cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

The study of compliance with international agreements has gained momentum over the past few years. Since the conclusion of World War II, this research agenda had been marginalized by the predominance of realist approaches to the study of international relations. However, alternative perspectives have developed that suggest that international law and institutions are important influences on the conduct of international politics. This review examines four perspectives and assesses their contribution to understanding the conditions under which states comply with international agreements. Despite severe conceptual and methodological problems, this research has contributed significantly to our understanding of the relationship between international politics and international law and institutions. A central theme in much recent international relations scholarship is the growing role of formal international agreements and supranational authority in the ordering of relations among sovereign states. The growing range of authoritative commitments is evidenced by the movement since World War II to codify customary practices into explicit international legal instruments. The range of international agreements has grown rapidly over the past 40 years with the development of rules that regulate economic, social, communications, environmental, and human rights behavior. Evidence of the growth in supranational authority includes not only the number of international organizations that have mushroomed in the postwar years, but also, most strikingly, the growth and de
The effects of differing photoperiods during thermal acclimation on oxygen consumption in the hylid frogs, Acris crepitans and Pseudacris triseriata

Abstract 1. 1. The effects of differing photoperiods were examined during thermal acclimation on oxygen consumption measured at 15°C in the frogs, Acris crepitans and Pseudacris triseriata . 2. 2. No significant photoperiodic effects were shown by either species when acclimated at 5 or 15°C. 3. 3. In warm-acclimated Acris , photoperiodic effects were marginally significant and resulted in a decrease in metabolic rates relative to dark-acclimated frogs. 4. 4. Warm-acclimated Pseudacris showed either no (April-May), or very weak (June), photoperiodie effects. In the latter case, metabolic rates were increased relative to those of frogs acclimated in the dark.
Morphological and Histological Characteristics of Mammary Dysplasias Occurring in Cell Dissociation-derived Murine Mammary Outgrowths

The morphological and histological characteristics of ductal dysplasias that were observed in mammary outgrowths derived from monodispersed mammary cells of carcinogen-treated mice are described. Mammary outgrowths were derived by injecting either 10(4) or 10(5) enzymatically dissociated mammary cells, obtained from control or carcinogen-treated BALB/c mice, into gland-free mammary fat pads of syngeneic hosts. The mammary dysplasias observed varied considerably in morphological and histological characteristics. The majority of the lesions were ductal in origin and were associated with epithelial hyperplasia which ranged from mild hyperplasia, in which only a few extra layers of epithelium were present, to severe hyperplasia, in which the ducts and end buds were occluded and distended with epithelial cells. In addition, papillary and lobular lesions were observed which were also associated with varying degrees of hyperplasia. The range of mammary dysplasias observed in these outgrowths closely resembles that of lesions associated with the pathogenesis of mammary carcinoma in mice, rats, and humans.
Refereed paper: New thinking about information technology security

This is the last of three related papers exploring how contemporary computer architecture affects security. It brings together the concepts introduced in the earlier papers and presents a generalized approach to protection, isolation, and access control. We call this approach the Generalized Trusted Computing Base. Based upon the 'divide and conquer' approach) to achieving protection, understandability, and flexibility, the result is a more flexible solution than the rigid hierarchical organization identified in the Trusted Database Interpretation or the partitioning introduced in the Trusted Network Interpretation.
Quantitative Outcrop Data for Flow Simulation

ABSTRACT An architectural analysis documents variations in bedding geometry and rock properties within a tide-influenced deltaic sandstone exposed in the Cretaceous Frontier Formation of central Wyoming, USA. Digital maps of bedding, lithofacies, and diagenetic cements, as well as vertical logs of grain size, lithofacies, and permeability, describe rock properties that potentially influence fluid flow behavior. These records are used to construct simulation models that assess the relative importance of different types of geologic variability on prediction of subsurface fluid flow. Two 25-meter-thick tide-influenced deltaic sandstone bodies coarsen upward and contain inclined beds that reflect episodic delta-front progradation. Decimeters- to meters-thick beds within bodies alternate between cross-stratified sandstones formed during rapid flows and shales deposited during more quiescent conditions. Down depositional dip, bed-draping shales are more continuous and lithofacies within sandstone beds become finer-grained and increasingly heterolithic. As sandstone beds fine down dip, mean permeability values decrease and coefficients of variation increase, permeability values change from nearly normal distributions to highly right-skewed, and permeability values become more strongly spatially correlated. Nodular cements also affect permeability. All of these variations were modeled using stratigraphic cornerpoint grids that preserve stratal geometry and gridblocks with properties assigned using a combination of rock property maps and statistical models based on rock property logs. Simulations predict effects on fluid flow of geologic heterogeneity at different scales, the influences of process variables, and the effects of different methods of grid construction and rock property assignment. Flow simulations of water flooding through a 22 m thick by 360 m long segment of a deltaic sandstone oil reservoir predict that: (1) rapid flow through coarser-grained deposits at the top of the sandstone body tends to draw water upward; (2) thin shales draping sandstone beds shunt downdip-directed flow downward and updip-directed flow upward; (3) cement nodules cause more tortuous flow patterns but have little effect on recovery efficiency; (4) Methods of predicting intrafacies correlation of permeability have little effect on flow behavior at this scale. A simulation model constructed using a high-resolution Cartesian grid did not resolve the effects of inclined shales, demonstrating the usefulness of stratigraphic cornerpoint grids for modeling flow through complex geologic deposits. Flow simulations of tracer flow through a meter-thick cross-stratified bed within the deltaic sandstone body showed that at this scale shale drapes and models of the intrafacies distribution of permeability have statistically significant effects.
The energetic costs of alternative male reproductive strategies in Xiphophorus nigrensis

