cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
VAGUENESS WITHOUT IGNORANCE

Is a glass that is two-thirds full pretty full? We don’t want to say ‘Yes’; we don’t want to say ‘No’. This reluctance on our part seems very different in character and origin from our reluctance to answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to questions like ‘Is there intelligent life on other planets in our galaxy?’. A natural thing to say is that while in the latter case our reluctance is due to ignorance, in the former case it has nothing to do with ignorance: even someone who knew all the relevant facts wouldn’t want to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the question ‘Is a glass that is twothirds full pretty full?’ Characteristically, when a is a borderline case of the predicate ‘F’, we are motivated to avoid either asserting or denying the sentence ‘a is F’ by considerations that have nothing to do with ignorance. In the first two sections of this paper, I will try to show how this ‘‘no-ignorance theory’’ can be developed into an illuminating account of the nature of vagueness and semantic indeterminacy. The remainder of the paper will be spent addressing what I take to be the most important objection to the no-ignorance theory. 1. Why don’t we say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to borderline questions? A and B have instituted a simple signalling system. A explores the jungle, looking for fruit-bearing trees. When she finds such a tree, she makes a noise: either a hoot or a yelp. (A and B’s vocal apparatus doesn’t allow them to make any other sounds.) When B hears a hoot or a yelp, he comes to believe that A has found a fruit-bearing tree. Moreover, he takes the noise he hears as evidence relevant to the question how much fruit is on the tree in question: if the noise was a hoot, he favours hypotheses according to which the tree has more fruit; if it was a yelp, he favours hypotheses according to which the tree has less fruit. But even when this evidence is taken into account, his credences remain smoothly distributed: the hypothesis that the tree has n fruit never receives much more or less credence than the hypothesis that the tree has n+1 fruit. This situation is depicted in Figure 1.
Analysis of chemically induced growth with one-dimensional mass transfer

Investigations of the transport and reaction phenomena of a growth inducing agent within a dimensionally growing medium provide the first characterizations of a broad class of cellular systems. One-dimensional growth induced by an agent that acts either as a direct growth-inducing catalyst or as a consumed reactant in a growth-inducing reaction can be mechanistically modelled by a linear differential equation describing growth of the medium (by either mechanism) coupled with a nonlinear PDE describing the mass balance in Lagrangian coordinates. Approximations incorporated into the two parallel models state that the dilute agent is transported by Fickian diffusion in a continuum of constant cross-sectional area, that growth of the medium is a linear function of either reaction rate or concentration, and that the apical end of the medium contacts a source of the growth agent while the basal end contacts a sink. Numerical solutions to the models reveal two significant phases of growth: a non-diffusion-limited phase in which the agent approaches a typical steady-state-like distribution and a phase of diffusion-limited growth in which the effects of dilution and consumption predominate over diffusion, significantly decreasing the concentration of the growth agent. The latter phase is a result of rapid growth of the medium or of restrictively long diffusion paths occurring at long times. The model solutions confirm that the phenomena that contribute to the agent concentration changes include diffusive transport, dilution due to growth of the medium, and, in the reaction-growth mechanism, consumption by reaction. Further, results from the use of these approximations show no second-order oscillatory behavior, which experimental data indicate may occur in the coleoptile of corn, a system representative of this class. Specific applications to the corn coleoptile indicate the models will approximately describe the behavior of the coleoptile in early growth—before adaptation, autoregulation, or other higher order processes of the corn plant manifest themselves.
Cuscore control charts for generalized feedback‐control systems

The cumulative score (Cuscore) statistic is devised to ‘resonate’ with deviations or signals of an expected type. When a process signal subject to feedback control occurs, it results in a fault signature in the output error. In this paper, Cuscore statistics are designed to monitor process parameters and characteristics measured by a generalized minimum variance (GMV) feedback-control system sensitive to the fault signature of a spike, step, and bump signal. In this study, the GMV considered is a first-order dynamic system with autoregressive moving average (ARMA) noise. We show theoretically that the performance of Cuscore charts is independent of the amount of variability transferred from the output quality characteristic to the adjustment actions in the GMV control system. Simulation is used to test the performance using the Cuscore charts. In general, the Cuscore can detect signals over a broad range of system parameter values. However, areas of low detection capability occur for certain fault signatures. In these cases, a tracking signal test is combined with the Cuscore statistics to improve detection performance. This study provides several illustrations of the underlying behavior and shows how the methodology developed can be easily applied in practice. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Impact of intensity edge map on segmentation of noisy range images

