cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Alternate Day Fasting Combined with a Low Carbohydrate Diet: Effect on Sleep Quality, Duration, Insomnia Severity and Risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Adults with Obesity

Background: Alternate day fasting combined with a low carbohydrate diet (ADF-LC) is an effective weight loss regimen. Whether the weight loss induced by ADF-LC can improve sleep, remains unknown. Objective: This study examined the effect an ADF-LC diet on sleep quality, duration, insomnia severity and the risk of obstructive sleep apnea. Methods: Adults with obesity (n = 31) participated in ADF (600 kcal “fast day”; ad libitum intake “feast day”) with a low-carbohydrate diet (30% carbohydrates, 35% protein, and 35% fat). The 6-month trial consisted of a 3-month weight loss period followed by a 3-month weight maintenance period. Results: Reductions in body weight (−5 ± 1 kg, p < 0.001) and fat mass (−4 ± 1 kg, p < 0.01) were noted during the weight loss period, and these reductions were sustained during the weight maintenance period. Lean mass and visceral fat remained unchanged. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score indicated poor sleep quality at baseline (6.4 ± 0.7) with no change by month 3 or 6, versus baseline. ISI score indicated subthreshold insomnia at baseline (8.5 ± 1.0), with no change by month 3 or 6, versus baseline. The percent of subjects with high risk of obstructive sleep apnea at baseline was 45%, with no change by month 3 or 6. Wake time, bedtime, and sleep duration remained unchanged. Conclusion: The ADF-LC diet does not impact sleep quality, duration, insomnia severity or the risk of obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity.
When tumefactive demyelination is truly a tumor: case report of a radiographic misdiagnosis

Oligodendrogliomas are slow-growing tumors that account for 15-20% of gliomas. This case report describes the case of an adult male patient diagnosed initially with tumefactive demyelination and multiple sclerosis, which was subsequently found to be a well-differentiated low-grade oligodendroglioma. This case emphasizes the importance of timely diagnosis in oligodendrogliomas and other brain tumors for the prompt initiation of appropriate therapy, to minimize the likelihood of disease progression, ensure symptom management and escalation of unnecessary treatments for multiple sclerosis.
Stroke Risk Factor Status and Use of Stroke Prevention Medications Among Hispanic/Latino Adults in HCHS/SOL

Background and Purpose: We investigated the prevalence, awareness, and control of vascular risk factors (VRFs) and the use of antithrombotic and statin agents in HCHS (Hispanic Community Health Stu...
Drone Delivery Service: An Orangutan Enrichment Pilot Study

Animal enrichment in zoos is evolving faster than ever, with more technical approaches being found across disciplines, particularly in Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI). Captive orangutans are a unique population that are commonly impacted by health concerns that may be alleviated through increased physical activity. In this study protocol, we aim to examine the potential for a drone delivery system to distribute food to encourage natural foraging behaviors while minimizing animal care staff burden. We discuss conducting a survey with animal care staff and the general public to look at zoo perceptions, use case feedback, and perceptions of technology in enrichment. We also outline conducting observations of a specific population of captive orangutans to establish a baseline for a future system deployment, as well as compare to their wild counterparts.
Response to USPTO Request for Comments on Patent Eligibility Jurisprudence Study

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has requested public comments on “the current state of patent eligibility jurisprudence in the United States, and how the current jurisprudence has impacted investment and innovation.” We write as academics who have conducted empirical studies of the U.S. patent system. We have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in these comments. Rather, our interest is in seeing patent law develop in a way that improves social welfare, including by encouraging innovation and long-run productivity growth. Many have argued—largely based on anecdotes or descriptive data—that recent changes in patent eligibility caselaw have either increased or decreased innovation. Here, in comments drawn in part from Ouellette and Williams (2020), we argue that neither view is supported by the available empirical evidence. Answering the question of whether limits on patent eligibility increase or decrease innovation requires specifying a counterfactual of how innovation would have evolved in the absence of these caselaw changes. Anecdotes and descriptive data are unable to provide such a counterfactual, and related empirical studies that do develop a rigorous counterfactual framework do not purport to answer the broad policy question of whether limits on patent eligibility increase or decrease innovation.
Amateur antigen-presenting cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Presentation of tumor antigens is a critical step in producing a robust antitumor immune response. Classically tumor antigens are thought to be presented to both CD8 and CD4 T cells by professional antigen-presenting cells (pAPCs) like dendritic cells using major histocompatibility complexes (MHC) I and II. But recent evidence suggests that in the tumor microenvironment (TME) cells other than pAPCs are capable of presenting tumor antigens on both MHC I and II. The evidence currently available on tumor antigen presentation by epithelial cells, vascular endothelial cells (VECs), fibroblasts, and cancer cells is reviewed herein. We refer to these cell types in the TME as "amateur" APCs (aAPCs). These aAPCs greatly outnumber pAPCs in the TME and could, potentially, play a significant role in priming an antitumor immune response. This new evidence supports a different perspective on antigen presentation and suggests new approaches that can be taken in designing immunotherapies to increase T cell priming.
Graph sparsification with graph convolutional networks

