cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Glass Breaking, Strategy Making, and Value Creating: Meta-Analytic Outcomes of Women as CEOs and TMT members

We conduct a comprehensive synthesis of the research on how female representation in the upper echelons (i.e., top management teams and chief executive officer positions) might affect firm performa...
Management of Recalcitrant Flap Macrostriae

Flap macrostriae are relatively rare but can be a very challenging complication of LASIK surgery [1]. This case demonstrates early and late decision-making paradigm for managing flap macrostriae.
Incidence and Risk Factors of Postoperative Hematoma Requiring Reoperation in Single-level Lumbar Fusion Surgery.

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the present study was to examine the incidence and risk factors for postoperative hematoma requiring reoperation in patients undergoing single-level lumbar fusion surgery. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Postoperative hematoma can cause devastating neurological consequences after spine surgery. Risk factors for hematoma in specific spine procedures have not been well established. METHODS A cohort of patients undergoing single-level lumbar fusion surgery was constructed from the 2012 to 2013 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program dataset using Current Procedural Terminology codes (22533, 22558, 22612, 22630, and 22633). In cases requiring reoperation within 30 days after initial surgery, postoperative hematoma was identified using the ICD-9 code 998.1. Risk factors for postoperative hematoma were assessed with logistic regression modeling. RESULTS Of 5280 patients undergoing single-level lumbar fusion surgery, 27 patients (0.5%) developed a postoperative hematoma requiring reoperation for hematoma evacuation. A heightened incidence of postoperative hematoma was found in patients who were smokers (1.0% vs. 0.4% for nonsmokers, P = 0.016) or who had a diagnosis of bleeding disorder (3.8% vs. 0.5% for those without bleeding disorder, P = 0.007). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the adjusted odds ratios for postoperative hematoma associated with smoking and bleeding disorder were 3.34 (95% confidence interval, 1.15-9.71) and 10.2 (95% confidence interval, 1.9-54.8), respectively. CONCLUSION Smoking and bleeding disorder appear to be major risk factors for postoperative hematoma requiring reoperation after single-level lumbar fusion surgery. Intervention programs targeting patients with these risk factors are needed to reduce their excess risk of postoperative hematoma. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 3.
Drug Delivery to Cornea and Conjunctiva: Esterase- and Protease-Directed Prodrug Design

Drug entry across cornea and conjunctiva following topical administration is a formidable challenge due to highly lipophilic epithelial membrane with tight junctions. Prodrug strategy targeted toward esterases and amidases for bioreversion has been found to be an effective and promising approach for improving drug permeation. Esterases and proteases are known to be present ubiquitously in most of the ocular tissues. The ability of therapeutically inactive prodrug to generate the active parent drug following corneal/conjunctival absorption determines its efficacy and utility. Lipophilic ester prodrug design – though successful in terms of achieving enhanced corneal/conjunctival permeability – is limited by solubility and formulation constraints. Recently, nutrient transporter-mediated prodrug delivery has gained attention in ophthalmic drug delivery. Prodrugs targeted toward nutrient transporters for absorption followed by hydrolyzing enzymes toward activation can be an effective strategy to improve ocular drug absorption.
TolC, a macromolecular periplasmic 'chunnel'.

The crystal structure of TolC, one of the most mysterious proteins in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, suggests a mechanism for its role in secretion of proteins and efflux of toxic chemicals.
Mechanism and Regulation of NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation

Members of the nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-containing (NLR) family and the pyrin and HIN domain (PYHIN) family can form multiprotein complexes termed 'inflammasomes'. The biochemical function of inflammasomes is to activate caspase-1, which leads to the maturation of interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) and IL-18 and the induction of pyroptosis, a form of cell death. Unlike other inflammasomes, the NLRP3 inflammasome can be activated by diverse stimuli. The importance of the NLRP3 inflammasome in immunity and human diseases has been well documented, but the mechanism and regulation of its activation remain unclear. In this review we summarize current understanding of the mechanism and regulation of NLRP3 inflammasome activation as well as recent advances in the noncanonical and alternative inflammasome pathways.
Direct Oral Anticoagulants: Monitoring Anticoagulant Effect

In some clinical settings laboratory measurement of direct oral anticoagulants effect is helpful in guiding medical care, such as life-threatening bleeding, need for emergency surgery, renal impairment, severe hepatic failure, extremes of body weight, or in patients with bleeding or thrombosis on therapy. This article reviews approaches to laboratory testing to assess the anticoagulant effect of these drugs. Because of the wide variation in levels measured in patients on therapy and minimal clinical data from dose adjustment, dose adjustment based on levels is not currently advised. In addition, these drugs interfere with many clot-based laboratory tests and caution is advised in interpreting these tests in patients on direct oral anticoagulants.
Network Synchronization Initialization Performance of a TDMA System in the Ground Environment