In this paper, we investigate the impact of intensity edge maps (IEMs) on the segmentation of noisy range images. Two edge-based segmentation algorithms are considered. The first is a watershed-based segmentation technique and the other is the scan-line grouping technique. Each of these algorithms is implemented in two different forms. In the first form, an IEM is fused with the range edge map prior to segmentation. In the second form, the range edge map alone is used. The performance of each algorithm, with and without the use of the IEM information, is evalute and reported in terms of correct segmentation rate. For our experiments, two sets of real range images are used. The first set comprises inherently noisy images. The other set is compared of images with varying levels of artificial, additive Gaussian noise. The experimental results indicate that the use of IEMs can significantly improve edge-based segmentation of noisy range images. Considering these result, it seems that segmentation tasks invovling range images captured by noisy scanners would benefit from the use of IEM information. Additionally, the experiments indicate that higher quality edge information can be obtained by fusing range and intensity edge information.
A strategy to prevent substance abuse in an academic anesthesiology department

Substance abuse is the most serious occupational safety issue associated with the practice of anesthesiology, with an incidence as high as 1% per year of training. The Cleveland Clinic's Anesthesiology Institute approached the process from the perspective of active prevention, including specific mandatory education programs for all department personnel on a recurring basis, strengthened procedures for the detection and prevention of diversion of controlled substances, enhanced skill building for detection of impairment, and implemented a multi-faceted drug testing program, including random and "for cause" urine screens, for prevention and early detection of abused anesthetic drugs and other substances of abuse. After 18 months of preparation, a Substance Abuse Prevention Protocol was created, which has been fully implemented as of September 1, 2007.
Effects of Adsorbents on Drug Absorption II: Effect of an Antidiarrhea Mixture on Promazine Absorption

An antidiarrhea mixture containing attapulgite and citrus pectin was studied for its potential effect on the absorption of promazine from the human gastrointestinal tract. Test conditions were established so that results would have maximum applicability to the clinical use situation. Drug and adsorbent were not equilibrated prior to administration. Under these conditions, the antidiarrhea mixture decreased the rate and extent of absorption of the test drug. An in vitro adsorption study established that the antidiarrhea mixture had a strong affinity for the test drug. Results are in general agreement with the previous report in this series.
The impact of stochastic lead time reduction on inventory cost under order crossover

We use exponential lead times to demonstrate that reducing mean lead time has a secondary reduction of the variance due to order crossover. The net effect is that of reducing the inventory cost, and if the reduction in inventory cost overrides the investment in lead time reduction, then the lead time reduction strategy would be tenable. We define lead time reduction as the process of decreasing lead time at an increased cost. To date, decreasing lead times has been confined to deterministic instances. We examine the case where lead times are exponential, for when lead times are stochastic, deliveries are subject to order crossover, so that we must consider effective lead times rather than the actual lead times. The result is that the variance of these lead times is less than the variance of the original replenishment lead times. Here we present a two-stage procedure for reducing the mean and variance for exponentially distributed lead times. We assume that the lead time is made of one or several components and is the time between when the need of a replenishment order is determined to the time of receipt.
A Bayesian Approach to Improved Estimation of Causal Effect Predictiveness for a Principal Surrogate Endpoint

Summary The literature on potential outcomes has shown that traditional methods for characterizing surrogate endpoints in clinical trials based only on observed quantities can fail to capture causal relationships between treatments, surrogates, and outcomes. Building on the potential-outcomes formulation of a principal surrogate, we introduce a Bayesian method to estimate the causal effect predictiveness (CEP) surface and quantify a candidate surrogate’s utility for reliably predicting clinical outcomes. In considering the full joint distribution of all potentially observable quantities, our Bayesian approach has the following features. First, our approach illuminates implicit assumptions embedded in previously-used estimation strategies that have been shown to result in poor performance. Second, our approach provides tools for making explicit and scientifically-interpretable assumptions regarding associations about which observed data are not informative. Through simulations based on an HIV vaccine trial, we found that the Bayesian approach can produce estimates of the CEP surface with improved performance compared to previous methods. Third, our approach can extend principal-surrogate estimation beyond the previously considered setting of a vaccine trial where the candidate surrogate is constant in one arm of the study. We illustrate this extension through an application to an AIDS therapy trial where the candidate surrogate varies in both treatment arms.
Informatics Needs of Plant Molecular Biology

One ultimate object of crop plant bioinformatics is to accelerate technology transfer to plant breeders who wish to transfer traits inter- or intra-species rapidly using genetic engineering (1). Public research initiatives in the US and international arenas have targeted crop plants for high-resolution genetic and physical mapping (NSF Plant Genome Projects; International Arabidopsis Sequencing Project; Rice Genome Initiative; Table 1). Among these are included cotton, rice, maize, sorghum, soybean, tomato and the Triticeae. Model species, equipped with low DNA nuclei (2), are the focus of complete genome sequencing efforts. The genomic sequence for Arabidopsis is anticipated before the year 2004. An international plan to sequence the entire genome of the monocot rice is under way; Medicago trunculata is being explored as a model legume species. For species where a complete genome sequence is not considered practical, sequencing efforts are directed towards random cDNA and gene-enriched genomic sequencing strategies. Dissemination of the data has been and will be largely electronic and provided to the community prior to any journal publication.
In Vitro Activity of Cefepime, Imipenem, Tigecycline, and Gentamicin, Alone and in Combination, Against Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli

