cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Composite B-Cell and T-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma of the Tibia

We report a unique case of de novo composite lymphoma in the tibia of a 35-year-old man who presented with increasingly frequent and intense pain in the right upper leg. He was otherwise healthy without significant medical history. A plain radiograph of the right leg showed a permeative lesion with alternating areas of radiolucency and radiodensity in the upper third of the tibia. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a large, heterogeneous enhancing lesion involving the medullary and cortical bone of the proximal tibia with cortical disruption and extension into the adjacent soft tissue. A biopsy showed sheets and clusters of large cells, punctuated by clusters of small, irregular lymphocytes. Flow cytometry and immunohistochemical analysis showed composite lymphoma: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and peripheral T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma with predominantly small cell morphologic features. The DLBCL expressed CD19, CD20, CD79a, CD5, CD10, CD23, CD38, CD117, bcl-2, and bcl-6, with monotypic expression of immunoglobulin kappa light chain. The T cells expressed CD2, CD3, CD5, CD7, and CD8, with partial loss of CD4. Clonal rearrangement of T-cell receptor gamma chain gene was found. Neither the large B cells nor the small T cells expressed Epstein-Barr virus-encoded RNA. Physical examination and radiologic studies showed no evidence of lymphadenopathy, organomegaly, or other mass lesions in the body. No peripheral lymphocytosis or bone marrow involvement was present.
Comments on "On the optimality of the likelihood-ratio test for local sensor decision rules in the presence of nonideal channels"

In a decentralized detection problem where N sensors make observations (the laws of which depend on the realized hypothesis) and communicate one of a finite and prespecified set of messages to a fusion center, optimal sensor decision rules have polyhedral decision regions in the space of likelihood vectors for a large class of Bayesian costs. We point out in this comment that this result can be easily derived from earlier results, even in the case when the communication from the sensors to the fusion center is over (parallel, independent) noisy channels
Anxiety, Appearance Contingent Self-Worth, and Appearance Conversations with Friends in Relation to Disordered Eating: Examining Moderator Models

This study examined whether anxiety, combined with a focus on appearance, would identify individuals most likely to exhibit eating pathology, conceptualized as safety behaviors/avoidance strategies. In particular, we examined appearance contingent self-worth and appearance conversations with friends as possible moderators of the anxiety-disordered eating relation. Participants were 441 women attending a Southeastern university who completed an online survey. Results indicated that those with the three-way combination of high anxiety, high appearance contingent self-worth, and frequent appearance conversations exhibited the most frequent binge eating. While no significant three-way interactions emerged for broad eating pathology and dietary restraint, in both models it was the anxiety × appearance contingent self-worth interaction that accounted for unique variance in these eating patterns. Results provide researchers and clinicians with a better understanding of who experiences various types of disordered eating in association with anxiety and possible points of intervention.
Rate control in feldspar dissolution—II. The protective effect of precipitates

Abstract The ability of precipitates formed during incongruent dissolution of feldspars in aqueous solutions to act as barriers to mass transfer between the feldspar and the bulk solution is examined using the available textural evidence on such precipitates. The propensity of precipitates for forming compact coatings on the dissolving grains is measured by a characteristic distance of diffusion of the precipitating component, a function of the diffusion coefficient of the component in solution and of the rate constant for its precipitation. The available evidence on precipitates formed during dissolution of feldspars, complemented by the evidence on similar precipitates produced from comparable solutions in the absence of feldspars, is sufficient for evaluating the protective effect of precipitates under laboratory conditions, and for setting limits to the conditions under which such an effect could be important during weathering and diagenesis. Feldspar dissolution in the reported kinetic experiments at room temperature and 3 ⩽ pH ⩽ 10 could not have been controlled by diffusion through the precipitate, and changes in the rate of release of alkalies after the first couple of days in Lagache's experiments at 200°C also could not have been controlled by diffusion through the precipitate. Other things being equal, characteristic distances of diffusion of components reprecipitated during incongruent dissolution of silicates decrease with increasing temperature, and coating of dissolving grains by compact precipitate layers should be more common at metamorphic temperatures than in the temperature range of weathering and diagenesis.
Industry-University Projects and Centers An Empirical Comparison of Two Federally Funded Models of Cooperative Science

It is widely held that improved industry-university (I- U) cooperation can contribute to technological innovation and productivity in the United States. Although various federal programs have attempted to stimulate cooperation between these two sectors, most have escaped serious evaluative scrutiny. This study describes an exception to this trend: an empirical evaluation and comparison of two federally funded programs designed to foster cooperative science. Among other findings, results appear to indicate that participants in I-U Projects perceive applied objectives like patent development as the most important goal of their collaboration, whereas I- U Centers promote a more basic goal of knowledge expansion. Participants within each model exhibit high agreement on the goals of their collaboration. In addition, both programs appear to stimulate new research projects back in corporate laboratories.
The development of current transients during the life of a copper single crystal fatigued in a neutral oxidizing environment

Abstract During the corrosion-fatigue of copper single crystals at a constant potential, the current from the crystals was observed to fluctuate. The fluctuations were contained within a single fatigue cycle, and a related set of fluctuations in the rest potential was observed in the absence of a cell current. The development of the current fluctuations was followed throughout the life of persistent-slip-band-forming samples, and the current was found to be dependent on the applied stress and on the presence of an oxide layer. Changes in speciment surface area were found to have a subsidiary effect.
Metabolic restoration in rat liver after partial hepatectomy.

