cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
DEMONSTRATION OF A LINEAR PROLONGATION CMFD METHOD ON MOC

Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (CMFD) method is a very effective method to accelerate the iterations for neutron transport calculation. But it can degrade and even fail when the optical thickness of the mesh becomes large. Therefore several methods, including partial current-based CMFD (pCMFD) and optimally diffusive CMFD (odCMFD), have been proposed to stabilize the conventional CMFD method. Recently, a category of “higherorder” prolongation CMFD (hpCMFD) methods was proposed to use both the local and neighboring coarse mesh fluxes to update the fine cell flux, which can solve the fine cell scalar flux discontinuity problem between the fine cells at the bounary of the coarse mesh. One of the hpCMFD methods, refered as lpCMFD, was proposed to use a linear prolongation to update the fine cell scalar fluxes.Method of Characteristics (MOC) is a very popular method to solve neutron transport equations. In this paper, lpCMFD is applied on the MOC code MPACT for a variety of fine meshes. A track-based centroids calculation method is introduced to find the centroids coordinates for random shapes of fine cells. And the numerical results of a 2D C5G7 problem are provided to demonstrate the stability and efficiency of lpCMFD method on MOC. It shows that lpCMFD can stabilize the CMFD iterations in MOC method effectively and lpCMFD method performs better than odCMFD on reducing the outer MOC iterations.
Neuromechanical wave resonance in jellyfish swimming

For organisms to have robust locomotion, their neuromuscular organization must adapt to constantly changing environments. In jellyfish, swimming robustness emerges when marginal pacemakers fire action potentials throughout the bell's motor nerve net, which signals the musculature to contract. The speed of the muscle activation wave is dictated by the passage times of the action potentials. However, passive elastic material properties also influence the emergent kinematics, with time scales independent of neuromuscular organization. In this multimodal study, we examine the interplay between these two time scales during turning. A three-dimensional computational fluid-structure interaction model of a jellyfish was developed to determine the resulting emergent kinematics, using bidirectional muscular activation waves to actuate the bell rim. Activation wave speeds near the material wave speed yielded successful turns, with a 76-fold difference in turning rate between the best and worst performers. Hyperextension of the margin occurred only at activation wave speeds near the material wave speed, suggesting resonance. This hyperextension resulted in a 34-fold asymmetry in the circulation of the vortex ring between the inside and outside of the turn. Experimental recording of the activation speed confirmed that jellyfish actuate within this range, and flow visualization using particle image velocimetry validated the corresponding fluid dynamics of the numerical model. This suggests that neuromechanical wave resonance plays an important role in the robustness of an organism's locomotory system and presents an undiscovered constraint on the evolution of flexible organisms. Understanding these dynamics is essential for developing actuators in soft body robotics and bioengineered pumps.
Healthfulness Assessment of Recipes Shared on Pinterest: Natural Language Processing and Content Analysis.

Background: Although Pinterest has become a popular platform for distributing influential information that shapes users’ behaviors, the role of recipes pinned on Pinterest in these behaviors is not well understood. Objective: This study aims to explore the patterns of food ingredients and the nutritional content of recipes posted on Pinterest and to examine the factors associated with recipes that engage more users. Methods: Data were collected from Pinterest between June 28 and July 12, 2020 (207 recipes and 2818 comments). All samples were collected via 2 new user accounts with no search history. A codebook was developed with a raw agreement rate of 0.97 across all variables. Content analysis and natural language processing sentiment analysis techniques were employed. Results: Recipes using seafood or vegetables as the main ingredient had, on average, fewer calories and less sodium, sugar, and cholesterol than meat- or poultry-based recipes. For recipes using meat as the main ingredient, more than half of the energy was obtained from fat (277/490, 56.6%). Although the most followed pinners tended to post recipes containing more poultry or seafood and less meat, recipes with higher fat content or providing more calories per serving were more popular, having more shared photos or videos and comments. The natural language processing–based sentiment analysis suggested that Pinterest users weighted taste more heavily than complexity (225/2818, 8.0%) and health (84/2828, 2.9%). Conclusions: Although popular pinners tended to post recipes with more seafood or poultry or vegetables and less meat, recipes with higher fat and sugar content were more user-engaging, with more photo or video shares and comments. Data on Pinterest behaviors can inform the development and implementation of nutrition health interventions to promote healthy recipe sharing on social media platforms.
Zoom or In-Person: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study the Effects of time With Friends and Depressive Symptoms on Affect in Emerging Adults