Results from a digital computer simulation of a network of approximately 50 nodes, typifying a spread spectrum time division multiple access (TDMA) system such as the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS), in a ground environment, are presented, and discussed. The results apply to initialization performance of network synchronization. The results provide an insight into network management tradeoffs which may be made with respect to: a) method of network synchronization, b) system capacity needed for network synchronization, and c) degree of network connectivity. The results provide qualitative as well as quantitative assessment of the impact of changing any of the above network management variables when the others remain fixed at various operating points. Since a wide range of time delays, typically from, few to many minutes may be incurred, it is concluded that network management techniques may be optimized to meet the initialization performance requirements of a given network. Such optimizations, however, depend upon specific implementations of the network synchronization process, the dynamics of the network nodes and the environment (electromagnetic, terrain, and weather) affecting their connectivity.
Phantom PAINS: Problems with the Utility of Alerts for Pan-Assay INterference CompoundS

The use of substructural alerts to identify Pan-Assay INterference compoundS (PAINS) has become a common component of the triage process in biological screening campaigns. These alerts, however, were originally derived from a proprietary library tested in just six assays measuring protein–protein interaction (PPI) inhibition using the AlphaScreen detection technology only; moreover, 68% (328 out of the 480 alerts) were derived from four or fewer compounds. In an effort to assess the reliability of these alerts as indicators of pan-assay interference, we performed a large-scale analysis of the impact of PAINS alerts on compound promiscuity in bioassays using publicly available data in PubChem. We found that the majority (97%) of all compounds containing PAINS alerts were actually infrequent hitters in AlphaScreen assays measuring PPI inhibition. We also found that the presence of PAINS alerts, contrary to expectations, did not reflect any heightened assay activity trends across all assays in PubChem includ...
Reviewing the Emergence of Lactococcus garvieae: A Case of Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection Caused by Lactococcus garvieae and Escherichia coli Coinfection.

Lactococcus garvieae is considered a low virulence organism which is rarely associated with human infections. Most of the reported cases have been associated with bacteremia with or without endocarditis. We report a rare case of catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) caused by Lactococcus garvieae and Escherichia coli coinfection without any bacteremia in a patient with indwelling urinary catheter placed for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The patient also had a history of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) with long standing famotidine treatment. In our case, Lactococcus garvieae was initially misidentified as Enterococcus species but was later detected by automated microbial identification system VITEK-2 (BioMerieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France) and was confirmed with API 32 Strep system (BioMerieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France). The patient responded well to a two-week course of cephalosporin. Interestingly, apart from the acid suppressive treatment, no other risk factors were identified.
A crosslinguistic study of some extended uses of what -based interrogative expressions in Chinese, English, and Korean

Abstract Interrogative pronouns such as what in English, shenme in Mandarin Chinese, and mwe/mwusun in Korean all have developed extended uses beyond interrogation. Such uses may include filling a gap in conversation, softening a speaker’s epistemic stance, and indicating strong emotions such as surprises or incredulity. Yet there is little research dealing with crosslinguistic patterns with large corpora of interactive discourse data. In this paper, we investigate the extended uses based on corpora of multiple telephone calls from the three languages. We show that eight categories of extended use can be identified in the corpora and that most of the extended uses tend to fall in the negative territory. We provide a pragmatic interactive account for this phenomenon and hope that the taxonomy and coding scheme developed here can serve as a starting point for future crosslinguistic and corpus-based comparative studies of what-like tokens as well as of the discourse pragmatic uses of other interrogative forms.
3D freeform printing of silk fibroin.

Abstract Freeform fabrication has emerged as a key direction in printing biologically-relevant materials and structures. With this emerging technology, complex structures with microscale resolution can be created in arbitrary geometries and without the limitations found in traditional bottom-up or top-down additive manufacturing methods. Recent advances in freeform printing have used the physical properties of microparticle-based granular gels as a medium for the submerged extrusion of bioinks. However, most of these techniques require post-processing or crosslinking for the removal of the printed structures (Miller et al., 2015; Jin et al., 2016) [1] , [2] . In this communication, we introduce a novel method for the one-step gelation of silk fibroin within a suspension of synthetic nanoclay (Laponite) and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Silk fibroin has been used as a biopolymer for bioprinting in several contexts, but chemical or enzymatic additives or bulking agents are needed to stabilize 3D structures. Our method requires no post-processing of printed structures and allows for in situ physical crosslinking of pure aqueous silk fibroin into arbitrary geometries produced through freeform 3D printing. Statement of Significance 3D bioprinting has emerged as a technology that can produce biologically relevant structures in defined geometries with microscale resolution. Techniques for fabrication of free-standing structures by printing into granular gel media has been demonstrated previously, however, these methods require crosslinking agents and post-processing steps on printed structures. Our method utilizes one-step gelation of silk fibroin within a suspension of synthetic nanoclay (Laponite), with no need for additional crosslinking compounds or post processing of the material. This new method allows for in situ physical crosslinking of pure aqueous silk fibroin into defined geometries produced through freeform 3D printing.
CONTINUOUS-RANDOM-NETWORK MODELS FOR THE Si-SiO2 INTERFACE