Study Objective. To evaluate the activity of cefepime, imipenem, tigecycline, and gentamicin, alone and in combination, against extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. Design. In vitro susceptibility and time-kill analysis. Setting. University-affiliated research laboratory. Isolates. Ten K. pneumoniae and 10 E. coli clinical strains known to produce ESBL. Measurements and Main Results. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing was performed at 5.5 and 7.0 log10 colony-forming units (cfu)/ml. Time-kill studies were performed over 24 hours with a high inoculum of 7.0 log10 cfu/ml for cefepime, imipenem, tigecycline, and gentamicin at 1 times MIC. Combination studies were tested for cefepime plus tigecycline, cefepime plus imipenem, imipenem plus tigecycline, and for adjunctive gentamicin with cefepime, imipenem, or tigecycline. At the high inoculum, the MIC ranges for cefepime, imipenem, tigecycline, and gentamicin were 0.25–256 (MIC for 90% of tested strains [MIC90] = 32), 0.125-2 (MIC90 = 1), 0.25-16 (MIC90 = 4), and 0.25-4 mg/L (MIC90 =1), respectively, for all isolates. At the higher inoculum, MICs shifted for cefepime, imipenem, and tigecycline. Change in log10 cfu/ml from baseline to 24 hours for cefepime, imipenem, and tigecycline alone ranged from 4.85-0.71, 5-4.22, and 3.5-1.01, respectively, for all isolates. Bactericidal activity was observed for cefepime alone (10 [50%] of 20 isolates), imipenem alone (20 [100%] of 20), and tigecycline alone (3 [15%] of 20). Combination studies with cefepime plus tigecycline resulted in synergy against 4 (20%) of 20 isolates. Combination studies with gentamicin resulted in synergy against 6 isolates (30%) with cefepime and 4 isolates (20%) with tigecycline. No synergy was observed with imipenem combinations. No antagonism was observed. With the exception of cefepime, correlations were observed between MIC and terminal densities for studied agents. Conclusions. Cefepime exhibited bactericidal activity but was unrelated to susceptibility. Tigecycline exhibited predictable bacteriostatic activity and synergy in combination against a subset of study isolates. Imipenem exhibited predictable bactericidal activity against all isolates. The utility of combination regimens with novel agents requires further exploration.
Does Exercise Stress Alter Susceptibility to Bacterial Infections

Swimming was used for evaluating alterations in performance capacity and as a means for studying the influence of exercise stress on susceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae and Francisella tularensis infections in two strains of rats, i.e. Fisher-Dunning (FD) and Sprague-Dawley (SD). The performance capacity was reduced by both diseases and was correlated to the dose of the given micro-organism. FD rats, however, were more susceptible to the infection and showed a greater deterioration than SD rats. The effects of exercise stress on disease lethality varied with the time that it was performed. Strenuous exercise immediately before infection drastically reduced susceptibility to either of the bacteria, while a similar bout of exercise performed after infection increased disease-related mortality in both diseases.
Theoretical model for a submerged biological filter

A mathematical model was developed for percent removal of a pure, non-adsorbable, biodegradable substrate in a submerged biological filter using the nonlinear Monod expression for the substrate utilization rate. Analytical solutions were obtained using zero and first order linearizations of the Monod expression and were compared to the numerical solution of the nonlinear system. The relevant dimensionless parameter groups describing the system were identified and their effects on substrate flux into the biolayer, effectiveness factor, and percent removal were also examined. Criteria were established for determining the relative accuracy of the two biokinetic approximations and for determining values of “limiting” biolayer thickness. There are two major results of engineering significance. (1) The approximation of the nonlinear Monod expression by a first order rate expression yields accurate results for a much wider range of bulk concentrations than might be expected from inspection of the Monod half-velocity coefficient for a given substrate. (2) Percent removal of substrate is a weak function of biolayer thickness (and thus total cell mass) when the thickness is greater than a rather small limiting value but is a strong function of particle radius (and thus biolayer surface area) for a wide range of parameter values including those of common interest.
Management of anthrax meningitis

Meningitis due to infection with Bacillus anthracis is considered an infrequent manifestation of the disease but one associated with high mortality. The bioterrorism event in the USA in the autumn of 2001 demonstrated our need for a better understanding of anthrax meningitis, as well as management and antimicrobial therapy. However, human clinical trials are not possible and animal experiments to guide such therapy are limited. An approach to the treatment of anthrax meningitis, based on the pathogenicity of B anthracis, the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of individual antimicrobial agents, studies of anthrax post-exposure prophylaxis in non-human primates, experience with antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the 2001 outbreak strain, and the clinical experience with inhalational anthrax cases during the 2001 outbreak is presented. These outbreak data, the failure of previous single-drug regimens, the concerns of resistance, and the need for coverage for other causes of bacterial mengingitis suggest initial treatment of suspected anthrax meningitis should anchor on an intravenous fluoroquinolone and should include one or two other agents with activity against B anthracis and good penetration into the central nervous system. Such other agents include penicillin, ampicillin, meropenem, vancomycin, and rifampicin.
Reflection, coupling and absorption of plane waves incident on an integrated circuit

