cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SRA: Slot reservation announcement scheme for medium access control of IEEE 802.11 crowded networks in emergency scenarios

In this paper we propose the Slot Reservation Announcement (SRA) access scheme to minimize the occurrence of channel-access collisions in infrastructure IEEE 802.11 networks under emergency and crowded scenarios. SRA is based on slot reservation in lieu of a randomized backoff approach to increase the channel-access success ratio. The proposed scheme rids IEEE 802.11-like access networks of throughput and utilization collapse under crowded scenarios. In turn, it increases channel utilization. This enabled access is critical for crowded networks under emergency scenarios where many stations suddenly contend for the channel. This scheme may be used as fallback mechanism to avoid throughput collapse in such scenarios and to enable critical communications. Our simulation results show maximum bandwidth utilization and increased throughput as compared to an IEEE 802.11 network and a recent reservation-based access scheme under crowded conditions.
Eosinophilia-Myalgia Syndrome

In order to characterize long-term outcomes of the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS), the 3,500 members of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) were contacted to identify patiens with EMS. Among 1,535 ACR members who responded, 440 reported seeing 896 patients with EMS. When asked about the course of these patients, these rheumatologists indicated that 4% had died, 31% had severe functional disability, 37% had mild functional disability, and 5% had minimal residual disabilitity but required corticosteroids. 46% had physical findings. 14% had completely recovered. Most patients took L-tryptophan (LT) as a result of a self-medication, but 30% took LT upon recommendation of a health professional. The 440 rheumatologists who reported cases of EMS, and the physicians who had reported 1,400 cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were asked to present a self-report questionnaire to their patients with EMS in 1993, four years after onset. The questionnaire include question regarding demographic data, functional status, status of EMS at onset, status prior to EMS onset, pain scores, fatigue scores, self-report of somatic symptoms, and self-report of cognitive symptoms. Among the initial 344 patients who returned questionnaires, 251 indicated that they had been reported to State Health Departments. Mean age at diagnosis was 57 years, 88% were female, and 96% were Caucasian. Among these 344 patients, four years after disease onset 29 reported themselves as “fully recovered”, 121 as “much better”, 4 as “better”, 4 as “the same”, 23 as “worse”, 129 as “better in some ways and worse in others”, and 33 “other”. The status of EMS at onset was only minimally predictive of status 4 years later.
Paget-Schroetter syndrome: treatment of venous thrombosis and outcomes.

Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is a rare clinical entity with many etiologies. Venous thoracic outlet syndrome (VTOS), also called Paget-Schroetter syndrome (PSS), is a primary “effort” thrombosis. Here we will focus on the pathophysiology, anatomy, clinical presentation, treatments, and outcomes of VTOS. Treatment involves anticoagulation, catheter-directed thrombolysis, and surgical decompression. Early diagnosis and treatment can improve symptoms and quality of life.
Exploring Cross-Lingual Transfer of Morphological Knowledge In Sequence-to-Sequence Models

Multi-task training is an effective method to mitigate the data sparsity problem. It has recently been applied for cross-lingual transfer learning for paradigm completion—the task of producing inflected forms of lemmata—with sequence-to-sequence networks. However, it is still vague how the model transfers knowledge across languages, as well as if and which information is shared. To investigate this, we propose a set of data-dependent experiments using an existing encoder-decoder recurrent neural network for the task. Our results show that indeed the performance gains surpass a pure regularization effect and that knowledge about language and morphology can be transferred.
Reflections on Elitism: What Arts Organizations Communicate About Themselves

Over the past several decades, arts organizations have been responding to an array of societal changes. These changes have resulted in a transformation of the field, including not only how professi...
Opportunities and difficulties for counseling at the margins of viability

At the margins of viability, the interaction between physicians and families presents challenges but also opportunities for success. The counseling team often focuses on data: morbidity and mortality statistics and the course of a typical infant in the neonatal intensive care unit. Data that are generated on the population level can be difficult to align with the multiple facets of an individual infant's trajectory. It is also information that can be difficult to present because of framing biases and the complexities of intuiting statistical information on a personal level. Families also do not arrive as a blank slate but rather arrive with notions of prematurity generated from the culture they live in. Mothers and fathers often want to focus on hope, their changing role as parents, and in their desire to be a family. Multi-timepoint counseling provides the opportunity to address these goals and continue communication as the trajectories of infants, families and the counseling team change.
A MUSE for Skin Regeneration

With a rise in the prevalence of chronic wounds and other soft tissue defects, there is an urgent need to regenerate skin. Multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring cells were identified as distinct pluripotent stem cells in mesenchymal cell populations in humans. New research demonstrates the ability to effectively differentiate multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring cells into fibroblasts and keratinocytes for skin reconstitution.
Sex, Gender, and Transgender: Metabolic Impact of Cross Hormone Therapy