Es zeigt sich wahrend des fruhen Regenerationsstadiums bei der teilweise hepatektomierten Rattenleber, dass ein Anstieg im Galaktose-Metabolismus mit gleichzeitiger Abnahme seiner Hemmung durch Ethanol einhergeht. Nach vollstandiger Geweberegeneration kehrt der normale Metabolismus zuruck.
Sedimentary parameters as factors in abrasive shell reduction

Abstract Shells of two gastropod and one bivalve species were subjected to abrasion in nine synthesized quartz sands having different mean grain diameters and standard deviations. Mean grain diameters of the abrasive sands were −0.5 φ, 1.5 φ and 3.5 φ. Standard deviations of the abrasive sands were 0φ, 1φ and 2φ. All combinations of these parameters were examined. Shell reduction is largely a function of shell architecture, particularly of surface area per unit weight. Within any single species shell reduction generally increases as the sorting of the abrasive sediment becomes poorer. Reduction is also related to mean grain diameter of the abrasive sand, being greatest in very coarse sand, intermediate in very fine sand, and least in medium sand. Paleoecologic implications, and the difficulty of predicting which types of organisms are most likely to be preserved in the fossil record, are discussed.
Spectral Sensitivity of the Compound Eyes of Field-Collected Adult Bollworms and Tobacco Budworms,

When the electroretinogram was used to measure the spectral sensitivity of the compound eye of the bollworm moth, Heliothis zea (Boddie), and the tobacco budworm moth, Heliothis virescens (F.), the compound eyes of both species responded to light stimuli over a range of wavelengths of 350 to 700 nm and were most sensitive to wavelengths of 365 and 480-575 nm. Also, with both species, receptors in the compound eyes failed to respond to infrared wavelengths from 800 to 1520 nm, though the levels of radiation intensity were 22-35 µw/cm2, 100 times those required to elicit a response at 700 nm and 10,000 times those required at 500 nm. Wavelengths of 365 nm and 480-575 nm may be the most effective light stimuli for these moths.
Accuracy of three-dimensional remote target location using scanning holographic correlation

Three-dimensional (3D) targets can be simultaneously located and recognized in 3D space using two-dimensional scanning holographic correlation and Wigner analysis of the correlation data. The accuracy of target location in the presence of additive intensity noise is estimated from computer simulations. It is shown that with a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio, the target can be located in the transverse plane as well as axially with an accuracy that can exceed considerably the resolution limit fixed by the numerical aperture of the optics.
Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis presenting as recurrent pneumothoraces.

A 34-year-old woman serongative for the human immunodeficiency virus presented with recurrent, bilateral pneumothoraces. She also had bibasilar interstitial and alveolar infiltrates, and histologic examination was consistent with lymphocytic interstitital pneumonitis. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis presenting with recurrent pneumothoraces.
Solid electrolytes as active catalyst supports: Electrochemical modification of benzene hydrogenation activity on Pt/β″(Na)Al2O3

The influence of Na on benzene hydrogenation over Pt has been investigated. The amount of Na interacting with the Pt catalyst was reversibly changed by electrochemically pumping the Na from β″Al2O3, a solid electrolyte which was both the Pt support and the source of the Na. The kinetics of the reaction are affected in a way that indicates an electronic effect of Na on benzene adsorption. The reaction can be completely inhibited at apparently low coverages of Na relative to the total surface area measured by oxygen chemisorption which may imply that only a small fraction of this surface is active for benzene hydrogenation on Pt/β″Al2O3.
API usability: report on special interest group at CHI

The 27th annual International Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI) convened in Boston, MA (USA) from April 4-9, 2009. Included in this year's technical program was a special interest group (SIG) meeting on API usability. This report summarizes the SIG, emphasizing the primary takeaways, which include a greater understanding of the types of APIs, case studies, and a place to share our multi-disciplinary results.
ASSESSMENT OF GRASSLAND ECOSYSTEM RESPONSES TO ATMOSPHERIC CHANGE USING LINKED PLANT–SOIL PROCESS MODELS

Models of photosynthesis, plant growth, and biophysical processes were linked with models that simulate water, nutrient, and carbon flows through plant–soil ecosystems. The linked ecosystem model was applied to examine ecosystem-level responses to CO2, temperature, precipitation, and global-warming scenarios in grasslands of Colorado and Kansas, USA, and Kenya. The model predicted that increased temperatures would decrease primary production at current CO2 levels, but decreases were reversed by doubling atmospheric CO2 concentration. Greater increases in daily minimum temperatures than daily maximum temperatures mitigated reductions in photosynthesis and water-use efficiency (WUE) later in the day, more than offseting increases in nighttime respiration rates under warmer temperatures. A temperature increase of 5°C reduced organic carbon in grassland soils by 20–30%, through effects on plant growth and decomposition, but the doubled CO2 negated soil carbon losses by increasing plant growth. Under higher pr...
Urologic abnormalities in Menkes' kinky hair disease: report of three cases.

