cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dual-Polarized Embroidered Textile Armband Antenna Array With Omnidirectional Radiation for On-/Off-Body Wearable Applications

In this article, a novel dual-polarized embroidered textile antenna array with an omnidirectional radiation pattern is proposed for both on- and off-body wearable applications. The flexible antenna is composed of a group of circularly oriented dual-polarized patch antennas excited with uniform amplitude and phase. The antenna array can be wrapped around a cylinder, such as an arm or a leg, for realizing a quasi-omnidirectional radiation pattern in the azimuthal plane, which is highly desirable in both on-body and off-body wearable applications. The operating principles and design consideration for how to achieve the omnidirectional radiation and how to avoid radiation nulls are investigated in detail. Moreover, these analytical studies are verified through the experimental results. In addition, a dual orthogonal polarization capability is employed to improve the link reliability. Due to the high front-to-back ratio (FBR) exhibited by each patch antenna element, the proposed omnidirectional antenna array also features a low specific absorption rate (SAR) and high efficiency, which are extremely important for wearable applications. As a proof-of-concept, an antenna array prototype operating at 5.8 GHz is designed, fabricated, and tested. The measured results agree reasonably well with the simulations in terms of S-parameters, polarization isolation, and radiation patterns, demonstrating that the proposed antenna array is ideally suited for potential wearable applications.
Improving the Bilirubin Management Program in the Newborn Nursery: Background, Aims, and Protocol.

Background Practices to detect and manage hyperbilirubinemia in newborn nurseries are highly variable. American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines in 1999, 2004, and 2009 have generated, perhaps unintentionally, divergent practices that might not all be of equivalent value. Evidence-based progress is needed to define less invasive, less expensive, uniform, and safe methods to reduce ER visits and hospital readmissions for jaundice treatment and bilirubin encephalopathy. Objectives This research briefing is intended to inform readers of a new prospective quality improvement program aimed at testing the value of specific changes in newborn nursery hyperbilirubinemia detection and management. This new program includes predetermined means of assessing those specific changes, which relate to diagnosis, safety, outcomes, and cost. Methods In this briefing, we present the perceived problems in our present bilirubin management system, as voiced by stakeholders. We report our proposed means to test minimization of those problems utilizing already acquired data on approximately 400,000 well babies in the Intermountain Healthcare system of hospitals in the western USA. We then describe our methods of assessing specific outcomes in a pre- versus postpractice change analysis. Results and conclusions The University of Utah Newborn Nursery will implement a quality improvement project in bilirubin management during 2020 to test the feasibility and effectiveness of several changes to our current bilirubin management program. We maintain that the improved understanding generated by this project will be a step toward new evidence-based strategies for reducing ER visits and hospital readmissions for jaundice treatment and preventing bilirubin encephalopathy.
Association Between Steroid-Sparing Therapy and the Risk of Perianal Fistulizing Complications Among Young Patients With Crohn Disease.

Importance Perianal fistulizing complications (PFCs) develop in 15% to 30% of patients with Crohn disease (CD), are difficult to treat, worsen quality of life, increase cost of care, and commonly recur. Evidence-based strategies to prevent PFCs are lacking. Objectives To investigate the effectiveness of medical therapy for reducing risk of PFCs among young people with CD and to test the hypothesis that steroid-sparing therapy (SST) use would be associated with reduced risk of PFC development. Design, Setting, and Participants In this comparative effectiveness analysis of commercial administrative claims from January 1, 2001, through June 30, 2016, patients who did or did not initiate SST were matched via propensity score to adjust for all available confounders. Using Optum’s Clinformatics Data Mart, a deidentified database of US commercial administrative claims, all patients aged 5 to 24 years with CD (January 1, 2001, through June 30, 2016) were identified. The index date was the CD diagnosis date. Patients with PFCs or SST use at or before CD diagnosis were excluded. The dates of analysis were October 2017 to February 2020. Exposures The primary exposure of interest was SST initiation, including immunomodulators and/or anti–tumor necrosis factor α (anti-TNFα) medications, initiated before either PFC development or the end of the study period. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was PFC development. Propensity score matching was used to balance baseline characteristics. Cox proportional hazards multivariable regression analyses were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs for PFC development. Results Among 2214 young people with CD without PFCs identified, the mean (SD) age at CD diagnosis was 17.0 (4.5) years, and 1151 (52.0%) were male. Among the cohort, 1242 patients (56.1%) initiated SST before PFC development or the end of 24-month follow-up. After propensity score matching, 972 patients remained in each treatment group. Overall, 384 of 1944 (19.8%) developed PFCs within 2 years of the index date. The use of SST was associated with a 59% decreased risk of PFC development (hazard ratio [HR], 0.41; 95% CI, 0.33-0.52;P Conclusions and Relevance In this study, PFC development was common among young patients with CD. The use of SST was lower than expected. Compared with no SST, patients who initiated SST were 59% less likely to develop PFCs and fewer underwent ostomy. These results indicate that PFCs may be preventable and emphasize the importance of considering SST for all patients with CD.
A compact, high resolution energy, and emittance diagnostic for electron beams using active plasma lenses