Most preclinical and clinical, animal, and human research has been biased with respect to sex and even more so with respect to gender. In fact, little is known about the impact of sex and even less about the influence of gender on overall metabolic processes. The National Institutes of Health has recognized this gap in scientific knowledge and now mandates that studies be conducted in both sexes and to include gender as variables influencing physiological processes such as metabolism. It is therefore critical to understand and appreciate how to incorporate sex and gender in preclinical and clinical research in order to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms by which metabolic processes differ by sex and gender. In this chapter, we define sex and gender and discuss when sex and gender are not aligned, such as that which occurs in transgender individuals, and how this impacts metabolic processes. We discuss the importance of understanding the influence and interactions between sex hormones and sex chromosomes rather than focusing on their relative contributions to metabolism in isolation. This knowledge will optimize therapies specific for individuals which need to encompass sex and gender.
Experimental Adjuvant Chemotherapy: An Overview

By way of introduction, I will indicate in some detail what the key words in my assigned title mean to me.
An adaptive motion regularization technique to support sliding motion in deformable image registration.

Purpose Isotropic smoothing has been conventionally used to regularize deformation vector fields (DVFs) in deformable image registration (DIR). However, the isotropic smoothing method enforces global smoothness and therefore cannot accurately model the complex tissue deformation, such as sliding motion at organ boundaries. To accurately model and estimate sliding tissue motion, an adaptive direction-dependent DVF regularization technique was developed in this study. Methods A DVF is computed and updated iteratively by minimizing the intensity differences between the images. In each iteration, the DVF was smoothed using an adaptive direction-dependent filter which enforces different motion propagation mechanisms along the primary normal and tangential directions of soft tissue local structures. A Gaussian isotropic filter was used along the normal direction while a bilateral filter was used along the tangential direction. To support large sliding motion, an automatic method was developed to delineate sliding surfaces, such as the chest wall and abdominal wall, where large organ sliding motion occurs. Parameters of the DVF regularization were adjusted adaptively based on a distance map to the sliding surfaces. The proposed method was tested on 14 4D-CT datasets at End-Inhalation (EI) and End-Exhalation (EE) phases of a respiratory cycle (10 public lung datasets, 3 upper abdomen datasets and 1 digital phantom dataset). TRE results of the 10 lung datasets were compared to results from six other existing DIR methods. For the three upper abdomen patient datasets, DIR accuracy was evaluated using manually defined landmarks across the lung and the abdomen. For the digital phantom dataset, DIR accuracy was evaluated using the ground truth displacement of a total 40,000 points that were evenly distributed across the phantom. Results The results showed that the sliding motion was preserved near the surface of chest wall and abdominal wall. The average target registration error (TRE) was reduced by 35.1% using the proposed method in comparison with five other methods on the 10 lung datasets. The sum of squared difference (SSD) after registration using the proposed method was 4.4% and 11.4% smaller than the SSDs obtained using isotropic smoothing and bilateral smoothing respectively. On the digital phantom, the average TRE was reduced by 59.6% near the surface of liver and by 53.7% near the surface of spleen using the proposed method. Contour propagation and Jacobian determinant analysis of DVF suggested an overall improved accuracy using the proposed method. Conclusion An adaptive direction-dependent DVF regularization method has been developed to model the sliding tissue motion of the thoracic and abdominal organs. The overall motion estimation accuracy has been improved especially near the chest wall and abdominal wall where large organ sliding motion occurs.
Exploring the Existence of Short-run Initial Public Offering (IPO) Underpricing at Three Different Stock Exchange Markets in Japan

This study conducted the examination of the short-run performance of IPO stocks in the Japanese market by measuring daily AAR/CAAR of sample IPO stocks.. The study did so, in order to detect the positive initial abnormal return of sample IPO stocks as well as the short-run IPO underpricing that was observed by Ibbotson (1975) and McDonald and Fisher (1972) in the US market, and Chang (2011) in the Taiwanese market. The finding was that unlike findings in prior research, this study did not discover the positive initial abnormal returns for sample IPO firms in the Japanese market on the event day with statistical significance. Thereby, the short-run IPO underpricing did not occur in the Japanese market and it is inferred that offer prices of IPOs in the Japanese market are priced rationally, reflecting all available pieces of information at the time of offering. The implication of this finding for Efficient Market Hypothesis is that in the short-run, market efficiency holds well for the Japanese market. Findings from the examination on short-run performance of IPO stocks in the Japanese market has enabled this study to answer the research question: Does short-run IPO underpricing exist at stock exchange markets in Japan? The answer is, the short-run IPO underpricing did not exist.
Applying Moral Theory to the Retarded

