cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Determinants of temporal variability in NHEXAS-Maryland environmental concentrations, exposures, and biomarkers.

Determinants of temporal variability in NHEXAS-Maryland environmental concentrations, exposures, and biomarkers
Ecological energetics of the sea-weed zone in a marine bay on the Atlantic coast of Canada. II. Productivity of the seaweeds

The growth of the seaweeds Laminaria longicruris, L. digitata and Agarum cribrosum were followed by SCUBA divers for two years, by punching holes 10 cm from the junction of stipe and blade, and recording at intervals the distance the holes had moved. As the holes approached the tip of the blade, new holes were punched at the base. It was found that the blades behaved like moving belts of tissue, eroding at the tips while growing at the bases, so that a total year's growth amounted to 1 to 5 times the initial length. Larger, older plants had wider and thicker blades, and the biomassincrease was roughly proportional to the square of the lengthincrease. Growth was most rapid in January to April, slow in July to October. As a conservative estimate, the summer biomass of the various species of seaweeds had a turnover of 4 to 10 times in the course of 1 year. Applying these figures to an earlier survey of biomass, it is estimated that annual production of seaweeds in St. Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, amounts to 603 gC/m2 averaged over the whole bay, 1750 gC/m2 averaged over the sea-weed zone, or 648.000 gC/m of shore line. Approximate calorific equivalents are 6030 kcal/m2 over the whole bay, or 6480×103 kcal/m of shore line.
Improved procedures for the preparation of 2,4-dibromoestriol and dideuterioestriol.

Abstract An improved isolation procedure is described which permits the preparation of 2, 4-dibromoestriol in nearly the theoretical yield instead of the very small quantities recovered by following previously published procedures. Dehalogenation with deuterium over palladium in sodium methylate as catalyst gave deuterioestrio] with 7.73 atom per cent excess deuterium (theory for dideuterioestriol 8.32) in 93% yield.
On an invariant of link cobordism in dimension four

Abstract We conduct a detailed investigation of β(L), the Sato-Levine concordance invariant of a 2-component link of 2-spheres in S4. It is shown that β(L) vanishes for broad categories of links, the most striking result being that it vanishes if one component of L is unknotted.
Cyclic AMP regulation of fructose metabolism in germinatingPilobolus longipes spores

Abstract Dormant Pilobolus longipes spores metabolized fructose primarily to ethanol, CO 2 , and trehalose. Cyclic AMP-induced spore activation was accompanied by a large stimulation of glycolytic activity. Mobilization of reserves, which was cyclic AMP dependent, accounted for a portion of the glycolytic product. The remaining product was derived from exogenous fructose. Increases in both fructose transport activity and hexose 6-phosphate levels were associated with 6-deoxyglucose-induced spore activation. Phosphofructokinase-1 activity in spore extracts was almost totally dependent upon fructose, 2,6-bisphosphate. High fructose 2,6-bisphosphate levels were correlated with rapid fructose metabolism. However, fructose alone caused a rise in fructose 2,6-bisphosphate content (sufficient to fully stimulate phosphofructokinase-1 activity) but there was no concurrent stimulation of glycolysis. These results suggest that glycolytic rates are determined mainly by hexose 6-phosphate levels and that cyclic AMP regulation of transport is an important determinant of hexose 6-phosphate concentration.
A method for the accurate determination of the polarization of a neutron beam using a polarized 3He spin filter

Abstract A new method for the accurate determination of the degree of polarization of a neutron beam which has been polarized by transmission through a spin polarized 3 He cell is given. The method does not require the use of an analyzer or spin flipper nor does it require an accurate independent determination of the 3 He polarization. The method provides a continuous on-line determination of the neutron polarization. The method may be of use in the accurate determination of correlation coefficients in neutron beta decay which provide a test of the standard model for the electroweak interaction. The method may also provide an accurate procedure for the calibration of polarized 3 He targets used in medium and high energy scattering experiments.
Treatment-related complications of radiation therapy after radical prostatectomy: comparative effectiveness of intensity-modulated versus conformal radiation therapy

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is frequently utilized after prostatectomy without strong evidence for an improvement in outcomes compared to conformal radiation therapy (RT). We analyzed a large group of patients treated with RT after radical prostatectomy (RP) to compare complications after IMRT and CRT. The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database was queried to identify male Medicare beneficiaries aged 66 years or older who underwent prostatectomy with 1+ adverse pathologic features and received postprostatectomy RT between 1995 and 2007. Chi-square test was used to compare baseline characteristics between the treatment groups. First complication events, based upon administrative procedure or diagnosis codes occurring >1 year after start of RT, were compared for IMRT versus CRT groups. Propensity score adjustment was performed to adjust for potential confounders. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models of time to first complication were performed. A total of 1686 patients were identified who received RT after RP (IMRT = 634, CRT = 1052). Patients treated with IMRT were more likely to be diagnosed after 2004 (P < 0.001), have minimally invasive prostatectomy (P < 0.001) and have positive margins (P = 0.019). IMRT use increased over time. After propensity score adjustment, IMRT was associated with lower rate of gastrointestinal (GI) complications, and higher rate of genitourinary-incontinence complications, compared to CRT. The observed outcomes after IMRT must be considered when determining the optimal approach for postprostatectomy RT and warrant additional study.
Effects of early feeding experience on the responses of garter snakes to food chemicals