The coexistence of alternative male mating strategies depends on the balance between costs and benefits. Here we examine the short-term metabolic costs associated with distinct reproductive strategies in the genetically determined alternative male phenotypes of a northern swordtail, Xiphophorus nigrensis. In this species, large males court females, non-adorned small males chase females, and intermediate males exhibit both courtship and chase behaviors. Using intermittent flow respirometry, we measure oxygen consumption rates and behaviors of each size class in isolation and in the presence of a female. Changes in oxygen consumption between solitary and female presence trials (DeltaVO2) correlated significantly with standard length across all size classes (r = 0.42). Only the large male class exhibited a significant increase in oxygen consumption in female-present trials exhibiting a range of increase from 2 to 200% relative to solitary metabolic rates, but costs of specific courtship displays could not be demonstrated. Sword length explained 54-57% of the variation in oxygen consumption in large male solitary trials and 63-65% in the female-present trials independent of any behavioral correlation with sword length. Our results exhibit similarities to condition-dependent alternative mating systems where the female-favored phenotype has higher energetic costs.
A program anti-compiler

A description is given of CPU, a program analysis tool that converts programs into formal specifications. CPU takes as input a program plus a knowledge base of programming plans and finds instances of plans in the code. A technique called transformational analysis is used in which plans that are recognized in the code are replaced by descriptions of their goals. Both procedural plans and data-structuring plans can be recognized. The result of a transformational analysis is a hierarchical derivation of the program, where the topmost layer constitutes a formal specification for the input program, the bottommost layer is the original code, and the intermediate layers denote plans that were recognized in the program. This derivation can be used to generate summaries of the code and to answer questions about it. >
Consolidation analysis for partly saturated clay by using an elastic–plastic effective stress–strain model

The theory of consolidation is extended to partly saturated clay soils, and formulated for finite element analyses. This formulation couples the effects of both stress and flow. It takes account of variations of this permeability of the soil and compressibility of the pore fluid with changes in void ratio, and the non-linear stress–strain behaviour of soil. The Cam Clay model is revised to model the stress–strain behaviour of compacted soils. The compressibility of pore fluid is derived using Boyle's Law and Henry's Law, taking into account the effect of surface tension. An empirical equation is developed for permeability of pore fluid. An example of settlement of a footing on partly saturated soil is described and discussed.
Prenatal sonographic diagnosis of Grebe syndrome.

Grebe syndrome or Grebe-type chondrodysplasia, 1 first described in 2 sisters by Grebe, 2 , 3 is an autosomal recessive disorder resulting from abnormal skeletal development of the limbs. 4 The phenotype of this nonlethalchondrodysplasia is characterized by severe acromesomelic dysplasia and dysmorphic distal appendages in the context of normal development of the craniofacial and axial skeleton. Although considered a nonlethal chondrodysplasia, a number of cases of Grebe syndrome results in stillbirth or infant mortality. Children with Grebe syndrome have considerable physical limitations but normal intelligence. Obligate carriers have normal stature and can have a variety of mild skeletal abnormalities, including polydactyly, brachydactyly, and positional abnormalities. 4 , 5 Here, we report the prenatal diagnosis of Grebe syndrome based on targeted second-trimester sonography.
Cloud computing: a review of security issues and solutions

Cloud computing technology is an old concept which has become one of the most widespread technologies in the last few years. It is a pay-per-use service which enables users to perform computing services anytime and anywhere as long as an internet connection is available. There are four major cloud deployment models: public, private, community and hybrid. The cloud’s prominence originates from its valuable advantages. However, security issues threatening data confidentiality, integrity, availability and auditing in the cloud might hamper this technology diffusion. Thus, deciding whether or not to move to a cloud service provider, or rely on available IT resources to run a business, is indeed a critical step. This paper presents an overview of cloud computing and describes this technology in detail. It also summarises most of the current security issues menacing the cloud providers and users, and presents and summarises the available countermeasures to the proposed security issues.
Simulated Viterbi decoding using importance sampling