Exact analytical expressions are given for the plane-wave complex reflection coefficient as a function of frequency at the air-dielectric interface of a three-layer model for an integrated circuit. Numerous curves are presented, exhibiting the nature of wave reflection from and power absorption by the integrated-circuit model. Expressions for those components of the electromagnetic field that can couple to the microcircuits also are given. Numerically computed results depend on both the angle of incidence and polarization of the incident plane wave as well as the electrical thickness and loss of the dielectric (silicon-substrate) layer. >
CRATER-CENTERED LACCOLITHS ON THE MOON : MODELING INTRUSION DEPTH AND MAGMATIC PRESSURE AT THE CRATER TARUNTIUS

Abstract Many floor-fractured craters on the Moon show surface deformation like that seen over terrestrial laccoliths. Consequently, terrestrial laccoliths provide one model for such crater modification. This model directly relates surface deformation to the growth of a shallow, crater-centered intrusion, and it estimates intrusion size and magma pressure. It also yields a minimum estimate for intrusion depth. Maximum intrusion depths cannot be directly constrained, but a range of likely intrusion depths can be derived with additional assumptions. When the model is applied to the crater Taruntius, the surface record indicates an intrusion ∼30 km across and 1900 m thick. The calculated excess magma pressure is ∼9 MPa (90 bar), and the estimated intrusion depths range from ∼1 to ∼5 km. If magma pressure reflects a hydrostatic magma column beneath Taruntius, these values suggest a total magma column length of ∼65 km during crater modification.
#58 Age, flight experience and the risk of crash involvement in a cohort of professional pilots

Abstract PURPOSE: Federal Aviation regulations prohibit any individual ages 60 years or older from serving as a pilot on an airplane under Part 121 regulations. The assumption underlying the “Age-60 Rule” is that pilots' safety performance declines with advancing age due to adverse effects of aging on health and cognitive functions. Epidemiological evidence for this premise, however, has been lacking. This study evaluates the risk of crash involvement during the process of aging in a cohort of professional pilots. METHODS: Pilots who were 45–54 years old in 1987 with Class I medical certificates and who flew Part 135 operations (n = 3,306) were followed up for 11 years. Information on demographics, medical conditions, flight experience, crash involvement, and exposure to flight were collected through biannual medical certification data and aviation crash surveillance systems. Proportional hazards modeling was used in the statistical analysis. RESULTS: During the 11-year period, a total of 12,926,214 pilot-flight-hours and 66 crashes were recorded, yielding a crash rate of 0.51 per 100,000 pilot-flight-hours. The crash rates were 0.56, 0.43, 0.55, 1.10 per 100,000 pilot-flight-hours at age 45–49 years, 50–54 years, 55–59 years, 60–64 years, respectively. In the oldest group, the number of crashes was small (n = 3) and some were the result of aircraft malfunction. Pilots with more than 5,000 hours of total flight time at the baseline had significantly lower crash rates than their less experienced counterparts. Multivariate regression revealed that crash risk appeared to increase with age in a quadratic manner; yet the age effect did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.10). CONCLUSION: Safety performance as measured by crash risk in part 135 pilots does not seem to change significantly during the process of aging, possibly due to the “Healthy Worker Effect” resulting from periodic medical certification and voluntary retirement.
Inferring ancient metabolism using ancestral core metabolic models of enterobacteria

Background: Enterobacteriaceae diversified from an ancestral lineage ~300-500 million years ago (mya) into a wide variety of free-living and host-associated lifestyles. Nutrient availability varies across niches, and evolution of metabolic networks likely played a key role in adaptation. Results: Here we use a paleo systems biology approach to reconstruct and model metabolic networks of ancestral nodes of the enterobacteria phylogeny to investigate metabolism of ancient microorganisms and evolution of the networks. Specifically, we identified orthologous genes across genomes of 72 free-living enterobacteria (16 genera), and constructed core metabolic networks capturing conserved components for ancestral lineages leading to E. coli/ Shigella (~10 mya), E. coli/Shigella/Salmonella (~100 mya), and all enterobacteria (~300-500 mya). Using these models we analyzed the capacity for carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur, and iron utilization in aerobic and anaerobic conditions, identified conserved and differentiating catabolic phenotypes, and validated predictions by comparison to experimental data from extant organisms. Conclusions: This is a novel approach using quantitative ancestral models to study metabolic network evolution and may be useful for identification of new targets to control infectious diseases caused by enterobacteria.
Topic-Relevant Reference Groups and Dimensions of Distance Political Advertising and First- and Third-Person Effects

