cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Public Recognition and Perceptions of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Previous research has indicated that the public’s knowledge on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is poor. Public understanding and perception of OCD may be one contributor to this issue. Given that mental health literacy is an important first step for those to receive the appropriate care, we sought to understand more about the public’s awareness and perceptions of OCD. Data regarding knowledge of OCD were collected through a New York statewide telephone survey (N = 806). Results indicated that those who had never heard of OCD were more likely to be ethnic minorities, have a lower income, and less education. Most participants described OCD either in terms of compulsions or in terms of perfectionism. Almost half (46.5%) of participants did not think there is a difference between someone with OCD and someone who is obsessive–compulsive. These findings are consistent with previous literature regarding race and treatment seeking behaviors.
Urban bus ridership, income, and extreme weather events

Abstract Climate change is projected to worsen weather extremes, such as heat waves and days of heavy precipitation, which could pose serious health and economic risks to U.S. cities. These extreme weather events could also affect urban mobility, since people who walk or bike may shift to public transit or avoid travel if they cannot afford a vehicle. To address these concerns, this study examines the effects of extreme weather events on bus ridership and the extent to which this relationship varies by income and destination. This study analyzes highly detailed micro-level bus data between 2012 and 2017 for a county in the Pacific Northwest using a negative binomial regression model. Results suggest modest reductions in bus ridership on very hot and cold days, as well as on days with heavy rainfall, with impacts differing between weekdays and weekends. Findings also show that bus ridership is more sensitive to extreme weather events in lower-income areas relative to the wealthiest neighborhoods, which may be partly driven by a large university student population who can ride the bus for free. Finally, results show that bus ridership around commercial areas and parks increases on very cold days and days with heavy precipitation, reinforcing the importance of public transit during these weather events. These results suggest extreme weather events affect urban mobility, with greater impacts in lower-income neighborhoods, parks and commercial areas. Transit agencies and policymakers should consider ways to increase accessibility and mobility during these weather events, especially for lower-income households.
Optimizing Fungicide Inputs for Management of Lettuce Drop Caused by Sclerotinia minor and S. sclerotiorum

Lettuce drop, caused by the soilborne fungi Sclerotinia minor and S. sclerotiorum, continues to be an important disease on this crop in Arizona. Trials were conducted over a 5-year period to compar...
Construction of Hand Exoskeleton Movement State Space Under Different Action Modes

In order to generate a motion law similar to the natural movement of the human hand for the hand exoskeleton movement, this paper designs a hand joint movement angle measurement system for the flexion and extension of the finger, and adds the degree of freedom of adduction and abduction of the MCP joint in the measuring device. The measuring device is composed of a hinge mechanism and a four-bar linkage mechanism. At DIP and PIP joints of each finger, the shaft of the angular sensor directly matches the hinge shaft. At the MCP joint, the sensor’s shaft is mounted at a hinge of the four-bar linkage, and indirect measurements were adopted based on the correlation of the articulated joint motion. The measuring device was designed as a wearable passive exoskeleton structure, and a prototype was made by 3D printing for the hand movement collection experiments. In this paper, three kinds of movements including flexing and extending index finger, pinching and grasping mineral water bottle were used for establishing the corresponding motion state space of the hand. The motion state space describes the motion relationship of each joint when the above hand function is implemented, and can be directly used for driving the active hand exoskeleton device. This paper lays the foundation for the research, development and application of hand exoskeleton rehabilitation robots.
Tropical tree size-frequency distributions from airborne lidar.

In tropical rainforests, tree size and number density are influenced by disturbance history, soil, topography, climate, and biological factors that are difficult to predict without detailed and widespread forest inventory data. Here, we quantify tree size-frequency distributions over an old-growth wet tropical forest at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica by using an individual tree crown (ITC) algorithm on airborne lidar measurements. The ITC provided tree height, crown area, the number of trees >10 m height and, predicted tree diameter, and aboveground biomass from field allometry. The number density showed strong agreement with field observations at the plot- (97.4%; 3% bias) and tree-height-classes level (97.4%; 3% bias). The lidar trees size spectra of tree diameter and height closely follow the distributions measured on the ground but showed less agreement with crown area observations. The model to convert lidar-derived tree height and crown area to tree diameter produced unbiased (0.8%) estimates of plot-level basal area and with low uncertainty (6%). Predictions on basal area for tree height classes were also unbiased (1.3%) but with larger uncertainties (22%). The biomass estimates had no significant bias at the plot- and tree-height-classes level (-5.2% and 2.1%). Our ITC method provides a powerful tool for tree- to landscape-level tropical forest inventory and biomass estimation by overcoming the limitations of lidar area-based approaches that require local calibration using a large number of inventory plots.
Primary Care Access to New Patient Appointments for California Medicaid Enrollees: A Simulated Patient Study.