The simulation of Viterbi decoding often requires excessive computer time to estimate low bit error probabilities since large sample sizes are needed to produce the rare error events. In this paper, importance sampling for Viterbi decoding is featured as a means of reducing the number of samples required. This reduction is achieved by modifying or ‘biasing’ the noise statistics to produce more errors, and subsequently scaling the number of errors to produce the desired bit error probability. If the bias is chosen properly and the effective memory of the decoder is limited, a significant reduction in the sample size is shown to occur.
Stress Reactivity and Regulation in Infancy: Indicators, Correlates, and Methods of Soothing

Calming distressed infants is a topic of interest to all who provide care to the very young. The stress literature has indicated that both stress reactivity and regulation are of interest in examining stress. A review of literature was conducted to examine indicators of infant stress, correlates of infant stress, and methods of soothing distressed infants. Current research has provided an increasing ability to determine whether infants are experiencing stress, as indicators are not always obvious. Furthermore, observing infants while they are experiencing stress provides insights into individual differences with regard to stress reactivity and regulation at the earliest of ages. Such information provides insight to providing methods and effectiveness of soothing practices. Implications for parents and practitioners are explored.
The impact of sex on angioplasty and primary stenting for femoropopliteal occlusive disease: results of the DURABILITY II trial.

Background This study investigates the impact of sex on angioplasty and primary stenting for the treatment of claudicants with femoropopliteal occlusive disease (FPOD). Methods Two hundred eighty-seven patients enrolled in the Safety and Effectiveness Study of EverFlex Stent to Treat Symptomatic Femoral-popliteal Atherosclerosis (DURABILITY II) trial (a prospective, nonrandomized, core laboratory audited, and independently adjudicated investigational device exemption trial) were stratified by sex (190 men and 97 women) and reviewed. Results Women presented with FPOD at an older age than men (71.3 ± 11.2 vs. 65.9 ± 9.9 years; P < 0.001). Men were more likely to be hyperlipidemic (89.5% vs. 79.4%; P = 0.030). No other statistically significant differences were observed with regard to periprocedural comorbidities and demographics. Clinically, women presented more often with severe claudication (64.9% vs. 51.1%; P = 0.033) as compared with men that had more moderate claudication (44.2% vs. 29.9%; P = 0.022). The incidence of rest pain and tissue loss was low and did not vary between sexes. Angiographically, women had smaller reference vessels (4.4 ± 0.8 mm vs. 5.0 ± 0.9 mm; P < 0.001). Longer lesions (91.6 ± 46.8 mm vs. 87.8 ± 43.9 mm) and higher primary (79.0% vs. 76.5%), primary-assisted (90.6% vs. 85.1%), and secondary patency (90.6% vs. 85.7%) rates in women did not achieve statistical significance (P = NS). Mean percent stenosis and occlusion rates were similar between groups, but men were more likely to have severe calcification (47.9% vs. 34.0%; P = 0.020). Inter-Society Consensus for the Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease II classifications were similar between groups. The target lesion revascularization, major adverse event, and mortality rates were similar between groups. At baseline, the absolute claudication distance was 0.29 miles for men, while women only reached 0.14 miles (P < 0.0001). Walking improvement questionnaire scores were also compared; women had significantly lower scores at baseline and at 1 year. Conclusions Despite presenting with FPOD at a later age, with more severe claudication, a shorter absolute claudication distance, and smaller vessels than men, women achieved equal patency rates using angioplasty and primary stenting with similar target lesion revascularization, major adverse event, and mortality rates. Despite these findings, women subjectively have worse symptoms at baseline and at 1 year.
Post‐Socialist Peasant? Rural and Urban Constructions of Identity in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and the Former Soviet Union

Post-Socialist Peasant? Rural and Urban Constructions of Identity in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and the Former Soviet Union. Pamela Leonard and Deema Kaneff. eds. New York: Palgrave, 2002. vi +225 pp., index.
Limited and online supply and the bayesian foundations of prior-free mechanism design

We study auctions for selling a limited supply of a single commodity in the case where the supply is known in advance and the case it is unknown and must be instead allocated in an online fashion. The latter variant was proposed by Mahdian and Saberi [12] as a model of an important phenomena in auctions for selling Internet advertising: advertising impressions must be allocated as they arrive and the total quantity available is unknown in advance. We describe the Bayesian optimal mechanism for these variants and extend the random sampling auction of Goldberg et al. [8] to address the prior-free case.
The measurement of heart rate, posture, and motion in the study of psychological stress

