheat: Conflict, Confusion, and Consequences

Nearly all students believe academic cheating is wrong, yet few students say they would report witnessed acts of cheating. To explain this apparent tension, the present research examined college students’ reasoning about whether to report plagiarism or other forms of cheating. Study 1 examined students’ conflicts when deciding whether to report cheating. Most students gave reasons against reporting a peer (e.g., social and physical consequences, a lack of responsibility to report) as well as reasons in favor of reporting (e.g., concerns about welfare, justice, and fairness). Study 2 provided experimental confirmation that the contextual factors referenced by Study 1 participants in fact influenced decisions about whether to report cheating. Overall, the findings indicate that students often decide against reporting peers’ acts of cheating, though not due to a lack of concern about integrity. Rather, students may refrain from reporting because of conflicting concerns, lack of information about school policy, and perceived better alternatives to reporting.
Parental Emotional Support and Health Problems: The Role of Social Support and Social Strain

A lack of emotional support from parents during childhood has been found to predict both physical and mental health problems (i.e., chronic health conditions, depression) during middle and older adulthood. Less research has examined the factors that may either buffer or amplify this association. Using the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) national sample (N = 7,108; age = 20–75 years), the current study examined the moderating role of social support and social strain from three sources (i.e., family, friends, partner/spouse) on the association between early parental support and changes in chronic health conditions and depression. Poisson models indicated that low levels of early parental support were associated with greater health problems over time. However, the association between parental support and chronic health conditions was only significant for individuals with greater levels of friend strain. Additionally, the association between parental support and depression was only significant for individuals with low levels of support from a partner/spouse and high levels of strain from relationships with a partner/spouse. The current findings demonstrate the important role of source-specific social support and social strain in buffering individuals’ risk for experiencing increased problematic outcomes in response to a lack of early parental support.
The Significance of Services and Data in Global Value Chains

Global value chains (GVC) are undergoing a transformation as business focus on building resilience. Services and data are already adding value to GVC, particularly manufacturing GVC. Global data flows and digital technologies such as cloud computing and AI enable growth in digitally enabled service exports and further opportunities to add value to manufacturing GVC. Moreover, services-only GVC are evolving as businesses use digital services and technologies sourced globally. • All countries have some comparative advantage in services and as GVC become increasingly services driven and rely on data, new opportunities for GVC participation by developing country and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), are emerging. As manufacturing GVC mature, served used are increasingly being sourced globally as business seek best-in-class inputs to maintain overall competitiveness. Yet, services trade barriers remain high – higher than for goods. In addition, countries are increasingly restricting global data flows and requiring data localization. There is also the risk that divergent standards in areas such as 5G, a technology which will underpin new digital services and GVC, will create additional barriers. Trade policy has an important role to play in supporting growth in services and data in GVC. Trade policy should also priorities addressing barrier to services trade and data flows. The failure of the WTO in further liberalizing services trade has had the perverse effect that for many countries services restrictions are becoming the key barriers to growing trade in manufactured goods. Services trade restrictions are also higher in developing countries, placing them at a disadvantage when it comes to participating in GVC.
We have been harmonized: Life in China’s surveillance: Kai Strittmatter, New York: Custom House, 2020, 368 pp., $28.99.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has undergone two tectonic shifts since the mid-1970s. First, a brutal scramble for factional power unfolded following Mao Zedong’s death in 1976. This ultimately ...
Indirect Estimation of Hydrologic Parameters

Parameters of multiple series of monthly streamflows, which describe the expectation and covariance structure of series, can be estimated on ungaged sites by using the simple geomorphologic parameters. This allows a simulation of new hydrologic samples of multiple series at sites with no runoff records. The study is based on the analysis of river data for the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy, mostly including the right side tributaries of the River Po.
Chapter 11 Disruption of CREB regulated of gene expression in diabetes