High-resolution (sub-%), single-shot energy distribution, and emittance measurements of GeV-class electron beams generated by laser plasma accelerators (LPAs) have been enabled through the use of an active plasma lens combined with relatively short dipole magnets. This setup, with only 60 cm between the LPA source and the final diagnostic screen, was facilitated through the use of a replenishable ∼20–40 nm thick liquid crystal plasma mirror to separate remnant laser radiation from the electron beam without emittance degradation. As LPAs capable of generating GeV-class electron beams at cm-scale distances become increasingly ubiquitous, there is a need to supplement these compact accelerators with equally compact diagnostics.
High Throughput Screen Identifies the DNMT1 (DNA Methyltransferase-1) Inhibitor, 5-Azacytidine, as a Potent Inducer of PTEN (Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog): Central Role for PTEN in 5-Azacytidine Protection Against Pathological Vascular Remodeling.

Objective: Our recent work demonstrates that PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog) is an important regulator of smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotype. SMC-specific PTEN deletion promotes spontaneous v...
Concurrent and Concordant Oral and Genital High-Risk Human Papillomavirus in the United States: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

BACKGROUND Oropharyngeal cancers associated with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection are increasing in the United States, especially among men. We evaluated the prevalence and predictors of concurrent (genital and oral) and concordant (same-type) HR-HPV infections in the United States. METHODS We used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2009 to 2016. Predictors were assessed via multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS Among 10 334 respondents, 172 (2.1%) had concurrent infections (109 [3.5%] men and 63 [0.76%] women]. Ninety-three (1.0%) had concordant infections (54 [1.6%] men and 39 [0.5%] women). Predictors of concurrence in men included the following: no longer married versus married (odds ratio [OR], 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-4.9), living with a partner versus married (3.0; 1.2-7.5), and having 2-5 lifetime oral sex partners (3.0; 1.2-7.5). In women they included the following: no longer married versus married (3.6; 1.3-10.3), ≥2 recent sex partners (4.6; 1.4-15.6 for 2-5 partners and 3.9; 1.1-14.3 for ≥6 partners), and marijuana use (2.2; 1.0-4.5). The predictor of concordance in men and women was no longer married versus married (3.5; 1.2-9.9 in men and 3.2; 1.1-9.4 in women). CONCLUSIONS Concurrent and concordant HR-HPV infections occur at a high rate, especially among men, and are associated with behavioral factors. This underscores the importance of HPV vaccination, screening, and education in men.
Signaling and Other Functions of Lipids in Autophagy: A Review

The process of autophagy is integral to cellular function. In this process, proteins, organelles, and metabolites are engulfed in a lipid vesicle and trafficked to a lysosome for degradation. Its central role in protein and organelle homeostasis has piqued interest for autophagy dysfunction as a driver of pathology for a number of diseases including cancer, muscular disorders, neurological disorders, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. For much of its history, the study of autophagy has centered around proteins, however, due to advances in mass spectrometry and refined methodologies, the role of lipids in this essential cellular process has become more apparent. This review discusses the diverse endogenous lipid compounds shown to mediate autophagy. Downstream lipid signaling pathways are also reviewed in the context of autophagy regulation. Specific focus is placed upon the Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor (PPAR) signaling pathways as integration hubs for lipid regulation of autophagy.
Reconsidering Nietzsche and Politics

A review of two distinctive yet, in the end, complementary approaches to reviving Nietzsche as a political thinker beyond his early reception as a prophet of National Socialism or subsequently as a...
Complex and Entangled Public Policy: Here Be Dragons

The tools and concepts of the emerging field of complexity science—like agent-based modeling, network theory, and machine learning—can offer powerful insights to economists and crafters of public policy. Complexity science enables us to explicitly model relationships between individuals and institutions, asymmetric information and influence, the emergence of unplanned emergent social orders, and dynamically adaptive individuals. In the last few decades the tools of complexity science have been applied to the problem of public goods provision, correcting hypothesized behavioral biases, and raising the efficiency of policy implementation. These analyses often lack public choice perspectives, which may complicate and even obviate their findings when the designer becomes entangled with the complex structures in his models. Furthermore, there remains a good deal of work to be done to harmonize traditional public choice work with the tools and insights of complexity science. Uncharted waters must eventually be charted; we hope to begin in such a way that avoids the worst of the dragons.
Quantum Contagion: A Quantum-Like Approach for the Analysis of Social Contagion Dynamics with Heterogeneous Adoption Thresholds.