It is a commonly held hypothesis that psychological stress is associated with arterial disease and its clinical consequences, such as myocardial infarction and cerebral stroke. An important mechanism is though to be the effects of acute stress on the cardiovascular system. Many studies have shown that acute laboratory stressors, such as difficult mental arithmetic or playing video games are associated with marked increases in blood pressure and heart rate in some people. If such increases are of significance in arterial disease then the must also occur in the same people to a significant extent in everyday life. This has been investigated in a series of studies all of which use the same paradigm. Subjects undergo a series of laboratory stress tasks and then a cardiovascular measure (usually heart rate) and control measures (such as activity) are taken over a normal day. Subjects complete diaries every 30 minutes in which they report on their mood and the stresses they are experiencing. The author then seeks to determine if the cardiovascular response to laboratory stress correlates with measures of cardiovascular responsiveness in real life. In implementing this paradigm the author has had to address a number of interesting measurement and analytic issues. (4 pages)
First Report of Late Blight Caused by Phytophthora infestans Clonal Lineage US-24 on Potato (Solanum tuberosum) in Wisconsin.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) crops are grown on over 25,090 ha in Wisconsin annually. Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) deBary, is a potentially devastating disease that affects tomato and potato crops in Wisconsin every few years when inoculum is introduced and weather conditions favor disease. Incidence and severity of late blight are highly variable in these few years due to differences in pathogen clonal lineages, their timing and means of introduction, and weather conditions. Prevention of this disease through prophylactic fungicide application can cost producers millions of dollars annually in additional chemical, fuel, and labor expenses. Populations of P. infestans in the U.S. have recently undergone significant genetic change, resulting in isolates with unique clonal lineages and epidemiological characteristics (1). In 2010, late blight epidemics were of low severity in discrete portions of a few fields and were seen exclusively on potato in two counties of central Wisconsin. Sy...
Cardiovascular risk factors and incident acute renal failure in older adults: the cardiovascular health study.

Background and objectives: Although the elderly are at increased risk for acute renal failure, few prospective studies have identified risk factors for acute renal failure in the elderly. Design, setting, participants, & measurements: The associations of cardiovascular disease risk factors, subclinical cardiovascular disease, and clinical coronary heart disease with the risk for development of acute renal failure were examined in older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective cohort study of community-dwelling older adults. Incident hospitalized cases of acute renal failure were identified through hospital discharge International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes and confirmed through physician diagnoses of acute renal failure in discharge summaries. Results: Acute renal failure developed in 225 (3.9%) of the 5731 patients during a median follow-up period of 10.2 yr. In multivariate analyses, diabetes, current smoking, hypertension, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen were associated with acute renal failure. Prevalent coronary heart disease was associated with incident acute renal failure, and among patients without prevalent coronary heart disease, subclinical vascular disease measures were also associated with acute renal failure: Low ankle-arm index (<0.9), common carotid intima-media thickness, and internal carotid intima-media thickness. Conclusions: In this large, population-based, prospective cohort study, cardiovascular risk factors and both subclinical and clinical vascular disease were associated with incident acute renal failure in the elderly. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 3: 450-456, 2008. doi: 10.2215/CJN.02610607
Design and analysis of a load balancing strategy in data grids

Developing Data Grids has increasingly become a major concern to make Grids attractive for a wide range of data-intensive applications. Storage subsystems are most likely to be a performance bottleneck in Data Grids and, therefore, the focus of this paper is to design and evaluate a data-aware load-balancing strategy to improve the global usage of storage resources in Data Grids. We build a model to estimate the response time of job running at a local site or remote site. In light of this model, we can calculate slowdowns imposed on jobs in a Data Grid environment. Next, we propose a load-balancing strategy that aims to balance load of a Data Grid in such a judicious way that computation and storage resources in each site are simultaneously well utilized. We conduct experiments using a simulated Data Grid to analyze the performance of the proposed strategy. Experimental results confirm that our load-balancing strategy can achieve high performance for data-intensive jobs in Data Grid environments.
Using Object Templates From The REA Accounting Model To Engineer Business Processes And Tasks

Conceptual models of enterprises can be used for both business process modeling and the actual design of computerized information systems.The Resource-Event-Agent (REA) model, a domain-specific framework for determining the information architecture of accounting and enterprise information systems, has primarily been used for design purposes.In this paper we explore the use of REA for business process modeling.At first, we discuss how REA primitives are used to describe the value-added transformation of resources throughout the enterprise. Next, we analyze some difficult specification problems that relate to business process modeling in general and to REA engineering solutions to these problems in particular.We conclude the paper with the specification of a three-layer architecture that summarizes the REA approach to business process modeling: (i) enterprise-level specification, (ii) REA-based process descriptions, and (iii) task-level or workflow specifications.The architecture shows that workflow descriptions can be related to the specification of the enterprise value chain through the medium of REA information structures.
Communicating Familial Support to People With Diabetes