Menkes' kinky hair disease is a rare congenital disorder of copper metabolism with X-linked recessive inheritance. It is well known that it is frequently associated with urologic abnormalities. The authors experienced three such cases, but each of them was different. Multiple bladder diverticula, right vesico-ureteral reflux, and right hydronephrosis were noted on the first baby boy. In the second case, hematomas in the left kidney, pelvis, ureter and the adipose capsule, which were thought to be the abnormality of vessels, were noted in the neonatal period. In the third boy, multiple bladder diverticula were noted at the age of 1 year. One year, 10 months later, a spontaneous rupture at the huge diverticulum occurred.
Cognitive Skill Acquisition: A Developmental Approach

Twenty-eight studies from five different categories of tasks were examined for age-dependent training effects across the ages of seven to ninety. Four general patterns of results emerged from these studies. First, sensorimotor differences were found across the age groups. Second, although there were definite age differences, practice effects were evident for all ages. Third, ability-dependent differences within age groups were observed. These differences may be eliminated with consistent training. Finally, performance on certain task components, primarily those utilizing well-developed automatic processes, remained relatively stable across the life span. These patterns of performance are interpreted from a “connectionist” viewpoint and explained in terms of priority and associative mechanisms of learning.
FILTERS PARAMETRIZED BY ORTHONORMAL BASIS FUNCTIONS FOR ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL

Parametrization of filters on the basis of orthonormal basis functions have been widely used in system identification and adaptive signal processing. The main advantage of using orthonormal basis functions for a filter parametrization lies in the possibility of incorporating prior knowledge of the system dynamics into the identification process and adaptive signal process. As a result, a more accurate and simplified filter with less parameters can be obtained. In this paper, several construction methods of orthonormal basis function are discussed and analyzed. An application of active noise control based on these orthonormal basis constructions is presented.
Swedish and American studies show that initiatives to decrease maternal obesity could play a key role in reducing preterm birth

UNLABELLED Maternal obesity is a major source of preventable perinatal morbidity, but studies of the relationship between obesity and preterm birth have been inconsistent. This review looks at two major studies covering just under 3.5 million births, from California, USA, and Sweden. CONCLUSION Inconsistent findings in previous studies appear to stem from the complex relationship between obesity and preterm birth. Initiatives to decrease maternal obesity represent an important strategy in reducing preterm birth.
Luminescence of the hydrolysis products of Th(IV)

Abstract Raising the pH of an aqueous solution of thorium nitrate results in the precipitation of a hydrated thorium oxide. At room temperature this material does not exhibit any emissive properties, but upon cooling to 77 K a strong green luminescence can be observed. The emission spectrum is fairly broad, and is characterized by an emission lifetime of 125 μs. Calcination of the hydrolysis product produces an anhydrous thorium oxide which is not luminescent at any temperature. Through the production of a series of mixed lanthanide/thorium hydrolysis products, it was established that the luminescent species was a clustered thorium compound. Sensitization of Eu(III) emission by the thorium hydrolysis product was observed.
Ultrastructural organization of chloroplast thylakoids of the green alga Oocystis marssonii.

Intact cells of "Oocystis marssonii" were thin sectioned and freeze-etched, using conventional and double-recovery techniques. Thylakoids extend the length of the single chloroplast and occur in stacks of three to five. The peripheral thylakoids in a stack often alternate between adjacent stacks. Interpretation of double-recovery results suggests that membranes in unstacked regions are asymmetrical, with one face smooth and the matching face covered with closely packed 85–90 A diameter particles. Adjacent membranes in stacked regions evidently share 170 A diameter particles, and either membrane in a stacked region may fracture. The two fracture planes thus made possible may expose nearly entire 170 A particles or only the upper portion of such particles, creating in the latter case images of 125–135 A diameter particles. Fracture planes in all cases appear to occur through the interior of the membrane, in the plane between the hydrophobic ends of the lipid bilayer proposed in numerous membrane models.
Aperture collimation correction and maximum-likelihood image reconstruction for near-field coded aperture imaging of single photon emission computerized tomography