Graphs are ubiquitous across the globe and within science and engineering. Some powerful classifiers are proposed to classify nodes in graphs, such as Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs). However, as graphs are growing in size, node classification on large graphs can be space and time consuming due to using whole graphs. Hence, some questions are raised, particularly, whether one can prune some of the edges of a graph while maintaining prediction performance for node classification, or train classifiers on specific subgraphs instead of a whole graph with limited performance loss in node classification. To address these questions, we propose Sparsified Graph Convolutional Network (SGCN), a neural network graph sparsifier that sparsifies a graph by pruning some edges. We formulate sparsification as an optimization problem and solve it by an Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). The experiment illustrates that SGCN can identify highly effective subgraphs for node classification in GCN compared to other sparsifiers such as Random Pruning, Spectral Sparsifier and DropEdge. We also show that sparsified graphs provided by SGCN can be inputs to GCN, which leads to better or comparable node classification performance with that of original graphs in GCN, DeepWalk, GraphSAGE, and GAT. We provide insights on why SGCN performs well by analyzing its performance from the view of a low-pass filter.
Alterations in Benzo(a)Pyrene Metabolism and its DNA Adduct Formation in Skin of Mice Chronically Exposed to Ultraviolet-B Radiation

Cutaneous xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes including aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH), 7-ethoxycoumarin 0-deethylase (ECD), epoxide hydrolase (EH) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities were examined in SKH hairless mice chronically irradiated with UVB to induce squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Enzyme activities in irradiated tumor-bearing skin were compared to those present in the skin of non-irradiated control animals as well as in unirradiated non-tumor bearing skin sites of the SCC-bearing mice. The inducibility of skin AHH and ECD in each set of animals was assessed following a single topical application of coal tar (1 ml/100 gm). Enzyme-mediated binding of 3H-benzo(a)pyrene (BP) and its metabolite 7β,8α-dihydroxy-9α,10α-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzo(a)pyrene (BPDE-I) to epidermal DNA was also evaluated. Basal AHH and ECD activities in microsomes for UVB-irradiated SCC-bearing dorsal skin were 4.6 and 4.8-fold lower than those in dorsal skin of non-irradiated control animals. Enzyme activities in non-tumor bearing ventral skin from the UVB-irradiated SCC-bearing mice also were 2.2-2.8-fold lower as compared to activities in. the non-irradiated control animals. The reduction in AHH activity paralleled the levels of enzyme-mediated binding of radiolabeled BP metabolites and of BPDE-I to epidermal DNA. GST activity was found to be increased (173% in non-tumor bearing ventral skin of UVB-irradiated mice whereas no difference in activity between SCC-bearing dorsal skin and dorsal skin of sese control animals could be detected. EH activity was unchanged in each group of animals. Treatment with topically applied coal tar resulted in higher inducibility of AHH and ECU in both SCC-bearing (13-fold) as well as in non-tumor skin sites (6-fold) of UVB-irradiated mice than in skin of control animals (3-fold). Coal tar application also increased the covalent binding of 3H-BP and of the metabolite BPDE-I to skin DNA. This was greater in SCC-bearing dorsal skin (119–129%) than in non-irradiated skin of control animals (48–162%). Our studies suggest that the metabolism of BP by cutaneous cytochrome P-450 dependent monooxygenases is impaired in skin of mice irradiated chronically with UVB. These studies also illustrate the complex interrelationship that exist in target tissue simultaneously exposed to chemical and physical oncogens in the environment.
The effect of pain on quality of life before and after the surgical treatment of lumbar vertebral canal stenosis

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of surgical treatment of lumbar vertebral canal stenosis based on the study of patient's pain and emotional status, quality of life and level of disability before and after surgical treatment. Material and methods A complex examination of 163 patients with lumbar vertebral canal stenosis was carried out. The visual analogous scale, Paindetect (PD) and Douleur neuropathique 4 (DN4), the Chronic Pain Coping Inventory, the Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire were used. Affective disorders were measured using Beck depression scale. Blood serum and thrombocytic serotonin were determined with ELISA. Patients were examined at admission before the surgery, at discharge from the hospital after surgical treatment and one year after the surgery. Results and conclusion Before surgery, the patients had chronic pain syndrome of mixed etiology (nociceptive and neurotic type) and neurological disorders that significantly affected quality of life and work capacity. Neuropathic pain and depression, reduced quality of life and daily activities were more pronounced in patients with central canal stenosis compared to patients with lateral stenosis. The timely surgical treatment of lumbar vertebral canal stenosis promoted the decompression of nervous structures. A significant reduction of pain syndrome and the level of depression as well as the improvement of quality of life were observed.
The Rise of European Security Cooperation

