cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Open Source Data Collection in the Developing World

The ability to collect data is key to the success of many organizations operating in the developing world. Given the weaknesses of current tools and the surge in mobile phone growth, there's an opportunity for mobile and cloud technologies to enable timely and efficient data collection. This paper discusses Open Data Kit (ODK), a suite of tools that enable efficient and timely data collection on cell phones. ODK is designed to let users own, visualize, and share data without the difficulties of setting up and maintaining servers. The tools are easy to use, deploy, and scale. They also go beyond open source - they're based on open standards and supported by a larger community.
Mycetome endosymbionts of tsetse flies constitute a distinct lineage related to Enterobacteriaceae

Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) harbour two morphologically different endosymbionts intracellularly associated with gut tissue: a primary (P) and a secondary (S) organism. The P-endosymbiont is a gram-negative rod, 8-10 microns in size, and resides intracellularly within specialized cells, mycetocytes which are organized into an organelle (mycetome), in the anterior portion of the gut. The S-endosymbiont is a smaller (1-2 microns) gram-negative rod and is harboured in the epithelial sheath cells in midgut. Phylogenetic characterization of S-endosymbionts from taxonomically distant insects including tsetse flies has shown that they are related to the free-living bacterium, Escherichia coli, and are members of the family Enterobacteriaceae within the gamma-3 subdivision of Proteobacteria. In this study, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based assay was designed utilizing the conserved sequences of 16S rDNA in order to phylogenetically characterize the mycetome-associated P-endosymbionts directly from tsetse mycetome tissue. Analysis from five species of flies representing the three major subgenera of genus Glossina indicates that P-endosymbionts constitute a distinct lineage within the gamma-3 subdivision of Proteobacteria. Mycetome endosymbiont phylogeny appears to parallel the classic taxonomic assignments independently developed for their insect host species. This suggests an ancient association for this symbiosis, which may have subsequently radiated with time, giving rise to the current species of tsetse flies and their modern-day endosymbionts. Based on endosymbiont phylogeny, the fusca flies constitute the most ancient subgenus, followed by the morsitans and palpalis groups.
Evidence for a Deep-Mantle Origin of a NaPX-EN Inclusion in Diamond

A diamond mineral inclusion (NaPx-En) with a garnet structure and unusual composition (16 mol% Na2MgSi5O12—84% Mg4Si4O12) was reported from a Chinese diamond and demonstrated to be from the Earth's transition zone (Wang and Sueno, 1996; Gasparik and Hutchison, 2000). Concentrations of LREEs in the inclusion increase gradually with the atomic number; the MREE and HREE are about 7-10 times chondrite. Trace-element partitionings between NaPx-En garnet and CO2-rich melt were experimentally determined at 1900°C and 23 GPa with a split-sphere anvil apparatus (USSA-2000). Partitioning coefficients increase regularly from 0.002 for La to 0.8 for Yb. The calculated concentrations of REEs and Ti, Sr, Y, and Zr in hypothetical melt coexisting with the NaPx-En inclusion in the source region are consistent with those typical of natural carbonatite melts. We propose that the NaPx-En inclusion formed originally in the lower mantle as MgSiO3 perovskite. It was later converted to garnet by reaction with a carbonatite melt...
Learning Disability Discrepancy Formulas: Their Use in Actual Practice.

Commonly accepted definitions of learning disability require the presence of a significant discrepancy between a child's potential and his/her achievement. Eight commonly used “discrepancy” formula...
V-Sentinel: a novel framework for situational awareness and surveillance

We describe a novel system called V-Sentinel (Virtual Sentinel) that offers a unique solution for situational awareness, assessment, and response support for security and military applications. Unlike traditional surveillance systems that display 2D videos or images on separate windows/screens, thereby providing no integration of information, no high-level scene comprehension, and no situational awareness, the V-Sentinel provides users a complete global view of entire surveillance scene including 3D geospatial models of the environment, aerial and terrestrial imagery, real-time videos, and dynamic sensor alarm/status designators - all on one screen, and from arbitrary viewpoints. This paper discusses the system design and integration of various capabilities to create a V-Sentinel system, and the results from our demonstrations and performance evaluations of the system to several government agencies and defense contractors for military and national security applications.
Tools and Techniques for Measurement of IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks

With the growing popularity of wireless local area networks (WLANs) has come an increased need for effective measurements of real-world WLANs and their applications. This paper presents tools and techniques for measuring IEEE 802.11 WLANs. The techniques include details on setting up a PC as a wireless access point and building a wireless sniffer while the tools include programs for measuring link, network and application layer traffic. The tools are all open-source software available for download and the techniques all use open-source software and off-the-shelf hardware components. Together, these tools and techniques facilitate WLAN performance analysis across network layers in a flexible, accurate and cost-effective manner. To illustrate the usefulness of these tools and techniques for gathering WLAN measurements three case studies are presented: a streaming video session showing cross-layer performance; network characteristics of a wireless hand-held game; and measurements of access point queue size. Research employing these tools can yield more accurate WLAN models and more realistic evaluation of proposed WLAN changes in a network testbed.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease

Millions of Americans are affected by gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in many different ways. The magnitude of the problem of GERD was brought to light by the ambulatory pH test, the introduction of minimally invasive surgery, and the advent of the many medications that are effective in acid suppression. Patients with GERD suffer from various consequences associated with the disease. However, interventions beyond medical therapy, such as laparoscopic fundoplication, provide satisfactory outcomes and definitive relief of acid reflux.
Precursor Lesions of Pancreatic Cancer: Molecular Pathology and Clinical Implications

Background: Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease, with near uniform 5-year mortality rates. The key to improving survival of pancreatic cancer rests upon early detection of this ne
Where Are All the Aptamers

Oligonucleotide aptamers, first reported 20 years ago by Tuerk and Gold1 and Ellington and Szostak,2 are short, single strands of DNA or RNA that assume 3-dimensional configurations that facilitate specific binding interactions with other chemical species. In Tuerk and Gold’s1 seminal article, the nucleic acid target of an RNA-binding protein (specifically, the 8-base RNA sequence favored by T4 DNA polymerase) was selectively amplified from a pool containing all possible random 8-base RNA sequences. It is interesting that the technique found not only T4 DNA polymerase’s native RNA target sequence in the pool but also another sequence that bound the protein with similar affinity, indicating that their technique was a generalizable method for finding nucleic acids that bound to nonnucleotide targets. This work and Ellington and Szostak’s2 demonstration that RNA ligands could be found for small molecule dyes were the first of countless studies showing that Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment, or SELEX, can be applied to nearly any molecular target to generate high-affinity, specific oligonucleotide ligands. In SELEX, one begins with a chemically synthesized pool of randomized oligonucleotides flanked on either end by defined primer-binding sequences, operating on the hypothesis that a high-affinity binding species is contained somewhere in that pool. This hypothesis may seem farfetched, especially when considering that there are only 4 natural nucleotide bases in DNA, in contrast with the 20 natural amino acids possible in an antibody’s variable region. However, even small random DNA libraries can be incredibly diverse—a theoretical 25-mer random DNA oligonucleotide pool still contains 425, or more than a million billion, different species—implying that relatively short sequences of randomized DNA can be sufficiently diverse to contain a wide variety of potential binding ligands. After preparing the SELEX pool, one proceeds to …
A mouse gene knockout model for juvenile ceroid-lipofuscinosis (batten disease)

The human hereditary ceroid-lipofuscinoses are a group of autosomal recessively inherited diseases characterized by massive accumulations of autofluorescent lysosomal storage bodies in the cells of many tissues and by neuronal degeneration throughout the central nervous system. There are a number of clinically and genetically distinct forms of ceroid-lipofuscinosis, the most common of which is the juvenile type, also known as Batten disease and CLN3. To study the mechanisms that lead to pathology in CLN3 and to evaluate potential therapies, a mouse model has been generated by targeted disruption of the mouse ortholog of the CLN3 gene (Cln3). As in affected humans, mice homozygous for the disrupted Cln3 allele show accumulation of autofluorescent storage material in neurons and other cell types. The storage material consists of membrane-bounded intracellular inclusions with ultrastructural features typical of the ceroid-lipofuscinoses. The accumulation of this storage material validates the Cln3 knockout mice as a model for the human disorder. J. Neurosci. Res. 57:551–556, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
HEAT TRANSFER IN IRRADIATED SHALLOW LAYERS OF WATER

The paper reports on an experimental and analytical investigation of temperature structure in a shallow layer of water heated by an external radiation shource. Experiments have been performed in a test cell of known bottom reflection characteristics and suitable for optical observations. A shadowgraph and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer were used to visualize and measure the unsteady temperature profile in the water during irradiation. Experimental results obtained show that absorption of radiant energy by the substrate and/or by the water near the bottom results in an unstable situation and that natural convection flow develops. However, with continued heating the flow is suppressed. Analytical results, supported by the data, indicate that the spectral radiation flux incident on the water surface, the spectral radiation characteristics of the bottom, and the depth of the water have a decisive influence on the temperature distribution. Nomenclature c = specific heat D = layer depth E (x) = exponential integral function, rl -x/y n-2 , e y dy 0 Presented as Paper 80-1519 at the AIAA 15th Thermophysics Conference, Snowmass, Colo., July 14-16, 1980. Copyright© American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 1980. All rights reserved. *Heat Transfer Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering (presently with Department of Mechanical Engineering Teheran University, Teheran, Iran). +Professor, Heat Transfer Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering.
Modes of death and types of cardiac diseases in opiate addicts: Analysis of 168 necropsy cases