Coded aperture (CA) imaging originally developed in X-ray astronomy has not been widely used in nuclear medicine due to the decoding complexity of near-field CA images. In this paper, we present a near-field CA imaging technique and image reconstruction method for high sensitivity and high resolution single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT). Our approach makes three contributions. First, a correction method for the aperture collimation effect is used to eliminate the near-field artifacts without dual acquisitions of mask and anti-mask images. Second, a maximum-likelihood expectation-maximization (MLEM) deconvolution method is used to restore CA images. Finally, a new MLEM-based algorithm is used to partially reconstruct three-dimensional (3-D) objects from a single projection of CA images. Experiments conducted using a dual-head SPECT system equipped with a parallel-hole collimator and a CA module show a tenfold increase in count sensitivity and significant improvement in image resolution with CA collimation as compared to parallel-hole collimation. Experiments conducted using the same dual-head SPECT system equipped with a pinhole collimator show that when the object is closer to the pinhole collimator the CA image resolution is only slightly inferior to the pinhole collimated image. We found that the MLEM deconvolution method provides an inherent nonnegativity constraint on pixel values and remarkably reduces background activities of CA images. The MLEM reconstruction algorithm for CA images is capable of reconstructing 3-D objects from a single projection and can be potentially extended to full 3-D SPECT reconstruction for CA images
GaAs TUNNETT diodes on diamond heat sinks for 100 GHz and above

Single-drift GaAs TUNNETT diodes were mounted on diamond heat sinks for improved thermal resistance and evaluated around 100 GHz in a radial line full height waveguide cavity. The diodes were fabricated from MBE-grown material originally designed for diodes that operate in CW mode around 100 GHz on integral heat sinks. An RF output power of more than 70 mW with a corresponding DC to RF conversion efficiency of 4.9% was obtained at 105.4 GHz. This is the first successful demonstration of GaAs TUNNETT diodes mounted on diamond heat sinks. To the authors' knowledge, these DC to RF conversion efficiencies and RF power levels are the highest reported to date from TUNNETT diodes and exceed those of any single discrete device made of group III-V materials (GaAs, InP, etc.) at this frequency. Free-running TUNNETT diode oscillators exhibit clean spectra with an excellent phase noise of less than -94 dBc/Hz, measured at a frequency off-carrier of 500 kHz and an RF output power of 40 mW. >
Impact of urodynamic based incontinence diagnosis on quality of life in women

Aims To characterize the effect of urodynamic diagnosis on degree of incontinence related bother and health related quality of life in a large, multi-ethnic population of women. Methods Effects of multichannel urodynamic diagnosis, urethral competency, and other patient characteristics on abbreviated Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI6) and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ7) composite scores were analyzed retrospectively. Results Six hundred eleven patients were included. Mean UDI6 and IIQ7 scores were significantly higher among patients with mixed incontinence, detrusor overactivity, urinary stress incontinence with overactive bladder, and negative studies compared to those with stress incontinence without OAB. The relative composite UDI6 and IIQ7 mean scores did not significantly differ between the mixed incontinence, detrusor overactivity, stress incontinence with OAB and negative study groups. UDI6 and IIQ7 scores were significantly higher among stress incontinent patients with intrinsic sphincter deficiency, but similar among mixed incontinent patients with intrinsic sphincter deficiency. Conclusion Urodynamic diagnoses of detrusor overactivity, mixed incontinence, and stress incontinence with overactive bladder are associated with significantly worse incontinence related bother and health related quality of life when compared to those with stress incontinence without OAB. These conditions appear to have similar degree of impact on incontinence related bother and quality of life. Patients presenting with symptoms of incontinence can suffer a similar compromise in quality of life despite a negative MCUD study. Neurourol. Urodynam. 28:183–187, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Interannual variability of the upper ocean carbon cycle at station ALOHA near Hawaii

We investigate interannual variability of the upper ocean carbon cycle in the subtropical North Pacific on the basis of a 14-year time series (1988-2002) of carbon parameters from Station ALOHA, the site of the U. S. JGOFS Hawaii Ocean Time series program (HOT). The data reveal substantial interannual variability in near-surface concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon normalized to constant salinity (sDIC, peak-to-peak amplitude of +/-4 mumol kg(-1)), computed ocean surface partial pressure of CO2 (pCO(2), +/-6 ppm), and the C-13/C-12 ratio of DIC (+/-0.07%). A strong anticorrelation (r = -0.50) between interannual anomalies in sea-surface temperature (SST) and sDIC is found, which tends to suppress the correlation of either of these properties with pCO2. In contrast, no significant correlation (p < 0.05) is found between anomalies of the C-13/C-12 ratio of DIC and any other parameter. A diagnostic box model analysis reveals that interannual variability of near-surface ocean sDIC is driven by air-sea gas exchange, net community production, and lateral transport. In warmer than normal years the seasonal carbon cycle tends to be weakened, with a sDIC reduction in the mixed layer caused by diminished gas exchange and lateral transport outweighing the effect of less intense sDIC removal by net community production. This explains the observed anticorrelation between SST and sDIC. Interannual (peak-to-peak) variability of air-sea gas exchange (+/-0.4 mol m(-2) yr(-1), i.e., 40% of the annual mean value) is primarily governed by strongly covarying changes in SST and wind speeds. Net community production varies interannually by up to +/-0.9 mol m(-2) yr(-1) (39%) and tends to be associated with changes in horizontal transport. Less than 20% of the interannual variance in sDIC near Hawaii can be explained by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and an even smaller fraction (less than 5%) by the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Because SST variations over a sizable fraction of the North Pacific subtropical gyre vary in concert with those at Station ALOHA, it is plausible that air-sea fluxes in this region vary also synchronously, resulting in a variability of the atmospheric CO2 sink strength of the North Pacific subtropical gyre of up to +/-0.2 PgC yr(-1).
Burstiness in multi-tier applications: symptoms, causes, and new models