A reasonable, unengaged Martian, scanning terrestrial disputes about moral worth, entitlement, rights, obligations, and the good life would very quickly perceive that earthly creatures had failed to prove that moral values and moral norms can be straightforwardly discovered or that any universal moral consensus of a more than trivial sort can be expected to be achieved. Beyond this, he would find that large convictions of principle were hopelessly deadlocked against one other. He would be bound to conclude that the pursuit of moral principles and moral criteria was ineliminably partisan, embodying one or another such conviction, not itself demonstrably valid or correct — without, however, condemning moral reflection to the irrational for that reason. For example, he would be bound to notice that there is no earthly way to choose convincingly and decisively between the principle that the interests and goods of a limited number of persons may be sacrificed if that would contribute to a significant increase in the benefits and well-being of the majority (an increase not otherwise accessible) and the principle that human persons must without exception be assured a certain minimal measure of respect (so-called human rights) basic to all other pertinent disputes and precluding such sacrifice. In the idiom of the day, these opposed doctrines are said to be utilitarian and contractarian, respectively. The quarrel between them — and many others of the same sort — seriously affects questions of policy regarding the public treatment of retarded persons. But, being human and not Martian, one has the sinking feeling that that quarrel and others like it are cast in such large terms — in universal terms, in fact — that we are actually deflected by them from attending to manageable issues, or human disputes are, ultimately, conceptual frauds.
Modeling Infrastructure for a Fossil Hydrogen Energy System with CO2 Sequestration

Production of H 2 from fossil fuels with capture and sequestration of CO 2 would enable continued widespread use of fossil-derived fuels for applications such as transportation, with near-zero full fuel cycle emissions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases. A large-scale fossil H 2 system with CO 2 sequestration consists of one or more fossil energy complexes plus two pipeline networks—one for distributing H 2 to end-users and the other for transmitting CO 2 to storage sites and securely sequestering it. Several detailed technical and economic studies have been carried out for various parts of the system, including CO 2 capture from electric power plants or H 2 plants, CO 2 transmission and storage, and H 2 infrastructure. However, relatively little work has been done assessing the entiresystem in an integrated way. This chapter provides information to understand the total system design and economics, for the special case of a single large fossil energy complex connected to a geological CO 2 sequestration site and a H 2 demand center. It estimates the delivered cost of H 2 with CO 2 sequestration as a function of fossil energy complex design, pipeline parameters, distance to sequestration site, and CO 2 injection site reservoir parameters. The model described in this chapter can be extended to fossil H 2 energy systems that include multiple fossil energy complexes, H 2 demand centers, and CO 2 sequestration sites.
The Möbius Category of Some Combinatorial Inverse Semigroups

\noindent The purpose of this paper is to point out some aspects of the relationship between combinatorial inverse semigroups and their Mobius categories, and to explore combinatorial results arising from combinatorial Brandt semigroups, fundamental simple inverse ω-semigroups and from the free monogenic inverse semigroup.
Surrender-and-Catch and Sociology

The place to which the idea of surrender-and-catch is meant to speak is here, and the time out of which it comes and which it seeks to address is now. In a first approximation here is this Earth, the home of all human beings, and now is this time in human history. At this time in human history, the place in which all of us human beings live has shrunk as never before, and in more than one sense. Two senses at least are most pressing.
Positioning educational makerspaces within schools serving low socioeconomic status students

Educational makerspaces are fertile grounds for students to develop innovative products infused with science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) principles, and practice social action. Yet, rarely do these makerspaces prioritise such outcomes. Rather, they tend to revolve around the creation of novel artefacts using low and high technology. Drawing on field observations, interviews, and artefact analysis, this qualitative study explored the experiences of low socioeconomic students participating in a social action themed school makerspace. Based on a transformative research perspective, the teacher-researcher sought not only to infuse STEAM and social studies into student work, but to also address the 'participation divide', a term suggesting that students of higher socio-economic status have more opportunity to produce media creatively than their low-SES counterparts. Qualitative results indicated that students reported increased agency in effecting positive change in their world. Their creation process required extensive research and brought about social action within their communities. Their products included a cigarette smoke-detecting shirt, an edible bug stand, and handcrafted wallets and jewellery for the homeless. The study concludes with recommendations for the implementation of educational makerspaces in schools.
Challenges and opportunities for effective delivery of clinical genetic services in the U.S. healthcare system.