Introduction Depression is associated with increased negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA), as well as interpersonal difficulties. Although most studies examine symptoms and affect at only one time point, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) captures data on affect and activity in real time and across contexts. The present study used EMA to explore the links between in-person and virtual social interactions, depressive symptoms, and momentary affect. Methods Emerging adults (N=86) completed a self-report measure of both general depression and dysphoria symptoms, followed by EMA surveys 8 times daily for one week, reporting momentary affect (PA and NA) and social context (in-person and virtual interactions with friends). Results In-person, but not virtual, presence of friends was associated with increased PA overall. Depressive symptoms were linked to less time with in-person friends and elevated NA. There was also a significant interaction between in-person presence of friends and dysphoria in predicting NA, such that presence of in-person friends was associated with lower NA only for those low in dysphoria. Discussion Findings suggest that time with in-person friends is associated with increased PA overall and decreased NA only for those lower in depressive symptoms, but these effects do not generalize to virtual interactions. Those with greater depressive symptoms may be less responsive to positive stimuli and experience less of an effect of friends' presence on affect. Alternatively, maladaptive social behaviors characteristic of depression may influence the effect of social interactions on affect.
Creatures of the Bath: Transformations at the Early Modern British Spa

Herbert’s chapter examines the ways that early modern Britons used bodies of water—specifically, the supposedly miraculous waters of medical springs in cities such as Bath, Tunbridge Wells, and Epsom—to refigure themselves. Early modern Europeans believed firmly in the curative powers of mineral waters, and at these sites, many different kinds of people sought relief from disease and injury: women, men and children; the poor and rich; people from Britain and abroad. By drinking British spring water, pumping it over their bodies, and plunging into mineral pools to swim, these health-seekers attempted to change themselves for the better. However, if spas were imagined as places of health, they we also seen as sites of physical danger, sexual ambiguity and even social unrest.
Exploratory analysis on the association of mental health disorders with in-hospital postoperative complications and mortality in head and neck cancer surgery

BACKGROUND The objective was to assess the association of mental health disorders with in-hospital complication and mortality rates in patients undergoing head and neck cancer surgery. METHODS In this exploratory retrospective study, the Nationwide Inpatient Sample was queried from 2003 to 2014 for all patients with a diagnosis of head and neck cancer who underwent surgery. Univariate cross-tabulation, logistic regression, and propensity score matching (PSM) were used to compare demographics, procedure-related variables, and in-hospital postoperative complications and mortality between patients with and without selected comorbid mental health disorders. RESULTS Of 39 600 included patients, 3390 (8.6%) had a selected comorbid mental health disorder diagnosis. After PSM, patients with selected mental health disorders had increased risk of overall medical complications on multivariable analysis (OR 1.28 [CI 1.12-1.46], P < 0.001) but not overall surgical complications or mortality. CONCLUSIONS Patients with a mental health disorder diagnosis have increased risk of in-hospital medical, certain surgical, and total complications.
Discovering Halima Dussap's Life Through Her Death: An African Slave Woman and Her Family in Cairo (Egypt), ca. 1819 to about 1836

Rarely can a historian find information on the whole life of an enslaved person in nineteenth-century Egypt: his or her origins, personal experience of enslavement, and subsequent life experiences. For a time, scholars of slavery considered it ‘social death’ following Orlando Patterson. This phrase now encapsulates the slaves’ challenge: to live and struggle against their own social alienation in the master’s society. Documenting such struggles is rarely easy. Halima Dussap was enslaved, transported to Egypt and sold in the Cairo slave market to Dr. Charles Dussap, a French physician. From this beginning, she worked to create a home, becoming a respected wife, mothering and raising her two multi-cultural children. She later had an affair with Ismayl Urbain, a Saint-Simonian. After Halima’s death, Suzanne Voilquin, another Saint-Simonian moved into the household, and Dussap poured out his wife’s story, showing his own initial ignorance of her past, and his missteps after her death. Through multiple sources, Halima’s struggles against social alienation for herself and her children can be reconstructed for nearly two decades. This rare case illustrates the value of moving beyond statistics of the slave trade, and fleeting glimpses of slaves in public places, to uncover fuller biographies of enslaved Africans.
Early ICU Mortality Prediction and Survival Analysis for Respiratory Failure.

Respiratory failure is the one of major causes of death in critical care unit. During the outbreak of COVID-19, critical care units experienced an extreme shortage of mechanical ventilation because of respiratory failure related syndromes. To help this, the early mortality risk prediction in patients who suffer respiratory failure can provide timely support for clinical treatment and resource management. In the study, we propose a dynamic modeling approach for early mortality risk prediction of the respiratory failure patients based on the first 24 hours ICU physiological data. Our proposed model is validated on the eICU collaborate database. We achieved a high AUROC performance (80-83%) and significantly improved AUCPR 4% on Day 5 since ICU admission, compared to the state-of-art prediction models. In addition, we illustrated that the survival curve includes the time-varying information for the early ICU admission survival analysis.
Factors contributing to poor outcome in patients on warfarin receiving 4-factor prothrombin complex concentrate in critically ill.