Workload flows in enterprise systems that use the multi-tier paradigm are often characterized as bursty, i.e., exhibit a form of temporal dependence. Burstiness often results in dramatic degradation of the perceived user performance, which is extremely difficult to capture with existing capacity planning models. The main reason behind this deficiency of traditional capacity planning models is that the user perceived performance is the result of the complex interaction of a very complex workload with a very complex system. In this paper, we propose a simple and effective methodology for detecting burstiness symptoms in multi-tier systems rather than identifying the low-level exact cause of burstiness as traditional models would require. We provide an effective way to incorporate this information into a surprisingly simple and effective modeling methodology. This new modeling methodology is based on the index of dispersion of the service process at a server, which is inferred by observing the number of completions within the concatenated busy periods of that server. The index of dispersion together with other measurements that reflect the "estimated" mean and the 95th percentile of service times are used to derive a Markov-modulated process that captures well burstiness and variability of the true service process, despite inevitable inaccuracies that result from inexact and limited measurements. Detailed experimentation on a TPC-W testbed where all measurements are obtained by HP (Mercury) Diagnostics, a commercially available tool, shows that the proposed technique offers a simple yet powerful solution to the difficult problem of inferring accurate descriptors of the service time process from coarse measurements of a given system. Experimental and model prediction results are in excellent agreement and argue strongly for the effectiveness of the proposed methodology under both bursty and non-bursty workloads.
Metals as Toxins in Plants

AbstractAccumulating toxic substances from the environment and incorporating them into body tissues is a familiar strategy for preventing predation in insects such as the Monarch butterfly. This review explores the possibility that certain plant species, known as hyperaccumulators, employ the same strategy when they accumulate high levels of metals from their environments. Accumulation of toxic levels of selenium, nickel, copper, manganese, zinc, chromium and other metals in plant tissues, either as unutilizable metabolites, as chelates or isolated in subcellular structures, has been well documented. What is lacking is clear evidence that the practice of hyperaccumulating metals succeeds in reducing predation (herbivory). This may be due to the fact that, with the possible exception of selenium accumulators, these plants have failed to evolve unequivocal mechanisms for signalling the presence of their toxic contents.
One-neuron circuitry for carry generation in a 4-bit adder

It is shown how a parallel carry generator circuit using the sigmoidal (input/output) characteristic of a neuron can be employed in a carry select adder architecture. The circuit performs the carry generation function in parallel with the generation of the summation bits. By examining the input-output pairs of a digital adder it is found that the generation of its output carry is a most basic mapping of a neural network, the mapping of a single neuron. The realization of this mapping by a transistor circuit is described. Performance results derived from SPICE simulations of the proposed circuit, using 1.2- mu m CMOS technology, are also given. >
REPEATED ACQUISITION OF BEHAVIORAL CHAINS: RESPONSE SEQUENCES OR CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATIONS?

The purpose of this study was to determine whether pigeons learn a sequence of positional responses or a series of conditional discriminations under a repeated-acquisition-of-behavioral-chains procedure. Three pigeons were trained under a repeated-acquisition procedure in which three different key colors served as stimuli correlated with the three steps in a chain. The order of presentation of the three stimuli was altered during the latter part of each test session after acquisition had occurred. If the pigeons had acquired a response sequence, the pattern of responding should remain the same as in the initial portion of the test session. However, if the pigeons had acquired a conditional discrimination, the response pattern should change in accordance with the changed order of the key colors. Although the results of this study do not rule out the possibility that the subjects acquired, to some degree, a response sequence, the results suggest that the behavior of pigeons under a repeated-acquisition-of-behavioral-chains procedure is controlled primarily by conditional discriminative stimuli.
Improved cerebellar tissue classification on magnetic resonance images of brain.