Abstract One hundred sixty-eight opiate addicts, whose hearts were submitted for necropsy study, were examined with prime focus on modes of death and types of cardiac abnormalities. Twenty various modes of death were identified: active infective endocarditis or its consequences in 67 (40%), drug overdose in 39 (24%), coronary artery disease in 14 (8%), pulmonary granulomatosis in 7 (4%) and 15 various diseases (7 cardiac and 8 noncardiac) in the remaining 41 (24%) patients. Of the 168 hearts examined, only 7 (4%) were normal. Although infective endocarditis (active, healed or both) was most common (80 [48%] patients), there was a broad range of other cardiac abnormalities present: cardiomegaly in 114 (68%) (including 22 patients without another cardiac abnormality), coronary artery disease in 35 (21%), acquired valvular heart disease in 16 (10%), myocardial heart disease in 14 (8%) and a congenital cardiac anomaly in 19 (11%). Of the 35 hearts with various coronary artery diseases, 28 had significant (>75%) narrowing of the cross-sectional area of 1 or more of the 4 major (left main, left anterior descending, left circumflex and right) epicardial coronary arteries by atherosclerotic plaque. Of 112 coronary arteries in these 28 hearts, 52 (46%) were significantly narrowed (a mean of 1.9 of the 4 major coronary arteries/patient). In 27 of these 28 cases, each 5-mm segment of the 4 major coronary arteries was examined histologically. Of the 1,435 five-mm segments examined, 189 (13%) were narrowed 76 to 100% in cross-sectional area by plaque; 347 (24%), 51 to 75%; 336 (23%), 26 to 50%; and 563 segments (39%) were narrowed 0 to 25% in cross-sectional area by plaque. The percents of 5-mm segments narrowed 76 to 100% in cross-sectional area were greater in those patients with (128 of 793 [16%]) than without (61 of 642 [9%]) clinical evidence of myocardial ischemia (p = 0.001). In this study a very high frequency of cardiac abnormalities (161 [96%]) was found at necropsy and most deaths (97 [58%]) were related to cardiac disease. Although death was most often due to diseases whose association to opiate addiction is well recognized (such as infective endocarditis, drug overdose and pulmonary granulomatosis from the venous injection of talc), several other modes of death were present. Most prominent among these was coronary artery disease (14 patients [8%]).
GRAZER DIVERSITY, FUNCTIONAL REDUNDANCY, AND PRODUCTIVITY IN SEAGRASS BEDS: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST

Concern over the accelerating loss of biodiversity has stimulated renewed interest in relationships among species richness, species composition, and the functional properties of ecosystems. Mechanistically, the degree of functional differentiation or com- plementarity among individual species determines the form of such relationships and is thus important to distinguishing among alternative hypotheses for the effects of diversity on ecosystem processes. Although a growing number of studies have reported relationships between plant diversity and ecosystem processes, few have explicitly addressed how func- tional diversity at higher trophic levels influences ecosystem processes. We used mesocosm experiments to test the impacts of three herbivorous crustacean species ( Gammarus mu- cronatus, Idotea baltica, and Erichsonella attenuata) on plant biomass accumulation, rel- ative dominance of plant functional groups, and herbivore secondary production in beds of eelgrass (Zostera marina), a dominant feature of naturally low-diversity estuaries throughout the northern hemisphere. By establishing treatments with all possible combi- nations of the three grazer species, we tested the degree of functional redundancy among grazers and their relative impacts on productivity. Grazer species composition strongly influenced eelgrass biomass accumulation and graz- er secondary production, whereas none of the processes we studied was clearly related to grazer species richness over the narrow range (0-3 species) studied. In fact, all three measured ecosystem processes—epiphyte grazing, and eelgrass and grazer biomass accu- mulation—reached highest values in particular single-species treatments. Experimental de- letions of individual species from the otherwise-intact assemblage confirmed that the three grazer species were functionally redundant in impacting epiphyte accumulation, whereas secondary production was sensitive to deletion of G. mucronatus, indicating its unique, nonredundant role in influencing this variable. In the field, seasonal abundance patterns differed markedly among the dominant grazer species, suggesting that complementary graz- er phenologies may reduce total variance in grazing pressure on an annual basis. Our results show that even superficially similar grazer species can differ in both sign and magnitude of impacts on ecosystem processes and emphasize that one must be cautious in assuming redundancy when assigning species to functional groups.
Laser Safety Overview For Optical Fiber Data Links

Current design and development activities within the computer industiy are beginning to use semiconductor laser diodes as the light source for optical fiber data links. This trend is occurring because laser diodes have many advantages over LEDs as the preferred light source for both multimode and single mode fiber. As a result, laser safety has become an important issue in the design activity of fiber data link products, both because of the need to produce safe products for the marketplace and because laser safety regulations are enforced in most countries. This paper presents an overview of some of the laser safety issues and regu-lations as they apply to optical data links.
Sputtered Cd1−xZnxTe films for top junctions in tandem solar cells