Purpose of reviewDemand for clinical genetics and genomics services is increasing. As discussed in this study, the clinical genetics and genomics workforce is small. How to meet the demand with a limited workforce requires innovation.Recent findingsBackground data regarding the current state of clin
CADIA: Towards Decoupling the Congestion Control for Multipath TCP

Correlating the congestion control (CC) of parallel subflows of multipath TCP (MPTCP) has shown the advantage of making it fair and friendly to legacy TCP. But the correlation also leads to some new drawbacks. In this paper, we first analyze major correlated MPTCP CC algorithms through the perspective of bandwidth competition. Based on the modeling, we verify, discover, and explain three shortages of correlated CC, namely 1) limit fairness semantic; 2) render new attack surfaces; and 3) interplay with network sharing policies. We further find that decoupling the CC of subflows is more promising in solving the above issues. However, directly applying legacy TCP CC to each subflow independently would lose the benefits of correlated CC. This motivates the design of an algorithm that decouples the CC of subflows as much as possible while still making MPTCP fair and friendly. To attain this goal, we translate the goals of correlated CC into an approximation principle under the decoupled semantic. We then propose a self-Constrained And Decoupled Increase Algorithm (CADIA) that achieves the principle by adaptively detecting and constraining non-best subflows. This makes CADIA share the benefits of correlated CC algorithms, while owning no direct correlation among the CC of subflows. Extensive analysis and experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of CADIA.
Analysis of Incident-Induced Capacity Reductions for Improved Delay Estimation

AbstractThis paper investigates the randomness in incident-induced capacity reductions and discusses the further impacts on delay calculation and modeling. For this purpose, incident and traffic co...
Responses to selection for body weight in descendants of X-irradiated rats.

Th effectiveness of selection for high and low body weight at six weeks of age was studied in descendants of x-irradiated (R) and nonirradiated (C) inbred rats. There were two replicates of each of the direction of selection--irradiation treatments. In C lines, there were no consistent responses to selection, probably due to a low level of genetic variability. In R rats, selection was effective only for decreased body weight. The results of this experiment do not suggest the use of irradiation combined with selection as a means of enhancing responses to selection in animals.
Accounting education, technology and entrepreneurship: Current trends and future outlook

The present study explores current accounting and business research focusing on the accounting technology that leads the accounting profession in new directions. Also it discusses whether and how accounting education can support the development of employability skills of graduates and the creation of competent entrepreneurs through old and new technological advancements and applications. Research insight reveals that future entrepreneurs either in business or in accountancy should be aware of a numer of additional elements such as human factors and emotions, communication strategy, safety issues, business structure, budget requirements, and other issues that may impact their decision making in a digitally transformed world. The paper aims to highlight current trends and future outlook of digital tools, processes and applications which are at the disposal of accounting and other practitioners and may allow for an interactive communication process between the interested parts.
Abstract TP234: "Last Known Normal" Accuracy Among Initial Responders: An Update

Background: Because acute treatment in stroke is time-based for inclusion, efficacy and safety, obtaining an accurate Last Known Normal (LKN) is of critical importance in stroke codes. We sought to...
Geometrical control of the magnetic anisotropy in six coordinate cobalt complexes

The geometry of cobalt(II) ions in the axially distorted octahedral cation in [Co(MeCN)6](BF4)2 (1) was compared to the trigonal prismatic cation in [CoTppy]PF6 (2) which revealed significant differences in magnetic anisotropy. Combined experimental and ab initio CASSCF/NEVPT2 calculations support the observed zero field SMM behaviour for 2, with easy axis anisotropy, attributed to the rigidity of the trigonal prismatic ligand. Strong transverse anisotropy for 1 leads to significant quantum tunnelling processes.
Mitochondria as usEP Sensors

The endocytotic and symbiotic inclusion of a prokaryote by an early eukaryote, its subsequent evolution as mitochondria, and its collaboration with the nucleus provided these new symbiotes with enough ATP to evolve a new world of extraordinarily diverse organisms. Mitochondria assumed roles for lives replete with energy from ATP and control over the death of cells when their usefulness was finished or when they malfunctioned or were injured beyond repair. The outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) protects the electron transport chain (ETC) in the inner mitochondrial membrane and the mitochondria’s DNA, which is used for some of the proteins in the ETC. The ETC is supplied with electrons from NADH, FADH2 produced by oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) as Complexes I, III, and IV pump proton (H +) out of the matrix to generate a proton motive force and a mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm). H + reenter the matrix through ATP synthase for the production of ATP. All this complexity provides usEPs with multiple targets for effects on cell life and death. UsEP’s role in cytochrome c release in apoptosis and other regulated cell death (RCD) mechanisms in cancer ablation has been a significant application with clinical medicine, which is still in developmental stages in clinical trials. UsEPs increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) and dissipate the ΔΨm, which can occur without permeabilization of the IMM, especially in the presence of Ca2+ that enters cells through nanopores in the plasma membrane. This loss of ΔΨm is facilitated by usEP effects on the Ca2+-dependent and redox-sensitive protein cyclophilin D (CypD). CypD regulates the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) that dissipates the ΔΨm, leading to regulated cell death and apoptosis if mitochondria release cytochrome c into the cytoplasm to activate caspases. We also discuss the possible identity of the mPTP as ATP synthase. Experiments continue to test this hypothesis. Experiments here also show that usEPs with a shorter (faster) rise-fall time are more effective to dissipate ΔΨm than usEPs with a longer (slower) rise-fall time. It also appears that over-expression of BCL-xl and BCL2 cannot protect the mitochondria from the effects of usEPs. Experiments measuring oxygen consumption in cells treated or not with usEPs indicate that the usEPs attenuate oxygen consumption in Complexes I and IV of the ETC. These results suggest that usEPs inhibit electron transport in the ETC. We also show that usEPs that ultimately lead to cell death in 4T1-luc mammary cancer cells up-regulates essential subunits in the ETC. Thus, usEPs target several mitochondrial components, including those that regulate ΔΨm and electron transport in the ETC.
Unpacking Adaptive Capacity to Flooding in Urban Environments: Social Capital, Social Vulnerability, and Risk Perception