ABSTRACT Continuous-Random-Network (CRN) models have been constructed in order to simulate the atomic arrangement of the Si-SiO2 interface. It was found that models could be constructed with or without an SiOx layer between the crystalline Si and the amorphous stoichiometric SiO2. The atomic coordinates were relaxed using a computer program and a simple force model. In order to probe the width w of the SiOx layer, additional O atoms were gradually inserted, thus reducing w, and a normalized elastic energy was monitored. Using a wide range of choices for the force constants, it was found that the elastic energy was always lowered as w → 0.
You Can Go Home Again

I want to take you through the house that I came home to, after being my mother’s first child born in a hospital. I knew that house, its every nook and cranny. It was a treasure house in memory proving that ninety odd years later you can go home again.
Sex differences in vascular reactivity in mesenteric arteries from a mouse model of acute intermittent porphyria.

Abstract Background and aims Acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) results from a partial deficiency of porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD). Symptomatic AIP patients, most of whom are women, experience acute attacks characterized by severe abdominal pain and abrupt increases in blood pressure. Here, we characterized the reactivity of mesenteric arteries from male and female AIP mice with ~30% of normal PBGD activity and wild type C57BL/6 mice. Methods An acute porphyric attack was induced in AIP mice by treatment with phenobarbital. Vascular responses to K+, phenylephrine (PE), acetylcholine (ACh), and hemin were determined (Wire Multi Myograph). Results Maximal contraction to PE was increased in arteries from male and female AIP mice (p Summary/conclusions Sex differences in this AIP mouse model include a pro-contractile response in females. These alterations may contribute to the increased blood pressure during an acute attack and provide a novel mechanism of action whereby heme ameliorates the attacks.
Ecological genetics of Bromus tectorum : III. The demography of reciprocally sown populations.

By incorporating demographic analyses of fitness components (e.g., survival and reproduction) within a reciprocal sowing design, we tested for 3 consecutive years whether local adaptation has occurred in the alien grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) within 7 habitats along an environmental gradient from arid steppe to subalpine forest in the Intermontain Region of western North America. Patterns of emergence and survival were strongly influenced by the local environment. In terms of survival, expression of significant local adaptation in Tsuga heterophylla habitat varied among years. In contrast, relative differences in flowering time among seed sources were stable across sites and years. Populations from the arid steppe were the earliest to flower; flowering was latest in populations from the mesic Tsuga heterophylla habitat. In terms of net reproductive rate, evidence for local adaptation in B. tectorum was obtained in populations from habitats representing environmental extremes: an arid, saline site dominated by the shrub Sarcobatus vermiculatus and clearings within the cool, mesic Tsuga heterophylla forest habitat. Unlike the plants introduced from other sites, members of the resident population at the Sarcobatus site flowered and produced seeds before soil water became limiting. In contrast, net reproductive rates in other habitats were sometimes the lowest for populations in their home site. This lack of an advantage for local populations within more environmentally moderate sites suggests that limited dispersal may restrict the rate at which superior genotypes are introduced into a particular site.
Lithium Substituted Poly(acrylic acid) as a Mechanically Robust Binder for Low-Cost Silicon Microparticle Electrodes

Silicon microparticles (SiMPs) are attractive anode materials for lithium ion batteries due to their high theoretical capacity, low cost, high initial Coulombic efficiency, and large packaging dens...
Comments on “Assessment of solubility and Hansen solubility parameters of rifampicin in various permeation enhancers: Experimental and computational approach”

Abstract A polemic is given regarding the published curve-fit equation coefficients for both the van’t Hoff and Modified Apelblat equations, as well as for the published apparent thermodynamic properties of dissolution of rifampicin in several neat permeation enhancers and in several neat organic solvents.
A dose of reality for moral twin earth

Nearly 30 years ago, Terry Horgan and Mark Timmons published a now- popular article that combines Hilary Putnam’s Twin Earth scenario with G.E. Moore’s open question argument in an effort to show t...
Evaluation of pelvic washing specimens in patients with endometrial cancer: Cytomorphological features, diagnostic agreement, and pathologist experience