Abstract Cd1−xZnxTe alloy films with 1.6 and 1.7 eV band gaps were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering from targets made either of mixed powders or alloys of CdTe and ZnTe (25% and 40%). High-quality polycrystalline films with the (1 1 1) preferred orientation were obtained. The films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, resistivity, optical absorption, Raman, and photoluminescence. The EDS, XRD, and optical absorption analysis indicated that the x-value of the as-grown films were typically ∼0.20 and 0.30 for films sputtered from 25% and 40% ZnTe containing targets, respectively. The as-deposited alloy films exhibit quite low photovoltaic performance when used to make cells with CdS as the hetero-junction partner. Therefore, we have studied various post-deposition treatments with vapors of chlorine-containing materials, CdCl2 and ZnCl2, in dry air or H2/Ar ambient at ∼390 °C. The best performance of a Cd1−xZnxTe cell ( V OC = 737 mV , J SC = 19 mA / cm 2 ) was found for treatment with vapors of the mixed CdCl2+0.5%ZnCl2 in an H2/Ar ambient after pre-annealing at ∼520 °C in pure H2/Ar.
CD4+ T-Cell Activation and Induction of Autoimmune Hepatitis following Trichloroethylene Treatment in MRL+/+ Mice

Exposure to relatively high levels of trichloroethylene has recently been shown to accelerate the development of an autoimmune response in the autoimmune prone MRL+/+ mice. The trichloroethylene-induced autoimmune response was associated with an increase in activated CD4(+) T cells, producing Th(1)-like cytokines. The present study was conducted to determine whether lower, more occupationally relevant doses of trichloroethylene could also promote autoimmunity, in MRL+/+ mice, and if so, to investigate the mechanism of this accelerated autoimmune response. In addition, histological studies were performed to determine if trichloroethylene was capable of producing pathological markers consistent with an autoimmune disease. Trichloroethylene was administered to mice in the drinking water at 0, 0.1, 0.5, and 2.5 mg/ml for 4 and 32 weeks. There was a significant increase above controls in serum antinuclear antibody (ANA) levels following 4 weeks of both 0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg/day of trichloroethylene. After 32 weeks of treatment, ANA levels were elevated and equal in all groups. The kinetics of the ANA response indicated that trichloroethylene accelerated the innate autoimmune response in the MRL+/+ mice. There was a dose-related increase in the percentage of activated CD4(+) T cells in both the spleens and lymph nodes of mice treated for 32 weeks with trichloroethylene when compared to controls. CD4(+) T cells isolated from MRL+/+ mice after either 4 or 32 weeks of treatment with trichloroethylene secreted inflammatory or Th(1)-like cytokines. Following 32 weeks of trichloroethylene treatment, there was a significant increase in hepatic mononuclear infiltration localized to the portal region, a type of hepatic infiltration consistent with autoimmune hepatitis. Taken collectively, these data suggest that exposure to occupationally relevant concentrations of trichloroethylene can accelerate an autoimmune response and can lead to autoimmune disease. The mechanism of this autoimmunity appears to involve, at least in part, activated CD4(+) T cells that then produced inflammatory cytokines.
Referential communication by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Two experiments were conducted to assess the referential function of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) gestures to obtain food. The chimpanzees received 1 trial per condition. In Experiment 1 (N 101), in full view of the chimpanzee, a banana was placed on top of 1 of 2 inverted buckets or was hidden underneath 1 of the buckets. In Experiment 2 (N 35), 4 conditions were presented in constant order:(a) no food, no observer; (b) no food, observer present; (c) food present, no observer; and (d) food present, observer present. Gestures and visual orienting were used socially and referentially. The capacity for nonverbal reference may predate the HominidaePongidae split, and the development of nonverbal reference may be independent of human species-specific adaptations for speech.
In situ enzymatic generation of H2O2 from O2 for use in oxidative bleaching and catalysis by TAML activators

Iron-TAML activators of peroxides are functional mimics of peroxidase and short-circuited cytochrome P450 enzymes that perform numerous transformations that appear by all measures to date to be fully life cycle compatible with the environment. Here we show how to design the same catalytic chemistry without the direct addition of H2O2, thereby removing the need to transport and store hydrogen peroxide. In this new approach, dioxygen is reduced in situ by D-glucose in the presence of glucose oxidase (GO) from Aspergillus niger. The resulting tandem TAML–GO system exhibits similar catalytic efficiency to the TAML/H2O2 prototype. The tandem system is shown here to efficiently decolorize Orange II and oxidize NADH, both near neutral pH (7.5). Computational simulations of the kinetic data suggest that denaturing of GO by oxidized TAML intermediates does not occur throughout each process. This tandem system brings the advantage of in situ generation of low concentrations of H2O2 during the catalytic cycles. This minimizes both unproductive H2O2 consumption resulting from the catalase-like activity of iron TAMLs and suicidal inactivation. Kinetic data for oxidation of NADH by TAML/H2O2 are also reported.
When and Why Minority Legislators Matter

This review examines how legislators' race and ethnicity affect the representation of racial and ethnic minorities' interests and priorities in the mass public, how these legislators affect the political participation of these groups, how the presence of these candidates affects voter decision making, and how their prevalence impacts the composition of the parties and the nature of public policy. It also points to new directions and opportunities for scholarship on why minority legislators matter for American politics.
Correction: Modifying a known gelator scaffold for nitrite detection.