One of the most striking developments in recent international politics has been the significant increase in security cooperation among European Union states. Seth Jones argues that this increase in cooperation, in areas such as economic sanctions, weapons production and collaboration among military forces, has occurred because of the changing structure of the international and regional systems. Since the end of the Cold War, the international system has shifted from a bipolar to a unipolar structure characterized by United States dominance. This has caused EU states to cooperate in the security realm to increase their ability to project power abroad and to decrease reliance on the US. Furthermore, European leaders in the early 1990s adopted a 'binding' strategy to ensure long-term peace on the continent, suggesting that security cooperation is caused by a desire to preserve peace in Europe whilst building power abroad.
Using the Right Tools: Enhancing Retrieval from Marked-up Documents

We are experimenting with the representation of a DTD and associated documents (i.e., documents conformant to the DTD) in a knowledge representation (KR) system, in order to provide more sophisticated query and retrieval from TEI documents than current systems provide. We are using CLASSIC, a frame-based representation system developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Like many KR systems, CLASSIC enables the definition of structured concepts/frames, their organization into taxonomies, the creation and manipulation of individual instances of such concepts, and inference such as inheritance, relation transitivity, inverses, etc. In addition, CLASSIC provides for the key inferences of subsumption and classification. By representing a document as an individual instance of a hierarchy of concepts derived from the DTD, and by allowing the creation of additional user-defined concepts and relations, sophisticated query and retrieval operations can be performed. This paper describes CLASSIC and the formalism of description logic that underlies it, and demonstrates how it can be used for enhanced retrieval from richly encoded documents.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Japan: Politics, Organizations, and High Technology Firms

1. Introduction 2. Regions and firms 3. Innovation theory: firms, regions and the Japanese state 4. Japan's quest for entrepreneurialism 5. Inter-firm networks 6. The Kyoto model 7. Regions in comparison 8. Conclusion Appendix References Index.
Embedding Faculty Development in Teaching Hospitals

In this issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Clark et al. present valuable data on the spread of faculty development (FD) programs in U.S. teaching hospitals.1 Their findings indicate moderate diffusion, with 39% of hospitals having “ongoing” programs. The results also show significant institutional barriers to FD. Current FD efforts can be largely attributed to the internal motivation and dedication of faculty to the FD mission. However admirable, individual motivation will not be sufficient in the current academic environment to spur greater efforts to improve teaching excellence.2 For FD on teaching to become integral to departments of medicine, we must both increase awareness of the potential for FD to benefit faculty and their institutions, and establish a research agenda to guide FD policy and practice. Teaching improvement appears inconsistently valued by schools and departments. From interviews with the facilitators we have trained at the Stanford Faculty Development Center, we know that the participants and content of FD activities can remain under-recognized, if not invisible, to key administrators. It is incumbent upon faculty developers to more effectively publicize their programs’ potential benefits and outcomes. From an historical point of view, the time may be right for institutions to implement FD on teaching—gaining benefits directly relevant to their patient care and research missions. With national attention focused on physician professionalism, patient safety, and even new approaches to training medical scientists, the success of prior medical education methods must be brought into question.3–5 The need for more effective teaching is clear. In our own experience, we have seen FD participants show greater commitment to specific areas of clinical care (e.g., geriatrics and palliative care), stronger dedication to institutional improvement, and increased involvement in scholarly activities (e.g., research, publication, and self-directed learning). We also have seen FD participants acquire more positive attitudes toward their role as clinician-educators. Further demonstration of such benefits in today's climate can lead to increased recognition of the utility of FD, and thereby, greater institutional support. This survey also provides a stimulus for continued research on faculty development. A broad-based FD research agenda for contemporary academic medicine is needed to understand the effects of context, process, topics, and types of participating faculty on FD outcomes. New research is needed because the current depth and rate of institutional change may yield results that differ from prior research.
Child Labor in America: History’s Horror, Today’s Tragedy

Today, the workplace is as much a part of American teen life as the high school prom. The United States has the highest percentage of working children of any developed nation, with many adolescents working long hours even during the school week. Children’s work in the United States — particularly “high intensity” work, i.e., more than twenty hours per week — poses substantial immediate and long-term academic, safety, health, and economic risks for youth workers. Moreover, the legal rules governing youth work and school attendance are an aberration to the norms governing decisionmaking affecting minors. This scandalous situation results from lack of public awareness of the basic facts about child labor, outdated laws, lack of enforcement of existing inadequate laws, and the profits gained from child labor. The second half of this Article provides a guide for legal professionals interested in reforming contemporary American child labor. A screening tool for client interviews, including specific questions, is included.
Premixed Parenteral Nutrition Solution Use in Children