Abstract Cardiovascular disease it is the leading cause of death in diabetes. In light of this, diabetes has recently been named and a cardiovascular disease equivalent. The molecular mechanisms that place persons with diabetes at excess vascular risk are numerous, including dyslipidemia, hypertension, hyperglycemia chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. These different factors place the diabetic vasculature in a state of chronic metabolic stress and this stress leads to vascular dysfunction. Our laboratory has focused on gaining a better understanding of the impact of diabetes and insulin resistance (IR) upon vascular smooth muscle cell gene regulation. Specifically, we have observed that the transcription factor CREB (cAMP response element binding protein) is critical for the maintenance of healthy quiescent (contractile and non-proliferative) vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) function. In rodent models of diabetes and IR there is decreased expression of CREB protein in the vasculature. Loss of vascular CREB expression is associated with simultaneous increased expression of pro-atherogenic transcriptional regulators, such as NF-kB and C/EBP delta (CCAAT enhancer binding protein). This imbalance promotes SMC activation (proliferation, migration, matrix production and apoptosis) and may be important for excess vascular disease in diabetes. The evidence for CREB regulation of SMC function and its disruption in models of diabetes and atherosclerosis will be discussed in this chapter. In addition to macrovascular disease, many other target organs are injured by the metabolic stress of diabetes including pancreatic beta cells (which contribute to disease progression) and cardiac and neuronal cells (which contribute to complications). We have identified a pattern of changes in gene regulation, loss of CREB function and augmentation of stress induced gene expression, that may contribute to the multi-organ dysfunction observed in diabetes.
Mechanism of Action of Guinea Pig Liver Transglutaminase VI. ORDER OF SUBSTRATE ADDITION

Abstract The transglutaminase-catalyzed hydrolysis and transfer reactions have been studied kinetically in the forward direction at pH 8 in the presence of a 0.1 m level of the activating metal ion, Ca++. Isotope exchange and product inhibition studies were also conducted. The initial velocity, product inhibition, and isotope exchange patterns are consistent with a ping pong mechanism in which (a) glutamine substrate binds to enzyme in a binary complex, (b) ammonia dissociates with the formation of an acyl enzyme intermediate, and (c) acyl group is transferred from enzyme either to acceptor amine to form γ-glutamyl-amine product (transfer), or to water to form glutamic acid product (hydrolysis). A gel filtration study that shows binding of amine to enzyme only in the presence of glutamine substrate complements this proposed ping pong mechanism. Values have been estimated for all except two of the Michaelis and dissociation constants involved in combination of substrates and products with the enzyme forms, i.e. free or acyl enzymes, with which they bind. The transfer reaction in the reverse direction has been shown chromatographically.
Energetic profiling of protein folds.

Abstract Current protein classification methods treat high‐resolution structures as static entities. However, experiments have well documented the dynamic nature of proteins. With knowledge that thermodynamic fluctuations around the high‐resolution structure contribute to a more physically accurate and biologically meaningful picture of a protein, the concept of a protein's energetic profile is introduced. It is demonstrated on a large scale that energetic profiles are both diagnostic of a protein fold and evolutionarily relevant. Development of Structural Thermodynamic Ensemble‐based Protein Homology (STEPH), an algorithm that searches for local similarities between energetic profiles, constitutes a first step towards a long‐term goal of our laboratory to integrate thermodynamic information into protein‐fold classification approaches.
A Performance Analysis of SIMD Algorithms for Monte Carlo Simulations of Nuclear Reactor Cores

A primary characteristic of history-based Monte Carlo neutron transport simulation is the application of MIMD-style parallelism: the path of each neutron particle is largely independent of all other particles, so threads of execution perform independent instructions with respect to other threads. This conflicts with the growing trend of HPC vendors exploiting SIMD hardware, which accomplishes better parallelism and more FLOPS per watt. Event-based neutron transport suits vectorization better than history-based transport, but it is difficult to implement and complicates data management and transfer. However, the Intel Xeon Phi architecture supports the familiar ×86 instruction set and memory model, mitigating difficulties in vector zing neutron transport codes. This paper compares the event-based and history-based approaches for exploiting SIMD in Monte Carlo neutron transport simulations. For both algorithms, we analyze performance using the three different execution models provided by the Xeon Phi (offload, native, and symmetric) within the full-featured OpenVMS framework. A representative micro-benchmark of the performance bottleneck computation shows about 10x performance improvement using the event-based method. In an optimized history-based simulation of a full-physics nuclear reactor core in OpenVMS, the MIC shows a calculation rate 1.6x higher than a modern 16-core CPU, 2.5x higher when balancing load between the CPU and 1 MIC, and 4x higher when balancing load between the CPU and 2 Macs. As far as we are aware, our calculation rate per node on a high fidelity benchmark (17, 098 particles/second) is higher than any other Monte Carlo neutron transport application. Furthermore, we attain 95% distributed efficiency when using MPI and up to 512 concurrent MIC devices.
A 25.9-GHz voltage-controlled oscillator fabricated in a CMOS process

A 25.9-GHz voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) has been demonstrated using 0.1-/spl mu/m NMOS transistors in a partially scaled CMOS process. The tuning range and output power level are 600 MHz and /spl sim/-22 dBm. The phase noise at a 3-MHz offset is -106 dBc/Hz when the VCO core consumes 24 mW from a 1.5-V supply. This VCO uses a MOS varactor with Q>20 at 26 GHz. Though Q is higher, due to the polysilicon gate depletion effect, the frequency tuning is not monotonic and a mechanism to limit the control voltage range is needed for phase-locked loop (PLL) applications.
Full Disclosure: What Makes Transparency Sustainable?