Abstract A litter of newborn garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) was divided into two groups. In the first eight feedings, one group was fed redworms and the other group was fed gupies. For the next eight feedings the diets were reversed with each group receiving the food it had not been fed previously. Prior to any feeding the snakes were tested with water extracts of these foods and two related prey (nightcrawler and minnow) which initially elicited the same response strengths as redworm and guppy. The tests were repeated after each diet. In addition, all snakes were tested on a short test series of redworm and guppy extracts after every two feedings. Each group showed an increasing responsivity to chemical extracts from the food fed during the first period although responses to these extracts tended to return to their original levels during the second period. Changes in responsivity to nightcrawler and minnow extracts did not parallel those to redworm or guppy extracts in that they steadily decreased in effectiveness throughout the experiment. The snakes were, therefore, capable of discriminating chemical cues of related prey organisms that initially have similar releasing values.
Bloodborne pathogen risk reduction activities in the body piercing and tattooing industry.

Background This study examines how well regulations for bloodborne pathogens (BBPs), established primarily to reduce exposure risk for health care workers, are being followed by workers and employers in the tattooing and body piercing industry. Method Twelve shops performing tattooing and/or body piercing (body art) in Pennsylvania and Texas were assessed for compliance with 5 administrative and 10 infection control standards for reducing exposure to BBPs. Results All shops demonstrated compliance with infection control standards, but not with administrative standards, such as maintaining an exposure control plan, offering hepatitis B vaccine, and training staff. Shops staffed with members of professional body art organizations demonstrated higher compliance with the administrative standards. Shops in locations where the body art industry was regulated and shops in nonregulated locations demonstrated similar compliance, as did contractor- and employee-staffed shops. Conclusions Regulations to control occupational exposure to BBPs have been in place since 1991. This study corroborates noncompliance with some standards within the body art industry reported by previous studies. Without notable enforcement, regulation at national, state, or local levels does not affect compliance. In this study, the factor most closely associated with compliance with administrative regulations was the artist's membership in a professional body art association.
Potential phenomena in thalamus and cortex.

Abstract 1. 1. The cortical response to stimulation of an afferent path consists of two parts, a specific response indicating projection of the afferent, and a response of the alpha mechanism. The former of these, under the influence of strychnine, can be identified with the cortical spikes of paroxysmal activity. 2. 2. The response of the geniculate and other simply arranged nuclei are monophasic spikes. The diphasic spikes of the cortex and elsewhere are inferred to be assignable to two different groups of cells related by synaptic passage. 3. 3. The unit cell potential may be interpreted as the resultant of unequal depolarization during activity of the two ends of the cell, dendritic and axonal. If this is so, polarization by external currents should modify or even reverse the potentials, and this proves to be the case. The phenomena are comparable to the effects of polarization on nerve axons. 4. 4. Three types of potential fields can be visualized of which different cell structures of the brain may be considered as variants. Plots of the potentials of these fields indicate what relation of potential form to structure may be expected to obtain. 5. 5. The character of the relation between thalamus and cortex appears to be different for the specific response apparatus, which is not spontaneously active except in paroxysmal states, and the regulatory apparatus, which is normally spontaneously active but suppressed in paroxysm. It is not necessary to infer reverberating closed circuits to account for the activity in either system.
Constitutional Change in Colombia Policy Adjustment Through Institutional Reform

By the late 1980s the Colombian constitution had come under severe pressure for reform as the population shifted markedly from a rural to an urban majority. The president had repeatedly tried to provide policy to court the median Colombian voter, who was urban. The congress was strongly tied to rural interests. Congress consistently thwarted presidential efforts at policy reform. Different presidents again and again proposed constitutional reform as a way of achieving eventual policy aims, only to have the proposed reforms soundly rejected in the legislature. The Colombian congress solely possessed the authority to make constitutional revisions. This article tells the story of how this institutional impasse was overcome. In the wake of severe social strife and conflict a national referendum on constitutional reform was passed by popular vote and upheld by judicial action. This article argues that such constitutional conflict might only be overcome through extraconstitutional—although still democratic—means.
The SoHO CELIAS/SEM data base