Correction for ‘Modifying a known gelator scaffold for nitrite detection’ by Danielle M. Zurcher et al., Chem. Commun., 2014, 50, 7813–7816.
LOCAL AND REGIONAL DIVERSITY IN A PATCHY LANDSCAPE: NATIVE, ALIEN, AND ENDEMIC HERBS ON SERPENTINE

Metacommunity models predict that communities in patchy environments will show different patterns of diversity than communities in continuous habitats. The species richness of herbs was measured in 24 small patches (0.5–3 ha) of serpentine soil and 24 equivalently spaced sets of sampling sites on four large areas (>5 km2) of serpentine soil in the North Coast Ranges of California. Patchy and continuous sites were compared with respect to local diversity (species richness within 5 × 50 m transects), regional diversity (species richness at all 24 sites combined), and among-site differentiation (average proportion of species unshared between any one site and the other 23 sites of its kind). For all herb species together, regional diversity and average local diversity were higher on small patches, mainly because of a significantly higher number of alien species. For the subset (14%) of herb species that were endemic to serpentine, regional diversity was similar on patchy and continuous sites, but it was parti...
Middleware for long-term deployment of delay-tolerant sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks have a wide range of applications and are deployed in increasingly varied situations. Many deployments have focused on long term monitoring, which uses nodes that are delay-tolerant and depend on low-power sleep to minimize the energy consumption and extend operational lifetime. These nodes often have many software modules contending for system resources, making both software development and power management difficult. These challenges call for middleware layers that are different from those for real-time, dense networks. This middleware must be flexible to accommodate and control the vast variety of available hardware peripherals and software applications, as well as to provide simple methods to manage a node's energy consumption. It must also provide an easy-to-use interface for software modification and at the same time take advantage of the long idle periods typically experienced by delay-tolerant sensor nodes.The middleware we propose in this paper is designed for long-term use in delay-tolerant networks. Our middleware keeps a unique system time for more than one year, offering very long-term event scheduling. This middleware takes advantage of the low node utilization of long-term networks and executes software modules in sequence. This avoids complexities in context switching of multiple threads on a single threaded processor, and improves the simplicity of software implementation. Our middleware has a small code footprint of less than 3.5KB, as well as very low scheduling overheads of less than 40 μs to run scheduled applications. This structure also allows the system energy to be centrally managed by the middleware, which minimizes node power consumption and simplifies real world software development.
Beamforming using the fractional Fourier transform

We present a new method of beamforming using the fractional Fourier transform (FrFT). This method encompasses the conventional minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) beamforming in the frequency domain or spatial domain as special cases. It is especially useful for applications involving chirp signals such as signal enhancement problems with accelerating sinusoidal sources where the Doppler effect generates chirp signals and a frequency shift and active radar problems where chirp signals are transmitted. Numerical examples demonstrate the potential advantage of the proposed method over the ordinary frequency or spatial domain beamforming for a moving source scenario.
Documentation of Wound Surface Area from Tracings of Wound Perimeters

Physical therapists frequently treat patients with open wounds. For effective monitoring and objective documenting of the status of open wounds, therapists need accurate and practical methods to describe wound size. Several methods of documenting wound size have been reported in the literature. One method uses photographs of a wound pictured in conjunction with some linear reference standard.1,2 Such photographs, which are two dimensional and uniplanar, may produce considerable distortion of three-dimensional multiplanar wound surfaces, particularly when the wounds are located on contoured body surfaces. A more common method of documenting wound size is the manual measurement and description of the general dimensions of a wound.3–5 Although both techniques allow objective documentation of wound size, neither measures the actual surface area of the wound. Documenting wound healing may be incomplete without such a measurement, particularly when wounds are irregularly shaped.
NCBI Bookshelf: books and documents in life sciences and health care

Bookshelf (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/) is a full-text electronic literature resource of books and documents in life sciences and health care at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Created in 1999 with a single book as an encyclopedic reference for resources such as PubMed and GenBank, it has grown to its current size of >1300 titles. Unlike other NCBI databases, such as GenBank and Gene, which have a strict data structure, books come in all forms; they are diverse in publication types, formats, sizes and authoring models. The Bookshelf data format is XML tagged in the NCBI Book DTD (Document Type Definition), modeled after the National Library of Medicine journal article DTDs. The book DTD has been used for systematically tagging the diverse data formats of books, a move that has set the foundation for the growth of this resource. Books at NCBI followed the route of journal articles in the PubMed Central project, using the PubMed Central architectural framework, workflows and processes. Through integration with other NCBI molecular databases, books at NCBI can be used to provide reference information for biological data and facilitate its discovery. This article describes Bookshelf at NCBI: its growth, data handling and retrieval and integration with molecular databases.
The CONNECT Network-on-Chip Generator