BACKGROUND Pelvic washings for patients with endometrial cancer is recommended but not used for staging. The International System for Reporting Serous Fluid Cytology (TIS) has standardized diagnostic categories, but the criteria remain incomplete. The 3 primary goals of this study were to 1) investigate features that distinguish atypical/indeterminate from malignant specimens, 2) measure the level of agreement between chart and reviewer diagnoses, and 3) determine whether the number of years in practice had an effect on the diagnoses rendered. METHODS Pelvic washings and surgical pathology specimens for 52 patients with a chart diagnosis of atypical/indeterminate, suspicious, or malignant cytology and 52 age-matched controls with a negative chart diagnosis were included, reviewed blindly by 2 cytopathologists, and assigned a study diagnosis. Morphologic features were assessed. Agreement between original chart diagnoses and reviewer diagnoses were assessed as well as effect of years in practice. RESULTS The overall cellularity in cell block (CB) slides for the malignant category was significantly increased compared with the atypical/indeterminate category (P < .0001). In addition, the number of atypical groups in ThinPrep for malignant washings was significantly increased compared with the atypical category (P < .001) and the negative and suspicious categories (P < .0001) in the CB. Overall agreement between the original and adjudicated diagnoses was high (γ = 0.983). There was no significant difference between diagnoses rendered and years in practice. CONCLUSION The overall cellularity and number of atypical cells can be used to distinguish between malignant and atypical pelvic washing specimens. There is high reproducibility in the diagnostic categories and high agreement among pathologists, regardless of practice experience. These findings can help refine the criteria for TIS.
IRA Withdrawal Patterns in Times of Crisis

One of the provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that affects retirees is the waiver of required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2020. The waiver, which applies to all 401(k) and individual retirement account (IRA) owners, provides flexibility so that retirees can avoid liquidating assets at low prices and preserve their assets. In this Issue Brief, we explore historical IRA withdrawal patterns of older Americans, including those taking only RMDs and those taking distributions that exceed the RMD level. We look at prior crises, such as the Great Recession of 2008–2009, to see how withdrawal patterns were affected by both financial hardships and RMD waivers during that time. Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) examines the IRA withdrawal behavior of older Americans in the 50–70 and 71-and-older age groups, before and after the age of RMDs, from 2002–2016, biennially. We find that: • Both the share of households reporting IRA withdrawals and the average percentage of their account balances withdrawn went up between 2008 and 2010 for IRA owners ages 50–70, suggesting that during market downturns, households are more likely to withdraw too much, too fast from their IRAs. • For households ages 71 and older who were subject to RMDs, the 2008 market downturn did not appear to have increased the share withdrawing from their IRAs. However, it did result in increased average withdrawals relative to account balances for those taking withdrawals in excess of the RMD. The 2009 RMD waiver had a modest impact in lowering the share of households who made RMD-only withdrawals. • IRA withdrawals of households ages 50–70 and those ages 71 and older who withdrew more than the RMD were associated with a decline in the households’ other financial assets. • On average, households ages 71 and older who withdrew only RMDs increased their other financial savings and non-housing wealth. • Both the share of households taking withdrawals that exceeded RMDs and the average percentage of the IRA balance withdrawn increased as income decreased.
Changes in Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor From Active and Sham Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Older Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis.

Objectives Previous work has shown effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on clinical pain measures, qualitative sensory testing measures, and peripheral inflammation. The present report extends this research to investigate the effect of tDCS on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. Materials and methods This secondary analysis examined a sample of 40 older adults (50 to 70 y old) with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to active (n=20) or sham (n=20) tDCS for 20 minutes on 5 consecutive days. BDNF was measured before the first session and after the final treatment session. Generalized linear modeling evaluated BDNF plasma levels as a function of tDCS group, adjusted for baseline. Bayesian statistical inference was used to quantify the probability that effects of the treatment exist. Results Generalized linear modeling indicated a 90.4% posterior probability that the sham condition had 49.9% higher BDNF at the end of treatment, controlling for baseline. Follow-up analyses within the active TDCS group supported an association between change in BDNF and change in clinical pain, and exploratory analyses found an effect of tDCS on irisin. Discussion Results indicated that tDCS could be a potential nonpharmacological treatment to decrease BDNF levels, which may in turn decrease pain. This study adds to a growing literature suggesting that tDCS affects cortical excitability, and consequentially, the neural circuits implicated in pain modulation. In addition to a direct connection to analgesia, BDNF changes may reflect tDCS-induced changes in different cortical areas and/or neural circuits.
Algorithmically-consistent deep learning frameworks for structural topology optimization