Abstract The CELIAS/SEM spectrometer aboard SoHO continuously monitors the full disk solar EUV and XUV irradiance. The instrumental noise level of the SEM is less than 0.5% of the signal in all channels, hence the short term signal variations larger than this in the SEM data base represent true solar variations in the EUV/XUV flux. Thrree sounding rocket calibration underflights since the SoHO launch have provided absolute EUV/soft X-ray solar flux values with which the long term stability of the SoHO SEM can be determined. In each of those flights the SEM “clone” has been calibrated before and after launch at the SURF II and SURF III synchrotron radiation facility of NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The relative uncertainty of the SEM clone over a three year period is only ± 5.5% (1σ) and yields an absolute uncertainty of only 8.5% in transfering the absolute flux calibration to the SoHO CELIAS/SEM instrument.
Phase Space Navigator: Towards Automating Control Synthesis in Phase Spaces for Nonlinear Control Systems

Abstract We develop a novel autonomous control synthesis strategy called Phase Space Navigator for the automatic synthesis of nonlinear control systems. The Phase Space Navigator generates global control laws by synthesizing flow shapes of dynamical systems and planning and navigating system trajectories in the phase spaces. It finds optimal global paths from an initial state to the goal state in the phase space, consisting of a sequence of path segments connected at intermediate points where the control parameter changes. Modeling and parsing phase spaces into trajectory flow pipes provide a way to efficiently reason about the phase space structures and search for global control paths. We have demonstrated the strategy with a program that automatically synthesizes global control paths for stabilizing a steel column buckling under compression. The Phase Space Navigator is particularly suitable for synthesizing high-performance control systems that do not lend themselves to traditional design and analysis techniques. It can also assist control engineers in exploring much larger design spaces than otherwise possible.
Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders are not associated with IgG4 sclerosing disease

Background Although the majority of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) cases are associated with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), 20–42% of cases are EBV negative (EBV-N). The antigenic stimulus that drives EBV-N PTLD is unknown, but is likely heterogeneous. A common feature of PTLD, regardless of EBV status, is an abnormal polytypic lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate. Immunglobulin-G4 (IgG4) syndrome is also characterized by a polytypic lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate with a predominance of IgG4-positive (IgG4-P) plasma cells. Methods We investigated the possibility of an association between EBV-N PTLD and IgG4 syndrome. Of 33 evaluated PTLD cases, 9 (27%) were EBV-N. EBV-N PTLD cases showed longer transplantation-to-diagnosis times than EBV-positive cases. Results A single patient had a preceding benign duodenal biopsy with focally prominent IgG4-P plasma cells; however, no clinical data supported IgG4 syndrome, precluding an association between IgG4 syndrome and subsequent EBV-N PTLD in this patient. Conclusion As none of 29 evaluable cases of PTLD (including all 9 EBV-N cases) were associated with an increase in IgG4-P plasma cells, IgG4 syndrome does not appear to play a role in the etiology of EBV-N PTLD. The significance of these findings and the current understanding of the etiology of EBV-N PTLD are discussed.
Development and application of a segmentation routine in a mammographic mass CAD system

The purpose of this paper is to present a new segmentation routine developed for mammographic masses. We previously developed a computer-aided detection (CAD) system for mammographic masses that employed a simple but imprecise segmentation procedure. To improve the systems performance, an iterative, linear segmentation routine was developed. The routine begins by employing a linear discriminant function to determine the optimal threshold between estimates of an objects interior and exterior pixels. After applying the threshold and identifying the objects outline, two constraints are applied to minimize the influence of extraneous background structures. Each iteration further refines the outline until the stopping criterion is reached. The segmentation algorithm was tested on a database of 181 mammographic images that contained forty-nine malignant and fifty benign masses. A set of suspicious regions of interest (ROIs) was found using the previous CAD system. Twenty features were measured from the regions before and after applying the new segmentation routine. The difference in the features discriminatory ability was examined via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. A significant performance difference was observed in many features, particularly those describing the object border. Free-response ROC (FROC) curves were utilized to examine how the overall CAD system performance changed with the inclusion of the segmentation routine. The FROC performance appeared to be improved, especially for malignant masses. When detecting 90% of the malignant masses, the previous system achieved 4.4 false positives per image (FPpI) compared to the post-segmentation systems 3.7 FPpI. At 85%, the respective FPpI are 4.1 and 2.1.
Not so fast

NOT SAUSSURE: A CRITIQUE OF POST‐SAUSSUREAN LITERARY THEORY by Raymond Tallis London: Macmillan, 1988. 273 pp., £33 (£10.95 paper)
Vanishing MS T2-bright lesions before puberty: a distinct MRI phenotype?