We have seen this pattern repeatedly: Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals trigger Sarbanes-Oxley reporting reforms. The chemical catastrophe in Bhopal, India triggers toxic pollution reporting in the United States. A rash of deaths from microbes in drinking water triggers a national water safety disclosure. A wave of SUV-related deaths triggers a rollover rating system. Transparency systems are often tacked together in times of crisis. They emerge out of high-stakes political debates driven by newly perceived needs for public action. As a result, they often begin as half-baked compromises, missing crucial elements and suffering from flawed design. After the crisis passes from the headlines, the transparency system is typically neglected and necessary improvements go unaddressed. It is not particularly surprising that transparency systems fail, for two reasons. First, transparency typically imposes costs on a small group of information disclosers in the hope of generating benefits for a large and dispersed class of information users. Since the stakes are higher for the potential disclosers, they dominate the political processes that shape transparency systems over time. Second, transparency conflicts with other core values – the need to protect trade secrets and personal privacy, for example – that can tip the balance toward keeping information confidential. Under these circumstances, it is remarkable that some relatively robust targeted transparency systems actually emerge from legislative deliberations and survive. In fact, many targeted transparency systems that are flawed in the beginning manage to improve over time and ultimately deliver the public benefits that policymakers hoped for.
The Demand for Aircraft and the Aircraft Industry, 1907–1958

The invention of the airplane by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903 marked the beginning of an industry which has grown to be the largest single manufacturing employer in the United States. Once the airplane was invented, there was wide-spread expectation that producing aircraft would be a very profitable business.
GANG MEMBERSHIP AS A TURNING POINT IN THE LIFE COURSE

Gang-involved youth are disproportionately involved in criminal behavior, especially violence. The processes accounting for this enhanced illegal activity, however, remain speculative. Employing a life-course perspective, we propose that gang membership can be conceptualized as a turning point in the lives of youth and is thus associated with changes in emotions, attitudes, and routine activities, which, in turn, increase illegal activity. Using prospective data from a multisite sample of more than 1,400 youth, the findings suggest that the onset of gang membership is associated with a substantial change in emotions, attitudes, and social controls conducive to delinquency and partially mediate the impact of gang membership on delinquent activity. Desistance from gangs, however, was not associated with similar systematic changes in these constructs, including delinquent involvement.
Puddling: A New Look at an Old Process

Throughout most of the 19th century, the process of choice in the west for producing wrought iron and steel was “puddling” of cast iron. A major development of the process, “wet puddling”, became widespread commercially beginning in 1830. That process is examined quantitatively using modern thermodynamic, solidification and rheologic understanding. The ‘clearing’ and ‘boiling’ steps are considered in detail. In the ‘clearing’ step, the silicon is oxidized (by iron oxide) resulting in bath heating. Subsequent carbon removal from the melt, prior to initiation of solid iron solidification results first in the ‘low boil’, with simultaneous melt cooling. Then, as decarburization continues, solidification of iron begins, and with it, the ‘high boil’, with vigorous gas evolution and significant temperature increase. The importance of the iron solidification in promoting the decarburization reaction has not, in our opinion been fully understood heretofore. The lower the carbon content at the start of the boil, the higher the final melt temperature, and the lower the carbon content in the fully solid iron. During the high boil the four phase slurry of slag, liquid iron, solid iron and gas is thixotropic in nature, readily agglomerates, and possesses a low viscosity up to fractions solid of 0.2–0.3, with that viscosity rising rapidly at higher fractions solid. Comparison of the model presented with observations from the actual puddling process is made. The qualitative and quantitative model presented agrees in general outline with the historical record and serves to strengthen our respect for those master puddlers who could control such a complex process with little other than their senses to guide them.
The human cycle of water: water management and anthropogenic contaminant pathways in Pótam, Sonora, Mexico’s water cycle