PURPOSE We undertook a study to evaluate variation in the availability of primary care new patient appointments for Medi-Cal (California Medicaid) enrollees in Northern California, and its relationship to emergency department (ED) use after Medicaid expansion. METHODS We placed simulated calls by purported Medi-Cal enrollees to 581 primary care clinicians (PCCs) listed as accepting new patients in online directories of Medi-Cal managed care plans. Data from the California Health Interview Survey, Medi-Cal enrollment reports, and California hospital discharge records were used in analyses. We developed multilevel, mixed-effect models to evaluate variation in appointment access. Multiple linear regression was used to examine the relationship between primary care access and ED use by county. RESULTS Availability of PCC new patient appointments to Medi-Cal enrollees lacking a PCC varied significantly across counties in the multilevel model, ranging from 77 enrollees (95% CI, 70-81) to 472 enrollees (95% CI, 378-628) per each available new patient appointment. Just 19% of PCCs had available appointments within the state-mandated 10 business days. Clinicians at Federally Qualified Health Centers had higher availability of new patient appointments (rate ratio = 1.56; 95% CI, 1.24-1.97). Counties with poorer PCC access had higher ED use by Medi-Cal enrollees. CONCLUSIONS In contrast to findings from other states, access to primary care in Northern California was limited for new patient Medi-Cal enrollees and varied across counties, despite standard statewide reimbursement rates. Counties with more limited access to primary care new patient appointments had higher ED use by Medi-Cal enrollees.
Identifying and (automatically) remedying performance problems in CPU/GPU applications

GPU accelerators have become common on today's leadership-class computing platforms. Effective exploitation of the additional parallelism offered by GPUs is fraught with challenges. A key performance challenge faced by developers is how to limit the time consumed by synchronizations between the CPU and GPU. We introduce the extended feed-forward measurement (FFM) performance tool that provides an automated detection of synchronization problems, identifies if the synchronization problem is a component of a larger construct that exhibits a problem beyond an individual synchronization operation, identifies remedies that can correct the issue, and in some cases automatically applies remedies to problems exhibited by larger constructs. The extended FFM performance tool identifies three causes of unnecessary synchronizations: a problem caused by a single operation, a problem caused by memory management issues, and a problem caused by a memory transfer. The extended FFM model prescribes remedies for each construct and can automatically apply remedies for memory management and memory transfer cause problems. We created an implementation of the extended FFM performance tool and employed it to identify and automatically correct problems in three real-world scientific applications, resulting in an automatically obtained reduction in execution time between 9% and 43%.
Leisure and Labor: Essays on the Liberal Arts in Catholic Higher Education, edited by Anthony P. Coleman: New York, NY: Lexington Books, 2020, 149 pp., ISBN: 978-1-7936-1703-3

The death of any American college or university is a tragedy, but for many small, tuition-dependent private institutions, it is an all-too-imaginable fate. Faced with skyrocketing costs and suffoca...
Large-Scale UAS Traffic Management (UTM) Structure

The advent of large-scale Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) exploitation for urban tasks, such as delivery, has led to a great deal of research and development in the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) domain. The general approach at this time is to define a grid network for the area of operation, and then have UAS Service Suppliers (USS) pairwise deconflict any overlapping grid elements for their flights. Moreover, this analysis is performed on arbitrary flight paths through the airspace, and thus may impose a substantial computational burden in order to ensure strategic deconfliction (that is, no two flights are ever closer than the minimum required separation). However, the biggest drawback to this approach is the impact of contingencies on UTM operations. For example, if one UAS slows down, or goes off course, then strategic deconfliction is no longer guaranteed, and this can have a disastrous snowballing effect on a large number of flights. We propose a lane-based approach which not only allows a one-dimensional strategic deconfliction method, but provides structural support for alternative contingency handling methods with minimal impact on the overall UTM system. Methods for lane creation, path assignment through lanes, flight strategic deconfliction, and contingency handling are provided here.
The ZotBins solution to waste management using internet of things: poster abstract

The growing use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has the potential to improve waste management. In this work, we present ZotBins, a system that facilitates sustainable practices for individuals and improves waste management efficiency for organizations. ZotBins consists of smart bins fitted with sensors, a waste recognition framework, and a variety of user applications. Currently, eight smart bins have been deployed in University of California, Irvine (UCI) campus and the preliminary estimates show that it improves the diversion rate (percentage of waste diverted from landfills through methods such as recycling) by about 20% while generating tens of thousands of dollars in revenue over the course of next ten years for the university.
E-Scooter safety: The riding risk analysis based on mobile sensing data.