Purpose—To develop and implement a method for improved cerebellar tissue classification on the magnetic resonance images of brain by automatically isolating the cerebellum prior to segmentation. Materials and Methods—Dual fast spin echo (FSE) and fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) images were acquired on eighteen normal volunteers on a 3 T Philips scanner. The cerebellum was isolated from rest of the brain by using a symmetric inverse consistent nonlinear registration of individual brain with the parcellated template. The cerebellum was then separated by masking the anatomical image with individual FLAIR images. Tissues in both the cerebellum and rest of the brain were separately classified using hidden Markov random field (HMRF), a parametric method, and then combined to obtain tissue classification of the whole brain. The proposed method for tissue classification on real magnetic resonance (MR) brain images was evaluated subjectively by two experts. The segmentation results on Brainweb images with varying noise and intensity nonuniformity levels were quantitatively compared with the ground truth by computing the Dice similarity indices. Results—The proposed method has significantly improved the cerebellar tissue classification on all normal volunteers included in this study without compromising the classification in remaining part of the brain. The average similarity indices for gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) in the cerebellum are 89.81 (± 2.34) and 93.04 (± 2.41), demonstrating excellent performance of the proposed methodology. Conclusion—The proposed method significantly improved tissue classification in the cerebellum. The GM was overestimated when segmentation was performed on the whole brain as a single object.
Efficient ASIP design for configurable processors with fine-grained resource sharing

Application-Specific Instruction-set Processors (ASIP) can improve execution speed by using custom instructions. Several ASIP design automation flows have been proposed recently. In this paper, we investigate two techniques to improve these flows, so that ASIP can be efficiently applied to simple computer architectures in embedded applications. Firstly, we efficiently generate custom instructions with multi-cycle IO (which allows multi-outputs), thus removing the constraint imposed by the ports of the register file. Secondly, we allow identical portions of different custom instructions to be shared, thus allowing more custom instructions under the same area constraint. To handle the greatly increased exploration space, we propose several heuristics to keep the problem tractable. Experimental results show that we can achieve 3x speedup in some cases
Thermal inactivation of immobilized enzymes in ideal continuous reactors.

The limitation of thermal inactivation on catalytic activity in continuous enzymatic reactions is considered. Where an enzyme is retained in a reaction environment which is open to mass transfer of reaction components, the effect of enzyme inactivation on reactant conversion depends on the order of the chemical reaction and the pattern of fluid flow through the reaction volume. Equations expressing conversion as a function of time for first-order inactivation are presented for Michaelis-Menten kinetics and the limiting fluid flow conditions of plug flow and complete back-mixing. Substrate protection or destruction of an enzyme is also considered and it is shown theoretically that the catalytic life of an enzyme may be optimized by the proper choice of fluid flow pattern.
Hidden impact? Household saving in response to a poor-area development project

Abstract The possibility that poor households may prefer to save the income gains from a development project raises concerns about how well standard evaluation methods–using data collected over relatively short periods–can capture the true welfare impacts. By the widely used difference-in-difference method, the Southwest China Poverty Reduction Project had little current impact on the proportion of people in beneficiary villages consuming less than US$1/day—despite a public outlay of US$400 million. However, the program had much larger impacts on incomes than consumptions. Uncertainty about the project's future impact probably made it hard for participants to infer the gain in permanent income, so they saved a high proportion of the current income gains.
Sizing nanoparticles and ions with a short differential mobility analyzer

Abstract An analysis of the effects of diffusion in differential mobility analyzers (DMAs) at high Peclet number (Pe) shows that the associated peak broadening may be greatly reduced when the axial separation between entrance and exit slits is comparable to the inter-electrode gap. This prediction is verified in a shortened version of Reischl's DMA using molecular ions from an electrospray source. Gaussian peaks with relative full width at half maximum as small as 0.066 are observed at a DMA Reynolds number of 1190 in the mobility spectra of (butyl)4N+ ions in air (Pe = 104). After correcting for the broadening effect of the aerosol flow rate and the sampling slit width, the predicted diffusive peak widths agree well with those observed, but only at the highest resolutions. The DMA described here is the first one able to measure with excellent resolution the mobilities of particles down to 1 nm in diameter, and even of molecular ions.
Solution Accelerators For Large-scale 3D Electromagnetic Inverse Problems

We provide a framework for preconditioning nonlinear 3D electromagnetic inverse scattering problems using nonlinear conjugate gradient (NLCG) and limited memory (LM) quasi-Newton methods. Key to our approach is the use of an approximate adjoint method that allows for an economical approximation of the Hessian that is updated at each inversion iteration. Using this approximate Hessian as a preconditoner, we show that the preconditioned NLCG iteration converges significantly faster than the non-preconditioned iteration, as well as converging to a data misfit level below that observed for the non-preconditioned method. Similar conclusions are also observed for the LM iteration; preconditioned with the approximate Hessian, the LM iteration converges faster than the non-preconditioned version. At this time, however, we see little difference between the convergence performance of the preconditioned LM scheme and the preconditioned NLCG scheme. A possible reason for this outcome is the behavior of the line search within the LM iteration. It was anticipated that, near convergence, a step size of one would be approached, but what was observed, instead, were step lengths that were nowhere near one. We provide some insights into the reasons for this behavior and suggest further research that may improve the performance of the LM methods.
Perspectives on the Integration of Technology and Assessment

