cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparison of desmoplastic tumor stroma and normal stroma in breast cancer by MALDI-MS and histology directed protein profiling

3948 Background: Complex interactions among proteins in both tumor epithelium and its surrounding stroma are likely involved in promoting breast cancer development and progression. The progressive alteration of mammary epithelium during neoplastic transformation is accompanied by peritumoral fibroblast proliferation and compositional changes in the extracellular matrix (ECM) collectively referred to as desmoplastic tumor stroma (DTS). This stroma is histologically and biochemically different from normal stroma; however, its role in facilitating malignant growth is incompletely characterized. This study compared mass spectrometry profiles of normal breast stroma and DTS to identify proteins dysregulated in the tumor microenvironment during neoplastic progression. Methods: Human breast tumor specimens were obtained from 17 patients. Cases were selected which contained both areas of DTS and normal breast stroma in the frozen tissue samples. Two serial 12 µm sections were cut from each sample. One section was mounted onto a histology slide and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and the adjacent section was thaw-mounted directly onto a gold-coated MALDI target plate. The H&E staining allowed the histological characterization and was a guide for the histology directed acoustic robotic matrix deposition on the tissue sections. Individual matrix spots of 200 µm in diameter were deposited on the DTS in the immediate vicinity of tumor areas and also on the normal stroma surrounding normal lobular units. Profile spectra were acquired from the marked areas across the sections by matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Statistical comparisons by Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) using a minimum 2 fold-change and false discovery rate 2-fold) in the desmoplastic tumor stroma and one protein showed greater expression in the normal stroma. Discussion: Recent findings underscore that the stromal-epithelial interface is a critical mediator of oncogenic potential and suggest that the effectiveness of breast cancer therapies directed against ER, EGFR or microvessels might ultimately depend on the properties of the surrounding DTS. The identification of intermediary proteins in these signaling pathways and other undiscovered pathways by the comparative study of protein expression in normal stroma and DTS may ultimately lead to the manipulation of these pathways for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. Identification of the differentially expressed proteins is currently underway.
Abstract P158: Preeminent Role of the Cardiorenal Axis in the Antihypertensive Response to an Arteriovenous Fistula: An In Silico Analysis

Percutaneous creation of a small central arteriovenous (AV) fistula is currently being evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of uncontrolled hypertension (HT). Although the mechanisms that...
Detection of Clonal Hematopoiesis in Cytopenic Patients Using Targeted Sequencing

Abstract Introduction: The clinical diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) relies on the presence of persistent cytopenias, not otherwise explained, and evidence of morphologic dysplasia in the bone marrow. Low grade MDS (bone marrow blasts Methods: We screened patients who presented for evaluation of MDS between 2002 and 2014 that had consented for sequencing studies and had banked samples. Patients were selected based on 1) World Health Organization defined cytopenia (WBC Results: Thirty-eight patients met the selection criteria, and 30 of these had bone marrow aspirates available for morphologic review and were included in the study. A mean unique coverage depth of 913x was achieved for targeted genes and all reported variants had >50x coverage, variant allele fractions (VAFs) >3%, and minor allele frequencies (MAFs) Conclusions: In this cohort of 30 cytopenic patients with normal cytogenetics, 80% harbored a somatic mutation in at least one myeloid-associated gene. Somatic mutations were detected in 5 of 6 cases without definitive dysplasia ( Disclosures Duncavage: DIP Cofactor Genomics: Consultancy. Jacoby: Sunesis: Research Funding; Novo Nordisk: Consultancy.
Supporting High-Risk Percutaneous Coronary Interventions With Mechanical Devices.

Abstract The use of mechanical circulatory support to maintain appropriate hemodynamics in high risk percutaneous coronary intervention cases is a new frontier. Treatment of cases that were once considered prohibitive may now be possible. Due to a paucity of data, guidelines offer no guidance about the use of mechanical circulatory support in such cases. This case, the first documented case of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of a vein graft supplying the entire coronary circulation, adds to the medical literature demonstrating a likely benefit in the use of mechanical support during high risk PCI in patients without shock. (Level of Difficulty: Intermediate.)
Harnessing Placebo Responses to Improve Health Outcomes.