Abstract Topology optimization has emerged as a popular approach to refine a component’s design and increase its performance. However, current state-of-the-art topology optimization frameworks are compute-intensive, mainly due to multiple finite element analysis iterations required to evaluate the component’s performance during the optimization process. Recently, machine learning (ML)-based topology optimization methods have been explored by researchers to alleviate this issue. However, previous ML approaches have mainly been demonstrated on simple two-dimensional applications with low-resolution geometry. Further, current methods are based on a single ML model for end-to-end prediction, which requires a large dataset for training. These challenges make it non-trivial to extend current approaches to higher resolutions. In this paper, we develop deep learning-based frameworks consistent with traditional topology optimization algorithms for 3D topology optimization with a reasonably fine (high) resolution. We achieve this by training multiple networks, each learning a different step of the overall topology optimization methodology, making the framework more consistent with the topology optimization algorithm. We demonstrate the application of our framework on both 2D and 3D geometries. The results show that our approach predicts the final optimized design better (5.76 × reduction in total compliance MSE in 2D; 2.03 × reduction in total compliance MSE in 3D) than current ML-based topology optimization methods.
Myocardial Strain and Association With Clinical Outcomes in Danon Disease: A Model for Monitoring Progression of Genetic Cardiomyopathies.

Background Myocardial strain can identify subclinical left ventricular dysfunction in various cardiac diseases, but its association with clinical outcomes in genetic cardiomyopathies remains unknown. Herein, we assessed myocardial strain in patients with Danon disease (DD), a rare X-linked autophagic disorder that causes severe cardiac manifestations. Methods and Results Echocardiographic images were reviewed and used to calculate myocardial strain from a retrospective, international registry of patients with DD. Regression analyses were performed to evaluate for an association of global longitudinal strain (GLS) and ejection fraction with the composite outcome (death, ventricular assist device, heart transplantation, and implantable cardioverter defibrillator for secondary prevention). A total of 22 patients with DD (male 14 [63.6%], median age 16.5 years) had sufficient echocardiograms for analysis. Absolute GLS was reduced with a mean of 12.2% with an apical-sparing pattern observed. Univariable regression for GLS and composite outcome showed an odds ratio of 1.32 (95% CI, 1.02-1.71) with P=0.03. For receiver operating characteristic analysis, the areas under the curve for GLS and ejection fraction were 0.810 (P=0.02) and 0.605 (P=0.44), respectively. An absolute GLS cutoff of 10.0% yielded a true positive rate of 85.7% and false positive rate of 13.3%. Conclusions In this cohort of patients with DD, GLS may be a useful assessment of myocardial function and may predict clinical outcomes. This study highlights the potential use of myocardial strain phenotyping to monitor disease progression and potentially to predict clinical outcomes in DD and other genetic cardiomyopathies.
Real time versatile robotics hand/eye calibration using 3D machine vision

A technique is described for computing 3-D position and orientation of a camera relative to the last joint of a robot manipulator in an eye-on-hand configuration. The calibration can be done within a fraction of a millisecond after the robot finishes the movement. The setup is simple (a planar set of calibration points arbitrarily placed on the work table, in addition to robot and camera) and is the same as that for a common camera calibration. This method is claimed to be faster, simpler, and more accurate than any existing technique for hand/eye calibration. Generic geometric properties of lemmas are presented, leading to the derivation of the final algorithms, which are aimed at simplicity, efficiency, and accuracy while giving ample geometric and algebraic insights. Besides describing the technique, critical factors influencing the accuracy are analysed, and procedures for improving accuracy are introduced. Tests results of both simulation and real experiments on an IBM Cartesian robot are reported. >
Model Checking Revisited

When we verify the correctness of an open system with respect to a desired requirement, we should take into consideration the different environments with which the system may interact. Each environment induces a different behavior of the system, and we want all these behaviors to satisfy the requirement. Module checking is an algorithmic method that checks, given an open system (modeled as a finite structure) and a desired requirement (specified by a temporal-logic formula), whether the open system satisfies the requirement with respect to all environments. In this paper we extend the module-checking method with respect to two orthogonal issues. Both issues concern the fact that often we are not interested in satisfaction of the requirement with respect to all environments, but only with respect to these that meet some restriction. We consider the case where the environment has incomplete information about the system; i.e., when the system has internal variables, which are not readable by its environment, and the case where some assumptions are known about environment; i.e., when the system is guaranteed to satisfy the requirement only when its environment satisfies certain assumptions. We study the complexities of the extended module-checking problems. In particular, we show that for universal temporal logics (e.g., LTL, ∀CTL, and ∀CTL*), module checking with incomplete information coincides with module checking, which by itself coincides with model checking. On the other hand, for non-universal temporal logics (e.g., CTL and CTL*), module checking with incomplete information is harder than module checking, which is by itself harder than model checking.
Field emission induced damage from nitrogen doped diamond films grown by microwave plasma CVD