OBJECTIVES: In response to national drug shortages, our institution established criteria for the use of commercial premixed parenteral nutrition (PN) solutions in select pediatric patients. Althoug...
Cardiac CT vs. Stress Testing in Patients with Suspected Coronary Artery Disease: Review and Expert Recommendations

Diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease represent a major challenge to our health care systems affecting millions of patients each year. Until recently, the diagnosis of coronary artery disease could be conclusively determined only by invasive coronary angiography. To avoid risks from cardiac catheterization, many healthcare systems relied on stress testing as gatekeeper for coronary angiography. Advancements in cardiac computed tomography angiography technology now allows to noninvasively visualize coronary artery disease, challenging the role of stress testing as the default noninvasive imaging tool for evaluating patients with chest pain. In this review, we summarize current data on the clinical utility of cardiac computed tomography and stress testing in stable patients with suspected coronary artery disease.
Modern Timekeeping and the Development of the Science of Time

Civilizations across the globe invented calendars and refined their observations of the Moon and planets to help synchronize their lives to these cycles. The modern world is distinctive for its advanced technology, for its material culture, and for its embrace of science. The development of all three of these was inseparable from the development of the science of time.
Kurosawa Akira's The Lower Depths: Beggar cinema at the disjuncture of times

ABSTRACTKurosawa's The Lower Depths (1957) has been seen exclusively as a literal adaptation of Maxim Gorky's drama with no content on its own and therefore as a merely formalist exercise in transforming a theatre play into a film. Breaking with the received film-as-theatre approach, this article contextualizes the film within the 1953 Japanese debate on ‘beggar photography’ and photographic realism and Kurosawa's cinema of the 1950s. Morphing the iconography of post-war misery together with the iconography of the Tokugawa period, Kurosawa's cinematic rendition of Gorky's play not only countered the ideological tendency of post-occupation Japan to avoid realistic representation of its war-inflicted destitution but also linked this representation to its causes in the nationalist and militarist past.
Emerging roles for centromeres in meiosis I chromosome segregation

Centromeres are an essential and conserved feature of eukaryotic chromosomes, yet recent research indicates that we are just beginning to understand the numerous roles that centromeres have in chromosome segregation. During meiosis I, in particular, centromeres seem to function in many processes in addition to their canonical role in assembling kinetochores, the sites of microtubule attachment. Here we summarize recent advances that place centromeres at the centre of meiosis I, and discuss how these studies affect a variety of basic research fields and thus hold promise for increasing our understanding of human reproductive defects and disease states.
Male mating success, sexual size dimorphism, and site fidelity in two species of Malacoctenus (Labrisomidae)

In both Malacoctenus hubbsi and Malacoctenus macropus, males defended preferred oviposition sites from both other males and potential egg predators. In M. hubbsi, adult females were larger than adult males. Larger M. hubbsi males were not associated with territory parameters that were correlated with higher mating success, and male size was not correlated with mating success. Male size did affect mating success when territory parameters were statistically controlled for, but the failure of large males to associate with better territories eliminated any mating advantage for larger males. In M. macropus, males are larger than females. Larger males defended preferred oviposition sites, and had higher mating success than did smaller males. Male M. macropus also had much higher site fidelity than male M. hubbsi. These results suggest that the evolution of the differences in site fidelity and sexual size dimorphism between these two species may be due to sexual selection acting differentially in these two species.
Leveraging redundancy in sampling-interpolation applications for sensor networks: A spectral approach

An important class of sensor network applications aims at estimating the spatiotemporal behavior of a physical phenomenon, such as temperature variations over an area of interest. In such a scenario, the network essentially acts as a distributed sampling system. However, unlike in the event detection case, the notion of sensing range is largely meaningless for sampling-interpolation applications. As a result, existing techniques to exploit sensing redundancy in event detection settings, which rely on the existence of such sensing range, become unusable. Instead, this article presents a new method to exploit redundancy for the sampling class of applications by selecting a suitable set of sensors to act as sampling points. Through online estimation of process characteristics, sufficiently accurate interpolation can be achieved. We illustrate an algorithm to obtain multiple disjoint sets and demonstrate significant reductions in the number of active sensors for a wide range of synthetic sensor data.
Prediction of Molecular Properties with Mid-Infrared Spectra and Interferograms:

We have built infrared spectroscopy-based partial least-squares (PLS) models for molecular polarizabilities with the use of a 97-member training set and a 59-member independent prediction set. These 156 compounds span a very wide range of chemical structures. Our goal was to use this well-defined chemical property to test the breadth of application of a method whose end use is aimed at predicting poorly defined, environmentally important properties and activity parameters (e.g., microbial transformation rate constants). Separate models were built by using gas-phase mid-infrared spectra and, alternatively, their Fourier transformations (i.e., interferograms). The optimum spectrum- and interferogram-based models produced approximately the same error (root mean square deviation divided by the parameter value range) for the independent prediction set, 9.53 and 9.92%, respectively. With spectrum-based models, we found that deresolving the spectra from a point spacing of 6 cm-1 to about 40 cm-1 produced much lower error (under leave-one-out cross-validation) when all 156 compounds were included, but much higher error when a model was built by using a structurally narrow subset of the compounds (namely, 38 alkanes). Qualitative interpretation of the first PLS weight-loading vector from the spectrum-based model provided important information on the relationship between chemical structure and molecular polarizability.
Role of coherence in optical pattern recognition

Spatial coherence in optical processing can be exploited to implement a wide variety of image processing functions. While fully coherent systems tend to receive the most attention, spatially noncoherent systems can often provide equivalent functionality while offering significant advantages over coherent systems with regard to noise performance and system robustness. The term noncoherent includes both partially coherent and fully incoherent illumination. In addition to the noise immunity advantage, noncoherent diffraction-based processors have relaxed requirements on pupil plane spatial light modulator characteristics. In this paper we provide a discussion of the tradeoffs between coherent and noncoherent processing, taking into account the limited performance characteristics of commercially available spatial light modulators. The advantages of noncoherent processing are illustrated with numerical and experimental results corresponding to three different noncoherent architectures.
A study of the development of phenylalanine hydroxylase in fetuses of several mammalian species.

The developmental pattern of hepatic phenylalanine hydroxylase has been studied in several different mammals. Two strikingly different patterns have been observed. In the rat, no activity can be detected until the day before birth. The hydroxylase activity of newborn rats is equal to or slightly higher than that of adults. In the guinea pig and the human, in contrast, hydroxylase activity is detectable in the liver during the second third of the gestation period.
Valence band parameters of wurtzite materials

Abstract We deduced the valence band parameters of several wurtzite materials (ZnS, CdS, CdSe, and GaN) by matching the results of existing full-band calculations of the energy spectrum with analytical expressions of the envelope-function formalism. The calculated A-, B-, and C-type hole dispersion relations show strongly anisotropic characteristics and anti-crossing features in spectrum due to band mixing effects. We demonstrated that for all materials considered except CdSe, the spherical cubic approximation for six Luttinger-like parameters holds with good accuracy, so that the anisotropy arises mainly owing to the crystal field splitting term. Thus, the top valence band may be described with (in addition to crystal field and spin-orbit splitting energies) only two Luttinger-like parameters, γ 1 and γ 2 .
1-Arsanaphthalene. The Structure of Tricarbonyl(2-trimethylsilyl-1-arsanaphthalene)molybdenum

1-Arsanaphthalene (3) and 2-trimethylsilyl-1-arsanaphthalene (4) have been prepared from the corresponding 1,4-dihydro-1,1-dimethyl-1-stannanaphthalenes 7 and 17, respectively, via an exchange reaction with AsCl3 followed by dehydrohalogenation by DBU. Both 3 and 4 are in mobile equilibrium with their head-to-head Diels−Alder dimers. The reaction of 4 with Mo(CO)3(Py)3 and BF3·OEt2 affords Mo(CO)3 complex 5. The crystal structure of 5 shows that the Mo(CO)3 group is η6-bound to the C5As ring of the arsanaphthalene.
Library and Information Network for the Community: Specializing in the Field of Disability

ABSTRACT In 1996, the Library and Information Network for the Community (LINC), a small, specialized library focusing on the field of disability and special healthcare needs, formally opened its doors. Functioning under the direction of the Center for Development and Disability (CDD) at University of New Mexico's Health Science Center (UNM/HSC), LINC was created to provide comprehensive disability-related library and resource services to consumers residing in New Mexico and to the academic community within University of New Mexico. This article provides a narrative description of the history and service provided by LINC and discusses the reasons a specialized library such as LINC is important for New Mexicans.
Calcium and calcium regulating hormones in the "prehypertensive" Dahl salt sensitive rat (calcium and salt sensitive hypertension).

The purpose of this study was to determine if alterations of calcium and calcium regulating hormones precede the onset of NaCl induced hypertension in the Dahl salt sensitive (S) rat. After a 5 day balance study, serum ionized calcium, PTH, and 1,25 dihydroxy vitamin D concentrations were measured in Dahl-S and salt resistant (R) rats that had been maintained on a "normal" (1%) or high (7%) NaCl intake. Blood pressure was higher in Dahl-S than R (P less than .01), but was not affected by 5 days of high NaCl. On both NaCl intakes, urine calcium excretion was increased, serum calcium was decreased, and serum PTH and 1,25 dihydroxy vitamin D were increased in Dahl-S compared to Dahl-R (P less than .01). On the high NaCl intake, fecal calcium was greater in Dahl-S than in Dahl-R, and net 5 day calcium balance was less positive in Dahl-S (P less than .05). In contrast to NaCl, a high dietary intake of sodium with anions other than chloride (NaAA) fails to produce hypertension in the Dahl-S rat. NaAA loading resulted in decreased urine calcium excretion (P less than .01), and after 5 days of the high NaAA diet, serum calcium and PTH did not differ in Dahl-S and Dahl-R. Thus, alterations of calcium, PTH, and vitamin D precede NaCl-induced hypertension in Dahl-S. These alterations may contribute to the development of hypertension in this animal model.
Basal inflection-controlled shelf-edge wedges off New Jersey track sea-level fall