This article argues for using topic-relevant reference groups in examining first and third-person effects. It also proposes using topic-relevant dimensions of distance to assess relationships not only between self and target groups but also relationships both have with communicators. The study showed 2000 presidential primary ads from Al Gore and George W. Bush to a combined sample of student and nonstudent partisans (N = 140). Participants perceived greater effects on the out-group and on the general public then on themselves for ads from the out-group candidate. A third-person effect was also observed for ads from the in-group candidate in self-in-group and self-public comparisons. The only first-person effect was found for the self-out-group comparison of responses to the in-group candidate ads. Self-candidate political distance, an analogue of message desirability, was negatively related to perceived effects on self and target groups, whereas self-group and group-candidate distance measures showed onl...
REMARKS ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SUPRARENAL GLANDS AS REVEALED BY CLINICAL-PATHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF HUMAN BEINGS AND BY EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS*

The Association for the Study of the Internal Secretions has been organized and its journal, Endocrinology, is being published in the interests both of the advance of science and of better medical practice. Our objects include not only the further development of a pure science of endocrinology, but also the evolution of an applied science of endocrinology and the improvement of the medical art as far as it is exercised in endocrine domains. The membership of our Association includes therefore not only investigators and teachers in the pre-clinical medical sciences of anatomy, histology, embryology, physiology, physiological chemistry, pharmacology and experimental pathology, but also many representatives of the clinical sciences of diagnosis and therapy and of the closely allied sciences of pathological anatomy and pathological physiology. Only through the mutual respect, the thorough reciprocal understanding and the closest co-operation in every way of workers in all these sciences can progress in knowle...
Characterization of intraocular pressure pattern and changes of retinal ganglion cells in DBA2J glaucoma mice.

AIM To characterize the pattern of intraocular pressure (IOP) change and the deficit of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in DBA2J, which is most well-characterized chronic glaucoma mouse model and wild type (WT) C57bl/6 mice, and to study the relationship between IOP change and RGCs deficit. METHODS IOP was monitored with a rebound tonometer in WT C57bl/6 and DBA2J mice from 3 to 15-month-old. Retinal function was evaluated by dark-adapted electroretinogram (ERG) in DBA2J and WT mice of 15-month-old. A dye (Neurobiotin) was applied to optic nerve stump to retrograde label RGCs. TO-PRO-3 visualized all nuclei of cells in the RGC layer. RESULTS The IOP in WT mice was 9.03±0.6 mm Hg on average and did not increase significantly as aging. The IOP in DBA2J mice, arranging from 7.2 to 28 mm Hg, was increasing significantly as aging, and it was normal at 3-month-old compared with WT mice, slightly increased from 7-month-old and increased in 50% animals at 11-month-old and in 38% animals at 15-month-old. The RGCs density in DBA2J mice started reducing by 7-month-old, continuously decreased until reached about 20% of RGC in WT retina by 15-month-old. RGC density was not linearly correlated with IOP in 15-month-old DBA2J mice. The amplitude of positive scotopic threshold response, and negative scotopic threshold response of ERG were significantly reduced in DBA2J mice of 15-month-old than that in age-paired WT mice. CONCLUSION The present study found that DBA2J mice display pathological and functional deficits of the retina that was not linearly correlated with IOP.
Electrochemically Expandable Soft Carbon as Anodes for Na-Ion Batteries.

Na-ion batteries (NIBs) have attracted great attention for scalable electrical energy storage considering the abundance and wide availability of Na resources. However, it remains elusive whether carbon anodes can achieve the similar scale of successes in Na-ion batteries as in Li-ion batteries. Currently, much attention is focused on hard carbon while soft carbon is generally considered a poor choice. In this study, we discover that soft carbon can be a high-rate anode in NIBs if the preparation conditions are carefully chosen. Furthermore, we discover that the turbostratic lattice of soft carbon is electrochemically expandable, where d-spacing rises from 3.6 to 4.2 A. Such a scale of lattice expansion only due to the Na-ion insertion was not known for carbon materials. It is further learned that portions of such lattice expansion are highly reversible, resulting in excellent cycling performance. Moreover, soft carbon delivers a good capacity at potentials above 0.2 V, which enables an intrinsically dendrite-free anode for NIBs.
Long-term monitoring of structures through point cloud analysis

Modern remote sensing technologies have enabled the creation of high-resolution 3D point clouds of infrastructure systems. In particular, photogrammetric reconstructions using Dense-Structure-from-Motion algorithm can now yield point clouds with the necessary resolution to capture small-strain displacements. By tracking changes in these point clouds over time, displacements can be measured, leading to strain and stress estimates for long-term structural evaluations. This study determines the accuracy of a comparative point cloud analysis technique for measuring deflections in high-resolution point clouds of structural elements. Utilizing a combination of a recently developed point cloud generation process and localized nearest-neighbors cloud comparisons, the analytical technique is designed for long-term field scenarios and requires no artificial tracking, targets, and camera calibrations. A series of flexural laboratory experiments were performed in order to test the approach. The results indicate sub-millimeter accuracy in measuring the vertical deflection, making it suitable for the small-displacement analysis of a variety of large-scale infrastructure systems. Ongoing work seeks to extend this technique for comparison with as-built and finite element models.
Multistage Stochastic Programming (MSP) Model for Carbon Nanotube Production Capacity Expansion Planning