Modeling the information of social contagion processes has recently attracted a substantial amount of interest from researchers due to its wide applicability in network science, multi-agent-systems, information science, and marketing. Unlike in biological spreading, the existence of a reinforcement effect in social contagion necessitates considering the complexity of individuals in the systems. Although many studies acknowledged the heterogeneity of the individuals in their adoption of information, there are no studies that take into account the individuals’ uncertainty during their adoption decision-making. This resulted in less than optimal modeling of social contagion dynamics in the existence of phase transition in the final adoption size versus transmission probability. We employed the Inverse Born Problem (IBP) to represent probabilistic entities as complex probability amplitudes in edge-based compartmental theory, and demonstrated that our novel approach performs better in the prediction of social contagion dynamics through extensive simulations on random regular networks.
Modeling the System Dynamics of Irrigators' Resilience to Climate Change in a Glacier-Influenced Watershed

Glacier-dependent streams and irrigation systems in the Hood River Watershed (HRW) are particularly vulnerable to climate change, as glaciers retreat and snowpack declines. We developed a system dy...
IgG4-Related Diseases and the Mesentery

IgG4 is increasingly recognized as a pathophysiologic component of a variety of diseases. These include type 1 autoimmune pancreatitis, IgG4-related sclerosing cholangitis, retroperitoneal fibrosis, chronic sclerosing aortitis and periaortitis. Some cases of sclerosing mesenteritis, a fibrosing form of mesenteric panniculitis has been classified as IgG4-related. IgG4-related disease can affect a large number of organ systems. In most cases, more than one organ system is involved. Clinical manifestations of these conditions are dependent on the organ systems that are involved and the duration of illness. These can range from the subacute development of painless organ enlargement to severe conditions such as obstructive renal failure in patients with retroperitoneal fibrosis. Treatment consists of high doses of glucocorticoids, followed by prolonged tapering. A variety of immunosuppressive agents, (including rituximab) either alone or in combination are treatment options in patients who fail or relapse on glucocorticoid therapy. Maintenance immunosuppressive therapy is considered in patients with severe organ damage or relapsing disease.
Impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on survival and neurologic outcomes in adults with in-hospital cardiac arrest.

Background Little data exists regarding the association of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on outcomes in the setting of in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). We sought to assess the impact of COPD on mortality and neurologic outcomes in adults with IHCA. Methods The study population included 593 consecutive hospitalized patients with IHCA undergoing ACLS-guided resuscitation at an academic tertiary medical center from 2012-2018. The primary and secondary outcomes of interest were survival to discharge and favorable neurological outcome (defined as a Glasgow Outcome Score of 4-5) respectively. Results Of the 593 patients studied, 162 (27.3%) had COPD while 431 (72.7%) did not. Patients with COPD were older, more often female, and had higher Charlson Comorbidity score. Location of cardiac arrest, initial rhythm, duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and rates of defibrillation and return of spontaneous circulation were similar in both groups. Patients with COPD had significantly lower rates of survival to discharge (10.5% vs 21.6%, p = 0.002) and favorable neurologic outcomes (7.4% vs 15.9%, p = 0.007). In multivariable analyses, COPD was independently associated with lower rates of survival to discharge [odds ratio (OR) 0.54, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.30-0.98, p = 0.041]. Conclusions In this contemporary prospective registry of adults with IHCA, COPD was independently associated with significantly lower rates of survival to discharge.
Thermoresponsive Microcapsules for Autonomic Lithium-ion Battery Shutdown

Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in consumer electronics applications such as cellular phones and computers. However, there are safety concerns, such as external heating, over-charging, high current charging, or physical damage, which prevent their full market acceptance. Autonomic shutdown of lithium-ion batteries, through functionalization of battery electrodes with thermoresponsive microcapsules, is proposed as a fail-safe mechanism. The proposed concept relies on monomer-filled microcapsules that can be triggered to rupture within a desired temperature range and deliver an electrically isolating core to the electrode surface to shut down the battery cell. Preparation of thermoresponsive microcapsules that can be triggered to rupture using a low-boiling point solvent and deliver a thermally polymerizable core is described. Additionally, we demonstrate that the rupture temperature can be controlled by appropriate selection of microencapsulated trigger solvents. Initial work on the coating of battery materials with thermoresponsive spheres is also described.
What should a surface in 4-space look like?