The number of people with diabetes in the United States is estimated to surpass 330 million by 2030. Previous research has examined support provided by family and friends, finding it to be particularly important in combating stressful experiences, improving a person's awareness of his/her illness, and leading to better well-being. In the case of people with diabetes, supportive communication from family in particular has been related to lower diabetes distress. The present study examines the communication of support from the point of view of the family member who provides support to a person with diabetes, qualitatively examining the types of support family members of persons with diabetes provide as well as the difficulties they face in communicating that support.
Allocation of Functional Behavior to Geo-Information for Improved Disaster Planning and Management

This paper describes a novel modeling strategy that couples a systems engineering design approach borrowed from industry that allocates spatial features in a GIS to a design-driven hierarchical functional model. We show that establishing a design goal such as ‘evacuation’ can be decomposed into a hierarchy of related functions that enable evacuation (e.g., provide shelter, provide mobility) and that these functions can be mapped to a requirements perspective and used to develop a functional feature attribution scheme that is more risk-relevant than traditionally-attributed geo-information features in the disaster modeling context. We present a riverine flooding example of this methodology applied to assessing the vulnerability of lifeline systems, and describe how this modeling approach and the systems perspective may bring efficiencies to geo-information management and provide new insights to the modeling of risk in complex interdependent systems.
Breeding of the Salt Marsh Shrew

Salt marsh shrews ( Sorex vagrans halicoetes ) are common inhabitants of some of the San Francisco Bay salt marshes in California. Their numbers in favorable marshes form perhaps 10 per cent of the mammalian fauna present, the rest of which is chiefly composed of Microtus californicus, Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus , and Reithrodontomys raviventris , all of which are more abundant than shrews. There is no study yet reported on the biology of salt marsh shrews, and indeed little on the species S. vagrans throughout its range. Comparative material in this paper has been drawn mainly from Clothier (1955), Hamilton (1940), (1944), (1949), Jameson (1955), Blossom (1932), and Dehnel (1952); only the first of these deals with Sorex vagrans . Field work was done from 1949 to 1955, although the major part of this time was spent on studies other than this one. Trapping was undertaken on all San Francisco Bay marshes inhabited by S. v. halicoetes; observations on nesting activity were carried out on San Pablo marsh, Richmond, Contra Costa County; a collection of owl pellets was also made at this locality. Observations on captive shrews were made at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (Rudd, 1953). The environment .—The San Francisco Bay salt marshes are in an area of Mediterranean climate. Temperatures average perhaps 55° F. through the year, minima of 28° to 30° and maxima rarely of 90° to 100° occurring. Rainfall averages 18 to 25 inches a year and falls in the period from November to April. Thus, there is a long summer dry season. However, because of the summer high tides, dryness may reach critical levels for salt marsh shrews only in September and October. The lower parts of salt marshes, 3 to 6 feet above sea level, are …
The Great Debate: Roosevelt, the Media, and the Coming of the War, 1940–1941

For almost eighteen months before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, the United States had been edging toward confrontation with the Axis powers. Diplomatic and economic pressures on the Japanese moved the nation inexorably toward a showdown in the Pacific, while aid to Britain and naval policy in the Atlantic ultimately brought confrontation and conflict with Germany. As administration policy unfolded, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought public approval for measures short of war while preparing the American people to accept and to support total involvement should it become necessary. His leadership produced a surfeit of information and images suggesting the threat of Nazi aggression and the success of America's mobilization effort. But the president tended to be uncommunicative or vague on many policy issues and deliberately sought, with the collaboration of the mass media, to avoid controversy and to stifle national debate. The result was that when war did come, a great many Americans remained uncertain of the circumstances (beyond the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) that led them into global conflict. ' Roosevelt's public information strategy reflected in large measure the ambiguous situation he confronted. Historians are uncertain to this day of Roosevelt's intentions. Did he intend all along to take the nation to war, or simply to contain Adolf Hitler and the Japanese warlords by interventionist measures short of hostilities? David Reynolds argues persuasively that Roosevelt may never have been certain of the role the United States would play in the world conflict.2 If that is true, as seems likely, Roosevelt was not in a position to argue forthrightly either the necessity of American involvement in the war or the certainty that supplying Hitler's enemies would make it unnecessary. In refusing to commit himself publicly, he was reflecting his fear
Enucleation of cultured human cells.

