cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Clustering of time series subsequences is meaningless: implications for previous and future research

Time series data is perhaps the most frequently encountered type of data examined by the data mining community. Clustering is perhaps the most frequently used data mining algorithm, being useful in it's own right as an exploratory technique, and also as a subroutine in more complex data mining algorithms such as rule discovery, indexing, summarization, anomaly detection, and classification. Given these two facts, it is hardly surprising that time series clustering has attracted much attention. The data to be clustered can be in one of two formats: many individual time series, or a single time series, from which individual time series are extracted with a sliding window. Given the recent explosion of interest in streaming data and online algorithms, the latter case has received much attention. We make an amazing claim. Clustering of streaming time series is completely meaningless. More concretely, clusters extracted from streaming time series are forced to obey a certain constraint that is pathologically unlikely to be satisfied by any dataset, and because of this, the clusters extracted by any clustering algorithm are essentially random. While this constraint can be intuitively demonstrated with a simple illustration and is simple to prove, it has never appeared in the literature. We can justify calling our claim surprising, since it invalidates the contribution of dozens of previously published papers. We will justify our claim with a theorem, illustrative examples, and a comprehensive set of experiments on reimplementations of previous work.
The Political Economy of Gender: Explaining Cross-National Variation in Household Bargaining, Divorce, and the Gender Voting Gap

Mainstream political economy has tended to treat the family as a unit when examining the distributional consequences of labor market institutions and of public policy. In a world with high divorce rates, we argue that this simplification is more likely to obscure than to instruct. We find that labor market opportunities for women affect women’s bargaining power within the family and as a result, can explain much of the cross country variation in the household division of labor, patterns of divorce, and political preferences.
Studies with poliovirus polymerase 3Dpol. Stimulation of poly(U) synthesis in vitro by purified poliovirus protein 3AB.

The synthesis in vitro of poly(U) on a poly(A) template with oligo(dT)15 primer by poliovirus RNA polymerase 3Dpol (280 ng/ml) is strongly stimulated (50-100 fold) by the addition of purified poliovirus polypeptide 3AB. The synthesis of product continues linearly with time for up to 90 min. The reaction with 3Dpol alone can be reactivated and similarly enhanced by the addition of 3AB at 30 min of incubation. Optimal stimulation is achieved under conditions where the concentration of 3Dpol and of template is low, when the molar ratio of 3AB to 3Dpol is about 100:1 and that of 3AB to poly(A) is about 25:1. In the presence of 3AB, the yield of product made by 3Dpol is much increased but its size is unchanged. From a number of basic proteins and peptides tested, a few were found which also exhibited limited enhancement of polymerase activity. The stimulatory effect of 3AB is probably related to its ability to bind both the template-primer, poly(A).oligo(dT)15, and 3Dpol (Molla, A., Harris, K. S., Paul, A. V., Shin, S. H., Mugavero, J., and Wimmer, E. J. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 27015-27020). RNA synthesis on purified poliovirus RNA with oligo(dT)15 primer is enhanced by 3AB about 5-10 fold, and this reaction is highly sensitive to detergent.
System scaling analysis for modeling small break LOCA using the FULL SPECTRUM LOCA evaluation model

Abstract The development of the FULL SPECTRUM™ LOCA (FSLOCA™) evaluation model followed the Evaluation Model Development and Assessment Process (EMDAP). The EMDAP emphasizes the scaling analysis of the system code, the closure models, and the integral effects tests (IETs) and the separate effects tests. For the system level scaling perspective, the top-down scaling approach evaluates the global system behaviors and the system interactions from IETs, and addresses the similarity between the IETs and the prototype of PWR. In the FSLOCA evaluation model, the ROSA-IV/LSTF IET facility is selected as the key facility in the validation matrix of the W COBRA/TRAC-TF2 system code, because it is the largest scaled (1/48 power to volume) and full height SBLOCA IET facility to a PWR. In this work, the system level scaling distortion between the ROSA-IV/LSTF integral effects test facility and a Westinghouse three-loop PWR is investigated. The top-down scaling in the blowdown, natural circulation, loop seal clearance, and boil-off phases in the ROSA-IV/LSTF SB-CL-02 test was investigated relative to the three-loop PWR SBLOCA transient. The top-down scaling analysis results indicated that there are small distortions originating from the atypical steady state and transient in the ROSA-IV/LSTF test. In general, the system scaling analysis demonstrated that the ROSA-IV/LSTF tests are well scaled IETs for examining the behavior of Westinghouse three-loop PWRs under the SBLOCA transient conditions, and are uniquely suited in the SBLOCA validation matrix of the FSLOCA evaluation model.
Cardiac Disease in Chronic Uremia: Management