A key marker for examining the latest Pleistocene history of the New Jersey margin is the high-amplitude, long-recognized R-horizon reflector. This time-transgressive surface was formed 47-33 ka and represents the integrated topographic and bathymetric surface developed during the complicated sea-level oscillation associated with the regression that preceded the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). From landward to seaward across the outer shelf, the R reflector changes from subhorizontal, in most locations <9 m beneath the modern seafloor, to seaward dipping, forming the base of two offlapping sediment wedges: the previously described outer-shelf wedge and a deep-shelf wedge seaward of it. This transition occurs across two inflection zones, where the dip of the R reflector steepens seaward, that can be traced for tens of kilometers along strike and mark the landward limits of these wedges. These inflection zones are possibly former wave-dominated shorefaces; these represent the primary topographic elements present during the last regression. We speculate that these inflections dictated both the locations for deposition of the two prograding, offlapping wedges that developed during the complex sea-level fall prior to the LGM and their successive erosion before and after the LGM. We suggest that such inflection zones and their associated wedges are important markers of regression in clastic-dominated outer-shelf settings along passive margins.
Split-Turbo Codes for Nonuniform Sequences

Non-systematic channel encoding can be superior to systematic encoding in the presence of redundancy in the transmitted data. The advantage becomes more significant the higher the channel coding rate is. However, known turbo like codes for this purpose only perform well at low channel coding rates. Furthermore, typical non-systematic codes designed for this problem usually suffer from lack of robustness across various forms of non-uniformity over the transmitted data. We consider a class of non-systematic turbo codes based on splitting redundant data bits into coded bits. Splitting is achieved by cascading an inverse of a sparse matrix with a turbo code. We show encoding and decoding procedures for these codes, and empirically demonstrate their performance with simulation results. The proposed codes exhibit excellent performance in the presence of redundancy, superior to that of systematic codes and many other non-systematic codes. Unlike other non-systematic turbo like codes, they also demonstrate robustness to the non-uniformity of the transmitted data, and excellent performance for various non-uniformities at high channel coding rates.
Reducing the Impact of Measurement Errors When Reconstructing Spatial Dynamic Forces

Inferring external spatially distributed dynamic forces from measured structural responses is necessary when direct measurement of these forces is not possible. The finite difference method and the modal method have been previously developed for reconstructing these forces. However, the accuracy of these methods is often hindered due to the amplification of measurement errors in the computation process. In order to analyze these error amplification effects by using the singular value decomposition approach, the mathematic expressions for these two force reconstruction methods are first transformed into a certain linear system of equations. Then, a regularization method, the Tikhonov method, is applied to increase computational stability. In order to achieve a good regularized result, the L-curve method is used in conjunction with the Tikhonov method. The effectiveness in reducing the influence of the measurement errors when applying the regularization method to the finite difference method and the modal method is investigated analytically and numerically. It is found that when the regularization method is appropriately applied, reliable computational results for the reconstructed force can be achieved.
Classic bladder exstrophy in a nonhuman primate: a comparative analysis.

Abstract Objectives. To describe the pelvic floor musculature and bony pelvic anatomy in a case of naturally occurring classic bladder exstrophy in a rhesus monkey, the first reported case in the animal population since 1832, and compare the results to exstrophy seen in human newborns. Methods. A 7-day-old male rhesus monkey with classic bladder exstrophy was examined by a pediatric urologist and primate veterinarian before being killed. A multidetector row computed tomography study with three-dimensional reconstruction was obtained, and a comparison computed tomography study of a 17-day-old male human with exstrophy was also reconstructed three dimensionally. The bony pelvis and pelvic floor muscular anatomy of both subjects were then examined and compared. Results. On gross examination, a similar appearance of classic bladder exstrophy in the rhesus monkey and human newborn were noted, including an open exposed bladder, associated penile epispadias, and widely separated pubic bones. The evaluation of the three-dimensional models showed a similar orientation of the bony pelvis in both the rhesus and the human newborn. The iliac wings were significantly rotated outward, and the sacroiliac joint was 10° wider than that seen in normal children. The exstrophy pelvic floor in both the rhesus and the newborn was markedly flattened, with approximately 33% of the muscle located anterior to the rectum to support the pelvic structures (normal children have 50% of their levator ani anterior to the rectum). Conclusions. By using advancements in imaging modalities, this study illustrated that naturally occurring classic bladder exstrophy in the human newborn and rhesus monkey were identical in both external appearance and internal anatomy.
Resource estimation from historical data: Mercury, a test case