Variations in the psychosocial aspects of the provision of health care treatments can measurably affect the health outcomes resulting from the use of such treatments. These benefits (or harms) in outcomes result from processes beyond the specific physiological mechanisms induced by the treatments. Such phenomena can be most clearly seen when physiological improvements are induced by administering inert placebo medications in the same manner as if they were actual medications. By logic, these physiological improvements should also occur during the provision of actual medications and potentiate the latter’s effectiveness. There are likely many manipulations of the patient-clinician interaction that can positively or negatively affect therapeutic outcomes for many conditions. Clinicians should thus be able to make choices in their behavior that optimize any possible increases in drug effectiveness resulting from placebo responses. This commentary makes the assertion that pharmacists are ethically obligated to learn and practice techniques that maximize placebo responses and that it is incumbent upon the Academy to explore and understand such techniques and effectively teach them to students.
An empirical analysis and policy implications of work tours utilizing public transit

Abstract We analyze the complex travel behavior of workers who utilize public transit as part of their work tours (“transit commuters”). Here, complex travel behavior is defined in terms of tours, where a tour is defined as a sequence of trips and activities that begins and ends at the same location and a work tour contains at least one non-home, work activity. The objective of this study is to investigate how transit commuters link non-work activities as part of work tours under transit operational constraints. In particular, we identify dominant patterns of work tours made by transit commuters and analyze these tours using a set of activity-travel analytics and data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). The primary insights are: (1) about 80 percent of work tours consist of 7 dominant patterns whereas the remaining 20 percent of tours demonstrate a total of 106 diverse and more complicated patterns; (2) half of the transit work tours are complex; (3) most simple tours are transit-only tours whereas most complex tours are multi-modal tours; and (4) transit use is more complex than the traditional home to work commute with a diverse set of choices at various stages of activity scheduling. While policies associated with public transit typically focus only on the journey to work, this study considers the complete set of trips starting and ending at home including intermediate non-work activity, which can provide insights for land use and transit-related policies to better accommodate the complex travel behavior of commuters who utilize transit.
Improving Diagnostic Accuracy Of Reduced-Dose Studies With Full-Dose Noise-To-Noise Learning In Cardiac Spect

Dose reduction in cardiac SPECT perfusion imaging is of great clinical importance owing to its potential radiation risks. In this study, we investigate the benefit of using full-dose data processed by deep learning (DL) as a learning target for improving the accuracy of reduced-dose studies. We demonstrated this approach in the experiments with a set of 895 clinical cases, in which we employed a pre-trained DL model for obtaining the full-dose target used for training a denoising network on reduced-dose images. The quantitative results show that the proposed approach could further improve the detection accuracy of perfusion defects (using the non-prewhitening matched filter as a numerical observer) on 50% dose studies over that of training directly with full-dose reconstruction. In addition, there was no loss observed in the spatial resolution of the reconstructed left ventricular wall as measured by its full-width at half-maximum.
ATRT-02. THE DUAL MTORC1/2 INHIBITOR, TAK-228 COMBINES SYNERGISTICALLY WITH THE BH3 MIMETIC, OBATOCLAX TO IMPROVE SURVIVAL IN MICE BEARING ORTHOTOPIC XENOGRAFTS OF AT/RT

mTOR activation drives tumorigenicity by regulating transcription factor expression and downstream growth and survival pathways. We have previously shown that mTORC1 and mTORC2 are highly activated in AT/RT and the dual mTORC1/2 inhibitor, TAK-228 (Sapanisertib) improves survival in mice bearing orthotopic xenografts of AT/RT. To design a rational combination therapy that enhances TAK-228’s efficacy and durability, we performed RNASeq 4 hours after TAK-228 treatment of AT/RT cell models. Pathway analysis revealed disruption of the NRF2-mediated stress response. NRF2 is a cap’n’collar leucine zipper transcription factor that regulates expression of genes involved in redox homeostasis, energy metabolism, cell proliferation, and survival. Analysis of publicly available RNASeq data on 32 human tumors identified elevated expression of NRF2 in AT/RT (median expression 40.78, normal brain 18.81). Short-hairpin knockdown of NRF2 decreased the expression of NRF2 as well as the anti-apoptotic proteins MCL-1, BCL-xL, and BCL-2 (western blot), and intracellular concentrations of reduced glutathione (p<0.005, t-test). TAK-228 similarly decreased expression of NRF2, MCL-1, and glutathione (p<0.005, t-test) demonstrating that TAK-228 compromises AT/RT defenses against oxidative stress and cell death. The brain-penetrant BH3 mimetic, Obatoclax increases oxidative stress and induces apoptosis in AT/RT (MUSE oxidative stress, cPARP western blot, t-test p<0.05). These complementary mechanisms of action synergize to slow AT/RT cell growth (MUSE Cell viability assay, ANOVA p<0.05) and induce high rates of cell death (MUSE ANNEXIN V assay, ANOVA p<0.05, Western blot for cPARP, Compusyn Synergy analysis CI<1.0). Once-weekly treatments of TAK-228 combined with Obatoclax in orthotopic mouse models of AT/RT is well tolerated, slows tumor growth (bioluminescence imaging, ANOVA p<0.05) and significantly extends median survival from 35 to 55 days (Log-rank p<0.05). These findings support a new clinical trial aimed at improving AT/RT survival.
Teachers’ text use in middle school content-area classrooms