We wish to investigate spaces of dimension greater than three and in particular surfaces in 4-dimensional space. Such surfaces can be knotted. Our explorations include mathematical and visualization tools.
Women's Health, Neurology of

The risk factors, treatment regimens, and prognoses of many neurological diseases and injuries differ enormously between the sexes. Men and women differ in the timing of onset, severity, manifestation, and prognosis of a broad range of neurological and psychiatric disorders including neurodegenerative diseases, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, depressive disorders, Alzheimer's disease, and others. A combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors undoubtedly contributes to these sex differences. This entry focuses on the roles of ovarian steroid hormones, especially estrogens and progesterone, and their contributions to women's neurological health. Sex steroids have widespread effects on normal neurobiological development and behavior, and they play roles in the manifestation and treatment of neurological dysfunctions. How hormones can have an impact on the physiology and behavior and change the responses to neurological injury and disease is becoming increasingly well understood and accepted through basic research and is applied to clinical practice.
Near-infrared spectroscopy of 3:1 Kirkwood Gap asteroids III

Abstract The research is an integrated effort beginning with telescopic observations and extending through detailed mineralogical characterizations to provide constraints on the composition and meteorite affinities of a subset of fourteen asteroids in/near the 3:1 Kirkwood Gap. Eight asteroids were identified as having either one or two absorption features, while six were deemed featureless. The compositional analysis of Asteroids (355) Gabriella and (1447) Utra reveal Fs and Fa values which are consistent with values for the L-type ordinary chondrites (Fs19–22 and Fa22–26). The location of these two bodies with respect to each other and to the previously identified L-chondrite parent body Asteroid (1722) Goffin, suggests a small L-chondrite genetic family. These results support the model that the L-chondrites come from an asteroid family rather than from a single object. Asteroids (1368) Numidia, (1587) Kahrstadt, (1854) Skvortsov, (2497) Kulikovskij, and (5676) Voltaire were analyzed and determined to have “basaltic” silicate mineralogies similar to those of the HED (howardite–eucrite–diogenite) meteorite group. In particular, we found that the compositions of (1368), (1587) and (1854) are consistent with olivine-orthopyroxenitic diogenites, while (2497) and (5676)’s compositions are consistent with harzburgitic diogenites. The Band I and Band II absorption feature depths are much shallower than seen in diogenite spectra, typically ∼70% depth (Burbine, T.H. et al. [2000]. Forging asteroid–meteorite relationships through reflectance spectroscopy. Lunar Planet. Sci. XXXI. Abstract 1844). The nature of the weak features seen in the asteroid spectra when compared to measured band depths of in situ diogenite samples indicate an additional mechanism(s) acting to weaken the features, most likely space weathering. The aforementioned five asteroids are plausible sources for the olivine-orthopyroxenitic diogenites and harzburgitic diogenites, and very well may be fragments of Vesta. Asteroid (46) Hestia is an interesting object whose surface minerals may be consistent with a CR2 chondrite; however, the unique spectrum deserves further study in the future. Featureless Asteroids (248) Lameia, (1960) Guisan, (3345) Tarkovskij and (6212) 1993 MS1 surface materials are likely organic assemblages consistent with the Type 1 or 2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorite class; however specific terrestrial meteorite analog could not be identified. The spectra of Asteroids (3228) Pire and (3999) Aristarchus are consistent with each other and have been assigned to the Eulalia by Walsh et al. (Walsh, K.J. et al. [2013]. Icarus 225, 283–297). Spectrally they are similar to (495) in terms of blue-slope and albedo (Fieber-Beyer, S.K., et al. [2012]. Icarus 221, 593–602), thus increasing our confidence the three bodies are truly related dynamically and genetically. By extrapolation and due to their location adjacent to the 3:1 Kirkwood Gap, (3228) and (3999) are plausible sources of the CV3OXB carbonaceous chondrites.
SENTENCES, SITUATIONS, AND PROPOSITIONS

Abstract Sentences are about situations. How to represent the situations that sentences describe is an important problem for AI. In particular, it is useful for a representation to provide entities corresponding to individual situations, and to be able to represent facts about a situation separately from stating that something is a situation of a particular field. Most semantic network formalisms seem to achieve one of these criteria at the expense of the other. However, it is possible to achieve both criteria by extending the usual ontology of situations. Such an extended ontology poses a number of questions about the representation of situations corresponding to sentences designating states, about the representation of situations corresponding to sentences involving logical connectives, about the propositional objects, and the equality of situations and of propositions. Some of the implications entailed in resolving these questions are surprising. For example, a proper treatment of propositional objects seems to eliminate the need for intensions per se.
Impact of Sales Constraints and Entry on E85 Demand