To effectively cope with the impacts of climate change and increase urban resilience, households and neighborhoods must adapt in ways that reduce vulnerability to climate-related natural hazards. Communities in the United States and elsewhere are exposed to more frequent extreme heat, wildfires, cyclones, extreme precipitation and flooding events. Whether and how people respond to increased hazard exposure (adaptive behavior) is widely recognized to be driven by their capacity to adapt, perception of the risk, and past experiences. Underlying these important dimensions, however, is social context. In this paper, we examine how social capital and social vulnerability shape risk perception and household flood mitigation actions. The study, based on a metropolitan-wide survey of households in Austin, Texas, USA, suggests that bonding social capital (personal networks, neighborhood cohesion, and trust) is positively related to mitigation behavior and that social vulnerability is negatively related to risk perception. Importantly, our research demonstrates a positive and significant effect of social capital on adaptive behavior even when controlling for social vulnerability of a neighborhood. This suggests that policies and programs that strengthen the social connectedness within neighborhoods can increase adaptive behaviors thus improving community resilience to flood events.
What We Owe Parents and Family

The family is the basic unit of society, and the interests of family members and the family unit are always relevant. Despite much rhetoric, neither parents nor physicians (let alone the state!) have a true fiduciary relationship with children under their care. Parents are responsible for the physical care of their children, and for their education leading them to a status as productive adults. They are responsible for their children’s flourishing. Neither their responsibility to an individual child nor their responsibility to the government is categorical. First, parents appropriately balance the interests of all family members (including their own), and the corporate interests of the family as a whole. Second, the state has non-coercive means of intervention at its disposal. This chapter reviews and expands on some prior approaches to parental authority and responsibility. The chapter classifies parental behavior into four categories, based on the maximum appropriate state response. Parental behavior within the Zone of Acceptability warrants no government attention. The next two zones represent divisions of Gillam’s Zone of Parental Discretion. Parental action within the Zone of State Attention may elicit educational efforts and the provision of services. Parental behavior within the Zone of Concern invites nudges, mandatory programs with op-out possibilities, etc. Finally, parental behavior within the Zone of Unacceptability justifies coercive state action to reverse or punish potential or actual harm. Harm may not involve the child per se, but can involve third parties, as with parental vaccination refusal.
The Reformatsky Reaction

The reaction which takes place between a carbonyl compound such as an aldehyde, ketone, or an ester, and an alpha-haloester in the presence of zinc is commonly known as the Reformatsky reaction. It represents an extension of the reactions of carbonyl compounds with a dialkylzinc or an alkylzinc halide, but possesses the advantage that the isolation of the organozinc compound is unnecessary. The process creates a new carbon-carbon linkage and involves the following: Formation of an organozinc halide; addition to the carbonyl group of the aldehyde or ketone, decomposition by dilute acids. Keywords: Reformatsky reaction; side reactions; halogen compounds; carbon chain; arylacetic acids; beta-ketoesters; variations; experimental conditions
Examining Endogeneity in Social Movement Protest and Public Opinion: The Case of the U.S. Women's Movement

In this paper we examine the inter-relationship between public opinion, feminist and anti-feminist activities in the United States between 1945 and 1985. The social movement literature suggests that movements and countermovements as well as movement events and public opinion are deeply entwined. Political protest can alter the mass public’s attitudes on a particular issue by providing crucial information about problems that exist in what might otherwise have been an underdeveloped issue area. On the other hand, changes in mass political attitudes are an important precursor to the rise of political protest. In this paper, we examine the endogeneity of two sets of variables using Granger causality: movement and countermovement actions as well as between public opinion and movement events using both yearly and quarterly data, as well as focusing on the specific campaigns concerning abortion and Equal Rights Amendment. We find evidence for an endogenous relationship between movement and countermovement events when we look at the abortion and ERA campaigns at the quarterly level. We also find that movement effects appear to lead public opinion. However, we find mixed evidence that public opinion leads movement events; only in the case of the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment does public opinion lead movement events. We argue the results have implications both for how empirically we should measure social movement activity as well as for our theoretical understanding of social movements.
Size-Separation of Yeast Mitochondria in the Zonal Centrifuge