Aim To compare the demographical profile, indications, efficacy, and contributors to adverse outcome following administration of 4F-PCC in patients on warfarin with supratherapeutic INR. Methodology Retrospective cross-sectional study was performed in a community based teaching hospital. All patients 18 years and older on warfarin with supratherapeutic INR, who had received 4F-PCC between January 2014 and December 2018 were eligible and included in the study. Results 44 patients were included in the analysis. The mean age of the patients was 79.5 years. The male to female ratio was 1:1. Patients were on warfarin for atrial fibrillation, thromboembolism in 79.5% (N-35), and 20.5% (N-9) respectively. Indications for use of 4F-PCC were active bleeding in 93% (N-41) of patients. The common sites of bleeding were gastrointestinal, intracranial, and musculoskeletal which were seen in 54.5% (N-24), 29.5% (N-13) and 6.8% (N-3) respectively. The median number of doses of 4F-PCC administered was 1 per patient. The mean dose administered was 2,883u. Clinical improvement was documented in 84% (N-37) of patients. Mortality was seen in 16% (N-7) of patients. BMI greater than 30, anemia, hypotension, presence of intracranial bleed, the requirement of blood products, and mechanical ventilation were associated with higher odds for mortality. Hypotension and requirement of mechanical ventilation were statistically significant. Conclusion 4F-PCC continues to be an effective agent in the rapid reversal of warfarin therapy in patients with supratherapeutic INR presenting with major bleeding events. Most patients have clinical improvement with a single, weight-adjusted dose.
Electrical Discharge Machining of ZrB2 -Based Ceramics

Abstract The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of fabricating ZrB2-based materials using wire-cutting and die-sinking electrical discharge machines. Compared to diamond saw machining, which machined ZrB2-based materials at a relatively low rate, electrical discharge machining is very attractive. Based on the experimental results under different machining conditions, the higher the energy input, the higher will be the material removal rate. ZrB2-Cu is difficult to machine due to partial surface oxidation, which was confirmed by x-ray diffraction and microprobe analysis. The extremely low workpiece removal rate makes ZrB2-Cu appealing for machine tool use.
Discrete Variable Representations in Quantum Dynamics

A derivation of discrete variable representations (DVR’s) is given, with emphasis on formal properties and relations to the classical orthogonal polynomials. These “Gaussian quadrature” DVR’s are compared with several different DVR’s proposed recently. Finally, some cautions and brief comparisons of accuracy are noted for quantum solutions for large amplitude motions of triatomic molecules (H2O in this case).
Modulation of auroral electrojet currents using dual modulated HF beams with ELF phase offset, a potential D‐region ionospheric diagnostic

Received 17 January 2013; revised 7 March 2013; accepted 12 March 2013. [1] Experiments at the ionospheric heating facility of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) are performed employing dual HF beams amplitude modulated at ELF/VLF with a phase offset between the two modulation waveforms. The amplitude of the observed ELF/VLF waves is strongly dependent on the imposed ELF/VLF phase offset, the modulation waveform, and the orientation of the HF beams. Data from two ground stations are interpreted using simulations of modulated heating power envelopes as well as a comprehensive model of ionospheric ELF/VLF generation. It is found that two colocated vertical beams HF beams excite a single ionospheric ELF/VLF source, but independent ELF/VLF sources can be induced in the ionospheric region above the heater if the HF beams are offset from zenith to intersect at their 3 dB points. Furthermore, the use of two vertical HF beams with ELF phase offset is found to be a potential diagnostic method for the ionospheric D region.
T Cells in G1 Provide a Memory-Like Response to Secondary Stimulation

The commitment of naive T cells to proliferate is a function of the strength and duration of stimuli mediated by the TCR and coreceptors. Ranges of 2–20 h of stimulation have been reported as necessary in vitro. Whether T cells actually experience uninterrupted stimulation for such long periods under physiological conditions is controversial. Here we ask whether commitment to proliferate requires continuous stimulation, or can T cells integrate intermittent periods of stimulation. T cells were stimulated for two short-term (subthreshold) periods (5–7 h) either sequentially or separated by an interval of rest. Naive lymph node T cells were able to integrate interrupted stimulation, even when the duration of rest was as long as 2 days. Furthermore, when short-term-stimulated T cells were separated by density, three populations were observed: low density blasts, intermediate density G 1 cells, and high density G 0 cells. Low density cells progressed to division without further stimulation, whereas G 0 and G 1 cells remained undivided. However, after a period of rest, a second subthreshold stimulation caused the G 1 but not the G 0 fraction to quickly proceed through the cell cycle. We conclude that noncycling T cells in the G 1 phase of the cell cycle remain in a state of readiness for prolonged periods of time, and may represent a population of memory-like effectors capable of responding rapidly to antigenic challenge.
The new culture shock: the manager in the evolving information society

