cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Learning Transcriptional Regulatory Relationships Using Sparse Graphical Models

Understanding the organization and function of transcriptional regulatory networks by analyzing high-throughput gene expression profiles is a key problem in computational biology. The challenges in this work are 1) the lack of complete knowledge of the regulatory relationship between the regulators and the associated genes, 2) the potential for spurious associations due to confounding factors, and 3) the number of parameters to learn is usually larger than the number of available microarray experiments. We present a sparse (L1 regularized) graphical model to address these challenges. Our model incorporates known transcription factors and introduces hidden variables to represent possible unknown transcription and confounding factors. The expression level of a gene is modeled as a linear combination of the expression levels of known transcription factors and hidden factors. Using gene expression data covering 39,296 oligonucleotide probes from 1109 human liver samples, we demonstrate that our model better predicts out-of-sample data than a model with no hidden variables. We also show that some of the gene sets associated with hidden variables are strongly correlated with Gene Ontology categories. The software including source code is available at http://grnl1.codeplex.com.
High Energy Scattering and AdS/CFT

At high energies, elastic hadronic cross sections are believed to be dominated by vacuum exchange. In leading order of the 1/Nc expansion this exchange process has traditionally been identified as the BFKL Pomeron. We review here the recent development where Pomeron in strong coupling can be identified by its AdS dual the closed string graviton.
Dynamic behavior of cell signaling networks: model design and analysis automation

Recent work has presented logical models and showed the benefits of applying logical approaches to studying the dynamics of biological networks. In this work, we develop a methodology for automating the design of such models by utilizing methods and algorithms from the field of electronic design automation. We anticipate that automated discrete model development will greatly improve the efficiency of qualitative analysis of biological networks.
Surgical management of congenital ureteropelvic junction obstruction: a Pediatric Health Information System database study

Purpose: Although laparoscopic pyeloplasty has gained popularity, to our knowledge no multi-institutional study has evaluated the prevalence of this approach in children. We used a multicenter database to determine trends in the treatment of congenital ureteropelvic junction obstruction.Materials and Methods: The Pediatric Health Information System database contains data on 37 freestanding hospitals for children across the United States. We extracted data on 0 to 19-year-old patients from 2001 to 2006 with the ICD-9 diagnosis code for congenital ureteropelvic junction obstruction and the procedure code for the correction of ureteropelvic junction obstruction. We identified laparoscopic cases based on hospital charges for 1) laparoscope, 2) trocar, 3) insufflating needle or 4) insufflator and tubing. Data were then analyzed using the chi-square and Student t tests to determine management trends.Results: We identified 2,353 patients, of whom 2,177 (92.5%) underwent open pyeloplasty and 176 (7.5%) underwent ...
Surgery for cervical spinal cord compression in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Objective The goal of this study was to investigate the clinical and paraclinical features, treatment, and outcomes of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and coexisting spinal cord compression secondary to either cervical spondylosis or cervical disc disease. Patients with MS commonly experience neurological disabilities that present as myelopathy associated with bladder dysfunction. For some patients with MS, however, this neurological deterioration may result from coexisting spinal cord compression attributable to either spondylosis or a herniated disc. Overlapping symptoms of the two conditions do not allow clear clinical determination of the underlying cause of worsening. Methods Patients with MS who underwent cervical decompression surgery were selected. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed, to collect data on their pre- and postoperative clinical courses. Results Nine women and five men with definite MS were selected for cervical decompression surgery to treat neurological deterioration considered to be at least partially attributable to spinal cord compression. The most common symptoms were progressive myelopathy (n = 13), neck pain (n = 11), and cervical radiculopathy (n = 10). Bladder dysfunction was notably absent among these patients with MS with moderate disabilities. Surgical intervention was frequently delayed because the neurological deterioration was initially thought to be attributable to MS. The majority of patients experienced either improvement or stabilization of their preoperative symptoms in the immediate postoperative period; three subjects (21%) maintained this improvement after a mean follow-up period of 3.8 years. No MS relapses, permanent neurological worsening, or serious complications resulting from surgery or general anesthesia were noted. Conclusion Carefully selected patients with MS and cervical spinal cord compression secondary to either spondylosis or disc disease may benefit from surgical decompression, with minimal associated morbidity. Clinical features (especially neck pain and cervical radiculopathy) and magnetic resonance imaging may assist clinicians in differentiating between the two conditions and may guide appropriate treatment without undue delay.
Differential cross sections for the electron-impact excitation of hydrogenlike carbon.