Efficiently supporting the communication needs of systems on chip with tens to hundreds of interacting modules requires a systematic and flexible network-on-chip (NoC) infrastructure. The freely available CONNECT generator lets users quickly navigate a range of design parameters to produce tailored NoC design instances in Verilog. To date, it has generated nearly 4,000 designs.
Parol Evidence Under the CISG: The "Homeward Trend" Reconsidered

The CISG has been described as one of history's most successful attempts to harmonize international commercial law. Consistent with its goal of harmonizing the law of international sales, Article 7(1) of the CISG instructs courts and arbitrators to interpret the Convention in light of "its international character and the need to promote uniformity in its application." MCC-Marble v. Ceramica Nuova D'Agostina is a U.S. decision that has been praised for its adherence to Article 7(1). In contrast with conventional academic commentary, which praises MCC-Marble and criticizes the tendency of courts to interpret the CISG in light of their respective domestic legal traditions (the 'homeward trend'), this essay critiques MCC-Marble as a decision that emphasizes uniformity at the expense of other important considerations. Notwithstanding Article 7(1), uniformity was not the exclusive goal of the CISG project. Although it may result in some inconsistency in the Convention's implementation, the homeward trend also should enhance the CISG's legitimacy and acceptability over the long term. MCC-Marble is examined to illustrate how its interpretative approach to the CISG's provisions regarding parol evidence may exacerbate the tendency of U.S. parties to opt out of the CISG. The essay argues for an interpretation of the CISG that allows greater weight to be afforded the terms of a final written agreement.
Measuring Thermochemical Energy Storage Capacity with Redox Cycles of Doped-CaMnO3

Doped CaMnO3 perovskites can store energy thermochemically via reversible redox cycles with endothermic reduction at high temperature and intermediate oxygen partial pressures (PO2 ≈ 10-4 bar). Reoxidation in air and cooling to lower temperatures can release the stored energy. This study presents measurements of specific thermochemical energy storage in doped CaMnO3, notably CaCryMn1-yO3-δ and Ca1-xSrxMnO3-δ. Thermogravimetric measurements of equilibrium O non-stoichiometry (δ) at various temperatures and PO2 are fit to point-defect thermodynamic models to derive reaction enthalpy as a function of δ. Comparison of these models to calorimetry show specific thermochemical energy storage above 750 kJ/kg for cycles between 500 and 1000 °C with Ca0.95Sr0.05MnO3-δ having the highest specific energy. Kinetic experiments in a packed bed reactor give a measure of how rapidly energy can be incorporated into particles and provide a basis for developing future reactor models for energy storage or release in solar power plants and other applications.
SlowMo - enhancing mobile gesture-based authentication schemes via sampling rate optimization

In the era of network service, the user authentication becomes more indispensable but also vulnerable. Traditional user verification approaches such as PIN or pattern lock suffer from easy hacking and replica, motivating the research on many new approaches like gesture-based security. Compare to traditional authentications, the gesture-based security utilizes the user interacts with the device as a dynamic authentication pattern in real-time, offering higher complexity and better reliability. However, gesture-based security still lacks sufficient research on data sampling and preprocessing techniques on classification accuracy. In this work, we develop SlowMo, a novel gesture security technique for user classification in low sampling-rate environments. The proposed algorithm provides maximum classification accuracy at a sampling rate of 4Hz with extreme low power consumption suggesting a more capable adaptation to the security environment. It can achieve classification accuracy as high as 89% with power consumption negligible to the user.
Multi-length-scale Material Model for SiC/SiC Ceramic-Matrix Composites (CMCs): Inclusion of In-Service Environmental Effects

In our recent work, a multi-length-scale room-temperature material model for SiC/SiC ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs) was derived and parameterized. The model was subsequently linked with a finite-element solver so that it could be used in a general room-temperature, structural/damage analysis of gas-turbine engine CMC components. Due to its multi-length-scale character, the material model enabled inclusion of the effects of fiber/tow (e.g., the volume fraction, size, and properties of the fibers; fiber-coating material/thickness; decohesion properties of the coating/matrix interfaces; etc.) and ply/lamina (e.g., the 0°/90° cross-ply versus plain-weave architectures, the extent of tow crimping in the case of the plain-weave plies, cohesive properties of the inter-ply boundaries, etc.) length-scale microstructural/architectural parameters on the mechanical response of the CMCs. One of the major limitations of the model is that it applies to the CMCs in their as-fabricated conditions (i.e., the effect of prolonged in-service environmental exposure and the associated material aging-degradation is not accounted for). In the present work, the model is upgraded to include such in-service environmental-exposure effects. To demonstrate the utility of the upgraded material model, it is used within a finite-element structural/failure analysis involving impact of a toboggan-shaped turbine shroud segment by a foreign object. The results obtained clearly revealed the effects that different aspects of the in-service environmental exposure have on the material degradation and the extent of damage suffered by the impacted CMC toboggan-shaped shroud segment.
The Taxonomy and Calling Songs of United States Tree Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae). II. The nigricornis Group of the Genus Oecanthus