Summary form only given. It is contended that managers, fully immersed in their immediate tasks and deadlines, may only belatedly recognize the profound changes triggered by the world around them. The corporation will have a smaller core, more flexible arrangements with associate contractors and venture activities around the globe, and adaptability to rapid change. Mosaic structures are relapsing multilevel hierarchies. Customization of products (demassification) will coexist with TV-induced global conformity. Information overload and illusory simplification will constitute growing dilemmas. Artificial intelligence and neural networks will be of help, but will also foster an unreal world that can entrap the manager. It is pointed out that one is seeing evidence of the new management thinking: the development of high-reliability or crisis-prepared organizations and the purposeful questioning of dangerously obsolete assumptions embedded in the old corporate culture. More is more can no longer be taken for granted, and traditional probability concepts can no longer be used for the engineering of systems whose failure can have catastrophic consequences. >
The Legal Status of Fantasy Sports in a Changing Business Environment

This speech discusses how the United States has moved in such a short period of time from an era where "daily fantasy sports" contests had been seen as similar to illegal sports gambling into an era in which one cannot turn on a television set to ESPN without seeing commercials for one-day fantasy sports leagues. This speech also discuss perceptions of the legality of "daily fantasy sports" under both state and federal law. As explained throughout this speech, the legality of "daily fantasy sports" indeed is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Rather, whether a given fantasy sports contest is legal depends on the individual contest's game rules and states of operation.
Sviluppo e utilizzo di un sistema per l’archiviazione, la revisione e il deposito di tesi elettroniche e dissertazioni destinato alle Università

North Carolina State University has developed a fully electronic submission,review and digital storage repository for theses and dissertations, also known as the ETD (electronic thesis and dissertation) system. The ETD system improves access and substantially reduces time required compared to paper-based submission methods for the community of groups involved in the thesis/ dissertation approval process: students, thesis/dissertation advisory committee members, graduate schools, thesis/dissertation editors, archivers (for example, university libraries) and researchers.
What is the best fiducial

Fiducial images are a common method for supporting vision-based tracking in augmented reality systems. This paper addresses the question: what is the best fiducial? A set of criteria that are desirable in an optically tracked fiducial are presented and a new fiducial image set is designed that meets these criteria. The images in this set utilize a square black-border pattern with a 15% border width and an interior image that supports orientation determination and unique identification. The interior image is constructed from orthogonal DCT basis images chosen to minimize the probability of misidentification and to be robust to noise and occlusion. We describe how this image can be integrated into an AR software system such as ARToolKit.
Fluid mechanics of the interface region between a porous medium and a fluid layer—an exact solution

Abstract The description of the fluid mechanics at the interface between a fluid layer and a porous medium which was first investigated by Beavers and Joseph is revisited in this work. An exact solution describing the interfacial fluid mechanics is presented. The effects of the Darcy number and inertia parameter are briefly discussed.
Comparison of validity of assessment methods using indices of adjusted agreement

For comparing the validity of rating methods, the adjusted κ (S coefficient) and Yule's Y index are better than Cohen's κ which is affected by marginal probabilities. We consider a validity study in which a subject is assessed as exposed or not-exposed by two competing rating methods and the gold standard. We are interested in one of the methods, which is closer in agreement with the gold standard. We present statistical methods taking correlations into account for comparing the validity of the rating methods using S coefficient and Y index. We show how the S coefficient and Yule's Y index are related to sensitivity and specificity. In comparing the two rating methods, the preference is clear when the inference is the same for both S and Y. If the inference using S differs from that using Y, then it is not obvious how to decide a preference. This may occur when one rating method is better than the other in sensitivity but not in specificity. Numerical examples for comparing asbestos-exposure assessment methods are illustrated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Effect of Vitamin E on Secondary Bacterial Infection after Influenza Infection in Young and Old Mice

Mortality from influenza is high in the elderly. Deaths are mainly due to secondary complications, including Staphylococcus aureus (SA) infections. Vitamin E (E) supplementation reduces influenza in aged mice. This study determined the efficacy of E supplementation on secondary bacterial infections after influenza in young and old mice. C57BL/6 mice were fed diets containing 30 or 500 ppm E for 4 weeks. Priming with influenza significantly increased SA in the lungs of infected mice fed control diet. Age did not have a significant effect on SA infection alone or SA infection after influenza infection. E supplementation did not have a significant effect on SA infection alone. However, E supplementation abolished the priming effect of influenza on SA.
OSIRIS: infrared integral field spectrograph for the Keck adaptive optics system

We present the design for a recently approved instrument for the Keck Telescope. Called OSIRIS, it was inspired by the optical spectrograph TIGER of R. Bacon et al. and will utilize an infrared transmissive lenslet array to sample a rectangular field of view at close to the Keck diffraction limit. By packing the spectra very closely together (2 pixel rows per spectrum) and using the Rockwell Hawaii-2 detector (wavelengths between 1 and 2.5 microns), we will achieve a relatively large field of view (up to 6."4) while maintaining full broad-band spectral coverage at a resolution of 3900. Due to the extremely low backgrounds between night sky lines and at AO spatial samplings, the instrument will reach point source sensitivities several times fainter than any existing infrared spectrograph. We are also coupling a separate infrared AO camera dubbed SHARC to work as an acquisition camera and to monitor the point spread function's behavior during long spectroscopic exposures. Among the challenges of the instrument are: a fully cryogenic design, four spatial resolutions from 0."02 to 0."10, large aluminum optics for the spectrography, extremely repeatable spectral formats and a sophisticated data reduction pipeline.
The food distribution system of the future: Convergence towards the US or UK model?