Mitochondria, released from yeast spheroplasts and subjected to rate separation through sorbitol gradients in the zonal centrifuge, migrated in a wide symmetrical zone. Electron micrographs showed that the mitochondria had been resolved within the zone according to size. The mean mitochondrial diameter at the leading edge was approximately twice that at the trailing edge of the particle zone. Activities of the enzymes cytochrome oxidase, malate dehydrogenase, and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide- and d-lactate cytochrome c reductases were essentially uniform throughout the mitochondrial zone. Mitochondria from a vegetative-petite mutant had almost the same size distribution as the isogenic wild type, but with somewhat larger mean diameter and either absent or markedly reduced enzyme activities. Mixtures of wild-type and petite mitochondria produced sedimentation profiles showing overlap of particle populations with respect to mean sedimentation rates and mitochondrial diameters, as well as intermediate levels of enzyme activities. Both cristate and noncristate organelles were present throughout the mitochondrial zone from these mixtures. Mitochondria centrifuged in sorbitol density gradients were well-preserved and yielded consistent sedimentation profiles, whereas particles in sucrose density gradients migrated more slowly, produced varied sedimentation profiles, and often showed spurious peaks, presumably due to particle aggregations.
Follies of Power: America's Unipolar Fantasy

Part I. Geopolitical Illusions and their Consequences: 1. The unipolar fantasy 2. Hubris in the Middle East 3. The broken West Part II. The Nature and Limits of American Power: 4. Assessing America's soft and hard power 5. Feeding American power: the economic base 6. Power and legitimacy among Western states Part III. World Order in the New Century: 7. American and European models.
Justifying electronic banking network expansion using real options analysis

The application of real options analysis to information technology investment evaluation problems recently has been proposed in the IS literature (Chalasani et al. 1997; Dos Santos 1991; Kambil et al. 1993; Kumar 1996; Taudes 1998). The research reported on in this paper illustrates the value of applying real options analysis in the context of a case study involving the deployment of point-of-sale (POS) debit services by the Yankee 24 shared electronic banking network of New England. In the course of so doing, the paper also attempts to operationalize real options analysis concepts by examining claimed strengths of this analysis approach and balancing them against methodological difficulties that this approach is believed to involve. The research employs a version of the Black-Scholes option pricing model that is adjusted for risk-averse investors, showing how it is possible to obtain reliable values for Yankee 24's "investment timing option," even in the absence of a market to price it. To gather evidence for the existence of the timing option, basic scenario assumptions, and the parameters of the adjusted Black-Scholes model, a structured interview format was developed. The results obtained using real options analysis enabled the network's senior management to identify conditions for which entry into the POS debit market would be profitable. These results also indicated that, in the absence of formal evaluation of the timing option, traditional approaches for evaluating information technology investments would have produced the wrong recommendations.
Infection Rates after Periocular Surgery Utilizing New versus Re-Processed Monopolar Electrocautery.

Abstract Background: To determine if there is a difference in periocular post-operative infection rates when utilizing new versus re-processed monopolar electrocautery tips. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 4,976 consecutive surgical cases involving 17,149 procedures. Post-operative infections were identified using chart review, facility infection surveillance records, and surgeon reporting. The main outcome measure was the presence or absence of infection within 30 post-operative days. The Fischer exact test was used to compare infection rates between cautery modalities. All statistical analysis was conducted at the 0.05 α level. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between new and re-processed monopolar cautery infection rates (p=0.3879). Conclusions: Post-operative infection rates are similar for periocular surgery using both new and re-processed monopolar cautery. These findings suggest that re-processed cautery is a viable option for periocular surgery to decrease cost and...
Computational Intelligence Based Complex Adaptive System-of-System Architecture Evolution Strategy

There is a constant challenge to incorporate new systems and upgrade existing systems under threats, constrained budget and uncertainty into systems of systems (SoS). It is necessary for program managers to be able to assess the impacts of future technology and stakeholder changes. This research helps analyze sequential decisions in an evolving SoS architecture through three key features: SoS architecture generation, assessment and implementation through negotiation. Architectures are generated using evolutionary algorithms and assessed using type II fuzzy nets. The approach accommodates diverse stakeholder views, converting them to key performance parameters (KPPs) for architecture assessment. It is not possible to implement an acknowledged SoS architecture without persuading the systems to participate. A negotiation model is proposed to help the SoS manger adapt his strategy based on system owners’ behavior. Viewpoints of multiple stakeholders are aggregated to assess the overall mission effectiveness of an architecture against the overarching objectives. A search and rescue (SAR) example illustrates application of the method. Future research might include group decision making for evaluating architectures.
Estimation of LPC coefficients from speech waveforms degraded by additive random noise