Heart disease is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. The management of heart disease in these patients requires a multidimensional approach to the management of heart failure, coronary disease, and arrhythmias, and to risk factors such as hypertension, anemia, secondary hyperparathyroidism, and electrolyte/acid-base disturbances. Coronary artery disease management includes use of antianginal drugs and revascularization of coronary arteries with angioplasty ± stent placement or coronary artery bypass grafting. The long-term outcomes of these procedures need to be assessed and improved. Hypertension occupies a major role in the pathogenesis of heart disease in ESRD, and early and adequate control of hypertension is likely to have a major impact on the progression of cardiac disease. This entails the achievement of optimal volume status, combined with the appropriate use of antihypertensive agents such as calcium channel blockers, beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, vasodilators, alpha-blockers, and central sympatholytic drugs. In ESRD patients, specific dialysis-related complications such as intradialytic hypotension and pericardial effusion may have additional effects on cardiac function and require attention. The choice of dialysate composition and membrane may influence clinical outcomes with specific effects on cardiac performance.
Traumatic brain injury-induced expression and phosphorylation of pyruvate dehydrogenase: a mechanism of dysregulated glucose metabolism.

Abstract Dysregulated brain glucose metabolism and lactate accumulation are seen following traumatic brain injury (TBI). The underlying molecular mechanism is poorly understood. Pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), the rate-limiting enzyme coupling cytosolic glycolysis to mitochondrial citric acid cycle, plays a critical role in maintaining homeostasis of brain glucose metabolism. PDH activity is maintained by the expression of its E1α1 subunit 1 (PDHE1α1) and is inhibited by the phosphorylation of PDHE1α1 (p-PDHE1α1). We hypothesized that PDHE1α1 expression and phosphorylation was altered in rat brain following controlled cortical impact (CCI)-induced TBI. Compared to naive controls (=100%), PDHE1α1 protein decreased significantly ipsilateral to CCI (62%, P P P P P P P > 0.05; 64%, P P P P P
Numerical Recirculating Flow Calculation Using a Body-Fitted Coordinate System

A finite-difference algorithm for recirculating flow problem! in a body-fitted coordinate system is presented. A fully staggered grid system is adopted for the velocity components and the scalar variables. The strong conservation law form of the governing equations is written in the general curvilinear coordinates. The SIMPLE calculation procedure originally developed in Cartesian coordinates is extended to the present curvilinear coordinates. Two methods of evaluating the metric derivatives are discussed. Although both methods are formally of the same order of accuracy, it is shown that one performs the physical conservation laws more accurately than the other. The relative merits of three schemes, i.e., hybrid, second-order upwinding, and QUICK, for approximating the convection terms in the momentum equations are compared and the results are quite different from those in Cartesian coordinates in both accuracy and efficiency aspects. The effects of the grid distribution are also studied. Results obtained...
Inhibitory Effects of 17β-Estradiol and Progesterone on Ovarian Carcinoma Cell Proliferation: A Potential Role for Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase

Abstract Objectives. Indirect evidence suggests that estrogen and progesterone are involved in the etiology of ovarian cancer (Oca). Estrogen and progesterone are also thought to modulate nitric oxide (NO) in human ovarian tumor tissue via regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Objectives in this study were: (1) to investigate the effects of 17β-estradiol (E 2 ) and progesterone (P 4 ) on Oca cell proliferation employing elevated hormone concentrations occurring within the microenvironment of the ovary, and (2) to determine whether E 2 or P 4 affects iNOS expression and NO generation in Oca cells. Methods. Proliferation assays assessed the effects of E 2 and P 4 on cell growth in three human Oca cell lines (HOC-7, OVCAR-3, SKOV-3). Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to assess mRNA expression and Western blots to determine protein levels. NO generation was determined via the Griess reaction. Results. Elevated E 2 , P 4 , or E 2 plus P 4 (E + P), significantly inhibited HOC-7 cells and OVCAR-3 cells, but not SKOV-3 cells. E 2 at 10 μM downregulated iNOS expression and significantly reduced NO production in HOC-7 cells, while 10 μM P 4 or 10 μM E + P increased iNOS expression and NO production. Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate that elevated E 2 , P 4 , or E + P results in significant growth inhibition of Oca cells, and we propose a role for iNOS and NO in how these hormones modulate their activities in Oca cells.
Formation of· CH2CH2CO + and C2H6+· in the metastable decompositions of ionized ethyl formate

The products of the metastable decompositions of ionized ethyl formate (a) are characterized. The loss of water from a produces . CH 2 CH 2 CO + a rarely reported product. Loss of H appears to produce CH 2 =CHC(OH) 2 + . The third decomposition is an unusual formation of C 2 H 6 +. . This work demonstrates that a previous supposition that isomerization to different intermediates is involved in the losses of ethene and of water from a is correct
Cross-orientational motion in liquid dichloromethane and trichloromethane (chloroform) by molecular dynamics simulation