Abstract The emergence of shared electric scooter (E-Scooter) systems offers a new micro-mobility mode in many urban areas worldwide. These systems have rapidly attracted numerous trips on various types of facilities such as sidewalks and bike lanes. After their burst of popularity, there are also growing safety concerns about E-Scooter riding. Consequently, a few cities have banned or temporarily suspended E-Scooters as severe crashes occurred. As an emerging micro-mobility mode, its safety performance is significantly understudied as compared to other travel modes such as cars and bicycles. The lack of crash records further prevents it from understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive the occurrences of E-Scooter crashes. The overarching goal of this paper is to probe the safety risk when riding E-Scooters. Specifically, it aims to study the interactions between e-scooter riding and the environment settings through naturalistic riding experiments. Rather than focusing on the analysis of individual riders’ heterogeneous behavior (e.g., swinging, hard braking, etc.) and rider characteristics (e.g., age, gender, etc.), the naturalistic riding study examines the riding process in different riding circumstances. A mobile sensing system has been developed to collect data for quantifying the surrogate safety metrics in terms of experienced vibrations, speed changes, and proximity to surrounding objects. The results from naturalistic riding experiments show that E-Scooters can experience notable impacts from different riding facilities. Specifically, compared to bicycle riding, more severe vibration events were associated with E-Scooter riding, regardless of the pavement types. Riding on concrete pavements was found to experience a multiple times higher frequency of vibration events when compared to riding on asphalt pavements of the same length. Riding on both sidewalks and vehicle lanes can both encounter high-frequency close contacts in terms of proximity with other objects. These experimental results suggest that E-Scooters are subject to increased safety challenges due to the increased vibrations, speed variations, and constrained riding environments.
Wrestling and Wrapping: A Perspective on SUMO Proteins in Schwann Cells.

Schwann cell development and peripheral nerve myelination are finely orchestrated multistep processes; some of the underlying mechanisms are well described and others remain unknown. Many posttranslational modifications (PTMs) like phosphorylation and ubiquitination have been reported to play a role during the normal development of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and in demyelinating neuropathies. However, a relatively novel PTM, SUMOylation, has not been studied in these contexts. SUMOylation involves the covalent attachment of one or more small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) proteins to a substrate, which affects the function, cellular localization, and further PTMs of the conjugated protein. SUMOylation also regulates other proteins indirectly by facilitating non-covalent protein–protein interaction via SUMO interaction motifs (SIM). This pathway has important consequences on diverse cellular processes, and dysregulation of this pathway has been reported in several diseases including neurological and degenerative conditions. In this article, we revise the scarce literature on SUMOylation in Schwann cells and the PNS, we propose putative substrate proteins, and we speculate on potential mechanisms underlying the possible involvement of this PTM in peripheral myelination and neuropathies.
Fc-engineered antibody therapeutics with improved anti-SARS-CoV-2 efficacy.

Monoclonal antibodies with neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 have demonstrated clinical benefits in cases of mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection, substantially reducing the risk for hospitalization and severe disease1–4. Treatment generally requires the administration of high doses of these monoclonal antibodies and has limited efficacy in preventing disease complications or mortality among hospitalized patients with COVID-195. Here we report the development and evaluation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies with optimized Fc domains that show superior potency for prevention or treatment of COVID-19. Using several animal disease models of COVID-196,7, we demonstrate that selective engagement of activating Fcγ receptors results in improved efficacy in both preventing and treating disease-induced weight loss and mortality, significantly reducing the dose required to confer full protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge and for treatment of pre-infected animals. Our results highlight the importance of Fcγ receptor pathways in driving antibody-mediated antiviral immunity and exclude the possibility of pathogenic or disease-enhancing effects of Fcγ receptor engagement of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies upon infection. These findings have important implications for the development of Fc-engineered monoclonal antibodies with optimal Fc-effector function and improved clinical efficacy against COVID-19 disease. Optimization of monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 for enhanced Fc-effector function increase their effectiveness for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in multiple animal models of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Principles of Design for Manufacturing

The principles of design for manufacturing and design for electronic assembly are not new; childhood toys such as Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, and Lego are good examples of design for manufacturing as they have the same objectives: Minimum parts types Standard components Parts fit/snap together No fasteners No assembly tools required Reduced assembly time and operator skills This chapter explores some of the principles and origins of design for manufacture (DFM) and will give examples of DFM guidelines. The axiomatic theory of design is used to highlight this methodology. These design guidelines were based on common lessons learned while developing electronic products. Many similar checklists are being used in major electronic companies as a repository for the collective wisdom of their successful design engineers.
H/sub /spl infin// filtering in linear systems, a variation of parameters approach

This paper provides a complete, direct derivation of the continuous time linear system H/sub /spl infin// filter using a variation of parameters approach. Conditions, derived from the variational technique, which provide for filter existence, performance, and stability, are presented. These results are consistent with existing derivations using similar techniques. Here, the results also provide a simple relationship between the matrix Riccati equation for the filter gain calculation and the matrix Riccati equation for the bounded real lemma.
Introduction to Microwave Linacs

The elements of microwave linear accelerators are introduced starting with the principles of acceleration and accelerating structures. Considerations for microwave structure modelling and design are developed from an elementary point of view. Basic elements of microwave electronics are described for application to the accelerator circuit and instrumentation. Concepts of beam physics are explored together with examples of common beamline instruments. Charged particle optics and lattice diagnostics are introduced. Considerations for fixed-target and colliding-beam experimentation are summarized.
Doing fandom, (mis)doing whiteness: Heteronormativity, racialization, and the discursive construction of fandom