Two species of the nigricornis group occur in coniferous trees— pint Beutenmuller (pine and fir) and laricis n. sp. (tamarack and hemlock). The remaining members of this group are primarily herb inhabiting and have often been placed in a single species; however, at least four species are involved— nigricornis F. Walker, celerinictus , n. sp., argentinus Saussure, and quadripunctatus Beutenmuller. These four species differ in geographical distribution, habitat, seasonal life histories, calling songs, morphological characteristics, and courtship interactions. No significant interspecific hybridization is known even though the geographical and ecological distributions of the four broadly overlap. Calling songs of all species except laricis were tape-recorded repeatedly under controlled laboratory conditions as well as in the field, and the effects of temperature upon frequency and pulse rate are described in detail. In central Ohio nigricornis has two distinctive “song forms” which differ significantly in pulse rate and in the characteristics of the stridulatory file. The two occur in the same fields at the same time without intermediates. They probably represent distinct species.
UNIFORM HETEROKARYOTYPIC SUPERIORITY FOR VIABILITY IN A COLORADO POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA PSEUDOOBSCURA.

Selective advantage of heterokaryotypes is known to be an important factor in the dynamics of third-chromosome polymorphisms in Drosophila pseudoobscura and persimilis (Dobzhansky, 1961). In a large group of samples from diverse natural populations of D. pseudoobscura, Dobzhansky and Levene (1948) found a general trend toward heterokaryotypic superiority for fitness. More recently, Pavlovsky and Dobzhansky (1966) set up multichromosomal populations (i.e., containing more than two third-chromosome gene arrangements) of D. pseudoobscura with flies derived from a Mather, California population. Under laboratory conditions at 25 C the relative fitness of each heterokaryotype, with one possible exception, surpassed that of all homokaryotypes. Strickberger and Wills (1966) sampled a Berkeley, California population of D. pseudoobscura for 28 consecutive months. This population was polymorphic for all eight of the well-established third-chromosome gene arrangements common to the Western United States. Since each gene arrangement persisted over the entire period, it was considered probable that each conferred an important selective advantage upon some of its carriers. Polymorphism for the two most common arrangements, which fluctuated in opposite, cyclic fashion, could also have resulted from superiority of each arrangement in a different environmental niche. Several arrangements were present at low frequencies and must have occurred largely as heterokaryotypes. It appears that a general type
Attachments in the Nested Community: Evidence from a Case Study

Studies of emotional attachments to local communities in America have not generally included the conceptualization of the nested community offered by Albert Hunter and Gerald Suttles. Thus, most ha...
Techniques of Appraising Brand Preference and Brand Consciousness by Consumer Interviewing

READERSHIP identification, and association surveys are being made regularly.1 Pantry checks are conducted by leading newspapers. Brand sales to retail customers are reported by a leading national organization, while radio circulation and program popularity checks are an integral part of radio advertising.2 But, most of the testing techniques employed by the various organizations making these tests measure only one side of the marketing equation. Recognition, identification, association and telephone tests, per se, measure memory value. Pantry checks and retail store sales tests measure sales. The amount of exploratory work to determine the relationship between recognition and sales has been slight. A survey was made in eleven Northeastern Ohio counties by the Bureau of Business Research at Kent State University among 24IO middle-income housewives to determine whether there is an interconnection between brand consciousness and brand usage. Fourteen household products were selected for brand preference.3 Eleven slogans and twelve radio shows were examined for consumer recall and association.4 Only the slogans and radio shows of
Numerical study of turbulent flow over complex aeolian dune fields: the White Sands National Monument.

The structure and dynamics of fully developed turbulent flows responding to aeolian dune fields are studied using large-eddy simulation with an immersed boundary method. An aspect of particular importance in these flows is the downwind migration of coherent motions associated with Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities that originate at the dune crests. These instabilities are responsible for enhanced downward transport of high-momentum fluid via the so-called turbulent sweep mechanism. However, the presence of such structures and their role in determining the bulk characteristics of fully developed dune field sublayer aerodynamics have received relatively limited attention. Moreover, many existing studies address mostly symmetric or mildly asymmetric dune forms. The White Sands National Monument is a field of aeolian gypsum sand dunes located in the Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico. Aeolian processes at the site result in a complex, anisotropic dune field. In the dune field sublayer, the flow statistics resemble a mixing layer: At approximately the dune crest height, vertical profiles of streamwise velocity exhibit an inflection and turbulent Reynolds stresses are maximum; below this, the streamwise and vertical velocity fluctuations are positively and negatively skewed, respectively. We evaluate the spatial structure of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities present in the dune field sublayer (shear length ${L}_{s}$ and vortex spacing ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{x}$) and show that ${\ensuremath{\Lambda}}_{x}={m}_{\mathrm{dune}}{L}_{s}$, where ${m}_{\mathrm{dune}}\ensuremath{\approx}7.2$ in the different sections considered (for turbulent mixing layers, $7lml10$ [M. M. Rogers and R. D. Moser, Phys. Fluids A 6, 903 (1994)]).
Switchless compact dual-band matching networks for class-E power amplifiers