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) onset before puberty may have a distinct clinical presentation. Pediatric patients with MS may less often meet MRI diagnostic criteria for adults. Whether initial MRI presentation is distinct in prepubertal patients is unknown. Methods: We queried the UCSF MS database for pediatric patients with MS (onset 18 years) who underwent brain MRI within 3 months of initial symptoms. The overall number of lesions and the number of well-defined and ovoid, large, confluent, and gadolinium-enhancing lesions were compared between patients with earlier-onset (EOPMS) (11 years) and later-onset (LOPMS) (11 years) pediatric MS. The next available brain MRI scan was used to evaluate lesion resolution. Results: Thirteen children with EOPMS (median age 8.90 years, range [3.58 –10.98], 38% girls) and 18 with LOPMS (median age 14.47 years, range [11.78 –18.00], 61% girls) were identified. While the overall number of T2-bright lesions was similar in the two groups, patients with EOPMS had fewer well-defined ovoid T2-bright lesions (median 7, range [0 –29] vs 21.5, [4 –100]; p 0.004) and more often had confluent lesions (31% of patients vs 0%; p 0.02) on their first MRI compared with patients with LOPMS. Ninety-two percent of patients with EOPMS had a reduction in the number of T2-bright lesions on the second scan compared to 29% of patients with LOPMS (p 0.002). Conclusions: The distinct prepubertal multiple sclerosis (MS) MRI phenotype suggests that underlying biologic processes may differ in earlier-onset pediatric MS compared to later-onset pediatric MS. These findings may delay diagnosis in that age range. MRI criteria for MS diagnosis may need to be revised before puberty. Neurology ® 2008;71:1090–1093
Vision and Behavior in Primates

Descriptions of living primates inevitably include an acknowledgement of the overwhelming importance of sight for primate behavior, and they usually identify as unique primate characteristics a number of features of the visual system. These features include frontally-directed eyes and large binocular fields, a high concentration of ganglion cells in the central retina and an expanded representation of the central visual field in the visual system, substantial numbers of uncrossed retinofugal fibers, and a visual cortex that contains multiple maps of the visual field in which inputs from the two eyes may be brought into precise register (Allman, 1982). It has been argued that the relative enlargement of brain size in primates directly reflects an increased emphasis on vision (Martin, 1990), and recent mappings of the projection pathways and functional properties of cortex serve to underline just how extensively visual information must be utilized by the primate brain. In the macaque monkey, for instance, there are a minimum of 32 or more separate visual areas lying beyond the primary visual cortex. These areas expand over a region making up at least 75% of the cortical surface area outside of striate cortex (Sereno and Allman, 1991). Less detailed maps are available for human cortex, but they too show a very substantial visual representation (Sereno et al., 1995; Tootell et al., 1996). Although it is an obvious exaggeration, it is almost justified to conclude that in many ways primate neocortex is visual cortex.
Ziv-Zakai Time Delay Estimation Bound for Ultra-Wideband Signals

The Ziv-Zakai bound (ZZB) provides a general mean-square error analytical baseline to evaluate time delay estimation (TDE) techniques for a wide range of time-bandwidth products and signal-to-noise ratios, but generally can only be numerically evaluated. The Weiss-Weinstein bound (WWB) further improves characterization of the attainable system performance, for narrowband and wide-band signals with small to moderate fractional bandwidth. Similar to the WWB, here we find a simplified closed-form ZZB for TDE with ultra-wideband (UWB) signals. The resulting simplified bound is found over disjoint segments, separated by thresholds that characterize different regions of ambiguity. The closed-form simplified bound can be analytically studied, and approaches both the ZZB and the TDE performance of a maximum likelihood estimator.
Protein Secondary Structure Prediction using Bayesian Inference method on Decision fusion algorithms

Prediction of protein secondary structure (alpha-helix, beta-sheet, coil) from primary sequence of amino acids is a very challenging task, and the problem has been approached from several angles. Previously research was performed in this field using several techniques such as neural networks, simulated annealing (SA) and genetic algorithms (GA) for improving the protein secondary structure prediction accuracy. Decision fusion methods such as the committee method and correlation methods were also used in combination with the profile-based neural networks and AI algorithms for achieving better prediction accuracy. In this research we investigate the Bayesian inference method for predicting the protein secondary structure. The Bayesian inference method proposed in this research uses the results from the committee and correlation methods to achieve better prediction accuracy. Simulations are performed using the RS126 data set. The results show that the protein secondary structure prediction accuracy can be improved by more than 2% using the Bayesian inference method.
ALTERNATIVE CANDIDA ALBICANS LIFESTYLES: Growth on Surfaces

AbstractCandida albicans, an opportunistic fungal pathogen, causes a wide variety of human diseases such as oral thrush and disseminated candidiasis. Many aspects of C. albicans physiology have been studied during liquid growth, but in its natural environment, the gastrointestinal tract of a mammalian host, the organism associates with surfaces. Growth on a surface triggers several behaviors, such as biofilm formation, invasion, and thigmotropism, that are important for infection. Recent discoveries have identified factors that regulate these behaviors and revealed the importance of these behaviors for pathogenesis.
Payout Policy Choices and Shareholder Investment Horizons