The fans depicted in mainstream media representation are unrelentingly white in a way that constructs fandom—from Star Trek to baseball to Elvis—as the property of white bodies. Though whiteness is typically understood in contemporary American culture as a position of privilege, represented fans seem to contradict this conventional wisdom; they are conceptualized in television shows, fictional films, and documentaries as white people deviating from the constructed-as-white norm of heterosexuality and employment through a "childish" fixation on the object of their fandom. Dominant culture produces an idea of fandom as a sort of failed nonheteronormative whiteness that serves a regulatory function, positioning the supposed inadequacy of fans as the result of bad—but correctable—decisions, reinforcing rather than challenging privilege as a natural property of white, heterosexual masculinity as it produces fandom as a racialized construct.
Equitas Microfinance: The Fastest-Growing MFI on the Planet

Founded as a for-profit microfinance company, Equitas had acquired nearly a million clients in the short two years since it was founded. The founder, Vasu, and his management team wished to accelerate the already impressive spurt to 3 million clients in the next two years. The case describes the company's business model, which attempts to integrate microfinance with social development, and provides students with the opportunity to discuss the scaling options and challenges facing the founder.
Evaluation of Supplier Catalyst Formulations for the Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx With Ammonia

The selective catalytic reduction of NO using urea (urea-SCR) is one of the promising technologies for removing NO x from diesel engine exhaust. The engine-out NO x is reduced by ammonia (NH 3 ) derived from urea over a catalyst to environmentally benign N 2 . In this paper, we investigate the effect of various reactor operating conditions on the NO x reduction performance of three different catalyst formulations (e.g., Cu-zeolite, Fe-zeolite, Vanadium-based) to obtain useful guidance in the design and operation of urea-SCR lean NO x emission control systems. We examine the effects of NO:NO 2 ratio on the steady-state NO x reduction activity at typical diesel engine exhaust temperatures (150-550°C). Transient measurements were also performed to determine the impact of NH 3 :NO x ratio and NH 3 storage on catalyst performance. The impacts of hydrocarbon poisoning and sulfur poisoning /regeneration were also examined.
Output Impedance Frequency Dispersion and Low Frequency Noise in GaAs MESFETs

L'Investigation tralte de la relation entre brult g-r et la dispersion de frequence de I'impedance de sortle GaAs MESFET. On a employe une nouvelle technique pour I'identification des nlveaux profonds qui sont responsable du brult et de la dispersion. La dependance du bials de la dispersion fut egalement investiguee et un modele constant aux simulations en deux dimensions est presente. The interrelation between g-r noise and output impedance frequency dispersion in GaAs MESFET's has been investigated. A new technique to identify the deep levels responsible for the dispersion is used. It is found that same traps are responsible for both noise and dispersion. The bias dependence of the dispersion was also investigated and a model is presented which is consistent with 2-D simulations.
Introducing the trusted virtual environment module: a new mechanism for rooting trust in cloud computing

We introduce a new mechanism for rooting trust in a cloud computing environment called the Trusted Virtual Environment Module (TVEM). The TVEM helps solve the core security challenge of cloud computing by enabling parties to establish trust relationships where an information owner creates and runs a virtual environment on a platform owned by a separate service provider. The TVEM is a software appliance that provides enhanced features for cloud virtual environments over existing Trusted Platform Module virtualization techniques, which includes an improved application program interface, cryptographic algorithm flexibility, and a configurable modular architecture. We define a unique Trusted Environment Key that combines trust from the information owner and the service provider to create a dual root of trust for the TVEM that is distinct for every virtual environment and separate from the platform's trust. This paper presents the requirements, design, and architecture of our approach.
Let's get physical: Adding physical dimensions to cyber systems

Technology advances are creating major shifts in the industrial landscape. Traditional sectors such as transportation, medical and avionics, are witnessing fundamental changes in the supply chain and in the content where the interactions between the physical world and the computing world are becoming increasingly tight. Cyber Physical Systems, Systems of Systems, Internet of Things, Industrie 4.0, Swarm Systems and The Fog are all sectors that attract massive attention from the research communities and massive investment from industry. These concepts are tightly intertwined and describe a movement towards a fully interconnected planet where billions of devices interact via a complex mesh of wireless and wired communication infrastructures. The most compelling vision for the future of technology and industry is one where a swarm of devices is connected with the cloud to provide platforms for myriad of new applications. In this new world, new companies will arise and established ones will have to change radically their business model. The increasing sophistication and heterogeneity of these systems requires radical changes in the way sense-and-control platforms are designed to regulate them. In this presentation, I highlight some of the design challenges due to the complexity, heterogeneity and power consumption of CPS. Indeed, low power consumption is an essential requirement for the swarm of devices especially in the domain of wearable devices for healthcare. Coupled with low cost and reliability, power consumption has to be taken into consideration for any CPS deployment.
Signaling Pathways in Biliary Epithelial Cells