We report on a study of total and differential excitation cross sections for the electron-impact excitation of hydrogenlike carbon for the transitions 1{ital s} {sup 2}{ital S}{r_arrow}2{ital s} {sup 2}{ital S} and 2{ital p} {sup 2}{ital P}. These calculations have been performed for electron-impact energies ranging from 28.2 to 29.5 Ry using the close-coupling {ital R}-matrix method. This energy region has been chosen because in addition to the direct excitation of 2{ital s} and 2{ital p}, there is a sizable contribution to the excitation cross section from the doubly excited two-electron states (3{ital l}3{ital l}{prime}), which decay predominantly to {ital n}=2 via autoionization. Differential cross sections for both the direct nonresonant channel and in the vicinity of several autoionizing resonant states are presented. The differential cross sections in the vicinity of the autoionizing resonant states are shown to be very rich in structure. We discuss the relevance of these calculations to a recent experiment that measured the electron emission spectra for the collision of C{sup 5+}+H{sub 2}.
Hydrogen atom in intense magnetic field

The structure of a hydrogen atom situated in an intense magnetic field is investigaged. Three approaches are employed. An elementary Bohr picture establishes a crucial magnetic field strength, H sub a approximately equal to 5 x 10 to the 9th G. Fields in excess of H sub a are intense in that they are able to modify the characteristic atomic scales of length and binding energy. A second approach solves the Schrodinger equation by a combination of variational methods and perturbation theory. It yields analytic expressions for the wave functions and energy eigenvalues. A third approach determines the energy eigenvalues by reducing the Schrodinger equation to a one-dimensional wave equation, which is then solved numerically. Energy eigenvalues are tabulated for field strengths of 2 x 10 to the 10th G and 2 x 10 to the 12th G. It is found that at 2 x 10 to the 12th G the lowest energy eigenvalue is changed from -13.6 to about -180 eV in agreement with previous variational computations.
Diaziquone and 2,2′-anhydro-arabinosyl-5-fluorocytosine for the treatment of children with relapsed or refractory acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia

The authors treated 30 patients ages 1 to 19 with relapsed or refractory acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) with the combination of diaziquone (AZQ) and 2,2'-anhydro-arabinosyl-5-fluorocytosine (AAFC) intravenously in two dose schedules. The first 12 patients were treated with 19 courses of AZQ 30 mg/m2 X 3 days and AAFC 600 mg/m2/dose every 12 hours X 10 doses. An additional patient was treated with three courses at 80% of the above doses. Hepatic toxicity was National Cancer Institute Grade III in eight of 22 and Grade IV in one of 22 courses. Infectious complications were severe in all patients, including responders. One patient achieved a complete remission and one a partial remission; the latter died with marrow aplasia after a second course. Altogether three patients developed profound aplasia and died before marrow recovery. The authors treated a second group of 17 patients with AZQ 22.5 mg/m2/day X 3 days and AAFC 450 mg/m2/dose every 12 hours X 10 doses. Three patients achieved a complete remission and one patient a partial remission for 3, 4, 9, and 9 months, respectively. The remainder had progressive disease or no response. All patients developed profound myelosuppression but no toxic deaths occurred. Hepatic toxicity was reduced. Therapy induced cytoreduction of bone marrow was determined by flow cytometry in ten patients; none of these patients responded during the interval studied. Although AZQ and AAFC are active in childhood ANLL with acceptable toxicity, the combination does not appear more active than AZQ used alone. Future studies should define the role of AZQ in combination with other agents.
A study of undue pain and surfing: using hierarchical criteria to assess website quality.

In studies of web-based consumer health information, scant attention has been paid to the selective development of differential methodologies for website quality evaluation, or to selective grouping and analysis of specific `domains of uncertainty' in healthcare. Our objective is to introduce a more refined model for website evaluation, and illustrate its application using assessment of websites within an area of ongoing medical uncertainty, back pain. In this exploratory technology assessment, we suggest a model for assessing these `domains of uncertainty' within healthcare, using qualitative assessment of websites and hierarchical concepts. Using such a hierarchy of quality criteria, we review medical information provided by the most frequently accessed websites related to back pain. Websites are evaluated using standardized criteria, with results rated from the viewpoint of the consumer. Results show that standardization of quality rating across subjective content, and between commercial and niche sear...
Managing to beat death: the narrative construction process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce narrative construction, a method by which participants produce a narrative to make sense of their organizational context, as well as strategically guide action and decision making. While narrative theory has long‐held that people construct narratives to make sense of, and guide, their experience, narrative construction here entails a deliberate and strategic approach to narrative theory.Design/methodology/approach – This is part of an ethnonarrative approach that includes both a constructionist and interpretive narrative and ethnographic methodology.Findings – Narrative construction has research implications for an ethnomethodology of social construction and empirical observation of narrative enactment. There are practical implications for enabling change and building highly‐coordinated organizations.Originality/value – Narrative construction offers a new qualitative methodology and extends ethnonarrative research. The research setting, a death penalty d...
Effects of beam, target and substrate potentials in ion beam processing

Abstract Ion beam etching and deposition are normally carried out with beam, target and substrate potentials near ground potential. In this paper, the effects of intentional or unintentional changes in these potentials are described. Examples include beam neutralization, a single extraction grid, substrate bias, and target bias. Each example is described in terms of beam plasma parameters.
3.1×105 cm2/Vs peak electron mobilities in InP grown by chemical beam epitaxy

Chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) growth of very high purity InP with Hall mobility as high as 238 000 cm2/Vs at 77 K and with a peak value of 311 000 cm2/Vs at 50 K and residual impurity concentration of 6×1013 cm−3 at 77 K is reported for an InP layer grown at 500°C. These values are the highest mobility values ever reported for InP grown by any molecular beam method.
Spatial modulation of the active area on rectifying microstrip transmission lines operated in the slow‐wave mode

Rectifying properties of a Schottky-contact microstrip transmission line operating in the slow-wave mode are investigated. Results for an elemental-segmented rectifying model, which makes use of propagation parameters, are compared with experimental results. A time-dependent load on this transmission line is also shown to spatially modulate the rectifying active region for equalization of dissipation of heat throughout the length of the device to improve burn-out characteristics. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 17: 294–297, 1998.
Lower Myocardial Perfusion Reserve Is Associated With Decreased Regional Left Ventricular Function in Asymptomatic Participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Background— Myocardial ischemia is an important determinant of regional left ventricular systolic function. Myocardial blood flow reserve may be impaired by cardiovascular disease before alteration...
A New Method for Estimating Roughness Parameters and Evaluating the Quality of Observations

Abstract A new method for estimating the roughness parameters (displacement height d, momentum roughness length zo, and friction velocity u∗), under adiabatic conditions, is introduced in this paper. The goals of this method are to obtain an unambiguous best fit for the roughness parameters and, perhaps, to reduce the present large uncertainties in these estimations via screening of the wind profile observations using a standard quality-of-fit measure. There are a number of advantages to this new method. Not only does it produce better fits (less error between predicted and observed values) than the two most commonly used methods but it also does so more effectively when the observations are of high quality. The standard wind profile equation is rewritten in a manner that allows linear least squares analysis to be performed unambiguously to determine the best fit values for dand zo for any given u∗. The u∗ is scanned to find the true best fit for all three parameters. The quality of fit, Q, of the paramet...
Cloning and expression analysis of cadherin7 in the central nervous system of the embryonic zebrafish.

Abstract Cadherin cell adhesion molecules exhibit unique expression patterns during development of the vertebrate central nervous system. In this study, we obtained a full-length cDNA of a novel zebrafish cadherin using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 5′ and 3′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The deduced amino acid sequence of this molecule is most similar to the published amino acid sequences of chicken and mammalian cadherin7 (Cdh7), a member of the type II cadherin subfamily. cadherin7 message ( cdh7 ) expression in embryonic zebrafish was studied using in situ hybridization and RT-PCR methods. cdh7 expression begins at about 12 h postfertilization (hpf) in a small patch in the anterior neural keel, and along the midline of the posterior neural keel. By 24 hpf, cdh7 expression in the brain shows a distinct segmental pattern that reflects the neuromeric organization of the brain, while its expression domain in the spinal cord is continuous, but confined to the middle region of the spinal cord. As development proceeds, cdh7 expression is detected in more regions of the brain, including the major visual structures in the fore- and midbrains, while its expression domain in the hindbrain becomes more restricted, and its expression in the spinal cord becomes undetectable. cdh7 expression becomes reduced in 3-day old embryos. Our results show that cdh7 expression in the zebrafish developing central nervous system is both spatially and temporally regulated.
The emergence of mouse models of atherosclerosis and their relevance to clinical research

Due to the ability to introduce or mutate genes, the mouse has become the most common experimental animal model for atherosclerosis research. Wildtype mice on a chow diet do not get atherosclerosis. Three ways to induce atherosclerosis in mice are discussed: diet-induced, apoE deficiency-induced, and LDL receptor-deficiency induced. The atherosclerotic lesions in apoE-deficient mice have been well characterized, and they resemble human lesions in their sites of predilection and progression to the fibroproliferative stage. These mouse models of atherosclerosis are being used to identify genes which modify atherosclerosis susceptibility and in the development of antiatherogenic therapies.
Stable elastic waves in anisotropic materials

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Fortpflanzung von stabilen Wellen in einem anisotropen Medium infolge einer sich bewegenden Ladung an der Grenze des Materials. Wir behandeln besonders mobile Ladungen, deren Geschwindigkeit hoher ist als diejenige der Wellen im Material. Das Problem wird als ebenes Spannungsproblem behandelt.
WHO APPRECIATES FAMILY‐RESPONSIVE HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES: THE IMPACT OF FAMILY‐FRIENDLY POLICIES ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL ATTACHMENT OF PARENTS AND NON‐PARENTS

The 1991 General Social Survey of 745 randomly selected workers in the United States assessed the impact of family-responsive human resource policies, such as parental leave, flexible schedules, and child care assistance on organizational attachment. Employees who had access to family-responsive policies showed significantly greater organizational committment and expressed significantly lower intention to quit their jobs. Additionally, child care information referral had a greater impact on affective commitment among employees eligible for that benefit. The data supported the theory that offering assistance to employees in need symbolizes concern for employees and positively influences attachment to the organization. The contrasting theoretical explanation–that people are more attached to companies when they individually benefit from progressive human resource policies–received considerably less support. The practical implication of the study for human resource management professionals is that providing comprehensive family-friendly policies may have a positive impact beyond the individual employees who tap these benefits.
Bone mass in female cynomolgus macaques: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study by age.