This paper examines how shareholder investment horizons influence payout policy choices. The authors infer institutional shareholders' investment horizons using the churn rate of their overall stock portfolios prior to the payout decision. The authors find that the frequency and amount of repurchases increases with ownership by short-term investors to the detriment of dividends. They also find that the market reacts less positively to repurchase announcements made by firms held by short-term institutions. These findings are consistent with a model in which undervalued firms signal their value through repurchases, but firms held by short-term investors make repurchases more often because those investors care mostly about the short-term price reaction. Hence, the market rationally discounts the signal provided by such repurchases. Our findings suggest that shorter shareholder investment horizons might be one contributing factor to the increasing popularity of buybacks. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.
Investigation of nocturnal low-level jet–generated gravity waves over Oklahoma City during morning boundary layer transition period using Doppler wind lidar data

Low-level jet (LLJ)-generated gravity waves were observed over Oklahoma City by a scanning Doppler wind lidar during the transition periods of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) from stable to convective conditions in the mornings after sunrise. The temperature profiles had a multilayer structure with a shallow neutral layer immediately above the ground and a stable cap layer above the neutral layer. The wind profiles exhibited a typical shape of a LLJ with nearly linear growth of wind speed with respect to height, and maximum wind speed occurred at the top of the stable cap layer. The average wavelength and its relation with mean wind and temperature profiles are characterized with data from Doppler wind lidar, radiosonde, and wind profiler. A linear stability analysis was performed to check the stratification conditions for wave occurrence. The wind signals from sonic anemometers near the ground were separated into waves and tur- bulence parts using a wavelet decomposition method, and the momentum fluxes due to the wave motions and turbulence were computed. The downward gravity wave momentum flux was 1.5 to 3.0 times of turbulent momentum flux. The analysis indicated that gravity wave momentum transport from the stable cap layer downward is one of the mechanisms of stable-to-convective transition in the LLJ-dominated ABL. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. (DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.7.073487)
Cyclooxygenase 2 expression in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia : an immunohistochemical analysis with automated cellular imaging

We immunohistochemically examined material from 36 pancreata (adenocarcinomas, 30 lesions; pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia [PanIN], 65; normal pancreatic ducts, 30) for cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) with an automated platform. We analyzed 7 to 10 discrete foci and generated an average percentage of positive cells and average staining intensity for each lesion. These 2 values were then multiplied to create an overall “HistoScore” for each lesion. COX-2 demonstrated considerable heterogeneity of expression between and within cases. The overall average percentage of positive cells in adenocarcinomas was 47.3%; in PanINs, 36.3%; and in normal ducts, 19.2%. COX-2 was expressed in more than 20% of cells in 23 adenocarcinomas (77%), 42 PanINs (65%), and 12 normal ducts (40%). The overall average HistoScore for adenocarcinomas was 6.1; for PanINs, 5.4; and for normal ducts, 3.5. Significant differences in COX-2 expression were demonstrable in adenocarcinomas vs normal ducts, PanINs vs normal ducts, and PanIN 2/3 vs PanIN 1a/1b. In general, the pattern of COX-2 expression increased from normal to PanIN to adenocarcinoma. The up-regulation of COX-2 in a subset of noninvasive precursor lesions makes it a potential target for chemoprevention with selective COX-2 inhibitors.
Kuk’s Model Adjusted for Protection and Efficiency:

In this article, we adjust the Kuk randomized response model for collecting information on a sensitive characteristic for increased protection and efficiency by making use of forced “yes” and forced “no” responses. We first describe Kuk’s model and then the proposed adjustment to Kuk’s model. Next, by means of a simulation study, we compare the efficiency of the adjusted Kuk model relative to the pioneer Kuk model while maintaining at least equal protection of respondents.
Gas-phase chemical characteristics of Asian emission plumes observed during ITCT 2K2 over the eastern North Pacific Ocean

[1] The gas-phase chemical characteristics of emission plumes transported from Asia across the Pacific Ocean observed during the Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation experiment in 2002 (ITCT 2K2) are described. Plumes measured in the troposphere from an aircraft were separated from the background air in data analysis using 1-s measurements of carbon monoxide (CO), total reactive nitrogen (NOy), and other gas-phase species along with back trajectory analysis. On the basis of these measurements, Asian transport plumes with CO mixing ratios greater than 150 ppbv were observed on seven flights. Correlations between 1-s observations of CO, ozone (O3), and NOy are used to characterize the plumes. The NOy/CO ratios were similar in each plume and significantly lower than those derived from estimated Asian emission ratios, indicating substantial removal of soluble NOy species during transport. Observations of nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric acid (HNO3), peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), peroxypropionyl nitrate (PPN), and alkyl nitrates are used with the NOy measurements to further distinguish the transport plumes by their NOy partitioning. NOy was primarily in the form of PAN in plumes that were transported in cold high-latitude and high-altitude regions, whereas in plumes transported in warmer, lower latitude and altitude regions, NOy was mainly HNO3. Additional gas-phase species enhanced in these plumes include sulfuric acid, methanol, acetone, propane, and ethane. The O3/CO ratio varied among the plumes and was affected by the mixing of anthropogenic and stratospheric influences. The complexity of this mixing prevents the determination of the relative contribution of anthropogenic and stratospheric influences to the observed O3 levels.
A comparison of measured and numerical model results for an L-band mobile satellite communications antenna