In a recent paper, we estimated the potential demand for ethanol consumed in E85 using an estimated distribution of E85 acceptance by consumers and by calculating the average distance that owners of flex vehicles would have to drive to find an existing gas station that sells the fuel. Two issues that we did not address that will help determine how much E85 will actually be consumed in the future are: (a) the impact on demand from an increase in the number of gas stations that sell E85, and (b) sales capacity constraints at individual stations. It is reasonable to expect that owners of flex vehicles will seek out E85 if the cost per mile traveled with E85 is lower than with regular gasoline. However, there is a practical limit on how much fuel an individual station can sell in a given period. The quantities of ethanol use that we projected when E85 is discounted would exceed the volume that average gasoline stations can actually sell. Not taking these practical limits into account overstates the amount of ethanol that actually would be sold
Synthesis of Nonlinear Control Strategies from Fuzzy Logic Control Algorithms

Abstract Fuzzy control has been recognized as an alternative to conventional control techniques in situations where the plant model is not sufficiently well known to warrant the application of conventional control techniques. Precisely what fuzzy control does and how it does what it does is not quite clear, however. This paper deals with this important issue and in particular shows how a given fuzzy control scheme can resolve into a nonlinear control law and that in those situations the success of fuzzy control hinges on its ability to compensate for nonlinearities in plant dynamics.
The Integration of Periodic Markets in Mayan Guatemala: A Gravity Approach

Abstract Purpose Mayan towns in the Guatemalan highlands hold periodic markets on specific days of the week. A market is attended by local townspeople, by peasants residing in the town’s hinterland, and by vendors bringing wares from other towns. This study aims to determine the effects of physical, environmental, and cultural differences on the number of vendors that are sent from one Guatemalan town to a periodic market in another. Design/methodology/approach To understand how these markets are integrated, a gravity model is developed, examining the flow of vendors from 85 towns of residence to 15 market towns. In this model, the flow of vendors from one town to another is a function not only of physical distance, but of ecological complementarities, of linguistic differences, of road access, and of demographic endowments. Findings Results show that traveling vendors in these periodic markets do indeed integrate Guatemala both ethnically and ecologically, serving as a place in which different ethnic groups meet and bring in products that cannot be produced locally. Results also suggest that participation in markets is part of a diversified set of activities used by rural peasants to support their households.
Hazards Insurance: A Brief History

This article briefly surveys the historical development of insurance against natural hazards and acts of God, including marine, fire, and wind hazards, leading to the rise of modern property-casualty insurance companies. Keywords: fire insurance; Extended Coverage (EC); property-casualty insurance
You Assume, We Guarantee: Methodology and Case Studies

Assume-guarantee reasoning has long been advertised as an important method for decomposing proof obligations in system verification. Refinement mappings (homomorphisms) have long been advertised as an important method for solving the language-inclusion problem in practice. When confronted with large verification problems, we therefore attempted to make use of both techniques. We soon found that rather than offering instant solutions, the success of assume-guarantee reasoning depends critically on the construction of suitable abstraction modules, and the success of refinement checking depends critically on the construction of suitable witness modules. Moreover, as abstractions need to be witnessed, and witnesses abstracted, the process must be iterated. We present here the main lessons we learned from our experiments, in limn of a systematic and structured discipline for the compositional verification of reactive modules. An infrastructure to support this discipline, and automate parts of the verification, has been implemented in the tool Mocha.
Radial profiles of arcjet flow properties measured with laser-induced fluorescence of atomic nitrogen

Radial profile measurements of absolute atomic nitrogen density, temperature, and velocity using two photon laser-induced fluorescence in the NASA Ames Aerodynamic Heating Facility (AHF) are reported. Improvements in experimental technique and calibration procedure significantly reduced measurement uncertainties compared to previous efforts. The addition of a traversing system within the AHF test cabin permitted, for the first time, radial measurements of the three flow properties during a single arcjet run. Typical measurement uncertainties are 12% for absolute N density, 10-30% for temperature, and 3% for velocity. Details of the measurement technique, optical configuration, data analysis procedures, and results of two repeated demonstration runs in air/Ar flows are presented.
COST EFFICIENCY OF CATFISH FARMS IN CHICOT COUNTY, ARKANSAS: THE IMPACT OF EXTENSION SERVICES

Cost efficiency measures of a sample of catfish farms in Chicot County, Arkansas are estimated using a data envelopment analysis technique. A measure of overall efficiency is used to determine operator's characteristics, farm practices, and institutional support services that are likely to lead to higher farm level cost efficiency. Results indicate that live catfish production could increase by 55% using the same level of inputs if all farms were operating at the minimum average cost curve. Higher feeding rate and availability of extension services were associated with increased cost efficiency. Higher stocking density affected overall efficiency negatively. The marginal value of extension contacts in Chicot County was estimated to be $2988. This study was conducted when catfish prices were at the lowest level in ten years. Some of the results are indicative of farms struggling to meet short-run financial obligations rather than normal farm practices.
Women's legal rights over 50 years : what is the impact of reform ?