Using molecular dynamics the l = 1 orientational auto- and cross-correlation functions of one of the C–H bond directions of neat dichloromethane at 273 K and that of chloroform between 301 and 438 K in its neat state and in solution with tetrachloromethane and liquefied methane (at 183 K) have been simulated. The simulations are confined to a model of singly rotating, individual molecules in the absence of induced absorption and translation-rotation coupling. It is found throughout that the orientational cross-correlation functions are equivalent to the auto-correlation functions, therefore bearing the same information content. On the basis of a simple thermodynamic argument, this phenomenon is extended to be generally valid to orientational correlation functions from vibration–rotation spectra of mobile liquids. Consequences of the equivalence are, first, that dilution does not break the symmetry between orientational auto- and cross-correlation functions of the solute species and, second, that the simul...
Evaluation of a Game-Based Trainer for Infantry Platoon Leader Decision Making:

A training evaluation was performed for the Rapid Decision Trainer (RDT), a computerbased simulation developed for the Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC). The RDT lets each participant serve as a platoon leader while executing a simulated mission in preparation for a live-fire exercise. Nineteen participants were trained with the RDT in one large group and twenty were trained in two-man buddy-teams. After the RDT training, participants completed a questionnaire, participated in a live-fire exercise, and then completed a second questionnaire. Regardless of their training condition, the participants endorsed the use of the RDT for the IOBC. They indicated the RDT had training value, they were motivated and involved during training, and the realism of simulated battlefield was adequate. However, the participants also raised a number of issues that are described in the presentation and will be investigated in future training research for desktop simulations and game-based technologies.
Superlattice IR detectors: a theoretical view

A theoretical program useful for predicting limiting performance of HgCdTe, InAs/InGaSb Type II superlattices and QWIP IR detectors is reviewed. Its principal ingredients include the calculation of bulk and superlattice band structures, absolute interband and intersubband optical absorption coefficients, radiative recombination neglecting photon recycling, non- radiative AM-1 and AM-7 Auger processes with or without the participation of shallow impurity levels, and the detectivity. The superlattice is viewed as a periodic lattice whose relevant band structure is described by K(DOT)p perturbation theory. Valence band strain splitting greater than the band gap is particularly important in suppressing AM-7 transitions. HgCdTe IR detectors are clearly superior to Type II superlattices in the MWIR. The band gap in Type II superlattices is due to intra-layer carrier confinement and is determined by layer widths. The resulting greater band gap uniformity and theoretically higher operating temperatures is promising for LWIR and VLWIR applications.
Different Settings, Different Results? A Comparison of School and Home Responses

DIFFERENCES in the amount of reported drug use among adolescent respondents in studies conducted in school and at home by our research group at Columbia University raised the question of possible response bias because of the setting of the interview. In a 1971 study among students in 18 high schools, the average level of reported use of marijuana and other illicit drugs was greater in every school studied than the reported use in a small-scale national representative household sample survey of youngsters twelve to seventeen years old completed the same year. Among the 18 high schools, the proportion of students reporting any use of marijuana ranged from a low of 23 percent in one school to a high of 58 percent in another. But in the national sample survey, only 15 percent reported such use (Elinson et al. 1977: Sections 3 and 7). Several possible explanations may account for the difference in results. One is that the 18 schools were not selected to represent all United States high schools. Indeed, some were purposely chosen because drug use was thought to be especially prevalent among their students. Another explanation involves age differences in the two samples. In the study of high schools, approximately 5 percent of the students were over the age of seventeen. Since older youth report using more drugs than those younger (Elinson et al.), this may account for some of the differences in results.
Supra-Pubic Single Incision Cholecystectomy

Introduction Surgery is moving towards less invasive and cosmetically superior approaches such as single incision laparoscopy (SIL). While trans-umbilical SIL is gaining popularity, incisions may lead to post-operative deformations of the umbilicus and the possibility of an increased rate of incisional hernias. Access within the pubic hairline allows preservation of the umbilicus and results in a scar which is concealed within the pubic hair. Methods Supra-pubic single incision cholecystectomy was performed in a 30-year-old patient with symptomatic gallstones. A 2.5-cm transverse incision was placed within the pubic hairline and a subcutaneous tunnel was formed. Three 5-mm ports were introduced into the tunnel and perforated the anterior rectus sheath superior to the skin incision. The surgical procedure was then undertaken with conventional laparoscopic instrumentation. The adjacent 5-mm incisions were merged for gallbladder removal. The entry site was closed under direct vision. Results The above procedure was technically feasible and without complication. Operative time was 45 min, and the patient was discharged 5 h post-operatively. Conclusions Supra-pubic single incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy may offer a more cosmetically appealing result than standard umbilical access. The operation can be performed by surgeons skilled in single incision techniques with good result.
Prognosis in adult acute myelogenous leukemia related to performance status and other factors.