A cross-sectional study by age was designed to evaluate and describe the bone mineral content (BMC, g) and density (BMD, g/cm2) in a population of female cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to measure, in segments L2-L4 of the lumbar spine, the BMC (BMCs), BMD (BMDs), length, and total-body BMC (BMCTB) in 171 female monkeys ranging in age between 3.7 and 22.0 years. The animals were divided into three age groups: (1) young ( 6.5 years and 10.5 years, n=57). Young animals had a significantly lower (P<0.05) body weight and shorter trunk length than adult or mature animals. Young animals also had significantly less (P<0.05) BMCS, BMDS, and BMCTB than adult or mature animals, and had significantly shorter (P<0.05) lumbar spine vertebral segments than the other two groups. Longitudinally, 63 animals had repeated lumbar spine scans to examine changes over time. Young animals showed a positive and significant change (P<0.05) in BMCS and BMDS through time, whereas these parameters did not change in adult animals, and mature animals had a trend towards bone loss through time. Densitometric results suggested that peak bone mass in the lumbar spine was achieved by 9 years of age. Radiographic and dental criteria were developed to identify animals that had reached peak bone mass, and the combined radiographic and dental scoring system reliably identified animals 9 years and older. Female cynomolgus macaques 9 years old or older are recommended for investigations of bone remodeling and associated conditions, such as osteoporosis.
Initial and delayed mortality of late-instar larvae, pupae, and adults of Tribolium castaneum and Tribolium confusum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) exposed at variable temperatures and time intervals

Abstract Late-instar larvae, pupae, and adults of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), the red flour beetle, or Tribolium confusum (DuVal), the confused flour beetle, were exposed for variable durations at 36–54 °C. Beetles were placed in laboratory ovens set at a baseline of 27 °C, the temperature was increased by 0.1 °C per minute until the target temperature was achieved, and beetles were then held for specified exposure durations. There was no mortality after initial exposure or after a 1-week holding period of any life stage of T. castaneum or T. confusum exposed for 32 h to 36, 39, or 42 °C. At 45 °C, there was no initial mortality of either species exposed for different time intervals except for those exposed for 28 h. However, there was a significant increase in mortality after the 1-week holding period of those beetles exposed initially for at least 16 h to 45 °C. There was a sharp increase in mortality after the initial exposures of 4 h at 48 °C; mortality of T. confusum larvae was 90.0±5.7% but was only 10.0±10.0% for larvae of T. castaneum , and no pupae of either species were dead. All life stages of both species were killed after the initial exposure of 12 h, and 1-week mortality of beetles exposed for 4 and 8 h was generally greater than initial mortality. At 51 and 54 °C, 2- and 1-h exposures, respectively, killed all life stages of each species. Mortality in conditions of gradual temperature increase was less than previous studies with sudden temperature increases.
Donor Pulmonary Status Impacts Survival in Cardiac Transplant Recipients

Purpose Cardiac preconditioning observed during ischemic and physiologic stress can enhance outcomes following subsequent myocardial injury. Transplantation provides obligate ischemia on a relatively healthy donor heart. Hearts are procured from donors from which the lungs may or may not be suitable for transplantation. We hypothesized that hearts exposed to lungs deemed to be unacceptable for lung transplant would be preconditioned and thereby have improved post-transplant survival compared to hearts retrieved from donors with both heart and lungs procured. Methods and Materials We examined adult cardiac transplant recipients within the United Network for Organ Sharing database from 1998-2012. Two groups were identified: lung donor = LD, non lung donor = NLD. Kaplan Meier unadjusted survival analysis and Cox proportional-hazards regression was performed. Results Of 51,546 patients who underwent cardiac transplantation, 29,601 (57.4%) were from a LD. At 30 days post-transplant, survival was not different between groups. However, at 1, 5 and 10 years, patients who received a heart from a LD had worse survival than from a NLD (unadjusted HR = 1.59, p figure 1 ] Conclusions Cardiac transplant recipients from donors with unsuitable lungs had similar survival, suggesting that acutely preconditioned hearts neither enhance nor worsen perioperative survival. The potential effects of preconditioning and other factors accounting for the marked difference in long-term survival remain to be determined.
Method of morphometric evaluation of spinal and autonomic ganglia.