Literacy standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers in Common core state standards: English language arts standards, 2010) and best practices from Institute of Education Sciences practice guides (e.g., Baker et al. in Teaching academic content and literacy to English learners in elementary and middle school (NCEE 2014-4012), National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2014; Kamil et al. in Improving adolescent literacy: effective classroom and intervention practices (NCEE 2008-4027), National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2008) encourage content-area teachers to use text reading to improve vocabulary and comprehension for middle grade students. Despite these strong research recommendations and various literacy initiatives, previous research studies have found a persistent pattern of limited text use (i.e., reading and learning from text) in content-area classrooms, thus limiting students’ opportunities to develop advanced literacy skills. This study extends the research base on text use in middle school by presenting findings of a questionnaire administered to 124 middle school teachers and offering insights on how text is typically used in English language arts, science, and social studies classes. Teachers responded to questions about the duration and frequency of text use, as well as reading formats, reading materials (including textbooks), and challenges to utilizing text reading more often. Findings suggest that while most teachers indicated a desire to increase the amount of reading in their classes, they cited challenges such as students’ difficulty with reading and a preference for using other types of teaching activities. Teachers also cited the need for higher-quality texts, and science and social studies teachers, in particular, reported dissatisfaction with and limited use of textbooks. Implications for practice include providing professional development focused on selecting appropriate texts for instruction, using text reading routines that enhance purposeful learning, and integrating reading practices into existing instructional delivery practices.
Active and Reactive Power Distribution for Cascaded-H-Bridge Microinverters under Island Microgrid

Cascaded-H-Bridge inverter is a good candidate for distribute generators due to the low voltage stress devices required. Power sharing distribution and communication among different microinverter modules are two hot issues that has been solved by inverse-droop method. However, this method can just ensure the power sharing equally among different microinverter modules. In this paper, an improvement power distribution method based on droop control that adapts reactive power to change frequency is proposed. Compared with inverse-droop control method that utlizing power factor as feedback to change frequency, the proposed method can distribute the active and reactive power in a wide range. The feasibility of the proposed control method has been verified by the simulation and hardware experiment results.
Targeting up-regulated notch signaling in the CD133+ stem cells within the protected niche of the lymphovascular embolus of inflammatory breast cancer

721 Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a type of human breast cancer with high metastasis due to the presence of florid lymphovascular tumor emboli. We have recapitulated this phenotype in a human xenograft of IBC(MARY-X). In this xenograft, the tumor emboli (spheroids) are mediated by overexpressed E-cadherin. When the spheroids were disrupted with anti-E-cadherin, the disadhered cells underwent apoptosis. When undisrupted, these emboli resist the apoptosis-inducing effects of chemotherapy/radiotherapy. We found specific markers (Stellar, H19, Rex-1, Nestin) known associated with embryonal/neural stem cells to be highly expressed within the MARY-X spheroids. In addition, RT-PCR analyses of MARY-X revealed the expression of OCT4, SOX2, and Nanog, transcriptional determinants essential for the pluripotency and self-renewal of stem cells. Most importantly, CD133, a surface marker for human leukemic/gliomic stem cells, was also strongly expressed by 60% of the cells of the MARY-X spheroids and the lymphovascular emboli of human IBC. Only this CD133+ subpopulation expressed both the stem cell transcriptional determinants mentioned previously as well as the capacity for self-renewal and tumorigenicity. Tumorigenicity capacity could be observed within spheroids with as few as 50 cells or within single cells if grown in Matrigel. This CD133+ subpopulation however did not show any fewer genomic alterations by array CGH than the CD133- subpopulation. These findings suggest that MARY-X and therefore IBC contain a high percentage of CD133+ cells, cells which seem to be functionally but not hierarchically stem cell in nature. Their large number, their tumorigenic potency, their lack of genomic stability and their ability to survive only within the protective niche of the lymphovascular embolus support these conclusions. Because it is uncertain whether selective targeting of E-cadherin on tumor v normal cells could successfully and safely disadhere tumor emboli in vivo, we investigated other signaling pathways that we discovered to be up-regulated within the CD133+ cells of the lymphovascular embolus that might be more amenable to selective targeting. Increased expression of both notch receptors and their ligands were detected. Increased notch signaling was also detected by the upregulation of the notch target genes: HES-1, HES-5. In addition, gamma-secretase inhibitors, inhibitors which block notch signaling pathways caused marked apoptosis of the CD133+ IBC cells, even when they were cytoprotected within their embolic niche. Our results suggest that activation of notch signaling pathways are essential for the maintenance of viable tumor emboli and CD133+ "stem cells" in particular and that inhibiting these notch pathways with gamma-secretase inhibitors may achieve selective targeting and ultimately a novel and effective therapy for IBC.
Extracting Parallel Phrases from Comparable Data