SummaryHuman cells were found to have a biphasic response to high g force enucleation in the presence of cytochalasin B (CB). At higher g forces, enucleation is exquisitely CB dependent. At lower g forces, enucleation becomes independent of the concentration of CB and highly dependent upon temperature. Because of the ability to manipulate this part of the response with temperature, glutaraldehyde and amphoterocin B, it is suggested that at lower g forces the rigidity of the cell membrane becomes limiting for enucleation. Cells that are sensitive to enucleation at 1g would thus be sensitive because of a difference in the physical characteristics of their membranes, rather than a different sensitivity of their receptors to CB itself.The processes involved in enucleation were found to exhibit multi-hit kinetics, and were not specific for the nucleus. A model based on the ability of CB to disrupt a subplas-malemmal network of microfilaments is presented to explain these observations.
Physiologic principles of resuscitation and oxygen therapy.

For the past 50 years the English-speaking world has employed practically exclusively the prone pressure method of artificial respiration. During the war the method lost favor. There was no conviction that it provided more than minimum lung ventilation and it was realized that no one knew the real efficacy of the procedure. Measurements on fresh cadavers, on unconscious patients unable to breathe, and finally on anesthetized and curarized volunteers confirmed the distrust of prone pressure artificial respiration and led to trial of other procedures. Out of these observations the Danish Holger Nielsen method emerged as tlae best, and is discussed.
Agency and attitude Kant’s purposive conception of human rights

Critics charge that Kantian conceptions of human dignity and normative agency, which some suggest underwrite the modern doctrine of human rights, are parochial, unable to account for the dynamism a...
Mitochondrial biogenesis meets chemoresistance in BRAF-mutant melanoma

The acquisition of resistance to current mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors in B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase (BRAF) mutant melanoma is almost inevitable. Our recent findings identify therapy-induced mitochondrial biogenesis (MitoBiogenesis) and aberrant tumor bioenergetics as therapeutic escape mechanisms and offer a rational combinatorial strategy to further improve the efficacy of MAPK inhibitors.
Learning Hierarchical Relationships among Partially Ordered Objects with Heterogeneous Attributes and Links.

Objects linking with many other objects in an information network may imply various semantic relationships. Uncovering such knowledge is essential for role discovery, data cleaning, and better organization of information networks, especially when the semantically meaningful relationships are hidden or mingled with noisy links and attributes. In this paper we study a generic form of relationship along which objects can form a treelike structure, a pervasive structure in various domains. We formalize the problem of uncovering hierarchical relationships in a supervised setting. In general, local features of object attributes, their interaction patterns, as well as rules and constraints for knowledge propagation can be used to infer such relationships. Existing approaches, designed for specific applications, either cannot handle dependency rules together with local features, or cannot leverage labeled data to differentiate their importance. In this study, we propose a discriminative undirected graphical model. It integrates a wide range of features and rules by defining potential functions with simple forms. These functions are also summarized and categorized. Our experiments on three quite different domains demonstrate how to apply the method to encode domain knowledge. The efficacy is measured with both traditional and our newly designed metrics in the evaluation of discovered tree structures.
Paratesticular dermoid cyst in 6-month-old infant.

AbstractWe describe a 6-month-old male infant with a dermoid cyst of the left paratesticular region. To our knowledge, this represents the youngest patient reported with this rare benign teratoma. We advocate enucleation for this particular type of teratoma based on referenced histopathological criteria.
Reproductive Performance of Suffolk and Suffolk-Cross Ewes and Ewe Lambs Exposed to Vasectomized Rams before Breeding

Multiparous Suffolk and Suffolk-cross ewes were randomly allotted to treatments within breed and year to measure effects of ram exposure, during transition from anestrus to breeding activity, on reproductive performance. Treatments were: 1) ewes joined with two mature vasectomized Rambouillet rams for 15 d before breeding (DC), 2) ewes maintained across a net wire fence from two vasectomized rams for 15 d before breeding (FC) and 3) ewes maintained approximately 400 m away from rams (NC). At the end of the 15 d, all ewes were placed in one pasture and mated to three fertile Suffolk rams during a 34-d breeding season. A total of 96 Suffolk and 177 Suffolk-cross ewes was utilized during the 3-yr experiment. A greater (P less than .05) prebreeding ovulation percentage was observed in DC and FC than in NC ewes. Mating and lambing occurred approximately 6 d earlier for DC or FC ewes than for NC ewes. A similarly designed experiment was conducted using Suffolk and Suffolk-cross ewe lambs allotted to treatments within breed and year to measure effects of ram exposure during the natural breeding season, but prior to breeding. Treatment differences were not detected (P greater than .05) for date of first observed estrus, date of lambing, percentage of ewes lambing in the first 17 d of the lambing season, number of lambs born per ewe lamb exposed or number of lambs born per ewe lamb giving birth.
Death and other events after cardiac repair in discordant atrioventricular connection.