This article presents and analyzes a hypothesis that is of fundamental importance for the organization and performance of food systems. That hypothesis is that food manufacturing and distribution systems are converging to a common organizational structure. Two polar opposite organizational structures are the US manufacturer-led model and the UK retailer-led model. The article explains reasons for convergence, compares the US and UK models, and argues for expository purposes only that developed nation food systems well converge to the US manufacturer-led model. The paper discusses key parameters that identify how convergence will occur. The author, however, is not convinced that the US model should win. The UK retailer-led model with its extensive private label program probably offers superior benefits to consumers. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Suboptimal multi-mode state estimation and mode detection

A suboptimal state estimation algorithm is proposed for a discrete time stochastic multi-mode switched system, with a finite number of modes. The system state is transferred from one mode to the next. The parameters in the different modes are assumed to be known, but the mode-switching is random. The proposed filter is derived by extending the innovations approach to the problem of estimating the state of the system assuming that the switch between modes is purely random, but with known mode probabilities. As a special case we derive the filter for a linear system degraded by intermittent sensor failure and analyze its performance. This model is an alternative to the packet loss model, where the presence or absence of a packet is part of the observed data.
Composition of Leaf Oil of Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit.

ABSTRACT The leaf oils of Hyptis suaveolens were isolated by hydrodistillation and separated by GC. Of the 56 components separated, 47 were identified by GC/MS. Monoterpenes represented the largest portion with 1m8-cineole (38.7%), sabinene (19.9%), terpinolene (8.5%), β-pinene (6.4%), γ-terpinene (4.8%), α-pinene (2.9%), limonene (2.6%), myrcene (1.3%) andterpinen-4-ol (1.2%). Of the sesquiterpenes, the predominant were β-caryophyllene (2.5%) and germacrene-B (1.2%). All other components including the unknowns were in concentrations of less than 1%
Levels of Care: primary care residents' self‐assessment of ability to care for children with chronic health conditions

Objectives To investigate the use of Levels of Care model to measure the self-assessed ability of physicians in training to care for children with chronic health conditions. Design Questionnaire presenting 45 case scenarios of children with various chronic health conditions was given to 85 residents training in pediatrics (46) or family medicine (39). The resident estimated for each case scenario the Level of Care (LoC I–V) that the resident felt able to provide ‘now, while in training’, and would want to provide when entering ‘practice’. Setting University-based, postgraduate, primary care specialty training programs in pediatric and family medicine. Participants A total of 85 resident physicians in postgraduate training programs in the primary care specialties of family medicine (FM) and pediatrics (Pd). Results Thirty-nine family medicine (100%) and 30 pediatric residents (65%) responded. Median Level of Care (LoC FM-1) that the family medicine residents felt able to provide while in ‘training’ was III and for the pediatric residents (LoC Pd-1) was IV, χ2 = 42.595, p = 0.0001. The median Level of Care residents wanted to be able to provide in ‘practice’ for each group was LoC-IV, χ2 = 13.85, p = 0.0078. There were statistically significant differences in responses between family medicine (FM) and pediatric (Pd) residents to both the ‘training’ and ‘practice’ questions. Conclusions A self-assessment instrument incorporating the Levels of Care (LoC) concept was useful to assess the self-perceived ability of resident physicians in training to care for children with chronic health conditions.
Ribavirin and cysteinyl leukotriene-1 receptor blockade as treatment for severe bronchiolitis

In this work we have evaluated the clinical responses of pneumovirus-infected mice to combination therapy with the antiviral agent, ribavirin, and the CysLT1 cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist, montelukast. We observed substantial virus replication in our mouse model of pneumovirus infection and significant accumulation of cysteinyl leukotrienes in lung tissue, the latter detected at levels that correlate directly with granulo cyte recruitment to the airways. While administration of the nucleoside analog, ribavirin, reduced virus replication ∼2000-fold, the clinical outcomes as measured by morbidity and mortality, in response to ribavirin monotherapy were indistinguishable from those of the no-treatment controls. Similarly, montelukast therapy alone did not reduce granulocyte recruitment nor did it improve the clinical outcome. However, combined therapy with ribavirin and montelukast resulted in a significant reduction in morbidity and a substantial reduction in mortality (50% survival at t =1 4 days and onward, compared to 10–20% survival in response to montelukast alone or to ribavirin alone, respectively, p < 0.01). These findings define further the independent contributions made by virus replication and by the ensuing inflammatory response to the detrimental sequelae of pneumovirus infection in vivo. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Optimizing Sparse Matrix-Vector Product Computations Using Unroll and Jam