Biliary epithelial cells, or cholangiocytes, line the lumen of the biliary tree. Like hepatocytes, cholangiocytes are a polarized epithelium with structural features that include well-defined apical and basolateral membrane domains. Cholangiocytes constitute approximately 5% of the mass of the liver and play an important role in the formation of bile by altering primary canalicular bile through a series of secretory and reabsorptive events. These events are regulated by peptide hormones, nucleotides, bile salts, growth factors, cytokines, and neurotransmitters that bind to and stimulate specific apical or basolateral surface membrane receptors, which in turn initiate intracellular signal transduction pathways that regulate cell function. In addition to their role in the modification of ductal bile, cholangiocytes participate in the detoxification of xenobiotics [1].
Similarity and Diversity in Chemical Design

Following a simple introduction to drug discovery research, this chapter presents some mathematical formulations and approaches to problems involved in chemical database analysis that might interest mathematical/physical scientists. With continued advances in structure determination, genomics, and high-throughput screening and related (more focused) techniques, in silico drug design is playing an important role as never before. Thus, traditional structure-directed library design methods in combination with newer approaches like fragment-based drug design [496, 1447], virtual screening [453, 1179], and system-scale approaches to drug design [236, 278, 649] will form important areas of research.
Multimarket Contact and On-Time Performance in the Us Airline Industry

We examine the impact of multimarket contact on on-time performance in the airline industry. Using flight-level data for more than 3.5 million flights, we find that increases in multimarket contact lead to increases in delays, and this result is robust to several delay measures and the inclusion of carrier-route, as well as month, fixed effects. We further determine that the effect is primarily in the form of departure delays, and not due to changes in scheduled flight times or time spent in the air. These findings provide support for the mutual forbearance hypothesis, and suggest that multimarket contact facilitates tacit collusion not only on price - but also on quality.
Isotope studies of the effect of acid sites on the reactions of C3 intermediates during isosynthesis over zirconium dioxide and modified zirconium dioxide

Abstract CO hydrogenation reactions over zirconium dioxide at 425°C and 35 atm proceeds by two chain growth steps to C 4 products, CO insertion into aldehydic ZrC bonds, and condensation between methoxide and η 3 -enolates. Carbon-13-labeled acetone and methanol were co-fed with CO/H 2 to study the effect of surface acid and base characteristics on the C 3 intermediates and their reactions leading to C 4 hydrocarbon products. Studies were conducted over zirconium dioxide, H 2 SO 4 modified zirconium dioxide, 9% Sc 2 O 3 ZrO 2 , 9% Y 2 O 3 ZrO 2 and 9% Sm 2 O 3 ZrO 2 . Branched C 3 intermediates were more likely than linear C 3 intermediates to form on acidic catalysts. Lewis acid sites enhanced the condensation reaction involving a reaction between an η 3 -enolate and a methoxide. The more acidic the catalyst, the greater the percentage of C 4 products. However, the most acidic catalysts did not necessarily have the highest branched-to-linear ratios. The importance of enolate stabilization and of the condensation reaction on the isosynthesis reaction are discussed.
Electron Spin Echo Envelope Modulation Spectroscopy Reveals and Distinguishes Equatorial and Axial Nitrogen Ligands Bound to VO2

ESEEM (electron spin echo envelope modulation) spectra of a series of vanadyl complexes have for the first time revealed the spectral features that arise from amine nitrogen donors trans to the vanadyl oxo moiety. The complexes [VO(H2O)ada] (1) and [VO(H2O)Hheida] (2) (H2ada, N-(2-acetamido)iminodiacetic acid; H3heida, N-(2-hydroxyethyl)iminodiacetic acid) have recently been synthesized and crystallographically characterized (Hamstra, B. J.; Houseman, A. L. P.; Colpas, G. J.; Kampf, J. W.; LoBrutto, R.; Frasch, W. D.; Pecoraro, V. L. Inorg. Chem. 1997, 36, 4866−4874). In each structure, the ligand is disposed so that the tertiary nitrogen is bound trans to the vanadyl oxo. In solution, the structural integrity of these compounds is maintained as observed by UV/vis and EPR spectroscopies. ESEEM spectra of 1, 2, and [VO(H2O)nta]- (3) (H3nta, nitrilotriacetic acid) reveal that the superhyperfine coupling constants for axial amines are ≅1.3 MHz as opposed to the ≅5.0 MHz superhyperfine couplings typically obs...
Modeling study on the distribution of flow and volume in the microcirculation of cat mesentery

In this paper, a method for the calculation of the distribution of vascular volume and flow in a repeating modular organization is presented. The calculation is based on the measured distribution of the mean transit time obtained by an indicator dilution technique. Several examples of the distributions of the vascular volume and flow are considered. The existence of higher flow in the capillaries more proximal to the large artery is demonstrated. The calculated volume for the perimeter vessels and for the capillaries agrees qualitatively with direct measurements.
Design of a 10-Gb/s integrated limiting receiver for silicon photonics interconnects