Abstract We have demonstrated that, in determining the number of cytons (cell bodies) in a ganglion, it is important to consider the range of sizes of cytons and their associated nucleoli in correcting for the split-cell counting error. We have established the mathematical relationship between nucleolus diameter and cytons diameter microscopically in serial sections. An improved method, utilizing semi-automatic techniques and programmed calculation and plotting, is presented for estimating the volume of the ganglion, the number of cytons of neurons per ganglion, and the corrected frequency distribution of diameters of cytons of neurons.
Muscle atrophy continues after early cast removal following tendon repair

We studied soleus (SOL), plantaris (PLN), and gastrocnemius (GST) muscles to determine whether early cast removal minimizes muscle atrophy or permits recovery from atrophy after tendon repair. After right tendocalcaneus (Achilles tendon) was transected and repaired, rabbit right hindlimbs were immobilized with the ankle plantar flexed and the knee flexed to 90 degrees. Rabbits were maintained in the cast and sacrificed at 5, 15, or 21 days postoperatively or the cast was removed on day 5 and the animals sacrificed at day 15 or 21. SOL, PLN, and GST muscles of both limbs were removed and weighed, and then histochemical analyses were performed on SOL and PLN muscles. Immobilization decreased SOL muscle wet weights, mean fiber cross-sectional area, and percentage of Type I fibers and increased the percentage of Type IIc fibers. Ten days after cast removal (i.e., postoperative day 15), SOL muscle atrophy and fiber composition did not differ significantly from continuously immobilized controls. However, 16 days after cast removal (i.e., postoperative day 21), SOL muscle fiber cross-sectional area and fiber composition were near normal, differing significantly from continuously casted controls. At each of the time intervals studied, PLN (containing many glycolytic fibers) did not atrophy as much as SOL (containing mainly oxidative fibers). Our results indicate that 1) early cast removal prevents atrophy of PLN glycolytic fibers, but not oxidative fibers in either PLN or SOL, and 2) early cast removal promotes recovery from atrophy of both oxidative and glycolytic fibers. In spite of the many differences between rabbits and humans, these findings suggest that, although early cast removal may not prevent oxidative muscle fiber atrophy after postoperative immobilization, it may facilitate recovery from atrophy.
Role of salivary vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in palatal mucosal wound healing

The mucosa of alimentary tract heals more rapidly than cutaneous wounds. The underlying mechanisms of this enhanced healing have not been completely elucidated. Constant exposure to salivary growth factors has been shown to play a critical role in mucosal homeostasis and tissue repair. Angiogenesis also has an essential role in successful wound repair. One of the main angiogenic growth factors, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), has a pleiotropic role in tissue repair via neovascularization, reepithelialization, and regulation of extracellular matrix. We have previously reported a critical role for salivary VEGF in bowel adaptation after small bowel resection. We hypothesize that salivary VEGF is an essential stimulus for oral mucosal tissue repair, and use the murine palatal wound model to test our hypothesis. In a loss-of-function experiment, we removed the primary source of VEGF production through selective submandibular gland (SMG) sialoadenectomy in a murine model and observed the effects on wound closure and neovascularization. We then performed a selective loss-of-function experiment using the protein VEGF-Trap to inhibit salivary VEGF. In a gain-of-function experiment, we supplemented oral VEGF following SMG sialoadenectomy. After SMG sialoadenectomy, there was significant reduction in salivary VEGF level, wound closure, and vessel density. Lower levels of salivary VEGF were correlated with impaired neovascularization and reepithelialization. The selective blockade of VEGF using VEGF-Trap resulted in a similar impairment in wound healing and neovascularization. The sole supplementation of oral VEGF after SMG sialoadenectomy rescued the impaired wound healing phenotype and restored neovascularization to normal levels. These data show a novel role for salivary-VEGF in mucosal wound healing, and provide a basis for the development of novel therapeutics aimed at augmenting wound repair of the oral mucosa, as well as wounds at other sites in the alimentary tract.
The use of ultrasound to identify pertinent landmarks for lumbar puncture.

Abstract Objective This study was conducted to assess the ultrasound's (US's) ability to identify pertinent landmarks for lumbar puncture (LP) in patients of various body mass indices (BMIs) and establish spatial relationships of pertinent LP landmarks across BMIs. Methods In this institutional review board–approved cross-sectional study, we calculated the BMIs of eligible patients and then categorized them as normal (BMI ≤24.9), overweight (BMI 24.9-30), or obese (BMI ≥30). We recorded the difficulty in palpating traditional LP landmarks. Identification and measurement of the spatial relationships of the sacrum; spinous processes of lumbar vertebrae L3, L4, and L5; ligamentum flavum; and the spinal canal by US was attempted. Results Successful identification of pertinent structures (L4-L5 spinous processes and the spinal canal) occurred in 100% of patients with normal BMI, 95% of those who were overweight, and 74% of those who were obese ( P = .011). Difficulty in palpating landmarks was noted in 5% of patients with normal BMI, 33% of those who were overweight, and 68% of those who were obese ( P P Conclusion The usefulness of US in identifying structures for LP is inversely related to BMI. Even with this limitation, US is still able to identify obese patients' pertinent landmarks almost 75% of the time. In addition, US may be helpful in identifying pertinent structures for LP in those patients with difficult-to-palpate landmarks. In patients who were obese with structures not palpable by hand or identifiable by US, other modalities should be considered.
65nm SOI CMOS SoC Technology for Low-Power mmWave and RF Platform