Mining parallel data from comparable corpora is a promising approach for overcoming the data sparseness in statistical machine translation and other NLP applications. Even if two comparable documents have few or no parallel sentence pairs, there is still potential for parallelism in the sub-sentential level. The ability to detect these phrases creates a valuable resource, especially for low-resource languages. In this paper we explore three phrase alignment approaches to detect parallel phrase pairs embedded in comparable sentences: the standard phrase extraction algorithm, which relies on the Viterbi path; a phrase extraction approach that does not rely on the Viterbi path, but uses only lexical features; and a binary classifier that detects parallel phrase pairs when presented with a large collection of phrase pair candidates. We evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches in detecting alignments for phrase pairs that have a known alignment in comparable sentence pairs. The results show that the Non-Viterbi alignment approach outperforms the other two approaches on F1 measure.
Hydrogen-Mediated Reductive Coupling of Conjugated Alkynes with Ethyl (N-Sulfinyl)iminoacetates: Synthesis of Unnatural α-Amino Acids via Rhodium-Catalyzed C−C Bond Forming Hydrogenation

Rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation of 1,3-enynes 1a−8a and 1,3-diynes 9a−13a at ambient temperature and pressure in the presence of ethyl (N-tert-butanesulfinyl)iminoacetate and ethyl (N-2,4,6-triisopropylbenzenesulfinyl)iminoacetates, respectively, results in reductive coupling to afford unsaturated α-amino acid esters 1b−13b in good to excellent yields with exceptional levels of regio- and stereocontrol. Further hydrogenation of the diene containing α-amino acid esters 1b−8b using Wilkinson's catalyst at ambient temperature and pressure results in regioselective reduction to afford the β,γ-unsaturated α-amino acid esters 1c−8c in good to excellent yields. Exhaustive hydrogenation of the unsaturated side chains of the Boc- and Fmoc-protected derivatives of enyne and diyne coupling products 14b−16b occurs in excellent yield using Crabtree's catalyst at ambient temperature and pressure providing the α-amino acid esters 14d−16d, which possess saturated side chains. Finally, cross-metathesis of the Boc-protecte...
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Virtually any condition that disturbs sleep can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). A differential diagnosis including a wide range of conditions needs to be considered. A multiple sleep latency test can be used to quantify the degree of EDS. Treatment is based on identifying the underlying causes of EDS. A combination of behavioral and pharmacological treatments may be helpful.
Do government private subsidies crowd out entrepreneurship

Although several studies have found a negative relationship between government spending and entrepreneurship, much debate remains regarding the components of government spending responsible for this association. This paper contributes to the literature by specifically exploring the relationship between government private subsidies and entrepreneurship. By combining macroeconomic government spending data with individual level entrepreneurship data, the paper finds a negative association between the share of private subsidies and entrepreneurship. However, findings are less straightforward when the analysis delves deeper into the components of private subsidies and their association with different kinds of entrepreneurship.
Identification Based on Difference‐in‐Differences Approaches with Multiple Treatments

This paper discusses identification based on difference-in-differences (DiD) approaches with multiple treatments. It shows that an appropriate adaptation of the common trend assumption underlying the DiD strategy for the comparison of two treatments restricts the possibility of effect heterogeneity for at least one of the treatments. The required assumption of effect homogeneity is likely to be violated because of non-random assignment to treatment based on both observables and unobservables. However, this paper shows that, under certain conditions, the DiD estimate comparing two treatments identifies a lower bound in absolute values on the average treatment effect on the treated compared to the unobserved non-treatment state, even if effect homogeneity is violated. This is possible if the treatments have ordered treatment effects, that is, in expectation, the effects of both treatments compared to no treatment have the same sign, and one treatment has a stronger effect than the other treatment on the respective recipients. Such assumptions are plausible if treatments are ordered or vary in intensity.
The Failure of Sentencing Guidelines: A Plea for Less Aggregation

To a considerable extent, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines have substituted punishment based on aggregations of similar cases for individualized punishment. This paper argues that the movement from individualized to aggregated sentences has marked a backwards step in the search for just criminal punishment. Some things are worse than sentencing disparity, and we have found them. The paper does not, however, advocate a return to the pre-guidelines system of broad sentencing discretion. Instead, it proposes a less ambitious system of sentencing guidelines?one in which a sen tencing commission's resolution of specific, recurring sentencing issues and of paradigmatic cases would provide benchmarks for sentencing judges. Aggregation?the treatment of many cases all at once?is often appropriate. Indeed, all legal rules aggregate. Treating unlike cases alike sometimes can promote economy and simplicity of administration. The federal sentencing guidelines, however, do not save work or money. To the contrary, 90 percent of the judges who responded to a survey by the Federal Courts Study Committee reported that the guidelines had made sentencing procedures more time consuming. In addition, our overburdened federal appellate courts now decide thousands of cases each year concerning application of the guidelines.2 The principal argument for the sentencing guidelines has not been simplicity or ease of admini stration. It has been that, although aggregated sentences may prove unjust in many cases, guide lines limit the play of judicial personality and inhibit discrimination on invidious grounds. The injustice produced by grouping unlike cases, in other words, has been justified as a means of promoting equality and preventing greater injustice.
Invariant linear manifolds for CSL-algebras and nest algebras