A simple technique based on historical records of tonnage and grade of ore produced provides a means for calculating how much of a mineral product will be available in the future at various average grades. Estimates made on this basis are independent of geologic considerations or changing economic and political factors, although they are based on mining history, which was largely determined by these factors. The relatively minor element, mercury, was used for the test case reported here, but the method has been found applicable to forecasts of resources for other mineral products. Mercury resources available in ore in which the average grade is as low as 0.1% are estimated to be 53 ×106kg (1.5 ×106flasks) for the United States and 1551 ×106kg (45 ×106flasks) for the world; this amount is more than adequate to meet predicted demand to the year 2000. The expectable price of mercury in 1978 dollars at this 0.1% grade is projected to be $58.75 per kg ($2,025 per flask), but at a 10% annual inflation rate, it would be more than $12,000 per flask. To satisfy just the projected U.S. demand for mercury by 2000, the price is calculated to be $48.96 per kg ($1,688 per flask) in 1978 dollars at an average annual grade of 0.12%.
Network performance analysis of advanced video coding schemes

Abstract Advanced video coding schemes, currently under investigation, provide greater bandwidth efficiency than existing schemes. However, the network resources required by these advanced-coded video streams have not yet been fully investigated. In this paper, we present a network performance analysis of recent video coding schemes, such as H.264 coding and PFGS coding. The robustness of these coding schemes to channel losses is evaluated using video sequences containing various motion activity levels. Simulation results showed that H.264 streams require larger buffering at the decoder, to overcome the higher delay variations seen over lossy packet networks. PFGS streams were found to produce reconstruction qualities superior to FGS streams, if the maximum rate of the enhancement layer is selected based on the receiver capabilities. This paper also proposes a framework for quality monitoring of the reconstructed video, after transmission over lossy packet networks and application of appropriate error concealment techniques. The proposed framework is flexible enough to be used with any structure of frame types, and any level of motion activities in the underlying video sequence.
A comparison of the Bond method for sizing wet tumbling ball mills with a size—mass balance simulation model

Abstract A comparison is made of the results from a ball mill model simulation with those of the conventional Bond ball mill design method, for a material whose breakage characteristics and Work Index have been determined. In order to perform the simulation, ‘normal’ values were chosen for make-up feed size distribution, mill residence time distribution, ball mix, classifier behaviour, etc. At high flow rates through a mill (low reduction ratio), it is necessary to allow for the reduction in breakage rates caused by over-filling of the mill, using an empirical mass transfer relation: filling . By suitable choice of the constant in this relation, it was found possible to duplicate the variation of mill capacity with feed size and product size (in wet closed-circuit grinding) predicted by the Bond method. The simulation model is then used to predict the variation of performance with design variables not included in the Bond method.
Probabilistic method for the analysis of widespread fatigue damage in structures

A probabilistic method was developed to model structural failure associated with widespread damage as a stochastic chain of crack initiation and growth, linkup, and final failure. The major feature of this method is that multiple sites (fastener holes) have individual crack-initiation and crack-growth characteristics. These individual characteristics are established by Monte Carlo simulation. Stress analysis of undamaged and cracked structures is performed incrementally using a finite element method incrementally and the crack length increment is determined at a given time increment by using an equation for crack growth. Consequent application of the Monte Carlo simulation results in empirical distributions for (a) life to crack initiation, (b) residual life and (c) total life of the structure. A worst-case scenario of multiple cracks is introduced by assigning equal cracks growing simultaneously with highest speed at all sites. This case establishes the threshold of residual life of a structure. Utilizing the threshold, Monte Carlo simulations are conducted in conjunction with a three-parameter lognormal probability distribution for the residual life of a structure. Numerical studies were performed for panels with rows of holes and for a panel stiffened by stringers. The proposed method makes it possible to assess the probability of occurrence of a structure's failure associated with widespread damage as a function of time.
Persistence in dynamic code transformation systems