The measured elevation and azimuthal radiation patterns for an L-band mobile satellite communications antenna are observed. A question arises as to the most appropriate representation for the ground plane for this antenna when modelled using the Livermore Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC-2). A series of numerical modelling trials have been performed using this software and the resulting radiation patterns are compared with those measured. >
Accurate Application-Specific Sandboxing for Win32/Intel Binaries

Comparing the system call sequence of a network application against a sandboxing policy is a popular approach to detecting control-hijacking attack, in which the attacker exploits such software vulnerabilities as buffer overflow to take over the control of a victim application and possibly the underlying machine. The long-standing technical barrier to the acceptance of this system call monitoring approach is how to derive accurate sandboxing policies for Windows applications whose source code is unavailable. In fact, many commercial computer security companies take advantage of this fact and fashion a business model in which their users have to pay a subscription fee to receive periodic updates on the application sandboxing policies, much like anti-virus signatures. This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a sandboxing system called BASS that can automatically extract a highly accurate application-specific sandboxing policy from a Win32/X86 binary, and enforce the extracted policy at run time with low performance overhead. BASS is built on a binary interpretation and analysis infrastructure called BIRD, which can handle application binaries with dynamically linked libraries, exception handlers and multi-threading, and has been shown to work correctly for a large number of commercially distributed Windows- based network applications, including IIS and Apache. The throughput and latency penalty of BASS for all the applications we have tested except one is under 8%.
Likelihood-based measures of influence for generalized linear models

If an assumption, such as homoscedasticity, or some other aspect of an inference problem, such as the number of cases, is altered, our conclusions may change and different parts of the conclusions can be affected in different ways. Most diagnostic procedures measure the influence on one particular aspect of the conclusion - such as model fit or change in parameter estimates. The effect on all aspects of the conclusions can be described by the difference in two log likelihood functions and when the log likelihood functions come from an exponential family or are quasi-likelihoods, this difference can be factored into three terms: one depending only on the alteration, another depending only on the aspects of the conclusions to be considered, and a third term depending on both. The third term is interesting because it shows which aspects of the conclusions are relatively insensitive even to large alterations.
Insecticidal activity of N-arylalkylbenzhydrolpiperidines

Benzhydrolpiperidine (BZP) insecticides represent a novel class of chemistry. Their specificity and efficacy as well as their low mammalian toxicity give them excellent potential for commercialization. Several N-arylalkylbenzhydrolpiperidines were tested for activity against a variety of insects in the laboratory and greenhouse. These tests were used to select compounds for field trials and determine rates of application for field tests. The BZP compounds have good activity against Lepidoptera, with modest Coleoptera activity. They are toxic by oral administration and have about 100-fold lower activity by topical exposure. A methyl carbamate BZP, F4265, was the most active compound, with LC50 values of 6 mg litre(-1) or less for most Lepidopteran species tested. F4265 was active in a variety of field trials at 112-224gAI ha(-1). Whole-plant testing methods conducted in the greenhouse were effective in determining field test rates.
Statistics for Decision Making and Competitive Advantage

In the increasingly competitive global arena of business in the Twenty First century, the select few business graduates distinguish themselves by enhanced decision making backed by statistics. Statistics are useful when they are applied to improve decision making. No longer is the production of statistics confined to quantitative analysis and market research divisions in firms. Managers in each of the functional areas of business use statistics daily to improve decision making. Excel and other statistical software live in our laptops, providing immediate access to statistical tools which can be used to improve decision making.
An Information-Theoretic Characterization of Abstraction in Diagnosis and Hypothesis Selection

The task of model-based diagnosis is to find a suitable assignment to the behavior modes of components (and/or transition variables) in a system given some observations made on it. A complete diagnosiscandidate is an assignment of behavior modes to all the components in the system and a partial diagnosis-candidate is an assignment of behavior modes to only a subset of them. Corresponding to different characterizations of complete diagnosis-candidates (Bayesian model selection, consistency-based, model counting etc.), partial diagnosis-candidates play different roles. In the Bayesian model selection framework for example, they signify marginal probabilities, while in the consistency-based framework they are used to "represent" complete diagnosis-candidates. In this paper, we provide an information-theoretic characterization of diagnosis-candidates in a more general form -- viz. "disjunction of partial assignments". This approach is motivated by attempting to bridge the gap between previous formalizations and to address the problems associated with them. We argue that the task of diagnosis actually consists of two separate problems, the second of which occurs more generally in hypothesis selection -- (1) to characterize the space of complete or partial assignments (like in a posterior probability distribution), and (2) to abstract and approximate the information content of such a space into a representational form that can support tractable answering of diagnosisqueries and decision-making.
Induction of microsatellite instability by oxidative DNA damage