Every invariant linear manifold for a CSL-algebra, AlgL, is a closed subspace if, and only if, each non-zero projection in L is generated by finitely many atoms associated with the projection lattice. When L is a nest, this condition is equivalent to the condition that every non-zero projection in L has an immediate predecessor (L& is well ordered). The invariant linear manifolds of a nest algebra are totally ordered by inclusion if, and only if, every non-zero projection in the nest has an immediate predecessor. Kadison's transitivity theorem [6] implies that a C*-algebra acting on a Hilbert space which has no non-trivial closed invariant subspaces must also have no nontrivial invariant linear manifolds. This note investigates the analogous situation for CSL-algebras and, in particular, for nest algebras. We identify exactly the family of CSL-algebras for which every invariant linear manifold is, in fact, a closed subspace (and hence an element of the lattice of invariant subspaces for the algebra). When specialized to nest algebras, this family reduces to those nest algebras for which each non-zero element of the nest has an immediate predecessor. Note that a nest, L, satisfies this condition if, and only if, the nest, L 1, consisting of orthogonal complements of elements of L: is well ordered. For any other nest algebra, not only are there invariant linear manifolds which are not closed, but the family of invariant linear manifolds is not totally ordered by inclusion. Thus, most nest algebras are "nest algebras" in a topological sense but not an algebraic sense. Some of the results in this paper were obtained by Foia? in 1971/72 in his study of invariant operator ranges [3, 4] or by Ong in his description of all the invariant operator ranges for a nest algebra [9]. Davidson extended this description to CSLalgebras in [1]. Davidson's book on nest algebras [2] is a convenient reference for most of this work on operator ranges. All the same, we give complete and independent proofs for our results on arbitrary linear manifolds which follow from prior work on operator ranges; these proofs are shorter and more elementary than the arguments via operator ranges. (The price to be paid is that these results are somewhat weaker than the operator range results. The converses, on the other hand, are correspondingly stronger.) Received by the editors June 15, 1998 and, in revised form, April 8, 1999. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 47L35.
Bayesian Sampling Algorithms for the Sample Selection and Two-Part Models

This paper considers two models to deal with an outcome variable that contains a large fraction of zeros, such as individual expenditures on health care: a sample-selection model and a two-part model. The sample-selection model uses two possibly correlated processes to determine the outcome: a decision process and an outcome process; conditional on a favorable decision, the outcome is observed. The two-part model comprises uncorrelated decision and outcome processes. The paper addresses the issue of selecting between these two models. With a Gaussian specification of the likelihood, the models are nested and inference can focus on the correlation coefficient. Using a fully parametric Bayesian approach, I present sampling algorithms for the model parameters that are based on data augmentation. In addition to the sampler output of the correlation coefficient, a Bayes factor can be computed to distinguish between the models. The paper illustrates the methods and their potential pitfalls using simulated data sets
Equivalence of uniform key agreement and composition insecurity

We prove that achieving adaptive security from composing two general non-adaptively secure pseudo-random functions is impossible if and only if a uniform-transcript key agreement protocol exists. It is well known that proving the security of a key agreement protocol (even in a special case where the protocol transcript looks random to an outside observer) is at least as difficult as proving P ≠ NP. Another (seemingly unrelated) statement in cryptography is the existence of two or more non-adaptively secure pseudo-random functions that do not become adaptively secure under sequential or parallel composition. In 2006, Pietrzak showed that at least one of these two seemingly unrelated statements is true. Pietrzak's result was significant since it showed a surprising connection between the worlds of public-key (i.e., "cryptomania") and private-key cryptography (i.e., "minicrypt"). In this paper we show that this duality is far stronger: we show that at least one of these two statements must also be false. In other words, we show their equivalence. More specifically, Pietrzak's paper shows that if sequential composition of two non-adaptively secure pseudo-random functions is not adaptively secure, then there exists a key agreement protocol. However, Pietrzak's construction implies a slightly stronger fact: If sequential composition does not imply adaptive security (in the above sense), then a uniform-transcript key agreement protocol exists, where by uniform-transcript we mean a key agreement protocol where the transcript of the protocol execution is indistinguishable from uniform to eavesdroppers. In this paper, we complete the picture, and show the reverse direction as well as a strong equivalence between these two notions. More specifically, as our main result, we show that if there exists any uniform-transcript key agreement protocol, then composition does not imply adaptive security. Our result holds for both parallel and sequential composition. Our implication holds based on virtually all known key agreement protocols, and can also be based on general complexity assumptions of the existence of dense trapdoor permutations.
Second class particles as microscopic characteristics in totally asymmetric nearest-neighbor K-exclusion processes