Dynamic code transformation systems (DCTS) can broadly be grouped into three distinct categories: optimization, translation and instrumentation. All of these face the critical challenge of minimizing the overhead incurred during transformation since their execution is interleaved with the execution of the application itself. The common DCTS tasks incurring overhead are the identification of frequently executed code sequences, costly analysis of program information, and run-time creation (writing) of new code sequences. The cost of such work is amortized by the repeated execution of the transformed code. However, as these steps are applied to all general code regions (regardless of their execution frequency and characteristics), there is substantial overhead that impacts the application's performance. As such, it is challenging to effectively deploy dynamic transformation under fixed performance constraints. This paper explores a technique for eliminating the overhead incurred by exploiting persistent application execution characteristics that are shared across different application invocations. This technique is implemented and evaluated in Pin, a dynamic instrumentation engine. This version of Pin is referred to as Persistent Pin (PPin). Initial PPin experimental results indicate that using information from prior runs can reduce dynamic instrumentation overhead of SPEC applications by as much as 25% and over 90% for everyday applications like web browsers, display rendering systems, and spreadsheet programs.
Spectral characteristics of zero-phonon transitions in crystal impurities: A diagrammatic approach

Abstract The zero-phonon line shape of a localized transition in a crystal is treated by use of a general interaction between the local transition and the lattice phonons with the harmonic approximation. The theory is carried out to infinite order perturbation by diagrammatic techniques and is thus valid for arbitrarily large phonon coupling. Within our model it is found that the spectral characteristics of the zero phonon line and their temperature dependence are due to resonant Raman-ike phonon scattering processes which cause a decay of the phase coherence of the excitation. The line shape due to this mechanism is found to be lorentzian, and its width increases with temperature, but is zero at 0 K. The line position is also a function of temperature.
A Spatial Prior for Bayesian Vector Autoregressive Models

In this paper we develop a Bayesian prior motivated by cross-sectional spatial autoregressive models for use in time-series vector autoregressive forecasting involving spatial variables. We compare forecast accuracy of the proposed spatial prior to that from a vector autoregressive model relying on the Minnesota prior and find a significant improvement. In addition to a spatially motivated prior variance as in LeSage and Pan (1995) we develop a set of prior means based on spatial contiguity. A Theil-Goldberger estimator may be used for the proposed model making it easy to implement.
Importance of bone marrow biopsy in the clinical staging of Hodgkin's disease.

The advent of new forms of therapy in the treatment of Hodgkin's disease requires accurate clinical staging. Although many patients with Hodgkin's disease have evidence of marrow involvement at autopsy, examination of the marrow during life by aspiration techniques infrequently demonstrates this. This difference relates both to the fibrous and granulomatous nature of the lesion which prevents aspiration of marrow particles and to the disruption of marrow architecture by aspiration. In contrast, closed needle biopsy of the posterior iliac crest overcomes these limitations. Of 49 patients studied, 11 had positive biopsy evidence of Hodgkin's disease even though aspiration studies had been unrevealing. Of these 11, 6 had been classified initially as Stage III and thus required reclassification to Stage IV. Biopsy failed to demonstrate marrow involvement in 5 of 39 patients who had marrow involvement proved at autopsy. These data indicate that with positive findings, marrow biopsy can be a helpful tool for the more accurate staging of advanced Hodgkin's disease.
WE-G-213CD-06: Implementation of Real-Time Tumor Tracking Using Robotic Couch.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to present a novel method for real‐ time tumor tracking using a commercially available robotic treatment couch, and to evaluate tumor tracking accuracy. Methods: Commercially available robotic couches are capable of positioning patients with high level of accuracy; however, currently there is no provision for compensating tumor motion using these systems. Elekta's existing commercial couch (PreciseTM Table) was used without changing its design. To establish the real‐time couch motion for tracking, a novel control system was developed and implemented. The tabletop could be moved in horizontal plane (laterally and longitudinally) using two Maxon‐24V motors with gearbox combination. Vertical motion was obtained using robust 70V‐Rockwell Automation motor. For vertical motor position sensing, we used Model 755A‐Accu‐ Coder encoder. Two Baumer‐ITD_01_4mm shaft encoders were used for the lateral and longitudinal motions of the couch. Motors were connected to the Advance Motion Controls (AMC) amplifiers: for the vertical motion, motor AMC‐20A20‐INV amplifier was used, and two AMC‐Z6A8 amplifiers were applied for the lateral and longitudinal couch motions. The Galil DMC‐4133 controller was connected to standard PC computer using USB port. The system had two independent power supplies: Galil PSR‐12‐ 24‐12A, 24vdc power supply with diodes for controller and 24vdc motors and amplifiers, and Galil‐PS300W72 72vdc power supply for vertical motion. Control algorithms were developed for position and velocity adjustment. Results: The system was tested for real‐time tracking in the range of 50mm in all 3 directions (superior‐inferior, lateral, anterior‐ posterior). Accuracies were 0.15, 0.20, and 0.18mm, respectively. Repeatability of the desired motion was within ± 0.2mm. Conclusions: Experimental results of couch tracking show feasibility of real‐time tumor tracking with high level of accuracy (within sub‐millimeter range). This tracking technique potentially offers a simple and effective method to minimize healthy tissues irradiation.Acknowledgement: Study supported by Elekta,Ltd. Study supported by Elekta, Ltd.