This paper considers uses of technology in educational assessment from the perspective of innovation and support for teaching and learning. It examines assessment cases drawn from contexts that include large-scale testing programs as well as classroom-based programs, and attempts that have been made to harness the power of technology to provide rich, authentic tasks that elicit aspects of integrated knowledge, critical thinking, and problem solving. These aspects of cognition are seldom well addressed by traditional testing programs using paper and pencil or computer technologies. The paper also gives consideration to strategies for developing balanced, multilevel assessment systems that involve articulating relationships among curriculum-embedded, benchmark, and summative assessments that operate across classroom, district, state, national, and international levels. It discusses the multiple roles for technology in an assessment-based information system in light of the decision support needed from the multiple actors who operate across levels of the education system. The paper concludes with a consideration of the current state of the field as well as the potential for technology to help launch a new era of integrated, learning-centered assessment systems. (Keywords: Assessment, technology, large-scale, classroom, formative, summative)
Narrative Comprehension Processes: A Study of Native and Non-Native Readers of Japanese.

hension involves both "top-down" and "bottomup" processing and that both operate simultaneously rather than sequentially.' Researchers in second language (L2) reading have increasingly paid attention to the reader as an active processor who receives information from a text (bottom-up processing) by applying his or her background knowledge in order to make sense (top-down processing). However, few empirical data are available about the interaction of topdown with bottom-up processing while the reader is trying to construct a coherent representation of the text. The study reported in this paper attempts to explore this issue.
Mixing 3-V and 5-V ICs

The fact that many integrated circuits now operate from 3V power supplies, in particular, embedded controllers, memories, and a variety of logic chips, while only 5 V versions are available of some peripheral components has led to the use of mixed-voltage systems. The disadvantages of these systems are examined, and ways of dealing with them are discussed. Compared to systems using 5 V components only, the mixed systems offer the advantages of longer battery life and smaller size and weight. >
COMPILATION OF DISTINCT HLA-A, -B AND -C TRANSMEMBRANE AND CYTOPLASMIC DOMAIN-ENCODING SEQUENCES

Exons 5-8 of HLA class I genes encode the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains of HLA class I proteins. Of the more than 300 HLA-A, -B and -C alleles recognized by the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System, the number of alleles for which exon 5-8 sequence information is available and the extent of genetic variability in this region are undocumented. Thus, a comprehensive analysis of HLA-A, -B and -C exon 5-8 sequence variability was undertaken. Of 219 HLA-A, -B and -C alleles for which exon 5-8 sequences are known, 40 unique HLA-A, -B and -C exon 5-8 sequences were identified. At the amino acid level, these encode 28 distinct HLA-A, -B and -C transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains.
Adrenergic Control of the Peripheral Circulation in Cardiomyopathic Hamsters with Heart Failure

Adrenergic control of the peripheral circulation was studied in cardiomyopathic hamsters to determine if the functional status of terminal vascular sympathetic nerve endings is augmented in heart failure. Four groups of hamsters were studied: myopathic hamsters with heart failure (average age 296 days), myopathic hamsters without heart failure (average age 171 days), and two corresponding control groups of randomly bred hamsters matched for age. In hamsters with heart failure, the concentration of catecholamines in hearts, aortas, and femoral arteries was reduced compared with that in corresponding control hamsters. In myopathic hamsters without heart failure, the concentration of catecholamines was reduced in femoral arteries, but it was not reduced in hearts or aortas. Resting vascular resistance and vasoconstrictor responses to sympathetic nerve stimulation, norepinephrine, and angiotensin in the perfused hindquarters was reduced in hamsters with heart failure but not in myopathic hamsters without hear...
Anti-caching: a new approach to database management system architecture

The traditional wisdom for building disk-based relational database management systems (DBMS) is to organize data in heavily-encoded blocks stored on disk, with a main memory block cache. In order to improve performance given high disk latency, these systems use a multi-threaded architecture with dynamic record-level locking that allows multiple transactions to access the database at the same time. Previous research has shown that this results in substantial overhead for on-line transaction processing (OLTP) applications [15].The next generation DBMSs seek to overcome these limitations with architecture based on main memory resident data. To overcome the restriction that all data fit in main memory, we propose a new technique, called anti-caching, where cold data is moved to disk in a transactionally-safe manner as the database grows in size. Because data initially resides in memory, an anti-caching architecture reverses the traditional storage hierarchy of disk-based systems. Main memory is now the primary storage device.We implemented a prototype of our anti-caching proposal in a high-performance, main memory OLTP DBMS and performed a series of experiments across a range of database sizes, workload skews, and read/write mixes. We compared its performance with an open-source, disk-based DBMS optionally fronted by a distributed main memory cache. Our results show that for higher skewed workloads the anti-caching architecture has a performance advantage over either of the other architectures tested of up to 9× for a data size 8× larger than memory.
SR proteins control a complex network of RNA-processing events