Application of a Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) estimation procedure in estimating the LPC coefficients from speech waveforms degraded by additive random noise generally leads to solving a set of non-linear equations which are computationally undesirable. However, an attempt to approximate the true MAP estimation procedure leads to two iterative methods that require solving only sets of linear equations. These two methods have been applied to real speech data degraded by additive white Gaussian noise, and in this paper some preliminary results are discussed.
Are User Perceptions of Chairman Addresses Managed through Syntactical Complexity and Rationalisation

This study assesses whether or not the preparers of chairman addresses of large listed Australian firms manage user perceptions through the syntactical complexity of the provided information and/or the rationalisation of unwanted information. It applies an innovative assessment approach for the rationalisation of unwanted information. The study analyses the chairman addresses of 87 firms included in the Standard & Poor's ASX200 index using the Flesch readability formula, as well as the relative occurrence frequency of sentences with particular connotations within each analysed report. The findings of this study demonstrate that although the comprehension difficulty of chairman addresses is generally high, preparers do not attempt to manage user perceptions through syntactical complexity or rationalisation. Specifically, the study finds no evidence that chairman addresses that contain predominantly negative news are more difficult to comprehend than chairman addresses that contain predominantly positive news. Furthermore, it is concluded that preparers do not use rationalisations to manage user perceptions. Prior literature has thus far failed to investigate the rationalisation of information as a potential perception management tool and no other recent contribution to the literature has investigated the syntactical complexity of Australian chairman addresses that contain predominantly positive or negative news. This study aims to fill that gap.
Tear trough implants for correction of tear trough deformity.

This article describes the tear trough deformity and its extension into the cheek. It is an extremely common and consistently deforming feature of the lower orbital region. A suborbital malar implant, designed by the author to alleviate the deformity is now commercially available. The operation provides, in most instances, a definitive correction of a significant disfigurement.
Variable role of the long terminal repeat Sp1-binding sites in human immunodeficiency virus replication in T lymphocytes.

Abstract The long terminal repeat (LTR) of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) contains three binding sites for the transcriptional factor Sp1. In order to investigate the role that the Sp1-binding sites play in regulation of HIV replication, we have introduced a deletion of all three Sp1-binding sites into the LTR of an infectious molecular clone of HIV. Viral stocks have been prepared from this mutant virus, designated dl-Sp, and these stocks have been used to study its replicative ability in human T cells. The dl-Sp virus replicated efficiently in MT4 cells and in phytohemagglutinin-stimulated human peripheral blood lymphocytes, but it replicated poorly and with delayed kinetics in A3.01 (CEM) T cells unless those cells had been treated with the cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha. Gel retardation assays to study the levels of DNA-binding proteins present in these cells showed that NF-kappa B activity could be detected in the nuclei of MT4 cells but not in A3.01 cells unless they had been treated with tumor necrosis factor alpha. Thus, the presence of NF-kappa B activity appeared to be required for efficient replication of an HIV whose LTR Sp1-binding sites had been deleted. This suggests that NF-kappa B can functionally compensate for Sp1 in activating HIV replication. The HIV LTR is therefore similar to the promoter-enhancer units of other viruses in that it is composed of multiple functional elements that may contribute differently to viral replication depending on the levels of DNA-binding proteins present in the target cells.
Estimation of Three-Dimensional Object Orientation for Computer Vision Systems with Feedback

The determination of orientation information of a 3D object is a crucial step in hypothesis-verification approach to object recognition. In this paper. two approaches are presented to estimate the orientation parameters of a 3D object from a single image. The first one is based on camera model estimation and analysis. The second one is a hierarchical search method. Simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the estimations.
Assimilation of Oil-Derived Elements by Oysters Due to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

During and after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWHOS), oysters (Crassostrea virginica) were exposed to oil and susceptible to incidental consumption of surface and subsurface oil materials. We determined the contribution of oil materials from the DWHOS to diet of oysters by comparing carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stable isotope ratios in oyster shell to ratios in suspended particulate matter (SPM) and in fresh and weathered oil. Average δ(13)C and δ(15)N values in oyster shell (-21 ± 1‰ and 9-11‰, respectively) were consistent with consumption of naturally available SPM as opposed to values in oil (-27 ± 0.2‰, 1.6 ± 0.4‰). Stable isotope ratios in oyster adductor muscle were similar to shell for δ(15)N but not δ(13)C, suggesting either a recent shift in diet composition or differential assimilation of C between tissue types. We found no evidence of assimilation of oil-derived C and N and, therefore, no evidence of an oyster-based conduit to higher trophic levels. Trace elements in shell were inconclusive to corroborate oil exposure. These findings are not an indication that oysters were not exposed to oil; rather they imply oysters either did not consume oil-derived materials or consumed too little to be detectable compared to natural diet.
Acidic residues C-terminal to the A2 domain facilitate thrombin-catalyzed activation of factor VIII.