Nanotechnology companies face uncertainties from several fronts including occupational safety regulation, demand for nanoproducts, and technology advancements. These uncertainties can prove to be a challenge for planning the production capacity expansion of engineered nanomaterials or nanoenabled products. Exploratory Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that these uncertainties have a significant effect on potential revenue and that there are opportunities for making optimal sustainable capacity expansion decisions by evaluating all possible future scenarios through optimization models. Accordingly, this work develops a multistage stochastic programming (MSP) model to determine the optimal timing of expansion, expansion size, process type, production volume, and also the occupational safety controls in the company to ultimately minimize the total production cost. This MSP model also helps decision makers to achieve sustainable manufacturing goals by reducing the unnecessary capacity expansion and occu...
Variety is the spice of life: Audience preference for unconventional category combinations

We formulate and test a theory about how audience motivation and engagement affect the fortunes of unconventional candidates. We propose that in markets where resource holders are motivated to dive...
Globalization and Collective Labor Rights

The impact of globalization has been a perennial source of contention, and issues regarding labor rights have been a visible aspect of this struggle. Despite the popular controversy about a potential “race to the bottom” regarding globalization and labor rights, the empirical record on these linkages remains mixed. Moreover, despite the multifaceted nature of globalization, extant literature in this area has focused purely on several specific facets of economic globalization, such as trade and FDI. We focus on two additional aspects of globalization, social and political integration, as well as a broadly based measure of economic globalization, and examine how they influence collective labor rights—both in terms of labor laws, as well as their enforcement in practice—in the developing world from 1986 to 2002. We find that all three facets of globalization are negatively related to labor rights. Specifically, social, political, and economic globalization are related to the decoupling of labor practices from extant labor laws; that is, labor practices deteriorate while labor laws remain largely unaffected.
Research and practice of optimizing cooling system in CNC machine

Summarize the analytical methods,project implement,and using the results during the improvement of transformating the islanding cooling system into chilled water cooling system.Through the independent research and analysis of cooling capacity,heat transfer efficiency,and the selection of heat exchangers and other components,find using the original freon-compressor cooling system heat exchanger coil,need very little hardware investment.Transformation reaches a reduced failure rate,and it is helpful for reducing noise and temperature within the plant.This has great significance for cooling system selection and improvement for engine manufacturing machines,and reduces noise,optimizes temperature control inside engine plant.
Imaging the breakdown of molecular-frame dynamics through rotational uncoupling

We demonstrate the breakdown of molecular-frame dynamics induced by the uncoupling of molecular rotation from electronic motion in molecular Rydberg states. We observe this non-Born-Oppenheimer regime in the time domain through photoelectron imaging of a coherent molecular Rydberg wave packet in ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$. The photoelectron angular distribution shows a radically different time evolution than that of a typical molecular-frame-fixed electron orbital, revealing the uncoupled motion of the electron as it precesses around the averaged anisotropic potential of the rotating ion core.
A dental office intervention for cessation of use of smokeless tobacco

The goal of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of dental hygienists in advising their patients to quit use of smokeless tobacco and/or smoking. Seventy-five private practice dental offices in western Oregon were randomly assigned to give usual care or a minimal or extended intervention. Over 34,000 patients (average age, 45; 93% Caucasian; 60% female) were enrolled in the study. Of these patients, 30,136 did not use tobacco, 632 used smokeless tobacco, 4029 smoked and 100 used both smokeless tobacco and cigarettes (Andrews et al., 1998).
First Principles Modeling of Cathodic Reaction Thermodynamics in Dilute Magnesium Alloys

The effect of dilute alloying additions on the cathodic reaction thermodynamics occurring on the magnesium basal (0001) surface was studied using a first principles approach. The stability of alloying additions on the Mg(0001) surface was considered as a function of surface energy and shown to be a function of implicit solvation. The work function of the alloyed surfaces was also largely affected by the use of an implicit solvent, with alloyed surfaces becoming increasingly noble and the pure magnesium surface becoming less noble after solvation. The cathodic reaction was considered as a three part sequence: (1) water dissociation, (2) hydrogen diffusion, and (3) hydrogen evolution. The water dissociation reaction became endothermic for Ge, In, Sb, and Sn dilute alloying, whereas Ca, Sc, Y, Ti, and Zr enhanced the already favorable water dissociation reaction. Two mechanisms of preventing hydrogen evolution were considered, with early period elements (Ca, Sc, Ti, Y, and Zr) preventing hydrogen evolution f...
Studies on sodium-potassium-activated adenosine triphosphatase: I. Quantitative distribution in several tissues of the cat

Abstract The quantitative distribution of sodium-potassium-activated adenosine triphosphatase, which had been shown to play a role in active transport of sodium and potassium in erythrocytes, has been determined in 36 tissues of the cat and in human retina, ciliary body, and erythrocytes. The enzyme was found in 29 of the 36 cat tissues and in the three human tissues. The activity ranged from 1.52 in cat gray matter to 0.00027 in cat erythrocytes, expressed in millimoles of adenosine triphosphate split/g. wet weight of tissue/hr. at 37 °C. Highest activities were noted in nervous tissue and in tissues concerned with secretory function. No in vitro effects on the enzyme in cat gray matter and retina were observed with 13 hormones and five other physiologically important compounds.
Developmental trajectory of mismatch negativity and visual event-related potentials in healthy controls: Implications for neurodevelopmental vs. neurodegenerative models of schizophrenia.