This study uses a newly compiled database of women's property rights and legal capacity covering 100 countries over 50 years to test for the impact of legal reforms on employment, health, and education outcomes for women and girls. The database demonstrates gender gaps in the ability to access and own property, sign legal documents in one's own name, and have equality or non-discrimination as a guiding principle of the country's constitution. In the initial period, 75 countries had gender gaps in at least one of these areas and often multiple ones. By 2010, 57 countries had made reforms that strengthened women's economic rights, including 28 countries that had eliminated all of the constraints monitored here. In the cross-section and within countries over time, the removal of gender gaps in rights is associated with greater participation of women in the labor force, greater movement out of agricultural employment, higher rates of women in wage employment, lower adolescent fertility, lower maternal and infant mortality, and higher female educational enrollment. This paper provides evidence on how the strengthening of women's legal rights is associated with important development outcomes.
Can Options Be Used as a Hedging Instrument

We develop a portfolio choice model for farmers faced with both price and production uncertainty who can hedge this uncertainty using both options and futures contracts. We then simulate the decision process of a typical Iowa farmer and derive his or her optimal options and futures position.
Diagnostic Tests, Evaluation of†

This entry reviews issues in the evaluation of individual diagnostic tests, or the comparison of two alternative tests. Measures of test accuracy are described, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method of analysis is mentioned. Various biases that may affect the evaluation of a diagnostic test are reviewed. Parametric and nonparametric methods to compare two tests are indicated, and issues concerning the design of studies to evaluate diagnostic tests are summarized. Keywords: accuracy; receiver operating characteristic curve; bias; test comparisons; study design
Spectral representation of neutral landscapes

Pattern in ecological landscapes is often the result of different processes operating at different scales. Neutral landscape models were introduced in landscape ecology to differentiate patterns that are the result of simple random processes from patterns that arise from more complex ecological processes. Recent studies have used increasingly complex neutral models that incorporate contagion and other constraints on random patterns, as well as using neutral landscapes as input to spatial simulation models. Here, I consider a common mathematical framework based on spectral transforms that represents all neutral landscape models in terms of sets of spectral basis functions. Fractal and multi-fractal models are considered, as well as models with multiple scaling regions and anisotropy. All of the models considered are shown to be variations on a basic theme: a scaling relation between frequency and amplitude of spectral components. Two example landscapes examined showed long-range correlations (distances up to 1000 km) consistent with fractal scaling.
Adaptive service placement algorithms for autonomous service networks

Motivated by trends in the industry towards transforming IT in large integrated service networks, this paper describes algorithms for the adaptive placement of “services” (as abstractions of collections of applications) in networks of “servers” (as abstractions for locations where services can be hosted). Networks comprised of interacting services as the foundation is also a vision pronounced by the Grid [9]. Manageability and “self-operation” of Grids is highly desirable. We analyze the requirements for algorithms one specific problem: the service placement problem. We discuss algorithms that neither require central control nor complete information about the system state. Algorithms are performed on a distributed overlay structure which summarizes load conditions in the underlying service network. The presented algorithms fulfill tasks of making initial placement decisions as well as initiating rearrangements when imbalance is detected. Presented algorithms have different characteristics regarding the tradeoff between accuracy (or quality) of a placement decision and its timeliness within which a decision can be made determining responsiveness.
System Support for Name Authority Control Problem in Digital Libraries: OpenDBLP Approach

In maintaining Digital Libraries, having bibliographic data up-to-date is critical, yet often minor irregularities may cause information isolation. Unlike documents for which various kinds of unique ID systems exist (e.g., DOI, ISBN), other bibliographic entities such as author and publication venue do not have unique IDs. Therefore, in current Digital Libraries, tracking such bibliographic entities is not trivial. For instance, suppose a scholar changes her last name from A to B. Then, a user, searching for her publications under the new name B, cannot get old publications that appeared under A although they are by the same person. For such a scenario, since both A and B are the same person, it would be desirable for Digital Libraries to track their identities accordingly. In this paper, we investigate this problem known as name authority control, and present our system-oriented solution. We first identify three core building blocks that underlie the phenomenon, and show taxonomy where different combinations of the building blocks can occur. Then, we consider how systems can support the problem in two common functions of Digital Libraries – Update and Search. Finally, our test-bed called OpenDBLP is presented where the suggested solution is fully implemented as a proof of the concept.
HLSpower: Hybrid Statistical Modeling of the Superscalar Power-Performance Design Space