Instability of repetitive sequences, both in intronic sequences and within coding regions, has been demonstrated to be a hallmark of genomic instability in human cancer. Understanding how these mutational events arise may provide an opportunity for prevention or early intervention in cancer development. To study the source of this instability, we have identified a region of the β-lactamase gene that is tolerant to the insertion of fragments of exogenous DNA as large as 1,614 bp with minimal loss of enzyme activity, as determined by antibiotic resistance. Fragments inserted out-of-frame render Escherichia coli sensitive to antibiotic, and compensatory frameshift mutations that restore the reading frame of β-lactamase can be selected on the basis of antibiotic resistance. We have utilized this site to insert a synthetic microsatellite sequence within the β-lactamase gene and selected for mutations yielding frameshifts. This assay provides for detection of one frameshift mutation in a background of 106 wild-type sequences. Mismatch repair deficiency increased the observed frameshift frequency ≈300-fold. Exposure of plasmid containing microsatellite sequences to hydrogen peroxide resulted in frameshift mutations that were localized exclusively to the microsatellite sequences, whereas DNA damage by UV or N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine did not result in enhanced mutagenesis. We postulate that in tumor cells, endogenous production of oxygen free radicals may be a major factor in promoting instability of microsatellite sequences. This β-lactamase assay may provide a sensitive methodology for the detection and quantitation of mutations associated with the development of cancer.
Silver Paste with Nano-sized Glass Frits for Silicon Solar Cells

Scientists are looking for alternatives to fossil fuels as energy source in order to reduce the environmental issues. Solar energy is one of the candidates that have attracted our attention. Monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon materials are the most common ones for solar cell panels, and one of the key properties of silicon solar cells is the interfacial resistivity between the front silver electrodes and the n-type silicon emitters. The interfacial resistivity is hugely affected by the interfacial structure between silver electrodes and n-type silicon emitters, which plays a very substantial role for the electrical and mechanical properties of the fabricated silicon solar cells. Previous studies show that the residual glass frits layers at the Ag/Si interfaces after the firing process will dramatically increase the contact resistance and this phenomenon subsequently leads to degradation in the overall efficiency of the silicon solar cells. In this study, nano-sized glass frits were employed to im...
Immunological Parameters in Photocarcinogenesis

Epidermal cancers, basal cell epitheliomas, and squamous cell carcinomas are by far the most common of human malignancies. The primary stimulus for the development of these tumors is irradiation from the sun. Examination of the sun’s role in the production of human skin cancers does not lend itself to direct experimentation. However, extensive astute observations have strongly suggested the etiological significance of light energy in the induction of these tumors (Urbach et al., 1974). Skin cancers in whites occur most frequently on sun-exposed parts of the body and in general are most prevalent in geographical areas of the greatest insolation and among people who receive the most exposure, i.e., men who work outdoors. They are rare in blacks and other deeply pigmented individuals who have the greatest protection against ultraviolet (UV) injury. Furthermore, the lighest-complexioned individuals, such as those of Scottish and Irish descent, appear to be most susceptible to skin cancer formation when they live in geographical areas of high UV exposure. When skin cancers do occur in the darkly pigmented races, they are not distributed primarily in the sun-exposed areas as they are in light-skinned people. The tumors in these pigmented individuals are most commonly stimulated by other forms of trauma such as chronic leg ulcers, irritation due to the lack of wearing shoes, the use of kangeri (an earthenware pot which is filled with burning charcoal and strapped to the abdomen for warmth), the wearing of a dhoti (loin cloth), and so on. In contrast, the distribution of skin cancer in the Bantu albino and in pigmented patients with xeroderma pigmentosum follows sun-exposure patterns.
From Empires to NGOs in the West African Sahel: Well-Known Strangers: How West Africans Became Foreigners in Postimperial France