Large-scale scientific applications frequently compute sparse matrix-vector products in their computational core. For this reason, techniques for computing sparse matrix- vector products efficiently on modern architectures are important. In this paper we describe a strategy for improving the performance of sparse matrix-vector product computations using a loop transformation known as unrollandjam. We describe a novel sparse matrix representation that enables us to apply this transformation. Our approach is best suited for sparse matrices that have rows with a small number of predictable lengths. This work was motivated by sparse matrices that arise in SAGE, an application from Los Alamos National Laboratory. We evaluate the performance benefits of our approach using sparse matrices produced by SAGE for a pair of sample inputs. We show that our strategy is effective for improving sparse matrix-vector product performance using these matrices on MIPS R12000, Alpha Ev67, IBM Power 3, and Itanium 2 processors. Our measurements show that for this class of sparse matrices, our strategy improves sparse matrix-vector product performance from a low of 41% on MIPS to well over a factor of 2 on Itanium.
Moral Values, Moralism, and the 2004 Presidential Election

The "moral values vote" in the 2004 American presidential election should be interpreted more broadly than as a reflection of concerns about same-sex marriage and abortion. Instead of specific hot-button social policy issues, a general personality trait of moralism-the tendency to perceive a moral dimension in everyday decisions-may have contributed to the election outcome. Specifically, we hypothesize that some Bush supporters shared Bush's high level of moralism (as reflected in his rhetoric) and that this moralism motivated their votes. Consistent with our hypothesis. a preliminary empirical investigation suggests that Bush voters were, indeed, higher in moralism than were Kerry voters. Plans for further research and political strategy implications are discussed.
Evaluating Liquid-Cooled Heat Sink Resistance Data for Electronic Applications

A number of experimental studies have been published for single-phase liquid cooling for electronic heat sources. These include flow though various sized channels and configurations. Results are expressed using a thermal resistance as a function of liquid volumetric (or mass) flow rate. This paper discusses the regression of experimental data. Two simple thermal resistance models are evaluated, each having a combination of conduction and convection components. The models are applicable to a wide set of data. A preferred model is identified having three parameters: (1) overall resistance at a nominal flow, (2) percentage of resistance due to conduction at the nominal flow, and (3) convective exponent for the liquid flow rate. The preferred model has lower correlation between its parameters and reproduces the trends in experimental data. The model is used to quantify the relative contribution of the convective and conductive sources of thermal resistance. It is also useful in design to evaluate the effectiveness of increasing the liquid flow rate which can be accomplished with increased pressure drop and pumping costs. The best-fit estimates and their approximate 95% confidence intervals are calculated using experimental data. A few experimental results yield discrepant values for the model parameters. In some cases the rate of reduction of the thermal resistance with increasing flow rate appears beyond what can be reasonably expected. Sources of discrepant results are discussed. The results of the paper are helpful in evaluating experimental data and guiding the design of liquid-cooled heat sinks.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Frontal cortex ablation reversibly decreases striatal zif/268 and junB expression: Temporal correspondence with sensory neglect and its spontaneous recovery

This study's goal is to identify subcortical adaptations that may contribute to recovery of function following cortical injury. After unilateral aspiration of the medial agranular region of frontal cortex (AGm), rats demonstrate neglect of contralateral stimuli and recover within 3-4 weeks. Previous studies indicate that compensatory neural alterations involving dopamine (DA) occur following this cortical injury and that recovery from neglect produced by frontal injury is accompanied by normalization of glucose utilization within subcortical structures including the basal ganglia. The current study examined Zif and JunB, IEG protein products constitutively expressed in striatum, rendering it possible to investigate the effects of unilateral AGm ablation on striatal function during unstimulated as well as amphetamine-stimulated conditions. Five days after surgery, when contralateral neglect was still evident, the numbers of Zif-like or Jun-like immunoreactive (IR) nuclei in the ipsilateral striata of AGm-ablated rats were reduced. These lesion effects were similar for both constitutive and amphetamine-stimulated IEG expression and were restricted to the dorsolateral caudate-putamen, where excitatory input from AGm is most dense. In contrast, 3 or more weeks after AGm ablation, in rats demonstrating recovery, normal striatal Zif- and JunB-like immunoreactivity occurred. Thus, striatal zif/268 and junB expression is reduced 5 days after AGm injury in rats demonstrating neglect and normalized 3 or more weeks later in recovered rats. These findings indicate that adaptations involving the striatal medium spiny neuron, a site of convergence of cortical glutamatergic and nigral dopaminergic afferents, may contribute to behavioral recovery following neocortical injury.
Locating an n -server facility in a stochastic environment

Abstract We consider a demand-responsive service system in which n mobile units (servers) are garaged at one facility. Service demands arrive in time as a homogenous Poisson process, but are located over the service region according to an arbitrary probability law. Given a random service demand, either (1) a mobile unit is dispatched to the demand's location to provide on-scene service or (2) the demand is lost (i.e. it is handled by some back-up system). The resultant queueing system is an M/G/n loss system operating in steady state. The objective is to locate the garage facility so that the average cost of response is minimized, where the cost of response is a weighted sum of mean travel time to a random serviced demand and the cost of a lost demand, the weights being the respective probabilities of occurrence. We show that the optimum facility location reduces to Hakimi's well-known minisum location.
Aligning music audio with symbolic scores using a hybrid graphical model