Factor VIII is activated by thrombin through proteolysis at Arg740, Arg372, and Arg1689. One region implicated in this exosite-dependent interaction is the factor VIII a2 segment (residues 711−740) separating the A2 and B domains. Residues 717−725 (DYYEDSYED) within this region consist of five acidic residues and three sulfo-Tyr residues, thus representing a high density of negative charge potential. The contributions of these residues to thrombin-catalyzed activation of factor VIII were assessed following mutagenesis of acidic residues to Ala or Tyr residues to Phe and expression and purification of the B-domainless proteins from stable-expressing cell lines. All mutations showed reduced specific activity from ∼30% to ∼70% of the wild-type value. While replacement of the Tyr residues showed little, if any, effect on rates of thrombin-catalyzed proteolysis of factor VIII and consequent activation, the acidic to Ala mutations Glu720Ala, Asp721Ala, Glu724Ala, and Asp725Ala showed decreased rates of proteoly...
Some flow models of production constraints

After a definition of resource flow models, the study of production constraints is broken into three parts: knowing the effect of a finished equipment upon the economy, recognizing the constraint of the economy, and determining the reactions to be made because of the constraints. Then various methods of analysis are considered: one method being current mobilization planning and another being a model based on the Census of Manufactures. Because of problems encountered in these methods, an abstract analysis is presented that is identified with steps in the desigr of an equipment.
Prevention of in vitro Secondary Caries with an Experimental Fluoride-exchanging Restorative Resin

We investigated the development of artificial caries lesions adjacent to experimental composite resins which release fluoride by ion exchange. Overall, compared with both a commercial, non-fluoride composite and a restorative silicate cement, the cavity walls and tooth surfaces immediately adjacent to the experimental resins developed fewer and/or smaller lesions. When lesions did develop, they did not penetrate as far along the cavity walls adjacent to the experimental materials. In general, the degree of protection imparted by the fluoride composites increased with increasing fluoride content. These results demonstrate the potential of these adhesive resins for restorative and other dental applications in which an extended fluoride presence would be of benefit.
Temporal and Spatial Behavior of Large-Scale Disturbances in Tropical Cloudiness Deduced from Satellite Brightness Data

Abstract The large-scale cloud field in the latitude belt 35°S–35°N is studied using satellite brightness data for the periods May 1967 to October 1967, and November 1967 to Apfil 1968. Time and space-time spectrum and longitude-time section analyses are employed. The cloud field is found to be highly transient and localized, with marked seasonal and regional variations. The variance of cloud activity is remarkably asymmetric about the equator during northern summon. Throughout the year the predominant time scale near 10°N is 5 days. It is associated with two major spatial scales (wavenumbers 10 and 5–6) similar to those of tropospheric easterly waves and the stratospheric Yanai-Maruyama waves, respectively. During the northern winter, pronounced activity near 15°S is associated with wavenumbers 7–15 and a period of 7–12 days. Over the equatorial Indian Ocean eastward-moving disturbances of wavenumber 2 (formally) and period 40 days, and wavenumber 5 and period 9 days, prevail. Well defined space and time...
Epural bones in teleost fishes: a problem of phylogenetic homology

In the past, epural bones of teleost fishes have been labeled sequentially from anterior to posterior (e.g., epural 1, epural 2, etc.) without regard to their position relative to centra and ventral elements of the caudal fin. Recent research on caudal fin development of basal teleosts (e.g., Elops saurus and Hiodon spp.) and salmonids (e.g., Thymallus thymallus and Oncorhynchus spp.) indicates that simple numbering of epural bones is not phylogenetically meaningful. Our purpose is to demonstrate that “higher” teleost fishes show a variety of patterns of epural formation and development and that some of these may be phylogenetically informative characters. We describe the early ontogeny of the caudal fin with special reference to the epurals for selected species of teleosts. Development of epurals is detailed beginning with the earliest detection of chondrocytes in growth series of various teleosts. Epurals form after notochord flexion in the examined otomorphs, salmonids, and Mallotus villosus, as well as in Chauliodus macouni and Synodus foetens. Epurals form before flexion in the examined ctenosquamates, which allows for simple association of an epural with a ventral caudal element (i.e., hypural). After notochord flexion, epurals may reposition relative to their corresponding hypurals and this is a factor that can confuse homology assessment in adult specimens. It is recommended that epurals be named using the polyural terminology according to their position relative to ventral caudal elements early in ontogeny (e.g., epural of preural segment 1 or epural of hypural 2).