An RF and mm-wave platform developed in 65 nm SOI CMOS technology is presented. The SOI FET performance in a wired cell is measured up to fT=300 GHz and 200 GHz for NFET and PFET. Ring oscillator records 3.6 psec minimum inverter stage delay. Back-end-of-line vertical native capacitor (VNCAP) and on-chip inductor performances are reported. The performance scaling trends of mmWave PLL front-end components are presented.
Architectural issues in designing heterogeneous parallel systems with passive star-coupled optical interconnection

This paper investigates architectural and communication issues in designing heterogeneous parallel systems. The emerging high speed passive star-coupled optical interconnection using wavelength division multiplexing is considered as the system interconnect to provide high bandwidth communication demanded by heterogeneous systems. A representative master-slave computational model together with two different task scheduling strategies are used to evaluate and determine suitable communication strategy for such systems. It is shown that a hierarchical ALOHA-based communication strategy between the master and the slaves, implemented on top of the passive star-coupled network, leads to a considerable reduction in contention and task completion time compared to the direct communication from the slaves to the master. The time division multiplexed access (TDMA) approach has performance comparable to the hierarchical strategy. Depending on the application characteristics, the number of levels in the hierarchal scheme can be chosen to provide a balance between channel contention and overall execution time. These results provide guidelines for designing scalable heterogeneous systems in near future. >
Inference and enforcement of data structure consistency specifications

Corrupt data structures are an important cause of unacceptable program execution. Data structure repair (which eliminates inconsistencies by updating corrupt data structures to conform to consistency constraints) promises to enable many programs to continue to execute acceptably in the face of otherwise fatal data structure corruption errors. A key issue is obtaining an accurate and comprehensive data structure consistency specification. We present a new technique for obtaining data structure consistency specifications for data structure repair. Instead of requiring the developer to manually generate such specifications, our approach automatically generates candidate data structure consistency properties using the Daikon invariant detection tool. The developer then reviews these properties, potentially rejecting or generalizing overly specific properties to obtain a specification suitable for automatic enforcement via data structure repair. We have implemented this approach and applied it to three sizable benchmark programs: CTAS (an air-traffic control system), BIND (a widely-used Internet name server) and Freeciv (an interactive game). Our results indicate that (1) automatic constraint generation produces constraints that enable programs to execute successfully through data structure consistency errors, (2) compared to manual specification, automatic generation can produce more comprehensive sets of constraints that cover a larger range of data structure consistency properties, and (3) reviewing the properties is relatively straightforward and requires substantially less programmer effort than manual generation, primarily because it reduces the need to examine the program text to understand its operation and extract the relevant consistency constraints. Moreover, when evaluated by a hostile third party "Red Team" contracted to evaluate the effectiveness of the technique, our data structure inference and enforcement tools successfully prevented several otherwise fatal attacks.
Discovery of a novel murine keratin 6 (K6) isoform explains the absence of hair and nail defects in mice deficient for K6a and K6b.

The murine genome is known to have two keratin 6 (K6) genes, mouse K6 (MK6)a and MK6b. These genes display a complex expression pattern with constitutive expression in the epithelia of oral mucosa, hair follicles, and nail beds. We generated mice deficient for both genes through embryonic stem cell technology. The majority of MK6a/b−/− mice die of starvation within the first two weeks of life. This is due to a localized disintegration of the dorsal tongue epithelium, which results in the build up of a plaque of cell debris that severely impairs feeding. However, ∼25% of MK6a/b−/− mice survive to adulthood. Remarkably, the surviving MK6a/b−/− mice have normal hair and nails. To our surprise, we discovered MK6 staining both in the hair follicle and the nail bed of MK6a/b−/− mice, indicating the presence of a third MK6 gene. We cloned this previously unknown murine keratin gene and found it to be highly homologous to human K6hf, which is expressed in hair follicles. We therefore termed this gene MK6 hair follicle (MK6hf). The presence of MK6hf in the MK6a/b−/− follicles and nails offers an explanation for the absence of hair and nail defects in MK6a/b−/− animals.
Governing With One Hand on the Plow: Adding the Voice of Federal Farmer to the Constitutional School of American Public Administration