As power densities increase and mobile applications become pervasive, power-aware microprocessor design has become a critical issue. We present HLSpower, a unique tool for power-aware design space exploration of superscalar processors. HLSpower is based upon HLS [OCF00], a tool which used a novel blend of statistical modeling and symbolic execution to accelerate performance modeling more than 100-1000X over conventional cycle-based simulators.In this paper, we extend the HLSmetho dology to model energy efficiency of superscalars. We validate our results against the Wattch [BTM00] cycle-based power simulator. While minor second order power effects continue to require detailed cycle-by-cycle simulation, HLSpower is useful for large-scale exploration of the significant power-performance design space. For example, we can show that the instruction cache hit rate and pipeline depth interact with power efficiency in a non-trivial way as they are varied over significant ranges. In particular, we note that, while the IPC of a superscalar increases monotonically with both optimizations, the energy efficiency does not. We highlight the design capabilities by focusing on these non-monotonic contour graphs to demonstrate how HLSpower can help build intuition in power-aware design.
Product Templates A Parametric Approach to Mass Customization

Global economies are causing major changes in product development today. Traditional mass production approaches cannot meet market demands for speed, cost, and quality, but most importantly the added customer requirement for additional flexibility in product offerings. At the same time, research in solid modeling techniques conducted during the last two decades has provided a new technology generation in Computer-Aided-Design (CAD). This technology generation, commonly referred to as the “third-generation” is characterized as parametric CAD. Solid models can be created in such a way that the model creation operations can be re-executed with new values for the defining parameters of the associated geometric features. This allows updating of the solid model to new customizable configurations. Drawings, tool-paths, and other documents can be associated to these models to provide a semiautomatic method for parametrically modifying all the models and documents associated with a given product. This seems to be a technology that could facilitate the need in industry for mass customization.
Pension Funds and National Saving

The authors conduct an empirical study on the effect of the accumulation of pension fund financial assets, on national saving, using a panel of 43 industrial, and developing countries. The authors find evidence suggesting that the accumulation of pension fund financial assets might increase national saving, when these funds are the result of a mandatory pension program. By contrast, national saving might be unaffected, when pension funds are the result of a public program, implemented to foster voluntary pension saving.
Is maintenance respiration in roots a constant

Maintenance respiration is often considered to be a constant under constant temperature conditions. Here we report on two independent observations that cause us to question this assumption. Respiratory requirements of detached root segments from apple trees decreased with age. Respiration after a dark-decay period was lower for citrus roots in droughted surface soil than for similar roots in irrigated soil. Although we are well aware of the limitations with respect to interpreting these observations in terms of maintenance respiration, it is our opinion that present observations indicates that we need to re-think the methods by which root respiration and its maintenance component are commonly being studied. Based on present observations, we propose that (i) specific respiration for maintenance is not constant, (ii) the population of fine roots should not be regarded as one entity and (iii) root respiration needs to be studied on individual roots to improve understanding of physiological responses to changes in the soil environment.
The Universality of Microfinance Operations Model in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Financial Sustainability vs. Poverty Outreach

This paper examines delinquency, profitability, and outreach determinants of microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) performance in Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. The estimation is done using the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) technique. The estimation results suggest that the regions' MFIs are profit-driven but are expected to improve outreach in the long-run.
An Experimental Study and Comparison of Topological Peeling and Topological Walk

In this paper, we present an experimental study comparing two algorithms, topological peeling and topological walk, for traversing arrangements of planar lines. Given a set H of n lines and a convex region R on a plane, both topological peeling and topological walk sweep the portion AR of the arrangement of H inside R in O(K + n log(n + r)) time and O(n + r) space, where K is the number of cells of AR and r is the number of boundary vertices of R. In our study, we robustly implemented these two algorithms using the LEDA library. Based on the implementation, we carried out experiments to conduct several comparisons, such as the arrangement traversal fashions, memory consumption, and execution time. In general, topological peeling exhibits a better control on the propagation of its sweeping curve (called the wavefront). For memory consumption, two types of measures, logical and physical memory, were examined. Our experiments showed that although both algorithms use nearly the same amount of logical memory, topological peeling could use twice as much physical memory as topological walk. For execution time, experiments revealed an interesting phenomenon that topological peeling has a 10% to 25% faster execution time than topological walk in most cases. Our analysis of this phenomenon indicates that the execution times of topological peeling and topological walk are both sensitive to the ratio of the lower input lines to all input lines. When the ratio of the lower lines to all input lines is around 85%, the two algorithms have roughly the same amount of execution time. Under this ratio, topological peeling considerably outperforms topological walk; above this ratio, topological walk slightly outperforms topological peeling.
Harrington's Empire of Law