Summary. We study aspects of the hydrodynamics of one-dimensional totally asym- metric K-exclusion, building on the hydrodynamic limit of Seppalainen (1999). We prove that the weak solution chosen by the particle system is the unique one with maximal current past any fixed location. A uniqueness result is needed because we can prove neither differentiability nor strict concavity of the flux function, so we cannot use the Lax-Oleinik formula or jump conditions to define entropy solutions. Next we prove laws of large numbers for a second class particle in K-exclusion. The macroscopic trajectories of second class particles are characteristics and shocks of the conservation law for the particle density. In particular, we extend toK-exclusion Ferrari's result that the second class particle follows a macroscopic shock in the Rie- mann solution. The technical novelty of the proofs is a variational representation for the position of a second class particle, in the context of the variational coupling method.
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS FOR DEEP SPACE APPLICATION

To provide a source of electrical energy independent of the Sun, for the use of unmanned spacecraft investigation of the outer planets, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is evaluating radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Criteria for the selection of the thermoelectric materials, the design of the generator, and its integration with the spacecraft are discussed. Results of the tests of 10 generators that have been, or are presently, under test at JPL are also presented.
Improved Grade Crossing Safety with In-Pavement Warning Lights

Rail crossing collisions, while experiencing a reduction in the past decade, still continue to occur in California. This project examined different methods of improving commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) in-pavement warning signals and their suitability for use at grade crossings. This project focused on the modification of a commercially available in-pavement warning signal that was originally designed to indicate the presence of pedestrians in a crosswalk. The project proposed using a similar device to provide warning to vehicles approaching a railroad grade crossing. A variety of illumination patterns were tested in order to provide an optimal implementation of such a warning device. Laboratory tests demonstrated an improvement in visual response, as evidenced by a lowered reaction time, to a pattern incorporating alternating groups of spatially-separated flashed LEDs in order to stimulate perception of movement. Researchers also completed preparations, including installation, for a future field test to study vehicle behavior in the presence of embedded warning lights incorporating this modified firing pattern.
Quotients of Gaussian Primes

AbstractIt has been observed many times, both in the Monthly and elsewhere, that the set of all quotients of prime numbers is dense in the positive real numbers. In this short note we answer the re...
Deliquescence of NaCl–NaNO3, KNO3–NaNO3, and NaCl–KNO3 salt mixtures from 90 to 120°C

We conducted reversed deliquescence experiments in saturated NaCl–NaNO3–H2O, KNO3–NaNO3–H2O, and NaCl–KNO3–H2O systems from 90 to 120°C as a function of relative humidity and solution composition. NaCl, NaNO3, and KNO3 represent members of dust salt assemblages that are likely to deliquesce and form concentrated brines on high-level radioactive waste package surfaces in a repository environment at Yucca Mountain, NV. Discrepancy between model prediction and experiment can be as high as 8% for relative humidity and 50% for dissolved ion concentration. The discrepancy is attributed primarily to the use of 25°C models for Cl–NO3 and K–NO3 ion interactions in the current Yucca Mountain Project high-temperature Pitzer model to describe the nonideal behavior of these highly concentrated solutions.
Directed Alternatives in Testing

Consider a hypothesis-testing problem concerned with a one-dimensional parameter θ. In testing a null hypothesis H : θ = θo, a two-sided alternative is K : θ ≠ θo. A one-sided alternative is K : θ > θo. This latter alternative is appropriate when it is reasonably certain that θ cannot be less then θo. The advantage of posing a one-sided alternative is that the appropriate one-sided test is much more powerful than the corresponding two-sided test. The idea of one-sided and two-sided alternatives extends to the case of testing a k-dimensional parameter θ. If the null hypothesis is H : θ = θo, then the analogue to the two-sided alternative is K : θ ≠ θo. This latter alternative is said to be unrestricted or not directed. An example of the analogue to the one-sided alternative is K : θi ≥ θio, for i = 1, …, k, with strict inequality for at least one index i. Here θ = (θ1, …θk). Such an alternative is called a directed alternative. We introduce the notion of directed alternatives for multidimensional parameters. Among the special cases treated are the simple order alternative in which parameters are nondecreasing, the tree order alternative in which case one mean parameter is assumed to be less than or equal to each of the other mean parameters, and the stochastic order alternative in which one multinomial distribution is more concentrated at higher categories than another distribution. We indicate appropriate tests for these directed alternatives. Keywords: simple order alternative; tree order alternative; stochastic order alternative; likelihood ratio tests; directed vertex peeling; ordered categorical data
LOOJ: Weaving LOOM into Java