Pretreatment factors of prognostic value were sought in 54 consecutively treated cases of adult acute myelogenous leukemia. Twenty of 37 patients with a good (greater than 50%) pretreatment Karnofsky performance status (P.S.) achieved complete remission (C.R.), while only 1/17 with a poor P.S. achieved C.R. This difference was highly significant (p=0.004). Complete remissions correlated with a median survival of 21 months. Patients with a good P.S. had a median survival of 8 months, while those with a poor P.S. had a median survival of only 1 month. This difference was also highly significant (p less than 0.002). Older patients with a good P.S. did as well as younger patients. The P.S., although imprecise, undoubtedly reflects the extent to which the disease, as well as intercurrent problems, have affected the patient. Attention to this aspect of patient selection for current drug regimens is indicated.
Timing Error Compensator Design for Self-Servowriting System in Hard Disk Drives

In Self-Servowriting (SSW) process, an accurate timing system is required for propagating the servo patterns. The timing jitters in this process induce significant timing error propagation in both radial direction and circumferential direction. In this paper, a control scheme based on Adaptive Feedforward Compensation (AFC) is proposed for SSW timing control loop. An adaptive filter is designed to minimize the closure error along circumferential direction and contain the timing error propagation along radial direction. The Filtered-X Least Mean Square (FXLMS) technique is used to design the adaptive filter. Simulation results prove that the proposed control method has achieved its objectives.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
Clinical experience with local excision and postoperative radiation therapy for rectal cancer

The standard surgical treatment for patients with potentially curable transmural and/or node-positive rectal cancer is a low anterior resection or abdominoperineal resection. There is increasing interest in the use of local excision and postoperative radiation therapy as primary therapy for selected rectal cancers. The limited data suggest that the approach of local excision and postoperative radiation therapy should be limited to patients with either T1 tumors with adverse pathologic factors or T2 tumors. Transmural tumors have a 24 percent local failure rate and are treated more effectively with standard surgery and preoperative or postoperative therapy. The results of local excision and postoperative radiation therapy are encouraging; however, more experience is needed to determine whether this approach ultimately has local control and survival rates similar to standard surgery.
Promoting Healthy Behavior from the Pulpit: Clergy Share Their Perspectives on Effective Health Communication in the African American Church

African Americans continue to suffer disproportionately from health disparities when compared to other ethnicities (ACS 2010; CDC 2007). Research indicates that the church and the pastor in the African American community could be enlisted to increase effectiveness of health programs (Campbell et al. in Health Edu Behav 34(6):864–880, 2007; DeHaven et al. in Am J Public Health 94(6):1030–1036, 2004). The objective of this study was to investigate African American pastors’ perceptions about health promotion in the church and how these perceptions could serve as a guide for improving health communication targeting African Americans. Semi-structured interviews with African American clergy revealed that pastors feel strongly about the intersection of health, religion and spirituality; they also believe that discussing health screening and other health issues more frequently from the pulpit and their own personal experiences will ultimately impact health behavior among congregants. This study suggests that African American clergy see themselves as health promoters in the church and believe this communication (i.e., pastor-endorsed health information materials) will impact health behavior among underserved and minority populations.
Ovarian cancer activity of cyclic amine and thiaether metal complexes.

A thiaether metal complex 1-aza-4,7-dithiacyclononane-RhCl3, 2, and cyclic amine metal complexes tacn−CuBr2, 3, and Me3tacn−RuCl3, 4, have been evaluated for anticancer activity against the ovarian cancer cell line NuTu-19 and for cell toxicity against the noncancerous ovarian tissue cell line OVepi. Specifically, metal complex 2 is active when compared to cisplatin at micromolar concentrations using the MTT and cell invasion assay. The in vitro results reported warrant further evaluation of metal complex 2 in living systems.
Eine neue Generation elektro-hydraulischer Servolenkungen

Elektro-hydraulische Lenksysteme sind seit etwa sechs Jahren erfolgreich am Markt etabliert. Die Vorteile liegen zum einen in ihrem modularen Aufbau mit gepruften Einheiten sowie in der vom Verbrennungsmotor unabhangigen und energiesparenden Funktionsweise. Aufgrund strengerer Abgasrichtwerte werden auch an Nebenaggregate weiter steigende Anforderungen an den Energieverbrauch gestellt. Im Rahmen der Fahrsicherheit steigen ebenfalls die Anspruche an das dynamische Verhalten von Lenksystemen. Dies fuhrt vor allem bei elektro-hydraulischen Lenksystemen zu einem Zielkonflikt. Der Beitrag erlautert die wichtigsten Systemparameter und zeigt anhand einer Produktneuentwicklung von TRW Automotive auf, wie sich niedriger Energieverbrauch und sehr hohe Dynamik vereinbaren lassen.
Impact of Network Wind Profiler Data on a 3-h Data Assimilation System.