The 1 month, 1 year, and 10 year actuarial survival rates after operation among 99 consecutive patients with discordant atrioventricular connection who underwent intracardiac repair are 86 %, 75 %, and 68 %, respectively. The hazard function of death declines rapidly after operation to reach a low level 6 months postoperatively, and it becomes indistinguishable from that of a matched general population by 4 years. Risk factors for premature death include double-outlet right ventricle, complete heart block preoperatively or developing perioperatively, very young or older (>25 years) age, a high hematocrit value, and earlier date of operation. The last indicates improvement in results in recent years. Eleven (11 %) of 99 patients had complete heart block preoperatively, and 23 (26% of 88) developed it perioperatively. Patients with discordant ventriculoarterial connection (i.e., corrected transposition) had a lesser probability of developing heart block after repair than did those with other ventriculoarterial connections. Seventeen (17%) patients required tricuspid (pulmonary venous) valve replacement or repair at the original intracardiac operation, and eight additional patients developed important incompetence after repair. Among the risk factors for incompetence was an Ebstein-like anomaly of the tricuspid valve. Reoperations (three) for conduit obstruction have been no more common than in patients with concordant atrioventricular connection. Fifty-seven (81%) of 70 surviving patients are in New York Heart Association Class I and 12 (17 %) in Class II. This, and the single-phase hazard function, indicate that the overall results of cardiac repair in patients with atrioventricular discordant connection could become excellent if the early risks were overcome.
L-Polynomials Orthogonal on the Unit Circle

Two sequences {σn} and {τn} of L-polynomials are derived which are orthogonal with respect to a linear functional M on Λ and span Λ. The sequences occur as denominators of approximants of a modified PC-fraction. Three term recursion relations for the sequence {σn} as well as for {τn} are derived.
High frequency full-bridge Class-D inverter using eGaN® FET with dynamic dead-time control

Wireless Power Transmission Systems (WPTSs) that use capacitive or inductive coupled resonators need to be designed at MHz frequencies to avoid large passive components. The advent of high-frequency high-power enhancement-mode Gallium Nitride (eGaN) FETs has made the idea of MHz switch-mode power inverters with higher efficiency compared to linear power amplifiers more realizable. One of the major challenges of this type of inverter is how to maintain soft switching through Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) over a full range of output power control. This paper presents a ZVS Class-D full-bridge inverter designed at 13.56 MHz with dynamic dead-time control to maintain smooth transition while linearly controlling the output power. Simulation results and ZVS analysis presented show that dynamically changing the dead-time during input voltage control can prevent large current spikes and associated high switching loss on the switches.
Dynamic logic selection for unmanned aircraft separation

The ACAS Xu program has developed both a horizontal and vertical collision avoidance logic to enable unmanned aircraft to avoid manned aircraft. Each logic supports a variety of surveillance sources and is individually capable of providing a significant safety benefit. This paper proposes a logic selection function that can effectively arbitrate between the horizontal and vertical logics to achieve an overall safety benefit without requiring the use of simultaneous horizontal and vertical maneuvers. Monte Carlo simulations show that the logic selection function can provide a performance benefit for a variety of surveillance sources.
Guiding the design of bacterial signaling interactions using a coevolutionary landscape

The selection of amino acid identities that encode new interactions between two-component signaling (TCS) proteins remains a significant challenge. Recent work constructed a co- evolutionary landscape that can be used to select mutations to maintain signal transfer interactions between partner TCS proteins without introducing signal transfer between non-partners (crosstalk). A bigger challenge is to introduce mutations between non-natural partner TCS proteins using the landscape to enhance, suppress, or have a neutral effect on their basal signal transfer rates. This study focuses on the selection of mutations to a response regulator (RR) from Bacilus subtilis and its effect on phosphotransfer with a histidine kinase (HK) from Escherichia Coli . Twelve single-point mutations of the RR protein are selected from the landscape and experimentally expressed to directly test the theoretical predictions on the effect of signal transfer. Differential Scanning Calorimetry is used to monitor any protein stability effects caused by the mutations, which could be detrimental to proper protein function. Of these proteins, seven mutants successfully perturb phosphoryl transfer activity in the computationally predicted manner between the TCS proteins. Furthermore, brute-force exhaustive mutagenesis approaches indicate that only 1% of mutations result in enhanced activity. In comparison, of the six mutations predicted to enhance phosphotransfer, two mutations exhibit a significant enhancement while two mutations are comparable to the wild-type. Thus co-evolutionary landscape theory offers significant improvement over traditional large-scale mutational studies in the efficiency of selecting mutations for protein engineering and design.
RATIONALE FOR THE USE OF GENE THERAPY FOR CRITICAL ILLNESS