Two compact switchless dual-band load networks for class-E power amplifier (PA) operating at 800 and 1900 MHz are proposed, featuring small area and low loss which will be suitable for non-concurrent dual-band PA module in handset. Theoretical analysis and design equations are provided along with a loss model, including loss in the transistor and in the load network. Loss model is extracted for each structure to find the design parameters for optimized and balanced efficiency in both bands. Both designs are fabricated on Rogers RO4003 substrate with lumped components. Full PA simulations of both bands are carried out with co-simulation using a Triquint TGF2023-2-10 GaN transistor model, lumped components and EM models of load network layouts for both structures. The PA with transformer-based load network achieves a power added efficiency of 68.6 % at low band and 62.6 % at high band at an output power of 37.8 and 36.7 dBm respectively. The overall area consumed by the load network is 13.5 × 9.6 mm2. The LC-based PA has a similar PAE of 68.3 and 60 % at low band and high band, respectively. The output power is 38.1 dBm in the low band and 37 dBm in the high-band. The overall area consumed by the load network is 9 × 10 mm2
Relevanz und Zielsetzung der Arbeit

Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit steht der als „Pay-What-You-Want“ (PWYW) bezeichnete partizipative Preismechanismus. PWYW gibt dem Kaufer die vollstandige Entscheidungskompetenz uber den Endpreis und verleiht dem Preismodell damit einen innovativen Charakter (Kim, Natter und Spann 2009, 44-45). Da jeder Kaufer einen personlichen monetaren Betrag angeben kann, den er bereit ist freiwillig fur die angebotene Leistung zu zahlen, ergeben sich automatisch differenzierte Preise (Hui und Lihua 2011, 2; Volckner 2006a, 137). Aufgrund der Berucksichtigung individueller Zahlungsbereitschaften ist davon auszugehen, dass PWYW seitens der Konsumenten als vorteilhaft wahrgenommen wird (Kim, Natter und Spann 2010a, 148).
Insertion Reactions of Silacyclopropanes: Evidence for a Radical-Based Mechanism

Silacyclopropanes reacted rapidly and selectively with p-benzoquinones to provide oxasilacyclopentanes. Ring-expansion products were observed in the absence of a catalyst, elevated temperatures, or irradiation. As substitution was increased on the silacyclopropane ring, improved stereoselectivity was observed. In some cases, the regiochemistry was controlled depending on the extent of stabilization of the reactive intermediates involved. A radical clock experiment, along with stereochemical studies, confirmed that radical intermediates were involved in the ring-expansion reaction. The scope of this radical reaction was expanded to include dienones, aryl aldehydes, and electron-deficient enones in addition to benzoquinones. In the case of aryl aldehydes and electron-deficient enones, the radical reaction can be used to generate silylenes from silacyclopropanes.
Recursive Application of Concepts to B2B Integration

The integration concepts introduced in Chap. 7 can be recursively used for managing B2B integration itself. This chapter applies the integration concepts to integration itself, making any B2B integration technology implementation very elegant in terms of its implementation. The focus of this chapter is to model the life cycle management of several integration objects in the context of B2B integration. All these intėgration objects can be managed manually using user interface tools. However, automating the management by modeling the corresponding integration processes makes it more reliable. Furthermore, once the management of the integration: objects is automated they can be audited, monitored, analyzed and secured like any other integration objects.
Activation of human peripheral blood immune cells in vitro by sodium stibogluconate (SSG) and SSG/IL-2 combination

2557 Background: SSG, an inhibitor of SHP-1 and SHP2 which are negative regulatory signaling tyrosine phosphatases, suppressed the growth of murine renal carcinoma (Renca) in combination with IL-2 via an interferon (IFN)-γ+ T cell-dependent mechanism (J Immunol 175:7003–8, 2005). Activation of primary human immune cells by SSG or SSG/IL-2 would provide additional supporting evidence for SSG clinical evaluation in combination with IL-2. Methods: Peripheral blood of healthy and melanoma donors were treated in vitro with SSG or SSG/IL-2 and then subjected to ELISPOT assays and FACS analysis for quantification of TH1 (IFN-γ+) and TH2 (IL-5+) cells. Results: Characterization by ELISPOT assays of peripheral blood identified IFN-γ+ cells with marked increase (9.1x) following SSG/IL-2 treatment in contrast to the modest increases induced by SSG alone (2.1x) at its clinically achievable dose (20 μg/ml) or by IL-2 (3.1x) at its Cmax of low-dose schedule (30 IU/ml). SSG at an even higher dose (100 μg/ml) was less ef...