This study explores the field emission properties of nitrogen doped diamond grown on n-type silicon by microwave plasma CVD. Nitrogen gas was used as the nitrogen doping source and was added directly to the process gas. With this configuration, nitrogen could be added as an impurity to the process gas with gas phase [N]/[C] ratios spanning from 0 to 80. Following deposition, the micro-Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectra were recorded using the 514.5 nm line of an argon ion laser as the excitation source. The sample surfaces were also examined using SEM and optical microscopy. Field emission measurements were obtained in UHV with a position-variable anode system. With this arrangement current voltage measurements are possible at numerous cathode to anode spacings.
Ionizing radiation promotes the acquisition of a senescence-associated secretory phenotype and impairs angiogenic capacity in cerebromicrovascular endothelial cells: role of increased DNA damage and decreased DNA repair capacity in microvascular radiosens (665.3)

Cerebromicrovascular rarefaction is believed to play a central role in cognitive impairment in patients receiving whole-brain irradiation therapy. To elucidate the mechanism underlying the deleteri...
Advanced methods of online searching for artificial intelligence information

The author discusses resources available via USENET, INTERNET, BITNET, and other sources that allow information to be shared electronically on a worldwide basis. He shows how these networks are used in discussion groups, mailing lists, file transfers, mailservers, and databases. >
Extended BDDs: trading off canonicity for structure in verification algorithms

We present an extension to binary decision diagrams (BDDs) that exploits the information contained in the structure of a given circuit to produce a compact,semicanonical, representation. The resulting XBDDs (extended BDDs) retain many of the advantages of BDDs, while at the same time allowing one to deal with larger circuits. We propose algorithms for verification of combinational circuits based on XBDDs that overcome the exponential growth in the number of nodes in the BDDs for some specific circuits such as the multipliers. While the approach remains cpu-time intensive, we believe it is the first to “exactly” verify the most difficult (median) output of a 16-bit multiplier. Experimental results are presented to support our claim that the XBDD approach is the “best” for multiplier verification.
Rodriguez-Iturbe receives Horton Medal

Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe was awarded the Robert E. Horton Medal at the AGU Spring Meeting Honors Ceremony, which was held on May 27, 1998, in Boston, Massachusetts. The Robert E. Horton Medal recognizes outstanding contributions to the geophysical aspects of hydrology.
Cass Sunstein's Cost-Benefit Lite: Economics for Liberals

Book Review: Cass R. Sunstein, The Cost-Benefit State: The Future of Regulatory Protection (ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, 2002) Cass R. Sunstein, Risk and Reason: Safety, Law, and the Environment (Cambridge University Press, 2002) In these two books, Professor Sunstein promotes cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as the presumptively correct decisionmaking tool for virtually all environmental health and safety regulation. His claims are both normative and descriptive. By avoiding the usual welfare economics defense of CBA, his normative claim sets aside the external critiques of CBA (like the incommensurability problem), and offers instead a set of "pragmatic" justifications: 1) CBA will rationalize government decisionmaking and reduce the undue influence of interest groups that exploit "cognitive distortions" that cause ordinary people to inaccurately assess risks; 2) CBA will increase transparency by forcing regulators to evaluate and describe the full array of consequences flowing from proposed regulations. These justifications are ultimately unconvincing because Professor Sunstein fails to take seriously the central concern of the internal critiques of CBA - indeterminacy. Ironically, when he tests his theories in practice with a careful and cogent case study of EPA's CBA of arsenic in drinking water, he discovers indeterminacy of an astonishing magnitude. He concludes that reasonable people might peg the benefits of the arsenic rule as low as $13 million or as high as $3.4 billion. Though he remains staunchly committed to CBA, the indeterminacy of CBA fatally undermines both of his "pragmatic" justifications. On the descriptive side, Professor Sunstein claims that the United States is becoming a "Cost-Benefit State" and that, as part of this trend, federal courts are adopting a set of "cost-benefit default principles" under which they apply a presumption in favor of CBA to their review of agency decisionmaking. A close look at these cases, however, reveals that in many instances results that he attributes to the "default principles" are more easily explained by reference to the specific statutory language at issue or as classic and not particularly remarkable applications of traditional administrative law principles. Moreover, on the two occasions on which the "default principles" have been tested in the U.S. Supreme Court, they have been roundly rejected.
Thermal-shock behavior of advanced ceramic/composite hot-gas filters

The thermal shock/fatigue behavior of monolithic and composite hot-gas candle filters obtained from various manufacturers was evaluated. The composite filters were made of both oxide and nonoxide materials; the monolithic filters were made only of nonoxide materials. During single-cycle thermal shock tests, composite filters show little or no strength degradation when quenched from temperatures between 900 and 1000{degrees}C. At higher quenching temperatures, slow strength degradation was observed. Regular monolithic SiC filters showed no strength degradation when quenched from temperatures up to {approx}700-900{degrees}C, whereas at higher quenching temperatures, the strength decreased at a relatively sharper rate. On the other hand, recrystallized monolithic SiC filters showed higher initial strength and retained this strength to higher quenching temperatures when compared with regular SiC filters. This finding may be related to the difference in the strength of grain boundary phases in the two filters. For thermal cycles between room temperature and 800-1000{degrees}C, composite filters show little (18-24%) strength degradation up to three cycles, beyond which the strength remains unchanged. Similar behavior, with an initial strength drop of 15-28%, was observed for monolithic filter specimens that were thermally cycled between room temperature and 800{degrees}C.
Evaluation of the Second-Step Violence Prevention Program at a Rural Elementary School.