Abstract This paper examines the influence of data from the NOAA Wind Profiler Demonstration Network on a mesoscale data assimilation system. The Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction System is a 3-h intermittent data assimilation system configured in an isentropic-sigma framework. To measure the impact from profiler data on 3-h forecasts valid at 0000 and 1200 UTC, parallel runs with and without profiler data were verified against rawinsonde data. A sample case study is also presented to show the magnitude of the modifications at verification sites. In evaluations from case studies and statistics gathered over longer test periods, the profiler data improved the overall short-range forecasts in the study area. This improvement was most evident at 300 hPa where the root-mean-squared wind errors (averaged over the verification area) were reduced by 0.7 m s−1, and corresponding height errors were reduced by 2 m. The 300-hPa improvement in short-range forecasts from the case study at individual rawinsonde station...
Investigation of incubation time for sub-critical crack propagation in SiCSiC composites

Abstract The effects of fiber thermal creep on the relaxation of crack bridging tractions in SiCSiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) is considered in the present work, with the objective of studying the time-to-propagation of sub-critical matrix cracks in this material at high temperatures. Under the condition of fiber stress relaxation in the bridging zone, it is found that the crack opening and the stress intensity factor increase with time for sub-critical matrix cracks. The time elapsed before the stress intensity reaches the critical value for crack propagation is calculated as a function of the initial crack length, applied stress and temperature. Stability domains for matrix cracks are defined, which provide guidelines for conducting high-temperature crack propagation experiments.
The learning curve associated with laparoscopic pyloromyotomy.

Background: Laparoscopic pyloromyotomy (LPM) for the treatment of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (HPS) has gained popularity in recent years. This study examines the learning curve associated with LPM. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients undergoing LPM at a children’s hospital between January 1, 1997 and June 30, 2003. Data including age, weight, complications, operative time, time to feeding, and length of postoperative stay were analyzed using the Student’s ttest. Results: A total of 51 patients underwent LPM during the study period. Patient characteristics were similar throughout the study period. Operative time ranged from 12 to 55 minutes (mean, 25 minutes). Mean operative time decreased significantly from 31 ± 11 minutes for the first 15 patients, to 25 ± 6 minutes for the second 15 patients, to 20 ± 7 minutes for the last 15 patients (P < 0.05). Operative times were erratic for the early cases but became more consistent over time, especially after 30 cases. Conversio...
Selecting Revascularization Strategies in Patients with Coronary Disease

The treatment of patients with coronary artery disease includes risk-factor modification (e.g., treatment of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes) and some combination of medical therapies and coronary revascularization.1 For patients for whom revascularization is deemed to be appropriate, a decision must be made between percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG). In direct comparisons, CABG has been shown to be associated with fewer repeat revascularizations than PCI. However, questions have been raised about incremental improvements in stent technologies that might narrow the outcome gap between the two approaches. These improvements have included, first, the progression from bare-metal stents to . . .
Asymptotically efficient estimators for the fittings of coupled circles and ellipses

Fitting a pair of coupled geometric objects to a number of coordinate points is a challenging and important problem in many applications including coordinate metrology, petroleum engineering and image processing. This paper derives two asymptotically efficient estimators, one for concentric circles fitting and the other for concentric ellipses fitting, based on the weighted equation error formulation and non-linear parameter transformation. The Kanatani-Cramer-Rao (KCR) lower bounds for the parameter estimates of the concentric circles and concentric ellipses under zero-mean Gaussian noise are provided to serve as the performance benchmark. Small-noise analysis shows that the proposed estimators reach the KCR lower bound performance asymptotically. The accuracy of the proposed estimators is corroborated by experiments with synthetic data and realistic images. New solutions for coupled circles and coupled ellipses fittings in explicit forms.The non-iterative solutions have computation advantage.The iterative solutions are self-initialized and achieve optimum performance.They have higher noise tolerance levels before the thresholding effects happen.They can be reduced back to the fittings of a single circle and a single ellipse.
Probing the active sites of rat and human cytochrome P450 2E1 with alcohols and carboxylic acids.

Abstract Cytochrome P450 2E1 (P450 2E1) catalyzes the biotransformation of many low-molecular-weight compounds including industrial solvents, indoor pollutants, alcohol, and drugs. In order to understand the nature of the P450 2E1 active site, we studied the competitive inhibition of the P450 2E1-catalyzed N -nitrosodimethylamine demethylation by alcohols and carboxylic acids with different alkyl chain lengths. Using microsomes from acetone-treated rats as the enzyme source of P450 2E1, the K i value for each compound was measured. With primary alcohols and secondary alcohols, the K i decreased with the increase in the carbon chain length until the carbon number reached 6 or 7; the free energy increment of binding was 0.28 kcal/mol CH 2 group. Similar inhibitory effects were also observed with human P450 2E1 heterologously expressed in Hep G2 cells. These results suggest that both rat and human P450 2E1 contain a pocket with hydrophobicity that serves as a binding site for low-molecular-weight substrates. Among a series of carboxylic acids and ω-hydroxycarboxylic acids investigated, dodecanoic acid was the strongest inhibitor ( K i = 22 μM), and 12-hydroxydodecanoic acid had the lowest K i (320 μM) within the series of ω-hydroxycarboxylic acids. The free energy increment of binding for carboxylic acids was 0.35 kcal/mol CH2 group. 1,10-Decanedicarboxylic acid, which contains a carboxylic group at each end, showed a K i > 20 mM. We suggest that for optimal interaction of a carboxylic acid moiety with the active site of P450 2E1, the hydrocarbon end of the molecule binds to the substrate binding site, leaving the carboxylic acid group outside of a proposed substrate access channel. The length of optimal substrates such as dodecanoic acid may reflect the length of the substrate access channel and the size of the active site. We estimate that the distance from the opening of the access channel to the oxygenation site is about 15 A. Based on the structural features of P450 2E1 substrates and competitive inhibitors, we propose a conceptual model to illustrate the binding of these molecules in the active site of P450 2E1.
Multifaceted functional behavior assessment for students with externalizing behavior disorders