LOOJ is an extension of Java obtained by adding bounded parametric polymorphism and new type expressions ThisClass and ThisType, which are similar to MyType in LOOM. Through examples we demonstrate the utility of this language even over very expressive extensions such as GJ. The LOOJ compiler generates standard JVML code and supports instanceof and casts for all types including type variables and the other new type expressions. The core of the LOOJ type system is sound, as demonstrated by a soundness proof for an extension of Featherweight GJ. This paper also highlights difficulties that arise from the use of both classes and interfaces as types in Java.
Visualization of monoamine oxidase in human brain

Publisher Summary Monoamine oxidase (MAO; EC: 1.4.3.4) is a flavin-containing enzyme that exists in two subtypes, MAO-A and MAO-B. MAO-A and MAO-B are different gene products, and they also differ in their substrate and inhibitor selectivities and their cellular localizations. In human brain, MAO-B predominates (B:A = 4:1) and is largely compartmentalizedin cell bodies of serotonergic neurons and in glia. Human brain MAO-B postmortem reports that MAO-B increases with age and neurodegenerative disease. The number of glial cells increases with age in the normal human brain and in neurodegenerative disease. To investigate the feasibility of detecting and tracking neurodegenerative processes in the living human brain, measured was brain MAO-B in normal healthy subjects (n = 21; age range, 23-86 yr; 9 women and 12 men; nonsmokers). Regions of interest were occipital cortex, frontal cortex, cingulate gyrus, parietal cortex, temporal cortex, pons, thalamus, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and global regions. The regional distribution of MAO B was highest in the basal ganglia and the thalamus, with intermediate levels in the frontal cortex and cingulate gyrus and lowest levels in the parietal and temporal cortices and cerebellum. The model term λκ 3 showed a significant increase with age (p λκ 3, which increased with age, blood-to-brain influx constant (K 1 ) significantly (p
Public Expenditure and Poverty Reduction in the Southern United States

The objective of this research was to analyze the effects of education, health and hospital, parks and recreation, and public welfare expenditures on poverty, focusing particularly on how these relationships change over space and time. Government expenditure on parks and recreation has been the single most effective government expenditure category over time, although the marginal effects of the government expenditure on poverty alleviation have weakened over time. Clusters of the highest marginal effects of government expenditures on poverty reduction were identified for each time period using geographically weighted regression (GWR) and analysis of local indicators of spatial association (LISA)
A Novel Structure-aware Sparse Learning Algorithm for Brain Imaging Genetics

Brain imaging genetics is an emergent research field where the association between genetic variations such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and neuroimaging quantitative traits (QTs) is evaluated. Sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA) is a bi-multivariate analysis method that has the potential to reveal complex multi-SNP-multi-QT associations. Most existing SCCA algorithms are designed using the soft threshold strategy, which assumes that the features in the data are independent from each other. This independence assumption usually does not hold in imaging genetic data, and thus inevitably limits the capability of yielding optimal solutions. We propose a novel structure-aware SCCA (denoted as S2CCA) algorithm to not only eliminate the independence assumption for the input data, but also incorporate group-like structure in the model. Empirical comparison with a widely used SCCA implementation, on both simulated and real imaging genetic data, demonstrated that S2CCA could yield improved prediction performance and biologically meaningful findings.
Performance Metrics and Measurement Techniques of Collective Communication Services

The performance of collective communication is critical to the overall system performance. In general, the performance of the collective communication is dependent not only on the underlying hardware, but also its implementation. To evaluate the performance of collective communication accurately, identifying the most representative metrics and using correct measurement techniques are two important issues that have to be considered. This paper focuses on the measurement techniques for collective communication services. The proposed techniques can provide an accurate evaluation of the completion time without requiring a global clock and without having to know the detailed implementations of collective communication services. Experimental results conducted on the IBM/SP at Argonne National Laboratory are presented.
Secure History Preservation Through Timeline Entanglement

A secure timeline is a tamper-evident historic record of the states through which a system goes throughout its operational history. Secure timelines can help us reason about the temporal ordering of system states in a provable manner. We extend secure timelines to encompass multiple, mutually distrustful services, using timeline entanglement. Timeline entanglement associates disparate timelines maintained at independent systems, by linking undeniably the past of one timeline to the future of another. Timeline entanglement is a sound method to map a time step in the history of one service onto the timeline of another, and helps clients of entangled services to get persistent temporal proofs for services rendered that survive the demise or noncooperation of the originating service. In this paper we present the design and implementation of Timeweave, our service development framework for timeline entanglement based on two novel disk-based authenticated data structures. We evaluate Timeweave’s performance characteristics and show that it can be ecien tly deployed in a loosely-coupled distributed system of several hundred nodes with overhead of roughly 2-8% of the processing resources of a PC-grade system. 1
Through-the-thickness tensile strength of textile composites