Women are the primary decision makers regarding household water sources in many developing nations, but are often overlooked by researchers and organizations as primary water managers. This study took place in Potam, Sonora, Mexico, during the summer of 2007, with a follow-up visit in February 2008. The study aimed at understand the human cycle of water by identifying potential exposure pathways for water contamination, as well as to understand the link between cultural beliefs, perceptions, and associated health issues. In total, sixty women were interviewed, as well as community elders and the Water Committee president. Discussions of household water use decisions, perceptions of disease causation, and treatment proved crucial in the discovery of potential pathways by which anthropogenic contaminants come into contact with the water cycle in Potam. Most of the households (87%) believe their water sources are contaminated with biological and or chemical contaminants. Furthermore, of the sixty informants interviewed, seventy percent reported diarrhea as a common symptom. The majority of informants (76%) made a link between consumption of contaminated water and high rates of diarrhea. The study determined that the community is in need of outreach programs geared toward women as household water managers, independent lab analysis of water quality samples, and an epidemiological study to determine the causes for the most commonly reported illness and symptoms.
Evidence for the release of enzymes from different organs in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy.

Abstract In Duchenne's muscular dystrophy evidence is given confirming the release of enzymes from cells of heart and skeletal muscles, liver and, most probably, from erythrocytes into blood serum. The findings indicate that a generalized enzyme release syndrome exists in this disease.
The mutual information principle and applications

A general theory of prior probability models is presented, valid for both discrete and continuous random variables, even when the prior information about them has been obtained with errors. An example is included as an illustration.
Age related differences in binding of Concanavalin a to plasma membranes of isolated neurons

Neurons isolated from the lateral vestibular nucleus of young adult and senescent Fischer-344 rats were incubated with fluorescamine-labelled Concanavalin A (fl-Con A) alone, or following incubation in trypsin or Vibrio cholerae neuraminidase. They were then observed and photographed. Microdensitometric analysis of fluorescence micrographs showed that senescent rat neurons were significantly more fluorescent than those from young adult rats. Additionally, either patches or caps of fl-Con A were seen on the surface of neurons from senescent rats, while most young adult rat neurons bound fl-Con A uniformly. Pretreatment with trypsin or neuraminidase had no effect on the amount of fluorescence on the surface of senescent rat neurons, and only a slight effect on the surface distribution. Trypsin and neuronal plasma membranes of young adult rats and a rearrangement of the binding pattern in the majority of neurons observed.
Translation and dispersion of mass by isotropic Brownian flows

Abstract We study the long-term translation and dispersion of a mass distribution carried by an isotropic Brownian flow on R d . We use the variance of the center of mass as a measure of translation and the mean of the centered spatial second moments as a measure of dispersion. We find the exact growth rates of these quantities in essentially all cases. When the mass distribution is diffuse, the rates of growth depend strongly on the degree of compressibility in the flow. For example, in two dimensions we show that the variance of the center of mass grows more slowly than logarithmically in the incompressible case, while it grows linearly in highly compressible flows. Our method involves a detailed analysis of the two-point separation process and uses methods developed in a companion paper for the analysis of mean occupation times of one-dimensional Markov processes.
A numerical simulation of wheel wear

Abstract The conditions at the wheel/rail contact have a dramatic impact on safety, ride quality and cost of maintenance. Appreciating its importance, the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) initiated a project to improve both the understanding of and application of an improved wheel/rail interaction on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. One item delivered as part of this programme is an improved wheel profile. This profile is designed to reduce wheel flange wear for the Amtrak vehicles without introducing wheelset hunting. The comparative wear performance of the new wheel has been evaluated against existing wheels by simulating the wheel–rail interaction over 800 km of running. The simulation is based on the principle of pummelling and employs a quasi-static curving model. The model is validated through comparison with NUCARS predictions. The improved wheel design is found to exhibit a 25% reduction in flange wear compared with the current wheel profile.
The optimal burst of mutation to create a phenotype

Mutagenesis is commonly applied to genes and genomes to create novel variants with desired properties. This paper calculates the level of mutagenesis that maximizes the appearance of favorable mutants, assuming that the mutagenesis is applied in a single episode. The downside of mutagenesis is that a substantial fraction of mutations will destroy gene/genome function. The upside of mutagenesis is the production of beneficial mutations, but the desired phenotype may require that 1, 2 or more beneficial mutations be present simultaneously (the phenotype dimensionality). The optimum level of mutagenesis is sensitive to both properties. In the simplest model, the mutation optimum occurs when number of lethal equivalents per genome equals the phenotype dimensionality, a result first derived by Mundry and Gierer [1958. Production of mutations in tobacco mosaic virus by chemical treatment of its nucleic acid in vitro. Z. Vererbungsl. 89 (4), 614-630]. This level of mutation is shown to be an upper bound for the optimum in various extensions of the model, and the recovery of mutants is also reasonably tolerant to deviations from the optimum.
Fitting the duct to the body of the convective flow