The Second Step Violence Prevention Program was implemented in a rural elementary school with a population of mostly poor, white students. A yearlong longitudinal evaluation with students in the th...
An original semantics to keyword queries for XML using structural patterns

XML is by now the de facto standard for exporting and exchanging data on the web. The need for querying XML data sources whose structure is not fully known to the user and the need to integrate multiple data sources with different tree structures have motivated recently the suggestion of keyword-based techniques for querying XML documents. The semantics adopted by these approaches aims at restricting the answers to meaningful ones. However, these approaches suffer from low precision, while recent ones with improved precision suffer from low recall. In this paper, we introduce an original approach for assigning semantics to keyword queries for XML documents. We exploit index graphs (a structural summary of data) to extract tree patterns that return meaningful answers. In contrast to previous approaches that operate locally on the data to compute meaningful answers (usually by computing lowest common ancestors), our approach operates globally on index graphs to detect and exploit meaningful tree patterns. We implemented and experimentally evaluated our approach on DBLP-based data sets with irregularities. Its comparison to previous ones shows that it succeeds in finding all the meaningful answers when the others fail (perfect recall). Further, it outperforms approaches with similar recall in excluding meaningless answers (better precision). Since our approach is based on tree-pattern query evaluation, it can be easily implemented on top of an XQuery engine.
d-Alanine Oxidase from Escherichia coli: Participation in the Oxidation of l-Alanine

Abstract Cell wall-membrane preparations of Escherichia coli, prepared by the ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-lysozyme method, contain enzymes which catalyze the oxidation of d-alanine and, to a lesser extent, l-alanine into pyruvate and ammonia without the formation of hydrogen peroxide. The kinetic parameters were (i) pH optima of 8.3 to 8.4 for l- and d-alanine and (ii) a Km value of 6.6 ± 0.2 mM for d-alanine. Several coenzymes were without effect when added to the reaction mixture. The participation of d-alanine oxidase in the oxidation of l-alanine was demonstrated. The evidence is based on (i) results of cellular fractionation; (ii) labeling experiments; (iii) inhibition studies with aminooxyacetate and cycloserine; (iv) denaturation experiments; and (v) demonstration of the presence of an active racemase.
Recognizing the clinical manifestations of acromegaly: case studies.

Purpose To present case studies of a 36-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man who presented with the syndrome of acromegaly, and to provide primary care nurse practitioners (NPs) with the understanding of the clinical and laboratory features needed for early recognition and treatment of this fascinating disease. Data sources A comprehensive review of published literature on acromegaly is presented. The findings discussed include the history, physical examination, and diagnostic studies of two patients presenting in different ways. They both saw multiple healthcare providers, and had symptoms and signs eventually leading to the diagnosis of acromegaly. Conclusions Acromegaly is the result of excessive amounts of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor type 1 (IGF-1), almost always caused by a benign adenoma of the pituitary gland. This leads to coarse facial features, soft tissue swelling (including the tongue), enlargement of the hands and feet, respiratory problems, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, carpal tunnel syndrome, and osteoarthritis. Early recognition and appropriate referral can reverse some of the signs and symptoms over time, and lead to decreased mortality and a markedly improved quality of life. Implications for practice These cases exemplify the challenges faced by NPs and other healthcare providers in diagnosing patients with acromegaly.
CMOS and MEMS process investigation

As MEMS technology matures as an industry, the integration of standard integrated circuit and MEMS devices will continue to increase. Presented is a brief overview of the work that others have done to solve these problems using hybrid, monolithic, or bonding techniques. Also presented are some of the problems that need to be overcome in having both processes on the same substrate, such as avoiding any contamination of the MOS circuit by normal MEMS processing steps. Previous work at the University of Minnesota Microtechnology Laboratory has demonstrated NMOS/CMOS or MEMS devices using the MTL facility. In this work we present simulation and test results, along with a proposed process that includes CMOS and MEMS devices on the substrate.
Halothane-induced hypotension and the effect of vasopressors.