Recent federal mandates have increased interest in the use of functional behavior assessment as a necessary part of initial and ongoing work with students with externalizing behavior disorders. A multifaceted approach to functional behavior assessment provides a comprehensive assessment of both behavioral excesses and deficits commonly found in externalizing behavior disorders and also provides for the linkage of assessment information to educational interventions that can be implemented and monitored in educational settings for students with behavior disorders. The authors, using a variety of empirically derived methods, describe specific components of a multifaceted approach to functional behavior assessment in the context of the widely accepted behavioral excess/deficit model for students with externalizing behavior disorders. Empirically derived and validated methodologies (i.e., indirect data collection and analysis, direct observation and recording of behavior, and use of probes to establish baseline rates and measure impacts of intervention) are described. Technology-assisted data collection and analysis using computer-assisted functional behavior assessment interviews and direct observation of behavior using personal digital assistant (PDA) based software are also presented as a means to improve efficiency and reduce time needed to conduct adequate functional behavior assessments. Specific strategies to address academic skill and performance deficits as well as social skills deficiencies in the context of a multifaceted functional behavior assessment are also presented for students with externalizing behavior disorders. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Electoral Competition, Participation, and Government Responsiveness in Mexico

In this article I test two competing visions about how democracy produces responsive government. Electoral theories of democracy posit that elected governments are responsive to public demands because citizens are able to sanction bad politicians and select good ones. Participatory theories attribute responsiveness to a citizenry's ability to articulate demands and pressure government through a wider range of political action. I test hypotheses derived from these two approaches, using an original dataset that combines electoral, socioeconomic, and public-financial indicators for Mexico's 2,400 municipalities, from 1989 to 2000. The data show that electoral competition has no effect on municipal government performance. But the results are consistent with the hypothesis that nonelectoral participation causes improved performance. Thus, I suggest that the quality of municipal government in Mexico depends on an engaged citizenry and cooperation between political leaders and their constituents, rather than the threat of electoral punishment. I recommend that scholars broaden the study of government responsiveness to account for participatory strategies of political influence and critically assess the claims of those who would promote elections as a cure-all for poor democratic performance.
Radiochemistry and radiopharmaceuticals

Following last year’s precedent this section of Annual Reports will review not only recent progress in radiochemistry, including isotope production and environmental aspects, but also in the production of radiopharmaceuticals and their use in nuclear medicine for imaging. Radiation chemistry (unless related to the stability of labelled molecules), the use of nuclear activation analysis and the inorganic chemistry of elements that are by their nature, radioactive are all excluded.
Ordovician Strata in Deep Wells of Western Central Kansas

Several of the deep wells of Russell County, Kansas, penetrated green shales containing abundant fossils of species characteristic of the Decorah shale of the Ordovician system. These fossils are not known from any other system. The strata overlying the green shales seem to belong to the Pennsylvanian system. At any rate, strata containing Pennsylvanian fossils occur but a short distance above the green shales. The Pennsylvanian strata seem to belong to a time not older than the Douglas stage. Beneath the Ordovician green shales are several hundred feet of more or less crystalline limestones--shown as sandstones in some of the drilling logs--in which no fossils have been found. It is suggested that these limestones are of early Ordovician or Cambrian age.
Non-linear inplane deformation and buckling of rings and high arches

Abstract A non-linear theory is presented for stretching and inplane-bending of isotropic beams which have constant initial curvature and lie in their plane of symmetry. For the kinematics, the geometrically exact one-dimensional (1-D) measures of deformation are specialized for small strain. The 1-D constitutive law is developed in terms of these measures via an asymptotically correct dimensional reduction of the geometrically non-linear 3-D elasticity under the assumptions of comparable magnitudes of initial radius of curvature and wavelength of deformation, small strain, and small ratio of cross-sectional diameter to initial radius of curvature ( h/R ). The 1-D constitutive law contains an asymptotically correct refinement of O (h/R) beyond the usual stretching and bending strain energies which, for doubly symmetric cross sections, reduces to a stretch–bending elastic coupling term that depends on the initial radius of curvature and Poisson’s ratio. As illustrations, the theory is applied to inplane deformation and buckling of rings and high arches. In spite of a very simple final expression for the second variation of the total potential, it is shown that the only restriction on the validity of the buckling analysis is that the prebuckling strain remains small. Although the term added in the refined theory does not affect the buckling loads, it is shown that non-trivial prebuckling displacements, curvature, and bending moment of high arches are impossible to calculate accurately without this term.
Symmetric and anti-symmetric Rayleigh-Lamb modes in sinusoidally corrugated waveguides: An analytical approach