A 10-Gb/s integrated limiting receiver for silicon photonics interconnects is proposed with detailed system level and circuit level design and analysis. Silicon photonics devices fabricated in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) can be seamlessly integrated with standard CMOS process, which allows compact system integration and significantly lower power dissipation. By taking the advantages of low parasitic capacitance of the on-chip Germanium (Ge) detector and adopting bandwidth extension techniques, a total bandwidth of 7.2 GHz with 87 mW power consumption is obtained in a 0.13-μm CMOS process. The final differential output signal has a peak-to-peak swing of about 1.2 V and a peak-to-peak jitter of 14.3 ps and 9.8 ps for 10-Gb/s 27 - 1 PRBS data with an average received optical power of -17 dBm and 0 dBm, respectively.
Influence of Medium Concentration on Prolactin and Growth Hormone Cells During Short‐Term Incubation of Pituitary Glands from Tilapia mossambica

Pituitaries removed from Tilapia mossambica adapted either to sea water or fresh water were incubated for 3 or 6 hours in isosmotic or hyposmotic medium. Activation of prolactin cells from pituitaries incubated in hyposmotic medium was indicated by frequent exocytosis and by proliferation of cellular organelles. These pituitaries also showed a reduction in prolactin content and an increase in the amount of bioassayable prolactin in the medium. Incorporation of tritiated leucine into prolactin was least in prolactin cells from seawater Tilapia incubated in isosmotic medium and greatest in those of freshwater Tilapia incubated in hyposmotic medium. These observations indicate that in Tilapia, both synthesis and secretion of prolactin may be stimulated directly by dilution of the medium bathing the pituitary. On the other hand, there were no ultrastructural changes in the presumptive growth hormone cells incubated for 3 or 6 hours in the hyposmotic medium. Hence, these cells do not appear to play a major osmoregulatory role.
Color vision in squirrel monkeys: Sex-related differences suggest the mode of inheritance

Behavioral tests of vision in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) reveal that there are widespread individual variations in color vision in this species. The variation has a sex-related component: whereas both trichromatic and dichromatic color vision occurs among female monkeys, males appear exclusively dichromatic. This finding suggests that, unlike humans, squirrel monkeys have only a single photopigment locus on the X chromosome.
Human TNFα-induced protein 3-interacting protein 1 (TNIP1) promoter activation is regulated by retinoic acid receptors.

Abstract Coregulator proteins play key roles in transcriptional control by members of the nuclear receptor superfamily. Previously, we demonstrated that tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα)-induced protein 3-interacting protein 1 (TNIP1) is a corepressor of agonist-bound retinoic acid receptors (RARs). Additionally, TNIP1 has been shown to repress peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) and NF-κB activity and interact with HIV proteins nef and matrix. TNIP1 transcriptional regulation, however, is under studied. Here we show that under permissive epigenetic conditions, TNIP1 expression is induced by all trans retinoic acid (ATRA). Within a 6000 bp region of the human TNIP1 promoter we cloned, both proximal and distal promoter regions are RAR responsive with the latter having RA response elements (RAREs) recognizable by their sequence and functionality in native promoter and synthetic RARE luciferase constructs, EMSA, and ChIP assays. These findings suggest a feedback loop whereby RARs activate expression of TNIP1, which then attenuates their activity. Together with anticipated constitutive transcription factors and the previously described NF-κB-responsiveness of the proximal TNIP1 promoter, the expected combinatorial control of TNIP1 expression could likely modulate TNIP1's impact in any of its target pathways. The degree of control by RARs or other transcription factors would in turn depend on their cell-specific level of expression and/or activation from signals in the environment such as ATRA and TNFα.
Oxcarbazepine monotherapy in children and adolescents: a single-center clinical experience.

This single-center analysis evaluated the efficacy of oxcarbazepine monotherapy in children and adolescents. A retrospective chart review identified 60 patients (male = 33, female = 27) aged 6 months to 17.8 years (mean age 8.2 ± 4.7 years) with partial onset epilepsy receiving oxcarbazepine monotherapy. The range of oxcarbazepine dose was 6-71 mg/kg/day (mean 26.3 ± 11.4 mg/kg/day). The duration of therapy ranged from 3 months to 8 years (mean duration 16.7 ± 14.3 months). Fifty-one patients (85%) achieved ≥50% reduction in seizure frequency, and 25 of 60 patients (42%) achieved seizure freedom. Ten patients (16.67%) reported adverse events including drowsiness, aggressive behavior, ataxia, dizziness, diplopia, and leg cramps. No hyponatremia or skin rash was observed. Twenty-four patients were switched from carbamazepine to oxcarbazepine monotherapy. In these patients carbamazepine was discontinued because of incidence of adverse events, poor seizure control, or both. Seventy-nine percent of patients switched from carbamazepine to oxcarbazepine monotherapy had ≥50% reduction in seizure frequency, and 37.5% became seizure-free. These findings suggest that oxcarbazepine monotherapy is effective and well tolerated in children and adolescents with partial epilepsy.
Illusory surface perception and visual organization