Abstract This paper is a proposal to design flow structures with maximal heat transfer rate per unit volume, by shaping each duct so that it fits optimally on the body of the convective flow. Optimally shaped ducts can be assembled into larger constructs. Two examples are given. In the first, a heat-generating strip is cooled inside a duct of rectangular cross-section. The duct geometry has two degrees of freedom, which can be selected so that the fixed duct volume packs a maximum of heat transfer rate. In the second example, the duct is a tube with isothermal internal surface, and the flow is sufficiently slow so that boundary layers do not form inside the duct. Once again, the duct aspect ratio can be optimized for maximal heat transfer rate density. Further improvements can be sought by endowing the duct geometry with more degrees of freedom.
The Growth of Web-Based Investment

Abstract When Merill Lynch announced its entry into online brokering, analysts stated that Internet-based investing had reached a milestone. This article explores the development of Internet-based investment transactions and businesses as well as the differences between the business models of pure Internet brokers and those of full-service brokerage houses. Although this industry is in very early stages of development, it will eventually approach a modified form of zero-cost industry like many of the Internet service providers.
Economic losses due to catastrophes

Worldwide economic loss due to catastrophic events added up to US$140 billion in 2013, with insured losses adding up to $45 billion, according to a report by the insurance provider Swiss Re. Though these numbers are down from $196 billion in economic losses and $81 billion in insurance losses in 2012, Swiss Re reports an upward trend in losses.
Two applications of the natural map

Using a method which has been recently introduced by Besson, Courtois and Gallot we give new simple proofs of Ahlfors’ measure theorem and of Canary’s estimate of the Hausdorff-dimension of the limit set of a Kleinian group in terms of the volume of the convex-core.
Study of electron trapping in the amorphous tantalum oxide thin films prepared by d.c. magnetron reactive sputtering

Abstract Amorphous tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) thin films on n-type Si substrates were prepared by d.c. magnetron reactive sputtering deposition technique. It was observed that the leakage current decreased with time when a voltage bias was first applied. The cause of this behavior was investigated using bias-temperature-stress test technique combined with the capacitance-voltage measurement with structures of Al/Ta2O5/Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors, and was identified to be owing to electron trapping in the Ta2O5 film and at the Ta2O5/Si interfaces. The current injection technique was further used to correlate the amount of charge trapped in the Ta2O5 with the leakage current passed through the Ta2O5 film, and it was found that most of the trapped electrons were located at the Ta2O5/Si interface. This electron trapping effect on the conduction mechanisms of the Ta2O5 films and the related reliability issues in dynamic random access memories applications are discussed.
Anatomical demonstration of vagal input to nicotinamide acetamide dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase‐positive (nitrergic) neurons in rat fundic stomach

Recent pharmacological evidence suggests that the nonadrenergic, noncholinergic (NANC) vagal inhibitory input responsible for receptive relaxation of the fundic stomach is mediated by nitric oxide-synthesizing enteric neurons. To demonstrate anatomically such direct vagal inputs to neurochemically identified enteric neurons, we utilized the nicotinamide acetamide dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-diaphorase histochemical reaction in conjunction with selective anterograde labeling of vagal efferents or afferents. Approximately 30% of all myenteric neurons of the fundic myenteric plexus stained positive for NADPH diaphorase, and the principal recipient of axonal projections from NADPH diaphorase-positive neurons was the circular muscle layer. In a group of animals showing the most complete labeling of vagal efferent preganglionics with the carbocyanine dye DiA, quantitative analysis of the half of the ventral fundic wall closer to the greater curvature revealed that 46.8% ± 4.4% of all myenteric neurons received some degree of vagal contacts and that 30.5% ± 6.6% of such vagally contacted neurons were also NADPH diaphorase positive. In another group of rats with the most successful selective labeling of vagal afferents through DiI injections into the left nodose ganglion, analysis of select ganglia throughout the ventral fundic wall revealed that, of a total of 454 neurons with vagal afferent contacts, 34.8% ± 2.8% were NADPH diaphorase positive. These findings support the view that, in the fundic stomach, some vagal preganglionic efferents terminate on nitric oxide-synthesizing neurons that, in turn, project to and relax the external smooth muscle layers. Furthermore, vagal afferent endings also contact NADPH diaphorase-positive neurons, suggesting the possibility of local axon reflexes originating from smooth muscular in-series tension receptors and terminating on nitrergic neurons of the myenteric plexus. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.