A series of tests was run to characterize the through-the-thickness tensile strength of a variety of composites that included two-dimensional (2D) braids, 2D and three-dimensional (3D) weaves, and prepreg tapes. A new test method based on a curved beam was evaluated. The through-the-thickness deformations were characterized using moire interferometry. Failures were significantly different between the 2D materials and the 3D weaves. The 2D materials delaminated between layers due to out-of-plane tensile stresses. The strength of the 2D textile composites did not increase relative to the tapes. The 3D weaves failed due to radial cracks that initiated between the surface yarns because of the circumferential stresses along the inner radius. A circumferential crack similar to the 2D materials produced the final failure. Final failure in the 3D weaves occurred at a lower bending moment than in the other materials. The early failures were caused by radial crack formation rather than a low through-the-thickness strength.
Active Clinical Trials for Personalized Medicine.

AbstractIndividualized treatment rules (ITRs) tailor treatments according to individual patient characteristics. They can significantly improve patient care and are thus becoming increasingly popular. The data collected during randomized clinical trials are often used to estimate the optimal ITRs. However, these trials are generally expensive to run, and, moreover, they are not designed to efficiently estimate ITRs. In this article, we propose a cost-effective estimation method from an active learning perspective. In particular, our method recruits only the “most informative” patients (in terms of learning the optimal ITRs) from an ongoing clinical trial. Simulation studies and real-data examples show that our active clinical trial method significantly improves on competing methods. We derive risk bounds and show that they support these observed empirical advantages. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Spectrometers, Ultraviolet and Visible Light

A wide variety of instruments exist for recording the intensity of light as a function of wavelength. In the visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum, these include dispersive spectrometers (based on gratings and prisms) and nondispersive spectrometers (usually interferometric in nature). A discussion of the main kinds of visible and ultraviolet spectrometers is given along with their advantages and drawbacks in terms of resolution, accuracy, efficiency, and ease of use. Considerations for choosing the design of an optical spectrometer are outlined, and the main aberrations associated with common optical designs are discussed. Keywords: spectrometer; grating; prism; interferometer; spectroscopy; absorption
Benchmarking the Strategic Management of Technology—I

OVERVIEW:Extensive data collected from the largest R&D-performing companies in the United States, Western Europe and Japan reveal that top management linkages and resource leverages are the keys to effective technology strategy. In terms of linkage, Japanese chief executive officers are more heavily involved in integrating technology with overall corporate strategy. Chief technology officers of Japanese companies have stronger board-level participation and greater influence on overall company strategy. U.S. firms are rapidly decentralizing control of R&D activities to their business units, while Japanese companies are moving in the opposite direction. In search of resource leverage, companies worldwide are experiencing major shifts to acquiring technology from outside sources, relying increasingly on universities for research and on joint ventures and alliances for development. These and other findings on strategic management of technology arise from a global benchmarking study of the 244 companies that a...
Will Special Agricultural Safeguards Advance or Retard LDC Growth and Welfare? A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis

Trade liberalization extends the markets and the international division of labor. This, as Adam Smith argued, is the primary source of productivity and economic growth. Because the transition to liberal trade is not politically and socially costless, several developing countries have proposed that the Doha Development Agenda include Special Agricultural Safeguards (SSGs) to damp potential external market shocks to their domestic markets. An inter-temporal general equilibrium model captures the costs and benefits of SSGs on developing countries' trade, production, and welfare. The stylized SSGs are based on the SSGs of Article 5 of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. The Uruguay Round Agreement of 1994 developed guidelines for proper use of trade remedies and solved many of the ambiguities in the earlier agreements. This includes the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, An Agreement of Safeguards, and an Agreement on Antidumping. The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) allowed member to create Special Safeguards for agricultural commodities. Under the provision, WTO members are allowed to institute the use of SSGs for those products identified by the members in their country schedules, when volume and value trigger levels for action. In the current negotiations on agricultural trade reform some countries propose the total elimination of SSGs while some developing countries propose that only they would be allowed to use SSGs-developed countries would not be allowed to do. In this study we evaluate the effects of various proposals containing positions on SSGs and in particular special and differential treatment for developing countries on SSGs. The model considers 40 geographic countries/regions and 18 commodity groups and based on the GTAP 5.2 database. We estimated the potential effects of SSGs positions undertaken by developing countries using both static and dynamic approach. The later captures the direction of change in the long run accounting for consumption and invest, saving and production, the functioning of capital markets and international capital flows, as well as the technological spillovers and improvement in total factor productivity that seem to accompany growth in countries' trade. Preliminary results indicate welfare loss for developing countries when SSGs are imposed either for groups of commodities, such as staple food, or for all agricultural commodities vs. completely trade agricultural reforms