We present a new method for establishing an alignment between a polyphonic musical score and a corresponding sampled audio performance. The method uses a graphical model containing both latent discrete variables, corresponding to score position, as well as a latent continuous tempo process. We use a simple data model based only on the pitch content of the audio signal. The data interpretation is defined to be the most likely configuration of the hidden variables, given the data, and we develop computational methodology to identify or approximate this configuration using a variant of dynamic programming involving parametrically represented continuous variables. Experiments are presented on a 55-minute hand-marked orchestral test set.
Were In-Process Research and Development Charges Too Aggressive?

Abstract: Prior research documents that US firms write off large in-process research anddevelopment charges (IPRD) for acquisitions, possibly overstating the current period expenseto inflate future earnings. Consequently, in 1998, the US Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) began scrutinizing IPRD charges. We use pre-acquisition R&D expenses of 144 targetfirms as a benchmark for assessing whether IPRD charges are appropriate. Overall, the resultssuggest that most firms during our sample period were not overly aggressive in expensing IPRD–especially for acquisitions subsequent to the SEC’s scrutiny. The results also indicate that theSEC’s intervention reduced the frequency of overstated IPRD charges. Keywords: in-process research and development, R&D, SEC, acquisition accounting, aggressivefinancial reporting 1. INTRODUCTIONThis paper investigates whether companies abused proper financial reporting practicewith overly aggressive in-process research and development charges between 1996 and2003, and whether pressure from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)encouragedmoreappropriatereporting.In-processresearchanddevelopment(IPRD)is the value allocated to incomplete R&D projects in purchase acquisitions, which ischarged to an expense by the acquirer as of the acquisition date. Our results contributeto the earnings management literature by extending the work of Dowdell and Press(2004), who examine the impact of SEC scrutiny on the magnitude of IPRD write-offs,but not their appropriateness.Our investigation is motivated both by prior research that documents the benefitsof aggressive IPRD reporting practices and the SEC’s concerns about IPRD abuses.In the late 1990s, Lynn Turner, Chief Accountant of the SEC raised questions about
Solar magnetograph employing integrated diode arrays.

A solar magnetograph employing as detectors a pair of self-scanning 512-element integrated diode arrays is described. Coupled to a 1.5-m telescope, photospheric flux as small as 5(106) maxwells is detected, corresponding in intensity to ΔI/I = 3(10−4) at λ0.8688 μm. Measured photometric properties of the diode array are given, including MTF as a function of wavelength, dark current as a function of temperature, completeness of readout, optical and electronic fixed-pattern noise. An integrating preamplifier is presented that achieves a measured noise, when connected to the array, equivalent to 950 electrons at the input for a bandwidth of 3(105) Hz. These data provide a basis for an evaluation of the detector performance at low light levels beyond the needs of the magnetograph. Operated at near liquid nitrogen temperature, the noise and cooling characteristics indicate the detector has promise as a low light level sensor.
Effects of parasitization by Cotesia congregata on the brain-prothoracic gland axis of its host, Manduca sexta

Abstract The ability of prothoracic glands (PTGs) from parasitized and unparasitized Manduca sexta 5th-instars to respond to ecdysiotropic extracts prepared from day-5 5th instar brains was compared. An in vitro bioassay revealed that PTGs from parasitized animals were much less responsive to brain PTTH than glands from unparasitized larvae. However, when incubated in Grace's medium in the absence of brain extract, glands from day-3 and -4 hosts remained active for a much longer period of time than did those dissected from their unparasitized counterparts. Rather than exhibiting reduced (basal) levels of synthesis after the 3rd hour of incubation, glands from these parasitized larvae continued to synthesize/release ecdysteroid into the medium at relatively high rates. The timing of this enhanced secretory activity is coincident with the ecdysteroid peak that occurs just prior to and during wasp emergence. Following parasite emergence, gland activity decreased, and by the third day after emergence, was reduced to low levels. Results suggest that the requirement for PTTH to stimulate ecdysteroid production has been bypassed, i.e. that the parasite has uncoupled the normal mechanisms that permit brain regulation of PTG activity. The ability of brains from parasitized M. sexta to stimulate PTGs from unparasitized day-2 5th instars was also examined. Dose-response analyses performed for the first 7 days of the 5th instar showed that on a per brain basis ecdysiotropic activity in brains from parasitized and unparasitized animals was similar. However, when differences in brain size were considered, ecdysiotropic activity appeared to be more concentrated in brains from day-7 parasitized larvae than in brains from similarly aged unparasitized larvae. Analysis of the size distribution of the ecdysiotropic activity in brains from parasitized larvae revealed a unique form that was larger than the 29 kDa standard. This suggests that parasitization may inhibit neuropeptide processing, particularly during the final stages preceding emergence of the wasps from the host. Thus, both an inhibition of prothoracicotropic hormone processing and the inability to respond to this neurohormone may contribute to the developmental arrest characteristic of parasitized 5th instars.
Characteristics of inner-city African-Americans with uncontrolled hypertension