The constitutional school of American public administration contends that the founding fathers’ intentions for government legitimize our modern administrative state. The Constitution and the rhetoric surrounding its ratification are of primary importance to this school. Federal Farmer was one of the most intelligent critics of the Constitution during the ratification debate. His writings represent recurring themes in the governance of the United States that are pertinent to modern-day administrators. These writings present the modern reader with three lessons: Character matters for civil servants, civil servants should understand their constitutional and ethical roles, and bureaucrats must be engaged in the political process and understand the various groups attempting to influence them to be effective.
Marital Birth and Early Child Outcomes: The Moderating Influence of Marriage Propensity

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, the present study tested whether the benefits of a marital birth for early child development diminish as parents’ risk of having a nonmarital birth increases (N = 2,285). It was hypothesized that a child’s likelihood of being born to unmarried parents is partly a function of father characteristics that predict his capacity to promote child development. Results partially supported hypothesis. A positive association emerged between parental marriage and cognitive outcomes at age 3 only for children whose parents were likely to be married at the child’s birth, suggesting average differences between children in married and unmarried families may overestimate the benefit of marriage in subpopulations most impacted by nonmarital birth.
Glucose metabolism after pancreas-kidney transplantation

Simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplantation is a promising treatment option for patients with type 1 diabetes and end-stage renal disease. Most of these patients can achieve normalization of glucose and hemoglobin A1c levels. Patient and graft survival continues to improve; however, defects in β-cell function and insulin resistance can be seen over time after transplant. Various methods can be used to assess the SPK recipient for the development of hyperglycemia and graft dysfunction, with treatment aimed at minimizing diabetogenic immunosuppression, using agents that may preserve β-cell function, and improving insulin resistance.
A performance comparison of scatternet formation protocols for networks of Bluetooth devices

This paper describes the results of an ns2-based comparative performance evaluation among three major solutions presented in the literature for forming multi-hop networks of Bluetooth devices (scatternet formation). The three protocols considered in this paper are BlueTrees, BlueStars, and the "Yao protocol". We observed that device discovery is the most time-consuming operation, independently of the particular protocol to which it is applied. By means of a thorough performance evaluation we have identified protocol parameters and Bluetooth technology features that affect the duration of this device discovery. We have also analyzed the effect of the different protocols operations on key metrics of the generated scatternets. The comparative performance evaluation showed that due to the simplicity of its operations and to its basic working requirements BlueStars is by far the fastest protocol for scatternet formation which also yields to scatternets with a lower number of piconets, average route length and number of roles per node. However, BlueStars produces scatternets with an unbounded, possibly large number of slaves per piconet, which imposes the use of potentially inefficient Bluetooth operations. A good compromise when interested informing scatternets whose piconets have a bounded number of slaves is obtained by combining BlueStars and the Yao protocol. Although latency and route lengths are longer than in BlueStars scatternets, with the combined solution we obtain an overall good protocol performance and scatternets with desired characteristics.
Ether polyphenylquinoxalines. II. Polymer synthesis and properties

Three polyphenylquinoxalines were prepared by the one-step solution cyclopolycondensation of 3,3′,4,4′-tetraaminobenzophenone with three novel bisbenzils containing oxyphenylene groups. High molecular weight polymers were obtained that exhibited good solubility in chlorinated solvents and m-cresol and formed tough, flexible films from solution. Glass transition temperatures Tg which were determined by thermomechanical analysis, torsional braid analysis, and dielectric loss measurements showed that the inclusion of oxyphenylene units into the polymer chain was effective in reducing the Tg. However, the onset of polymer decomposition, as determined by thermogravimetric analysis and isothermal aging, disclosed that the oxyphenylene units also decreased the thermooxidative stability for two of the polymers studied.
An unbiased measure of the contributions of chroma and luminance to saccadic suppression of displacement.

Perception of image displacement is suppressed during saccadic eye movements. We probed the source of saccadic suppression of displacement by testing whether it selectively affects chromatic- or luminance-based motion information. Human subjects viewed a stimulus in which chromatic and luminance cues provided conflicting information about displacement direction. Apparent motion occurred during either fixation or a 19.5° saccade. Subjects detected motion and discriminated displacement direction in each trial. They reported motion in over 90% of fixation trials and over 70% of saccade trials. During fixation, the probability of perceiving the direction carried by chromatic cues decreased as luminance contrast increased. During saccades, subjects tended to perceive the direction indicated by luminance cues when luminance contrast was high. However, when luminance contrast was low, subjects showed no preference for the chromatic- or luminance-based direction. Thus magnocellular channels are suppressed, while stimulation of parvocellular channels is below threshold, so that neither channel drives motion perception during saccades. These results confirm that magnocellular inhibition is the source of saccadic suppression.
Line widths and intensities in the wings of the ν2 water vapor band at 400°K and 540°K