Management of critically ill patients includes many challenges for physicians dedicated to their care. Treating these patients is complex, not only because of the acute and continuously changing manifestations of severe illnesses, but also because of the various complications that arise from invasive monitoring and therapy. Much progress has been made since the advent of Intensive Care Units (ICUs), mainly through improved supportive care. Even though current ICU care has translated into a reduction in ICU mortality, not much ground has been gained in the management of the specific disease processes that contribute to ICU mortality. Among these disease processes, acute lung injury (ALI) and its more severe form, the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) are clearly the most common contributors to unfavorable outcomes. Despite the institution of standard therapy aimed at the underlying process, many patients die secondary to the deleterious effects of the exaggerated systemic inflammatory response and end-organ damage seen in these disease states.
House Dust Mite-Induced Allergic Airway Disease Is Independent of IgE and FcεRIα.

IgE contributes to disease exacerbations but not to baseline airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in human asthma. In rodent allergic airway disease (AAD), mast cell and IgE dependence for the induction of AHR has only been observed when mice are immunized with a relatively weak allergen without adjuvant. To evaluate the role of IgE in murine AAD that is induced by a potent allergen, we inoculated BALB/c and FVB/N background wild-type and IgE- or FceRIα-deficient mice intratracheally with large or limiting doses of house dust mite extract (HDM) and evaluated AHR, pulmonary eosinophilia, goblet cell metaplasia, serum IgE, and lung mastocytosis. We found that neither IgE nor FceRIα contributed to AAD, even in mice inoculated with the lowest dose of HDM, which readily induced detectable disease, but did not increase serum IgE or pulmonary mast cell levels. In contrast, high doses of HDM strikingly increased serum IgE and pulmonary mast cells, although both AHR and airway mast cell degranulation were equally elevated in wild-type and IgE-deficient mice. Surprisingly, allergen challenge of mice with severe AAD and pulmonary mastocytosis failed to acutely increase airway resistance, lung Newtonian resistance, or hysteresis. Overall, this study shows that, although mice may not reliably model acute asthma exacerbations, mechanisms that are IgE and FceRIα independent are responsible for AHR and airway inflammation when low doses of a potent allergen are inhaled repetitively.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Pain Management

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to solve problems concerning dysfunctional emotions, behaviors, and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systematic procedure. CBT is used in diverse ways to designate behavior therapy and cognitive therapy and to refer to therapy based upon a combination of basic behavioral and cognitive research. There is empirical evidence that CBT is effective for the treatment of a variety of problems, including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, substance abuse, psychotic disorders, and pain management. CBT is used in individual therapy as well as group settings, and the techniques are often adapted for self-help applications. CBT was primarily developed through a merging of behavior therapy with cognitive therapy. Many CBT treatment programs for specific disorders and pain management have been evaluated for efficacy and effectiveness; the health care trend of evidence-based treatment, where specific treatments for symptom-based diagnoses are recommended, has favored CBT over other approaches such as psychodynamic treatments. CBT is recommended as the treatment of choice for a number of mental health difficulties, including post-traumatic stress disorder, OCD, bulimia nervosa, clinical depression, and the neurological condition chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis. CBT is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. CBT does not exist as a distinct therapeutic technique. There are several approaches to CBT, including rational emotive behavior therapy, rational behavior therapy, rational living therapy, cognitive therapy, and dialectic behavior therapy. However, most CBTs have the following characteristics: (1) CBT is based on the cognitive model of emotional response, and (2) CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors, not external things, like people, situations, and events. The benefit of this fact is that we can change the way we think to feel and act better even if the situation does not change.
A point-source outbreak of Coccidioidomycosis among a highway construction crew

Coccidioidomycosis is an infection caused by inhaling spores of the soil fungus Coccidioides immitis (hereafter termed Cocci). Cocci is endemic in certain areas of California. When soil containing ...
Axiomatizing Changing Conceptions of the Geometric Continuum I: Euclid-Hilbert

We begin with a general account of the goals of axiomatization, introducing a variant (modest) on Detlefsen’s notion of ‘complete descriptive axiomatization’. We examine the distinctions between the Greek and modern view of number, magnitude and proportion and consider how this impacts the interpretation of Hilbert’s axiomatization of geometry. We argue, as indeed did Hilbert, that Euclid’s propositions concerning polygons, area, and similar triangles are derivable (in their modern interpretation in terms of number) from Hilbert’s first order axioms. We argue that Hilbert’s axioms including continuity show much more than Euclid’s theorems on polygons and basic results in geometry and thus are an immodest complete descriptive axiomatization of that subject.