Abstract The wave propagation analysis in corrugated waveguides is considered in this paper. Elastic wave propagation in a two-dimensional periodically corrugated plate is studied here analytically. The dispersion equation is obtained by applying the traction free boundary conditions. Solution of the dispersion equation gives both symmetric and anti-symmetric modes. In a periodically corrugated waveguide all possible spectral order of wave numbers are considered for the analytical solution. It has been observed that the truncation of the spectral order influences the results. Truncation number depends on the degree of corrugation and the frequency of the wave. Usually increasing frequency requires increasing number of terms in the series solution, or in other words, a higher truncation number. For different degrees of corrugation the Rayleigh–Lamb symmetric and anti-symmetric modes are investigated for their non-propagating ‘stop bands’ and propagating ‘pass bands’. To generate the dispersion equation for corrugated plates with a wide range of the degree of corrugation, appropriate truncation of the spectral orders has to be considered. Analytical results are given for three different degrees of corrugation in three plates. Resonance of symmetric and anti-symmetric modes in these plates, their ‘cut-off’, ‘cut-on’, ‘branch-point’, ‘change-place’, ‘mode conversion’ and ‘pinch points’ at various frequencies are also studied.
Antimicrobial resistance with Streptococcus pneumoniae: Much ado about nothing?

During the past decade in the United States, Streptococcus pneumoniae has changed dramatically in the context of antimicrobial resistance. Resistance to multiple different antibiotic classes including beta-lactams (penicillins, cephalosporins, and beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations), macrolides, clindamycin, the tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) has emerged at high rates with this important respiratory tract pathogen. There is no question that the in vitro activity of these antimicrobial agents is substantially lower for many strains of S. pneumoniae than it was even a few years ago. The larger question is, however, what does this decrease in activity mean from a clinical perspective? Stated another way, does resistance defined according to current standards in the laboratory, translate into diminished effectiveness when these agents are used to treat patients with pneumococcal infections? It is this question that serves as the principal basis for this review.
More evidence on the risks of passive smoking.

But existing evidence is enough to implicate it as a health hazard R ecently the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed more than 50 studies of passive smoking and lung cancer.1 The pooled excess risk of lung cancer from exposure to spousal smoking was about 20% for women and 30% for men. So what do the two articles featured in this issue add to the evidence on the health hazards of passive smoking, which is already quite extensive (277, 287)?2 3 Compared with the large number of cases of lung cancer (about 6700) available for the IARC meta-analysis, the report from the EPIC study makes a relatively modest contribution (about 100 newly diagnosed cases).2 The adjusted hazard ratio for lung cancer among people exposed to passive smoking was 1.70 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 2.60). Some methodological limitations have been noted in …
Some Applications of the Singular Decomposition of a Matrix

It is emphasized that the singular decomposition of a matrix has a variety of uses, especially in statistics, although it is seldom mentioned in books on either matrices or statistics. Some applications are surveyed and some new ones are given.
Fast evaluation of time domain fields in sub-wavelength source/observer distributions using accelerated Cartesian expansions (ACE)

Time domain integral equation solvers for transient scattering from electrically large objects have benefitted significantly from acceleration techniques like the plane wave time domain (PWTD) algorithm; these techniques reduce the asymptotic CPU and memory cost. However, PWTD breaks down when used in the analysis of structures that have subwavelength features or features whose length scales are orders of magnitude smaller than the smallest wavelength in the incident pulse. Instances of these occurring in electromagnetics range from antenna topologies, to feed structures, etc. In this regime, it is the geometric constraints that dictate the computational complexity, as opposed to the wavelength of interest. In this work, we present an approach for efficient analysis of such sub-wavelength source/observer distributions in time domain. The methodology that we seek to exploit is the recently developed algorithm based on Cartesian expansions for accelerating the computation of potentials of the form R^@n. In this paper, we present an efficient methodology for computing these polynomials for two different scenarios; where the size of the domain spans the distance travelled by light in (i) one time step and (ii) multiple time steps. These algorithms are cast within the framework of both uniform and non-uniform distributions. Results that demonstrate the efficiency and convergence of the proposed algorithm are presented.
Pohjoinen Valo Museo: Visualizing Light through a Virtual Museum