Seven of eight dogs on fixed-volume ventilation and subjected to concentrations of halothane which lowered blood pressure to 20-40 mm. of mercury recovered when the anaesthetic was discontinued and hyperventilation was instituted. None of the dogs developed arrhythmias while hypotension was being induced or as its blood pressure returned to pre-existing levels. The remaining animal developed cardiac standstill.
Relative Raman scattering cross sections for chemisorbed and physisorbed pyridine molecules adsorbed on surface-enhanced Raman-scattering-active Ag films in ultrahigh vacuum: Local-field effects in the low-coverage regime.

We have studied the Raman scattering from pyridine adsorbed on silver films evaporated on cleaved mica (100 K) in ultrahigh vacuum. These silver films have only a small number of chemisorption sites (approx.2%). The chemisorption sites are filled preferentially during initial stages of adsorption, followed by filling of the physisorption sites. Both physisorbed and chemisorbed pyridine exhibit strongly enhanced Raman scattering. At one monolayer coverage the average scattering enhancement is a factor-of-55 larger for the chemisorbed molecules. When pyridine-d/sub 5/ molecules are used to saturate the chemisorption sites, subsequent adsorption of pyridine-h/sub 5/ results in partial displacement of the pyridine-d/sub 5/ to physisorbed sites. This displacement phenomenon allows us to measure the ratio of the Raman cross sections for chemisorbed and physisorbed pyridine in the neighborhood of chemisorption sites. This ratio is less than 4. Combining this measurement with the factor-of-55-larger overall average enhancement for chemisorbed molecules compared to phys- isorbed molecules, we conclude that molecules (including those just physisorbed) in the neighborhood of the chemisorption site exhibit an extra enhancement. We have also analyzed the coverage dependence of the Raman intensity and found it to be well described by a simple depolarization model. The average optical polarizability in thismore » model is approx.10 A/sup 3/. This value is essentially the same as the value reported for pyridine adsorbed on annealed surface-enhanced Raman-scattering-inactive silver films.« less
Application of information theory to query negotiation : toward an optimal questioning strategy

An optimal questioning strategy (OQS) based on Shannon's information theory is applied to reduce uncertainty and to measure the amount of information contained in reference queries. We adopt Klir & Folgers' (1988) distinction between vagueness and ambiguity as two forms of uncertainty. We classify certain reference queries according to these forms, and we only deal with ambiguous ones. We determine the average number of yes/no questions an information system should ask a user in order to reduce ambiguity in his or her query. This research is considered as a first effort toward constructing a framework for dealing with uncertain queries in an information system. © 1991 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Evaluating technology for coordinating communication

The goal of this work is two-fold: (1) propose a model of communication initiation and response, and (2) evaluate the utility of a set of technology interventions based on that model for coordinating communication. The contribution to the field of HCI will be useful recommendations for the design of electronic communication systems.
Chloroplast genome variation in upland and lowland switchgrass.

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) exists at multiple ploidies and two phenotypically distinct ecotypes. To facilitate interploidal comparisons and to understand the extent of sequence variation within existing breeding pools, two complete switchgrass chloroplast genomes were sequenced from individuals representative of the upland and lowland ecotypes. The results demonstrated a very high degree of conservation in gene content and order with other sequenced plastid genomes. The lowland ecotype reference sequence (Kanlow Lin1) was 139,677 base pairs while the upland sequence (Summer Lin2) was 139,619 base pairs. Alignments between the lowland reference sequence and short-read sequence data from existing sequence datasets identified as either upland or lowland confirmed known polymorphisms and indicated the presence of other differences. Insertions and deletions principally occurred near stretches of homopolymer simple sequence repeats in intergenic regions while most Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) occurred in intergenic regions and introns within the single copy portions of the genome. The polymorphism rate between upland and lowland switchgrass ecotypes was found to be similar to rates reported between chloroplast genomes of indica and japonica subspecies of rice which were believed to have diverged 0.2–0.4 million years ago.
Self‐consistent kinetic photoelectron effects on the polar wind

Anomalous electron heat fluxes and recent observations of day-night asymmetries in polar wind features indicate that photoelectrons may affect polar wind dynamics. These anomalous fluxes require a global kinetic description (i.e., mesoscale particle phase space evolution involving microscale interactions); their impact on the polar wind itself requires a self-consistent description. In this Letter, we discuss results of a self-consistent hybrid model that explains the dayside observations. This model represents the first global kinetic collisional description for photoelectrons in a self-consistent classical polar wind picture. In this model, photoelectrons are treated as test particles, ion properties are based on global kinetic collisional calculations, thermal electron features and the ambipolar field are determined by fluid calculations. The model provides the first global steady-state polar wind solution that is continuous from the subsonic collisional regime at low altitude to the supersonic collisionless regime at high altitude. Also, the results are consistent with experiments in several aspects, such as order of magnitude of the ambipolar electric potential, qualitative features of the ion outflow characteristics, electron anisotropy and upwardly directed electron heat flux on the dayside.