In Paris, in March 1965, Robert Delavignette took a bus. A Black woman collected his ticket. When he got off the bus, he found three men, Black men, emptying trashcans. All this provoked, in the mind of this retired colonial administrator, a reflection on the place of Blacks in France. The three men were there as workers, and they came from the independent states south of the Sahara. Like the ticket collector and Delavignette’s fellow passengers, they had become “part of Paris.” No one was interested in their presence. Passersby did not find it remarkable, but Delavignette did. The ticket collector, he wrote, was from the Antilles or Reunion. She was therefore a French citizen (and she did not have much in common with the trash collectors, other than the color of their skin and the fact that they lived and worked in Paris). As for the trash collectors, they were all citizens of new states that were formerly French colonies. They were thus “foreign nationals” ( ressortissants etrangers ), a phrase with which Delavignette slipped reflexively into administrative language. Were they also foreigners? During the First World War, Delavignette recalled, Lucie Cousturier, a French painter who welcomed West African soldiers in her home outside Frejus, considered them (or their grandfathers) “unknowns” ( inconnus ), and she made an enormous effort to get to know them. His bus trip inspired a question for Delavignette: Were the Blacks he had run into just as unknown (for “us”) fifty years later? “They do not give [that] impression,” he wrote. In any case, the ticket collector could not in any way be considered a foreigner, but the men could. That quality of the well-known stranger represents a point of departure, for the quality of “foreigner” was not natural. It was with decolonization, wrote the French historian Pap Ndiaye, “that French identity reoriented itself around a continent and a [skin] color. Put differently, subjects became strangers ( etrangers ). Colonial visibility [that is, in public life, in the legislature, and so on] gave way to postcolonial invisibility.” After 1960, “the Black population … grew progressively even as it disappeared as a political issue.” Ndiaye is not wrong, but his account short-circuits a moment I take to be important: the creation of African citizenship.
Managing Expectations: Technology Tensions among Parents and Teens

Extensive scholarship has investigated technology use among families. Existing work has focused primarily on parents' reactions to and restrictions of their children's technology use; here, we explore the underlying tensions surrounding technology use in the home. We draw on historical perspectives of adolescence and family life to better understand technology's impact on present-day parents and teens. Through an interview study with 18 parent-child pairs (19 parents; 23 children, ages 10-17), we find a number of technology tensions, including 1) parents' underestimation of children's technology use; 2) children's perception that parents only tell them which behaviors to avoid; 3) both parents' and children's poor adherence to household technology rules; and 4) parents' and children's desire for mutual attention. We argue that the use of personal devices introduces distinctive challenges into modern family life, due to the limited visibility (or practical obscurity) of personal device use, expectations of constant connectivity, and overly-romanticized notions of family time. We consider the historical evolution of both teenage and family life, and conclude that consistent and realistic expectations around work, attention, and adolescence may help families better manage household technology use.
Phytosociological characteristics of perennial atriplex-dominated vegetation of Southeastern Utah

Four plant associations of a salt desert area of southeastern Utah were identified by modified Zurich-Montpellier methodology. In this instance, the species of highest fidelity generally possessed the highest values for cover, frequency and constancy. These species and the respective associations to which their names are applied are (1)Atriplex confertifolia, (2)Atriplex nuttallii varnuttallii, (3)Atriplex nuttallii vargardneri and (4)Atriplex corrugata. These phytosociological subdivisions have been used in subsequent hydrological investigztions.
Comparative damage potential and feeding dynamics of the european corn borer (Lepidoptera : Pyralidae) and cotton bollworm (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae) on cotton bolls

European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hubner), larvae are more likely to bore into 7-, 14-, 21-, and 28-d-old cotton bolls, Gossypium hirsutum L., when offered a no-choice situation than are cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) larvae. None of these four boll ages was safe from European corn borer entry for any instar tested. Cotton bollworm larvae were less able to penetrate larger bolls (21 and 28 d old) and did so appreciably only in the fourth and fifth instars. Early instar cotton bollwonns did not appreciably penetrate younger bolls (i.e., first ins tars in 7- and 14-d-old bolls and second instars in 14-d-old bolls). Given adult and larval behaviors, bolls ≥21 d old probably escape cotton bollworm entry; however, European corn borers can enter cotton bolls of any age. The character of the feeding damage is less severe and Jess cryptic in the cotton bollworm compared with the European corn borer. Bollworm entry holes were larger in surface area, which allowed drying of the wound. European corn borers removed only enough boll wall tissue to gain entry into the carpels and left the wound watery and ideal for growth of boll rot organisms. The relatively few times that the cotton bollwonn gained entry into the boll, it entered from the top two-thirds of the boll. However, European corn borers usually entered the boll in the bottom third, often through or from within the axial surface of the calyx. The ramifications of the feeding dynamics of these two species for pest scouting and management are discussed, and a model for predicting the probability that these larvae will enter boll tissue is presented.
Multi-Intelligence Analytics for Next Generation Analysts (MIAGA)

Current analysts are inundated with large volumes of data from which extraction, exploitation, and indexing are required. A future need for next-generation analysts is an appropriate balance between machine analytics from raw data and the ability of the user to interact with information through automation. Many quantitative intelligence tools and techniques have been developed which are examined towards matching analyst opportunities with recent technical trends such as big data, access to information, and visualization. The concepts and techniques summarized are derived from discussions with real analysts, documented trends of technical developments, and methods to engage future analysts with multiintelligence services. For example, qualitative techniques should be matched against physical, cognitive, and contextual quantitative analytics for intelligence reporting. Future trends include enabling knowledge search, collaborative situational sharing, and agile support for empirical decision-making and analytical reasoning.