Illusory contours occur in a wide variety of circumstances in nature. A striking man- made example is the Kanizsa triangle. A common factor in all such figures is the perception of a surface occluding part of a background, i.e. illusory contours are always accompanied by illusory surfaces. The detection of occlusion cues suggest various different local surface configurations, leading to a large combinatorial set of global surface configurations, each one constituting an image organization. We address the problems of why and how the image organizations that yield illusory contours arise. Our approach is to: (i) detect occlusions; (ii) assign surface-states at these locations that reflect the presence of a particular surface configuration; (iii) apply a Bayesian model to diffuse this local surface information; (iv) define an entropy measure for each image organization to select the best one(s) as the one(s) giving the lowest entropy values. We note that: (a) the illusory contours arise from the surface boundaries, and hence we do not propagate/extend intensity edges directly; (b) the overlapping surfaces provide an explanation for amodal completions. The model reproduces various qualitative and quantitative aspects of illusory contour perception and has been supported by a series of experiments.
Social network privacy measurement and simulation

Privacy has become an important concern in online social networks. One of the fundamental challenging issues is privacy measurement. Without a practical and effective way to quantify, measure and evaluate privacy, it is hard for social networking sites and users to make and adjust privacy settings to protect privacy. In this paper, we introduce a practical and effective approach for privacy measurement in social networks. We use Privacy Index (PIDX) to measure a user's privacy exposure in a social network. PIDX is a numerical value between 0 and 100. High PIDX value indicates high privacy risk in social networks. A privacy index function PIDX(i, j) is proposed to evaluate actor Aj's privacy exposure to actor Aj. Using this model, it is convenient to evaluate any users' privacy exposure to their friends, friends of friends, and public. We further develop a social network privacy simulation tool, OSNPIDX, to verify the effectiveness of our approach.
Political Information Processing: Question Order and Context Effects

Data from two independent field experiments indicate that changes in question order and context may well account for an apparently precipitous decline of interest in politics at the time of the CPS 1978 American National Election Study. Evidence from a question order experiment with the SRC/CPS “feeling thermometers” also suggests that such contextual artifacts may not be atypical. Indeed, because of the many changes in the content and organization of the election studies over the years, context effects represent plausible rival hypotheses for a number of inexplicable shifts and trends in the time-series. In testing these hypotheses the authors derive and validate an information-processing model of how respondents infer their political “states of mind” from observations of their own question-answering behavior in the survey interview. In addition, the authors illustrate the wide applicability of the model tosubstantive problems in the discipline and its implications for the survey-based paradigm in political behavior research.
Symmetric mixed states of n qubits: Local unitary stabilizers and entanglement classes

We classify, up to local unitary equivalence, local unitary stabilizer Lie algebras for symmetric mixed states of $n$ qubits into six classes. These include the stabilizer types of the Werner states, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and its generalizations, and Dicke states. For all but the zero algebra, we classify entanglement types (local unitary equivalence classes) of symmetric mixed states that have those stabilizers. We make use of the identification of symmetric density matrices with polynomials in three variables with real coefficients and apply the representation theory of SO(3) on this space of polynomials.
Segmentation of the brain from 3D MRI using a hierarchical active surface template

The accurate segmentation of the brain from three-dimensional medical imagery is important as the basis for visualization, morphometry, surgical planning and intraoperative navigation. The complex and variable nature of brain anatomy makes recognition of the brain boundaries a difficult problem and frustrates segmentation schemes based solely on local image features. We have developed a deformable surface model of the brain as a mechanism for utilizing a priori anatomical knowledge in the segmentation process. The active surface template uses an energy minimization scheme to find a globally consistent surface configuration given a set of potentially ambiguous image features. Solution of the entire 3D problem at once produces superior results to those achieved using a slice by slice approach. We have achieved good results with MR image volumes of both normal and abnormal subjects. Evaluation of the segmentation results has been performed using cadaver studies.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The activity of crystalline ribonuclease A.

Summary The catalytic action of crystalline ribonticlease A (polyribonucleotide 2-oligo-nucleoticlotransferase (cyclizing), EC 2.7.7.16) toward cytidine 2′,3′-phosphate was determined in 75% 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol, the medium in which the crystals are equilibrated for crystallographic studies. The crystalline enzyme is active in this medium. The activity, however, is due not only to the presence of crystalline enzyme, but also to enzyme which is dissolved by the substrate solution. The enzyme is highly aggregated in this solvent. The activity of a molecule of crystalline ribomiclease is between one and ten times that of a molecule of ribomiclease in aqueous solution.
A Correlation Polarimeter for Noise-Like Signals

Optimum estimation (tracking) of the polarization plane of a linearly polarized electromagnetic wave is determined when the signal is a narrow-band Gaussian random process with a polarization plane angle which is also a Gaussian random process. This model is Compared to previous work and is applicable to space communication. The estimator performs a correlation operation similar to an amplitude -comparison monopulse angle tracker, giving the name correlation polarimeter. Under large signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the estimator is causal. Performance of the causal correlation polarimeter is evaluated for arbitrary SNR. Optimum precorrelation filtering is determined. With low SNR, the performance of this system is far better than that of previously developed systems. Practical implementation is discussed. A scheme is given to reduce the effect of linearly polarized noise.
A computational model of how an interaction between the thalamocortical and thalamic reticular neurons transforms the low-frequency oscillations of the globus pallidus.