SR proteins are a well-conserved class of RNA-binding proteins that are essential for regulation of splice-site selection, and have also been implicated as key regulators during other stages of RNA metabolism. For many SR proteins, the complexity of the RNA targets and specificity of RNA-binding location are poorly understood. It is also unclear if general rules governing SR protein alternative pre-mRNA splicing (AS) regulation uncovered for individual SR proteins on few model genes, apply to the activity of all SR proteins on endogenous targets. Using RNA-seq, we characterize the global AS regulation of the eight Drosophila SR protein family members. We find that a majority of AS events are regulated by multiple SR proteins, and that all SR proteins can promote exon inclusion, but also exon skipping. Most coregulated targets exhibit cooperative regulation, but some AS events are antagonistically regulated. Additionally, we found that SR protein levels can affect alternative promoter choices and polyadenylation site selection, as well as overall transcript levels. Cross-linking and immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (iCLIP-seq), reveals that SR proteins bind a distinct and functionally diverse class of RNAs, which includes several classes of noncoding RNAs, uncovering possible novel functions of the SR protein family. Finally, we find that SR proteins exhibit positional RNA binding around regulated AS events. Therefore, regulation of AS by the SR proteins is the result of combinatorial regulation by multiple SR protein family members on most endogenous targets, and SR proteins have a broader role in integrating multiple layers of gene expression regulation.
Respiratory parameters as a surrogate marker for duration of intubation: potential application of automated vital sign collection.

Prolonged time during endotracheal tube placement has been associated with poor outcomes, including cardiac arrest and death. For this reason, the accurate measurement of the duration of intubation time is an important metric in studies that evaluate interventions to improve airway outcomes. In the current study we correlated the gaps in routinely measured ventilatory parameters with duration of the intubation procedure to determine if these intervals could be used to accurately calculate the intubation time. Fifty-six random airway management encounters were video recorded along with a continuous video feed of the patient monitor. Intubation event times were measured and correlated with “gap” times of end-tidal carbon dioxide, airway pressure, airway flow, tidal volume, and respiratory rate defined as the disappearance of the parameter at the end of mask ventilation to the reappearance after intubation. Scatter plots were generated for intubation times versus each parameter time gap and correlation coefficients were calculated. Of the 56 recordings 50 of were suitable for analysis. The correlation of the gaps in airway pressure and airway flow correlated best with the duration of intubation (R2 = 0.88) and were available on all cases. The gap in measured tidal volume of 39 ± 53 s most closely approximated the actual duration of intubation of 38 ± 28 s, (R2 = 0.85, y = x − 0.87). During intubation, the disappearance gaps in tidal volume, and the airway pressure and flow waveforms highly correlate with the duration of the intubation procedure and may be useful in the evaluation of airway management interventions. However, just as there are limitations to a labor-intensive method of recording airway management timing, there are limitations to using an automated method.
A stochastic geometry based model for total triple phase boundary length in composite cathodes for solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract An analytical equation is derived for total triple phase boundary length per unit volume ( L TPB ) in an isotropic uniform random microstructure of LSM/YSZ composite cathode. The equation is applicable to YSZ and LSM particles of any convex shapes and size distributions. The equation explicitly relates L TPB to the shapes, mean sizes, coefficient of variation (a measure of the spread in a size distribution) and skewness of YSZ and LSM particle populations, and volume fractions of YSZ, LSM, and porosity. The equation is verified using available experimental data, and compared with the results of earlier simulations and models. The parametric analysis reveals that (1) non-equiaxed plate-like, flake-like, and needle-like YSZ and LSM particle shapes can yield substantially higher L TPB ; (2) mono-sized YSZ and LSM powders lead to higher L TPB as compared to the powders having size distributions with large coefficient of variation; (3) L TPB is inversely proportional to the mean sizes of YSZ and LSM particles; (4) high value of L TPB is obtained at the lowest porosity volume fraction that permits sufficient connectivity of the pores for gas permeability; and (5) L TPB is not sensitive to the relative proportion of YSZ and LSM phases in the regime of interest in composite cathode applications.
Nonlinear Vibro-Acoustic Nondestructive Testing Technique

Conventional active acoustic methods of NDT are based on the principles of linear acoustics1,2. These include effects of reflection, scattering, transmission, absorption of probe acoustic energy. The presence of a defect leads to phase and/or amplitude variation of received signals while the frequencies of the received signals are the same as of emitted probe signals.
A New Genus of Pterolichid Feather Mites (Acari) from New World Parrots (Psittacidae)

Avenzoariurus hyperschizus, n. gen., n. sp., is described from the Hawk-headed Parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus (L.), in Brazil.