Abstract Absorption spectra of pure water vapor and mixtures of water vapor with air have been measured, at the wings of the ν2 band, at temperatures of 400°K and 540°K. The vibration-rotation interaction in this band has been measured by the relative intensities of the rotational lines, and the total intensity of the band has been found to be S0v = 265±10 per cent (cm-2 atm-1 at STP). The line widths of the rotational transitions for self broadening have been found to decrease as a function of temperature, and for the broad and strong lines the width is approximately inversely proportional to the absolute temperature.
A compact circuit for wafer-level monitoring of operational amplifier high-frequency performance using DC parametric test equipment

A test structure has been developed to permit wafer-level measurement of the frequency response of an operational amplifier having a unity gain frequency on the order of 2 GHz using DC measurement equipment. This paper describes the design issues associated with implementing this test structure along with test data obtained from three commercial fabrication runs in 180 nm CMOS.
A comparison of trace-sampling techniques for multi-megabyte caches

The paper compares the trace-sampling techniques of set sampling and time sampling. Using the multi-billion reference traces of A. Borg et al. (1990), we apply both techniques to multi-megabyte caches, where sampling is most valuable. We evaluate whether either technique meets a 10% sampling goal: a method meets this goal if, at least 90% of the time, it estimates the trace's true misses per instruction with /spl les/10% relative error using /spl les/10% of the trace. Results for these traces and caches show that set sampling meets the 10% sampling goal, while time sampling does not. We also find that cold-start bias in time samples is most effectively reduced by the technique of D.A. Wood et al. (1991). Nevertheless, overcoming cold-start bias requires tens of millions of consecutive references. >
Exact solitary wave solutions of nonlinear evolution and wave equations using a direct algebraic method

The authors present a systematic and formal approach toward finding solitary wave solutions of nonlinear evolution and wave equations from the real exponential solutions of the underlying linear equations. The physical concept is one of the mixing of these elementary solutions through the nonlinearities in the system. The emphasis is, however, on the mathematical aspects, i.e. the formal procedure necessary to find single solitary wave solutions. By means of examples it is shown how various cases of pulse-type and kink-type solutions are to be obtained by this method. An exhaustive list of equations so treated is presented in tabular form, together with the particular intermediate relations necessary for deriving their solutions. The extension of the technique to construct N-soliton solutions and indicate connections with other existing methods is outlined.
Astronomical monochromatic imaging as applied to the Io sodium cloud

Four types of instruments for recording monochromatic astronomical images are compared: filters; slitless spectrographs; multislit spectrographs; and interferometers. Each of these instruments has been used on the sodium emission cloud of Io, with varying degrees of success. Multislit spectrographs and interferometers encode the signal, and it can be extracted with a noise level close to that for photon statistics. This is not normally the case for filters and slitless spectrographs. On balance, it is found that a Mach-Zehnder interferometer provides the best system for imaging faint monochromatic signals on a brighter continuum background.
A divide and conquer deformable contour method

A divide and conquer strategy in the deformable contour method is presented. An initial inside closed contour is divided into segments, and these segments are allowed to deform separately preserving segments' connectivity. A deformable contour algorithm is adapted to each contour segment movement. A maximum area threshold, A/sub max/, is used to stop these outward contour segment marchings. Clear and blur contour points are then identified, and the whole contour is repartitioned into clear, blur, and gap segments. A bi-directional searching method is then recursively applied to each, blur, or gap segment until a final contour is sought. At this point, a search for contour within contour segment is undertaken so that the inner most contour can be searched. At all times, a global snake type performance index is used to find each local contour segment. Experiments have shown that the method has the capability of moving a contour into the neighboring region of the solution contour by overcoming all the above inhomogeneous interior, and of adapting each contour segment searching operation to different local difficulties, through a contour partition and repartition scheme in searching for a final solution. These experiments include ultrasound images of pig heart, MRI brain images, and MRI knee images having complex shapes and/or with gaps, inhomogeneous interior and contour region brightness distributions.
Mining for insider threats in business transactions and processes

Protecting and securing sensitive information are critical challenges for businesses. Deliberate and intended actions such as malicious exploitation, theft or destruction of data, are not only harmful and difficult to detect, but frequently these threats are propagated by an insider. Unfortunately, current efforts to identify unauthorized access to information such as what is found in document control and management systems are limited in scope and capabilities. This paper presents an approach to detecting anomalies in business transactions and processes using a graph representation. In our graph-based anomaly detection (GBAD) approach, anomalous instances of structural patterns are discovered in data that represent entities, relationships and actions. A definition of graph-based anomalies and a brief description of the GBAD algorithms are presented, followed by empirical results using a discrete-event simulation of real-world business transactions and processes.
Three and A Half Decades of Fashion Adoption Research: What Have We Learned?

This investigation identified and analyzed published studies of fashion adoption in which researchers referred to Rogers' model. Analysis revealed three salient dependent variables that researchers...
The Rising Cost of Cancer Care: Physicians Take Charge

The author comments on the ASCO Top Five, a list of five commonly utilized practices in each oncology specialty for which there is no evidence to support their use.