Abstract Sensory processing deficits are core features of schizophrenia, reflected in impaired generation of event-related potential (ERP) measures such as auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) and visual P1. To understand the potential time course of development of deficits in schizophrenia, we obtained MMN to unattended duration, intensity and frequency deviants, and visual P1 to attended LSF stimuli, in 43 healthy individuals ages 6 to 25 years (mean 17), and compared results to data from 30 adult schizophrenia patients (mean age 38). We analyzed “time-domain” measures of amplitude and latency, and event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP, “time-frequency”) to evaluate underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. Duration and intensity MMN amplitudes increased from childhood to late adolescence, while frequency MMN reached maximum amplitude during early development. As reported previously, in ERSP analyses, MMN activity corresponded primarily to theta-band (4–7 Hz) activity, while responses to standards occurred primarily in alpha (8–12 Hz) across age groups. Both deviant-induced theta and standard-induced alpha activity declined significantly with age for all deviant types. Likewise, visual P1 also showed an amplitude decline over development, reflecting a reduction in both evoked power and ITC. While MMN “difference” waveform ERP data suggest failure of maturation in schizophrenia, MMN ERSP analyses instead support a neurodegenerative process, as these isolate responses to deviants and standards, showing large low-frequency evoked power for both in children. Neurodegenerative processes are also supported by large visual P1 amplitudes and large low-frequency evoked power in children, in contrast with adult schizophrenia. Sensory processing deficits in schizophrenia may be related to accelerated synaptic pruning.
Enhancing the stability of lithium ion Li 1+x+y Al x Ti 2−x Si y P 3−y O 12 glass – ceramic conductors in aqueous electrolytes

Abstract The stability of NASICON-type conducting glass–ceramic electrolyte, Li1+x+yAlxTi2−xSiyP3−yO12 (Ohara LICGC) has been characterized after prolonged exposure to deionized water and HCl(aq) solutions supported with LiCl. X-ray diffraction shows that the bulk crystallographic structure of the LICGC membranes remains unchanged when exposed to these solutions. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) shows that the conductivity of LICGC membranes immersed in deionized water remains stable over a one month period, while there is a significant increase in resistance when exposed to the acidic solutions. When exposed to pH 4 and 2 solutions for just 24 h, the resistances of the LICGC membrane increase by a factor of 8.5 and 23.5, respectively. EIS coupled with morphological characterization by scanning electron microscopy, shows that this resistance growth is due to the development of a surface layer on the LICGC membrane. However, this substantial increase in resistance can be mitigated by adding LiCl to the HCl solutions. For a pH 4 solution supported with 6.75 M LiCl, the impedance spectrum and surface morphology are qualitatively comparable to pristine, dry LICGC material, suggesting that surface layer formation was suppressed. This was also confirmed via cyclic voltammetry measurements in four-electrode electrochemical cells.
A Tabletop Persistent-Mode, Liquid-Helium-Free, 1.5-T/90-mm MgB2 “Finger” MRI Magnet for Osteoporosis Screening: Two Design Options

In this paper, we present two design options for a tabletop liquid-helium-free, persistent-mode 1.5-T/90-mm MgB 2 “finger” MRI magnet for osteoporosis screening. Both designs, one with and the other without an iron yoke, satisfy the following criteria: 1) 1.5-T center field with a 90-mm room-temperature bore for a finger to be placed at the magnet center; 2) spatial field homogeneity of <5 ppm over a 20-mm diameter of spherical volume (DSV); 3) persistent-mode operation with temporal stability of <0.1 ppm/h; 4) liquid-helium-free operation; 5) 5-gauss fringe field radius of <50 cm from the magnet center; and 6) small and light enough for placement on an exam table. Although the magnet is designed to operate nominally at 10 K, maintained by a cryocooler, it has a 5-K temperature margin to keep its 1.5-T persistent field up to 15 K. The magnet will be immersed in a volume of solid nitrogen (SN2) that provides additional thermal mass when the cryocooler is switched off to provide a vibration-free measurement environment. The SN2 enables the magnet to maintain its persistent field over a period of time sufficient for quiescent measurement, while still limiting the magnet operating temperature to ≤15 K. We discuss first pros and cons of each design, and then further studies of our proposed MgB2 finger MRI magnet .
Stochastic Nonsmooth Analysis And Optimization In Banach Spaces