In Parkinson’s disease, neurons of the internal segment of the globus pallidus (GPi) display the low-frequency tremor-related oscillations. These oscillatory activities are transmitted to the thalamic relay nuclei. Computer models of the interacting thalamocortical (TC) and thalamic reticular (RE) neurons were used to explore how the TC-RE network processes the low-frequency oscillations of the GPi neurons. The simulation results show that, by an interaction between the TC and RE neurons, the TC-RE network transforms a low-frequency oscillatory activity of the GPi neurons to a higher frequency of oscillatory activity of the TC neurons (the superharmonic frequency transformation). In addition to the interaction between the TC and RE neurons, the low-threshold calcium current in the RE and TC neurons and the hyperpolarization-activated cation current (I h) in the TC neurons have significant roles in the superharmonic frequency transformation property of the TC-RE network. The external globus pallidus (GPe) oscillatory activity, which is directly transmitted to the RE nucleus also displays a significant modulatory effect on the superharmonic frequency transformation property of the TC-RE network.
Continuous-wave, room temperature, ridge waveguide green-blue diode laser

Continuous-wave (CW) operation of ridge waveguide quantum well diode lasers in the green/blue has been demonstrated at voltages as low as 4.4V in ZnCdSe/ZnSSe/ZnMgSSe pseudomorphic separate confinement heterostructures, with output powers up to 10mW.
Rubiacearum Americanarum Magna Hama Pars XX. New Species of Faramea (Coussareae) from Central and South America

ABSTRACT Seven new species of Faramea Aublet (Rubiaceae, Coussareae) are newly described from Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. The new species F. colombiana C. M. Taylor from northwestern Colombia differs from F. robusta C. M. Taylor by its longer pedicels and larger flowers; F. condorica C. M. Taylor from southeastern Ecuador differs from F. phyllonomoides Standley by its longer calyx limbs and corollas with the tubes about twice as long as the lobes; F. frondosa C. M. Taylor from Panama differs from F. eurycarpa Donnell Smith by its oblanceolate to obovate calyx lobes 3.5–7 mm long; F. melicoccoides C. M. Taylor from western Colombia is distinguished by its relatively large fruits with a thickened pericarp, juicy mesocarp, and single smooth seed; F. ortiziana C. M. Taylor from Amazonian Peru differs from F. guianensis (Aublet) Bremekamp by its often terminal inflorescences and larger flowers and fruits; F. robusta C. M. Taylor from northwestern Colombia differs from F. polytriadophora Bremekamp by i...
A service perspective on the drivers of complaint intentions

This study assesses the effects of service evaluations in a failed service experience on complaining intentions in a future encounter. A model is developed and tested that investigates the relation...
Suppression of T Lymphocyte Proliferation to Antigenic and Mitogenic Stimuli by Benzo(α)pyrene and 2-Aminofluorene Metabolites

Here, we attempt to reveal how 2-aminofluorene (AF), benzo(α)pyrene (BP) and their major metabolites affect T–cell responses to antigenic and mitogenic stimuli. P-450-related metabolism of these parent compounds to metabolites seems to precede the observed immunosuppression; therefore, we investigated the influence of α-naphthoflavone (P-450 inhibitor) and β-naphthoflavone (P-450 inducer) on BP and AF immunosuppression. We used proliferative responses to concanavalin A and the allogeneic mixed lymphocyte response as correlates of immunosuppression. We also attempted to correlate DNA-adduction to the extent of observed immunosuppression for AF and BP metabolites. These data show that the pathway to the strongest immunosuppressive agents for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and arylamines are divergent and related to metabolism by P450 enzymes.
Institutional Roles and Training Issues in International Agricultural Development

HIS PAPER examines the changing roles and the relative strengths and limitations of foreign and domestic institutions in terms of formal degree and non-degree training and related research needs in the economics of agricultural development in the LDCs. The U. S. agricultural economics profession has been heavily involved in formal degree training of LDC students. Our primary concern is how changing capabilities, financial support, and aspirations in U. S. and LDC institutions are affecting the role of the U. S. profession in international agricultural development. A related question concerns ways and means by which U. S. universities can strengthen graduate training for LDC students and make it more useful in meeting their needs. Our second major concern deals with the roles and relationships between U. S. and LDC universities on one hand and international research