Hypertension control rates are low in inner-city African-Americans. This article describes the demographic and clinical characteristics of uncontrolled hypertension in this population. During a single outpatient visit, normotensive and hypertensive African-American volunteers (age 18 to 55) completed a questionnaire, and the following measurements were obtained: blood pressure (BP), anthropometric measures, and blood chemistries. Volunteers received a gift for participating. Of the 3,943 volunteers, 52% were hypertensive. Among the hypertensives, 75% were aware of hypertension, and of those aware, 76% were on antihypertensive drug therapy. BP was uncontrolled in 78% of all hypertensives and in 60% of those on drug therapy. Males were two times more likely than females to have uncontrolled hypertension. Compared to participants with controlled hypertension, those with uncontrolled hypertension were younger, had lower body mass index, and were more likely to report smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and less likely to report restricting dietary salt. Lack of hypertension control was primarily related to the lack of antihypertensive drug therapy rather than to inadequate drug therapy. Uncontrolled hypertension was associated with several self-reported aversive health behaviors, including not taking antihypertensive medications. Strategies to improve hypertension control should be directed to patients and to health care providers.
Metabolism, excretion and pharmacokinetics of [14C]crizotinib following oral administration to healthy subjects

Abstract1. Crizotinib (XALKORI®), an oral inhibitor of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor kinase (c-Met), is currently approved for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer that is ALK-positive.2. The metabolism, excretion and pharmacokinetics of crizotinib were investigated following administration of a single oral dose of 250 mg/100 µCi [14C]crizotinib to six healthy male subjects.3. Mean recovery of [14C]crizotinib-related radioactivity in excreta samples was 85% of the dose (63% in feces and 22% in urine).4. Crizotinib and its metabolite, crizotinib lactam, were the major components circulating in plasma, accounting for 33% and 10%, respectively, of the 0–96 h plasma radioactivity. Unchanged crizotinib was the major excreted component in feces (∼53% of the dose). In urine, crizotinib and O-desalkyl crizotinib lactam accounted for ∼2% and 5% of the dose, respectively. Collectively, these data indicate that the primary clearance pathway for cri...
Real-time semantics for shared-variable concurrency

Abstract Recent work in real-time concurrency theory has largely been concerned with languages based on message passing, and execution models which assume an unlimited number of synchronous processors. Practical limitations on processor resources often make such theories unrealistic. We provide a denotational linear-history semantics for a real-time concurrent language L, under realistic assumptions about the execution environment. L is a low-level language which contains shared variables and constructs for synchronization and selective mutual exclusion. Among the execution models we consider are limited parallelism, in which the number of physical processors may he less than the number of processes, and asynchronous processors, which need not run at the same conceptual speed.
Development of beaks of Rana pipiens larvae

Rana pipiens larval beaks of consist of column cells, sheath cells and basal cells which supply cells to column and sheath. Each column consists of disk-like precone cells, cone cells and keratinized cone cells; they are cells in different stages of the process of keratinization. Breaks first appear externally at embryonic stage 24. Epidermal cells align at the tip of the jaw at stage 21. They increase in number and change in shape. Keratinization starts at stage 23. By stage 24, the apical column cells are keratinized and the histological organization is set for the whole larval period. During the larval period, the numbers of column cells increase until stages VIII or IV, stay relatively constant during mid-larval stages, and decrease at late larval stages. The beak is completely shed at stage XX. The widening of the beaks goes on during the entire larval period. Along the cutting edge of the jaw the tooth spikes increase in number and in individual width as the animal grows older and larger. Thyroid hormone causes a premature reduction of the column cell number and a precocious beak loss. The loss of break at metamorphic climax is thyroid dependent event.
Initial experience with retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy: Use of a double-balloon technique

Objectives To report the initial experience with retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy for symptomatic, end-stage vesicoureteral reflux. Methods Two patients underwent a nephroureterectomy by a four-port retroperitoneal laparoscopic approach. In 1 patient, a double-balloon technique was used to dissect the pelvic extraperitoneal space and gain access to the juxtavesical ureter. In the second patient, the distal ureter was mobilized with routine laparoscopic dissection techniques. Results Operative time was 6 and 5.5 hours, respectively, and mean hospital stay was 4 days. Mean patient follow-up is 17.5 months. Conclusions The technique of retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy is in evolution; until now, a major concern has been the inadequate access to the distal ureter through a completely retroperitoneoscopic approach. Described herein is a double-balloon technique that significantly facilitates dissection of the juxtavesical ureter during a retroperitoneal laparoscopic nephroureterectomy.