Nearly every reader of James Harrington has taken his theory that property is the foundation of government to be his central and most enduring contribution to political thought. Operating within this standard reading, most of the extensive literature on Harrington has focused on derivative issues, such as the accuracy and depth of his economic reading of English history, or the extent to which his mechanistic account of political institutions displaced more traditional republican accounts of civic virtue. But the standard reading is incomplete. For example, it is puzzling on this reading why Harrington should single out Thomas Hobbes as his chief opponent. To demonstrate the incompleteness of the standard reading, this article will examine a relatively neglected aspect of Oceana: namely, the sharp contrast drawn throughout the work between those communities organized as an ‘empire of laws' and those organized as an ‘empire of men’. As it turns out, Harrington strikes upon a deep problem, not noticed by pr...
Epipolar Geometry and Linear Subspace Methods: A New Approach to Weak Calibration

This paper addresses the problem of estimating the epipolar geometry from point correspondences between two images taken by uncalibrated perspective cameras. It is shown that Jepson‘s and Heeger‘s linear subspace technique for infinitesimal motion estimation can be generalized to the finite motion case by choosing an appropriate basis for projective space. This yields a linear method for weak calibration. The proposed algorithm has been implemented and tested on both real and synthetic images, and it is compared to other linear and non-linear approaches to weak calibration.
Coagulation studies of patients with abnormal uterine bleeding

Abstract Forty-three patients with functional uterine bleeding were examined. Six showed evidence of a hemorrhagic diathesis with the following findings: all had prolongation of the bleeding time; 4 had prolonged partial thromboplastin times and, of these, 3 exhibited abnormal thromboplastin generation, one demonstrating a plasma factor defect and the other 2 a serum factor defect; 2 patients had fibrinogenopenia; no abnormalities were demonstrated by the Quick time, the P and P time, or the clot retraction test. There was a positive family history of bleeding in 3 of the patients with hemorrhagic diathesis. Three of the 4 patients undergoing surgical procedures needed transfusions to control postoperative bleeding. Five of the 6 patients with hemorrhagic diathesis demonstrated either a positive family history and/or a personal need for transfusions to control postoperative bleeding. Three (of 3) patients with hemorrhagic diathesis had normal pregnancies, delivered normal viable infants, and experienced no postpartum hemorrhage.
Local Unitary Group Stabilizers and Entanglement for Multiqubit Symmetric States

We refine recent local unitary entanglement classification for symmetric pure states of $$n$$ n qubits (that is, states invariant under permutations of qubits) using local unitary stabilizer subgroups and Majorana configurations.
Efficient and Secure Pseudo-Random Number Generation (Extended Abstract)

Cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generators known so far suffer from the handicap of being inefficient; the most efficient ones can generate only one bit on each modular multiplication (n 2 steps). Blum, Blum and Shub ask the open problem of outputting even two bits securely. We state a simple condition, the XOR-Condition, and show that any generator satisfying this condition can output logn bits on each multiplication. We also show that the logn least significant bits of RSA, Rabin’s Scheme, and the x 2 mod N generator satisfy this condition. As a corollary, we prove that all boolean predicates of these bits are secure. Furthermore, we strengthen the security of the x 2 mod N generator, which being a Trapdoor Generator, has several applications, by proving it as hard as Factoring.
Real business cycle models: Past, present, and future

This paper reviews contribution of real business cycle models to our understanding of economic fluctuations and consequences of economic policy. The author pays special attention to technological shocks, discusses open issues in business cycle studies both in retrospect and future research.
Socially responsible investment and pro-social change

Socially responsible investment (SRI) refers to investing in companies based on financial and social performance, where the latter includes such concerns as the environment, sweatshop labor, and animal testing. This paper argues that SRI strongly resembles pro-social behaviors and social dynamics found in experimental settings. The role of fairness-related sanctioning is emphasized, wherein companies that treat their various stakeholders “fairly” are screened into SRI portfolios, while those treating them poorly are screened out. It is argued that, because SRI creates opportunities for businesses to thrive relative to their competitors by improving social performance, it creates some scope for pro-social change. Still, the magnitude of changes that can be expected from voluntary changes in business behavior remains to be determined.
Skein modules and the noncommutative torus

We prove that the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of the cylinder over a torus is a canonical subalgebra of the noncommutative torus. The proof is based on Chebyshev polynomials. As an application, we describe the structure of the Kauffman bracket skein module of a solid torus as a module over the algebra of the cylinder over a torus, and recover a result of Hoste and Przytycki about the skein module of a lens space. We establish simple formulas for Jones-Wenzl idempotents in the skein algebra of a cylinder over a torus, and give a straightforward computation of the n-th colored Kauffman bracket of a torus knot, evaluated in the plane or in an annulus.
Relative entropy and compressible potential flow

Abstract Compressible (full) potential flow is expressed as an equivalent first-order system of conservation laws for density and velocity v. Energy E is shown to be the only nontrivial entropy for that system in multiple space dimensions, and it is strictly convex in ρ,v if and only if |v|