In several areas of applied mathematics, such as control theory, best approximation, variational problems and mathematical economics we have to minimize integral functions i.e. functions of the form \({\rm{I}}\left( {\rm{u}} \right){\rm{ = }}{\smallint _{\rm{\Omega }}}{\rm{f}}\left( {{\rm{\omega ,u}}\left( {\rm{\omega }} \right)} \right){\rm{d\mu }}\left( {\rm{\omega }} \right)\) where \(\left( {\Omega ,\sum ,{\rm{\mu }}} \right)\) is a σ-finite measure space, \({\rm{f}}\,:\,\Omega \, \times \,{\rm{X}} \to \bar \, = \,{\rm{U\{ + }}\infty {\rm{\} }}\) a measurable integrand, x a Banach space and u(·) is constrained to belong to U, a subspace of the space of all strongly measurable X-valued functions defined on Ω. In most applications the integrand involved is nondifferentiable or even worse discontinuous. In order to be able to study them using technigues of nonsmooth analysis, such as Rockafellar’s theory of normal, convex integrands [32]->[34] or Clarke’s theory of generalized gradients [6]↑[8] we need to know how the different analytic and geometric properties of f(·,·) are transferred to I(·) through integration. In some cases, such as sequential stochastic optimization, at each stage of the process we can rely only on the information available at that moment. In mathematical terms this means that we have to consider the conditional expectation of f(·,·) with respect to an increasing family \({\left\{ {{\sum _{\rm{n}}}} \right\}_{{\rm{n1}}}}\) of sub-σ-fields of Ω. So it is important to know how the different concepts of non-smooth analysis associated with the integrand f(·,·) are effected by the operation of conditional expectation. Considerations of this and similar nature have motivated the work of this paper.
Fractional-order system identification for health monitoring

Fractional-order differential equations can describe the dynamics of robot formations and other high-order systems. These equations are useful models for such systems because of the flexibility afforded by including noninteger derivatives. A system’s fractional order may change in response to mechanical or operational damage, but the possibility of an order change is not typically considered in structural health monitoring or other system monitoring tools. Typically, the order is assumed to be an integer from the physics of the system, while behaviors are captured by parameters within the chosen model. In contrast, this work presents a procedure to identify the fractional order of a system’s dynamics across a variety of parameter changes; the inclusion of fractional orders allows order itself to measure dynamical shifts. This work presents the identification procedure, its mathematical foundations, and results from example systems representing two mobile robot formations. The fractional order changes in a manner consistent with the physical changes modeled by damage, suggesting that this procedure is widely applicable in health monitoring.
Bubble execution: resource-aware reliable analytics at cloud scale

Enabling interactive data exploration at cloud scale requires minimizing end-to-end query execution latency, while guaranteeing fault tolerance, and query execution under resource-constraints. Typically, such a query execution involves orchestrating the execution of hundreds or thousands of related tasks on cloud scale clusters. Without any resource constraints, all query tasks can be scheduled to execute simultaneously (gang scheduling) while connected tasks stream data between them. When the data size referenced by a query increases, gang scheduling may be resource-wasteful or un-satisfiable with a limited, per-query resource budget. This paper introduces Bubble Execution, a new query processing framework for interactive workloads at cloud scale, that balances cost-based query optimization, fault tolerance, optimal resource management, and execution orchestration. Bubble execution involves dividing a query execution graph into a collection of query sub-graphs (bubbles), and scheduling them within a per-query resource budget. The query operators (tasks) inside a bubble stream data between them while fault tolerance is handled by persisting temporary results at bubble boundaries. Our implementation enhances our JetScope service, for interactive workloads, deployed in production clusters at Microsoft. Experiments with TPC-H queries show that bubble execution can reduce resource usage significantly in the presence of failures while maintaining performance competitive with gang execution.
Applying Large-Scale Optimization to Evaluate Pavement Maintenance Alternatives for Low-Volume Roads using Genetic Algorithms:

Over the last decade, significant progress has been made to customize the maintenance policies of low-volume roads (LVRs) to local needs and available resources. Low-cost treatments and surface rep...
Revolutions and freedom of movement: An analysis of passport controls in the French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions

In her landmark study States and social revolutions, Theda Skocpol argues that the most consistent and remarkable outcome of the revolutionary upheavals in France, Russia, and China was the administrative centralization of these states and the enhancement of their capacity to reach into society to achieve their aims.1 Yet Skocpol's comparative analysis of the social and political transformations in these countries led her to conclude that the extension of bureaucratic domination was
Hausdorff Dimensions and Measures

Hausdorff measures can be thought of as extensions of Lebesgue’s measure. While a rather abstract treatment is possible, we restrict our attention to such measures on Euclidean spaces.
X-Ray Characterization of Magnetic Multilayers and Superlattices

In this paper we describe several x-ray diffraction techniques which we have found to be very useful for characterizing the structure of magnetic multilayers and superlattices. Examples are given from several of the magnetic and non-magnetic materials studied recently with these techniques.