This paper describes a design project that investigates exhibition design within the virtual environment. Pohjoinen Valo Museo, translated from Finnish as the Museum of Nordic Light, is an interactive, virtual museum environment that presents virtual exhibitions as a way to visualize unique lighting phenomena that occur in the Nordic region. The virtual museum is the product of an architectonic formula, one that combines metaphors of physical space and enclosure with the principles of contemporary exhibition design. A virtual exhibition can be defined as an experience that removes visitors from physical space, inviting them to interact with a world of information, display, and sensorial stimulation facilitated by digital technology. Visitors may access this new venue of interactive exhibits using any computer in the world. The Pohjoinen Valo Museo project seeks to explore the potential of designing an exhibition for the virtual environment using a metaphor for building in virtual space (e.g., for spatial definition, orientation, and navigation).
Assessment of β-HCG, β-LH mRNA and ploidy in individual human blastomeres

In human embryos, blastomeres differentiate into trophectoderm (TE) cells and inner cell mass (ICM) cells of blastocysts. Although morphologically indistinguishable, blastomeres at early cleavage stages are likely to undergo changes on a molecular level that make them destined to become ICM or TE cells. While the transcription factor Oct-4 might serve as a marker for totipotent ICM cells, human chorionic gonadotrophin might be used as the equivalent for TE cells. This study reports a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction procedure to assess human β-HCG mRNA concentrations as well as ploidy in individual blastomeres from normally and abnormally fertilized human embryos. β-HCG mRNA was detected in both euploid and aneuploid cells and in oocytes. Surprisingly, β-LH mRNA was also detected in some euploid blastomeres. In regard to preimplantation genetic diagnosis, assessment of expression levels of β-HCG and Oct-4 mRNA in individual biopsied cells might serve as a tool to identify embryogenic blastomeres in combination with testing for chromosome and single gene abnormalities.
Maslovian Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in complex projective or complex hyperbolic planes

A Lagrangian submanifold is called Maslovian if its mean curvature vector H is nowhere zero and its Maslov vector field JH is a principal direction of AH . In this article we classify Maslovian Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in complex projective plane CP2 as well as in complex hyperbolic plane CH2. We prove that there exist 14 families of Maslovian Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in CP2 and 41 families in CH2. All of the Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature obtained from these families admit a unit length Killing vector field whose integral curves are geodesics of the Lagrangian surfaces. Conversely, locally (in a neighborhood of each point belonging to an open dense subset) every Maslovian Lagrangian surface of constant curvature in CP2 or in CH2 is a surface obtained from these 55 families. As an immediate by-product, we provide new methods to construct explicitly many new examples of Lagrangian surfaces of constant curvature in complex projective and complex hyperbolic planes which admit a unit length Killing vector field. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Dynamic membrane projection lithography [Invited]

We present dynamic membrane projection lithography as a method to create three dimensional metallic traces in hemispherical cavities. The technique entails directional evaporation through perforations in a membrane covering a hemispherical unit-cell cavity. The sample is positioned on a rotating stage and tilted with respect to the incident evaporated beam, such that the traces are deposited on the interior face of the cavity. A simple self-aligned version and a more general two-step fabrication version are presented. Furthermore, by incorporating a fixed shutter, both closed-loop and split-loop structures are demonstrated.
Characteristics of oxygen flow through fine bubble diffusers used in the aquaculture hauling applications

Abstract The oxygen flow rate was studied for carbon stone and ceramic plate diffusers, two types of diffusers that are commonly used in hauling applications. New diffusers were used in all experiments. It was found that oxygen flow was largest for dry diffusers operated in air and reduced for diffusers started in air and then placed in water and further reduced for diffusers soaked in water prior to use. The coefficient of variation for the two types of diffusers ranged from 7 to 18% for new units. If individual flow adjustment is not provided for each diffuser in a manifold distribution system (one oxygen source, several diffusers), small differences in pressure losses between diffusers can result in significant differences in oxygen flows. The initial oxygen flow during the loading of fish may be depressed until accumulated water in the hose and diffuser is expelled. Under some conditions, the oxygen flow rate can increase by 2–4 times over a 6–8 h period. Decreases in oxygen flow due to prior history may make it difficult to achieve the needed operating flows in a timely manner without exceeding the diffuser's pressure rating. This problem is likely to become more important due to aging and clogging of the diffusers.
Accelerating Sparse Reconstruction for Fast and Precomputable System Matrix Inverses

Signal reconstruction using an l1-norm penalty has proven to be valuable in edge-preserving regularization as well as in sparse reconstruction problems. The developing field of compressed sensing typically exploits this approach to yield sparse solutions in the face of incoherent measurements. Unfortunately, sparse reconstruction generally requires significantly more computation because of the nonlinear nature of the problem and because the most common solutions damage any structure that may otherwise exist in the system matrix. In this work we adopt a majorizing function for the absolute value term that can be used with structured system matrices so that the regularization term in the matrix to be inverted does not destroy the structure of the original matrix. As a result, a system inverse can be precomputed and applied efficiently at each iteration to speed the estimation process. We demonstrate that this method can yield significant computational advantages when the original system matrix can be represented or decomposed into an efficiently applied singular value decomposition.